Top 5 Mistakes Artists Lose Money On In Recording Studios
Lets be honest, studio time isn’t cheap. Even if you’re rolling in cash you probably won’t have many opportunities nail the best take. Inexperienced artists are more likely to make a lot of mistakes, and as you can imagine, this could lead to a lot of time and money wasted.
(Big tip: We’re offering a FREE trial of our mixing and mastering services for a limited time. Click here for more information.)
So, lets get to it:
Be On Time
There is no room for being late to a recording session. Neither the studio or the engineer will lose sleep over this. Studio time is booked on a block basis and if you don’t show up on time, there’s a good chance you’re paying around $5 every minute you’re late. The studio may even give your block away if they don’t think you are going to show up. Always get there 10 to 15 minutes early to warm up so that you can get started recording as soon as possible.
Have a Goal
Lets push the 20 minute planning session to a few days before booking your studio time. Ask yourself, what do you hope to accomplish for the day? The answer is always going to be different, but make sure that you do this before walking in the studio. It’s all too common to have a planning session and realistically, the less time you waste the more you’ll get out of your session. Remember, time is money.
Don’t Waste Time
Many musicians want to learn their parts or treat a recording session like a practice session, but recording a song isn’t the same as performing it live. It’s a completely different process, and a lot of time takes a different type of practice. By the time you start recording, you need to know just how every part of the song goes. There are times that inspiration may hit, and you want to add or try something new, but those decisions need to be taken with caution. That 10 second part can quickly turn into an hour or more if you’re not careful. Rule of thumb: if it’s not working in the first 15 minutes, it isn’t meant to be.
4K Magic
The best way to explain a high quality recording is comparing it to video. Lets say you’re browsing for a TV at your local electronics store. You’ll might see some old 1080p and maybe the new 4K TV’s. You’ll get a pretty good idea of how much better the 4K looks when it’s placed side by side with a 1080. The microphone is basically like putting a big magnifying glass over your instrument or voice. Every imperfection will be heard in high definition (including your performance). If you don’t have great equipment try to borrow it or rent it from someone that does.
Listen to Your Sound Engineer
Your sound engineer is in charge of making sure you sound like a million dollars. It’s probably a good idea to make sure he/she does the best they can do for your project. Be respectful, and open minded to their advice. It’s not always wise to insult the cook that’s making the food you’re going to eat. In this case, the engineer is the cook making the food you’re fans will be eating. Unless you’re a seasoned engineer, it’s best to let them do their thing.
With the rise of automated mastering software, many artists are opting for the quick and easy solution to mastering. We tried to be as objective as possible, so we decided to interview up and coming hip-hop artist and rapper NATE about his experience with the service. He also offered to let us use the one of his tracks so you can hear how and why he does and doesn’t use the service.
Before we get to the interview, for a limited time we are offering a free trial of our mixing and mastering service so you can hear the difference for yourself. Click here to learn more.
Here’s the interview:
_B:What’s your overall experience with mixing and mastering in general?
NATE: Well, I’ve been on all sides of the spectrum when it comes to mixing and mastering. There’s tracks that I’ve recorded and had mixed and mastered in studio, tracks that I’ve emailed to get mixed and mastered, and tracks that I’ve mixed and mastered myself. For me, the mix is the most important part of a song, it can make or break a record in terms of being a hit. Mastering is just the polish after all the details have been tweaked to near perfection.
_B:When it comes to the business side of music, what prompts you to want to outsource the post production of your music?
NATE: For the most part, my main motivation to taking a DIY approach is money. Sometimes you record a track and you feel as if the performance you gave in your home studio can’t ever be replicated, as an artist, if we make a song and feel like the performance is great, then we feel entitled to take charge of the mixing and mastering. Why? Because we know exactly how we want it to sound, and as masters of our craft we are willing to sit at a computer for hours tweaking and twisting virtual knobs to mirror the exact sound that we hear in our head. It may not be the same for all artists, but those are my reasons.
_B:Which do you think is more important: mixing or mastering? Why?
