The Tonic Room - Preproduction Checklist
Find the perfect key.
Sometimes a song is written in a key that may not suit the vocal range of the person who will be singing the song on the recording. Audition the song in various keys with your singer to make sure you have the perfect fit.
Find the perfect tempo.
We call it the “Magic BPM”. The Magic BPM (beats per minute) is when the band is grooving and the vocals feel just right, especially in the choruses. Many songs, not all, sound much better when recorded to a click track, aka metronome.
To find the Magic BPM, it often takes playing and grooving to the song without the metronome. Either record it or have someone outside the band tap along and study the BPM results. Then, experiment by sending the click track to the drummer and/or band. Bands find it much easier to play to a click track that matches their natural groove. So, finding the Magic BPM is worth the time spent during the search. The golden rule is if the singer likes them BPM during the choruses that is the Magic BPM.
Download a free metronome app for your phone and experiment with how your song feels when played at different BPMs. The impact of just a single BPM change can be significant in altering the feel of the song.
Some songs require a temp map because of changes in the tempo and/or time signature. If building a tempo map is beyond your capabilities, one can easily be created in the recording studio, especially if you have the Magic BPMs.
Complete the final arrangement. Complete a demo recording
Before “official” recording begins, it’s smart to get a snapshot of your song captured, even if it’s just a simple recording with nothing but an acoustic guitar or piano and a vocal— recorded into the voice memo app of a phone.
The demo recording exercise will help you test drive all the arrangement tweaks and choices you’ve made thus far, and will also give you a good sense of the overall quality of the song when listening back.
Rehearse so much that the song(s) sound like a recording when you play it live.
Even if you are building the song from the ground up in the overdub process, rehearse your band and players and make sure they can play their parts, in perfect time, in their sleep. Then rehearse again.
If you intend to record to a click or fixed time, have the drummer practice playing along with a click during rehearsal at the song’s Magic BPM. Only when musicians are well prepared and know their parts, do they tend to stop thinking their way through takes while recording and start to play AND perform the song.
If you can check off every single box in this checklist before going in for your next recording date, you’ll be ahead of 90% or more of those who walk into the recording studio.
Don't forget the technical preproduction
Are the instruments well intonated with fresh strings?
You may not hear tuning issues at practice but they can become very apparent during recording. It is wise to seek a technician before recording to make sure all the instruments in the band are intonated. The recording studio has a well maintained list of instruments that can be used in addition.
Does the drummer have enough new drum heads?
Drums almost always sound better with fresh heads. And a good drum set of course. We have several drum sets in the studio available. We highly recommend purchasing at least new snare drum heads if not tom heads as well. The studio drum head of choice is Remo Coated Emperors for snares and toms. And we like Remo Clear Emperors for a more modern tom sound.
Does the band have a hard drive to store the master copies to?
You will want to have a Mac hard drive large enough to store and archive the ProTools sessions for the future. Some projects are over 100 Gig when complete. We recommend this high value SSD hard drive.
Does the band have a food plan?
Recording sessions often last all day and take a lot of energy. Luckily we are close to a grocery store, convenience store and Jimmy Johns. The studio has a clean refrigerator and kitchenette for the band to use.