How to Deal With Insecure Musicians in Your Studio, While Still Making Yourself Look Good

Although you may know the ins and outs of every little thing in your studio, your clients probably don’t.

Most engineers are musicians. However, only a handful of musicians are engineers.

And because you share their knowledge of instrument playing, you might make the mistake of thinking they share your knowledge of gain structure, mic techniques and acoustics.

When in fact, they have no idea about any of those things.

I might actually argue that assuming all that makes the musician even more insecure in your studio when you should be doing everything in your power to reassure them and make them feel comfortable.

Talk Things Through

Musicians like plugging in and playing their songs. Sure, they might be obsessed with their instruments but when it comes to the technical engineering stuff, they’ll have no idea.

Make it easy for them and just casually explain what you’re doing while you’re setting up.

You’ll accomplish two things:

1. You’ll create a conversation to get everybody comfortable with each other.
2. You’ll sound like you know exactly what you’re doing with them, earning credibility and trust.

Making musicians feel comfortable while you’re recording is the best thing you can do to nail a great performance. If you act like everything you do is easy and effortless then your vibe will rub off on them.

Sure, setting the mood right and making sure the studio looks clean and cool is important as well. But even the best looking studio in the world won’t instill confidence in a band if it’s run by a chicken with its head cut off.

You don’t have to teach them the intricacies of a polycylyndrical diffuser or the techniques for a phase-perfect drum recording, but mentioning the reasons behind everything you’re doing for them will only make you look better in their eyes.

It’s the reason I like interviewing seasoned engineers like Slau Halatyn and Chris Huff. They know how much of a difference the performance makes. And if you don’t spend the time to create a comfortable environment where everybody is comfortable with each other, then that magical performance is never gonna happen.

If you want to check out those interviews, they’re included in the Strategies Bundle Plus right here:

www.audio-issues.com/strategies

Image by: Nathan Congleton

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