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If you are recording an important project, you will want to look into the final stage of processing your recordings for maximum sonic quality: Mastering. Thanks to mastering engineer Borislav Dimitrov of HZ Productions who guest posts today.  He will share some important information helpful to audio engineers about technically preparing a recording to be mastered. This info is vital because mixing a recording to be mastered is not the same as mixing a project that will not undergo further processing. Borislav suggests:

Don’t compress you mix too much:

Do not compress/limit the mix buss at all. It restricts us in the mastering process. If you want to compress/limit the mix buss – be careful. Give us some headroom to work with. WE CAN NOT UNDO COMPRESSION AND LIMITING. If you can hear the
compressor/limiter work you’re processing too much. You can give us alternate mixes, with mix buss
compression/limiting and without.

Don’t trim your mixes:

The mastering engineer cannot recover lost material. We will do the fades and cleaning up, so leave at least 2 seconds more at the beginning and the end of each track and don’t use any de-noising plugins, leave the fades out to us, too.

Avoid digital clipping:

Make sure the peak levels of your mixes never exceed -1 dBFS, actually stay below -3 dBFS to be completely on the safe side! This way you’re not losing resolution and stay away of the harsh digital clipping which has given some commercially available albums bad name!

Have a Backup copy on another CD-R or hard-disk.

Have the order (sequencing) ready:

It is a lot easier to match the songs, when we do the fades and gaps between the songs, if the order is ready, as each song influences the other songs around it.

Name (or provide!) …

a few reference CD’s to give us an idea of how you want your music to sound. It will help if they are in the same genre and style.

If you bring the mixes on a CD-R…

save them as WAVE or AIFF files and if possible in 24-bit at 44.1 kHz sample rate. WRITE THE CD AT 1X SPEED!!!!! It will eliminate possibilities for jitter and errors. Well, a standard audio CD (CDDA @ 16-bit/44.1 kHz) would do if no other possibility.

Make a list of the processing you want:

ou might feel that some songs need more bass, brightness or editing.

Alternative Mixes:

If you are unsure about the vocal balance in the mix, make a few different mixes. One with Vocal up by 1 dB, Vocal down by 1 dB or mix an instrumental and put the vocals down alone and we will mix it during the mastering session. This doesn’t only apply to vocals. It can also be used for bass or guitar solos, or whatever you are unsure about. Just ID and log the different mixes well.

Again, thanks to Borislav Dimitrov for this post; he and his services can be found at www.HiZProductions.com

If you are a mastering engineer reading this, we invite your comments!

Here’s an update of my production work for those of you who may be interested. For some clients I produced full projects, some I joined their team as vocal producer, for many I wrote on their songs and they are all my vocal students who smartly prepared for their productions by getting their voices in top shape. Here’s a summary:

This spring I finished full projects for several clients including

• John Farndell- a Christian minister from South Africa. We cut his tracks at Hilltop Studio with John Nicholson, engineer and an amazing cast of musicians. Background singers included me, Jennifer O’Brien and Michael Black.
• Cecilia Halsey- an alt-country artist based in Alabama. This production was recorded at Eclectic Sound, Nick Sparks engineer. Again a great team of musicians led by bassist Mike Chapman.
• Darby Haas, a country artist living in Kentucky. We recorded Darby at Mainframe Studio, Nathan Smith engineer. Mike Chapman again led the band.

These unique, creative projects were great fun for me are now out to the public! They are all quite different, I co-wrote the whole project with John Farndell, produced hers and others’ songs on Cecilia and co-wrote part of Darby’s project. I sang background vocals on their projects and they are all my vocal students as well; I can run a full-service shop:)

I also very much enjoyed joining other producer’s teams as vocal producer for artists including

• Winfield’s Locket, a Louisiana-based country duo produced by the amazing Ilya Toshinsky. We recorded at multiple studios.
• Jenni Schaefer, a novelist/public speaker/singer/songwriter whose works have been endorsed by none other than Dr. Phil. I joined Ilya’s production team working as vocal producer for several of her tracks, including some Jenni and I co-wrote. Several studios and engineers were involved.
• “Jenny and Ashley“, a teen country duo. The production team assembled and led by Mike Borchetta included me as vocal producer and Darran Smith (band leader for Tim McGraw’s band “Dance Hall Doctors”) who produced the tracks.  All tracks and vocals were recorded and mixed at Loud Studio, Julian King engineer.

