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I'm recording a band and they are set on using their amps and micing and all that shit. I always have used my line6 toneport for a few reasons... The main one being that i usually record in chunks over several different sessions. It is great for consistency to just open the preset and go from where we left off. I don't want to deal with the amps and having to reset everything off just to have it sound different than before. I know how much that will suck when im getting into mixing and mastering everything together. The band im recording never has recorded before and i dont think understands everything that goes into the postpro of mixing. I know that in a perfect world where we have an entire week to set up guitars and amps and leave everything set up exact from day to day micing amps would be ideal. we dont have that though. we dont even have a decent room to record them in. I want to respect their "wants" but at the same time i wanna say "youre going to have to just trust me on this" and do it my way. I'm doing it for free because i actually like the band and i really like doing recordings and i'm going to be pissed in the end if i know it could have sounded better if we had just done what im used to doing.

You're doing this for free. In the end, tell them what's what and let them choose wether they want to go trough with it or not.
On the one hand, i think your concerns and limitations are 100% justified, on the other, I can understand that they'd want to use their cool amps that thy're probably really proud of and that they think are inherent to their sound. If this takes precedence over frugality, they shouldn't have a problem shelling out a couple hundred bucks for a proper recording session.

You make a good point, digital amp sim stuff is very handy, especially if the amp is recording badly for some reason.

That said, could you not just stipulate they need to track all the guitars in one session? Or leave the amp and mic set-up until the next session? Or just take a few decent photos of the mic and amp positions, maybe even pedal and amp settings if you're that worried?

But yeah, the fact you're doing this for free makes it a little harder to justify additional ball-aches.

Doog wrote: That said, could you not just stipulate they need to track all the guitars in one session? Or leave the amp and mic set-up until the next session? Or just take a few decent photos of the mic and amp positions, maybe even pedal and amp settings if you're that worried?

I like these suggestions. In addition, you can put a piece of tape in a circle or an X on the amp grills to mark where the mic placement was.

Beggars can't be choosers, so I think ultimately you need to put your foot down and make it clear to the band that you're doing this pro bono and should expect cooperation.

Since you mentioned that the room you're recording in doesn't even sound that great, you might not even get subjectively 'better' sound from real amps.

GET YOUR PREPRODUCTION SHIT TOGETHER
- guide tracks
- clicks

TRACK DRUMS
- spend forever getting a good sound before you commit to tracking
- get a few good takes of each song

EDIT DRUMS
- comp your takes together for each song to make one really good track
- edit the fuck out of it and make it tight, but still groove

TRACK BASS
- get a fucking DI

TRACK GUITARS
- fucking DI
- use amp sims for tracking

EDIT GUITAR DI'S
- kill all the shit you don't want
- fuck.

REAMP GUITARS
- spend forever getting the sound that fits the mix

EDIT REAMPED TRACKS
- clean them up dude.


TRACK EVERYTHING ELSE
- all that extra shit
- oh yeah, vocals
- spend lots of time on vocals and make sure the vocalist isn't being a pussy about it. fuck vocalists shit up.

EDIT ALL THAT SHIT
- fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

MIX IT
- obsess over everything.
- sounds like shit

MIX IT AGAIN
- first mix was shit, do it again

RIDE WITH ALL YOUR FRIENDS IN THEIR CARS
- make them listen to your mixes over and over.
- listen to how much they hate that shit; take notes
- they will say it sounds like shit, ask them why
- take notes

PROBABLY MIX IT AGAIN
- or 'fuck it.'

PROFIT.
- ???

PRO TIP:
Once you have all GUITAR DI's edited and proper, glue/freeze/render them so that they are each big files from start to end with no gaps. Load all guitar tracks that will use the same sound in the album in their own session for reamping. set the tone and shit on the amp, get the sound you want and reamp the whole session at once. Go do whatever and when you come back, just put the reamped tracks where they belong in each song and move the next shitty task you have to do.

That was pretty much the most helpful recording tutorial ever. No bullshit. DI doesn't sound as good going in, but it can sound fucking awesome when mixed down cause ampsims make mixing a hell of a lot easier IMO.

Drums are tracked. Made guitar players play along with a click and recorded it then used it as playback with click in phones to the drummer. worked well. drums sound savage as fuck as raw tracks. got individual kick, snare, toms (all 4 on seperate tracks), Hats, Stereo OH's and a room mic. So 10 tracks in all. I made about 8 samples of each drum so i can go back and used Drumagog to trigger the tracks with samples of the same drums, no bleed. Then use the Oh's and Room mic's to keep things smooth and legit. I've a good handle on the line6 shit and can pretty much listen to them play thru their amps and make a patch that is just about identical. While at the same time recording that patch along with a DI dry track for reamping if i fuck it up that bad. They just assume that the "tube soundz" of their amps is going to come across in a ridiculous way on a recording and that if they dont it is destined to sound like fuck. And im convinced they need to shut the fuck up and keep doing what i say. SansAmp Bass DI, self explanitory. Vocals. I refuse to use any sort of autotune so he will have his shit together weather he knows it yet or not. Editing/mixing/mastering is just a lot of beer and smokes over several late nights.