When you record, do you go for "feel" or "no mistakes"?

[Jeff Scott]

This song was recorded on a Fostex 8 channel recorder (open reel). If it were to have been done digitally and everything "lined-up" it would probably have lost all the soul of a live performance, which this was. "Blue Diamond" was the first song that Rare Blend, as a band (it was originally a guitar/keys duo), wrote together.

I used my fretless '97 ZON Sonus Special 5 through a tc electronic SCF for this recording.

 

[JimmyM]

Nick Lowe, who produced (among others) Elvis Costello's first five albums, had the nickname "basher" because he would tell his bands in the studio, "just bash it out, we'll tart it up later". He was interested in capturing the energy (and staying in budget) rather than achieving perfection. Worked for him.

Works for quite a few folks. White Stripes probably the most glaring example. So does working it over and over till you're sick of it, a la Def Leppard. Hooks and emotional content that connects with an audience are the important things. Nick Lowe and Def Leppard had it.

 

[Dave Orban]

Feel.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

What's your approach to recording (for release)? Does the finished song need to be mistake-free? Do you quantize and move notes to get "perfection"? Do you record a take that sounds and feels good and say "yep, that's it"? Or somewhere in between?

I ask because I'm typically a "somewhere in between" leaning toward "if it's a good take with good energy and groove, don't mess with it". But I've worked with producers who would go through each beat and nudge the kick drum (or other parts) measure by measure if it wasn't exactly where they wanted it (and this was for a drummer with good groove). And I thought the final product sounded kind of sterile.

So I'm curious about others' practices and leanings.

Part of the trick here is to have the songs down that you want to record. Unlike the Beatles who had unlimited studio time written into their second contract, we normal people have to pay good money for good recordings. So we can't play around with songs in the studio for hours on end. Our job is to come in well polished in the songs we plan to record. So having the songs "down pat" is key.

Nonetheless you sometimes end up with mistakes. In a recent recording session we did 3 takes of this one song (normally did perhaps 2 takes), and one of them had a great sound throughout the song but the ending had a rather glaring mistake in it. Took about 5-seconds to snag the good ending from one of the other takes and put it on the one where everything but the ending sounded great. Good recording studio with good tools can fix a lot things pretty quickly.

 

[RichardW]

What's that (probably ersatz) quote from Beethoven: "To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable."

There have been numerous threads here about mistakes captured in studio recordings. If a clam is good enough for the Beatles, it's good enough for me.

 

[oren]

I prefer to record live with well rehearsed material. I have been known to ask the engineer to duck some dubious notes from time to time, but I prefer not having to do actual fixes.

I did once watch the legendary Bob Dawson at Bias studio in Virginia splice two takes together on 2-inch 24 track tape without it even being noticeable. Now that was nerve-wracking (for me, business as usual for Bob).

 

[Lava]

Both.
But inevitably an overdub or two is needed. Although in the last ten years, a late note or slight flub are almost always just fixed in protools. So I guess you can say that a mistake is fixable in protools, but bad feel is not.

 

[zubrycky]

Feel first, always. But I always do my homework before studio time. Prep is everything.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

I make no mistakes.

 

[Kmonk]

I do music for several international television shows so I always go for both.

 

[39-Bassist]

I picked other because:
You HAVE to feel the music first BUT you can't deal with leaving mistakes either.
Unprofessional.
If I want more recording opportunities it must be both.

 

[funkinbottom]

What's your approach to recording (for release)?

I strive to achieve both a good feel and no mistakes. That said, I would probably go for the track with a better feel with very minor flaws, over a perfect track that felt sterile by comparison. And... a decent engineer can usually punch you in & out without killing a vibe.

 

[lermgalieu]

I think you can have great feel and fix the bigger mistakes. But I don't think just because it has great feel means it's inviolable and you shouldn't fix anything about it. Sure, Neil Young wears janky well, but I have less charisma than him.

 

[bolophonic]

I am more concerned with the overall feel, but I'm not going to leave a mistake in my track when I can do a punch-in.

 

[Slough Feg Bass]

depends on the song.
groovy tunes I go with feel / attitude.
some of the metal stuff I do is a combination of the 2nd or 3rd take, with a couple of fixes if needed, but I strive for perfection in the double kick patterns.

 

[Dincrest]

I strive to achieve both, but it also kinda depends on the project.

When I was with a punk band, we leaned more towards feel but wanted to sound well-rehearsed. A couple of little unnoticeable mistakes made it into our EP and though I wanted to redo them, band consensus was that a few specks of dirt made it feel punk-authentic.

After my punk band disbanded and I played with an alt-metal band, they were more concerned about being note perfect and having no mistakes. The arrangements of their songs had zero margin of error, so if I played one sour note everyone (including the crowd) would hear it. So even though they kept saying it was about feel, I felt robotic with them.

My current musical project demands both. Note perfect without "feel" just isn't good enough. The songs need both. And that works for me, because it satisfies my OCD tendencies without feeling like I'm being drilled and also allows me some breathing room to add my little stank here and there. In other words, my Goldilocks moment of "just right."

 

[Bunk McNulty]

If you have a good engineer, this is not even a question. One of the best tracks I ever recorded had not just mistakes, but a guitarist whose solo commented on a previous mistake. I assumed it would be trashed. The engineer/producer kept it in. It made the song. Not that it made any difference, in the commercial sense, one way or the other.

 

[Jscriv]

Groove is most important. If there's no feel what do you have? But I also feel it should be rather mistake free. I will over dub a few things if it's glaring. Minor stuff I let slide.

 

[Daniel Piper]

Nowadays I play lots of takes trying lots of ideas, then go away.

Nerds on computers spend a month with it, then I get to hear it.

This is a singer-songwriter situation where he has the final say.

 

[waynobass]

EVERYONE knew both guitars were out of tune on Layla...

I didn't know that until now. Thanks a lot!