Keep in mind, there are exceptions to EVERY rule! I can find you specific cases where I would want every rule here broken, but generally, I think these suggestions are all good practice
Thank you so so much. I've been working on mainly guitar, but I also want to be able to compose entire songs for several instruments. I would love a series in the vein of this one; one that's focused on tips and tricks to help make recordings sound better. Even common effects I find daunting to try and use 'correctly'. For example I only just found out from one of your videos to try using wah with distortion. I say this without a hint of sarcasm, you are the greatest music teacher on RU-vid.
One sort of cheat I would add to the list for drummers is to record a demo at home and bring it to the session. That way the drummer can play along to the music instead of just the click. Our drummer has this problem where he listens to the other members instead of knowing the parts himself, so he needs something to play to while recording. His playing is great so I am willing to overlook the extra effort needed. An additional bonus is that recording a demo forces you to compose everything before hand.
Good addition! (I hate it when advice comes in the form of ABSOLUTE dos and don'ts. You balance that in a good way!) I have a thought (more than a suggestion, as I'm not really a musician, and have no experience as a producer), but wouldn't it be a good practice for a band to make their own low level recording and mixing before they go to the studio for the first time, just to weed out the worst problems? You could record everything on a phone, and use a free or cheap program for editing. It will probably not sound very good, but I would think it was a great way to prepare.
@@egilsandnes9637 Oh yes. Every bit of preproduction you do helps. The basic idea is have your songs done in as much detail as possible 🙂 That way, you walk into the studio just to capture the takes with no time wasted. My band went way overboard in that we demoed our songs to such high levels that we just mixed and released the demos themselves 😂
one of these days imma actually come up and visit you since were both chicagoland area. i wouldnt wanna drive that far for lessons or practices. but knowing your level of professionalism, skill, and knowledge i feel itd be worth it
@@tpioh_ you ARE easy??? Scientists should really look into that. Thats crazy. That a human being can be easy, and not like, easy to be around or easy to get along with. Nonono this person IS easy. wow.
I did make this video partially for my own convenience, so I can send it to anyone I work with ahead of time, and then they'll know how to avoid my uncontrollable rage
Playing alone, with a band, live and in the studio are 4 extremely different things. My first advice to any new musician is to get the cheapest mic, interface, DAW and headset. Set up a click, hit that record button and look at what happened (timing, dynamics...). These 100 bucks will change your life and make you a much better musician much faster.
Recording yourself is def the fastest way to correct your mistakes. You might feel like you are nailing something but when you roll that tape back you'll find out pretty quickly how true that is
Absolutely agree! And record and play with a metronome straight away. I know this sounds like a no brainer, but there is a considerable amount of guitar and bass players who just don't do that, hence they struggle when playing with a full band as obviously the tempo is different.
"Red button syndrome" is a real problem for me (i.e. tensing up as soon as you hit record). A neat trick my buddy does is to tell me to do a couple of practice runs (whilst secretly recording it). This gives a much more natural take. Unfortunately, I've got wise to this though so we end up playing call my bluff half the time, but it can work!
I started recording my practice sessions so I could get used to playing while being recorded - the whole "practice how you'll play" idea. I usually delete them within the day so no one else has to be subjected to them...
@@profvonshredder2563 One of the clear symptoms for me with 🔴 syndrome is sweaty hands. Then the tense hands start kicking in. And then finally I get to a dark place where I don't understand what tempo is.
yep. recorded a guitarist who would slowly unlearn how to play each take. i secretly recorded practice takes and then cut n pasted n didnt tell him. gotta pump their ego up to.🍻
I would add, dress comfortably. The studio isn’t a fashion show, you’re going to be playing your parts over and over, getting sweaty, and sitting for long periods of time.
I remember recording with a sort of "nu metal" alt rock band in the early 2000s, and the producer had our drummer go first. However, before we got started, the drummer mentioned that what he listens to most when we would practice was what our bassist was doing, so our bassist did a scratch track first, then we recorded the drums, followed by the bass going back over with much cleaner playing... I also sang in a Power Metal band in the mid-2000s, and my brother was the drummer. He just wrote all his parts out in GuitarPro beforehand, and then played along with the MIDI track, since some of the timing and tempo changes would've been tough to program into a metronome, but literally the touch of a button in GP. Lots of different ways to assist people to feel more confident playing to a click... still, nothing works better than just practicing with a metronome on your own
To get sessions running smoothly, I usually run a click track through to the drummer, and put him in the same room as the bassist/guitar. I record the drums + guitar but the guitar is usually just a scratch track and is really just there to help the drummer get through the song. A good producer will know exactly how to get the session running smoothly depending on who they're working with, but good session players usually make that role way easier and less time consuming
I recorded a couple of songs with my band back in 2015/2016. I had to beg guitarist to record a scratch track at home for me so I can take it with me for my drum session to speed up everything. He recorded one but couldn't be bothered with the second song. At the studio, the chap that recorded us wouldn't let me play the whole track but stop me after each section because he recorded that way before and it worked the best for him. That completely didn't work for me. So it's not always the "unprepared musician". ;P
That bit about guitar sound is HUGE. Guitarists always want to use the solo sound they're used to, but don't understand what kind of guitar sounds mixes best in a full band context.
