Audio Recording

The ultimate goal of music production is either to complete an album or a single. An album is a collection of recordings of around 12 to 15 tracks in an audio CD. A single is a track that will be promoted for radio airplay and other marketing purposes of the recording label. You might also heard about “EP” which are collection of songs greater than 2 but less than 5.

A record producer is being hired by the recording label to complete an album, EP or a single. A lot of independent musicians, composers, songwriters do not understand how music business works and how a record producer do his work. This article will help clear out this confusion. Once the record producer officially accepts the recording project by signing the contract; the producer will be provided with the list of songs to be recorded for the project. This is not a final list and the producer itself can suggest some songs to be added to the project. Even the artist can suggest what songs they feel would fit the project for their own artistic vision. The final decision will approved by the recording label.

The first step of the producers job is the “pre-production phase”. In this stage the objective is to:

a.) Get to know the artist songs to be recorded in details. This can be done by listening to the available band demos of the songs or listening to their live performance.
b.) Know the weakness of the music to be recorded and find ways to further improve the song commercially.
c.) Understand the artist strengths and weaknesses when it comes to performance.
d.) Formulate tracking plan. These are the details of the actual recording session.
e.) The recording producer will then assess what type of recording studio will suit best to the project based on the complexity of the tracks to be recorded upon assessing everything (the artist and the songs). For a starting punk rock band in an indie label, a home recording studio might fit the bill. But if an artist is a pop or country that needs elaborate and complex arrangements, then a suitable studio should be needed.
f.) Finalize the recording engineers, mixing engineers and other studio crews for the job.

The above stage can take place in either an first class professional recording studio or a home recording studio. Most commercially-released recordings today are mostly recorded in home studios to cut recording cost. In summary the pre-production phase will let the producer know the artist and songs in detail and formulate detailed steps on how to further improve their song during the tracking and mixing stage.

Once the tracking plan has been completed; the next job is to start recording the tracks. Every song to be recorded has its plan in the studio. A single has even more complex plan because it will be given with more focus than other songs. A tracking plan looks like this:

The record producer will pay the studio (by renting it) using the recording label budget. Actually the one that will finance the album (from recording, mixing to mastering) is the recording label. The recording session will then start, the artist and all the session players will be reporting to the studio based on the tracking plan. The recording producer will ensure that all tracks are recorded perfectly according to his quality standard and plan. If there are mistakes or a certain part of the song are not performed very well; the recording producer will ask the artist to re-record the performance until it will sound perfect.

After all the track are recorded, it will be saved either in the hard drives or other medium. The recording engineer is the one that will ensure that the tracks are properly recorded according to the producer standard. The mixing engineer will then be hired to mix the project. Separate schedule might be formulated for the mixing engineers depending on the producer. The record producer will provide an input to the audio mixing engineer as to what the album should sound like. The record producer might be providing commercial reference CD for the mixing engineer. The album will be mixed based on these preferences.

Once all the tracks has been mixed properly, and the mixdown of each song are completed, the record producer will call the A&R to approve the mix. The artist will also approve the mix. In some albums, the A&R of the label can even influence the tracking process so those recordings might also need approval. But in most cases, the A&R will take a strong part on the approval of the mixdown. If the mixdown fits according to their standard. The record producer will then hire a mastering engineer.

The mastering engineer job is to transform the raw mixdown to actual broadcast quality recordings suitable for any application (radio, TV, any hi-fi audio equipment, CD players, iPods, etc.). Strong emphasis will be given on mastering the radio singles because they strongly affect the success of the album. The recording producer will then review the master recordings and also need the A&R/artist approval.

The recording producer will finally submit the CD master to the label and the job is done. The recording label will then replicate the albums into several copies for release and distribution, starts the album marketing, release digital downloads and start earning sales from it. Depending on the contracts signed, the artist and producer will be receiving royalties based on the album or download sales.