The Hard Work at the Recording Studio
To the average individual, working in a recording studio may seem like an exciting, perhaps even a pleasurable experience, when compared to the traditional office type setup. Working with popular rock stars or hip hop artists and producing hits that make it to the living rooms in America would seem to provide one with a fulfilling and exciting day, and an great source of income. While the income may be lucrative, there’s plenty to the recording process that goes unseen (and possibly not imagined nor anticipated).
A popular notion of a recording studio and the recording process is what I will refer to as the Doctor Dre/ Rick Rubin misconception. Both these people are giants in the recording field and are the type of people that aspirants musicians like to emulate. The truth is that having both of these “artists” push for a 300th take would leave most people missing their cubicle. Life is not a party in a recording studio, and one should not treat it that way unless you really don’t like to leave the comforts of your home town. It’s an hard and difficult process that can leave even hardened, veteran artists looking for relief.
A prime consideration for an artist is finances. Mind you, getting airtime at a studio isn’t inexpensive – particularly when you have to pay per hour. An artist truly must have a large sum of money at hand if he/she does not work well under pressure. Otherwise, they will be feeling the clock when they should be thinking about their work. This is not a good thing particularly if the producer is serious about getting the work done. If the producer is serious, then the artist needs to be ready with their music and they need to be in working condition, i.e. not hung over. Even if the artist already has a name for himself/herself, there is no excuse to be unprepared. Axl Rose, can you hear me?
Even if both artist and producer are all ready for their recording studio time, there are still facets of recording that can go wrong. People make mistakes and this is a place where your mistakes are amplified. The studio is one big microscope. There will always be honest evaluations – positive or negative. Dependability rests on everyone’s shoulder in the recording studio. Copious amounts of time can be spent on a song and there can be literally no improvement. As people grow tired after more takes, then the errors could get even worse.
The artist and producer need to think about what they want to happen vs. what really happens. It is almost always two different things. Before the “preferred sound” is attained, artists and producers spend numerous hours in the studio.
Regardless of all these negative things, what keeps the recording process a truly fascinating task is when that magical moment appears – when everything just falls into place. The endless hours of toil and stress are overpowered when that unique perfect take is attained – and this kind of energy is recorded in a tape, immortalized. That’s the glory.
But as with anything else, that glory dissipates and then it’s back to reality once again. It is like a vicious circle. What remains to be given credit is the very thing that’s laid down on two inch. A recording studio will demonstrate to you for exactly what you are and what effort you are willing to make, and although you can hide your voice, you can’t hide your work ethic.
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