a day in the recording studio
MAY 31, 2026
diary
Today, I got to sing for a studio recording! My wonderful friend Claire, who is a talented musician,1 is recording an album and invited me to sing harmonies on some of the songs.
We recorded two of Claire's songs ("Leaving Utopia" and "Lift High the Muse", for those in the know). She sent me the harmonies about a week in advance, and I spent a couple of hours learning them at my aunt's house in Korea. After a flight back to the Bay and a huge fight with jet lag (this involved a day where I slept for 20 hours, yes I am still losing), I found myself parking in front of the studio.
he studio was tucked in this side alleyway? hallway? in a stout building that looked like it could have been a sanatorium, which made the contrast with the warm wooden floors and soft foam all the more jarring. But there is a reason for the intimidating exterior — according to the audio engineer working with us, most of the muffling (isolation) comes from the thick concrete walls.
The recording studio had a couple of other quirks. First, there was a room inside a room that they had built for some clients who needed some really crazy soundproofing. The whole room in a room was lifted off of the floor, because otherwise, they'd pick up the sound of medicine balls hitting the floor at the gym across the street. Also, the studio had something like a million doors, which was funny. They're there for more isolation — same idea as double-layered windows for insulation — but I couldn't help but feel like Pomni walking through the infinite door hallway in The Amazing Digital Circus.
door door door door
It works; the soundproofing really is good. About halfway through our booked time, a jazz band came in to rehearse, and you could not hear them at all in the recording room.2
Also, there were these cool wooden things that diffuse sound waves:
oh it's literally just called a sound diffuser
Previously, studio recording was in the category of "things I want to try but like, what does it even look like???", so it was nice to learn the general gist of things. There's a room where you actually recording (that's where the microphones and headphones are) and a room where you get to listen to whoever is currently recording (the control room with all the speakers and wires and whatnot). The audio engineer (yes, there is one, I don't know why I thought there would just be like, no one there???) helps you set up all the equipment beforehand, and plays you the backing music/metronome/whatever else you need.
Studio recording takes some getting used to. For example, when you're recording, you listen to all the other parts in the headphones. You get a panel with a bunch of dials, which you can use to adjust how loudly each of the parts plays in your headphones; for me, I had separate knobs for Claire's lead vocals, Claire's boyfriend Ian's guitar part, and my own voice. It took me a bit to realize that if you are singing harmonies, it is important to make sure you can hear yourself clearly! I had several runs where the volume of the lead vocals threw me off. When it was too loud, I couldn't hear myself and pick out the pitches of the harmony. When it was too quiet, I couldn't match the rhythm/phrasing of the lead vocals properly.
Also, recording was generally nerve-inducing. It difficult to breathe properly (you know, kind of important for singing), so I would choke on notes and carry a lot of tension in my throat. There were many false starts. But we did get there eventually, after a lot of repetitions. It helped to make a lot of weird noises throughout, as a warm-up and also as a tension reliever. If I had already made a bunch of dumb noises, it didn't matter if I flubbed all the notes, you know?
It was also helpful to have a competent audio engineer who was able to pinpoint what the problems were. For example, I thought the false starts were just a Skill Issue on my part, something about being unable to pick out the starting pitch due to nerves. But the problem was actually something else! I had learned my part off of some voice notes Claire had sent me, and in the process, I had overfit to the particular entrance timings in those recordings. The engineer pointed it out to me and added a click track, and that basically solved the problem.
When we were all done, the engineer made a couple of adjustments, and we got to hear the songs. They sounded so good! Afterward, Claire and Ian got me lunch — Claire quoted my own post about buying friends food so, I mean, I couldn't refuse — and we got to chat and catch up for a while.
What a good day in the recording studio. I'll be back!
Thanks to Claire and Ian for a wonderful day!