How much do you edit solos ?

[LeSedna]

Hi,

I was wondering this. Do you always leave them 100% non edited to keep the performance as it was since it's supposed to be a moment of musical expression, or do you treat them like rythm, a part of the big picture, and therefore edit them so that they sound good which is the goal for a CD ?

It's of course dependent on the player, but I was surprising myself editing some of my solos for their timing in tricky parts (I tend to feel that 3/4 of the performance is in the timing) and some others not at all.

BTW, I punch in my solos cause I don't have the time to learn them and play them for days, but I feel like even if I did, I would still divide them in musical phrases or group of them.

I sort of feel guilty for that sometimes although I never write a solo I would never be able to play.

 

[egan.]

I don't think there is anything wrong with fixing issues. I basically handle solo's like vocals: I get the best take possible but if something sounds funny I fix it. I'm way more interested in a solo sounding "fluid" than grid accurate though.

 

[azistenostora]

Nothing to feel guilty about. I usually divide my solos into parts and then punch in those separately. Of course if you can't play a fast run or arpeggio or whatever in one go, then punching in will not make it better. But yeah, nothing wrong with recording solos in parts.

 

[Keregioz]

I also record solos in parts, and may even do some editing afterwards to make it sound as good as possible.

 

[outbreak525]

I don't use DI so I never edit my guitars, I aim for perfection in the recording. I always take a few takes of each bar.

For guitar solos, instead of editing I just punch in; captures the natural vibe of the guitar player.

 

[26]

... 100% non edited to keep the performance as it was since it's supposed to be a moment of musical expression, or do you treat them like rythm, a part of the big picture, and therefore edit them so that they sound good

both. there are some that even are composed (recorded) phrase by phrase, with lots of takes to get the ultimate expression, and then there are the first take magical ones, that can have every kind of imperfection imaginable, but stay because they're what the context needs.

 

[OneDaySky]

Depends on the solo and player for me, i wont lie, but ive pulled a few Dragon Force half time full edited solo/sweep sections. But some bluesy kinda stuff i just leave alone, but track until its right

 

[CubanDude]

really depends on the style. some super-tech-metal-solo, which is based on a straight 16th run @ 5000bpm throughout the whole solo is totally okay to be edited, because (at least to me) it needs to be in perfect rhythm to sound right, some cheesy ballad solo should be tracked already in perfection and capture the moment imo

 

[Vinny]

i prefer to just punch in rather than edit after the fact

 

[greyskull]

Depends on the player.
Getting it in one is nice, but not always Easy, Punch ins FTW

 

[sebby123]

Agree with the majority, Track in small sections and no editing needed in the end.

 

[Skinny Viking]

solo tracked in parts usually and then some edits where needed

I try to at least get the beginning and ends of spots super tight with the tracking and if it floats a little through the middle of the part, so be it ... keeps it human feeling

 

[azistenostora]

Yeah, when I can't play something 100% accurate, I usually say fuck it, gives it a human feel

 

[Skinny Viking]

^ don't know if you're insulting me or agreeing with me

 

[Pardi666]

336 takes for one 30 second solo (Mind you I was playing some pretty technical stuff slightly beyond my abilities)

My finger tips where bleeding at the end.

For my next album i plan on doing more punch-in's as I've learned that being such a total perfectionist is lost on the majority
of people that will listen to my music.

 

[midget donkeys]

336 takes is pure madness. I would lose my mind.

 

[26]

^ exactly what i thought too, but was too lazy to post.
but who knows, there might be people out there who think this way about 20 takes.......

 

[Clark Kent]

Hate to admit but there was one session where the guitarist was probably tone deaf or something... the bends were way off and it also sounded like the intonation on that guitar was bad. So I used AUTOTUNE! Not like T-Pain but a suddle autotune. Also had to fix some timings. I didn't tell what I did to it so there were no complaints.

Also the rolling delay trick fixes a lot of things. Like 250ms 100% left and 500ms 100% right. You can use it as a suddle effect but it'll cover up a clammy performance.

 

[if6was9]

What I usually do is go for a a few passes of the solo section. Once we've a few good takes I'll start picking out the best bits and editing them all together. If there's any gaps in the solo where they didn'ty play a lick they were happy with we punch in from there. Thats with improv solos.

If they have it written I'll go a for a few takes and once I know how the solo goes, we'll break it into smaller sections and go through it sequentially till we have a really good complete solo we're happy with.

I don't generally do much editing apart from sticking the sections together- I've never gone in and moved every note so it's perfectly in time. Occasionally I'll move a note at the beginning or end of a phrase if it's a little out but I try and get them to play it right and not use too much studio trickery.

 

[Sloan]

Whatever fits the song. Some stuff can be sloppy and raw as fuck and it sounds kickass, other stuff that needs to be very melodic I think it's ok to chop it up and tweak it a bit if needed. But I would prefer to just retrack it until it's in the ballpark. I just comped a guitar solo for a dude and it worked great.

I think this is a viable option when you are just trying ideas, comp parts together and then maybe go back and play it all together in a full performance. I do this all the time when coming up with solos for my own stuff, I feel better having an actual performance, but use the comping as a writing tool essentially.