How to reduce studio time

FruitarGeek

My band is going to record a single real soon, but, because we are all poor, we can only afford 1 day, 2 at a push. Now I am 95% certain we can do some good praciting and rehearsals to make sure we won't need more than 2 takes for each of us to do our parts. We also have plans to do some serious pre-production, that includes making a demo recording of the song in the right temp to act as a guide track for the drummer. We will essentially map out the song and say what will happen when and where. I will work out what guitar effects I will use, and calculate how much delay to use, and then tell the engineers to use so and so much delay etc.

Is there anything else we can and should do before going to studio that can help cut our studio time in half. We dont want to waist time doing this or that. As I said, we can only afford 1-2 days. Mixing will hopefully happen on the second day. I know its optimistic to think we can record Drums, Piano, Guitar, Bass, Vocals and anything else in one day, but I have some gifted muso's around me ?

MIKA-the-better-one

you cna... it just depends how picky you are...

Keira-WitherKay

Ok the obvious is have the material well rehearsed especially the timing . Next try to ask studio to allow you to set up the gear in some downtime they have so at 6 am that morning or late previous evening cos setup takes time especially for drum kits so try get all gear in the space before the clock starts running . Some studio's allow this but you need to ask also you not paying the sound engineer to sit around while you spend an hour setting up and getting your gear into the space . Also hard as it is to do , try avoid turning the studio time into a social gathering , idle chatter and too many breaks can waste lots of time . And let the engineer do his job , if he's a pro he will know what sounds great in his studio so take his advice re mic'ing ect it wastes time to fiddle too much with the sound unless you absolutely unhappy . And that said hire a good sound engineer they worth the money and will be quick . Lastly try not to stress as it will show in your playing , as many great bands suffer from red light syndrome . The cure is to get your band into a small demo studio and rehearse the song while recording to get used to that red light going on without it affecting your band . Lastly have fun and remember post production can fix lots of errors or tone issues . And that said allow enough time for mixing and fix's which you can just drop in . And digital allows one to even shift notes into time post recording so no need for absolute perfection ? enjoy

vic

One or two days ?
I'm sure it can be done...The Beatles recorded their 1st album "Please please me" (14 songs) in under a day ! ?

Manfred-Klose

yes it is possible.

*make sure everything is ready, guitars is checked for buzzing noise, drums are tuned and dont make any ugly sounds(new skins is a must if you want awesome sounding drums), you will have to tune the drums again in the studio, but tune it after everything is setup and right before the recording, cause the temperature change from practice spot to studio will make it go out again.

*let everyone use the same tuner, and check it every now and then if you get a chance, there is nothing worse than an out of tune bass on a recording.

*rehearse the song until the point where you are ready to pass out from playing the song, apply attention to the finest detail until it so much rehearsed that every little thing in the song becomes natural, i know its a bit hardcore, but hey, do you want the best recording you can get, or just another garage recording ?

*when you guys are ready to record, makes sure no one is tensed up, if you muscles are stiff you will makes mistakes, make sure everyone is in the same relaxed vibe. dont hold your breath while recording, this tenses up your muscles and cuases you to make mistakes, when you breath do it in rhythm. be one with the tempo and the groove.

*have reference songs ready for the engineer so that he knows what you are after, dont hand it to him on the day of recording, a view days in advance. dont give him a mp3 and em barres your self.

*and most important have FUN!!!! the point of recording is not to record music, its to capture emotion.

*turn of your cellphones or anything that will be distracting.

needleshy

+1 to being well rehearsed...... We were lucky enough to record in a pro studio I while ago, and well rehearsed means that everyone must be in synch with a click track, so do as much practiice as u can with a metronome.... Especially the drummer, we hired a session drummer who is a good freind of ours to drum for us as it reduces studio time greatly if you use a pro drummer, and also makes mixing easier which them becomes cheaper.

IceCreamMan

Black Sabbath recorded an entire album in under 12 hours and it still sells consistently to this day ..no reason why 1 song cannot be done.

having been a project manager , i have come to realise that any task will swell to take all the time allocated to it

Dave-the-Pub-muso

Dont' get pissed the night before.
Make sure you've had enough sleep.
Eat well. (wholsome food)
Keep hydated.

I know this doesn't sound like rock n roll, but it's worth it!

Averatu

Be well rehearsed before going in. If you cant play to a click, stay home.

Manfred-Klose

need to add one more that i didn't, is the click track.

if you can hear the click, it means you are playing out of time........

if its a more laid back song, you will most probably record it without a click track to get that feel. depends on the producer.

FruitarGeek

Thanks All. Some very good points indeed.

I am hoping we can get our gear setup the night before ,fortunately, they have an in-house drum kit, so they will know how to mic that puppy up effortlessly. I didn't consider the idle chatter aspect, but I can imagine how it eats up studio time.

@Manfred - you made some great points. Especially with regard to giving the engineer some reference tracks to listen to. The only problem is that I only have mp3 haha. So I guess I will have to embarass myself then hehe. And as I said above, they have their own drumkit, so I assume its intune with the studio and all that.

Dave the Pub muso wrote Dont' get pissed the night before.
Make sure you've had enough sleep.
Eat well. (wholsome food)
Keep hydated.

I know this doesn't sound like rock n roll, but it's worth it!

Actually, the way this world is going, that does sound VERY Rock n roll. Haha

And with regard to click-track. Yes. Very important. Fortunately we have all had plenty of studio experience, so clicks should be effortless, but still something we should not take for granted.

nicovlogg

Should take about a day for a track if you're tight. 2 days is plenty....

AlanRatcliffe

Great advice so far... Just to nail home the point though - practice, practice, practice.

Adrian Rogowski wrote I didn't consider the idle chatter aspect, but I can imagine how it eats up studio time.

More than most realise. Also make sure everyone knows to leave the significant other, friends, groupies and hangers on at home. They always end up taking up time and, more often than not, tick off the engineer by offering "helpful advice".

FruitarGeek

Just want to let 'ye all know that the recording yesterday went Super well, and fast too.

All instruments i.e. Drums, Guitar, Bass where done in under 3 hours. Took 1 hour to set up drums. The Piano which we recored as midi was done at my house as part of pre-production, so no need to do it there.

Vocals took the longest, and as they should. The main vocal lines where actually quick, but it was the Harmonies that took the longest, partly due to the reason that we hadn't really pre-produced any harmonies thus we 'waisted' time in studio trying to find good ones to use. None the less we where able to do everything we wanted in 7 hours. So we very happy about that, next its on to mixing.

By the way, I must highly recommend the guys at The Rooftop Studio's. They were extremely professional, and a studio we definitely would like to use again in the near future. Also, I believe that matta (on this forum) is a contributor of many fine pre-amp/effect/mixing/whateveryouwanttocallthem units for the studio.

Dave-the-Pub-muso

Adrian Rogowski wrote
By the way, I must highly recommend the guys at The Rooftop Studio's. They were extremely professional, and a studio we definitely would like to use again in the near future.

+1

The Rooftop guys are fantastic!