Hello, I will get to record in a studio setting in a couple weeks, which i have not done before. Only taking one day for bass so must make best use of time. Any tips on how to best prepare; what did you bring, how did you manage pedals, amp settings etc.? Would like to hear other's experiences with recording in a studio and any advice on how to make it go smoothly.
Thanks!
Have the material down. Nothing frustrates people more than someone in the studio wasting time because they aren’t prepared. Should be able to nail every song in 2-3 takes. But you also don’t want to just play one take and settle for it unless it’s super good, I’ve made that mistake also. Where I finished tracking a full album and felt proud I finished in like 60 minutes and then months later listening to the finished product wishing I’d have fixed a few spots. As far as being prepared it’s good to record some rough demos before hand. If you don’t have any recording equipment you can literally use a video camera or even a cell phone and just try to find a decent spot in the room to put it. I’ve even done stuff like put a cell phone inside a sock lol. It’s not really about quality, more so just helps have the song forms down and gives the singer something to write to so you’re not wasting entire rehearsals playing The same songs over and over just so the singer can work on lyrics. My band currently uses zoom products for quick demos . I have the q8 I believe it’s called and our drummer has its little brother.
if you normally play standing, stand up while you track. This may sound odd but trust me. In fact really focus on the performance having the right vibe. A lot of players play with a lot of dynamic range and get in the studio and act like are walking on eggshells shells. This is why so much modern music sucks. Because it’s so robotic and lifeless. Try to capture the energy of the music. Don’t just run through the motions. Dance a little, headband if it’s heavy. Sounds stupid I know but a recording having the right energy makes a huge difference.
Establish a pattern in which the band members track. What I prefer is
1 final drums while bass and guitars simultaneously track stratch tracks. Scratch tracks don’t have to sound good. It’s more a reference for the drummer to track and to look back at any time during the tracking process. We typically just run bass and guitars direct for this using DIs and modelers so there is no worry of bleed into the drum mics. One studio I use has iso boxes in another room which also works nice.
2 drum editing /quantizing
3 track rhythm guitars
4 bass
5 lead guitars/keys and other layering
6 vocals.
I just find this order works best for what everyone wants to hear when they track. It’s good to do bass right after the rhythm guitar in order to make sure the bass, rythm guitars and drums mesh well together but before a bunch of additional layering because sometimes people go crazy layering guitar harmonies and keys and stuff and then it turns out those parts conflict with the bass line.
But keep in mind every band is a little different in what they want to hear. For example the rythm guitarist I play with likes to hear a click track when he tracks. I hate tracking with a click, it makes me want to play polka bass.
