Prepare For Your Recording Session

‍We’ve all been there! You’ve been waiting for weeks on end for your recording session day to arrive so you can get your well rehearsed chops down for prosperity only to find that when you empty your gig bag of pedals you are missing that all important cable, or you set everything up only to find your battery has run flat in your beloved Boss Heavy Metal distortion pedal…and you don’t have a spare. You all must have heard that time honoured studio adage “time is money”? Studio time isn’t cheap so it is better to maximise your time to get that all important performance nailed rather than spending valuable time trouble shooting problems and issues that you could have sorted before you left home. Read on for some valuable things to consider to make sure your session can go as smooth as possible.

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‍Drummers

‍A well maintained drum kit is the first thing. There would be nothing worse than getting a great drum sound only to be marred by lugs rattling, squeaky pedals, badly worn drumheads, faulty stands moving about. Tuning needs to be considered as well, although the engineer is likely to assist here on the day anyway. You can also help things along by having a good selection of drum gels for damping, selection of sticks and beaters not to mention spare sticks.

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‍Guitarists And Bass Players

‍Well maintained guitars and gear is an obvious must to avoid crackly pots and dodgy leads etc but the often overlooked timesaver here is to make sure to put fresh stretched strings on before you come to the studio. This helps to maintain tuning, have a lively sound to work with and hopefully avoid string breakages at the most inopportune time. Also have to hand spare leads, strings and batteries.

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‍Vocalists

‍Ok, you don’t have much gear to bring along but you can still be prepared by bringing vocal soothing products and lyrics (even if you think you know them) preferably in printed form rather than electronic so they can be placed appropriately. Lastly, an often overlooked cause for problem where, as an engineer,  I like to ask the talent to either wave at me or dance around for a bit. Microphones are very sensitive and can pick up all noise including jangly jewellery.

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