Is It Time To Record An Album? - Indie and Unsigned

In this day and age, recording an album is no longer exclusive to signed bands. Chances are you know someone who has self-recorded and released an album already. Recording your own album shouldn’t be something that you rush into though. You need to consider quite a few things, and if you’ve never done it before, it can be quite overwhelming.

1. Do You Really Need To Record An Album?

The first question you need to ask yourself before you begin recording an album is, “Why do you need to record your songs?” Often times I see bands who hit the studio before they even have 10 gigs under their belt. Everyone has their own reasons, but you need to seriously consider whether you are at a point in your career where it will actually be beneficial.

I’m going to ask you a question, and you need to be honest with yourself. Are you doing it for the money? If you think that just by recording an album you’re going to sell thousands of copies and become rich… then you’re an idiot. I’m being harsh, I’m being blunt, but I’m also telling the truth. Releasing your own album takes A LOT of hard work, money, time, passion, and headaches. If you don’t do things right, then chances are you won’t do anything except end up with a thousand copies of your album sitting in your closet. So if you’re looking to record an album because you think it’s going to make you rich, then you can stop now.

Now that we have that out of the way, there are a ton of reasons why you might actually need to make an album. Here are some off the top of my head:

A lot of venues won’t book you if you don’t have a recording for them to listen to.
When someone can go home with something to listen to, they are more likely to remember who you are.
It’s a great promotional tool.
It’s hard to find real fans online without something for them to listen to.
You have already made a name for yourself, and there are people who will ACTUALLY buy your album.
It’s fun!

There are also a million other reasons, but the real point I’m trying to make is that there is a very good chance you won’t actually make any money. Most likely you’ll actually LOSE money releasing your first album. But that doesn’t mean the benefits don’t outweigh the risks. It just means that you really need to have a game plan if you want to do it right.

2. Demo? EP? LP?

One of the first considerations you need to make is whether you plan on making a Demo, EP, or LP. This really depends on what you plan to do with the recordings. Let’s begin by defining what each of them are.

Demo – Demos usually consist of 5 songs or less recorded in a less than perfect fashion. These aren’t full-fledged releases, so you’ll never see people charge for them. Generally they are used to shop around for labels, gigs, and to fill up your online music players. Keep in mind that when people hear the word “demo” they usually think less of it, regardless of how good it actually is.
EP – The term EP actually began as a way of separating out different kinds of vinyls. However, it has stuck around and is recognized as a record that has more music than a single, but is shorter than a full album (LP). The definition is very loose, but usually it’s an album consisting of 4 songs and clocks in at less than 25 minutes in length. The big thing to remember is that these are professional quality songs. EPs are considered real releases. They are just shorter than a full-length album. People will expect professional quality but at a lesser price than an LP…. maybe even free.
LP – Any official release that contains more songs and is longer than an EP. Basically if you have more than 4 songs, it’s professional sounding, and it is longer than 25 minutes, you can probably call it an LP.

Will you be charging or giving it away for free?

Trust me, I understand how hard it can be to want to invest money into something, and then just give it away for free. You have to realize though, in the beginning stages of your career your main goal should be to grow a following. It doesn’t matter how great your songs are, how beautifully it’s recorded, or how good your mom thinks you are – if you don’t have REAL (read as: not your friends, family, or co-workers) fans, then your album isn’t going to get much attention. And guess what? The best way to make some new fans is by giving them something for free. This isn’t a truth exclusive to music. It’s true of every product, company, TV show, movie, etc. If you give people something for free, they might actually care. Can you honestly say that you wouldn’t trade away a couple free songs for some die-hard fans?

You might want to consider going the route of a Demo or a free EP if you don’t feel you have a strong enough fan base yet. If you’ve developed a bit of a reputation or have a strong fan base, then it might be better to do an EP or LP that you charge for.

3. Studio Musicians

If you’re a band and plan to only record instruments that your band mates play, then you shouldn’t have too many problems. If you are a solo artist who doesn’t play every instrument, you may need to hire some studio musicians. Studio musicians can get VERY expensive. You have to remember that these people make a living doing this, so a more cost effective way of doing it might be asking a friend. Lots of musicians looking to get into the game are eager to build their resume as a studio musician. They may do it for free, or at a relatively low cost. Just make sure that you have confidence in their ability to record. The studio is a VERY different beast than a live setting.

Whatever way you choose to do it, you’ll also need to make sure you have contracts set up. As a band, you should already have some form of band contract that dictates who owns and gets what. If not, you need to do this before you start recording. If you are a solo artist and have all the material written before going into the studio, you’ll need to have the paid performers sign a release that says they don’t own the rights to anything they are recording. That way you are protected from them claiming any royalties or profits from your sales.

