Recording

[armour_juliet]

Hey guys i have a band which is currently doing some gigs and i realised that making music is no longer a dream to me. -.- we have some orginals and want to do some professional recording. But the problem is i dont know much about recording. When we go to a recording studio, do we just go in, play our music and let the people at the recording studio record and do their stuffs and just go out and pay them? what really happens in a RECORDING SESSION is what i want to know. HELP?

 

[MackSonne]

From what I know,

You go individually, one by one. the way it is done, they edit each segment one by one.

How about recording at home?

 

[JoshuaG]

The fundamental procedure for a decent recording in a recording studio involves multitracking.

You first lay down the drums with either a guide guitar or bass, with or without a click track/metronome
After which you lay all bass and electric guitars.
Any other instruments your band may have.
Then the vocals.

So you build up your song along the way.In layers. People always think this is a tedious process but it allows a lot of flexibilty in terms of finding right tones for guitars, bass for example.

After the recording process, there is the mixdown process, where we take all the raw tracks and EQ, compress, add effects and balance everything out so the song sounds good. A tricky process that can make or break the song in my opinion.

Depending on the studio, after that the track basically requires some form of mastering just to meet the standards in terms of loudness in comparison to your more commercial releases.

For a band to hit the studio, there are couple of factors the band should think about of which include:
What kind of recording quality you are looking at?
What is your budget?
How many songs you have?
The genre of music?
How tight are you as a band?

Just take note that those factors are inter dependent...meaning how tight you are a band may actually affect your budget because it determines the amount of time you have in the studio all of which affects your song quality.

Hope that helps.

 

[Rory]

don't forget the level of proficiency of each musician with their instrument. being recorded reveals a lot about your playing when you play it back. sloppy playing can be covered up when you're live on stage or jamming. but when you record, every mistake is obvious. and you have to do it right in 2 or 3 takes, or your recording costs will spiral into the stratosphere when you have to keep doing take after take. for eg. producers overseas will not hesitate to call in a session musician to record a part if the band member can't hack it in the studio. it is cheaper to pay the sessionist than it is to pay for studio time to keep re-recording when the band member can't produce a clean take. even big record companies don't want to waste money paying for unnecessary studio time.

being tight to me, is about a live situation. in a studio you are recording each instrument at seperate times so it's not about the band being 'tight'. it's about each musician being able to follow a guide/click track and stay in time. unless of course you are recording the whole band live which is kind of fun and saves money

 

[AEnimic]

^ yeah i heard that before...really scary stuff

 

[blueprintstudios]

well like i always tell bands..

recording is very different compared to when you're playing live on stage.. rocking out in the jamming room , or strumming away under the void deck.

cos as simple as one extra string being strummed by accident will be replayed over on cd and haunt ya for the rest of the cd's existence.

 

[lightmrwan_sg]

wOW! tis really add up to my knowledge.. haha..

 

[Mobius]

The best would be to get ur hands on some recording equipment/software and start recording urself. So tht u get a feel of how the whole process goes. And if u are good at it, u might not even need to go to a studio if u are jus recording a demo, u can just record urself.

Recording is also abt recording the vibe, sometimes all the parts may sound perfect bt it may lack the spontaniety and vibe.

 

[armour_juliet]

thanks
my band has done home recording
but the quality is not that mastered

 

[blueprintstudios]

hmm the topic might go off abit, I believe i've said somethin like this before...

we regular humans have 24 hours a day. 8 hours of sleep. 2 hours of eating/shitting. and we're down to 14 hours to what we can do. I'm not talking about you nocturnals who can stay up for 48 hours without sleep, you'll realise the fatigue will haunt you when you get older.

so for bands, who tend to learn home recording themselves, of course i do encourage bands to learn to record yourself at home so you're more confident when you hit the studio (competition is not even an issue) , but please don't over do it until you affect your own song writing skills/playing skills. 100% guitar player becomes 75% when he spends time learning to record his original. and goes down to 50% and below when he focuses on learning how to mix and even further down to 25% when he's spent cash on recording/mixing gear (mic/preamp/soundcard) and then realises that same amount could be spent on practising/guitarbooks,dvds,killer efx pedals and a killer guitar , even an amp of your own.

so like I always tell bands... :
there's only 24 hours in a day, there's only so much you can do. I totally envy your musical talent, and this is why I do this, and you do that.

Amour-Juliet : read JoshuaG's post and prepare yourselfs hehe.

40¢ worth from a guy whose limbs was born naturally refusing to cooperate with any music instrument (I don't/can't play anything)..

 

[AEnimic]

you mean when a guitarist records their own work...they lose their time to play guitar or do they lose their interest entirely?

 

[hub37]

hi armour_juliet

my band has been through some recording.

1) Firstly before u record, kindly ensure that u have confirmed ur arrangement, down to the detail that each player knows exactly what note/phrase/chords to play for the entire song. This is to make sure u spent ur studio time on recording, not to discuss ur arrangement again.

But of coz, there's still the flexbility to make minor adjustment here and there provided everyone's agreeable.

2) Learn something about recording. U may not know a lot the first time, but as u go along, try to learn something about recording.

No doubt u can leave the mixing, mic up etc to the studio engineers, u know best how u want your song to sound like, so it would be good if u know some basics. Example certain bass/guitar lines are easier to mix than others, so having that in mind while u are writing the song helps.

3) The recording process:
If u are doing a single-track demo, everybody plays together and the studio just records.

If u are doing a multi-track, u may have the drum and bassist do the 1st track. Guitar 2nd track and vocal 3rd track.

The one very important thing about recording is the consistency of the timing, which includes things like drum beat timing, does ur bass/guitar/vocal follow the timing etc. When timing is right, it becomes "tight". If timing is out, no shredding of any kind or any speed would be able to cover up for it.

rgds
CK

 

[RolandLim]

u might not even need to go to a studio if u are jus recording a demo, u can just record urself.

a lot of bands do this( record their own demo) and wonder why they dont' get any attention from labels or promoters

that said , i have seen a lot of studios mess up people's work to the point that people have resorted to recording themselves so i can understand both views

Oddly enough , i started recording and becoming a Producer after a local big studio made our demo sounded like poo , however it took me about 2 years working at other studios and with other producers to finally grasp the subtleties and fine art of recording.What worries me is in the age of digital equipment , this art is being threatened greatly due to manafacturers promising that u can sound amazing with their products and offering shortcuts when it's clearly not that easy

Stuff like Pod xt is good too and i use them for overdubs / solos and the like but give me a real amp anyday for some chunky rhythm tracks. The real thing sounds at least 20% better with a good mic and the right expertise

all i can say to bands is: ask urself if u want to make a record that will sound good to u and ur fans many years from now or one that u think will get u by 6months and then u start regretting why u dind't spend more money and time getting it done well.So many bands will end up with the latter problem and most dont' like to admit it


my last project was done on Neves and Focusrites , and comparing it to a project that i did without it , the difference is huge, and it's one i know i 'll be satisfied for many more years

 

[blueprintstudios]

AEnimic : if you're as talented,organised and commited as mr roland lim here to balance both music and recording/mixing/production. then they won't get to neglect anything... much. otherwise , I've seen musicians get affected. i'm sure you've heard of guitarists able to play drums,bass,sing but on overall scale he's just your average jack of all trades master at none. then again if you got the talent and time, go ahead and make the most out of your youth.

 

[teraslasch]

If u can do more, and can do equally well, why not? that is talent. :lol: