How do you begin to record a full length CD?

That question is about as difficult to answer as the question: which came first, the chicken or the egg? There are probably as many different ways to begin a project as there are people who attempt to do it. Over the past few months I’ve featured CDs recorded by area musicians who did the whole thing at home. Most of them had little or no recording experience but still they produced CDs of amazing quality with the resources at their disposal. If you wanted, you could pick apart each one to find the faults and shortcomings, but the strengths of each recording has far outweighed flaws. And why do we want to qualify the unique qualities a flaw? Motown recordings all used the same musicians and arrangers and tended to sound quite similar because of these and other limited resources. To this day people still imitate the “Motown Sound”. Who knows, maybe the sounds that come out of the home studios of today will become much sought after samples of tomorrow.

With that said, let’s get on with starting your own full length CD. This article will be in several parts and I would like input and commentary from everyone that can be contributed to the piece.

There are basically three main elements to consider when starting your recording: 1)The Material, 2)The Studio, 3)Available Talent.

The first thing you have to consider is the material. Without material you have no recording. You can do covers, which are abundant or original material which you need to write or have submitted to you. We will mainly focus on self-written original material—but we’ll get to cover tunes and submitted material later.

If you haven’t written a ton of material, you’ll probably find it difficult to imagine how to go about it. You may have poem lyrics or really low quality cassette recordings of yourself stumbling through your original songs. Believe it or not, this is how many artists begin the process.

Unless you’re in a band and have the luxury of playing the songs together and working out the songs like The Rueben James or Lithium Zero did for their CDs, you’ll have to get outside help and truly make a studio recording. If you don’t plan on doing everything yourself, you’ll have to convey your ideas to people you don’t normally work with. That can be quite difficult—even for a full time band! Anyone who has had experience with a group going into the studio will know that studio recording is quite a bit different than an actual performance. For the individual artist or collection of musicians who don’t really play the material together, the first recording experience can be quite eye-opening. Things don’t come out quite the way you imagined them or they normally sound. Sometimes you’ll be pleasantly surprised, and quite often you will not get the expected results. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

Diane Schnier wrote her material for her CD “Before Cowboys” about 10 years ago in the form of self accompanied piano pieces which she and her husband and album producer Al Schneir (of the group moe.), later produced . Al has studio experience but this was his first full blown production (see article for more). Listen to her original version of “Things Gone By” which will crossfade into the final album produced track.

As you can hear, much changed from the original demo to the final recorded version. Here’s Diane description of the process:

When I wrote "Things Gone By" I had a "Crazy Horse" feel in mind. When Al listened to it, he heard a much funkier version in his head. When he started talking drum loops & telephone vocals I was thinking.....yuck. But knowing that I've been stuck in the 70s for quite some time now and Al having a much more progressive, relevant to the times, kind of ear, I decided to just trust him on this one & let him go for it. I ended up really liking what he came up with. This was the last song we did and I think it added a different & needed element to the album. (We even considered, for a short time, skipping it altogether due to being a little burnt out after doing this for a year.) "Things gone by" & "fly on the wall" are the only 2 songs on the album where we ditched the piano altogether. I think we were a bit concerned about all of the songs sounding too similar and thought it was a little overkill with the piano. We didn't want to end up boring everyone. There are so many different ways a song can evolve & change. With five different producers, you'd probably get 5 very different songs. (I'd still like to do my Crazy Horse version of "Things Gone By" someday.)

As you can see, material can and will change dramatically during experimentation and creative changes. This has been one of the problems in the past. People who wanted to go into the studio to make a recording had little experience in making their musical ideas come to life. The expense of recording at a studio did not allow time for experimentation or retakes—even throwing out songs altogether (NOT AT $50+ AN HOUR!!). But at your own studio you can try things all day and night. That too can become a problem—when is enough enough? Working with someone who has recording experience can help you reach your goals reduce anxiety and tell you when to stop. Also, with internet you can find great tips on recording in just a few Google searches. Believe me, there are plenty of resources out there to keep you from making extremely frustrating decisions. Maybe I could get some suggestions from people who’ve found good advice? I’ll put some in the next segment of the article.

Throughout the next few months while going through the evolution of a CD made at home, I will be using examples from other local artists material. If you have some get them to me. I will also be following the step by step process of making and packaging a CD by following the progress of the new release of Robin Banks and his CD entitled “42”.

Banks has been playing for years with groups such as Roger Wilco and the Radio Waves, Hamell On Trial, Midnite Mike and the Big Notes, Dillinger and others. Over the past few years, Banks has been suffering from tinnitus, a hearing disorder that results in a constant ringing in the ears that puts severe limitations on performing music. The disease was first brought to the public attention when Pete Townsend of the Who announced that he was diagnosed with it.

We’ll listen to some of Robin Banks’ original cassette demos, the first studio versions and finally the finished product while we go through the process.

One final note, recording at home doesn’t eliminate the need for using a full-blown studio. There are things that can be done there that can’t be one at home. I doubt that many people personally own all the equipment that would be available for use at a full production studio, but by using the personal studio, you can learn, record a great product and, if you ever get the opportunity to go into a full studio, you’ll actually know what to do.

--Zoe


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