The main points that I have taken from these two videos are:
Make sure everybody knows every single bit of the songs back to front to minimise on time wasting. – This is to make sure that we can be as effective in the studio as possible. When paying for studio time, any time wasted is money wasted. Making sure each of us knows our parts will make it a lot more certain we won’t run out of time.
Only have performing members of the band in the studio – This is why The Beatles broke up. Having other people in the studio will inevitably have them giving their opinion. When in the studio, the only people’s opinion that matters is the bands and the engineers. For this reason, I will have to make sure that anybody who doesn’t need to be in the studio will not be there.
Make sure all of the instruments we are bringing are fully functional and sounding recording worthy – Since I am planning on us all bringing our own instruments, it will save me a headache knowing that everything works perfectly and gives us the best sounding EP we can possibly make.
Practice the songs to a metronome to make sure all of the parts are in time, make a tempo map – Practicing the songs is an obvious tip, but practicing to a metronome is a bit different, since our songs have a few instances where they change tempos, I will have to take it upon myself to make a tempo map to make sure that everything is perfectly in time.
Below are the 5 tips that are most important for preparing your band when going into the studio
1. Do Your Homework
This means I will have research the studio I am going with to make sure they have good equipment, staff and that I am in budget. Doing this at the start will prevent from any embarrassing situations arising such as turning up without gear that we need, or not having enough money to pay for the studio time.
2. Proper Rehearsal
Once picking a studio to record in, the next thing that we will need to do is rehearse until we hate our own songs. Being as well rehearsed as possible will mean that there is less time wasted in the studio, and overall we have a tighter performance for the EP.
3. Pre Production
Recording to a click track. This is the industry standard to make sure that a performance is tight and doesn’t have a tempo which is all over the place. This leads nicely into the second point. Knowing the BPM and creating tempo maps if need be. Since our songs have to change tempos and in some cases, changing time signatures, I will have to create tempo maps to make sure we can play to a click track that also follows our song. This will endure we have a tight performance.
4. Check Lists
This tip is fairly simple, make a checklist of everything that we will need for the studio. As somebody with a pretty bad memory, I tend to forget things a lot. Having a checklist ensures that I won’t turn up to the studio having forgotten my drums. This also helps to remember stuff that you wouldn’t necessarily think about, such as a memory stick so we can store the mixes on a safe hard drive.
5. Personnel
This seems to be a reoccurring rule among recording studios, only have the band present and other essential people you might need such as photographers or a documentary crew. Girlfriends don’t count.
Here are the top tips I got from this source that relates the most to my project.
1. Timeliness is next to godliness
When dealing with professionals, you have to treat them with respect. This means knowing what time you have to be somewhere and being there on time. If you can’t make it on time then let them know as soon as possible.
2. Cleanliness is next to timeliness
Respect other peoples belongings. Since we are going to a studio, we have to be respectful of the building, which means no littering or bringing in muddy footprints. Doing things like this will give the wrong impression and could spread the word that we are rude and inconsiderate.
3. A penny saved…
Be patient. If we push for a ten-minute fix, that’s what it will sound like as a final product. Patience is a virtue, especially when creating art. We will have to remember this when we are sat at the back of the studio, bored out of our minds as someone else is taking a long time to track their parts.
4. Communication is key
This is similar to the punctuality tip. We will need to make sure that we clearly communicate what we expect and if there is something we want to do or change. We hope that the recording engineer will have the same mindset.
5. You break it, you bought it
This one is pretty self explanitory, but in short, be respectful of the studio equipment and if we break anything, we will have to be sure we can afford to replace it.
8. The $
This tip states that we will have to know in advance how much the recording studio is going to cost. This way, we can make sure we have the money and keep the engineer happy.
Overall, All of this advice for taking your band into the studio is quite similar. Be respectful, be good at what you do and make sure you pay. With all of this research done there will surely be no problems when it comes to the recording process.