Making a continuous studio recording...

[Insaneogram]

My band's about to record our first EP! Hooray! We've got some kind of sit-down sessions with a fella Friday week and then perhaps a month after that we'll be recording.

One thing though... we're going to essentially do 5 tracks but we want it to be continuous. Has anyone come across this before? The idea is:

Song 1
-> transition
Song 2
-> transition
Song 3
-> transition
Song 4
-> transition
Song 5
-> quiet outro

We figure that if we record the songs and transition in order but as seperate parts we should be able to have two versions:
- A continuous version
- A version with just the songs which can be sent to radio stations and venues.
Do you think it's a workable idea? I don't see any reason that we couldn't do it. We've already kind of worked out what some of the transitions will be, and they include all kinds of crazy piano, feedback and mandolin tricks

So yeah... fire away! What should we expect?

 

[earthboundrec]

Are you going to record it all as one performance? If so, make sure your shit's tight or if you screw up on the last song, it could be frustrating to do it all over.

It's definately a workable idea. Just make sure that when you master it that you put track breaks in it so that a cd player doesn't read it as one continious track.

Good luck to ya!

 

[Insaneogram]

Nah, not one take. I doubt we could hold it together for half an hour HAHA

We'd stop at the end of each song and at the end of each transition I imagine

 

[Dani Pace]

You would most likely be better off to track each song seperately then develope the transitions during mixing as a seperate part, it shouldn't be difficult to add them in. A transition from one song to another isn't too bad to do, especially if that is how you do it live but an entire CD could get tricky. The idea isn't anything new, One of the oldest that I remember was The Beatles-Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and that was way back about 1969. (Damn I'm showing my age again.)

 

[northsiderap]

Transitions

An easy way to do it would be to burn the CD to automatically crossfade the tracks...

 

[corban]

I recorded a CD myself with transitions on a few tracks. We basically just included the transition as the end of each song, and then carefully calculated when the beginning of the next song should start, and whether it was to be faded in or just cut in. We brought each mixdown wav file to the masters with the specific information of when each song was to cut in. It was a bit complicated at times, but in the end it worked fine.

Oh, and Sgt. Peppers was actually 1967, although I wasn't born until 15 years later.

 

[Insaneogram]

Here's one transition we just made

It's only an example, not the finshed copy of course.

 

[Cloneboy Studio]

I've mixed a few CD's that way without breaks between songs. As long as the listener can tell it's a different song and the transitions aren't very long--and a few songs go *RIGHT* into each other without much pause, it can be very cool.

I'd say go for it man.

 

[MadAudio]

Check out "No World Order" by Todd Rundgren. Very similar to what you're talking about here.

 

[ROblows]

I want to hear the mandolin tricks.

 

[corban]

My mandolin can play dead

 

[Halion]

Lots of modern albums have transitions all over the place, like Linkin Park's Meteora and the Lost Prophets' last album.

 

[corban]

Lots of old ones too. Dark Side of the Moon is of course a classic. One of my favorite continuous-type albums is Death Cab for Cutie's Transatlanticism. Great transitions.

 

[earthboundrec]

Lots of old ones too. Dark Side of the Moon is of course a classic. One of my favorite continuous-type albums is Death Cab for Cutie's Transatlanticism. Great transitions.

Totally... It's got that train feel between lots of the songs. And even the beats that the drummer plays throughout the album sound like a locomotive making it's way down the tracks. I fuckin' love that album!

 

[flat1ine]

Transatlanticism is a fantastic record on all fronts ... oh man i love it.

also, the Album Leaf's "In A Safe Place" and Sufjan Stephen's "Illinoise" both have got this kind of feeling - they don't take it as far as DCFC does, but they're both records that have a very unique sense of flow to them - one thing the Album Leaf does that i very much enjoy [it's been done many many times before, i know] is leave some of the studio dialogue between tracks - it might be cool to have that dialogue mixed into a transition ...

just a thought. good luck!

 

[thediscoking]

Best transition ever: Beatles' Abbey Road between "Paythene Pam" and "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window."

Brilliant

 

[earthboundrec]

Transatlanticism is a fantastic record on all fronts ... oh man i love it.

also, the Album Leaf's "In A Safe Place" and Sufjan Stephen's "Illinoise" both have got this kind of feeling - they don't take it as far as DCFC does, but they're both records that have a very unique sense of flow to them - one thing the Album Leaf does that i very much enjoy [it's been done many many times before, i know] is leave some of the studio dialogue between tracks - it might be cool to have that dialogue mixed into a transition ...

just a thought. good luck!

ooohh... I love Sufjan! Illinoise almost brought me to tears it's such a beautiful piece of work... not much music gets to me like that.. I'll have to check out Album Leaf.. I've never heard them..

 

[flat1ine]

if you like sufjan, i'll almost guarantee you'll like the album leaf - like sigur ros meets iron and wine at times, with a dash of DCFC here and there ... i really can't wait to hear what sufjan write about my home states - CT and NY .... good stuff man, good stuff.

 

[mshilarious]

Yet another plug for Brian Wilson's Smile. Fantastic transitions.

 

[Adam P]

I'll have to check out Album Leaf.. I've never heard them..

If you didn't know already, Album Leaf is what Jimmy LaValle (formerly of Tristeza) does as a solo thing. The records I have of his (One Day I'll Be On Time and In An Off-White Room) strike me as a really stripped down Tristeza.

To the threadstarter...I wouldn't worry about recording everything in order unless its for the sake of continuity. Save things like sequencing and transitions for the mastering stage.