Going in to record...

[caffeind]

In an attempt to be cool like civicious, i'll make a thread about my band.

Friday i found out we are going to spend three 12 hour days in the studio with Lee Dyess (the guy who did evergreen terrace's first cd). Its up in valdosta georgia, but it'll be worth the drive.

We are a hardcore band from blountstown florida (sorta near panama city). We sound like hopesfall but with breakdowns.

I'll be sure to post up the mp3s when we are done. We will probably only have time for 3 songs.
Mayfield website

 

[civicious]

Three 12-hour days is about enough time to completely finish one song. Plan on spending around 30-40 hours per song, including time spent mixing and mastering.

Before you go in, be sure and have everything down 100%. You need to know EXACTLY which songs you're gonna record, EXACTLY how you're going to play them, EXCATLY how many guitar tracks you're gonna do (you should do at LEAST 2 tracks for every one guitar part), etc. Make sure your drummer cleans and tunes his drums the day before the session, and by that I mean make him sit down, take everything apart, clean everything, lube all the nuts/bolts, and spend time tuning each individual drum. If you get to the studio and they tell you 'We've got drums already set up, and they sound great, leave your drums in the car and use ours', take your money back and leave. Same thing goes for guitars. Well, that is, unless your drummer is playing a CB300 kit with tinfoil cymbals, and your guitar player has a balsa-wood Samick. At any rate, you're gonna get the best feel out of whatever you're used to playing on. If you have to play the song 30 times to get used to a new setup, that's money and time that you're losing. Plus, if whoever is mixing it is worth a shit, he can pull a good sound from almost any drum.

Which brings up something else....when you say 'the guy who did evergreen terrace's first cd', what did he do? Produce? Mix? Master? Track? If someone introduces themself to you 'Hi, I'm the guy who did so-and-so's first cd', that could very well mean 'Hi, I set up the microphones and plugged in the headphones when so-and-so recorded their first cd'.

At any rate, have fun, and take your time. If you're rushed to get in 3 songs, the songs are gonna sound rushed. The more time you spend now, the better you're gonna like the final product later.

Enjoi!


edit: And before someone comes out and says 'shut up, you dont know what you're talking about, blah blah blah', I speak from experience. My dad owns a recording studio here, and I've worked in it since I was 12. The chief engineer here (Tom Pierce Baker) tracked & mixed Pantera's first 3 cd's, and I've learned pretty much everything I know from him.

 

[micah]

lol civicious

my brothers band completed a whole cd in 1 day and its VERY good quality. was in a studio set up in the back of a guys house in pensecola, he did everything on the cd.

look up the band forthcoming from united edge records and listen to the cd if you can.

 

[caffeind]

by "did evergreen terrace's first cd" i mean produced/mixed/mastered it. Lee is real cool. He recorded our guitarist's other band a few years back.

We arent exactly shooting for insane quality. We just need something to sell at our shows that doesnt sound like total ass.

thanks for the advice though

 

[Kcihcaton]

Originally posted by civicious@Nov 22 2004, 11:34 AM
Three 12-hour days is about enough time to completely finish one song. Plan on spending around 30-40 hours per song, including time spent mixing and mastering.

[post=420447]Quoted post[/post]​

Wow, that's a long time just for one song. My buddy and I recorded four songs in about 8 hours, and got a letter from Virgin and Elektra after we had broken up.

Maybe 30-40 hours per song if you already have a record deal and plan on mass producing CDs for sale at major outlets...

But if you're looking to record a demo, record labels will look for potential in the ability to sell you, not how much time you're able to spend recording, or how perfectly mastered each song was.

The songs need to be played well, of course, and if you're planning to get signed, you should already have enough talent to land a perfect take in less than an hour.

I just hope the 30-40 hours you're talking about is 90 percent mastering, because if it takes that many hours to just play one song perfectly, I don't see how playing live would even be an option.

 

[hcivic.com]

it took the conservatory almost 5 days for us to fill the songs when i did it 4 years ago and all of us had been playing for 10+ years.
civic is right to get it perfect takes loads of tracks for each part

 

[Kcihcaton]

loads of tracks for each part?

hm, i guess it all depends on what you're going for.
if you're going for a 100% professional recording studio sound and you plan on making tons of money off of it, then maybe itll take a while to get it perfect.
not 30-40 hours per song, though.

