is this ignorant???

my band is recording in a small studio. i play through a blue voodoo half stack. we play hard rock/metal. the other guitarist is playing through a tube fender blues junior practice amp. they have the fender in a in bathroom which is probably 4 x 10. my halfstack is in a closet that is 3 x 3 with foam on 3 walls and my amp faces the back of the closed door. both amps are miced. my reverb is off. i can only put my amp at 1 1/2 or 2 which sucks cause my tubes are not being pushed. they did this so the sound would not bleed through to the drum mics in our live recording. need knowledgable input. should i now record my tracks at higher volumes and remove the earlier?? i know my amp sounds better at high volumes. should i come out of the closet?? ;)
i have no line out on my amp. thanks for any input. :cool:

I can understand the not wanting to mix the sound signals but the way they are going about it is to say the least stupid. If you can't play up to your full potential or how you want to play, something is definatly wrong.

Man, I hope an engineer didn't advise you guys to record this way...
Here's a better idea. Record guide tracks (use a POD or mic up to pc) at home to a metronome or sequencer click. Bring the guide tracks to the studio and play them through the desk to the drummers headphones so he can play a clean take of the song. Then when he's finished you can add the rest of the instruments in one at a time. This way, you can crank the tubes and you will be guaranteed not to have any timing issues AND the snare won't be buzzing from start to finish. You can also do multiple takes without the band freaking out about have to play the full song over and over. Either that, or find a better studio!
Having recorded plenty of times in studios with different bands I can say that the most important thing to get right first is the drums. You can always go back a second time to finish the guitars and do some mixing or even record the guitars elsewhere once you get high quality wav files of each drum track to take home (very important!!!).

Yeah, the studio should have the capability of isolating the guitar amp when it's up to full volume. If nothing else, record the first track with everyone at the low volume, then re-record your guitar parts at full volume...multi-track man, it's a wonderful thing....

the live mix is done so i think i will just record at a louder volume to those tracks, if they whine about stuff rattling, get my amp out of the closet and in a more open space. thanks guys!! ;)

yeah i couldnt understand why you wouldnt want to multitrack it.
but it looks like you will. so all is well. :cool:

Originally Posted by: SuperhumanMan, I hope an engineer didn't advise you guys to record this way...
Here's a better idea. Record guide tracks (use a POD or mic up to pc) at home to a metronome or sequencer click. Bring the guide tracks to the studio and play them through the desk to the drummers headphones so he can play a clean take of the song. Then when he's finished you can add the rest of the instruments in one at a time. This way, you can crank the tubes and you will be guaranteed not to have any timing issues AND the snare won't be buzzing from start to finish. You can also do multiple takes without the band freaking out about have to play the full song over and over. Either that, or find a better studio!
Having recorded plenty of times in studios with different bands I can say that the most important thing to get right first is the drums. You can always go back a second time to finish the guitars and do some mixing or even record the guitars elsewhere once you get high quality wav files of each drum track to take home (very important!!!).

it's amazing how sometimes the basics are forgotten with tracking.....recording live sucks.

Something you might want to consider if you want to save a ton of money...

Learn how to record on a home based system. For the money you'll spend on studio costs, you can get a decent recording application, (Cubase/Pro-Tools etc.) a small mixer (Behringer) and a decent mic (Rhode). Probably even a faster computer or upgraded ram as well.
Go into the studio with a guide track and use their equipment to get the drums down.
Bring home the drum tracks, transfer them to your computer and record the rest of the instruments yourself, taking as long as you want without worrying about hourly costs. You've got unlimited takes, hundreds of tracks and unlimited flexibility so take the time to get it right.
When you have all the raw tracks, take them back into the studio and transfer them to the multitrack for mixing.

Take the finished song and pay to have it decently mastered. (or if you want to save money again, transfer back to your computer and use a mastering program)
If you're doing an album of songs, leave the mixing and mastering until you've finished all the raw tracks.

That's good advice, especially re the drums. Once you get them down you are free to do what you want. However, there is an unmistakable difference in sound quality from a home system (even DI with quality gear) to playing through studio hardware worth a couple of hundred grand. I suppose it depends also on your own engineering skills (mine are non existant). I tried recording a load of guitar tracks at home over a few weeks to bring to a studio for twaeaking and mixing. I used my guitar rig which has some nice gear straight into an M-Audio Delta 1010 soundcard. I thougt it sounded good until we played it in the studio alongside the same rig and settings through the desk and studio preamps (again DI). Basically dropped the tracks straight away and did everything from scratch. The monitors in a home studio also have a big impact on what sounds good there as opposed to another system. I have a set of Tannoy Reveals, which are great but when I bring trakcs and play them through a set of 40K Genelecs they sounds atrocious. However, a mix done through the Genelecs sounds just as impressive on the Tannoys. One other thing about the studio, it's great to have a professional engineer!

> However, there is an unmistakable difference in sound quality from a
> home system (even DI with quality gear) to playing through studio
> hardware worth a couple of hundred grand.

Yep, that's true. I was assuming from the description that this was a small, demo studio.
If you're recording in a major studio, then for sure, there's no way you can compete at home unless you have some decent equipment.

yep...it's a small studio. we were going to do the pro tool thing at home since we have it and then mix and master it at a good studio. one of our guitarists got "drafted" to afganistan so we were in a bit of a hurry since he leaves next month........thank you for your input :D