Everyone has moments in their life listening to commercial FM radio stations. You might hear a lot of great songs and some are still memorable as of today. Then you might asked, how this song comes out to be played on the radio? Who created this one? Is this done by the song artist itself or only the recording company is involved?
Then you might see music videos of artists playing in the bands along with their instruments that might take place in a recording studio. Then you might ask again, does the song might be recorded in that studio? A lot of fascinating questions, even I before didn’t have a single idea of the entire music production process before. But after years of experience, I finally pictured out the process really well. Here it is…
Steps and processes of music production
Step 1: The moment the artist recording label (like Universal Records, Sony BMG, etc) decided to start an album recording project (of one of their signed artist). The recording label assigns a record producer to the artist. In some cases, the artist will be the one to select a record producer but this is subject to recording label approval.
If you want to know the duties and responsibilities of a record producer, you can read this tutorial on what does a record producer do.
Before any work will start, the label, producer and artist would come into an agreement signed by all parties. In this agreement, it will stipulate all the project deliverables, objectives, finances, royalties, etc. You can read the details on recording producer and artist guide on legal agreements.
Step 2: The recording producer along with what has been agreed with the artist and recording label will finally decide on what type of sound they are planning to achieve. Some rough ideas on songs to be included on the album might be discussed in this stage (if the artist has some rough demos before).
The record producer might finalize the songs list to be included in the album with inputs from the label and the artists. If the artist are writing the songs, they should finalize it at this stage.
Step 3: Before the band would seriously checked-in into a big studio to record the album, the producer might want to do some pre-production to get an idea on the needed recording techniques, gears and environment for the project.
Since the recording label will be the one to entirely finance the recording of the album songs; they own the copyright of the master recording (the complete product delivered by the producer). They also have the rights to sell and distribute the recordings.
Step 4: The recording producer will book and finalize the project team needed. These are the engineers, name of the recording studio as well as the crew needed to complete the project.
Step 5: The recording producer starts the recording session with the artist. This is the longest step particularly if the album would be complex (such as a double album) and consists of several complicated songs/tracks.
The recording producer is responsible of the song arrangement improvisation, instruments to be added to song, sound and style of the music that he thinks would fit the current trend.
This is the tracking stage that is the process of recording tracks to a song. In this process, different instruments required for the song are recorded; for example, the guitars, bass and keyboards.
The most complicated thing to do in the tracking (the most delicate process) are recording drums and vocals; drums needs a lot of microphones so the engineer or the recording producer would have to be sure that they are recording it right.
The drums are the foundation of the beats, where the guitars, bass and other instruments (even the vocals) will rely strongly; so it will be recorded first. This can take time, especially if the drummer is often out of beat and timing, so re-recording is commonly done. After recording drums, you can easily record guitars, then bass and finally the vocals.
The objective of the tracking stage is to produce beautiful, clean and crystal recordings as possible. There is no excuse for any performers’ mistake; it should be re-recorded.
Step 6: Once everything is recorded, the mixing session starts. The recording producer coordinates with the project mixing engineer. The engineer would simply implement the sound vision given by the producer. If the producer, artist and the label are happy with the mixes, it is considered approved and final. It will then be ready for audio mastering stage.
The overall goal of the mixing is to balance all the recording levels as possible, no mud; all instruments sound should not appear competing with each other. And then here comes the most important, the vocals should be strong and clear as well as the mix should have its own unique character. Clarity of the mix is of utmost importance.
Getting mixed professionally done is tough, it is why only certified and professional mixing engineers are paid to get this done. But home studios can however big producers hire hot shot mixers with solid track record.
Step7: The mastering session prepares all tracks for commercial production and replication. In this stage the recording producer hires a mastering engineer.
The sound recording master should prepare the album tracks for public and broadcast performance such as airplay, etc. There are tracks for MP3/digital distribution as well as tracks for CD album release if applicable.
The song artist, producer and recording label should also approve the master. The following are examples of project deliverable handled by the producer:
a.) Highest resolution audio master copy of the album (e.g. 24-bit/96KHz copy) -this will be kept by the label and will be used for future distributions, compilations and release.
b.) CD master (16-bit/44.1KHz) copy of the album – this will be used as the master CD for replication in case of album release.
c.) Highest MP3 master quality (e.g. 320kbps) -will be used in releasing a digital album online.
d.) Raw recording, mixes, etc – those individual sound recording performance used in the album.
The recording producer work is now complete and he/she will provide all deliverables to the recording label.
Step8: The recording label will finalize the album art design, marketing plan and replication.
Step9: Singles or hit songs from the album (selected tracks) will be provided to the radio stations for massive airplay as part of album marketing. Music videos are also released to music video channels.
And the artist will start visiting radio stations, TV stations or even perform concerts as part of the promotion.
Step10: Listeners can now start listening to the songs aired on the radio. The music production process has been completed.
Content last updated on July 13, 2012