There are so many ways to get a "good" recording. Most Macs even come with multitrack recording software. It is possible to make a recording using only what comes with your Mac but ideally, you'd want to buy a good audio interface and some decent software to help facilitate the session. However, Garageband is rather impressive for a program that comes bundled with your Mac.
I'm not going to get into too many details here. I could go on and on about the importance of good pre-amps. Equipment is definitely a significant factor in the recording process but if you are making a recording on a budget, you can certainly impress yourself and others with easily available gear. I love to remind people that one of the greatest albums every produced, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band by The Beatles was recorded on a 4 track. True, there was genius in the studio with that piece of equipment but nonetheless, it was a 4 track that recorded the album! There are many other bands that have accomplished complete high quality albums on limited equipment. So I stress, it isn't equipment that limits the artist- it's equipment that provides the mediocre with an excuse.
There are two ways you can record a session. One is to multitrack everything and the other is to simply capture a live recording. Each has its benefits. The ideal is a combination of the two methods which I'll describe at the end.
LIVE RECORDING
A live recording can result in the most special and personal kind of recording. Since the recording is done live, there are aspects of the recording which are admittedly imperfect but are considered charming. They bring the listener in as if they were there at the time of the performance. There may be performance mistakes. You may hear the crowd in the background. You may hear the sound of the room- the boom or reverb of the performance space. All of this contributes to the "charm" of the recording but is nonetheless imperfections. All of these "imperfections" can be eliminated in a studio multitrack recording. Most albums are recorded in a studio because it is known that the album is NOT a live performance but rather, a representation of the band at their finest.
To do a live recording, you can just put up two microphones in the room and press record. Of course, you'd want to position the mics in the best part of the room to ensure the best sound. Condenser mics are usually used because of there high quality. This means you'll have to supply power to the mics (usually batteries). You could tape to DAT, Mini-Disc (not very common anymore) or straight to HD or Flash memory (which is most common today). Usually, you want to record in an uncompressed format (like WAV or AIFF) so that the highest quality recording is captured. (compressed formats always compromise on quality to give you smaller file size. This is useful for delivering music over the internet. That is why the MP3 format was created.)
It may also be possible to plug right into the soundboard. This is often offered from bands that are very friendly to people who record like Phish, The Grateful Dead, etc. Though the quality can be excellent, the mix is often not the best. This is because the sound engineer is most concerned about the house. That is, the music is being mixed to sound best when heard in the audience. There are things that the sound engineer may have to do to make it sound terrific in the audience. However, when you put the headphones on and listen to the mix without the room noise, it can sound pretty bad. Most often, the vocals are way on top. They will be too loud in the mix because by the time the vocals hit the audience, the room and crowd can suck it up. To compensate, the sound engineer amplifies the vocals. This will result in a great mix for the room but the soundboard may sound awful.
And then there is your "Matrix" recording. This is done by recording both the live room with "ambient room mics" and also taking a soundboard mix and mixing the two. A common technique is to keep the soundboard on top (so long as the mix is good) and then raise the ambient mic levels during the time between songs so that you can hear the crowd. This is the best kind of recording. Technically, it is a 4-track recording. Ideally, you'd like to mix the 2-tracks in your studio after the event but I have seen people do it live with a mixer at the show, too.
STUDIO RECORDING
In a studio, musicians have the opportunity to meticulously manicure their sound, performance and every single aspect of the recording. There should be nothing on a studio album that the musician is uncomfortable with. Of course, a budget can limit this possibility.
The first thing you need to do (assuming you're recording a band) is to get a scratch track. A scratch track is a recording on a single track that will be used for reference only and will be thrown away eventually. Be sure to establish a starting point with 4 clicks so that you know where "1" is when you play it back. Don't take too much time perfecting any of this unless you plan on keeping any of it. The purpose of this is to record the whole song with all instruments. Once you have the take that the band is happy with, only then can you proceed to the next step. Often, the drum track is the only thing kept and is not re-tracked. Depending on your setup, this may be feasible. However, the drummer may like the same opportunity as the rest of the band to redo his/her track. Keeping in mind that the drums require many mics and channels to track all at once, you may decide that keeping the drum track is not even possible.
The next step is to now set up one of the musicians. This is for keeps so be meticulous here. Mic placement is key. You will be picking up the room noise too so make sure your room is acceptable. If you are going "direct" which is most often available on keyboards, then obviously you don't have to worry about this. A bass head will also offer this capability but it isn't always desired. You want the sound of the cabinet which is part of its character. Again, like a matrix recording, often studios will use both the direct-out AND mic the cabinet for the best of both worlds. I just want to stress that guitar, drums and vocals will also be capturing the sound of the room. Unless it is absolutely desired, a concert hall may not be what you want because there is so much ambient noise and reverb. Again, this reverb can be added after the fact by the use of plug-ins or "out-board" gear. This is more artificial but everything is modifiable. And like all studio recordings; the final product is directly related to the quality of gear and more importantly, the skill of the engineer.
So now your musician is setup and ready to play. Give him the headphones and make sure that the headphones are isolation headphones so that the mic doesn't pick up the music from the "cans" (the headphones). Arm the channel, press play and record his take. The musician will be playing with the scratch track.
Now do the next musician until everyone is finished. When you remove the scratch track from the mix, you should be left with everyone's final take. Now the mixing process begins!
