Serve The Song

photo by yozza

This is another guest post from Cliff Goldmacher, a songwriter, producer, engineer and the owner of recording studios in both Nashville and New York City. Cliff is also a regular contributor to EQ Magazine and Pro Sound News. He can be reached at cliff@cliffgoldmacher.com.

I’m going to begin this article by quoting from one of my earlier articles:

Your career as a recording artist hinges on many things from the songs you choose to the musicianship on your records. But the single most important thing for your artist identity is your voice. Your ultimate goal as a vocalist is to sound exactly like yourself. In other words, the more relaxed and confident you are as a singer, the more people will know who you are and what you’re about. In reality, it’s predominantly musicians who listen to CD’s for the musicianship, but the people who decide to buy your CD will connect with your voice first and everything else much later.

This article will serve as a do-it-yourself primer for how to approach singing in the recording studio. In today’s independent musical environment, it’s typically the case that you will play the part of not only the artist, but the manager, record label and producer, too. The trick when it comes to getting great vocal performances is to make the most of each of these roles by knowing which role to play and when. I’ll be describing your responsibilities for each of these roles in the paragraphs below.

The Role of Manager/Record Label

In this role, your job will be to make sure you have a great place to record where you feel comfortable and can do great work. Otherwise put, you’ll need to go out and find a studio, talk to engineers, listen to examples of their work, get prices based on your budget and ultimately lay the groundwork for an organized, low-stress recording process. Acting as manager, you might also decide to invest in your own recording equipment (beware of the learning curve!) to give yourself the added flexibility of recording whenever you want with no concerns about the studio clock. Whether you record at home or in a commercial studio, taking care of the details (which have very little to do with actually singing) will make all the difference as to how smooth your vocal recording process will be.

Regarding artist development, an essential task in your role as manager and record label will be to consider a vocal coach. The more you sing your songs and work on them before you go into the studio, the better prepared you’ll be to give a great performance when the time comes. By studying your songs and working on the minute details ahead of time, you’ll end up with a baseline performance that you can deliver confidently. Then when the light goes red (which can be stressful enough), you won’t have to worry about how you’re going to approach your technique or interpretation.

The Role of Producer

Here your role will be to not only find the songs that work best for you as an artist but to help guide the singing process by keeping an eye/ear on a few very important elements. The first element would be the songs. It’s up to you to find the songs that you can sing with emotion and sincerity. If you’re a songwriter, it’s easy to assume that the best songs to sing will be your own, but it’s never a bad idea to look for outside material as well. Outside material will not only keep the level of songwriting consistently high but can also add the necessary diversity to a project. In either case, you have to know what your “artist’s” vocal instrument is capable of and make sure the songs fit. The key of the song is another major consideration. Just because you’ve always sung a song in a certain key does not mean it might not work better in a slightly higher or (even more surprising sometimes) lower key.

When it comes to the actual recording process, you will have to ultimately make decisions about when things are going well and improving and when enough is enough. This can be extremely difficult to do in the heat of battle but it is essential. Being both producer and artist is a very delicate balance. My recommendation would be to take a short (even 5 minute) break every hour or so and listen back to what you’ve sung. The temptation is to keep singing and singing because that perfect take is just one take away. In reality, your best take might have come five takes ago and you’ve been wearing yourself out needlessly.

I am a firm believer in the composite (comp) vocal because it allows the singer to sing the song from beginning to end multiple times going for the performance without worrying too much about the details. Getting bogged down in trying to fix a word or line can be draining and quickly take the life out of a vocal performance. Creating a comp vocal is as simple as recording multiple passes of your lead vocal without allowing your editor/critic into the equation. In other words, sing the song several times (as if you were doing it live) without stopping or redoing anything. Then when this is done, put on your producer hat and listen back to each pass while marking on a lyric sheet which pass is good on each line. It’s possible to have lines where several passes work. I hope this is your biggest problem. After listening to every pass and taking the appropriate notes, if there are still a few lines that need work, you can go after them then knowing exactly what you’re missing and how to fix it. The key to this process is to stay out of your own way while you’re singing. Try to prevent yourself from judging what your doing while you’re doing it. There will be time for that when you’re listening back. The more you keep the producer and artist separate during this part of the process, the more effective you’ll be in getting a great performance.

If you have the budget to actually hire a producer, you’ll be very glad you did. Click here to learn more about producers and why you should consider hiring one.

The Role of the Artist

This role is strictly musical. All of the groundwork has been laid. When you step up to the microphone, your only task is to remember that these songs move you and to sing them that way. Stay away from any and all technical concerns such as whether you’re hitting the notes exactly on key or whether your timing is good. All of this can be addressed when you sit back down in the control room to listen to what you’ve done.

