What is an Album?

The Process

In terms of music production, an album is a compilation of recorded songs, which make up a larger composition as a singular entity. It is a recorded reflection of the creative expression performed by the artist(s) and producers within its soundscape. In retrospect, the process of recording albums has evolved quite rapidly in terms of efficiency, availability, and versatility, since the first sound ever recorded in 1860 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vqvq-f-UtU). From the invention of the phonograph (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph), to electrical recording, magnetic tape, eight track players, and digital audio, the technology of this engineering process has become a finely tuned art form (http://www.recording-history.org/HTML/musictech1.php). Now, through the help of computers, relatively affordable recording hardware/software, and the Internet, the DIY process of home recording (http://www.renegadeproducer.com/diy-home-studio.html) is a growing phenomenon making the craft of producing and sharing music more and more available to reach millions around the globe virtually overnight. Recording in my own home allows for a deeper relationship to form between myself and the recording process as the space, gear, and musical magic occupies the same household I live in. Even my producer, Paul Olsen, lived with me for five months of the process. And

So now that we have covered the basics of what an album is, I will now provide information regarding the essentials of how to actually create one. There exists hundreds of ways to make a record but for efficiency’s sake, I will discuss these dynamics from the perspective of my personal experience with this process. My intention here is to paint a simple picture of the crucial components to undertaking album design and production. First we will look at the key equipment and resources that I used in my implementation of this project.

 

“Whether it’s a $100 porta-studio or a million-dollar commercial facility, all recording studios contain the same basic components…” Jeff Strong – Home Recording for Musicians for Dummies Vol.4

 1. Sound Source – What are you recording? What material do you want to express on your album? This could be a voice, stringed instrument, percussion, synthesizer, bass, birds, busses, wind, waves, trains or literally just about any sound you choose. This section is fairly self- explanatory but I will describe it by relating it to my experience with written song material. While recording Sundog I knew all the songs that I wanted to be included in the album but had not yet finished all of them (I delve deeper into this topic in OP2 (<hyperlink). Here I learned the practice of ‘invoking the spirit of the song.’ I listed the tunes that I needed to complete and committed one at a time, on focused writing sessions of ‘how ever long it took’ to finish a song. In relation to recording, I don’t necessarily recommend this method if you are operating in the confines of a strict time frame and/or paying for studio time. The more efficient tactic would be to have the songs you wish to record readily prepared and organized for your session. If you are not pressed for time, then hey, take it slow, and let the songs come through naturally. The sound sources utilized in nearly every track of Sundog consist of voice, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, drum kit, and percussion. Some songs had Banjo, saxophone, Piano, & Organ, played by Paul. Another sound-source delicacy was the Violin played on two tracks by musician and painter, Douglas Miller. Refer to ‘Collaborations’ section for more details.

2. A space to record - This can be done just about anywhere you can access a power outlet, though finding a conducive, quiet space is recommended. Another aspect to take into account is the geometry (what shape is your space), building material (wood, concrete, drywall, isolation material, etc.) and size of your space. In terms of ‘dry sound’, aka raw recorded material w/out any EQ or effects, I recommend finding a space that can provide a balance between bright and open, and dead and dampened when it comes to choosing your ideal project location. An example of bright and open could be a room with hard wood floors and a high ceiling. While dead/dampened could be a small, insulated space, like a basement or isolation booth. Some choose to use select rooms for various instrumentation like the bathroom for vocals, drums in the living room, and the kitchen for acoustic guitar. In our case we recorded the entire album (except for the intro track ‘Alive’, recorded at Paul’s home) in a wooden loft space in my living room overlooking the great blue Pacific Ocean (photo). Beauty is another factor I personally take into account when choosing an ideal longer-term recording space.

(not my studio or photo)

3. Recording Equipment – When it comes to equipment, most studios home or otherwise, usually carry a universal list of essential tools for the recording process. These essentials include:

We utilized all the tools noted above in our process except for those listed in the outboard gear section.

4. Proficiency with materials and technology - I.e. a producer that understands the essential functions of equipment and the recording process in order to yield the highest benefit from the given materials. Aka a good producer. This of course can be the musician themselves if they feel confident with operating the technical aspects of the studio. Some well noted producers are (hyperlinks for all) Rick Rubin, George Martin, Jimmy Miller, Butch Vig, Brian Eno, Phil Spector, and Lee Scratch Perry. I was blessed with the help of my dear friend Paul Olsen as my producer and engineer through this process. He has been writing and recording music since his freshman year of high school, has produced four albums, and continues to grow exponentially as an independent artist and producer. I am so incredibly grateful for our friendship and for his invaluable help with this album. Again refer to OP2 (<hyperlink) for more stories of our relationship and process. A key process of production and an aspect I learned a lot about from Paul was ‘mixing’ and ‘mastering’ which I will describe the process of here.

