Studio recording tips

Hey everybody

My band and I will be recording a 4 song E.P. at a studio in a couple of weeks. We'll have a producer with many years of experience so we're not on our own.

My band leader is the one having all the conversations with the producer and so far all I know is that we'll have 4 days for the 4 songs and the first day is for drums only.
This will be my first time ever recording at a studio so I'm not really sure what to expect.

I understand I'll be listening to everybody (including the click) through headphones and I'll be able to mess around with the volumes individually.

The guitar player doesn't have a very good internal click so I'm thinking of getting the music as low as I can just to be able to listen to the song in the background so I don't get lost, but in contrast, get the click as loud as I can so I can focus on it instead of the music (to avoid being dragged by the guitar player). That's usually the way I practice at home.

Is that a normal thing to do when doing studio recordings??? I'm curious on what you guys usually do and what works for you.

There will be no editing, so I need to get the best takes possible.
Thanks

When playing/recording with a click or track, it is all-important to be able to follow that click. That may seem extremely obvious, but I still encounter drummers that want to get a good balance so they can hear everything. Unfortunately, they also can no longer follow the click.

So yes, you're absolutely on the right track by having the click loud. And because you're doing drums first, you really don't have to compete with others who push and pull. As long as you know the arrangements and don't need guitar or vocals to know where you're at, you'll do fine.

Bermuda

Good question....i would ensure I knew the tunes like the back of my hand....and at the one extreme maybe even ask to do a take on your own, by memory with the click only.

Or like you said, turn the guitar down and follow the click, etc

Thanks guys

I'm glad to hear that I'm on the right track

I don't think I know the drum tracks well enough to do a recording with the click only....for some reason I do sometimes rely on vocals or certain guitar riffs to know where I am at the song but I know that if the click is loud enough, my brain focuses on it instead of the music, so I'm glad to hear it's not an uncommon thing and I think it'll go just fine.
Cheers

One more thing you can experience is actually playing so well *to* the click that it disappears! I hate to suggest anything that can be bad for hearing, but as was stated by Bermuda, that click really needs to be heard. You should get a set of headphones or in-ear-monitors that do a good job of isolating the ambient tracking room din

If you are just putting quarters on the click it can disappear...so if it does not bother you, you can ask for subdivisions as well.

DancingMadlyBackwards said:

One more thing you can experience is actually playing so well *to* the click that it disappears! I hate to suggest anything that can be bad for hearing, but as was stated by Bermuda, that click really needs to be heard. You should get a set of headphones or in-ear-monitors that do a good job of isolating the ambient tracking room din

If you are just putting quarters on the click it can disappear...so if it does not bother you, you can ask for subdivisions as well.

Click to expand...

Sure thing, thanks.....Just in case, I'm bringing my headphones which I think are good for isolation, but I'd believe the studio will have good ones too.

Two of our songs are pretty straight forward in terms of the tempo and drums so I feel confident with quarter notes. The other two however are more complex and have a couple of tempo changes within the songs, so for those I'm bringing the click as a wav file so the guys at the studio can import it. That click already has some sections in quarter notes and others in eight notes.

A great studio advice, that I first heard Gavin Harrison mention, is to record yourself counting, for example, 1,2,3,4 before a new section. Or program a different sounding click before a section. Those kind of things can really be helpful if you have a new 15 min long prog/rock tune to record.

Back to the subject; You're absolutely right. You must hear the click very clearly so that you're sure your timing is flowing nicely. It can also be a good idea to tell the producer to roll of different frequencies that makes the mix muddy so that you can hear yourself more clearly.

/Richard