Advice for my first time in the studio?

[Johnny V]

Hey everyone, I joined a band about 6 months ago who moved here(Austin) from Portland to find the rest of their band. Before they came out here they cut a really nice demo with a well known Portland producer, but now we want to have a demo that represents who we are now with the new drummer and I and our changing sound.

There are plenty of studios around Austin that are offering 10 hour blocks for $100, so I think we are going to try and get 40 hours of recording time. I'm really excited about all of this because i've only worked with home recording projects before and this will be a new experience for me. I was just wondering if there was any advice that ya'll could give me about how to make the sessions run as smoothly as possible, and any studio bass tricks would be much appreciated.

[bassteban]

Don't try to make an earth-shattering statement on the bass, just be solid & effective. Shake butts, don't drop jaws.
LISTEN to whoever's in charge/producing or anyone involved who has more experience than you(I've recorded half a dozen times, but I am NO expert).
Be prepared for it to come out nowhere near as good as you might think you are. It can be a very stark, lights-on, no airbrushing/photoshop picture of yourself fully naked.
The less processing, the better.
All of the above statements are based on my own time in studios & may or may not apply to others. Bottom line, you have 2 ears & 1 mouth; listen twice as much as you talk.
And have fun.

[skiscem]

have your gear ready, setup your bass, make sure all cables all working, setup the pedals with the settings you are going to use, write down things to add on songs...
Be very critic with yourself, and dont let a song go if you dont like the bass tone.. etc
make sure the engineer takes his time with you and your sound..
try different basses,preamps,effects... so you can get the sound you want for each song.

Good luck

[Zombbg4]

Don't screw up!

[Thankful birds]

Just a couple quick things (most of these assume seperate tracking)-

1. Only bring band members. Girlfriends/friends/family are a distraction. Recording is fun, but you're there to work, not waste your money and an engineer's time.

2. No booze/drugs. Same reason as number 1.

3. If you don't have a lot of time, I suggest running direct. It is a helluva lot easier to get a good bass tone through digital modification than trying to worry about mic placement, amp choice, electrical interference hum, etc. You can dial in whatever tone you want in the mixing.

4. Practice, practice, practice. Know those songs inside and out. If you don't do it already, I suggest you try practicing with just your guitar player(s) to make sure your lines all work with the song, then try some practices adding keys if you have them, and finally vocals. It is amazing how in a full band practice merely locking with a drummer can hide some bad note choices that come out later in a recording. You don't want to be re-writing lines in the studio.

5. Pick 4-5 songs as a core that you want to get done, then move on to any additional songs. If you are recording using separate tracks, you can figure about an hour to two hours per instrument, per track. Figure the same amount of time for mixing and mastering per track. You may get lucky and do it less.

6. If you think you nailed it on the first take, do another one anyway. If you're still happy, great. A lot of people get so excited just to have gotten through the song they don't notice the mistakes. In fact, most people who aren't used to recording tend to rush the first one, then take the time to think through the second, and will nail the third. This may not be the case as the recording process goes on, but I'd still do the second.

7. Put on new strings and break them in a few days before you get there. That goes for your guitarists as well.

8. Bring lots of extra chords, picks, strings, and tuners; also ditto for you guitarists.

9. I suggest you all use the same or same brand tuner. Also, (and this will sound weird) I have had two different engineers recommend to me that when using a tuner, pluck the string lightly over the 12th fret as you're less likely to get a sharp or flat response. Lots of wonky things can happen as a result of being just slightly out of tune when you get it all recorded that you don't notice in a live setting. (I later read an article by Jack Endino on this topic EDIT: Article here- http://www.endino.com/archive/tuningnightmares.html).

10. If you don't play to a click in a live setting, don't do it in the studio, regardless of what your engineer tells you. This will screw with your dynamics something fierce if you're not used to it.

That's all for now. Good luck!!!

[themarshall]

Change your batteries.
Be prepared to run the songs until your totally sick of them.

[MikeBass]

The red light is never on.
Treat every pass as though they are not tracking it and just PLAY.

I've seen guys play great when we would just run through a tune prior to tracking it.
Then, the light is on and they're playing changes.

And every 8 or 16 or 32 bars (or every change- verse to chorus for example) is not a good time to toss out a lick.

Wait for it.

Treat it like sex. You sure wouldn't give it all up to her right away would you??? You would wait until the end to just let it loose.
And leave her...er...leave the song/listener wanting more!

[scottbass]

Thankful birds touched most of the important points. I agree with all of them, but I would specifically emphasize:

Originally Posted by Thankful birds

3. If you don't have a lot of time, I suggest running direct. It is a helluva lot easier to get a good bass tone through digital modification than trying to worry about mic placement, amp choice, electrical interference hum, etc. You can dial in whatever tone you want in the mixing.