Mixing and mastering, when applied to making an album, is essentially the process of editing recorded material to produce a desired result. When working in a protools session (a tracking session of recorded song material), usually, there are as many tracks aligned on the editing window as there are instruments in the song. When mixing takes place, one has the freedom to edit any of these individual tracks in just about any way they please in terms of effects, volume levels, panning, etc. Mastering on the other hand is editing the song as a whole, meaning that all of the individual tracks in a session have been consolidated into one 'master' track. So now, when mastering, rather than being able to for example, add more reverb to the electric guitar, pan the hand drum further in to the left speaker, and bring up the high frequencies in the bass guitar (which would be the case in mixing), all the editing is focalized on the entirety of the mix itself. The purpose of mastering is basically to polish the overall sound of a recording, bringing the final touches to enhance or diminish the color, tone, and aliveness of the track. A common mastering strategy is to adjust the high and low frequencies to achieve the desired sound balance of the whole composition. In a way, It is a much more sensitive process than mixing in that if even one effect is added to the track, with hopes of editing just one individual sound, it affects the entire sonic landscape of the song. Ideally, the listener would be very happy with the overall sound of the mix before beginning to master because the process of bouncing (track consolidation) takes the same amount of time that the song is in listening length. To ensure that we had the 'ultimate master' that would allow Sundog to shine at its full potential, we mastered the album four times before it was ready for release.

Internal Resources & Organizational Tools

Here I will discuss the more internal resources of the recording process along with helpful organizational tools to create an album in an effective, efficient, and timely manner.

1. Organization, Dedication, & Commitment – Making this album has been the longest amount of time (6 months) I have ever devoted to one project in my whole life. Dependent upon various factors, the time it takes to finish an album will be different for everyone. Because there was no pressure from a record label, or limited pay-by-the hour studio time, our process was quite relaxed up until the time we were given notice by my mother that she would be returning to the house (our studio) within a few weeks come mid November. In relation to my LIPD (http://icaafs.earth/view/view.php?id=1464) this project was planned to take only 3 months, which she was aware of and with her intuitively tuned mother wisdom, knew just how to jumpstart our process with a loving ‘kick in the rear end’ and positive encouragement towards timely completion. So at this point we kicked our productivity into high gear. Here I will summarize our organizational design process that we utilized to prioritize task lists for studio time and the completion of Sundog.

 

  • Schedule - First we mapped the days of the week that we would be focusing totally on recording or reviewing tracks. Paul was working as a server at a local Laguna Beach restaurant so we were basically recording every day he was not on schedule. The scheduling routine changed a few times over the course of the project but remained consistent near the final weeks of tracking with Tuesday through Friday dedicated to Sundog. To complete an album in a timely and effective manner, I recommend working as many days in a row as possible, to provide a sense of routine and flow within the process, rather than segmenting time into ‘every other day’ or going the more unstructured route of ‘whenever works’. My original intent was to be finished with the album by October, then moved to the beginning of November, and finally to December when we finally came to completion. The more interpersonal dynamics of this subject can be found in the collaborations section of this OP.  

The key learnings I took from this were A) Evaluate time frame realistically, with regard to the goals and objectives of the project at hand. B) Take into account the possibility of fluctuation in schedule due to various possible or unknown factors and how to reduce their occurrence if possible. I.e. in relation to home recording, account for friends entering the space, enticing opportunities like social gatherings, the limitations of a comfort zone, or other emergent scenarios. C) Commit to focus and avoid distractions, while cultivating an atmosphere of accomplishment. In essence this means set forth a plan and implement it. Don’t let anything stand in the way of your process, whether it be self doubt or procrastination, commit to the task at hand and don’t stop until you’ve accomplished what you set out to do. Designing a workflow by levels urgency is helpful here, for example we would have a main task to complete in a given studio session, like recording guitar & vocals on a song, which was ideally to be completed during that session without exception, and then a list of optional tasks, like ‘record percussion’ which we would work on after and only after finishing the first task. This process, when utilized to the fullest, yielded substantial emotional benefits like stronger sense of purpose and accomplishment in joy and recognition for what we had completed.

 

  • Progress Board – Also noted in OP2 was the use of a ‘progress board’ which, was a dry erase board listing the songs of Sundog on the far left column, and moving right horizontally, the tasks that needed to be completed which we checked off accordingly. An incredibly satisfying feeling arose when slowly dragging the red marker across the board to form an, ‘X’ in the little squares on the grid. I highly recommend utilizing a progress board, or something equivalent to it, to anyone undergoing a similar process. It was an invaluable tool and has now become a symbol of something I am very proud of to have accomplished in this life.

