Plan Your Life

Live Your Plan

By Roger Nichols

In many situations you must have some sort of formulated plan before you embark on a particular task. SCUBA diving and flying an airplane immediately come to mind. By applying some of these procedures to recording projects you can avoid potentially hazardous situations.

SCUBA Diving

I have been a SCUBA diving since 1965 and an instructor since 1975. 100% of the students I have certified and I have enjoyed a perfect safety record. Even when faced with a spur-of-the-moment decision to go get some lobsters, there is always enough time to plan the dive properly. A call to the local dive shop will get most of the information you need.

Pre-planning a dive is done well in advance. You choose a primary destination, check on outside influences that may be out of your control (like the tides and weather), ascertain the difficulty of the dive (water temperature, depth, and visibility), determine the correct time and place to start the dive, the duration of the dive, the amount of air you will have available including reserve, the necessity of a safety stop on ascent with extra tanks waiting, and procedures in case of an emergency.

When you get down to the dive site you perform one last visual check to make sure everything is ok. Air on, take a breath from the regulator, mask in place, weather still ok, the water looks good, your buddy’s gear is good-to-go, check your watch, and off you go into that wild blue under.

Flying

I grew up flying with my father and my brother. I have been a pilot since 1960. A telephone call to a Flight Service Station gets you all of the weather forecast information for the departure point, the destination, and the route between them.

Pre-planning a flight is done well in advance. The destination is chosen, trends in outside influences are taken into consideration (weather at departure and destination airports from before the start until well after the end of the flight in case of delays), the difficulty of the flight (night flight, mountain flying, over-water flights, long duration flights), determine an alternate time to start and an alternate place to end the flight, the duration of the flight, the amount of fuel you will have available including reserve, the necessity of a refueling stop en-route planned in advance, and procedures in case of emergency.

Always think ahead with “what-if” situational awareness. Is the airport still going to be open where you were planning a fuel stop? Will the weather still be good enough to land at my final destination? When you have finished planning your route, your time of departure, how long it will take, and how much fuel you will need, and who is going with you, you file a flight plan announcing your intentions

Before you take off, you thoroughly check the airplane based on a printed checklist. You make sure everything is in working order, check the amount of fuel with a dipstick, start the plane, activate your flight plan, and taxi to the runway. Another checklist has you checking all systems in the plane just prior to takeoff. You’re cleared for takeoff, you check your watch, and off you go into that wild blue yonder.

Recording

 Plan the project or session well in advance, consider outside influences that need to be taken into consideration (session cancellation, change of recording medium, number of microphones available), the difficulty of the project (big string date, large choir, drums and vocals in the same room), determine an alternate time to start and an alternate location for the project, duration of the project, the amount of tape/disc space including reserve, the necessity of obtaining additional supplies in the middle of the project, and procedures in case of emergency.

I grew up recording bands in small lounges attached to bowling alleys and in my parents’ living room around 1961. I always tried to anticipate what was needed so that as little as possible detracted from the music portion of the recording. Read the equipment manuals and ask questions in on-line forums to learn what to do in different situations. Make sure that the session is happening as planned and there are no last minute changes in setup, recording equipment needed, start time and length of the session.

Write down thoughts as you plan your project. Use a large dry-erase planning board, a legal pad, a form designed for planning at your facility, or a word processing program on your computer. Any documentation you have from one session will help in all subsequent sessions. You can never keep too many notes.

Try to think ahead with “what-if” situational awareness. Do you have access to a spare recorder? Do you have enough tape to record everything that needs to be recorded? If the session is delayed will it effect the next session? When you have finished all of the contingency plans, check for the availability of backup gear and call up the assistants and update them and make sure they will be there on time.

Before you start the session, make sure you check the recording device. If it is a tape machine, put in a blank tape, record on it and play it back. If it is a hard disk recorder, make sure you have enough space, open up a new session, record on the drive and play it back. Check all of the microphones, make sure the piano is in tune, food is in the lounge, and the air conditioning works. You’re ready to roll tape, you check your watch, and off you go into that wild blues project.