Phase 2: Pre-Production Recording

Welcome to the second article in our four part discussion on recording in a commercial studio. Hopefully, you have read the phase one article, have followed my advice, and are now ready to move on to phase two.  If you missed the first article, please go back and read it before continuing.

In this article, we will discuss the pre-production phase.  In this phase, you will make basic home recordings of the songs you plan to record when you go to commercial studio.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Why would you want to make a recording of your songs at home when you’re already planning to book and pay for a quality commercial studio with an experienced engineer? After all, if you could make great sounding recordings at home you would never book a commercial studio in the first place. But while this may be true, a pre-production recording isn’t designed to sound great. Its purpose is to provide basic guide tracks for you to play along with during your session in a real studio.

To follow the advice outlined in this article you will need to own some form of home recording equipment.  Practically anything with four tracks or more will work.  All you really need is a few tracks and the ability to get them on a CD. You can use a portable digital recorder, a computer based digital audio workstation, a reel to reel machine, an ADAT, or even an old four track cassette machine. If you don’t have a small home recorder, I strongly suggest you make the investment. Portable digital recorders are extremely useful, as well as highly affordable—and with some less than $200, they’re certainly a justifiable purchase.

Tracking the Pre-Production Recording

There are many ways to approach pre-production and there’s no way to list them all. Instead, I will illustrate the method which works best for me.  If you followed the advice in the last article, you have already decided on the speed of each song. Therefore, you already know the songs BPMs and are ready to lay down the first track, the click or drum loop track.

It really doesn’t matter if you use a click or a drum loop—just make sure the drum loop is a close match to the basic rhythm the drummer is going to be playing. Don’t just pick out a random 4/4 loop. Either find a loop that fits, or better yet, program your own on a drum machine.

If you use a click, I suggest making it in 8th notes, or double time. This means there will be 8 clicks per measure as opposed to 4. I have found this makes my playing tighter and also allows me to better swing with the beat when necessary.

Make sure to do a count in. I suggest 2 measures, or in our case, 16 clicks. In other words, the count in will be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ready, go. The longer count in allows more time to get the feel of the beat. A simple 1, 2, 3, 4 isn’t always enough to get a feel for the correct speed of the song.

Once you have layed down the click/drum loop on track 1, you are ready to record down a basic track of guitar or piano, whichever is the main instrument of the song, on track 2.  It isn’t that important to get a great tone. You can worry about that when you get to the actual recording session. It is, however, important to get a good performance. Make sure the playing is tight, correct, and on the beat. If it’s off, it is likely to throw off you or anyone else who later plays along with it in the studio.

Finally, on track 3, lay down a vocal track. You don’t have to use a great microphone or give a mind-blowing performance. Just a good rough take is fine as long as there’s nothing on there which would distract or throw off a musician playing along with it later.

Mixing the Pre-Production Recording

Now you want to make a CD of the recording to give to your fellow band mates, as well as a copy to take with you to the studio.  I’ve found it’s best to separate the click/drum loop track from the guitar/piano and vocal tracks. Pan the click/drum loop track all the way to the left and then pan the mix of the guitar/piano and vocal tracks all the way to the right. When you do this you are essentially creating two separate tracks on the CD. This is important because later when you are recording, your engineer will be able to put the left and right information on separate tracks of his recorder and, therefore, adjust the level of click/loop to music.  If you don’t pan left and right, and later ask the engineer to give you more click or more music, he or she won’t be able to do it.

Don’t worry about compression, massive eq, or adding reverb when mixing. Just use basic corrective eq and make sure you have a decent, clear sounding mix.

Conclusion

Give a copy of the CD to each member of the band and ask them to practice playing to it.  Since everyone will be practicing to the exact same basic tracks they will be playing to in the studio, this should give you some great takes. It always has for me.

When you go to the studio, you will take a copy of the CD with you and tell the engineer you’ll be playing to the basic tracks contained on it. He will put the CD’s left channel (click or drum loops) on say, track one and then the right channel (guitar/piano and vocal) on track two. You’ll then record by playing along with these two tracks and recording those takes to tracks three and up. Then at the mix, the engineer will simply mute the click/loop and guitar/piano/vocal tracks and what’s left will be a tight, accurate, and well performed recording.

This technique has worked beautifully for me, as well as for many friends who use it as well.  Also, since you are creating your basic guide tracks at home or in your rehearsal space, you will save time and money in the studio. Plus, with the band practicing to the exact basic tracks they will be using during the session, you’re certain to get some great takes.

In the next article, we’ll discuss the tracking phase of the recording process and give you some tips which will same time, money, and frustration. Thanks for reading and stay tuned.

