Anyone here ever made a whole album alone?

[mbradzick]

I just finished a four song EP, three of which were co-produced by a friend who also wrote some guitar and piano parts, but I did all the rest...engineered, played all the parts and programmed the midi.

It was a very valuable experience which taught me that I love engineering, mixing and producing better than writing and being an artist, leading to my profession now. It took me a very long time to do it cause every time I thought I was done I discovered new plugins/gear and better techniques. Finally though, I ended up with four tracks that sound pretty damn good. I did have them mastered at Bernie Grundman though.

Overall I find that people who produce and engineer themselves fall short of their mark because it's a lot to tackle and you can get burnt out easily. After years and years of getting good at an instrument and writing, you now have to get good at engineering. Engineering, as we all know, is like an instrument that takes time to master. It took me about 12 years from the time I started recording on a cassette four track, but now I can engineer my ass off from home, especially mixing.

I believe though that the best projects are results of talented teams.

[Soulbrother]

And I gotta say , I love every minute of it.

My previous two records were done with other people, but it largely ended up being me who did everything (as arrogant as that sounds). I wrote the songs, and I usually had the best ideas for what would fit them as well.

On this most recent project, I wanted to do it with my other band members, but trying to get a day when everyone was available became impossible, or when they did play, we'd spend hours coming up with something, and it wouldnt be that good, but I'd have to be polite and let him carry on, and then end up having to redo it later myself.

Now, I record whenever the mood hits me: Could be in the morning, could be late at night. And it is usually what I want it to be , regardless.

Think Im going to get somebody else to mix it though, and get people to critque it honestly before finishing.

I just find that with my own songs

[taturana]

Originally Posted by Johnny Favorite

Taturana, Paulo Moura? Love his work, very nice to know a fellow gearslut is producing him, I`ll make sure to check the final result.

I`m in Rio de Janeiro, where are you recording it? I`ll check the Hendrix tribute CD also, I can`t resist...

I am also in Rio, it seems there are a bit more people from the Cidade Maravilhosa (wonderful city for those who don't speak portuguese) in GS.

And i also am a big fan of Paulo Moura...and have been for ages... I have been recording it all at my home studio (Bemvindo ao Taturana on the WEB) and it's been taking a while but now it's beggining to sound really interesting.. it might be a change from his previous work, since now we have some electronic goodies with the musicians, and we have some pretty good musicians on this one, old and new school....
so far beside myself and Paulo we have, my long time collaborator and friend, percussionist Laudir de Oliveira (Chicago, Jackson 5, Joe Cocker, sergio mendes, herbie hancock, chick corea, and many others ) Bassist Jorge Pescara (eumir deodato,itamara koorax, dom um romão) and drummer César Conti (zé ramalho, jorge vercillo, ney matogrosso, and many others).. we also are going to have some other awesome guests but, since they have not recorded, i won't name them yet...

the hendrix stuff is currently in demo stage... but it's turning up really nice...check Taturana Blues Band on my site for a small preview...

If you want any more info you can PM me here... or send mail to the site...

[hognogger]

Originally Posted by blim

The best sounding track on my project took a total of probably ten hours to write, arrange, play, record, mix, and master.

On the other hand, I spent probably close to one-hundred hours working on just the mixing and mastering of the track that sounds the worst.

Great thread. I'm in the middle of this the moment, myself. Finishing the mixing of a 17-track project I've been working on for the past 2.5 years.

I know this isn't exactly what you are saying, but there is a strange view that hangs around in musical circles, especially around 3-chord rock and blues circles, that says inspiration needs to come quickly... the best songs are transcribed from the gods, or something like that.

I think this is a really bad thing to be spread around. In my own experience, I've had some songs come within hours, some take years. The ones that came quicker I don't hold to my heart as better songs. A song takes however long it takes. Sometimes, you see potential with some idea you have, but aren't quite able to realise it at the moment. Sometimes, it takes time. If you are willing to spend a couple of years getting a particular song right, I think that is actually evidence that there is something significant there.

