question

[ataraxia]

if you recorded 4 songs and the recording kinda sucked but everything else (playing, vibe, vox) are perfect. would you consider pressing it, knowing you can't afford to record a real recording. the problem is a slight clipping of a drum overhead. and turning it down would almost completly eleminate the whole right side of the drum set. help...please..

[Girl Toes]

Do it!!!

[Mr. Dipity]

if you recorded 4 songs and the recording kinda sucked but everything else (playing, vibe, vox) are perfect. would you consider pressing it, knowing you can't afford to record a real recording. the problem is a slight clipping of a drum overhead. and turning it down would almost completly eleminate the whole right side of the drum set. help...please..

How slight? Have you tried any clippping restoration tools?

What about re-recording the drums, or some creative production?

If it's that great, what makes you think you can't do it over, better?

[marqueemoon]

What do you plan to do with the recording?

[wing]

if every band didn't release their early stuff as they went because they weren't perfect enough, they probably would have never made records and we would have never heard them. so i say if it's not too bad, just put it out, and try for an even better record next time.

[Tim Casey]

I just got through listening to the first two Velvet Underground albums in their entirety for the first time. Thank god they weren't concerned about fidelity - their stuff would've NEVER been released.

If the music is great, screw the recording quality. There's enough great sounding shitty CDs out there. Put out a shitty-sounding great CD instead!

[tiger vomitt]

go for it, but before you do- try to think of a way to use the situation to your advantage. such as, yeah, leave out the right side of the drums. or distort them even more.

does turning down the treble mask the clipping? (make sure you check this with the full mix playing)

what im saying is, dont be afraid to make the mix sound really really wierd. fidelity can be a starting point, it's not necessarily a goal in of itself.

[ubertar]

The performance is much more important than the recording, IMO. I once did a demo of a piece that came out just perfect, performance-wise. I couldn't have been happier with it. When it came time to record the cd, I wanted to use that version, but let the engineer/co-producer talk me into recording a new version because he wasn't happy with the recording quality. (He was the engineer on the demo version too). The performance wasn't nearly as good, but the recording was better. The second version went on the cd, and I've always regretted that.

[wing]

music is like, so overrated

[Mr. Dipity]

go for it, but before you do- try to think of a way to use the situation to your advantage. such as, yeah, leave out the right side of the drums. or distort them even more.

What happens when you mix the drums to mono? Also try compressing the hell out of one side before you do it.

[coniferouspine]

Kinda what sserendipity said, I was gonna suggest using the drum overhead that wasn't distorted, and maybe doubling it, copying it to the right and then EQing it to bring out stuff that's getting lost, or if parts of the kit are really truly lost then maybe overdubbing a hi-hat track again, or throwing an effect on it, or something creative like that. What about playing the right overhead track through a speaker in the drum room and mic it up to another track, it might even mask the clipping a bit. If the performance is good it'd be worth jumping thru a few extra hoops to save it and make the recording work as a piece of product. If the performance is not so good, then, oh well, whatever, nevermind.