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2 day session


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Hello,

I'm new to these forums and was hoping I could get a little advice.

 

My band is going into the studio next Wednesday for our first recording. I've been to a studio once before with a band that was a lot less tight than the one I'm in now and it took us a full day to get through what I think was a five or six song EP and we ended up needing a few extra hours on a second day to finish up mixing and whatnot. What we've done this time is get the studio for 8 hours next Wednesday and then 8 more hours the Wednesday after that. Barring the unforeseen, I think we plan on doing most everything live and trying to nail all the rhythm tracks on the first day. We're aiming to do like 8 songs, two or three of which we should be able to nail no problem without more than two takes. There are two that might take a little longer and two that could go either way.

We're then going to do any vocals that didn't get done the first week including backup vocals and some other overdubs the next week.

 

Basically I'm wondering

1. Whether this seems feasible

2. If anyone has any advice on how to make the session go as smoothly as possible and how to maximize productivity

 

Thanks,

Jacob

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Yeah, we know the songs and we're gonna practice a few times beforehand to make sure we really can nail them quickly. I just know from experience that things in the studio end up taking longer than expected but I do think we can make it through 8 or 9 songs.

 

I'll post it on here once we get it done so you guys can give feedback if you want.

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In addition to being well-rehearsed before the studio clock is ticking, also make sure that ALL of your gear is in order. Obviously, it will be necessary to dial in amp settings and that sort of thing when you're actually in the studio, but everyone should be as certain as possible about which guitars/picks/pickups/strings they want to use for recording, have intonation set, and any other preparations done in advance.

 

Most of the delays I've encountered when recording had very little to do with the actual performance.

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8 hours straight is a long haul for both the players recording personel. I've done it on both sides of the coin. After 4 hours fatigue becomes an issue and the performance suffers unless you're used to playing out back to back shows. You may do better cutting down to 4 four hour blocks. This would allow 3 hours quality recording time which is what you want to capture. The additional hour is mainly bs/setup time which you'll have no matter what.

 

I'd get the rythum track the first time around and only use vocal is you absolutely need them. Everyone should be able to play their parts through without relying on vocals as a cue. Then on the second session, go back and add your vocals, harmonies, maybe start on leads. It depends on how you want to work it.

 

I personally like putting in leads last because having the vocals there adds to the hype and power level for a lead player and having the vocals there to cue off of just gets a better performance. The remaining two 4 hour blocks can be used for any remaining leads, overdubs, mixing etc. Alot of it has to do with how the studio prefers to work the parts in and the type of music being played, workflow that will get the best results.

 

In general, tracking doesnt take nearly as long as the mixing if the tracks are good and solid.

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Hi Jacob, and welcome to the forums. :)

 

Two eight hour sessions to track 8 songs isn't impossible if everyone is well organized and (very important) extremely well prepared and rehearsed and if your gear (and the studio's gear) is in good condition. If any of those are NOT the case, you'll have issues...

 

Between setup, getting sounds and levels, switching from one thing to something else (basic tracks to instrumental overdubs to vocal overdubs to mixing) you will probably take more time than you might think to get everything done. If you break it all down, you're talking about two hours per song to do all of the tracking - again, that's not unheard of, but not a lavish amount of time for basic tracks, overdubs, etc. If you toss mixing into that two hours too, it's extremely fast, and at that point, it's probably going to be "demo quality" at best.

 

In my opinion, the best thing you can do to save time is to be well prepared in terms of knowing the material backwards and forwards, and have a game plan. Do things in efficient blocks - get all the basic tracking down first, then switch to overdubs, then vocals, etc. If you're bouncing back and forth between different activities a lot it's going to be less efficient and slow you down - especially if there is any significant changes to the setup involved for each switchover. Having said that, take advantage of the time as much as possible. If the guitarist is doing overdubs, the singer shouldn't be out messing around with the guys in the lounge - if he's "up" next, he should be warming up, going over his lyrics and generally getting ready BEFORE the guitarist walks in and says "OK, I'm done - you're up". :)

 

Best of luck with your project, and please let us know how it goes. :wave:

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In addition to being well-rehearsed before the studio clock is ticking, also make sure that ALL of your gear is in order. Obviously, it will be necessary to dial in amp settings and that sort of thing when you're actually in the studio, but everyone should be as certain as possible about which guitars/picks/pickups/strings they want to use for recording, have intonation set, and any other preparations done in advance.


Most of the delays I've encountered when recording had very little to do with the actual performance.

 

 

This.

 

Bring extra strings, guitars, basses, drums, cables, amps, whatever.

 

Make sure they all work beforehand. Make sure you know what you're doing to do, use, set, etc. beforehand.

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If your drummer is bringing in his own kit, make sure he has taken the time to sort it out - tuning, heads (preferably a day or two before the session), hardware issues, etc. During setup is no time for the drummer to be completely re-tooling his kit.

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Update:

We went in on Wednesday and it went remarkably well. There were some hiccups getting set up but these were mostly on the part of the engineer. It wasn't that he didn't know what he was doing it was just that there were a few problems with his hardware that he had to sort out. By the time we got everything set up, we were a little worried because it had taken like two hours and we needed to get all the live tracking done that first day. Well, like I said, everything went remarkably well. We finished the live tracking on 9 songs, 1 of which we got in 1 take, 7 of which took 2 takes and 1 of which took three takes. Just when we were finishing the 8th song, the vocalist showed up and guided us through the 9th because it's the one song we need him for cues.

 

Once the vocalist started recording, the songs really started to come together. These takes are probably the best I have ever heard him sing. It was really incredible to watch him record. He was on fire!

 

When all was said and done, in 6 hours we finished live tracking for 9 songs, finished vocals for 9 songs, and got solo overdubs done for 2 songs. Next week we're focusing on overdubs, backup vocals, and mixing/producing and whatnot. Any tips for that part of the process?

 

The engineer has a good ear and got some good stuff going just doing rough mixes but are there any cool production tips that any of you guys use frequently to push things over the edge from good to great?

 

Thanks!

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Hey, glad it went well!

 

The guy's got a good ear, so just go with it. I'd say ear candy can push it over, make things interesting. Unexpected changes, such as taking things out of the mix suddenly or things like that. Don't get obsessed with having him make the mix really loud.

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Here's a link to our MySpace where we've posted 4 of the 9 songs we finished. Let me know what you think.

Also, I've got a question (surprise, right?)

What good would mastering do for these tracks? I've been told before what mastering does but I just can't seem to wrap my head around it. It would make them louder, cut out some of the longer gaps between songs and compress and EQ it, right? What else does mastering do?

 

Here's the link - www.myspace.com/parlourshakedown

MySpace is acting funky right now so they might not be listenable right away.

Thanks!

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Here's a link to our MySpace where we've posted 4 of the 9 songs we finished. Let me know what you think.

Also, I've got a question (surprise, right?)

What good would mastering do for these tracks? I've been told before what mastering does but I just can't seem to wrap my head around it. It would make them louder, cut out some of the longer gaps between songs and compress and EQ it, right? What else does mastering do?


Here's the link -
www.myspace.com/parlourshakedown

MySpace is acting funky right now so they might not be listenable right away.

Thanks!

 

At work and haven't listened to it. Yet. ;) but mastering is like buffing and polishing a car finish. Yeah it sounds pretty good now but a good mastering job will help it "shine". A good one will increase perceived loudness, without killing dynamics. Depending on the song, and engineer, there could be very little done, a whole lot of little things, or maybe a few bigger things. But yes Eq/dynamics/fade-ins/fade-outs are some of the things that could be addressed.

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