There are lists, tips and suggestions for ways to improve your recordings. This list is for those who don’t just want to make a record — they want to make a great record.
1. Develop your artistic vision, and commit to it.
This is a simple concept, but can be slippery. Great records generally have a unified direction, a fairly uniform sound, and an overall vibe that makes it a coherent whole. Great records aren’t simply collections of un-related songs, there’s usually an underlying theme that ties the project together.
2. Choose your songs wisely.
Once you’ve chosen a direction for your record, the process of song selection should begin. If you’re a songwriter and the artist, the fact that you’ve written the song may not mean that it’s appropriate for the album. If a song doesn’t fit your artistic vision for the record, don’t put it on there. It’s also better to have more songs than you need, so that you can pick only the best material for your project.
3. Pick the right producer.
The producer should be an integral part of your creative process; his role is to help you achieve your vision. That may mean helping you to choose which songs go on the project, finding the right musicians, creating (and staying within) a budget, and any other tasks that will facilitate your project.
4. Find the right studio.
Look for a studio that has the gear, the room and the vibe that your project needs. If your project needs a piano or a Hammond organ, you’ll want a studio that has these things — and the expertise to make them sound great. If the studio supplies an engineer, you’ll want to make sure that his personality fits with yours; you’ll be spending a lot of time together, after all.
5. Practice your tunes before you record them.
A surprising percentage of artists come into the studio not knowing the songs that they’re about to record. Don’t be one of those artists. Before arriving at the studio, know the songs. Know the words and the melody, know the structure of the songs, and, if you’re playing an instrument, know your parts.
6. Be open to changes.
Even though you’ve learned (and ideally, practiced) your songs before the sessions, listen to ideas offered by others working on the project. Part of the producer’s role is to offer suggestions, but equally fine ideas may come from the musicians and engineers working with you. Be open to those ideas and suggestions; you may not use them, but they might be worth exploring.
7. Playing live is different than playing in the studio.
When you play a live show, the vibe of the performance can mask minor issues. Since a great record needs to stand up to repeated listening, little things that you might not notice live (timing issues, dead strings, tuning problems) can become major distractions. That’s where the producer and engineer can help; they’re listening with a different perspective than your average concert-goer, and likely from a different perspective than you have as an artist.
8. Make decisions — and commit to them.
Modern technology has given us the ability to save everything we do in the studio — every take, every overdub, every vocal take. But if you save all of these things with the idea that you can sort it all out at the mixing stage, you’re creating more problems than you’re solving. At the point that you know something is great, don’t spend a lot of time searching for alternatives; accept that you’ve found the best approach and move on. This saves a bunch of time – both in the recording stage and the mixing stage of your project.
9. Great graphic design is worth the cost.
Don’t wait until the album is finished to start thinking about how it should look; great records should have iconic covers. Besides, most folks who buy your album will see it before they hear it, so make the cover interesting enough that they’ll want to buy the record.
10. Don’t forget to have fun!
It’s hard work, but making a record is (or at least should be) fun. After all, you’ll get to be in a recording studio filled with creative people who are there to help you achieve your artistic vision. What could be more fun than that?