Recording an album: how many studio days?

[belzecat]

Hello, fellow low-enders!

So our group is trying to plan a recording of an album. But we really have no idea how many studio days we should expect to use, for recording itself, as well as for the mixing of the tracks.

A little more detail on us: we are a reggae group with:
- Rhythm section: Drums, bass, guitar and keyboard
- 2 voices (female and male)
- 3 horns (2 saxophones and a trumpet)

On a couple of songs we have a flute too

We have already recorded a single, so we know the sound we want, as well how we will record it.
We record in sections: rhythm section live together, then horns and voices in the end.

Any idea how much time (studio days) it might/should take?

Thanks a lot!

[Guest271017]

How many tracks? Length? How practiced are the musicians? How much stuffin' for the pipe, mon?

Whatever you think it is, triple it and you'll still go over.

[resistorman]

How long is a string? The shortest time I ever made an album from start to finish was about 5 hours. The longest took around 5 years.

[Sam Spoons]

How long did it take to record and mix the single? Multiply that by the number of tracks and that should leave you with a little time to spare. But, bear in mind if you recorded a well rehearsed live tune for the single and you are about to record a CD of new, unrehearsed/unperformed tracks that will be a different matter. Basically a live gig lasts as long as it takes to play the songs plus a little for banter, a recording session lasts for as long as you can afford to pay the studio.......

[Jack Ruston]

This is really impossible to say - it depends on all sorts of 'human' factors that can be difficult to predict. For example

1. How well you perform 'on the day' so to speak

2. vs How fussy you are about the result

3. How 'fixed' the arrangements are

4. vs How much you wish to experiment

5. Whether you have a very clear idea of the sonic picture in advance or are looking for ideas in that respect

6. How closely the sound of the studio matches that sonic ideal

7. How skilled the engineer is at achieving it quickly

8. Whether the band has a member who effectively produces and takes control of decisions, or whether every decision needs to be debated

9. Whether the songs have been toured extensively and thus refined beforehand

10. The quality and level of maintenance of the instruments

11. Whether there are any weak links in the line up

And so on and so on

There is one rather more definite way to establish this - Decide upon a finite budget, and calculate the number of days you can afford at your chosen studio. I imagine you're trying to work out what this might cost. It might be easier to work out what you're prepared to spend, and just stick to it. Because you can spend almost ANYTHING. If there's one activity in life that's subject to mission creep, it's making a record! That's why labels don't let bands at it by themselves.

[awjoe]

You gonna play each recording together, or are you going to overdub?

Are you well-rehearsed?

Are the songs arranged, or are you going to come up with stuff in the studio?

So many questions, so many dollar signs if the answers to the above questions are #2 or 'no'.

[molecular]

Can the rhythm section go into a rehearsal room for a few days with an iphone or a zoom and practise the cr*p out of the songs? which will also help with the issue of getting used to playing them with no vox or horns. Record all the rehearsals until basically you would be happy putting them out straight off the iphone. Ideally immediately before the record. 4 days doing this, then 4 days recording the same in a studio would get better results IMO than 8 days recording only, and cost a little bit over half as much.

You could also consider finding a much smaller and cheaper place to do the vocals.

Speaking from my own band's point of view, we are normally pretty well rehearsed and have played together for years and our two albums were all done as you describe - piano, bass, drums, some acoustic done together without click, and then best bits edited together where needed. Getting this done for three songs in a day would be considered a good day for us.

Only other thing is not to forget about editing. Having enough time to edit with patience and attention has made a big difference in my experience.

[molecular]

Having said all that, the last album I engineered was a five piece folk band's first album and they came in, recorded and edited together guide tracks of everything played live for vibe, then went back in one by one and played everything again until we were all happy that it was definitely in the bag. Pretty much all of it was quite fast and difficult, but the production idea was very straight and clean. Anyway, they were super tight and gig all the time and that was 5 days straight. It was another 6 to edit and mix it.