Approach to editing solo guitar recording

[KenW]

I realize there's many ways to accomplish this. I also realize that no one approach is right and others are wrong; whichever one gets the job done on any given song will be the right one.

1) Get one perfect take.

This one will be in my case more of a "goal" than a "reality". When I had my simpler setup of mics>pre>cd recorder a few years back, that was exactly what I tried to do, and I could fill up a whole CD and end up with only 2 or 3 usable recordings.

2) make all of the corrections on only one take.

This one's going to need a bit of explaining. Jerry Roberts once told me that whenever Chet Atkins recorded a solo piece, he did only one take. If and when Chet made a mistake, the tape kept rolling, and he simply paused, backed up a measure or two, and started again. At the end, the engineer would slice out the mistakes with a razor and splice the tape back together. The advantage being the energy and feel of a first take, and consistent tone from an only take.

After looking at various demo DAW's, it looks like this approach would be relatively easy in any of them.

3) punch in.

This one I am familiar with from the times I have spent in a studio, and it seems like all of the DAW's offer a punch in function. When I was talking with an old friend who is a recording engineer a few months back, he exclaimed, "Punch in? That is sooooo 90's! Everyone does multiple takes these days."
Which leads to....

4) multiple takes.

Take the best section of each take, and reassemble them into one good take. Also easy to do in just about any DAW. I have taken some of my older recordings direct to cd, loaded them into a DAW and played around with this a bit as practice.

Of all of the DAW's I am looking at right now, I am liking Ableton and Mixcraft the best. If the Focusrite that I ordered does the job, Ableton comes with it. I tried a Presonus w/ Studio One, and nothing that I did could get the headphone out to work, neither in Studio One or in any other DAW, I tried all of Presonus' suggestions and none of them worked. MF offered to exchange the unit but I did not want to gamble any more time with it, so I said I wanted to try something different.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

[Bern]

IMO, anything goes...
I mean, isn't the end result the primary goal ? I truly believe that a listener does not care if a recording was a 'one take' or an edited recording. The key is the music itself above anything else.

[Bob Womack]

As a recording engineer by trade, I am acutely attuned to state of the artist and his ability to pull of whatever we are attempting. The techniques I use vary based upon his skill and state of mind. I'm also looking for techniques that fit the particular type of recording I'm working on. So...

3) Punching in. Much of the utility of punching-in is found in multi-instrument, multitrack recordings where an interruption of the recording is masked by the presence of a bunch of other, simultaneous, continuous recordings. Also, performing a good punch-in requires skill on the part of both the recording engineer and the performer. An inexperienced performer will wait and tense up during the roll-in and then release himself like a spring at the punch-in point, virtually guaranteeing a difference in the energy levels between the previous performance and the punched section. An experienced player learns to settle into a sort of zen-like parallel of the previous energy level and create a smooth punch. Which sort of performer are we talking about in this case?

2) Make all the corrections on one take. Probably the best way to proceed by virtue of the fact that it frays the nerves less and fosters the sort of self-acceptance needed to continue recording. Of course, it requires editing skill. There is one sort of mistake that it doesn't cover, and that is the kind discovered after the take is over.

4) Record multiple takes. And here is where we deal with those undiscovered mistakes. Believe it or not, even a recording engineer who is listening critically can miss mistakes because he is probably pulling for the artist during the take. The playback button just seems to cause a more critical ear in all concerned. Record it more than once so you've got the ability to draw on other takes where the bobble didn't happen. Once again, it wants editing skill.

And then there is
1) Record the perfect take. Some people try it. They usually spend hours or days pulling it off. Some can handle it, some are just perfectionists. Newbies tear their hair out. Reportedly, Eric Johnson spent months recording the songs for Ah! Via Musicom over and over again as single, continuous takes and trying for the perfect one of each. It reportedly drove everyone around him crazy.

Bob

[KenW]

Bob, you asked what sort of performer in this case? I have noticed since I have not been building and have been able to focus more on playing, that I have developed a nasty breathing problem. It always happens during difficult chord shifts. Similar to a wind player who plays a long passage without taking a breath and then gasps. I did not notice it when trying to get used to recording again. It took the honesty of my wife when I was called upon to play a song for a funeral service of a departed loved one, and when she brought it to my attention, I now hear it everywhere. So...I am teaching myself to breath while playing, and it actually has -helped- my difficult chord shifts. Your comment immediately sparked a parallel between not breathing (wait and tense up) and then that sudden gasp (release like a spring).

Eric by his own account has learned to lighten up and relax. The word from those around him is that AVM was a picnic compared to the follow up, Venus Isle.

Michael Newman reportedly did his first album "direct to disc" in single takes. I used to listen to it often in the UMKC library on vinyl back in the 80's.

[Scott Whigham]

Ken, are you recording yourself or are you going to a studio? I think that makes this a much different decision. If you are going to a studio, "anything goes" as Bern said. As long as you think the skills of the engineer are up to task (and that's easy enough to learn), then you can do any/all of your options.

If, though, you are recording and mixing yourself at home, I think you are much more limited.

"But, Scott! Why am I limited? When I'm at home, I can do whatever I want! There's no clock and I have unlimited resources."

Yes, it's true that the palette is widened when you have the canvas and all the colors at your disposal. But it's a matter of time: which is "cheaper" in terms of your time: getting it down in one take, or editing/punching/etc? That just depends on your skills. And make no mistake: it requires skill to be able to punch in correctly and it requires a different skill to edit that punch in and make it so that no one knows it's a punch in. Skills take time to master. If you have that time, great. IMO, more often than not, this just becomes yet another rabbit hole that the home recordist has to deal with. For that reason, I do the whole "practice for days and months" to just get it down in one take. The side benefit of such an approach is that, when it comes time to play it live, I'm up to par. Hence my saying that the home recordist has fewer options - it's more polarizing when you record at home b/c it's one or the other (all in one take vs. any other option).

And Bob, great answer! Thanks for sharing.