Making A CD
By George O'Brien - Arizona Correspondent
This is a series of articles on building an Irish/Celtic band in Arizona.
Part 1 "Do You Really Want To Be A Professional Musician?" and "Do You Really Want To Do Irish Music?"
Part 2 "Can You Fill The Role Of Band Leader?" Who Is Going To Handle The Operational Tasks Of The Band?
Part 3 "What Kind Of Irish/Celtic Band Do You Want To Build?" and "What Performance Style Should You
Have?"
Part 4 "Who Should Be In The Band?"
Part 5 "What Is Your Repertoire?"
Part 6 "Do You Have Stage Presence?"
Part 7 "Do You Have The Equipment To Run A Band?"
Part 8 "How Will You Find Your First Gig?"
Part 9 "How Do You Plan To Build Your Fan Base?"
Part 10 "Do You Have Media/Marketing Kit?"
Part 11 " Who Is Your Target Market?"
Part 12 "Are You Prepared To Become A Pub Band?" And "How Do You Get The Attention Of The Pub Owner" and "How Do Rock Venues Differ From Irish Pubs?"HOW DO WE MAKE A CD TO SELL?
It is very difficult for Irish bands to become successful without a full fledged CD. It is a measure of being "established" and can become an important source of income. This is especially true for band playing the coffee house circuit. Unfortunately, the process of putting together a CD is a daunting task even for people who have gone through the process.
Every band faces the unfortunate fact that producing a quality CD is not cheap. While it is possible to produce a demo CD relatively inexpensively, putting together a distribution quality product is much more demanding. Top level recording engineers are expensive.
REHEARSE WHAT IS TO BE RECORDED - This means the band has to be completely prepared before going into the studio. Every tract (song or tune segment on the CD) has to be so well rehearsed that it goes correctly after only a few takes. There is nothing more nerve racking (much less expensive) than someone who keeps changing the way the piece is being done while in the studio.
SELECT THE RIGHT MATERIAL - For the first CD, the band should emphasize material that accurately reflects what the band usually does. This is what the audience expects and is essential when the CD is used as part of the media kit. A band that does mostly drinking songs probably should not use the first CD to do a lot of ballads any more than a traditional band should emphasize rousing rebel songs. The first CD must reinforce the identity of the band or it is unlikely to be a success.
Every regular performer in the band should be given a chance to choose at least one signature piece for that player. It gives the performer a sense of "ownership" of the CD which is really essential during the long grind it takes to get the CD completed.
It is not a bad idea to start thinking about the second CD while working on the first. Sometimes a great piece has to be dropped because it doesn't fit into the way the CD is organized.
While the selection of the material is crucial, the order it is put onto the CD is equally important. Too many pieces that are similar in style being done in sequence can hurt the impact of the CD. The tracts may be recorded separately, but they are listened to in sequence.
COPYRIGHTS - One of the issues that bands need to consider from the beginning is copyrights. Obviously, original material written by a band member is not subject to copyright. Some traditional music is "public domain", but this needs to be researched in advance before the piece is selected. If the piece is copyrighted, then there is a procedure for registering with the Harry Fox Agency and paying a fee for the use of the material. Check with a copyright attorney.
Definitely make a serious background check of material that is apparently public domain. Apparently, some scoundrels obtained copyrights on a number of traditional Irish folk songs. For a variety of reasons, this was easier to do than to copyright traditional tunes, but check anyway.
PREPARATION - Before going into the studio, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse! Relatively unsophisticated recording equipment can be used to get an idea as to what the pieces actually sound like (it is never quite the same as what is coming out of the monitors). All of the basic performance decisions should be made in advance. Paying for professional recording engineers and studio time is simply too expensive to waste redoing pieces.
CHOOSING A RECORDING APPROACH
There are basically three approaches to recording - multi-tract (this goes by several names), live, and live in studio. Each has advantages and disadvantages.
MULTI-TRACT RECORDING - Every serious recording includes the recording of each vocal and each instrument separately - whether done all at once or separately. Multi-tract recording is where these are done at different times. This means that a performer can hear the results of the other performances when the tract is being laid down.
Multi-tract recording is time consuming and lacks some of the energy that performing together provides. However, it provides the maximum degree of control. With the other methods, an error by a single vocalist or instrumentalist will spoil the perfect performance by everyone else.
LIVE IN CONCERT - The opposite of multi-tract recording is to record a live performance is to perform "live in concert." This is a "quick" way to do a recording and has all the energy of a live performance. For a performer like San Diego based Tony Cummins, this is really the only way to capture his classic pub performance. The downside is that recording a live performance involves considerable difficulties. There is ambient noise, such as drunks screaming in the background, and all of the other things that can mess up a take.
Recording a live performance is not the same as taking a portable tape recorder to a concert. Each channel (instrument or microphone) is recorded separately. Afterward, the tracts can be remixed and the recording can be "cleaned up" a bit. There is a lot that a sound engineer can do, but no engineer can fix musical errors. It is not easy to get everyone to play a piece perfectly at the same time and most audiences will not let the band do the same piece twice in a row just because one player made a mistake.
The tradeoff between control and the energy that comes from recording a live performance is not an easy one to resolve. Most local bands wait until they are established before they try to do a "live in concert" CD, but it is gaining in popularity. One approach is to record several performances and pull out the best tracks from the larger collection.
LIVE IN STUDIO - Most bands are used to playing together and rely on visual cues as well as musical cues. For this reason, some band prefer to record as group in a studio. This means there are no audience distractions and ambient noise. The band has to work to stay together and have each player perform perfectly.
