Hi everybody.
I want to talk about this topic because I'm not a seasoned studio player, something that I deeply regret since I know that working at a studio is one of the most constructive experiences a player can have. Unfortunately, my town isn't one of the true major cities of my country and there's no real recording activity here. Better said: Session musicians are very rare here and most bands rely on themselves for their recording needs.
But last week, a friend from a rock band called me because he has five original songs for recording. He told me that his bassist is a guitarist-turned-bassist and (according to him) he wanted a "real" bass player for that job. He gave me a CD with sequenced tracks that included some basic basslines and told me to study (and improve) them and let him know when I was ready. Very progressive and long songs (around six-seven minutes each) with many cool riffs, meter changes and carpal tunnel syndrome-inducing stuff for the right hand, BTW.
He called me on Tuesday to know about my progress and I told him "I have the first two songs ready for recording and also learned all the parts from the third but haven't memorized its form yet" and he said "Good. I'm going to arrange a session for those and we'll record the other two later".
It took place last night and it was very cool, but it made me think of something that has annoyed me a lot in my limited recording experience: To me, it's OK when you are aware of the mistakes you make, ask to stop by yourself and repeat until you get the part fine. But there are so many times in which you are recording and thinking it's getting really good, but when you hear it, it isn't like that because of minor rhythmical inaccuracies which wouldn't be noticed on a live performance (but a recording is a different story, of course). I don't know how it was before the digital era, but nowadays, with all of the available technology, everybody wants everything to be perfect. The kick drum and the bass must match perfectly (for instance) and of course I agree with that, but it's disappointing to realize that things don't turn to be as "perfect" as you were thinking and you must re-record them.
How common is that situation? Again, I'm asking because I'm mainly a live player and I enter a recording studio once every two years. Recording three songs (doing the third one by sections because I had to hear the parts first to remember them) took me four and a half hours. Of course, everybody there made sure that the material was "perfect" before leaving. I was really satisfied with the results, but the relatively often occurrence of those unnoticed mistakes left me a bit of a bitter taste.
Thanks for reading. Hope this thread turns into an interesting conversation.
I want to talk about this topic because I'm not a seasoned studio player, something that I deeply regret since I know that working at a studio is one of the most constructive experiences a player can have. Unfortunately, my town isn't one of the true major cities of my country and there's no real recording activity here. Better said: Session musicians are very rare here and most bands rely on themselves for their recording needs.
But last week, a friend from a rock band called me because he has five original songs for recording. He told me that his bassist is a guitarist-turned-bassist and (according to him) he wanted a "real" bass player for that job. He gave me a CD with sequenced tracks that included some basic basslines and told me to study (and improve) them and let him know when I was ready. Very progressive and long songs (around six-seven minutes each) with many cool riffs, meter changes and carpal tunnel syndrome-inducing stuff for the right hand, BTW.
He called me on Tuesday to know about my progress and I told him "I have the first two songs ready for recording and also learned all the parts from the third but haven't memorized its form yet" and he said "Good. I'm going to arrange a session for those and we'll record the other two later".
It took place last night and it was very cool, but it made me think of something that has annoyed me a lot in my limited recording experience: To me, it's OK when you are aware of the mistakes you make, ask to stop by yourself and repeat until you get the part fine. But there are so many times in which you are recording and thinking it's getting really good, but when you hear it, it isn't like that because of minor rhythmical inaccuracies which wouldn't be noticed on a live performance (but a recording is a different story, of course). I don't know how it was before the digital era, but nowadays, with all of the available technology, everybody wants everything to be perfect. The kick drum and the bass must match perfectly (for instance) and of course I agree with that, but it's disappointing to realize that things don't turn to be as "perfect" as you were thinking and you must re-record them.
How common is that situation? Again, I'm asking because I'm mainly a live player and I enter a recording studio once every two years. Recording three songs (doing the third one by sections because I had to hear the parts first to remember them) took me four and a half hours. Of course, everybody there made sure that the material was "perfect" before leaving. I was really satisfied with the results, but the relatively often occurrence of those unnoticed mistakes left me a bit of a bitter taste.
Thanks for reading. Hope this thread turns into an interesting conversation.
