Recording your analog synth

Hi all,

this is hopefully not a repost as I am not asking for technical advice into getting my synth recorded inside FL studio or even integrating it into my workflow. I can do that in my own way.

I wanted instead to open up a discussion on doing this better for better sound. How do you guys route your signal chain if you're recording a frequency-rich bass from an analog synth, for example? Is this much different than if you're recording a lead? Do you always record it dry and add effects later or do you use effects (either through pedals, on-board effects, or FL studio plugins on the mixer) while recording?

I often jam on my Moog, for example to a drumbeat in FL, and when I find something I like I record the jam either live or recreate it with midi notes and then record it. The issue I face is that later the sound doesn't impress me as much. I think one reason for this is that I tend to do complex routing, sidechaining, and automation when I'm using Sytrus or another VST synth for big nasty sounds. But when it comes to recording my hardware synths, everything feels much more limited. I realize that I can automate envelopes and parameters on my hardware synths with automation clips in FL studio. But the pitfall here is that doing so is a creative process in itself and if you don't have the right sound recorded from the beginning then you just later realize that you need to record new sounds. Add that to just feeling less creative when I'm dicking around with automation clips inside the box.

What kind of levels are you guys using? Any pre-processing of the signal chain before recording? Any tips to make the beefy sound from my synth also sound beefy later in the mix? Thanks in advance and I look forward to the discussion!

Best,

A