July 23, 2025 • 55 mins
Recording music isn’t just about the gear—it’s about the space you create. Sound engineer Cam Melton shared how he helps singers feel grounded and confident in the studio.
From mic choice to mindset, we break down what actually matters when you hit record. You'll learn how to prep, what to ignore, and how to communicate without needing technical jargon. This one’s for anyone feeling nervous about getting in the booth.
📍Mentioned Resource: Follow Cam @cammeltonmusic and his studio @milkmanrecording
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
what else what else do we need
we need we need a scratch track
we have the music part figured out
we need to practice to a metronome so that we can
you know get those takes
what else do we need before we go in the studio
I would practice singing into a microphone
mic technique is really crucial to getting
the right product
being able to control your what are called plosives
(00:25):
so like P sounds
those like puffs of air can really
when you have a really sensitive microphone
that's right in front of you
you could have a really good take
and if if your explosives aren't in control
or you have a lot of like s sounds
that and and how you're pronouncing the s's
and the direction in which you are
the angle at which
(00:45):
your delivery is into the microphone
can really affect how much of that is picked up
and there are some things we can do
in post production to control some of that
or bring some of that back down
but if you can get it right going into the microphone
it's gonna give you the best
(01:10):
hey Vox Star and welcome to from singer to artist
I'm Lara Chapman award winning singer and songwriter
turned viral vocal coach and the host of this show
at VoxTape Studios
we help singers from all over the world
level up their voices
by teaching them the three fundamental skills
all singers need technique
awareness and artistry whether you're looking to go pro
(01:31):
or just develop your voice for fun
my team and I are here to help
check the link in the description
to book your first session
or grab some of our other resources Alrighty
are you ready let's get started
maybe you have written some songs and you're like
awesome I love these songs
I wanna get them out into the world
but you have no idea how to record your music
(01:51):
or what the process would be like
maybe it feels a little bit intimidating
uh if that's you
then I have some very good news for you here
because I have a very special guest with me here today
talking about the whole recording process
what you need to prepare uh
and what it's gonna be like in the studio
welcome Cam Melton
hi thanks for having me
(02:11):
thank you for being here so you're a singer uh
but you're also an engineer
and you have a recording studio
so not only have you produced your own stuff
but you've also produced music for other people too
right absolutely
so uh
thank you for taking the time to be here
and chat with us
a little bit more about what actually goes into
(02:35):
taking the song that you have written now
and making it a reality so that you can
you know burn it on a CD
old school or have it on Spotify or whatever right
absolutely so
let's
maybe get started real quick with how you got into um
creating your own recording studio
(02:55):
I believe you opened it in 2019
yeah right at the very end of 2019
we had our first client um
January of 2020 okay
hahaha very well timed
yeah oh goodness yeah
um but I
I had started recording my own music at home
I had built a a very amateur recordings studio at
(03:18):
at my house and I had
you know
two channel interface and I was mixing in Ableton
which in hindsight was probably not the most
well suited to the type of music that I was
making but you
you get your entry however you get your entry
uh from there I
I I was writing my own music
(03:38):
I started performing my own music out in public
I started touring around the Midwest playing music
I met a really talented engineer
and he was looking to open a studio and
you know we got along really well
and we opened Milkman Recording Studios in very
tail end of 2019
(03:59):
and we do original music from little singer songwriters
all the way up to full band productions
and we do podcast recording and post production
so mixing mastering of songs and videos
you have a whole a whole setup
(04:20):
you got a lot going on there
that's awesome
you gotta do what you gotta do to keep the lights on
yeah
fair enough fair enough
so you have like
just so I like
we can kind of paint the picture of what that studio
looks like because of
you know technology these days
it's become so much easier
uh like
you know bedroom producers essentially right
(04:42):
like making your own music
recording your own music at home in your
in your bedroom um
but with your studio with Milkman Recording Studio uh
what does it look like is it like a
one big room where everything gets recorded
or do you have multiple sections
or are there instruments laying around
is it kind of like what we see in the movies
or is it something completely different
(05:03):
paint the picture for us absolutely
so we've got two main rooms um
a third if we need it okay
um the
the the room in which the music
is actually made is called the live room
mm hmm that's
and in that room
I've got a bunch of acoustic treatments
I've got uh
sound absorption
panels that are hanging from the ceiling
and I've got some on the walls
(05:24):
do you like mine I do hahaha
they're the cheapest things I could find on Amazon
hahaha I get that
it's expensive it is
it can it can be expensive
they're
they're a lot more affordable if you build your own
and so I I
