Is it a time question?
Good thread. Made me think about the working on my own question and why sometimes it doesn't turn out as it would with a band.
Maybe its a question of investment in time. Say you have a 4 piece band, drums, bass, guitar, singer. Each of them has their own specialisation to concentrate on. So the singer brings along the words and say a chord structure and tune, the basic song, then the guys/girls set to work. If they rehearse and work on that song for 3 hours that actualy represents 12 hours of musician thinking/working time. If the meet up again a few days later and revise the song, maybe that ends up with 24 hours working on it (and that doesn't count the time spent actualy writing the basic song). I all that time the guitarist has spent 24 hours just thinking about the guitar part, nothing else, the bass player the bass part, and so on.
So ist it any wonder that the indie musician working alone often cannot come up with the same quality of recording as the band together. How many solo recrders can afford to invest so much of their time in a single song?
I'm not saying this is always the case, or always the problem, but it IS something we solo people need to think about and consider.
I have just finished recording a song that I wrote about 2 years ago. This is the third time I have re-recorded it and IMO each time I have refined and improved the recording, the sound & the arrangement. All in all I must have spent 6 weeks worth of evenings working on this song alone during the two year period (I played all the instruments myself/drum programs, etc). If I'd have had a band we could have got the thing done in 2 weeks tops and I would have had 3 other brains to bounce ideas off and act as quality control.
What I love about working alone is the total control, and no compromises or having to justify my ideas to others who might not 'get it'. What I hate is the amount of time it takes.
Makes you think, doesn't it?