More Than Preproduction

Preproduction is an essential time in making a record. The better prepared everyone is before hitting the studio, the faster and easier it will go. But there's more to preproduction that the music. Here's an excerpt from my latest book, The Music Producer's Handbook, that takes a look at the time even before the musical part of preproduction begins.
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Preproduction sometimes is so much more than the process of working out songs. For a producer working with a new artist or band, it’s a time of getting to know each other. It’s important for the producer to learn the likes and dislikes of the artist, be it food, music or politics, as well as their working habits and idiosyncrasies. Knowing these things can help the producer determine how far to push a singer, or discover what gets the best performance out of the guitar player, or the signs of when the drummer is getting tired, or the hot button issues of the day to stay away from. If you’re going to be working closely with an artist even for a short time, the more you know about him, the better you can serve the project.

One of the most important aspects of getting to know an artist is learning what music she loves, was influenced by, and is listening to now. One of the most effective ways I’ve heard of doing this back in the days of vinyl record albums was for the producer to go to the artist’s house and have them throw a bunch of albums from their collection on the floor and have them describe what they liked and didn’t like about each of them. You can still do this with CDs or an iPod playlist. Among the questions to ask might be:

• What do you like or dislike about the artist your listening to?

• Do you like the sound of the recording?

• What recordings do you like the sound of?

• What are some of your favorite records? Why?

• What are your biggest influences? Why?

• If you have a body of work as a producer already, what does the artist like about you? Why?

You can probably add any number of additional questions, but can you see where this is heading? This is the information that you need to help attain the artist’s vision. It gives you a common point of reference so you can say, “Let’s go for a sound like the lead guitar on The Cure’s "Boys Don’t Cry,” and have the artist know exactly what you mean because you’ve found out in preproduction that’s one of his favorite songs. Or if the artist says to you, “Can we get the sound like on the Arctic Monkey’s "Still Take You Home,” you’ll know exactly what he’s talking about.

Go to my site for more excerpts from the Music Producer's Handbook.

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The Preproduction Demo

I have a new book coming out later in the year (it was supposed to be June 1 but those release dates never seem to be met) called, "The Music Producer's Handbook," and I thought I'd share a few excerpts from it in some upcoming posts. Here's one from Chapter 7 on Preproduction regarding the need for a preproduction demo. You'd be surprised what a quick recording before the actual recording session can accomplish. By the way, the price on Amazon is a misprint. It's NOT $81.15. I don't know exactly how much they'll be selling for (probably in the $25 range) but it won't be that.
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No matter how well preproduction rehearsals seem to go, it’s really important to make a preproduction demo recording too. Why? You never really know what a player is playing until he’s recorded. Also, getting a band out of its safe and comfortable environment will make them play differently. Psychologically it helps a band to know that when things sound different in a new environment (as they will) that it’s not necessarily a negative thing.

The preproduction demo doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, the cheaper, the better. Even someone’s old 8 track recorder will do, because you don’t care about track count as much as discovering just what each instrument is playing. What you’re trying to learn is how well everyone is playing together and if the arrangements and song structures actually work.

Don’t spend too much time recording the demo. A couple of passes of each song at the most is all that’s necessary unless there’s a major train wreck. Performance mistakes are okay, as long as you can hear the complete form of the song. Don’t worry about overdubs or layering except for a quick run through to check out an idea. Perfection is not the objective for the demo, information about the song structure, arrangement and individual parts is.

After listening to the recording (even just listening to playbacks while recording), it should be apparent what needs to be fixed or improved, which should take place at another round of rehearsals. It’ll also help the players as they hear what they’re playing against everyone else. It’s not uncommon to hear comments like, “I didn’t know you were playing it like that,” during a playback.

The idea behind all of this is to get the parts down so that the real recording be done efficiently with no surprises and the players only need to concentrate on their performances instead of having to learn new parts. Many times, by the time a player learns the new part in the studio, his performance has suffered so much it takes an additional session just to capture a great performance. Preproduction hopefully eliminates that.

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Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

Album Preproduction

I'm currently in preproduction for a new album with the band Snew. If you've not heard them yet, they're a hard rock band reminiscent of AC/DC or Iron Maiden with some really great songs. I produced their first record last year and it met with a great deal of acclaim and success, so it's important that this one meets the high expectations of their many fans around the world, and that's why preproduction is really important.

Since it’s the little things, the nuances, that make a song sound great, I thought it would be a good time to list those things that a band has to have down before they hit the studio. They are:

• Everyone must know their parts inside out

• The starts and stops in the song are all played together.

• Everyone must play the same part the same way every time (except if it’s jazz or blues)

• Everyone has to know the dynamics of the song.

• All rhythms are in the pocket and the songs groove

• The turnaround between each song section must be defined.

• Attacks and releases for each part must be executed together.

• The sounds of each instrument must be layered so nothing clashes frequency-wise.

• The tempo must be right for the song.

• The band must be in tune (especially the bass, which is sometimes just tuned by ear).

• All vocals must be in the best range for the singers

• Background vocals must be defined and tight

These are all the things that you should be concentrating on during preproduction rehearsals in order to make sure that  your recording session not only runs smoothly and efficiently, but sounds great as well.