Great Post! Thanked...
Mo Facta wrote
The thing to remember with overdub vs all-at-once is that the better the band is, the less you need to overdub. Of course, it depends on the style of the production, but when it comes to bands, it's a pleasure to record the real pros because editing becomes negligible.
We're essentially hearing arguments that have their roots in different eras here. Some [of the older] guys will naturally tell you to capture as much as you can live because that's how they learned to do it, which was primarily a consequence of the limitations of the gear they were using and some other factors of the time. They had limited track counts, limited processing by today's standards, but higher quality equipment overall (I'm talking about commercial studios). All of this, of course, necessitated a proficient group of studio musicians so therefore great performances were the only option. It's a lot different screwing up a take on tape than it is in digital. Digital doesn't wear out the more you use it.
Today we have the DAW. A DAW facilitates all sorts of time saving, workflow orientated features, does not have track limitations and it's processing is limited to the power of available DSP. We also have a whole truck load of "prosumer" gear that is a far cry from most designs from fifty years back and incorporates a whole slew of bad quality components and low headroom designs. There are Chinese microphones everywhere masquerading as classically inspired stuff too. So here we have a situation that begins to feed itself in, firstly, boundless options for manipulating and fooling the listener, which can equally be a blessing or a curse, and gear that doesn't sound all that great (debatable, I know) and which also begs for processing. Me? I would say musicality is what is lacking and that ranges from musicality in performance to musicality in processing. That is what this era is after and many are finding it difficult to achieve that in the digital world without saturation and analogue emulation effects, which is what you naturally got, working in styles of old.
I would also say that striking a balance between old and new techniques is the key. Finding ways to incorporate all the helpful techniques available to us is the name of the game.
Cheers ?
