Hello and welcome to this week's article!
Today we're going to talk about the 4 most important things to do BEFORE going into the studio, to make a good record!
1) Have the musicians learn the songs BEFORE starting recording!!
This is intuitive, yet some band still walks into a studio with just one member or two that has a clear idea of the song structures. The others sometimes just barely knows their own parts, and sometimes they also need, when tracking, some other band member that tells them the parts of the song or the chord changes IN REAL TIME. This is just a waste of time, money, and it's almost impossible, even for the most skilled engineers, to fix in the mix.
2) Prepare the instruments for the studio:
Another widely overlooked topic. When I have to record a band, the first thing that I ask them, before starting, is to go to a luthier (or to do it themeselves if they are good) and to change the strings and set the octaves on their string instrument.
Basically, before recording, an instrument requires a full setup.
When I hear "well, I don't have the money, I don't need it, the bass just sounds good this way", and other excuses... I already know that the tracking session will be a struggle, the string instruments will sound out of tune among them, and the album will sound DULL (and the dumbasses will blame me).
By the way, the drums should be tuned if possible by the drummer (there are a lot of good tutorials surfing the web), with a set of new skins, if the ones mounted are worn out.
The live sound of the drum should be as close as possible to the final result the drummer wants to achieve, it will MUCH easier to make it sound great!
3) The guys must know how to record with a click from WAY before getting into the studio:
The band that wants to record an album with today's standards, MUST record with a metronome, and the only way to record decently with a metronome is to exercise with it at home, and to have the metronome in the drummer's ear when rehearsing.
If the band starts tracking and nobody, or just the drummer, has any idea of what a metronome sounds like, there is 99% of the possibilities that the record will sound like crap, even with an inhuman editing work.
4) Have everything written down, even the details, to not improvise:
One of the worst mistakes that can be done when recording it's to think "it doesn't matter, I will improvise the solo when tracking", or "I don't know the vocal harmonies intervals, I'll sing what I will feel at the moment", or even "I sometimes insert variation when I play to give the record that LIVE feel".
If you find yourself saying one of those three things and you're not Dave Murray or Miles Davis, you should not enter the studio. You should go home and write down even when you should draw breath, then you can come back and record.
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