Home Studio Production

A Roadmap to Finishing Your Album

by Joe Gilder of HomeStudioCorner. com How long have you had a home studio? When's the last time you released an album? What's stopping you? As I ask you these questions, I ask myself as well. I'll be the rst to raise my hand and admit that I'm guilty of focusing on building and developing my home studio rather than creating and sharing music. It's so tempting to do! You like to research and buy shiny new toys, and before you know it you're suffering from a severe case of Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Trust me, I know the feeling, but you and I need to move past it. If you're brand new to recording, and you're still working out the details of what gear to buy for your home studio, save yourself some trouble and focus on producing a nished album. The album doesn't have to be perfect. You don't have to master the recording process before you begin your album. In fact, I would wager that in the time it would take you to "master" recording, you could have released three or four albums. Putting out albums will make you a much better recording engineer than simply "practicing" your skills.

How can I help?

The idea of recording an album from start to nish can be fairly daunting. It's easy to start a song, record guitar, vocals, and even drums, but it takes a lot of work to nish it. What keeps us from nishing? We don't have a plan. I cant record your album for you, of course. But I can help you devise a plan. Thats why Im writing this eBook. I too need a plan. This album Im working on seems too big. Theres so much to do. If you approach an album as a huge task, youll never make any progress. However, if you break it down into small, manageable pieces, youll discover that it is doable. Before long youll be taking real steps towards releasing an actual album. Thats exciting!

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Step by Step
If we were to break down the production process into doable chunks, what would they be? Ive given this a lot of thought, and Ive come up with a list. Consider it a Production Checklist. Im not here to reveal the Ultimate Secret to Making The Most Amazing Recording in the History of the World. I simply want to share with you a nuts-and-bolts approach to making an album. Ready? Go grab a cup of coffee. Ill wait. Okay, good to go? Lets dive in.

Pre-Production
Do me a favor. Dont skip this section. Pre-production is probably one of the most crucial steps to the whole production process. A big reason why we struggle to complete an album is because we refuse to invest some time and effort into pre-production. If youre skeptical, just hear me out. If youre struggling to nish a recording project, then obviously theres something wrong with your approach. Pre-production might be the missing piece.

What is Pre-Production?
Pre-production is the blueprint stage of your album. This is where you plan everything out. Lets say youre wanting to build a house. Would you start by immediately pouring concrete and nailing 2x4s together? Nope. You start by drawing up a blueprint. You make all the design decisions beforehand. Why bother with a plan? To save time. Yes, it takes more time upfront to plan things out. However it wastes even more time when you dive in headlong without a plan. I know, I know. You could set up a mic and start recording right away, but what happens if you record it at the wrong tempo? Or what if you want to make changes to the arrangement? Youll have to erase everything and start over. Yes, it requires work, but to me this is a really fun part of the process! When you havent committed anything to tape yet, you can go any direction you want. Nows the time to think through any and all ideas you have for each song. Do the planning now, and the rest of the process will fall into place. (For more on preproduction, read The Importance of Pre-Production.)

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Here are the steps I use during pre-production:

Record a Demo
You need to record each song in its simplest, purest form. This will likely be just a guitar and a vocal. Dont bother with a click track or anything else. Simply record all of the songs as simply as possible. Now listen to these recordings. Listen to them over and over. Listen for changes you want to make, for instruments you want to add. Build the production around these songs in your head.

Arrangement & Instrumentation

Once youve spent a good amount of time listening to the songs, write down your plans for each. Write out the arrangement of the song. Should you cut a chorus? Or maybe add in an 8-bar instrumental section? Nows the time to decide on that. What about the tempo? Does it need to be faster or slower? Make a note. How about instrumentation? Acoustic guitar only? Drums? Electric guitar? Percussion? Write all of these things down. As much as you possibly can, plan out every detail of the song. You can always make changes later, but having a plan will keep you on track. I know what youre thinking. This will stie creativity. I challenge you to try it. Youll nd that having restraints and guidelines will make you more creative.

Make a Schedule
You need to set a date for when you want this album to be completed. It doesnt have to be next month, but you need to put and actual date on this thing. Youd be surprised at the psychological effects this can have on you. Without a date, this album isnt real. Lets say were shooting for November 1. November 1 - Album is Finished Once you have a date, work backwards from there, and set deadlines for each stage of the process. If you need a month to mix and master the songs, set that date. October 1 - Begin Mixing How long will it take you to edit everything? A month? Okay September 1 - Begin Editing How long will it take you to record everything? Lets say 3 months.

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June 1 - Begin Recording That took like 2 minutes to do, but now we have a 5-month plan. If we start on June 1st, well be done by November 1st. From here, you just need to set weekly goals. Be realistic about how much time you can commit to the album each week, but also make it a point to commit some amount of time to the album each week, even if its just an hour. I wrote about this a bit more on the blog. You can read the article here.