CURRENTLY: This summer I’m working on finishing up…

• Pop teen artist Emil Bishaw’s new project with engineer Richie Biggs working on final mixes. Tracks were cut at master drummer Steve Brewster’s studio Brewbeat, Richie Biggs engineering. (You won’t be surprised that the drums  sound great!) Vocals were cut in a couple different places with engineer Billy Whittington.
• Country artist from New Mexico  Sim Balkey’s new project – tracks were cut this spring at Mainframe and vocals will be recorded later this summer.
• I’m also beginning a new production for Cecilia Halsey, to be recorded at Eclectic.

As you can see, I work in all kinds of different ways in different studios, with multiple genres of artists. If you’d like to contact me about your production, hit the contact button on this site and I’ll be happy to talk to you!

Recording a music project is a heady experience. A sonic dream gets turned into a reality. No wonder you want to get into the studio as soon as possible! And if you prepare well, it often turns out even better than you hoped or imagined.

But I hope you just noticed I added “…if you prepare well”. No, you can’t wait til everything is perfect (it never will be) but you can wait til you have done some wise preparation to maximize your time, money and effort of heart.. and keep your sonic dream from turning into a sonic nightmare.

Here are some recording preparation tips:

• Do you have the right songs?

If you don’t have strong songs, you don’t need to record. End of story. There is no amount of production or mixing or mastering that will turn a weak song into a great one. (And who wants to hear weak songs?) Maybe get back to the drawing board, write and/or collect more songs til you are satisfied that they will represent you well.

• Do you have enough funds to cover your budget?

Make sure you don’t have to cut important corners… putting recording off til you accumulate your funds can be very wise.

1. Budget more time than you think you’ll need to do your tracks, vocals, and mixing!
2. Consider any extra musicians you might want to create the project you really want.
3. Try to have enough budget to cover mastering. There are many levels of mastering, some inexpensive and some quite expensive, but any mastering is better than none at all.
4. Most of the time you’ll want to buy your own hard drive for keeping and saving your project files. Ask your engineer for a recommendation.
5. Consider also that recording budgets don’t usually include graphics and duplication. Of course you can go ahead and record and then put off doing this until you have the funds. But if it turns out great, you’ll want to get the whole package finished as soon as possible!

• Are you vocally ready?

You can do your tracks when you have the songs. No pressure there. You can sing scratch tracks (sing while the band is recording your tracks) when you are not vocally at top form, but do NOT try to do your lead vocals without having your voice as strong as you can get it unless they really aren’t that important (and when is that?) Practice at full voice volume for 4 to 14 days before a significant lead vocal session. Consider doing some pre-production vocal lessons for optimal vocal preparedness

• Have you memorized your songs?

While you can indeed sing with lyric sheets in front of you, it is my strong opinion that you should memorize your material. It’s too easy to let the page get in the way of your focusing on the emotional delivery of the song. Also, it’s really great to be able to ‘own’ your songs, become immersed in the rhythms, play with your voice and experiment with different ways of singing the material BEFORE you get into the vocal booth.

• Are you physically strong?

You don’t have to be a triathlon champion, of course. However, you need energy to be able to support your voice well for great lead vocals. Sleep, eat, exercise, and by all means hydrate yourself with plenty of water days before you go in to sing. It will matter, I assure you, to the quality of your vocal efforts.

• Do you have the right production team and musicians available?

It’s best to wait until your dream team is available. Musicians and background singers can be interchangeable to a degree, but you might be surprised at how few are best at what you need. Make sure everything is booked far enough in advance to ensure your best team is on board.

