a big thing in my life is choosing weather to record a band's rhythm tracks together....or individually. i record rhythm tracks together, and first....always. but a lot of people think its better to record drums first, then everything individually on top of that. i don't agree, because you get a much better recording in unison as far as timing and tighness goes. you feed off eachother, and stay with eachother when you record together, and just overdub solos, vocals, etc. what are your thoughts? don't like 99% of all studios record rhythm tracks together?

As is always the case, the best recording method depends on the results desired...

Having said that, I STRONGLY feel that the ONLY way to truly record a band is live, all at once. Like you said, the timing and feel comes from the members playing off one another in real time. Most music shouldn't be perfectly on the beat. Music ebbs and flows in an organic way when people are vibing off one another.

My mantra is: I'm recording the performance first and foremost. As long as the material is decent, it's the performance that's going to make or break the recording. Equipment and techniques are always second to the overall feel.

The best bands, imo, always record the basics live together. Then feel free to overdub and add onto it. The studio is an instrument too. But the foundation needs to have that feel, or you ain't got sh*t!

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It depends really, if you want a recording that sounds live then sure no question, all at once. However if you want to add some FX, edit around here and there then record one by one or in smaller groups. I often tend to record in the following order: drums + bass, electric guitars, acoustic instruments, singer(s). If you do this you will want to give everyone a click track and of course make sure your monitor mix for the musicians is perfect. Just experiment and see where you get the best results. I recommend a patient band for your experimenting ;-)

I've had great results both ways. I'll try it live first, and if it's acceptable, keep it.

I know this is a late response but I wanted to reply to this.

Couldn't you record them live but have everything on different tracks? Multitrack recording . Mic the drums to your tastes, the instruments and vocals so that when the band is playing, you're getting the feel of the performance as well as the track separation for effects etc at mixdown. best of both worlds.

i believe this is how it's usually done in studios. cept, they put the drums in a separate rooms sometimes and vocals to minimize bleeding of instruments into the mics of other instruments. or, you could close mic everything with mono directional mics and get a similar effect.

i agree that recording performance is about somehow getting the "feeling" of the permance on "tape". i just think that doing so doesn't mean you have sacrifice track separation.

just my $.02,
cheers,
Drifta