Tips that will save you time and money.
Who's driving this bus anyway.
Are
You Ready for the Studio?
Tips that will save you time and money.
By Neil Meckelborg
Many
artists don't really know what to expect when they first utter the phrase,
"Lets record an album." It involves a lot more than playing
ten songs a few times each and going home with a shiny new CD. Depending
on the style of music you're recording, the sound you're after, and the
budget you have to work with, it could take anywhere from a few days to
several months to complete an album project. The first thing you need
to do is to make sure your songs are REALLY ready. Although you may think
your songs are sounding great and you're ready to rock, you may discover
little problems once you get into the studio. For example, perhaps you
will discover that your bass player plays an E note while your guitar
player plays an F. Perhaps you've even noticed that it always sounded
kinda funny at that spot, but not bad enough to stop playing. Once you
start recording, these little things that tend to go unnoticed can jump
out at you and cost you a lot of extra time (and money). This is why pre-production
is so important.
Pre-production takes place before you head into the studio. One good way to pre-produce your songs is to borrow, rent or buy a 4 track recorder. Record the drums, bass, guitars, and vocals on separate tracks. Then listen to the bass with the drums. Check to make sure they're together and that the bass player is playing "with" the drummer, and not just playing in the same band as the drummer. The drums and bass are the foundation of all popular music, whether it be country or metal. Then listen to the bass and the guitars together. Make sure there aren't any of those spots where one instrument is going to an E, while another is going to F. Check the vocal with the guitar, bass and drums individually. They should all work with each other. Now you're ready to record.
While the recording studio can be a blast, it can also be an intimidating environment if you're new to it. When you're practicing in the basement, you can't always hear everything at once, and mistakes often go unnoticed. When you're playing live, the show runs more on adrenaline than concentration. In the studio, mistakes can take you by surprise. Most little mistakes can easily be fixed by "punching-in" the right note. But, the most important thing to remember is to relax and concentrate more on the groove. Singers are especially vulnerable in the studio - (I know, I'm a singer). My first time recording in a studio was a humbling experience! I was in a band that was doing great as a live act and I began to consider myself a pretty good singer! When we went into the studio, all those flat notes and mumbled lyrics came back to haunt me. I remember thinking, "jeez, that rocks when we play live, but this sounds terrible!" It took me a few sessions to get the hang of being a "studio" singer.
For the purpose of discussing the recording process, I'm going to use a rock band as an example. Many of my clients are rock groups and this same formula is used for most "pop" music, from metal to blues or folk to country. Generally you start by recording the "beds" (drums and bass). As mentioned earlier, these instruments are the musical foundation of the song and the first instruments to be placed under the microscope. This usually involves the entire band playing in the studio and being recorded "live off the floor". However, the main instruments you need to concentrate on are the drums and bass. Depending upon the band and the ability of the players, the other instruments may be recorded as "keeper" or "scratch" tracks. It may take quite a few takes before you get what you're after - especially since players often feel more relaxed after playing through the song a few times. The drums are almost always recorded in a single pass (no overdubs) because the cymbals will ring out so long. Also, "punch-ins" seldom work on drum tracks because the sound is continuous from beginning to end. The only exception to this rule may happen if there is an audible break in the song, or if the drums cut out for a section. The drummer has a lot to concentrate on. He or she needs to be consistent in tempo, volume, and feel before you have a "keeper".
The bass is the next instrument to go under the microscope. If the bass part that was played along with the drums isn't quite a keeper, you can still keep the drums, and either "punch-in" rough spots or re-record the entire bass track. This is commonly done, and many players prefer to record their tracks in this way since it allows them to concentrate more on their own part. Once the bass and drums are done, and you are happy with how the two parts work together, you are ready to add rhythm guitars followed by keyboards. All these parts can be played along with the original "scratch" tracks for the sake of reference.
After you have all the instruments down, the vocals are most often the last thing to record. This can be a fairly painstaking and lengthy process. Aside from the expected problems (pitch, enunciation, etc.) you need to be aware of what has already been recorded, and what will go down next. Did the guitar player come up with a brilliant new lick during the chorus? Will it fit with the vocal melody? If the singer comes up with a brilliant new idea, will it work with the harmonies that the bass player has to sing next? It is important to keep all this in mind, otherwise, you could be backtracking later or wasting precious studio time trying to figuring out different parts. A very common studio trick for recording vocals (and believe me - most singers love it), is to "double-track" the vocals. This means singing the same line again on a different track and playing them back together. This can make a thin vocal sound THICK! For example, a lot of Led Zeppelin's vocal tracks are doubled. Background vocal tracks are almost always doubled.
So once you have your lead vocal tracks, followed by the background vocals and the guitar solo tracks recorded, your album is done...right?
WRONG! Once the tracks are all recorded, you begin the tedious process of editing and mixing. When you Edit, you clean up all those count-ins and fade outs and "fix" a few other things. A computer-based recording system such as "Cakewalk" or "Pro-tools" allows you to "fix" a lot! I emphasize the work "fix" because different people have different ideas about what should be fixed and what shouldn't. With a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) (aka: computer), you can change words, move words or phrases, fix pitch, fix almost anything. But this all takes time and time costs money. Too often, the editing phase can wind up taking a lot longer then you first thought which is why it's so important that you're satisfied with the tracks you've recorded. Even though modern technology allows you to copy your fist chorus and paste it in to all the choruses, it may still be wiser (and less expensive) to simply sing it again. That's why you should always exercise caution when using the phrase, "we'll just fix it in the mix". It could end up costing more in the long run.
When you think of the word "mix", think of it as being the decision part of the process. Personally, I find (as do many other engineers), that it is often best to only have one or two band members in the room while mixing. Otherwise it could become a battle of opinions and end up taking much longer than necessary. When most engineers mix a song, they listen to it on everything from a large set of speakers to an itty-bitty mono speaker. This is because an important part of mixing is to ensure the songs sound great on everything from a large house system to a "mono" am car radio. Mixing can take anywhere from one to 10 hours per song. Again, It depends on how picky you want to get and what you've budgeted for. Often, before settling on a final mix, it is wise to take a few tapes home, listen to them on a variety of different stereo systems, then come back the following day to make any changes.
Once the mixing process is complete, the album is ready to be mastered. This is the one aspect of recording that people seem know the least about. Mastering is the process in which you take all the songs, put them in the right order, insure consistent audio levels, EQ and compression, clean up any unwanted frequencies, insure the right amount of silence between cuts and have it all sound great on your ghetto blaster. It can be a tricky part of the job. With mastering, the end goal is to try and make the album as loud and as good as any thing else on the radio. After all, your CD is competing with thousands of other CD's made by major label artists. Mastering can make (or break) a project.
Now you recording experience is complete. You leave the studio with that shiny new master CD to take to the CD manufacturer....and the printer....then to the record stores....and the radio stations.......but that's another story.