LIVE VS. STUDIO

I guess I could live in a recording studio. I could happily spend the rest of my life playing and recording good music. I've always loved recording sessions.

J, thanks for speaking my mind.

I have mixed feelings about most gigs - on one hand they're often more trouble than they're worth. On the other, it's stimulating to be pulled out of your comfort zone. Residencies and most parties are fun, but I'd describe most gigs as "character building" lol

Love everything about the studio. It's exciting to be on the spot ... "Rolling!". It forces the group to get real and clean up some of the rough bits. Once you create music that's ear-friendly, it's forever.
 
Well, maybe a bit against the grain here. I have red light fever. Hit record and my brain freezes. Get it right, get it right, no, don't try anything new there, ouch, you couldn't just play it straight though, you had to try something and now you have to either punch or re-do the whole thing...

Live, it's all about using the music to connect with people. See their heads bobbing, toes tapping, bootys shaking. The energy of the other band members and the audience.

To me, studio work is like music in a vacuum. Especially in the piece by piece assembly process common nowadays.

Make a small glitch live and it's lost in the energy of the evening. Make even a tiny little glitch in a session, and it haunts you forever.

I did one guitar session for a guy that I'd done a live showcase with. He liked something in the arrangement that we worked out and brought me in to the place he was polishing up his tracks. But they put me in the control room with my amp in the main room and I had to play listening to the whole mix though the NS10's. The part he liked took a lot of touch to get the notes to sustain and play evenly. I could do it easily sitting next to my amp. But by remote control it was really difficult. He kept the track and it's on the CD but I felt like he was disapointed.

This happens fairly often. When we get in a situation where we feel we do not have any control. One thing I always try to keep in mind. I am in control of me. I think Win/Win/or No Deal..

No matter what the producer wants, YOU (and I,) know YOUR (My) limitations. Don't let anyone talk you into something that will keep you from creating the best performance you can. And, be willing to stick to your guns.. I'm not saying don't be flexible, or even feel uncomfortable at times, but when you know for sure, don't do it. Or, do it only if you are guaranteed that if your not happy you can try it your way too...
 
If it were a matter of picking one over the other for the rest of your life and you could never change your mind, I have to go with live.

Gigging and touring is so dynamic, ever day is a new experience, new people, new challenges. Live gives instant gratification, you see the enjoyment on the faces, the movement in the crowd.

It's all a huge source of inspiration to draw from.
 
I'm in the same boat as those of you who said live. Recording is awesome too, because you get to hear your sound when it's at it's aboslute best, not to mention getting to keep that recording forever. However, I find that my most memorable moments and favorite times are when playing live. Anything can happen, and you just have to roll with it, unlike when recording where you can say, "oops, lets run that again." Plus, as mentioned, instant gratification...I like moments like that. :)
 
i like the studio a lot, but to me there's nothing like a live show. i love the intensity and excitement. i love watching all the girls up front dancing around and getting into it. i love hearing my drums thundering through the room. i love the crazy things that happen. it's the best!
 
Great thread Joe...
Any more room left on the "live" boat for me?
I suffer and sacrifice through my daily electrical work so I can play live gigs, it's truly the highlight of my life, the thing that makes all the suffering worth it..
I record every gig. It's the best way to improve yourself, listening to your live playing.
Am I blending right, is the tempo right, do I like what I did there, I'm not crazy about that part, how can I improve it...The observations go on and on...
But in a studio, it's more like work. Enjoyable work, but work.
I'm OK at studio, no red light issues, but prefer playing for an enthusiastic audience 1000x more...
I get immense satisfaction hearing myself pull off a sweet passage live, because there can be no aural trickery. It's a true representation of what you actually sound like. The litmus test.
A really great live recording is superior in my mind than any overdubbed recording because there's very little studio trickery. Real music played by real people is what I prefer, not quantitized, sterilized, homogenized, clinicalized, assembled music.
There's always the understanding that, "Wow they did that live. Unbelieveable" Whereas in the studio, it's likely Pro Tooled, EQ'd, compressed and everything else...not natural. You can take a so-so live drummer and make him sound stellar in the studio. STELLAR. The guys who sound stellar live is what most impresses me and what I personally strive for.
 
I have little studio experience,some demos of original music,and mostly cover band demos to book gigs with.I did get a little uncomfortable sometimes on the original stuff,because of my inexperience in the studio and because of the click,but I have done a good job a few times and it was very satisfying.The cover band demos have come to be torture for me,I can't get out of there quick enough.Like Bobdadrummer I work on things in private that most of I will never use,and I get satisfaction from that and I think it makes me a better player,and like Bob I play in a cover band with a nice group of folks but our bass player is not very good,sometimes at rehearsal the guitarist and I are gritting our teeth to get through a song despite what the Bassist is playing and because we do get through it the bassist at the end of the song is shaking his fist like we killed it and you can bet that a song I think is 30 per cent stage ready will be on the set list,probably as a set opener.That being said there is nothing like playing live on one of those magic nights were people know they are seeing a great band and they are moving to the music whether they are dancing, listening, playing darts or ordering a drink,smiling and giving you more energy back so that you play even better,those are the nights that make it all worth it.
 
I was thinking today while I was in the studio lol, about this thread. I spend at least 32 hours a week in the studio. Sometimes that's all I do if my touring schedule is light. LIKE RIGHT NOW!! urggg!! anyway, I love recording. I love the way the drums sound in the headphones, and listening back to what we just played. Well, most times i love it, other times I recut it but not much actually. I find the first take or 2nd are the best. seems like it just gets worse after take 2, but thats just me.

The thing that I love about live gigs is the crowd. I just totally love that. I like hearing the applause and watching people just totally digging what the band is doing. So I guess to answer my own question again I like both and am just glad to be working.
 
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