4. Practice, practice, practice. Know those songs inside and out. If you don't do it already, I suggest you try practicing with just your guitar player(s) to make sure your lines all work with the song, then try some practices adding keys if you have them, and finally vocals. It is amazing how in a full band practice merely locking with a drummer can hide some bad note choices that come out later in a recording. You don't want to be re-writing lines in the studio.

6. If you think you nailed it on the first take, do another one anyway. If you're still happy, great. A lot of people get so excited just to have gotten through the song they don't notice the mistakes. In fact, most people who aren't used to recording tend to rush the first one, then take the time to think through the second, and will nail the third. This may not be the case as the recording process goes on, but I'd still do the second.

7. Put on new strings and break them in a few days before you get there. That goes for your guitarists as well.

8. Bring lots of extra chords, picks, strings, and tuners; also ditto for you guitarists.

9. I suggest you all use the same or same brand tuner. Also, (and this will sound weird) I have had two different engineers recommend to me that when using a tuner, pluck the string lightly over the 12th fret as you're less likely to get a sharp or flat response. Lots of wonky things can happen as a result of being just slightly out of tune when you get it all recorded that you don't notice in a live setting. (I later read an article by Jack Endino on this topic).

10. If you don't play to a click in a live setting, don't do it in the studio, regardless of what your engineer tells you. This will screw with your dynamics something fierce if you're not used to it.

And I would add what I feel is the most important recommendation:

BEFORE you go into the studio decide which ONE member of your band will interface with the engineer. (I am assuming you don't have a dedicated producer.) Try to anticipate the decisions ahead of time so you are all on the same page. Many decisions, however, will have to be made on the spot - there will be no time for a general band discussion, brainstorming session, majority vote, etc. The meter is running and you have to agree beforehand who will be making the decisions and doing the talking. Of course, if the engineer has a question that specifically concerns the bass, then your designated spokesman should defer to you. But the engineer wants to deal with just one person.

[micahbell]

Make sure the intonation on your bass is all set up and good. This can be a source of great frustration if it isn't done properly.

Got more then one bass? Bring them all (or two or three, if you have a bunch). The last session I was in I brought one bass, but there was a song that was screaming for a classic P tone, so we rented one and it was perfect.

Experiment with sitting/standing. I find generally I play better seated. On a recent session the song was a laid back kind of groove and it went well, but for the outro we switched to a funky slap line. It was a bit of a challenging line, but I had played it live a bunch and it shouldn't have been a problem, but for some reason I just couldn't get it. The producer suggested that I stand up, like I would play it live, and I nailed it first take.

And have fun!

[Jehos]

Originally Posted by bassteban

Be prepared for it to come out nowhere near as good as you might think you are. It can be a very stark, lights-on, no airbrushing/photoshop picture of yourself fully naked.

This to me is the hardest thing about recording. That song you play that you think is awesome? You're going to be hating it, your playing on it, and possibly even your band by your 10th take or 20th pass listening to it during mixing. That's why I like recording at home--when I get utterly sick of a song, I can put it down for a couple days and come back with fresh ears.

[kenlacam]

Don't pass out!

[Dave Muscato]

- Record everything. Sometimes the "practice" passes are the keepers.

- Don't forget to eat. Bring quality food. You don't want to waste half an hour of paid studio time running out to get McDonald's, and you don't want to eat that crap while you're trying to focus and perform at your best, anyway.

- Some of the coolest things happen by screwing around. You want to know your stuff forwards and backwards so you don't waste any time, but don't be afraid to experiment. For example, on an album I did once, we layered sixty (60!) guitar parts for a heavier cut. It was absurd but sounded incredible when it was all put together. Another time, we mic'ed up one of those '69 Fender semi-hollow F-hole Telecasters (unplugged), capo'ed the 12th fret, and played an "acoustic" guitar part an octave up, recording it only with the microphone, like an acoustic guitar. I've plucked strings on a grand piano with my fingernails to get new sounds on tape. Once I set up 6 acoustic guitars on guitar stands (plugged in) in a room, with a speaker playing back a track facing them, so the guitars would vibrate sympathetically, and we recorded the output from the pickups on the guitars.

Try the rainstick. Try the upright bass. Try the marching snare. Try the triangle. Worst case scenario is it costs you an extra hundred bucks in studio time and you decide not to use it in mixdown after all (although, for $10/hr, I'd be more apt to just try anything that comes to mind). Try recording your heartbeat. Try taking off your shoes and banging the bottoms together and recording that.

