Less is often more when it comes to recording productions. Space is necessary or you get a mind-numbing muddled sound stew instead of a mind-blowing sound tapestry. This is true in all genres or catagories of musical projects.

Sonic information is best delivered in digestible chunks. Where instruments and vocals DON’T play and sing are as important as where they DO. Space can create a wonderful anticipation and draw the listener’s ear into rapt attention. There are many ways to achieve this space, such as

• Drop some instrumentation. At certain points (verse, breakdown chorus are common places), pare the instrumentation down to just an instrument or two or percussive rhythm. When instruments come in, they should do so without stepping on each other or the vocal. This space should help with creating dynamics that bring authentic emotion to the recording.

• There should be a consideration of frequencies instruments are playing. Too many instruments in the same frequency range sounds like jumbled up noise instead of music.

• Studio musicians should compliment each other in a team effort, not play like soloists vying for attention. A well-chosen, pro studio band doing this is a beautiful sight to see and hear. They communicate with each other and strive for creative, yet well-coordinated efforts, guided and encouraged by a good band leader and producer.

• Make sure background vocals are arranged in a similar way… to enhance the production, not to take attention away from the lead singer. Instruments playing licks, where the actual chord changes take place, how many layers should be sung for effect, etc. and the sound needed for the genre itself need to be taken into account. Sometimes it’s best NOT to do a three part chord and substitute octaves, unison or duet treatment to a part of the song. This also gives the feeling of space. Correctly done, a production is greatly improved by strategic background vocals. Too many of them or having them in the wrong places can kill a production. Most of the time, btw, its best to get a veteran pro background singer to create strategic arrangements, subject to you and your producer’s approval.

• Limit vocal licks. Lead vocal embellishments (scats, licks, melodic variations) should be used with discretion. Gifted recording artists- especially great voices- need to be watched over by a discerning producer to make sure any vocal embellishments enhance and do not distract to deliver the authentic emotional performance. Too many licks numbs the listener’s ear and heart.  I know you’re good, but space, please.

• Get a mix with space. Your mix engineer should, among other things, take care not to “wad everything up in the middle” when mixing the tracks. An expert mix engineer will know how to space and pan things, assign the right space-making reverb plates and eq and edit out anything that conflicts.

Music without space is just noise. Spread out.. give time… make room for the song to breathe. Create a sonic tapestry that begs to be played again!

*Helpful tip:

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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!