In the situation that you didn’t come in with everything written, and you are planning on having the hired guns write some of the parts, they could be entitled to some of your royalties. That is unless you have them sign a contract stating that everything they write is as a work for hire and therefore relinquish any rights to the parts. Some musicians are glad to do this, but usually require a significant increase in price. Others will laugh at you.

As you can see, things get complicated quickly when you start recording… and it’s only just beginning.

4. Professional Studio vs. Home Studio

It has become significantly easier to make an album in the confines of your bedroom. It has also become a lot easier for bands to release albums that suck. There’s a reason why a vast majority of big label releases are sonically superior to indie releases. The quality of your product is a sum of all of the parts used to make it. Big studios have the best mics, the best pre-amps, the best effects, the best hardware, the best monitors, the best tracking rooms, and the best engineers. Most bedroom studios have an MBox, 1 crappy microphone, ProTools, crappy effects, and someone who has no idea what it means to be an engineer.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of people who have home studios that can produce records that are as good, if not better, than a lot of big label and studio releases. There’s just a ridiculous notion these days that anyone can plug into a computer and make AMAZING albums without any real effort. That’s just not true – especially if you are recording live instruments. Using samples from a sound library is a completely different ballgame than recording an entire drum kit. I could write an entire series of articles on this topic (and I may very well do it in the near future), but for now you just need to realize that if you do everything on a crappy home studio setup, it will be reflected in your recording.

With all of that said, I strongly suggest doing a hybrid of sorts. There is a lot of stuff that can be done at home where you won’t be hemorrhaging money to pay for the studio time. Just make sure you know what you are doing! Which brings me to the point of how much studios cost.

High-end studios can easily cost $1,000-$3,000/day. And I’m not talking about the famous studios. Unless you have some money to burn, then you’ll probably need to look around for some smaller studios. It shouldn’t be too hard to find ones that cost less than $500/day. Some studios even do it by the hour. Just keep in mind that a lot of times the price reflects how good the studio is. You should ALWAYS check out the studio before booking it. Most studios are more than happy to have you come in and look around when they don’t have a session happening. Ask them to show you some of the work they have done in the studio. Ask about and look at everything. You want to be sure you’ll end up with a good final product. If you’ve never had any studio experience, ask a friend who does to come along. It’s usually pretty easy to pick out the bad apples if you know what to look for.

Once you’ve found some potential studios, start crunching the numbers. A common misconception for first time recording artists is that they will be able to make an entire LP in a day or two. Even if every person played every part PERFECT on the first take, it would still be impossible to track, edit, and mix an entire album in 1 or 2 days. You MIGHT be able to get 1 song done in that time. Again, I would ask the studio or some of your friends how long it actually took. Keep in mind a lot of big label acts spend well over a month in the studio to do a record. Lots of times that doesn’t even include the mixing and mastering.

5. Producer

Producers are a tricky bunch. Depending on what genre your music is, the producer can play different roles. For example, in a rock band, the producer is there to help make sure your songs translate into a recorded format well. They’ll offer suggestions on how to arrange the songs, where to double vocals, tones, mixing, pretty much everything. They should have a good idea of what it takes to make a good recording, and specifically how to make your song into one.

On the other hand, a Hip-Hop producer has a much more hands on role. Lots of times they create a large portion of the music. They usually create the “beats,” which can mean a lot more than just what the drums play. Lots of times it’s the extra melodies, the synths, or even the entire band. They do a lot of the creating. That’s why you will hear a hip-hop producer’s name thrown around a lot more than a rock producer.

When you approach smaller studios the engineers may be willing to act as producer. Or if you are confident in your abilities, you can be your own producer. Depending on what your songs are like, this can be an easy task, or one of the most mind numbingly difficult things you ever do. My best advice is to talk to someone you know who plays a similar style of music and has been in a studio before.

6. Engineers

There are 3 different kinds of engineers you’ll need to make your album happen: a Tracking Engineer, a Mixing Engineer, and a Mastering Engineer. Each serve a different purpose and have different skillsets.

Tracking Engineer – This is the person who hits the “record” button whenever you are tracking a song. From setting up the mics, to editing the tracks, they will be responsible for handling all parts of the tracking process.
Mixing Engineer – This is the person responsible for taking all the tracks and turning them into a stereo file. They will EQ, add effects, edit some more, and basically make your songs sound the way you want them to.
Mastering Engineer – This is the person responsible for getting your album ready for the public to hear. They will make sure all the songs sound like a single entity, make sure levels are equal between each song, and also loud enough to compete with the big boys.

Often times you’ll find that each engineer does more than one of the three. The most common is someone who does both Tracking and Mixing. If you don’t have the same person doing both Tracking and Mixing, they’ll at least need to have some communication between each other so that everything can be done in a manner that will give the right end product. The Producer is usually the guy who will work between the 2 to make sure that everything goes smooth.

