Recording

[in2thegapagain85]

Hey everyone,

Gonna be recording soon, so just thought I would see if anyone had any tips for getting ready to go into the studio. I have recorded once before, so I'm pretty familiar with stuff, but just wanted to see what kind of things you guys do to prepare your guitars, amps, pedals etc.

[basti moon]

I'm referring you to the Beefheart list further down in this forum.

[ChrisDN]

If your amp is tube and you've not changed the tubes for a while, maybe get some spares (unless you have already). It'll be Sod's Law that one goes 10 minutes after turning on. If it's all ok, at least you have some spares ready for when one does eventually need replacing.

Every time I've gone into a studio I've always made sure to change my strings about a week before. Nice new strings are always great, but at least they have a full week of playing to bed them in.

Check you have and/or are working: cables, pedals, batteries, power supplies.

I'd say to practice whatever you're recording over, and over, and over, and over (and over and over?) up to before going in. So you can play it without even thinking about it. Maybe take the last one or two days before off though so your ears get some rest from it.

A simple one, but obvious: do not drink the night before and get to bed early. Have a good breakfast.
It's not good trying your 12th take of a guitar part after 6 hours of work when all you want to do is sit down and chill out.

Always get to the studio early.

[jrmy]

A simple one, but obvious: do not drink the night before and get to bed early.

+1 on that! I remember when my band was recording our first album, our singer/guitar player showed up late for the third day of vocals... he had stayed out the night before drinking & whooping it up at a karaoke party (not the DE Karaoke Party, however), and his voice was shot. I don't think we got any vox tracked that day... and I don't think we got any guitar tracked either!

On the fr-serious side, making sure everything is clean, shiny and intonated has always been key for me. If you use batteries in your pedals, make sure they're fresh. And practice practice practice - your gear won't mean a thing if you don't know your parts. I've got another story about that, but that's best saved for some other time.