Studio Time: Knowing When it's Time to Take a Break

Lock and load, it's off to the studio we to go. Yes, it's a project and depending on how big your band is and how much the band is planning to record, it could be a whole day event, a week-long event, or even longer.

Since in most cases you will be paying for your studio time, you want to utilize it in the most efficient way possible - but the key words there is MOST EFFICIENT. A huge mistake that is often made in the studio is not knowing when to take a break or call quits for the day altogether. 

It's common to want to keep going and get as much music recorded as possible no matter how tired and worn out you or your band is getting. But if you force yourself to keep recording when you are exhausted then the only thing you might be doing is recording it now, just to have to go back and record it again. 

Not only does your body, vocals and the ability to hit notes start to suffer, but your ears and the way you hear things suffer too. Your ears won't translate the same sound the same way to the brain when you are exhausted opposed to when you are refreshed and feeling good. 

That's right, pushing yourself when exhausted can result in the performance as a whole suffering, and after a good nights rest, you might listen to it the next day and be very displeased with what you hear. Like with every part of our body, our ears get tired, and no matter how long you keep playing they won't repair back to normal until they have had some rest.

It's just like sports and the reason why coaches have a second and third spring of athletes to switch in and out. When the main players get tired they are unable to play at an optimal level until they had some time to relax and rejuvenate. You need to treat your ears, vocals, fingers, arms and the rest of your body the same way, you need time to rejuvenate if you want to hear something spectacular on playback.

It may suck taking a break or quitting until the next day, but what is the point of recording if you are just going to have to record it again. Sure, technology these days can mask a lot of mistakes, miscues and half-hearted playing, but nothing beats a performance that is killer from the get go. 

Recording a Great Album: The Golden Rules 27-30 of 37

Monitoring the Mix

27.  Listen to your music at moderate levels in your car or on a boom box. This is how most of your fans will listen to it, and mixing at loud levels will fatigue your ears and distort the "true" sound.

28. Sometime it's good to take a day off and come back to listen. The same applies for mix-down. Ears don't last very long in the studio.

29. As you review each mix, make sure you can comfortably hear all of the instruments. Tweak the mix on a small pair of speakers at an extremely low volume. Headphones are also very valuable at this stage. You should be able to pick up each instrument even at this level.

30. Learn to recognize ear fatigue. You're better off quitting a session early when you're tired than wasting time making a bad mix that will have be redone anyway. 

Audio Recording: Resting Your Ears is a Must

In my opinion and by most accounts no one should do the whole record, mix, master processes all in the same day. But if it is something that has to be done then lengthy breaks are required for your ears to achieve optimal performance level.

Not only will you yourself, experience exhaustion, but both your ears and your brain will get tired as well. When your brain and ears get tired they do not process the sound the same way. Your ears actually have moving hairs inside of them that move back and fourth when they encounter sound. When you listen to something at a loud volume for-to-long, the hairs get tired and instead of standing up right to catch the sound and transmit it to the brain properly, they lay down and cause your ears not to hear certain frequencies . This is why it is a must to give your ears a break if you want to hear everything correctly.