Sean Russell Blog #1
The Recording Process –
Many people find it difficult to understand what happens during the recording process to create their ultimate 'masterpiece,' 'hit,' or even just their demo. As a recording engineer I am in a position to educate my clients, and I hope this article helps any recording artist, young or old.
Without getting too technical, the process is divided into four main sections. Preproduction, recording, mixing, and mastering.
1. Preproduction.
As the name suggests, this phase happens before anything is produced in the studio, it is a sort of “setting up” period. A professional producer’s involvement at this stage can be helpful, as a good producer will know which to studio to book, which session musicians to enlist, and have realistic expectations of time and know-how needed to create the best product possible.
A. With or without a producer, you’ll need to pick out the songs you plan on performing in advance and make sure you know their key and bpm (beats per minute – the tempo). It’s important that you know all the words and print out lyric sheets for each song for your engineer to follow and make notes on. Also, always be open to suggestions the professionals around you may make; while you don’t have to follow their advice, try to listen and keep an open mind.
B. Plan on it taking longer than you expect. Recording isn’t stepping in front of some microphones, doing your thing, and burning a CD. Be ready for lots of “Do it again,” and “Let’s go back to this part,” etc. A good engineer will record about a song or two a day, although this may differ based on your needs as an artist.
C. Buy your own Fire Wire hard drive for your sessions – this is key, as you need to have a reliable way to store and transport your sessions. While many studios may let you rent space on their hard drive, it is your music, life, and potential future income on this drive and you should trust only yourself to keep up with it!
D. Make a list of every input you’ll need to record and get it to your engineer before your session. If you’re in a band, make sure to list out the pieces of the drum set, and all other instruments, including vocals. If you’re singing to backing music tracks, make sure to have the tracks listed out so they’re ready to be imported (or put them on your hard drive!).
2. Recording/Tracking
With the help of your input list and lyric sheet, performances will be recorded and notated for the next phase – mixing. Recording involves getting as many takes of your music recorded as you need until you or your producer are satisfied. This is easily the most arduous aspect of the whole process – sometimes things can take longer than they seem like they should. Setting up microphones (and their cables, stands and pop filters) can take time. Getting drums tuned and sounding good can take time. Setting up headphone mixes can take time. Recording one line of a chorus over and over again to get that ‘perfect’ version can take time. It’s also important to take breaks and let your voice rest, or your will strain and have to re-schedule the studio time! (Also important to note for vocalists, while some studios provide amenities like food and drink, you should bring anything you know you may need to make your voice last as long as possible. If you need tea with honey, you should bring it along.) You should do everything in your power as a musician to make the recording quality as high-quality as possible.
AFTER all the pieces to your production have been recorded, typically a rough bounce (a recording with very little alteration) is cut to a CD for the artist to take home and listen to. The levels, many times, are not perfect, as there are MANY factors involved in making a mix sound good, let alone up to industry standards. Be aware that you are listening to the raw tracks. Typically, the purpose of the ‘rough mix’ is to make sure the tempos are correct, the notes are passable and the arrangement has been recorded as envisioned, and there are no ‘performance issues.’ This saves time later when suddenly ‘something’ isn’t right.
3. Mixing
MIXING SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN THE DAY YOU RECORD! Both for your sake and the engineer’s sake it’s important to go home and come back – almost without exception this is a fundamental every engineer will agree on. A sense of perspective is the biggest challenge to keep after you’ve been recording all day. Many times, engineers do not mix what they’ve recorded. Because everything lives on a FireWire drive, it’s easy to take to another studio for mixing.
Mixing is the assembling of all the ‘pieces’ blended together to create a balanced perspective or interpretation of your music. Tonal balances and depths are arranged and properly put into place. The ‘music’ is mixed or blended with any voices, and effects are added to provide more of a 3-D depth. Although there are no ‘rules,’ there are many standard guidelines, as our ears are quick to ‘judge’ the clarity and methods we are so familiar with in our favorite recordings. Your engineer should be familiar with these standards, so once again, be open to his or her ideas; they are professionals in this field, and know what sounds up to par.
Be patient with the process and don’t be discouraged if things seem disjointed at this stage. Mixing is a lot like cooking: your favorite dish at the restaurant down the street might not look right when you buy the ingredients at the store and spread them out on your counter, but a chef can come in and easily be able to whip up something wonderful. Your engineer in this case is the chef. He or she will take time to put the pieces together using whatever software he or she is comfortable with.
Once the mixing process is finished, your songs all have an individual flare, but remain aware that each song is typically different from the next in overall volume (or “level”) (sometimes drastically so!). Although each song is elementally blended in itself (the choir sits just right with the bass, guitar, keyboard, drums, bagpipes, harp, and some random laugh tracks, for instance), the rough CD (which has come a long way from the initial tracking) still doesn’t sound like a disc you would buy at a store like Tower Records. This leads us up to the final, and easily the most important, step of all – mastering.
4. Mastering
Mastering is the final process by which all the songs are ordered and leveled together to bring their apparent loudness to the same level. Any overall frequency or tonal imbalance is considered and corrected, if possible. The individual songs, having been decided on, recorded, and mixed, are now put together into a professional CD, ‘glued’ by the mastering engineer’s final magic. Typically, this engineer has not heard any of the recordings yet, and he or she represents the most objective element in the recording process. The mastering engineer cuts the final ‘Master’ – the disc that is often mailed directly to the duplication facility or record label for consideration.
Conclusion -
Although it may have seemed long, that was easily one of the shortest breakdowns from the beginning to end of the process! It usually takes longer (and costs more) than most people would like, and there are, at times, unforeseen issues that can complicate things exceedingly, but there’s no other way to do it! Having knowledge of what to expect (or to bring!) can help immensely – you’ll save time and look professional. And speaking of time – be on time! In fact, if you can, be early! And don’t forget, the studio is your time to immortalize your song forever. Be friendly and remember that everyone there is working to make your production as incredible possible!
Sean Russell is a full time Pro Tools operator in the DC/Metro area and works as New Indie Artists' Director of Multimedia. He works in studios around the area including Cue Recording and C&C Studios.
