How to Prep for a Recording Session

Years ago, when Electronic Musician was rapidly transitioning from a “making music with computers” magazine to an early and evangelical resource for “creating art in a home studio,” I wrote a piece opining that songs only truly existed if they were recorded to a medium audiences could share.

It sounds strange now, when everyone has a personal studio and posts music everywhere, but in the early 1990s, tons of creators would play their original songs solely at live shows where the lifespan of their artistry ended when the last echoes of the performance faded from the stage.

Obviously, the world has changed from the commercial dawn of the home-recording industry. As a result, I think artists today should consider pivoting from instinctively documenting every fragment of their musical inspiration and instead ask themselves, “Why am I recording my work”?

This question is step one for preparing yourself to undertake a successful and productive recording session.

Taylor Sunset Blvd GS Mini-e Acoustic-Electric Guitar with D'Addario Equinox Headstock Tuner

Pictured: D'Addario Equinox Headstock Tuner on Taylor Sunset Blvd GS Mini-e

What's the Objective of Your Recording?
A Quick Chart of Recording Goals
The Business of Recording
Lock Down the Arrangements
Preproduction Rehearsals
Give Your Gear a Checkup
Eradicate Red-Light Fever
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What's the Objective of Your Recording?

Hey, if you want to record something, you should do that. Creatively speaking, no one is the boss of you, so have at it. However, if you wish to optimize listener engagement, fortify your competitive advantage in an enormously crowded field and fuel potential mass acceptance for whatever you record, you should figure out—at least in fundamental terms—what the heck your release is attempting to achieve. In short, you need a goal.

A Quick Chart of Recording Goals

Endgame	Media	Production Quality* (Assuming media recommendations met)	Professional Mastering Needed?
Limited digital self-release	Socials, YouTube, Bandcamp, etc.	Totally your call as to production values	Not likely
Sales at gigs	CD, vinyl	Revenue/promotional requirements justify near-professional quality	Software self-mastering possible
Wide digital self-release	Spotify, DistroKid, etc.	Competition warrants high-level audio	Recommended
Independent label	Likely CD, vinyl and digital	Competition warrants high-level audio	Absolutely

The Business of Recording

Ego is often the main driver as to why an artist or a band seeks to release a recording. There’s nothing wrong with that. You want a tangible document of your musical creations—whether you end up with boxes of unsold and undistributed CDs, LPs or cassettes in your hall closet or not.

But business decisions typically require a market focus and how to serve the potential audience you are targeting.

As in the “Quick Chart of Recording Goals,” you should zero in on your desired marketplace to address the typical competitive quality that’s expected. Obviously, you should always strive for excellence—duh—but as time and budget are also business decisions, managing workflow and expectations can be different for each product category.

For example, a limited digital release on your own socials makes it easy to experiment with songs, sonic quality and production values. This is pretty much an “all you” option that accommodates unique audio landscapes, eccentric songcraft, surprising arrangements and other extremely personal creative choices. Strut your stuff fearlessly and build from a small community that digs your work.

Now, I think you should always be true to yourself. However, the competitive realities of more widespread music distribution usually impart a few sonic “prerequisites.” Referencing the frequency spectrum of other releases in the marketplace can help illustrate the aural criteria you may need to pursue.

Pro tip #1: Always reference the audio of albums and songs you like—as well as that of successful artist releases—to your own project.

Pro tip #2: Make sure your bandmates are aware—and in agreement with—the market you are going for, as well as the production concept you are undertaking to optimize your release. Different viewpoints before you start recording are much easier to address collaboratively than unproductive disagreements during the project.

Lock Down the Arrangements

At this point, everyone involved in your project is (hopefully) in accord with the market goal. Now, you should ensure all of the musicians are explicitly aware of the song arrangements and their individual performances.

A relatively easy and stress-free exercise is to gather the foundational players at a rehearsal space or your home and go over each song step by step.

Chord Chart

Pictured: Chord Chart

Verify the chords, melodies and musical parts. You’d be surprised how many of these sessions I’ve managed where we discovered some band members were playing the wrong chords, or the singer was unsure of the melody, or someone was choosing guitar riffs, bass lines and/or keyboard parts that were a bit sour (wrong key, iffy pitch or bad intonation). Confirm everyone knows what they are doing and take notes. Write down everything—chord progressions, final lyrics and the arrangement of verses, choruses, bridges, breakdowns, etc.—so there is absolutely no question what will happen when recording begins.

