The Ideal Pre-Studio Checklist

At New Wave Music LLC, we know that prepping to record music professionally takes a significant amount of time, creativity, gear, and so on. It’s important not to overlook these details at the studio and have a strict work environment and schedule so that the end will result in a successful recording session.

As a professional music recording studio, we’ve created a handy checklist to help music artists produce top-tier music that will give them a chance to define their music careers. Follow our pre-studio checklist so that we can serve you better, so that you can make your music great right from the start!

Determine your goals
The first thing to consider before heading to the studio for your session is the overall goal. Are you using this time to record? Fix an older song? Finalize a project? Shoot promo content? Or maybe just looking for a second ear? Have a clear goal in mind, and make sure you’re prepared to attack it!

Get the right gear
Now that you’ve formulated your goal for the studio session, you need to equip yourself to work efficiently. Determine what you must bring with you and the energy you need to embody during this session. Anything to strengthen the relationship between you as an artist and the engineer you’re working with.

Create a plan before recording
The above points were both general forms of thought. Once you understand your goal for the session and feel comfortable communicating that goal, everything else is about your comfort! List out all the things you may need for the session so you can ask the engineer what they can provide, and you’ll know what you should bring. Here’s a list of items we would consider essential or, at the very least, helpful during a session,

a. Any sheet music you may have for your song.

b. Any instruments needed to play live music.

c. If you work primarily on vocals, you’ll need instrumentals to record over and lyrics for the songs.

d. WATER! Hydration is huge in the studio, no matter what your instrument of choice! Make sure to bring your own water just in case!

e. Reference tracks can help the engineer quickly determine the route you want to go with your mix. Much easier than trying to explain yourself without in-depth musical knowledge.

f. If you need people with you to hype you up or keep you on track or even to capture some BTS footage for you, bring your friends!

g. Always have multiple songs ready to be worked on. You want to capitalize on the individual strengths of different engineers.

h. Phone charger! Your phone dying in the midst of recording is the worst feeling! And not everyone has the same phone as you, so just to be safe, always bring your phone charger.

Use a USB flash drive
A USB flash drive can come quite in handy for you! It’s an easy way to bring your session files, reference files, instrumentals, and all the computer junk you need for a session! Also much more comfortable to leave the session with new files on your flash drive than emailing updates back and forth with your engineer.

Communication is key
Again, you want to communicate with the engineer and understand what is available in the studio and what you’ll need to bring yourself. Also, make sure that anything you do get yourself will be able to integrate into the studio setup. With all this information gathered beforehand, the session will run much smoother for both the artist and the engineer!

If you need assistance with a recording session or professional guidance, reach out to the experts at New Wave Music LLC in New Castle, Delaware. We have the right equipment, record vocalist, solo instrumentalists along with experienced engineers to help you record and produce unique music. We have a team of producers who specialize in a wide variety of sub-genres across Hip-Hop and RnB to help offer you everything you need. Our services are available to artists across New Castle, Cherry Hill, Newark, Wilmington, Middletown, Delaware, Camden, Trenton, New Jersey, Lincoln University, Philadelphia, West Chester, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, Elkton, Maryland, and the surrounding areas.

To learn more about our services, please click here. Have a question? We’d love to hear from you. Contact us here.