There’s an interesting quote from Hunter S. Thompson, who said; “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side”.
I’ve observed that there’s nowhere the negative side can be more fully brought into sharp relief than the attitude-amplifying atmosphere of a typical recording session. There are so many different sides to doing a recording; musical, artistic, technical, personal… you name it, and you’ll usually find that Murphy is firmly in charge too. Most people love it; some hate it. I think everyone finds it hard but rewarding work. And to get the best out of your recording session I’d like to share ten little gems of what may be wisdom that I’ve learned over the years.
I’ve observed that there’s nowhere the negative side can be more fully brought into sharp relief than the attitude-amplifying atmosphere of a typical recording session. There are so many different sides to doing a recording; musical, artistic, technical, personal… you name it, and you’ll usually find that Murphy is firmly in charge too. Most people love it; some hate it. I think everyone finds it hard but rewarding work. And to get the best out of your recording session I’d like to share ten little gems of what may be wisdom that I’ve learned over the years.
PICK ME A WINNER
A lot of bands are still arguing about what songs to record by the time they arrive at the studio. The usual resolution to this particular problem is to record every song. What this means in practice is that you get eight or ten songs which sound “okay” rather than four songs which knock your socks off. So, be careful how you choose what tracks to record. If you’re aiming to get your collective feet in the door of a record label, you should of course choose commercial material. Just bear in mind the purpose of doing the recording and pick the songs accordingly.
I was recently working with one band who recorded an eleven song audition disc. That’s great, and they were a good band. But it’s unlikely that any record label A&R representative is going to listen past the first one or two songs unless they are absolutely incredible. My advice is therefore to focus your efforts toward the creation of less tracks which are of greater quality rather than trying to take too much on. Recording can be a time-consuming and fatiguing process. I suggest doing it in short bursts, as your budget allows, and never overload yourself with work because all it will do is ruin the finished product.
Listen to other peoples’ reactions on your songs. I don’t mean your friends - they’re always going to say “well, I’d buy it” (even though they actually wouldn’t). Get hold of members of other bands who can be objective and people who know the music industry and listen to their advice. They’ll help you to pick the right songs to record.
PLAY IT AGAIN SAM
I’ve written elsewhere that nothing beats a good-quality performance and I can’t stress enough the value of rehearsing. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse and then do it some more. Rehearse until you hate it. Rehearse individually, rehearse together. Play your songs in different keys. Play them at different tempos. Practice until you know them absolutely inside-out and back-to-front. When you’re at your jam space, get into a circle and look at each other as you practice. This will help to get you working together and building a performance between you. When you’re at home, play along to a cassette. Practice, practice, practice!
You should get as close to note-perfect as possible before recording. And… do yourself a favour and rehearse your lead solos too - don’t leave anything to chance. You should get to the point where playing the songs comes so naturally to you that you don’t have to think about what chord comes next, leaving you free to concentrate on giving a blinding performance. Of course the next stage of this is that once you’ve got the song tattooed into your cerebrum, you can start adding all kinds of wicked little performance ideas, riffs and fills without losing the great feel you’ve already got.
Then go and rehearse some more!
COMING SOON TO A BEDROOM NEAR YOU
Okay, this is without doubt the most obvious point and I’ve certainly made something of a hobby-horse out of it elsewhere, but for goodness’ sake book a proper studio. In this industry you really do get what you pay for and the chances are that if it’s cheap then it’s also crap. Yeah, yeah, you know I’m a studio guy and that’s what I do, so from one point-of-view I’m bound to say that. But it seriously needs saying because there’s wisdom in it: I’ve worked at more studios than you can shake a stick at and I know there are a lot of very bad “studios” out there. Really good studios are run by experienced, seasoned, professional people who have learned their trade the hard way and invested lots of coin in high quality equipment: It’s these valuable things that your money will be paying for. Not some twenty-something who’s glued a bunch of egg boxes to the walls of his dad’s garage.
So if someone’s got a little old mixing board, five cheap mics and a crusty eight-track (with seven working tracks) or an M-Box crammed into his guest room the chances are that you’re not going to get a satisfactory result from there. Ya think? Heck, I recently met a “professional” studio owner who couldn’t even hear the difference between a real live drummer and a drum machine! Would you want such a person mixing your tracks? I’ve said this elsewhere, but it really pays to take time and check out different studios, asking them about their work, their approach, their successes. Find out about their equipment, their backline and their in-house instruments. Listen to example tracks from each one; in fact, take CDs from each studio home and evaluate them in comfort. And make sure you’re working with professional people you can trust, understand and get on with.
Really good studios with experienced engineers are extremely rare these days but they are DEFINITELY worth what they charge.
THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB
Let’s continue that thought but change the context slightly. Musical instruments and equipment are also like studios from the perspective that, in the main, you get what you pay for. You shouldn’t expect a one hundred dollar Cambodian Strat copy to sound like a Gibson Les Paul, nor a lunchbox-sized practice amp to sound like a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier. When you record, you really should aim to use the best instruments and equipment you can, and this applies to guitars, basses, drums, keyboards, amps, cabs, violins, Himalayan nose-trumpets and just about any other stuff you can think of. After all, as someone once sagaciously said; “You can’t polish dung”.
Of course if you’re hoarding those hard-earned pennies to shoot at a great recording session, it’s not reasonable to expect you to splash out on the very best gear too. Unless Bill Gates happens to be your uncle, that is. But what’s wrong with hiring great gear just for the duration of your session? As long as you’ve booked a studio which is going to provide really good recording, why not get great gear to record? So it might be worth considering setting some of your budget aside for this purpose. You only need to get one great take from each instrument on each song to make it all worthwhile. And all this being true, as heavy metal producer Dave Chang says: “If you feel your gear is not worthy but gives you a sound you kind of like, bring it anyway”.
SORT YOURSELF OUT
Or perhaps more accurately, get your parts arranged properly. No, you don’t have to hire a professional arranger but you will certainly have to use your ears and brains. You need to think about the arrangements of your songs - not the composition, you’ve already got that. But you need to be working out the songs so that the various parts don’t clash. In most genres of music you definitely don’t want guitar one playing an F sharp diminished seventh whilst guitar two wails in B flat major. You won’t want vocals and lead guitar parts to occur at the same time, and you won’t want your guitar parts to be up in the vocal range nor for your bass parts to be up in the guitar range. You don’t want your keyboard pads to be so huge that they swamp everything else and leave no space in the song. So you get the idea - think about how your instruments “shape” the songs.
I think one of the best things you can do is to listen to commercial records and see how they do it - especially the ones that either inspire you or that you want to sound like. And there’s no substitute for learning from the great musicians and recordists that have gone before us, so get on that internet and get some studying done.
Another very important thing is to figure out how you’re going to structure your intros, breaks and outros from the perspective of keeping the band in sync together. Don’t rely on peoples’ ability to keep time! Organise yourselves to work from a click-track or at the very least get the drummer to play stick clicks throughout the drum-free sections - your recordist can chop them out later.
DEAR JANE…
Let’s get this straight from the outset: Bringing your partner to the studio is a bad idea. Yeah, yeah it’s fun to hang there and show them what a superstar you are, but seriously folks, please don’t do it because it’s really distracting. Performances go out of the window, arguments start and worst of all you get the partners who think they’re some kind of producer and start to make comments like “The band shouldn’t sound like that”. Well that’s an interesting observation coming from someone who doesn’t know the difference between a bass guitar and a bass drum, and whose definition of ‘pro tools’ involves the kind of gear their dad dreams of whilst watching “The New Yankee Workshop”, but I’m usually far too polite to actually say so.
To illustrate this principle I’ll relate an incident that happened to me and could have been quite costly. I was working at a fairly well-known studio with a fairly famous producer on a new collaboration. We hadn’t been working together very long and although we didn’t really know each other, things were going well. I was engineering, he was producing, we were both working really hard and the track was coming together nicely. Having finished her own work, my girlfriend waltzed into the studio and boldly announced “It’s a lovely day; why don’t we all go out somewhere nice?” I cringed inside. Famous producer man looked at me with a slapped-by-wet-fish expression. I felt like saying “okay, and next time you’re at work I’ll walk right on in and drag you out for a beer” but instead I politely and firmly explained that we were doing a job of work and to leave it now would be inappropriate. The aftermath of this story is that she still didn’t get it and famous producer man nearly dropped me as his engineer, which would have been a shame because the two of us went on to release some successful records in later years. But here’s the moral of the story: Girlfriends, boyfriends, buddies and partners or onlookers in general probably won’t understand the whole recording / music making thing, so tell them ahead of time not to come along - or if they do, not to hang around like a fart in a Volkswagen. See the 1984 movie “This Is Spinal Tap” or read “Mixerman’s Studio Diaries” for more details.
JUST SAY NO
Isn’t it amazing to know that some people don’t have the same tastes and preferences as we do? But variety is the spice of life and as the British are fond of saying “it takes all sorts”. So it may surprise us to learn that not everyone shares your liking for recreational pharmaceuticals. Personally, I’m a pretty easy-going, accepting kind of guy, but I think that drug and alcohol use is the most destructive bane of studio work. I’ve seen it cause nothing but problems and bad recordings.
Yes, you can smoke yourself up to that utopian plane where bum notes vanish, the singer’s performing like an angelic choir and the sound is as pure and clear as crystal. I’ve watched plenty of people do it. But then they come back the next day and realise that what they previously recorded sucks like Electrolux because it is what it is; a bunch of incoherent musicians who are so stoned that they don’t even know what planet they’re on, never mind what chord they’re supposed to be playing. The message is clear: If you want to get a great performance out of yourself, stay straight.
