Editing Definitely Maybe (section)

== Background and recording==
Formerly called the Rain, Oasis was formed in 1991 by Liam Gallagher, Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan, and Tony McCarroll. The group was soon joined by Liam's older brother, Noel Gallagher, who insisted that the group give him complete control and would work towards global fame if he joined.{{sfn|Harris|2004|p=126}}

Oasis booked [[Monnow Valley Studio]] near [[Rockfield, Monmouthshire|Rockfield]] in late 1993 to record the album in January 1994. Their producer was Dave Batchelor, whom Noel knew from working as a roadie for the [[Inspiral Carpets]]. The sessions were unsatisfactory, and Bonehead recalled, "It wasn't happening. [Batchelor] was the wrong person for the job... we'd play in this great big room, buzzing to be in this studio, playing like we always played. He'd say, 'Come in and have a listen.' And we'd be like, 'That doesn't sound like it sounded in that room. What's ''that''?' It was thin. Weak. Too clean."{{sfn|Harris|2004|p=175}}

Additionally, engineer Dave Scott commented, "I couldn't connect with him [Batchelor] artistically or technically, neither could I get any idea from him what his vision for the album was. This made life very difficult for me. I had rarely worked under other producers and when I had, there had always been a collaboration. I think that the lack of direction and different expectations led to an uncoordinated session with too many compromises."<ref name="Oasis at The Pink Museum and Monnow">{{cite web|url=http://www.oasis-recordinginfo.co.uk/?page_id=588|title=Oasis at The Pink Museum and Monnow Valley|accessdate=29 September 2014}}</ref> Scott described various technical issues that befell the sessions, including defective equipment, poor quality headphones, and excessive sound variation between mixing channels. He was fired by Batchelor after two clashes while recording "[[Slide Away (Oasis song)|Slide Away]]", and was later informed "Slide Away" was the only track kept from the sessions.<ref name="Oasis at The Pink Museum and Monnow"/>

The sessions at Monnow Valley were costing £800 a day. As the sessions proved increasingly fruitless, the group began to panic. Bonehead said, "Noel was frantically on the phone to the management, going, 'This ain't working.' For it not to be happening was a bit frightening."{{sfn|Harris|2004|p=175}} Batchelor was fired, and Noel tried to make use of the music already recorded by taking the tapes to a number of London studios. Tim Abbot of Creation Records said while visiting the band in [[Chiswick]], "McGee, Noel, me, and various people had a great sesh [session], and we listened to it over and over again. And all I could think was, 'It ain't got the attack.' There was no immediacy."{{sfn|Harris|2004|p=176}}
[[Liam Gallagher]] would say years later that the recordings at Monnow Valley were also characterised by the presence of a "ghost".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-49508821 |title= Oasis Definitely Maybe: How a studio haunted Liam Gallagher |website= BBC News |date= 29 August 2019}}</ref>

[[File:Sawmills Studios, Golant, Cornwall.jpg|thumb|Oasis continued the album's recording sessions at [[Sawmills Studio]] in Cornwall in February]]
In February 1994, the group returned from an ill-fated trip to [[Amsterdam]] and set about re-recording the album at [[Sawmills Studio]] in Cornwall. This time the sessions were produced by Noel alongside Mark Coyle. The group decided the only way to replicate their live sound in the studio was to record together without soundproofing between individual instruments, with Noel overdubbing numerous guitars afterwards. Bonehead said, "That was Noel's favourite trick: get the drums, bass, and rhythm guitar down, and then he'd ''cane'' it. 'Less is more' didn't really work then."{{sfn|Harris|2004|p=176}} The results were still deemed unsatisfactory, and there was little chance of another attempt at recording the album, so the recordings already made had to be used.

In desperation, Creation's Marcus Russell contacted engineer and producer [[Owen Morris]], who had previously mixed the album's songs. Morris recalled after hearing the Sawmills recordings, "I just thought, 'They've messed up here.' I guessed at that stage Noel was completely fucked off. Marcus was like, 'You can do what you like – literally, whatever you want.{{'"}} Among Morris's first tasks was to strip away the layers of guitar overdubs Noel had added, although he noted that the overdubs allowed him to construct the musical dynamics of songs such as "Columbia" and "[[Rock 'n' Roll Star]]".<ref name="owen morris">{{cite web |url=http://owenmorris.net/oasis/ |title=The Rise and Fall of Me Recording Oasis |website=owenmorris.net |access-date=24 January 2017 |last=Morris |first=Owen |author-link=Owen Morris |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112003701/http://owenmorris.net/oasis/ |archive-date=12 November 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Morris worked on mixing the album at [[Johnny Marr]]'s studio in Manchester. He recalled that Marr was "appalled by how 'in your face' the whole thing was" and would question Morris's mixing choices, such as leaving the background noise at the beginning of "[[Cigarettes & Alcohol]]".<ref name="owen morris" /> Inspired by [[Phil Spector]]'s use of tape delay on the drums of [[John Lennon]]'s song "[[Instant Karma!]]" and [[Tony Visconti]]'s use of the [[Eventide, Inc#H910 Harmonizer|Eventide Harmonizer]] on the drums of [[David Bowie]]'s album ''[[Low (David Bowie album)|Low]]'', Morris added eighth-note tape delays on the drums, which lent additional groove to McCarroll's basic beats.<ref name="owen morris" /> Tape delay was employed to double the drums of "Columbia", giving the song a faster rhythm, and tambourines were programmed on several songs to follow McCarroll's snare hits.<ref name="owen morris" />

Morris also used a technique he had learned from [[Bernard Sumner]] while recording [[Electronic (album)|the self-titled album]] by Sumner's group [[Electronic (band)|Electronic]], routing the bass guitar through a [[Minimoog]] and using the filters to remove the high end, which he used to hide imprecise playing, and heavily compressed the final mix to an extent he admitted was "more than would normally be considered 'professional{{'"}}.<ref name="owen morris" />

Morris completed his final mix of the record on the vintage Neve console during the [[bank holiday]] weekend in May in Studio 5 at Matrix Recording Studios in London's [[Fulham]] district. Music journalist John Harris noted, "The miracle was that music that had passed through so many hands sounded so dynamic: the guitar-heavy stew that Morris had inherited had been remoulded into something positively pile-driving."{{sfn|Harris|2004|p=176}}

On the other hand, engineer Anjali Dutt criticised the abrasive mix: "Though I don't think that the original mixes were amazing, I did prefer them to the final album, as the relentlessness of the compressed chainsaw guitars just wears you out even if the initial feeling of excitement is invigorating. ... I think his mixes did the job and gave it that much needed excitement and attitude. But it wasn't my kind of sound and found it far too abrasive so I can only recall ever playing a few tracks at a time."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oasis-recordinginfo.co.uk/?page_id=137|title=It's Getting Better: The Sawmills Sessions|accessdate=29 September 2014}}</ref>