Interview with Symon Madry of Centred Self, written by Austep Music, March 2011
Recording and releasing your EP or LP
There’s a particular feeling you get when you finally hold your mixed, mastered and pressed EP or album in your hand – something only other artists will understand and appreciate. That mixed sense of pride, excitement and relief as you pore over every detail of the artwork, inspect the CD and scrutinise every track as you load it into the CD player for the first time.
But it’s a long road from that first snare hit to completed CD, particularly if you’re an unsigned, unknown and most likely un-funded independent artist.
Here are some things we learned along the way. Hopefully it’ll save you time and make the whole process as seamless as possible.
1. Do we/ I even need to record an EP?
Today, everyone needs a product that is representative of their work. But answer for yourself: what am I going to do with these tracks? Will they be sold, or just given away? Are they going to be used for competition/ online charts?
Carefully consider what kind of a product you need. A full band will need a professionally recorded and mastered product to ensure they have the best possible sound to take to the people. An acoustic act, on the other hand, can get away with a really well done bedroom recording that is given away in a paper sleeve. This may even be the vibe you want to go for!
2. Track selection
This goes without saying, but often falls to the side of having the most brutal artwork, or spending weeks arguing over the inclusions within the EP or LP. Pick tracks that show you off. A diverse cross-section of your repertoire will capture the biggest number of fans as you will (hopefully) have something for everyone. Avoid songs that sound similar, trying instead to give each track its own feel. Nobody likes to listen to a string of tracks, wondering to themselves, “Is this the same song? When did the last one end?”
3. Practice makes perfect
Rehearse. A lot. If possible, get your rhythm section to play along to a metronome or click track. This will make recording infinitely easier. Mutually agree on the right tempo amongst the band. You’d be amazed how a song can be completely off if the tempo is a few beats too many, or too few.
4. Record the songs yourself
If you have the means, and you haven’t done it before, record your rehearsal and listen back to your tracks. Over and over and over. It’ll give you a sense of how it’ll sound, albeit without the sound quality of a professional desk. Ensure your parts and structure are down before stepping foot into the recording space – remember: engineers and producers often charge by the hour…!
If possible, send the tracks across to your producer/ engineer so they can have a listen and get a feel for your sound before they mic you up.
5. Selecting a studio/ engineer/ producer
Do your homework. If you rehearse in a studio with artists of a similar genre, knock on their door and ask them where they’ve recorded. Forget Google: referrals and word of mouth is how most studios, engineers and producers get their business.
If you can, listen to recordings that have come out of that studio: is it the sound you’re going for? Have they recorded your style before? A metal band wouldn’t benefit from working with someone who predominantly records RnB.
6. Plan
Work with the studio to decide on how many days you’ll need in the space, what equipment you’ll be bringing/ need to hire and the vision you have for your sound.
Nobody likes surprises, and you may be disappointed if you only book three days to record a double-album opus. Prioritise your goals and be flexible if you can’t lay down non-essential textures toward the end of your session.
Also be sure to speak with whoever will be doing the mastering or pressing. If you’ve got a tight deadline (like we did), you’ll want everything to be as seamless as possible once you’re out of the studio.
7. Recording (finally!)
I love recording. Absolutely. Building something from the ground up and hearing all the parts individually, then together in the context of the whole song, it’s really exciting to hear it all come together.
Work with your engineer/ producer in this respect as everyone will do it differently. The way we did it was: Drums > Bass > Guitar > Vocals > textures (doubling vocals and guitars).
It’s probably a good idea that the guitarist is there to play alongside the drummer to guide the track. However, unless everyone wants to be there all the time, make sure you all get away from the studio for a day off eg. If all the drumming’s done, let him/ her take off for the day while the bass is being laid down.
Use the time effectively. While sitting around for hours… and hours… and hours… we worked on our artwork and lining up mastering and pressing.
Also be open to ideas, and be flexible. If you’ve rehearsed a song a million times, chances are you won’t be able to hear it objectively. For example, on one of our tracks we dropped a whole section of guitar and left it drum, bass and vocals, simply because the engineer hadn’t pasted the guitar in yet. But it sounded awesome and really broke up the song, so we told him to leave it!
By the same token, it’s your vision. If you feel particularly strongly about an idea as a band, don’t let the guy pushing all the buttons sway you into uncomfortable territory. But, always respect their opinions and listen to what they have to say – they know all their equipment and sound better than anyone.
If possible, ask for your Pro Tools master file. If nothing else, it lets you go back if you every want to. I’d fight anyone that would ask me to pay extra for this.
8. Listen back – over and over and over
At the end of the whole process we got a copy from the studio – unmixed and unmastered, but it gave us a good idea as to where things were heading. Take a copy home and listen to it on your home stereo, in the car and with headphone as each will give you a different sound and you’ll pick up something different up on each.
Take detailed notes with time codes so when you get back into the studio for any review sessions that time is used as efficiently as possible. Have everyone do this as more likely than not, you’ll be listening out for your parts and leaving it up to one person means some things may get missed.
9. Mastering
My basic understanding of mastering is that it boosts the overall volume and shapes frequencies – which can have a massive difference on a poorly recorded project, or none on something that was done by someone who knew what they were doing!
It’s all Greek to me, but see if you can get into the studio where it’s being mastered and have the engineer take you through what they’ve done (and charged you for!).
10. Pressing
Again, do your homework and find out what product (sleeve, jewel case, slimline case, card case or digipack) is best for you. And pick your quantity carefully: you won’t believe how much 500 CDs actually is until you’re struggling to get rid of them all.
11. Artwork
This point should be started earlier (as soon as possible) but this is where it becomes real. You can pay someone to do this, but I bought/ downloaded Pixelmator for about $AUD60 and found it worked perfectly – after many late nights! Leave plenty of time to go back and forward with the pressing company in my experience the first version you send across is never the last.
12. Final product
Once the master is done and across to the presser and the artwork’s complete there’s not much left for you to do but wait. When it comes I guarantee a smile will spread across your face as this labour of love is loaded into your stereo for the first time.
13. Releasing it
Refer to point 1. What do you want to do with this? Today, there’s a great deal of options and opportunity. What worked well for us was setting up a launch with three other bands we’ve come to know over the years and gave a free EP away with entry. For the most part we focused on getting our music out there, rather than making a buck off our friends and family.
Trust me, through all the stress, arguments and money flying out the door, it’s well worth it.
For us it was a very hands-on, DIY experience with a lot of late nights, emails and back and forth on even the smallest aspects of the EP. There are hundreds of other things to talk about and consider, but if you didn’t learn about them along the way for yourself, it’d take all the fun out of creating music as an independent artist.
Symon Madry is guitarist for prog-rock outfit Centred Self, and acoustic duo His and Her Majesty. He has recorded an EP with each, to varying degrees of success and sleep.
www.youtube.com/centredselfband – check out our time in the studio!
www.facebook.com/hisandhermajesty