When to record and when NOT to record
When is the best time to record? There’s an easy answer to that question: When you’re at your best!
Here’s a typical scenario: You’re a band, and you’ve been playing together in a dingy practice room for 18 months. You’ve argued, two band members have quit, you made do with a substitute bass player for 3 months, then you got an offer to do a show in Stuttgart. The pay was good, so your lover’s sister, who’s a killer bassist, suddenly got interested. You immediately hit it off, and decided to book a tour around that one show. At the first show, the guitar amp broke and the food was terrible, but you got through it. The second show was so good that the drummer got a new girlfriend afterwards, and by the third, you were only breaking half as many strings as a week ago. By the time you hit Stuttgart, you felt like a God! OK, so the food didn’t get any better, but the van made it (almost) all the way back to Berlin, whereupon you slept for three days. You woke up on Wednesday, and the band has a booked a week in the studio, starting on Friday. Perfect! So you haven’t got a keyboard player? Get your neighbor Patrick, who played on Grönemeyer’s album! He always promised to support you, well, call in the favour! Or ask the guy at the studio; for sure he knows someone.
Here’s when NOT to record: You’ve got great ideas, but you’re not really sure about the refrain in that one song, and you’re pretty sure you can borrow a banjo to make it all good, but you’ve never played it before and although you’re sure it’s going to be fine, you’ve been so busy with the album cover that you haven’t had time to practice this week. You’re pretty clear that it doesn’t matter, though, because the guy at the studio once recorded Grönemeyer and he’s got a new computer with all the latest bells and whistles. You’ve got time next Sunday but you really need to get that MySpace page edited, so can we do it from 3 to 5, then from 8 O’clock on, ‘cuz your manager can’t make it till late?