Getting ready to go into the studio and record with your band? Land a session date with a big-time producer? The studio can be one of the most magical places on earth for a musician; when you hear your creations come back through the monitors, it can be very exhilarating. Here are a few tips to hopefully make your time in the studio fun, productive, and stress-free.
- Be prepared. If you are in a band going into the studio, make sure you are as rehearsed as possible; it will save you a lot of headaches and money. You don’t want to spend an hour or two figuring out parts, riffs, fills, or anything else that you could have worked out beforehand.
- Make sure your gear is record ready. If you are a drummer, then have all of your heads changed and tuned as accurately as possible. If you’re a bass player or guitarist, make sure your strings are changed and your instrument is perfectly intonated. These are little things, but you don’t want to waste valuable studio time on things you could have done prior to the session.
- Don’t be late. I could easily put this as my number one tip. If you are in a band hiring a studio and an engineer and you show up late, then you are basically throwing your money away. If you are hired as a session musician and show up late, then you can almost guarantee that you will never get called back for another session. Be early!
Of course, things sometimes just don’t go as planned, so you may have to improvise and figure out, on the fly, how to fix whatever problem arises. That’s also a big part of what it means to be a musician. But if you prepare yourself and your gear ahead of time, then your studio experience will almost always be a pleasurable one.