Technical Issues
Technical issues can be extremely frustrating to all involved, but especially to the artist or band who really don’t know or care about what it is that has gone wrong and why.
Their chief concern is getting a performance that they are happy with recorded.
Therefore, one of the biggest issues with equipment failure, malfunction, or human error is the amount of time that is wasted hanging around waiting for the issue to be resolved.
From the producer’s point of view (unless you are of the technical engineer type) you will most likely trust the technical complexities of the session to the studio’s technical team and most specifically your recording engineer.
If we think back to the planning stages, your technical requirements and resource and equipment issues would have been discussed and therefore any technical problems that occur within the session will be unforeseeable issues. The biggest point to make here is with regards to contingency.
If something does break down, malfunction, or a technical error is made, then how can the issue be resolved quickly and efficiently with the minimal amount of fuss?
If you are fortunate enough to be working in a professional studio, then the equipment being used should be well-maintained with a studio technician available should anything happen to go wrong.
The chances are they can resolve the issue alongside the recording engineer and things should move along fairly quickly. If it is your own studio or home setup you are working in, then you and your recording engineer need to be well-prepared and have things in place so that you can continue recording should certain things happen.
Specifics will depend on your individual setup, however, and generics like checking cables and connections, inputs, and outputs should always be done prior to commencing any recording session.
In this day of DAW software and digital recording technology, backing up is possibly one of the most important technical issues that should be considered and not overlooked. In pro studios, backups of all audio may be being made during the session in order that material is secure and will not be lost.
If you are working with a smaller setup or home rig, then you need to make sure that either you or your recording engineer decides on a method of backup and how and when this will take place.
To not have any form of backup is extremely inadvisable and to be honest there is no excuse, especially given that terabyte capacity hard drives can now be purchased relatively cheaply.
Lastly, if you’re not particularly technical and come from a mostly musical background, then file management is probably not your favorite topic of discussion. It probably isn’t even if you are technically minded!
The file management within the session will most likely be taken care of by the recording engineer (or Pro Tools op). However, as the producer, understanding the way in which takes are managed, labeled, and transferred should be of some interest.
You are running the session, so being able to keep track of everything can be an advantage and means that you are not constantly relying on information being provided by the recording engineer.