Doing basic tracks in (gasp) a pro studio. Advice?

[ShofB]

Talk to the engineer about your concepts....let him hear some of your previously recorded stuff if you have it...mention some bands who's sound you might be trying to emulate...
...and then let the guy engineer.
Also...if someone is the acting "producer"...let that ONE person be the main communicator, instead of everyone tossing out suggestions at the engineer left and right.

Practice a LOT....and then just do what you do.
Also...7-12 songs in one day may be pushing it, unless you just want a typical demo of a live band rehearsal.
Pick 4-5 as your primary focus, and then see where it goes from there...you may only get 3 done, but at least get 3 done really well, instead of just rushing through so you can do 12.

Oh...which studio?

Very good suggestions. 7 songs in one day is way too many and trying to do that many will only cause frustration in general and you could end up with a bunch of poor performances. You do need one person who is in the role of producer and who will communicate with the engineer. If you trust the guy I would pretty much let him do his thing; if you don't trust him then you probably shouldn't be there. I wouldn't speend time playing any other recording of you or anyone else. That's just going to take up time and as an engineer I don't think that is going to be the best way to use your time. . I wouldn't over practice. Know the songs but don't wear them out.

 

[ShofB]

Lots of good advice all around! This thread has derailed a little bit as of right now but ill give yall an update: So we are loading in at 4PM. Drums and amps can go till 9PM and things such as percussion and vocals can go till 11PM.
We are most likely going to be recording 5 main songs that will go on an EP and two songs that we recorded in 2011. The later two don't really need to get finished in the studio, if necessary vocals and guitar could get done in our home studio.
I found out that this studio charges 75 hourly and that seems steep for a place that is only willing to let us use their 57's, 58's and beyer M88's. The fact that they are holding out on their earthworks mics really bugs me!

As it should. This tells me that getting the best recording is not their main concern and I don't want to bum you out but I wouldn't place much hope in this recording. As an engineer I can't imagine going into a session and telling the client that we can't use certain mikes or equipment. As far as I'm concerned that's one of the main reasons to go to a "professional" studio which from what you've told use these guys are NOT.

 

[JG96]

As it should. This tells me that getting the best recording is not their main concern and I don't want to bum you out but I wouldn't place much hope in this recording. As an engineer I can't imagine going into a session and telling the client that we can't use certain mikes or equipment. As far as I'm concerned that's one of the main reasons to go to a "professional" studio which from what you've told use these guys are NOT.

Yeah these guys might be the most profit driven non-profit organization I know.

 

[Rod Norman]

You won this as a prize. The engineer will not want you talking at all unless you know what you're talking about. Decide what tracks you would like and let him mic you up. Learn from him; don't teach him. Great that you're rehearsing like crazy, but you will be lucky to get all seven songs done in a day in a pro studio. Go for it, though. Now for overdubs. I'm assuming you're really talking about the vocals. As for guitar solos, you might consider dropping them from the song and copy and paste sections into the fina;l for a solo later. Don't waste time in the studio, and most hit songs don't have solos in them. Good Luck,
Rod Norman

So my band won a Battle of the Bands last month and as a prize we got a day of free studio time. The studio is a renovated and treated church. Good acoustics, good mics, API preamps. We plan to spend the day recording 7-12 songs live and doing the overdubs at our home studio. We will spend the week prior practicing like crazy. Should I tell the engineer what kinda mic placement I want? Or is that frowned upon? Any advice about recording on the clock?

 

[Doctor Varney]

Congratulations!

 

[rayc]

I've been all over their site & can't find a picture or comment that relates to recording.
It'll be a hell of a set up & mic test time if it's a "roll in the laptop & lets do some live stuff" day.

 

[JimmyS1969]

Yeah, I don't get it either. Seems kinda shady...

 

[Greg_L]

Yeah, I don't get it either. Seems kinda shady...

I'm telling ya, it's a cult! They give you tracking headphones and pump in subliminal mind control messages while you think you're doing a take. Before you know it, you're one of them waiting for the mothership.

 

[JG96]

If you guys don't hear from me between May 31st and June 2nd call the cops. The guy said that we should come in at 4 and start tracking at 5. Considering that we will probably have to tune the drums to our liking and all the mic's need to be rolled in do you think we should ask to start setup earlier?

 

[Michael Rogers]

I noticed no one mentioned thet you should have you guitars/basses set-up with new strings and the action/intonation set before you record. Also bring extra strings and cable. And please tune you instuments before each take. Nothing worse than out of tune playing. Congrats and have fun!!!

 

[JG96]

I noticed no one mentioned thet you should have you guitars/basses set-up with new strings and the action/intonation set before you record. Also bring extra strings and cable. And please tune you instuments before each take. Nothing worse than out of tune playing. Congrats and have fun!!!

Thank you! I gotta get the guitarists to step up their game with that. I can set intonation nicely so I will do that for all the instruments. I feel like I change strings more than the guitarists (I play bass ) I'll also try and make sure they have new tubes!

