If you are doing a multitrack session, you will need headphones (with a large-style 1/4" jack) to monitor your performance. For a variety of reasons, including hygiene, we do not provide headphones.

For best results closed style headphones that seal out outside noise are suggested.

You can get acceptable headphones for this purpose for under $30: headphone.com
Other good choices for headphones that block outside noise may be BeyerDynamic DT-770, or Direct Sound EX-25 or EX-29 isolating headphones.

Be early!

The material you want to record should be well rehearsed, and you should know what songs and what order you want to work on them. Have all the musical and vocal parts worked out. (Know your solos!) Rehearse more songs than you plan to record. Expect to record about 4 songs during an evening session.

Bring a song and lyric sheet for the recording engineer to use during mix down.

Install fresh strings and drumheads a few days before the session so they sound fresh but have had a little time to settle into tune. Brand-new stings and drumheads tend to stretch and may not stay tuned.

Bring any spare parts (extra strings, batteries, cables, picks, drumsticks etc) that you may need. Resolve any problems with rattles, buzzing, noisy amps or cords before recording.

Don't use unfamiliar or new gear that you haven't used before.

The better your instrument sounds, the better it will sound when recorded.

Check your tuning before each song. Tuning is very important, and exact tuning will make a big difference in your recording.

The better your room sounds, the easier it will be to get great results on the recording. Rooms almost always sound more lively through the microphone than they do to our ear due to the ear-brain magic in our heads.

Ideally your room should be large and comfortable, irregularly shaped with ample soft surfaces like carpeting and stuffed furniture to help dampen and diffuse sound. Hanging some heavy curtains or blankets on the walls, or better yet just a few inches from the walls, can often make a big difference in lively sounding rooms. For example, a blanket backdrop behind a drumkit will give the kit a tighter and more focused sound.

Turn off any distracting noise like telephones, fans, and noisy heat/air conditioning systems while recording.

Be well rested so you don't go into the session tired. Make sure your space has enough room to work, comfortable lighting, seating, and no distracting noises. Have some drinks and snacks available. Singers: don't use ice! Ice constricts vocal cords. Hot tea is a better and popular choice.

This is how most people will listen to your music, and monitoring at very loud levels will fatigue your ears and not reveal the "true" sound due to the ear-brain Fletcher-Munson curve. Monitoring at high levels also often causes singers to sing flat (off-key).

Don't play any louder than necessary, generally if the band plays quieter there is better channel separation resulting in a cleaner more accurate sounding recording.

It is important to go over your songs with the engineer to make sure that he understands the type of sound you are going for. Communication during the session between yourself and the engineer is very important to getting the results you want and to keeping everyone comfortable during the recording. Bringing a sample of a recording that has a sound you like can help communicate the kind of mix you are looking for.

Make sure the engineer understands all the instruments you are planning on using, so there are no surprises during the recording process.

Have a set list and lyric sheets available for the engineer so he can easily follow and document your performance.

Recording is highly focused work, and it is not a good time for an audience, and not a good time to party.

Turn off the phone, clear out the space and remove all non-working people, and all other distractions. Non-working friends at the session will distract you, slow down the process, and cost you money.

Usually the closer to the source that something can be fixed, the better the result.

Don't brush off problems thinking that they can be fixed in the mix later.

Usually less effect sounds better than more. Use distortion, reverb, etc sparingly, even if you are playing metal music.

It's hard to make a balanced, good sounding mix with instruments that are compressed and crunchy sounding.

Marketing folks love to categorize. If your style is grunge-metal and bluegrass, you will likely be considered undeveloped and unmarketable rather than versatile. Focus your marketing on your strongest material.

Less than awesome vocals is the downfall of many good bands. Memorable lyrics with a good hook and killer vocal sound are critical to success. Good isn't good enough. Do what is needed to get truly awesome vocals.

It's better to sing excellently within a narrow range, than to push for range that is a bit outside of one's ability to sing well.

Almost EVERY time when a band complains of poor stage monitoring or poor sound, it's caused by excessive stage volume.

It may feel unnatural, but quiet stage volume is one of the big keys to having a great sounding show. Before playing live, a few practice sessions at very low volume levels will probably help your show.

A common source of band vs soundman friction is caused because the sound engineer asks the band to play with low(er) stage volume, but the band is familiar with playing at high SPL levels, or uses powerful amplifiers that don't sound their best until they are quite loud.

Soundguys often ask musicans to turn down so they can deliver a good sounding show but some players refuse, fake turning down, make insignificant adjustments, or crank back up 30 seconds later. It doesn't fool the soundguy who is watching level on the meters, if you want to sabatoge your show, it's your choice. As a soundguy, I resist asking musicians to change level or adjust how they play. But, if I do ask, it's because I feel that a significant adjustment is needed to deliver a great performance.

Some bands don't trust the soundguy, and figure if they play loud there is less for him to screw up (he can't turn me down too low). What really happens is you take away the tools he needs to do a good job for you, your show won't sound it's best. A great sounding show is really dependant upon an attentive and talented sound engineer, it's best to give him a chance by giving him clean signals he can mix. No soundguy can deliver a clean sounding and powerful show when all he has to work with is muddy overloaded sound from stage.

Your soundguy is a pretty important part of your performance, so it helps to be nice, friendly, and offer to buy him a beer or bribe him with a jackson to pay some special attention to your mix. If he doesn't butcher your performance, it's also a nice gesture to shout-out and thank the soundguy on your final set. Many soundguys work hard, carry a lot of heavy gear and often don't get a lot of love.

