Great link there Light, some very sound advice on there - been down a few of those pitfalls before over the years including the whole band getting totally wasted in the studio (the recording sounded exactly like a load of drunk guys messing about) and bringing a load of girls in - terrible idea because they got bored quickly and we got ultra self-conscious, not very good for the mojo. I also recently went with an engineer who wasnt into the music I liked at all, the guy hated metal - the result was the most expensive yet sorriest sounding track I've ever done... ('Epiphany studio mix' in my sig file) - the guy was into folk music and 80's electro and had zero clue about how to create a guitar sound. I thought it would be great becuase he worked with some really big bands including Snow Patrol but it ended up being a complete disaster. Another mistake I am almost always guilty of is of not atually having the track finished when I go in so I end up writing half the arrangement there as its being recorded and have to improvise and jam the solos (pretty much the case on all of my studio tracks except the aforementioned 'Epiphany') - unless you're good at working on the fly that could be the worst mistake ever, luckily for me I work best under pressure!