Comments on: Do you make these music recording mistakes ?

By: Rick

Rick — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 01:06:21 +0000

Chart it!! It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, maybe just a crude lyic sheet with some chords above the words. It gives everyone a “road map” to the song and a mutual point of reference for the musicians,engineer and producer. It’s much easier to tell the engineer that you want to retake a verse starting at line 10 then tell him it’s at the spot where you sing “blah blah blah”. He doesn’t know the song and won’t know what you are talking about. Lastly, I have yet encounter a singer who can sing from the heart while trying to remember the next line. A lyric sheet is a must have.

By: Ian Shepherd

Ian Shepherd — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 23:37:01 +0000

Hi Brian,

Glad you liked the post, thanks for commenting ! Great band name

Ian

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 23:27:10 +0000

I find your tips a great reference as I am currently involved in a project mixdown which has a myriad of the above mentioned issues in tow. These tips will reduce production time and ensure that my band, BonsaiChainsaw has a stellar CD release, instead of a ‘meh, so-so’ release. Thanks for the effort exerted in creating these tips. Ears around the world will thank you!

By: Zed

Zed — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:46:36 +0000

Great tips!

Couple of other thing regarding tuning…

Get the whole band to use the SAME tuner.

And something that gets overlooked often – don’t forget about tuning drums.
Not the just the usual getting rid of creaks, rattles and rings, but taking care to tune the snare and toms to the song.

Sometimes a song just doesn’t seem to “gel” no matter what you do, and I’ve found that it can often be the snare or toms being dissonant against the key of the song. At the very least pick a snare that matches the track.

Once upon a time I had a band in recording that used a guitar tuner to tune their drums!
I thought they were pulling my leg – in fact I have to admit I laughed out loud. But I also have to admit it actually worked.

So there you go – you have to go along with the crazy ideas once in a while. ;o)

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:48:48 +0000

Good tips, and easily overlooked… one thing that I always used to ignore was the importance of arrangement.

I think many young bands just bang stuff out and trust their instinct/dynamic to make it work, but if everyone is trying to get their instrument heard at once it can get a bit messy!

I made a frequency chart to help on this point… http://www.podcomplex.com/blog/music-production-mistakes/

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:08:28 +0000

Good pointers and yes I have committed most of those… and probably in the past month or so

By: admin

admin — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:44:21 +0000

Great point, and this also applies to being rehearsed – the studio is an expensive place to write songs or learn how to play them… unless you own it !

Of course lots of people record themselves which makes this less of a factor, but even then, there’s a lot to be said for gigging a song before committing it to a recording.

By: Dean Whitbread

Dean Whitbread — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:53:42 +0000

I would add: don’t record a song until it’s actually finished. You’d be surprised how often artists show up with a bunch of songs to record but with only a couple really nailed down. Be prepared to work more on a song in the studio, sure, but the only way to know if a song is really ready to record is to either play it live as a rehearsal or even better, at a gig.

Having said that, I believe this does depend on the style of music you make. I can’t imagining someone like Dr Dre or Brian Eno doing anything other than using the studio in parallel with the artist to create works of musical wonder – but they are the top 0.0001% so best not to attempt it until you’re up there with them!