basics of recording

i am not sure if i included this already so i will just t'row it in and that wat i'm sure i told you...

the recording (in my case) starts like this

PRE PRODUCTION
this is where the producer (tom bukovac) and the songwriter (me) get together and see what we've come up with. for the last cd FINALLY HOME we spent two or three days doing this process. that's because io really didn't know what to expect or how we were going to do it. i was not very prepared. this time we only spent a few hours on it and did a lot of the pre production in between takes because for one i was much more rpepared and secondly tom thought it was giving a good ,,,, hmm,,,, vibe to the record by doing it that way. plus he was rushed and had to go make a record with willie and also had that dave stewart (eurythmics) session to do. but nonetheless he and i are both happy with the way it came out

pre production involves many thing. some that i understand and a lot that i don't. it is the producers job, from what i know, to listen to what the songwriter hasd come up with and suggest or dictate improvements. tom never dictated with me. often times his genius was not even undertstood by me so it was a leap of faith when he would come up with some of these wild ideas he had.

some techniques in pre production can be, for starters, finding the right key for the singer/artist (which isn't neccesarily the writer) to sing the song. sometimes i would have been singing the song and tom would suggest to move it up or down a key (keys might take a while to explain, but if you don't know,,,imagine a child singing a song in a real high pitched voice, then imagine a big man singing the song in a deep low voice. they are singing the same song but in defferent keys (widely different keys). ok, one more example. say you are singing mary had a little lamb. now just start singing it in the key you think you would sing it in. go ahead nobody is watching. now that sounded pretty good. but try this little tricky number. when you sing mary had a little lamb, stop on the (for example) "had" note. now just sing that note. now try to start the song off starting witht at note. but sing the same song. if it worked you will be singing the song but just a little bit lower))))) you could go to youtube and search for a song say in the key of A, listen to it then search for the same song in amother key, like B. you can hear the difference it's easy!

anyway enough of that...

so, he might suggest another key to sing it in which might make the singer's voice sound better, or more believeable, or less believeable, or less strained or more satrained, or whatever effect he is looking for. usually just to make the song sound better.

another technique is to help with lyrics, which is really a songwriters job but often the producer might have suggestions as to how to improve the song with a different lyric, or different word or whole line. he would then also share in the songwriting credit. if you are selling a million reocrds this can be a substantial royaly for the producer. in the old days producers would get paid huge fees to produce a record. sometimes just because he had a hit record and the record company in their infinite wisdom thinks he can do it again for the new artist and pays him huge fees to go in and lend a hand. sometimes producers would do little to improve or help the song. other times, like in my cae, the producer makes the song. brings it to life.

a producer might add a section to the song, or a guitar riff, or a different drum pattern. he might cut a crescendo to two bars instead of four. he might suggest that the singer imagine a different character to imulate so as to get different levels of growl or emotion or feeling or loudness. sometimes tommy would say to me, "make this angry guy, or not so angry make this character my vulnerable. you get the idea. the inflection of one's voice can make a huge difference in the delivery of the song.

sometimes he might suggest a defferent chord structure to a piece or section. one time last cd, will owsley heard me singing a a line in a song called "do it all over again" and thought it was a little wimpy. so, he suggested i give it a pete ham, meaning do it like the singer from badfinger would have done it. i didn't really know whjat he meant although i am quite familiar with badfiner. so, he showed me, and it was to say the least quite improved with just a change of a couple of notes.

also the producer might bge involved with a job that is called the ARRANGER. this might include what instruments are played, how the musicians play it and all manner of the actual "groove" of the music. by groove i mean, you could have mary had a little lamb sung in a reggae groove, or a country groove. groove kind of means style but also encompasses how to get that style, the little intricate things that make up the style- what pattern the dummer plays on the cymbals, how the guitarist picks his part. everything that encompasses the groove the producer will come up with the best for the recording. in my case i left it up to tom. often the song sounds alot like how i wrote it but sometimes it takes a dramatic turn. for instance on this cd i wrote a song called "it is what it is" and i sort of pictured it as a zydeco song. it's a basic 12 blues thing. anyway, it came out nighting like that because tom found a different groove. i don't even know what to call it.

so this is all pre production and other things that are beyond my grasp of understanding and best left up to the gods, or tom.

but don't let me lead you to think that the producer is always an unbendable wall. quite the opposite. a great producer listens. listens to ideas and tries them. soemtimes he know it won't work but tries it anyway to keep a good vibe in the studio and keep ideas flowing from all involved. but sometimes the others come up with a good idea and he changes it. for instance there never would have been a third verse to a song of mine called "take a ride" had it not been for me telling tom that it was important to wrap the song up with it because he was ready to just rock out. i said whoooooah. we need this third verse. i'm glad he thought it was a good idea.

anyway, for the next installment, i will go over the basic recordings or "bed " tracks. but now, i need some lunch. thanks for reading!