Personally, I tend to love more the songs that took longer, and took more effort to get completed.

[days]

I just finished my project.

I started from nothing. Virtually no knowledge of PC recording, plug-ins, DAWs, microphones, outboard gear, et cetera. It took me three years to figure out how to do it, and then actually do it. I also had to learn how to play drums and bass, optimize my computer, build bass traps, mix and master, and a whole lot more. I learned a lot.

For anyone interested, the link in my signature (below) will take you to my website, where you can listen to some of the songs.

[withintheflux]

I fully appreciate this thread. I too work alone for the most part. I have finished 4 albums alone, most of them start to finish. I am beginning my 5th now.

It DOESN'T get easier! For me the loss of objectivity, of the 'big picture' is without a doubt the most frustrating aspect of it all. I recently read an interview with mixer/producer "Mitchell Froom" where he said that he has never heard a mix that was a worth a damn that took more than 1 day. (not word for word). Coming from him that really smacked me. I mean, thats not hyperbole, its an honest observation. I spend MONTHS on my mixes! and frankly, I am losing faith in my basic ability to sense songs. And I suspect that it is because I am staring for too long at the same wall, losing perspective all the while.

Thanks for the thoughts folks. If you wanna hear my stuff, here ya go:

MySpace.com - TaughtMe - San Francisco, California - Alternative / Ambient / Indie - www.myspace.com/taughtme

blake

[Shilla]

what's up sluts?

I've did my first album myself, had another engineer do some gentle mixing (which i ended up redoing), but i produced, composed, recorded, sang, rapped, arranged, mixed, mastered by myself.

i'm working on my next cd, and having problems because there is so much more actual instrumentation i'm doing. The first cd used a lot of samples.. but this one is off the charts with piano riffs, guitar riffs, extravagant drums, pads, off the chain syths.. all the reason why i'm on here trying to learn much more about how to tackle these issues..

i'm a female engineer as well, not that it means anything, but just thought I'd put that out there!

is there anyone doing any r&b and using pianos on here that could help me out on the mix scale of things? that would be awesome..

have a blessed day.

[trevort]

I pretty much have to do everything myself.
I use to use drum machines. But on my last one
I had more room(converted garage)to add acoustic drums.
I had to learn to play them (I don't claim to be one though, sorry for all the drummer jokes!).
Pretty much everything.I didn't like the results so much(the room) so I am now using
a Roland v kit with Superior etc..We'll see how that goes.

But, you can hear some of my stuff at my site.

look up songs like "This is your life" to hear the newer stuff.

SoundClick artist: Trevor Thompson - Singer songwriter.

[TheAaronBowley]

I am in the process right now, all the songs are written but...

My guitar just broke and I have no piano or keyboard. So I'm not getting very far considering much of the album either incorporates or sometimes revolves around classical style piano. Doh.

However I must say there is something really special about having something where when someone listens to it and says something like... Awesome bass who is that... Sick drums who is that? Woah that guy is awesome at guitar! Etc to be able to say, oh.... Well that's me. I did it all!

It's quite nice.

[flober1970]

Hi all!

good thread!

finished my first album recently, in similar conditions, but we were two for recordings. I did by myself, the composition (some 15 years old), arrangements, piano, drums, percussions, sax, mix and mastering.

My friend is a guitar player and as he was working full time, it took us about 2 years too complete the guitar and piano recordings, simultaneously in a live condition. We played over prerecorded midi arrangements.

After that, we watched each other, as we live in Beijing, it is not easy to find musicians, we decided to learn bass and drums!
He would take the bass, as he is used with strings and I the drums.
We also recorded them simultaneously.

I got myself a v-drums wich was usefull to correct the rythm not in place.

Took us an other year and a half to finish all the recordings.

some of gear used: (the great) avalon U5 as DI for guitar and bass, used TLA indigo voice processor for other recordings using a pre. Piano is NI, drums from td-20.

