In various bands, I've recorded several albums' worth of material in real-ish studio settings (ranging from "world class" to "in our practice space, hoping the band next door isn't practicing at the same time") but have never been in charge of the recording/mixing stuff, aside from my various FAWM/Songfight demos. But I have at least had some exposure to best practices and the way pros do things. Any suggestions for what I should look at, ask about, or focus on to get my money's worth out of an in-person learning experience like this? I have no idea how much is going to be new territory vs stuff I already basically know.
Here's what's already on my list. Hopefully these will already be covered to a greater or lesser extent. But I don't even really know what I need to know about. So, please tell me what you'd ask and what would be the best to learn in person/hardest to learn through Youtube. (Or feel free to just tell me what important things you think I/other bumbling amateurs should know about any of the things listed below!) I know some things about most of these, but maybe I'm missing important things to know.
- proper mic selection, placement, and mixing 101 for drums (I've only ever dealt with MIDI drums and/or simple percussion, never a full kit, so I'm particularly interested in this even though I don't play drums myself)
- proper mic selection and placement for amped instruments
- proper mic selection and placement for vocals
- something something impedance levels??? I don't even know what to ask about this but I know it exists and have a vague idea I should be concerned about it?
- recording workflows... where to put everyone and when to record what, if it's a situation with actual people and not just me on my couch; isolation, reducing noise and bleed?
- selecting a space for recording--what makes a space sound good? best things to do when prepping a space?
- best practices for using multiple recorded inputs and dealing with phase issues
- what the heck am I supposed to be aiming for with levels when I record all these things?
- which things would benefit from double-tracking or doing DI + amp?
- DI'ing instruments and mixing them in properly (& re-amping?)
- what should I do to clean up tracks before mixing?
- best practices for EQ, compression, and levels for maximum clarity and separation
- getting things to sit in the mix and not on top of it
- panning, reverb and creating a sense of space, making a mix sound "big"
- exciters, saturation, making things sound "warm" or "live"
- suggestions for good recording gear
- DAW project organization--best ways to set up busses, folders, naming conventions, and so on