During the tracking session, there are various things possible and musicians will eventually ask for everything. For instance, each musician is going to ask for a different mix during their tracking session. This is not possible unless you multi-tracked the scratch track. Vocals will ask for some effects during their take. This needs to be planned for because you CANNOT apply effects via plugins (unless they are DSP) because of latency. You can, however, use outboard gear to accomplish this. But ideally, you do not want to record the effects. You will apply all effects later during the mixing stage so that you can more accurately determine the exact effect needed. It is impossible to do this without the rest of the mix. This means that you have to send the effects to the cans while recording a clean signal. This can be tricky to beginners but is necessary in a studio environment. This is where equipment helps establish a quality experience.
MATRIX
Just like the live recording scenario, it is almost possible to have the best of both worlds. And this is most common in most quality studios today. What you do is this: You try to isolate everything as best you can. Guitar amps go in big cabinets so that you can't hear them in the room. The mic is placed in the cabinet to record the live sound. Drums might also be in there own room. Vocalists go inside their vocal booth where it is usually extremely "dead" (meaning no reverb- very dry). How does the band play together like this? They each get a pair of headphones and the engineer mixes them. This means you have to have a headphone amp/splitter capable of delivering playback to each musician. With better equipment, each musician can have their own mix. Everything is heard in the cans while only drums are heard in the room. Keep in mind that each drum is independently mic'd and that some drums (bass and snare) may have two mics on them. This will result in bleed through. It is a necessary evil. And it shouldn't even be considered that much of an evil because you have no choice. Only electronic drums can have true isolation. And then it sounds fake.
This kind of recording is the best of all worlds. However, whenever a band does "takes" and isn't playing the whole thing live for the final recording, there is an element of spontaneity and vibe that is lost. This is why Neil Young had always promoted live multitrack recordings. He is a true purist. He didn't like having to wear headphones or doing multiple takes.
Tracking
What matters most during tracking is getting a good signal to tape. You are NOT mixing the recording yet. Just try to get the cleanest and strongest signal to tape so that you have a great starting point when you are ready to mix. It is always better to reduce the level of a track than to add volume to a track if needed.
I am using the term "tape" here to refer to any recording medium, be it actual tape, hard drive or even flash drive.
The better sound you get from the beginning, the less you have to mess with it in the end. That is, guitarists; get the tone that you want right away. "Your" sound comes from your gear. The quality of pre-amps at the studio are there to capture that sound exactly and transparently. Sometimes recording drums in a big open room is desired (like in Led Zeppelins', When The Levee Breaks). I've also heard that Jimi Hendrix put his amp in a shower for some excellent reverb. This is the sort of thing that electronics and plug-ins try to duplicate. But if you can get it naturally, go for it. Now it is up to the pre-amps to do their job. And this is why high quality pre-amps are so important.
In my opinion, isolation is very important. In fact, that is exactly the whole purpose behind a studio recording. Obviously, you will compromise on isolating each drum individually because it is impossible to do but all other instruments should be on their own discreet track with no bleed though of other instruments.
Mic placement is so important. The kinds of mics used are also important. Don't use an SM57 on a bass drum. That mic is not designed to capture the frequencies of a bass drum. Again, your pre-amps are important here.
And here is a point of high controversy. Should you apply any effects to the original track? Mostly, the answer is a resounding "no." But what about a compressor? A compressor could be used to assist in getting the highest quality signal to tape. However, once it is applied it cannot be removed. For vocals and drums, I think a compressor can be useful. You may consider having compressors as outboard gear to put inline with the recording signal.
Another point of controversy is what to track to; Analog or digital? I am a huge proponent of the digital domain. However, many professionals extol the huge difference in sound quality as it is represented in analog as opposed to digital. Digital is really a rough estimation of the sound wave while analog is an exact duplicate of the sound wave. However, tape (analog) has a natural compression to it which colors the recording. It is usually a preferred feature of tape. What is most deceiving though is that a quality recording is actually easier to attain with analog than with digital. Even though digital is a mere representation, it is questionable whether the human ear can actually decipher the difference. Plus, once the signal is converted to an analog signal (speakers project analog signals, not digital signals), we are ALWAYS hearing an analog signal even though the source may be digital. But beyond that, since a digital recording does not color the signal in any way (no natural compression), you are left with a very cold sound. Tape will warm a signal up and make it sound better. Digital leaves it raw. Now it is the responsibility of the skilled engineer to "round out" that wave signal and warm it up. Again, pre-amps are important here in both the digital and analog domain. The biggest reason for tracking or mixing digitally is that everything can be "nondestructive" meaning that no matter what you do, it can always be undone. The original wave signal is left untouched. This is not always the case with tape. Plus, tape can be very expensive while hard drive space is dirt cheap. Also, tape machines are extraordinarily expensive. Your larger more expensive studios might have a 24-track tape machine. This is considered pretty big in the analog world. In the digital world though, you can easily have an infinite amount of tracks limited only by your hard drive space and processor.
Some studios also employ a technique. They will record to tape and then bounce it over to the computer to mix and edit and then bounce it to tape again. Or they will track digitally, mix it and finally bounce it to tape to "warm it up."
In Conclusion...
I hope this was a useful overview of the tracking process. I will add to this blog as I get feedback from my friends and colleges. So check back again.
Most importantly, the musicians must feel comfortable. Ultimately, if they don't feel good, they won't play good and the rest doesn't matter. The environment should be conducive to creativity and making the musicians feel at home. If they are afraid to be there or to offend or to play like their natural selves, the work done will not be the best representation of the band or sound engineer.