So I got about 4 notebooks of good music that I haven't recorded in a big ass Ralph Lauren bag..I plan to book a recording session soon but there's only one problem: I don't know much about being in the studio at all g
I got hella talent brehs..This is the thing I'm best at and I really wanna be able to say that I put on for my state one day. If any of y'all with studio experience could kinda school me that'd be dope. Reps and daps for the contribution
It will probably take at lest 2 hours to lay down a song if you have never been to the studio, unless you are a natural. Studio vets who have their shyt DOWN can lay down full tracks in 25-30 minutes.
The main thing you want to do is to MEMORIZE your lyrics! I make beats, so I have spent quite an amount of time with rappers in the studio, and this is the biggest mistake I see, and the most frequent one. You need to memorize lyrics for a few reasons
- It saves you time, and time is literally money in the studio. You will make mistakes if you are reading your shyt off notepad or phone. It makes a HUGE difference. I have seen nikkas spend 30 minutes on one 4 bar part
You don't want to be in there doing that
- If your lyrics are memorized, then you can focus solely on delivery. Voice inflection, tone, pitch, pace, are all part of delivery. If you have to read lyrics off paper, you will be less "loose" in the booth and your delivery will suffer. If lyrics are memorized, delivery will sound less robotic
With that out the way, the next thing to do is be assertive in the booth. It is your session, so you will need to guide the engineer. Every rapper that I have seen that was decent gave out directions in the booth. Like, as soon as you fukk up, just be like "punch me in at this mark" Believe it or not, a lot of rappers will just let the engineer dictate their session. And some engineers won't help you make the shyt sound better, they will just record you. So it is YOUR job to tell the engineer that you wanna do a part over, turn your volume up, I feel like doing the hook now, lets come back to that, etc... To many times I had to jump in a nikka session and tell him that he should do that part over, while him and the engineer was just go let the shyt ride
If you build a rapport with your engineer, and he is actually a good engineer, you can get him to do a lil free mixing while he is recording you. This will usually happen when the engineer is feeling the shyt you are doing and is into it. For example you might get the nikka to screw up a certain part, or autotune a hook for you. That shyt is part of the mix, but like I said, build a rapport with the engineer and you can fukk around and get your shyt mixed while you are recording it.
Back to recording. When you step in that booth, you need to go all out. I have seen too many rappers in the booth like a damn robot. If you are rapping about pushing weight, then you better be in that booth feeling like a real life drug kingpin. If you rapping about being a baller, then you need to put yourself in the mind frame of the most ballingnest nikka in history. That shyt does wonders for delivery. If you rapping abut killing a nikka, you want nikkas to be on the other side of the booth like
If you buy a beat from a producer, make sure you get the protools file. It makes it a lot better than just the 2 track. Also it makes for a better mix, bing that you can take out/add instruments, sounds, etc...
But if you just got a bat, thats fine, the protools session is not mandatory.
If you know the producer and they are cool, invite them to your session. A lot of people who make beats are actually good at "producing " the song too and can help you in the booth.
NEVER leave a paid studio session without your masters for that session.I have seen a few studios tell rappers that they have to formally request them threw email
Don't ever fall for that shyt
Or you can buy some equipment and learn how to record yourself. Home studios are becoming more and more sophisticated
I know that cost you a pretty penny
