So for my 30th birthday last April (as in 2017!!!!) my work colleagues bought me a 3 hour studio experience voucher, which I was very humbled by and grateful for. I wanted to double up the time ideally to get a full day in there.
The problem has been finding the time to practice and prep enough to be ready as I'm substandard in both guitar and singing, and my music room is the untidiest place known to man and can't seem to get a set up that always works for practice because of that, and because of ongoing technical problems I seem to have (can detail these separately if you want to laugh at how many different things can go wrong!). My musical ability is either in playing piano (classical), or in arranging really, ie musical ear rather than any singing or guitar ability.
It's stressing me out as I've had to extend the voucher validity and now they can't fit me in for the full six hours until June when I'm on holiday. So any practice and prep I do now will be worthless in July as I'll have forgotten it all.
So what should I do?
My intention was to do three original songs in full there, then record the composite parts of a number of covers to finish at home myself. I would bring my backing tracks in audio stems or in a Pro Tools project file so that I effectively re-record the guitar and vocals (ie the stuff I can't do so well at home).
I've thought of the following options:
1. Try to book two three hour sessions on different days. Do vocals on one, guitars on the other. Finish mixing at home. Should not increase set up/set down times this way, compared to doing three songs one day and the rest on another.
2. Just do the three hours (don't extend time) and hope to finish my original ones, and keep the chaos and stress going at home trying to finish the others.
3. Giving up completely and just pretending to others I'm too shy to share what I've recorded
I've discounted the following options which had previously been suggested or considered:
1. Doing something totally different, using piano instead. They only have digital pianos and can't record classical on those so no go on that.
2. Going all "singer songwriter" and using the time to record me doing a bit of solo vocals plus guitar/piano, to a click track, so I could use the files later in a bigger arrangement. Can't do this though as sadly my vocals and playing are weak enough by themselves, let alone doing them simultaneously! But even doing them separately in this way, I'm not interesting enough for the recordings to hold the attention that way, and it feels somehow even more self indulgent to do that (notwithstanding that this whole project is a vanity thing to be fair...)
Not really sure what tips can be picked up really as assume the common consensus will be option 2 but who knows unless you ask
Thanks kind people of tFB
Comments
Bring the lot home as stems / tracks and remix at your leisure.
Or...depending on what type of stuff your doing, Im happy to give you some of my time in my home studio to lay down soem guitars / vocals ;-)
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If you using digi piano then record that at homeas a midi track & rendered, or add one afterward. You can have an audio file with a rendered click and scratch guitar/piano too. That way they can just import the file instead of setting a whole session and having to do a scratch track again.
Then add vocals, acoustic/electric guitar and have them mix it. Best prep aside from ready base tracks etc is to practice your singing as much as possible.
The back tracks are basically ready (or are close to being) and for each song I've got a notes sheet so I know what I need to record, at what tempo on what settings etc. All I want to do is re record the vocals and guitar parts, which are generally very minimal. Where there are verses and choruses I'd just copy and paste the guitar part, solos never more than eight bars long and generally any recording I've ever done, I've done each part in two or three takes once the technology is working. I don't like polished music, preferring to work quickly and leave the human errors in there.
Hence why I think three songs in three his would be pretty achievable. Vocals probably about 2.5 minutes worth per song, if that, guitar parts certainly less than that on two of the three given the copy and paste method.
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I'd advise concentrate on getting one song right...book 3 hours go in and do basic tracks, then befre your next 3 hour session work on whateber it was that needed working on to finish.
I know what you mean, but I honestly couldn't see it needing three hours to do one of my songs, normally it takes me three hours to write arrange and record when I do it myself? From Fretboard challenge experience there. I don't think the studio people there do a lot so would just be to record me and give me the files, when I went there before with my dad (he was singing to backing tracks) they didn't really do any more than just pressing record and then adding compression at the end.
Me singing the same 90 second vocal over and over won't improve it to be honest. I think I'd rather not go if that's all I'm going to get done though as it'd be easier doing it myself (and would save the hassle, journey time, and whole quandry really)
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Edit: for an idea of the kind of level I'm working at: https://soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
You could probably get two tracks done with how short they are, maybe pick out the elements you would like to have studio recordings of like the vocals if they have high end mics and well treated rooms or the guitars if they have decent amps at that studio and then add the rest at home.
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Relax.
Decide whether you want the studio experience to be a full immersion learning day or a recording session on the cheap.
