Recording Live vs Overdubbing
Live Recording
Recording live is the process of capturing a real-time performance, just like the band was playing in concert. It is common practice for jazz, bluegrass, choral, and other genres of music to be recorded live.
Benefits of live recording
- it captures an actual performance, mistakes and all
- it can save time by recording everyone at once
Drawbacks of live recording
- bleed between instruments can limit options of balance and tones
- unprepared performers can ruin the session for everyone
- mistakes are harder to notice and may be discovered later in the mixing process
- mistakes are harder to fix
- compromises and imperfections may be unavoidable
- scheduling is more challenging
Overdub Recording
Overdubbing is the process of recording voices or instruments over the top of existing recorded material. It is common practice for rock, pop, and metal bands when recording in the studio. Drums are typically recorded first. Then bass and guitars record their parts while playing along with those drum tracks. The process often finishes with vocals and lead instruments.
Benefits of overdub recording
- each performer can work at their own pace until they achieve the perfect performance
- fixing mistakes is much easier and can be done before the next musician records
- a mistake by one musician won't disrupt the other performers
- bleed between instruments is non-existent, maximizing control of levels and tones
- performers can practice along with the recorded parts before entering the studio
- performers feel less pressure since they can be in the studio alone with the engineer
- scheduling is easier
Drawbacks of overdub recording
- potentially higher costs (if the process takes longer than recording live)
- losing a cohesive-feeling performance (not a concern for most modern music)
Combining Live and Overdubs
Even with live recording, it is common to overdub additional parts, such as lead guitars, vocal harmonies, and percussion. This approach combines live recording with overdub recording. When a band is tight and well-rehearsed, recording live can be a time and cost saver.
Some bands record live without the singers, and the singers overdub their parts later. This let's the singer do multiple takes until they get their perfect take. While vocals can be captured live, vocal microphones are susceptible to significant amounts of bleed from surrounding instruments when performing live. This results in limitations to vocal production quality. And since vocals are often a crucial aspect of songs, compromises to their production quality should be avoided.
Planning & Costs
For the sake of planning your recording sessions and calculating costs, you can discuss this topic with your recording engineer. Then you can approach your sessions with the best plan. And it's perfectly fine to decide later to combine overdubs with a live recording.
For example, if a vocal performance is less than perfect, it would be more cost-effective and convenient to work with the singer individually, rather than make the entire band continue playing the song until the singer nails their part. Especially since the process could result in new mistakes by other band members.
The recording engineer will attempt to capture live recordings in a way that provides maximum control over each instrument recorded, so that in the case overdubs are necessary, they will not conflict with bleed from the original recording.