For the mix, I read a lot on this website (compressor, eq, mixing bass, drums, sax, master reverb, mix bus...)and bought a liquidmix and altiverb to complete my studio.

for the mastering I used Ozone 3, did only a little compression and eq.
This stage is quite critical and I think sometime that I will redo the mastering after I got really a lot of time, maybe few years...

So for those interested you can ear some of the final tracks (with ugly myspace compression) and even see a video demonstrating the rerecordings.Comments are welcome.


flober1970 on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Videos

F

[Halexx]

I did.

I learn alot from the process, it was fun,but it was timely expensive, and more, the music suffer from it at the end from no input from other people(they do get some ideas too!)

[Anaon]

I finally finished mine at the end of 2008 it took me some years to find the gear and how I could record my music.

I've been in different bands and I was supposed to record as a band but at the end, it was my songs and I didn't really find people who wanted to be as involved as me

It can be downloaded for free here: Spleen Arcana

It's a kind of progressive rock, with vintage keyboards sounds and real drums. It's far from being perfect but this first album was really important to me!

Feel free to listen, I hope you'll enjoy it

[stagefright13]

I must admit I didn't read anything but the first post. BUT I did attempt the entire process alone before. Long ago. And was so much more artistic and musical when someone else pushed the buttons. Cause all I had to do was sing and play guitar.

I think the engineering of the thing sucks the mind out of the people who should be making the music. Just my opinion. And like I said this is a reply to the original post.

[peet]

Yep, done some albums on my own. Great fun initially but soon the frustration of not getting an album finished set in. The solution is to keep things simple and to record quickly.

When I've written a batch of songs I spend a couple of weeks rehearsing them on acoustic guitar. When I feel I can play them with confidence I set up a couple of mics in my live room. Next I hit "record" and play each song a couple of times. The best takes are keepers. I record to 8-track analogue, but usually I only use 4 of the 8 tracks per song.
When a track is finished, it is finished, I don't revisit it. If it sucks it is probably the writing, not the recording. You can overdub for weeks, it won't make a bad song good. Time is better spent writing new material.

I don't want to go back to the days when I thought I could create a rock epic by myself. I'm not that good. Nowadays I keep it simple and get a whole lot more work done.

[d3man]

I'm a one man band....

As you can hear on those websites below....

[AllAboutTone]

yes I did one of those weird New Age style projects, started it many years ago but have not mixed it yet.

[climber]

Originally Posted by seaneldon

You should sign to my label, "Unfinished Records"

LOL

BTW that domain name is available......

[Mad John]

Wow, excellent thread guys...very interesting indeed!

For over 14 years now, I have recorded alone. Not since the summer of 1995 have I ever played music with more than my brother on drums, once every 5 years for 10 minutes (does that count?)

I have recorded many albums by myself. The first one was in 1996 called stangely enough, "ALONE OUT HERE."

The hardest part for me was getting all the instuments and equipment I needed to run the whole show!

I did not start to play the drums until I was 33!

I completly agree about mic placement. That can be really hard when you are on your own and you have to constantly judge the mic positions. When it is not coming together, the process can take all day long and sometimes with bad results at the end of the day! This is when I need to take a day or two off from that particular chore.

A few years back (2002) , I was very tired of trying to get my own compositions to tape. I just could not get he quality that I wanted and I was having amp/tone problems (a whole other subject.) My wife had just gotton me for Christmas 2001 both Line 6 PODS (guitar and bass.)

At the this time I was listening to a ton of 1960's GARAGE PSYC (13 Floor Elevators, Silver Apples, The Seeds, Love, Nuggets collection, etc) and I got the inspiration to walk away completly from my idenity and to assume the role of many chracters. In other words, I was going to create many fictional bands to play old three chord cover songs from the 1960's.

