New church cd in the works

we laid down 5 songs at my home shed/studio yesterday, mostly in an effort to the get the drums right. from there we will take turns laying down our parts.

first problem:

which tone do i go with? i have so many presets that i am tied up thinking about which sound to go with. we are a rockin band, like Lincoln Brewster but a little heavier, so i wasn't sure if i should go with a little more edge to my tone or not. anyone who has played around with the "singtall krunch" preset knows how i roll. i'm a jcm800 kinda guy, but the amp has to be able to clean up by using the guitar volume control (ala EVH).

second challenge:

do we overdub and produce this to the point where no one can play it perfectly live? that's pretty much the norm for recording....put your best foot forward. the only downside is that people get used to all of those extra sounds you add in and expect them live, especially if the sounds really make the song. example song: "how he loves". listen to the ebow at 1:10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCunuL58odQ

the other challenge is that only two of us have been in the studio before. everyone else will be learning to play with a click track and dealing with headphones. it's weird your first time in, especially if you haven't been playing very long. our drummer did great for his first time in the studio. it took him a few minutes to get used to the click track, but he soon locked on. i'm thinking that i will turn off the click track for everyone else so that it doesn't end up sounding too mechanical. everyone can just play off the drums instead.

i've done cd's with several churches over the years, but none have ventured out further than what's commercially viable in that moment. we mean to push the envelope and maybe break it. lol. the church is called River Rock, and we like to rock for sure. plenty of 80's metal heads in there.

i appreciate any feedback/advice you guys can give. i'll be posting clips along the way for evaluation to make sure i haven't gone too far.

i would stick with the singtall modern krunch preset,for the rest, i really dunno, maybe you can use some backing live if you overproduce?

I say, absolutely. A live performance is a one-off experience (YouTube not withstanding) whereas a recording is something you hope people will listen to repeatedly. So I believe the approach should be to make the best recording possible. Lots of overdubbed parts means there's more for a listener to hear upon multiple listens.

And besides, there's lots of avenues as far as Christian radio and such, and if your recording sounds demo-ish, even if it is more honest, those doors will likely be closed.

It's to be expected that parts will be improvised somewhat live, I think maybe just focus on what can be done live more and save recording and perfecting everything for later rather than vice-versa & the vibe will be the same but just perfected with some extra guitar tracks and layers on the recording.

I think in the studio do ALL you can... when you play live worship music and the spirit is moving there is way more going on there than in secular music and when it flows it's awesome!!!

when we do "how he loves" I use my Fernandes Sustainer and put my own twst on it. Really you gotta have at least one guitar with it on there. I am lucky enough to have 2.

Definitely will pay for a copy of the finished product... We like to rock out our worship tunes as well. Can't wait to hear it.

Since I got the M20D last year I have got some great recordings to drop in to pro tools but I haven't made time to do any serious editing. I know I have plenty of songs to have a nice live CD.

Oh "my boy blue" is my most used rhythm preset.

i did some recording (11 songs so far) and i tried a lot of presets, but ultimately it looks like i'm gonna go with my "singtall krunch 2" that i use for church service. i'm just used to the feel and volume control of my guitar changing the tone.

it's been fun tracking this project on untested gear. so far, i've had issues with the presonus mixer's firewire killing all sound when i boot up the pc, then my new snare mic kept intermittently popping/distorting, and of course i had to retune the drums at least once per hour because they were being hit so hard....and last but not least, my faithful purple frankenstrat won't stay in tune and intonate since it's tremolo upgrade a few weeks ago.

but all is well!

It's awesome that you're doing this, you've always been "studio ready" and good at music & sound.

before i get too deep into committing to one guitar tone, i thought i would post a little clip of the raw tracks i recorded so you guys could tell me what you think of my guitar tone. the preset started out from "singtall krunch" and got modified some.

https://soundcloud.com/singtall/you-are-good-raw-tracks-1

the bass guitar was done with the eleven rack too.

the drums were done with cheap audio technica mics through a presonus studiolive 16.4.2 mixer sent firewire to my pc.

this is pretty much exactly how we play it live, so no crazy overdubs yet.

sounds great

my first remix; more of an attempt to get the eq right on each instrument so everything has it's own space. check it out and let me know what you think:

https://soundcloud.com/singtall/king-of-majesty-eq1

maybe too much bass?

now that i have more separation i can hear a bunch of flaws and timing glitches that will have to be fixed. oh, well...one step at a time.

the preset i used is here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5622773/Recording%20Bogner.tfx

Hey, Ross... not sure if you mean 'too much bass' (as in low end) in the guitar sound... but there is not. It sounds full but well defined - a great sound, actually.

If you mean the bass track is too loud, or too bassy, well, not for me, but I actually like a quite loud bass guitar in my mixes. The track is, however, a bit louder than it would be in most commercial mixes. Same thing for the kick drum. But that's purely a subjective call... others will have differing opinions.

i was thinking that the bass guitar and kick drum are a little loud, but i'm not used to these subwoofers yet, so i wasn't sure. thanks.

hya man great job,yes i would lower the bass a bit,just a bit at least in the 1st part, then when all the instruments are in,its not that evident

I treat the Studio as the studio and Live is live.. completely different.. in my original stuff.. most of it is layered b/c a lot of the times.. its all me on all the instruments.. but live.. we're usually just a power trio.. so its much more stripped down.. no one ever ask.. what happened to that part or this sound when its not there live.. ever.

Man I really think it sounds great!!! IMHO don't change a thing... nothing is drowning out the other... I remember reading an old guitar player article were frank marino said that a in a good mix you should be able to single out any instrument and listen to it through the song so thats what i shoot for when I mix but my ear is not trained like yours.

I LOVE the song and the title!!!

I would not change anything; I can hear each instrument clearly and in my humble opinion this is a great balance of each instrument..... Like I and others have said before, I wish I had your ears man.