# My band is recording Saturday. Any advice?



## Phatchrisrules (Sep 25, 2008)

My band Autistic Love (www.myspace.com/autisticlove) are being professionally recorded by the local industry "up and comer" on Saturday, so we can finally get rid of those bad basement recordings. Its a studio/label known as Millionth Monkey Music www.myspace.com/millionthmonkeymusic in Hamilton. They have recorded a few local artists and have a very cool sound they are producing. He charges $250 for 4 or 5 songs and four hours of work.

Anyways I was just wondering, besides the obvious of practicing our butts off to know the songs backwards (we do mostly anyways), anything else we should know? Regardless we are going to have fun, we are all very excited. Any inside tips I should know before going? Oh yeah he records live and the does the vocals afterwards if that makes a difference.

Thanks a lot!

-Chris


----------



## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

Put new strings on your guitar on Friday to allow them to stretch out a bit.

Have fun, and enjoy the experience ( the recording experience, not the putting new strings on experience! :smile


----------



## Phatchrisrules (Sep 25, 2008)

All of my guitars have brand new strings on them. The oldest set is from November the other guitar (which I am probably going to record with) I just put the strings on in late december and my other one my Washburn I just redid in mid January. Should I still restring? I have not even played the washburn since I redid it, so they should be the newest.


----------



## Phatchrisrules (Sep 25, 2008)

Thanks a lot guys. I'll restring my 2 favs on Thursday and decide which one to bring on Friday night during practice.


----------



## Brennan (Apr 9, 2008)

Bring at least two guitars and re-tune between each take (make sure everyone uses the same tuner, or tunes to each other). Little variances are fine live, but on a recording they're going to stand out like a sore thumb. I would also practice playing to a click track ahead of time in case timing issues become a problem. I prefer not to use click tracks too often myself but sometimes they're necessary, and it's not as easy to play to one as some might think. Lastly, try to avoid moving around too much during the recordings as the mics will pick up everything. Let the instruments ring out on their own at the end of a song, and don't start messing with pedals or knobs etc. until the booth tells you you're clear.

With only 4 hours to work with, you'll likely only get one or two passes at any given song, so make them count! Have fun with it, it's always a great experience.


----------



## Phatchrisrules (Sep 25, 2008)

Thanks a lot^^^. Yeah my bassist and I have the same tuner so that'll help. We are really excited. I actually ran into the guy producing us last night at this little get together with one of my friends. He gave me the quick Coles notes on what to do. It basically consisted of practice and have fun because it's a lot of fun. So I feel good about. We were originally going to try to do a song we just learned about 3 weeks ago but its still a bit shaky, so we're going to revert back to some of our older but stronger material.


----------



## Budda (May 29, 2007)

dial in the best damn sound you can dial in on your rig. also, you say the band mostly knows everything 100% - *everybody should know their part 100% without needing the rest of the band to play along with them!*.

I'm hoping you know this:

what sounds best alone in your room does not usually work well at all for the whole band. mids are your friend - they dont have to be dimed, but they need to be there as the guitar is a mid-range instrument.

also, you can probably use less gain than you think - especially if you have the opportunity to crank up a quality tube amp.


----------



## Phatchrisrules (Sep 25, 2008)

Budda said:


> dial in the best damn sound you can dial in on your rig. also, you say the band mostly knows everything 100% - *everybody should know their part 100% without needing the rest of the band to play along with them!*.
> 
> I'm hoping you know this:
> 
> ...


Good point. We do know all of our parts individually. I was actually tweaking around with my amp this afternoon trying to dial in the best tone. Live, I use everything cranked, but it sounds too shrieky at a quiet level, because my amp doesn't pump the bass very well at low volumes. The mid is cranked to 10 while bass and treble are dialed back to about 5 or 6 with the reverb cranked and the "bright" on to make it distinct from the bass as well. At practice on Friday I will tweak around with it as well. Thanks for the tips!


----------



## suttree (Aug 17, 2007)

Phatchrisrules said:


> Thanks a lot^^^. Yeah my bassist and I have the same tuner so that'll help. We are really excited. I actually ran into the guy producing us last night at this little get together with one of my friends. He gave me the quick Coles notes on what to do. It basically consisted of practice and have fun because it's a lot of fun. So I feel good about. We were originally going to try to do a song we just learned about 3 weeks ago but its still a bit shaky, so we're going to revert back to some of our older but stronger material.


don't be afraid to spend the last half hour or even hour running through songs that you didn't think you should record. you can always get really surprised by the performance you can sometimes pull out of your a$$ when the chips are down. some of the music industry's greatest hits are exactly that.


----------



## Phatchrisrules (Sep 25, 2008)

suttree said:


> don't be afraid to spend the last half hour or even hour running through songs that you didn't think you should record. you can always get really surprised by the performance you can sometimes pull out of your a$$ when the chips are down. some of the music industry's greatest hits are exactly that.


They are giving us four songs, but he said if we're quick he may do a 5th included into the $250 price. So if we get that chance, we may as well give it a shot and see how it sounds. Obviously we will practice it enough on Friday so we at least know the correct cues and song structure. Thank you for the suggestion I never really thought of doing this.


----------



## Budda (May 29, 2007)

you'll probably find that mids dimed and a bright switch engage wont sound too great on tape - when you record your first take, you'll know!


