Studio Efficiency Part One: Planning

Howdy, kids. What we have on deck is the first in a three part series going over aspects related to efficiency in the studio. Today’s focus will be on planning for the project.

In order to efficiently map out a project you must plan every single step of the process. Use a custom made grid or calendar to mark down every session and what needs to happen in each. Dates can be tentative at this point, but will need to be nailed down in order to work with everyone’s schedules. Steps to include in the calendar and scheduling may or may not include order in which instruments will be recorded, working with band members’ schedules to make sure the right person is there on the right day, working with studio musicians to ensure they can be there on the right day, and making sure equipment is available to be borrowed or rented on the day it’s needed.

The typical order of instruments to be recorded is drums, then bass, guitar, keys, percussion, and then vocals. You may do guitar before bass to ensure the bass is in tune. The reason this works is it’s easier to hear if a guitar is out of tune and the guitar lays a melodic ground work to check the intonation of the bass against.

This process is where a producer comes in handy. One of the most important jobs a producer has is being responsible for the efficiency and flow of a recording project. If you’ve been in the studio before and know how the process works, feel free to come up with the schedule yourself. If, however, this is your first time, it would surely be a costly mistake to assume you know how it works from talking to friends or reading about it in magazines. Getting some help will save you headaches and stress – and maybe even a little cash.

Sit down with the engineer before hand to make sure your schedule and plans for each day are reasonable. You don't want to plan to track drums, bass, and guitar for 12 songs all in one day. If you consistently plan too much and don't reach your goals, it will affect the rest of the projects scheduling and morale. It is, therefore, much better to go under on time than over; both for cost reasons and almost importantly for your feeling of being productive. Ask the engineer the average time it takes to do each thing before you start planning (drums, bass, guitars, vocals, editing, mixing, etc.).

Planning out every step of the project will save you much time, headaches, and money in the studio. And when you’re trying to concentrate on being creative while recording, it’s nice to have all these kinks worked out ahead of time.

Next weeks’ “Studio Efficiency Part Two” will focus on cost, different pricing structures and ways to plan with and around them.

Now get to planning!