first time recording in a real studio

[saturn]

My band decided to make a professional demo. So we picked 10 cover songs to record and booked time at Orion Studios in Baltimore.

 

I can't say that I enjoyed it too much. It was fun hanging out with the band and goofing off when we weren't recording ( which was most of the time). I found it to be a lot of standing around waiting for everything to be set up. I wasn't comfortable wearing the head sets and the cord kept getting in my way. I certainly didn't play as well as I wanted, but didn't want to hold everything up even more doing re-takes. Hopefully the finished product will be good.

 

Anyone else ever recorded in a real studio?

[quapman]

I was fortunate enough to have a close friend, who was also my bandmate, buy in half a professional studio, which housed their residence upstairs.

So it was a home with a full blown pro studio downstairs.

 

The crappy part was my buddy just wanted to have a studio but his partner had business interest. Can't blame either of them their reasons for buying it.

So they did the full blown studio thing. Several bands did albums there but mostly they did tons of jingles for mostly radio.

 

We did however get to go in there when it wasn't booked and play around.

We were young little stoner sh!t$.

We had no idea how lucky we were.

So my experience in the studio is a little different. We weren't paying so there was no pressure other than the usual pressure of not wanting to mess up the track.

 

But man. Good memories.

And now 30 plus years later I realize how damn lucky we were.

[merciful-evans]

Yes. I have used professional studios a few times.

 

I agree, most of the time its dull. Starting with the drummer, everybody records separately, waiting for 'your turn'. There are 7 in my band and this can take days.

 

Its also difficult to play a good solo because the sterile environment.

 

One thing I can say with absolute confidence about recording is this. Preparation is of paramount importance.

[kidblast]

quite often I guess for me. My son has a pro setup that he's built in the loft at his house. We record there when ever we want, it's a very relaxed comfortable environment.

 

It's definitely "not the same" as jaming, rehearsing etc.. What we usually do is go direct with all the guitars, vocals in the isolation both, and the primary goal for the initial tracks is drums and bass guitars. Once those are down, we start layering to final rhythm/lead tracks, then it's fixing stuff..

 

There is a lot of "Waiting around" for sure, and when it's your time, you feel that you have to be spot on. If you're not used to that sort of an environment, it can certainly be a buzz kill.

 

Depending on the time allowed you, there's always room to fix stuff, and with the editing capabilities with some of today's technologies, you don't have to be "perfect" start to end the first time. You still have know your stuff of course.... so as Merciful said, being well prepared is key... I will usually work out my parts well ahead of time, so I know exactly what I want to do, helps me to get them down in a few takes, which helps me keep things fresh and not sounding contrived.

[surfpup]

 

Its also difficult to play a good solo because the sterile environment.

 

 

This!

 

One thing that I found helpful... turn my cans up really loud - mixed so that I can barely hear the solo part I am tracking. Always seems to help me get it right for some reason.

 

Have fun!

[saturn]

Here's how we did it.

 

We recorded the instruments live, all at once. My Carvin amp was in the next room with 2 mics. Other than using my pedals ( the amps Channel Selector, a chorus and MojoMojo overdrive) I never messed with my amp the whole time. The bass went into some type of pre-amp pedal and straight into the board. Same with keys. Drums were all mic'd up. Our female singer was in the next room with the board and sang over what were were playing, just to give us a reference in our ears, but that vocal wasn't recorded. She even sang the two songs that our keyboard player sings. Then after all the music was recorded, they went in and did vocals. The bass and keyboard players both have to go back later this week and finish adding some harmonies.

 

Then they will mix everything down and give us a batch of CDs with snippets of all the songs to use as our promo. No one is going to listen to 10 full songs. We'll get copies of the full songs for ourselves. That's why we didn't bother fixing every mistake. Any mistake part, just won't be used in the "snippet", but we'll have to hear it on our full copy. It would have been nice to get everything perfect, but we were trying to keep cost to a minimum.

[jdgm]

This!

 

One thing that I found helpful... turn my cans up really loud - mixed so that I can barely hear the solo part I am tracking. Always seems to help me get it right for some reason.

 

Have fun!

According to Atlantic producer Jerry Wexler's autobiography, this is how he got Aretha Franklin and others to deliver their amazing vocal takes....

[rct]

This!

 

One thing that I found helpful... turn my cans up really loud - mixed so that I can barely hear the solo part I am tracking. Always seems to help me get it right for some reason.

 

Have fun!

 

I stand in there at the desk and get the mix jammed up in the monitors, like I do it at home. Feels like I'm playing with a band.

 

rct

[Brytam]

Done it a few times. First ones I played bass in a band & we recorded the bass & drums together. This was back in the 70's & 80's, so all analog - 2" reel-reel tape. I really enjoyed it! I was young & thought I was in heaven! There was a lot of waiting around for setup, but I asked a lot of questions while the engineer was working. I also did some vocals. That was difficult as I had to hear the tracks in the headphone + hear myself pitchwise. One ear covered with the headphones & one ear open to hear me. Different, but loved every minute!

 

After those couple sessions, I really wanted to get into recording, so after high school, I started buying recording gear. Nothing like the big pros use, but still recording - Tascam A-3440 4-track 1/4" reel-reel, Tascam Model 5 mixer, etc. At the time, state of the art for home studios. That was early 80's. (Still using it today!)

 

Recently, I've recorded in a full digital studio a couple times. Didn't enjoy it as well. Played bass & lead guitar. Playing the bass was pretty standard & somewhat like what I was used to, but the lead guitar was odd. Plugged into an effects processor...& there you go! Mixing console was on 2 large monitors & the engineer was on his computer the whole time. Seemed a rather sterile, as someone else called it earlier, environment. Guess I'm just old school: analog warmth, cables, reel-reel, patchbays, mic setups,etc. That was an "art" that was learned by experimentation instead of a plug & play situation. That's just me...

 

Added a pic of me in late 70's recording in a studio in South Carolina playing my Ric 4001 bass...