Recording
This is obviously the longest stage in the process. I could write article after article and shoot hundreds of videos on how to record. In the end, though, you simply need to learn by doing. I wrote about this in The Secret to Good Home Recordings. Every instrument presents its own set of challenges. What works for one guitar may sound awful on another. Experiment. Learn what works best for you in your home studio. Certainly seek out advice, but ultimately your ears have the nal say in what works and what doesnt in your home studio. The purpose of this eBook is to give you an overview, an action plan, so Ill go through the recording process now, with short tips for each part.

Click Track
In most styles of music, it would behoove you to use a click track. A click track is simply a metronome, something that keeps the musicians all playing at the same tempo. If you record everyone to a set tempo, then you can record multiple takes and splice them together later. If you record without a click track, then you wont be able to splice different takes together, since they will all be at slightly different tempos. Here are a few videos Ive made on using click tracks: How to Create a Click Track in Pro Tools Using Xpand to Customize Your Click Track More Click Track Tricks

Scratch Tracks
As the name suggests, scratch tracks are tracks youre going to get rid of later, but theyre an important part of the recording process. Once youve determined the tempo and created a click track, you need to record a basic guitar/ vocal (or keyboard/vocal) of the song. Once you have these tracks recorded, you can use them to guide you through the rest of the recording sessions.
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The reason this is important is that its very easy to lose your place in a song. For example, if youre recording guitar for the song, and you dont have a vocal to listen to while you record, you may forget what verse youre on, or how many measures you have until the chorus. Scratch tracks will guide you. Once you have the guitar part recorded, you can get rid of the scratch guitar track. Likewise, once you record the actual lead vocal part, you can get rid of the scratch vocal track.

Drums
For most albums, youre going to have some sort of drum part, whether its a full on drum kit or just a basic percussion part. . .or even a shaker. Anything that holds down the tempo of the song needs to be recorded rst. Thats why the drum tracking session is one of the rst recording sessions you have after the scratch tracks are created. Once you have the drums recorded, you can record everything else while listening to drums rather than listening to a boring click track. This helps the musicians get in the groove. As you can probably guess, its really helpful to get a good drum part recorded before you start adding in guitars, bass, keyboards, etc. MIDI Drums vs Real Drums? Im not about to tell you that a drum plug-in is just as good as a real drummer playing a nice kit in a great studio. If I have the choice, Ill always choose a real drummer. However, for a lot of us, recording a full drum kit just simply isnt an option. We either dont have the equipment to do it on our own or we just dont have the money to rent out a professional studio for the drums. Thats okay. You can still make a great-sounding album. Drum samplers like EZDrummer and BFD can produce a very realistic drum part. You have to work with it, though. Spend a lot of time making those drums sound like a real person played them. Every hour you invest in a drum part is time well-spent. When youre scheduling your sessions, be sure to leave some time between the drum sessions and the rest of your sessions. You want to have time to clean up the drums and make them sound great for the instrumentalists. The better the drums, the better everyone else will play.

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Bass
Once drums are completed, typically you move on to bass. Bass can be both simple and complex. After all, its just one note at a time, right? How hard can it be? Well, a great-sounding bass part can be one of the most satisfying parts of an album. However, an out-ofcontrol bass part can ruin a recording. A few tips: DI - Its pretty common to record bass directly into your interface or preamp. Spend time dialing in a good tone. Otherwise, youll have a lot of work to do during mixing. Use an Amp - If your bass player has a nice amp, you should certainly try out miking up the amp itself. Spend some time listening to different mic placements until it sounds best. Tech 21 SansAmp Character Series VTBass pedal - Im not planning to mention a bunch of specic products in this eBook, but this pedal is simply amazing. It sells for around $150, and its perfect for the home studio. You can check out my review here. Use a good bass (if you can) - If you or your bass player owns a cheap bass that doesnt sound all that great, see if you can borrow a nicer one from a friend.

Acoustic Guitar
Acoustic guitar can be a beast to record. I usually try to use two microphones on acoustic. Here are my thoughts on stereo-miking acoustic guitar: 3 Reasons to Stereo-Mic Acoustic Guitar 3 Reasons NOT to Stereo-Mic Acoustic Guitar Review: Stereo Mic Bar Experiment with various mic placements. Try placing them closer to the guitar, then farther away. The closer the mics are to the guitar, the more bass frequencies youll pick up. As you move the mics away from the guitar, youll begin to pick up more room noise. Its a delicate balance.

