General Music Chat

So we have had our first experience in the recording studio as a band.
It was a long day, we ran about 7 hours. We laid down the instrumental tracks for seven songs. We probably should have stopped with the four we originally intended to do, but we laid them down so fast the engineer suggested we continue, and we bit, being as we were there and had it all set up anyway. Our strengths and weaknesses were readily apparent in this environment. A real eye opener.
The engineer said he was very impressed we were doing originals, and for how well we played the tracks considering the over all experience level of our members.
We go back Tuesday to mix down and record vocals. We really need to be preparing for the two gigs we have booked for February but, as a band we feel having our demo completed is more important at this phase.
Russell of Audio Heaven placed my amp in a separate room, mic'ed her with an SM57, produced a copy track of the guitar, separated / offset by a few milliseconds, panned them R&L. WOW what a full sound that produced on the recordings.
I don't believe even in this setting that it is possible for amateur guitarist like myself to turn out a "perfect" performance. But I am eager to share as soon as I have the CD in my hands.

Thank you all for your encouragement and input.

Hey, that's great news, sans! Can't wait to hear it.

Awesome!

Can't wait!

I know you guys can't either!

Sweet George! I'm glad you recorded as many as you could. Why limit yourself, and you were there...

Are you doing any overdubs (leads, fixes) or is just the vocals and mix left?

Can't wait to hear it. Congrats!

Awesome George! Looking forward to listening!! Glad you are having this experience. Recording in a studio is a blast!!

Thanks guys. We are all excited about the prospect of being more than a garage (pronounced barn in Texas) band.

Jimmy:
We did the "plug ins" as the engineer called them on Saturday. One of the reasons it took so long.
And yes there were some compromises. I am happy with the overall experience. And made some personal notes on how to do better next time.
It is nothing I have not heard before from you guys. You know how it is with us. Sometimes we just have to make the mistake ourselves.
The engineer was quite critical of how well "stomp boxes" would record, with the exception of a few "processors" he recommended. Ray ended up with a re-do on his guitar with an amp. The guys did a pretty good job on the scratch vox so I,m hopeful for a rapid completion on this project.

Nice one Sans
Looking forward to hearing your new booty.
Keep well yeah.

A lot of very famous bands' studio material was crap compared to their live performances and vice-versa. It takes as much work and practice to get good in the studio as it does to get good live. But these days with the advanced technology it's getting easier to get good results in the studio than it did years ago. This is a great experience for you and I'm sure when you get the finished product it will greatly aid you in getting more gigs and we'll all be able to hear what you really sound like much better...

we'll all be able to hear what you really sound like much better...

Now that"s a scary thought !

It is nothing I have not heard before from you guys. You know how it is with us. Sometimes we just have to make the mistake ourselves.
The engineer was quite critical of how well "stomp boxes" would record, with the exception of a few "processors" he recommended.

Sans, I'm very excited for you. Glad you're getting this expeirience. I has a question too. The engineer was quite critical of stomp boxes. Does that mean he thinks they suck, or he thinks they're good, in a recording studio?

Thanks!
Chris

Congratulations man!

Most of us end up doing it the home studio route...hence the reason it's ongoing for years!
When time is money, people tend to get sh*t done and live with the quality of the results regardless of the level of satisfaction.

Just the same, I study a lot of recordings from rock and metal bands that have had great success while cutting their albums in the trenches.
It's not uncommon that you can tell the take on the lead or rhythm guitar was sh*t and some poor bastard had to processes it 52 times until it was passable since everyone was ready to explode from stress then drop dead from exhaustion and boldly refused to give another take.

You wouldn't believe how often I notice this when studying "commercial" grade recordings.....

Plugs ins, that's a hoot. We still call 'em overdubs.

I've used both analog pedals and digital stuff in the studio, both have worked great (my engineer calls them "talent boxes"). I always use three mics on my amp since it has two different Celestions in it. I try to record the leads on a different day, and then do the mix on another day. I also always double my rhythm track as soon as I finish the first, that way I have two guitar tracks that are sonically the same and I can use either/both.

Keep us posted.

George, it sounds like you guys had a pleasant experience. That double tracking deal woth a 10-20 mls difference really makes a guitar sound huge. In the future if you have time try what Jimmy was talking about, record two rythym tracks back to back, theres something aobut double tracking and panning the mix that jsut sounds great. If you are in a hurry thou the way you did it works great.

Lately when I record, Ive been actually using my POD PRO preamp with a JCM 800 Marshall sound I tweaked and stereo it into the board for my rythyms. I like to bring in my pedal board and some sort of amp for the leads, makes them feel more alive to me.

Remember there arent any real rules to recording, whatever works works!

Look forward to hearing these when you post them.

Im jealous Ive kinda taken off a little recently from playing much, I need to get back with it again.

Thanks guys.
I am excited to get back over there tomorrow night and critique the mix down. Also the boys should be completing the vocals as well.


Chris:

The practice in question was the utilization of Boss distortion pedals directly into the computer inputs with no amp.
The engineer felt it was an unworkable sound in the mix, that even his effects programs could not enhance. He pretty much insisted Ray either play it clean and allow him to use the effects, play the Boss pedals through the clean channel on my amp, or use another amp.
Rays wife went and got his Line6 from the house (God bless her for going through all that trouble for us) that was Ray's choice. Perhaps this will also have some long term effect on how we set up play and sound when we do live shows. From my perspective it cant hurt.


Hopefully by the time I have some music for ya,ll. I'll have some pictures as well.

Stompboxes need to go to an amp and that be mic'd usually. Most multieffects pedals have different settings for cabs so they can work ok straight into the mixer, but I think an amp is always the way to go. Nothing recreates the sound of a mic'd cab exactly.
George, if the scratch vocal tracks came out pretty good, you might suggest that the engineer not record over them or delete them if he has enough empty tracks to accommodate the rest of the recording. The reason being, those scratch vocal tracks can be used for a really sweet sounding natural chorusing effect. You might mention this to the engineer even though he maybe already knows it.