 This is a phrase I heard more than a few times during the "Soup To Nuts" A Cappella recording seminar put on each summer by Deke Sharon and myself. It's sad in a way how just one little piece of information here or a small concept there can make someone look back on a difficult experience, slap their forehead and say:
"If I had just known that one little thing back then, I would have saved many sleepless nights!"
Besides sleepless nights, the other endings to that sentence included unnecessary cost overruns, strains on relationships (both within and outside the group) lower quality of final product, and many other things.
Of course, no one can know everything that will lay before them in any situation, but I far too often have seen people go into this process on their own with absolutely no preparation. There is no reason to re-invent the wheel each time before starting your own project!
Learning from and building on the experiences of your peers will help you immensely. Learning from and avoiding the mistakes that they made are even MORE valuable! I see the same costly mistakes being made over and over and over again, and had each group known just a few of these beforehand, they would have made a much better album with a lot less stress and for a lot less money!
Where you get this information doesn't matter, just make sure you learn as much as you can before you hit that "record" button - starting off on the wrong foot will just complicate things more down the road, spiraling out of control and eventually resulting in that dreaded "2.3" score from RARB after all of your hard work!
Many of these pitfalls, as well as tips and occasional nuggets of wisdom can be found in other installments of this blog, as well as Freddie Feldman's blog on this site. Take the time to read through all of them. I'll wait...
OK, read them all? Good! Next, ask other groups in your area (provided you LIKE the way their albums sound) to give you the benefit of their experiences, both good and bad. They might have great suggestions of places to set up your stuff and record (dude, the basement of Dorm X is awesome - totally quiet and you can work all night without anyone complaining!), and might even help you get started for your first few sessions - can't hurt to ask. Ask questions in the various A Cappella online forums as well - that's what they are there for.
For those really serious about arming themselves with as much experience as possible, there are a few seminars out there devoted to the specific art of A Cappella recording. While they do cost what looks like a significant amount of money up front (usually $500 to $1000), the amount of money, time, and heartache they can save on the back end can be MUCH more significant!
For more information on seminars, you can check out the one that Deke and I recently put on in California at http://www.dyz.com/seminar07
There is also a yearly seminar put on by the group Transit in North Carolina:
http://www.recordosaur.us/
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