Thirty years ago, when a band wanted to record, the members all went into a studio together, set up their gear in one large room (with maybe a few dividers between them), and played as if they were at a concert.
Then they would overdub a guitar solo, backup vocals, and maybe a few percussion instruments.
The beauty of this type of recording for a band is that you have a better chance of capturing the magic of a live performance.
The disadvantage is that it takes a little more recording skill to get a good sound.
(Of course, you discover many of these skills in this book.
) For the live studio, you need a recorder with at least as many available simultaneous tracks as you think you need for your band.
Eight tracks are usually enough for most bands.
The tracks would break down as follows: *Rhythm guitar: 1 track *Bass guitar: 1 track *Piano, organ, or synthesizer: 1 or 2 tracks *Rough vocals: 1 track You generally record this track over again after the rest are done to get a cleaner track.
*Drums: 2-4 tracks The number of tracks varies depending on the type of sound that you want.
You may need a separate mixer to create a submix of the drums if you're only using 2 tracks.
(For more on submixes, check out chapter 14.
) Aside from the simultaneous track count, you probably want some extra tracks available to record a guitar solo, some background vocals, and maybe some percussion instruments.
In this case, a 16 track recorder is a great solution.
If you want more flexibility in getting your band's sound.
, you could get a recorder that can record as many as 16 simultaneous tracks.