Ok, so there's a lot of you out there who are recording the local bands of your area, and you're probably experimenting with different ways to maximize your time, money, and effort with your sessions. There are several logical ways to go about putting together an EP/LP. Multi-track recording in the digital age has enabled us to structure the recording process into parts, usually one musician at a time. The first and probably most common way to go about a session for young engineers is the most logical one. Let's examine the structure of how to carry out the tasks necessary to work through recording the talent's material:
1. Step by Step
This one is obvious. You'll record things in order of importance or in order of completeness. Logically, drums come first. They're the beat, tempo, and back bone of our "session" or song. Next could come bass or guitar. A lot of bands who have their own feel and vibe will probably prefer bass next, but I digress for a moment to talk about why bass next, is a bad idea. No bass is perfectly intonated, but bass is usually played as a monophonic instrument. This supports the idea that if guitars are playing polyphonic material, their intonation is more sensitive than that of a bass. Why? Lets say for example we've recorded our song on drums, and finished the guitars next. Now we'll record the bass. The first thing we might encounter somewhere in the song is a chord that has its root played in several octaves. If this note is somewhat sharp in the guitar tracks, and the bass plays the same note in this situation, we could have a problem. But it's not that big of a deal to slightly sharpen or flatten the tuning of the bass for a moment and punch that note in. If the bass was already recorded before we went to track the guitar, and we arrived at the same spot with this troublesome root... we might have to change the tuning of multiple strings on the guitar, only to realize the other notes in the chord no longer harmonize pleasantly...
I know what you're saying, "but we can tune the bass". Well just like life, software isn't perfect. You're always going to encounter some type of situation where it won't be possible to make the fix. And if you're recording real live tones, you might not even get the same sound when you come back to the song to punch in a bass line.
The step by step method poses other problems... Lets imagine that we have all the songs scratched, clicked, and ready for the drummer. And lets assume the drummer is top notch and nails all of his parts in one day. If the drummer played an ep or lp worth of material, you can almost bet that it will not be possible to edit / quantize all of those songs he tracked in the same amount of time it took him to track it. This leaves the band waiting, bored, and restless. This might be desired though, so you should keep this on your mind. The band might like a rest, considering the recording process is really stressful for everyone involved.
But where this problem starts to evolve is next.... Guitars... Now you begin to record all of the guitars to each of the edited songs, and you run into a few problems. The strings get old fast take after take, and replacing strings causes several intonation shifts through out the recording process. Also, the guitar players get very little rest and have to track their parts all day for multiple days. This gives the musicians no down time. Some may handle this situation well, others may not.
But lets take this further and get to the point... We've tracked all our songs, one person at a time, and now we have an ep / lp worth of songs completed musically, next is vocals... And now you're going to require the talent to record all of those songs, day after day, hour after hour and you're going to hit a brick wall... why? because humans are human.
Our vocal chords are not built to handle multiple hours of stretching and use. Most vocalists find a very comfortable spot in their live / touring situations by performing half an hour to an hour each night, or ever other night. This poses a problem for you, the AE. Because you've tracked everything, and the only thing left to do is vocals, you're going to automatically strain the vocalist and his vocal chords just by design of how you've structured your recording sessions.
This brings us to a new idea of how to structure the recording session:
2. Linear
Linear! That's right. Let me explain. By linear, we mean, one person at a time but one song at a time. In example, we recorded all of our scratch and clicks, and then we record the drums for one song. Next, we edit the drums, and the band just hangs out for a while (or even for a day, however long it takes, you might even be able to track and edit the song on drums in one day). Next, guitars. Guitars are done and guitarists get a break to think about whatever and talk to friends and family. A little vacation from the stress. Next bass, and we get all of our intonation spot on because we came after guitars. Then, we do a little cleaning and editing and get the music all tight, and finally record and edit the vocals. Now we have one song finished, and the whole team is feeling more accomplished. The time this should take should equal the same amount of time it takes to do it the other day, it's just more spread out. And if you're any sort of ADHD, you'll find this very fun because each day you're not doing the same annoying task of editing 10 songs of drums for hours and hours, or tracking guitars for a week. You're doing different duties each day, and it helps spread out the tasks for the talent. It will also give you an edge on the rest of the record because if you had any downfalls in the first song, you'll be able to improve upon those in the next song, and maybe even have time at the end to go back to the problem areas to correct them in other songs after learning from your "session by session" mistakes.