For more (a ton more) studio information, please check out “Singing In The Studio“, a multimedia professional guide to getting vocal magic in the recording studio. www.singinginthestudio.com

Are there legitimate reasons for courting a major label deal? Of course- such as needing a larger engine for promoting and distributing your music. However, I would suggest that you understand in the real world you are highly unlikely to get one unless you’ve already demonstrated your major market potential – like having your own huge fanbase already in place and having booked regular performances attended by great crowds.

It also gives you a huge advantage as an asset to a major label if you and your music are perfectly matched to the age and preferences of the demographics the labels are marketing to. And of course, if your street creds are better you can negotiate a much better deal if you do get some major label interest.

That said, there is a very enlightened truism going around right now that you don’t get a deal until you don’t need one. Major music labels are struggling like everyone else to find profitability in this ever changing market.

An independent music label may be a better option for you. Indie music labels come in many sizes… from your own start up label to a large indie with #1 charted records and joint ventures with major labels for distribution. Can you say Taylor Swift and Big Machine Records? Also think Ani Difranco, who chose to go it alone and now signs other acts to her “Righteous Babe” label.

Investigate these choices. Network with others who are investigating. Share and brainstorm… consider leading the way with creative approaches to marketing and promoting business. Double check, have accountability partners and good walls to bounce ideas off… whether it’s a financially wise parent or a circle of major music players. Look into organizations like Indie Connect, get your own website,  MySpace, Reverb Nation, Facebook pages up. The times, they are a-changing, and I for one think the anarchy could be good for you! Then if you get a major label deal… congratulations, but make sure you keep growing your business. Deals can be lost quicker than they are aquired.

For an uncanny, funny look at the practical world of seeking a major label deal…watch this revealing little video satire by someone who’s got an ear to the ground!

If you are doing a recording project in the music business, you will want to know about mechanical licenses. No matter how small a “run” of your project you print or make available for download, you need to understand the legal and ethical responsibilities you have to the publishers of your songs. Here’s a simple summary from the Harry Fox site:

If you are manufacturing and distributing copies of a song which you did not write, and you have not already reached an agreement with the song’s publisher, you need to obtain a mechanical license. This is required under U.S. Copyright Law, regardless of whether or not you are selling the copies that you made.

You do not need a mechanical license if you are recording and distributing a song you wrote yourself, or if the song is in the public domain. If you are not sure if the song you are looking to license is in the public domain, and therefore does not require license authority, we suggest you use the search on www.pdinfo.com.

How much does a mechanical license cost?

The current US statutory mechanical rights fee is $.091 (9.1 cents) per physical or digital copy. That 91 cents is to be divided among all publishers, who then distribute to their writers according to the contract they have with the writers (not your job to do this). So if you want to buy a license for, say,  5oo physical plus 500 digital copies, you’d divide $91 among all publishers per song on your project. In addition, if you obtain a license through Harry Fox, there is a small processing fee.

How do you get these licenses?

Your record label or label rep has to obtain licenses either directly or through the Harry Fox Agency if the song is licensed there,  from each publisher /co-publisher of the song. Yes, that’s the tedious part… your label must contact and obtain mutually signed  mechanical licenses from all publishers who own each separate song. Fyi, publisher info can be obtained by asking the writers. And again, the agreement is between the label and the publishers, not the writers.

When do you need to get these licenses?

The label should pay for a mechanical license for each song before they are sold. The label would estimate how many digital or physical units they would want to sell at first (many times 500 of each) and pay $ .091 (for 1000 units the total for each song would be $91) to split between publishers (who then split it with their songwriters).

