Recording Tips for Bands
When you eventually do pick the perfect studio, one that you feel comfortable at, there’s a certain routine that has to be followed to get the best performance and the best recording for your dollar.
Tune Your Instruments. This also includes your drums and any tunable percussion instruments you’ll have. There’s absolutely nothing worse in the world than to have a superbly written tune with an ideal performance be ruined because somebody didn’t take an extra two mins to test their tuning. Tuning takes a few minutes ; a recording lasts forever .
Be well practiced. You’ll be shocked how many bands suffer when they get the recording bill. The actual reason for this is because they confuse rehearsal time with recording time. Rehearse at home, in the garage, at your uncle’s house ; anywhere but at the recording studio. When you reach the studio, you must know your pieces thoroughly and be prepared for the red light.
Practice with a click track. A large amount of drummers aren’t able to play with a metronome. Ensure drummer can. A click track is essential in getting a good basic rhythm track that the rest of the band can groove to, and to time loops and delay speed.
Arrive on time. Many studios start charging their clients at the exact moment that the the agreement states. Because you make a decision to show up late, doesn’t mean the studio should give up that time for nothing. Be early and be ready to go. Not only that it’s disrespectful for your band buddies.
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 tweak the sound before recording it. Adjust that knob, tighten that drumhead, have another drink of water. Remember again, modifying may take an additional minute, but the recording will last for all time.
Know when to stop. Recording often leads to reducing returns. Spending hours} in a row at the recording studio isn’t about to make your song twice as good as spending 10 hours. This rule also applies to the mix down. If you are exhausted, call the session and come back the next day awake and prepared.
Record by yourselves. Don’t bring your friends, family , parents or any one else into your sessions. As fun as it could be, you are there to do a job and record the best music possible. If you are a millionaire, then by every means, have a party at the studio, but do not depend on getting much done.
Do comparisons. After letting the engineer do the 1st rough mix alone (which he should ) do an A / B comparison of your mix to some of your fave CDs. Recall 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’ll always need the most important thing you forgot to bring, so carry it all and leave them at the studio until your recordings are done.
Have a good time! This is the most significant reason of all. Creating and recording music isn’t rocket science. Though there’s a science involved, you need to let the studio professional fret about that. If you are not having a great time, then you are in the wrong business! http://www.micsandmoreonline.com
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 4:50 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.