Hearing Your Song as a Record

When we think about recording our music, most tend to think of the "master" recording—the fully mixed & mastered recording that will be distributed for streaming, download, radio play, or even physical sales on CD or vinyl. This is often the end goal for each project, so we obviously place a great deal of emphasis on crafting that finished audio file.

This is what we've traditionally referred to as a record, even though it may exist now in a completely digital form. Regardless of the distribution format, you still want to hear your new song as that final recording many still call a record.

Working backward from that wicked-awesome stereo file, it's really the multi-track recordings from the tracking session where the individual parts are captured to create the overall performance of the song that the world will hear and fall in love with.

If the tracking session and any resulting rough mix is the first real opportunity for you as the artist to hear your song as a record, that moment can be powerfully rewarding or it can be equally painful to realize it doesn't quite sound the way you thought it would.

It doesn't have to be this way.

You shouldn’t have to wait until the tracking session or live gig to figure out if a song will come together the way you hope it will.

With today's tools, you can use various types of recordings throughout the music-making process—not just at the end—to assess your song at different stages and make the necessary tweaks to ensure it all works before you go into the recording studio, play that live gig. or even introduce it to your bandmates for the first time.

You Might Be Listening But Are You Hearing?

While there's something to be said for capturing the spontaneity of a new song, we often want an opportunity to rehearse new material with our band or collaborators before heading into the recording studio, particularly when money is involved. But hearing the song come together in a rehearsal space can be a different listening experience with everyone playing at full volume in close quarters, especially if you're partly focused on playing as well.

Ideally, you want to be able to listen objectively to how the different parts are working together, competing for attention, or just plain working against each other within the context of the overall performance.

This is where having a recording early in the process can help you to simply focus on hearing your new song as a single performance—what that master recording might end up sounding like when you get there.

Sure, the sonic quality might be quite lousy (even terrible) but even a rough recording can reveal details you wouldn't have picked up on while playing through the song as a performer rather than hearing it as a listener.

Scale Your Recording Efforts AT DIFFERENT STAGES

It's common for many new songs to start with singing or humming a melody over an accompanying instrument, such as your guitar or keyboard. As the basic structure takes shape, it’s a good idea to make a very simple recording of your new song to capture its initial vibe. Traditionally, this is what we’d call the work tape.

These days, the built-in mic and voice memo app on your phone can easily capture that raw performance in its early stages to give you feedback on what's going on and where you might want to go from there. Likewise with a simple performance video captured on your phone’s camera & mic.

Once the basic song is written—with a structure, chords, melody, and any lyrics—we often quickly start to think about adding more parts to build out the song into a fuller production. Drumbeats, bass lines, guitar riffs, and more can pop into your head faster than you can remember them or write them down.

Being able to quickly capture ideas, without pressure or judgment, can be critical in the creative process. You want to be able to easily create multi-track recordings to layer each new idea on top of the existing ones.

Today, this is easier than ever. The trick is to scale your recording efforts to match your goals in the different stages of your own unique process.

Even without a lot of gear or engineering skills, you can use mobile apps such as GarageBand (iOS) and BandLab (Android) to easily create multi-track recordings with basic sounds you can replace later.

These scratch tracks will often prove to be incredibly useful throughout the rest of your music-making process, regardless of which ideas make it on to the final record. While you might get lucky and capture a brilliant performance, it’s more about fitting the parts together as a whole at this stage than perfecting each individual part.

Think of these rough recordings as audio sketch pads or notebooks to capture and audition your ideas while you create.

Because each part is recorded on its own track, you have the flexibility to mute parts or solo a track during playback to hear only what you need to hear at any given point in the song. Even without any processing or editing, these multi-track recordings can provide a solid reference point.

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Use various types of recordings throughout your music-making process to assess progress and make adjustments. Click to enlarge the image.

If you have access to a full Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) such as Pro Tools, Logic, Studio One, etc., you can gain more control and better quality with your multi-track recordings.

Working with an experienced tracking engineer might be the better option if you'd rather focus on the creative aspects of music-making more than the technical ones.

When The Demo Is Better Than The Record

It's not unheard of to realize that a part you captured in a rough demo recording is actually way better than what you're able to recreate later during the actual tracking session.

The story goes that the classic guitar solos heard at the end of Hotel California almost didn't happen. When Don Felder and Joe Walsh were recording those parts, Don Henley insisted they play what they'd originally captured on the demo—the problem was, they couldn't remember how it went. Luckily, they were able to get someone to play the demo tape for them over the phone and relearn those parts for the actual record!

In some cases, you may even wish you could just copy and paste an individual track from the original demo into your tracking session instead of trying to recapture the exact feel or energy you had on that particular day. Both GarageBand and BandLab provide the ability to export your multi-tracks for just such an occasion. I can help!

There are also occasions when you realize a song has been over-produced, and returning back to its original bare-bones arrangement is what works best. Sometimes you have to rediscover your own song.

Once you can comfortably create multi-track recordings (at any level of quality) you'll quickly find a workflow that allows you to create, iterate, and assess your music from start to finish.

Your raw multi-tracks can be edited and mixed down into anything from a rough demo to a final mix—or anything in between. This is where working with others can make things a lot easier for you and your band. I'd love to hear what you're working on and how I might help you get your raw tracks to sound their very best. Tell me about your music!

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