So you’ve got your songs, the band is ready, and you are about to enter a recording studio to professionally capture your songs.

But before you enter a studio, there are some things you should understand. Your time is money! It is vitally important that you understand how to save time where you can, in order to reinvest those minutes and hours into the song itself. Perhaps you have never been in a professional recording studio before. Perhaps you are a seasoned professional. Take some time and make sure you are following these few simple tips in order to get the most out of your precious studio time. 

The Length of your Album:

A professional studio is a thing of beauty. Before entering it you need to assess your budget and figure out exactly how long you can afford to be there. Don’t sell yourself or your band short by not having adequate finances for your studio endeavor. Ask yourself whether you are going to create a full length album or perhaps a smaller project such as an EP is better suited for you.

This may sound simplistic, but many bands simply gloss over the above tip. If you don’t spend some serious time considering what the appropriate length of your album should be, there is absolutely no way you can gage your finances. The negative effect of all this comes back to the quality of your music - nobody wants a rushed sounding, sloppy, or under-produced recording..especially when you're paying good money for the time.  If your project size has been reasonably determined, everything else will fall into place.

Determine Tempo's beforehand:

The thought of adjusting the tempo of your song SHOULD NOT come after you have already recorded all the tracks.  Once you have selected the appropriate number of songs, you need to do some important prep work before you begin. I’m not talking here about practicing and polishing your compositions, that goes without saying.  However, in each of your practice sessions or live performances, you have no doubt played these songs at slightly different tempos.

Spend some valuable time playing with the band to a metronome and figuring out the perfect tempo for each song.  If you have never been in a studio before, one of the first questions a sound engineer will ask you is what tempo you want him to set the recording tempo.

From personal experience, when I first entered a recording studio as a younger musician, I LOST hours of recording time because the engineer refused (and most will) to start recording until you have decided the temp in terms of beats per minute. Simple rule- plan ahead in this respect and you will save even more time in that studio.

Get Comfortable:

Face it- you are going to be maximizing your hours and your studio will become your home for a short time. You would be shocked to see how many musicians and band are ill prepared for the studio environment.

While the studio is exciting and will require great playing, you are NOT playing a live gig, so don’t dress up like you are. Be comfortable in your clothing and remember that most studios are chilled with AC! Dress warm and drink lots of water. These suggestions may sound stupid but I promise you they will bring out the best in your recording sessions and you should take them seriously.

Being Open Minded:

Most studios have a ton of equipment and gear at your disposal. I always suggest experimenting with some of the weird equipment lying around. The tip is to not ever lock yourself into your own equipment, sound, effects pedals, etc.

The studio environmental breeds creativity. Capture it and allow the studio to take your songs and creativity to the next level. You are paying for this expensive equipment, so never be shy about using it!

Perfection Doesn’t Exist:

While the above tips suggest getting the most out of your recording experience, you must always realize that a perfect recording is seldom ever achieved. At some point, you must make important decisions and decide that you must move on.

Additionally, most studios will allow you to take home a master copy of the recording. This master CD can be taken home and if you have some knowledge with ProTools, Cubase, etc., you may be able to tweak the fine details of your recording session. Keep in mind, some of the best and most famous recordings, (Led Zep, Jimi, The Doors) have magical moments in their recordings which were not planned and added to the character of the recordings.

If these moments happen in your recording session, appreciate them and capitalize on them.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 7:03 pm and is filed under Recording. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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