 

[hcivic.com]

we spent upwards of 3 16hr days per song (there was almost 28 of us so yea loads of individual parts)

 

[Kcihcaton]

Okay, that's about 1 hour and 45 minutes per song, per person.

 

[hcivic.com]

yup but weve been playing these songs for 5 years so most of use can tell by ear if any not is out so it saves alot off time

 

[Kcihcaton]

im assuming you're talking like orchestra music?
that takes quite a bit more to get recorded and make sound good

 

[hcivic.com]

yup and no it took less time than we had all asumed for. for the first my section tokking a wopping 5 tracks to nail it

 

[civicious]

my brothers band completed a whole cd in 1 day and its VERY good quality. was in a studio set up in the back of a guys house in pensecola, he did everything on the cd.

There's a difference between 'very good quality' and 'professional quality'. Take a 'Did it in my friend's basement in a day' cd and compare it to a 'Spent months in a professional studio' cd, and I guarantee you that you'll get a better recording from the studio.

But if you're looking to record a demo, record labels will look for potential in the ability to sell you, not how much time you're able to spend recording, or how perfectly mastered each song was.

If you already have a perfect CD, a label will snatch you up a LOT quicker than if you have a demo. Why? If everything you have is already mixed, mastered, and finished, the label won't have to spend time and money re-recording everything.

lol 30-40 per song is tru if your write'n the song and planing the music out .. LOL

You couldn't be more wrong. Recording is a LOT more than going in, sitting down, playing the song, and burning a CD. I usually spend at LEAST 4 hours recording the vocals for one track alone.

loads of tracks for each part?

hm, i guess it all depends on what you're going for.
if you're going for a 100% professional recording studio sound and you plan on making tons of money off of it, then maybe itll take a while to get it perfect.
not 30-40 hours per song, though.

Why would you spend time and money in a studio to get something that's half-assed?


Studio recording is a LOT different than a live recording. How you usually do it (or should do it, rather) is go in, record a track with scratch vocals, scratch guitar, and drums. You record at least 3 separate takes, and then listen back to only the drums, and move on with the best track of the 3. All you keep from the first time is the drums, because the drums need to be 100% perfect to continue. You can always go back and re-do a guitar track, but you can't punch in drums. Well, you can, but it'll sound like shit. After the drums, you generally move on to bass. Get a good bass track, move on to guitar. You should always want at LEAST 2 guitar tracks per guitar part, to give it thickness. Dimebag from Pantera has 30 (or more) tracks of the EXACT SAME PART on each song. Thirty. Solos included. Last comes vocals. Vocals need to be PERFECT, because they're what your average everyday listener pays the most attention to (in most cases). Usually, it's best to do vocals on the second day, with only the vocalist and engineers there.

All in all, you CANNOT sit down and slam out 3 songs in 3 days, and have them perfect. Period. End of story.

 

[Kcihcaton]

Listen to your own songs.

 

[civicious]

?

 

[Kcihcaton]

Exactly.

 

[swanny]

Originally posted by Kcihcaton@Nov 23 2004, 12:00 AM
Exactly.

[post=420798]Quoted post[/post]​

post some of YOUR shit up then speak.

 

[civicious]

the question mark was for 'what in the hell are you talking about'

 

[micah]

listen to forthcomings cd and youll know what im talking about. by very good quality i meant very good professional quality. alot of hardcore bands, even done in professional studios sound like shit on the cd. take converge for example.

forthcomings cd was not a demo, they had a demo which they recorded and is why they got signed to that record label.

this is a very small and indie label, but forthcoming came to sell the most records of any other band on there label.

the label wanted to resign to a 2nd - 2yr/2cd contract, but the band fell apart due to marriage, school, etc.

to say it takes 30 hours a song to record professional quality song is fucking ridiculous, when i know firsthand a whole cd can be done in less then that.

 

[civicious]

to say it takes 30 hours a song to record professional quality song is fucking ridiculous, when i know firsthand a whole cd can be done in less then that.

whatever you say. you're the expert.