Once I got (A) drum sound I was able to start to bash out with great energy a list of songs we all know. I started in early Feb 2002 and recorded about 14 songs (bass, drums and guitar) in about 7 days. After that I was exausted...lol and had to rest about 4 days on my back! tutt

Anyway it was a huge project..in fact the largest I have ever worked on! This was no joke. It ended up being a two CD set and cost me $3,000.00 to get mastered by a top guy named Joe.

There ended up being 70 tracks all together! It was produced with Frank Zappa in mind and I assumed THAT role as the guy you heard about (MAD JOHN - this album is where my name came from) but never heard. The cover was a take off of Zappa's "Were Only In It For The Money" and there were at least 3 Zappa songs there as well. I had edits of my friends from college (1980's) so I was able to carry on FZ phone conversation interludes between musical numbers. It all had to be very well organized and I dare say that the editing and mixing took longer than the recordings.

This was all done on two 8 tracks (seperate.) A Tascam 388 1/4 and Tascam TSR-8 1/2. Mackie 1604 and 32 channel 8 buss.

There ended up being 20 bands, all names for each band member! That got to be quite a chore (if you have ever came up with names for your own children before, you know how hard it can be sometimes...lol.)

The name of the album is "PURPLE IRON HAT" (2003) and some tracks can be heard on my soundclick like, 900 Million People All Making Love , Party Cakes (original song) , Misery, Sweet Little Honey and Going With The Flow.

If you want, I can list all the songs.

What a strange combination: Garage Music meets Frank Zappa!

Sorry for the bad spelling...this lap top has no check and waiter, I need the check!

[Anaon]

Originally Posted by stagefright13

I think the engineering of the thing sucks the mind out of the people who should be making the music. Just my opinion. And like I said this is a reply to the original post.

I understand what you mean but don't you think that the "engineering" can be seen as a part of the creative process?

[hughbob]

I'm in the middle of doing my first solo album now. i'm doing everything myself. playing drums, bass, percussion, guitar, singing and keyboard(poorly). It is hard work but i have complete control....excellent. so far i'm covering folk, electronic dance, reggae, hiphop, rock, funk,free improvisation...whatever i feel like on the day. I also like to set myself challenges like mixing a track with no compression, effects or eq; recording a whole track with an sm57 (and trying to make it sound good); setting myself short time limits for writing, recording and mixing the track(an hour is the shortest i've tried); limiting myself to one take per overdub; sometimes i'll even improvise a complete song limiting myself to one take per instrument, having no idea what i'm gonna play before i start(performing all the tracks while looking at the wave form of the first track i have improvised can be fun).
needless to say i come up with lot's of crap, and you're not going to find my stuff on the charts anytime soon... but i have fun.

[dkelley]

I've created solo albums where I did everything myself several times now (although on those albums I get my wife to sing lead on most songs, I can sing but she's a ton better for some styles - I can't change my vocal instrument no matter how skilled a musician I might be LoL).

quick bio that shows how I ended up so messed up :

I'm originally, first and foremost a classical violinist specializing in being a concert soloist and I went through college first as both a classical violinist and jazz electric bassist and jazz guitarist while working as a gigging/recording progrock guitarist/bassist/composer and classical violinist.

Then at university I majored in violin and kept working as a jazz fusion guitarist and rock/funk/jazz bassist while I got into engineering. through university I learned how to play a scale decently on pretty well every classical instrument made (although trombone and I still don't get along, and you don't want to hear me on any other horn instruments either).

Also got better at playing the drums (self taught with a lot of tips from great drummers along the way). oh yea and my mum's a classical pianist and was teaching me piano before I could walk (although I'm not great now at it, the keyboard/theory skill paid off a ton obviously).

so with that behind me I figured I'd be sort of a crossover multi-instrumentalist type guy which has worked out well for me. hence my work as a session musician and producer/arranger.

Sort of seemed natural to make my own albums.

