1. Keep it simple.
I know a lot of people say this when giving advice but it is something to definitely take to heart. You can layer something as many times as possible so there is no need to try and do something needlessly complicated in any one track. Being overly technical can be a point of pride in many musicians (I'm looking at you lead guitarists) but play your guitar with your boner on stage, when recording keep things to the path of least resistance. It's best to think of a recorded track as the blueprint for your song, going nuts is for the crowd.
2. If there's doubt then there's no doubt.
If that title sounds like corporate bullshit it's because I stole it from a recruitment agent that came to a company I worked for, but it's pretty apt all the same. It's tempting to just accept a track as "good enough" especially after the 20th take and you're goddamned sick of playing the same 10 seconds over and over, but try to remember that you should still want to listen to your songs in 10 years time. If there is a niggling mistake or bum note then you need to push through and make sure you're definitely happy with it. I don't mean things need to sound clinical, but you need to be sure that the sound you have captured is exactly the one you want to hear. Remember that mixing is not magic and although many wonderful things can be done to a song in production what you played is what you played and it isn't going to change. One great resource for deciding whether a track is good enough is asking whoever is recording you. Although they may not "know" your song in the way you do they will know what works on a recording and will give advice whether another take is on the cards.
3. Be representative.
Does your band have a twenty piece horn section when you play live? Does it have a speedcore drum track? No? Then try not to throw it into your recording. It's really tempting to stick a bunch of extra stuff onto a recording because you think the bigger and more epic something sounds then the better the result, but often you can end up spoiling the original intention of the track. This isn't to say that the string track you want to use or the gang vocals in the chorus shouldn't happen, but what you record should represent what you sound like as a band when you play on stage. For an exclusively acoustic punk-pop band having three distorted guitars on each track, screamo vocals and and orchestral arrangements would mean that anyone who came to listen to us would be at best confused and at worst really pissed off that the songs they have heard on an EP or album don't come across in a show. Re-workings and different live arrangements are the things of famous bands with classic songs. Lemmy can play Ace Of Spades differently because there isn't person at his shows or within a 1000 mile radius of that show who doesn't know it but for your breakout EP or album keep it sounding like it is when you play it on stage.
4. Sing like you mean it
This is really for singers so all you other superfluous musician types can probably skip this. Singing on stage to people who aren't paying attention is weird and can affect the quality of your vocals. Doing the same thing to a wall and then doing it another three times for luck is even weirder. It's really difficult trying to bottle up that feeling of playing an incredible show and letting it out in such a deliberately sterile environment. What makes it worse is that a lot of the time you're the only thing making a loud noise at that point and (if you're anything like me) you fucking hate the sound of your own voice when it's recorded. These are all natural psychological barriers that all singers, from the lead guy to the odd part backing singers need to deal with. In that moment you booming your three word backing vocal line can sound stupid and unimportant but it's important to remember that it's just one piece of an epic whole and that the more conviction you can give that bastard mic the better. To those who aren't musicians the vocals are the most important thing in a song and the more energy you can put into it the happier you'll be with the result.
5. Be Happy
This sounds a little stupid and in all honesty I didn't think of 5 reasonable things to talk about before I started writing this blog but after a little consideration I think this is a totally valid point. It's pretty easy to fall into a habit of phoning in each part of a song when you're recording. You become conscious of not fucking it up, this becomes especially prevalent when you get past four or five takes and you start to just make sure those notes are being hit rather than grabbing the song by the balls and kicking it in the face twice like you originally intended to do. The problem with not attacking the song with the same energy that you start out with is that it comes out in the record, even if you're not singing or banging drums which are the most susceptible to sounding lack luster. Recording a track is almost like taking an acting class, and you need to have the mind set of playing to as large a crowd as you like whilst ignoring the damping of your surroundings.
Cool I actually talked about five things. It's probably safe to say I didn't take my own advice on a single one of these points over the weekend but then again the amount of fucks I give are equal to the amount of perfectly recorded EPs I have ever done.
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