Tips for artists · 4 min read

Five things to do before your session

Small jobs you can do at home that save you money in the studio.

Studio time costs money, so every minute spent scrolling for a beat or working out what key you’re in is a minute you’re paying for. Most of what makes a session go well happens before you walk through the door. Here’s our short list.

1. Pick your beats in advance

Don’t turn up with a folder of forty instrumentals and plan to "see what feels right". You will lose an hour deciding. Choose the songs you’re actually recording, have the files ready, and keep one spare in case something doesn’t click.

2. Know the tempo, and the key if you can

The BPM (tempo) helps us line everything up, edit properly and set delay and reverb timing so they sit on the beat. The key matters mostly if you’re using pitch correction. Most beat stores list both, and if yours doesn’t, a free tempo app on your phone will get you close.

3. Rehearse out loud

Reading lyrics silently, or mumbling them into a phone, isn’t rehearsal. Say them at full volume. You’ll find the lines where you run out of breath, the words that trip your tongue and the bars that don’t land. Much better to find that out in your bedroom than with the clock running.

4. Record a rough version at home

It doesn’t need to sound good. A phone voice memo over the beat is enough to hear where the melody wanders, or where a line is too long for the bar. Fixing that at home is free.

5. Look after yourself the day before

Drink water through the day, not just on the way to the studio. Go easy on the drinking the night before, and get some sleep. A voice is a physical thing, and it’s the one piece of equipment we can’t swap out if it’s tired.

Be on time too. Your hours start when the session starts, not when you arrive.

None of this is a rulebook. Plenty of great songs have been made by people who walked in with nothing. But if you’re paying by the hour, a little prep goes a long way.