LarryUK Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 I keep seeing video's of people recording albums and they are sitting next to the engineer in the studio. What has happened to people playing together? Surely you wouldn't get the same feeling doing it solo to doing it with a band? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 I think there are a lot of approaches to recording. Since the invention of multi tracking decades ago musicians have been recording by separate when it is more convenient. Heck some of the last Beatles recordings were recorded by separate, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeman Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 My band recorded a about 5 starting in 2002 thru 2008 and we played live all together once. We ended up re-recording vocals and most of the guitar parts anyways. A good reason for recording individually is the use of effects/compression on individual tracks. If you record the whole band at the same time, you have more of a chance of bleeding of instruments onto the different tracks. If you want more reverb and chorus on the lead guitar, but the drums and rhythm guitar are also heard on that track, you wont get the desired result as the other tracks will also have the effect and it may not sound as good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Correct, For instance AC/DC is known to record as a band but they play in completely isolated rooms from each other. I have an Elmore James boxset that has outtakes from 1950's recordings and it is amazing that the band is all recording together in a room and that one take is noticeably different from the next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 As a solo multitracker, all my parts are separate, haha. But as deeman and Riffster suggest, you want all the parts isolated. Then before the mix-down, you can address each part individually, get the levels just right, add some effects to just one part, or any number of things. I usually record solos 3 or 4 times, on separate tracks, then I can pick the better parts from each track and splice them together into a "master" solo track (as in Mountain Dance [which, OK, went too long]). But you're essentially talking about a full band "live" album. You've got to get the mix and the sound right the first time. Makes recording tough! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Recorded music is very different from live music. Things have to be mixed in a way that sound good. Heck, I have friends that use 8 tracks for drums, that way you can edit and mix each drum how you want them to sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glp2012 Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 It's because everything is digital. I plug both my guitar and bass direct to the board. With all the amps sounds they can model, it's easier to sit with the engineer and mess around with the sounds than be in a sound proof room talking through the crappy intercom or using sign language to speak with the control room. They rarely use tape, so everything goes directly onto the computer with Pro Tools or some other software. When last I recorded, I was isolated for the acoustic guitar parts because it was mic'ed. Other than that, it's all done direct. Now, the real reason...engineers are too lazy to mic an amp. Ok, just kidding. However, when you are dropping $50 an hour and it takes 10 minutes to correctly mic things it gets expensive. So, many people just go direct. It used to be very different. When I recorded an album, many years ago, everything was tape. We just played live and had all our instruments isolated and mic'ed. Anyway, here's a picture of me tracking bass live in the control room, with my friend Karpis and engineer Jesse hanging out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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