I built a bunch of wow
all of our acoustic treatment amazing
um you can buy panels off the internet
um that are um pretty affordable uh
(05:47):
Owens Corning
UH7O2 it's a yellow rigid fiberglass insulation
that's what a lot of like the pro level uh
sound absorption panels are made out of
but you can buy those raw panels
and then wrap them in fabric yourself
and put a little frame around it
and they're way more affordable
uh huh um
we also have what
what are called gobos and these are mobile
(06:11):
um sound absorption panels
so the ones I've got in in our studio are about
about this wide and I've got some that are 4 feet tall
I've got others that are uh
about seven and a/2 feet tall
and you can use those to separate
different sound sources
so say you have a drum kit in one part of the room
and you got a singer in the other room
(06:32):
you don't want the drums in that vocal mic
because you wanna be able to
to mix just that vocal in the
in the vocal mic and you don't
and conversely
you don't want the vocal in all of your drum mics
you wanna just be able to get the crack of the snare
and the thump of the kick
and not worry about some ghost of a voice that's
that's in that microphone
(06:53):
so we can position those Gobo's
in between different sound sources to
to help isolate cool
so is that the majority of
what you do is like that live recording
where the entire band is playing together
at the same time
or do you sometimes do one instrument after another
I
I actually prefer to do one instrument after the other
(07:13):
okay it gives me a lot more control on the back end
when we're going through the mixing and
finishing process
um and in
in order to do that
you kind of have to start out with that concept
at the beginning uh
and I think that was one of the things
I was gonna talk about so
if you're a songwriter and you have a song
and the process can be really intimidating to
(07:37):
record it and release it um
it it can be expensive it can be time consuming
it's hard to coordinate
getting all the musicians together uh
so one way to kind of go about it in a way that's
it's a lot more approachable
is to create a scratch track
and a scratch track is a basic outline of your song
(07:59):
typically you'll do it to a click track
what's a click track
so a click track is a metronome so it's
it's what keeps you on rhythm so it's
and that's what keeps all of the musicians locked in
and so if you go back and you're mixing
and you wanna take a take from
at this section everything is easily lined up
(08:22):
so you can mix and match parts
and yeah
in order to get the best possible overall performance
and if you do it to a click track
it's so
it makes that so much easier to line everything up
uh so one skill that a lot of singers don't have
and a lot of singer songwriters don't have is
is practicing to a click track
(08:44):
practicing to a metronome
you can find them
there are free phone apps
there are even just on Google
if you type in metronome it'll show up right there
you give it the BPM the beats per minute right
how fast the metronome is clicking and it's
it's right there on Google
it's super easy um
and so if you get a really solid click track
(09:07):
uh scratch track performance
it makes it really easy for your musicians
to really lock into the rhythm
and to follow the overall structure of your song
and you can really go piece by piece
so you record your scratch track
and then you can bring in a drummer
whenever it's convenient for the drummer
drummer will come in lay out the drum part
(09:29):
playing along to your scratch track
then you can bring in a bass player
bass player can play along with the drummer
or you can play along to the click track
and theoretically
they are both locked in with each other
even though they're not playing together
even though but because they have the click track
and the scratch track they
they can follow along what if uh
what if I'm a singer and I have my song
(09:51):
and basically all I have is the lyrics
the melody and the chord progression right
like maybe I can play guitar or a little bit of piano
or somebody helped me with that
and I don't know any drummers or bassists
or people who would like
play the instruments
what what then
well networking is
is your friend in that regard
yes hahaha
(10:12):
um but any
any good studio is going to have a
a whole roster of of drummers that they know
mm hmm and there
there are so many drummers out there that are they're
they're they're busy gigging
but they're almost all looking for session work
where they can just
come in and bang out a session part
which is what they call when
(10:32):
when a drummer comes in and just plays a part
and then leaves and that's a session musician
and typically that is a work for hire sort of thing
so
you'll pay them somewhere between 50 and 200 dollars
apart depends on what level of musician they are
I I think 1 hundred dollars is
is fairly standard right now in Indianapolis
(10:53):
at least for um
kind of mid level yeah
uh
in some major cities
it might be a little higher than that
absolutely and if you're going for a top level drummer
even considerably more than that
but yeah you can get really
really good drummer for $100 a
a a song and uh so if
(11:15):
if you're working on a budget
and you're kind of worried about how your cash flow is
doing it the scratch track
and then slowly building out your song
that way you can do it in a piecemeal fashion
so you don't have to
to fork over a whole bunch of money all at one time
you can kind of do it in in little pieces
yeah and build your song over time
(11:36):
there are also like um you know
like producers out there that sometimes like the