One technique I use is to simply split the guitar signal, sending one to their amp and effects of choice, then another to the DAW as a raw signal for later re-amping.
@@James-eg3nf this is the pro move. pleases the guitarist, lets you capture the actual amp tone, and also enables you to totally replace it if need be, or just blend in another amp tone for color
@@SignalsMusicStudio especially with the tone color. I didn't realize how much I liked the sound of blending amps and cabs together until I started recording myself playing. For me, I like taking amps that are kinda opposites of each other and splitting them left/right for my guitar parts (like an Orange Twin Terror and a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier), it really fills out the mid range well while still leaving space for other mid range parts like vocals.
I had a drummer who would transcribe everything we wrote into notation and he was flawless in the studio. Ill also add memorizing lyrics is important but often you are going line by line and adding layers so having everything typed and placed on a music stand slightly infront and above can be very useful. It can help to have the vocal lines on synths or something to help you find your place in the harmony also
Same, he was also the best drummer I've ever heard to this day. Occasionally he even composed a whole song on his own, and it was always good when he brought it to the table.
similarly to having paper printouts, at my home I use a bigscreen TV as second monitor and can push lyrics, notes, tabs or even my whole daw to a big screen anyone in the room can look at. spare tablets can also hold a similar function
This is seriously one of the best videos I've ever watched. I apologize if this seems like sensationalism or an overstatement but in 14 minutes you cover so much ground, brilliantly articulate so many facets of the recording process, and zero in on the fundamental dos and don'ts. I've been on all sides of this: I've been the unprepared musician, I've been the prepared musician, and I've produced many sessions where I've encountered all of these issues. If you're a new band heading into the studio Jake has just saved you several thousand bucks...if you listen to him. So well done Jake. Thanks! -Mark
For years I was in a band that toured and recorded. Every time we went into the studio I had a whole binder that I generated that was not only notation transcriptions of parts I had spent a year improvising in the live context, but also I usually had a transcription of all the harmony vox parts, even though that wasn't technically my job. I also had all the chord charts, even though I was "just" the fiddler. I always had the full lyric sheet for every song, even though I was not the singer. And I usually had various notes about key moments (Drummer, watch that break after 2nd chorus that we worked on, for ex...) because I was always the most OCD person in the room. 😆. I have a bookshelf full of binders from various studio projects.
Solid advice all around, and these are all tips that I've learned from 10 years of recording albums with my band. I've got some additional advice for guitarists: please, please, please check your tuning before you start recordings. I can't tell you how many times we nailed a take in the studio but had to throw it out because the guitar was out of tune. Vocalists: know your limits. When you record take after take of the same song, fatigue can start to set in, which will ruin your takes. I would recommend no more than 2 hours of singing before taking a break for several hours to give your voice a chance to rest.
@@lastdaysguitar yep. We had to redo a few takes in the studio due to bad guitar intonation. It's not something that can be fixed with pitch correction, nor would you want to even if you could.
I'd add a few things. 1.) a producer, recording engineer, mix engineer, and mastering engineer are different roles. Some people might play multiple roles (especially in the budget scenarios), but if your producer just records you they are not really a producer only a recording engineer. Learn the different stages of the recording process and the roles that go with them. The pre-meeting is good to figure what role the person you're hiring is playing. 2.) before going into the studio, agree how decisions will be made ahead of time. Is it by majority vote, is there a band leader, is it whatever the producer says, etc. 3.) agree ahead of time how credit is going to be given for writing/producing, etc. 4.) Make sure your instruments are in good working condition or borrow/rent ones that are. Get your guitar set up, put new heads on your drums, etc. Bring extra sticks, heads, and strings with you to the studio. 5.) have clear recording goals in mind before going in. Are you using all of your budgeted time to make one song really great or are you using it to bang out as many songs as possible?