Depending on what studio you choose to make your album in, they may have in-house guys that serve as tracking and/or mixing engineers. If they do, they are usually included in the cost of the studio. If they don’t, you will need to bring in your own engineers. Whatever the case, make sure you’ve heard their previous work. You want to make sure that you share the same end vision with them. Not every engineer is cut out to make the album you are looking for.

Mastering engineers are almost never included in your studio costs. This isn’t a bad thing though; mastering is a very different beast than tracking and mixing. It’s not as much of a hands-on process for musicians. Mastering engineers get paid what they do because they know what your album needs in order to be ready to compete with the big guys. Again, make sure you do your research on them. There’re a lot of people that have mastering plug-ins, so they think they are mastering engineers. Mastering is a fine art that requires a lot of skill, experience, and the proper equipment.

Again, hiring any of these engineers will be another cost in the process. Choose wisely!

7. Digital/Physical

If you do plan on releasing your album to the public, you’ll eventually need a way for them to get their hands on it.

Digital Releases

If you plan on releasing it digitally, you have an infinite amount of ways to do it. If you want to put it into stores like iTunes, Amazon, etc. then I’d recommend using TuneCore to do it. They cater specifically to independent artists and do a damn good job at it. Just keep in mind, that most of these stores only offer ways to purchase music. If you want to offer it for free, then the process is a bit different.

The most important thing you can do when giving away your music for free is making sure to get some way to keep in contact. You can do this by having them sign up to a mailing list, having them follow you on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., or any other creative way you can think of. This will ensure that you have an audience to promote to for your next show or album.

If you feel that you would rather just give it away without forcing them to give you anything in return, then I’d at least recommend devising a way that you can track how many people are actually downloading it. You can use Google Play. They let you set the price of your album, and will track all the analytics for you. Or you can just upload it to your own server and let them download it straight from there.

Physical Releases

For any physical release that you plan on charging for, you’ll probably want to get a professional print done. You can get a free quote over at DiscMakers. This way you’ll have an idea of what it might actually cost you to go this route.

If you’re planning on giving it away for free, then you have some more options. The goal here is to keep your costs down while still showing some symbolism of professionalism. You don’t want to just hand them a CD with a handwritten title and no case. Chances are it’ll get tossed into the back of their car, scratched up, and never listened to. If you want a professional looking CD, you can either go to DiscMakers and print CDs only, or you can do something like a LightScribe CD. LightScribe will be cheaper, but will require some effort on your part. You’ll need to buy the LightScribe CDs, and if you don’t already have one, a LightScribe burner. This way you can actually burn the label as well as the music onto the CD. Just keep in mind you might be looking at about 15 minutes per CD. It’s time consuming, but you can just pop them into your computer while you practice. Or if you plan on doing A LOT, then you can get a LightScribe CD Duplicator that can do multiple CDs at once.

If you do go the LightScribe route here are some suggested items:

Lightscribe CD – You can get these anywhere that sells blank media, but I’ve always found that Amazon has it for cheaper.
LightScribe Burner – You’ll need this in order to actually burn the CDs. Again, you can find it for cheap on Amazon.
Paper Sleeves – An easy and inexpensive way to package your CDs. I’ve used and recommend these ones.
Insert – There are a lot of different options on how to go about doing this, but you can print an insert to add to the giveaway. This is useful if you want to give them any artwork, lyrics, or websites. I still haven’t found anyone better than PrintRunner. They also offer free quotes, so it can hurt to look! Check them out.

8. Artwork

Artwork is always a consideration with any release. Whether you do a digital or a physical release, you’ll at least need some form of cover. If no one in your band happens to be an artist, this is another cost you’ll have to consider. The price can range from nearly nothing to more than $1,000 just for a basic cover. It all depends on who you go to. Whoever you do choose, just make sure they have done art that you like. The first thing EVERYONE sees is your artwork. If you have bad artwork, potential fans might not bother even listening to the album, free or not.

9. Click track

It’s funny to have to say this, but if you aren’t ready to play your music to a click track, then you probably aren’t ready to jump into recording anything. I’m sure there are already a couple of you saying “Click tracks kill the vibe! I’d never use one!” Sorry to burst your bubble, but unless your entire band functions as a well-oiled machine, your recording will suffer if you don’t use one. The only time I would actually ever suggest to forego a click is if you have an amazingly good live feel and plan to record the album in a live setting.

What a lot of newbie recording artists don’t realize is that it’s common practice to record each instrument individually. The click is just your way to keep everyone on the same page since they aren’t playing together. Without one you won’t be able to land the 1s, count in, or even edit easily afterwards. Trust me when I say you will WANT to record to a click… that is unless your drummer is a robot.

Conclusion

I know that I’ve probably just spent the entire article scaring you out of recording, but that isn’t my intention. I just want you to realize that there are a lot of things you have to consider. You don’t want to waste your time and money or release a bad album. If you take the time to plan ahead and really give it your all, then you stand a fighting chance really killing it with your record. Just do your homework and you’ll be fine.