Just last week I delivered my mixed master to the record company. Two months earlier they heard my demos for a new CD and they were excited. These were songs I considered mostly finished and it was decided, that my next CD should be released in August. A September release date was not available and October seemed too late to create enough momentum on a single before radio shuts off the charts for Christmas. They usually don’t increase spins or add new songs to their playlists to make room for Christmas songs, starting as early as last week of November. An August release means the CD needs to be delivered by the first week of June. This is when the record label announces the CD to their distribution channels, registers the ISRC codes that help track the songs and so forth. This way the distributors will have the CD listed in their catalogue by July and can ship the orders in August.

I thought – no problem. All I had to do is schedule a few keyboard sessions, a bass session and record lead guitars, (something I like to keep for last) and then mix it. I also was two songs short, but since I had been working on an acoustic guitar album as well, I decided to pull two songs from that project and convert them to fit this new CD. I also had an additional song ready. I like doing that just in case I am not happy with how one of the tracks turns out. So I worked this month and fine-tuned the production on all the album tracks, recorded the missing bass parts, ear-candy, like percussion and additional keyboard parts and made sure I am happy with each song. By the end of April I was pretty much set with everything, except lead guitars and mixing. The demos sounded great, I was happy with the production and the compositions. Then it hit me: this is going to be an intense month.

I usually spend about a day per song to do a lead guitar track for my own record. I take my time to find the right sound, try different amps and mic placements. Then I relearn and practice the melody from my scratch track, maybe come up with a even better way to interpret the song. I will record several takes until I get the perfect performance. With ten more lead guitar tracks to record that’s 10 days. Mixing a song takes about a day and a half. At least that’s what I spend to make sure I get it right. For 12 songs that’s 15- 18 days and I’m talking 8 – 12 hours per day. So if I work 6 days a week and do nothing else I would just make the dead line and deliver.

That’s when I realized this is going cost me. As a contemporary jazz recording artist I am not independently wealthy. Other than collecting royalties, I have to make a living by either touring, or producing and writing for other artists, and doing guitar sessions. I also teach a few lessons or give lectures here and there. But to meet my deadline I had to put everything on hold for a month. Fortunately I had a record budget that allowed me to do so.

The lesson is that you shouldn’t underestimate how much time you need to get your CD finished. Try to get songs really finished early to avoid getting under a time crunch with your deadline at the end. But if you don’t set yourself a deadline, you’ll run in the even greater danger of never getting your project finished. I know of several wonderful musicians, who work on their album for years. They just keep changing it with out getting any further to the finish line. As I like to say (and I’m not sure who I am quoting):

“a good production, as well as a good mix is never finished, it’s just abandoned at some point”

But that doesn’t mean we are getting the same results. Here is what I consider to be the main differences:

The first there is the acoustic space. A proper recording studio is always going to sound better than your bedroom or garage. This can be counteracted somewhat by proper acoustic treatment, adding bass traps and acoustic reflectors to the walls etc. Then close miking an instrument, so you don’t get much of the room sound, and applying of a good reverb plug-in can produce good results.

Secondly, not everybody is an engineer. Many musicians have a hard times switching from the creative right brain mode to the more analytical left brain. when trouble shooting a signal flow in the recording chain. You can say you’ll loose the vibe when you have to figure out why the guitar sounds distorted due to a bad patch cable. I feel fortunate to have had the experience to work in a proper studio as an engineer. So I am quite comfortable with equipment. However, I always prefer to have a setup day, where I get the amps and microphones placed, dial in the right tone, set the right recording level and balance the headphone mix. When I come in the next day, I just start recording and that frees up my head to concentrate on my performance.
But what we are mostly missing is the live interaction of musicians who play together in the same room. This, by necessity, has been replaced by carefully overdubbing individual parts one by one. And there it gets tricky. I heard too many recordings that sound clean but sterile, just for that reason. As a music producer I pride myself to being able to create tracks that have that live feel even when parts are overdubbed one by one. Just to share a few tricks:
A) hire the right musicians. There is no substitute for a great player, But be aware, that the best player you now might not be the best player for a particular track. Getting the right musicians is the key.
B) I often record parts more than once, especially my parts. I may lay down a guitar track to programmed drums, then record live drums and bass. I find what magic happens between drums and bass and redo my guitar part to emphasize it, just as if I was reacting to it when we play live. Then when I add keys, I listen to the voicings used and I might re-adjust my rhythm guitar parts to complement the keyboard parts. I might go back to edit some bass or drum notes in order to catch some accent I played on the lead guitar track. So I move back and forth until I arrive at a recording where each part is reacting to the other’s performance. It’s more work, but until I get a recording budget, that allows me to hire the players I want, rehearse and go into some of the big studios left in town to record my albums, that technique works quite well.

If you want to check out Nils’ productions, you can listen to samples of his music on his album page and on this page of featured artists he produced.

More and more we are producing commercial tracks in our bedrooms.
Most of us have a computer and more than likely some basic recording software. When it comes to taking the next step in improving your recording setup you should consider these guidelines:
1. Start with software:
Logic Pro (my choice), Cubase, Protools are great programs that will allow very advanced music production with out putting you into major debt. They also come with a vast variety of software synths and sounds, built-in drum machines and loop libraries.
2. Invest in the front end:
Spend your first money on a good mic preamp, a microphone and then AD converters, before investing in major outboard gear, speakers or plug-ins. You can always go to a commercial studio to have your production mixed, but you can’t fix what you did not capture in the recording.

I recommend Neumann and AKG Mics. For Pre-amps see if you can get a hold of an Avalon 737, Millennia STT-1, a original Neve, or one of their modern reissues.
A decent mic pre with compressor is going to put you back roughly $2000 or more. If that is out of your budget right now it is worth saving for it.
As to the AD converters, I swear by Apogee. I really heard a difference when I bought my first Rosetta 200.

3. If you need to record more than 1 or 2 channels at a time
As you can see the front end can be quite expensive. If you want to track your whole band playing together at the same time consider renting a studio. Then bring the tracks home for further overdubbing and editing.

4. Ask yourself if you are really into the recording process.
Not everyone has the mindset to be a producer and engineer. It might be better to build an alliance or hire someone who is.
This is an important point. I know a lot of songwriter/artist who got very frustrated because they just don’t have the technical mind set for being an engineer. It kills their creativity having to think about busses, routing and recording levels etc.