Session 1: Drums and Bass

First, I'd like to reiterate that this is generally a rock style description of a recording session, aimed at people who have little experience recording. The goal is to put some general concepts into the readers mind about some of the different ways that the recording process takes place.

The open mind

One of the main differences between recording a demo and an album has a lot to do with fidelity, performance, and time. There are things that can be done to really push up the bar of your recording. This is one of the reasons the focus of the first session is on drums and bass only. If you want to get a killer guitar tone, it is much easier to do it on guitar day rather than trying to knock it out during day one.

Unfourtanetly, I am a drummer and a bassist. Worse, I am a teacher. Well, with that I have to say that unless we're recording a live performance I have a lot of ideas about how to get these instruments better. That is, unless you're completely happy with the way you sound and wouldn't change a thing. Here are a few of the things that will have a major impact on your performance and the recording fidelity.

It is an industry standard for studio musicians to be able to play to a metronome. There are a lot of reasons - beyond the musicians performance - to use a click track. For example, you can cut and paste parts a lot easier. The click really tightens up the rhythm section too. A lot of fills that are just a little bit off will be very easy to troubleshoot and repair with the click. It is true that a lot of players fear the click, and it is possible to work without one. However, musicians who can play with a click are usually a lot more solid than those who haven't ever confronted the issue. See the lessons section for more information about working with a click.

At this point in time it is important to have your instrument's tuning and setup managed. A producer may stop the session to get problems like that fixed right there. I have sent drummers to the music store to buy heads, and I have opened up guitars and replaced input jacks to get a clear signal. That should be the musicians responsibility, and with adequate preperation situations like these can be avoided. See the upcoming section on maintenance. Things like this lead to longer setup times, which in the end cost valuable time.

Once the session is up and running, it is the job of the producer to suggest things to make your song stronger. At times these suggestions may come from your group, the producer, or the engineer. If the rhythm section is well rehearsed and versatile, it will be easy to change parts to accomodate the needs of the band. Sometimes you can't make decisions about how a song should be unless you can sit back and objectively listen to it.

Alternate takes are also popular ways to experiment with a song. I've done up to five alternate takes of a single tune, with different tempos, feels, chord structures, and lengths. Sometimes that is what it takes to get a hit. Be ready to tear your music apart and make it better. Sometimes things don't sound good on tape that sound great live - or vice versa.

In retrospect I must say it is best to show up at the session in a state of preparedness, but to also have an open mind to let your tunes grow into masterpeices. Oh, and don't show up with your watch. It can really stress you out.

Technically Speaking...

In the East Coast Bands studio, Drums are recorded in this manner usually, and sometimes this setup is modified for experimentation. I use a large amount of microphones on the drumset and can get a really pristine image of what the set sounds like. First, The kick drum gets an AKG D-112. I have two of them to accomodate double bass drumsets. The snare gets sm57's on top and bottom, allowing a lot of different possibilities of snare tones in the mix. I use Sennheiser 421's on the toms for getting that huge tom sound. I have SM81's for the hi hat and ride cymbals. Overhead is a pair of Neumann TLM 103's. This is a lethal combination of microphones that really can bring oout the best in the drumset.

For bass guitar there are a couple of things I can do to get huge bass tone. I religously use a direct in and a cabinet microphone to get a really fat sound. I usually use solid state preamps for a very clean tone but tube preamps are always an option to get a dirtier, grainer tube tone.

Everybody monitors the session through headphones. It is a very controlled environment, and everybody can communicate with each other through the microphones. The guitar and vocal scratch tracks will be recorded, but may be replaced later with better performances as necescary.