@rg
Category: Recording
Artists today need their tracks to compete with what they are hearing on the radio; there is just no excuse for a crappy sounding track. In fact, if you’re track sounds like shit, then it’s our first red flag as to just how lazy, un-resourceful, clueless, and out of touch you are with the music business these days; kinda like showing up to a gun fight with a butter knife. Today’s music is consumed so fast and there is so much of it available that YOU HAVE TO BE FREAKING AMAZING in every way to stick out. Why on earth would you cut any corners on your artistry?? I mean, aren’t you the one always complaining about how crappy music is on the radio and how YOUR band could do so much better? If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Here are 5 really good concepts to internalize before you spend any money recording anywhere that will hopefully help you rise above the fray!
1. Good Demos Are For Songwriters - Demoing your songs as an artist used to be an essential piece of the puzzle to getting a record deal; nowadays, your demos are more a private process of crafting your songs and arrangements to prepare for a master recording session. Unless you are a songwriter trying to get an artist to cut your song, you are WASTING YOUR MONEY with demos no matter how much cheaper the process is compared to cutting master tracks! Forget publicly pushing/presenting demos! Record Labels stopped developing talent a decade ago; so they don’t care about your demo no matter how good your songs are! They care about your momentum, how many tickets, CD’s, Merch, and downloads u sell. If you only have $2,500 and you find someone to demo your 8 songs for that price, you wasted $2,500 because that budget will not have been spent on any activity that will create momentum for you. Relax and save more money or cut fewer songs.
2. Don’t Be Naïve In Your Strategy – It’s FAR better to spend your limited budget on 3 or 4 GREAT tracks than 10 mediocre cuts. For the love of GOD if you seriously are trying to make a living in the music industry, do your music right or don’t do it at all! It’s so easy to freak out on what it costs to really make a great record these days, I get it! The cold hard reality is that you are going to have to spend some money to get this dream of yours going. The more you cut corners, the more you make it an expensive hobby; so don’t be frustrated because you are the one getting in your own way. I think of one of our artists named Tanya Marie Harris from Canada. I remember our first phone conversation, and she said “Johnny, for what you and Kelly are charging me for 2 songs, I can cut a whole record up here…” and my mind went to the pre-programmed response of thinking that we weren’t going to be able to help her, but before I could open my mouth she finished her sentence, “…of mediocrity.” She approached her project with us as if it was the end of the world and it HAD to be done right. We ROCKED those 2 songs of hers and she is now blowing up major radio in Canada because she has 2 KILLER tracks. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up with an investor very soon, because she has created real momentum! Bottom line, her approach has opened WAY more doors for her as an artist.
3. It All Starts With the SONG – This is probably 80% of your problem, your songs suck; or some of them are good and the rest are weak. If you spend $25,000 recording a lame, crappy song with Mutt Freakin Lange, it’s going to be the most expensive, slickest sounding crappy song on the planet (he would never cut it, but you get my point). Get some co-writes with some seriously talented writers! If you are now saying, “but I don’t have any of those where I live” then MOVE! Like Sam Kinison said, “GO WERE THE FOOD IS!” It’s quite possible that your songs are very good but maybe just need a little tweaking here is where a good outside ear can make the difference! Which brings us to our next point; Producers.
4. Get a Producer – Make sure that your Producer has a killer engineer or IS a killer engineer; LISTEN to what they have done. ASK who they have worked with. Your best friend who just went to school for a recording degree is NOT going to deliver for you this time; he/she needs their 10,000 hours before they are going to be able to get anybody to the next level artistically. Since you are responsible for your own development now, you have to think like a record label would think. After you sign with a label, if you are ready to record the next step is PRODUCER SHOPPING so why the hell would you skip this step on your own project? Do you really think a Major Label would allow your buddy right out of school to produce your first effort?? HELL NO!!! I recommend using your buddies with the cool home studios for your creative demo process; use them to craft arrangements and songs, but don’t rely on them to deliver expertise because they have none, or they would be working with professionals already. Kelly went to school and got a recording degree; then he wiped his ass with his diploma and moved to Nashville to learn how to make records. I was an artist right out of high school and learned to make records in a trial by fire kind of method. A good Producer is going to help you pick the songs. A good producer is going to tell you, “NO” to the songs that aren’t ready to be recorded or shouldn’t be recorded at this level. A good Producer is going to have heart to heart discussions about your lane and then service those collaborative decisions musically. A good Producer is going to have relationships with the studio musicians and ensure you don’t get “run over” by them. A good Producer is going to have the psychological skill-set to push you and your band to artistic performance heights you never thought possible. A good Producer is going to be just as excited about your project as you are!
