Preparing For The Session

Bands can save themselves a lot of time and money if they prepare for the session properly. Some of these suggestions may seem obvious but it's worth going over them to make sure.

1 Is the material rehearsed enough?

Sometimes when you are reheasrsing a song in a small reheasrsal room it can sound like it's really kicking because you are all playing so loud you can't really hear each other properly. When you get to the studio you find the bass player and the drummer are playing conflicting parts or the guitar part and the keys clash - suddenly played back over proper monitors you realise the arrangement isn't right. So what happens? You start rewriting the song in the studio. The session runs over time and you end up paying double what you had budgeted for. The simple solution is to record all your rehearsals, even if it's just on a minidisc player or an old tape machine - at least you can review what everyone is doing. Try getting the band members to run through their parts in pairs e.g. the bass player and the drummer, the guitar player and the keyboard player to see if the parts make sense.

Does All Your Gear Work?

If you're a guitar player do the valves need replacing in amp? Fix any crackles or dodgy switches and leads. Make sure you've got spare batteries for your pedals. And of course have spare strings. Drummers replace any worn heads and make sure you know how to tune them. This will have a huge impact on the final quality of the drum recording so if you're not sure what to do check the link to drum tuning articles in the links section..

Bringing DATA Files into the Studio

If you have recorded any songs at home or at another studio that you want to work on here (e.g. remixing or recording extra tracks like live drums) there a few things you should check before you bring them. Make sure you bounce down each track so that it starts at the same point and save them as wav or aiff files. That way we can ensure they will all play back the same in our studio. Make a note of the tempo of the song and if possible the key and time signature. If you want to bring in any MIDI files make sure you label them clearly so we know which instruments are playing which parts (e.g. strings, bass etc.)This will save you time and money.