Preparing For A Tracking Session

Advance preparation can help you avoid problems on recording sessions

By Phil O'Keefe

There are a seemingly endless amount of details you may have to deal with when tracking music; some of which can not be anticipated, and that you may have to address on the fly. However, many things can be taken care of in advance, and doing so can take a considerable amount of pressure off of you, and allow you more time to deal with anything unforseen that may arise on the day of the recording. It also allows you more time to serve the needs of the musicians - a crucial consideration for making them comfortable and relaxed. In general, musicians tend to be at their best when they are comfortable, relaxed and happy rather than when they are ticked off, frustrated and grumpy.

COMMUNICATE WITH THE BAND

Discuss the session with the band beforehand. What type of music and instruments will you be recording? Is it a five piece or a seven piece drum kit?  What "vibe" or type of "sound" is everyone going for? If you get the chance to hear a live gig, band rehearsal or demo tape of the band in advance of the session, do it. It will give you an idea about the songs and arrangements and general vibe of the music. Whenever possible, the day of the session is not the time to have them spring that on you.

Are they going to play with a click track? If so, you can save time if the tempos are calculated and the tempo maps are done prior to the session. The band should also have rehearsed with a click track or metronome, or at least be experienced with them - the day of the session is not the first time to try playing to a click. Make sure the band understands the importance of pre-production and rehearsals and is musically prepared, with no illusions about writing in the studio or fixing everything in the mix. Of course, in order for these conversations to have the most benefit, they should occur well in advance of the session, to allow for sufficient time for rehersal.

Be ready to answer any questions from the band about what to expect, and tell them how they themselves can prepare for the session. Make sure they have their instruments checked out, set up and in good condition. Go over what gear they need to bring, and remind them to bring the all extra little things like spare strings, picks, drum sticks, batteries and other essentials they might need with them too.

PREPARE FOR THE UNEXPECTED

Just in case they forget, have an emergency kit onhand with a drum key, spare strings, picks, drum sticks, guitar stands and straps, snare drum head, speaker cable, duct tape, cymbal felts, hand tools, allen wrenches, IEC power cable, 9V batteries, tubes, etc.

If there's a lot of extra people hanging out, they will eventually distract the band and / or get in your way. Advise the band to leave their friends at home. Mind and mood altering substances can also wreck a session - you're there to record music, not to party and get wasted. Make sure everyone understands this!

Check out your studio the night before to make sure everything you plan on using is functioning correctly and set up for the next day's session. You'll have plenty to do the day of the tracking session, so don't put it all off until the musicians show up.

Having spare patch cables handy can really save the day if a cable goes  bad or you need to connect something you hadn't anticipated. Make sure  you have all the standard cable types, and don't forget USB, firewire  and MIDI cables. A variety of adapters and "problem solver boxes" such  as DI, inline pads, impedance transformers, hum eliminators, dummy  speaker load boxes, and speaker attenuators will further increase your  connectivity options and might really save the day if you need to connect something unusual or overcome an unexpected connectivity challenge.

PREP AND TEST YOUR EQUIPMENT

Get mikes, stands and cables out the night before, and have them ready to go in the room, and connected to the preamps you want to use.

Nothing kills an artist's vibe as quickly as a bad cue mix, so check the headphone system. Walk out to the tracking room and listen to all the headphones. Replace any blown or distorting cans with working ones. Check your microphones too while you are out there, and make sure they're all passing clean signals. Set up a way to monitor the headphone / cue system from the control room so you can reference what the musicians are hearing. This will help you to quickly dial in headphone mixes, and it lets youu hear what the artist is referring to when they complain of a problem or ask for changes to their cue mix. Many monitor controllers allow you to select between the cue feed and the stereo mix for just this sort of monitoring.

Null the board and get your software ready. Templates are your friend, because they save you setup time, so make preset templates of your most common setups - audio routing, type, name and number of tracks, commonly used plugins such as a reverb aux send and return - all the basics you typically need to get you rolling. Have your song files, recording paths and backup drives prepared for the project in advance.

Be prepared to take notes and properly document the session. Have plenty of notepads and pencils and pens onhand for your own notes and for the use of the musicians. Use your software's comments fields to note what signal path you used, who the performer is on each track, and - most importantly, be sure to name your tracks BEFORE you record them so your multitrack WAV files aren't all randomly named.

Make sure any and all tube rack equipment and microphones you'll be  using for the session are turned on for a bit before the session, and  don't wait to power them up until right before you roll a take. You want  to give things a chance to warm up and let the circuits - and sound -  stabilize.

PREP YOURSELF

It may be hard to do, especially before a "big session" that you're excited or nervous about, but make sure you take some time for yourself. Get enough rest and make sure you're eating properly. Don't expect to party hard late into the night before a session and be at your best the next day.

Show up on time, and with a positive attitude, and ask the band to do the same. Actually, the engineer should show up early. If being late is unavoidable, at least call the client to let them know about it, and ask  the client to do the same if they're running late.

Learn your gear before relying on it for a session. Installing a new  piece of critical and complicated gear, such as a digital mixing console  or new DAW program, the night before an important session is nearly  guaranteed to result in lots of frustrating moments, especially if you  spend absolutely no time experimenting with it on your own beforehand.  Trying to learn complex features and functions the day of the session is  never a good idea.

THE CREATIVE VIBE

Patching something in to experiment with creating different sounds can  often be fun, but frantically running around at the last minute trying  to get everything connected for an entire session while the musicians  are all standing around waiting on you almost never is. You want to  have the time available to do the former, which means you have to avoid  the later. The way to do that is to be prepared. You can't predict or  control everything, but if you prepare and check your rig in advance,  know what you're going to be doing and have a plan of attack, you'll  generally have a smoother session, with fewer disruptions, "equipment  casualties", delays and distractions - all of which leads to a better  overall vibe, and a more creative and productive session.

Vibe is everything. The band is looking to you to be the expert. You shouldn't be a "know it all", but you should be confident of your equipment and skills, and unflappable in the face of adversity. If you freak out when some little thing goes wrong, not only will it blow the session's vibe, and make it harder for you to think your way through the problem clearly so you can find a solution, it will completely ruin the band's faith and confidence in you and stress them out. So remember - stay calm, prepare in advance and keep the session fun!

Phil O'Keefe is a multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer / producer and the Associate Editor of Harmony Central. He has engineered, produced and performed on countless recording sessions in a diverse range of styles, with artists such as Alien Ant Farm, Jules Day, Voodoo Glow Skulls, John McGill, Michael Knott and Alexa's Wish. He is a former featured monthly columnist for EQ magazine, and his articles and product reviews have also appeared in Keyboard, Electronic Musician and Guitar Player magazines.