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[wiggins]

My band will be recording in a few weeks at Zero Return studios in Atlanta.

This will be my first time recording in a studio with for-real gear and for-real rooms (as opposed to my 388 and a 2 car garage). I believe I'm going to engineer the whole thing myself.

I had been talking on the phone to Jim Marrer, who co-runs the place with Rob De-blahblahdontrememberhislastname, about recording in general, deals he's found on mics, ways to do things, and when I called him to book the day, I put it out there:

"I'd like to do as much as I can engineering-wise by myself, if I can. I'd just need you to be around so I don't fuck anything up."

He said "Well, I usually prefer one person or the other engineer it, no co-engineering, it just makes hassles. I'm totally fine with you doing it, but any mistakes are your own, of course."

Of course! That's what "jumping in the deep end" means.

So, I'm excited, and also a little anxious. I'm hoping I'm not being too cocky, or rather, I hope me being cocky doesnt backfire. I see this as one (if not my one and only) chance to get a shoe-in to the "real" business. From this stems being comfortable with the place and the gear, and recording other bands there for the lowski, then maybe making some money at it later on when I get better.

Being engineers, how would you guys react to some kid from the neighborhood wanting to run the show? Do you think this is a good idea? Does anyone have any advice/stories?

[hargerst]

Depends. How comfortable are you running a Neve board?  When, and on what, would you use the Neumann U47fet, or the U67, or the Sony C37a? What would you use the RCA 44's on, and when would the Coles 4038 be a better choice? How familiar are you with their Fairchild 600?

And you're gonna play on this session as well?  And you'e allotted one day to get it all right and get it all done?

I think the learning curve is gonna be kinda high for a one day session.  You might be better off letting Jim or Rob engineer, and you produce ("Add a little top end to the snare; the kick needs to be fatter; make that one guitar a little more blue -it's too red right now.").

[John Ivan]

Well, I don't know how good an engineer you are so It might be an OK idea, or it might be a very very bad idea.

I will tell you this. If you are going to spend you and your band mates money, and you have never worked in a pro level studio before, I think your crazy to think you can walk in off the street and suddenly understand his room,his gear and how to get the best from each. I promise the studio owner/engineer will make your record sound better..

If you want to learn more about making records, you need to see how others are doing it. You will learn a lot more from watching him work than you will plowing through yourself .. If you want to do it yourself, why go into a room?? Spend the money on mics, an old console and a machine. Then maybe go mix it in a room??

I just don't see why your going in if you think you can do it yourself.  Gear? That wont matter if the person using it doesn't know how.

Ivan..................

[scottoliphant]

if it's a "real" studio, with lots of gear you may or may not have used, and he's going to be pretty much hands off, you may be a little overwhelmed. as a member of a band and an engineer, I'd personally let the guy do the engineering. I've never been in the studio with an engineer who wouldn't try things I suggested, or at least explained why it'd be a bad idea. he knows his equipment. plus, you can focus on making a good record instead of freaking out about how to operate a giant console you've never seen before, burning up useful hours. if you think you can walk in and work all this stuff, then more power to you and i wish you the best of luck!

[kraster]

I would sit this one out and watch and learn from the engineer who knows the studio. I admire your conviction and it is commendable that you want to jump in. But, IMHO, I think you stand to gain more from observing the process than actually doing it. If you do choose to do it make sure that you don't put Phantom power across the RCA 44. Ouch!

[hargerst]

Shit, they don't even have a chair for their console. Do you realize how tired you're gonna be after standing there all day?  Go for the "producing" gig; producers always get the most comfortable chair.

That alone would decide it for me.

[kraster]

Double post! My bad.

[SirDonut]

I'm not familiar with how you worked this out financially but I'm gonna guess you all chipped in for the studio time, and I think you will be doing your bandmates a real disservice by essentially learning on their dollar.

Another vote for what Harvey said...why don't you act in a producer role for the album? You will still be running back and forth quite a bit, but if you're just straight up engineering you are not going to get as much accomplished for the the music.

Compound this with the fact that you're going to only be there for one day and this starts sounding like a potential nightmare.....

[pg666]

i'd say let the house engineer do all the boring technical engineering stuff. he knows his console, patchbay, scope, etc. let him calibrate the tape machines. he knows his equipment well enough to instantly recognize if something's off. you probably know how to do a lot (if not most of) this stuff, but he'll be able to do it more efficiently.

if you have preferences about how you like things mic'd, what rooms you want to record certain things in, how much compression or eq you want to use, and (of course) how you want things mixed, great. express those ideas to the engineer and he'll either make it happen or possibly suggest a 'better' idea. i think someone else kinda already said this, but house engineers in professional rooms are usually happy to help you achieve what you want artistically [in my experience, it's usually the 'engineers' in shitty semi-pro basement studios that become domineering and don't like their preconceptions challenged, but that's very off topic]. maybe this was what you were intending and if that's the case, i apologize.

