How much time do you spend to record a 10-12 track album? How many hours recording drums, 2 guitars, bass and vocals.
And how many hours mixing and mastering?
And how many hours mixing and mastering?
How much time
- Thread starter Jevil
- Start date
ahjteam
Anssi Tenhunen
Depends on too many variables, like the skill of the players, the style of music and the amount of pre-production. You can do it in one week if everything fits in place or it might take 4 months if they don't.
Fredrik-Ablaze
Member
As stated above, Ive recorded albums like that in 9 days including mix (pretty much all first takes, we rehearsed like crazy before going into the studio) and I've done albums like that in six months (people not having time/not knowing their shit etc)
Gomez
Member
I think 2 weeks it the perfect time to make a record.
- 2 days for drums.
- 1 day for for bass
- 2 days for rhythm guitars.
Weekend off
- 1 day for guitar wanking
- 1 or 2 days for vocals
- 2 or 3 days for mixing.
weekend off
- 1 day on mix revision and printing mixes - sending to mastering house.
Record done.
I always make sure (because I don't produce albums so much) that the band KNOW ALL THEIR PARTS. I really hate it when I have to sit there waiting for Johnny to write his shit guitar solo or for Duff to work out his shit drum roll.
- 2 days for drums.
- 1 day for for bass
- 2 days for rhythm guitars.
Weekend off
- 1 day for guitar wanking
- 1 or 2 days for vocals
- 2 or 3 days for mixing.
weekend off
- 1 day on mix revision and printing mixes - sending to mastering house.
Record done.
I always make sure (because I don't produce albums so much) that the band KNOW ALL THEIR PARTS. I really hate it when I have to sit there waiting for Johnny to write his shit guitar solo or for Duff to work out his shit drum roll.
Ermz
¯\(°_o)/¯
How long is a piece of string?
Totally depends on what kind of music it is, what sort of budget is set out, how prepared the band are, how prepared you are etc. etc.
Totally depends on what kind of music it is, what sort of budget is set out, how prepared the band are, how prepared you are etc. etc.
Ben Johnson
SSSSSSSSSSSSSS
smy1
Member
Gomez: 1 or 2 days for vocals?? I'd rather say 4-5 days for vocals, especially if you play metal and have a screamer.
Fifth_Horseman
Watch out, it's sharp!
2 years and counting. 
Reasons for delays... well, all of the above (especially the "not having time, not knowing their shit" part) plus having to learn recording stuff in the first place, setting up project studio from scratch, finding out that shit doesn't work as expected/hoped, waiting months for new shit on order to finally arrive, having the main recording guitar develop a rubberband neck syndrome and having it at the luthier several times for 3 weeks to be able to record 1-2 weeks before the neck warps again, oh don't forget harddisc crash, and then after one year I had final exams and didn't make any progress for another 3 months... you get the idea.
I stopped counting the hours after a while because it would have made me depressive.
... hey, if I take Gomez' figures and replace "days" with "months" I get pretty close!
Reasons for delays... well, all of the above (especially the "not having time, not knowing their shit" part) plus having to learn recording stuff in the first place, setting up project studio from scratch, finding out that shit doesn't work as expected/hoped, waiting months for new shit on order to finally arrive, having the main recording guitar develop a rubberband neck syndrome and having it at the luthier several times for 3 weeks to be able to record 1-2 weeks before the neck warps again, oh don't forget harddisc crash, and then after one year I had final exams and didn't make any progress for another 3 months... you get the idea.
I stopped counting the hours after a while because it would have made me depressive.
... hey, if I take Gomez' figures and replace "days" with "months" I get pretty close!
fade_2_black
Member
+1 on piece of string comment.
So many variables to consider.
If you want everythign to go smoothly and quickly, I would highly recommend having the band do some preproduction - have them know ALL their parts, tempos, etc.
There is nothing worse for wasting time than a band that is poorly organised.
So many variables to consider.
If you want everythign to go smoothly and quickly, I would highly recommend having the band do some preproduction - have them know ALL their parts, tempos, etc.
There is nothing worse for wasting time than a band that is poorly organised.
Gomez
Member
Man, I had a guy tracking cookie monster vocals with me all Wednesday. He did 11 songs in 6 hours including backings and bits and everything...
And I can't see how you could get a guy screaming for 4-5 days... if the vocalist can't really go for it in one go, then, spread it out a few hours each day.
Gomez
Member
2 years and counting.
Reasons for delays... well, all of the above (especially the "not having time, not knowing their shit" part) plus having to learn recording stuff in the first place, setting up project studio from scratch, finding out that shit doesn't work as expected/hoped, waiting months for new shit on order to finally arrive, having the main recording guitar develop a rubberband neck syndrome and having it at the luthier several times for 3 weeks to be able to record 1-2 weeks before the neck warps again, oh don't forget harddisc crash, and then after one year I had final exams and didn't make any progress for another 3 months... you get the idea.
