What are some of the most common mistakes people make in the studio?

[blue2blue]

I'll ditto the optimal amount of rehearsing. I figured marcher was just trying to make a point, though. For most bands you meet at the journeyman-and-below level, it's still better to be over-rehearsed than under-rehearsed though, seems to me. Let the master jam band guys have their head... but if the heavily arranged metal band or the tight, teen-pop band doesn't have their act together, it's going to make it a lot harder to get a coherent, locked in recording.


But one of my complaints coming up (coming out of the 70s and going into the 80s, let's put an era on it) was that way too many studio recordings were far too manicured and sterile sounding -- and that was, to some very real extent, true -- but the antidote -- I found out the hard way -- was not necessarily the other extreme. (That seems a general lesson that life keeps reiterating. Sensible, reasonable answers in any well-considered field or topic are seldom found on the fringes.)

[AluminumNeck]

Biggest mistake number 2 I have encountered is.

Not listening to the engineer.

Was guilty of it in my teens.

[SYN]

Oh, so we can get into more general stuff?

Not having good songs.

[Maddaxe111]

Good songs are vital.
But don't they record "bad" songs in great studios every day?

[SYN]

Originally Posted by Maddaxe111

Good songs are vital.
But don't they record "bad" songs in great studios every day?

For money, sure.

[zack]

I also think that how well they know the material should at least be indirectly proportionate to how good of musicians they are.

For example, the band I'm recording now is more of a Jason Mraz pop rock type thing. Their lead guitarist came in with hardly anything "written" for the song, but he's a good musician, so between the two of us we knocked out a song in about 2 hours. I wouldn't recommend this with drums or rhythm, but some musicians can pull off improv with the right amount of direction (or in my case, being engineered by a guitarist who specializes in song writing!)

[Goop Home]

Asking me to record their band.

[southpaw pete]

Originally Posted by MrKnobs

Sometimes the "scratch" vocal is magic. If I hear magic, I'm going to keep it because magic is unpredictable and often it's a one time thing. I try to set the vocals up in reasonable iso so that kept magic doesn't have to be discarded due to bleed from a changed part.

Yeah it is surprising the way the "magic" can happen sometimes. I was just recording yesterday - a 14 hour session - and on this one song, there was a sloppy scratch guitar part... and I recorded a new guitar part to make it more polished and clean. My wife listened and totally didn't like the new version! She wanted the scratch! After a few more tries I was able to record a good version that had the magic of the first and the polish of the latter. Whew.

So, yeah, a mistake I've seen is deleting the scratch tracks and rough takes. Ya never know. Hold on to them if you can.

[Congoman]

On the other side of the glass, I've worked with an engineer who doesn't care about tone, just the notes. He figures it's easier to add digi effects than do the work of making it sound good live in his room. THAT'S annoying. He's good on everything else (keys, piano, brass, drums) though, so I keep going to him.

Originally Posted by blue2blue

Number one for those without a lot of experience: not knowing the material.

When I was in school and engineering bands for free, I thought they were disorganized and confused because they weren't paying money. Then I saw folks doing the same thing on their own dime and I thought... wow.

Now, mind you, fooling around in the studio can be a lot of fun when there's not a time/money budget to deal with.

But if you need to get something done?

• the band should know its material and have it arranged -- no, really
• the band should have thoroughly practiced and have multiple practice recordings of the song in precisely the arrangement they will be recording it in
• no last minute re-arrangements
• no last minute lineup switch ups
• there should be a hard, fast plan for what will be tracked live and what will be overdubbed
• the band should give the engineer and producer, if any, lead sheets or bar-counted lyric sheets with section notations already legibly on them so that he and the band can communicate about what's what and where they are in a given song -- this should reflect the agreed upon agreement to the bar and letter
• the engineer should talk to the band and figure out how they want to be arranged in the studio given his own understanding of the studio floor, drum room, gobos, localized acoustics (there's often a good/bad place for different instruments, even in a well-treated live room
• the engineer should know what mics he's going to use on what and have them on stands, cabled up, signal-checked, out of the way at the edge of the room more or less so they can be brought in with a minimum of fuss
• the engineer should have headphones ready to go with rough cue mix(es) for the musician
• the engineer should have aligned and calibrated any tape machines that will be used
• the engineer should make sure that the gear is warmed up and stable
• the engineer or producer should try to assure that the musicians are relaxed and comfortable and should avoid making them self-concious or nervous
• the engineer or producer should keep an eye on the attitude and attention of the band; don't let them get frazzled; don't let them go too long without food or fluids -- dehydration in the studio, particularly a hot, sweaty studio can be a real problem that sneaks up on everyone
• the engineer or producer should keep an eye on any, ahem, performance preparations to make sure that no one, for instance, drinks too much coffee, smokes too many cigarettes, et cetra (and a half)

This is a great post.

[blue2blue]

Thanks, it was off the top of my head (although mostly established and widely understsood wisdom), so it's certainly not complete... While there's not much new thinking there, I certainly had plenty of occasions to verify that wisdom in practical reality... often by violating those common sense rules and paying the consequences.

[DigitMus]

Well, it looks like the major points of pre-production have been well covered by blue & others (material/arrangement/rehearsal/studio logistics), so I'll move onto the next big point: instrument/gear preparation.

It never ceases to amaze me how many bands show up expecting to record with gear that is in appalling condition. Guitars with screwed up intonation, fret buzz, dead spots, flakey electronics, etc. Drums with played out heads, not tuned, cracked cymbals, flakey hardware (kick pedals & hi-hats, usually). Amps needing service - bad hum, bad tubes, intermittent jacks, blown speakers...

These are things that need to be addressed a few days (or sometimes weeks) before the band sets foot in the studio.

Scott