NATE: Mixing is definitely the most important part to a song. Like I said in my answer to the first question, the mix can make or break a record. People don’t want to hear distortion at the high end of a vocal, or wait for a beat drop just to hear that the drums are non existent and hiding behind the bass. In order for an artist to give the listener a complete experience of any song, the mix of that song has to be spot on. Mastering enhances some dynamics and adds depth to certain elements, but if the mix isn’t great, then the master will not help the song. There’s a reason why the word mixing comes before mastering.
_B: I remember you mentioned using Landr before. What prompted that decision?
NATE: Well back in 2016, I wasn’t working yet and couldn’t afford any studio time. I recorded my album on Garageband and bounced everything without any knowledge of mixing or mastering. I remember someone telling me that mastering my music could help get me on the radio. The word radio was enough for me to look up different mastering sites, and Landr seemed to be the most affordable. Although the mixes were straight up awful, the mastering gave me confidence in the music I was releasing. That was pretty much why I started using the instant mastering service.
_B: What are the pro’s and con’s of Landr, in your experience?
NATE: I’ll start with the pro’s, Landr is quick, you can pop your mix in and it’ll have the master ready in less than 5 minutes. Landr, is affordable for the most part, a high quality WAV file is 9.99, and a low quality MP3 is 2.99. Another pro is that Landr’s a website, the masters are always available no matter where you are. As long as you have access to a computer, you can sign in and download your masters at any time. Now as for the cons, Landr doesn’t allow you to tweak the master beyond the loudness. Sometimes you want the bass to hit harder, but there is no way to alter that unless you go back to your mix and alter it through compression and EQ. Landr also charges you a whole new master price for wanting to higher the volume of the master. Lets say you purchased a master and downloaded it with a medium intensity, if you go to your car and realize it wasn’t loud enough, you choose the high intensity, but you’ll have to spend another 10 dollars to get it.
_B: Do you trust Landr? Do you think you get what you’re paying for?
NATE: Well, it’s really hard to say whether or not i trust robots and computers, for a short answer I’ll say no to your first question. As far as the second question, I do think I am getting what I’m paying for. If i go to a professional mastering engineer with platinum credentials, and Grammy nominations, my guess is I’m going to end up paying an arm and a leg for just one song to be mastered. With Landr, I’m paying $10, I’m really not expecting a Bob Katz sounding record, but it’s good enough to get the average listener to tune in.
_B: When you’ve decided to hire Studio 411 for mixing and mastering, why did you choose to do so?
NATE: I think I started working with Studio 411 on the last leg of 2017. Other than the head engineer being my go to for any of my major releases, I felt like the studio could be a staple in my career. Somewhere that I could go and get the best sounding product, something that I can represent and promote. I wanted to work with Studio 411 because I saw the potential that it has to be the best and most credible recording studio in the city of El Paso, and even the state of Texas.
_B: There’s obviously a huge price difference between Landr and Studio 411. Why would you choose one over the other?
NATE: Here is the answer that I give people when they ask me why I spend money on recording at the studio: “I can mix a single, as best as I can to match something that’s dominating the charts for the time being. I’ll throw it into Landr, and the track will be ready for release in a couple weeks. Great art takes time, from the production, to the lyrics, and especially the post production. I haven’t had the experience needed to trust myself in engineering an entire project. I feel like there would be a lot of inconsistencies within tracks, and I don’t believe in releasing something that doesn’t sound like it was carefully crafted. I would rather take my project that I have been working on for 2 years to someone who knows their craft better than they know anything else for those 2 years of my hard work to be reflected in their mixes and mastering.
_B: Have you hired anyone else to mix and master your music before? What was the result?
NATE: I remember hiring an engineer on Fiiver to mix and master one of my tracks, the end result wasn’t bad, but the track was missing warmth, and key elements that I get from Studio 411.
_B: How difficult is it to find a qualified engineer or studio you can trust?
NATE: I feel like finding a great studio is very hard. It’s easy to be influenced by the bigger stars and going to record in the studios that they record in because you feel that if they got a hit record, then you can too as long as you record in that studio. In all reality, only the artist has the capability of creating a great record, but the environment around them can affect the performance and execution. Artist’s lose confidence because of these external factors and in most cases, never release the record. Sometimes engineers can give the artist suggestions and tips, the artists who take it are interested in making the best sounding product if they’re taking other people’s advice, but these comments can also make other artist’s feel uncomfortable and can also instill a sense of doubt in their art. I feel it all depends on the artist, they have to find an engineer that they feel comfortable with, once they have that go to person, then at the point the studio doesn’t really matter since the chemistry has been established between both parties.
