After all the hard work of writing and performing your music, no one would blame you for thinking you’re finished. But you’re not! You’ve just entered the production stage…
This series of 3 posts will discuss the three parts of the music production process:
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Digital recording
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Mixing
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Mastering
So let’s get on with it…
We’ll start with 2 questions:
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What does the recording process entail?
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How should we prepare effectively for it?
The Music Recording Process
Here the sound engineer captures the raw tracks that will eventually make up your masterpiece.
The the main purpose of the recording session is to track your music with the highest possible quality. This gives the recording engineer the best possible “raw materials” from which to craft your final product.
Inside the music recording studio, the sound engineer
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takes care to capture the sound of your instrument or voice as cleanly and accurately as possible
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If you’re recording in a smaller music studio, the engineer may also help by coaxing out a better performance, suggesting alternate takes, or even performing some of the instrumental parts or contributing to the arrangement
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For larger-scale productions, you’ll probably have session musicians, arrangers, and producers filling these roles
Whatever the scope of the project, your job is to deliver your best possible performance.
That means arriving at the studio well prepared, with instruments and yourself(!) in top condition.
Your rehearsal time should all be past. In the studio, time is money, so lack of preparation which leads to on-the-fly arranging wastes time and costs money.
Keep your ego well in check, too. You may need it for a great performance, but remember, when the engineer or producer seems to be nit-picking, they are just doing their job to help you get the best results.
Assuming you’re not aiming for an authentic “live” sound, your arrangement will be recorded in separate parts, with each part added to the previous one.
The rhythm section – drums, bass, and rhythm guitar – may be recorded together so a real groove can be achieved throughout the piece.
This provides a real foundation for the singers and soloists to build on.
When it’s your turn, give it all you’ve got. You may fluff a couple of notes, which can require several takes to get it down, but a good studio engineer can fix bad notes and patch together a “perfect” track from several not-quite-perfect takes.
Time Keeping
How long can it take to record a three-minute song? You’d be surprised… Even when recording live, it can take several takes to nail the groove. So with time between takes to listen, assess, tune, and try again, it all adds up.
When you’re constructing a piece made up of basic tracks plus overdubs, this process is compounded. An hour’s recording time per minute of finished song is not unusual!
Being well rehearsed keeps this time to a minimum. But don’t try to break speed records during the music recording process, or you more likely to take much longer as you repeatedly stop to correct mistakes!
What’s next?
After the bread and butter recording sessions are complete, it’s time to get creative! Our next article discusses the mixing process, where raw tracks are blended and prepared into a tasty sonic supper!