In Summary

The real focus of any tracking session hides in plain sight. The things that really matter are knowing what makes a great performance and how to capture it in the most effective way; the point of the whole endeavour is the music itself and not the recording process. This can get overlooked.

Going Deeper

While some engineers have carved successful careers concentrating on mix duties, for many the excitement of recording people in a room can be occasionally a tall order but a highly rewarding one more often than not. If the skills needed and steps taken during the process were written down it would make a surprisingly long read, and the real skill of any tracking engineer is bring all of this expertise and combine it with a whole cache of extra skills including artistry, psychology, and accountancy… In short: it’s complicated!

Looking at things from an artist perspective, essentially all of the above must be invisible to them. This way they walk in, record and leave with the very best rendering of their work possible. Whether you’re an old pro, or just starting out, here we bring together our rundown of the things that matter and those that (usually) don’t.

Familiar Faces

One really important thing that can get overlooked is nurturing some familiarity with the artist before recording. Anyone who has sat waiting for a bunch of complete strangers to make their way into the control room will understand that breaking the ice and getting things underway aren’t always compatible. Being able to put names to faces helps everyone, and whether ‘name’ or emerging artist, the feeling’s mutual. Added to that, already knowing where the music and artist is coming from ahead of the sessions is essential from a pre-production point of view; deciding on a DAW template is not a spectator sport that the band will enjoy.

If geography and time allow, seeing the artist live is not only going to benefit the approach to recording, but also demonstrate the engineer’s interest in the artist’s work. This will get noticed.

Avoiding The Yawn-Factor

Being quick without running around will help instil the artist’s confidence in you. Rigging the session the evening before might seem excessive, but when the engineer affords themselves some room to breathe in the morning, the session will be better for everyone. The value of ‘guestimating’ cue mixes, capitalising on previous ones to provide a solid foundation, honing the DAW session layout, as well as fixing any misbehaving inputs and outputs without an audience shouldn’t be underestimated. Nothing eats artist confidence in the engineer more than having to wait for new headphones or a swapped lead. Certainly, in the nicest possible way, the artist doesn’t care about the gear until it doesn’t work. The odd exception will be the one who asks too many questions… Go easy on them.

While we’re big fans of experimentation, anything new that could dissolve session time can be stress-tested ahead of the session, and gear permitting, putting up a known weapon of choice as well, for many, is non-negotiable.

The Recording Is The Mix

Sometimes, the best lessons are learned from the ‘outside-in’, or to put it less poetically, as the End User. Seen from the artist’s end of the mic, the thing that comes across time and again is the ability of world-class engineers to seemingly ‘magic’ something that sounds a lot like a record in the time it takes to walk from the studio into the control room for that all-important first playback. To chance an opinion, the secret is, there is no secret. Recording well is key. The same engineers frequently trade in minutes rather than hours, days, or weeks when producing mixes that are more than merely presentable. The point here is that the process is virtually transparent, and the energy never lost as a result.

While the mix is the other side of the same coin, anything that doesn’t go to disc such as audio plugins can be tweaked anytime, aside from those providing the sound at source. Most artists would no sooner watch their engineer getting lost in an audio plugin any more than watch their accountant staring blankly at Excel.

Don’t Dictate

When it gets to overdubs, forging the previously mentioned working relationship with the artist(s) is so much more valuable than just for breaking the ice. This is the time when the self-produced record inevitably needs more creative input from the engineer. It is nothing less than a privilege to be in the circle of trust with someone who has entrusted their words and their music with you, and this where the real skill of the producing engineer comes in. Knowing when an artist is performing at their best is paramount, and stacking up takes with no real aim is tiring and demoralising for all involved. Some may concur that often, after a small number of takes performance rarely gets better, only different, or worse. Or to quote an engineer at a well-known London studio “it never gets better”...

Working with younger or less experienced artists (and quite a few experienced ones too) can sometimes present other considerations. The smaller studio can see one space available for the cases and apparel that we all carry; unfortunately this also happens to quite often be the studio floor… Another reason to set up shop before anyone else does, and to leave an obvious empty space for stuff to land when you’re not on the studio floor to direct the traffic (invariably, you won’t be).

Other points to navigate can quite often be band members and/or friends/industry in the control room who don’t really need to be there. You are expected at this point to tune out their voices and still hear that buzz or crackle during that guitar overdub! One of those people on the sofa is probably paying the bill, and if not, most people don’t mind if you ask for quiet as a friend rather than as a parent… Having to reinforce your policy on food and drink around the console can be avoided by providing a different flat surface somewhere else that suits everyone.

Music First, Technology Last

Going back to an earlier point, not only do many artists disregard the gear subconsciously, but many actively do not want it to get in the way of their making music, and rightly so. Engineering a recording session is a highly complex task, both technically and artistically. As a result, it’s forgivable when the engineer disappears into the corner of mics, waveforms, and numbers, and the artist into that of creativity. In the context of a record, one cannot exist without the other, however the most successful endeavours are those where the nuts and bolts are invisible to those who create music.

Does the buyer want a nice wine glass or a nice wine? In the same way, the whole point of recording music is music and not recording. The best records were always about the idea and were never about the gear. Despite the amazing modern tools available, so too are the records yet to be made.

Can there ever be an occasion when the technology is more important than the idea? What are your biggest factors that go towards a successful recording? Let us know below in the comments.

Studio guitarist photo by Tim Toomey on Unsplash

A Word About This Article

As the Experts team considered how we could better help the community we thought that some of you are time poor and don’t have the time to read a long article or a watch a long video. In 2023 we are going to be trying out articles that have the fast takeaway right at the start and then an opportunity to go deeper if you wish. Let us know if you like this idea in the comments.