Making an album...

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ethos

ethos

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I know a lot of people in here have made and released albums, im looking for advice.

I'm in the process of writting and recording my first attempt at a complete album.
Its a daunting task though.

How did you appraoch it?
did you make a whole bunch of songs, and put your favorites on the album?
or...
Did you decide the range of tracks you wanted, and wrote specifically for the album?

How did you juggle the writting and beat making?

any insight will help.

.peace.
 
I know when i record the artist i let them choose the tracks they want to record over..i get them to record about 30 tracks..then I go through all tracks listening to all of them and make notes of whats hot and what needs more work or not strong enough for the Album we workin on now..i usely know how many track i already what to put on it..so i pick the best songs for the cd..i make sure it has upbeat songs, club, party, hood, street and real life songs on it..it has to be able to tell a story but still be a banger..that make you think..once i got the songs ready, i play them in front of everyone to see how they feelin the vibe..then we all work on the songs placement on the album..
 
thats the approach im working with right now..
good to know its used by others.
thanks man.
 
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On my first album Red Oktober, i just went in the studio like a monster and started recording shit like every other day for a few months. i would make the beat one day write to it the same or the next day and then record the following day. it depends on how motivated i was with the song i would produce two beats and write two songs in a couple days and just hit the studio the following day. I performed my entire album like this. my entire album was recorded with me reading out of a tablet. i ended up with like 90 songs in three months but i was only feeling like 30. i ended up cutting it down to about 18.

I think Fieva went the other approach you were talking about. i think he came up with concepts first and then followed with production and song. don't quote me on that though. there is really no right or wrong way to do it.
eminem wrote his songs first then he found production for them on his first album, but on his second album he wrote to the production, that didn't take anything away from him.
 
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yeah ..its really a matter of how you feel..cause you might have something written that might go well to this beat..or you might hear a beat and just start writting to it or you just know how you want the beat to go to what you have written..i have seen all of this done in the projects i have done..
 
word.
yeah i kow thers no right and wrong way.
its just good to hear others stories every now and then to keep you grounded.
 
I got an LP done just about ready to release it. I did a bunch of songs and went with the best ones. Some songs got cut some made it . I think I started out with about 17 ended up with I think 11 tracks total. On the other side another artist we got on hotsounds had a concept with his LP then he just made songs that followed it. On his new LP we are currently working on he went the opposite where he just decided to make a hit after hit after hit. So on the first one no songs got cut. On this one songs will get cut if felt they dont fit that hit mold.

IMO what you should do is really decide what you want out of this LP. If you want to just make something you can cherish as your own work of art then just name an amount of songs you want on there and dont cut any of them just put all the ones you record up to that number on there. If you wanna make an LP to sell CD's and get mad radio play then you will only have to put your best songs on it.
 
Yo Jug....shit I've got about 500 songs written from back before I could even get in to a studio...to when I kind of knew what I was doing but was still learning...all the way to now...that's like about 8 years of tracks (and I still write). I might use bits and pieces of earlier songs that I wrote and update them a little bit. On the Contagious album though I wrote all new material. It took me about 3 - 4 weeks to figure out a tracklisting of the songs based on the topics I wanted to work with on the album. After that I made all the beats and made a promo instrumental CD to see if it would work that way and then made changes to the tracklisting.

That's pretty much the method that I stick to that works for me.
 
Depends on the sound you are goin for...

Im working on my RnB album but I have produced a rap album. For either genre, I think you end up with a more complete sounding product if you plan the entire cd in advance - that makes the album flow naturally, and its easier to keep track of your progress and stay focused. I make a chart with all the the song titles in order (with a list of guest appearance - if any), with notations of what parts i have completed (cuz i rarely complete a song at one time) I might just have a hook and one verse written...then i move on to another track if i get stuck (or get tired of hearing the beat). And when you put it all on paper like this, you can think about it logically -- like "ok, i need to put a skit HERE to make this transition to the next song..." But the main thing IMO is that you already know how your project will sound in advance. If you do it the other way around youre really just playing a guessing game. I mean you could still have 18 hot songs but its more likely your cd will sound like a mixtape rather than an album. But everyone should do whats most comfortable to them...
 
crunkthanamug said:
Im working on my RnB album but I have produced a rap album. For either genre, I think you end up with a more complete sounding product if you plan the entire cd in advance - that makes the album flow naturally, and its easier to keep track of your progress and stay focused. I make a chart with all the the song titles in order (with a list of guest appearance - if any), with notations of what parts i have completed (cuz i rarely complete a song at one time) I might just have a hook and one verse written...then i move on to another track if i get stuck (or get tired of hearing the beat). And when you put it all on paper like this, you can think about it logically -- like "ok, i need to put a skit HERE to make this transition to the next song..." But the main thing IMO is that you already know how your project will sound in advance. If you do it the other way around youre really just playing a guessing game. I mean you could still have 18 hot songs but its more likely your cd will sound like a mixtape rather than an album. But everyone should do whats most comfortable to them...
Click to expand...


