What is your recording mindset?

[Mbroady]

Good question
There was a time when I would record a track and then listen to it, scrutinizing every little squeak, late or early note, and /or fopaux. So much so nothing would get finished or posted.
Now I record a few takes and walk away. I come back in a week or 2 and give it a listen. By doing that I find it is not as horrible as I might have thought if I listened immediately after recording it. It also gives me some perspective on what I would do differently as opposed to obsessing over the little blunder. It’s a lot more fun this way…for me.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

To sum up, I'm in the "good enough" recording school.

I think that's a perfectly valid view. I know some people who have been planning to record the perfect take for years, and somehow it never happens (and I've found myself in that trap sometimes, too). I just recently did a Spotify release of a tune I recorded years ago, but shelved as not being good enough, and always planned to re-record some day. I was practicing it, and getting ready to re-record it, when I figured I should at least check out the old recording. Listening to that, I just thought, "There's not a thing wrong with that take, or at least I doubt I can do anything better". Should have put it out years ago.

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

I know some people who have been planning to record the perfect take for years, and somehow it never happens (and I've found myself in that trap sometimes, too).

I think this sums it up: "Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good."

[Rudy4]

Sign board outside one of the local churches:

"Don't be so heavenly bound you're no earthly good!"

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by kellyb

I had a DVC maybe 15 years ago...I'm nostalgic for it sometimes. :-)

I think KevWind still has one too

I get good recordings with mine, because I have mics that pair with it extremely well. And it helps that I know every square inch of the room that I record in, so I know where to place the mics for the best tones. The opto compressor on it is pretty useless to me for anything but the lightest compresson, but all in all it's a solid clean preamp that gets the job done.

The Drawmer 1960 on the other hand is much darker, and the pots need a good cleaning about every 5 months, but I love what it does to brighter condensors. These two preamps are in constant use. I'm starting a new band and I've been recording demos with them a few times a week which I send to the other musicians so they can work out their parts for the songs before we get together.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

I think KevWind still has one too

I get good recordings with mine, because I have mics that pair with it extremely well. And it helps that I know every square inch of the room that I record in, so I know where to place the mics for the best tones. The opto compressor on it is pretty useless to me for anything but the lightest compresson, but all in all it's a solid clean preamp that gets the job done.

The Drawmer 1960 on the other hand is much darker, and the pots need a good cleaning about every 5 months, but I love what it does to brighter condensors. These two preamps are in constant use. I'm starting a new band and I've been recording demos with them a few times a week which I send to the other musicians so they can work out their parts for the songs before we get together.

Yes I do, however it is still in my live PA front end rig (and I have not played a gig in maybe 7-8 years ) and is not used for recording.
But worked well with my stage mic's but often just plugged in my guitar direct
I did like the the optical limiter for live work as it was very transparent and would just move my vocal forward a bit

Still in my 6 space rolling rack along with the TC Electronics 3000 stereo digital reverb and a monster 2500 power conditioner

[rick-slo]

Solo instrumental guitar.

Warm up on the piece I want to record.

The hardest part for me is getting the mikes setup for a good recorded tone.
Record the tune until I get the tone I like. Could be the first take or a few
takes. If not by then that would be it for the day.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Yes I do, however it is still in my live PA front end rig (and I have not played a gig in maybe 7-8 years ) and is not used for recording.
But worked well with my stage mic's but often just plugged in my guitar direct
I did like the the optical limiter for live work as it was very transparent and would just move my vocal forward a bit

Still in my 6 space rolling rack along with the TC Electronics 3000 stereo digital reverb and a monster 2500 power conditioner

Yep I remembered it being in your live rack, and I was going to say that in my post, but I figured you'd chime in if you still had it. Maybe you need to get out and play and use it again

That rack reminds of the kind of rack I used when I started my professional career. I used a Focusrite voice master preamp with and a pair of TC processors D2 Delay and Reverb. Along with Dtar Soltice pre and Equinox EQ for the guitar. And I used a full powered PA. Ridiculous!!! And my back is now paying the price for that!

I'm glad those days are over as a Grace Felix II and a Keeley Delay Workstation could handle those chores much better and weigh about 1/10th the weight And all be on a pedal board with a much better power supply those rack old Furman and Monster power suppies. And the PA could be as small or big as you need it. Lately I've been doing 90% of my small gigs with a discontinued Phil Jones AG300 amp. I like it so much I bought a back up as they don't make them any more.

How times have changed!!!

[broy]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Solo instrumental guitar.

Warm up on the piece I want to record.

The hardest part for me is getting the mikes setup for a good recorded tone.
Record the tune until I get the tone I like. Could be the first take or a few
takes. If not by then that would be it for the day.

This about sums it up for me... maybe less focus on tone, and more focus on playing (most of) the right notes.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by phcorrigan

I think this sums it up: "Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good."

Originally Posted by Rudy4

Sign board outside one of the local churches:

"Don't be so heavenly bound you're no earthly good!"

Good advice.

[kellyb]

Originally Posted by TBman

Good advice.

100% and I really appreciate this thread for the reminder.

[kellyb]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

I think KevWind still has one too

...all in all it's a solid clean preamp that gets the job done.

That's how I remember mine. These days, I don't record with EQ/comp except for some clearly necessary high passing, but if I did, I'd love to reconnect with the DVC...I think. :-)

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

The Drawmer 1960 on the other hand is much darker...I love what it does to brighter condensors.

That's interesting...I've avoided it for the dark rep, but I could see it doing something neat to my condensers...thanks for that anecdote!

[tdlwhite]

I use recording to log what I've learned, track progress and to 'replace' live performance. My goal is to record (with video) a full play-through of whatever the latest thing I've learned in one take with no edits (but some post-processing to make it sound more like it does in the room).

So I learn the tune all the way through, practise it enough that I might get a good take, then set up to record (takes a couple mins to get mics in place and camera etc). Then I record in 6 to 10 min chunks, stopping and checking the sound after each chunk. If I'm lucky (or if the tune is simple) I might get it down in the first or second chunk.

Sometimes I'm so unhappy with the sesh (up to 6 or 7 chunks max, so maybe and hour of takes) that I'll take the best one, listen in the car for a few days, then try again. Sometimes I'll revisit a tune from a year of two ago and try to improve it.

I dunno about how effective my approach is, but I do know that when the red light is on, I get a little bit of that 'on stage' feeling!

Tom

[Glennwillow]

Hi Barry,

I tend to practice a song or piece enough that I can record it the first or second try once the red light comes on. I want the recording process to be simple, straightforward, and minimally frustrating. I don't want to be messing with recording things over and over, though sometimes that does happen in spite of my best efforts.

- Glenn

[Charlie Bernstein]

I record the first track as many times as it takes to make it sound good.

Then I record the second as many times as it takes to sound good.

Then the third as many times as it takes.

And so on.