Studios can be mysterious magical places where dreams are made, legends are born and classics are penned. Mostly though, they’re a place of business, routine and often a fair bit of waiting around. If you’ve ever wondered what actually happens during the recording process, read on…
The following describes a typical routine at Pro 2 Studios in Leeds, one of the studios on Amati’s roster, and the place where I learnt my trade.
10.30am Our sessions typically run from 11am-9pm (although they have been known to run over to 2am…) so the assistant engineer is usually first to arrive at about 10.30. He’s usually the lucky guy picked from a lot of applicants taking a year out from university or similar to get some unpaid studio experience. So he gets there first, unlocks everything and turns on all the equipment. So when the producer or engineer arrives about 15 minutes later he’s got the kettle already boiled, and everyone can have a little chat about the day’s session over a morning cuppa.
11.00am The band arrives and hauls all their equipment into the central live room. We’ll use the classic example of two guitars, bass drums and vocals here. We have a bit of a chat about the different recording options over more tea. If it’s a band cutting a demo of say 4 songs we’d usually record all the instruments at once for one song, then overdub the vocals (and any other parts like guitar solos), this way we can usually get about 4 songs recorded in a day. Once we’ve chosen our method the producer, engineer and assistant all sit down with some paper and write out a channel list. This is a list of all the inputs on the desk, followed by what they’ll be used for, and then what microphone. This list will be vital for setting up the mics and the pro-tools session. It will also have the name and instrument of each number, and what headphone mix they’re on. This is pretty useful for remembering names amongst other things.
11.20am Lists made and copied, it’s time to set everything up. If I’m producing then I’ll get into the control room and set up the pro-tools session. I’ll sort out the desk, patch the pre-amps to the right place and set up all the busses. The first priority is the talk-backs. These are basic microphones put in each room that we use to listen to the musicians. I patch them all to one channel, and stick a bit of tape on the fader so I know which one. They all go through a compressor too so everything is blasted to the same volume, this way I’ll hear somebody talking from the opposite side of the room to the talk back. So once I can hear what’s going on in every room I can set up the desk.
Meanwhile the assistant or engineer will be setting up the microphones on the drums and guitar amps. Most of the time we put drums up in the big room towards the back of the studio, so the relevant mics (usually about 13 of them) are taken through and set up. The bass amp is put in a little isolation booth, and a guitar amp will have a room each, so everything is nice and isolated. I’ll usually put three mics on each guitar amp (typically SM57, MD421 and U87) and just one on the bass cab, plus I’ll take the bass DI. If you’re in the band, this is the point where you just relax in the TV room until it’s time to sound-check.
The big drum room at the studio
12.00pm Sound-checking time. The drums always takes the longest, so once I’ve had a good look at all the mic placements around the drums and am happy with them the assistant calls in the drummer. First off they’ll just play the full kit for a bit, while we check that everything is coming to the right place in pro-tools. Sometimes a cable might be faulty, or a button hasn’t been pressed. So we spend about 10 minutes troubleshooting and sorting out any issues. It’s very rare that everything will work perfectly the first time! Once everything seems to be working smoothly we go through each individual drum. We set all the input gains, tweak any EQ on the monitoring side, checking the phase difference between mics and generally make sure we’re getting a good sound. Sometimes the drummer might need a new skin, or different beater on the kick drum. Thankfully there’s a rock shack round the corner that the assistant can pop out to and pick up any supplies. Being the most complicated mic set-up, it can take up to an hour before we’re happy with the sound.
Meanwhile the rest of the band are usually still relaxing in the TV room. Often they’ll have cracked out the beers by this point. Once we’re happy with the drums we get the bass in. This is usually just a matter or setting the input gain so that the signal isn’t going into the red. Occasionally the strings will need changing, or we might try a different mic, but this is usually a 10 minute job. The same applies with the guitars usually. Sometimes the sound from the amp will need a bit of tweaking, and if they’re using different sounds we’ll need to run through them all, but it’s a far simpler process than with the drums. We’ll also set up a single mic for the singer, just to act as a guide. That way all the members of the band will be able to tell whereabouts in the song they are. I encourage the singer to take it easy with the guide vocal, so that their voice isn’t too strained when it comes to the main vocal take.
