tips for realising guitar songs in a pc daw

[AllenPOPO]

hi..Im writing a song with acoustic guitar, in fact its probably the first song ive written thats center around my chord playing on guitar. So far I've struggled getting it into a format to sequence a song ouut of...what ive been trying is playing the different chord sequences (verse chorus etc) over and over, picking the best parts aka most in time, and meshing them together. but something doesnt transfer in the way when i play the whole thing...it sounds "chopped"...especially leading from verse to chorus...


now keep in mind im not the best guitar player, so im not gonna get it perfect in one whole take of a song but what i ask is for all you guitar songwriters diy artist types, what are your strategies for realizing the song into a daw? am i on the right track? my goal is to get the guitar chords flowing seamlessy in arrangement, and then add other accompaniment to that. should i try and record like i have been verse, chorus, then hope they mesh well? or maybe record the transition from verse to chorus as something specific....



any tips welcome

[multree]

Hey Allen,

my advice is to practice what you wanna play and then record it.

there's just something about a guitar playing throughout that makes stuff so much more organic. of course you can sequence stuff and it'll sound cool.... but it won't sound like it's one piece..

I also use this aproach on vocals as well.... although sometimes I cheat there

[AllenPOPO]

hehee.... i gotcha, i fugred thats what the consesus would be...i was just trying to find "tips" on how to realize this. maybe using a drums instead of just metronome, or whatever the case may be that makes playing the fuller passages *easier* on the budding guitar player.

unfortunately, the parts depending how fast/slow i play, turns out to be 2:30 minutes about, and unless the coffee just kicked in, my hands get too tired still! ...yep, im THAT green i'm either am gonna mess up technically, or drift off beat....i think my problem is i practice too much outside with the refer (with no metronome) and not enough inside with the REAPER (with metronome) i think i have good timing, just not necessarily with acGuitar yet.


thanks for your reply multree

[debra1rlo]

Yeah, I've picked the guitar back up over the past year and when I don't practice enough, my hands get tired quickly. I recently did a song with several multitracked guitar parts and I'm glad I waited a few days while I practiced and got better at playing the song all the way through. When it came time to record I didn't have to do too many retakes and my hands didn't get as tired because I'd been practicing.

[Hink]

of course there's always auto punch...

[Van Greco]

of course there's always auto punch...

Thats what I was thinking. Try and play it all the way through and then if you flub a part just punch in for that part. Once you get the hang of it, it can be pretty seemless. If you're micing an acoustic try not to move too much from take to take.

[phaedrustwin]

I've learned that the mere presence of a drum loop - contextually suited to the song, of course - makes my guitar playing more "rhythmically" suited to what I'm trying to convey, whether or not the drum loop makes it into the working mix. Usually, it doesn't. But, when the loop reflects the rhythm I am envisioning? The results are the sort of ON that you're likely going for. Checkitout. The classic breaks - amen, apache, what have you - seem to work really well.

[Hink]

of course there's always auto punch...

Thats what I was thinking. Try and play it all the way through and then if you flub a part just punch in for that part. Once you get the hang of it, it can be pretty seemless. If you're micing an acoustic try not to move too much from take to take.

This is one thing I really like about Samplitude, you can set multiple autopunch in (and out) points...I'm beginning to think that for some punch has somewhat become an atiquated technique with comping and crossfade editors and all.