If something isn't working, mix it up. If a backup vocal isn't working, bring in a female vocalist instead. Or a cellist. Try a guitar you think is totally wrong for the part. I remember on one album I did, we used an EMG-equipped BC Rich with a Floyd Rose because we just could not get this Telecaster-esque sound the way we wanted it. Turns out, the BC Rich inspired the guitarist to come up with a great part using the Floyd, and we ended up doing the part on a PRS with a tremolo, instead, which worked out much better. If we'd stuck with the fixed-bridge Tele, he never would have come up with that part.

I've recorded a bass part on a classical guitar tuned down an entire octave. That was fun! One time we used a mic'ed up cell phone on speakerphone to do a vocal part while the singer called from and sang into another phone in another booth.

- LISTEN TO THE PRODUCER. That's why you hired him. Tell him your dreams and trust his judgment on how to accomplish them.

- Remember when you are figuring out your tones that instruments sound very different solo'ed than they do in a mix. Trust the producer. Unless you have a lot of experience "hearing" an instrument in a mix while it's actually solo'ed, let him do his thing. I find that passive basses are often the best for recording, even though I much prefer active basses the rest of the time.

- You may decide to record with a click track. There are definite advantages to using a click track, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows. If your band is not used to rehearsing to a click, don't try to do it for the first time while you're on the clock. You can also use clicks for part of a song if you need it. It depends on what kind of music you play, too. I would never use a click for funk, jazz, or classical, but I definitely would prefer to for pop, rock, metal, etc.

- I find that easels are great while you're in the studio. I like to use different-colored markers for each musician: Red for the lead guitarist, green for the bassist, black for the drummer, etc. Write reminders to yourselves and each other on the easel about structure & form, especially for more complicated tunes. You can use sheet music if you want but I prefer to memorize passages so I am free to be more expressive instead of being glued to my music stand.

- If you have access to one or decide to buy one, I *highly* recommend Buttkickers. They are these tolex-covered wooden platforms that you (the bassist) stand on, and they're hooked up to the kick drum. Whenever the kick drum thumps, the platform thumps, too, and you feel it in your bones. It's like standing on the kick drum. It really helps you to lock in with the drummer. I prefer to use one whenever I record. They're not cheap but worth it if you do a lot of studio work.



- I also like to bring random crap with me to the studio, if I'm gonna be there for a longer project. Letters from friends, candles, toys & gizmos and knick-knacks that are fun to play with. There is a lot of downtime in the studio and you'll want stuff to 1) inspire you and 2) keep you occupied. I find that books do not work for this purpose, but that might just be me. I prefer games like Scrabble or I just bring a deck of cards or a kickball or Frisbee, if the weather's nice.

- Don't bring too much stuff, though. If it's your own project, that's one thing. But you're not moving in, either. When I'm on a session, I bring my basses, some blank staff paper, extra batteries and strings and all that, my lunch, maybe my Buttkicker, and that's about it. Recording with your own band is different, though, and it sounds like that's what you're doing in this case.

- Take breaks. Don't do more than a few takes in a row. If something isn't working, come back to it later. It doesn't matter if you finally get something technically perfect; if it's uninspired or soulless, it's worthless, too. Something I like doing, if you start to get frustrated, is play another song to clear your head. Just go into a cover (don't stop the tape; this is *great* stuff for hidden tracks or bonus material for your website!) and play that for awhile, and then once you're all loosened up, come back to the track at hand.

- Bring a camera and a journal. Take lots of photos. If your camera can do video, take some video clips. This is good stuff for the website. KEEP A JOURNAL. This is stuff you can use later for interviews, for one, and it's good stuff to put on your website to help sell more albums. You might consider even keeping a blog on your band's website while you're in the studio with running updates on the whole project. People these days like to be "involved." They want to feel like they're a part of it and have inside info. If you try something new and get a cool sound, write about how you did it and why. If something isn't working, write about your frustration. If your fans are following all of this stuff on your website, by the time the album is ready, they won't be able to wait to get their hands on it, and later, once it's released, people will have a blast going to your website and reading all about "the making of" your album, in your own words, as it was being recorded (this is what the photos and video clips are for, too).

If you're with the same group of guys, with no women and no booze and no drugs, for 40 hours straight, listening to the same 70 minutes of music over and over and over and over, you are going to fight. It's okay. Bring Wiffle bats so you don't hurt each other, then get back to work. This works on the road, too, by the way

Have fun. Hope this helps! I'm excited for you.

[Johnny V]

Awesome advice! Thanks for all the info, i'll definitely make sure I keep this stuff in mind when we get in the studio. I think i'm probably going to try going direct for everything, but i'd like to get a sansamp di, because i'm not sure if the studio will have one. Is that what most of you use in the studio?