all of the music like none of the music is played live
it's all electronic music that was
that was put together um
there's I know a lot of producers that do that
is that something that you guys do at milkman too
or do you only do live um like instruments
(12:00):
um we've done a a combination of of of both of them
um I
I haven't done a whole lot of strictly electronica or
um electronic music in that way
um I would like to it just hasn't been um
the circles that I ran in
yeah Indianapolis
like we have a lot of like
(12:21):
folky singer songwriter style musicians here
so it's um it's maybe a little less electronic
but all of my songs that I released
way back when I was still doing that
um the producer that I was working with
he would maybe on one or two songs
uh record a live guitar
(12:42):
but everything else was all electronic
no real instruments so
it just really kind of depends on
how you're going about it
and what kind of music uh
what kind of music you're making but networking
I like that you brought that up and um
studios have session musicians that they can recommend
maybe so that's awesome there um
(13:03):
let's pretend we have that figured out
either
we have the musicians that we're gonna work with
or we are using an electronic track either way
as singers what else what else do we need
we need we need a scratch track
we have the music part figured out
we need to practice to a metronome so that we can
(13:24):
you know get those takes what else do we need
before we go in the studio
I would practice singing into a microphone hmm um
the the
mic technique is really crucial to getting
the right product um
you know being able to control your
what are called plosives so like a P sounds
(13:48):
those like puffs of air can really
when you have a really sensitive microphone
that's right in front of you um
you could have a really good take and if
if your plosives aren't in control
or you have a lot of like s sounds that and
and how you're pronouncing the s's
and the direction in which you are
the angle at which your
your delivery is into the microphone can really affect
(14:10):
how much of that is picked up
and there are some things we can do
in post production to control some of that
or bring some of that back down
but if you can get it right going into the microphone
it's gonna give you the best best chance yeah
yeah do you ever adjust the microphone
depending on who you're working with
(14:30):
absolutely and
and different voices work
differently with different microphones um
it's it's a lot of times it's just kind of uh
guessing and trying out different microphones so you
you might spend some time
your first time in the in the studio
trying out a few different mics
and seeing what you like the sound of um
(14:54):
there are a lot of different mics
I mean this mic right here
a a SM7B is a classic
Michael Jackson used this microphone
but you see a lot of podcasters use it but it
it's really good
because it doesn't have a whole lot of like
proximity effect
and it's doesn't pick up a whole lot of room noise
(15:16):
so if the room that you're singing in
isn't as well treated
it's not going into the microphone yeah
um but
another
type of microphone that you'll probably encounter
in the studio is a
large diaphragm condenser microphone
and it's it's a really sensitive microphone
and so it picks up a lot of the intricacies of
(15:38):
of your voice and
but it's also going to pick up a lot of the room noise
so
it's pretty crucial with a large diaphragm condenser
to have acoustic treatment in the space that you're in
to reduce some of the echo
that you're hearing in the room or or some
some bad interactions between sound waves
(15:59):
as they're bouncing around off of hard surfaces okay
cool yeah
um microphone choice
I uh
when I was in the studio again many years ago uh
I was also I
I don't remember what the mics were at all
with the producer that I was working with but uh
he also switched it out on me uh
(16:21):
after the first couple takes
I was like actually let's
let's let's use this one
um'cause I have a very big voice haha
sometimes and so yeah
he was like actually
let's try this other microphone
and it made a difference to him I
I never like heard like you know the
the different takes on the different microphones
so I I never like really
you know noticed the difference
because I never heard both of them
(16:42):
but he knew what he was doing
so I'm sure there was a reason why we did that haha
yeah each
each mic has its own frequency response
so it
it picks up different levels of different frequencies
so some mics have kind of a darker color to them
meaning they're
they're a little more pronounced in the low end
(17:03):
and there's a little bit less uh
high end frequency content
relative to other microphones
and it really depends on an individual's voice
whether that suits it or whether it uh
kind of hinders the the the process so it
it really is a kind of just try it out
(17:24):
see what we see what you like
I can make some informed guesses
based on hearing someone sing
what kind of microphones are gonna work for them
uh huh um
but uh it
it can also depend on what
what the vibe of the song is that you're going for yeah
um
some some microphones give a a more saturated sound or
(17:47):
um or a a kind of a vintage sound and you know
that might be really cool for a song that's really
kind of a a classic country vibe or uh
kind of an old crooner vibe
you know that that's
it'll really suit that sort of song whereas for a
a more modern um production
(18:08):
you might want something a bit cleaner
and just more straightforward transparent okay
cool you mentioned microphone technique right
