The Six Stages of Album Recording – Part 3

So you want to produce your own album project? Producing a record involves lots of creativity, planning, focus, time and money. There was a time when a record label would take care of much of the process, from securing the right producer(s) and songs, to funding the recording process. At one time this was the norm, but today it is truly a luxury.

Any artist self-producing a project now takes on all of the responsibility for focusing creative output, budgeting, planning and scheduling. Self-producing a record can be very rewarding, exciting and lucrative if done right. Knowing the process of recording and assessing accurately your needs regarding how much time, money and resources will be needed is extremely important to the success of the project.

Without understanding the process of recording, you won’t be able to anticipate and avoid costly mistakes and delays. Your first CD project is too important to leave the details to chance. Provided you have a successful career in music, you will likely have more than one album release in your future; however, your first one doesn’t have to be a bad experience.

I have recorded 12 albums for SCR Entertainment, and over the course of recording these projects I have identified six distinct stages of recording an album. I will present these six stages in three parts as follows:

Part 1 – Stage 1: Preproduction and Stage 2: Tracking
Part 2 – Stage 3: Overdubbing and Stage 4: Editing
Part 3 – Stage 5: Mixing and Stage 6: Mastering

Last week I covered Part 2. If you missed it, check it out before you read on. This week I continue with Part 3.

Stage 5: Mixing
After all of the tracks have been recorded, it’s time for mixing. Mixing is the process of taking all of the parts that make up your song and combining them into a stereo (two channel) or surround (five channel) mix. For years the standard type of mix has been the stereo mix; taking every part of a song and placing them somewhere in what has been called the stereo field.

The stereo field is the space between the left and right speakers. A great mix should allow the listener to perceive width (left to right speaker spread) and depth (close and loud, or distant and low sound level.) Mixing is both technical and creative; during the mixing process parts will be equalized, some will have effects like reverb, chorus, and digital delay, etc. Typically, lead vocals will be in the center of your stereo field along with kick drums, bass and snare, while background vocals and other instrumentation will be placed left and right of center.

Mixing can be approached in many ways, which is where most of the creativity comes in. There is truly no one best way to mix; however, no matter the approach, the end result sought is the same: balancing and placing all of the parts within the stereo field allowing the listener to hear every part clearly. Note: in the near future I am planning to write an in-depth article about mixing in which I will explain my mix process.

Stage 6: Mastering
When all of the songs have been recorded and mixed for your project, it is time for mastering. Mastering is the final stage in the recording process and is where each individual song gets the gloss put on it, helping it to compete sonically with other record releases.

Equalization and compression is added to each song to create cohesion between all of the tracks on your album, ensuring each song sounds similar in level and tone. Your songs are sequenced into album order and burned onto a master disc which all of your packaged and released product will be made from.

Mastering is a very specialized process requiring special skills and tools for manipulating audio and monitoring the results. While it’s possible, given the available tools within today’s DAWs, that a non-mastering studio could perform the task of mastering, nearly all label releases have gone through a dedicated mastering engineer in a studio specifically built for mastering.

Final Notes

Mixing and mastering is truly an art in and of itself. A professional engineer will be well versed in creating hot and unique-sounding mixes. Some may ask if mastering is worth the cost. I say yes; however, it really depends on your goal.

If you are releasing a full-length album and you are paying to have it replicated for sale and distribution, then I would say most definitely have it mastered. On the other hand, if you are simply planning to distribute your finished album on the internet or via self-burned CDRs or DVDs, then I would say mastering is a luxury expense.

The bottom line is this; semi-pro home studio mastering is usually good enough for online sites like MySpace and others, but eventually you should have your album mastered. Now you know! I wish you well and much success. Do your thing!

Wisdom from the Grind: To produce a great album, know the six stages of album recording!