Recording fright?

[jim1960]

Composite tracks are your friend.

[DukeX]

Originally Posted by islandguitar

...If I know I'm in the middle of a great take, I try to not get caught up mentally with "this one is really good.........oh boy here comes the end, don't mess up"...

LOL...cant' tell you how many times I've done that, even when not recording.

[Trevor B.]

There's not much I can add to what's already been said but the main points are worth repeating. They are, 1) have your material well prepared and, 2) record yourself as often as possible. Another suggestion I can offer is to set a specific goal for your takes and focus your mental energy on that goal. For example, if while tracking your mind is focused on shaping a dynamic contour then you'll circumvent the " I can't make a mistake" syndrome. It's a strategy that works for me.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by jim1960

Composite tracks are your friend.

I need friends. What's a composite track?

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

What's a composite track?

A track made up of multiple takes, compositing the best bits of each take into one single track. It can be done using multiple tracks as well, but many DAWs let you have multiple takes on a single track and tools to jump from one take to the next.

Heck, people have even been known to copy the really nice take from one section and copy it to the other place(s) it will be used.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

A track made up of multiple takes, compositing the best bits of each take into one single track. It can be done using multiple tracks as well, but many DAWs let you have multiple takes on a single track and tools to jump from one take to the next.

Heck, people have even been known to copy the really nice take from one section and copy it to the other place(s) it will be used.

I've done similar stuff. I'll just take the song and mark the tab with a pencil into sections that make sense and just record each section at a time and then paste them together in my DAW. I'll use the magnification tool to fine tune the splicing of the sections together.

You just have to be mindful of your tempo.

Normalization is your friend here too.

[Yamaha Man]

I used to have the same problem, but I solved it by just turning the record button on and let it roll, then just keep playing it until you get a good take, it may take a number of attempts but don't worry about it, the secret ?? Edit out everything you don't want. Editing is very easy and you end up with a good take. I do it this way all the time, it really takes the pressure off. If you screw up a piece, so what, just edit it out. No big deal.

[Matt M]

I hate recording so much; to me it's a really unnatural process because you are aiming for a kind of "perfection" that is very different from what a successful live gig is like.

My record-o-phobia is so bad that I will hit the wrong fret at the very first note of a song if I know I'm being recorded; I will forget the main line of a chorus; I will fluff words; I will basically screw up everything that is possible to screw up.

Some great advice given: turn recording into an insignificant thing by always having a mic up; remind yourself it doesn't matter if you get it wrong; try to record without headphones if possible.

Worth reminding yourself that most of the pro performances that you hear these days have been edited to death and that their "perfection" is very artificial in that sense. Go back and listen to some Bert Jansch or Mississippi John Hurt: great, great guitarists both of them, but who still did make the very occasional mistake on their recordings.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Matt M

Worth reminding yourself that most of the pro performances that you hear these days have been edited to death and that their "perfection" is very artificial in that sense. Go back and listen to some Bert Jansch or Mississippi John Hurt: great, great guitarists both of them, but who still did make the very occasional mistake on their recordings.

I guess it depends on what one actually means by "editing" and obviously significant editing (as I understand it ) is certainly possible and no doubt true in a number of cases , as a sweeping general statement I wonder how accurate " most pro performances that you hear these days have been edited to death" actually is. Maybe it is the case but not being in the business myself, I would be interested to hear what any actual professional recording engineers experiences and take is on this is. In my limited experience in being recorded by professional recording engineers they were actually so good at getting great recordings quickly that only minimal "editing" and mixing was involved.

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by KevWind

I guess it depends on what one actually means by "editing" and obviously significant editing (as I understand it ) is certainly possible and no doubt true in a number of cases , as a sweeping general statement I wonder how accurate " most pro performances that you hear these days have been edited to death" actually is. Maybe it is the case but not being in the business myself, I would be interested to hear what any actual professional recording engineers experiences and take is on this is. In my limited experience in being recorded by professional recording engineers they were actually so good at getting great recordings quickly that only minimal "editing" and mixing was involved.

I can answer that Some years ago now (that seems to be my intro line to almost everything these days) I worked in Nashville for a major label. I wound up primarily being an Assistant Engineer. Those two or three years opened my eyes as to just how unworldly good Nashville guys are.

Primarily (at least back then) the “A” and “B” players essentially spent most of their days going from one studio to another. One project to another. Even gigantic productions usually only booked blocks of the day to record. One of our projects was being recorded at the same time as Mark Knopfler’s Golden Heart LP. He apparently is a morning guy cause most of it was earlier in the day. Production wasn’t like the old Led Zeppelin days of being holed up in a room recording for a year. So in short you kinda had a revolving door of projects and studio guys coming and going throughout the course of the day.

Now setting that stage it’s never ever ceased to amaze me how many one and two takes these guys knocked out. Not only that but most of these one and two takes were done moments after the player had heard a rough for the very first time. They were (and I’m sure still are) human metronomes and musical sponges. They could digest the feel and pull that feel off instantly. They could, upon request, play in front of the beat, after the beat, on the beat, around the beat or any combo there in. I remember how endless clean B. James Lowery’s takes were. Glen Worff’s bass playing soulful and toneful virtually at command. I can’t remember the guys name now but he was touring with Lynyrd Skynyrd at the time. He was a powerful one-take wonder and smiling and laughing the whole time.

