When you ultimately do pick the perfect studio, one that you feel confident at, there’s a certain routine that must be followed in order to get the best performance and the best recording for your budget.
Tune Your Instruments. This also includes your drums and any tunable percussion instruments you’ll have. There is nothing at all worse in the world than to have a perfectly written song with an ideal performance be ruined because somelazy one didn’t take an extra two mins to test their tuning. Tuning takes 1 or 2 minutes ; a recording lasts fora lifetime.
Be well practiced. You will be shocked how many bands suffer when they get the final bill. The main reason for this is because they confuse practice time with studio time. Rehearse at home, in the garage, at your uncle’s house ; anywhere but at the recording studio. When you arrive at the studio, you need to know your pieces perfectly and be prepared for the red light.
Practice with a metronome. A lot of drummers not able to play with a metronome. Make sure drummer can. A click track is critical in getting a good basic beat that the remainder of the band can lock in to, and to sync-up loops and delay speed.
Be Early. Many studios start charging the customers at the precise time that the the agreement states. Simply because you make a decision to show up late, doesn’t mean that the studio should give up that time for nothing. Be early and be in a position to go. Not only that it’s disrespectful for your band mates.
Get the sounds right. Never, ever try to fix it in the mix. It does not work like that. Take an extra few mins to change the sound before laying it down. tweak that knob, tighten that drumhead, have another sip of water. Remember again, changing may take an extra minute, but the recording will last for all time.
Know when to stop. Recording regularly leads to diminishing returns. Spending 20} in a row at the recording session isn’t going to make your song twice as good as spending ten hours. This rule also applies to mixing. If you’re beat, call the session and come back the subsequent day awake and ready.
Record alone. Don’t bring your friends, family moms and pops or anybody else into your sessions. As fun as it could be, you are there to perform a job and record the best music possible. If you are a millionaire, then by all possible means, have a do at the studio, but do not rely on getting something done.
Mix and match. After letting the engineer do the 1st coarse cut (which he should ) do an A / B comparison of your mix to some of your favorite CDs. Remember that the professional CDs you are listening to have recently been mastered. But it’s a good way to compare equalization and panning.
Bring spares. Always bring spare strings, drum heads, bass strings, water bottles, throat lozenges, etc to a session. You may always need the sole thing you did not remember to bring, so carry it all and leave them at the studio till your recordings are finished.
Have a good time! This is the most important reason of all. Making and recording music isn’t rocket science. Though there is a science concerned, you should let the engineer stress about that. If you are not having a great time, then you are in the wrong business! http://www.micsandmoreonline.com