Some very solid guidelines detailed here! I particularly appreciated the bit regarding the importance of firmly establishing everyone's roles respective to their involvement in the project/session(s). If something that crucial manages to get overlooked, then it's guaranteed that toes will most definitely be stepped on! I clearly recall during the tail-end of the audio engineering education I was enrolled in, as we were being instructed on the "do's" and "dont's" to put on a resume, and what qualifies as an immediate red flag to potential employers notice a person describing themselves as a 'producer', or has claims that they've 'produced x amount of tracks', regardless if there's any truth to it! It's pretty much a wrap! Fact is, that label has developed such a relatively negative connotation over the years, especially within the audio industry! For those few lucky engineers who have had, or still have, the luxury of working on a traditionally large, analog console (to tape), ask them to demonstrate how to configure the desk into "Producer Mode" lol and you'll learn firsthand what I'm saying! It certainly doesn't help matters given how the term 'producer' is so frivolously tossed around by one too many douche-canoe's, but I digress lol!
#1 rule Buy insurance, a garbage can and, a steamcleaner! #2 rule if it sends you to federal prison it's baned #3 rule Must at least wear underwear! #4 rule wash your ass and brush your teeth!
A producer who just 'sits back and hits record' is not producer. The key role of a producer is to take you from wherever you are to a higher level. So, producers for major talent have a major challenge.
As a bassist I’ve been totally guilty of these points. Not truly hearing the drum parts until I heard the recorded drums. Poor muting making me sound terrible. The embarrassment was a useful lesson to up my approach and technique. Great advice!
@@randolphgallagher7942 Beato also takes a swinging Bonzo groove and quantizes it to death, coming to the conclusion that click tracks and quantization are the reason why modern music (allegedly) sounds bad
Another problem I've seen in a lot of bass players is very poor finger economy. You have to sit down and think which is the optimal finger you should use to play each note, so you don't end up running out of fingers and doing awkward jumps that kill the bottom end the bass is supposed to give
Beato said that he would often mute the strings for the bassist while recording. I.e. he would stand there and touch the strings that they weren't playing.
I play upright most of the time and that made my electric playing much cleaner. Not muting properly on an acoustic upright is an obvious disaster, you kind of anticipate the desired end of the note and mute a bit earlier to let the resonances die out.
Keyboard players are usually formally trained, so they know what's voice leading. Unlike everybody else in the band. I'm a rare breed of a bass player who's formally trained as a tuba player, but most of us bassists barely know a thing about music theory.
That’s a really good tip. I’ve been playing keys for 50 years and I didn’t really take that to heart until I starting kicking left hand bass in a band 5 or 6 years ago. Now that I am the bass player as well, it makes perfect sense to me. I want the bass part to stand out and my left hand piano parts were in the way.
@@kappyLV That is fascinating how taking on the roll of bassist as a keyboardist made you aware of that! Cool. Kudos to you! I always appreciate that ability some keyboardists have to play two distinctive roles. I have a friend who is both they keyboardist and bassist in her band
@@MtlRedAtheist, thanks for the kudos, but it was always something I said I couldn’t do. Then I was put into the situation where there just weren’t any bass players in the area where I live. 2 years of grinding it out and I started to get the hang of it. I still struggle with playing independent parts, but at 65, I’m really enjoying the challenge. It would be a lot easier if I wasn’t also a singer!
The tone thing was a big problem for my guitarist to overcome. I always told him he couldn't just download famous players' presets and tell me to work with them. They sounded good but he didn't understand the nuances of tone, like using a modern metal tone in a classic rock influenced song. He was quite reluctant to give me DI tracks because he didn't want me to "mess" with his tone, but once he heard a finished mix, he was convinced to leave it to me. I run everything by him and nothing is released without his approval, but at the same time, I spend so much time messing around with tones by myself that I can do things he'd never think of. On one of his solos, I actually put on a vinyl record effect that he ended up loving. That's just one example. Now the next thing is to convince my drummer to back off a bit and trust me as well.
First time YT algorithm did something right for me. My band and I have a studio session booked for next month and I just sent this to all of our members because it's such useful advice. We were somewhat aware of the points you're making, but you really drive them home. Now I wish we had more time to prepare... :D
This video is absolute gold. As a professional producer/composer you’re spot on on the big issues. Id be happy to see some more producing heavy videos. Thank you!
I've never been so proud to be a keyboard player! But honestly you're right, we all did take piano lessons and there can be a big disconnect between us and people who never had formal study.
This is great advice if you’re working in your home studio too. Scheduling and separating the different production phases really helps focus on completing the project. Thanks, Jake! Also, I like your sweatshirt!
#8 Arranging bass parts. I used to play in the band with bassist like that. He would create really complex bass parts for simple songs and riffs cause it's boring to play root notes. When we went into studio and recorded few songs all his "amazing licks" got buried under guitars and kick drum. And there are even parts where all the drive that bass guitar gives to a song is gone cause he would insist on playing some fancy stuff instead of supporting the groove.
