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Guitarists - I can't say this enough... BUY NEW STRINGS!!! Bring plenty of different size picks, and work on your sound before you get into the studio. Whether its a vintage amp, a combination of stomp boxes or just a direct box, try to work it out BEFORE the studio clock is running. Again, there will be some experimenting here, but preparation will pay off. During the tracking sessions your job is to keep the sound glued together. Hopefully, you'll have a chance to replace the rough tracks you laid down. At this point, you can fine tune your sound, and work on the performance. |
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For a guitar player the biggest "problem" you will notice is string noise. In the studio you will hear stuff you never heard before like amplifier hum and string noise when you move to different positions, or slide from one chord to another. Although you can not totally get rid of it you can prepare yourself by practicing your technique. When you play try to pay more attention to open strings that ring out when they are not supposed to and finger noise when sliding to different positions. With a little practice you can perfect your palm muting and even muting adjacent strings with your fret hand as well. Practicing with out effects is also important because most engineers will want to try different things before committing to one effect right from the start and will ask that you don't use any effects other than distortion during the tracking process. It doesn't take much to get used to it, but you again will hear every little bit of string noise and mistakes will be more obvious with out reverb and delay. Technique is everything! |
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It is also very important to KNOW your material before you go into the studio. Sometimes while doing overdubs certain instruments, or vocals, or players, that you might "key" off of won't be present, making it hard to always know where you are in the song. Save your solos for another track. Guitar solos usually go on a separate track so don't plan on playing the way you usually do live. Rhythm is rhythm and lead is lead and to maximize mix-down capabilities engineers like to have them on separate tracks. You may also be asked to double tracks, or even to play something in the background to accent a part that the producer thinks needs to stand out more. A decent studio will have punch in capabilities. This is for the little brain farts you may have while tracking. If you are half way through with a song and you have a brain fart and miss a lick DON'T STOP PLAYING!!! Find your place and start playing again. The engineer can set up a punch in where you can listen to the old track and play along with it to the point where the mistake is and then it will automatically start to record. When you get to the end of the section with the mistake the machine will then automatically go out of record mode at which point you will hear the original track again. With good equipment you will never notice where the punch in took place. |
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