How to Make a Record, Part 1: Pre Production
In this multi part series, I will aim to explore the ins and outs of recording a full length album. This series is geared towards those musicians seeking an overview of the process, and serves to define the process as a whole, who should be involved, and what their roles should be. My hope is that if you are thinking of recording your own album, that you enjoy the process and hire people that will help you showcase your art at its highest level.
In this first part of the series, we will define and discuss the Pre Production process. Recording an album is a lot like painting a house. There are many steps, and if you skip or try to shortcut any of the steps, you may complete the job, but the results will not look (or sound) professional. Pre Production can be equated to the preparation stage of a painting project. The painter must first scrape any problem areas, fill or spackle any holes, and prime the area to be painted. If she tries to shortcut the preparation stage, the end result might turn out ok, but it will not look its best.
Pre Production is where you really lay the foundation for your recording. You need to set yourself up for success. There are a few major things to think about….
What repertoire will you record? What are the pieces that you want to include, and what are their timings? How long do you want the album to be? How are you going to release and distribute it? Will it be a CD and/or vinyl release? Digital and streaming only? EP or full length album? Singles that you release over the course of a longer period of time?
Who will engineer, and who will produce? Getting these roles set early on can help you with some of the other pre production steps.
Venue - where will you record? Do you have access, or know someone that has access, to a space with a nice acoustic, that is relatively quiet? You should really, at this point, engage your engineer and producer’s opinion on the chosen space. You all may want to go so far as to meet at the prospective space, possibly have a rehearsal, and generally evaluate the space for noise. A seemingly adequate space on a weekend morning may be a total disaster on a weekday with increased traffic, other uses of the building, etc.
What is your overall album concept? Do you have an ideal in mind of what you want the recording to sound like? Have you chosen some reference recordings? Reference recordings can help your engineer and producer a lot. A good engineer can listen to a given recording and make a lot of accurate judgements about how that particular sound was achieved. You can then emulate that sound on your own album.
Allow enough time to make your recording. Repertoire that might be crammed into 2 long days will almost always sound better when spread over an extra days session.
Plan for a dress rehearsal and/or sound check. An extra rehearsal the day before the actual sessions can give your production team the chance to really evaluate a space, listen to the microphone placement and change it if needed. Additionally, the musicians will have the chance to get comfortable. You will have unpressured time to define the ensemble setup and allow for any changes that need to be considered to assure a good balance between musicians.
Finally, get your producer and engineers copies of your scores. Previous recordings, no matter how rough, of you performing the works you will record help the producer understand what you are going for on the recording. It also prepares the producer for the crucial task of marking takes and mapping edits during the sessions.
Once Pre Production is well in hand, venue and production personnel are chosen, and reference recordings and album concept are defined, it’s time to move on to Part 2,