My Production Process
Music production is never a strictly linear process, but the following is a good representation of my normal workflow for taking a song from an idea to a finished CD. Along the way, I'll discuss the hardware and software tools I use most often.1. Composition
This is most applicable to original pieces, of course, but composition can also be used to add intros, endings, bridges, etc. to cover songs. For lyrics, I typically just use pen-n-paper to start, only putting them into the computer (using Finale PrintMusic notation software) later to help with realizing the melody. Honestly, my internal timing and interval recognition are not as good as I would like, so hearing things in PrintMusic really helps to translate vocalizations into actual notes and rhythm. Even if I've used an instrument like piano or EWI to find the melody, finding the right timing usually takes some trial-and-error in PrintMusic. Also, this helps identify lyrical problems, e.g. too many/not enough syllables. PrintMusic also comes in handy to make lead-sheets to share with other musicians, e.g. with the church praise team.Typically, the "output" of the composition stage is a MIDI file with just the melody and perhaps a start at a chord progression.
2. Arrangement
Arrangement to me primary means choosing a chord progression and "style" for a piece. There is no better tool for this than PG Music's Band-in-a-Box. BIAB allows me to import the MIDI melody from the composition stage and then easily audition different chord progressions and hundreds of styles. Often the chord/style searches affect each other, e.g. a fast style might mean fewer chord changes and vice versa (or not). Sometimes a song seems to call for elements from multiple styles, e.g. a bass line from style 1 and piano/drums from style 2. BIAB calls this a "hybrid" style and makes it easy to create your own new styles in this way.Sometimes, arrangement affects composition. For example, discovering a really nice chord change might force a melody note to change to accommodate. Likewise, a syncopated or straight rhythm might force a change in the melody's timing. Depending on my mood, I might go back to Finale or make the changes directly in BIAB and just forge ahead.
Once the basic arrangement is in place, I will usually "unfold" the song (BIAB's term for laying out the entire song instead of a repeated chorus) and spice it up with chord substitutions or different style combinations for different parts of the song.
Typically, the output of the arrangement stage is a MIDI file with all the accompaniment instruments that will go into the backing track stage. The melody part comes along too for reference but I never (so far, anyway) use the MIDI melody for the final product.
3. Backing Track (Instrumentation/Effecting)
This is where the rubber starts hitting the road in the sense that audio "to keep" is being realized. Band-in-a-Box can output audio but it doesn't give me the level of control needed. For that, I turn to Propellerhead Reason 4 and its incredible array of samplers, synths, mixers, and effects. Reason claims to be an "all-in-one music production environment" and this is mostly true although it is not designed to be a true DAW. (I have not tried their latest product, Record, which mostly makes up for Reason's deficiencies.)Also at this stage, I will often tweak the arrangement in spots where Band-in-a-Box is lacking in one way or another. Intros and endings are especially prone as are places I want a specific rhythm, syncopation, arpeggiation, chord voicing, etc.
Except for composition, this stage usually consumes the most time. Even with the factory patch sets, the instrumentation possibilities in Reason quite extensive and I like to try a lot of things before settling down on a set of patches. Add to that the fact that all patches are tweakable, the myriad of effects units and combinations of such, and the fact that I like to change things up for different sections of a song, and you can start to feel my pain, er, delight in this stage. I usually work in blocks of about an hour, and if arrangement takes 2 or 3, the backing might take 10-12 or more.
The output of this stage is a Reason project ready to wire in to the next stage.
