Pre-Production: 4 Keys to Doing it Right

If you're serious about producing professional caliber records, then pre-production is a step you can't afford to skip.
Here are four key tips for effective pre-production that prepares you and the band for success in the studio.

[Martin-knvc]

With a lot of bands having their own home studio setups, it's easier now than ever before to do pre-pro where they can send over tempo maps and demos and have their songs pretty much dialled before stepping foot in a studio. Saying that, most of the bands I've recorded don't have home studio setups, which I find leads to them playing songs in a loud rehearsal room and only focusing on their instrument, rather than what serves the song as a whole. Vocal harmonies are often neglected too, but if you're wearing the producer hat for a project as well as being engineer, that's where your skills come to play.

[KillerKoRnflake]

What are the odds that I'm listening to Antimacy minutes before randomly clicking on this video that happens to be by the engineer behind it? A criminally underrated record, and a crazy coincidence! On my way to binge the rest of your content now 😂 Great stuff!

[VadimGuitar]

Such an overlooked topic. Thanks for the great information!

[johannsoncrusoe]

Just did this with my new band. Prerecorded everything to gwt to the sweetspots and difficulties. DI-tracked all guitars for our drummer to train tempi and it was very very supportive for every track. We had time for fills and to try out different grooves to each track for more interesting and subtle bass and kick combinations. I always try to get a band into this process since I did this the first time. It is a great working process.

[yeshuarockmusicvlog]

thanks for knowledge you shared..Godbless you!

[jeffbridges]

This was great, Staright up and TO THE POINT.

[romansweik]

great timing - going into pre pro with a band starting tomorrow!

[bradzillarocks]

Really great advice. Prepro is critical to having the recording sessions go smoothly, especially the first few days when the foundation is being laid.

[PrantoKoX]

Couldn't agree more.
👍👍👍
Excellent advice and very clearly explained. This is something that isn't taught nearly enough by the plethora of gear & test & shootout & rules-of-this-and-that YT audio "gurus".

[AlexeySolovievMusic]

Wondeerful Tips Jordan! Thank you so much!

[Leviathan_I]

Jordan, could you do a video clarifying the roles of a producer? Or crediting in general. A lot of bands enter the studio with the expectation that their producer will be helping to write portions of their songs, or perhaps the producer comes up with new melody ideas, chord progressions, etc. wouldn’t this classify as a “songwriting” credit? What does a “produced by” credit actually entail? I feel like crediting is still super vague and actually difficult to try and find who produced a lot of songs/bands. Thank you for all your great content!

[hadleymanmusic]

This same subject Ive mentioned to Warren and Glen. Its a outline to get the ball rollin.
Im really interested in pre production for tracking the tracks for just one song then I can apply that for the remaing

[NathanArhur]

This is such a good video. Thank you! Super beneficial and eye opening to me as a very new producer.

[MilagroRoadStudios]

Amazing video, Jordan! Greetings from Chile!

[lunarlabaudio]

Thanks for the great content! Quick question for you: traditionally, I’ve recorded like you said, drums first and vocals last. But in a recent album I did, I actually ended up recording everything over the pre pro midi drums and actually did live drums last. This was for a few reasons but basically to buy myself some editing time for drums after the fact and also cuz the drummer was a little shaky. I ended up liking this workflow but do you know of any downsides to doing it like this? Thanks!

[EverythingMusicRecording]

"Keep your mouth shut!" Said Glenn Fricker to *EVERY* bassist in the known universe!! 😂

[punkfreak]

I had a question related to a project of my own that I’m working on. I have my guitars tuned to Drop E and I know that’s super low and technically in bass territory, so how much should I hi pass the guitars in the mix? I know there’s no right answer but I’m sure the average 80hz is not enough for such a low tuning, also how much hi pass for the bass guitar which is an octave lower the Drop E? Haha

[tierangreen]

So, are you a producer or an engineer?

[Lucidaydreamer]

Great stuff, as always. I just bought your Mixing Modern Metal course, and goddamn it was worth every penny. Actually, more than that, by a long shot, so I appreciate that pricing too!
Doing God (Satan?)'s work!

[Emm_R_Guitar]

Us: Writes everything in reaper because no drummer. The whole project is pre-pro (sad face)
For real though how do you think the accessibility of recording has improved bands preparation compared to say 10 years ago - or made bands less creative?