About to Enter Recording Studio for First Time- Need Help!

I'm sure there are hundreds of people on this forum who have actual experience in a recording studio. My Band Clones of Sam (Shameless plug) is about to enter the recording studio for the first time and I for one do not have a clue what I am doing in the studio. I've read some basic tips, like making sure I know what tempo each song should be, practicing nonstop before hand, etc. but am looking for some more tips. Found a good article here as a starting point:

Preparing for the Recording Studio

I've only been in a recording studio once.. but I'd say the biggest thing is to have everything worked out down to the last decimal place. Particularly things that would otherwise be done as improvisation when playing live, such as the guitar solos and other instruments' solos. Every time you do another take, you are wasting money. Each band member needs to be able to play their own parts separately, with accuracy, each and every time.

You also might want to plan whether you are going to try and play it all "live" or play each track separately or some combination of this. By live, I mean that all the instruments play at the same time, just like if you were playing live. You record the entire track in one go. The other method is to record one track first, may be with the help of other instruments to accompany that person. So let's say you want to get the drum track down first.. then you might need for the rhythm player playing to help the drummer keep to the song structure or whatever.

Originally Posted by: light487I've only been in a recording studio once.. but I'd say the biggest thing is to have everything worked out down to the last decimal place. Particularly things that would otherwise be done as improvisation when playing live, such as the guitar solos and other instruments' solos.

This is for the most part true, but the part about solos is more of an opinion. I find it best when soloing to have a few main points to the solo but then improvise the stuff in between. Then do a few takes of it to see which on you think turned out/fits the song best.

Originally Posted by: light487I've only been in a recording studio once.. but I'd say the biggest thing is to have everything worked out down to the last decimal place. Particularly things that would otherwise be done as improvisation when playing live, such as the guitar solos and other instruments' solos. Every time you do another take, you are wasting money. Each band member needs to be able to play their own parts separately, with accuracy, each and every time.

You also might want to plan whether you are going to try and play it all "live" or play each track separately or some combination of this. By live, I mean that all the instruments play at the same time, just like if you were playing live. You record the entire track in one go. The other method is to record one track first, may be with the help of other instruments to accompany that person. So let's say you want to get the drum track down first.. then you might need for the rhythm player playing to help the drummer keep to the song structure or whatever.

With that last part, do you mean kind of like you could have the lead guitarist record his solo track, but have the rhythm guitarist play with him, but not record the rhythm guitarist?

Been in studios loads of times - the BEST advice I can give besides knowing your parts well enough to play in your sleep is:
- record the giuiar parts at home to a click in a sequencer - burn them down to a cd individually as wav files (mono). Make sure they are all exactly the correct length and start at exactly the right time (easy mistake to make).
Bring the disk to the studio and get the engineer to import them to ProTools or Nuendo and use them as your scratch tracks. This will save a lot of time.
- Have the drummer listen to the backing tracks (from your cd) prior to going to the studio. Make sure he listens to them and knows exactly how things should be so when he sits down with it on his headphones he can record straight away.
- When you get the drums down first and in perfect time, then add the bass, then rhythm guitars, accents and harmonies, then the lead, then the vocals. When the drums are down you can use the scratch gutiar stracks as a reference (either play along with them or refer back if you lose your place)
- The best way to get things right is for everone to play their parts individually - this way there is less of a chance of mistakes being made and you can do multiple drop-ins if needed to get a parts right (drums included)
- Make sure you stick to the schedule the engineer advises otherwise you will have no time left at the end to do a proper mix.
- Also very important to bring a cd along that is as close to the sound you want as possible so the engineer knows what to aim for (this will change of course but will get things kick started eg the Black album by Metallica or whatever).
- Have all guitars strung up with new strings and pre-stretched for at least 3 days before going in (otherwise you willwast a lot of time tuning up). Have your amp settings written down and photographed before going in so you don't get messed up - then photograph the amp and mic placements in the studio along with the final amp settings in case you go back another time and want to get the same sound. Also bring a notebook and jot down the basic EQ settings and effects that engineer uses to achieve the various tones (eg Eventide Eclypse preset 200 'Dersert Wave' for the lead guitar).
Hope that helps, there's loads more but if you stick with the above you should be able to get down to business pretty quickly. How many tracks you recording and how long is the session? Is the track complicated or simple? Can you all play it from the top without making any mistakes?

Excellent post Superhuman......Especially regarding having your gear and settings ready to go.........
I personally don't play what is to be recorded the day entering the studio. Rather, I find a cover song or two that closely matches the tempo(s) of what's being recorded and warm-up over that. For me, it brings a freshness to the recorded material. There is no such thing as "Perfect" in my world. Taking the chance laying down a section or track can create interesting tidbits to the song that weren't planned or sound overly rehearsed........ After the rough draft is available for review, then final decisions can be made.
Good luck..

