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For most guitar bands, the next step after gigging is recording. You might be making tapes to sell at gigs, or you could have decided to set up your own record label to put out CDs. Unfortunately, there's more to recording than sticking the band into a studio and emerging with Abbey Road; it's a boring, frustrating and hideously expensive experience. We've made every mistake you can possibly make, and hopefully this article will help you avoid the same traps we keep falling into. First things first Before you book a studio, make sure you actually need to do it. If you're only trying to get gigs, a live tape is just as effective; alternatively, you can get a half-decent four track or PC-based system and make as many records as you like. Studios are expensive - rates of £200 or more per day aren't uncommon. If you can avoid spending that money, or if you can put the cash to better use, do so. The other thing to consider is time. You need to allocate as much time to mixing as to the actual recording process, so you're looking at a bare minimum of one day recording and one day mixing. That gives you a reasonable shot at getting two songs done - don't try and record an entire album in two days, because the results will be shit. Finding the right studio Ask around. Find out what other bands have done, what problems they've encountered, whether they're happy with the results. Get hold of recordings by bands that do similar stuff to you: some studios are great at recording dance music and shit at rock music, others are good for heavy metal and rubbish for pop music. Get the wrong studio and you might as well chuck a thousand quid in a skip and set fire to it. Look at the prices carefully. That £200 for ten hours - does it include VAT? What about tape costs? Does it include the engineer's time? If it doesn't, that £200 quickly becomes £300, or £400. Tape costs are around £40 for 20 minutes' worth, and bigger studios only hire them: if you want to own the master tapes, you'll have to buy your own. If at all possible, visit the studio and meet the engineer who'll actually be working with you. If you don't like him or her, go elsewhere - you're paying too much money to be stuck in a room for several days with a muppet. Talk about what you want to do, and see what sort of responses you get. If you want to record live, for example, and the engineer goes into a big spiel about how it's better to record separately, ask yourself: "is this person going to give us what we want, or are we going to have to fight for everything we want in the studio?" Many engineers think they're producers, and will end up trying to get you to rewrite your lyrics or change your songs. That's not their job, and if you suspect you've bumped into a wannabe producer, run away very, very fast. We can't stress enough how important it is to get on with the engineer: if you don't, the recording sessions will be a nightmare. The engineer needs to be an ally, not an enemy: most of 'em are great so, if you suspect you're dealing with a wanker, go somewhere else. The engineer is more important than the studio equipment. Practice, practice, practice If you're spending a few hundred quid on recording, you don't have time to arse about. Rehearse the songs until you can play them in your sleep - you don't want to interrupt recording so your bass player can work out a new bassline, or a new backing vocal. Sort out your guitar effects or sequences too, and be aware that some effects work live but don't work in a studio - distortion pedals in particular will usually need turned down. Seriously consider playing with a click track. If you're playing with a sequencer or using effects such as digital delays, tremelos or other time-based things it's essential, but the click also has benefits in other ways: in particular, if a song's too long you can edit it down to a "radio edit" later on. You might think your timing is great, but it's probably not: all bands speed up and slow down, especially after choruses. Bad timing is blatantly obvious on recorded music. Do the obvious stuff - new strings, guitars set up properly, arrangements nailed, that sort of thing. Take spare strings, cables, drum skins, whatever. You don't have time to head out to the music shop if things go wrong mid-recording. Singers should munch vitamin C and drink loads of water in advance - colds tend to happen whenever you go in to record, it's sod's law. Avoid getting shitfaced the night before, too, because it knackers your voice.
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