The art of producing songs in the studio involves a tremendous amount of patience and focus.  Songwriters should strive to achieve a recording that will be appreciated for many years to come.  Crafting and perfecting your production process is different for everyone.  It’s important to be aware of what works and what doesn’t.  Learn from past experience and always strive to make progress creatively, technically, and professionally.

Today, I want to discuss the importance of using scratch tracks.  Scratch tracks are recorded parts of a song that have not been perfected yet.  They are meant to be rough takes, not to be used in the final mix (although sometimes they turn out to be your best take!).

Scratch tracks are useful as temporary placeholders, while you build the rest of the song around them.  They’re also great for listening back and fine-tuning how you want to deliver the part when you record the final version.  By taking the time to lay down scratch tracks, you can get a better idea of where the recording is headed.  They help you envision a road map for arriving at your final product.

An example would be to record a vocal scratch track early in the tracking process.  The sooner you have the lead vocal in place, the better because it’s often the most important element of the song.  You want to structure the rest of your instrumental parts around the lead vocal.  Having a scratch version in place helps you write parts that don’t interfere with the vocal part, but compliment it nicely.  Once all the other parts have been recorded and finalized, you can go ahead and record the final vocal part.  It’s best to save the final vocal tracking for last so that the singer can draw on inspiration from the all of the instruments and really feel the fullness of the music.

The real advantage to crafting your songs with scratch tracks is for listening back and soaking in your creation in progress.  The process if recording a song often lasts several weeks. During that time, you should be listening to your rough mixes outside the studio- in your car, in your headphones, home stereo, etc. The more you familiarize yourself with every nuance of the performance, the more seasoned you will be when it comes time to lay down the final takes.

Many bands actually take months for pre-production. That is, recording and mixing entire songs as rough drafts before starting work on the actual record. Most independent songwriters don’t have the luxury of endless studio time for drawn out pre-production sessions. However, it’s always a smart idea to factor in extra time for producing your songs with at least some scratch tracking of parts.

Recording multiple takes in pro tools

When recording in Pro Tools, you can easily record multiple takes of a part using playlists.  The playlists feature in Pro Tools allows you to record an unlimited number of takes on a single track.  For each track in a multi-track mix, you activate one playlist – whichever take works best for that part.

To create a new playlist, click on the up/down arrow to the right of the track name.  In the options that popup, choose “New…”.

Give your new playlist a name. Pro Tools automatically names it by adding “.01″, “.02″, “.03″ to the end of the track name. Personally, this naming convention works fine for me, so I generally just keep the suggested name and click OK here.

Re-record the part on a new playlist, and repeat the process each time you want to do another take. When you playback the song, or prepare for bouncing to disk (mix down), select the playlist you want to use by clicking the same arrow you used to create the new playlist.

Playlists in Pro Tools provides an easy way to record scratch tracks before laying down the final take. Record the rough take first, then flip the track to a new playlist when you’re ready for the real thing. Later on, during editing or mixdown, you may decide there were parts of that rough take you liked. You can always flip back to the first playlist, cut the parts you liked, and paste them into the final playlist on that track.

Over to you…

What’s your process for doing scratch tracks, and your method of setting them up using your recording software of choice?

In a previous post, I talked in length about how the music industry is changing simultaneously with the explosion of the blogosphere. One thing to take away from this is that releases that are shorter in length are much more common today. Less songs, shorter songs, but new releases are much more frequent.

Music production quality, especially out of home recording studios, has improved tremendously in the past decade. We’re now seeing independent artists producing some great sounding tracks straight out of their basement budget recording studio. Songs that would be demos sound good enough to use on the album!

Here’s a breakdown of the common names for music releases. This should help you figure out which format best fits your style and current situation.

Demo

A demo really doesn’t have any specific length or number of songs, however it’s most commonly shorter than an EP or an album. The very first thing bands cut is usually a demo consisting of three to four songs. This is used to put a sound to the name, populate the Myspace page with something, and send out to clubs to book shows.

You’re probably not so concerned with getting your demo in the hands of thousands of fans because this is really just the first draft of your sound. Additionally, many music consumers are not very excited about paying money for something that’s called a “demo” or even taking the time to listen to it more than once.

It might be a good idea to hand out some demos for free while you’re band is developing, or you’re in the studio recording your first “real release”.

Demo recordings might also be used for more experienced bands and songwriters as more of an internal production process. You record a full song with some arrangement as a test run for when you record it for the record. This is good to listen to for a couple weeks to get a feel for how you want to perfect it on the real thing.

EP

The EP, or Extended Play, has been around for quite a while, although it seems to have been making a resurgence in recent years. Here’s some more information about it.

EPs tend to have 10 to 30 minutes of material and consist of roughly five or six songs.  This is kind of the middle ground between a demo and a full-length album.

EPs can be used in a variety of situations.  Perhaps it’s the first official release that you’re promoting to your audience to generate a buzz and introduce your sound.  You may not have enough material to fill a full-length album yet.

Another idea is to release several EPs in a short period of time to create a steady stream of musical output.  I personally think this idea is really gaining traction in recent years.  In fact, I chose to use this method of releasing my songs at my personal blog (sorry for the shameless plug!).

Another great use for an EP is a bonus release that follows a full-length album or accompanies a DVD.  Many bands release a shorter EP containing b-side recordings from the album.  Others release it as an exclusive set of never heard before songs or versions of existing songs.  There lots of interesting options when working with the EP format.

Album

An album, or otherwise known as LP (long-play), is 30 to 80 minutes of material, usually consisting of ten to twelve songs.

While the sliding record industry is certainly having an effect on the overall quality and substance of albums, they are still the centerpiece of the discography of many bands and artists.

Albums are the way we reference historic moments in rock history.  Albums define the phase of an artist’s career and provide a point of comparison to early and later developments in their sound.

For many emerging bands and artists, it can be difficult to commit the time and the funds needed to produce a full-length album when the success of that album may or may not come.  It takes a huge amount of promotion efforts along with some luck to fully recoup the cost of making the album (and this goes for self-produced independent bands too).  This is one reason why EPs are a more popular method for recording and releasing music while continuing to gig and progress as a band.

These ideas should help you decide on the best format for your music at any given point in your songwriting career.  I’d love to hear your ideas and experiences in this aspect of the song game.