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Electric Guitar
A lot of the same principles apply to electric guitar that you would use for bass. In most cases, youd be better off recording an ampd guitar with a Shure SM57. Ive found that mic choice and placement dont make nearly as much of a difference as the guitarists tone. If the guitarists tone is boring and lifeless, no amount of voodoo engineering tricks will save you, so spend some time with the guitarist and the amp before you start placing microphones. If the tone sounds perfect coming out of the amp, youll be in good shape once its time to start recording. While using a mic and an amp is oftentimes ideal, theres nothing wrong with recording the electric guitar direct, using either amp modeling pedals or amp modeling software. For every person who loves one amp modeling software, there will be three more who say its garbage. I actually record most of my own electric guitar parts direct, and Im happy with the tone. Ive said it before, and Ill say it again, use your ears.

Keyboards
First off, real piano. If youre set up to record a real piano, do it! I unfortunately dont own a piano. . .which makes me very sad. Use the same basic stereo microphone principles I outlined for acoustic guitar. For the rest of us, weve got to use fake piano. Truth be told, all these software piano samples sound pretty amazing. Ive recorded an entire song with just Logics standard piano sound. Not bad at all. When approaching recording MIDI parts, you need to understand MIDI fairly well to really take advantage of its capabilities and produce a good, believable performance. Click here to watch my Intro to MIDI video. Go forth and master MIDI!

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Percussion
Once youve recorded just about everything, dont overlook the importance of percussion. Things like shakers, cymbal swells, and tambourine hits can have a monumental impact on your recordings. Be sure to think about percussion during pre-production.

Vocals
Vocals are simple enough to record, but theyre so very important. Whether youre singing or someone else, focus on creating a comfortable environment. The more comfortable the singer, the better the performance. (See Make the Singer Comfortable.) Have a few microphone options available (if at all possible). One mic may sound amazing on one vocalist, but it might sound awful on the next. Be prepared. For more tips on recording and processing vocals, read my 6-part Processing Vocals Series: 1. Recording the Vocal 2. Comping/Editing 3. Tuning: Thoughts on AutoTune 4. 3 Tips for EQ-ing Vocals 5. Compression 6. Effects

Editing
What the heck is editing anyway? You hear people talk about it quite a bit. Heres how Ill sum it up. Editing is using the tools in your DAW to prepare your tracks for mixing. In general, editing will involve comping, pocketing, and tuning.

Comping
During the recording phase, you probably recorded multiple takes of certain parts. (For more on takes, read How Do You Record Takes?) Comping is the process of going through and splicing these different takes together, choosing the best parts from each take and copying them into a master comp (or compilation) track.
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Once you comp these takes together, youll need to do a decent amount of cross-fading and even level-matching to make the nal comp track sound like one uid performance.

Pocketing/Tuning
Musicians are human. Sometimes they play out of time. Sometimes they sing out of tune. You have two options. You can have the musician play or sing the part over and over, or you can get a few good takes and make a few adjustments to the timing and pitch during editing. I dont have a problem with xing these issues. Im very careful not to edit the life out of the performance. I view it as simply enhancing an already-good performance. (Im operating under the assumption that were recording good musicians. If the musician is awful, you cant x that with technology. ) For more on editing, check out my tutorial series Understanding Editing.

Mixing
Recording done? Check. Editing done? Check. Its time to mix! Mixing is an amazing job. You have the task of combining all of these individual tracks down to a single stereo le. And somehow theyve got to all blend well together. While mixing is a very complex task, you can boil it down to balance. Mixing is a balancing act. Youre basically trying to simultaneously achieve four types of balance.

Level Balance
All of these amazing tracks youve recorded dont sound that great with all the faders set to zero. You need to pull a lot of these tracks down and nd the optimal volume level for each instrument. This can be trickier than you think. Check out Setting Levels for Mixing for more.

Tonal Balance
Each instrument in your mix is made up of a different combination of fundamental and harmonic frequencies. When mixed together, these frequencies tend build up and become overwhelming in places.

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As a mix engineer, your job is to carve out frequency ranges for each instrument. That means using EQ cuts in strategic places to get rid of excess frequency build-up between tracks. For example, if you dont EQ some mids out of the guitars and keyboards, then the lead vocal may not cut through very well. I talk about this more in Dealing with Low Mids and a Muddy Mix.

Stereo Balance
Almost all of us are mixing in stereo. The question is: where do we put everything in the stereo eld? It may come as a surprise to some, but proper panning can have a massive effect on the outcome of a mix. If everything is panned dead center, then youre losing the potential width and hugeness that stereo mixing offers. On the ip-side, if you dont pan anything to the center of the mix, your song will sound a bit lost. The idea is that you want a few key components to be holding down the anchor in the center of the mix (namely, kick, snare, bass, and vocals). Everything else should be spread out evenly in the mix. Dont believe me? Go listen to your favorite album, and tell me if certain instruments are panned left while others are panned right. You dont tend to notice this unless its extreme, but its a huge part of creating a compelling, interesting mix.