_B: If you can give an artist any advice on the subject of mixing and mastering, what would you say?
NATE: Please get your tracks mixed and mastered. Shop around, talk to people, visit your local studios, I cannot tell you how many times I have listened to a song and 10 seconds in I end up closing the tab because of crazy distortion or a piercing high frequency hitting my ear drum. People who love listening to music love to listen to quality, and that includes the mix. Mixing and mastering can give the artist confidence in whatever they are releasing which can drive them to continue making art.
Conclusion
Landr has it’s spot in the industry as a quick solution. There’s no doubt about that. The best way to find out whether or not it’s the right solution for you is by hearing the difference for yourself and deciding if your project needs a better solution. Lets get on with the comparison.
The song was recorded and mixed by NATE. Mastering was submitted both to Landr and Studio 411. Tracks are labeled so you know which one you are listening to. Post what you hear the difference is on the comments!
Why 90% of Musicians Outsource Their Mixing and Mastering
I wanted to go into depth with this one because it’s apparent that in today’s industry everyone wants to be a master at everything. I won’t go as far as saying that it isn’t possible, but like a good friend of mine said before, “People overestimate what they can get done in a day, but they underestimate what they can get done in a year.”
It’s so common today that everyone is a, “Singer/Songwriter, Multi-Instrumentalist, Producer, DJ, Mixing and Mastering Engineer, Record Label Owner, A&R, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Author, Humanitarian, Mother/Father of 3, and leading innovator under 30.”
There’s a small percentage of people where that most certainty applies, but for a lot of people that’s not the case. The rest of us are just trying to make our way through the world just like everybody else. So let me explain:
If I wanted to to have a killer flute or violin solo on my song, the last thing that would come to mind is, “I need to learn to play the flute.” I can play the guitar and I’m a solid keyboard player, but I know the limits to my ability. I’m aware I probably could learn to play the flute, but it would take me a lot of time to be able to play well enough to finish the project. There are a lot of people that understand this simple yet fundamental flaw in humanity that we simply can not know everything.
Master Mind Group
Henry Ford was known to have a row of buttons on his desk that by pushing the right one he can summon someone that had all the knowledge he could need about the business he devoted most of his time to. He called those people his Master Mind Group, and is cited as saying,
“Why should I clutter up my mind with general knowledge for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require?”
Practicality
Outsourcing is a major time savor on many projects. Whatever your release schedule is, outsourcing your mixing and mastering will let you work on the release and marketing plan and focus on the important business aspects of the job. Many professional engineers don’t own a recording studio. Why, you ask? Well what good does it do someone to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions on going into business as a recording studio, when they can rent it from someone else that already has it? An engineer can move to any city and go right to work because someone has already done the work on starting up the studio. The engineer will make the studio some money and help keep them in business and the studio will continue to thrive. It’s a win/win. The same is true with with a musician that’s outsourcing their mixing and mastering. It’s more practical to rent someones knowledge and experience for a small fee, than fuss with it for hours, days, or in some cases even years!
Focus
Bruce Lee is famous for saying:
“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”
Lets be honest, the most important and valuable assets we have in life is our time and our mind. Every successful person in the world understands the value of time. It’s important to focus your mind on the things that you value most in life.
There’s a huge difference between a musician/singer/producer and an engineer. They are two completely different professions. It’s important to understand that there can be a lot of parallels between them but it’s most certainty not the same. Let me explain.
A real estate agent is not a real estate investor. An agent buys and sells homes for a fee, whereas an investor buys properties to turn a profit. Can they be the same person? Probably, but does an investor want to deal with clients and showings and phone calls? Probably not. Does an agent have tenants living in the houses he/she sells? Sometimes, but they probably aren’t paying him rent.
As a musician, singer, songwriter, or producer is it your job to mix and master your music? Not necessarily. Sometimes you might choose to do so because you have the time to do it. Instead of trying to juggle everyone’s job as your own (especially if you don’t really know what you’re doing), focus on your post release marketing strategy. That’s one of the most ignored parts of the process. Many musicians work on the release and throw it on CD Baby and forget about it. It’s expected that by some supernatural phenomenon the song will get discovered and “blow up”.
