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Studio advice for Bands All the general tips apply - but here are a few more specifically for bands. This is mainly aimed at a standard electric band (guitar/bass/drums/singer +maybe keyboards) , but much of the advice will apply equally to all types of music. 1. Be well rehearsed. Know your own part inside out as well as being able to play tightly with the band - you may well be overdubbing some of your parts, and this is a very different experience to live playing. 2. Make sure everyone knows the musical arrangements - there's nothing worse than being the one member of the band that keeps getting glared at for going into the wrong section halfway through a great take! 3. When in the studio, bands usually perform with headphones on to hear each other, and some members of the band may even be in another room. This can take some getting used to, and it is important that everyone can hear clearly. If you are having problems hearing anything ask your engineer to change your headphone mix. Bass players note - there is generally a lack of bass frequencies in a headphone mix which can make the bass sound a little thin or weak, but don't worry - it should all be there on the recording itself. 4. The usual method of recording a band is for everyone to play live, recorded to separate channels. Just the bass, drums and rhythm parts will usually be kept, with the vocals and lead parts replaced afterwards with overdubs. A good feel is what is required from these initial recordings to provide a strong and musical basis for the track to be built on. A technically perfect performance with no life in it, or played at the wrong speed just won't translate in to the great recording you're looking for, no matter how perfect the notes were. Sometimes with a complicated song it can be beneficial to start off recording just the core rhythm section of the band - this means less is going on in the headphones, and everyone can hear more clearly when they're gelling together (or not!). 5. Often, a recording can be assembled from the best bits of a few different takes - for instance you might do four takes of one song, but not quite manage to capture the energy of the first take (the one where it fell apart at the last chorus). In this case, it may be possible to steal the last chorus from another take and graft it on to the first. Although this can often be the quickest way to get to a great sounding song, it doesn't always work, and the engineer will usually be able to tell whether it's best just to keep going for a complete take, or to stop and edit. 6. Some mistakes can be artificially and inaudibly corrected, especially with today's digital editing facilities, and in some cases this can be a great time saver. However it should not be relied upon, and there's nothing worse than wasting hours getting bogged down in editing when it would have been better just to do another couple of takes. Nothing kills the musical atmosphere of a session more than hours staring at some waveforms on a screen instead of playing some tunes!
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