Many of us already use a PC DAW in our personal recording studio, and are quite adept and efficient in that realm. But what if a client wants you to travel to a world-class studio in L.A. or New York that is likely tape-based and record with your PC DAW?

I recently completed a fast-paced session in Nashville, recording world-class talent with a PC DAW, and wanted to share some insight from the experience.

Cost Be a Pace Maker

A large well-equipped studio @ $100+/hour, several first-rate musicians @ $60+ each/hour, and you as engineer add up to a LOT of money per hour! The artist or producer who's paying the bill will have high expectations. You'll have to work at break-neck speed... without missing a beat.

Recording with a DAW in this scenario is not for the faint of heart, but with proper planning and preparation you'll capture incredible performances and the 'nerves' will turn into complete exhilaration.

The Six P's

Back in high-school, I had a friend who's father was fond of quoting the "six P's."

That irritated the hell out of me back then, but it's good for a chuckle - and more applicable - now.

Got a Machine Head It is absolutely critical to have a fast AND stable DAW. Nothing less will do! This is NOT the time to be testing out your newly built super-system. Go with what you KNOW will work. In my case, I had just built a new Athlon 600 system, but I left it home in favor of my 450MHz Celeron system. I've used the Celeron for the better part of a year and knew it wouldn't crap out on me or exhibit any other 'Murphaistic' behavior. Know your machine, and know exactly what its limitations are.

Stress Test It's easy to set up a 'stress-test' with your favorite audio app. Record solid 24-bit audio tracks until the machine just can't keep up. This is the breaking point, and it's important to know exactly where it is. Even if you think your machine is performing adequately, run the stress-test BEFORE packing up and shipping out. You'll sleep much easier. Believe me.

Backup As with performing live, you want to have as much 'backup' as possible. This means using a program like Ghost or Drive Image to create a complete restorable image of your OS and applications. Worst case scenario: a system file gets corrupted and you can't open Windows. You can use this image file to get your machine back up in about 10 minutes. Even better, have your boot drive setup (with your OS and applications) in a removable bay. You can do this for about $25. Bring a second hard drive that is a mirror image of your current boot hard drive, and you can be back in business in under a minute!

Storage Bring quite a bit more hard drive space than you think you'll need! I can't stress this enough. Hard drives like the new Maxtor 6800 series are inexpensive and blazingly fast. To be safe, I'd recommend bringing twice what you think is necessary. We had a 4 platter 64-Gigabyte Medea RAID. To be honest, it was slightly faster than a single Maxtor 6800 (28MB/Sec as opposed to the single Maxtor's 23MB/Sec), but we had to crank up the buffers in our audio app to prevent drop-outs. Ironically, we could stream more tracks from the single Maxtor. So don't get caught-up in exotic solutions. In this case, simpler is better. You can buy four 20-Gig Maxtors for less than the price of the 64-Gig Medea. Spreading the data across multiple drives is a good safety precaution.

Program Disks / Dongles / Keydisks: Bring installation disks and accompanying keydisks and dongles for ALL software that you'll be using for the session. Even with an image file of your OS and applications, sometimes it's necessary to re-install a program from the original install disk(s). Samplitude, for example, requires the original disk.

Table: Don't assume that the studio will have a spare table or stand on which to place your DAW. Bring along a folding card-table or have your system in a transportable case that is also a stand.

Pre-Production

Pre-production is crucial to a smooth, productive experience.

Transfers Tape transfers (ADAT, DA-88, or Analog) to the DAW should be done PRIOR to the session. Remember, the person footing the bill has to pay the whole team by the hour. Paying $300+ per hour to transfer tapes is a horrible waste of money! Transfer those tapes at home. You'll save the client money, and the talent will appreciate your efficiency.

Markers All songs should have markers for each section ("verse 1", "chorus 2", "pre-chorus before the bridge", etc.). You'll be asked to jump to different sections and won't have time to guess where they are. Make sure that there is enough lead-in for the talent to lock-in and go. When that pair of vocalists is zoned-in triple-tracking 3-part harmony, you don't want to make them wait while searching for the right starting point. Here the DAW can be a real advantage over tape tracking, since there's never a rewind time.