----------



## Phatchrisrules (Sep 25, 2008)

Budda said:


> you'll probably find that mids dimed and a bright switch engage wont sound too great on tape - when you record your first take, you'll know!


Ok thanks for the tip. I might just dial everything back to like 50% and maybe put the mid up to like 60%. But I'll give it a go at practice and decide which sounds best at mid volumes. We just want to get in there, do our thing and get out. SO hopefully we can get the additional 5th song out of it. I'll keep you guys posted with links to the songs when they're done if you like.


----------



## Budda (May 29, 2007)

well you have to remember that when you are standing above and away from your amp, you're not hearing the tone that comes directly from the speaker - which is what the mic picks up.

Dial in a tone that sounds great standing 3 feet besides your rig. now, stand directly in front of a speaker - it probably wont sound quite so great.

also, i expect that you'll have to play everything twice to layer it and fill it out a bit.


----------



## Phatchrisrules (Sep 25, 2008)

Well, the big day was yesterday! Our whole band had a lot of fun and the guys we worked with are excellent at what they do, and provide lots of great musical input. We recorded 5 songs instrumentally in a little over an hour, four of the songs took one take each. The fifth song was running smoothly and on par to be a one-taker as well but as I stepped on my distortion pedal for the chorus it turned on and went dirty for like 2 notes and then clicked off back to clean. So we re-did that to ensure a consistent sound throughout that song. The vocals took a little while longer but not much. 3 of the songs we did in one take and one took 3 takes because my growls were a little too overpowering, so on the third take I just didn't put them in partly because my throat was KILLING me by that point. The other song I sung it just a hair too high so we redid it a little lower and more heavy sounding. So the 6 takes (plus one extra of a song because of a loud car horn in the middle of the song due to an open window we forgot about) plus the vocals and a little preliminary mixing took us about 2 1/2 - 3 hours.

We were actually interviewed by a local television station and college as they filmed us recording some of the songs. They asked us questions about what it was like working with the industry up and comer, how did you meet, did you have fun etc. They say they are going to air it on television so we are really excited for that. All in all including the interview, set up and tear down, the recordings themselves, and a little break we were in and out in about 4 and a half hours or so, and we got out with 5 quality songs.

We only heard the rough mixes so far but we should have the master copy sometime in the next few weeks! Stay posted as I will upload for anyone interested in hearing it! 

Thanks for reading and the advice,

-Chris


----------



## Budda (May 29, 2007)

sounds good!

only one take for the first four songs though? usually songs are at least layered twice, interesting.


----------



## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

id like to hear the results- sounds like a good experience-
i liked the stuff i heard on your page before- would be great to hear something a bit more polished.:smile:


----------



## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

Phatchrisrules said:


> Well, the big day was yesterday! Our whole band had a lot of fun and the guys we worked with are excellent at what they do, and provide lots of great musical input. We recorded 5 songs instrumentally in a little over an hour, four of the songs took one take each. The fifth song was running smoothly and on par to be a one-taker as well but as I stepped on my distortion pedal for the chorus it turned on and went dirty for like 2 notes and then clicked off back to clean. So we re-did that to ensure a consistent sound throughout that song. The vocals took a little while longer but not much. 3 of the songs we did in one take and one took 3 takes because my growls were a little too overpowering, so on the third take I just didn't put them in partly because my throat was KILLING me by that point. The other song I sung it just a hair too high so we redid it a little lower and more heavy sounding. So the 6 takes (plus one extra of a song because of a loud car horn in the middle of the song due to an open window we forgot about) plus the vocals and a little preliminary mixing took us about 2 1/2 - 3 hours.
> 
> We were actually interviewed by a local television station and college as they filmed us recording some of the songs. They asked us questions about what it was like working with the industry up and comer, how did you meet, did you have fun etc. They say they are going to air it on television so we are really excited for that. All in all including the interview, set up and tear down, the recordings themselves, and a little break we were in and out in about 4 and a half hours or so, and we got out with 5 quality songs.
> 
> ...


hey Congrats Chris, sounds like you had a blast!! I would be interested to hear the final results as well.


----------



## Phatchrisrules (Sep 25, 2008)

Well, we got the songs back today! If anyone is interested in hearing them they are on our page www.myspace.com/autisticlove and they are Consent, He Could Be, Mullet Mafia, Anorexic Annie, and Disheveled. Like I mentioned before, all the instrumentals except MM were recorded in 1 take. The vocals were for the most part all done in 1 take except for He Could Be and Mullet Mafia. 

I hope you fellow guitarists enjoy it, even for the just the instrumental bits. Thanks for those who followed the thread!

-Chris


----------



## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

Just had a listen. Sounds way sharper than the previous stuff you posted. I can now hear all of the individual instruments. Gotta be honest that I'm not a fan of the vocal style (although they are recorded well) but everything else sounds great.


----------



## Budda (May 29, 2007)

i'll check it in a bit


----------



## Guest (Mar 22, 2009)

Checked out the tracks and they're tracked and mixed well. Were the drums just room mic'ed? I felt like the low tom side of the kit was missing some punch. Sounds like you got a good deal though.


----------



## Phatchrisrules (Sep 25, 2008)

Thanks for all of the replies. The drums had two or three mics IIRC, the problem is my drummer used our "practice" set which to be honest has the worst set of toms ever. They sound dead, the recording actually sounds amazing on those toms we were surprised actually. Thanks again.


----------