Be prepared.
Represent yourself. Perform your own material - even if it has to be in a stripped down near-demo form. As a fan of Richard Thompson, I enjoy the deluxe editions of his CD releases. These consist of the full-on studio album plus a bonus disc of solo acoustic renditions of the same material.
This.
I've booked the last available 3 hour slot in May, on the 20th. I then intend to book a second 3 hour slot after my holiday (either late June or early July).
The first session, I intend to do singing only - so will prep the backing tracks ahead of time with good guitar parts, then simply record as many takes as possible on the day to make use of their mics and vocal booth. Will request to take home the raw audio stems to plug into my Draft mixes, but also the effected stems if they add any nice fx there. I would like to do three originals, and three covers, but will prioritise the originals first. I've done an ideal batting order based on that, in an order that gives me an easy warm up song as well. Six songs gives me roughly half an hour per song, that should be plenty if only singing.
The second session, again I've composed a batting order to get warmed up and prioritise my own songs, and I'll just do the re-recording of guitars for that. There are only five songs that require guitar, and one of them is only a solo with harmony for about 16 bars, and it's not particularly difficult to play . Again, half an hour per song should be ample as I tend to favour doing as much as possible in one/two/three takes as I practise them very heavily.
As Nigel said, I needed to think what I want from it. I do fancy experiencing the recording side of it with nice kit but when it comes down to it, I won't benefit from them only doing one or two songs in full as I'm already fairly alright at the mixing bit myself anyway. So my priority is to get recordings of voice and guitars and then I can can use the opportunity to learn how to properly finish them and do a job I'm pleased with myself. Or I can can pay somebody else to sort it if I get lazy
@funkfingers - would love to be good enough to do the "busker" versions of the songs but I definitely don't have the skill to carry that off! Though may consider piecing it together with the stem files though I guess, we shall see.
@imc1980 thanks for your kind words, never had the Albarn comparison before though! Usually get "that bloke from Travis" or "that bloke from The xx".
Thanks all
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Sadly not, just as I thought woo guitars done let's sing, they said... Yeah bouncing the files out takes ages so we will have to stop there while I export all the wav files.
So I've come away with guitar recordings that don't sound that great on rhythm parts, though fine for solo bits, that are half as quiet as everything else in my projects so I've now got to rebalance all the bloody levels again...
Waste of a day but more of a waste all the prep and practice I put into it beforehand, wrestling with rubbish technology and a persistently crashing VST Bridge in Cubase
Gahhhhhhh
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
I generally use studio time to record drums
I have learnt a few things though. I prefer the sound and ease of recording direct, got a good sound pretty much instantly that way, how I wanted it, and doing it myself ensured it was the sound I wanted. I found it hard listening through headphones to what I'm used to hearing coming from in front of me (through not very good headphones I have to say), I seemed to have to keep swapping between live room and control room a lot more than I thought I would. Doing it myself seems easier and more instant, with a better sound to be honest. The files I've got that are not with fuzz are so quiet as well, so maybe I record too loudly but who knows.
I also learnt that I can't play guitar to backing tracks that well, so in future I will just record click tracks and play to that, my timing seemed better then.
I just thought it would be easier and better with somebody else taking care of the technology (something I have a bit of bother with as my laptop is a bit old and the systems I use are limited). But it was not, sadly
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
I subscribe to the Brian Eno notion that having to work with limited resources obliges one to be more ingenious in the uses to which the available equipment and/or instruments are put.
On the plus side, I've more or less finished four songs using my own setup and basically only used about 30 seconds of the audio recorded at the studio though I don't admit this to people I know
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Ive done a few rescue jobs for bands using various local ones and have been shocked at some of the weird shit that seems to go on during sessions
I come from the pre digital age so the studios I set up and worked in were 16 track reel machines, racks of outboard and bantam patch panels.
If you fucked something up editing was done via razor blades and sticky tape. It made you meticulous about set up.
A lot of these places seem to just throw mics at stuff and then tire their ears out at volume. Some of them must have just no idea what a bass drum should sound like. And no one takes fucking notes anymore.
We used to have log books and Polaroid’s of the desk for every session we did. We knew who played what in which track and which equipment was used.
nowadays (if I haven’t done the recording myself) I get a bunch of wav files . If I’m lucky a DAW project and then have to figure it out from scratch
kids today ...etc
Though given it was only me, I'm not sure that many notes would have been required to remind me who played what
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic