recording is easy, i don't get nervous about that cause I know we can go back and fix it or re do it, now playing in front of people i get a a few butterflys but nothin a big fat shot of scotch won't cure, and getting into the first song, after that so long as your not getting boo'ed its great.

yeah the dreaded studio disease!!!

well my everyone seems to have said pretty much everything you need, but what you should do is take a different approach, a lot of the time you get fired up and in a mood to record your heart out but as soon as the Mic is on and the record button is pushed you turn into the complete opposite!!!

you should think of it as fun, nothing really too serious, the happier you are the better in comes through in your performance, and if you cant get it after a few takes, don't just keep trying cause you will become less and less motivated, give it a brake, go listen to some of your favorite tunes, also you may be experiencing something I'm sure everyone is guilty of, when you play your not just hearing what you are playing, you also hearing what you wanna play perfectly in your head, so at times you are lured into a false sense of security. It might be as simple as being a perfectionist, as most musicians will tell you, they are never completely happy with something, they are always noodling with everything!! so stop being a damn perfectionist!!! ;)

I realised something recently (that Peter above made me think about just now) that most of my favourite songs/recording are imperfect enough that you can actually tell that someone 'real' is playing them as opposed to you just listening to a computer. In a weird way that makes them more valid to me. The flip side, though, is that when I'm trying to record something I tend to spend hours trying to get the timing right, not clip other strings etc, and in the end either a) never finish recording or b) listen back later and all I hear are the errors.

Sometimes I wonder whether 'never looking back' would be a good plan!

Most of the errors we make are errors that no one else would notice. We see this in the studio all the time. The band is cringing and we're hearing beautiful music. We can bury a LOT of things in the mix, but most mistakes that we see are technical errors and the listener doesn't have a clue. Of course, an out and out breakdown needs to have a retake, and many small things can be punched if you do it right away, but in the long run it's pretty difficult to pick out a "mistake" YOU didn't make. I long ago stopped trying to make it perfect in one pass.

True that, if its original material most people won't notice if its a minor fuck up, they will notice if its a glaring mistake. Now if its a cover tune people will notice cause some will have heard the tune before.

My band is going into the studio next sunday and monday. I can't wait to get some good sounding recordings done, then next month on the 17th we got a gig, so the balls starting to roll for us, can't wait i am stoked

Oooooo I get like that too, especially when I'm singing and my throat closes up, then I totally sound awful. Best thing to do is make multiple recordings (if you're working with digital), and even record when you're just messing around that way you can mess up and not have to worry about getting it perfect in one shot. Hah like no one has ever thought of that.... :P

I have never been nervous about recording anything but my voice. I havestill not gotten used to it, and I have been singing since I was 4 in Church choir. As far as everything else though, I love to record it. At the moment I have my little recorder on my cell phone, but that is about to change.

yeah i actually cant sing into a mic, i cant sing in front of people or even sing to begin with but one thing i do know, no-matter what i do, i ALWAYS hate my voice when its played back...ALWAYS. i really think you need an ego to sing into one, although im not saying all singers are egocentric or that, im really just making an assumption, but you have to admit it would be bloody good to LOVE your voice so much when it was played back hahaha, so from my experience as a musician (never being totaly satisfied with my performance) then i think for a singer to find their performance good enough for an album they have to have some sort of confidence boost or alternatively a massive ego.
peace