There are many things you can do to plan for your recording session. The number one thing that you're responsible for, whether you're a songwriter, or a full band, is to know your song. I've worked with many people who are still in the writing process when they come in here which is fine if you have an unlimited budget and that's just the way you work. Any preproduction work is helpful. This includes recording your song on a cheap tape recorder, doing 4 track demos, or recording band rehearsals. Bands should be able to play their songs without vocals and to a click track. It's also helpful to have a smaller group of people recording at the same time. I've found that a trio will record the basic tracks (bass and drums) much tighter than maybe a group of 5 people. In the overdub process we can layer all the other instruments and can take more time to do a better job. Songwriters should have typed lyric sheets and readable chord charts. If I'm playing all the instruments, the first thing I do is write out a basic chord chart of the tune. This makes the whole recording process go much quicker. Always plan on taking more time than you think is necessary unless you're someone like myself who does this every day.
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If this is your first time in a studio, this is what you can expect. Let's say you play the guitar or keyboard, enough so that you can show someone how the song goes. Believe me, you don't have to be an expert to get expert results. What I do is first write out a chord chart of the song. This will involve helping you with any arranging that the song might need. The second step is for me to program the drums. After the drums are done, the layering process starts to take place. This includes whatever instrumentation we decide on. If it's a guitar based song, I'll start with one guitar track and one bass guitar track. This gives me a good starting point to see what other kinds of layers the song calls for. Now all we need are vocals. I can learn and sing a song in under an hour, including harmonies. It's a good idea to have an open mind when working with singers because they are definitely going to add their style to the song. The song will only benefit from what they have to offer. The final stage is the mixing stage. This is where we take all the tracks that have been recorded and mix them onto a DAT master (digital audio tape). Any producer will tell you that the amount of time to do a demo will vary depending on the individual and type of song.
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