A piece of advice I give all my singers when they get bogged down worrying about hitting the note and sounding good is to think about the words to the song and what they mean. The best singers sound like they’re talking to you. You believe what they’re saying because they believe what they’re saying. Simply put, just tell the story and the pitch and the tone will follow.

Of course it can be nerve-racking the first few times you go in to record your vocals but the more you do it the easier it will become. Every bit of work you do in advance as your own management, label and production team, will make you that much more prepared to deliver a great vocal performance as the artist you are.

Good luck!

Cliff Goldmatcher
www.cliffgoldmacher.com
cliff@cliffgoldmacher.com

With the state of today’s economy, everyone is looking to save cash and cut corners wherever they can. Songwriters and producers are no exception. Instead of paying by the hour at expensive recording studios, they’re turning to the home recording set up as a way to save money and avoid time-constraints. Having a comfortable space to let the creative juices flow and lay down recordings is great way to keep churning out music during these rough economic times.

Today’s topic covers a key component in any home recording set up. It’s acoustic treatments for the walls of your studio space. A fancy computer / DAW with loads of expensive plugins and pricey microphones will do you no good unless the room in which you’re capturing the performance is acoustically sound. Every great production begins with a great sounding instrument in great sounding environment. Acoustic treatment helps you achieve this.

I have compiled a list of links which provide a ton of useful information on acoustic treatment. Dig in…

Acoustic Treatment For Home Studios – This page from UC Santa Cruz packs in a ton of good info. Mostly covering the ideal construction for recording studios. They label it “home” recording studios, but these guidelines take you closer to how commercial studios are built. Nice to have an ideal goal to shoot for.

The Studio SOS Guide To Monitoring & Acoustic Treatment – Creating a great sounding room for tracking is super important.  It’s also key for monitoring purposes.  This article from Sound on Sound covers what you need to know for setting up an effective monitoring environment in your home studio.

Home Studio Acoustics – Two part article covering a variety of things to take into account when planning and constructing your creative space.

Tutorial: How to Build a Vocal Booth – Here’s a great tutorial with lots of helpful photos which lays out step by step process for building your own professional vocal booth.

Build a $21 Vocal Booth – This struck me as the most interesting solution for setting up a vocal recording environment.  Not only is it a cheap way to go, it’s also very portable and good for small and crowded rooms.

YouTube: How To Build a Vocal Booth on a Budget – This video takes you through a simple process of utizing a small closet for vocal recording.

Foam by Mail – This is a great place to purchase acoustic foam products.  The website is a bit weak, but they’re products are excellent.  I recently ordered a whole bunch of foam from them andthey worked out great.  This was my honest experience.  They’re not a sponsor.

How to Build a Quiet Studio Environment – Here’s a good look at the other side of this topic.  Reduce the amount of noise happening in your room by minimizing the sources of unwanted sound.  Lots of interesting ideas here.

Over to you…

What types of acoustic treatment or other ideas have worked for your home recording set up?

Photo by tatu43

Putting on a successful live performance takes a lot of hard work and preparation. Booking your gig and rehearsing your set are important, but they’re only half the battle. Perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle is promotion. How do you get people to attend your show?

In a previous article, I talked about how to grow your band’s email list. In this article, I’ll cover how to capitalize on those efforts by crafting and sending emails effectively.

It’s important to consider both the content and the timing of your email blasts. It has been my experience that a two-email approach for an upcoming gig works best. The first is an announcement email, meant to plant the seed and mark the approaching date on the calendar. The second email is a last-minute reminder, meant to catch the folks who might make a game-time decision to attending your show. Here’s how these two emails break down:

Email #1: Plant the Seed

The first email is to be used to officially announce the show. This should be sent no sooner than two to three weeks before the date of your show. The purpose of this email is to plant the seed in the minds of your recipients. It marks a mental spot in their upcoming calendar of “things to do”. Include all of the necessary information: The venue, your set time, street address, cover charge. A nice touch is to add a link to a Google map of the location.

Obviously, you’ll want to add a bit more to it. Entice your fans to make the effort to come out. Use your own personal style to keep the message positive, uplifting and exciting. Feel free to be casual and conversational, even a bit personal. You want to create that sense of intimacy with your following. You don’t want to come off sounding like a corporate mass-email blast promoting a product.  Of course, you are promoting something.  Your music.

Include your website or myspace link at the end of the email. Not all of your subscribers are familiar with your music. They might not even remember signing up for your newsletter. Give your recipients a quick and easy way to go check out your tunes online before making the decision to come see you live. You might also include a link to the facebook event you created for this gig (more on using social media to promote your gig in an upcoming article).

Email #2: Lock it Down

The second email is a quick reminder about your show. Re-state the essential show info (venue, address, and time) along with a very brief message. Don’t use the same text from your first email. This will come off as borderline spam. Keep it casual, fun, and again, enticing.

