When we talk about recording preparations, what we are talking about is aspects that will affect your final product in a way that you can never take back. These little nuances all have a cumulative effect. They all add up and if you miss a few of them, you are looking at major, unsolvable problems. And since it’s not very expensive to take care of these little issues, it’s in your best interest to address them. I’ll discuss each instrumentalist and their preparations individually.
Guitar players: A lot of people have forgotten how important the guitar is to their tone. But yes, the quality of your guitar matters. Not just the pickups, but the actual woods and construction. Generally, a two hundred dollar guitar will not deliver a resonant tone. But assuming that you have a quality instrument, just make sure it is set up properly. If you are using two guitars or have two guitar players, take all the instruments you will use to the luthier and get them set up. It’s better to have slightly higher action than lower and it’s really necessary that the intonation be perfect. All the guitars you use should be set up by the same guy at the same time. It’s true that you can do this yourself, but I suggest that you don’t try. It’s just too important and the cost is usually minimal. You need a strobe tuner anyway and most people don’t have one of those.
In metal, a lot of people use EMG pickups. The 81 is bright and has a lot of gain and the 85 or 89 is a little darker and more mellow. Both offer a pre-compressed and high voltage output. EMG’s have the capability of making a mediocre amp sound decent because they supply a lot of the tone before the amp has to do anything to it. The problem is that they make all amps sound too similar. Also they are not very responsive to the player’s dynamics and they are not very good for clean tone. You can’t turn down the guitar volume knob to clean up the gain. But that aside, they do offer a good sound for metal and can be very good if they are in a good guitar and used with a good amp.
Passive pickups are a bit more versatile and responsive and they will give you a less scratchy sound than EMG’s. But the problem is that many of them do not have enough gain for metal. With the new high gain tube amps that are out, this is less of a problem though. I can highly recommend the Dimarzio Evolution for a high output passive pickup that delivers gain, tone and versatility. You can experiment with others such as the Dimarzio PAF Pro, Duncan Custom or other designs..
Make sure that your wiring is clean and buzz free. It’s too common that a guitar or bass has a ground buzz problem. If you have your amp turned on and set to the distortion channel and do not hear a buzz with any cord plugged in, then your power is clean. But if you add your guitar and cord to the mix and hear a buzz when the volume is up and you are not playing, you need to check it out. It’s the cord or the guitar. Get that fixed before you record.
When you record, you can get about 4 hours of playing time on a pack of strings. Replace them before they lose their snap. When you put a new set of strings on, tap the low strings with your finger so they hit the frets and listen to how they sound when they bounce back. They are very bright and metallic. Now play on them for about 10 minutes and tap on them again. This is when they sound best. After this little break in period, they are ready. When you notice that this sound is going away, replace them. It’s usually only several hours at most of playing time. You can buy strings in bulk and they will only cost about 6 dollars a pack at the most. If you are tracking left and right sides and you can do one or both performances on one pack, then your cost per song will be either 6 or 12 dollars. Multiply that by 10 songs and you have 60 to 120 dollars for your entire album. If it cost you 120 dollars to get two guitars intonated at the shop, you’re up to 240 dollars. This is not expensive! That’s less than the cost of one day at a recording studio for your entire album to be perfect.
Also make sure you get new cords, many new batteries for any pedals you use, many new picks and make sure you have a good tuner. You will be checking your tuning every five minutes or less. I’ll talk more about these things in the columns about recording guitars later.
If you have a tube guitar amplifier and the tubes are old, replace them. At the least, replace the preamp tubes which will only cost you about 60 dollars. I also recommend that if you are getting a new amp, you not do it a week before you record. It can take a long time to understand a new amp and you will need that time. Regardless, you definitely should record a ‘reamp’ track when you record so this will let you go back and fix your tone later if you mess up. You can watch my guitar tone video to find out what this is and how it works. But its basically a direct track that you record in addition to the mic’d signals that you can send back into an amp later to re-record your tine. You’ll need a good direct box and a $200 Reamp box to do this.
Bass players have a similar situation. But if your bass has been set up and intonated anytime in the recent past and you have not changed your tuning, you may not need to take it to the shop. Bass strings will last for about a song or ‘maybe’ two if you are very fast. Again, check for grounding problems and get cords, batteries, etc. By the way, try to use the shortest cords you can when recording bass and guitar
Drummers have a lot to worry about. Drums are really hard to maintain, tune and keep in tune. If you are a drummer and you have not dedicated yourself to learning how to tune your instrument, I’d really recommend that you start doing that. It can take some time, but you will be able to learn. If you are a recording guy and you don’t want to trust drummers anymore, well then you can learn yourself. I recommend a video by Bob Gatzen for learning this art. You can also search Youtube for excerpts.
Before you record drums, make sure all the hardware is working and nothing is rattling or falling apart. Check out your rims and see if they are true. They are cheap and at least you should replace the bad ones. When you have the rims off, check the bearing edges for dents. Run some fine sandpaper over rough bearing edges. Replace bent lugs and any other cheap hardware you can. Try to make sure the tuning lugs turn smoothly. This way you can be sure the heads will stay in tune.
If you have not replaced your bottom heads in more than a year, it’s a must do. If you have, and you are on a budget you can skip it and just tune them. If you have the extra money, it’s well worth it. Bottom heads that are one ply and clear are usually best for rock, metal, etc. The top heads can be one or two ply, clear or coated. Coated heads have a duller attack that is good for jazz and some rock. Clear heads have a nice ‘tick’ sound as the stick meets the head. A one ply head will be very resonant and can be good for making older thick shelled drums sound better. A thick two ply head like Remo Pinstripes might have too much of a plastic thud sound and I generally stay away from those. I personally recommend the Evans G2 clear. It’s a two ply head but each ply is thin and it is a great compromise between resonance and durability.
You can tune drums where the bottom head is a half step higher than the top or where they are about equal. Also each drum has 2 or three tuning ranges. The first is the lowest where the heads first start to ring. And there is always at least one higher one and usually this is the one to use if you are playing fast. If the band is slower and tunes down, you might like the lowest range. Again, you definitely will need to study drum tuning before you do this or get someone who can tune. Another cool way to learn and speed things up is to use a tension watch. Check it out.
Also, another thing the band and drummer can do is to find out if a click track can be made. You can make one in the computer and then make a practice CD for the drummer to play to. It would be a guitar track or two and a click sound. The drummer can practice to this for a month or two before tracking. If you do this, the drummer can track all his parts to a click in the studio and this will not only tighten up the performance, it will allow you to cut and paste sections of the recording.
Vocalists usually just kick back until it’s their turn but they should definitely be staying healthy, getting exercise and going over their parts in their spare time. Also, it’s pretty helpful to type out all your lyrics. Make a print-out for yourself and another one for the engineer so he can follow along with you and refer to the words when you guys are recording.
Recording engineers need to ask themselves if they are truly ready to record the entire album at home or if they should use a pro studio for certain aspects. It can be worth it to use a studio for drums, mixing and mastering and just track guitars, bass and vocals at home. And when you are at the pro studio, you can watch the engineer like a hawk and learn a lot. But if you do this, it’s best to learn from a guy who has at least 10 years experiences or more and knows all the proper ways to record and mix. Many new engineers never learned the basics and this is why they have never advanced past a certain stage. Good luck and have fun!
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