What's Your advice for rookie musicians first time in the Studio?

[madhermit]

Hi All

I am trying to put together a list of the most common stumbling blocks that rookie musicians commit/expect when they enter into a pro recording project for the first time.

Things like...
Make sure your guitars are intonated.
Tune your instruments constantly.
Don't run your guitar through 10 pedals unless you are using them all at once.
Don't expect crappy drums with old crappy skins to sound like "Cannons".

I am curios if we all end up telling them the same things.

[donsolo]

Leave the girlfriends at home.

Know your tunes in and out or be ready to pay.

Just because some band did it, doesn't mean that everyone sounds good through an SM58.

Don't be Kanye West.

Don't stay up the night before.

Don't show up drunk/stoned/spun etc.

Don't get drunk/stoned/spun etc there.

Don't bring your Peavey practice amp. It won't sound amazing...

And probably bringing your 3 Marshall stacks won't be a good idea either.

Make sure you've got directions to get there.

Don't forget to fill your tank.

It's probably going to be expensive to WRITE your songs in the studio.

Know how to play against a click track, here's an idea: Get a mentronome.

Make sure the drummer does the same.

If you're going to be the singer-songwriter that plays all the instruments, make sure you know how to play them.

Unless you're Radiohead, your Casio GM-set keyboard can probably stay home.

Don't noodle between takes, it's seriously annoying. We can still hear you play Stairway to Heaven in between takes.

Don't play Stairway to Heaven.

Don't forget to practice for like a year.

Don't expect drugs are going to be "cool" at the studio.

Don't drink milk/soda/coffee if you're a singer.

Don't bring your Vocal Coach if you two have NEVER worked on the song together.

Don't try to produce your own album. Seriously, it's annoying.

Don't bring your friends to look "cool"

Stop touching my mics, I put them where they were for a reason.

Don't steal any of the gear.

Don't prattle on and on if your drummer is tracking and you're in the control room. The engineer and producer need to hear the take.

Don't ever think "good enough" is reasonable.

Don't ever think the engineer can fix it. You played it wrong.

Don't focus on details. The guitar sounds thin right now for a reason.

If you don't know what you're talking about, stop talking shop. Just because you own an SM57 and an MBox does NOT make you anywhere near a professional engineer, let me work.

Don't think that there's a stupid question.

Don't assume.

Don't blame.

Don't waste time, it sucks for the engineer except he gets paid for it to suck.

I was serious about the girlfriends.

Turn the cell phone off, it's screw with the amps.

In fact, leave the cell phone home.

Play in tune.

Sing in tune.

Play in time.

Sing in time.

Don't suck so bad that you need 87 takes to just piece together a salvagable part.

In fact, minus the girlfriend thing, the most important is to not suck.

[PapillonIrl]

If you can't play as well as you know you can play the way the engineer tells you to play...

Say it to him !

90% of the time, as long as you can identify the problem (usually monitoring) with language he/she can understand...he will want/try to resolve it.

I know there is those 10% feckers tho...I've been on the receiving end of it.

Describing what everybody needs to hear/experience to perform the way you are used to can be tricky...but it can be done.

If they have a big room with high ceilings, ask to play together with baffles between players if thats what you need. Don't listen to the 'Too much bleed' argument.

If you have to play with headphones, ask to get the most offensive instrument turned down rather than the one you want to hear turned up.

Sorry for rant. Pet peeve. Green bands sound alot better playing together in my experience.

Nathan

[SK1]

Sombody give don solo a hug. Sounds like you've been through alot man.

#1 Leave your excuses at the door.


I see too many rookies come in the door and make an excuse right away ... tutt

traffic .... problems at home ..... tired ........ whatever .......

I say walk in ready to work and have fun baby

be ready to get through some inevitable problems.

[heyman]

Dont Fart in the control room..

[PapillonIrl]

Originally Posted by heyman

Dont Fart in the control room..

I gotta put that on the door of the CR...

[bloodstone]

Make sure the engineer understands that he's in a service profession and you are in charge.

Don't let the studio get away with being lazy.

