Tracking
Perhaps you’re a rock band. Or you want to record some voiceovers for a film. Or you’re here to record some solo piano pieces as a demo. We see it all here! And while there are obvious differences between the various kinds of projects we do, some things hold more or less true for all of them.
The first thing to remember is of course, that the better prepared you are, the smoother your session will go. Recording is hard work! Don’t make it harder by leaving important decisions to the last minute. Some clients have so much studio experience that a session will run like clockwork no matter what. But it never hurts to arrive at the studio with recording notes.
Know what pieces will be recorded and when. Budget your time carefully. Stay organized!
Remember that it takes time to switch from a guitar to a mandolin; there might be mics to move, headphone mixes to tweak, levels to dial in, etc., so we’ll usually try to record all the songs of a particular instrumentation in a row, before switching over to a different setup. And in most cases, we try to get the basic tracks or ensemble pieces all finished before we go on to individual overdubs.
Sure, There’s a computer and printer here, but it eats up time to print out your lyrics, lead sheets, or dialog; you should have done that at home.
And there’s this:
Most of you are artists. Your emotions are very deeply caught up in what you do here, and ego goes with the territory. I’ve witnessed studio temper tantrums, interpersonal conflicts, communication breakdowns, all that stuff. Hey, it’s normal. But the better prepared you are, the fewer interruptions there will be. So get those arrangements down in the practice room, or on tour.
Nowadays, everyone’s a sound man. I regard it as a very good development that most folks have some experience with home recording, and that a healthy dialog has opened up between technicians and artists. Unfortunately, however, a certain rigidity has crept into audio engineering, caused, in my opinion, by a perfectly normal urge on the part of less experienced technicians to make sense of the process by reducing it to set patterns. There is more than one way to skin a cat! I have my habits and idiosyncracies, but I am always open to trying it your way. Just remember that I have been doing this for a long time, I know these rooms and this equipment, and you can relax, knowing that you’re in good hands. Sometimes it’s more efficient to concentrate on just one thing, like playing the drums.
There will be moments where I need my concentration, and a moment to arrange files according to my plan, or organize the cable runs or some such, so that we can all save time later on in the process. I’l let you know, and ask for your patience.
Every imaginable argument for and against analog and/ or digital recording (and many that were unimaginable, ’till I heard them!) has been made. I’ve got plenty of opinions of my own. Let’s skip all that for now, but there are certain things to consider with regard to format.
If you’re recording digital, yes, we can do a thousand takes. Yes, we can do a million overdubs, and yes, we can nudge beats around, stretch notes, pitch correct, all that stuff. The “fix it in the mix” approach has gained credibility with the ever increasing power of digital audio. But humans and their ears are VERY good at spotting a phoney, and there has never been and never will be a substitute for humans playing together, in time, on cue, and in tune. You know the vertiginous excitement of a great live concert; why should it be any different in the studio? My chief aim has always been to capture that fantastic feeling, because no technician has ever quite succeeded in manufacturing it.
If you’re recording analog, it’s all the more true. Yes, we can do multiple takes and overdubs (but don’t forget that tape is expensive, and it wears out eventually!), we can cut tape, dump to Pro Tools and back to tape; all sorts of magic can be made. But all these things interrupt the flow, take time. and create distractions.
Let’s get it right, the old-school way, and use modern techniques to make it even better!