What to bring to your Recording Session
Lorenzo Wolff is a professional listener. After many years as a touring musician he’s settled down to lend his ears to everyone from Randy Newman to Ricky Martin at Restoration Sound, his recording studio based in Brooklyn, NY. At this moment when artists are contemplating future recording projects, Classical Post asks Wolff what to bring to your Recording Session! These tips apply to composers, performers, and recording engineers.
Technology
Bring the computer that you wrote your music on and its charger. You never know when your viola player (who’s actually a violinist) is going to need their part written in treble clef.
Having a hard drive or a flash drive on hand is wise. While most studios will upload your files into the cloud, some charge a fee for the hours/bandwidth that this requires. Having a physical backup to take with you when you leave is also a great guarantee against files being lost or deleted from the studio’s computer.
Instruments
Pack every accessory you’ve ever needed, most importantly a mute and extra strings.
Guitarists should always bring multiple thickness of picks, and upright bassists should always bring their bows.
People
Have someone in the studio to take pictures. Having someone else there to capture the visual aspect of the experience allows you to focus on making the best recording possible and will give you much better content to post once you release the material.
Hospitality
Everyone works more efficiently on a full stomach. Having enough granola bars, bananas, and carrots around to keep people focused saves time for food runs and keeps people happy. Avoid things that require assembly like bagels, sandwiches or anything that needs to be heated. The point is to have something quick for your singer to grab when they start getting hangry, not a distraction.
Always have pencils, pens and paper. Even if everyone is working off of iPads, you never know when you’ll need to jot down a quick harmony for something or write out the lyrics for your choir. Printers are always broken.
