Come prepared to have a great time. That doesn’t mean it’s a party, though. Making music is something you thoroughly enjoy. But it’s a craft of discipline. Be prepared to focus all your energies on the music and let your inspiration lead the way.
Remember that the studio is an artificial environment. The equipment that we need to capture your best performance is all around you. Microphones, headphones, gobos, pop filters, rooms with double doors… all these are necessary to accomplish the task of recording your best stuff. However they do create a different environment that you’ll need to get used to.
Don’t touch studio equipment that has not been put in your hands. In general, keep your hands on your instrument and leave the studio equipment to the engineer. Your engineer will let you know what you can handle – that will usually include your headphones and your personal mixing station. Remember that cables are attached to everything. Watch where you step. You certainly don’t want to try to walk across the room while wearing a set of headphones. You’re attached by the cable and walking away while still wearing the “cans” could damage you and, more importantly, our expensive set of headphones!
Be prepared to be patient with the set-up process. Every microphone needs to be placed in order to get the very best sound. Depending upon the needs of your recording, that can mean dozens of mics, each with its own placement requirements. After they’re placed, your engineer will need to make the adjustments in the control room to “dial in” the sound for every mic. The set-up takes patience but once it’s done you can proceed to making music, confident that what you’re capturing is a clean, pure track for every part.