3 Processes To Polished Music

You’ve finally decided, or already begun, to take the plunge into the music writing and production world. Maybe you’ve messed around with Garage Band, Reason, Logic, Pro Tools, or some type of music production software. Maybe you have a small audio interface to record your guitar or vocals. Many times people will compare their music with some of their favorite albums or songs and they find themselves asking the question, “why doesn’t my music sound as big and polished as theirs?” I asked myself that same question when I was starting out and it took a while to get my head wrapped around the answer. Even though I’m still learning, this is what I have found so far…

There are three processes that go into the art of music production: Recording, Mixing and Mastering. I won’t go too into depth here (that’s for another article), but I’ll explain what goes on in these steps that makes the music sound so tasty. I’ll also touch on some ways to still get a good sound without breaking the bank.

RECORDING

Recording is all about capturing your performance. You can record your acoustic guitar through the little microphone on your MacBook Pro, or you can use a $3,000 dollar microphone, going into a $1,000 pre amp, going into $2,000 A/D (analog to digital) converters. Which do you think will sound better? The answer might be subjective, but seriously, let’s be honest. Many of your favorite platinum artists probably use a bit more of an expensive method when recording their instruments, especially vocals.

Thankfully in today’s recording world there are many affordable options out there that will still allow you to get a decent sound. Audio recording interfaces have come a long way, and are available in all shapes and sizes. Most all of them have microphone preamps and analog to digital conversion right inside the box so all that’s left is the microphone and the computer.

These audio interfaces usually have microphone inputs as well as instrument inputs to accommodate the different sources you might want to record, such as vocals, a guitar or a synthesizer. You might have tried recording your guitar by plugging it directly into your interface, but next time try plugging your guitar into a guitar amp, then take your microphone and record the sound coming from your guitar amp. I guarantee once you hear your recording you’ll want to record guitar that way all the time. Just don’t blame me if the neighbors complain.

MIXING

Mixing takes place once the song is finished and can be defined many ways, but it’s basically the art of taking all the tracks that make up your song, balancing their levels, and giving each instrument is own sonic space and unique character. It’s such a separate process then recording that many people make a wonderful living as a mixing engineer. I hate to say it but money plays a big factor here as well. Most songs you hear on albums have been mixed with a combination of expensive software plugins and analog outboard gear. Also remember that mixing is an art form. Professional mixing engineers have spent there whole lives perfecting their craft and that’s why their mixes sound so polished.

The good news is that plugins are getting less expensive and the internet is overflowing with tips and tricks. Almost all popular recording software comes with a boat load of plugins to use from EQ and compression to delays and distortion. And when you save a little extra money you can buy some third party plugins that sound a little better than the ones included in your recording software. I have heard some great sounding mixes that were done completely in the box, meaning no external analog gear was used besides the computer. So have no fear, you can still get some great sounding mixes without breaking the bank or getting signed to a record label.

MASTERING

This word gets tossed around loosely quite a bit in the music industry. Mastering takes place after the mix process and traditionally it involves separate companies called mastering houses who take your mixed song and further process it through high end analog EQ’s, compressors and limiters, and this gear is not cheap. This is the final stage before the song gets released or goes on the album.

Mastering is a very subjective issue and quite often a mastering engineer will charge more if the artist wants to sit in during the session because it too is an art form of its own and many times when artists sit in they can get in the way with their own opinions. A good thing to remember is that a song that has been mixed and mastered well should sound similar on all types of speakers and headphones.

There are also many software plugins out there that allow you to master your song in a much more economical way. Some plugins come with your recording software and the better ones can be purchased separately. Do some research online and you will find some good lists of recommendations.

Are you starting to understand a bit more now? Most big selling albums or singles you love went through all three of these processes and on a big budget professional level. That’s not to say great sounding music has to cost a lot to make, but even the popular bands that had lower budgets still probably worked with recording or mixing engineers who had a decent resume. Thankfully there are many tools available in today’s music world that allow you to write and produce good sounding material on a low budget. Stay up to date and read reviews on the gear you’re interested in. Make a wish list of gear you can afford and work on putting together a project studio that meets your needs. The main items you find in most home studios usually consist of a computer, audio interface, microphone, stand alone pre amp, keyboard controller and speaker monitors.

So what’s the moral of the story? People work hard to make great sounding music. If you want your music to sound great then do your homework, learn the tricks, use your ears and remember, there are no rules (besides the basic ones). Do what sounds good to YOU. Just remember, you might need the general publics approval to make a buck or two

Written by: bstroy on February 22, 2012.