Spacial Balance (or balance of depth)

This is a more subtle component of mixing. Without some attention to depth, everything you record will sound very up-front and in-your-face. This is great for certain parts, but if your entire song is this way, youll wear your listener out. This is where effects like reverbs and delays come in. Suddenly youre no longer working in the two-dimensional realm of left and right. Youre now dealing with front to back. How close is the vocalist to the listener? How far away are the drums? Time-based effects will allow you to make some of these three-dimensional decisions.

More Resources
Here are a few posts you should denitely read before you start mixing: The Best Mixing Tip Close Your Eyes At the time of writing this (end of the year 2009), Im planning several mixing posts for the blog. Ill post each of these in the Mixing category. (Refer back to that link to see the latest posts.)

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Mastering
Ive recently taken on several mastering jobs, mostly for EPs of friends. It has opened my eyes tremendously and caused me to appreciate a good mastering engineer.

Who should master your album?

This is something you should ask yourself. Its tempting to want to do everything inhouse, and you may not have the resources to have someone else master your album for you. (And thats okay.) However, I think you should certainly think through the possibility of having someone else master your album. Why? Because youre bringing in someone to objectively approach your album and take the nal steps to making it a nished product. Youre so emotionally tied to your music (or your mix) that if you master it yourself, you may not notice glaring deciencies. If you do master the album yourself, keep in mind that your job as a mastering engineer is to approach the album as an entire musical work, not a random collection of songs. Upon completion of mastering, you should have a CD that ows smoothly from one song to the next. When I master a song, I use an EQ, compressor, and limiter. One important part of mastering is increasing the overall volume of the songs. Be careful to do so without over-compressing and destroying the dynamic range. (For more on this, read my article on the Loudness Wars.) Whether you master the album yourself or have someone else do it, remember that by the end of the mastering phase you should have a nished product.

Duplication & Distribution

Once youve got your mastered CD, what now?! Time to duplicate that baby and start selling it! There are literally dozens of ways to approach duplication, but Ive been happy with Disc Makers. If youre wanting to distribute your album through iTunes and various other digital channels, check out TuneCore.

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Conclusion
Thanks for taking the time to read through this eBook. I hope it has been helpful for you. More than that, I hope to get an email from you soon, telling me your album is nished!! To better music, Joe Gilder Home Studio Corner

Products by Joe Gilder

Understanding Pro Tools - www.understandingprotools.com
New to Pro Tools? Want to deepen your understanding of it? In Understanding Pro Tools I walk you through the program over the course of over 3 hours of video content, explaining the things you need to know to become a more condent Pro Tools user. Im even giving the rst video away for FREE. Click here to learn more.

Understanding Editing - www.understandingediting.com

Editing is one of those skills that can be difcult to learn. Its essentially the process of taking your recorded tracks and polishing them, getting them ready for mixing. In these videos (over 3 hours), I explain to you the nuts and bolts of editing audio, everything from removing unwanted pops and clicks from a vocal track to pocketing bass, guitar, and drums. It took me years to learn how to do this efciently. Now Ive condensed all that information down into a single tutorial series. Click here to learn more.

Understanding EQ - www.understandingeq.com
EQ can be a frustrating process to learn and understand completely. In this tutorial series, I teach you how to become condent in your ability to EQ anything. Click here to learn more.

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Understanding Compression www.understandingcompression.com

Compression was a big mystery to me when I rst started recording. It took me a long time (and lots of hours) before I felt comfortable using it. In this series, I teach YOU how to become comfortable with compression (in much less time than it took me). Click here to learn more.

HSC Production Club - www.hscproductionclub.com

The Production Club is my very rst training course. Its a 12-week course, where I walk you step-by-step through the recording process.Youre basically looking over my shoulder as I record one of my songs from start to nish, everything from pre-production to recording to mixing and mastering. I only open this course up a few times a year. Click here to nd out more, and to sign up to the interest list.

Mix With Us - www.mixwithus.com

Im a singer-songwriter in addition to being a recording engineer. Prior to releasing my latest album, Out of Indiana, I launched Mix With Us, a 10-week training course. As a member, you download the full multi-track audio les for all 10 songs from the album. I also provide a video tutorial showing how I mixed each song.You have the chance to mix the album in your own studio and submit your mixes for critique/review by me. Its a LOT of fun. Click here to nd out more.

One-Hour Challenges - www.onehourchallenges.com

One-Hour Challenges is a longer training course for people who want to take what they learn and actually apply it. Members receive 16 different challenges, one every two weeks. Each challenge is designed to be done in under an hour. Setting a time limit for yourself forces you to focus on the important things and getthingsdone. Registration is currently closed, but will likely open again soon.

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