I want to help and support you to have a lasting record of your creativity. There are some things it is useful to think about before booking studio time, that I want to detail here:

To click, or not to click: A lot of modern recordings are recorded with the drummer playing to a click track, and snapped to a grid, and then all other instruments are overdubbed. Following this pattern gives you a competitive sounding recording that is better than how it sounds in the room. The downside is that a lot of drummers have a hard time playing to a click, and it can kill the energy in the performance. If you want to record this way, please make sure you have all practiced playing to clicks and are happy and confident doing so. If you haven’t played to a click, you could end up wasting time and getting mad at me, yourself, and everyone around you. I would usually try to get 5 good takes, and then grid the song in to sections to see where the best performance of each section is, and to chop and merge until we have the perfect take.

My preferred option is to record the energy of the live performance in the room, capturing the drums and bass locking in together as a unit, and then overdubbing all other instruments. We can achieve minimal spillage on to the drum and bass mics to get clean takes, then texture the overdubs to suit the song.

Vocal Comping: Digital Audio Workstations have made comping vocals much easier than the days of tape, and physical cuts to merge takes. I personally feel this has gone too far in modern music. Even exceptionally good singers are combining many takes to get a performance that appears better than perfect. My prefered option would be 5 good takes at the most, and to grid the song and pick the best takes of each section, rather than individual words or phrases.

Monitoring: When tracking, does it benefit the performance to have vocalist singing? If we use the PA speakers there will be bleed in to the Drum microphones. I have Sure in ear monitors for the main vocalist, and a 4 channel headphone pre amp and over ear headphones for 4 other performers. If you aren’t used to in ears, and over ears, and a mixed performance while you are playing - it can affect the energy in the room, so is worth thinking about in advance.

Kit: If you have kit that will sound better than my gear, lets use it. If not - lets use what we know will sound good. Im happy to share any of my gear to hep you get the sounds you want to achieve

Sparkle: Listen to your favourite recordings by your favourite artists, I often find verse 2 will have a subtle part on the recording that the artist doesn’t play live. Same with the last chorus - there is usually a new melodic line or backing vocal to lift the recording. I’m not suggesting you write a heap of new parts for your song - I’m suggesting it’s worth being open minded about trying to add sparkle and see if it works in the mix. If in doubt, watch a few episodes of Rick Beato’s “what makes this song great” on youtube and see if it provides inspiration.