CHAPTER 15

Session Procedures,
Mastering, and CD Burning

Were rolling. Take One. These words begin the recording session.
It can be an exhilarating or an exasperating experience, depending
on how smoothly you run it.
The musicians need an engineer who works quickly yet carefully.
Otherwise, they may lose their creative inspiration while waiting for the
engineer to get it together. And the client, paying by the hour, wastes
money unless the engineer has prepared for the session in advance.
This chapter describes how to conduct a multitrack recording session. These procedures should help you keep track of things and run
the session efficiently.
There are some spontaneous sessions, especially in home studios, that
just grow organically without advance planning. The instrumentation isnt known until the song is done! You just try out different
musical ideas and instruments until you find a pleasing combination.
In this way, a band that has its own recording gear can afford to take
the time to find out what works musically before going into a professional studio. In addition, if the band is recording itself where it
practices, the microphone setup and some of the console settings can
be more or less permanent. This chapter, however, describes procedures usually followed at professional studios, where time is money.

PREPRODUCTION
Long before the session starts, youre involved in preproduction
planning what youre going to do at the session, in terms of overdubbing, track assignments, instrument layout, and mic selection.

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Instrumentation
The first step is to find out from the producer or the band what the
instrumentation will be and how many tracks will be needed. Make
a list of the instruments and vocals that will be used in each song.
Include such details as the number of tom toms, whether acoustic or
electric guitars will be used, and so on.

Recording Order
Next, decide which of these instruments will be recorded at the same
time and which will be overdubbed one at a time. Its common to
record the instruments in the following order, but there are always
exceptions:
1. Loud rhythm instrumentsbass, drums, electric guitar, electric
keyboards
2. Quiet rhythm instrumentsacoustic guitar, piano
3. Lead vocal and doubled lead vocal (if desired)
4. Backup vocals (in stereo)
5. Overdubssolos, percussion, synthesizer, sound effects
6. Sweeteninghorns, strings
The lead vocalist usually sings a guide vocal or scratch vocal along
with the rhythm section so that the musicians can get a feel for the
tune and keep track of where they are in the song. You record the
vocalists performance but probably you will re-record it later. That
eliminates leakage and lets you focus on the lead vocal.
In a MIDI studio, a typical order might be:

Drum machine or soft-synth drum set (playing programmed

patterns)
Synthesizer bass sound
Synthesizer chords
Synth melody
Synth solos, extra parts
Vocals and miked solos

Track Assignments
Now you can plan your track assignments. Decide what instruments
will go on which tracks of the multitrack recorder. The producer may
have a fixed plan already.

Session Procedures, Mastering, and CD Burning CHAPTER 15

What if you have more instruments than tracks? Decide what groups
of instruments to put on each track. In a 4-track recording, for example, you might put guitars on track 1, bass and drums on track 2,
vocals on track 3, and keyboards on track 4.
Remember that when several instruments are assigned to the same
track, you cant separate their images in the stereo stage. That is, you
cant pan them to different positionsall the instruments on one
track sound as if theyre occupying the same point in space. For this
reason, you may want to do a stereo mix of the rhythm section on
tracks 1 and 2, for instance, and then overdub vocals and solos on
tracks 3 and 4.
Its possible to overdub more than four parts on a 4-track recorder.
To do this, bounce (mix) several tracks onto one, then record new
parts over the original tracks. Your recorder manual describes this
procedure.
If you have many tracks available, leave several tracks open for experimentation. For example, you can record several takes of a vocal part
using a separate track for each take, so that no take is lost. Then combine the best parts of each take into a single final performance on
one track. Most recordermixers let you do these extra takes on virtual tracks.
Its also a good idea to record the monitor mix on one or two
unused tracks. The recorded monitor mix can be used as a cue mix
for overdubs, or to make a recording for the client to take home and
evaluate.

Session Sheet
Once you know what youre going to record and when, you can fill
out a session sheet (Figure 15.1). This simple document is adequate
for home studios. OD indicates an overdub. Note the recordercounter time for each take, and circle the best take.

Production Schedule
In a professional recording studio, the planned sequence of recording basic tracks and overdubs is listed on a production schedule
(Figure 15.2).

