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do you play differently live from recording?

flameworker

flameworker

Guest
Jun 15, 2014
1,842
344
52
Landenberg, Pennsylvania
Disclosures
one day....
#1
Producers generally want the most even bass signal possible to work with, many times they may snag just a small section and loop it, robbing you of nuance.

Do you bend to the engineer's wishes, play what you want anyway , or a combination?

I find i play much more reserved lines, often using a single finger, or a pick for evenness. Plus I like to have three solid takes with some variations to select the best from.
 
#3
For me, the difference is that in the studio I only use my J bass since it gets the most consistent sound, but is also flexible. Live, I use which ever bass I am in the mood for for that show.

What I play musically does not differ from live to studio in my own bands music. If I am doing a session, I play in the parameters that the artist wants me too. Same thing with engineers and producers. In my own band, there is lots of discussion, experimentation and such. If it is someone else's vision, I give them the signal and let them go with it. The only time I say something is if it is soooo far out of the box that I think it is missing the desired effect. (Like the difference between "fuzz" and digital distortion etc.)

With my own bands stuff, I usually find that when we record, the songs are sometimes only "half-evolved", meaning that sometimes the lines recorded will change as the songs get older live. I look at recording as a documentation of a point in time, rather than a mold not to be broken. Sometimes lines will not change b/c I don't feel anything that fits better ever come around. In many songs, the recorded bass line is completely trashed for a better one.

I also try NOT to have to overdub anything in a take, and prefer to do my takes as the drummer and other rhythm players are playing. 99% of the time my "scratch track" actually becomes the keeper. In my current metal band my nickname is "One and Done" in the studio. I try to rehearse a song, and write a line well enough that I can do it in one take.

the only thing I could ever see myself arguing with a producer about is the looping thing. I am against it....unless the genre or idiom calls for that feel.
 
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#4
Certainly!

My live playing is much less consistent, and i tend to play a more reserved bass line live to ensure mistakes are kept to minimum. However, in the studio i like to sit down, listen to what is there and try a couple different bass lines out and see what fits best on playback. Its never just one person in the studio with our band, so even though its 'bass day' the whole band is there to help fine tune things and sometimes its nice to be able to ask the guitarist or drummer, just what exactly they were playing (sometimes you notice some notes that you never have before and it allows you to switch up the bass parts).

I have only ever recorded with 1 studio, and he is a friend of the band so I'm sure he allows us much more flexibility lol

I do try to choose my sound based on what sound best in the recording vs best live sound, and also i try to play more evenly but still emphasizing what needs it, but with limited finger noise, or other random stuff. I also do change basses for different songs if i feel it will compliment each song, where live is one bass all night.

Also, nothing is ever one and done with me lol Its more like one to hear the basics, two gives me a better idea of what fits, three sound good but i have another idea, four nails it but i screwed up a part, 5 sounds ok, but i think i can do better.. 6 is probably the keeper lol

Whatever, I'm far from a professional lol
 
#6
recreate.me said:
Certainly!

My live playing is much less consistent, and i tend to play a more reserved bass line live to ensure mistakes are kept to minimum. However, in the studio i like to sit down, listen to what is there and try a couple different bass lines out and see what fits best on playback. Its never just one person in the studio with our band, so even though its 'bass day' the whole band is there to help fine tune things and sometimes its nice to be able to ask the guitarist or drummer, just what exactly they were playing (sometimes you notice some notes that you never have before and it allows you to switch up the bass parts).
Click to expand...

- same with us. i hate playing by myself, for 2 reasons:
1. I can't react organically with the drummer and rhythm guitar stuff if it is not being played live with me
- we rarely use a clik track as well, or if we do, it is on low. I think cliks are overused anymore in the world of "digital magik", and we rarely use Pro Tools to "build song structures". We go in knowing exactly how many of which riff goes where etc 99% of the time.
2. I definitely want the feedback from the dudes as you mentioned above

recreate.me said:
I have only ever recorded with 1 studio, and he is a friend of the band so I'm sure he allows us much more flexibility lol

I do try to choose my sound based on what sound best in the recording vs best live sound, and also i try to play more evenly but still emphasizing what needs it, but with limited finger noise, or other random stuff. I also do change basses for different songs if i feel it will compliment each song, where live is one bass all night.

