Preparation Tips Before Entering the Recording Studio

 Preparing to enter the studio is almost as important as what your going to record. So I have some preperation tips that will help you get the most of your studio time. 

1.Practice

This may seem a little self explanatory but I feel I need to emphasize this. Some times you need to play the tracks that you will be recording for a good 6 months without any problems before it feels natural enough to come in the studio and get the most out of that studio time. The last thing you want to do is when its time to cut the tracks, have to do them over and over again without any usable takes. The goal is to get as good as performance as possible so you don’t take as much time editing, thats when it gets expensive.

2.Don’t try and handle everything your self

Sometimes doing all the work will take the focus out of what your trying to accomplish. Let other people that your trust help focus on certain points that way you can focus on a task and perfect it. Trying to control every aspect of the project also will drain your focus and passion very quickly, do like a good manager does and delegate tasks.

3.Collaborate

This one goes with don’t try and handle everything yourself. Surround your self with experts that have experience. Pick their brains and get work with them on different ideas. This ranges from writing to arranging to production ideas, to mixing and mastering. Don’t be the person that writes, sings, engineers, produces, mixes and masters their own album. With past experiences I have found that when you try and do this you become tired of the same tracks and you lose focus on the end result. Having other sets of ears and different ideas to the songs then you can get a great project built up of several people’s ideas.

4.Bring Supplies

Prepare your self like your going to run a marathon, make sure you have everything you need and get plenty of sleep and have plenty of food and water. Make sure you have everything you need for the session like hard drives, drum heads and sticks, guitar strings, picks, or make sure that you arrange the studio to have something you need for the session like session musicians. Make sure you get plenty of sleep the night before, a session can take the energy right out of you. Make sure you bring food, snacks, water or drink to keep your self going and hydrated. This will make sure that you can be alert and making great use of your time in the studio.

5.Have Preproduction Meetings With Studio

One of the best things you can do is have preproduction meetings with your band, session musicians, the studio, any engineers or producers helping you. Getting thing planned like making sure you have time to bring in equipment and setup are vital. Some studios may even help you out, like bringing in a drum set the night before and having them set it up and mic it so your ready to walk in a track. working arrangements out for studio musicians and making sure they are well prepared to get in the studio and lay down solid tracks are key to not spending a ton of time in the studio and paying for that session player. Set up meeting with your engineers. maybe give them scratch tracks you can use for preforming, giving them information to setup sessions before hand so your not doing that during your session. 

These are all keys to preparing your self and making use of your studio time. The more time you efficiently use the easier it is on your pocket and the more time you have to get your album or track perfect.