Conclusion
All in all, it isn’t a bad thing to work on your own music. Take the time to focus on your craft by working on the practical and important business aspects on how to get your art off the ground by building a Master Mind Group. Have a team of people that will help you on your journey and will make the process easier for you. Always be on the lookout for great talent and be mindful of the people in your circle. Consider adding us to your circle: for a limited time, try our online mixing and mastering service absolutely free. Learn More
In this era of DIY and information, the craft of engineering has become neglected and seen as unnecessary. Today, it’s easier than ever to have world class sounds at your fingertips. Now that anyone can get the gear, modern recording seems to be an easy feat, but the truth is, the gear cannot do anything by itself. It’s not as simple as plug this in here, throw that on there, and magically it sounds like a hit record. Just like in anything, practice makes perfect and as a veteran in this industry, I can tell you it takes years of practice, so let me help you get started by giving you some tips to avoid as a beginner.
Patience
When it comes to anything in life, patience is key. In engineering, giving yourself time to learn is key. Just because you have the latest gear, doesn’t make you a pro. Educate yourself by watching tutorials, practice capturing good sounds at the source, and focusing on one element at a time. Rest easy if you don’t have very much gear starting out. Use what you have and make sure you know your setup inside and out.
Getting a good start
When it comes to any project, whether it’s photography, sound, or any type of art, what you begin with makes all of the different. Sure, editing software can make a difference, but make no mistake in thinking that it is a magician. Getting a good, clean sound from the beginning makes your project easier to work with and you will find yourself meeting little to no bumps in the road. And as an added bonus, it leaves more room for you to get creative.
Fear of Mistakes
As a beginner it can be daunting to jump into using EQ or adding compressors. As humans, we have a fear of not getting it right, but in order to become a great engineer, you need to commit to using effects often in order to become familiar with them. Sure you’ll make some mistakes at first, but like I said earlier – practice makes perfect, and by playing with effects, you’ll become confident in your use of them when you need them.
Organization
Organization is good in any field, but more especially when you are working on a project that will be handed off to a mixing engineer later. It will make their life easier when they receive your session. Make sure that everything is labeled properly, so that the person receiving it will know what goes where. For a limited time we are offering a free sample of our mixing and mastering services. Learn MoreUpload Files Here
Mic Placement
Microphones are like ears – they listen to the instrument. Their placement makes a difference in how the instrument will sound to you and on record. It is vital to focus on becoming familiar with mic placement by moving the mics around and playing with them. More often than not, your problem is the mic placement.
Tuning
Before putting your microphones through the feat of listening to the sound of your instruments, make sure they are tuned and working harmoniously with one another. This means moving people around, swapping instruments, replacing drum heads, etc.
After you have assured that all the instruments sound good, then you can decide where to put the mics.
Phase
Phase is a relationship between two or more frequencies. I’ll say it again.
Phase is a relationship between two or more frequencies. It’s not Polarity. We will talk about polarity in a different article all together.
The most common phase problems people have are in recordings with multiple microphones recording the same source. The problem is that one microphone may be closer than the other and although the source may sound good, when the recording is captured you’ll have something that looks like this:
The red line = y1 + y2. It is the sum of the two waves at different point in their wave cyles (or phases).
I don’t want to complicate this too much, but phase has the ability to completely cancel out your frequencies (more often than not your LOW end frequencies).
Now that we’ve established what that is, let’s get to the point.
It is crucial to develop a technique for a good phase relationship – in order to do this you must familiarize yourself with the basics of phase. When you get your technique down, you’ll be able to get great sounds with multiple microphones.
Before anything, if you’d like to learn more about mixing, here’s a great book I’d like to recommend. It’ll explain what different tools actually do to the sound and will help you make better mixing decisions. Check out the preview here: The Art of Mixing: A Visual Guide to Recording, Engineering, and Production
The first thing you need to do is make sure each track in your song is connected to a separate channel in the mixer.
This is the most important part of exporting stems in FL Studio and you should do this slowly and carefully.
In the image below, you can see we’ve connected this track named “Lex808_1” with channel 9 in the mixer.
