MyRareGuitars.com

As someone who has been playing drums since a teenager and been an engineer for nearly 15 years one of the most important things for me in a song is getting a great drum sound. Before anything has been mic’d up or you’ve even got into a studio there are 3 important factors that can contribute to getting that all important great drum sound.

Decide what the purpose of your studio session is, and ensure all band members are in agreement. Are you doing this recording for personal pleasure, or maybe you want a CD to get gigs or possibly you want a demo to try and get a record deal? Knowing what your aims are will help you make the right decisions during the session.

This month we tackle recording electric guitar. I’ve been fortunate enough to record guitars in many different studios with many different engineers. Each engineer or producer has a certain way they like to mic an amplifier (or speaker cabinet). Let’s discuss some of the most common ways.

Recording vocals for me personally is always hit or miss. Some days you sing great and some days you feeling like a first day reject for American Idol. You want to try to be consistent and prepared so I’ve got my own routine for practicing my vocals so that when the day comes I’ll be ready to go!

So you’re finally ready to record your songs in a “real” studio. What kind of preparations do you need to make? Let’s start off with basic guidelines that get us up to the point of pushing the red record button!

My first home recording set up was an Akai ¼ inch 2 track and a Harmon Kardon cassette deck, no EQ, the only effects I had were a few effects pedals. I would program one of my primitive drum machines or use a factory preset non-programmable rhythm machine while I was recording that I would usually add my bass or rhythm guitar. And after a suitable take I would ping pong the tracks back and forth from the 2 track to the cassette, adding effects on the fly.