What is involved in recording an album?

Question

I always read interviews with musicians who -- when asked how a new album is coming -- say they are mixing, or they are Pro-tooling, etc. I never understand what they're talking about. (Especially in relation to how close a new album is in being completed.) Can someone give me a quick tutorial on the steps to getting an album recorded?

Answer 1

How 'bout we're using cooking analogy.

Recording is the same as gathering all the ingredients. We always wanted to get the best ingredients to make the best dishes right? So we believed good record start from good vocals or instrument performance. So good vocalist must sing well too to get good performance. So does the player who play good instrument.

Mixing is the same as the cooking itself. We will prepare all the ingredients according to our dishes. Add some spices. And cooked it well to get the greatest taste and looks of our dishes.

In music production, after recording we need to do some sound editing (preparation). We will cut, copy, arrange all the necessary vocal/instrument tracks (ingredients) so we can then throw it to the mix (cook it).

In mixing, we actually blend all the ingredients so it work together. We have to make sure all tracks doesn't go to prominent nor obscured. We also throw some sound sweetening/correction (spices) to enhance and complete the dishes.

Now ProTools is one of the more used Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software+hardware platform that we do all this. In cooking analogy we can referred it as "the kitchen."

Good luck.

Answer 2

It's pretty simple really. Mixing is what is done after all the vocals and instruments have been recorded. Because often each voice and or instrument is recorded on a different track, the tracks have to be mixed to ensure the levels of each are right throughout each song. Sometimes a track is quieter or louder than it needs to be so an engineer can turn the volume up or down on it. He can do this for the whole track or just parts of it because most mixing boards remember where to turn it up or down after he programs it in.

He can also add reverb or echos, double tracks to make them sound fuller from the mixing board and if it's a digital board, he can even add in extra choruses or verses of a song by simply copying them, similar to the way we cut and past text on a word document.

Pro-Tools is a software program that can also be used to mix through a computer. You can also fix an artist's mistakes with Pro-Tools by tweaking where he or she has gone sharp or flat while performing. In fact you can adjust sounds so much through it that a person doesn't even have to have any talent to sound good. Which is why a lot of artists today have vocal careers, because they sound good AFTER Pro-Tools.

You can also eliminate any background noise that might have bled into the recording through a microphone and add countless effects.

I hope this helps.