Recording Ain't Nothin' Without a Plan

The following is a guest post by Björgvin Benediktsson

Even before you plug in a microphone, set up your instruments or open your DAW, you need an idea of what you’re going to do. If you lay everything out and schedule your sessions, it will be easier to visualize the whole process.

Via Forgemind Archimedia Flickr

Outline the Session

Going in blind doesn’t help in any situation. Even before I started writing this article I had written an outline of what I wanted to tell you.

An outline of your recording session is a very important piece of the recording process. It will make things go smoother since you can foresee potential problems that might occur.
 

Take Your Time

A timeline of your project is even better than an outline. Many a recording session was rushed and concluded with a half-decent product because those involved didn’t account for the time needed to accomplish their vision.

Create a realistic estimate of how much time things take. If you’re tracking drums for instance, you’re booked for the day. Don’t underestimate the amount of time you need to record drums. If you only book a few hours and you want to record a whole album you either know exactly what you’re doing and you have the best studio drummer and drum sound in the world, or you’re setting yourself up for disaster.

Usually, it’s the latter. Take the time to do what needs to be done.

When in Doubt, Simplify

Graham has a philosophy of making do with what you got. Mine is to make the tricks work for you, not against you. Sure, some tricks are more difficult than others, but shortcuts and simplifications often work much better than something super complicated that’ll blow up in your face.

When you’re planning for a recording session, ask yourself: “Am I making this more complicated than what it really is?”

Do you really need to record in stereo? Can you get away with an equally good sound with only one microphone? Do you really need 20 mics on the drums? Can’t you get away with 8? Or 4? How can you simplify your session to make things run smoother?

Plan For You

Don’t spend all the time to make outlines and timelines only to overcomplicate each and every part of the session. When it finally comes down to it, keep things simple and make great music. Don’t make overcomplicated engineering feats that nobody cares about.

To quote a great artist, who says it simpler than anyone: “Make Great Art.” -Neil Gaiman.

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Björgvin Benediktsson is the man behind the helpful recording blog Audio-Issues.com. Check out his latest ebook Recording Strategies for super easy to implement techniques for your studio.