In some ways alcohol is worse, and one of the first things to be affected is hearing. You lose the ability to accurately listen to what’s going on. It also destroys timing and pitching as well as giving the user that typical drunk attitude where things don’t matter quite as much, and everyone’s right or everyone else is wrong. You know, there’s a reason why we’re constantly reminded not to drive or operate machinery whilst canned out of our brains! So anyway friends, please leave the beers in the fridge and the other stuff wherever it is you hide it from Lilly Law until the session’s done. One day you’ll thank me.
LEARN THE WAYS OF THE FORCE, YOUNG JEDI
Get advice! Go and talk to the guys at your studio of choice. Your engineer isn’t your enemy, he’s there to do his (mostly difficult) job and HELP YOU. And if he doesn’t get the results you’re after, no-one’s going to be happy at the end of the day, least of all him. So go along, sit and chat with the studio people and ask them all about the process of recording. Gain an understanding of what you should expect from them and what they can expect from you. It’s a good time to discuss what to bring and what to leave at home. Where are the local food outlets? Where do you park? What time do we normally wrap of an evening? All these things ought to be discussed beforehand so that everyone knows where they stand and there aren’t any surprises at the time of the session. If you do this, you’ll enjoy your recording much more and end up with a much better result.
Seek out people who know recording, studios and the industry and ask their advice. Most will be more than happy to help. Get your advice from someone who’s got the experience, knowledge and track record to give it. It’s obviously pointless to ask someone who’s never recorded before how to mic a snare drum up. And here’s a good point: If your engineer also happens to be your best friend, then he’s more-than-likely going to be your worst source of advice. Why? Because as a close friend not only does he feel he can stir his oar and have his bit of input into what you’re doing, but he’s likely to give you “cushioned” opinions. The same is true of close family members: It’s just the way relationships are. On the same basis as friends and family seldom make good critics, they seldom function well in a creative role too because of all the inter-personal dynamics that go on between people. Consult and work with someone who has an impartial and honest perspective (hint; an experienced recording engineer might be a good choice). If you later develop a friendship out of that, it will be all the better.
ET PHONE HOME
Okay, this is simple and elementary, but please elect ONE band member and one only to have their cellphone with them and give the number to anyone who might need to contact you (mum, dad, school attendance officer etc). There’s nothing worse than trying to conduct a recording session with multiplied mobiles blasting out “Camptown Races”, “Oh Susannah” or whatever other hideous polyphonic ringtones all the time!
And whilst we’re on the subject of leaving ‘phones at home, here are a few things you definitely want to bring to your recording session: Tuner, plectrums, capos, spare strings, sticks and skins, drum key, guitar stands, cables, toque (stops the drummer’s headphones falling off), flashlight, several copies of lyrics and chord charts, manuals and discs for any electronic instruments, list of important ‘phone numbers, paper and pens, bottled water and other drinks, something to snack on, painkillers, comfortable clothes and example CDs that you’re inspired by or want to emulate for your engineer / producer to listen to. And the most important thing of all to bring? A positive attitude!
ON THE WINGS OF AN EGO
Following on from that last point, please, leave egos and personal hang-ups at the door. There’s nothing more contemptible than some inconsiderate and self-centred would-be star swanning around the studio like they’re the most important person in town. Believe me, the studio environment is the worst place to have someone acting like that. People! Get real… we’re there to make music, not ham it up like some camp, lovey-ducky-darling old thespian. And if you’ve got any grievances with anyone in the band, for Pete’s sake work them out before recording so that they don’t cause any flare-ups when you’re in the thick of your session. All it’s going to do is use up time and worsen any disagreements. If you don’t have a producer, elect either your engineer or a member of the band to take the call on any split votes as to what to do. Heck, you can always kick the crap out of them later, right? And remember this; in the studio, everyone’s learning. The best engineers and producers will tell you that recording is one of those things where you never stop learning. So nobody’s got all the answers; but some people may have a few more than us so it pays to have an attitude of humility and openness.
For me, there’s nothing more enjoyably productive than working with a band who are all pulling in the same direction, where personal matters don’t create problems because their interest in getting a great recording is greater than their hunger to feed their egos. So, decide on your mutual direction, take a strong dose of group hugs and learn some humility. If you can work together as a cohesive team, you’ll make great records.
CONCLUSION
So there you have a little more than two cents’ worth of input which I hope will help you to have a productive recording experience and make some great tracks. If you thought recording was a somewhat daunting process, well in honesty it can be, but what I’ve shared here will help to make it a smooth and maybe even fun experience for everyone involved. There are so many talented and woefully overlooked musicians in this city; maybe some more of them will now decide to commit their talents to disc, which is where they should be.
0 comments
Post a Comment