Recording projects are much like gardening… a well thought-out and implemented plan will lead to much better results. Anarchy (plan-lessness) will cost you a lot more money and frustration in the end. It also makes you vulnerable to scams and fraud.

There are many kinds and levels of recording projects. If you’re wanting to record a full track production, here’s a list of steps you want to consider in your plan:

1. Choose your overall recording producer well! This will be the head of your chain of command, so make sure you think you’d feel comfortable trusting this person’s direction, musical sense and ethics. Also try to make sure you and your producer are on the same page about the artistic results you’re going for, within your budget constraints.

2. Pre-production: Meet and discuss your options with your producer. After thorough consultation, decide what kind of project you want to do. Your producer should then give you an itemized estimate of the recording budget you’d need. Other things you’ll need to consider in pre-production include:

• the composition of the production team (will you need a vocal producer, a second engineer, an outside mix or mastering engineer, etc),
• where you will get your songs (will you write or co-write, will your producer gather songs or take publishing company meetings),
• whether you want to operate under the musician’s union’s demo, limited pressing or master scales,
• what the instrumentation for each song will be,
• where you will record and mix your project, a
• what you will need for packaging graphics and duplication ,
• who the best musicians/background singers for your needs would be
• when to book your studio sessions and …
• an estimate of how long the whole project will take to complete.

3. Get song licenses. IF YOU WANT TO SELL your music: After choosing final songs, before recording them, get mechanical licenses for all of them, or at least contact the publishers to be sure you can get them. If you are just using the recording for demonstration and pitching to label purposes, there’s no need to get licenses. But most often you will want to be able to sell them to at least recoup some costs.

4. Get music charts written: Your producer will usually get demos to the bandleader who’ll write charts.

5. Record your tracks. This will be a day you don’t have to stress about, because you’ll usually just be doing “scratch vocals”… rarely kept. It’s a great time to practice studio technique.

6. Practice with your tracks, and/or take some vocal lessons with them. I encourage people to take time (a few days to a couple of months) to be very comfortable with their new tracks before booking the final vocals.

7. Record your final lead vocals. You’ll need to be vocally at your peak for every vocal day. If your producer isn’t adept at vocals, a vocal producer can make a big difference and cut the amount of studio time it takes to get your best.

8. Schedule background vocals. It’s usually best to wait until your leads are recorded, edited and tuned before doing background vocals so they can be as tight as possible with your voice.

9. Edit, tune, mix and master your project. Sometimes this will be done by your recording engineer, sometimes by another specialist. This would be something you’ve already discussed in pre-production.

10. Tweak and approve the mix.

If you are going to sell your project, you would now get your graphics and cd duplication done. Then you’re ready to confidently promote and distribute your project, satisfied with a job well done!