Traditional Band Recording
If you're a band and you've written some songs, practiced and played them and want to record them to make some CDs send them out to venues, post on your website etc the process typically goes like this;
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Recording Drums and Bass
First we'll record the drums and bass, either with or without a click (metronome.) This is usually the best way to start as when drums and bass are recorded together they tend to groove better (It is possible to record the guitar(s) at the same time although this can lead to limitations.) It tends to take about an hour to set up the drum kit and microphones followed by half an hour to an hour to record drums and bass per track, although it's worth noting that once the drum kit has been de-mic'd and packed away it'll take up to an hour to rebuild and set up the mics again, so it's a lot easier to do all the drum tracks at the beginning.
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Recording Guitars
Second we record the guitars. It normally takes about half an hour to setup the guitar amp and microphones (and to make sure everyone is tuned up properly!) Depending on the style of music we can either record them separately or both at the same time (if you have more than one guitarist that is.) Normally rhythm and lead tracks are recorded separately with solos recorded afterwards (if you're not worrying about an impending solo the rest of the track tends to be easier.) It's easy to do overdubs (re-recording sections) if you make mistakes, although in a lot of cases it may be quicker (and sound more natural) to do another take. Guitars can take anywhere from half an hour to two hours per track. After the guitars it's time for any other instrumentation; synthesizers, strings, percussion etc. Once these are done it's worth giving the track a preliminary mix and then start recording the vocals.
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Recording the Vocals
It's always easier for a vocalist to perform well if they're singing over a track that is well polished, natural variations in tempo and volume can be followed better. It's a good idea to have some band members in the control room while recording vocals, it can be lonely in the vocal booth and good direction will help the vocalist perform better. There is no set time for how long it takes to record vocals but 1-2 hours per track is normal.
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Once the last section has been recorded it's time for mixing. For the best results it's worth leaving this to another day. It's usually a good idea to burn a rough mix of the track(s) onto a CD and take it away to have a listen before starting the mix phase. After a stressful day recording it's easy to make shortsighted decisions and waste precious time (and money!) only to have to come back and do it again. It is possible to mix on the same day but it's rarely as good.
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Mixing and Mastering
Mixing is important, it's all about balancing the levels and sound of each instrument so it fit's together well, with nothing too prominent or quiet. Your engineer will be listening out while recording to make sure that the tracks fit together when it comes to mixing, in short if it sounds bad as it's being recorded, it'll sound bad when it's mixed. Typically it takes between half and hour and two hours to mix a track.
Mastering is the last step before reproduction/distribution and is all about making the volume and tone of the mixed track consistent with existing released music (a mixed but unmastered track will ALWAYS sound quieter than a track on the radio or iTunes.) Mastering, like mixing is an art in it's own right, it's easy to apply a plugin preset but it rarely fit's properly and like mixing is best done on it's own, typically it takes half an hour to an hour to properly master a track.
All of the times are for an average track, since no music is average the times can vary dramatically. It's almost impossible to record, mix and master three tracks to a high standard in one day. Rather than time, this is much more to do with fatigue.
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Songwriting and Song Production
Traditional bands have it easy, there is a well established formula for putting down their tracks (as explained above.) Modern vocal based tracks work in a different way, whether it is Pop, Hip Hop, R&B or anything similar. It's easy to go on YouTube and record an instrumental or backing track from a video, the problem comes if you want to sell or distribute it. If it's a well known track, then it's nearly impossible to get permission from the writers and even if it's a little known producer who uploads instrumentals for free use, you're still going to face some hefty problems. One solution is to have a track written for you and here is how it works;
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Preparation
Every song needs a theme and the more the theme means to you, the better you relate to the track and the better and more believable you're performance will be. For example a track about margarine won't mean as much as one about a lost love and it's really hard to get a decent rhyme for margarine. The other thing a good song needs is a catchy lyric and chorus, we can write a song from nothing but inspiration is fickle and the more you bring, the quicker the process will be. The best starting point is a strong idea for the verses, a catchy chorus and a good idea about what style of track you want.The first part of the process is deciding on an appropriate musical style, key and tempo. This has a huge effect on possible vocals. Even the snappiest rapper will have issues rapping full speed above 170bpm, and even if they can, it won't sound so strong. Likewise an R&B track below 60bpm will get tedious very quickly, there is always a butter zone for any type of music and it's worth trying things out before you come in.
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Building the Song
Once we've got the basics of the track it's time to programme the beat and put together some melodic lines, a bass line and the song structure (intro, verse, bridge, chorus) At this point you can opt to have session musicians come in to replace the programmed drums with real drums or add an acoustic guitar line, brass section or most instruments you can think of (session musicians will cost more and need to be booked in advance but these are pros who don't mess about and can make a real difference to your track.) Similarly if you play an instrument or have a friend who you want to play, this is the point at which these are recorded. Typically if you're not using recorded instruments or session musicians this step takes between 2 and 4 hours. Once this step is completed it's time for vocals.
