How much can get done in an 8 hour day?

Ben8010

My band are looking to go to a studio soon to get some songs recorded. At the moment we can probably afford an 8-9 hour day. Is it realistic to get one song recorded and ready to put out in that time? We've never been to a studio before so don't really know the timings of it. One of us reckons that we can get 3 songs done in a day but I very much doubt that, especially if we want top notch recordings.

monquixote

It depends entirely how diligent your band are.

If you are going to record "as live" and the engineer is going to mix it for you after the session or give you the stems to mix at home then you could easily get five or six songs done in a day provided you can consistently play all your songs in one or two takes without mistakes.

If you are going to have to pro tools it and layer up your songs against a click which you don't really know properly then you might struggle to get one done in a day (especially if your drummer can't play to a click).

stickyfiddle

Wis for @monquixote.

I've had a couple of sessions where you get instrumentation for 5 songs done in a day, plus vocals and mixing later (good tight covers band, well rehearsed and recordings as-live).

Equally, I did one 8-hour session to get 100% of one song done to seriously high standards (multiple overdubs, vocals, everything) in 8 hours (at Universal in London, with a *shit-hot* engineer in his own studio), and one of the highlights with my old originals lot was a single session for a radio station where we literally had 2 takes and out, but the setup was mostly done before we arrived (i.e. the drums) so all we had to do was plug everything in, get pics on amps and trust the engineers, who did a great job.

guitarfishbay

How good are you, what genre, is every single part already written (including all drum fills, vocal harmonies, and instrumental breaks?) and what end result are you aiming at.

Honestly you’re better off asking the engineer/producer than us. It really is a how long is a piece of string question. Personally I’d find 1 song per day a good goal with some bands, slow with others, and a real rush with some more technical or polished type genres. And if the musicians aren’t actually good enough but want to sound like a current commercial tightness, with natural sounding vocals (as in not obviously autotuned) it’ll take a lot of punch ins.

FelineGuitars

Rehearsal and prep are EVERYTHING in situations like this

merlin

Set up an take half a day. I recoded my band at Premises in London in January. Set up took easily half a day and we had three days and recorded the whole CD. Editing, mixing and mastering was done beautifully by our amazing guitarist and took considerably longer... 

antifash

We recorded, mixed and mastered seven tracks in a day once. We were tight tho. Very little layering. Pretty raw. It’s in your hands. Set a goal, tell the engineer, do what you can and be happy with it. Good luck. 

uncledick

Just remember that it took The Eagles three days in the studio deciding when Glenn's vocal part should come in on Lyin' Eyes. Perfection is always worth the wait.  

Maynehead

We did 6 songs in about 6 hours, but it depends on how perfect you want to make the tracks. We got each song done in a couple of takes and recorded vocals separately, but they were a bit rough around the edges, and didn't leave the tech much time for mixing.

I'd say you should be able to easily record 3 songs to a decent standard in 8 hours as long as you don't waste too much time.

guitarfishbay

You will find some bands are quite guarded about how long it takes to record because some people think it reflects on the standard of the musicians. But if you do a bit of digging you can find some honest interviews with the producers who worked on the songs.

Dimebag from Pantera was one of the tightest metal players around, it took him a whole day per song sometimes for rhythm tracks. 

It took Karnivool about 6 weeks to record the vocals on the first 2 albums, there’s no vocal tuning and most lines took at least 10+ takes and Ian Kenny is absolutely incredible. He just kept doing takes until it was nailed.

And you can only sing so long per day before the quality of the voice degrades, which depends on style, singer, and song. Tired voices don’t sound as good, it’s not the same as a guitar or drums etc where you can change the strings/skins, if a singer’s voice is done for the day they need a rest.

Then you get singer songwriter and indie bands that knock out a couple of songs a day, it’s less technically challenging music and the aesthetic doesn’t need to be as polished. Or bands who just want a live recording and not the perfect multi tracked sound, but you have to be good to pull that off.

It really is a how long is a piece of string question which I know isn’t helpful, but if you’re recording with an experienced engineer they should be able to help you get the most out of your time for the results you want.

If I have some advice it’s that I would personally put your eggs in the less songs better results camp vs the more songs lesser results camp, but it’s so subjective it’s a bit difficult to be any more helpful than make sure you try your best to do something you’re happy with and proud of.

Ben8010

Cheers for the replies everyone. I think I should have given more info from the start haha. So the drums will be artificial and programmed prior because we are drummer-less, I'm the only person in the band who can play drums and I'm no where near competent enough to record, so that should save some time. The band consists of bass, 2 guitars, vocals and the drums. Our vocalist is pretty consistent and I'm gonna make sure we get good practice in before we go. The songs we have in line are practically fully finished. If we had ideas to put in and the time then that would be good but if not then that's fine too. 

It sounds like at least one song is doable to a professional standard based on this and what you lot have said.

Thanks again

koneguitarist

I did a whole album of 12 songs in 8 hours, band played live but drums were in another room. Bass was DI into desk, and guitar amp was in another room Mic'd up. Rest of band played in control room but we could have eye contact with drummer. 
Main issues,
1 singer played acoustic and sang lead vocals as guide, Acoustic was redone after songs were put down. Vocals were all first take. 
2 lead solos were all done after. 
3 harmonies and any additional parts were done after end of 12 songs. 

Preparation on is key, we knew exactly which songs we were gonna record, knew how to play them and was rehearsed so no time wasting. 
Most important thing, new strings and skins, instruments set up well and Drummer gets there first and is set up before anyone, to allow him to practice and ring kit out. 

We we were a traditional country band so it was fairly clean tones and simple songs, but Paul McCartney did his run devil run album, pretty much same way. Only two songs in morning, two in afternoon each day to keep the vibe. 
It can be done and was done like that for years and years before music became this soul less perfection that everybody was after!