This week's recording tip: Record more takes. No, more. still not there ...

[midwayfair]

I went back to a recording I did in December with the intention of just adding backing vocals, which I didn't really have any proper ideas for when I first did the track. Heard a few things that weren't quite there for me in lead vocals, so I started redoing them.

I ended up with 149 new takes of the lead vocal by the end of the day. And you know what? Except for about half a line and a half second here and there, it almost nails what was in my head in every way: timbre, pitch, and delivery. I don't think I've ever managed that with vocals except once or twice by accident.

I know it seems obvious that if you do something lots and lots of times it'll get better, but sometimes it's hard to remember what "a lot" is (usually, if I hit 20 takes on any line for a song I already know the melody to, I think I've gone overboard), and visualize just how much better something can get, especially at those times where you aren't even sure you're capable of doing something or, worse, aren't sure what you're looking for that's making it unsatisfactory. I had a string of takes in the middle that weren't improvements, but rather than go back to an earlier take, I kept doing things until I heard the "right" take on one verse, then went back and polished up the previous take. After about 8 hours, I kind of wished I had the time to get up the next day and do it all over again on a different song. (I'm reminded that Springsteen spent entire weeks in the studio for the Born to Run sessions doing nothing but vocal takes all day, one after the other.)

ah well, back to my day job now ...

[rumbletone]

Do you think you could have reached the same result with just more prep/practice? I.e., did the improvement come from performing it over and over, or because you listened to each take and made improvements based on things you heard in the recorded takes that weren't evident when you performed them?

I ask in part because I started recording in the days of analog tape and consoles, and unless you were a major label artist with a huge budget it was not viable to do that many takes - so the approach was usually 'rehearse it as much as possible, then get it in 2-3 takes....'. With DAWs and home recording that has changed, and there's little downside to doing many takes - but I wonder if we as performers are losing the skills to 'perfect' a performance without going through the DAW process and, more importantly, I wonder whether the final product is better or worse?

[midwayfair]

Do you think you could have reached the same result with just more prep/practice? I.e., did the improvement come from performing it over and over, or because you listened to each take and made improvements based on things you heard in the recorded takes that weren't evident when you performed them?

I ask in part because I started recording in the days of analog tape and consoles, and unless you were a major label artist with a huge budget it was not viable to do that many takes - so the approach was usually 'rehearse it as much as possible, then get it in 2-3 takes....'. With DAWs and home recording that has changed, and there's little downside to doing many takes - but I wonder if we as performers are losing the skills to 'perfect' a performance without going through the DAW process and, more importantly, I wonder whether the final product is better or worse?

To me, rehearsing live pales in comparison to the benefits of making incremental improvements with each take. It's a completely different form of practice, but live rehearsal is poor for revealing mistakes, and it might even give you muscle memory for something that's wrong. I might have gotten there a little faster if I'd been better rehearsed on the song, but I still wouldn't have been able to experiment with each individual line on the level I did without all those takes.

[jkokura]

I've found something similar in my recent recording sessions. Recording multiple takes on everything is a must. It doesn't matter how good I feel about a take I just did, recording many takes helps add in the reference to make sure it is correct. I typically do the following:
1) Rehearse to the track once.
2) Record 4-5 takes.
3) Listen back to the 1st and last take I just recorded
4) Assess both takes and ask if I can comp an acceptable take from both, or if one is fine as is.
5) Record another 4-5 takes
6) Listen back to the 1st and last take I just recorded, and the best of the previous two I listened to.
7) Assess whether I now have enough takes, and then choose to repeat the process again, or if I'm done.

It means I usually record at least 8 and sometimes 20+ takes of pretty much every important part. I'm doing programmed drums now, so that usually doesn't get that sort of treatment, but the Bass, Guitars, Keys, and Vocals always get that sort of treatment now.

I find that doing so many takes means, as you've suggested Jon, I'm able to refine my performance. Usually one of the later takes always ends up being the best one. It also could be that the practice of doing the line over and over gets me there. I usually write and record simultaneously, so I don't usually come with prepared 'songs' or even ideas, I just start working and get there.

With digital audio workstations, comping takes is so easy now, so it's hard not to come up with something satisfactory from doing 5+ takes, but when you get up to the 20-30 range, it's very hard to choose between all the various options. I usually delete takes that are either redundant or contain too much 'junk'. I narrow it down to the 3-5 takes I like the best, then I will comp carefully, trying hard to stick to one take as much as possible, and just use the other takes to 'fix' the parts I'm not %100 happy with.

Jacob

[alanp]

I ended up with 149 new takes of the lead vocal by the end of the day. And you know what? Except for about half a line and a half second here and there, it almost nails what was in my head in every way: timbre, pitch, and delivery. I don't think I've ever managed that with vocals except once or twice by accident.

Perhaps you need a title other than Electron Doctor... maybe "Jimi Kubrick" ?

[raulduke]

I ended up with 149 new takes of the lead vocal by the end of the day. And you know what? Except for about half a line and a half second here and there, it almost nails what was in my head in every way: timbre, pitch, and delivery. I don't think I've ever managed that with vocals except once or twice by accident.

Perhaps you need a title other than Electron Doctor... maybe "Jimi Kubrick" ?

Ha ha 

Next you'll be doing a Steely Dan and spend 2 weeks on a snare sound 

[Vallhagen]

Well I never survive 149 takes. My voice gets tired after three, so I better nail one of the first takes!

... on the other hand, as a rule of thumb I use to say that you need to practice a song 100 times before you really know it / feel it. So 149 takes makes sense.

[midwayfair]

Next you'll be doing a Steely Dan and spend 2 weeks on a snare sound 

Oh jeez. The worst part is that they would do entire sessions where they didn't care about one anything except one instrument was doing, so someone could have nailed a part and it wouldn't matter. So wasteful. Especially for an album that I can't listen to EXCEPT as a production oddity.

Plus they made Mark Knopfler cry.

[Frank_NH]

Today anyone with modest resources can put together a recording studio in their home:  DAW, mics, interfaces, instruments, effects...

My "studio" consists of a computer workstation running Audacity or some more advanced multi-track program like Mixcraft, a 10 channel mixer/audio interface, Sennheiser mics, drum machine, bass, guitars, amps, keyboard, and various live percussion instruments like maracas and tambourine.  I've even mixed sound snippets from the internet (like bird tweeting) into songs, so I have some links to those sound effects.

When everything is set up, I can go in and make recordings quickly and efficiently.  So doing 50 takes for a single song can be a creative and enjoyable process - and that is the goal, actually, to be doing something you enjoy.  Usually, though, I'll do 10 takes and find out that the first one was the best! :-D

However, what I enjoy most is having a riff or tune idea come to me spontaneously, then running into the "studio" to make a quick demo recording, usually with just a simple vocal and acoustic guitar.  These "idea" tracks get saved so I can come back later to flesh out the song with a more elaborate arrangement.  Often, I don't even have any lyrics written when the idea comes to me, and just sing the first thing that comes into my head.  And sometimes, that nonsense actually gets into the final lyrics!

Songwriting is one of the most creative activities a musician can do...