I stopped counting the hours after a while because it would have made me depressive.
... hey, if I take Gomez' figures and replace "days" with "months" I get pretty close!
Fair enough, but we are on a different boat here. I do this for a living.
Man, you're including a whole lot of things that I don't have to go through.
My studio (and the other studios I use) is set up and and it's a solid setup.
I have been dong this for a long time, so I don't have to spend a lot of my time figuring out how to do things - however, you learn something new every session.
if someone brings a guitar with an intonation problem, we use one of mine or the other guitarist's, you can hire or borrow one too.
I don't have "hard disk crashes". I run Pro Tools on a Mac with legal software = no problems 99% of the time. I also back up my stuff in a regular basis.
I'm REALLY SORRY guys, but when you do this for a living you CAN'T really afford to have projects that are "as long as piece of string". You need schedules, budgets and deadlines if you want your business to be running the next month (yes, adult life sucks). At least I do. I also live in one of the most expensive cities in the world where rent prices are simply outrageous.
If you don't have financial responsibilities and your main source of income is not coming form doing this, then by all means, take as long as you want to make an album. As for me, time is money and if you get everything organised, there shouldn't be a reason why it should take more than 3 weeks - unless you're writing as you go, which is a very different story.
-Gavin-
Gavornator
Gomez, I do it for a living too... 6 weeks all in for a reasonable-good budget and an album you really want to do a good job on... which is the only kind i like to do, so it's the only kind i bother with. i find i earn as much by keeping my standards higher and charging more as by sacrificing production or mix time to get the next project in.
exactly!, we def see eye-to-eye on this one.
Gomez
Member
I don't know...
the last 2 albums I have done have been 2 week + albums... Happy with the results.
If the musicians are good, the tracking is good then the mix is easier and quicker...
dunnno.
the last 2 albums I have done have been 2 week + albums... Happy with the results.
If the musicians are good, the tracking is good then the mix is easier and quicker...
dunnno.
vespiz
Mixing!
Last Masterstroke album was done in about 5 months (mostly 4-6h/day, after work). Last sunday we recorded drums for 13 songs on our punk project (Ruaste) in about 9 hours.
2 months would be ideal IMHO to make a "pro" metal record (but I'm not pro yet, so...)
2 months would be ideal IMHO to make a "pro" metal record (but I'm not pro yet, so...
)
Fifth_Horseman
Watch out, it's sharp!
Yeah, of course it's a different situation for me. I just sometimes can't help spilling my story when stumbling upon threads like these...
So Mac hard drives don't suffer from mechanical wear? Because that's what happened to mine (system drive). Just good ol' breakdown after a few years of use. The audio drive was fine and I do regular backups on three different hard drives anyways, so luckily no problem in that regard.
Normally my PC setup runs totally stable as well, but that's not remarkable... after the HD crash I set the PC up for recording only, and since I won't do mixing and mastering myself I hardly use any plugs. When doing a premix it's just Wagner, Boogex and Electri-Q for some high and lowpass.
BTW my band moved into the rehearsal space of another band including their studio, so I'll do the rest of the album recording (vocals, acoustic guitars and reamping) on a mac setup. I really hope you Mac guys are right and it will be smooth sailing!
and my Powerbook drive has lasted for 5 years so far and still going.. heavy use all over the world.. even dropped the whole computer onto concrete from 5 feet in the air in Stockholm during the first year i had it. so all this type of debate accomplishes is shows that some drives are more reliable than others and some users take better care of their gear than others. pointless discussion.... because the fact remains that Macs fail FAR less than PCs... especially in the laptop realm... and there is good reason why Mac Laptops took the the top slots in PC Magazine's yearly laptop round-ups for several years running. get over it... yes, Macs can fail... all drives eventually fail, backing-up often is your only true fail-safe... but your one incident does not defeat the fact that, everything else being equal, off-the-shelf Macs fail far less often than off-the-shelf PCs.My macbook hard drive took a shit after about 6 months
Gomez
Member
BACKUP YOUR WORK!
It's easy to forget to do this.
I always back up when I finish all the tracking, then when the mixes are in the "getting close" stage and last but not least after it's done for archiving.
I learned my lesson the hard way too...
It's easy to forget to do this.
I always back up when I finish all the tracking, then when the mixes are in the "getting close" stage and last but not least after it's done for archiving.
I learned my lesson the hard way too...
kaomao
Member
I record vocals almost word by word...... because these suckers can't growl or scream for an entire line of the lyrics......
I'm so pissed off, then they blame me because I'm slow to mix all their shit they couldn't record it tight, I have to quantize everything so I'm low for a reason.
I think for an album at least (if they work on it for 4hs/d) 3 weeks with no mixing, just tracking.
I'm so pissed off, then they blame me because I'm slow to mix all their shit they couldn't record it tight, I have to quantize everything so I'm low for a reason.
I think for an album at least (if they work on it for 4hs/d) 3 weeks with no mixing, just tracking.
