Recording studios are the most sought after commodity of musicians everywhere. They can create dreams, fulfill them and, in the worse cases, crush them into an oblivion. Anyone with musical talent dreams to hear their songs on the radio. At the very least, most musicians want to make it big in the music industry with their masterpieces. But those dreams can never happen without a professional quality recording studio. What most people fail to realize is how unbelievably easy it is to rent and use a recording studio.
Renting a studio
Since most people involved in music won’t know how to creat their own studio, they’ll seek “professionals” who claim to give a professional recording. Well, they most likely will be able to unless they don’t have a studio. However, they’ll charge you to rent the studio. As all musicians trying to make something of theirselves know, a beginning musician is just a starving artist. No starting band or songwriter has enough capital to pay for equipment let alone renting a recording studio. Unless you can find some nice studios for cheap rates, you are screwed.
Yet, if you are one of the lucky few with a job or a steady source of income, this is a viable option to you. When you rent the studio, the owners of it will be able to help you set up. Hopefully, they’ll have an engineer available to set up your equipment. The engineer will be able to get the sonic calibrations set up precisely. Sometimes, they won’t depending on how much the cost of the studio is. When they don’t, you should be prepared. Investigate ahead of time how to mic an amp or how to set up the microphone for the vocals or whatever “engineering” you need done. Bottom line: be prepared.
Preparing
Think for a moment. You walk into a recording studio, slap your hard earned cash on the table, and get into the recording booth. You realize, “I don’t know what to do? I don’t even know what to play!” Well, my friend, you have dug yourself in a hole and I laugh at your incompetence. Your despair tastes good. Anyway, I feel sorry for you as well, so I’ll spare a few minutes to help you out. You need to prepare for this as if your life depended on it.
Make certain you have some music at least. Don’t act all cocky and waltz in there, flapping your gums about your amazing improvisation skills. First of all, you can’t improvise. Second of all, they could care less. They’ve probably had the pleasure of seeing legends such as Slash come through their doors to record. Hey, it could happen. You should get my point, though. Know your music, know what you want to record and do work.
Another tip for you young lads attempting to become famous, don’t get nervous. Of course, just by saying, “Don’t get nervous,” you got nervous. When you are nervous, you suck at playing your instrument. Downright dreadful to be honest. You get all sweaty, you tremble, you play crappy. It’s a pity to watch a great musician fall ill with a case of failure. Don’t get nervous. The people recording your music don’t care what you sound like, they are getting paid. Don’t think about it. You play at your absolute worst when you think. Let your four months of muscle memory do the talkin’. This talk of muscle memory brings me to my next point: practice. And practice you shall.
You must practice your music until your fingers bleed. Even if you sing, your fingers need to bleed. Wait, I guess that doesn’t make sense. If you sing, make your vocal chords know whose boss. Continuity of practice creates muscle memory in your hands, feet, mouth, stomach, wherever. The muscle memory allows you to not think about what you are doing and keeps your suckage to a minimum. Spend at least a couple weeks training your muscle until it understands why it has been put through so much stress. Your music will sound better when you finally perform it and your brain will thank you when you don’t have to think.
Final note on preparation would be to query the studio to ask about what instruments and equipment they have available. Say you have a guitar. You do not want to lug a couple hundred pound amplifier to a recording studio that already has one. You’ll look like a fool and feel like one too. Take the time to call ahead and ask if you need to take your guitar and amplifier. Obviously, when you are seeking a certain tone from your guitar or your amp, it would be best to take it down to the studio. Otherwise, if they have, for example, a drum set down there, don’t be a dolt and take your drums apart only to discover they had a set ready for you. Call and be prepared.
What to do in the studio
Once you have walked past the doors of the studio and exchanged your howdy’s with the owners, take the equipment you brought and locate the recording booth. Set up your instrument, or if you are recording vocals, ask where the vocal booth is and proceed to get situated. Don’t be afraid to ask them to help you set up some of your gear. I’m sure the sound guy doesn’t want you screwing around with his fragile microphone. Let him do all the adjustments because he understands the physics of sound. He probably has a degree, so let him be. But if you are recording in a smaller studio, maybe someone’s home studio that you are renting, they probably won’t have a “sound guy.” In that case, you should still ask the owner to help you set up the mic-ing situation unless you know how to do it yourself. Whatever you do, don’t touch. Either the home studio owner or the larger studio owner will get pissed if their 400 dollar microphone gets damaged because you wanted to poke it for your own entertainment.
When you have set up all of your instruments, tell the owner or recording guy and he’ll probably give you a cue to when you should start playing. If he doesn’t, slap him for being rude and wasting your money. Actually, that’s a terrible idea because you’ll go to jail for assault. Politely tell him to press “record” and away you should be playing. Play using your muscle memory and everything should work out fine. If you mess up, big deal. That’s what overdubbing is for. You can go back and fix whatever you screwed up on. But remember, everytime you have to rerecord, money is flying out of your pocket and down the drain faster than Usain Bolt on stimulants.
After you finish all you need to record, the studio ownere will proceed to mix it all together. Hopefully you found a reputable recording studio, otherwise your money was wasted and you’ll get a pile of crap at the end of the day. But if they were reputable, you’ll have the great sounding music you craved to let touch your ears earlier. You can show it to your family and friends to make them jealous of your mad skills. Or submit it to record companies as your demo and maybe you’ll make it as a mainstream performer. Maybe your dreams won’t be crushed after all.
