Recording an Album
Recording is a huge topic with many books and websites devoted to it. This is not a complete lesson in recording. Instead, this section is tailored to indies, including how to minimize your studio time for those paying by the hour as well as giving you ideas on what you can do with your studio if you have one. We're not professional recording engineers but, after three albums, we certainly have a list of tips, techniques, and—most of all—things that we tell ourselves that we'll never do again. As always, we are not claiming to be experts. Please comment if you have any corrections or, especially, any new ideas of what to add here.
We're going to cover the following topics:
- Planning an Album: The major steps that you need to go through to plan out an album.
- How Multitrack Recording Works: An introduction to multitrack recording for musicians who might not have recorded in a studio before.
- Multitrack Recording Techniques: Different techniques you can use while using a multitrack recorder including vocal thickening and others.
- Recording Plan Example: A recording plan that has worked for us!
- Saving Studio Time: When you are in the studio, the meter is running. Here are ways to save time as you record your album.
- Mixdown: An explanation of the mixdown process.
- Mastering: An explanation of the mastering process including sound samples pre and post mastering so that you can hear the difference. Also contains tips on saving mastering time.
- Recording Mistakes to Avoid: Don't make the same mistakes that we did! If you have your own recording equipment, especially digital equipment, we give you some tips on mistakes to avoid.