Here's an article courtesy of Jeff Cripps, from A# Sharp Recording Studio, Sydney:
http://asai.goldwebsites.net/whatnottodo

Great link there Light, some very sound advice on there - been down a few of those pitfalls before over the years including the whole band getting totally wasted in the studio (the recording sounded exactly like a load of drunk guys messing about) and bringing a load of girls in - terrible idea because they got bored quickly and we got ultra self-conscious, not very good for the mojo. I also recently went with an engineer who wasnt into the music I liked at all, the guy hated metal - the result was the most expensive yet sorriest sounding track I've ever done... ('Epiphany studio mix' in my sig file) - the guy was into folk music and 80's electro and had zero clue about how to create a guitar sound. I thought it would be great becuase he worked with some really big bands including Snow Patrol but it ended up being a complete disaster. Another mistake I am almost always guilty of is of not atually having the track finished when I go in so I end up writing half the arrangement there as its being recorded and have to improvise and jam the solos (pretty much the case on all of my studio tracks except the aforementioned 'Epiphany') - unless you're good at working on the fly that could be the worst mistake ever, luckily for me I work best under pressure!

I have been in the studio a few times and the the best advise i can give is this seeing as these where things i wish i had done.
Get use to practicing with a metranome! cannot stress that enough, that caught me with my pants down because i was not use to it. i was getting more distracted trying to listen to the click then my acuall playing. since then i have learned to be one with mr.click and recording has been more or less a brezze since then.

Get it tight! you and your fellow band mates should practice like its going out of style! you have to know what your doing with u get in that padded room especially if its a group recording beacuse one slip up or one mistake and its take one all over again!

and finally try not to let your nervers get to you. the first time i was in the studio i got so frustrated because i couldnt nail some parts. its annoying but like that other dude mentioned recording your guitar first is probaly a good idea.
P.s CAFFINE OR ALCOHOL DO NOT HELP YOU PLAY BETTER!

caffine can help get you amped up and creative (it does for me, at least) and helps you want to jam until 4 in the morning, but doesn't help much in the way of your playing. i often make the claim that caffine makes me play better, but what i realize is that i'm often so jumpy and tense while playing that my speed doesn't make up for my head being in the clouds.


but i think we can all agree that boozing it up isn't going to help you at all in a studio.


i do all my recording at home and i have a pretty decent setup for what i need it for, so i have actually never paid for studio time. my buddy works at a studio in CT and we're planning to lay a few things down there in a few months, so it will be a cool experience!

Remember to take into account the setup, tape costs and mixdown time.
The first few times I went into a studio I was surprised that the drums could take a couple of hours to setup and get rid of squeaks and rattles.
Then getting the levels right & mic placement etc.. we were usually taking several hours to set everything up properly
If you want to keep your session, you have to buy the tape too... another thing that surprised me since I figured it was included in the cost.
If you want a pro mix you'll need to get it mastered as well.

Tape is very handy allright, I usually get the engineer to burn down a dvd of all of the wav files at 44Khz @ 32bit float to import into other applications BUT the problem is the time it takes to burn each track down. This can take up to an hour and a half alone because each file is in the region of +50MB and in any given track including drums, layered guitars etc you could end up with 35 track in no time.
Kevin made a very valid point about set up times to. Mic'ing a cab/amp takes a minimum of an hour if you are lucky. The more professional a recording you are going for the longer it takes. Metallica for example would spend about a month getting their guitar tones together.
Basically, it's not as easy as going into the studio, pluggin up and hitting record - although I've tried that before too!
Re caffeine, I actually shred faster and can pull off more extreme improv when I'm loaded on a few mugs of strong black coffee. Everyones different I suppose...

Depends how the studio is set up.

However a crude mix burnt to CD as an mp3 or a wav file should not take very long. Some studios still use DAT for the final mix, so having a couple of spare DAT tapes kicking around is a good idea.

When Im doing a project for people I like, I encourage then to bring an empty big HDD to the last session and I copy everything over for them. Than said most of my friends wont part with tracking data until the bill is settled. This is good for me as it frees up disk space for another project and I am no longer responsible for there data ! It is god for the bad as they can get stuff remixed any time they want !

Other helpful stuff...

know you tracks inside out

keep an open mind

have an idea about how you want stuff to sound but remember to be be flexible

lose any and all attitude, if you upset studio staff they will not try there hardest for you.

turn up sober

make sure you have spare strings, your ams etc all work

and have fun mate, sounds like it should be a blast !