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Recording The Vocals
We have many different vocal microphones which cover all styles from the smoothest R&B track to the filthiest grime. Most vocalists like to write their own lyrics but we're more than happy to step in and help if you'd like. Doing vocals is hard work and it's more tiring than you think, so it's worth making sure you are properly prepared both physically and mentally. Typically we record section by section, first the verses, then the bridges, then the choruses. After that it's time for harmonies and ad libs. Usually it's best to leave the most strenuous bits until the end, so you don't tire your voice out. Of course you're more than welcome to have friends come in to add a rapped verse or sung chorus etc. Vocal recording sessions can take anywhere from one hour to four hours (anything more than that and your voice becomes too tired and it's best to leave it to another day).
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Mixing and Mastering
The penultimate step is editing and mixing. At this point we set the levels of the instruments and apply vocal effects (such as reverb and autotune etc) and make sure everything sits properly 'in the mix.' This can take anywhere between one to four hours, it all depends on the complexity of the track.
The very last step is mastering, this makes sure that your song will match the volume and tone of other tracks on the radio and iTunes etc. The pre master will sound a lot quieter than mastered tracks so this step is very important. This usually takes about an hour.
It's pretty obvious that in some cases the songwriting process can take a long time, our top tip is to break it down into to sensible steps. Often it's a good idea to put the track together and come back another day to do the vocals. The clearer you're thinking, the better you'll perform.
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Mix/Mastering
With the advent of modern computer software it's easier than ever before to make your own tracks, however there comes a time when you want to push a bit further and upload some tracks or sell some CDs. At this point it's easy to become disheartened. “Do my tracks sound good enough? Do the instruments fit together properly? Is it loud enough?” etc. In order to help out we've set up a mix/mastering service which works like this;
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Preparation
First we need the parts to your track. You can either come in, post them in or send them via YouSendIt, Dropbox or a similar service. Any software instruments or specialised plugins you've used (VSTs/AUs/RTAS etc) need to be bounced down to audio files (aiff or wavs) and all aligned so the files start at the same time (even if that means a lot of silence at the beginning of an instrument that doesn't come in for a while.) This enables us to avoid timing issues, so when we reconstruct the track here we line up all the audio files to start at the same time and hit play! The fewer the tracks the cheaper and quicker to work with. So if you've got similar verses on different tracks and they don't overlap, it's worth combining them. The other thing you can do is to mix down 'stems' so all the drums are on one stereo track, all the vocals on another and so on. Obviously this reduces the flexibility but it can speed up the process quite a bit. It's important for you to send a rough mix of the whole track so we can check that all the parts are there, and get a general idea of how you want the track put together.
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Mixing
Typically starting with drums and bass followed by melodic instruments and ending with the vocals we use EQ (equalisation) and dynamics (compression, limiting, gating etc) to balance them together, sometimes adding distortion and/or reverb and delay to get the components to sit well.
EQ allows us to change the frequency balance of a sound, for example adding higher frequencies (3-4kHz.) to a snare will make it brighter and cut through the mix. Although too much will make it too brittle and weak, so this is done subtly. Dynamics such as compression control the volume of an instrument, adding punch or presence. Distortion adds roughness to tracks and usually (if not overdone) increases presence and perceived volume, reverb adds space, even if they are the same volume, an instrument with reverb will sound further away than one that is 'dry'. These are all used to bring the mix together and to spread out the components in the stereo field. In addition sometimes special effects are added, such as chorus, phaser, filters and tuning (autotune.) Often with electronic and dance music sidechaining is used where one track is used to affect another, the classic one being using the kick to effect the volume of bass or synthesizers for a 'pumping' feel.
Once the basic levels, position and tones of the instruments are set it's time for track automation. This can be as simple as boosting the volume of the vocals for the chorus or setting up complex delay and filter feedback loops. Either way automation allows for every part of the track to be in the right place at the right time. For example, if you want an echo on the last word of every verse, or a synth lead to pan from left to right, the easiest way to do it is with automation.
Mixing can take as little as one hour up to four or five hours for very complex work. Certainly the better it fit's together at the beginning the less time it takes.
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Mastering
Mastering is the very last step in making a track which takes place after the song has been mixed down to just a single stereo track The easiest way of explaining it is as making it loud and proud. Normally it starts with a very subtle equalisation, correcting minor inconsistencies and bringing out specific frequencies so it sounds great on as many different systems as possible (ranging from crappy radios to massive club rigs.) Next comes compression, often 'multi-band' which allows the different frequency bands (for example the bass) to stay at a consistent level regardless of whats happening in any other (for example the treble.) The easy way to think of compression is as someone continually adjusting the volume knob, turning it down when it's too loud, and up when it's too quiet, so that the level is just right all the time. At the end of the process comes limiting, this is a super fast version of compression, instead of listening and changing the volume so it sounds right, limiting looks at the volume meter and stops it from peaking, unlike analogue tape or vinyl, it never sounds good when a CD peaks! This is also the step where the perceived volume is boosted, even though the meters may be very high before the signal reaches the limiter, by pushing the volume higher into the limiter it will make it sound louder (though go too far and it will sound terrible.) There are several smaller steps in between these, but we've got to keep some tricks up our sleaves!
Mastering takes between ½ an hour to 2 hours and is unique for every track. Presets will never sound quite right because the starting point for every master is different. For that reason we don't use them and treat every track separately.
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