A click track and one player at a time is safe. It is also why so many records sound like nobody was in the room.
Most of the records people bring us as references were made with the band in one room. You can hear it in the way the drums push when the chorus lands, and in the tiny delay between the bass and the kick that no grid would allow.
Bleed is not the enemy
When the guitar amp leaks into the drum mics, the guitar gets bigger. We place screens and amps so the bleed is useful, not muddy, and we decide that before the first take, not in the mix.
Fix less, keep more
We track three or four full takes, pick the one with the best feel and repair only what distracts. Usually that is one note, not one bar.
If a song needs a click, we use one. But we start every session by asking the band to play the song for us once, live, with the red light off. That take tells us more than any demo.
