SMASH Hits - Wednesday, August 17

“He who sings prays twice.”
                                     Saint Augustine
 
Starting the Recording Process

Now that the songs for the CD are selected, the calendars are synched up with the band members and the recording process can begin!
 
It is a rare thing, since about the early 80’s, that an entire band actually gets together in the recording studio and records “live”.
 
Most of the time the musicians are recorded separately in a sort of layering process. For instance, the guitarist and lead singer might go to the studio and record their parts and then maybe the bass player will come and record his or her parts added on to that. Then, maybe, the drummer is added along with any other additional instruments. For each of us in the band that have appeared on many recordings, 9 out of 10 times they are done in this way.
 
“Live” recordings in the studio these days (where the whole band plays at the same time) are generally reserved for demos or used for basic sort of sketch material for new songs to be worked out. The exception to this are some jazz bands and orchestras that do still record in this way.
 
There are lots of reasons for layering the recorded tracks in this way. There’s the convenience of scheduling and location. Sometimes the musicians never even meet the other people in the band because they are scheduled at different times. I am on several recordings, commercials and some film music where I recorded my tracks here on the east coast and they were transferred to Los Angeles. Not only did I never meet the other musicians, I also never met the producer in person or stepped into his studio!
 
There is also the production value of keeping a recording “clean”, meaning no worrying about extra noise on the recording or the musicians making mistakes that can’t be fixed (the more people in the studio, the more chances for something to go wrong). If all of the musicians are in the studio at once and just one person makes a goof while performing the song, the rest of the musicians have to go back and perform the song again. You can imagine that the person who made the mistake might not feel too good about that…
 
It’s easy to see why today’s musicians (and Father Chris!) admire the “Old School” tradition of live musicians in the studio such as live big band and orchestral music. These were master musicians under a great deal of pressure to perform perfectly on each “take” of a song.
 
In fact (and somewhat sadly), it is more and more rare in today’s recordings that actual live musicians are used at all. Much of the pop music and film music we hear, recorded especially in the late 90’s to now, is music that is generated by “sampling” and “sequencing” on the computer. Live musicians, except for the lead singer, do not appear on many of today’s recordings. The digital and computer generated versions of “real” instruments such as drums, bass, guitar, piano, strings, etc. are so authentic sounding that the average listener can’t tell the difference. There is a good reason Father Chris loves the old Sinatra, Bennet and big band recordings so much. They are the “Real Deal”! Great music played by real, superb, top-notch musicians “live” with no doctoring (not to mention the great songs).
 
All that said, we are fortunate to have a live band and “real” musicians for our Life Teen CD. Although, for the most part, Mark, Tim, Steve, and I will not be in the studio playing all at the same time, there will be very few computer generated sounds on this CD. We have nothing against the producers and studios that do not use live musicians these days, of course. It’s just more fun (and we think it sounds better) to actually PLAY our instruments!
 
Thanks for reading! The next step to our process is for Mark and I to record our basic guitar and lead vocal tracks and then have Tim and Steve come to the studio and add their parts.
 
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to write to me, and I can address them here:
[email protected] or Facebook.com/lennie.peterson.

Thanks for reading!
 

Pictured left to right, our “real” musicians:
Lennie, Jeff Briggette (owner/operator/engineer at Sonic Disorder Studio),
Tim Paul Weiner, Mark Campbell, and Steve Pappone