recording in a pro studio can be a cool experience or it can be stress for anyone involved. i’m no star and i haven’t been to pro studios hundredth (is that even a word?) of times. but when i was there it was just great. we all had lots of fun and enjoyed ourselves the whole time. now, why’s that you ask. many musicians remember studiowork as something terrible. they go in and panic because it’s something new or different and every minute costs money. every take costs money, every mistake costs money, every break costs money…

it seems to me many musicians have no plan when they go into a studio. so they start with maybe the drums and want to make everything right – it’s gonna be a record so it has to be perfect, right? then they realize this takes way too much time already, so they hurry up with the next drumtakes – no more perfectionism, that first take wasn’t too bad… the later it gets, the worse it becomes and in the end they spent their money, they have a recording they don’t like, everybody’s angry – maybe even the band falls apart – and none of them wants to see a studio again. never – ever. i’ve been through this as well…once. but it wasn’t a pro studio, i was still impressed though. it was my first recording experience at the age of 16 or 17. it looked like a pro studio to me then but today i know the cd would not have been better even if we had a plan… but these things happen so we can learn something.

back to the plan. you should be sure about what you’re doing in there. you could rehearse the whole thing. sounds silly? well, it’s your money… practice it so you get an idea of how long it might take. this can only be an approximation of course but that’s ok. you need an idea. setting up the drums takes time. they’ve got a drumkit there? fine, but it still takes time to adjust it to your drummer. maybe it needs tuning, maybe there’s a problem with the mic placement, maybe…

does your guitarplayer know what he/she wants to play? i mean really know? including solos? and is he/she able to nail the solo in 2 takes? some guys absolutely want to throw in that fancy lick and think that they’ll mysteriously manage to do so although it never worked before. i will not even bother writing about guitar sound…

now might be the right time to discover that bass and keyboards don’t work together the way they should? think again, figuring out new parts definitely doesn’t belong here. make sure your arrangements work not only in your muddy sounding practice shed. you might be surprised how different it sounds when you suddenly can hear everything. practice somewhere else for a few times and – most important of all – tape yourself !!!

once again, time ran out – so we’ll meet again for part II