Our biker bar blues band is heading in the recording studio for two 12 hour sessions at the end of the month. The boss says it will help us get more gigs if we have demos to pass around. I think one gig a month is fine, but the other guys really want to play out more and more. I'm pretty nervous about this--I have no problem playing in front of a bunch of drunks, but preserving my playing scares the crap out of me. I mean, I know I'm mediocre on a good day (Adam would call me an advanced intermediate I think)and this whole project makes me cringe.
One good thing is that I've convinced everyone to press some 45 rpm singles as well as CDs to sell at gigs. I think having a 45 out will be really different and cool.
I better hit the woodshed . . . even though I'm sure it wont help.
I will pass this on to you from someone I play with occasionally who runs a recording studio. He says that great talent and virtuosity is not necessary to make a good recording. What is needed is honest and passionate playing. He says a lot of times with people new to the experience recording, the first take is the best. Attempts to clean up the little mistakes that occurred in the first take result in a less authentic sound.
So relax, have fun, enjoy it, and let that come though in your playing. If you do that, the mistakes won't matter.
The studio is its own place. It's nothing like a live gig. At this point, after the recording frenzy of the last few years, I'd say that I have quite a bit of studio experience--more my own stuff than others, but a half dozen sessions for others as well--and I'm still learning.
If I could distill my wisdom into three bullet points (and I'd encourage others to do the same), they might be:
1) Spend a lot of time in the woodshed, strengthening and polishing your chops, in the week or two before you go in
2) Be prepared for the unexpected, and allow truly bad/sick/emotional/terrible situations to transform themselves into triumphs
3) Figure out in advance what you need, booze-wise, spirit-wise, or drug-wise, in order to turn off the Inner Critic, and carefully deploy that when you're on location.
Here's some commentary on those three points.
1) Since what you do in the studio will indeed stick around for much longer than the average gig-tape, you owe it to yourself AND your band to practice quite a bit and show up with your best, strongest set of chops. I spend at least an hour a day working out, chops-wise, for the week or two before any significant recording session (i.e., one of my own albums). Best case scenario would be three gigs and then a day off just before you enter the studio. Workouts, then the race.
2) Every single time I go into the studio--EVERY SINGLE TIME--shits gets weird at some point. Be prepared to roll with the changes. The best move you can make, psychologically, is to recognize the "weird shit" moment for what it is, say "Adam warned me about this moment," chuckle, then move on and do what needs to be done. In some case, it's the personalities of your band members slowly rubbing each other the wrong way as half a dozen takes turn bad. Suddenly somebody cops a huge attitude and says, "We're fucked. I'm TIRED of this shit." When Satan and Adam went into the studio to make our first new album in many years back in 2009, or whenever it was, we had just finished setting up when our drummer started coughing blood and had to be carted away in an ambulance. We had to take a two-hour break while the recording engineer found us a new drummer! He was good. He'd never played the following song, but he was good and he played it beautifully and saved our asses big-time:
Roll with the changes. Find a way.
3) For me, Stoly or Jim Beam. I wouldn't go near weed, but that's me. And I start slow. I'm heavily adrenalized and need something to rub off the edge. But I know what I need. I've played great stuff stone-cold sober. But I've also played great stuff ("I Want You" on HARLEM BLUES) high as a kite. I'm just saying: learn what works. It's that simple. Don't be an amateur. And DO NOT experiment on the gig--i.e., in the studio. Very bad idea. Also, it helps to remind yourself that you're very lucky in life simply to have ended up in the situation you're in: standing in a studio with a harp in your hand and a mic in front of you, being given a chance to show the world what you're made of. You could be dead, or digging ditches. I often remind myself of stuff like that. If the choice is nervous and standing at a mic, or dead, I've rather be nervous and standing at a mic. It's sort of comical, when the choice is phrased like that, and comedy tends to loosen things up.
With luck, you'll commit something timeless to tape, and every time you listen to it, you'll say "Damn right."
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Mar 17, 2015 7:25 PM
Good counsel guys, very much in line with my experiences as well. We used to say, tape don't lie. Good incentive to bring the "A" game out. Something always does go weird and you have to at least be patient and calm regardless. My 1)- Adopt this idea, Raw. Real. Right Now. Maybe I spent too much time on open mic/jam stages with people I hardly knew, and having to adapt to whatever came up warped me a bit, but more times than not, regardless of how I expect something to come out in my head, if I keep moving forward and don't wig out, the result usually is great, fine, and sometimes more than I could have anticipated or planned. If something just isn't working, skip to the next and come back later. or leave it on the floor. 2)- Maybe that got covered above but an anecdote or two: We had a drummer in with us that we didn't know well but he was doing what we needed in rehearse. When we got to the studio for some reason we just were not getting hooked into the feel of a few songs. Finally the assistant engineer came out of the booth and stuck his head in the drum room and told James, "Look, you can kick my ass later, or throw your sticks at me, or pack up if you want, but you ain't hittin them drums hard enough. I want you to kick that bass drum right at us in the booth and knock the snare into the floor." It worked. He hit it how we needed.
Last session, Jo and I had one song we had barely gotten down ourselves and it was a swing-thing, needed just the right touch from the rhythm guys, and we couldn't get it to gel after the first take (Which we kept and used). Engineer told us we needed more beat right "here". Well we never got it down but the first take is going on the cd. It's good, it works. 3)- I've been clean and sober a long time. In fact i never began to learn any of this harp and singing and songwriting stuff until I had cleaned up and stayed that way for a while. I may be a different sort of personality, one that lends itself to performing and recording. A natural ham.
Just step with courage and an open mind Prop Man. "To make a mistake is acceptable. To play without passion is inexcusable." ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
I'm not sure what level your guys are on so I'll give you a formula that should help.
Record as if it's a live gig but the vocals will be a "scratch vocal". This will keep everyone on the page and you guys won't loose your place. You can overdub a new vocal and maybe leads as needed.
This helps to keep that live feel in the recording.