I feel like there's a corollary to this though - if the fancy bassline ~is~ important, it should be prioritised in the mix. Jake's example is where the bass needs to get out of the way of the guitars, but there are some songs and bands where really the guitar (no!!!) needs to take a back seat sometimes (nooooooooo!!!!) You can mix to highlight certain moments too (like you could make those harmonics stand out if they add a bit of chef kiss to the song) but it's probably worth balancing that against the arrangement - if the song isn't actually written to make space for those sounds (so they'd be lost or muddy played live) then adding it to the recording is kinda more like a sound effect. Which isn't necessarily bad, noises are cool! But y'know
It depends on the music, recording style and band type. A fully improvised breathing performance is perfect for some genres. But sure for more commercial music I guess it's important with rules, grids, arrangement and integrity. Either way, yes recording in a studio can be challenging
All that “breathing performance” bullshit is the kind of thing amateurs love to say to excuse their awful playing skills. Any professional musician in any genre can record to a click without sounding “breathless” because there's basically nobody who can play every note exactly as the click goes. The “breath” of music is dynamics and technique in general, not any of that esoteric bullshit your friends and fancy magazines feed you with.
There's a difference between a producer and a tracking engineer. Producers help perfect the music whereas the tracking engineer is the guy you just presses record. The guys who call themselves producers and just press record are a sham.
Audio engineers still have to setup all the routing/patching, choose proper mic placement and what mic's have to be used, make sure sound is isolated, know how to use the DAW, and know what how to use all the essential plug ins that to make sure each track sounds the best it can (compression, limiters, EQ, etc.) which are essential for each track to stand out but also sound good in the mix. Producers I think play a larger role into the overall sound and arrangement of the track. Producers also should be able to give direction to the musicians on how to get a better performance. Both are essential I feel. At least that's what I remember from school, though it was years ago.
If anyone calls themselves a producer they should have some real credentials...ive heard many "producers" who try to make every band sound like they think you should or someone else. A real producer let's the band have their own sound, as it should be...and not manipulate the instruments to sound like led zeppelin every fucking song. This is a common problem with soundmen and producers who want you to sound like their favorite band or musician. Van Halen for example wouldn't think of having a sound engineer tell them how Eddie's guitar should sound. I could go on and on about this but you should have the idea.
When I hear the title "producer", I always think of George Martin. He has a lot of the honor for how nice the music of The Beatles is. He offered his ideas, helped shape the sound, came up with parts and even played instruments on some of the tracks.
When it comes to keyboard players (in a band context) the one thing I would say is tell them not to play in the low register because it creates a muddy or will simply be high passed to allow for the bass guitar.
This is so true...I love playing octaves and such, otherwise my LH gets bored and starts moving south. If I'm playing with a bassist, the index finger is about all I use in my LH.
"Even if your playing a grunge song and its supposed to sound like garbage..." LOL,! "Memorize your lyrics, it's a professional environment." "They're not singing harmonies, they're singing disasters." Now, don't hold back Jake. :) Seriously, great video but there were some laughs here that I am sure that were born of frustrating experiences.
My no.1 tip for a studio session is prepare food in advance, recording is hard work and you have to keep the energy up and feel good. You don't want to be stuck in an unknown area where there is no decent food available. I have been in a recording studio that was in an industrial estate, they could only record in the evenings because of traffic noise etc.
That advice about writing your stuff out first is probably going to save me for years to come lol. I really thought it was all about getting inspired in the studio since I’ve only been at this music thing for a year. Always got frustrated that nothing was coming to me until I realized I spent the last year learning to produce, not write songs. Thank you so much man! Always a huge help.
The stuff about vocal harmony is so true. I don’t care who you are they’re tricky as hell and you must write them before you go in especially if you really want to add a lot of them
Our mistake was we rehearsed 6 songs to record, and in the end we rushed and recorded barely 3, because sound in a garage and in a studio is SO different, we felt like we played together for the first time... Four hours of frustration, which led to anger and total paralysis. So, the conclusion is: get ready with a minimum of songs you can REALLY play automatically, without a back though or doubt.
Your problem was that you were expecting to record 6 songs in 4 hours my friend. Get ready with the songs is a must indeed. But be patient. It never works in 2 or 3 takes. I remember with my band to have more than 300 takes on particular sections, just because they weren't sounding right and we wanted the best we could
@@pedrosilvaproductions > It never works in 2 or 3 takes It actually works when you really know your shit. If you need more than 10 takes to finish a song and can't push out a whole take of the song from start to end, you're unprepared, and you don't belong in the studio at all. Even as a spectator.
