Alright calm down. You just had your system shocked by the fact that you don't even feel like your remotely close to nailing the major labels studio sound that you thought you were actually closer to. I know I've went through this a million times. I'll lose sleep and feel totally stressed out because I can't a recording to sound as good as I want it to. There are a number of other things that trigger this senseless anxiety. Here are a few tips to remember when struggling with recording.

Take Your Time

Remember that this recording quest is a long road. Most of the big boys are old. In other words, they were serving coffee to rock stars back in 1982. So now they have gray hair if they have any hair at all. The recording engineers have been recording longer than the average home recording enthusiast has been alive. They have an experience edge that is way over your head. In fact, it totally destroys the 3 projects you've done. Even if you've recorded 60 projects in an ideal space you simply do not have the experience that the big boys do. So be patient and continue to work to get better. Comparing your work to the best is not always the best move. It can be, but don't let your emotions get the best of you.

Imagine The $$ Involved in a Huge Recording

Remember the budget that goes into making a mega recording. You have the best rooms on the planet, the best mics, the best preamps, the best engineers, the best musicians, the best producerse and maybe even the best songs. When you combine all of these factors, it's easy to understand why the big recordings probably sound better than many of your home recording attempts. Just factor in the cost of all these. It will add up to be well over millions of dollars. So keep yourself grounded. Be realistic about your expectations.

Imagine The Talent Involved

I kind of touched upon this in the above paragraph. The big boys are recording tremendous musicians who make a damn good living in most cases playing their instrument. Many times these big boy recording guys have a truck load of guitar amps. In fact, I've read about a handful of engineers who own semis that they take to their big recording gigs. These tractor trailer rigs are filled with drums, amps, etc. The odds are strong that the average drummer you record doesn't know anything about tuning a drum set, let along actually playing it.

What about your Studio?

Does you studio look like the studios you see in the magazines? Why not? Obviously, a studio doesn't necessarily have to look like the studios in magazines, but it does need to sound like the studios in the magazines. If your rooms don't sound magical, how do you expect your recordings to be magical? Think about it. Don't expect more from yourself than you do your rooms. If you've read any of my articles, you know that the source makes the biggest effect on the recording. The room is part of the source. So if you have a $5,000 studio drum kit and you are putting in a crappy room, you are severely penalizing that drum set. If you could put a cheaper drum set in a great room, you'd see much better results.

In the end, you must push yourself enough to get better, but don't push yourself so hard that it actually pushes you backwards. Take your time. Record the best bands with the best instruments that you possibly can. You may even want to record the best band with the best gear extra cheap to get your name on a project that sounds pretty good. Then the crappy band with more money can pay you bigger bucks. Either way, do your best. If you make a mistake, fix it the best you can and move on. There are plenty of projects out there. I caught myself stressing out over the way a project sounds. It doesn't sound like a million dollar production and can't figure out why. Well, it's 16 year old kids that are just figuring out how to play. I started laughing because I was stressed about this project, yet I'm working with 10 different bands in the next 4 weeks. I think I have plenty of chances to get it right.