Track Order Convention

[sax4blues]

I'm starting home recording with a multitrack unit.

Is there a generaly accepted starting point for track organization?

Is it drums - bass - guitars - keyboard - vocals?

Is there an order for drums; kick, snare, toms, overhead?

Also guitars; rhythm, leads?

How about vocals; lead first then harmonies?

[Ben Harmless]

IMHO, it's purely your preference.

There are some pretty standard layouts, but aside from easy translation if another engineer sits down and takes over, none really offer any benefits over any others as long as you keep things somewhat grouped.

It's hard to even express what a typical layout would be, other than generally I've seen a lot of:
-Drum channels
-Bass channels
-Guitar channels
-Other channels (keys, percussion, gunfire, prank calls, reverse-masked satanic chants)
-Vocal channels

As far as orders within those groups, often you'll see the kick drum up front, but that's assuming there's a mic on it. I'd say most often there is, but there are plenty of situations where there isn't. It's made harder to predict/reccomend because there are so many mic techniques that lead to different track lables. Some examples:
-Drum FOK mics (Front of Kit - room mics pointed at drums from a distance)
-Drum room reflections (pointed at the walls of the drum/live room)
-Guitar close mics and distant mics
-Basses often are recorded with a mic as well as a DI (requires time alignment)
-Organs often use rotating cabinets (like Leslies) that frequently use mics on seperate rotors. If you're crazy, two mics on each rotor can create stereo insanity.
-Room PZMs (Pressure Zone Mics)

So, what order do they all go in? Take your pick! Whatever works best for the way you work. Just remember to write it down!

[Tedecaster]

I asked the same thing a while back, so check out the variations.

earlier thread

For a project I'm working on now, we're doing the guitars & scratch vocal first, mostly because of scheduling. We spent quite a few hours last night working on adding drum parts & I'm looking forward to trying drums first.

That could be VERY dependent on the individual drummer though.

[sax4blues]

Originally Posted by Ben Harmless

aside from easy translation if another engineer sits down and takes over, none really offer any benefits over any others as long as you keep things somewhat grouped.

I guess this is what drove my question. I'm new to mixing and I helped set up a sound system for an outdoor event. Then the expert showed up (very nice guy) and proceeded to re-route all of the inputs. I got the impression everyone would know how to set up a board.

I guess there might be a common starting point, with 360 degrees of optional paths from there.

[Tedecaster]

Oops, I guess I didn't ask the same thing.

You were talking physical order. Never mind.

[Tim Armstrong]

Originally Posted by sax4blues

I guess this is what drove my question. I'm new to mixing and I helped set up a sound system for an outdoor event. Then the expert showed up (very nice guy) and proceeded to re-route all of the inputs. I got the impression everyone would know how to set up a board.

I guess there might be a common starting point, with 360 degrees of optional paths from there.

Oh yeah! Some folks like to route it so that you have the vocal mics on the first couple of channels, left to right like you see the mics onstage. Others like to put a vocal channel next to an instrument channel for the same guy. When I'm mixing recordings, I like the tracks in this order: kick, snare, ovh L, ovh R, and then the toms if I mic them. Then I have the bass, rhythm guitar tracks, lead guitar tracks, etc. But others route stuff differently from me.

That guy re-routed your board simply because if he has it the way HE likes it, he doesn't have to think so hard, but rather can just adjust stuff on the fly...

Cheers, Tim