LOL I keep my tracklist in an excel document with album name, number of tracks in order (including intro, outro, and skits), featured appearances if any, how much of the song I have written, if the beat has been made for it, and min:sec of how long each track is (with a total time at the bottom so I know if I've recorded too much or not enough).

Fie.
 
GOOD...it aint just me!

Fieva said:
LOL I keep my tracklist in an excel document with album name, number of tracks in order (including intro, outro, and skits), featured appearances if any, how much of the song I have written, if the beat has been made for it, and min:sec of how long each track is (with a total time at the bottom so I know if I've recorded too much or not enough).

Fie.
Click to expand...

thats tight...its ALWAYS good to have a plan!
 
Plans Are Great!!! But U Gotta Have Room For The Unexpected As Well. I Have A Plan Etched Out In My Mind-- After About 7 Songs, I Put The Plan On Paper And Compare What I Have Recorded To The Plan. Usually I Can Then Determine Where I Have Gone, Where I Havent Gone N F Rom There I Decide Where I Need To Go.

But I Always Start With What I Feel Could Be "attractive Radio" Songs-- I Work Out My Concepts Afterwards -- Cuz My Concept Songs Are All Based On My Personal Moods, Opinions
 
crunkthanamug said:
thats tight...its ALWAYS good to have a plan!
Click to expand...


Going into a project with no plan is like going into a chick you just met with no protection.
 
thanks for the responses.
i have half a plan, and thats all i really want.
i think i differ from a lot of you goal wise.
i dont make the type of music radio stations would be interested in playing.
(dont do the club stuff, street shit, love shit).
i respect those styles, i just dont make them.
so im not looking for air time.


i know the range of tracks im gonna have. (political, poetic, rip, etc..).
From there, i'm just going to let it progress naturally.
i have no idea what the final result will be. but i like it that way.
this means i dont limit myself, and im free to be creative and try new shit.

thanks for all the replies though, had me thinking all day, and now i think i know how im going to approach this.

.peace.
 
Sometimes I hate to do that radio shit...but I do it because people request it from me. And those people contribute to helping me upgrade my gear LOL.

Fie.
 
My first "album" was just a bunch of songs thrown together on a cd in a month. I took a more thought out approach for the second one but I'm always changin my mind. I've been working on my follow up for three years this week I think and I'm still not happy. It's not complete yet. I've got about a million beats I've done over the years it seems and probably 3 full cd-r's of unfinished tracks.

Basically, with me, If it doesn't come right away, it ain't coming. Sometime's I'll sit down for three weeks tryin to write something with no luck. I'll get frusterated and want to quit and just like that, I'll start a new track and it'll be complete in one day. I very rarely ever go back and finish a previously unfinished song.

I tried every approach it seems and the one that's working lately is just to go at it with no plan. I don't like to have real solid ideas in advance because it never lives up to the hype in my head. I take it as it comes and do what I can. And I wont rest until this album is done. It may be 3 more years before its finished, but I can handle that as long as I'm happy with the finished product. I prefer doing the tracks and molding the album off of that. I try never to force something just because.

But don't stress too much with your first attempt. Just do it and use the experience as a learning tool. I can't stand listening to the first album I did, but I don't regret it one bit. Perfection is rarely perfect. It's the shit that comes all of the sudden that you wish you could say you thought of in advance.

My opinion.

-Springfield
 
making an album

Ya, normally we record 20 or more songs and only pick the best tracks. Also, you need to be in the right moment. If you have issues in your life, put it on paper! Write poems and write things good and bad. Then you can go back to those writings and moments and make songs. You have to put how you feel on songs. If your not in the moment, you'll never have that song sound right. The feeling won't be there...

Many major artists go to different places in the world to reflect the album. I'm not saying go to another region. If your writing a R&B song, go to the beach and get the feel, writing a hard rap song, go on the block, get that feel. You have to be inspired. Now that's just getting started.

Next, get your beats lined up. Only pick the best tracks you got. And pick only tracks that will reflect what your track is about. Listen ta tracks and think, umm that's a club banger, or that's a hood track, or that's for the ladies, and then write on those topics. And keep all your verses on the same topic. Make sure if you have features on a track they write about the same topic you are. Make it like a movie, INTRO, MIDDLE, AND END...

Hope this helps.. lol ;)

http://www.soundclick.com.beatsbuy
 
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