Task & Workflow Maps – Every three weeks or so Paul and I would sit down to review the progress we had made and would proceed by creating ‘task list design drawings’ to map the next steps that needed to be taken towards completion of the record. These mapping sessions, and designs created from them, were amazingly helpful tools, which re-inspired us to direct our focus on the essential tasks at hand. After each meeting of discussion and design, we felt more confident and invigorated to move foreword towards completion. Through this experience, I have definitely learned a lot more about time-management and the benefits of strategized and well-structured workflow when it comes to making an album.

 2. Adaptive & Creative Flexibility – A major learning curve of making an album is the live performance of recording itself. This requires a certain level of confidence, awareness, and presence that will develop with experience. Of course it is possible for one to be ‘a natural’ with this process from the beginning, but for most, performing to one’s fullest ability while recording, is a skill that requires flexibility and practice. Different musicians may have varying levels of confidence with their sonic skill-sets. For instance, when it comes to instrumentation, like playing guitar, I am able to record a full song from start to finish feeling completely confident in my performance and delivery of the sound. Recording vocals on the other hand, in my case, was a gradual and more challenging learning process, to fine tune and deeply listen to my own voice as I sang into the tracks on Sundog. This is a common occurrence because physically, the orientation of our ears in relation to our vocal chords and mouth are very close. This can obviously affect the way we hear our own voice compared between the perception from the point of view of our internal bodily experience and the external projection of it (our voice) through playback speakers. For this reason, vocal recording can expand ones ability to deeply listen as well as feel the sound as it travels. With this refined ‘sonic filter of perception’ one is able to perceive more and more subtle dynamics within the layers of a given sound. A great evolution occurred for me here because before this record, for various self-conscious assumptions, I was quite uncomfortable hearing my own voice played back through a recording. Over time, with patience, steadfast commitment, and Paul’s unwavering encouragement, by around the sixth vocal tracking session, I became confident and comfortable with extending my performance boundaries, while finding a happy medium of delivery for my vocal expression. The process of recording vocals has now become an activity I cherish to the core of my being. It is an ever-evolving learning process, which gradually shifts over time. Paul really helped me with my growth edge here, encouraging me repeatedly with enthusiasm and positive re-enforcement. No matter how many takes it took to ‘sustain that note’ or ‘nail that line’, we continued our efforts until the deed was done. Someone that can lovingly push your boundaries in regard to recording performance can be an invaluable asset and acceleration tool for this process, the fruits of which, will undoubtedly translate into the whole of your artistry as an evolving performer and musician.

Marketing & Distribution – After an album is finalized comes the process of sharing its vibration with the world. Though I have many thoughts on the current paradigm of the music industry, regarding both its degraded state as well as inspiring possible solutions, this is a subject for an upcoming OP and therefore will not go into this subject in depth here. Here is a link on the subject of the mainstream music industry as It currently exists (http://www.bombhiphop.com/newbomb/bombpages/linernotes.html). Most music is sold on the Internet these days and though some record stores do still exist, they have become more novelty outlets mostly utilized by collectors of vintage vinyl. The most commonly used online music store is Itunes, so this was the first destination I wanted Sundog to be made available. My first step was to sign up with a digital distributor.

Digital Distribution – A digital distributor (<hyperlink(http://musicians.about.com/od/ah/g/digitaldist.htm) is an online company that distributes one’s music to various sites (amazon, itunes, emusic, spotify, raphsody, etc.) to be featured and sold. I signed up with a distributor called songcast (http://www.songcastmusic.com/). Though there are many distributors to choose from, (link) I chose songcast because A) they distribute to an abundant list of sites and stores, B) They provide free ISRC codes for selected tracks (<hyperlink isrc)(http://www.usisrc.org/about/index.html), and C) I can upload unlimited albums for $20.00 a record, with an annual payment of $60.00. From a financial standpoint, signing up with a digital distributor is a great way for independent artists to share/sell there music because profit is divided only between the artist(s) themselves and the distributor sites. An independent artist on Itunes receives 70% profit from sales, where if the same artist was signed to a record label, independent or major, the artist only receives 12% profit and the rest is sent to the label.

Making money from this album was and is definitely not a prime concern as I am interested in the music being widely distributed so it is more accessible to a larger audience. I also feel I am benefiting the field of

Record Labels – “A record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos.”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_label). The main reason that musicians sign up with labels today is for promotion and market management so that they are able to spread their music quicker and to a larger audience without needing to micromanage the often tedious deeds of self-promotion.

Musical Independence – Signing up with a digital distributor is a great way for independent artists to share/sell there music. The other route that musicians take is to sign up with a record label. 

Updated on 04 October 2014, 16:32; 914 page visits from 25 February 2013 to 2 October 2025