Steenamaroo
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Let's not jump the gun. I don't see a wiki or OED quote yet....
Recording an album's worth of songs... what instrument order?
- Thread starter dkerwood
- Start date
Let's not jump the gun. I don't see a wiki or OED quote yet....
R
RAMI
Guest
R
RAMI
Guest
Being catholic I've been in some noisy cathedrals.
...and that was just the alter boys' changing room, ladies and genitalmen. Hello!
Thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the host-cakes.
Let's just say I was really pleased with the drum tone I got on my last recording, and using the same mics before I was not as pleased. I wanted to keep the quality up.
I was concerned about that, but the sanctuary is actually not bad to record in. It's a pretty modern room with some OK sound treatment (as long as you're not sitting in one of the corners). It gives a little bit of nice natural reverb, but not so much that it clutters the mix. You can hear the room in solo, but that's about it.
Lol, if my home studio were in my apartment, I wouldn't be able to record much of anything, although I do all of my mixing at home.
rob aylestone
Moderator
I create quite a lot of performance click tracks for people, and use the originals as guide tracks and then produce a click from the original. Up until the 80s synth and MIDI based music appeared, tempos were all over the place, maybe hovering around 90 for the verse, gradually speeding up to 95 in the chorus ready for a gentle fall back to the verse tempo. Little tiny ebbs and flows that suit the music of the period, and I guess still suit many types of music now. Playing fairly often to click tracks convinces me that rigid tempos are horrible, and a bit of flow livens it up and helps the song progress. Even drummers who are known for their timekeeping still change the absolute tempo, and quite a lot seem to delay beat three in the bar which gives a nice feel.
The recording process is of course each to their own, but I like to work to complete songs if I possibly can, because for me, the results are better.
The recording process is of course each to their own, but I like to work to complete songs if I possibly can, because for me, the results are better.
Well, the nice thing about Pro Tools (and I suspect it's true of other DAWs) is that you can adjust those tempo changes. You can easily program a 90 bpm verse and a 95 bpm chorus- no problem. For a lot of musicians I've worked with, however (including myself), those tempo changes are not on purpose. They're accidental adjustments based on difficulty of what's being played, excitement, dynamics, and a variety of other factors. I don't like to do anything without it being exactly what I intended to do.
Now, I don't use a click track live, for the very reasons you mentioned, but I certainly practice with one in an effort to make any tempo change a conscious choice. When recording live, I don't bother with a click, but in the studio? By myself (or mostly by myself)? Every time. It's just one less thing that I have to worry about.
I'm trying hard to convince my church to upgrade from their A&H Zed 428 to a Behringer X32 board. In addition to all the cool stuff it can do live, it will be able to record 32 channels in and 32 channels out, so I can record and mix an entire band straight from the board.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
I don't disagree with most of that. I've long taken the approach that musicians should be able to record with a click and without a click. Funnily enough, my mate Ray, that I mentioned earlier, as a studio drummer and engineer told me he was born to a click and couldn't envisage not using one but we never used one. Mind you, he had never recorded in sections before either and was quite blown away by it. But the stuff we did didn't wander all over the place.
If I'm 'hot to trot' and simply can't wait for a drummer or percussionist to be available, I'll start the song off on my own and 98% of the time, I'll use a click. It is easier for whichever other instrumentalists are going to be adding their parts, to have a timing reference other than my head.
But the one area I disagree fundamentally with you is in the idea that a rigid tempo necessitates a boring, staid, unadventurous feel and beat. It doesn't at all. In fact, imaginative musicians can dance all over the place in such a way that you should never notice that the tempo remains the same because their playing and a good arrangement can create the illusion of lots of flow and change. When I first used a drum machine, I figured that you could programme loads of different rhythms and put them sequentially and it would seem like the song had fast parts, slow parts, jagged funky parts, complex proggy parts etc, but all be set at the same tempo, just by the way the drums were played.
Rigid tempo is actually pretty irrelevant. You can hit the drums 20 times in a bar or four times. The tempo remains constant, the feel changes totally.
Unless you have a great room to record in its best to do all the drums at once , Ive had subtle but noticeable changes in the sound of my drums from one day to the next and I didn't move one mic position or setting . I can only guess it was change in my rooms environment , temp , pressure etc .
On songs that don't seem to flow like you want to a click track try starting with the click and then dropping it whenever you feel its time. You can always listen back and watch the grid to make sure things didn't get too crazy without the click ...there are no rules , its your music.
On songs that don't seem to flow like you want to a click track try starting with the click and then dropping it whenever you feel its time. You can always listen back and watch the grid to make sure things didn't get too crazy without the click ...there are no rules , its your music.