In that moment when inspiration strikes and you head to your DAW to forever capture the magic, don’t let an out-of-tune instrument destroy the greatness; tune up before every take! This may seem like common sense but if you’re not in the habit or don’t regularly keep a tuner handy, it’s an easy step to skip. “It was in tune last time I played” sounds logical, but we all know that with stringed instruments tuning seems to change almost randomly. Slight temperature or humidity changes will make even the guitar or bass that’s in tune every time you pick it up go out eventually. Don’t let that happen when you’re trying to nail the perfect take.
A clip-on tuner is the easiest remedy; it’s always ready to go and you can tune silently by muting the track or turning the guitar’s volume knob. Using a volume pedal with a separate tuner output allows you to tune silently and plugged in, which is preferable if you have specific volume knob settings on your guitar that you don’t want to re-set between tuning and recording.
The point is to have a dedicated tuner that’s always on. That way developing the habit of checking your tuning before you hit the Record button is easy. If you rely on a tuner that’s built into something else, you’ll have to hit buttons or page through menus to get to the tuner. That will take your concentration off of your playing, making you want to skip this important part of the recording process. Always make sure you are in tune!