Jake as always spot on. I may need to show this video to some of my "customers" :) Sort of like having kids that won't take your advice until they hear their friends parents saying the same things. Now you can take a deep breath after saying all the things that need to be said. Thanks.
This video was great, Jake. I highly recommend EVERYONE that wants to record just spend a little money on recording hardware and software and record yourself. Then, you will be prepared to actually spend real money on producers
lots of folks have home studios, that really need some talent too!! try finding the guys who want to do it free, so everyone learns, then go and pay for some time...
Some very sound advice here (pun intended heh). One gripe though: that "bigger picture" that producers always seem to have sometimes is confined by very concrete ideas about how something "is supposed to sound" and then suddenly you have something that sounds so much like the next band out there, because producers also copy one another and they see what the next guy does and the end up sounding similarly. Also, producers are people who -like every professional- want to streamline their workflow by having ready-made solutions for many problems and this sometimes creates copy-paste results in the sound too.
Spot on. I'm 70, have been performing for 50+ years with great responses. I suck in a studio... So, I'm putting a home studio on the cheap.... gotta start somewhere. On stage, my balls are HUGE. In the studio, I get "studio fright," turn into a wimp.... "Those machines are staring at me!" I'm beginning a "simple" recording project, Audacity and a computer.... Yes, consistency is key... it took me all day to get one song down. I did the bass and harmonica on separate tracks.... What a learning experience. But I've also seen studio rats fail miserably on stage. Bass... I always approach electric bass like its an upright with no sustain. I mute. Bass is a percussion instrument... and I think that way when I get a bass gig. Having a supportive attitude is key... most music does not need a shredder on bass. Memorizing lyrics are a MUST for me... even live. Having the crutch of a lyric cheat sheet is fine in the studio... but live, it sucks the life out of the music... and it's also multi-tasking... which detracts from the live energy. Thanks for this. I needed to hear/see this vid.
can i just recommend to you to try out other DAWs such as FL Studio or Ableton? I worked with Audacity for a while and let me tell you it is a world of a difference in production quality as well as flexibility switching to FL Studio
@@iamdeafboi.9921 Thanks for the tip... I'm a recording noob... I'll need as much advice as I can get. I still want to whack Audacity around for a while... at least finish the one project I started... It is teaching me terminology and techniques... I don't have much recording gear. My expectations are not high with this project. It is basically an audio sketch for the songwriter... and it will be good for prep come time to take it to a real studio. I'll be ready and prepared. The project is funded by the songwriter who requested my participation. He can afford almost any studio. He will also pay me well... and I'll be able to afford the gear I'll need... including acoustic treatment of the studio.
lol sitting on my couch playing guitar I play that progression perfectly, spring up from my repose and off into my "studio" to records it..... 20 minutes later I still dont have a perfect take...
This is excellent advice. While I've never recorded a professional album under contract I have recorded some very good demo albums in a studio with a producer. I was lucky in that the producer was a member of the band (I was in several bands with this friend) and I was able to learn how to get in the right mindset. We rehearsed at his home studio, more a rehearsal space, but recorded in a professional studio, which helped make these demos sound very good. My friend knew a lot about recording and mixing, mic placement, etc. One thing I learned was to trust the producer, especially if you know nothing about producing. We were always prepared because we had to know exactly what we wanted before hand and know how to communicate because it was costing us money. I also learned, as a guitar player, how to act in a studio. I had to trust that the sound I thought I wanted was not always the sound that was needed. I had my amp cranked up with way too much distortion and my produver/friend/bandmate/drummer showed me how bad it sounded and why we needed a lot less distortion and double tracking or quadruple tracking. The more tracking the more clarity you need. Tracking is all about building body and texture. Solos were about the last thing I laid down. We also had to think about what we could replicate live. I don't think you have to be able to replicate everything, but I'd say about 95 percent of what's on the album should be repeatable live. I think these studio experiences helped me become a much better, more mature player. I thought of these demo albums as being the foundation for our tours, which really just meant playing around little clubs or even restaurants and parties or festivals. But to us it was a big deal, and one of the best experience of my life in the mid 80s to early 90s. I don't have any of the demos now, but I was very proud of them. They sounded good. They presented our music to the world in the best way we could at the time. I also discovered that I loved working in the studio as much as playing live. It felt like building something. We were building music. I loved it.
