I Track My Song Recordings Upside-Down!

Over the years, I have developed my own method of building the audio tracks for the songs I produce. When I compared my method to that of other recording studios I have come in contact with, I realized I was doing things a bit backwards. But honestly it works best for me that way and I have no intention of changing now!  Generally speaking, here are the steps I follow:

1. Play through a rough track on acoustic guitar and establish the speed of the recording. This is pretty standard.
2. With the speed of the recording established, I produce an arrangement track complete with the position and length of all parts of the song including: Intro, Verses, Choruses, Transitions, Bridge, Outro and Fade. This is time-consuming and is where the cerebral and creative aspects of song composition and production merge.
3. Next I do drum tracks. I may do a highly simplified version of the drums that I choose to produce a particular sound, or I may get fairly detail oriented early on. From what I can tell, this is pretty backwards. But I have found that I play a lot better with a tight drum track and the more defined in the transitions the better.
4. Now I record the main guitar rhythm track. (Nearly all my songs are guitar oriented since I am first and foremost a guitarist.) If this track is strong enough to drive the song, I leave other guitar tracks for later on.
5. Next I do the main vocal track.
6. Go back and adjust arrangement, drums, guitar, and vocals until they are TIGHT together.
7. Add bass track. By now the groove should be well established and the bass line should come naturally.
8. More adjustments if needed and tweak tracks to all sit in the mix.
9. Add background vocals and edit vocal tracks until they are tight.
10. Add more guitar tracks- lead guitar, electric rhythm, banjo, slide etc.
11. Add piano, organ, and / or synthesizer.
12. Add harmonica, brass and woodwinds.
13. Add percussion and special effects.
14. Create group tracks and Effects channels.
15. Adjust mix, add EQ, Compression, etc. and remix.
16. Add mastering components.
17. Export mixdown and listen on various devices and environments: Stereo in my studio, car radio, through computer speakers and headphones, through Ipad.
18. Adjust and remix until I satisfy my ear.

Let me know your tracking methods or if you spot any holes in mine!

Happy tracking to you!