Finally, recordings for next Deimos‘ album entitled “Beyond” are closed. I’m definitely satisfied by the results. The sound is excellent and we couldn’t get better recording quality, everything is awesome. If there’s something I really learned form this experience is that the sound is not always given by the microphone you’re using, by its positioning, by the type of guitar amp or anything like that. At the end of the day, sound is just performance.
Even if you can reach the best mic placement in the world (assuming we can say it exists just “one” best placement…) to capture the sound you really want, maybe you’re still not going anywhere if the recorded performance is not completely consistent. Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally satisfied by what we reached with the band during our recordings. But reaching that sound hasn’t been always easy, because there’s no plugin in the world that can fix a bad performance, everything is in guitar player’s hands.
I’m talking about my experience during last recording sessions just to underline that I really had the confirmation of this matter “on the job”. I couldn’t have the right number of words to explain how much is important to be well reharsed when it’s time to record. From this point of view you not only have the obstacle of “emotional fear” of the REC button but also problems with the execution itself. What you’ll have at the end is a performance that can’t be “fixed” by any plugin. Mixing is not a cure for bad performances and bad performances are the worst damage you can cause to your music.
It’s like attending your driving license exam without being well prepared for it. Maybe you’re going to pass, but you’ll be abandoned in the rush hour traffic with lots of dangers (and a bad rejection…). Now think about how relaxed you are when you’re enjoying a travel by car after years of driving, you can just think about the pleasure of the trip and nothing else. During recordings you should have the same feeling with your instrument, like a trip by car! This is the only way to focus on how you’re playing your riffs, insted of worrying about timing issues or chords progession you can’t recall. Be always more than well prepared: the result will change radically. For the better!