I can think of one obvious exception to a few of these rules - where the band and producer are actively looking to recreate the band's live sound. Speeding up during a track is not an unforgivable crime - especially during choruses. So, forget the click track and get a producer or engineer who can tempo map the performance in their DAW - if they're obsessed with working on the grid. Use your amp sound but record it well with mics and DI for flexibility. And drummers you don't have to record tracks on your own with just a click for company. If you want your bassist and/or rhythm guitarist to record with you to help with groove and feel then ask for it. If you're paying, you will want to save time, but demanding that band members do a list of things with which they're uncomfortable, just to make the engineer and producers life easier is not the point of recording. Getting and capturing a great performance is the point of recording and if your music's strength is derived from extreme use of the band's sonic dynamics then you want this to be on the recording. If your lead singer performs so much better holding the microphone then ask to record using a dynamic microphone. The people behind the desk are working for you and not the other way round. So do communicate with them prior to getting into the studio about gear etc and most importantly your intentions for the band sound you want for the recording.
agree! making musicians comfortable in the studio is huge part of being a good producer imo, and being able to set things up in a way that is easy for them. as a player though you can't always rely on having a good producer :P
@@khbgkh A slight increase in the speed of the chorus adds energy and excitement. It happened all the time in pre-digital recordings. For example there are many subtle speed changes in Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody - around 10 bpm from the slowest to fastest part - but Freddie Mercury didn't fire the band.
Rule number 2 _ NO exceptions ___ PROPER TUNING of the instruments. This includes drums . Don’t bring your “ coolest “ or even your favorite instrument to the studio , nobody SEES the instrument on a CD or on Spotify, they only HEAR it . Bring the ugly , great sounding instrument that STAYS IN TUNE to the studio . That’s rule number 2 . NO EXCEPTIONS . Rule number 2 mentioned in this clip is dead on , though it’s actually rule number 3 .
For the studio sessions I've been part of, we usually had the drummer (or someone else, really) record a basic scratch track to a click, recorded the other instruments, then come back when everything was in place and record final definitive tracks.
I usually MIDI write my scratch drum tracks (but they are 97% close to what's going to be live recorded, because I write the stuff based on what our drummer played at a rehearsal), then record all the instrumental parts, then do live drums, and only then vocals. I also use rhythm guitar scratch tracks a lot when I'm not recording my own band.
@@alexeypolevoybass that's a good way to do it as well. As a bass player, recording stuff to a straight click feels really weird, hard to groove properly.
I was sitting in St. Charles IL watching this as I prepare to figure out my path for my next album and thought to myself, “man, this guy seems like a perfect match as a producer for my solo stuff where I perform everything”, so I google you guys and low and behold your line 30 mins from me. 😊 I will be contacting you guys within the next few months.
I really enjoyed listening to you telling about your studio expiriences and getting emotional about it :) Would love to see more videos about this subject.
A friend of mine was in a band and they paid $3000 for three days in a professional recording studio. When I spoke to him I was like 'You have to make the most of this and WORK HARD, record as much as you can and take advantage of every single minute'. Anyway they ended up recording 3 songs over the first two days. I asked him about the third day, turns out they just hanged out and experimented like they think they're the frickin Beatles or something. *facepalm what a waste of money. I was so annoyed cause, 1. I'm not popular enough to be in a band, 2. I never have money to spend on studio time & 3. I would of been so ridiculously over prepared. Also, (unless your signed to a label and stuff) I highly recommend you RECORD at the studio and then MIX elsewhere. When you do that you will get the most value out of your studio time and it means you take your time to find the right person to do the Mixing. Also also if you are considering booking time please take a moment to ask yourself if it really is a wise investment, maybe instead you can use that money to buy recording equipment for a home studio. Yeah it's not going to be quite as high quality as a real studio but home recording tech has come a long way than it was even just 5 years ago. I live in Nashville and it's crazy the amount of money parents spend for their Taylor Swift Wannabe Daughter to record her High School Heartbreak song. Instead they could of spent a fraction of that cash and buy her a New Guitar, Headphones and a Quality USB Mic.
Listening to this whilst our vocalist is writing vocal harmonies in their room lol Also when we had a keyboardist she was the weakest link xD My advice is stay hydrated and have some bananas & snacks to keep energy up. Recording is more physical than you might think... Bananas to prevent cramps (potassium). As a bassist if I know I have a busy part, I also try to make sure I have a groove and also a straight root notes tucked away and present the options. Be prepared to kill your darlings, let them go ;p
This video will be required viewing for any future guests BEFORE the visit. Great information. Thank you for putting it all in this very neat accessible package!
The key catch-all here is be prepared ahead of studio time. I find that if you can "home-record" it to a finished product, more or less, as in; everything is already there, it's a totally finished song. Then when you go to the studio, it's just a matter of reproducing something in the studio that you already know inside and out... all your doing now is getting a producer to record and mix to a professional studio standard. You can save yourself a lot of time and money this way.
