Over doing it.

[Pughbert]

I find that quite often i find myself over doing it when recording vocals. By this i mean - i will make sure ive recorded quite a few good takes of the whole song, plus any other backing vocals i want. But i often find myself recording to many - so that at mix down stage i spend tooo long deciding which i like best - when to a first time listener, there all just the same.

Just wondering if anyone ealse finds this, and how many good takes do people look to get generally?

 

[Track Rat]

As a matter of personal experience, most folks give their best takes within the first three. After that it seems they're not better, just different. Three takes should be plenty to comp a single track from.

 

[In Tune Audio]

Having a good idea of what you want a track to sound like before you start will help, because then you'll have an idea if the tracks you have will work, rather than guessing or assuming.

But wouldn't you rather have too many good takes, then one or two takes you think are good, but actually have nothing good to work with.

 

[EleKtriKaz]

As a matter of personal experience, most folks give their best takes within the first three. After that it seems they're not better, just different. Three takes should be plenty to comp a single track from.

I guess it depends on the singer. I've had the opposite experience more often. Most of the singers I've dealt with tend to get better after the first few takes to a point, and then it goes downhill fast if they've been singing for too long. I haven't worked with any extremely experienced singers though, so that could account for the difference.

 

[Rokket]

For me, most of the time, the first take isn't a keeper. Especially when you work with a singer for the first time (I just did a couple nights ago), and they are not used to the room, the gear, the mic....

After 3 takes, they pretty much have it down. It's even better if they have the song cold, then usually they can get it in 2 or 3 takes. I only keep one take, and that would be the one we all agree was a keeper. I think that if you continue to do take after take, the fire will leave and the emotion you were trying to convey is going to sound trite and forced.