“Unfortunately, there is no point to distributing music in 24-bit/192kHz format. Its playback fidelity is slightly inferior to 16/44.1 or 16/48, and it takes up 6 times the space. There are a few real problems with the audio quality and ‘experience’ of digitally distributed music today. 24/192 solves none of them. While everyone fixates on […]

How to Estimate Recording Costs Radio-ready Song Recording 2 hours per instrument (including vocals) Mixing For every hour recording, allow an hour for mixing Mastering 2 hours Studio Musicians Allow about $100 per instrument Example – Full Band Sound Drums Loops, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lead vocal, backing vocals, bass, percussion, and keyboards 8 x […]

How much does it cost to make a CD or recording? It’s kinda like asking “how much does it cost to buy a car”? The answer is: it depends! Do you want a sports car, an economy car, a luxury car? Do you want standard or automatic transmission? Air conditioning? If you want to make […]

Scenario: Guitar / bass duo, 2 singers #1      First Choice (best quality, takes the most time) Record all guitar tracks using an acoustic guitar with a built in pick-up and the bass guitar running directly to the recorder and to a small bass amp.  This will keep the bass guitar track perfectly clean (easy to […]

Getting the most out of a recording performance Pre-production Practice It may seem odd to have to say this, but unless you have a lot of money to burn make sure that you can play your songs with your eyes closed. When you are paying by the hour you don’t want to bring in something […]

Recording is very different than any other kind of music-making. Making a recording is different than a live performance, and elements that you may not have played before may be very helpful if layered in such as doubled guitars, or tambourines on the rhythm track. Bring in a “reference” CD for the engineer to mix […]

How do I receive permission to record a song? The concept is simple: you obtain permission to make reproductions of music on sound carriers by asking for it and agreeing to pay certain royalties in return. Such permission is granted in the form of a contract called a mechanical license. “Mechanical” refers to the reproduction […]