Self Home Recording Vs Paying a Recording Studio
Back in the old days (around ‘Nam) recording at home was a new miracle. You could actually hit record on a device and capture sound in your own home. Your eyes would light up just like Thomas Edison did when he first invented audio recording. Fast forward to 2005. It’s now completely affordable to outfit a fully functional recording rig in your home for the price of a high quality, American made guitar. While the price of getting into home recording is much cheaper than it has ever been before, it’s still a lot of money. Is setting up a small studio worth the price? Read more
Michael Jackson – Thriller, the bestselling album of all times.
Michael Jackson, the biggest super-star of all time, left behind Read more
Mavericks of the Music Industry
Mavericks of the Music Industry
Since the early days of music production and distribution in the form of records, the great minds behind the glass have played a crucial role to achieve success with musical material. The individuals involved include the recordist, the engineer and the producer. Their aim is to capture, shape, tweak and arrange raw songs to create a great record. The producer plays the vital role of being the last stage before a song gets handed to the mastering engineer. His vision and approach will be audible to sometimes millions of listeners. The musical understanding of this person, their experience and comprehension of working with music will determine the success or failure of the project. Great artists of the last century in the rock music genre have been the Beatles, Dire Straits, The Rolling Stones, Santana, Kiss, and Jimmy Hendrix- the list goes on. All these listed artists and associated hit records have one thing in common. They all Read more
The Six Aspects of Production
The Six Aspects of Production [Berklee College of Music]
Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why?
WHO
The question of “who” should be directed at both the artist and the song.
Who is the artist?
• Describe the artist’s identity.
• Indicate when the recording was made.
• Identify the song’s style and intended audience. Is it similar to otherrecords?
• Describe the budget constraints (if any!)
• Describe the record’s purpose, in terms of an artist’s career. Is it a catchyfirst single to establish the artist? To get a deal? A demo to get a gig as acover band? A different direction, used to learn something new?
Knowing about the artist’s qualities and motivations creates a context and shapesan overview for how to approach a production. It will help you answer the overarchingquestion, “Why take this particular production approach for this particularartist and this particular song?”
Who is the song?
Knowing the identity of the song is as important as knowing the identity of theartist. Indeed, “production” is the melding of song and artist onto record.
How does the song itself influence the approach to the production? What is thelyric’s story,and what individual sections, phrases, or even words direct or affectthe production at all scales? How does the melody interact with the lyric? Does themelody emphasize lyrics or direct the flow of the song, or just create a musicalelement and draw attention in its own right? How do these invite productionelements? How do harmonic elements affect all of this, and again, inviteproduction attention? How does the overall structure of the song dictate the
production approach and/or flow of the record?
These may seem like “songwriting elements,” because they are! The first job ofthe producer is A&R (“artist & repertoire”). Choose the best song and thenoversee touching up or rewriting and restructuring the song, if necessary, until it isthe best it can be. That is what much of preproduction is, and it is often the mostimportant element of the entire production process. A great song for a great artistmakes the producer’s job easier, and the song often points the way to approachthe production.
WHAT
What specific elements are you hearing, sonically and musically?
Name each element you are hearing (instrument, voice, sound, combination).What are each element’s sonic qualities, and what is its part in the arrangement?What we hear is the sound maker (its tone or coloration) AND the music it isplaying.
For example, I might describe a part I’m hearing as a 12-string electricguitar (the type of instrument) with a clear but idiosyncratic sound (color/timbre),playing a IV chord (the music) with the third on the top, open voicing(arrangement), with a slow but aggressive, anticipated strum (performance).
You’ll expand on the sound’s sonic qualities as you get to “where” and “how,” as they also effectthe sound.
The analysis process is best organized by listing elements as they are heard, so that you don’t
just compile a list of things out of context. So let’s go right to “when.”
WHEN
At what point does an element appear in the production/song?
I find it best to analyze a production by going section by section, and then bar by bar, down to
the beat and sub-beat, for that’s how each “what” is heard. A record is a series of “whats”
appearing and unfolding over time.
It helps to define the general, overall production feel of each song section. That will guide the
specifics of each component part—each ”what.”
WHERE
Where in the 3-dimensional aural space does the musical element appear?
We, as producers or engineers, often think in technical terms—panning, reverb, delay, volume,
etc. The listeners, however, just hear things located in 3-dimensional space. So, define spatial
placement as they do. Then you can figure out the possible technical ways to achieve that.
For example, a muted trumpet drenched in reverb, panned off to the right, with a lot of a high
ratio of return signal (reverb) to dry (source signal) and low in the mix, is heard by the listener asa soft trumpet off in the distance, perhaps on a misty night.
HOW
How is it played? What is the emotional approach, attitude?
This overlaps with much of the above. “How” may include equipment, effects, and so forth. A
specific instrument through a specific processor helps define the sound and is used to support
the attitude,
WHY
What is the purpose of each musical element?
Above all, “why?” is the most important question for learning, and for good production. Foreachand every element in a record, a choice was made to have it. WHY? Why was it included toachieve such a purpose?
Why that specific instrument at that specific location in this specific song, located in that specificspace, played with that specific approach?
Each “why” will always be guided by the overall “why” of the context of this song, for this artist,
approached this way (see “who?”). Each “why” is a specific element supporting the big “why.”
There is a purpose for each choice, even if it’s just to “keeps the groove,” or some other simple
musical purpose.
In looking at “why,” we also spot the “hooks” of a record—those elements that grab the listener,and tend to stay with them. It may be the chorus of a song, a single lyric, or it may be anindividual effect, a turnaround, a surprise stop in the arrangement, an instrumental hit, etc.
Any grabber that hooks us in. The “why”—the purpose of a hook—is . . . to hook us!