[MikeBass]

Here's a big one I don't think no one mentioned.
Split you signal between your amp and a straight, flat direct sound (through a good DI).
A SansAmp is nice, but you can mess with it a bit. Which is fine, but also get a flat untouched signal as well.

If you can, given you have enough tracks and the engineer/producer will do it, mic you amp- for your "sound", take a line off the head post EQ (this will give you your "sound", but much different from the noise coming from you cab) and a straight flat direct signal.
That will give you three () tracks of bass to play with.
Mix and match, do what ever.

The flat straight signal is cool if you want to "re-amp". That is, run your track through a different amp/mic-pre (or amp plug-in) after you tracked with out you having to actually play again.

And rent/borrow a Sadowsky !!!

[atheos]

If you're going to play with a click you want to practice that with a metronome - A LOT. I mean it. One of the biggest time wasters I've encountered have been musicians who have no experience with playing with metronome but who also can't nail the songs down so well that they could be recorded without the click. Tell this to your drummer and guitarist too.

Otherwise I mostly agree with others. The three most important things: relax, be sober and know the songs by heart. Being too excited makes your playing clumsy, being drunk makes your playing even more clumsy and having to compose some parts in the studio is a big waste of studio time.

MikeBass: That's good advice but for first-timers I wouldn't recommend any of that, it's the engineer's job to do such things as miking etc.

[JazznFunk]

Know the sound of your bass when it's run direct, and make sure you know how to adjust things to sound good with only that signal. I know a lot of guys who depend on their amps for their sound, but don't know how to deal with a direct, 'uncoloured' sound very well. Know the bass(es) you bring inside and out, amped and unamped, so that you can tailor things properly.

Dave Muscato- You should have that last post of yours published as a sticky. Great advice for ANYONE, seasoned or pro. The part about eating well in the studio is spot-on. It's amazing what crap food and no exercise can do do to a session... eat well and you'll play well. Kudos!

[TimWilson]

Muscato's the man. That should be not only a sticky, but a pamphlet issued to every musician at every studio. Three snaps and a twist, Dave!

I'd add only this: Leave the pedals at home. Record clean. The studio has better effects than you, and they can ALWAYS be added later.

[capnsandwich]

Be ready to be humbled. You hear EVERYTHING, every little mistake, fret buzz, off time note, everything. It's good though because you now know what to work on when you're done. I know I had an eye opening experience during my first session over 10 years ago.

Everthing else I could think of was already mentioned in Dave Muscato's post. He knows too much.

[mgbass]

The best advice I received from a producer in Nashville was...keep it simple....then cut it (your playing in half), and make it more simple.
You are the bass player, not the lead guitar player.
Attatch yourself to the drummer, play as a unit, play as one!

This will give the tracks the solid foundation it needs.

And...all of the advice above is dead on...great thoughts from all.

Lastly...enjoy yourself, this recording will be with you for the rest of your life, it shows and sounds great when someone is having a good time/session.
Enjoy!
MG

[MikeBass]

Originally Posted by atheos

If you're going to play with a click you want to practice that with a metronome - A LOT. I mean it. One of the biggest time wasters I've encountered have been musicians who have no experience with playing with metronome but who also can't nail the songs down so well that they could be recorded without the click. Tell this to your drummer and guitarist too.

Otherwise I mostly agree with others. The three most important things: relax, be sober and know the songs by heart. Being too excited makes your playing clumsy, being drunk makes your playing even more clumsy and having to compose some parts in the studio is a big waste of studio time.

MikeBass: That's good advice but for first-timers I wouldn't recommend any of that, it's the engineer's job to do such things as miking etc.

Why wouldn't you do any of it?
A straight clean signal as well as what ever you can get.
All you have to do is ask.
If the engineer has great luck with a certain DI or mic-pre etc....then let him roll with it.
But also, ask if you could set up your rig and have it mic'd.

Don't walk in and start making demands, just ask. Don't start setting up mic's and stuff- you're right, that's the engineers job.

99% of the time I use my Demeter Compulator as well as my GT Ditto Box tube DI.
That's all I usually bring. I figure that ba-zillion dollar board can usually get me to where I/they need me to be.
But there have been a number of cases where I set my stuff down and the engineer tells me I don't need my stuff and plops down a DI of theirs or a mic-pe of some sort.
No fuss no muss for me, I just go with what they know.

Now, for my old original band, I asked for all three of the above mentioned lines, and got them all.
Ended up using the mic'd one BTW.

Most guys, don't like their bass sound flat into the board.
I've seen quite a few guys cringe at playback when their bass track was soloed.
Someone mentioned it, but know how your bass sounds flat into a board.