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9 Mistakes To Avoid When Recording Your Own Album
By Craig | March 12, 2008
Today was a good day. I finally began to work on our next record.
It’s been almost 18 months since we were last recording anything intended for release. That’s a long time. One of the reasons for this was that I figured we needed to place an embargo on any new recordings until “Lighting and Electrical” was finished and available to anyone in the world who might want to hear it. I knew from experience that if we had started recording new material before that point then the songs would have joined that pile of other songs that we never got finished, and I didn’t want that to happen.
So, with the album now out and the embargo duly lifted I have to say that the thought of working on a new set of songs is making me very happy, very excited and a little nervous - and all at the same time. I am happy because making music with the others makes me very happy. I’m excited because it’s been a while since we were recording and it’s a chance to show what we’re made of, a challenge. Lastly, I’m nervous because I know there is a long journey and some hard work ahead of us. Still, it feels liberating to finally be out of the traps and it’s made me give some thought to the process ahead…something we could have benefited from the first time around.
Without going into too much detail, the whole process for recording and releasing “Lighting and Electrical” was absolutely torturous and I say that without the slightest exaggeration. The experience was perhaps the first and only time in my life when my over-developed stubborn streak actually came in handy. I learned a lot during the whole process, and mainly that a lot of the delays I moaned about were ultimately down to our own stupidity. A little patience would have been useful at times, too.
So, for the benefit of anyone about to embark on recording their own album, on their own and also to serve as a behavioural mantra for our own second album, here are some things I’ve learned from all the mistakes we made last time. I’ll add a complimentary post listing all the mistakes we made after we finished recording in the next day or so.
Off we go, then….
9 Mistakes To Avoid When Recording Your Own Album
by the band that made them all.
1: That Odd Buzzing Noise Will Come Out In The Mix
..and one day there will be free jetpacks for us all. No matter how good you think that last take was, if your singer kicked the mike stand halfway through or the small change was rubbing against the keys in your pockets then you need to think about starting that take again.
2: If You Are Having Drums, You Might Want To Record Them First
You may think you’ve nailed that guitar part to that click track but there are two people who won’t share your confidence. The first person is the drummer and he will till you all about this when he comes to play along to the song. The second is the person who will spend weeks going through the all the component drum audio files, making miniscule adjustments to the placement of a kick beat here and a high hat there. When I say weeks, I mean WEEKS…easily enough weeks to fill a month or two.
3: “Hey, Shall We Tune-up?”
This one sounds teeth-grindingly obvious, doesn’t it. Oh yes, so obvious in fact that you’d laugh at anyone who made such a stupid error.
*cough*
Moving on, then…
4: Effects Breed Like Rabbits
It might not sound the way you hear it in your head but if you cave in now and add that tiny bit of distortion - just to make yourself feel better about everything - then imagine how great you’ll be feeling when you come to the mix and you can’t get rid of it. Record EVERYTHING dry.
5: “You Sound Like You’ve Got A Cold…”
If you didn’t have a cold when you recorded the vocals for the other 9 tracks, why do you want to do record the vocal for this one now?
6: Clean Out Yer Ears
If you’ve listened back to that rough mix more than 10 times today then it’s probably time to go out, meet your pals and get drunk. Additionally, when you all come back from the your night out your friends will probably be in the mood for some ELO or possibly some Fu Manchu. That track without vocals and that piano part littered with cack-handed mistakes will be waiting patiently for you tomorrow - it ain’t going nowhere.
7: Less Is More
These days home studios can be augmented with a dazzling array of plugins that enable you to have thousands and thousands of sounds and instruments at your fingertips. You are limited only by your imagination, but remember that this cuts both ways.
8: Organise, Label & File
At some stage, when you’ve recorded your last vocal or overdub, you’ll want to think about mixing your album. When this point comes it is waaay too late and entirely pointless to have the bright idea of giving audio files sensible names and putting them into folders that, say, represent the names of the different songs they come from.
9: Back-Up
Death, Taxes and At-That-Crucial-Point computer malfunction. They come to us all in the end. Do it daily, weekly or monthly….but make sure you do it.
Now….go and make a great record!
Topics: The 2nd Album, Music, Apropos of Nowt |
March 24th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
thanks much, man
April 5th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
thats it, dude
April 15th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
[…] record is that it all happens reasonably quickly and without mental anguish, which would be the exact opposite of what happened last time around. I suppose you’d call it hassle-and-anguish […]