General Information
Will Griffin & Mike Dunbar

Tips to help make your session better:

    1.    Happy musicians play better than stressed musicians. The atmosphere of a professional recording session is one that is full of humor and good nature. This is not by accident. Musicians that are feeling relaxed and appreciated will play to the best of their abilities. This does not mean everyone should hide his or her feelings. These feelings should be made known privately to the producer who should work to correct and/or compromise to mutual satisfaction.  However, if everybody did their homework in pre-production, there won't be too many surprises and those that do come up tend to be delightful.

    2.    Don’t expect to hear a final mix while you are laying tracks. Unless you absolutely need to hear a little more of one track or another, you waste less time waiting for the mixing sessions to get that "perfect mix." A lot of engineers like to get a good mix by themselves before they start taking suggestions.

    3.    The producer and then the session leader should get the final say, (otherwise they aren’t really the producer or the session leader.) Find a producer and a session leader you trust, who has a track record and who has your best interest at heart.. Don’t be afraid to ask for demos.  However, if you are paying for the session, you ultimately have final say.

    4.    Covering your session with a union contract means your session either is, or can be upgraded to, a master session. Only a union master session can be played on radio stations all over the world, having any chance at all at being a major hit.

    The union provides one of the only programs looking after the health and welfare of musicians.

    The musicians we recommend are worth at LEAST union scale.  If you wish to be recognized as a professional in the music industry, you need to hire profession (AFM) musicians.

    5.    Do I really need a radio-quality demo?

    If you are making a demo of your voice to demonstrate yourself as an artist, you always need high quality professional demos.

    If the demo is for a song to be presented to a major recoding artist, it should be of professional quality. It shows you are serious about your songwriting.  How do you expect someone else to take professional and financial risks with you and your song, when you're not willing to do so yourself?

    If you are pitching songs to a publishing company or submitting them for critique, you can simply record them clearly with little background.  However, if the publishing company or "producer" says they wish to record your song, get a contract and make sure that you also consult and attorney to confirm the intentions, credibility, and the fairness of the publisher.

    Occasionally, songs submitted on work tapes get cut. A better recording gives you an edge. Ultimately, it is the strength of the song that gets it cut.