The weak links I discovered when doing this (back as a teenager when I started making my own albums, although I never finished those old ones) were my songwriting (good ideas badly put together and/or vice versa LoL and terrible lyrics) and my lack of mixdown engineering skills (was only doing tracking engineering back then for money, never mixed for money when I was young - why does that sound dirty to me?)

so creating full albums taught me a LOT about mixing, producing, composing and songwriting. and of course about how people concentrate, what keeps their interest through an album, what lyrically they look for, etc.

it's been a great process that I've kept doing my entire career so far (turning all of 40 next month, just seems like forever since like most of us I've beeen involved in music my entire life).

I have several entire album plans over the next couple of years. I won't discuss the details here but for example:

- a mostly instrumental classical record with electric/rock/synth instruments on them and I play all the parts and sometimes rockify the compositions somewhat (actually rewriting them sometimes but paying homage to the originals almost 100%).

- Also I'll do another full album of originals and covers, pop/rock/r&b/blues stuff, very commercial, looking for my personal rockstar success as always LoL.

- another entirely pure classical violin record, this time probably unaccompanied violin stuff mostly as opposed to my live violin/piano recital recordings of the past

- a full album, entirely original, rock, telling a story, politically and emotionally moving (that's my intention anyway LoL), that I've been working toward most of my life, again with my wife helping on vocals and some instruments maybe where she'd be better suited (she plays sax way better than me for example).

so those 4 albums should take me a couple of years, or maybe 20, since I'd like to do each one really well and be competitive with the commercial stuff I've worked on for clients (and better yet, actually be better than them hahaha).

so let's see - huge ideas, grandiose proportions, 3 little kids at home, a little project studio that I'm rebuilding (assuming I'll work out of my little home studio when possible), a full time day job, and 4 giant ego projects to get done fast and furious and at a professional competitive marketable level.

yeaaaaaaaaaa.... it's gonna happen.

cheers
Don

[ianbryn11]

Originally Posted by seaneldon

I've definitely suffered from setting up 8 mics on various instruments around the room before realizing I don't actually have any inspiration. Very, very sad when that happens. When I'm recording someone else, I can just sit at the console with my head down and work gets done. The same work cannot be done when I don't want to play!

i think thats one of things i like most about engineering.... It enables me to still create music even when im not doing it all myself.... And, when im recording someone else, its nice to be a part of something totally different than anything i could or would never think of writing myslef....

[Waltz Mastering]

Originally Posted by blim

Todd Rundgren did everything on three of the four sides of his Something/Anything? double album back in 1972, including the mixing, but probably not the mastering.

Great album...and more recently - Arena (2009)
Todd Rundgren Arena Album | Recording Todd Rundgren Arena 2009 Album
Everything but the mastering. laptop - headphones - reaper

[RasCricket]

Originally Posted by withintheflux

I fully appreciate this thread. I too work alone for the most part. I have finished 4 albums alone, most of them start to finish. I am beginning my 5th now.

It DOESN'T get easier! For me the loss of objectivity, of the 'big picture' is without a doubt the most frustrating aspect of it all. I recently read an interview with mixer/producer "Mitchell Froom" where he said that he has never heard a mix that was a worth a damn that took more than 1 day. (not word for word). Coming from him that really smacked me. I mean, thats not hyperbole, its an honest observation. I spend MONTHS on my mixes! and frankly, I am losing faith in my basic ability to sense songs. And I suspect that it is because I am staring for too long at the same wall, losing perspective all the while.

Thanks for the thoughts folks. If you wanna hear my stuff, here ya go:

MySpace.com - TaughtMe - San Francisco, California - Alternative / Ambient / Indie - www.myspace.com/taughtme

blake

Theres a lot of truth in what ya heard there. I'd say, for your own growth, dont mix songs for months on end, man. Call it good at some point and then move on.

In my link below, theres a track on the page called "Easy" ~ I did that from start to finish in 14 hours straight.

Leaving a mix/song behind is part and parcel of what its all about, my friend. Pat yourself on the back and leave the mix for later tweaking if you HAVE to, but theres a lot of growth that happens when you 'let a song go' and call it finished.