5. Be Realistic About Your Band’s Musicianship – You would be surprised how many members of your favorite rock bands didn’t actually cut all or any of their tracks in the studio; the ones that did were AMAZING musicians. In Country music, most professional live musicians, as Godlike as they are live, do not cut in the studio; it’s just a different animal because live is here & gone already and the studio recording is forever. All too often I see bands come in determined that everyone in the band is going to play on the record. If your drummer sucks, then we are going to have to manufacture the performance in Pro Tools to get the track in time and find a groove. If your drummer sucks then your bass player is NEVER going to consistently lock up with the kick drum and this spells S-H-I-T; which means we are going to manufacture the bass performance as well since the drum track has been altered. You see where this goes? It becomes a hot mess and your record sounds, well, MANUFACTURED. You would be better served to make the best recordings possible and let any weaker musicians grow into the role; sorry to say it, but if their feelings are worth the whole record budget you have a problem.
When tape recording was first becoming prominent, all recordings were done live. All the sources converged onto one track of a magnetic tape. Because there was only one track, there was no way to adjust the individual levels of the recorded instruments after the initial recording. If you didn't get the balance right the first time, you had to record the entire track again. Overdubbing, the process of adding live tracks after the initial recording, was impossible because of the mechanics of early tape recorders. As time went on, tape recorders split the width of the tape up into smaller tracks, allowing for multiple tracks. In time, recording and playing back four or eight tracks became possible.
Les Paul's Innovations
Before jazz guitarist Les Paul came on the scene, overdubbing was virtually impossible. To understand the difficulty in overdubbing at that time, you first need to understand how the analog tape machine works. In an analog tape machine, three electric heads — the record head, playback head, and erase head — handle the recording process. The record head magnetizes the tape that flows beneath it; the playback head picks up the information from the tape and sends it out to the speakers; and the erase head erases the tape when necessary. The three heads are set up one after another, so that as the record head writes, the playback head picks up tape farther along in the recording. Because each head is reading a different part of the tape, they aren't synchronized. For overdubbing to work (such as layering guitar sounds one on top of another), the artist would need to listen to the previously recorded track to know when to start, when to pick up the tempo, etc…. Unfortunately, since the playback head is in a different spot than the record head, the recorded signal is out of sync; it plays back later than the artist played it.
Les Paul was a very innovative man. Not only did he invent the solid body electric guitar as we know it today, he also made overdubbing and multitrack recording possible. Paul had the idea to combine the record head and the playback head into one unit, allowing artists to overdub in real time with no delay.
Les Paul's records were revolutionary; no one had ever heard such a thick, lush sound. Based on Paul's discovery, the company Ampex released a 4-track recorder with Sel-Sync (Selective Synchronization) in 1955. However, while this innovation made overdubs possible, most bands still recorded live and used overdubs to add solos, harmony parts, or additional vocals.
How Multitrack Changed the World
Multitrack recording was the single most important innovation in audio recording. The ability to record instruments on individual tracks, have control of separate volume levels, and add other parts after the original recording, changed the recording process forever. No longer did you have to settle for a live take. If the singer was off, you could go back and re-record individual parts. Guitar players could layer acoustic guitar backgrounds with electric guitar rhythm parts. The possibilities were endless.
The number of tracks available increased over time. At first, the 4-track was common. The Beatles, for example, recorded “Strawberry Fields Forever” on two separate 4-track tape machines, for a total of eight tracks. Modern recordings can be twenty-four, forty-eight, or, in the case of computers, several hundred tracks. For you, the home-based musician, this process allows you to slowly build up arrangements one track at a time. You can start with a bass line, add a guitar part later, track some vocals later — all by your lonesome. The finished product will sound like one large, live band even though you played it all yourself.
But home studio owners aren't the only ones who work this way; Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails always multitracks. He records alone in his home studio, multitracking to build songs. Tom Scholz of the group Boston records the same way, playing each instrument one at a time.