To do this all you need to do is click on the track and on the box on the right labeled FX, change the number to a free channel on the mixer.
Now you just have to connect every track to a different channel in the mixer.
Pro-Tip
A good idea is to give each track its own channel in the mixer and don’t send two tracks to the same channel unless you’re consolidating them (for example the vocals), which we’ll explain how to do next.
Don’t worry it’s really easy.
How to Consolidate Vocals For Export in Fl Studio
When I say consolidate the vocals what I mean is separate the main vocals, ad-libs, doubles, chorus lead, chorus backing, and chorus ad-libs into their own tracks.
So when it’s all said and done, you’ll have these tracks all in separate WAV forms.
Main Vocals
Ad Libs
Doubles
Chorus Lead
Chorus Backing
Chorus Ad Lib
For example, you can send the main vocal for verses 1, 2, and 3 to the same channel in the mixer.
You can then do the same for the other vocal tracks as well (send them to their own channel in the mixer).
This way when you export them there will be one track with all your main vocals in it, one track with all the backing vocals in it, one track with all the main chorus vocals in it, you get the idea.
Another good thing to do is name each track correctly.
For example, if you have a main vocal track, name it “main vocal” in the mixer by right-clicking on the channel and going to rename it.
This way it’ll be easier for you to assign tracks to the correct channel and when the file exports it’ll be called “main vocals”.
Also, your audio engineer will love you because you saved him time from organizing your stems.
Export Stems
Now you go to File > Export > Wav file
Next, a dialog window will pop up asking you to name it and save it.
The beat I’m exporting is called “Tropical Trap” (don’t ask me why I named it that).
This is where you’ll want to create a new folder and name it your songs name.
You can right-click and go to “Create new folder” and then you can name it accordingly.
I will usually title the folder the song’s name and put (stems) beside it.
For example, if the song is called “Tropical Trap”, I’d have a folder called “Tropical Trap (stems)” and it would contain all the exported stems from Fl Studio in it.
Don’t forget to select this folder and click “save” as this is where you’re telling FL Studio to export your stems.
The Final Part
Finally, this window will pop up, all you need to is select “Split mixer tracks”.
You can also copy the same settings I have used here as well.
Once you’ve done that, click “Start” and let the magic happen.
If you’ve done everything correctly, you’ll have a folder with all the tracks from your song separated.
Exporting Stems Mistake: Don’t Worry Everyone Does This
A common problem, I still do even to this day, is forgetting to link one track to its own mixer channel, so it’ll be missing from the folder! Ouch.
Remember up above I said to do it slowly and carefully.
You can double-check to make sure every track from your song is in the folder by exporting your tracks back into your recording program and making sure they’re all there and lined up correctly.
With this simple piece of software, you’ll definitely get started on the right path to success, but exporting stems can be tricky. It doesn’t have a feature that will allow you to export multiple stems at the same time, so I’d recommend a cup of coffee and a lot of patience. If you haven’t read our blog about what stems are and why you’d need to export them for mixing and mastering, you can find that here: https://recordat411.com/how-to-prepare-your-song-for-mixing/
Thankfully we’re here you walk you through it.
Let’s get started:
Step 1: In the window that contains all your tracks, you’re going to need to press the speaker icon on all of the tracks you want to mute. With this, you are ensuring that the only file heard is the file you want. The orange-colored track is the one that is going to be heard while the grey-colored tracks are not.
Step 2: To export your track, press ‘Share’ and then select ‘Send Song to iTunes’ from the top menu in Garageband
Step 3: When you do this, a menu is going to pop up that allows you to name your playlist and tend to other details. After filling it out, click ‘Share’
Step 4: Now iTunes appears, you can scroll down and find the name of your playlist
Step 5: After finding you have found your playlist and it opens, it is going to show you the tracks that have just been bounced. You should be able to see that the track defaults have the same name as the playlist. A good idea would be to rename each track as soon as you bounce them to avoid confusion down the line.
Step 6: To change the name of the track, simply click on the current name until the cursor appears. After renaming your track, press enter on your keyboard.
Step 7: Repeat until all of the individual tracks are in the playlist.
And you’re done, my friends.
This is quite a simple feat, but for new producers, it’s just about getting your feet wet and listening to your own work as a professional file.
