one of my favorite posts from the blog that inspired this one is § 87. the customer is always wrong. i will attempt to summarize, but you really should go read it.

in short: lebedev, speaking as a graphic designer mostly to other designers, says something along the lines of, if you are waiting for your client to articulate their reasonable and carefully considered wants and needs to you in a useful, eloquent way before you think you can give them your best work... you should consider waking up, now. the Perfect Client doesn't exist; even if they did, they, through all their travails, would have come to the same conclusion about the existence of the Perfect Designer, and would regard you the same way you regard your many lowly, unknowledgeable clients. essentially you're left with two options - either get over yourself, meet the client at their level, and do your best work anyways... or don't. of course, the way in which he says all this is very funny, and very russian.

on a similar note, for a long time i've imagined heading off various frustrations in studio sessions by writing a beginners' guide for clients, sort of a 'how to maximize your time in the studio'. but there's really not a one size fits all approach - i've worked with so many musicians of all levels over the years and every session is different. still, i can think of a couple of tips that it wouldn't hurt to keep in mind. so... let's go!

know what is possible

as someone who has been engineering audio for clients for an embarrassingly long time, i have a pretty good idea of what the tools of the trade are and are not capable of doing. and it's a lot! but not everything. if you haven't done much recording before, it really helps to have a good idea of how a microphone will pick up your voice or your instrument, and how you can manipulate this sound after the fact. record yourself at home or on your phone. even if the quality is not great it will give you an idea of how you sound in playback, and you can try out some different things with your voice in a very low pressure environment. sometimes trying a new range or a different style of singing can open up a totally new lane. you can play around with effects in the app or program you're using to record just to get a sense of what they do, too. don't be apprehensive, just experiment and try to get a feel for what can be done.

have intention in mind

ok, yes, so you intend to record your song! but what is the real goal, what do you want the person who listens to your song to feel, how do you want it to hit them, what purpose does your music have in their life? if you can answer these questions, all the other decisions we have to make in the studio become so much easier. one of my favorite little things that a client ever did was, right as we were getting started on a half day session, they said 'the theme of all these songs is luxury. i want someone to hear this and feel elevated.' i absolutely love it when there's an overall idea that the artist can tell me about before we dive in. it's not like i have a special eq setting for 'luxury' or anything like that, but it just makes it so much easier for me as an engineer to get the vibe going in the room (perhaps by putting something like this on the tv) and it's nice to know what the song is supposed to feel like from the very start, before i even hear the first note. suuuuper helpful ✓

know the process

of course, you have a head up on this because you are the type of person who reads obscure blogs by recording engineers. you know that the song gets written, then produced and recorded, then mixed, then mastered (well, at least usually, it goes something like that). beyond that, it can be good to get an idea what the whole process is for the release of the music too - knowing what the plan is after it leaves the studio can help you avoid having deadlines sneak up on you, and also it's nice to know if certain formats are needed or not needed, which can depend on where you're sending the song. generally this last bit isn't a huge concern, but if you have a specific platform or medium for release in mind, particularly a nonstandard one, find out what you need ahead of time, and tell your engineer.

focus on quality over quantity...

look: if you need to get a whole bunch of songs done in a very short period of time, it's possible. i've done it plenty of times before: six rap vocals in two hours, 10 songs with a rock band in one day, etc. it's possible, and if that's what you need to do we can. but of course, if you're rushing from one song to the next, it makes it very hard to evaluate things or fix critical errors, or even just take a breath. i do like to work at a brisk pace but it can get taken too far. honestly, this doesn't happen so much, people are usually pretty good at booking an appropriate amount of time for the task at hand. but once in a while there's a session with a ton of songs where at the end of it i'm left wondering if a single one will ever see the light of day.

...but don't chase perfection off a cliff

keeping the above in mind, there's a dark counterpoint against trying to cram too many songs in too quickly, and that is: taking FOREVER on a song, coming back to it day after day, week after week, month after month, looking to see what else can be added, layered, changed, moved around, tried out, rearranged, re-recorded, re-re-recorded, etc. it's only a small percentage of artists who do this, but for those artists it can be a major problem. there's always another extra something that can be done to the song, and it never gets finished. in sylvia massy's book, there's a great little section on when to call the song complete. she says, "the project is [i.e. must be] done long before the ideas run out, because as an artist, you have an oil well of ideas in your head that never stops flowing". the pressure of declaring something 'complete' is real, and at a certain point the call has to be made. when is the song done? massy says it's done "when you've made your statement in a way that someone else can listen to and understand". other people would say it's done not when there is nothing more that you can add, but when there is nothing more that you can take away. either way - pick a metric for completeness, and stick to it.

practice, man, practice

(excuse the gendered language, it's a reference to a very old joke)

in an ideal world this would go without saying, but we live in an imperfect world and not everyone has the time or ability to develop virtuosic skills with their voice or instrument. i understand that! of course, that said, the more control you have over your performance, the better the results will be - and i'm talking, exponentially better. a slight change of approach or dynamic can create such drastically different results. the number one axiom of recording is 'ultimately, you get out what you put in'. so the more comfortable you can get with your performance, the better. cool, calm, and collected: it comes from the confidence that you've done the work. how else do you get to carnegie hall?

get photos and videos in the studio

this is a goofy one, and, as someone who completely eschews social media and hates having his picture taken, i have mixed feelings about suggesting this. but if you have the patience for it, i can't deny that it's a worthwhile practice to get some visuals together while you're in the building. tactfully showing off that you're in a professional environment doing work is an easy way to get your fans excited about the new material on the way, and a video of a recording session or even just some footage of you vibing out to a song in the studio can be a great way to tease a release. only worry about this if you have a couple spare moments or someone to do it for you, never at the expense of the music.

don't be afraid to ask for what you want

as an engineer, there are certainly times in the studio where something suddenly sounds wrong and i need a minute to catch up to the proper adjustments, and of course in these moments it's nice not to be jumped on immediately by the client as i'm reaching for the control to fix it the second we both hear it (this happens... at times). that said, if you get the sense that the engineer isn't doing something that you want them to be doing, is going off on a tangent doing something you don't want, or is overlooking something that's important to you, don't be afraid to just ask for it. even if i've been working for two days straight with no break and i'm super cranky, even if you ask at the worst, most inopportune time, just ask. you'll be relieved, i'll appreciate it, and it will save everyone time in the long run, sometimes lots of it. so speak up!

with all these tips in mind, you are now the Perfect Client. you know what to do to prepare for the studio and make your session run smoothly as silk, and your recordings will come out just as pristine. you will make beautiful music with ease, and you will only get better and better as you continue to gain experience and knowledge while exercising your talent. always growing, always improving. that's how you do it, and you make it look stylish too. keep it up!

👻