Keep everything unplugged. You’re not deciding on tones at this point—just the basic roadmaps of the songs—so tell the musicians to leave their amps and other electrified gear at home. The only caveat is if you have a keyboardist, they’ll need to play through their onboard speakers or a small practice amp. Unplugged rehearsals are also preferrable, because no one can be fooled by sounds or effects. Evaluated in its pure and naked state, a part will be right on and awesome, or it will reveal itself to be less-than-appropriate or outright wrong.

Sketch out the groove. For the sake of focusing on the arrangements—as well as not having to deal with the volume of a drum kit—don’t worry about incorporating a full percussion setup into this session. However, the drummer should definitely show up and suggest rhythmic parts and overall grooves by playing ideas on their thighs, a table or a practice pad along with the bassist. You’ll finalize the groove at the first preproduction rehearsal with the full band.

Record everything. You never know when an idea or a “mistake” will energize an arrangement, so be sure to document every play-through. Recorded evidence is also great for reminders (“What did I play there?”) and conflict resolution (“I don’t think that’s the part the bass played in that section”). Reviewing the so-called final arrangement before the first preproduction rehearsal can be valuable for easing creative paranoia: “Are we 100-percent sure this is the absolute best arrangement of this song?”

Preproduction Rehearsals

The basic arrangement is solid—yes? Okay, now you need to hear the whole sonic banquet exactly as it will be recorded. Schedule a series of preproduction rehearsals to run through guitar tones, drum grooves, counterpoint parts being recorded with the basic tracks, and the lead vocal.

Confirm the arrangements again. Musicians forget stuff or randomly change parts. That’s okay. But ensure any and all mistakes are rectified, and “surprise musical amendments” are approved by the group (or producer).

Pick your tones. This is the rehearsal where you start auditioning the sounds for each instrument that’s going to be recorded. Be picky. Don’t just determine the rhythm guitar needs to be overdriven. Drill down into subtleties, such as whether the desired timbre should be stout and meaty (low mids), wield aggressive attack (midrange) and/or produce an airy shimmer (highs). The tonal details may shift a bit once the recording signal chain is established—due to the coloration of interfaces, mic preamps, plug-ins and other factors—but the foundational tone you decided upon at the preproduction rehearsal should be intact.

Pro tip: Never envision your recording strategy as unyielding. If a moment of inspiration—or hearing the onslaught of all the instruments together—points to a more appropriate or cooler guitar, bass, keyboard or drum sound, take the win and amend the plan.

Be brutal. As the band plays through the songs, do not give anyone a pass. Make sure every element of the song is as tight as the hatch on a submarine, and all musical parts are fiercely dialed in. The musicians should start to perform as flawlessly as humanly possible. Use this session as another opportunity to check for weak parts, missed opportunities (“Hey, a breakdown would be awesome after the guitar solo.”), and wavering or unsure musicians.

Document. This won’t be a surprise at this point, but yes—you should record the entire preproduction rehearsal and evaluate it later. If anything sounds wonky, schedule another rehearsal. Emulate the armed forces—trust your training, and it may save your butt. In other words, leave nothing to chance.

Give Your Gear a Checkup

Super producer Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, KISS) once said to me that no amount of studio magic will save a poorly intonated guitar. There’s also not much hope for dodgy electronics, amps spewing hiss and hum, crackly cables and input/output jacks, dying stompboxes, or anything else waging war against pristine sound. If I had $22 for every time a musician showed up to a recording session with gronky, futzed-up gear, I could have paid for Jeff Bezos’ 2025 Venice wedding. (Well, almost …) Do yourself a big favor and have your instruments and rigs completely checked for immaculate operation. Don’t be that person who causes a pause in the studio proceedings because of a broke-down amplifier.

Taylor Sunset Blvd GS Mini-e

Pictured: Taylor Sunset Blvd GS Mini-e Acoustic-Electric Guitar in Sunset Edgeburst

Eradicate Red-Light Fever

If you haven’t heard it before, the above subhead refers to musicians who freeze up when the “Record” button is pressed or clicked. Almost anything can cause that “chill factor” to tank a recording session—poor preparation, nerves, gear troubles, bandmates with crappy attitudes and numerous other unpleasant issues.

At the risk of sounding like a Boy Scout—which I was—being scrupulously prepared for a recording session may not wipe out every potential cause of red-light fever, but it can drastically minimize the chance of its appearance. Take those odds. Do the prep work, and your session can be a pageant of unbridled creativity, productivity and joy.

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