Information you’ll need to collect for each song:

• Writer and co-writer name(s), PRO(s) [BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, etc), percentage(s) and addresses
• Publisher and co-pub name(s), PRO(s), percentage(s) and addresses for where to send payment

Other random FAQ's about mechanical licenses:

• Licensor= Label rep would be whoever represents the record label.  Licensee= the publisher of that particular song.
• Yes, you need a license form for each song, even with the same songwriter and publishing co.
• No, the songwriter does not sign the license… the publisher does. The agreement is between label and publisher.
• The label would then pay the publisher the mechanical license fee.
• How the songwriter gets paid...  the norm is that the pub company will split mechanicals with the songwriter, according to the contract they have between them. This is not the label's responsibility; it's the publisher's.

What does a typical custom mechanical license  (not Harry Fox) look like?

When a record label approaches me concerning one of my songs, I give them any co-pub information so they can contact those publishers, and I issue this for my own publishing company. I got this form from an independent record label, btw:

*******************************************************************************************************

ONE-TIME FEE CUSTOM LICENSE

License Date: x/xx/xxxx

Licensee:                                                                                 Licensor:

name  of record label rep                                                 name of writer, c/o name of Pub company

street                                                                                        street

city, state, zip                                                                       city, state, zip

The Composition(s) covered under this License, as well as the total amount due per song per use, are listed in the table below.

Label copy/Copyright notices for each Composition:

Title of song, writers and co-writers

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

(c) Copyright xxxx. Names of publishing companies All rights reserved. Used by permission.

License Provisions/General Rights For All Uses:

1.       In connection with your exercise of the right and license granted herein, you shall have the right to make a musical arrangement of the Composition(s) to the extent necessary to conform the Compositions to the style or manner of interpretation of the performance and/or publication involved, provided however, that any such arrangement shall not change the basic melody or the fundamental character of the Composition(s). You hereby transfer and assign to Publisher(s) all rights, title, and interest in and to any such arrangement.

2.       Licensor hereby warrants and represents that it possesses full right and authority to grant the rights and license herein described for the percentage of each Composition owned or controlled by said Licensor. Licensee warrants and represents that it is the rightful owner or lawful assignee of the owner of the master recordings, if any, to be made and distributed pursuant to this license.

3.       In the event that you fail to pay royalties to Licensor on all copies manufactured and fail to remedy such default within thirty (30) days after written notice given to you by certified or registered mail, this agreement and all rights herein granted shall automatically terminate and such termination shall render either the making or distribution of copies of the product(s) for which the royalty has not been paid actionable as acts of infringement under the United States Copyright Law.

4.       This license is limited to the rights expressly granted herein and does not authorize any use of the aforesaid musical Composition(s) not expressly set forth herein. By way of illustration, but not limitation, this license does not include the right to change, arrange or adapt the lyrics or music, or alter the fundamental character of said musical Composition(s) or to use the title thereof as the title or sub-title of the product(s).

5.       You agree to identify the Composition(s) on your project as detailed in this license.

6.       Licensor shall have the right to inspect and audit your books and records relating to transactions involving the rights granted herein upon reasonable notice.

7.       All rights not herein specifically granted are reserved by Licensor. All rights granted here in are on a non-exclusive basis.

8.       The Territory covered by this license is the United States only.

9.       If Licensor license less than 100% of a composition to you, it means that there are other owners of the composition that Licensor does not represent.  It is your responsibility to secure permission from these publishers directly.

10.     The term of this license shall be a one-time manufacture and eventual distribution of the number of units stated herein. Upon the expiration of this license, all rights herein granted shall cease and terminate, and the right to make or authorize any further use or distribution of the product(s) made hereunder shall cease and terminate.

11.     This agreement shall be binding upon the heirs, legal representatives, successors, and assigns of each of the parties hereto. The rights granted herein may not be transferred or assigned by you to any other party without written permission from Licensor.

12.     This license constitutes our entire agreement and cannot be modified except by written instrument signed by both parties. This license shall be construed and interpreted by the laws of the state of Tennessee applicable to agreements wholly to be performed therein.

