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6.Know When To Quit. Recording often leads to diminishing returns. Spending 20 hours in a row at
recording session isn’t going to make your song twice as good as spending 10 hours. This rule also applies to mixing. If you’re tired, call session and come back next day fresh and ready.
7.Record Alone. Don’t bring your friends, family, parents or anyone else into your sessions. As fun as it may be, you are there to do a job and record best music possible. If you are a millionaire, then by all means, have a party at studio, but don’t count on getting anything done.
8.Mix and Match. After letting engineer do first rough mix alone (which he should) do an A/B comparison of your mix to some of your favorite CDs. Remember that production CDs you are listening to have already been mastered. But it’s a good way to compare levels and panning.
9.Bring Spares. Always bring spare strings, drum heads, bass strings, water bottles, throat lozenges, etc to a session. You’ll always need one thing you forgot to bring, so bring it all and leave them at studio until your recordings are finished.
10.Have Fun! This is THE most important point of all. Creating and recording music isn’t rocket science. Although there is a science involved, you should let engineer worry about that. If you’re not having fun, then you’re in wrong business!
© 2004 Richard Dolmat (Digital Sound Magic)
Richard Dolmat is owner, engineer and producer for the Vancouver based recording studio Digital Sound Magic. Visit his site at: http://www.digitalsoundmagic.com
