There's a topic I've been wanting to discuss lately, especially with other musician's. Lately there has been a trend for bands, especially Garage Bands & Rockabilly bands to release their recordings in lo-fidelity. Basically, setting up a mic or two in the room and getting a live sound, but with all the bleed between instruments, it's pretty lo-fi. There's usually a lot of distortion from over driven amps, especially the bass, which is such a large sound wave it's hard to capture. Plus tons of white noise from ringing cymbals.
I don't understand this approach. I generally record live, but wth all the instruments separated & the vocalist in a booth. This gives you better mixing options and overall clarity of each instrument.
I know a few bands that are pretty popular on the club circuit but can not get their music played on the radio because it;s so lo-fi. It's pretty short sighted really. It may be cool to be trendy & retro, but ultimately, it's closing doors that could help some of these bands actually go somewhere with their music.
I've been recording for over 30 years. I've seen so many trends come & go. Luckily I had the foresight early on, as did my band mates to record at the highest quality we could. My first recordings with The Speedies were done at Skyline & Electric Lady studios in NYC. Not only have they stood the test of time, but since they were recorded in such high quality, those recordings are still generating income for me as they've been used in commercials and as a theme to a skit on the Jay Leno show.
So my advice, to the younger bands out there. Don't sell yourself short. If a record is un- listenable why even bother?