Stories is my debut singer/songwriter album (you can listen to it here), in which I arranged everything you will hear on the album. This ranges from vocals, instrument playing, mixing/mastering, and even the artwork. It was a complete independent release. I recorded this album after years of writing songs, with the intentions of being able to move on and better myself as a musician/person. Since then, the album has been accepted by Pandora radio, and has boosted my social media presence ten fold. I figured now that I have someone's attention, I can use this to my advantage and hopefully teach someone something in this article.
Whether or not you consider yourself a creative person, you always can be. That would be like me saying I'm not an athletic person, and it's really just me not exercising. Think of creativity as a part of the brain that you have to train, and exercise. The more you create, the more you will learn about it and want to create more. I want this to be a musician-friendly guide, where I share a story and hopefully spark some inspiration in your creative minds. I want people to realize that they are capable of creating marvelous things. Whether it be a poem, painting, song, or even just a melody. Happiness can derive from creativity, and by using emotion as fuel, you can become one lean mean creating machine.
Alright… The story behind my debut album "Stories"! This article will contain information on the background of the album, the gear I used for each song, the days I recorded and mixed/mastered the album, how I got the album on Pandora and Spotify, and more!
DAYS RECORDING
While creating anything, you will receive criticism from friends and family. If you take advice from someone to apply it to your music making process, you're just going to make music that THEY like. Because THEIR suggestions are based off of THEIR taste in music. So yeah, don't do that. Make music that you think sounds cool. However you want to. If you want to take advice from someone else, that is totally fine. I just tend to stay away from that, because I feel more confident in my songs now than I did before, and what other people think shouldn't matter. Alright. Down to business.
9/6/2012: I get a text from a friend saying his dad would be out of town on vacation for a week. I asked if I could bring my recording equipment over, stay the week in his apartment, and record an album there. He says yes, I become overwhelmed in musician nerdgasmness.
Saturday 9/15/2012: All of my equipment is in the apartment, everything is set up and ready to go. I look for a place to set the microphone to record guitar/vocals. Every spot in the house, you could hear the cars drive past. Almost as if the near-street sounds had funneled directly into the third floor of these apartments. The rest of the day was spent planning the week ahead.
Sunday 9/16/2012: I look for a new place to record in the apartment, the only place I haven't tried yet was the bathroom. I stepped into the bathroom, turned on the light, and closed the door. Silence. Complete silence. This is where most of the album was recorded. In the bathroom of my friends 3rd story apartment.
Monday-Saturday 9/17 - 9/22/2012: These days consisted of a lot of Netflix, intoxication, recording 95% of the album, and mixing half of the album. All recorded in 5 days time. It was a blast. Saturday morning, I returned home to mix and master the entire album within a couple weeks time.
The other 5% of the album was recorded at my house. The electric guitar in Flaunt, Entry #1, For Someone Far Away, and Asleep With the Devil was all recorded at my house, in my room. The main acoustic track in For Someone Far Away was recorded in my bedroom, using movers carpet for isolation (which I also used in the bathroom, more details on that later). And also Her Middle Name was recorded at my house, as well. That to me is the most special song on the album. It was the first song I ever wrote, and has a really big meaning behind it.
GEAR USED
Ahh man, the fun part. This is what I wish I could have had when I started. What gear I could be using, and these are all on the cheaper side. Recording can get pricey, but it can also be cheap if you know what to get.
$100 Mic Isolator (Blocks sound around mic, helpful, not extremely necessary) - Used for all songs
$300 Blue Bluebird (Microphone) - Used for all songs
I used a FastTrack, but get a Focusrite Scarlett. Way better. (USB Audio Interface, takes sound from mic, converts it to data the computer can understand) - Used for all songs
Styrofoam blocks to cancel floor sounds (click to see picture)
$20 Movers Carpet (you can get this at any hardware store for pretty cheap, blocks sound, mounted on mic stand, click to see picture before/after)
$400 Reason 6 (get 7) was used to mix/master all songs entirely. All effects were stock, just tinkered with to get the best sound. You can also use GarageBand, or whatever you're used to for editing music. Do not think it's necessary to buy expensive software to make a good song. Make use of what you have and hone your skills.
MIXING/MASTERING WITH REASON + HEADPHONES
From 9/22/2012 - 10/8/2012, I was mixing the entire album and recording some electric guitar at my house. I set a release date for October 16th, and it was important that I did. Setting a deadline ensured no unnecessary mixing or over thinking. I could have mixed that album for months before I was happy with it. But I stopped when I thought it was time to stop editing, and just let the song be itself. If it's done, it's done. Don't force anything on it.
I also used headphones to mix the entire album. I couldn't afford studio monitor speakers, they were pretty pricey. So I would constantly put the newest versions of edits on my iPod to take into friends cars, listen to the song, see what sounds wrong, take notes, re-edit the songs, and repeat the same process. This is how I got such a delicate sound on the album; Seeing what sounds wrong on 10+ speakers and fixing all of the errors. You have so many more reference points that way, it just makes sense to me. If you're looking for headphones on a budget, I seriously recommend the Apple Earpods. I didn't think they'd sound so good, but they do. They have a really nice balance between high and low end, and a really sweet mid range.
GETTING ONTO PANDORA AND ITUNES
Getting onto Pandora, that was somewhat difficult. I followed their instruction guide completely (and the album was approved), which you can read here. I used CreateSpace to get a physical copy sold on Amazon. I don't really make a lot of money using this route, but having my music on Pandora and Amazon is what's important. Not saying you shouldn't try to monetize from doing what you love, I just care more about getting it out there. The MP3 and physical copies of my album link up on Amazon by using the same UPC code. You can find out how to get one of those on the Pandora link.
I used TuneCore to distribute to iTunes, Amazon MP3, Spotify, Google Play, and more. It was a one time fee for an album, it was $50 for a year, and now it's $30. So that's pretty sweet.
Summertime Blues
Alright. This song has its own section because of how drastically different it is from all other 9 songs on the album (10 total). This song strays away from the acoustic guitar/clean vocals vibe and into its own category. If you haven't heard it, it's an electronic song I composed using Ableton Live 8 and the Massive Synth VST. I also used samples for the drum track. After JUST the song was done, I converted it to an AIFF to import into Reason 6. What that means, is I made the song into a file my other software could recognize, so I could use my other software, Reason 6, to do vocals.
I recorded the first verse while I was sick, without autotune because I liked the way my voice sounded. I listened back and I absolutely hated it. It was on the shelf for a few months, then I decided it was time to go back to it. By this time I was considering autotuning the vocals to make up for the sick sounding voice. I liked the way it sounded, and my brother suggested I put it on the album as the last track, to end it all. I love that it ends with this song. Completely random. The first verse of that song was recorded at my house, while I was sick. The other verse was recorded in the bathroom with the others. There is also a slight piano track on there, kudos if you find it.
SIDE NOTE
Please remember, the entire learning process was trial and error. I had no idea how to mix an album going into this, nor were there that many tutorials teaching me what to do. I'm still learning and improving my mixing skillz. Yeah, I used a "z" in there. Also, please only see this as a guide. I don't want you to use the exact same equipment as me. Try something different and unique. If you try to emulate another artist, you won't develop a unique style of music creation, or creation in general.
