I don't currently play out at all, but I record backing stuff to practice over and to show tunes to my bandmates. Here's what I do when I'm recording backing tracks. This is for non-looped, full-length song tracks, and will consume tons of smartmedia space. I record at CD quality but since I'm talking about non-looped stuff I guess I could get more onto a card by recording at lower quality. I also rely mostly on the GNX3 for recording (as opposed to using a PC) because none of my current PC's has enough horsepower to record as seamlessly as the GNX. If needed I do non-realtime editing/mixing on the PC in GT2. 0) Learn the tune. Yeah it's obvious but necessary for step one. 1) Program up the drums for the song on my Alesis SR-16. Sometimes I use the stock patterns and figure good ways to string them together. You can get a lot of mileage out of the stock SR-16 patterns by storing them to user patterns and changing which kit is selected. Other times I go ahead and program up my own drum parts using the SR-16's step editor. [I anticipate this process getting much easier when I start using sw that does MIDI recording/Editing] 2) Record the drums. I do this by plugging the SR-16's outs into the GNX3's CD in so that I can get the drums in stereo. Config the recorder: Set the recorder in G+CD IN; turn STEREOREC on;set CLICKTRACK off; don't worry about tempo setting; do what you want with pre-roll (It can be nice to have a second or two to get from the "record" button on the GNX to the "play" button on your drum machine); ignore the drum pattern setting since I'm using the SR-16; Set Song Repeat to OFF; Set AUTOSTOP to OFF (this doesn't matter yet but can later if you want your other tracks to ring after the drums are over); Don't worry about QUANTIZE setting since it's not a loop; I set REC QLTY to CD. This is up to you; Exit recorder setup. Make sure there's no signal coming from the guitar input at this point. Hit the record button on the recorder and wait for any pre-roll, then hit play on the drum machine. Let the drums play through, then hit the stop button on the recorder. Voila, backing drums. 3) Record the bass. I used to just use the GTR>BASS preset but using the pitch-shifter has some annoyances. I invested $150 in a used bass and have never regretted it. Most of the steps are the same as for drums. As I mentioned before, now is a good time to set the recorder's AUTOSTOP to OFF just in case you have some licks or echoes that continue past the end of the drums. It's also your call at this point whether you want to record bass in mono or stereo. I usually do stereo because of something that comes up in a bit (merging tracks). Make sure you get your bass part right. Since it's separate from the drums at this point you can re-record the track to your satisfaction. But once it's merged you're stuck with it. 4) Merge the drums tracks and bass tracks. See Page 52 of the GNX3 Manual. 5) Record and merge other accompanying instruments as above. I record keyboards into the CD in for the same reason as drums- so that I can get stereo. Just make sure that you get your individual backing tracks _just_right_ before you merge them because you won't be able to fix 'em after merging. 6) basically at this point (which admittedly takes a while to get to!) you have usable backing tracks for one song. Now go out and buy more smartmedia ;^). Even merging your backing tracks, if you have them in stereo your best case scenario is 3 4-minute songs (4 minutes times 2 tracks times 3 songs equals 24 track minutes) at CD quality... That's the short version, and there are many more ways than one to do it. Last tune I recorded both drums and bass at the same time (onto the same two tracks) using the SR-16's footswitches to cue pattern changes and fills, etc. That saved a little time but only because I nailed the bass track on the first take ;^) Of course you can get a much more polished product by recording your indivdual tracks and editing them in GT2 or whatever is your editor of choice and then mixing down and using the GNX Wave converter to get 'em back to the GNX3. Another idea is to get all your backing tracks onto CD and then plug a CD player into your GNX's CD in. Or if you're playing out plug the CD player into the house sound... This saves the expense of getting smartmedia enough for all your tunes. I hope this helps- it was a lot of typing if not!
Contributed by Rawfish...