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SONG: Escape to Air Island

TRACK
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

INSTRUMENT
BASS
KICK
DRUMS
LEAD VOC OD
HARM. VOC OD
LEAD GUIT OD
KEYS L
KEYS R

MICROPHONE
DIRECT
AKG D-112
CROWN GLM-100
STUDIO PROJECTS B1
STUDIO PROJECTS B1
SHURE SM57
DIRECT
DIRECT

TAKE 1 03:21 - 06:18 FS

2 06:25 - 09:24 INC
3 10:01 - 13:02

FIGURE 15.1
A session sheet for a home studio.

WEST WIND STUDIOS

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
Artist: Steve Mills
Album: Long Distance Music
Producer: B. Brauning
Engineer: D. Scriven
Date: 1-17-09
Project files: c:\cakewalk projects\mills\
mr_potato_head.cwp and sambatina.cwp
Audio data folders: d:\mills\mr_potato_head\

and

\sambatina\

1. Record Mr. Potato Head

Instrumentation: Electric bass, drums, electric rhythm guitar, electric
lead guitar, acoustic piano, sax, lead vocal.
Comments: Record rhythm section with scratch vocal. OD sax, piano,
lead vocal. Double lead guitar in stereo.
2. Record Sambatina
Instrumentation: Electric bass, drums, acoustic guitar, percussion, synth
Comments: Record rhythm section with scratch acoustic guitar.
Record synth MIDI. OD acoustic guitar, percussion and synth.
3. Mix Mr. Potato Head
Comments: Add 40msec echo to toms. Increase reverb on sax solo.
4. Mix Sambatina
Comments: Add flanger to bass on intro only. Do automated flange
on percussion.

FIGURE 15.2
A production schedule.

Session Procedures, Mastering, and CD Burning CHAPTER 15

WEST WIND STUDIOS

TRACK SHEET
Artist: S. Mills
Producer: B. Brauning
Date: 1-17-09
Take # 1
Take # 2 NC
Take # 3 LFS
Take # 4 FS
Take # 5

Album: Long Distance Music

Engineer: D. Scriven
Song title: Dig Up Nebraska
Start 00:31
Start 03:54
Start 07:21
Start 09:01
Start 09:25

Stop 03:31
Stop 06:49
Stop 08:38
Stop 09:12
Stop 12:27

Track 1: elec bass (Fender Precision DI)

Track 2: kick
Track 3: snare
Track 4: rack tom
Track 5: floor tom
Track 6: overhead L
Track 7: overhead R
Track 8: rhythm gtr L (Martin HD-28)
Track 9: rhythm gtr R (Taylor 814ce)
Track 10: lead gtr (Parker PM-20PRO, Roland Cube 60)
Track 11: keys L (Prophet 08 DI)
Track 12: keys R (Prophet 08 DI)
Track 13: scratch lead vocal
Track 14: lead vocal
Track 15: background vocals 1
Track 16: background vocals 2

FIGURE 15.3
A track sheet (multitrack log).

Track Sheet
Another document used in a pro studio is the track sheet or multitrack log (Figure 15.3). Write down which instrument or vocal goes
on which track. The track sheet also has blanks for other information such as take numbers. If youre using a DAW, you can enter this
information by typing on-screen.

Microphone Input List

Make up a microphone input list similar to that seen in Table 15.1.
Later you will place this list by the mic snake box and by the mixing
console.

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Table 15.1

A Microphone Input List

Input

Instrument

Microphone

Bass

Direct

Kick

EV N/D868

Snare

AKG C451

Overhead L

Shure SM81

Overhead R

Shure SM81

High toms

Sennheiser MD421-II

Floor tom

Sennheiser MD421

Electric lead guitar

Shure SM57

Electric lead guitar

Shure SM57

10

Piano treble

Crown PZM-6D

11

Piano bass

Crown PZM-6D

12

Scratch vocal

Beyer M88

Be flexible in your microphone choicesyou may need to experiment with various mics during the session to find one giving the best
sound with the least console equalization. During lead-guitar overdubs, for example, you can set up a direct box, three close-up microphones, and one distant microphonethen find a combination that
sounds best.
Find out what sound the producer wantsa tight sound; a loose,
live sound; an accurate, realistic sound. Ask to hear recordings having the kind of sound the producer desires. Try to figure out what
techniques were used to create those sounds, and plan your mic
techniques and effects accordingly. Tips on choosing a microphone
are given in Chapter 6.

Instrument Layout Chart

Work out an instrument layout chart, indicating where each instrument will be located in the studio, and where baffles and isolation
booths will be used (if any). In planning the layout, make sure that
all the musicians can see each other and are close enough together to
play as an ensemble. Often a circular arrangement works well.