Greatness Takes Time - Part 1

Recording 101 – Greatness Takes Time - Part 1

 

As we mentioned in a previous post, times certainly have changed with regards to the Music Industry; recording is no exception.

There is no better way to express our perspective, than to just get to the point.

With recording, it is important to understand that there are many people involved, who you do not physically see. If you did not write your own music to record, your first step is to consider “paying” the songwriters the “Mechanical Licensing Fee;” this is overlooked more times than I care to think about.  The recording process should start by the studio asking the Label or Artist if these songs are written by the Artist or a different songwriter/songwriting team and if so, have they been paid.  Very important!

Then there is whether the Artists has a band or needs Session Musicians; this generally “could” be included in the Recording Studio cost; however, it all depends on where you go and who you are working with.   The Artist needs to understand that this will reflect on the cost!  It is a bit of a wake-up call as the Artist then quickly realizes, “who is going to be my band if I get bookings?”  Panic then will typically set in!

Then there is the time it takes to produce a single, EP, or Album.  Once the track is produced and keeping in mind, scheduling “all players”; the Artist will come in and record vocals.  Yet another experience!  The Artist could be anxious, find out that suddenly they are shy, or overconfident and what should take a week of recording, ends up being months!  This will set a tone.  They need to remind themselves that if the iconic band, “Queen” ended up in a barn for a month just rehearsing and then three more weeks of writing, before recording, then taking a week in a recording studio isn’t that bad.

This is where it gets fun!  In general, it is about patience and a positive mindset!  With scheduling, possibly not being happy with the first take of the song, needing to go back into the studio to re-record the entire album (yet more scheduling), or just that one verse because “why was I getting tongue tied?” yes, songs can and will all of a sudden cause you to sound like you are speaking a different language; it just happens!  We chalk it up to nerves, but yes if you have too many “s” words in there, it will find a way of making you sing the word with a good, “sh” instead.

Bottom line is, things will happen, it is very rare that a session will be perfect the first time around.  You will have to plan to come back to the studio to re-record “something.”  It is what it is.

Now the way we look at it is this, if we all found our patience during the Pandemic, then I’m sure we can all find our patience working on something we love!  Greatness Takes Time and it is enjoying the journey we are on to learn, gain wisdom, and create a network of great people to work with, which then produces great music.

That’s just the beginning of the Recording process; trust me there is more!! 

 

Photo Credit:  Brett Sayles