Jeff that sounded really good, very well done.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Jeff or Laz I have a question about your demo's. Are you guys saying you recorded everyone's track's seperately like when you are making an album?
Can't we just mic everyone, run through the mixer, and record each instrument to a seperate track in case we need to redo.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Jeff or Laz I have a question about your demo's. Are you guys saying you recorded everyone's track's seperately like when you are making an album?
Can't we just mic everyone, run through the mixer, and record each instrument to a seperate track in case we need to redo.
You can, but you lose flexibility. The bass will get into everything, as will the lead guitar. Using headphones prevents that bleed-through. In addition, anyone who plays and signs at the same time would do each better when recorded separately.
If you want to try "live" recording, try to do it in a gig-like setting, on a wide stage with everything facing front. You may get reasonable results. Outside would even be better. Head-phones for monitors would help a lot.
Note that we recorded 4 songs in one 8-hour session (we prepped a lot), and then took another 6 hours mixing and mastering. Our studio charged $50/hr, which is typical in our area. We chose them over other studios because the engineer understood what we wanted to do, and didn't try and over-produce it. We made a good choice, as he kept to the schedule, and was very efficient. And fun to work with.
Excuse my ignorance I'm new to this but if we had everyone mic'd and sent to it's own channel and recorded from the board wouldn't that allow us to tweak each instrument track individually so if there was too much bass you could turn it down when you did the final mix.
Again I have no clue so I'm just asking.
So everyone played their parts alone and then it was all mixed together? What do you play against are there vocals etc?
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
I know the question wasn't directed at me, but if I may. If you record everything at once the instruments will bleed into each others mics. If what bleeds is one of the tracks you don't like and it has bleed onto a track you want to keep you are stuck with it. My old band recorded demos with a small 4 track but it was the same process. We put headphones on the drummer and I had the other guitarist play along ........ through the head phones. We then had our drum track and added the others one at a time. It is crude, 1992 vintage but this is one or two of them.
http://soundcloud.com/wickedfester/tempers-flare-4
http://soundcloud.com/wickedfester/tempers-flare-6
If you have a way to isolate the instruments and monitor with headphones you can record as a band playing live and then fix tracks seperately. Ever see those big plexi glass screens around drum kits?
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
If you have headphone monitors, and your drummer doesn't sing, you could try putting everyone in a different room, which would give you reasonable isolation. Try it and see what you get.
If you don't have access to headphone monitors, then you will have difficulties.
When we recorded the 1st pass with everyone live, the drums and vocalist were the only thing making noise. My bass was direct, one guitar went thrum zoom pedal direct and the other had a 1/4" outlet on his combo amp that sends the signal and kills the speaker. The drums were isolated from the vocalist, so everything was pretty clean.
Ok now I got it. I see what you mean about the bleed now. Thanks guys
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