I can remember a couple of times we got the entire rhythm section done, from the time the guys walked into the door until they walked out, in 30 minutes, again having heard the tune only one time before recording.

I can tell you beyond any shadow of a doubt there is a world of studio folks that very rarely (if ever) need editing

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

A track made up of multiple takes.

Oh. A "comped" track. Yes, the ability to play (or sing) several passes and then cherry pick is handy.

When I see "composite" I think "shingles." Just me, probably. :-)

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

Now setting that stage it’s never ever ceased to amaze me how many one and two takes these guys knocked out. Not only that but most of these one and two takes were done moments after the player had heard a rough for the very first time. They were (and I’m sure still are) human metronomes and musical sponges. They could digest the feel and pull that feel off instantly. They could, upon request, play in front of the beat, after the beat, on the beat, around the beat or any combo there in.

I can remember a couple of times we got the entire rhythm section done, from the time the guys walked into the door until they walked out, in 30 minutes, again having heard the tune only one time before recording.

I can tell you beyond any shadow of a doubt there is a world of studio folks that very rarely (if ever) need editing

My one time experience recording in Nashville (from the perspective of the customer) was exactly as stated above and fairly amazing . And while it was intimidating just how good the session players were, it was probably more comfortable being behind the mic than there in my home studio.

I showed up at the studio about 20 minutes before the 2 hour session start time , with a CD of 4 of my original demo songs recorded at home of just guitar and voice. The studio owner/recording mixing engineer / and bass player ..... took the CD and made Nashville number charts for each song and made copies for each session player .
The session cats showed up right on time and we introduced ourselves then went to our respective recording positions . Me in scratch vocal iso room , the acoustic/electric guitar player in another iso room , The drummer and keyboard player in the big live tracking room and the engineer/bass player in the control room.
We listened to the first track on my CD (so they could here me sing and get a feeling for how I played the song) then briefly discussed what tempo etc. and maybe tried a few bars for tempo and feel and then discussed again to see if I wanted any changes etc. AND then bang one take. Only on one song did we do a complete second take because we switched to different key than my CD to better suit to my vocal range, and yes indeed 4 songs took 2 hours . Then the next day the engineer and spent about an hour dubbing my finish vocals over my scratch vocals parts


Here is as you said above a one take example for the rhythm section . With the lead guitar (also one take) and my vocal dubbed

[Matt M]

Must admit, when I made that comment about editing I wasn't really thinking about session musicians. I was thinking more about singer-songwriters themselves, and how surprised/disappointed I've been when I've heard people with very impressive recordings perform live.

It stands to reason that session musicians get it right first time; they HAVE to, otherwise they wouldn't get the work and wouldn't get paid. In fact, I've done a small amount of session work myself and I never got recording nerves much: I find playing "my part" as part of a band somehow is a world away from playing solo (and singing at the same time), which is what I do now. It helped to know that I was getting paid to do a job, and it helped that I had one specific role to fill; it wasn't all on me, I was just the dude playing a banjo part. Easy. (Even when it was difficult!)

But Nashville is only one part of the world: and it's the one part of the world particularly notable for amazing session players. In the limited amount of session work that I have done, the weakest link has generally been the talent, the singer. Generalising here, of course... but that's been my experience.

[DukeX]

Originally Posted by Matt M

Worth reminding yourself that most of the pro performances that you hear these days have been edited to death and that their "perfection" is very artificial in that sense.

Really? So all of these pro players below (the list could grow to 1000+), not session players, lack the pride and skill to play a track through without needing recording engineers to "edit to death" their recordings?

Fascinating. Where did you obtain such insight?

Will Ackerman (Fingerstyle/ New Age/World Music)
Paco de Lucia (Flamenco) (RIP 2014)
Earl Klugh (Smooth Jazz)
Alex De Grassi (Fingerstyle)
Tommy Emmanuel (Fingerstyle/Folk)
Don Ross (Percussive/Fingerstyle)
Pierre Bensusan (New Age/Celtic/World Music)
Erik Mongrain (Percussive/Tapping)
Peter Lang (Folk/American Primitivism)
Jesse Cook (New Age/Jazz)
Leo Kottke (Folk/ American Primitivism)
Billy McLaughlin (New Age/World Music)
Doyle Dykes (Country)
Al Petteway (Fingerstyle, Pop, Celtic)
Trace Bundy (Fingerstyle/Tapping)Pop/Country/Folk)
John Williams (Classical)
Tony Rice (Bluegrass/Country/Folk/Americana)
Tony McManus (Celtic)
Christopher Parkening (Classical)
Stefan Grossman (Blues, Folk)
Pat Donohue (Fingerstyle/Country/Folk)
Duck Baker (Fingerstyle/Bluegrass/Folk/Country)
Muriel Anderson (Fingerstyle Bluegrass)
Angel and Pepe Romero (Classical)
Kazuhito Yama****a (Classical))
Peppino D’ Agostino (Fingerstyle, Jazz)
David Grier (Bluegrass/Country/Folk)
John Knowles (Country/Folk)
Pepe Romero (Classical/Flamenco)

[Andy Howell]

To be honest it’s just practice! Get to know your kit and get to accept (if not love) your voice !

Not everything you will admire has been edited to bits!