what's better? recording quality or artistic delivery?
 

hey there.

at the moment i'm traveling around the world doing a collaborative arts project. we record layers of music from people from different countries and backgrounds. its been very inspiring so far. i was working on a tascam dp006 pocket studio and a sort of gopro camera. which really did the job. since a couple months i'm traveling an external sound card and macbook and a canon. this obviously gives me better quality but there was something magic in using the more 'invisible' equipment. i want people to feel 100% comfortable while recording. this brings me to my question..

"whats better? recording in less quality but with a highly comfortable artist. or recording best quality in a setting an artist might feel a bit more looked at?"

**** art, make that **** shine!

thx for your reply. "art make that shine". you think the artist makes the track. a little less recording quality but an artistic energy, wonderfull delivery and pure moment is most important? cheers

No, I was censored. What I actually said was, "Fuck art, make that shit shine."

Look at the Plasmatics live versus on the record. The energy and awesomeness far outshine the studio stuff to me.

yeah that's what i feel 'Toe'. i checked out the plasmatics. awesome, didn't know that band at all. thx for your suggestion.

what i experience is that a camera in your face and a studio mic in front of you doesn't improve the rec. i get awesome results while recording artists during a campfire, beer and a hidden pocket studio. LIVE energie can improve the delivery a lot.

Great points. I also like the openness of it too. Mistakes are less likely to feel like mistakes but new opportunities for song writing. I guess that also depends on how concrete the songs are at the time of playing.

you're right. i might just carry on like i did and not worry too much about slick-rick quality. just try to feel the person i'm actually recording. especially when you don't know who you're recording it's important to try to understand how he/she is most comfortable.

faults can be beautiful indeed. a nice quote i've heard recently:
"it doesn't matter what mistake you make. it matters what you do after."

that counts for our lives but according to a guitar solo, you can bend that mistake into a genius accent. :)