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Recording Tips -Can I record and mix a whole album in a weekend? Generally....No. Working like this is a recipe for disaster. No matter how well you have rehearsed, it is unrealistic and will be disappointing when it doesn?t happen. Although, occasionally there are bands that come in and surprise me. -How long should I plan for then? In our experience, it is a good rule of thumb to count on the following? 1. It can take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours or more to set up and mic a drumset properly. Drums are a pretty important aspect of much of today?s western music, and it is really important to devote the time at the front end to getting a good drum sound. 2. Of ten, it can be a good idea to plan to overdub vocals and solos. That way the band's fresh energy of one of the first few takes can make it on tape (or disc) without everybody re-doing it for the 50th take because the guitar solo wasn't perfect. 3. It can save you money in the long run to book a session in blocks! If you spend for example 3 hours setting mics and getting everything dialed in perfect, it can be frustrating to have to tear it all down and start over again next week just because the ukulele player is going out of town the next day. 4. The first song usually takes a little while to get because everyone is still feeling out the situation and getting in the groove. The headphone mix gets tweaked a couple of times, and everyone needs to get comfortable. Once, the first tune is "in the can", usually musicians get on a roll and are able to crank out a bunch of good takes on subsequent tunes. If they still haven't nailed a particular tune after the 4th or 5th take, it s usually best to move on and try again another day. Although the 30th take may be technically perfect, it usually lacks the energy and "vibe". 5. It is a good rule of thumb to plan on spending at least the same amount of time mixing as tracking. If you have a budget for 10 hours for example, it is much better to spend 5 hours on setup and tracking, and the other 5 (at least) on mixing than to try to do as much tracking as possible, and skimp on the mixes. Proper planning can save you a lot of money in the long run here! It's a shame to spend a lot of energy on a recording that you're not totally satisfied with, and this is the most obvious place that projects go over budget. 6. Although King of 8 Studios is a full service studio, if you tracked the tunes here, it is highly recommended that they be mastered somewhere else. It is always a good idea to have a fresh set of ears that you trust listen to final mixes, and this can often be the last line of defence in terms of catching any potential problems before you print a thousand of them. We have a good working relationship with a couple of well respected mastering houses, and would be happy to recommend one. 7. Finally, it can save you money to practice before you get here. I know it's common sense, but it really sucks to pay an hourly rate going over arrangements that you could have hammered out for free in rehearsal. Also, it is a really good idea to change strings and drum heads before showing up. It is also a good idea to bring an extra set of strings and a tuner. I know this is all common sense stuff, but it really sucks when you forget and everything grinds to a halt as the guitar player has to run out to get a high E string. -Should I
bring my own amp/drums/keyboard etc.? 1- Practice. If you can, tape yourself on your boombox or friend's minidisk recorder or whatever. It is often surprising and educational to hear yourself if you have never recorded before. It can be very helpful. 2- Know the arrangements. Make sure everyone knows where the guitar solo is and if it's going to be overdubbed, everyone needs to play through it with the same energy they would if they were hearing it in their headphones. 3- Not that you are trying to imitate the sound of the latest/greatest, but it is often time saving if you can bring in a couple of CDs of your favorite recordings so we can get an idea of sounds you like. This can also help you as the artist to hear recordings that you are very familiar with over our system to give you a frame of reference in terms of what the sound is like in our mixing environment. 4- Practice some more. You have no idea how much time ($$$!) can be wasted on figuring out one harmony while in the studio. -Can King of 8 provide backups of our recordings? Yes. During tracking, all data gets saved to 2 separate (physically different) hard drives to avoid any problems in the case of a computer or drive failure. Once the project is done, all the individual tracks will stay on our computer for a couple weeks (just to make sure there are no last minute fixes). At this point, we need to free up disc space for other projects. With hard drives being as cheap as they are these days, you are encouraged to bring in a USB drive and make a copy of everything and guard it with your life. If the studio burns down (hopefully not) you could be the proud owner of every track and take you did and could go back 6 months later fix that one note that s been bugging you. After all that work and effort of recording the masterpiece, isn't it a good idea to keep an extra copy safe somewhere? -When
charging "Day Rate", how long is a day? What about alcohol and drugs? I know that it's every musician's dream to be doing lines of coke off the console while "the help" brings in the 3 cases of Dom Perignon that the record label sent over, but we have found from personal experience that while a little alcohol can be cool, it is an expensive proposition to be paying the hourly studio rate while passed out on the sofa or barfing in the bushes out front. Additionally, any alcohol or non-alcohol related spills into vintage gear or the console is heavily discouraged and can result in a seriously ugly situation! So to sum up... A little alchohol is cool. Drugs are not. |