Send your second email sometime during the week of the show. If it’s a weekend gig, send it early in the day on Wednesday. Catch your audience right when they’re beginning to plan their weekend. Maybe they have a date and they’re looking for something fun to do- like catch a live band! Or they have friends coming in from out of town looking for a raging night out in your city. This email just filled their need for that awesome “thing to do” this weekend.

Don’t Over Do It

Remember, people are very fickle about their email preferences. You don’t want to risk losing subscribers by sending too many emails. As a rule of thumb, You should never send more than one email in any two week period. Pack enough interest and purpose into each message so that each one is a welcomed delivery in your fans inbox.

If you have a packed schedule of upcoming gigs, you might want to consider promoting several gigs in one email, or pack an entire leg of a tour into one or two emails.

Keep it interesting and mix it up. Don’t re-use email content. Always take the time to add a unique twist to your message and tone so that each email has a fresh feel to it.

Over to You

How do you use email for your promotional efforts?

There is nothing more exhilarating and worthwhile than putting on a killer live music performance. It’s the single most effective way to convert new fans and win over your audience. But before you let your musical beast loose up on stage, there is a lot to consider when preparing for your show.  Your live setlist brings many points to be considered.

Today I’m going to discuss how to construct your live setlist to ensure a successful concert from the opening song to the encore. Many artists and bands who are just starting out in their gigging career tend to overlook the importance of considering the order of songs in your live set. Don’t make this mistake. Craft your live setlists wisely.

Song Order: It’s All About Energy

Every song brings a certain level of energy. This should be the first factor to consider when determining the order of your songs. Some songs are loud and fast, others are soft and slow, some fall somewhere in between. It often takes a couple of performances to determine where your songs actually fall within the spectrum of your set.

The general approach is to start at a high energy level, then bring things down for a bit, then have a mid-set spike in energy, then back down again, then finish the set with a bang. See the diagram below:

You don’t want to change energy levels too abruptly. You want to ease the audience from one song to the next.  Try and find songs that work well as transition songs — something to work between the high energy and low energy points in your set.  Don’t go from hard to soft too quickly.  A sudden drop in energy level can quickly kill the excitement in the room.  A sudden jolt of noise right after a soft tune can cause your audience to find a better listening location — possibly at the next bar!  Harness the flow of energy and sense when you’re audience is ready for a change of pace.  Then ease them into it with a transition song.

Vary the Mood

Energy level is important.  But so is the mood.  Great songwriting is all about capturing emotions.  Hopefully the songs in your set will present a variety of emotions and subject matters.  Mix it up as much as possible here.

Don’t bunch all of your sad songs together, or all your political songs together.  Don’t make the first half of your set packed with fun-loving songs about surfing, and the second half of your set all about your demons within.  Unlike smoothing the transition of energy levels, you want to show your versatility here by flipping between subjects and moods quickly.

Most of your audience could be first-time listeners.  Show them what you’re all about in the little time you have to convert them.  Varying the mood is a great way to keep things fresh while staying within one energy level.  For example you might play two soft songs back to back, but the first is a haunting introspective piece and the next is a sweet love song.

Consider the Key and Tempo

Another thing to consider is which key each of your songs are in.  If you have several songs in the key of E minor, it may not be such a great idea to play them next to each other.  Changing the key from song to song can create a sense of variety and progression – even if this is sensed subconciously by your audience.  Too many songs in the same key can give the impression that many of them sound the same.

Tempo is another key factor in determining the order of your songs.  It’s common to start off a set with something up-beat.  Personally, I also like to follow with another fast-paced tune for the second song.  This sets the excitement level for the rest of the set.  Be mindful of abrupt changes in tempo from song to song.  Sometimes this may work well, but sometimes not.  Use your best judgement in conjunction with implementing the tips mentioned above.

Some Practical Tips

When creating the set list, I like to write down a random list of all of the songs I want to incorporate into the set.  Then I’ll visually pick from that list, and compile the final ordered set list.  This way I don’t miss anything.

It’s best to write up the final set list using a dark black marker and large letters.  Even better, use a computer printout with a large bold font.  The lights can go in and out when you’re on stage and you want to be sure you can easily see which song is coming up next.

Stay tuned in to what works and what doesn’t.  Take feedback from your audience after the show or your manager to get a feel for which parts of the song order were effective, and which ones may need tweaking.  I personally like to vary set lists from show to show as much as possible, but it’s always good to know which songs generally work well when played next to others.  If you play a different set every night, post the latest set list to your website!  This is a great way to keep your online audience interested and it builds anticipation for your next performance.

Just like everything else in the world of songwriting and performance, everyone has their own style.  I’m interested to hear what works best for you when it comes to writing set lists.  Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.