Studio Recording
Planning to Record
When it comes to studio recording, you and your band have some decisions to make. The primary things that will influence your choices will be budget, time, aesthetic, and purpose.
Prior to booking your recording please think about the following questions so that we can best serve the needs of your band and provide you with the best recording possible within the realm of your budget, time restraints, aesthetic, and purpose. We want you to walk away completely happy with your recording. Proper planning will help ensure that you do.
1. Why are you recording?
Is the final product of your recording going to be a free demo, a full length album, an EP, a single, ect. Your answer will help determine the length of time you need to complete your project.
2. What is the style of music?
Different genres and musical styles will take different amounts of time to complete and the recording process will vary. Know what you are so that our engineers can make accurate aesthetic decisions for your specific project. Give us names of bands whose sound you’d like to resemble. For instance, you might like Weezer’s snare sound, Hank III’s guitar tone, Pennywise’s bass, and Cher’s vocal effects. If you want something unlike anything you’ve ever heard, let us know and we can experiment!
What it comes down to is that you know your music better than anyone and it will make it much easier for us to find your sound if you know what your sound is.
3. What is your budget?
No one wants to spend more money than they have to on anything, but depending on what you want, you will have to make some financial and aesthetic decisions.
We have had 28 song albums recorded, mixed, mastered, and out the door in only 2 eight hour sessions. We have also spent the same amount of time (or more) recording a single songs. Knowing your budget will help us make decisions that will effect your recording. Obviously, the higher your budget, the more time you will be able to put into your project.
Decisions on overdubbing, mixing style, mastering technique, and total number of recorded tracks will be affected by your budget.
4. How much time do you need? How much time are you willing to spend?
Generally speaking, the bigger the project, the more time you will need to complete it, or at least the more time you SHOULD take to complete it.
If you are very well-rehearsed and can play your part exactly right in one to three takes, you may not need need as much time as you would if you need to take five or ten takes of your parts. Therefore, if time and budget is an issue, practice a lot and have a good idea of what you are going to play before coming into the studio.
You will also save time and money by scheduling more than one day at a time. For instance, let’s say if you want to record 6 songs over 2 days of recording and each song has drums. It will take at least an hour to set up microphones for a drum kit, so by scheduling those 2 sessions back to back and leaving the drums set-up overnight, you will save yourself an extra hour of time. We also offer incentives if you book back to back recording sessions, which will also save you some money.
Also keep in mind that our schedule is generally booked up at least a couple weeks in advance, so if you only book one session at a time it could take you months to finish your recording project.
If you have a big project and it is a priority to get it done in a timely manner, plan to take some time off to get it done. It will be worth it in the end.
Preparing for the Studio
Below is a list of things to bring and a couple of things to consider doing before recording day.
Bring with you…
- Extra Strings
- Extra Drum Sticks
- Fresh Guitar Picks
- Guitar Tuner
- Extra Music Stands (if you need them)
- If you are bringing your own drums, TUNE THEM and tune them well. Fresh heads will help a lot, but slightly worn (non-abused) heads that are well-tuned are generally just as good. I cannot emphasize this enough. TUNE! TUNE! TUNE YOUR DRUMS! For the love of God. Please. Tune your drums. Lube your kick pedal, too.
- Have new strings on your guitars and bass and don’t be cheap about it. Buy good strings and lightly play them for about a half hour to stretch them out so they don’t go out of tune in the middle of a song.
- Decide whether you will play to a click track or not. If you play to a click, overdubbing will be easier and more accurate and you overall timing will be better, but some people think it sounds too mechanical. If you chose not to play to a click, you may have timing issues and your songs will probably sound more live (good or bad depending on aesthetic). Nonetheless, if you want to play to a click, practice to a metronome before coming to the studio and know what the tempo of each song is. This will save you a lot of time and confusion during recording.
- Have your songs well-written and know what you are going to play. If you need to hear yourself back a few times to get that song perfect, we suggest getting a mini-recorder and recording your practices or coming into the studio for a rehearsal recording before your actual session.
- Try not to come to the studio hung over or on drugs; you won’t enjoy it as much and your recording will suffer. Go to sleep early the night before. I promise that you will have fun at the studio. You can stay up late and celebrate afterwards.
- Show up on time.