The Five Session Mistakes

You’ve saved up. You’ve booked the session. You’re finally going to capture your songs with professional gear in a focused environment.

Then the session ends, and you’re wondering where the time went.

Here’s the pattern I see repeatedly: most artists sabotage their sessions before they’ve even set up. The mistakes are preventable, but they compound quickly in a flat-rate environment where every minute matters.

Here are the five mistakes that will turn your session into wasted time, ranked by destructive potential.

1. Arriving Unprepared

This is the biggest session killer. Unpreparedness doesn’t mean you only rehearsed 47 times instead of 48. It means your band doesn’t know if the bridge repeats, the guitarist’s strings are years old, or the singer is still writing lyrics during the vocal take.

When your drummer asks “wait, do we do the chorus twice or three times?” two hours into a six-hour session, you’ve just turned studio time into a debate that should have happened for free at rehearsal.

The fix: Make arrangement decisions before you arrive. Rehearse with a click track if the song requires tight timing. If there’s a guitar solo, know where it goes and how long it lasts.

Tune your instruments before you arrive. Fresh strings. New drumheads. Backup cables. Read the Preparedness and Expectations information on the website because every question that could have been answered at band practice is time you’re setting on fire.

The studio clock doesn’t care about your creative journey or your artistic process. It just runs.

2. Scope Creep

Your session time is either three or six hours. Not “session time plus mastering plus a full remix plus marketing consultation.”

Some clients arrive expecting that $225 buys them a radio-ready master, a TikTok strategy, and distribution to 47 countries. Then they’re surprised when the session delivers what was actually purchased: tracking, production assistance, and a pre-mastered mix.

The fix: Read the Services page and New Client Information before the session. If mastering costs extra—and it does—budget for it separately. If you want behind-the-scenes video content, hire a videographer before the session, not during.

A session delivers professionally tracked recordings, production assistance, and a mix. That’s it. It does not include: finished album production, marketing plans, Spotify playlist placement, distribution strategy, or emotional support when you realize your band name is already taken.

3. Chasing the Perfect Snare Sound

Picture this: we’re 90 minutes deep, and someone has tried five different snares, seven tunings, three mic placements, and is now suggesting we “maybe sample a trash can” because they heard that Radiohead did it once.

The studio clock is running. Your singer’s vocal cords are aging. The creative energy that should be fueling actual music is being sacrificed to a drum sound that nobody listening on their phone speakers will care about.

The fix: Good enough is good enough when it preserves the session’s energy.

If the snare sounds 85% right in 15 minutes, we’re moving on. That remaining 15% improvement is not worth sacrificing your guitar tracking time, your vocal takes, or the momentum of the session.

Professional records aren’t made by obsessing over whether the snare needs “more punch” or “less ring.” They’re made by capturing cohesive performances with momentum and energy.

Trust your engineer to get a professional sound quickly, commit to it, and keep moving. Perfectionism in one area creates catastrophic compromise everywhere else.

4. No Demo or Reference Tracks Submitted

You arrive. I ask “what are we going for sonically?” You respond with: “Kind of indie but with some folk vibes, you know? Like if Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver had a baby, but the baby was raised by wolves who only listened to shoegaze.”

I don’t know what that means. I can’t read your mind.

Arriving without a demo means we’re starting the session with 30 minutes of sonic archaeology that should have happened before you handed me money.

The fix: Send a rough demo and three reference tracks one week before the session.

The demo doesn’t need to be good—it can sound like it was recorded on a potato in a windstorm. It just needs to show structure, tempo, and instrumentation. Reference tracks tell me what you want the vocals to sound like, what you want the drums to sound like, and what sonic territory you’re aiming for.

This prep work allows me to choose the right microphones, set up the session template, and have a clear sonic target before you arrive. Those 30 saved minutes compound. That’s 30 minutes for the final vocal pass—the one that actually makes the track.

5. Arriving Compromised

You stumble through the door looking like you just auditioned for a zombie movie. You’re drunk, high, sleep-deprived, fighting the flu, or emotionally processing a breakup that happened 90 minutes ago via text message.

Your performance will be terrible. Your judgment will be worse. Hours of professional recording time will capture a diminished version of your ability.

I can’t fix a vocal take from someone who partied until 4 AM. I can’t rescue a guitar performance from someone whose immune system is losing a war. Auto-tune is powerful, but it’s not a time machine.

The fix: Treat the session like an athletic event. Sleep. Eat real food, not gas station energy drinks and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Don’t drink. Don’t do drugs. If you’re genuinely sick, reschedule. Losing a $225 deposit is cheaper than releasing recordings that sound like you’re singing from inside a garbage disposal.

Your mental state matters too. If you just got dumped or fired, maybe reschedule. Recording requires focus, energy, and emotional availability. Show up at your best or stay home.

Honorable Mentions

Technical failures: Dead batteries in pedals, forgotten essential gear. If you want an amp, shaker, tambourine, or electric bass, bring it.

Interpersonal drama: Band arguments erupting mid-session about who wrote what riff in 2019. I’m an engineer, not a couples therapist. Save it for the parking lot.

Decision paralysis: Endless debate about whether the hi-hat should be “slightly more open” or “slightly less open.” Just pick one.

The Pattern

Every mistake is preventable through preparation, communication, and showing up ready.

A three or six-hour session rewards the disciplined and punishes the unprepared. Show up ready, stay focused, trust the process, and you’ll leave with recordings that justify the investment. Show up scattered, and you’ll leave wondering where the hours went.

Now go tighten up that arrangement. Seriously.