Recording My Debut Album: Behind the Scenes
When I was a kid, my friends and I used to love singing in the recording studio at Cedar Point. The studio had a list of hit songs you could choose from, and when you got in there, you only got one practice round before they'd record you as you'd sound on your tape. So if you messed up at all, you were screwed.
Tonight, however, was my very first time of doing a professional recording of my original songs. My friend Kim has a very nice and talented son named Matt, who runs a recording business at their home. When I got to their house, he led me out back to the barn, where part of the upstairs has been turned into a recording studio. It was very cool. I felt like a celebrity as I sat down in the little soundproofed room, guitar in my lap and headphones on. There were two mics; one set up to record my guitar playing, and the other only about 5 inches from my face to record my vocals. It was a little weird having a mic in my face, but I got used to it. There was another small room off to the left, where Matt had a computer and some other equipment set up.
At first we were planning to do two days of recording: one day for recording just the music, then a second day for just the vocals. But when I tried to play my songs without singing, it just wasn't working out for me bc I'm so used to doing singing when I play. So Matt asked me if I wanted to record my songs "live", meaning I'd just sing and play like I'm used to doing. So we did it that way.
Whenever I was about to record, I'd have to listen for Matt's voice in the headphones, telling me when to begin. If I screwed up (which I did a lot), I'd just stop and ask for a do-over. I found out that if there was a certain part of the song that I'd messed up, Matt could rewind what I'd already done, then have me pick up where I'd left off before I'd messed up. That was pretty neat. Overall the recording process was relatively fast. For most of my songs I was able to do them right after only a couple takes, which made it go by faster. The hardest song to record was "Swans Reflecting Elephants", and that's bc it has parts that need to be finger picked, and parts that need to be strummed. So it was harder than doing a song that's all strummed or all finger picked. So I did maybe 20 or so takes of that damn song before finally getting it to sound ok. After I finally got all the way through the song, Matt played it back for me and asked me if I needed to redo it. I was like, "No, that's probably about as mistake-free as it's going to get." :P
After we were done recording all my songs, he condensed them and put them on a CD for me. He told me about a couple of different websites I can use to sell and promote my music, and said that if I promote my stuff I shouldn't have any problem making some money off of it.
So I came home and popped my CD in the laptop to give it a listen. Although I approved every single song before he put them on CD for me, I noticed some mistakes on one of the tracks, which I hadn't noticed when I heard it in the studio. I messed up the words to the chorus of track 13, so in the recording I'm saying "You better stop keeping promises you know you'll never keep". That doesn't make a damn bit of sense lol. I meant to say "You'd better stop MAKING promises you know you'll never keep." Also I started the song sounding very much off-key; I hadn't noticed this earlier. Aside from track 13 (maybe 13 really is an unlucky number after all?), my CD sounds pretty good. I'm excited about it.
So now when I have time, I'll have to open up a musician's account on iTunes and start promoting my CD. I haven't decided what to charge for my CD as of yet, but if you'd like to buy a copy please let me know:)
Tonight, however, was my very first time of doing a professional recording of my original songs. My friend Kim has a very nice and talented son named Matt, who runs a recording business at their home. When I got to their house, he led me out back to the barn, where part of the upstairs has been turned into a recording studio. It was very cool. I felt like a celebrity as I sat down in the little soundproofed room, guitar in my lap and headphones on. There were two mics; one set up to record my guitar playing, and the other only about 5 inches from my face to record my vocals. It was a little weird having a mic in my face, but I got used to it. There was another small room off to the left, where Matt had a computer and some other equipment set up.
At first we were planning to do two days of recording: one day for recording just the music, then a second day for just the vocals. But when I tried to play my songs without singing, it just wasn't working out for me bc I'm so used to doing singing when I play. So Matt asked me if I wanted to record my songs "live", meaning I'd just sing and play like I'm used to doing. So we did it that way.
Whenever I was about to record, I'd have to listen for Matt's voice in the headphones, telling me when to begin. If I screwed up (which I did a lot), I'd just stop and ask for a do-over. I found out that if there was a certain part of the song that I'd messed up, Matt could rewind what I'd already done, then have me pick up where I'd left off before I'd messed up. That was pretty neat. Overall the recording process was relatively fast. For most of my songs I was able to do them right after only a couple takes, which made it go by faster. The hardest song to record was "Swans Reflecting Elephants", and that's bc it has parts that need to be finger picked, and parts that need to be strummed. So it was harder than doing a song that's all strummed or all finger picked. So I did maybe 20 or so takes of that damn song before finally getting it to sound ok. After I finally got all the way through the song, Matt played it back for me and asked me if I needed to redo it. I was like, "No, that's probably about as mistake-free as it's going to get." :P
After we were done recording all my songs, he condensed them and put them on a CD for me. He told me about a couple of different websites I can use to sell and promote my music, and said that if I promote my stuff I shouldn't have any problem making some money off of it.
So I came home and popped my CD in the laptop to give it a listen. Although I approved every single song before he put them on CD for me, I noticed some mistakes on one of the tracks, which I hadn't noticed when I heard it in the studio. I messed up the words to the chorus of track 13, so in the recording I'm saying "You better stop keeping promises you know you'll never keep". That doesn't make a damn bit of sense lol. I meant to say "You'd better stop MAKING promises you know you'll never keep." Also I started the song sounding very much off-key; I hadn't noticed this earlier. Aside from track 13 (maybe 13 really is an unlucky number after all?), my CD sounds pretty good. I'm excited about it.
So now when I have time, I'll have to open up a musician's account on iTunes and start promoting my CD. I haven't decided what to charge for my CD as of yet, but if you'd like to buy a copy please let me know:)