Just wondering....loaded question.....

[Force666]

If you were tracking a 5 piece death/thrash/etc metal band on the "intermediate" scale (as in not rookie, sloppy but not ALLPRO either, also NOT a label release but with hopes of shopping) if all Pre-production was done how much time would you allocate to track the band.

This is not so much a monetary question, obviously that's a major factor for you pros, but more a question of workflow.

The reason I ask, is i'm tracking my own band at the moment and I feel like it's taking forever. But, it's probably not. (This is also my first REAL project where the utmost care is being taken).

So far the time has been allocated like: (12 songs)

Drums: 3 days tracking, 6 days (editing-by hand-Hey i'm learning OK )

Guitar 1: 3 days (2 Tracks of rythym, 1 with melodies, solos)
Bass: 2 days
guitar 2: not yet
vocals: not yet

Only some VERY rough mixing so far (enough to make it tolerable to track to)

This is the best I can average because sometimes It's only for a couple hours in the evening.

How does this look to you guys? How do you do it?

You can hear the band in question in my sig. This recording was our demo w/new drummer and me play "emergency bass". All tracked live drums and 9 songs in 3 days. Good excuses huh?

John

 

[AudioGeekZine]

3 days for guitars +1 day editing if you're aren't editing as you go along.
x # of days for vocals, as long as it takes.
x # of days for mixing, as long as it takes

There's very little benefit from rushing through a recording.

Give yourself 2 weeks.
Get everyone to take the time off work, rent a house, move all the gear in, live that record for 14 days. Come out with a kickass album at the end.
And video it all too!

Lol.

 

[ahjteam]

We reserved 12 days in July for 5-6 song promo-EP (tracking, mixing + mastering) just in case, but we will most likely use only 10 of them, but if you've never done this before, I guess that 20-30 days would get you done fine.

But first you have to choose your method of working. The first method adds your workhours, the second one adds the bands workhours.
Method 1: A lot of people here seem to record the guitars with DIs and reamp, edit the drums to grid and then soundreplace them and autotune the vocals. That adds a lot of editing for you, but its quite a fast process for the band as they're not needed there then.
Method 2: I personally prefer to use a lot of extra time on the micing process, to get the basic recorded tracks to sound nice. This way I can fix as much as possible before the mix/mastering/marketing. And I usually work more like a slave-driver; I demand the band for better performances so that in the end I wouldn't need to edit more than crossovers in the optimal cases, because I want to work as little and make the band to do all the work, but its just my way.

But to answer your questions for 12 songs... How much time tracking the instruments actually take really depend on how tight the players are. But assuming they are humans and not Yngwies and Portnoys, I would go with something like this:

BASIC SETUP:
While the drummer is setting up his set, I would setup all the sessions with tempotracks, basetracks and routings in your DAW etc beforehand. I would guess about an hour or two should do. Remember to do a matrix chart paper (songname on the left and instrments on the top), so you know what you've already tracked.

VOCALS:
I would reserve 4-7 days for vocals, because most of the singers just can't sing for full hours a day, especially if they scream/shout/growl. Usually 2-4 hours a day at max so that the singer can actually sing the next day too, which means you can get 1-2 songs down per day, 3 if you are lucky and 4-6 if you have low threshold for quality

BASS:
Just setup a DI-box and give the bass player a cable and you're set up for tracking. If the bass player is supertight, you can get all the basses down in one day, but I would guess you should schedule 2 days to them (inc. editing).

DRUMS:
Oh boy, so many variables on this one, it might only take 2 days or it can take a full week to track all those drums... But my optimistic guess would be that it will take 1 day for setting up, tuning and micing the drums, 3-4 days for tracking and 2-3 days for editing is pretty realistic, but 4-6 days for editing if you didn't have any threshold for quality in the tracking

GUITARS:
Then quad tracking the rhythm tracks super tightly and then leads, melodies, solos and the third guitar... I would say 2-5 songs per day, or so, depending on how tight the players are. But looking for the tone is a different thing.

It usually takes almost a full day to find "the perfect tones" and phase the mics correctly, if you want to do it oldschool way and mic the final tone in the recording sessions and "fix it before the mix" way. If you want to do it the reamping-way, it should take about 10 minutes to setup a DI and a random semi-ok tone from the amp and then just slam a single mic there somewhere on the grille.

and when counting up the numbers (they include tracking and editing, 6-8 hours a day):

GUITARS: 3-6 days
BASS: 1-2 days
DRUMS: 5-12 days
VOCALS: 4-7 days
OTHER STUFF: 1-3 days
MIXING: 1-2 songs per day
MASTERING: let someone else do it if possible
==============
TOTAL: 15-30 days

The 30 days is scheduled super loosely and 15 days is super tightly. So I guess 20-25 days would be somewhat of a realistic balance between them? I also suggest you atleast have one day a week apart from the project because you will otherwise grow deaf-blind for the errors.

 

[Force666]

Wow, AHJTeam Thanks for taking the time. Very elaborate.

So it looks like i'm doing "pretty good" time wise. I guess quality wise will be up for scrutiny later


Yeah, obviously reamping if needed I'll take care of during the mixing process. I think the tones I've gotten so far are pretty good, but we'll see. I don't mind taking loads of time mixing, because then it's just me, and I don't have to deal with "personalities" ya know. hehe.

As far as guitars go. What I've done is just record a "perfect" rythym take. Then a second "melody" take that includes a double on the rythyms for backup and maybe quad tracking specific parts. Then a solo track.

The drums were tracked pretty quickly due to the drummer practicing everyday to the clicks beforehand for a couple weeks. "Our drummer dues clicks"

Anyways, thanks alot for your guys' insight. I actually feel a little more confident in the speed I am personally working.

 

[Force666]

Give yourself 2 weeks.
Get everyone to take the time off work, rent a house, move all the gear in, live that record for 14 days. Come out with a kickass album at the end.
And video it all too!

Lol.

I wish. If the guys in the band actually had money and really, really, gave a shit (as much as I do anyway) We'de be at Studio Fredman or Andy's!

 

[Pot]

very nice post ahj

 

[robfromthedeep]

very nice post ahj

+1 i found it really useful myself