Mechanical License Provisions (if applicable):

1M. You are hereby granted the non-exclusive right and license during the term of the United States Copyright in the Composition(s) to make and distribute the following phonorecords embodying a single performance of the Composition(s):

2M. As used in this agreement, all terms and phrases, including the word “phonorecord” and the phrase “made and distributed” shall have the meaning ascribed thereto in the United States Copyright Law and the regulations properly adopted in connection therewith, unless otherwise specified or defined herein.

3M. For phonorecords manufactured and distributed in the United States the royalty rate payable is the statutory mechanical rate.

By signing below, you agreed to abide by all of the terms of this agreement.

Agreed to:

LICENSOR (Name):

By: ____________________________________________________________________

Date: _____________________

LICENSEE (Name):

By: ____________________________________________________________________

Date: ________________________

****************************************************************************************************

If you would like a blank copy of a mechanical license as an MS Word doc or Excel file , let me know where to email it.
Creating a win-win situation for the artist/label and the writers/publishers keeps great music rewarding for all. Understanding mechanical licenses for music projects is information every record label, songwriter and publisher should have.

If anyone has any other questions or can offer any other information about mechanicals, I welcome your comments!

There is a step past the mix of your project that really should be done. It’s called audio mastering.

What is it?

Quoting from a great article at Wikipedia, some of the things a mastering engineer can do to a sound recording include:

• Transferring the recorded audio tracks into the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) (optional).
• Sequence the separate songs or tracks (the spaces in between) as they will appear on the final product (for example, an audio CD).
• Process or “sweeten” audio to maximize the sound quality for its particular medium.
• Transfer the audio to the final master format (i.e., Red Book-compatible audio CD or a CD-ROM data, half-inch reel tape, PCM 1630 U-matic tape, etc.).
• Editing minor flaws
• Applying noise reduction to eliminate clicks, dropouts, hum and hiss
• Adjusting stereo width
• Adding ambience
• Equalize audio across tracks
• Adjust volume
• Dynamic range expansion or compression
• Peak limit

What difference does audio mastering make?

I can explain it best by using a current commercial for “Claritin” allergy medication. They show a blurry screen and then focus it up till the images are perfectly sharp and clear, representing “Claritin clear” of allergy symptoms. When you properly master a recording, the results should sound like a much bigger “sonic envelope” of sound. The mastering engineer can tweak the mixed audio until the comparision would leave you never wanting anything other than a mastered mix ever again.

I just had my pop client Emil Bishaw’s project mastered at Masterfonics by Tommy Dorsey.  After hearing the difference in the sound between the final mix and the mastered final mix, Emil’s financial investor is absolutely thrilled that we took this last step.  Tommy Dorsey masters projects for some of the biggest artists and major labels in the world. He and other mastering engineers at this level of expertise and experience are expensive. (At the moment, his mastering fee is $250 per song) If you can’t afford it ask your producer or engineer to advise you on cheaper ways to get this done. If you want to hear the difference, get someone to play you the before and after. It is amazing.

Note of Clarification: People get mixed up about this word “master” which can refer to several completely different things:

• Audio Mastering: Explained in this post, the clarifying and maximizing processing done to a final mix.

• Master scale: This is a recording rate  set for musicians and singers through the musicians’ union (AFof M)  and the singer’s union (AFTRA).

• Master recording: This is the final audio file of the completely processed (mixed and mastered) original recording that can be used for duplication.

The recording studio can present a frustrating situation: It’s a place you should be trying for the best vocals you can possibly get, but it’s one of the hardest places to do so. Why? What can you do about it?

• It requires perfection. Recording equipment is now so sensitive, it picks up everything… you can’t get by recording vocals with mediocrity without it mattering.  So the pressure’s on.

What can you do?

Make technology work FOR instead AGAINST you. Ask for help if you are not hearing well through your headphones. Some people (like me) like to have a little reverb in the “cans” to help them support their voices. Make sure you try taking half an ear off, which helps you hear your voice acoustically in addition to the sound from the phones. Make sure you have the instruments you need, and nothing you don’t need. And here’s the best part… remember that the great thing about recording is that you can punch in! Your engineer will also be able to help in other ways when you need it (flying, tuning, editing… should be done with discretion by an intuitive person at the helm).

