How does studio time work

The safest place on the planet to you. Team work. You get a feel for your vocals and your music style without anyone judging you. You truly do, but this is nothing but an ego thing that is in your head. A trained ear that The issue here is that it really depends if the guy gives a fuck about you or not. As you can see, all of the above benefits are primarily just excuses to use a big studio. Big studios primary advantage is their mixing dynamics. Their rooms are specifically built for mixing.

They can hear every single detail and fix every tiny thing with much more ease. But this comes down to mixing, not recording. Just look above at the advantages of a home studio and they point out all of the negatives. Be sure to outline a large portion of your budget for recording session time. In some cases, management companies or record labels will pay for recording studio time.

But often musicians front their own recording costs. If this is the case, try to negotiate a deal with the studio management that favors your particular project. If you're planning to record one or a couple of songs, paying by the hour might be the way to go.

But if you have a full album in mind, you should consider contracting for more time at a lower rate. You'll also need to find an appropriate recording studio. If you live in a larger city, you likely will have a choice, ranging from high-end, multi-track digital studios with many amenities to lower-end, bare bones studios. While your budget plays a large role in determining where you'll record, you'll also want to consider the studio's reputation and experience recording your musical style.

The engineers and technicians may be versatile, but sometimes studios tend to specialize. Do your homework -- many studios have Web sites with helpful information -- and talk to other musicians who've recorded at different studios for their impressions.

While some studios provide the technical personnel to facilitate the recording process, you can also hire your own engineers and music producers. Engineers have the technical background to set up and operate the recording equipment. They know which microphone to use in each situation and how to organize a mixing board. They can also troubleshoot technical problems. Producers help musicians create the final sound of their music.

They help select musical arrangements, tempos and which instruments to use. They decide what types of effects to add to electric instruments and what harmonies might sound right. Producers can take a large, leading role or a more collaborative role in the recording process. It's important that you plan this role before getting into the studio, where indecision can cost you money.

Setting and keeping a good work schedule is also critical to planning a recording session. Time is definitely money, so you don't want to waste it. Decide ahead of time when work will begin and when you will take breaks and quit for the day. Set goals and benchmarks for progress, such as recording everything during the first three days and scheduling two days to mix the songs, which involves taking all the individually recorded instruments and vocals and "mixing" them into the final sound.

A music recording session requires specialized equipment to give the recording artists the versatility to achieve their goals. Sometimes the recording studio supplies the equipment. In other cases, you'll need to pay extra for the studio to bring in special pieces of equipment, such as musical instruments.

Here's a look at some of the equipment you'll need for your digital recording session. Microphones - You'll need these to capture the sound from any instrument that isn't plugged directly into the mixing board and recording apparatus.

Microphones capture sound as it travels through the air, turn it into electrical energy, and then amplify, modify, enhance and record. An obvious use for a microphone is to record a singer's voice. But they also are used to capture sounds coming from amplifiers, such as those being used by electric guitar players.

Special microphones are used to capture sounds from acoustic instruments, such as guitars, strings, woodwinds, brass, piano and percussions. Sound engineers have the technical background to select the correct microphone for the job.

Mixing boards - Mixing boards are those large control panels with rows and rows of knobs. Think of a mixing board as a large stereo control board. The mixing board allows the recording engineer and music producer to control the sounds coming from the instruments and singers as they relate to other sounds in the session. In other words, they can decide what is loudest and when. The mixing board also covers many other aspects of each sound in the final stage of the recording and mixing process.

These functions include the amount of bass, treble, effects, fade, stereo and delay, along with many others. Effects boxes - These electronic items, sometimes called "fuzz boxes," are used by musicians playing electric instruments to add a certain quality to their instrument's sound. Often, the musician will plug their musical instrument directly into the effects box and then run a cable from that box to the amplifier. The effects box will have controls on it to modify the amount of effect on the instrument's sound.

Effects boxes are what make a heavy metal guitar sound "heavy," for instance. This technique is used to fix compressor sections of a recording you may have messed up on.

Or you can record an entire section of a song by punching in every 4 bars or so to preserve your vocals and focus on getting your delivery right. Can I punch in on the 9th bar? This refers to emotion, energy, attitude, and tone that you rap your vocals in. Think of this is the acting part of rapping.

To learn more read my article on how to improve your vocal delivery. This can be a little tricky to understand at first but a Bar is basically a way that we measure the length of a small section of music. If you wish to get a better understand of what a bar is, check out this video lesson.

The arrangement of the different sections of the song. Most songs always have the following sections. Learn all about song structure in this video lesson.

This is basically the heartbeat of your song. Just like your heart rate, the faster the tempo of the song the more hype and energetic it is, the slower the tempo the more mellow it is. Learn all about tempo and how to detect it by checking out this lesson. Your engineer may ask if you have a reference track for him to use while mixing your song. Perhaps you like the Delay fx on one song or the way the background vocals are blended in with the lead vocals.

Reverb is an effect used to give a recording a more 3D sound as if it were recorded in a different room such as a large concert hall or church cathedral. Another term you may hear tossed around in the studio is the word Pan, or Panning. Wet is a term used to signify that a vocal has fx applied to it such as Reverb and Delay. If you use any reverb or delay please be subtle about it. Think of an equalizer as a much more in-depth volume controller.

Similar to compression but quite different. Volume Automation is when the engineer manually programs the volume fader to move up or down during certain parts of the song. This gives the engineer more control over each sound and can help create builds when a little more energy is needed.

Mastering is the final process before your song is ready to be shared with the world. Typically mastering is done with the rest of your songs from your project. This is when the mixing engineer sends you their mix and asks for your feedback on any changes that you would like made.

Most engineers have a limit of revisions included in the price of their mixing so make sure you ask about that. For instance, if they say their mixing fee includes up to two revisions. They will then make those changes and send you the revised version. You may also want to ask the engineer if he can provide you with different versions of your mix such as Acapella, Instrumental, and Show everything in the mix except for main vocals in verses, used for live performances.

Having these different versions can come in handy later down the line. I hope this article helps you as you hit up the studio for the first time!

Let me know if it was or if you have any questions in the comments section below! My pleasure Joseph! I take great pleasure in helping prevent people from making many of the mistakes that I have. Thanks for all the support as always! Thanks for the positive feedback Jupiter!