Leave enough time for overdubs and mixes. At the very least divide the session in thirds.

Stay hydrated.

Put new heads on the drums and new strings on the guitars, but break them in.

Don't let the studio people talk you out of something you're convinced you want to do.

Whenever they say "that doesn't work" tell them you want to try it anyway.

Intonation and tuning of instruments is key!

Have fun and try not to watch the clock too much. Try to capture some passion and emotion.

Don't let them tell you "we can fix it in the mix".

[MACHINE]

If you're a singer balance and spread out your takes as much as possible so you're voice doesn't rot, and try to get it right the first time, even if you have to concentrate for 10 minutes before the take, your voice is most important and it is the most senstive instrument you have.

[donsolo]

Aparently, my experiences have been different.

I've never had some engineer say to me "We can fix that" unless I was a hired gun.

In fact, I find that the engineers are the less obnoxious than the producer and musician.

I know time is money, especially in the studio but it's still going to cost you to re edit it to death in pro tools.

Maybe I'm just sick of local punk bands that just want, "I dunno, something we could sell at shows for like $3 each." They don't seem to realize that it costs about a buch a piece to actually make COPIES of the record.

I seriously had a band one time tell me, "I don't want it to sound too smooth, like, my favorite band just records with a boombox in the room."

At least that session went quick, they really just wanted a stereo mix of live stuff.

They didn't want to rack up more than $200 in time...And they wanted an entire CD.

And I was slow at the time so I was like "Alright, we'll figure it out."

So I pulled out my NT5s, plugged them into a Portastudio and pressed record with an SM58 coming in on input 3 and the bass being DI on 4.

Here's the best part, they wanted a copy of the CD-R and that was it.

None of this "I'll work on it at home." I got the crappy sound they wanted. They LIKED it sounding bad. After they did their first short run of like 100 copies, I told them that I would be getting rid of the backups. I will NEVER have to listen to this again. And they are cool with it.

If you were wondering, they were happy, they did like 16 songs in 10 hours.

Think about this for a second, 16 songs, 10 hours, that's right, 3 takes and we're done. Then I threw in additional time so we could listen to it all, do some bad "mastering" IE compressing it and dithering. Like they were going to pay to have this mastered. It also gave them a chance to pick which take they liked best.

They sucked so bad.

[FalconerHK]

Be sure to walk in telling your bandmates how cool it is that you stole a credit card to pay for the session.

Press lots of buttons - engineers really feel comfortable if you can convince them you know what you're doing.

Bring your "fan club" - girlfriends, drug dealers, drag worms, lotsters, little brothers with untreated ADHD, etc. for moral support - after all, you perform better with an audience, and the engineer will really appreciate their feedback.

Show your concern for the health and well-being of others by smoking pot ONLY in the vocal booth with the door tightly sealed. It's also a good idea to keep that bag of pork rinds in there, too. And also be sure to cough directly into the microphone - it helps the electronics "warm up".

Screaming to warm up your voice is a good idea. If it's good enough for Marilyn Manson, it's good enough for you.

Any instruments, amps, drums, tools, cables or other expensive items are there for you to play with at your convenience without asking. It's part of the hourly rate.

Be sure to dress up for your session. Wear the stained, torn jeans and t-shirt that smell the least like vomit.

Drink heavily the morning of your session. It'll help calm the butterflies and make for a much more enjoyable experience for everyone.

Don't take a dump for two or three days, then unleash it in the studio bathroom. You want to make sure your insides are completely clean, as it affects your diaphram and vocal power. In order to show everyone how clean your insides are, don't flush.

The back side of that perforated metal part of the microphone is where you put your chewing gum.

After the engineer has set up the microphones, be sure to "personalize" the arrangement to your visual approval.

[tedcrop]

don't go in with the attitude that you are the next big thing and you are going to be a huge rockstar.

don't get drunk or get high.

[7 Hz]

Don't bother turning up - studios are great places without musicians, and you probably suck harder than... well, you probably suck.

[donsolo]

but make sure to pay in advance, after all, we've got rent to pay

[cajonezzz]

Bring CASH.