You can even take this concept further and proceed to mix and maybe even master each time you complete the song you're working on. The choice is yours to experiment with!
I conclude, take a good hard look at how you structure your sessions, and you'll live a happier life, young AE =]
The End
1. Step by Step
This one is obvious. You'll record things in order of importance or in order of completeness. Logically, drums come first. They're the beat, tempo, and back bone of our "session" or song. Next could come bass or guitar. A lot of bands who have their own feel and vibe will probably prefer bass next, but I digress for a moment to talk about why bass next, is a bad idea. No bass is perfectly intonated, but bass is usually played as a monophonic instrument. This supports the idea that if guitars are playing polyphonic material, their intonation is more sensitive than that of a bass. Why? Lets say for example we've recorded our song on drums, and finished the guitars next. Now we'll record the bass. The first thing we might encounter somewhere in the song is a chord that has its root played in several octaves. If this note is somewhat sharp in the guitar tracks, and the bass plays the same note in this situation, we could have a problem. But it's not that big of a deal to slightly sharpen or flatten the tuning of the bass for a moment and punch that note in. If the bass was already recorded before we went to track the guitar, and we arrived at the same spot with this troublesome root... we might have to change the tuning of multiple strings on the guitar, only to realize the other notes in the chord no longer harmonize pleasantly...
I know what you're saying, "but we can tune the bass". Well just like life, software isn't perfect. You're always going to encounter some type of situation where it won't be possible to make the fix. And if you're recording real live tones, you might not even get the same sound when you come back to the song to punch in a bass line.
The step by step method poses other problems... Lets imagine that we have all the songs scratched, clicked, and ready for the drummer. And lets assume the drummer is top notch and nails all of his parts in one day. If the drummer played an ep or lp worth of material, you can almost bet that it will not be possible to edit / quantize all of those songs he tracked in the same amount of time it took him to track it. This leaves the band waiting, bored, and restless. This might be desired though, so you should keep this on your mind. The band might like a rest, considering the recording process is really stressful for everyone involved.
But where this problem starts to evolve is next.... Guitars... Now you begin to record all of the guitars to each of the edited songs, and you run into a few problems. The strings get old fast take after take, and replacing strings causes several intonation shifts through out the recording process. Also, the guitar players get very little rest and have to track their parts all day for multiple days. This gives the musicians no down time. Some may handle this situation well, others may not.
But lets take this further and get to the point... We've tracked all our songs, one person at a time, and now we have an ep / lp worth of songs completed musically, next is vocals... And now you're going to require the talent to record all of those songs, day after day, hour after hour and you're going to hit a brick wall... why? because humans are human.
Our vocal chords are not built to handle multiple hours of stretching and use. Most vocalists find a very comfortable spot in their live / touring situations by performing half an hour to an hour each night, or ever other night. This poses a problem for you, the AE. Because you've tracked everything, and the only thing left to do is vocals, you're going to automatically strain the vocalist and his vocal chords just by design of how you've structured your recording sessions.
This brings us to a new idea of how to structure the recording session:
2. Linear
Linear! That's right. Let me explain. By linear, we mean, one person at a time but one song at a time. In example, we recorded all of our scratch and clicks, and then we record the drums for one song. Next, we edit the drums, and the band just hangs out for a while (or even for a day, however long it takes, you might even be able to track and edit the song on drums in one day). Next, guitars. Guitars are done and guitarists get a break to think about whatever and talk to friends and family. A little vacation from the stress. Next bass, and we get all of our intonation spot on because we came after guitars. Then, we do a little cleaning and editing and get the music all tight, and finally record and edit the vocals. Now we have one song finished, and the whole team is feeling more accomplished. The time this should take should equal the same amount of time it takes to do it the other day, it's just more spread out. And if you're any sort of ADHD, you'll find this very fun because each day you're not doing the same annoying task of editing 10 songs of drums for hours and hours, or tracking guitars for a week. You're doing different duties each day, and it helps spread out the tasks for the talent. It will also give you an edge on the rest of the record because if you had any downfalls in the first song, you'll be able to improve upon those in the next song, and maybe even have time at the end to go back to the problem areas to correct them in other songs after learning from your "session by session" mistakes.
You can even take this concept further and proceed to mix and maybe even master each time you complete the song you're working on. The choice is yours to experiment with!
I conclude, take a good hard look at how you structure your sessions, and you'll live a happier life, young AE =]
The End