The mixing desk in the control room
1.00pm Now that everybody is set it’s time to do the headphone mixes. Each member is assigned an aux bus; A, B, C or D, and there’s a separate one going to the drum room. Each bus has an output in every room into which we plug in the headphones. We turn up the sends for each bus on the monitoring side of the desk for the instruments, then get the band to play for about a minute. We can use this time to check everything is still coming through ok and when they stop we ask them each in turn if they want anything up or down in their headphones. This repeats until everybody’s happy with their headphones.
1.30pm Recording time! Everybody is sound-checked, happy with their headphones and full of tea, so it’s time to crack on. I’d usually get the band to do two or three takes, just to let them settle in. Then I’d get them into the control room to have a listen and see what they think. I may offer advice on any musical changes they may consider, depending if the song needs it. Then we’ll just keep going until we have a take everybody is proud of. If they’re recording to a click we can cut different bits from different takes. So for example if they did a great take apart from one fluffed bar we could replace the bar in question with material from a different take.
Once we’re happy, it’s time to do vocals for the song. We set up a new microphone in the room opposite the control room (and make sure the guitar amp that’s in there is off). Usually the rest of the band take a bit of a break, or maybe hang around in the control room to listen to the singer. We’ll get the singer to sing a bit just to get the level, then we’ll do three or four takes and using the comping method I discussed in a previous tutorial to put the best bits of all the takes into one final take. Double tracking and backing vocals are then the last thing to go on.
Then it’s pretty much just a matter of repeating the process for each song. There isn’t much in the way of a lunch break. The assistant may take over pro tools for a it while I grab a sandwich, and depending on how well everything is going the band may want to have a bit of a break. Generally with the day long demo sessions we just charge right through until 9pm, or until their last song is finished, whichever comes first!
9pm All done, the band packs up their equipment and heads off. We’re left with the painstaking task of coiling up all the cables and taking down all the mics. The band is now done with their studio time, but I have another 10-hour day dedicated to mixing everything (for every hour of recording an hour of mixing is booked). The band will get two CDs sometime in the next week or so: one is a backup, to keep locked away somewhere safe. The other is theirs to do what they please with!
So that’s your basic recording studio process for getting a simple 3 or 4-track demo down. Obviously it varies from studio to studio, and if a band were doing a full album over a week or two it would be a far more detailed affair; for example we’d just record drums and bass for each song to start with, then go through the guitars before doing vocals.
<Graeme Allen is the MD of Amati Studios, a company that works with some of the best mid-sized recording studios in the country.
In addition to his technical skills, Graeme is a first class musician in his own right, playing rock, blues and jazz guitar and classical violin. Visit his website at www.amatistudios.co.uk.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great overview! I like the idea of having the singer record vocals after each song, rather than recording all four at the end. I’m sure the singer is thankful, too.
Great piece Graeme - just a quick question - we recently recorded a 4 track demo / EP at a local studio in Kent. Good sound, good overall job, but they put all guitar amps in a seperate room and then we played through headphones. A little strange to start with and I had to get the amp brought back into the live room in order to do solos etc, and get some decent feedback. I just wondered if this seperation, so to speak, is a good idea?
cheers
Luke
Hi Luke,
Although the guitarists will be in the same room as their amps usually, they’ll still be using headphones so they can hear the rest of the band. We need to keep the amps in different rooms to stop the sound from one amp “leaking” onto the microphones for a different amp. If the guitarist has a solo to overdub we’ll usually put them and the amp head in the control room so they can hear themselves through the speakers, and the cab will be in a different room with microphones on it.
Sometimes if a studio has a big room all the instruments will be set up there with gobos (soundproof panels) in-between everything, with the band using monitors rather than headphones.
So basically there’s lots of ways to do it, but it’s always best to have the instruments as separated as possible to stop them leaking onto other tracks.