Cheshire Omnimedia

Last night I was answering some questions for a friend doing an article for Griffle (home of IndieCrawler) and it got me thinking. His query was pretty innocent enough: “What are some of the top things musicians shouldn’t do before coming in to the studio?”

Of course it’s pretty easy to come up with a lengthy tome, with such edicts as “Thou Shalt Not Have Dead Drum Heads” or “Thou Shalt Shower.” My personal gripe is when musicians show up hours early before a session, which means that either A) the staff is at lunch, B) there’s another session that goes until their session, or C) there is no staff or we’re getting ready for their session. (The idea is to be a couple minutes early, not hours, btw) I digress.

What really got me going was if there was a single unifying theme to it all. I think there is.

The bottom line when it comes time to go in to the studio is to be prepared.

I know it’s a very Boy Scout thing to say, but it’s really quite true. Don’t worry about what you don’t know, worry about what you do. Do your drums squeek? Does your amp have a rattle in it? Can the whole band play to a click track? Do you know where the chorus starts? What chords are being played? Can you play your part cleanly? Most of the major hold ups in the studio come from those types of issues, not from anything else.

Work on what is in front of you. The rest will work its self out.

So another day goes by. . . I’m sure many have this problem, especially starting out. Now that I’m here, what to say?

Perhaps I’ll just share a story.

A studio I work for was interested in buying a few new hard drives for backing projects up. We were looking at a terabyte drive. Comparing the three major brands that have them on the market was a bit disheartening on Newegg. All of them seem to have an alarming number of DOA’s or premature failures.

Now I’m completely hip to the fact the hard drives are a temporary thing. It’s in their nature. Tiny things are moving at stupifying speeds endlessly. Things break down. But shipping DOA? Every company had a review saying the three of six drives shipped failed, or other, similar problem.

Statistics 101 says I shouldn’t be too worried, as typically people who post are dissatisfied; people who are happy probably don’t. Actual DOA’s are probably a very scarce few.

Looking at the few, it makes it hard to make an informed decision. Seagate it is!