Although it can be a rush to play at powerful levels, you should be able to have a conversation on stage without screaming while playing. If you have to yell to other while playing, you are too loud. You'll notice that many mature top-tier touring acts can talk to each other on stage without effort, even though the house sound may be extremely loud.

Here is why the soundman is asking for moderate stage levels:

Mix Balance -- Stage level must be significantly below the PA level so the engineer can properly balance the sound levels of instruments. If a stage instrument is louder than the PA, all the soundman can do is try to either match level to it, or allow that one instrument to drown out the rest of the band. In these cases, the mix never sounds as good as it could.

Feedback -- When the stage level is so high you can't hear the monitor wedges, the band asks for more monitor. There is only so much gain available before the monitor system becomes unstable and feedback occurs. Most of the time you do not need more monitor, you need lower stage volume.

Muddy Mix -- When the mics on stage (vocal or instrument) start hearing loud background noise on stage, it creates a muddy mix and the sound engineer has little control when vocal mics are picking up loud guitar noise (etc). Mics are not smart, they hear any sounds around them, and the engineer has no way of filtering out background noises that the mics hear. This muddy stage noise picked up by the vocal mics also comes back though the stage monitors, making the onstage noise background even worse. Some bands believe that a "good" engineer can handle high stage volumes. This is simply untrue, there is no way for anyone to make a clean mix without clean signals.

Screeching Amps -- A cranked 100 watt guitar amp can overpower a powerful PA system, and it simply ruins the show. Audiences want a rich balanced mix, and would rather hear a balanced mix with thin guitar than one with overpowering guitar, even if it has great tone. If the amplifier will not deliver a rich sounding tone when played quietly, it's probably not a practical choice for small shows. Although it's cool to show off your Marshall full stack, the non-musicians in the audience really doesn't know or care about gear, and unless you are doing really big arena or outdoor shows lugging that monster stack around isn't helping your show or your back.

Uneven coverage -- Guitar amps are often quite directional. In many stage setups the guitar amps are facing the audience blowing sound at the performers knees. Placing the amp at the front or side of the stage, or on a stand angled so it points up at the performers ears rather than pointing into the audience, often helps the performer(s) hear the instrument more clearly with less sound spill into the audience or microphones. The thin slice of audience directly in front of the amp gets just nailed, while the audience to the side doesn't hear enough guitar. It works better when the guitar sound is carried through the PA speakers, because they are designed for even audience coverage.

Bad sounding instruments -- When the audience hears a lot of guitar sound from both an on-stage amplifier and the PA system, there is a small acoustical time-delay between the sounds from the guitar amp and the PA. This is because sound travels somewhat slowly and the distance from the listener to the PA speaker and the guitar amp differ. The sounds arrive at the listener at different times. This creates a smeary, muddy bad sounding guitar. Guitar amps on stage should be quiet enough that the audience does not hear them, they should exist only to provide some stage monitoring for the musician and a signal source for the PA.

Don't be fooled -- When you see touring bands with many huge amp stacks on stage, be assured that it's probably just for decoration. In reality likely only one of those cabinets is actually plugged in, playing at moderate level. Most of those cabinets probably don't even have speakers in them.

Likewise, needlessly playing drums with godzilla force just wears out heads, breaks stuff and helps start the on-stage volume war between musicians. But, there are points for playing with excellent timing, finesse, and dynamics.

You do need to play loud enough for good groove, and so you can hear your instrument, but excess stage volume almost always hurts the performance. If you can't hear the stage monitors, you probably don't really need more monitor - you need lower stage levels.

Moderate stage volume helps give you better monitoring, great clean FOH sound, a more enjoyable show, and this results in more gigs.

For vocal microphones, place the microphone about one fistful away from your mouth. Make a fist and touch your index finger to your lips, and touch the microphone to the pinky finger at the bottom of your fist. Maintain this distance, and add a few more inches for brief moments when you are really belting out vocals. Sing closely into the microphone to help prevent feedback.

Use a stand or hold the mic properly gripping it's body, away from the head/element, for proper sound and feedback rejection.

DO NOT cup the microphone head, it will distort the sound and make the PA system more likely to feedback. Most vocal mics reject sound coming from the rear (cardoid pattern), so make sure the cable on the bottom of the mic points right down toward the stage monitor to help prevent feedback.

DO NOT handle microphones (or other equipment) by it's cable, DO NOT drop microphones, NEVER unplug microphones or DI boxes without approval from the soundman. These actions may cause equipment damage.

Do not involve the audience in your musical or technical issues.

Don't discuss band or sound issues over the PA.
Don't apologize to the audience for band problems.
It's not cool to ask the audience 'How are we sounding out there?', it makes you look like the show is not in control. Most of the time the audience things everything is fine, until you start making an issue.

If you are communicating with just one person, a PA system isn't needed, and it's best to do private conversations off-mic.

When playing live, be on-time, know your set list and move promptly through the songs.

Between songs do not noodle on instruments, or banter excessively on the mic. They came to hear your music, anything else often just detracts from your performance.

Live recordings sound better with an excited audience, so get as many people to the show as you can. Let them know beforehand that you are recording and you want to hear some applause.

If your soundperson asks the band to do something, it's probably because he is trying to give you the best sound possible so you can put on a great show - it's nothing personal.
A great show requires a team effort.