Capt. Scott wrote:If you layer your music and punch out the material you like/dislike, you mean.
No, I disagree. I prefer a LIVE take.
Know your music or don't waste time while you are paying by the hour.
An amateur goes into the studio not knowing exActly how the music goes.
If you are prepared, you already wrote your music and your band has practiced it as well. Don't dumb it down by taking whatever crap slipped out of your head, down your fingers and onto the recording. I prefer to do it again, rather than chop it all up.
If you're making mistakes while doing studio work, I would contend that you don't know your own tune well enough to play it consistently and get a good recording.
I want live music, thus what gets recorded is the same copy that gets played. If I have to patch, edit and layer, it's not to be a copy that can be reproduced live in a faithful fashion, thus not true...
If you were to create a copy that can be played accurately and yet you had to alter significantly, it is not just plain sloppy work not to rerecord it?
Any producer can lay 75 layers etc., but just how do they perform that live and accurately? No, be able to play it from top to bottom, no surprises and you'll get copy you can be proud of instead of being surprised if it's good.
You don't have to do it all at once, but make sure the meat and potatoes of it is done. (You want to go in later and drop a solo over it, no problem)
I'm not talking about dumbing it down. I mean if there is something messed up by a cracked note or something that is just not perfect, you can just take out the segment and redo it. Not only do I have my stuff well rehearsed, it is written out measure by measure. So then I know exactly where in the music the mistake can be fixed...that is if there are any mistakes at all. And mistakes aren't always mistakes as in wrong notes, they are just some things that are not quite cohesive for the final release.
My last recording was done with 6 flute parts for a flute choir composition. If the fifth flute segment that occurs in the 37th measure ( 2:40 ) came off a little sharp or too loud etc, I can go right to and fix it instead of replaying the whole track. ANd if something comes out in the recording that is better that what I originally composed, I can easily change the original. Or if the third flute is playing too much vibrato, I can record just the third flute part with the vibtrato fixed. If you are going to work in the recording studio, you should be playing right notes. Playing right notes doesn't mean that the music is right...right?