Also, nothing is ever one and done with me lol Its more like one to hear the basics, two gives me a better idea of what fits, three sound good but i have another idea, four nails it but i screwed up a part, 5 sounds ok, but i think i can do better.. 6 is probably the keeper lol

Whatever, I'm far from a professional lol
Click to expand...

Honestly, I only one and done it about 90% of the time. The only thing i usually do is go back and clean up mistakes, but we make a rule that a song has to be played out for at least 6-8 months before we record it, so the larger picture parts of the bass part have usually settled in by then. I do my trial and error steps that you mentioned above at gigs since we are usually paying for studio time. Also, sometimes we will keep a couple of takes, and then see which one feels better, then I will overdub any mistakes. But our process of playing stuff live for so long really knocks those chances down
 
#8
All we do are originals as well, which as you know means there is no 'right way' to play the song. However i have found there is usually a 'best' way to play it. I would love to perfect stuff during practice or live shows, but to be honest the practice space is usually a basement and its hard to properly hear everyone, and then live shows are usually worse lol We play small venues so there are never monitors, and no one gets mic'd but the drummer, and its way to unpredictable to mess around with trying out stuff there.
 
#9
Absolutely.

On a recording you are defining a tune. You work under the assumption that it will be heard exactly that way forever, so it is important to do exactly what is necessary to make it hold up.

Live we are free to interpret and embellish...it's heard once and that's it. If something is a little outside, no blood will be drawn and no foul.
 
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#10
This is why recording your band practice is important too, have a structure and can be able to play your line without the other like with only a click track ... and obviously it gives you direct imput as to what work
 
#11
Put me in the KISS camp when recording, I play with a lighter touch and leave the fills to the drummer. Too many fills can be a problem when overdubbing other parts later.

I never record with people who nail it on the first take so there is some loss of energy as the takes pile up. :(

Nowadays I find some engineers/producers don't even care about imperfect takes because they will just cut and paste or pitch correct as needed. A guy I know who does live recordings of local bands told me of one particular band that needed over 10,000 edits to the bass parts for a single CD. :woot:
 
#12
Yes. When I record I can stand or sit still and concentrate on my bass part.

Live, I believe that the band are there to put on a show (whatever size the gig), so I'm usually bouncing around or throwing rock poses, and I have to sing backing vocals which means that I often have to play without looking at the fingerboard at all. None of that is any great problem as long as you accept that the accuracy of your playing is going to be compromised a little in the interests of the overall performance. Of course, ultimately, it's about the quality of the music so there is always a balance of how much 'show' to put on, but as always if you make the occasional clam when playing live, it's gone in an instant and you can just forget it and move on.
 
#13
sure do. Mostly because my bass (and playing) sounds very different between my Genz rig and the DI that I use. My Carvin doesn't really have a tone that I like when playing DI, so I have to take extra care to play softly and extremely precisely in order to keep the raspy high end down, and then eq the parts in pro tools after.
 
#14
The problem with recording is getting tense and self concious, you don't want to make mistakes and therefor you don't relax and let it flow the same way as when you play live. I think this is why sometimes (at least with several of our attempts at recording) the result is kind of stiff and lifeless. The best groove, if not the fewest mistakes, have come from recording the whole band at the same time, mimicking a "live" recording, rather than recording one instrument at the time.
 
#17
recreate.me said:
All we do are originals as well, which as you know means there is no 'right way' to play the song. However i have found there is usually a 'best' way to play it. I would love to perfect stuff during practice or live shows, but to be honest the practice space is usually a basement and its hard to properly hear everyone, and then live shows are usually worse lol We play small venues so there are never monitors, and no one gets mic'd but the drummer, and its way to unpredictable to mess around with trying out stuff there.
Click to expand...

that is a very good way to explain it/think about it. And as you and the song matures, the "best" way can become different, and is sometimes either less, or more involved than the previous best way. I love it when a part and a song area living entity - one that breathes and grows with time.
 

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