As I was exploring the internet searching for articles to catch my eye, one popped out from Blue Cup Magazine called “Project Budgeting” under a section titled “Tools for Songwriters” and I said wow, this is good to know information for any singer-songwriter working on their first project in the studio! It started off talking about how most artists nowadays self-produce their own albums and is responsible for budgeting and scheduling themselves, compared to the record labels having these responsibilities. It is true that an artist has to be educated about the recording process and research and understand about how much money and time will be needed to record their projects. The article begins with the six stages of album recording and these are key in trying to “avoid costly mistakes and/or delays” (Ferguson, n.d) in the recording process.
Briefly, the first step is Preproduction, where artists write and record, along with rehearse and practice songs in advance before actually recording them for a cost. Second, Tracking, is very important because this step helps give the feel and tempo of a record and are the basic tracks that are later used in the overdubbing stage. Next in the recording process is step three, Overdubbing, a time when artists and producers can experiment with sounds and layering on top of those basic tracks I mentioned earlier. Fourth comes Editing, Comping, and Tuning, where you can improve on your recordings. The fifth step is Mixing and this is done after everything has been recorded and this “is the process of combining all of the individual elements into a single stereo mix”(Ferguson, n.d.). Mastering is the sixth and final step and the individual song mixes are fixed up to sound better with equalization, compression etc and sequenced in their final order to later be sent out on a special disc to a replication plant for mass production and mastering should be done in a studio built just for this final stage.
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The bulk of the remainder of the article delves into studio budgeting for a project because that is the most expensive element in recording an album and gives tips on what to do once you approach each of the six stages I previously mentioned. It gives thought to whether a singer-songwriter could possibly get away with recording an entire project at home or does some steps require a professional studio and my answer is yes to utilizing both. The author (who is an engineer and artist himself), talks about when to use outside engineers and when to pay for help and deciding if your album even needs to be mastered, a possible huge money-saver until the time is needed to do so! The author repeatedly mentions that recoding a project will take longer than you may originally think and to be prepared because mistakes can happen or you can run out of money to give a few examples. He uses a spreadsheet displaying an example of an “”imagined indie budget” for a singer-songwriter and it gives great illustrations on how to look at costs and time of a project and helps one calculate these figures more efficiently if any changes should occur.
Great source of information, please read…you will save money and in this recession, any extra change in a songwriter’s pocket is a blessing! Happy Thanksgiving :)
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