Advantages To Recording Live In A Studio Session
Posted on: 8 November 2017
When your band books time in a local recording studio, such as The Crossing Studios, to record an album or even just a song or two, it's customary for each member of the group to record his or her part separately and have engineers put the various parts together. The result can be the sound that you want, but you should also give some thought to recording live. In this scenario, the entire band will play each song from start to finish as though it were performing live on a stage — and the recording engineers will capture each voice and instrument and edit them as needed. Although recording live can produce a bit more pressure, it also offers these advantages.
Applicable Experience
The pressure is definitely on when your band is recording live — when one person makes a mistake, everyone must start the song over. This pressure can provide valuable experience to a group that is lacking performance experience. When you're playing live on a stage in front of people, the playing has to be tight; no one can make a mistake. This is the same mentality when you're recording live, which can make your band more comfortable under pressure and thus give it some helpful experience when it's time to actually play live.
It Can Shorten Your Recording Time
Provided that each of your band members is able to perform the songs with a minimum of errors, you can often expect that you'll complete the recording session in less time than it would otherwise take for each instrument to be recorded separately. In the latter scenario, each instrument may perform multiple takes over the course of an hour; if there are four instruments in your band, this would take four hours, and that's not counting the vocals. In a live recording session, four or five hours won't likely be needed to get a single song done, which can shorten your recording time if you're on a budget.
It's More Fun
It might sound simple, but recording live can often be more fun than recording separately. You likely got into music because of the fun of playing with others, and the vibe that everyone will experience in a live recording session can be a lot more fulfilling than showing up to the studio by yourself, laying down your tracks, and then perhaps not even being physically present when your bandmates are doing their own recording.
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