Recording one's own band

[Jackson Michaels]

I've been succesfull with recording my own band twice.

(and by succesfull I mean no one in the band getting pissed off at me and also not being ashamed to post mp3s on our website of the recordings)

1.We had a 4-track to use as a mixer and were practicing in my bedroom which was big enough to only fit one amp in. So we put everything through the 4-track and out the amp. Just set the levels at the beggining of the day, hit record and rock out.

2.Working with people that have experience recording before. That's my current band, me and the drummer both play in other bands that have recorded, he knows how his equipment works, I know how mine works we kind of co-engineer on it and our viola player takes a nap untill it's time for her to do a take.

[endofanera]

1.We had a 4-track to use as a mixer and were practicing in my bedroom which was big enough to only fit one amp in. So we put everything through the 4-track and out the amp. Just set the levels at the beggining of the day, hit record and rock out.

I must admit I'm kinda confused by this. What was the lineup? Why did everything need to be run through the amp *after* the 4-track? (I recognize that the previous question's answer might answer this as well.) I'm assuming there were no drums on this? No electric gtr?

Questioningly...

[Jackson Michaels]

Track1: electric bass
Track2: electric guitar (through one of those guitar multi-fx pedals)
Track3: synths/drum machine
Track4: Vox

Go ahead and laugh, it was a Zoom pedal, I don't care; we cranked up the gain and eq'd the hell out of it going in and eq'd it again in mixdown

[Al]

I've done a fair bit of this knid of thing. I think you get better at it through time,but it still can be hard work,i think it all depends on who you working with,i've found some people can be pushy and impatient when they dont fully understand the amount of work that's involved.

There the people you never work with again.

Others are more appreciative,and if their into recording themselves,it's a bonus and a bit weight of your shoulders,very fullfilling though all the same,especially if there's no time constraints!

AL

[Al]

Oh and just to add a further thought to this thread!!..Paul Kimble,Grant lee buffalo,that was a good set up for a while.
He likes his reverb a bit eh?..as soon as kimble took off of course we got Jubilee!...a nice production by Paul Fox, a bit overcooked though, and i dont think the band benefited from this one bit!...well they splitt up didn't they!!.

Yeah go for it,do it yourselves!! Producers take too much fuck'n money from you!

AL

[brian beattie]

recording your own band (especially when you're new at recording) is a stressful, wearing too many hats, trial by fire kinda thing. Isn't it what 80 percent of the people here do? you will learn and learn. resident has much good advice. and helstab, it sounds like you and your band have an excellent situation, a real push-me-pull-you kinda deal. as long as you like each other, with you striving for "rightness", and them striving for "lets get it the fuck done", it could work out perfectly.
sounds FINE! close enough. push record.
brian

[lsn110]

Lots of good advice. Thank you. Reading the responses and thinking about it has helped me craft an approach. For one I'm definitely going to bring in trusted help for tracking.

It also made me realize I was being an idiot in certain regards. I'm not going to get into specifics...let's just say I was being a bit uptight about the recording process (and taking and all or nothing approach to what are essentially pre-production recordings).

Thanks for the therapy.

[NewAndImprov]

On the last 2 CD's I put out wih my bands, we recorded at "real" studios for the basic tracks, and then I brought the tracks home to my studio for overdubs and mixing. This really works for me, because whenever I try to engineer and play with the band at the same time, I tend to not do either as well as I could. As I see it, the reason we're making the CD is to get great performances, and I'd rather focus on my performance at that point.

I love to mix, so this process gives me the best of both worlds, somebody else has to set p the mics and sit through our tracking, and I get to be obessive compulsive on the mix off the clock.