Is it just me or does it seem that the “guitar hero” in rock and pop music has been long gone for a while and doesn’t seem to be coming  back? I mean, back in the 60’s and early 70’s we had Clapton, Hendrix, Page, and Beck. Then in the 80’s the idea of a “guitar hero” seemed to be even bigger where we had Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Paul Gilbert just to name a few. Now while I know the popularity of the alternative/grunge scene, which I really liked by the way, put and end to another music scene that quite frankly in my humble opinion needed to die, I have to say I miss the guitar solo being played by a wicked guitar slinger. That’s not to say there are not any new smoking guitar players out there because we have the likes of Andy Wood, Guthrie Govan, John 5, Jim Root, and I’m sure I’m missing a few but it just seems the idea of guitar playing being out front as it once was has yet to come back to popularity. A lot of the instrumentalists and soloist, new and old, have seem to be a more underground thing which I guess could be argued is a good thing to a certain extent. I guess what I’m saying is I just miss hearing a good solo in new music these days. I hear some here and there in popular bands but not what it used to be.  Maybe I’m getting nostalgic… I dont know but I do see hope in young players who post clips playing in online contests like Guitarmageddon. Then you have the young guns I hear playing  in stores that rip out some of the older rock and metal songs, Vai licks, and even some of these young Jazz cats you hear on line….. so I have hope that one day the “guitar hero”  will come back to forefront again but who knows.

What do you guys think?

Dave Weiner who is most widely known as a touring guitarist for Steve Vai has a web site called Riff Of The Week™ The site is really cool with very well thought out lessons and a “Jam Track Jukebox” where Dave has laid down some great backing tracks to jam over and work out things you have learned. I’ve personally have learned quite a few things from his site and thought it would be worth sharing.

Here is one of the lessons.

One night my wife and I wanted to try a new place and go hear some live music and we were told about this place that had some great blues bands. We walked in and these guys where burning the place down and the guitarist’s tone was just awesome. I remember looking on stage and seeing some gear, to be honest, I would never have even given two thoughts to purchasing because I thought it was “cheap” gear. I guess maybe I had an idea in my head that I had to pay more for good tone. Maybe that idea is a little truth in it but I think Ive come to learn its not as much as I thought. In the quest for tone there are so many avenues to go down and the journey definitely isn’t free. Gear can run the gamut in terms of cost from cheap to insanely expensive. When it comes to tone does cost equal tone? I posed this question on some of the guitar forums I hang out at to get some feedback and I here are some that stuck out to me:

• “Sounds like you no matter what you play through.”

• “Better built products sound and work better and cost more.”

• “Cost equals quality but not tone.”

• “There’s some truth in tone costs $$$…but I also believe there’s a point of diminishing returns.”

• “If you are after a very specific tone, that can only really be had with a very specific piece of gear – then yes, it cost what it cost. But good tone can be had at any price point.”

• “In general for guitars….no. Amps and PA/recording gear, yes to a point.”

• “It’s all in the hands”

• “To a certain extent the high dollar amps do sound better but that doesn’t mean you cant achieve great tone with less expensive stuff.”

• “You can play anything and make it sound good, so no. The feel etc is a completely different subject and yes that is where it matters etc.”

There is a mind set called “perceived value” where people tend to think the more something costs the better it is. This can be true to varying degrees but the way I’ve come to look at this question in regards to “tone” is it’s more about the player than the gear.  A good player with a good ear and take some gear that isn’t that “great” and make it sound better.

For example me and a couple of close friends are Kings X fans. If you didn’t know, Ty Tabor used to be very secretive about what he used on their first four albums. My friends and I were absolutely obsessed with his tone and rightfully so because to this day it stands out to me to be one of the best I’ve heard. As the years past we came to learn that Ty was secretive partially due to the fact he was using Lab Series L5’s which were relatively cheap solid state amps. He was a bit embarrassed to let it be known he was using a such a “cheap amp.” After figuring out his secret, I found a L5 , aFender Elite, and set up my effects just like Ty’s and guess what? I didn’t sound like Ty. Was the tone similar? Yes to a degree but not exact. This was a lesson to me that good tone can be cheap but also that a good part of your hero’s tones is in the hands.

All that said, I still feel that better made gear typically means more in cost. So while I don’t think cost always equals tone, I do think cost does more often than not does equal quality but like someone posted in one of the quotes above “its in diminishing returns.”

So I guess after all this rambling, I think gear that is more expensive is better in quality but when it comes to how it affects tone……. not so much.

Please feel free to chime in with your thoughts by posting comments. I’d love to hear them.