Here’s a road map to a full production I like to follow while working together…
Stage 1
Work Tape
You will first send me a recording or rough demo of your song. A basic phone recording works great! At the minimum the recording should contain a sung or hummed melody and preferably with a chord structure played on any instrument that stretches from beginning to end of the song
Stage 2
Track Demo
I will take your work tape and arrange a rough, unmixed instrumental track based on your music or genre preference. I can add and record the whole band! If you have musician friends who you’d like in your song, let’s record them, otherwise, I can provide almost all of the instrumentalists!
Stage 3
Vocal Tracking
Either you can record your vocals remotely, or, if you live in the Nashville area, I can record your vocals at my home studio. After recording, you will have the choice to sit down with me to comp together your best vocal takes from the session, or leave it up to me to do so during the vocal editing stage.
Stage 4
Vocal Editing
I will choose your best vocal takes from the recording sessions and will clean up any unnecessary noises during the recording, apply any makeup gain to the audio, pitch correct where necessary, add compression, EQ, and any other means of processing necessary.
Stage 5
Final Arrangement
Any other musical elements that didn’t get recorded in the track demo will be added to the arrangement in this stage. This includes recording sessions with live musicians, and any extra vocal recording sessions.
Stage 6
Mixing
I will take each instrument and sound in the arranged track along with your edited vocals and apply an appropriate amount of volume balance, compression, EQ panning reverb, delay, volume automation, and effects.
Stage 7
Mastering
We will get to this last stage if you’d like me to be the one who adds the final touches to your track before streaming. I will take the final stereo mix and process it into its final form. In the end it will sound “finished” and at the same level as all of your favorite songs.