Studio Ears

“MATE!! - WE’VE BEEN PLAYING THIS SONG FOR TWO YEARS - WE’LL GET IT FIRST TAKE - TRUST ME!”

OR

STUDIO EARS

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard “We’ll get it first take”. The fact of the matter - and this IS a fact - of the last 1,000 recordings I’ve made, maybe 10 have been first takes.

So what does that mean? Well, it means there goes the budget!! Why? Because you’ve based the time taken to record on first takes - 10 songs X 3 minutes each = 30 minutes - GREAT!! Well be out of the studio in time to watch the footy on TV.

Picture this: You’ve got a bunch of guys in a room playing their favourite original song. It’s rocking, it’s happening, it’s sounding BIG, it always kills them at gigs (“we always finish the night with it and do ‘Whole Lotta Love’ for an encore”). BUT in the control room it’s sounding like a ‘Bay City Rollers B-side’.

There is a big difference between what you think sounds good and what actually does sound good.

It’s sort of like going to a party and at 3:00am someone records you with your acoustic guitar doing a Nirvana “Smells like Teen Spirit”. You think you sound like Kurt Cobain minus the amp and the bullet - only better. BUT on listening to it at 9:00am the next day it sounds a little less impressive.

So it is often (the journey from recording room to control room) a very sobering experience.

Normally I’ve found that the best recordings are when the band sounds equally as good in the Recording Room and the Control Room. Thankfully bands are usually able to hear the difference between what they thought it sounded like and what it actually does sound like on playback

How to achieve more equity in sound between the two rooms

Do as many recordings of the band at rehearsal and in a studio as you can. If a band is new, initially it’s better to do a greater number of budget recordings than fewer expensive ones.

Other things that become obvious when a band comes to the Studio and puts down their favourite songs are:

1. There’s one guy who thinks the first chord in the bridge is a “B Minor” not “B Major”...

Solution - run through the song at a slower tempo, half volume, with no drums and check chords.

2. The band goes into the chorus on the up beat the beat before the bar, but the bass player has never noticed; he plays on the beat of the next bar .

Solution - as above, with drums, quiet vocals.

3. The bass player is playing X, the drummer’s bass drum is playing Y (that is, the bass and drums should be playing complimentary patterns
not competing patterns. Get the bass player to watch the bass drum pedal and check - easy!!

Solution - sack them both - they’re not listening or watching.

4. The song is played too fast - there’s normally one good tempo for a song, the art is finding it. Usually that tempo is slower than the tempo of a bunch of 16 year olds playing their first song in their first band, in front of their girlfriends.

Solution - slow the song way down, get the old tempo out of your head and sneak up the tempo until it grooves - then note the tempo via metronome and never play it faster (except in front of your girlfriends).

Having observed and addressed all the above problems the budget has well and truly exploded, which is as surprising as the sun rising, but it is usually the band that creates this situation. Don’t forget that once the mikes are set up, and working, amp and drum sounds sorted out and headphone mixes adjusted, it is now over to the band. You guys are now in charge. Responsibility is a frightening concept. So when a band says to me, “We only want to take an hour to demo these three songs” I know as sure as I know Yoko Ono can’t sing, the band ain’t gonna say after an hour “Well, we’re happy with all that - we wouldn’t want to change a thing”. It doesn’t happen like that. No-one’s ever 100% happy. Moses probably wasn’t happy with some of the wording of the 10 Commandments.

This is why when a band calls my studio and asks “How much will it cost to record 6 songs?”. What can I say, $100 - $10,000? IT DEPENDS ON THE BAND.

The band comes in expecting a first take but as soon as they hear themselves through the playback speakers “a monster is created”. The perfectionist hats are put on, one missed hi-hat beat in the 5th chorus becomes the focal point of a 15 minute discussion as to whether to go for the dreaded 2nd take or not. The band’s previous week’s comment of “How long can it take to record a 3 minute song anyway” has been struck from existence, and “paying by the hour” is not a phrase that would be appreciated at this time.

What I’m saying is, normally, when a band records I propose possible improvements to the performance of the song, but after that, it is usually the band that decides to do just one more take - which is fine - but it’s a long way from “MATE! - WE’LL GET IT IN ONE TAKE - TRUST ME”.

Permission to reproduce this article is available to all,
as long as you include attribution to myself including contact details
and let me know where you have used the material.
Jeff Cripps
A# Sharp Recording Studio
Email: jeff@asharp.com.au
Phone: +612 9153 9988

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