Templates Multi-track 'templates' are a must. World-class musicians lay down exceptional tracks FAST! So you probably won't have the luxury of leisurely adding and tweaking empty track-slots as you go. For instance, when triple-tracking backing vocals, it's common to pan one take hard-left, another take hard-right, and a third take up the center. With a template, you can instantly arm and record the desired track and keep the session moving.

In general, you're goal is to be as invisible as possible to the talent. If they're too aware of you - or the DAW - then things aren't going well. Anything that allows you to move quicker and easier (and can be done before the session) should be considered mandatory.

Elvis Has Entered the Building

The day has come. You get to the studio at 9:00AM and start loading in. You setup your PC DAW - take a look around - and can't help but feeling ,"I have ARRIVED!"

Hey... Where's my cigar???

You boot up the PC and take a moment to focus. Make sure the peanut M&M's are in a convenient 'easy access to all' place. You did bring peanut M&M's didn't you??? I guarantee you'll be glad you did and so will many of the others. Out of ALL the people who worked on the project, only one passed on the peanut M&M's.

You quickly chomp down some M&M's, open your audio application, and the adrenaline starts pounding.

Easy Does It

You're at a world-class studio in one of the three big music cities, so chances are pretty good that the house engineer or assistant will already be setup for the session. They're familiar with the talent. They have the best mics and pre-amps that money can buy. In our case, we used a C12 for most of the overdubs. Another cool thing about working with such skilled musicians: they'll actually tell you if they want the mic or its position changed. They may even change it themselves. These folks know how to work a mic! Don't bother trying to coach them.

It's your job to make sure all is well, but you'll likely just make a mental 'checkmark' and get on with the session.

Always set up your rig in the way that makes the most sense to the artist. The goal is to optimize around the artist, not the recorder. Repeat after me...

Enough with the chatter... let's get to the point of the matter.

Monitor Mix

A PC DAW is a powerful tool, but instantaneous cue mix adjustments are better left to a 'real' hardware mixer. Track levels may need to be adjusted up or down, panned left or right, or a vocalist may want to hear more or less reverb. Plus, once you are recording, many audio applications don't allow mix parameters to be adjusted until recording has stopped. The solution is two-fold: 'Mult' (split) the signal coming off the mic pre-amp so it can be routed to the PC DAW (for recording) and also to the house console (for monitoring).

Use an audio card with at least 8 outputs. This way, each track can be adjusted individually for the cue mix. This is VERY important when tracking or stacking vocals!!! Don't try to use a stereo card in this scenario. It'll hamper the cue mix going to the performers, and they'll likely not perform their best. Or even worse, they may simply refuse to work in such a manner.

Again, your job is to be invisible. This scenario allows your PC DAW to seamlessly integrate into the existing studio, without mucking with the comfort-zone of the talent. Whenever you're facing a choice between the technically correct solution and the solution that makes the most sense to the artist, err on the side of the artist.

Technical Coordination

In this situation, your job is more of a Technical Coordinator than simply an audio engineer. If a technical problem pops up, it's your responsibility to provide a solution and keep the session moving. Have an open mind to helpful suggestions, but know when to halt activities that aren't productive. You must be alert at all times. That's part of what makes the experience challenging and exciting!

Ego's gotta go Check your ego at the door. Instead of butting heads with the house engineer, work together as a team. The house engineer will likely be a very talented individual and have a working rapport with the local talent. In our case the house engineer had logged so many hours with the performers he could tell at a glance when they were ready to 'put it into the red' - or when something was wrong. Performers can be temperamental beasts, so take advantage of this established relationship.

Drink it in When you get a spare moment, take a break and realize what you've accomplished. In our case, we had just finished recording an incredible female gospel singer. During recording, everybody in the control room had tingles up and down their spines. We were not only witnessing perhaps one of the greatest vocalists in the world, but recording her at that moment. When the song was finished, Adrienne (my wife) walked up and asked me, "Do you realize that YOU were the one capturing that performance?" As strange as this sounds, I paused for a moment and then it really hit me. WOW! This is the whole reason why we get involved with recording in the first place: documenting a moment in time. This is what I call being ALIVE!!! You can damn near feel the electricity flowing through your veins.

That's a wrap After several long days of recording, the session is finished. You're worn out, a little wiser, a little older and grayer, and a bit hungry. Time to munch down some of the remaining peanut M&M's and hit the road. Hopefully, everyone involved will feel a unanimous 'job well done.'