What musicians should know before take their first recording session...

  • Thread starter Thread starter James Argo
  • Start date Start date
...and know how to get to the studio :)

I was recording a band at my house and they lived on the other side of the state...

just as they were pulling into the driveway ...they weren't exactally sure it was the right drive way... the car carrying all the musicians rearended the pickup carrying all the equipment :) the car radiator was ripped open and had to be towed from my house in northeast Columbus, OH to Dayton, OH ...wasted about two hours too :P and it was a freebie because it was my second band...
 
Oh yeah...if I forgot to mention it, you should bring a tuner.
 
...Singers should get practise singing in tune with a pair of headphone. Many singers get used to sing with wide open ears. It's a bit difficult to sing on the right tune with headphones if you don't get used to it.
;)
 
wear sweats, bring lots of water and no one has mentioned a good blanket and pillow to sleep..practice a couple hours a day for studio work, I have had blood blisters and had to put electrical tape over my fingers (bass) but that has not been a problem since. oh and also don't get drunk of do drugs, I don;t care what anyone says, you WILL suck and the sad thing is you will think you sound awsome. Trust me I have engineered a few bands like that.

clif
 
...Check how many tracks they got on their machine. At least a week before the session, make a decission how to share their limited tracks. How many track the drumer got, how many track the guitar, keyboard, vox, etc... You obviously don't wanna leave the singer only 1 track left while the song needs backin' vox..
 
Same with construction or repair..... count on it taking twice as long and costing twice as much. Don't set up the studio session thinking you are going to make the 8:00 blowning fest after. Leave the whole day for the studio.

Be receptive to the engineers advice. His/her suggestions are generally creative and based on practical expierience.

Cocky gets you nowhere hard and fast.

Do NOT pretend to bullshit as if you know as much about the studio's gear as the engineer does. Believe it or not, the dude DOES know how to work it without your handy tips.

Don't gobble up productive time asking questions as to what each button does.

And be prepared to accept that in most cases each track is recorded all by itself. Very rare that the whole gang is going to play a tune as if its a bar or club. Lots and lots of tracking. Be sure the boys all know, and can operate........alone.
 
Get used to the idea that you are not in control.

The producer and engineer(s) know far more about the studio and the equipment in it than you do. They probably know far more about your equipment than you do.

Do as they ask - they will seem to have a zillion things to do that make you wait.

You are going to make mistakes.

When you make a mistake, don't stop playing. It may be the perfect take except for that one little glitch that can be overdubbed.

You need to know your stuff so well you don't have to think about it. If you have to think about what you're playing, you will sound tight and stiff.

The other band members are going to make mistakes. When they do, giving them a hard time is not going to help them.

Try to relax and have fun.

foo
 
if you are a 16 year old drummer please don't tell thee nubs things like "MY drums don't ring" because thee nubs might say something like "look young buckaroo i've been doing this for 20 years and i'll tell you what, your drums ring." and then they'll say something like "well MY drums don't ring." after things go around like this for a shortwhile then thee sweetnubs might be inclined to say "ok you are the boss" and start tracking. then later on when we come to mix the drummer might say something like "what's wrong with my kick" and thee nubs will say something like "sounds like it's ringing, eh?" then you might turn bright red and throw a temper tantrum. then nubs will ask "you want to retrack? we are going to have to retrack everything all over again because tempos won't match, it's going to be kind of expensive." of course if thee nubs pushed the issue earlier or just mic'd a little differerntly or perhaps use a little parametric action on it, etc. i could've maybe fixed it, but where would the fun be in that?
 
...and nubz complains about losing business to home studios

...hmmm :)

well to get technical... drums are _supposed_ to ring. they should use V-drums if they don't want ringy drums...

but then noOOO you get weird newbie drummers who think they can tune their entire set by ear in less than an hour....I have a hard time doing mine in a day with a tension watch... and THEN there's the retards who break a cymbol the day before a session and replace it with a Sabian B8 (bait) and wonder why it sounds funny... (if you cut out everything above 18khz they go from sounding bad to sounding funny :) )

no different then those asshole engineers who put you on used tape :P
 
I've only been in a "real studio" once and then only to add some guitar and back up vocals. I think the people I went with did almost everything wrong, first we weren't well rehearsed, second no one had ever even been in a studio before, 3rd the bass player had never practiced with the rest and had no idea how any of the songs went, 4th the main vocalist had a cold, 5th the back up singers had no idea of what "on key" ment, 6th we didn't even have a drummer (a guy at the studio dubbed in a basic beat later) , 7th we had more guests hanging around than musicians, 8th tension was so thick you could have cut it with a knife, 9th we tried to cut an entire album in one day(out of 10 songs only 3 came out worth listening to and they could have been better) 10th haly of the people thought tyey knew more than the tech about how this or that should have been done, yes they knew how they wanted their part to sound but the tech knew his equipment and how to get it to reproduce the sounds better than any of the musicians/singers. I don't guess this helps much with the what to do but if you want to add some definate thinhs to not do this should give you a good start. The best advice I can give to anyone, whether it's their first trip to a studio or if they are an old pro is to simply BE PREPAIRED or else it wont go the way you expect it to. Dani
 
i remember this one time me and a couple friends decided that we should go to a studio and record coal chamber's loco and since it's and easy song we thought that we can go learn the song at the studio in one hour and than have one hour to record it

well needless to say it came out like someone stuck a mic up his butt and ran up and down the stairs. not only that but the bassist didn't show up so it made it even worse

that wasn't the advice that's coming up now

bring a waterboy it might sound stupid but it works for me espesially if the studio doesn't have anything for you todrink or munch on
 
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