My goal is to help you capture your best performance, filled with passion, energy, and personality, while keeping your session flowing smoothly.

Here are some suggestions for maximizing your time in the studio and saving you money:

Possibly the most important thing is to be well rehearsed, well hydrated, and well rested.

Have the arrangements, tempos, and harmonies determined ahead of time, as much as possible.

Instruments should have fresh (but broken in) strings and/or drum heads. Always have replacements on hand.

Bring a copy of the lyrics and/or chart for me to reference. It will be helpful for communication and keep the session flowing smoothly.

Know the desired tempo of each song. Practicing ahead of time with a metronome or drum machine will help you determine the best tempo for the song.

Recording to a click (or loop) can make overdubbing, editing, and mixing go much quicker. However, performance can suffer if a performer is too focused on locking to the tempo. Rehearsing the songs ahead of time with a metronome or drum machine will give you a sense of how it will affect your performance. Ultimately, it is most important to capture the life and soul of the song. Recording without a click may serve the song better. Knowing which way you want to go before the recording session will save you time and money.

It's easier to capture a great vocal sound if it is recorded separate from the instruments. However, many performers have difficulty delivering their best performance when separating their vocal from their instrumental performance. The studio is equipped to accommodate either approach.

Clothing should be comfortable but quiet. Studio microphone's are very sensitive to picking up jewelry noises, rustling clothing, shoe noises, etc.

If you are aiming for particular sounds, bring recordings to have on hand for reference and comparison.

For bands, I usually suggest recording the core instruments at the same time for a solid foundation with a rough lead vocal for reference. Then overdubbed instruments and final vocals are recorded. It is easier to fix a single performers part if it is reasonably isolated. However, if you prefer more of a raw live performance vibe, everything can be recorded at the same time. The trade off is that individual mistakes may be more difficult to fix.

Letting me know the instrumentation required for each song ahead of time will help me be set up, keep things flowing smoothly, and save you time and money.
For example, how many drums will need to be mic’d in the drummers kit, how many electric guitar amps are there, do the acoustic guitars have direct outs or will they require mics, who will be singing, do the drummer and bass player prefer to play close to each other, etc.