• It’s missing a vital element of performance… the audience! This means you’ll have to summon some acting skills… you must communicate to someone who in all likelihood is not present. Otherwise, your voice really is just faking it, because it has no clear goal. And don’t think this is just a problem for beginners… seasoned, successful live singers are often frustrated because they can’t get the magic of live performance into the studio.

What can you do?

Use your imagination! Think about your lyric… who are you supposed to be singing to? Make that person the only one who exists when the engineer hits the red button. Also use your body language. Believe it or not, it will help in many ways. Try talking the lyric a couple of times… make it sound like you are NOT reading it. Then sing it with the same passion and nuances of expression.

• The music stand in the vocal booth is placed counter-productively… usually right in front of you… between you and the mic. This makes it easy to lean your head forward… sabotaging breath and contributing to a tight throat. It’s very hard to sing while subtly “pulling back”, which you need to do for best tone and control.  Also…

What can you do?

Move the music stand! Either move it to the side and back so you can get your feet more under the mic, or take it away entirely (you’re not reading your lyric while recording vocals are you?)

• You’re facing the control room. This makes it too easy for you to have your attention on the people in the control room instead of on the person you need to sing the song to.

What can you do?

Ask your recording engineer, if possible, to reorient the mic so that you can at least face a corner instead of head on into the control room. Also, ask for the lights to be dimmed… in your recording booth and even consider asking for lights down in control room if it continues to be a visual distraction for you.

• You’re told to push more, go for it, use more power, etc by your well-meaning producer. You interpret this, if you don’t know better, to mean … push breath!

What can you do?

Reinterpret the command for “more” to mean: More passion- NOT more pressure! Use your face and body more, but don’t push your voice. Open your mouth more, use your eyes and hands, go deeper into talking to your audience. Keep your head back and chest out. Best advice I can give: Try to get a vocal producer to conduct your lead vocals.

• You’re paying by the hour. This alone can set up tension and worry… all counterproductive to good voice.

What can you do?

PLAN your recording project! Make sure you practice your songs til you are confident with them, getting vocal lessons as needed. Make sure you budget enough time to get your vocals the way you want … remembering that it may take a few passes until your voice settles into it’s best form. I like to allow anywhere from 1 to 3 hours per song, especially giving extra time for the first song of each vocal recording day. If your starting budget reflects the cost of the most important part of the process — recording vocals — you will not stress about it and can focus much better in the moment of the song.

What other frustrations have you experienced in the vocal booth?

This post is for your music promotion and marketing.

If you want to see a survey of radio programmer’s preferences, check out the first pdf article at GrassRootsPromotion.com website. The information was gathered from country music stations and is a year old, but it might be of interest for artists in other musical genres as well. The survey gathered answers from radio station programmers to questions including:

• What’s your preferred source  for new music?
• Are you interested in receiving custom station ID’s & other greetings from artists?
• How do you feel about artists visiting your station and acoustic performances?
• Are you interested in online promotions through your station website including banners, ringtones, mp3 downloads, games, etc?
• As you review new music, how important is it that you receive a physical cd single?

Again, here is the link to the series of articles. Then click the the article you want to read. You might want to check out some of the others there as well.

Any thoughts on this or additional information, please comment!

New artists recording for the first time and veteran artists who’ve been there and are trying to launch a project in today’s music market atmosphere have questions because so much has changed. There’s no magic bullet, I’m afraid… here’s what succeeding as a singing artist takes:

• talent/ability,
  
• research/knowledge,
  
• training/practice,
  
• commitment/passion,
  
• energy/health,
  
• persistence/positive atitude,
  
• teamwork/support and
  
• adequate funding… understanding money spent must be looked at as a gamble, not a sure thing that your career will “pay it back”.
• There’s also, quite frankly, luck/fate involved. But the previous requirements are in your hands.

