Let’s just start with what is a great song and we’ll get to the recording part later.
First of all, a great song should be defined as one that does a great job of
filling its intended use.
What?
While most people think of songwriting and hit songs as great songs, with great lyrics, that are recorded perfectly for their styles, there are other uses for music. Those other uses may need something completely different to accomplish their intended use. An example would be, let's say, a film where a lady is walking down a sidewalk dressed properly and clean and the scene calls for her to be completely offended by kids playing music in a garage. Well, your recording needs to be noisy and loose, hollow and loud as if it is inside a garage. So the point is, define your music before you record it. Do you want to sound raw, polished, and time-stamped in the ’50s, or what?
Once you figure out what you are looking for, then the next step is to decide what the finished will be. Art is never finished; it is only abandoned.
A demo is a quick recording that presents what you want the recording to present. A master is the best recording you can do for a budget that will keep people happy in a commercial medium such as radio or TV.
How do you get a world-class, master recording and what gear do you need?
A world-class master recording can be made on less than world-class equipment if you know what you are doing. A world-class master recording will never be
made on world-class equipment if you don’t have a grasp on what you doing with
the equipment.
An imagination to hear a song before it is done, techniques to reproduce your
imagined sound, and ears to know when the sound is right, are essential.
OK then, we have our start.
What we do here in our studio when it comes to a demo, is to use top gear and techniques that produce
masters on a regular basis but what we don’t do is spend countless hours polishing and fine-tuning each note of each track. We use great musicians and as
much imagination as we can but we don’t work on a lead guitar part for 4 weeks
to get that perfect brand new sound no one has ever heard before. We don’t
spend 200 hours dialing in a bass sound. We do a really great job at getting a
song done in a fantastic way that suits the needs of its intended use, and on a
fixed budget.
We try to fit a few songs of the same general style, in one day. We hire the best people for that style and have them come in on that day. We hand them charts, play any pre-session demos we have worked up and rehearse the songs a few times. If someone has any cool ideas, we share them and work them out. When we’re ready enough, we hit record and track your song. We get the levels nice, the tone right, and voila, we have a demo or the tracks at least. We usually have the lead singer stay after and redo all the vocal tracks to make them as good as we can get them.
We like to record 4 songs a day so sometimes we put a song on the wait list for a few days until we can get it done right. Some of our players exceed in one area and are only good in another. We figure that waiting a few days to get it done the best it can be done is a worthwhile wait.
If you have any questions, ideas, thoughts, or issues, please contact us. We love to give you the confidence to try us the first time.
It only takes one
demo from us to keep you coming back forever.
To get started, just email me, by clicking my name Danny Taddei
