On this page you'll find many useful tips designed to help you get the most out of your studio experience while saving time and money. This page will be updated often. Link to us on Facebook or Twitter to receive posts or send us an e-mail to join our mailing list.
Tip # 2: The Truth About the "Magic Fix Me Button".
Part 1: Guitar
"But that guitar was tuned when I bought it".
We've had countless clients believing that no matter what we record we have some magic fix me button. While we have many tools at our disposal to enhance and correct minor issues, there really is no magic fix me button. We can't tell the microphones what they should hear and what they should ignore.
The role of the studio is to accurately capture the sounds created by the artists. Instrument setups before arrival are imperative. Tuning, new strings,new heads, tubes, guitar intonation are all critical. While we can cure a lot of this in session, we'd rather be spending our time and your hard earned money optimizing your sound rather than trying to fix it or turn it into something that is is not.
Know what you are going for. Have a reference and study it to see what makes it work. If it is a modern charting production, it will likely be played to a metronome, for example.
Many electric guitar players tend to strum or press their chords out of tune. This is either from pressing too hard, inadvertantly bending notes, or striking the strings too hard. An easy solution is to go to a higher guage string. These have more tension and are harder to put out of tune.
Lastly, have your songs written and arranged. If you have an unlimited budget, we would love to be a part of this process with you, but many times a good portion of the budget is used up on some of the above issues and then we are told "we're running out of money so please mix the album in 45 minutes".
For the record, there is also no magic "mix the album in 45 minutes button".
Tip # 1: Have a reference.
"I want a fuzzy thing on my guitar", though compelling, isn't really that clear.
A reference is a great way to show the engineer exactly what it is you're going after. After seconds of hearing a recording, we'll know exactly which fuzzy thing you're talknig about and everyone will likely be a little more at ease. A good reference also gives the engineer an excellent idea of where you'd like the overall song to be and what differences exist between the successful completed CD and where your project sits in the present.
Many artist fear this concept stating things like "But I'm unique and don't want to be that band". We know. This is just a very common practice to keep an eye on the direction of the project. Music can go a thousand different ways and after a long day in the studio it's often easy to stray off the path. So think of your reference as a constant in a sea of variables. Something we can go to every once in a while to be sure we're headed in the right direction.
When providing a reference try to find current songs by very successful artists in the same general style, arrangement and tempo as what you are going for. CD quality is best as MP3s radically alter the tone of a recording if not encoded properly.