[Matt Drums]

Yeah, that kinda sounds like what Jim would say.  He's not the most friendly or helpful kinda fella... at least with my experience.  

To be honest, I'd maybe record somewhere else or get a different engineer to use their equipment.  I wouldn't suggest running the show yourself.  Remember, you have to play too.

[Reitzas]

As long as your band is behind you; I say "go for it"!  
For me, some of the best outcomes in my career were a result of diving head first into sink or swim situations in which I was probably unqualified.  I'm not saying that you should jump in unprepared, but ask as many questions before the session as possible and get a game-plan in your head of how you see the session running.  Visualize things that could go wrong and try to come up with a Plan B, Plan C etc...
Talk with your band and let them know that you're going to give your absolute best and that collectively you will work through any roadblocks that get in the way.  
I think this is a great way to get into the hot seat and I wish you the best.

Dave Reitzas
www.reitzas.com  

[jimmyjazz]

I think you need to define your goals for the session up front.  Are you trying to come away with the best possible recording of your band (given your budget limitations), or are you trying to embellish your audio engineering porfolio?

Once you answer that question, you'll know what to do.  (By the way, I don't think "both" is a very realistic answer.)

[Ryan Leigh Patterson]

Let the man do it, but pay attention and ask questions...
You'll be much better off in the end.  Be his assistant for the day, and also know that you've got the producers hat on.  I've done this a couple times myself when I've booked time in an unfamilar studio.  It's nice to let the owner/house engineer do his thing, with your input.  An unfamiliar patchbay can be a very, very frustrating thing.  And if the board has any issues, you might spend 2 hours trouble shooting something that the engineer already new about (oh yeah, aux send 3 on channel 5 doesn't work and the pre on channel 12 is kind of fuzzy, that U87 has an RF problem so we use the blue cable... the drums sound best in that corner....)

save yourself some headaches and enjoy your first time in a "for real" studio.

[wiggins]

Okay, so 2 deleted replys later....

I'm going to talk to Jim about it again tonight. You guys are probably right. But, if no one objects, I'd like to explain this situation a little further:

This is probably going to be the last recording by this band. It will be released in America, Europe, and Japan. We will tour with it probably for a good 8 months off-and-on once it's released.

If my name's not on the back of it, what other chance am I going to get? What if ZR closes before I get a chance like this again?  They're not exactly booked solid, if you know what I mean.

Put yourselves in my position. I decided 4 years ago that recording would be my life, for the rest of my life, and since then it has been. What a shitty thing for choosing to do for these rest of life!? Yet, I choose it anyway! So for the past 2 years I've been recording bands in my friend's basement regularly [regularly means nearly every weekend, and lately it's been a lot more often than that] and I've made a little extra money from it.

So now the opportunity comes for me to basically crash-course myself in the stuff I've been reading about every day for the past 4 years, get my name on an album that people I'd want to record will see, and make an impression on someone that has the power to give me a place to work and grow and make a name for myself. Maybe MAYBE one day a long time from now, I'll even be able to quit my job and do these fun thing every day and still survive.

What would you do?

We're recording live, in the same room. There will be no overdubs, there will be no vocals, there will be no punch ins.  We're recording three songs totalling a little over 25 minutes. We will make no more than 3 takes of each song, and then choose the best from those. Leaving me plenty of time to learn things I should know. I am intimately familiar with recording my own band, intimately familiar with our tones, with our equipment, with our drummer's tuning, and with what we want the finished product to sound like.  

Okay, so you got some pre's with fancy names like AMPEX written in big letters on the front, but they're still just preamps. You got compressors and limiters with pretty knobs and names like "RED STRIPE" and expensive price tags, but they're still just compressors and limiters. Okay, you got phantom power, phase reverse, solo, mute, fader. Cool.

Jim will be there to help me. I doubt he's going to let me screw up any of his stuff. I'm obviously not going to be able to align the tape machines or navigate the patch bay at first glance, but that's why Jim is there.

I'm definetly going to think about this long and hard, and most importantly, talk at great length with Mr. Marrer about it all.

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll definetly let everyone know what happens. Who knows, maybe I'll prove all of you wrong!

-Wiggins


P.S. it's taken me all day to write this, so I havent read anyone's reply's past the nice gentleman comment about the lack of chair. Apologies. I'll have a retort later on.

[Reitzas]

No doubt in my mind that you should do it.  This is a good example of preparation meets opportunity and your desire to succeed will get you through.

Dave Reitzas
http://www.reitzas.com