Recording an album is a very lengthy and complicated process

Have you ever wondered why your favorite band is constantly on tour or doing everything except… Have you ever wondered why your favorite band is constantly on tour or doing everything except recording a new album? They have plenty of new material, right? It’s not like bands such as Radiohead can’t afford to go into the studio whenever they feel like it.

I am here to dispel the myth that recording can be done anytime and painlessly. While most of you were home on spring break or having fantastic vacations, my band was spending time recording in the studio. Yep, we spent that whole spring break working on a record that probably still won’t be complete for a while.

We started off the break waiting for new equipment to arrive to get the best sounds possible. We sat down with a producer to talk about guitar tones and all the work involved to get the most professional-sounding album possible. Our dream was in motion — or so we thought.

When we finally started laying tracks down, we had to first play to a metronome. Most bands will never have a problem with this, because playing to a click track in standard rock will be playing progressions to a steady “doot-doot-doot-doot.” As long as you are musically inclined, it’s perfectly simple to work this out.

Because I play in a math rock band, we were required to figure out the best way to play to the click track with music that would change time signatures every few bars. It’s frustrating enough is to map out the music itself; the worst part was getting the drum tracks perfect for each take of the song. Needless to say, we had to break the songs up into parts to get everything perfect and avoid having to deal with the pressure of recording it all in one solid take.

Even after that was all said and done, our bassist is now leaving on vacation. To get the mix perfect, you have to do a single end of the spectrum at a time (usually low to high; you want to get the bass and drums down simultaneously, then follow it up with guitars and vocals, and in our case, also a cello).

Because he didn’t get a chance to experiment with tones and also was playing with old strings, we had to scrap all of the bass work he did for the final mix, and he’ll have to re-record the work when he returns in two weeks. Until then, we can’t even work on our guitars, because we’ll be overcompensating for the lack of raw bass sound. So until he returns, we cannot lay down the guitars, cello or vocals.

As a band, you can record everything piece-by-piece or record it live. Unfortunately, when you record live, you kind of have to nail everything perfectly in a single take. It’s a lot more difficult for your studio engineer to go back and edit mistakes if you’re going live with no click-track.

An interesting thing we learned when we were laying down the groundwork was that most bands don’t even have their own drummer play on the album. You heard it right: Bands will hire studio drummers to lay down the basic work to the metronome in order to prepare the band drummer to play to it, or avoid the process altogether. Percussionist Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle, Devo, The Vandals) is one of these “ghost drummers.” He was a gun for hire who did drum tracks for bands like 311, Guns N’ Roses, Chris Cornell and more.

Luckily, we didn’t have to resort to that, but it makes you think about the record you’re listening to. Was it the real drummer from the band or a hired studio guy?

All in all, bands have to take a lot of time out to go to a studio even to do a demo. You have to find engineers who will take time to record your material, and you need to front the money for it, as well as record tracks several times and work late into the night very often. Your members have to be dedicated and have clear and available schedules. Luckily, we’re still young and can spare some time, but not everyone has that luxury.

Whoever said making a solid record was easy is an outright liar. It takes lots of time and patience, and plenty of planning and production to get it right. So the next time your favorite band takes two years to release an album, cut them some slack.