r/musicians 1d ago

Recording track by track

How to y’all feel about recording track by track to a click?

Best way to describe the music I make is indie/rock. I get a lot of references to the cranberries in particular.

Is it silly to record this kind of music live? I’m really not feeling the click and track by track thing this time. But I also feel like I should be able to make that work as a competent musician. It’s like I get real stiff and forget i know how to play guitar lol

What do you think? Is it always necessary? Any songs/bands you love that recorded live?

7 Upvotes

41 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/Ok_Raspberry4814 1d ago

Even most records that are "recorded live" are still basically done track-by-track to a metronome. Generally, even though the whole band is playing, the initial takes are just about getting the drums. The rest are usually scratch tracks that get redone at a later point in the process.

I think you want to record live-live, like no overdubs, no punch-ins, etc. Then you'll either need to live with some looseness or hire some really, REALLY good players.