I remember reading that Brian Eno used a markerboard during the Achtung Baby sessions. Understandable since it is such a detailed album, plus the band was doing things they'd never done before. And can you imagine how much Prince had planned out before recording? Granted, he had carte blanche at whatever studio he worked in, plus of course his own. But he surely knew the value of studio time. Oh, and then there's Sgt. Pepper and Dark Side Of The Moon...
When I was studying we recorded a band and the guitarist improvised a "psychedelic outro" that was just strumming with too much wah, to the point that it barely sounded like notes.
I did my band recording on 2" tape. The bass player and myself were the songwriters and we each sang lead on our own compositions. We found a great drummer and spent most of a summer rehearsing 15 songs. I had built up credit in a studio I did tech work for. In August we went in and spent 5 days doing rhythm tracks for 13 of the songs (I ran out of tape after spending all my cash for 5 reels at $250 each). Those were mostly to get the drums--guitar and bass went direct (I used a 50W Marshall head into a dummy load), the vocals were scratch since we were all in one room and the drums bled into the vocal mics. This was what was available to me at the time (1991), but it is representative of "Old School". The songs were very well rehearsed and the band was very tight. Click was not needed and I believe it makes for a less musical performance. I was taught classical piano when I was young and I remember the sheet music having instruction for both volume and tempo changes throughout the various pieces I learned. My teacher told me it would be up to me to 'feel" the music and communicate that to the audience. That meant interpreting the composer's intention as best I could. Watch Bobby Huff time-align Van Halen and you'll get the idea. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-p9rVKnEvAQ8.html
So glad you showed the sloppy track for double tracking guitars - some people may think it sounds cool solo'd but the sloppiness really creates for some unexplained CHAOS on the final mix SAVE those layers for ..... layers! ahah
As a bassist I have to say playing with a pick is limiting. Without it I have finger style, thumb, slap and pop, tapping... With it I have a pick tone. There are a few bassist that are great with them ( bobby vega, phil lesh, mike gordon) but for most of us, tone is in the fingers
@@gratefulila9980 Right. ...and there's a lot of variety in the way it can be finger picked. Yeah, I hear you. I am a guitar player for the most part. ...and when I started guitar my older brother was insistent about using a pick. I was about 12 when I started and I didn't experiment with finger style till I was well into adulthood! These are things I think most people have debated forever. Flatpick is still the most natural way for me to play. 👍
Some great advice here.. I am a bassplayer and home recordist in my early 50's now. The only time I went to a pro studio was 1994. I had a band that was 3 of us age 24 and a drummer aged 16. We wrote a song that we liked and wanted to record as well as we could. The drummer was doing all this random stuff on his kick and everything else. I spent time with him showing him exactly what would work and got him to practice to a click track that had just my bass on it. When we went into the studio, I played bass to a click and then he laid down the drums. 2nd take was a ripper. No wasted time and awesome result. The drummer looked so chuffed when it came to mixing the song and the engineer could crank the kick no compression because it was solid. A bit of homework went a long way. The only thing that changed in the whole production was because we had a leftover track (16 track tape) I added a simple backvox part. Just a 3rd above the main vocal.
"Write your vocal harmonies." Tell me about it. Some singers have good voices and can definitely sing well but do not have a natural flair for harmonies. If that is the case, the vocal director has to create for them a guide track or MIDI file for their reference to ease the recording process.
@@colinedmunds2238 I see where you are coming from, but to me it depends though. From my experience, singers who did not play an instrument but sung in choirs before often do not have many problems with regards to this, because they were so used to vocal harmonies that to them this is just another day in the office and nothing too fancy.
Memorize your lyrics yes. But if you have to put them on a music stand that is way way way better than reading it off the damn phone. I see singers using their phones at gigs. That makes me want to go home.
@@DTension The band I was in the singer relied on his notebook because he couldn't remember the lyrics. Guess what? No one gave two fucking shits about it ever because they enjoyed the music and the performance. Every single time.
I'm pretty glad that I have realized these things on my own when I had my first electric guitar. It's still frustrating when I have a song in my mind and it turns out to be difficult to actually produce it.
Playing to a clicker is the hardest thing I've tried as an advaced-ish amateur guitar player. I wish I had done it as I learned it, so it was just in my system.
Try ignoring the kick and snare next time you play with a drummer, and listen to what they're playing with their right hand. It's probably a quarter note pulse, which is exactly what a metronome is
That's really a point: most keyboard players do have a formal training, which has a fundamental role when it comes to discipline and getting things done exactly as they meant to me. I've been playing both the guitar and the piano for years, and it's clear to me that my studying methods are pretty different. Great video, thank you very much!
