Studio Workflow & Why it Matters

The Basics

Workflow is nothing more than a fancy word for the sequence of events or processes through which a project passes from conception to completion. In plain English, this simply means the pattern you follow when working ie. the flow of your work.

Having a workflow in place ensures that you work efficiently by maximising all your resources, the most important of which is not your collection of hardware or plugins – it’s actually TIME.

Time is of the essence in everything we do – we’re always looking to take the fastest routes when driving or spending the least amount of time when doing most of our daily tasks. So why not apply this to your work in the studio?

In the Studio

Believe it or not, you already have a workflow in place. The more we do the same task over and over again, the more we start to develop a pattern for how we approach that task. Now think about your last session and ask yourself a few basic, but fundamental questions:

• What was the first thing I did once the session was confirmed?
• How long did pre-production (or prep-work) take and how much did it contribute to the final product?
• Did the ‘office tasks’ and other non-musical tasks take away from my creative mindset?

Answering these questions as objectively as possible (along with any others more specific to your own circumstances) will help you determine what your current workflow is and how you can improve it.

In my case, when I was starting out as an engineer I noticed I was spending far too long dealing with administrative tasks such as logging session details, keeping my diary and notes tidy, making cool (but useless, as I have now realized) templates for my invoices, client agreements and more. Being a perfectionist, I would waste precious time while my creative juices were at their peak (during the first hour or so) on the stuff which had the least impact on the project. Of course you want present yourself in the best possible light to your clients, but think about it - If your creativity is at its peak in the first hour, wouldn’t it make sense to focus that energy on the music?

My solution was to automate the managerial tasks as much as possible. This in turn allowed me to focus more on the music and produce better sounding tracks, which is ultimately what matters the most.

Great! So how can I do that too?

I found Studio Assistant to be the tool to improve my workflow and manage my studio since it ticked all the right boxes:

• It took out all the stress of maintaining my notes, my sessions details and made staying in touch with my clients very easy to manage;
• It gave me an overview of all my activities in the studio;
• It helped me create and send quotes and invoices in a matter of seconds;

Better still, despite being skeptical at first, I have everything I need to run my day-to-day business in one place and not scattered in multiple browser tabs and other software to manage my file transfers, emails, invoice templates and reference tracks – I now have it in one place, which is great!

Studio Assistant helped me better define and streamline my processes. You can see for yourself if and how it fits in with your own workflow by checking out studioassistant.io and signing up for the waitlist!