In some cases, bands will start with a live-in-studio recording and then pull a tract and rerecord just that part. In other cases, they will add tracts later thus making it a modified tract by tract recording. This is not really feasible when dealing with vocal harmonies or microphone recorded acoustic instruments (the sound will bleed from one microphone to the next), but is feasible when using direct feed instruments and pickups.
POST RECORDING ENGINEERING
MIXING - Each output (instrument pickup or microphone) can be modified in a mixing board. This process is similar to that of a mixing board used in a live performance except that a recording board has even more control. Mixing involves setting the relative volume levels of each channel as well as the emphasis (such as whether the treble increased over the bass or vise versa?)
It is very important the band be deeply involved in the mixing process. A perfect recording can be destroyed by a sound engineer that does not understand what the band is supposed to sound like. A common problem occurs then someone used to mixing rock bands leaves the instrumentals too loud and cover up the vocals. Another problem is when an instrument such as the fiddle is too soft or the bodhran is too loud.
TECHNICAL DOCTORING - The most famous form of technical doctoring is the famous Dolby noise reduction system (which reduced tape hiss from recording tapes). Sound engineers can do some rather remarkable things in eliminating certain kinds of unwanted noises. This area is only one of the reasons that they get paid more than amateurs with a bunch of equipment.
Technical doctoring is especially valuable for live recordings. None the less, beware of doctoring the piece to the point of losing the edge that comes from live recording.
MASTERING - Once the various tracks are recorded and mixed, the next step is known as "mastering." I am not clear about everything involved in this process, but the most obvious element is to set the volume levels between various tracks. A track that is supposed to be louder actually is louder on the final product.
ALBUM COVERS - It is not uncommon for bands to spend almost as long a period finishing their album covers as they spend recording. There is a lot that goes into the process including the cover photo, the back photo or graphics, the album title, the name of the band etc on the cover. The inside generally has information about the various tracks, who is featured, copyright information, a list of band members, contact information for the band, lyrics to original songs, and various other information including who is given thanks, etc. What makes it all worse it that this has to be put onto a very small area to avoid running up the costs.
As a rule, it is better to use a professional commercial artist to do the cover than try to do it yourself. A well designed CD cover usually pays for itself in extra sales. An amateurish looking CD cover will reflect badly on the contents of the CD.
There is a fairly standard level of card stock paper used for CD covers. It is usually a good idea to have the covers be printed by a commercial printer (if it is not done by the reproduction house) if the results are going to look professional. Most ink jet printers are not good enough for this purpose and the cost per unit is higher than simply going to a commercial printer with a four color press.
REPRODUCTION - There are innumerable CD reproduction houses. I would recommend talking to several bands about their personal experiences. As a rule, there is major price break when doing 1000 units, although there are a few houses that specialize in smaller runs.
When comparing reproduction houses, it is important to make sure you know what is included. The various parts of reproduction include:
-- Reproducing the actual CD
-- Printing and putting on the CD label
-- Printing the front and back covers
-- Putting the front and back covers onto the jewelbox
-- Shrink wrapping the CD
-- Putting on the top end label (has the name of the band, etc.) if it is to be sold commercially
-- Boxing the CDsIf the reproduction house does provide all the services, it is important to determine how much is charged for each part. For example, it may be that it is cheaper to have the covers printed separately. Some reproduction houses would rather not bother with the printing while others want everything.
One of the things to ask about is how long it takes the reproduction house to complete the process. Extremely large reproduction houses do not like small production runs because they spend the same amount of time doing set ups as they do for large runs. This means they will tend to delay small orders as long as there are big orders waiting to be run. Some smaller reproductions houses will be more expensive, but may provide better service. There is no automatic way to determine which is better.
For start-up bands, there is the option of "burning" your own CDs on your computer. This is very time consuming, but has the advantage that it can be released in small numbers. A band that only sells a dozen CD's a week might want to use this option, but should still use a commercial printer for the covers.
RE-RECORDING A CD
In most cases, bands record a CD once and then move on. In a few cases, bands have decided to re-record parts of an existing CD. There are several reasons to do this:
-- Initial CD is not of the quality of later work
-- Major changes in the band make the original CD obsolete
-- New approach to a piece is desired but not to add it to a new CDRe-recording a CD is makes sense when part of the CD is quite good but other parts need to be changed. Changing three or four tracks is not the same as doing an entire new 12 to 14 track CD. If the old CD is no longer acceptable, then re-recording the CD may be preferable to just abandoning the old CD entirely.
WHAT DOES IT COST?
Doing a CD is no longer restricted to major recording artists and touring bands. However, the band needs to remember that the cost can be substantial after everything is included such as reproduction, studio time, engineering, CD cover design, licensing fees, etc. An initial CD (doing a production run of 1000) can easily cost $4000 to $5000 for even a relatively simple recording - and it is possible to spend vastly more.
A popular band can recoup that, but it usually takes a while. If it costs $5000 total for a CD that sells for $15, if the band sells 10 CDs a week, it will take over seven a half months just to recoup the investment. Fortunately, the cost of a second run is only the reproduction cost so it becomes far more profitable if the band becomes successful.
IS MAKING A CD WORTH IT?
Some very successful bands have survived without a CD, while others get by with out of date CDs that no longer reflect the makeup of the band. None the less, it is rare for a band to be considered "established" without a professional quality CD. Some venues virtually demand a professional CD to even consider booking the band.
None the less, it is a mistake to rush into the process before the band is ready. It is too expensive to make a CD that is not of top quality.
[This is the 13th in the series "On Building an Irish Band in Arizona"].
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