how can i obtain the benifits of recording analog AND maximize my budget

mixandmaster said:
For hip hop, 15 IPS is definitely the way to go (like Ronan said, huge low end). Since you get 30+ minutes per reel, and your music is coming out of Reason, you have 2 tracks of music and 9 tracks of vocals totalling 11 tracks through the tape. Then do this again for the second half of the CD, and you've got 60+ minutes of 11 tracks (staying off the edge tracks). So you CAN pretty easily do a whole hip hop CD on 1 reel, as I have done many times before.

:D
Click to expand...

brilliant!

(never would have thought of it)
 
WOW! all you guys have been very instrumental in the planning of my next studio session. this is indeed a remarkable place. i want to say thanks to everyone who took the time out of thier schedule to help me understand how i can reach my goal in a very cost effective way. all of the guidance from this thread has been printed out and i'll make sure to give a seperate copy to the engineer. thanks again guys
 
The missing piece...

Well, since nobody has brought this up yet, I will, because I think it always needs to be refreshed in threads like this, obvious as it may otherwise sound.

The VERY best way to get the most bang for your studio buck - analog or digital - is to BE PREPARED. And once you are prepared, prepare again. Treat it like if it were a live televised gig for the Presient of the World with no editing, do-overs or other safety nets available. You got one shot to get it perfect.

Of course in the studio, you have more than one shot and will probably take a few; but you should go in pretending that isn't so. Don't consider the convenience of recording and editing as slack or a buffer to be used as a tool in your recording process; instead consider it more like a "use in case of emergency" fire extinguisher.

I'm talking attitude more than actual reality, of course, but the point is that studio time should be spent as efficiently as possible if you want to keep the budget down. This means keeping the mistakes to a minimum, getting the chances for serious malfunction as close to zero as possible, prepping you gear as completly as possible before walking in the studio door, and having your material and arrangements down so cold you could skate on it.

First the gear: Make sure that before you even walk into the studio that your strings are fresh, stretched and tuned, that your skins are tuned perfectly (and I mean perfectly), that you tubes are solid, your batteries are fresh, and that all your line cables and patch cords are solid and noise-free. etc. etc. etc. Bring extras of everything with you.

Second the material: You're playing live for the President of the World here :). You and your gang should have the arrangenemts and timing tighter than Ann Coulter's sphincter, and should be able to play the stuff backwards in you sleep without error before you walk in the door. While the studio can often be a setting where some creative changes bubble up or one hears on playback that an arrangement just doesn't sound as good on tape as it did in the rehersal space (and that's all perfectly fine, go with it and make what changes you want), don't plan to use the studio as the place where you make your final decisions or where you plan to try 5 different alternate takes of a keyboard solo. Every time someone even asks a question while on the clock is at least another 5 minutes of studio time, and usuallly more. Ask the questions and get as many answers as you can before you go in.

HTH,

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Well, since nobody has brought this up yet, I will, because I think it always needs to be refreshed in threads like this, obvious as it may otherwise sound.

The VERY best way to get the most bang for your studio buck - analog or digital - is to BE PREPARED. And once you are prepared, prepare again. Treat it like if it were a live televised gig for the Presient of the World with no editing, do-overs or other safety nets available. You got one shot to get it perfect.

Of course in the studio, you have more than one shot and will probably take a few; but you should go in pretending that isn't so. Don't consider the convenience of recording and editing as slack or a buffer to be used as a tool in your recording process; instead consider it more like a "use in case of emergency" fire extinguisher.

I'm talking attitude more than actual reality, of course, but the point is that studio time should be spent as efficiently as possible if you want to keep the budget down. This means keeping the mistakes to a minimum, getting the chances for serious malfunction as close to zero as possible, prepping you gear as completly as possible before walking in the studio door, and having your material and arrangements down so cold you could skate on it.

First the gear: Make sure that before you even walk into the studio that your strings are fresh, stretched and tuned, that your skins are tuned perfectly (and I mean perfectly), that you tubes are solid, your batteries are fresh, and that all your line cables and patch cords are solid and noise-free. etc. etc. etc. Bring extras of everything with you.

Second the material: You're playing live for the President of the World here :). You and your gang should have the arrangenemts and timing tighter than Ann Coulter's sphincter, and should be able to play the stuff backwards in you sleep without error before you walk in the door. While the studio can often be a setting where some creative changes bubble up or one hears on playback that an arrangement just doesn't sound as good on tape as it did in the rehersal space (and that's all perfectly fine, go with it and make what changes you want), don't plan to use the studio as the place where you make your final decisions or where you plan to try 5 different alternate takes of a keyboard solo. Every time someone even asks a question while on the clock is at least another 5 minutes of studio time, and usuallly more. Ask the questions and get as many answers as you can before you go in.

HTH,

G.
Click to expand...


thanks, that is some very good advice. that may call for a new thread in the songwriters forum " techniques to learning the words to a song " i usually pre record in my home and then listen to the cd over and over until i know all of the words. yeah, i'm going to definitely keep my questions to a minimum. i remember i once was in a studio and the guy would completely stop what he was doing, swing his chair around and carefully answer my questions. the whole while i was looking at his lips moving and the second hand ticking lol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top