 

[rayc]

1 hr to set up! In the MORNING! THere're a lot of assumptions - you need to talk to the people & find out (& get in writing) what you get, what you need to do and times etc.
If all is cool it should be a blast!

 

[JG96]

I was told that setup can begin at 4PM, recording can begin at 5 and drums have to stop at 9. We can do overdubs till 11PM. The guy who owns the place rents out the downstairs as office space which is why we cant set up earlier. Should I ask to come earlier to get started with drum tuning and everything?

 

[Greg_L]

I was told that setup can begin at 4PM, recording can begin at 5 and drums have to stop at 9. We can do overdubs till 11PM. The guy who owns the place rents out the downstairs as office space which is why we cant set up earlier. Should I ask to come earlier to get started with drum tuning and everything?

Do that stuff at home. Give it a quick re-check when you get there, but get the bulk of your detail stuff done before you get there. You don't have much time.

 

[dreib]

My guess is you guys will hit your groove at 8:30.

Good luck !

 

[JG96]

We plan to get the amp/pedal settings right at home but we are using the house toms/kick. I will try and see if we can stop by to tune the drums at some point the day before. Hopefully we don't start tracking at 8:30. That would give us enough time for a take of each track with no time in between!

 

[Greg_L]

We plan to get the amp/pedal settings right at home but we are using the house toms/kick. I will try and see if we can stop by to tune the drums at some point the day before. Hopefully we don't start tracking at 8:30. That would give us enough time for a take of each track with no time in between!

Since you don't actually have much time, consider instead of recording what you feel are your best songs, maybe focus on the songs you play the best as a band. What you think might be your best songs are not necessarily what your potential audience might think are your best songs, so you might as well lay down the stuff you know will sound good because you play it well. Just a thought.

 

[JG96]

Greg: I know what you mean. 2 of the songs we are recording are both very popular and we have them down quite well as we have been doing them for years. Fortunately we have 10 days before the recording session that we can dedicate entirely to rehearsing. If we can't get all the tracks down in one day fortunately I have a decent amount of recording gear and guitars and basses can be overdubbed over a good drum take at home if need be.

Fortunately the drummer in the band is really tight. Last time we rehearsed I heard him mess up for the first time in years. We were all in shock

 

[witzendoz]

I was told that setup can begin at 4PM, recording can begin at 5 and drums have to stop at 9. We can do overdubs till 11PM. The guy who owns the place rents out the downstairs as office space which is why we cant set up earlier. Should I ask to come earlier to get started with drum tuning and everything?

Hang on! "So my band won a Battle of the Bands last month and as a prize we got a day of free studio time."

This will have to be the shortest day in the history of recording studios. A day at my studio is 10 hrs start and finish whenever. My Maths makes your day 6 hours. See if you can set up gear earlier even if it means no sound, you can set up amps drums and mics and the engineer can do a line check etc before you fire up any sound. Then at 5 pm you are ready to rock with just a quick sound check.

Looking at how much time you don't have I would go to my original suggestion and do 1 song really well.

You know I used to sponsor a band comp for years, I stopped because the winners always wanted to come in for the day (10hrs) and record as much stuff as they could possibly cram in. Stress for me and stress for the band and usually ended up with a half cocked recording of a rehearsal, which my name ended up on. Where they could have come in for a day and record a great song and been happy with it.

One band told me that they were gong to record 20 songs in the day, they were well rehearsed and could do it live. They set up, I quickly did a sound check (it was more like a live gig then a studio set up) they recorded everything live, did not listen back to anything, often messed up songs and quickly redid them, no lunch breaks, the singer could hardly talk at the end, and with 2 mins to go we had 20 songs recorded. They ran into the control room and said, "Told you we could do it" my answer "so when do we mix the 20 songs" band, "MIX! Do we have to mix the songs? Whats mixing?" LOL even with quick mixes there will be 2 days work here.

Please listen to advise, less is more in this situation, also more fun and less stress.

Alan.

 

[JG96]

That's a funny story Alan. Fortunately I talked the fellow in to letting us come in a little bit earlier.
I have partially taken the advice as originally my band was gonna try and write like crazy and try and do 12 tracks in the time allowed.
Now our plan is to do all the instrumentals for 5 songs, at least drums for 2 songs and vocals for a couple in the final 2 hours.
We have one week before designated to just rehearsing and two weeks after to mix and track vocals and overdubs. I think this plan is doable considering how much time we have to rehearse. My band once did a live recording of our set. 2 of the 8 songs would have been keepers if they were recorded with studio quality. My thought is if we can get 2 keepers in 40 minutes we could get 7 keepers in 4 hours. In the past we have been able to do basic tracks of everything in 5 or less takes.
I see where you are coming from with the less is more concept and I definitely agree with. However this album is also a project for school and handing in one song as a final product of a months work isn't going to cut it.