How to prepare for a recording session.

Before tracking day, your arrangements should be settled — tempo, key, structure, and any solos or transitions. Rehearse with a click at the tempo you'll record at. Last-minute arrangement changes burn studio hours faster than anything else.

Make a one-page chart for every song: tempo, key, section map (intro, verse, chorus, bridge), and any notes for the engineer. Bring printed copies.

• Fresh strings 24 hours before — broken in but bright.
• New batteries in active pickups, pedals, and wireless rigs.
• Bring spare cables, picks, drum heads, and sticks.
• Drummers: tune heads the day before and check for buzzes and rattles.
• Make a note of any tones, presets, or pedalboard signal chains you want.

Your voice is an instrument you can't restring. For at least three days before a vocal session:

• Drink half your body weight in ounces of water, daily.
• Sleep 7–9 hours. Fatigue shows up immediately on a microphone.
• Skip dairy and heavy meals the morning of tracking — they coat the throat.
• Avoid alcohol and excessive caffeine the day before; both dehydrate vocal folds.
• Warm up 15–20 minutes before you arrive. Don't oversing.
• If you feel sick, call us — pushing through hurts the record and your voice.

The mic doesn't care how you feel, but the performance does. Eat a real meal. Arrive 15 minutes early so you're not rushed. Put your phone on do-not-disturb. Bring lyrics printed out — reading from a phone screen pulls you out of the performance and the glow shifts on every breath.

Trust the room. We're here to capture you at your best, not to judge takes. If something isn't working, say so — we'll find another path.

• Arrive on the hour your session is booked. The clock starts then.
• Limit the entourage. One or two trusted ears, max.
• Speak up about a take you don't love — it's faster to redo it now.
• Bring snacks and a refillable water bottle.
• Save creative pivots for pre-production, not the tracking room.

• Your instrument(s) and any required accessories.
• Printed lyrics and charts for every song.
• A reference playlist of 3–5 songs whose sound you love.
• A hard drive or thumb drive if you want a same-day backup of your stems.