My band is going into the studio!

[heath_r_91]

and not just any studio, we are going to Blacklodge, which is a pretty popular studio for pop/punk bands like us.

We are working with David Chutka.

Emery recorded there, Reggie and the Full Effect recorded there, Motion City Soundtrack has done stuff there, and two of the guys from the Get Up Kids own it.

We are booked for 20 hours and are wanting to get a 3 song demo done.

We are super stoked, just thought I'd share it with you guys.

I can't wait until this weekend!

If you guys have any tips feel free to help out.

[Old Cane]

1- be rehearsed
2- be on time
3- don't make a mess
4- don't waste time telling war stories but don't act like your heads are on fire either
5- be nice, even to each other

If you can come away with one good track as opposed to 3 so-so tracks do that. For your first time in settle for 1 good track and if there is time left get going on #2 and so on. I guess I keep saying: plan on 1. If you get more that's great. If you plan on 3 and get less you'll be disappointed. If you plan for 1 and get 3 or 4 it's like putting on your jacket and finding a $50 in the pocket.

[bkbirge]

There's no reason you can't get 3 high quality rock/punk/pop demos done in 20 hours. Here's some guidelines for you, take 'em or leave 'em but you should think about all of them.

1. Take all your gear.
2. If you have a vital sound in your head that you know how to get then insist on it.
3. If you don't like something then speak up, this is your music, only you can understand your final vision, the staff is there to assist you in achieving it.
4. For the bassplayer: Have your amp mic'd and also use a DI, to 2 separate tracks.
5. Listen to the experience of the engineer and be willing to try things outside of your comfort zone.
6. Take CD's that you like and make the engineer listen to them, tell him/her what you like and don't like about particular songs/mixes.
7. Take frequent ear breaks, 10 minutes out of every hour when mixing. Listen to the mixes on several speaker systems and several volume levels, and don't crank it for hours on end.
8. Practice your ass off and bring tuners.
9. Offer to buy lunches for the engineer. You might get a break on time.
10. Refrain from all drugs/drinking during the entire session. Even a minor buzz is not good, it messes up your ears and decision making.
11. If you want "rough" tapes be prepared to take the time to do them. And don't pass them around to anyone outside of the band.
12. If you go over budget and you can't pay, you don't get the tapes, keep that in mind. At least that's the policy I've always had after being burned one too many times.
13. Rule of thumb: Plan to spend 1/3 time doing basic tracks, 1/3 time doing overdubs, and 1/3 time doing mixes. The more time you can have for mixing the better it will all turn out.
14. Gear and sonic purity is secondary to performance. Do whatever you need to in order to get comfortable in the studio so you can gel and can perform. That means you need to see and hear the other bandmates clearly when playing together. If you can't stand headphones, don't wear 'em, use monitors instead.

[bassplayertom77]

Pray to god your drummer doesn't have a heavy high-hat hand.

[heath_r_91]

Originally Posted by bassplayertom77

Pray to god your drummer doesn't have a heavy high-hat hand.

may I ask why?

[heath_r_91]

bump?

[bassplayertom77]

IME, a light snare hand and a heavy high hat can really wash out the sound of drums, which I think are crucial for a good recording.

[heath_r_91]

ah, I see what you mean now.

This guy is the most balanced drummer I've ever worked with, and he is like a living metronome. Very rare you find someone like that, and to top it off, he's a very laid back nice guy.

This band just seems to be so right after going through about 6 bands in the last year or so.

[The Golden Boy]

I tried a recording studio diary.

I didn't do too good at it, but here:

My Recording Studio Diary

[The Golden Boy]

I think the best bit of advice of anything I wrote in that thread is:

"I don't know if anyone else does this, but every single time I go into the studio to do more than 2 songs, the first two songs- after every take you want to go out and listen to it. It never fails. Even if you KNOW you or the rest of the band played crappy, you still want to listen to it. If you're on a budget- you may wish to discipline yourself not to do that. After the first two songs you kind of calm down and know to start over or run another take."

Keep that in mind.

Another thing- things WILL go wrong. Roll with it and don't get upset or flustered.

Don't get liquored up while you're doing it. That's not going to turn out good.

[LuckyCondlins]

we are actually going to record a couple of songs this weekend as well!

BUT, its not a studio its a "studio" meaning my buddy steve from big D and the room in his house where they record some demos.

the actual studio is a couple months away.

its going to be fun, but not going to have the real studio feel when your dealing with a friend and someone you know and not some tech you don't.

we shall C

[TheGrizz]

Good luck, man! I've always wanted to go to Black Lodge, but it's too far away haha(someday we'll get there). My band just cut a new album at Skyboro Sound in North Adams, MA. It's a really rad studio. We tracked 10 songs in 27 hours. We were in the studio from noon to 9pm for three days. Just make sure you guys are nice and tight and you'll be good.

Can't wait to hear you stuff.

[skywalkerla5]

[quote=heath_r_91;6410502]Emery recorded there, Reggie and the Full Effect recorded there, Motion City Soundtrack has done stuff there, and two of the guys from the Get Up Kids own it.

I love Emery! That's really a sweet place to record. Best of luck to you!

[Clank]

Some great advice here. I'd just add that you should all use the SAME tuner in the studio.

[heath_r_91]

Just thought I'd give you guys an update now that I've gotten some sleep! ha ha

Recording went very good. David Chutka did an awsome job, I'd recommend him to everyone.

We didn't quite make our quota of 3 songs, but we got very close. Granted, we also didn't skimp on anything, if something wasn't perfect, we redid it.

Drums took 9 hours (seemed long but they sound AWSOME!). I nailed all my bass tracks down in 3 hours (every song took just under an hour!) which I thought I did very well on that. Guitar took about 4 hours, which I thought was pretty average.

We did two 10 hour sessions, so the first day was all drums because David had to edit drums and such.

We got all of the acoustic guitar parts and a few of the keyboard parts done, as well as some vocals and screams.

So, overall, I don't think we did too bad at all. I was very proud of myself on being able to absolutely nail my parts so quickly, as was the engineer.

As I said before, we are going to go in for one more day to get keyboard, vocals, and screams done.

I took a lot of video while we were recording so I plan on editing it to make it look cool and putting one of our songs on it and possibly uploading it to youtube or the likes. I'll be sure to let you guys know when I get that up, I know at least a few of you would like to see the studio.

I loved it!

[qunndo]

4 hours isn't bad at all for guitar really considering you probably would have doubled up his tracks and then done over dubs?

Anyway look forward to hearing some of it.

[heath_r_91]

no, we didn't double up guitar.

However, on all the guitar, bass, and drums we recorded it and punched in so everything was flawless.

We are treating it like a debut cd, we don't want it to be like the typical cheap sounding ep, it will sound like 3 songs off of your favorite bands major label release album.

We are stoked about it all, after one more day we will have everything down solid and we'll have something that we wont have to tell people "yeah, it was really good except for (insert something here)" We want it to be something we can be really proud of and not have to make any excuses for.

I'll be sure to post some of the pictures and video I grabbed once we have everything edited!

[Dave R]

My one suggestion is have the vocalist do a working vocal while you record the instrument tracks. Helps everyone respond more uniformly. And you just get a more emotional sound.