I use double tracking often. Usually I have my main melody and harmony right in the center as one track, sort of as the main focus, while my rhythm section/chords are double tracked to either side so it's thicker behind the melody. Of course you can double track solos but you have to pay close attention to the accenting.
@@SwampieNew Usually that's my approach too, but I find my single note tracks to often be much weaker. I was wondering if double tracking might be another solution combined with less automation.
A lot of this advice is also very revealing as to why so much of the modern music sounds dead and formulaic: click track, no dynamics or "felt" rhythms incompatible with quantization, overused autotune, no inspired improvisation, cliché double tracking, instead of layering of complimentary parts etc. I get it, your intentions are good. But if the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix Experience or Led Zeppelin wandered into a studio with minimal budget in 2021, they'd never make it, because everything they did is "wrong" these days. Tempo and dynamics would be all over the place, sloppy guitar playing (and different every take), drummers hanging behind the beat, singer improvising etc.
Disagree with all of this. Metronomes have been used forever, drum machines since their existence. Music is dead and lifeless because of the artists + producers vision and skills, NOT the tools they're using. You can write a dead and lifeless track without a click, and write an amazing transcendent masterpiece with one (see the new Plini album)
@@SignalsMusicStudio Well, I don't disagree. Technology is not to blame. I was actually talking about what you refer to as vision. The problem is that the vision is to homogenize everything to some kind of "industry standard". Which is why acts that wouldn't use a metronome in the past are now absolutely expected to, while all vocalists end up sounding like the same robot due to heavy-handed production and drums sound as if they're midi, even thought they really weren't. And while VST provides a myriad of tones to a guitarist, for many players its use while recording adds an extra barrier to impede an inspired and expressive performance (along with other unwanted variables such as monitoring, red-light syndrome etc.). So I say absolutely DO get tied to your live tone if that's what brings out your best performance! Let's not forget, music is art. The goal for recording and production is to capture and augment the magic, not to deliver an agreeable "product". The result is that cases when a band didn't produce their own album while leisurely using their own studio and still came up with a masterpiece are exceedingly rare. When studio performance requirements were less removed from the live situation, it was more up to the band. Now, as you said 0:00 and 3:55 To end on a positive note, today the decent recording/production tools are more attainable than ever and, owing to people like yourself, production knowledge is more available than ever before, which allows musicians if not totally self-produce, at least broaden their understanding and skillset and take more creative control. Which is how the best albums are made right now.
In summary, I'd say welcome to the 21st century. Your opening sentence is your worldview which you are entitled and encouraged to have. There are many old timers who may share your worldview, but just as many if not more who do not. Music is about inspiration. If it sounds great to you, it is even if it sounds like crap to the dude standing next to you. There may be some errors in your critical thinking too. The statement about Hendrix and Zeppelin not making it might be like saying Henry Ford would not make it in 2021 if he showed up in Detroit. Times change, technology changes, but it appears mankind has been digging various types of music throughout recorded history. I'm not trying to pick a word fight here, just mentioning some things that me and my friends who are all 60+ spend a great deal of time talking about in my studio; what makes a song great? We've settled on it largely hinges on the listeners worldview. Cheers & long live rock!!
@@newell2339 Your attempt to compare music to mass production of cars is a perfect way to further my argument. Thanks! You can have any colour you like, so long as it is black. Just FYI: this "old-timer" here is 37 and has 2019-2021 albums making like 90% of the current playlist. It's just that they didn't come off a production line, and, of course, for that very reason, aren't in the charts.
What's funny Jake is that David Gilmour is the only rock guitarist to have written his solos out in standard notation. At least the really iconic ones.
What Walter said. He would improv several solos, pick his favorite parts and combine them. He never wrote anything out in standard notation as he doesn’t know how to read music.
I agree with everything you say! I am mostly a solo studio musician and a songwriter but I also do semi-pro recordings for other groups and friends . It’s pretty easy for me (and other musicians) to come up with a song and do a scratch recording in a few hours, but it can take many days or even weeks to fully complete a polished studio-quality recording. The biggest time wasters are 1) Completing the lyrics 2) Getting a good guitar or bass tone (micing cabs, effects). I admit I’m resistant to VST and much prefer the tone of a real cab but I realize no cares in the context of the final mix 3) Coming up with the drum and bass parts that make sense for the song as opposed to being flashy and impressive. 4) Recording tracks accurately and doing many re-takes 5) Mixing and mastering, and 6) As you mentioned - writing vocal harmonies! This is surprisingly difficult, even for someone with a ton of experience. So yes, recording in a studio is a ton of work, so my advice would be to treat it like a job.
