Bands often want to capture a “live feel” in the studio; they want to emulate the setup, vibe, and energy they’re accustomed to during rehearsal and shows. But they also tend to want to go back and fix parts, edit performances, and make sure their recording sounds polished and professional (to whatever degree suits their music). As a recording engineer or producer, how do you find the balance between a live, energetic sound of the band in a room, but also be able to punch in and fix parts, edit between takes, and so on? The setup and workflow of the recording session is the key to keep things moving and achieve that balance.

Recording a band live off the floor requires a decent amount of space, and the best option for this will invariably be a recording studio with numerous isolation booths, or space to separate instruments and amplifiers. Ideally, you’ll want to be able to isolate the instruments as much as possible. This might seem counter intuitive to achieving a live feel, but keeping the drums, bass, guitar, keys, and vocals acoustically isolated will allow you the flexibility to do punch-ins/fixes on individual instruments, and comp between takes without compromise. The key here is capturing the energy of the band in the recorded performance, not necessarily the sound of all instruments in one space, spilling into each other’s microphones (which can certainly be done well and creates a sonic vibe of its own when done properly, but the trade-off is less flexibility in terms of comping, punch-ins, and editing).

The Setup

Generally this setup tends to look like so; all of the musicians in the main room with the drums, and all amplifiers or acoustic instruments isolated in separate iso-booths or other rooms. The singer, of course, should always be in their own acoustically isolated space, if capturing the vocal live is desired as well. One of the most important aspects of this setup is to allow for line of sight between all the players – musicians are used to rehearsing and playing their music in close proximity to one another, and a big part of that live energy is their ability to communicate non-verbally, musically, in the moment. This goes a long way toward creating a familiar and exciting environment for performers, and can be accomplished by running lines to their isolated amplifiers while keeping the players themselves in the same room. Another very important factor is getting a great headphone mix for everyone. Most professional recording studios have headphone mixers that will allow each player to individually dial in their monitor mix. Once the band has a great mix happening, they’re ready to rock.

The Process

At this point, I like to run a take of the song from top to bottom, letting the band know that they can use this opportunity to adjust their headphone mixes, and also give myself the opportunity to adjust any levels or sounds in context before going for keeper takes. Of course, ALWAYS hit record: you don’t want to miss a potential great take, part, or idea that might come up during that first “rehearsal” take. Once the band has played through and recorded a few takes (and things are starting to feel good), invite them into the control room to have a listen. This is a great way for the musicians to get perspective on how things are sounding, how the performance is feeling overall, and discuss any details or tweaks to the performance that are needed. More often than not, the next couple of takes after this listening break will be the best of the bunch. Once you have a great overall band take (or a great take compiled from sections of multiple takes), you can listen back with the band to identify any parts that need a punch-in, or need to be substituted from a different take. Because the instruments are isolated, it’s relatively seamless to cut between takes of individual instruments, and punching in is completely seamless, as each instrument maintains its sound just as it was while the whole band was playing. The immediacy of doing punch-ins and fixes on the spot helps to maintain that live energy, as opposed to redoing parts at a later date.

Final Thoughts

By taking the time to get the setup right, the sound dialed in, and headphone mixes sounding great, I find that this method of recording can be very efficient while also maintaining the feel and energy of a band performing as one, as opposed to recording each instrument on its own and building the production one element at a time. Of course, any given recording method should be used where it best suits the music and artistic vision, but in general I find this workflow allows for lots of flexibility while still maintaining the energy and expression of the band or artist.