Guidance for beginners

For singers who wants to sing to a backing track..

When you sing a song it’s referred to as ‘the vocal’.

  1. Choose which song you want to sing (Pop, Rock, Classical, Stage, etc, any you wish).
  2. Next we need to get a backing track of the song, if there’s one available.  A backing track is the music to the song with the original ‘vocal’ already removed, so you can sing your own ‘vocal’ over the top of it (like karaoke). 
  3. Backing tracks cost from £4 to £20, depending if they’re straight forward ‘off the shelf’ to sing over, or if they’re a multi-track breakdown of it, which we can edit in different ways to make a new version.
  4. Next is the recording session where you stand in front of the microphone and sing the song while your voice is being recorded.  You will have some headphones on and you’ll have the backing track playing in them.  You will also be able to hear yourself in the headphones and any instructions from me.  You will sing the song a few times to warm up and then sing it a few more to make the recordings.  This can be done in sections of the song, or straight through.  It’s up to you.
  5. When you’ve finished recording, we will have three versions of your vocal.  Now we will pick the best bits from each version and make one super version.
  6. Next will be a little bit of refinement, like a touch of tuning here and there if required, or any timing errors etc.
  7. Now comes the mixing stage.  Mixing is when I used various tools to make the vocal and track sound big, silky and smooth.
  8. Once finished, it will be made in to an MP3 file and a WAV file and made available for you to download.
  9. There is an extra option for it to be packaged on to a CD as well, if you want one of those.
  10. It will take about 90 minutes to complete everything.  Job done!

The basic procedure for recording bands:

The process of recording simplified.

  1. Rig up the instruments and complete a sound check.
  2. Create a guide track with the whole band playing together (if required).
  3. Record the instruments and vocals individually. Starting with the drums and bass.
  4. Mix them down to a final stereo mix.
  5. Master the final stereo mix to give it a professional sheen.
  6. Transfer the MP3 and WAV to the artist or burn the track to a CD with the track/artist info printed on.
  7. However, there are many more options available today that can be applied to make your track sit above the rest.  Those options (as shown below) only need to be called upon if required.  If you’re looking for a raw ‘warts and all’ type sound, the above procedure is exactly what you want.  If your looking for a highly polished and perfectly put together commercial track, then you’ll need all the professional editing and production techniques available.
  8. This of course has to be balanced with the amount of time available to carry out such methods and ultimately the budget you have.  Artist always ask ‘how much will it be to record one, two, three songs etc’ and there’s no exact answer.  If we were to record a band of world class musicians, who don’t make mistakes and know the sound they’re looking for from their instruments, the recording process is going to be pretty quick.  If you’re not a world class musician, but you want to sound like one, then it’s going to take a little longer.  For more information on recording click here.

Anything Else just ask.