How do you guys go about pre production?

[brianhood]

what do you guys usually do for pre production when you're doing bigger releases? Any suggestions for me? what to do and what to avoid?

I have to admit this isnt something i've really scheduled into my bands recording time yet, although i'd like to start doing it for some of my upcoming projects

 

[Nebulous]

In my experience, I use pre production time to make rough demos of the songs, trial recording techniques, check arrangements and use the roughly mixed tracks to give an idea of what should be changed or could be added to the song or the mix.
In my bands first album, we recorded demos of songs live in our rehersal space on a laptop. After checking arrangements there, we went ahead and sorted out the tempos for all songs, made some backing tracks and we ended up using those backing tracks to have the drummer record his parts to.

 

[JeffTD]

I usually grab the first tempo, and have the main songwriter play along to the click for scratch guitars. If we come to any tempo/signature changes, we program them in and keep going. If I have enough time, I also really like to get the vocalist to do a one-take through the entire song, just for structure/idea purposes. After that I go back through with the band and set up markers for intros/verses/choruses/inst breaks/interludes/solos/reprises/outros etc... and make sure the labels are sorted (this tends to be one of the most helpful things, for some reason haha). After that we take a look at and either modify structure or put the track aside and record drums for it later, to the scratch guitars/vocals.

I in no way, shape, or form claim to be a professional, though, so take this with a grain of salt. Everytime I've recorded a band without doing any of the above mentioned things, I always end up wishing I did!

 

[Nebulous]

Also good during that time to ensure that the band are prepeared. If recording to a click, use this time to point out to those who made need more practice before the real thing is recorded.

 

[Machinated]

All the bands that are booked in with me for the next few weeks have done really rough demo's of the songs they are recording. When they send them to me, I'm basically sitting down with a pencil and paper and making notes on all the songs. Ill start by writing out the different sections of the song to get a feel for the structure - then from there I'll start writing ideas about things that could be done to improve it.

When the band comes, we'll spend a couple of days going through the songs and we'll discuss the stuff I wrote down as well as things they may have thought and we'll work on fixing up the songs untill we are all happy with them.

 

[Erkan]

I record guitars and program drums for anything I do personally... helps immensely before recording it "for real". Checking arrangement, tweaking the songs etc.

 

[joeymusicguy]

pretty much what everyone has said thus far, and then on top of that - lots of changing to the material

for some bands, pre pro will just mean making a demo so everyone can hear the song played back to them without having to play their part (if you're in a band, you know that stuff sounds different while you're playing it as opposed to hearing it played back to you)

other bands, you'll be re-writing riffs, making GOOD transitions (why do so many people have trouble with this? lol), and adding stuff because repeating a riff 50 times isnt cool.

 

[Ermz]

My big issue is always where to draw the line.

Do we go the full 9 yards and do demo versions of all the songs with all instruments, or do we just get some really tight dual-tracked guide guitars and re-arrange from there, having the rest of the band in there to just double check. I can never quite settle on how 'intensive' to get, keeping in mind that this is all happening on the band's dime. The more time we spend here the less budget there is for real tracking, mixing & mastering.

 

[brianhood]

pretty much what everyone has said thus far, and then on top of that - lots of changing to the material

for some bands, pre pro will just mean making a demo so everyone can hear the song played back to them without having to play their part (if you're in a band, you know that stuff sounds different while you're playing it as opposed to hearing it played back to you)

other bands, you'll be re-writing riffs, making GOOD transitions (why do so many people have trouble with this? lol), and adding stuff because repeating a riff 50 times isnt cool.

+1 on the "good" transitions dude. Every band i record(even the good bands) have at least a couple of absolutely dreadful transitions in their songs.


my issue coming up is that the album is rushed. The band got signed on july 15th. They're recording their full length august 10th through through the 31st, the album comes out october 27th, and at the time they signed, they still had to write 4 more songs for the album.
so i'm assuming that pre production will be very important(and that there will be alot of re writing and arranging).

 

[lolzgreg]

You have to put in a shitload of time for this kind of stuff and more importantly be persistent. No band has ever turned down my advice to refine their songs.

 

[Fox Mulder]

I usually just ask for demos. If I like them, I'd go ahead with it. People from my place are pretty stubborn. I once had a fight with a guitarist as I tried to make him understand why he needs to mic an amp, and why his Zoom GFX4 won't do the trick.

Other than that, I wouldn't poke my nose into song structure etc. Bands don't always like that, unless they actually ask you. I'd spend a week with the band figuring out drum micing, what mic suits the singer the most. Guitars and bass - I don't really bother as I can always re-amp. I'd take as many notes as possible.
Apart from that, I'd also target the musician's weaknesses - like the singer having trouble with 's' and p', bassist who can't hold his pick tight enough. Note them up, give it to them, ask them to come back after 2 weeks. If they don't come back, thank god.

 

[jeid]

I'm working with my drummer doing pre-production of our own songs to make them more interesting and better just now. We'll make a demo next week and take it to the studio and get the producer to go through it with us from there. Last time we recorded with this guy, he inspired us to think about sections of songs more and to make them more interesting. He picked up the guitar at one point and recorded a new rhythm guitar section for the verse in one of our songs... it was badass. I think musicians, if they're open minded, can learn a lot from producers/people with outside perspective. ramble ramble...

 

[Fox Mulder]

I think musicians, if they're open minded...

Rare