The Pro Recording Method

[brandondrury]

I just talked to a good buddy of mine who is going through what I call "major label bootcamp". He's working with a real producer and his stuff will soon be shopped to every major label. Not guarantees. Anyway, he called me yesterday and he was talking about how mega mega tough it is to play to the perfection that modern rock requires.

I know he's put a good 100 hours into the guitars (and he's only doing half the guitars as there are two guitar players). Their bass player recorded for 4 hours and they didn't get a single note finished. I must admit that these guys are some of the best guys I've worked with and are standout players in the SEMO area. Well, they are getting KILLED on their playing.

Another buddy of mine is also working with this same producer for a different band. He's one of the bass players that all the bass players talk about. He has great timing and is very very picky. It took him 36 hours (so I here) to record 3 songs on bass.

Brandon

[James Gillice]

This is all my opinion of course but it seems that the emphasis is in the wrong place here. Who cares if some guys crappy song is recorded flawlessly? (I am not saying your friends songs are crappy since I have no way of knowing that.) Give me good songwriting any day of the week. I think this is a major problem in the music industry today. They just keep cranking out these perfect, shiny, piece of turd songs. Maybe I'm missing something but 100 hours just for guitars? That is ridiculous. And this is someone who you say is a good guitar player! I say leave a few mistakes in so it doesn't sound like a robot playing the instruments. Give it some humanity. Sounds to me like this producer gets payed by the hour.

[brandondrury]

Ironically, the producer is getting a flat fee. This level of perfection is so important to him that this project is costing him A LOT of time and money.

The guitar player is very good. The second smoothest player I've dealt with in all my years of recording.

I wonder how much better the project is going to be. I do think that most bands don't take near as much time as needed to get as much effectiveness out of their songs as possible. Then again, some of my favorite recordings that I've done were recorded very quickly in a balls to the wall fashion. (That takes a really good drummer)

I 100% agree with James. The focus should be on a perfect song. Perfect playing is of little interest to me. I'm just a little guy, but I figured if this level of perfection is required, why don't they just use midi and quantize everything. It'll sound like techno.

When I was down at Wagener's, he wasn't nearly as anal when it came to this sort of thing. You tuned a well set up guitar and you played the song. It was as simple as that. Of course, it's different for everybody, but I have to think that Wagener's 60,000,000 records sold is perfect enough.

Brandon

[noGearslut]

the problem is:

I dont know a single musician (also pro's) who play better after repeating the same riff 2000 times..

nono.. workflow is everything..

: :

[brandondrury]

That's a great point too. There is a point where you have to hang it up. We all get tired.

Being a teenager in the mid 90s, I thought all kinds of music sounded big, mean, raw, in a very close to modern way without sounding as mechanical as everything does today.

For example, I borrowed the last Collective Soul record. It sounded so polished that it was boring.... from an engineering perspective. I didn't want to listen to it. I have a Real McCoy cd I pop in every once in a while. (Mid 90s dance music). Something about music that is quantized that rigidly makes it hard to listen to more than a few songs. I felt the same about the new collective soul record.

Then again, their self titled record from back in 1995 doesn't sound that way at all.

Brandon

[snoopy]

How perfect is too perfect???? That is a question I ask everytime I write, compose, and record.

I do strive for outstanding sound quality and a good performance with great emotion....and if it is a little sloppy then so be it....because that is human. We are trying to record a "human" performance.....even if you use lots of electronics like me it still needs that "Human" feel and to capture how the human is playing the sound.....weather it be a keyboard or a flute.........

[brandondrury]

We began working on Elevenpoint guitars today. It's a long slow process when producing a project a few hours a week. Anyway, this was my first chance to review the drums we recorded in the big studio up in St. Louis.

I must admit that the drums are VERY human sounding compared to a lot of the mega mechanical junk I hear today. I'm glad they have their bits of character! I was very glad to see some humaness in them.

Brandon