4. Adding Solo Instruments (Instrumentation/Recording/Effecting)
Now that all that effort has been put into a backing, it's time to push it into the background and add the melody, harmony, and/or vocal elements. For this, I use Cockos Reaper as my digital audio workstation (DAW). I pull in the Reason backing track as a single stereo audio track through the ReWire feature and add additional audio tracks for vocals, EWI, and other acoustic instruments like recorders and harmonicas. My audio interface is actually a Xiosynth 25 which doubles as a MIDI controller that I use for some parts and triples as a fairly powerful synth in its own right, but I have not yet tapped in its synth capabilities in my productions. My main microphone is a Shure PG-57. Sometimes I add additional tracks in Reason if I'm playing a Reason-based instrument via MIDI from the EWI.As before, the possibilities for instrumentation are almost endless. For EWI, I have a choice of over 200 presets (factory, Patchman, my own, and other freebies from the 'Net) for the internal synth (as well as the patch editor but I haven't done much of that lately), 100+ patches for the Nanosynth, and a few dozen in Reason. And then there are recorders (3 sizes) and harmonicas (diatonic in most keys and chromatic in two keys [C and Eb]). So again, settling on a specific patch set takes a little time to home in on. But perhaps surprisingly, this doesn't usually take as much time as the backing. By this point I mostly know what I'm looking for (brass, flute, sax, etc.) and it's a matter of finding the exact right fit.
Also surprisingly, the actual recording generally takes less time than expected. Often I'll keep repeating through a section until I like the "feel" I'm getting, then start recording takes until I find a keeper. This doesn't have to be exactly perfect but obviously can't have any huge clunkers and has to fit the feel I was after. The good thing about recording is you only have to get it "right" once. ;-)
After the tracks are laid down, I'll apply some basic effects (reverbs, delays, etc.) from Reaper's bag-o-tricks to get a rough mix down. Again, lots of experimentation and just trying different stuff to see if I like it. Except for special circumstances, I find the EWI instruments and recorders don't need a lot of effects, usually just some reverb and maybe EQ to sit "in the mix", maybe a little delay/chorus to fatten up a part and that's about it. Vocals, "guitars", and harmonicas seem to be the hardest to effect properly.
I'm just starting to add Propellerhead Record to my process. I suspect this will become an increasingly "go to" tool moving forward
5. Mixing/Mastering
I take mixing in two phases. Most of the above work ends up happening on a laptop with headphones and I carry that into the initial mixing phase. I'm well aware this is not the best mixing environment but this fits my music schedule better, which is usually late evenings. I will tweak the sliders and knobs between Reason and Reaper until I'm satisfied that it's close and as good as it can be over headphones. Then I move to a desktop computer for final mixing and mastering. Any "real" audio engineers reading this will probably cringe when they hear that my mastering monitors are M-Audio AV-40s. True, bass response from a 4" driver is going to be lacking, but my music is not real bass-driven, and these things put out more than enough sound for my tiny office/studio space.Output of this stage is a 44.1kHz/16-bit WAV file ready to burn to CD.
The final stage of mastering involves listening to the whole project in a variety of "real wold" listening environments (car stereo, boom box, iPod, small stereo) and making adjustments to individual songs/parts to accomodate and "balance" the project as a whole, e.g. overall levels and bass response not insanely different from song-to-song.
6. Burn, Baby, Burn
Making a listenable CD is the easiest stage of the production process. Most any PC with a CD-R will come with a CD burning application. Mine came with a free version of Sonic RecordNow that is perfectly adequate. All I have to do is drop in the WAV files, set the intra-track spacing, and set the titles and CD name that get displayed on certain CD players. Press the big red button and the new CD is ready is about 5 minutes. I have found not all CD-R media is the same. I don't know what the difference is, but so far Memorex Music CD-R have given me the best results.7. CD Production/Distribution (Web Site/CDBaby/Kunaki)
My web host is StartLogic.com. I looked around and they seemed to have the best combination of price and features - plus they came recommended by Erik Klein. I do all my own web site "programming" as well, so far just fairly simple HTML using the SeaMonkey Composer editor.For CD production, I went with Kunaki. I like the do-it-yourself approach (surprise!) and for small production runs, the price can't be beat. I'm pretty happy with the quality of product as well, although next time I'll try to use some higher contrast imagery, especially on the disc itself. If it doesn't look or sound professional, there is no one to blame but yourself!
For distribution, my first choice is Bandcamp, which is still free downloads, but I also use CD Baby. Worldwide visibility and digital downloads for $35.