10 Steps to a better Recording Session experience.

Here are some pointers I was thinking about recently.  I thought I'd pass them along.  Feel free to add to the list in the comments section below....

1.  If you are the producer of the project, welcome the artist/ session musician with a sincere greeting and promptly offer them "something to drink or eat?"  Hospitality is always welcome, be a good host!

2.  Keep your initial thoughts about how you want the drummer/ pianist/ guitar/ bass/ to play, to a minimum.  You believed in the guy you hired enough to hire him...so let him/ her give the song a shot and then you can make your comments.

3.  Almost all recording programs have a grid tool, which will allow you to set up a grid with measures and beats.  Your life will be so much easier if you set up that grid.  Trust me on this.

4.  Don't delete your previous takes, even if they are horrific!  Sometimes there is a part of one of those takes that you may need to refer back to.  So wait until you've got your "keeper" take before you start permanently deleting those files.

5.  When recording a scratch vocal and guitar track, set the metronome for 8th notes and not quarter notes.  You'll find that the additional subdivision of the beat aids in creating a better performance for others to track to.

6.  Find another click option other than the one default in Pro-Tools.  If possible program an 8th note hat track as your click.  Better to have more than one click sound to offer.

7.  Once you've communicated to the musician what it is you want him to play, give him some time to figure out how best to play that.  You'll get a much better performance from your session musician if you don't micro-manage the creation and performance of their part for the song.

8.  As a producer or engineer, if you must tweak sounds, do so as quickly as possible.  Most drummers don't enjoy 20 minutes of doing quarter notes on the kick drum while the engineer and producer decide on an "awesome" kick drum sound.

9.  As a producer, if you say "I think we may be close to THE TAKE, Let's do another take real quick...oh but first let me come out and tweak that snare a bit," don't spend 15 minutes checking every detail of the snare, unless of course you want to kill every bit of forward momentum the band was beginning to feel.

10.  It's always a good thing to put a track of shaker and a track of tambourine on a song.  That way you'll have additional textures to mix in once it comes time to mix.

Bonus step! 

11.  If after you finish the take the producer says "Well, what did you think of that take?"  Nine times out of Ten, it works better if you answer the question with a question of your own, "Hmm, I'm not sure, what did YOU think of that take?  I've found that more times than not, it's better to defer to the producers vision of your part and your playing, and by flipping the question around you are able to help the producer better clarify his vision for your performance.

Comments

[Brian Megilligan]

Good and helpful post, man!