F*ck it, We'll Do It Live

Okay, so May was a crazy month (and here we are, wrapping up June).  I set up, recorded and mixed six live-off-the-floor records.  Death Cake, The Hornettes, Elena Zavalishina, The Slags, John Allaire and the Campistas, Carol Tsai and Kyle Burghout all made recordings without any (well, little...) modern studio trickery.  In the case of the bands, everyone was set up like a jam situation and mic'd as needed, headphones providing click if desired. But largely, the musicians were just performing their tunes as if it was any other jam.

The large gallery space takes a little getting used to but once we dial in headphone mixes, for most bands, a couple of run-throughs and they are set to go.

I've made records in countless different ways at this point; any method is completely valid so long as the project is completed.  In my own personal music, I multitrack the instruments almost exclusively, but when it comes to engineering and producing bands, it has become more and more apparent how awesome a live-off-the-floor recording can be.

Now don't get me wrong, we all hear that 'performance, performance, performance' is the key to a great track (apart from the song itself of course), that much is stupidly obvious and has been something I've stressed  with bands and solo artists for years, but there is something more to a full band pulling off a performance all together that holds a certain magic.

The best part is I have a kick-ass space to do a full live, multi-tracked setup all in the same room.  Having worked in that room, for what is coming up on nine years, I have developed a nice flow where I can minimize bleed to the point that a player's miffed line or section is no issue.

The plus side for bands is that they can get a shitload more tracked with the same quality as a project that is assembled part by part.  The only catch is they have to be musicians, get it right and try not to fuck up...