[Sk106]

I've done entire albums for others, about 8 of them. They brought the instrument or voice, idea, songs, and I did the rest, arrangement, programming, recording, backing tracks and mixing. But all of it with them directing the work right over my shoulder. I hate to think I did it good while they are rolling their eyes behind my back. Also means I don't suggest myself to them, I let them decide who to go to. Those jobs weren't high-profile stuff but .. it does get you alot of taste for what pitfalls to expect up the road if you try it.

When I was 14-15, I did 3 full length musicals all on my own, in the kinda classic rogers & hammerstein style, mostly orchestra and some with 4 piece rhythm section behind, about 20 pieces per musical. I put it all down as notation with a digital piano and stuff, and used Steinberg Pro 24 with a Midex on Atari to get it into life with the help of a number of roland and emu rack synths that I had. Some songs I taped onto cassette tape (which was the medium to use at the time). I didn't have any aspirations with it other than to do it and live in that world on my own, so it never made it out to the public, besides friends and family.

I haven't even seen it or heard it since I was 18 .. hm ...

At that time, this was a part of my figuring out that desirable achievements in life could be differentiated in at least two ways:
- Achieving something by doing what you already can do, just doing alot of it.
- Needing actually become better to be able to pull it off at all.

Like ... jumping 15 feet in long jump, that's difficult ... in the sense that you can't achieve it by doing what you already can do many times over. You need to step what you do up.
But doing a full record all on your own, or musical, usually does not mean that you have to become better at what you do. It just requires you to do what you do alot, to produce the amount of material.

[Happy Musicfan]

3 specific questions WRT the later steps in the process: 1) Which blank cd's have best burn quality (least errors) for home burning ? (Taiyo Yuden ?) 2) What method/program do you use for CD labelling ? (lightscribe ?) 3) Which online distributor(s) do you recommend ? (itunes ? reverbnation ?)

[chet.d]

Originally Posted by songbirdsound

Overall I find that people who produce and engineer themselves fall short of their mark because it's a lot to tackle and you can get burnt out easily. After years and years of getting good at an instrument and writing, you now have to get good at engineering. Engineering, as we all know, is like an instrument that takes time to master. It took me about 12 years from the time I started recording on a cassette four track, but now I can engineer my ass off from home, especially mixing.

I believe though that the best projects are results of talented teams.

Well put.

I did my 1st two records on my own "except for 3 special guests", usually for solo type parts. (1 song I was lucky enough to have done with David Lovering on the drums)

Rewarding albeit a long rode of toil and not always fun.

When I was done with my 1st cd I was in touch with F.M. Cornog (east river pipe) ...someone I respect and has done it this way exclusively.
He once told me, "every one of my records has been a soil sucking nightmare" and that I can relate with.
Shared experience is more appealing to me these days when considering the overall end result as well as the experience.
Still, glad I did what I did when I had the time to do it.

[Frisbieinstein]

Originally Posted by Johnny Favorite

composed, arranged, played, mixed and mastered all by yourself?

Care to share any tips or thoughts about the process?

And, most important, was it worth it?

A friend of mine has done over a dozen albums himself. I think he's a genius.

[N88]

Originally Posted by Waltz Mastering

Great album...and more recently - Arena (2009)
Todd Rundgren Arena Album | Recording Todd Rundgren Arena 2009 Album
Everything but the mastering. laptop - headphones - reaper

Thanks for the article. Nice to see a guy who's been a touchstone for solo recordists for decades going with such a basic system [the article mentions Reason and RiffWorks though, not Reaper; doesn't matter].
Really shows it's all in the soul of the artist.

[MasterTrax]

Originally Posted by Johnny Favorite

composed, arranged, played, mixed and mastered all by yourself?

Yep, still doing it, too.

Originally Posted by Johnny Favorite

Care to share any tips or thoughts about the process?

That would be a long post

Originally Posted by Johnny Favorite

And, most important, was it worth it?

Without question.