A little over a year ago I published a post titled, 5 Tips To Make Your Recording Sessions More Efficient (Vol. 1). The idea was to create a topical theme which would serve as an ongoing series. I didn’t intend to wait this long to post a second installment, but nevertheless here it is.

As I said in the first post of this series, these tips are meant to be five individual tips, not a step-by-step process.

Have Preproduction Sessions
If you’ve been hired to produce someone else’s project, scheduling in a few days of preproduction before the first day of tracking will improve your productivity and workflow-once actually in the studio-100 percent. Find some time to meet with the artist or band to talk about the vision of the project and how you plan to approach making the record. Focus in on specific parts and instrumentation that may need to be ironed out ahead of time, before you enter the studio to record. Have the band rehearse and A/B any changes that have been suggested, both to be certain that the change is a good change, and so that everyone can become familiar with the new way to play the song.

If you’re a part of an indie band who is going full DIY, not hiring a producer, it’s still more than highly beneficial to go through this preproduction process as a band. Talk about the vision as a group to make sure everyone is on the same wavelength, and rehearse all the songs so that they can be performed as confidently as possible when it is time to record. You want to make sure you capture the performances in a way that is congruent with the vision. This process has to be a collaboration between everyone.

Wear headphones when dialing in a cue mix
And make sure you’re listening to the cue mix. This way you will hear exactly what the musicians are hearing, and you have an accurate frame of reference when creating the mix which will serve as the “space” for the musicians to perform in. If there is not an extra pair of headphones for you to use, the next best option is to simply listen to the cue mix over the main monitors.

Set up talkback mics
This will require extra resources in terms of mics and preamps, but if you can afford it, it’s worth it. Setting up talkback mics, mics which allow the person being recorded to talk back to the engineer, keeps everyone from having to run back and forth from room to room to communicate with one another. Or worse, having to yell all throughout the recording space. Setting up talkback mics will make the communication easier to understand, and you won’t have to interrupt the flow of the session.

Take Notes
When I was on staff at Quad Recording Studios, projects would often come in where I would have to transfer 20-30 year old tape into Pro Tools. And all too often these tapes would have hardly any documentation. It’s amazing what new type of swear language you can invent when it’s 3am, and you’re in the middle of one of these projects with no map.

You need to be taking as many notes as possible all throughout the recording process. Document all takes, parts, arrangements, equipment, settings, lyrics, alternate lyrics, spontaneous ideas, and anything else you can think of that’s relevant. It may seem pointless at the time, but trust me, when you go to mix the project, or if you hand the project off to someone else, or if you revisit the project after months of being archived, you will thank yourself. And you won’t get that horrible tightness in your chest that usually shows up just after having this epiphany. Most importantly you will appreciate the favor you did for yourself when word gets around town about how organized you are.

Name your tracks and audio files
Name your tracks and files! Keep them in a specific folder! Don’t put them on your system drive! Here’s another source for a massive panic attack. When editing, transferring files, mixing, or any one of the endless tasks that take place during the record making process, the last thing you want is an Audio Files folder full of generically named files, such as “Audio 1″ “Audio 2″ “Audio 3″ etc. You’re only going to make things harder for yourself on all fronts if you do this. Especially if something goes wrong and some files turn up missing. And if you think you can simply hand the project off to a “professional” who can sort this out for you, think again. You will most likely have to pay through the nose in fees because of the tremendous amount of extra time and work it will take to straighten this out. Most importantly you will not be doing favors for your reputation.

Hopefully a couple of these tips were useful. With any luck the next installment of this series won’t take me another year to get around to publishing. Don’t forget to go back and check out the first post in this series here: [5 Tips To Make Your Recording Sessions More Efficient (Vol. 1)] And if you would like to post your own tips, feel free to do so in the comments. I’d also be glad to take your tips via email. Send them to me at stinson[AT]producernotes[DOT]com. I’ll post them in my next edition(s) of this series along with a credit to you, so make sure to include a link to your website and how you would like to be represented in the credit.

This week I’m posting early (on Friday) because I will not have time over the weekend to prepare a post for Monday. I have scheduled time to totally organize my office and life using the method David Allen developed in his book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. I briefly described the book in my previous post that I published on Monday, and plan to talk about my experience once I complete the whole system. So again I will not be posting this coming Monday, but in the meantime I am posting some links to resources about GTD.

www.davidco.com/blogs/kelly/archives/2008/01/david_allen_giv.html
www.davidco.com/what_is_gtd.php
www.davidco.com/tips_tools.php
www.davidco.com/store/catalog/Free-Articles-p-1-c-254.php
www.davidco.com/podcast.php

I encourage you to spend a decent amount of time researching this method of organization. If you are like most people you feel that there are areas of your life that could have better organization. You feel like you are always struggling to keep up with the pace of life and business. Multiply this times ten if you are in the music business. It’s the perfect time to incorporate a new strategy into your life; to practice a new method of organization. So please check out Getting Things Done, maybe even try it out, and tell me about your experience.

I will be back on 1.21.08