With those things in place, here are 9 tips to help you get your career in music going:

1. Reach out and network with people. Understand the principle of the “six degrees of separation” You don’t know who could help or know someone else who could help you unless you ask – and the only dumb questions are the ones you DON’T ask.
2. Perform in your area and develop a local, then regional following and you would have more credibility talking to people, plus make a little money performing.
3. Read up on how music is being marketed on the Internet now. There is loads of information on the internet.  Bob Baker has some good material. Getting a MySpace page has long been the norm for music marketing, but the growing word on the street is to also promote you music through Facebook. There are loads of other online sites and sources you should investigate and study. Do your homework, and/or get someone on your team to help.
4. Check out and consider joining Indie Connect and graze through the great music marketing material they have online and at their regular meetings.
5. Make sure, when you do find someone who will listen to you, that you are singing, playing (if you play), writing, performing your very best. If you need training, get it. If you need experience, go perform everywhere you possibly can.
6. For those of you who want to pursue a professional career in the commercial music business: DO NOT put a bad performance online!! It’s ok if the quality of the audio or video isn’t great, but your performance needs to be stellar. Imagine that someone in the music industry that could move your career forward just stumbled into your site and is checking you out.  If you already have a questionable singing performance online, do yourself a favor and take it off.
7. Make a business plan. If you need money, talk to some investors and/or to someone who could get you product endorsements. If you use your own money, do it wisely and don’t gamble on “become a star quick” schemes. When considering working with someone, check them out through online and personal sources- and finally through a music attorney. NEVER sign anything without passing it by a trusted attorney who specialized in entertainment law! Be sure that you know exactly what a prospective business person can do for you, and exactly what they expect from you.
8. Make sure your personal and music goals can walk together. Talk to your family and consider the impact of your commitment to your music to your life… best to get this done at the very front of your planning efforts.
9. Plan and proceed with your recording project, making sure as you budget your resources that your primary focus is the best vocal performance you can do, and secondly that you have the best songs you can get. Also, use the very best musicians you can… and pay them union scale, even if that means you hire fewer musicians. Your producer should help you choose the best studio and engineer for your needs… and your project will end up as something you can be proud to play for anyone – and put online to make a great statement about the kind of recording artist you are.

What can you do about lady luck and father fate? Be prepared … with the ability and the goods to jump through the windows of opportunity they raise!

The operations of your recording engineer can make or break your project. Here are some things you can do to make his or her job easier and faster… and your final mix a masterpiece…

• Keep your mouth at a consistent distance from the mic.

When you bob and weave at the mic, the volume levels and “presence” of your voice change too much, causing the engineer a lot more headaches. It also makes it hard for you to match your surrounding vocal passages when you punch in. You can slightly work the mic for loud and soft phrases, but not much. Keep your body flexible, but think of the mic face as the “hole in the fence” you must aim at to reach your listener.

• Learn how to naturally compress  your voice.

I was working with a vocalist last night and the engineer remarked to me how easy it was to get this singer on tape. She had learned how to even out her breath pressure, even on soft and loud tones, so that the record levels were remarkably consistent. The listener heard great range, emotion and passion, but the machines heard consistent signal. Take a voice lesson or two if you need to before recording your final vocals.

• Don’t talk or make other sounds after singing until you are sure the engineer is out of record.

Many a “clean up” edit can be avoided if the singer cooperates by leaving as little “trash” on the vocal track as possible. Talking habitually while still in “red” is considered unprofessional and actually, rude.

• Always sing into and out of a punch.

Start singing before, and keep singing after, you punch in so that what you repair will match the sound of what comes before and after, will sit well rhythmically and will cut off in the right place.

• Don’t let your headphones cause feedback.

While most people do best with one “ear” half-off on the side of your head, you never want to expose your headphone too closely to the mic, which will cause ear-splitting feedback. Turn your phones off and/or unplug them if you are singing in a group and you leave the vocal booth while someone else records. Your engineer will thank you.

OK, any engineers who read this post… put in any other requests of singers! How else can we help you?

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!