"pre-production"

[Arsenu,]

one of the threads here got me thinking....

the "pre-production" phase is of utmost importance in the recording process yet iv'e never read a precise definition for it other than
"preparing the song for tracking"

so, anyone minds sharing how he defines "pre-production"?
i assume we will encounter numerous differences....

 

[Force666]

For my band for our second album we're actually doing full recordings to get our clicks exactly right (which we feel like we didn't on a couple spots on our first album), see which parts work and which parts don't musically and a chance to fully evaluate the songs before commiting to them and not being happy later. Which goes as deep as our drummer evaluating all the fills he wants to keep and/or would rather do something else. Before recording the album he can take a week or two and jam to the clicks with or without scratch tracks to be better ready for tracking.

For some, it could just be getting all the click track tempos together and maybe laying down a great scratch track for the drummer to track to.

 

[zackpennington]

Pre-pro is what you make of it. Some bands will go as far as to record the entire album themselves so they know what they want coming in to the studio. Other times it's just getting tempo tracks together. It's usually anything you do to prepare for the record. Technically song writing is preproduction. In fact, a lot of bands do prepro at the studio (when they have money) because you can try different things and hear them back and have the producers input early in the game.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I'm recording a band at the end of the month who wrote all their stuff out in guitar pro.

That to me is it, they will come in and KNOW the arrangements because they have already hashed them out.

 

[colonel kurtz]

writing
arranging
creating tempo tracks
i would also include prepping instruments as pre-pro, i.e. guitar setups, drum heads changed and tuned, etc.
also the engineer/producer putting together some sort of roadmap/schedule/breakdown to follow to get shit done

 

[joeymusicguy]

Pre-pro is what you make of it. Some bands will go as far as to record the entire album themselves so they know what they want coming in to the studio. Other times it's just getting tempo tracks together. It's usually anything you do to prepare for the record. Technically song writing is preproduction. In fact, a lot of bands do prepro at the studio (when they have money) because you can try different things and hear them back and have the producers input early in the game.

voted best answer by joey sturgis