starting a project?

[Audio_Noob]

Hi everybody,

I just had a few questions on how to start projects. while i'm not a noob when it comes to the technical side of audio, I have a total noob when it comes to recording and just general producing.

First thing I want to ask is what to you guys usually do when you begin a new project either personal, or with another artist?

Second, when you actually begin the recording process, do you try to get the best recording possible and edit as little as possible, or do you like to fix everything in post?

and thirdly, mastering. While I know it is recommended that you take your projects to a professional to get it mastered, what does the mastering process involve?

Thanks for you time

 

[jndietz]

Below are all personal opinions and points. I'm still somewhat amateur myself but have been in the studio for a few years now.

1) What to you guys usually do when you begin a new project either personal, or with another artist?
With personal projects, I usually start out with some sort of skeleton of a song or album. I haven't recorded an entire album yet, just random songs. So, with songs, I start out with chords and vocals. Sometimes I might start out with screwing around with drums. Personal songs could start any which way. My best advice here is to play to your personal strengths and find a workflow that works best.

When it comes to recording others, it is a lot different. I start by recording scratch takes with a metronome (usually a vocal and a guitar, vocal and a piano, anything that the drummer can follow). Then, I get the drummer in, get the kit set up (new heads, tune it, etc), and mike it up. Get the drummer nice and warmed up so that they can play with the click and scratch track that you recorded earlier. As long as the drummer isn't drunk, hungover, or stoned, give them a set of headphones, run the scratch through it, and record.

Some drummers can't play with a click. In this situation, I will record the entire band "live" but only keep the drums. Sometimes I'll keep the other tracks if they were played well. This is less than ideal because if the band already has issue playing together, it will be very (!!!) difficult for them to play back with the drums. To avoid this mess, tell the band to go home and practice, or better yet, hire a drummer who play in time. I have a small arsenal of studio musicians I can use in events like that. The musicians/bands don't always like it, but this could make or break the record/EP/song/whatever.

2) When you actually begin the recording process, do you try to get the best recording possible and edit as little as possible, or do you like to fix everything in post?

I prefer to get the best recording possible. For me, it sort of depends on the instrument.

"Best recording possible". Especially with drums. Drums are a beast to edit. If the drummer can't play, sometimes there is no way to save a recording. The guy needs to go practice or you need to hire a studio drummer. If the drummer is even somewhat on pointe, you can fix the stray hits/misses with samples or even a slight nudging of the waveform without compromising the groove or beat.

When it comes to the rest of the instruments (horns, guitars, keys, etc.), it is very easy to just delete a poor take and record a new one. Sometimes guitar guys will have a hard time playing specific parts of songs confused, so in that case, get him to play everything he can with ease, then go and punch in the hard stuff.

If you are recording jazzers, they'll play everything well on pointe and together. Usually the best situation here is just to mic everyone up and let them play live. Usually makes for the best atmosphere.

Anyways, the point I'm trying to make here is that it is important to get the best recording possible to save yourself lots of editing work down the line. I like to save post production work for "gee whiz" type of aspects of a song (drop outs, automating FX, etc)

3) What does the mastering process involve?

I won't answer this question because I have very little experience in this realm. The Wikipedia article on this topic is pretty well informative and should give you a 30,000 foot view into what it is.

 

[homestudioguy]

You can find answers to most of your concerns by using the "search" function here!

 

[aaronmcoleman]

These are pretty broad questions so you'll get a ton of answers that may or may not be helpful. So here's my stab at giving some direction.

1) I usually start recording right when I come up with the song. At least a sketch so I won't forget. Then I mess with that little to get a general idea.

2) Get it right to begin with. Some stuff will inevitably need fixing. But most "EQ" can be done through mic placement. Think of the song as a whole and not the individual pieces (guitar bass drums etc), and figure out how they are going to work together. How do you do this? Experience...and ask tons of questions from the online experts.

3) I don't know anything about mastering. To me it's a nice EQ plugin, mellow compression, and a limiter to get the volume right. Mastering guys will shoot me for that, but I'll admit that's not the best way to go about it. But, it's the way probably 95% of the stuff on here is done.

But, write some, record some, and ask questions...that's the real answer.

 

[AtoDeficient]

First thing I want to ask is what to you guys usually do when you begin a new project either personal, or with another artist?

I find the best songs. And then I work on those until they're better songs. . . There is very little point in doing anything else.

 

[grimtraveller]

First thing I want to ask is what to you guys usually do when you begin a new project ?

Although there have been a number of times when I'm 'hot to trot' and write and record a song in the same day, generally speaking, a song will have spent quite a while in my head, formulating and refining. I tend to remember the basic structure and outline. The details and what other instruments do may come all at once or may appear piecemeal, over a period of time. They get hummed into my dictaphone.
It's rare that I'll begin a track on my own. These days, if I do, I'll either start with a click or, if I'm in an especially cheaty mood and the song requires drums but my drumming friends are unavailable, then I'll fly in the drums from a different song or maybe two different songs and cobble together a drum track out of them, to which guitar or bass will be added. These are keepers. There's always some drumming from some 200 past excursions that will fit what I'm thinking at that time.

Second, when you actually begin the recording process, do you try to get the best recording possible and edit as little as possible, or do you like to fix everything in post?

Sometimes, I'm a right dictator in that I know how I want the song to go. But during recording I will generally allow for happy accidents, unplanned migrations and subtle changes. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.
The editing and overdubbing really depends on the song. Many of the songs I used to do were multipart. It became unfeasible to get together with my drumming friend and learn and rehearse a 20 minute piece. Some bits would be great, others not. So I started recording in sections, sometimes. That way, we could get a real good section done and they could be rehearsed and learned then recorded straightaway. It's still one of my ways for the longer pieces though as I've been forcing myself to come up with shorter pieces, there are far more 'one take' Wandas about these days.
I try to get as good a take as is possible but it's not until I hear the playback that I can assess whether what is down has the right feel.
I'm not a purist ~ I am no stranger now to editing. Recording in sections inevitably means there is some post work to be done. And even where there are single takes, I still will edit the drums to my liking. Usually, there will be anything from 4~7 songs done in a session, a combination of straight takes and "sectioned" songs and afterwards, there may be sections I don't like. Sometimes, with a little flying in from other tracks or copy/cut and pasting/time stretching, the drum tracks can be moulded just how I like them. At this point, I'll dispense with the scratch bass or guitar and start recording the proper version. I tend to get all experimental with keys, recording speeds and methods here. Sometimes though, the scratch track is so arresting that it stays. If I want acoustic guitar, I'll record electric DI while the drummer records his take. The reason is that the rooms I've tended to record in have been quite small and the bleed from the drums into the acoustics' mics was always too much and I was never able to deal with it. So now, the scratch will be the electric and I'll record the acoustics after, at my leisure. It also works the other way ~ on quieter songs, you could hear the acoustic scratch guitar on the drum overheads. Not a problem ~ unless I would be hit by a burst of inspiration and try some jiggy strumming in a different rhythm or decide to record the keepers in a different key.
It's not only the drums that get sculpted here. I'm not interested in what I consider to be the illusion of 'the live band playing'. I am, however, intersted in sonic illusions, which, in my opinion, is what recorded music is and has been for more than half a century. So tone shaping of various instruments is an integral part of the 'post' tracking period.
In a way, since I stepped from 8 track analog portastudio to 12 track DAW, songs have become much more involved and much more gets done to them. But I love it, it's great fun. And the opposite is also true. Sometimes I step away from all the big deal editing and just bang it out raw. You know, sometimes I just couldn't be bothered to face the heavy weather.