[njames86]

I'm in a band that has been recorded three times. Once by a friend, once by my father, once by me. Here's what I found.
The one recorded by the friend was crap. He wasn't as interested or invested as the band was. He didn't take any advice, and I swore I'd never let that happen again, so I talked to my dad next time.
Recording with my dad was great beacause he knew what he was doing, had ample amount of equipment, and was interested in the finished product. The problem maybe that we didn't have as much control as we would have liked. It sounded great, but lacked something we couldn't quite point out.
The next time, I had some of my own gear, and half an idea of what was going on. I thought it was great, but here are some tips.
Rehears each song, get it nailed, but leave room for new ideas. I like coming up with things half way through.
Next, clear your schedule. I had to ditch my band once because I had a date I almost forgot about. Since their gear was at my house, they were screwed.
COMMUNICATION-this is really the most important part. Knowing when to speak up or shut up is key.
If your band is less knowledgable than you about recording, try to educate them a little (if they're interested). I hated saying things like "well it's complicated". I explained as much as I could before hand so they knew what to expect. Besides, the bands expectations were less unrealistic when they understood where I was coming from.
Your band mates have ears and a brain. Probably all of the best ideas came from the other guys, and then executed by me. Thats what an engineer does in my opinion.
Mix and/or master by yourself. Anyone who has seen "I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART" will know why. Ask for suggestions after recording, and then go do it yourself. I mixed at my dads with a little advice and help from him. I made alternate mixes for each song, and presented them to the band. They usually agreed on what mix was best.
Actually, try to do all the boring things by yourself. It my be unfair, but it's your job. While I set up, I had the band go pick up food or something.
Most important, keep musician you and engineer you seperate. It helps to train another bandmate or friend to run the gear well while you lay down your part. Mine usually came at the end, so my lead singer was happy to push the button and listen to what we'd already done. He would always be like "that was great, it all sounds awesome, I got some ideas. " If your not part of the creative aspect of the band (which should never happen), then don't try to become one. If you are, then stay one.

I'm still learning, but it was the most rewarding thing I'd ever done short of... nevermind. Have fun.

[AnalogElectric]

To re-enforce what's already been said from my own experience:

It's broken up bands I've been in fighting over a mix...more than once.

It doesn't work for me, at least and it's not necessarily all my fault. Usually what happens is we'll do some demo stuff or comp tracks at my space with me and then when it comes to an album we'll hire a different engineer/producer we trust. It takes a huge load off the band and me for sure.

I know other engineers in town that have bands and they hire others to do the work...seems right to me. There are exceptions to every rule but I do know other bands that have built studios just for themselves and took 4 years to finish one record later to scrap it and start over...for the hundredth time before going somewhere else to do it or hire on someone else to do it.

Wow, I just gave myself a headache

--Adam Lazlo

[Flight Feathers]

i've been recording my band from day one, ever since the four track days. it's how i learned to record. i think we feel most comfortable without an outside presense. we'd all be weirded out it someone was peering at us through a glass window. but then again we've been playing together for 10 years now, and we know a bad night of recording isn't going to break up the band. plus we love recording, we hardly ever play out, so it's all we got.

[djimbe]

Ion, your experience seems to exactly mirror my own. My partners and I have been working together for a lot of years and have learned how as we go. I know my personal sessions are more creative in terms of seeing what I can do with the tools at our disposal than customer gigs, mostly because of the difference in time constraints. It's always been "just us" and we fortunately don't seem to have problems speaking up and agreeing when one or the other track or mix construction isn't working. There's always time to try another sound or make another run at a take. We're having fun, not trying to be a real performing band with some sorta CD release in mind. For a real working band, I bet it would be hard to self engineer, just from a time and performance focus standpoint...

[bigtoe]

"two words: Eddie Kramer"

one word - overrated.

i recorded a band i was in - i asked not to be the engineer but was pressured into it. i don't speak with anyone in that band anymore. i look at this as a positive.

See ya!
Mike

[spankenstein]

I'm definitely going to have someone do the engineering next time I record my band. It's nice to have the outside ears and it save the whole: press record, run to the live room, screw up, run back, press record, run to the live room...

Crappy.

[magritte]

it's a lot of fun recording your own stuff. it's the only way i do it these days.

you can take as much time as you want and be as self indulgent as you'd like (of course this can be a bad thing if you lack self editing ability).