09:30 — the room is already warm

We set up before you arrive. Microphones are positioned, gain is set from a rough voice check, and the headphone mix is built so each person hears themselves at a level they can talk over. That takes forty minutes and it is the difference between a session that starts at ten and one that starts at eleven.

10:00 — levels, then a throwaway take

Everybody reads something they do not care about. It settles voices, it exposes a rattling chair, and it gives the engineer a real reference instead of a polite one.

10:20 — record

Most shows get their best forty minutes between the twenty-minute mark and the seventy-minute mark. We plan the running order around that rather than fighting it.

13:00 — break, and a listen-back

Ten minutes of playback while people eat. It is the only point where a re-record is cheap, so we use it.

16:30 — you leave with the files

Multitracks and a flat stereo mix go to you the same evening. The edit starts the next working morning.