Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Recording Poll

#1

I just got done recording some audio, and overall I have about 3 hours and several hundred takes in this project. I thought I’d ask, about how much time do you guys spend recording and about how many takes to you have to record on average before getting something presentable?

Time:

  • Less than 5 minutes; I’m superhuman
  • 5-30 minutes
  • 30 minutes to an hour
  • Upwards of an hour
  • Several hours

0 voters

Takes:

  • One take; what is this “messing up” stuff?
  • Less than 100 takes
  • Several hundred takes
  • Over a thousand takes

0 voters

3 Likes
#2

No offense, but define “recording audio?”
Am I trying to re-make “Sgt. Pepper” on a 4-track, like the Beatles did?
Or am I simply getting ready to post on Video Swap?
Am I working with new software (with a steep learning curve), or am I trying to push my old stuff too far?
Is this recording a demo for a Major Record Label, or is it a throw-away piece for my personal consumption only?

IMHO there are way too many variables here, including “presentable.” Most of the time, only you know you screwed up, but it is certainly “presentable” to most folks.
If it needs more than 10 takes, you’re not ready to record it. And if you are shooting for perfection, then you’re not done yet! :grin:

EDIT: Speaking of recording, how about the first recordings ever made? Apparently, Thomas Edison was not the first!

3 Likes
#3

My specific recording today was audio, but the whole project will have video as well. I had three instruments on the recording.

Presentable for myself is 100% perfection. For sharing with others, maybe two mistakes at most. Depends on how tired I am.

2 Likes
#4

Depends on the situation.

Typically, for something to share here I’ll cut 2/3 breaks at once. I don’t get perfection, but will attempt to improve on my best for 3 to 4 hrs if it takes that or until I get tired.

I don’t really mind a mistake here or there if it’s a “progress” cut of a newly learned piece.

If it’s for someone else, it may take longer and turn out better.

Depends a lot also on the difficulty of the material, the end use, my familiarity with it, and the instrument I’m recording.

4 Likes
#5

I have to withdraw everything I said about recording audio because I come to it from a different place.
I recorded audio professionally for over 40 years. That means I learned to do it on audio tape. Virgin tape sounds better than tape that has be used multiple times, but none of that matters with digital.
Trying to find the right recording on audio tape is a true pain, but it’s not necessary with digital. You cannot imagine what it’s like to have a wall covered with pieces of recording tape, some 8 inches long, others 3 feet long, and you have to splice them all together to make something perfect.
During the transition to digital recording, I found some things to be so much easier, but the disciplines of recording on tape remained with me. People who learned only on digital have no need for those disciplines. They can record 100 takes without penalty. You cannot do that with audio tape, “OK, tape’s rolling” means you better get it right this time.
So please disregard all my comments on recording. I’m just an old guy who still does it the old way…only with digital.
But it still frosts me if I have to do it more than two times.

3 Likes
#6

I can relate.
Used to have an old MCI 1" 8 track studio…messing up could get “reel” expensive fast…

3 Likes
#7

I might spend an hour getting the mics positioned to my liking (and then I might end up going back to the original layout). I usually try to get my part worked out well with a metronome, click track or base track before I start recording. Sometimes it still takes a while. I can also spend a whole bunch of time in mixing and mastering.

I started on a fostex 4 track, so I too am amazed by digital, but I think I like it more than Joe.

4 Likes
#8

Hahaha, oh man. Brother I feel your pain. Hang in there, it’s making you better.

3 Likes
#9

I don’t start recording until I think “could I bumble along through this in a live situation the way it is now?”. Once I achieve that then it’s time to work on it another hour or so cleaning up the easy stuff…then I hit “record”.

I might not like the way 2-3 takes sounded (out of 10-20) and say “meh, time to woodshed that again for another month”. If I like the way it sounds for whatever purpose the recording serves then I take one of the top 3.

Those “ear songs” I posted and worked out…each one of those as far as recording time was maybe 5 attempts and was good enough for the purpose they served. I however had put in hours getting it to that level.

4 Likes
#10

Ditto

1 Like
#11

Push comes to shove there’s always pre-roll and punch-in :grinning:

4 Likes
#12

I like digital, but I do miss the tactile sensation of physically manipulating the sound, like holding my thumb on the reel to slow it down for that unique effect. It sounds different than a slower setting with digital.
Let’s face it, we have analog ears that detect waves, not a series of 0 & 1’s.

3 Likes
#13

I try not to go record till I can play it perfectly many times in a row during practice. Otherwise I’m just not ready, and what’s the point of recording a million times just frustrating myself and making the song worse? I want to get a song perfect consistently, THEN go record. It’s usually several takes for me, but that’s just because of normal performance nerves and the difficulty of playing on recording, not because I barely know the song. That’s my goal at least :slight_smile:

7 Likes
#14

By the time you get past your third or fourth try it’s best to take a break and come back to it. By the time you get to your 50th take it just becomes frustrating and it will never be your best.

I’ve had this happen many times when sending videos and recording audio. If you can’t get a suitable take in the first couple tries, taking a short break makes a huge difference. At least for me.

7 Likes
#15

I know what you are saying, but I’d like to see a panel of theoretical physicists (and maybe a few neurologists) mull that over :slight_smile: I am thinking well know ones like Einstein, Schrodinger, etc., and while I am asking, I’d want them all to have interesting accents

4 Likes
#16

I’ve never been able to get anything perfect. Unless I’m not recording it and I’m all alone. Then maybe once. I had a Tascam 4-track cassette way back in time (college days) and was so frustrated I only made a few recordings and eventually sold it. I did not own a banjo back then. The best things I ever recorded were actually of and for friends. Fast forward to the last couple of years and I’ve tinkered a little with digital video/audio on a PC, but it always takes a whole lot longer than expected and rarely yields results I would care to share. Whenever I have shared, it has always been after giving up on getting it “perfect” and picking the version I find to be the least offensive.
:wink:

3 Likes
#17

Yeah. My approach has been to smooth the tune while recording; my reasoning is that the first time I get it well, I’ll have it recorded. But it can get frustrating after a few hundred tries.

2 Likes
#18

That never works for me. I only have a chance at recording well if I’ve nailed it over and over in pressure-free practice.

2 Likes
#19

The last thing I need is a scientist tell me why a banjo sounds good.
There’s nothing like a bunch of linear thinkers to suck all the fun out of listening to music! :grin:

“Sleeping Beauty awoke to the kiss of a prince & expired at the puncture of a scientist’s syringe.”
Ray Bradbury - “Usher II”

“Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination.”
G.K. Chesterton

1 Like
#20

I’ve often accused the recorder of lying to me, but in the end, it’s often the world’s best adjudicator of my playing. It’s made me a better player, even though I still can’t stand that sorry lyin’ thing we call a recorder! :joy:

4 Likes