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The biggest studio pitfall is bass players, from what I've heard.

wot wrote: Mon May 17, 2021 1:30 pm

oZZma wrote: Mon May 17, 2021 1:08 pm

penningtron wrote: Mon May 17, 2021 8:38 am The 2nd or 3rd take might be better than the first. The 8th will definitely not be.

I wonder what do those of you who work in a studio think about beginners/sloppy musicians coming to record… Those needing many takes to have a decent one. Just wondering if it's better to spare myself the humilation.

That quote has more to do with the energy and enthusiasm of the first takes dissipating into frustrated/mechanical playing. Your 12th take won't be any more "decent" than the first few takes on the same recording date.

You should be comfortable with your song before showing up to a recording date - for the money you've put on the line, for you/your band/the engineer's time, hell for your confidence in making music.

Sloppy musicianship can absolutely be utilized to make cool music, but for god's sake, believe in your slop. There's no reason to book a studio if you still haven't practiced the song.

Yep, all this. Not to say your stuff needs to sound perfect after 1 or 2 takes, but just keep the energetic performances and spot fix from there. Don't make the drummer do 5 takes because the bassist keeps beefing 1 riff, etc.

oZZma wrote: Mon May 17, 2021 1:08 pm

penningtron wrote: Mon May 17, 2021 8:38 am The 2nd or 3rd take might be better than the first. The 8th will definitely not be.

I wonder what do those of you who work in a studio think about beginners/sloppy musicians coming to record… Those needing many takes to have a decent one. Just wondering if it's better to spare myself the humilation.

I've recorded bands that were not great musicians who were prepared (to the best of their ability), and also recorded great musicians who came in unprepared. I prefer the former.

Practice playing with headphones and a click if you think you are going to use one.

- if you don't have money to burn, work out your arrangement and overdub ideas in advance

- playing hand percussion is far harder than it looks, if you're not experienced at it think twice, or bring in your percussionist friend (and work out the arrangement in advance). Make sure your percussionist friend is good at it. In fact make sure any of the people you bring in to guest are actually solid at what they're there to do.

- playing to a click track is weird and will throw you off if you're not used to it, if the studio person is trying to persuade you to use one anyway (which is almost always for THEIR convenience) you probably were unlucky in your choice of studio, either way, adjusting to having the robot as an uninvited band member may eat up studio time and yield weird, less than impressive results

- I suggest rehearsing your songs without the vocals to get used to the structure without that reference

- make sure you rationally know how your songs go (number of repeats of each part, how things interlock with each other, etc), I've seen hours wasted with the confusion that comes from the absence of that, being intuitive is great, indispensable, but it may leave you stranded as soon as you look at your material from the outside for the first time

- so, listen to practice recordings of your songs to gain perspective on how they actually sound outside of your mind, the studio can be a bad place for that discovery

- this can be elusive, but, as mentioned, the first few takes can be far superior to the later ones, and people usually discard them because of minor flubs that are either dismissable or easy to fix. You're trying to make a good record, not a good story of how you played the song front to back without a hitch, go about it the easy way, you'll need your patience for later on in the session, waste it wisely. You may find yourself hating the song at the frustrating tenth take because you lost the great second take to the one ride cymbal hit that the drummer missed. I wish people would listen to classic records just for the mistakes for a while, to get used to the actual leeway there is and, also, that they would learn that often unintended shit makes up for great ideas, memorable ones

Also, on the more esoteric side, maybe, in Elma, we used to check sound with old music only, so that when we played a new track for the first time in the studio, it was already a possible take. It was VERY much worth it. Our first four song EP was recorded in six takes, total. YOU CAN ALWAYS FIX BITS LATER.

Bernardo wrote: Tue May 18, 2021 3:38 pm

- I suggest rehearsing your songs without the vocals to get used to the structure without that reference

As a bassist, I've always found it super helpful (not just for recording) to have some practices with just the drummer, so you can be super locked in and know the structure without guitar/vocals.

Did EA even fix that pitfall in the Kentucky Room, by the way? Heard one of the Zao guys had to battle the Rancor.

Here's the shit I used to do and still sometimes do that makes me cringe now: hovering over the engineer when they're trying to mix your record or trying to sit in the driver's seat and click on stuff. My engineer friend and I arguably do have the kind of relationship where that's ok but I always regret being such a control freak in his presence.