like practicing with a microphone because depending on
you know how you're singing into the mic
it'll really change it
do you have a couple tips for microphone technique
(18:29):
for singers in the studio specifically
cause studio singing and live singing is is different
yeah absolutely
one thing is if you're getting a lot of plosives
or a lot of the siblance which is the s sounds
and you can kind of sing just a little bit off axis
not super far but just a little bit
so that puff of air is going right to the side
(18:53):
or right over the top of the microphone
as opposed to going right into the
the capsule um
that can be really useful
um another thing I
I would recommend is getting used to singing
without reverb like
I know a lot of singers love having reverb because it
it makes you feel supported
but when you're trying to get a really good performance
(19:14):
you really want to focus on the
the tail end of every word that you're singing
and sometimes with reverb you can
it lets you get a little bit sloppier yeah
with that um
whereas there's no hiding if there's no reverb
you're just hearing exactly
what you're putting into that microphone
so interesting okay
(19:34):
it's so fun to
to see how the different engineers and producers
like go about it some
some like having like ask their singers
do you want some reverb on that
and then you know the
the singer chooses if they want that on there
you recommend not doing that so that you can get exact
like hear exactly what you're putting into it
rather than what kinda
(19:55):
like the finished vocal is gonna sound like
cause you're gonna add reverb after the fact
100% generally yeah OK
um and
and trust the engineers gonna
gonna treat you right in in the mixing process um
I mean there's definitely two schools of thought
which is and you can make the singer hear it
as close as it's gonna be on the
(20:15):
on the final record
and to give them kind of an inspiring feeling of
of how they go about it uh
it's so much of it is just getting
figuring out different ways to
to get that perfect performance out of the singer
mm hmm and I think everybody is
is a little different
in what's going to help them get there yeah
(20:36):
and so you can try both okay
cool that might it if you're struggling
try something else okay
yeah yeah
don't just keep repeating the same thing over and over
again but try something else and see if it helps yeah
right that that makes a lot of sense okay
so we practiced we have like we have
(20:56):
we practiced with a scratch track
and we have a scratch track
we practiced with a click track
we practiced our microphone techniques um oh
microphone technique also like proximity to the mic
do you have any notes on that
yeah absolutely uh
the closer you're gonna get to a microphone
you're gonna get a pronounced uh
proximity effect so
that really
(21:16):
enhances a lot of the lower frequency content
so you get a really nice deep base sound
which can be really good for certain parts of a song or
um certain types of songs or certain singers
but other times you really don't
want that and so um
by practicing singing into a microphone now
(21:37):
you can see how it affects the sound that's
that's going into the microphone
by how close you are to the microphone
typically with a a large diaphragm
you're gonna wanna be at least like 4 inches from
from the microphone to minimize and you can put a pop
(21:58):
what's called a pop filter
to prevent some of the plosives
this one kind of has like a built in
it does pop filter
yeah
but a lot of the large diaphragms come very exposed
it's just a a grill
a metal grill and you can even see the capsule inside
so there's nothing really protecting it
so you can put a pop filter there
or you can stand a bit further back again
(22:21):
that's depending
upon how much acoustic treatment you have in the room
um how much gain is on that microphone
cause some songs
you wanna have that microphone super hot
so that picks up all of the intricacies
and you can hear even the mouth sounds and everything
so you feel like that singer is just like
(22:41):
right there in front of you yeah
and that is um perfect for you know
somebody like Billie Eilish
she she has that very breathy singing
and she's probably really close to a very yeah
hot microphone
which is a a gained up microphone where it's
it's the volume is up very high on the microphone
(23:01):
and you can and if you have your own microphone
you have your own interface
or an amplifier or something
you can really practice
you know making that microphone really hot and
and see what it sounds like
when you get real close to it
see what it sounds like
when you get back a bit from it um
and you know
that can be a really good way to practice so
(23:22):
you know when you get into the studio
you already know what you need to do
to get the sound that you're looking for
out of the microphone or into the microphone more
and so when you're saying like practice it
like with a microphone is like actually also record it
so like
you can hear the recording then at the end of it
cause I feel like a lot of times it's
it's difficult to hear as we're doing it
(23:45):
for a lot of singers sure
and so we we
we listen to the recording to see what we just did
how it affected it
so not just practicing like singing into a mic
but then like
also like recording what you're practicing
so you can listen back and see how
what you did affected it yeah
right that that can be super useful
(24:05):
um I think it it's
it's really important to kind of do that
debriefing at the end of a
a practice session
where you go back and listen through what you
what you were doing and
and see if you were hearing it correctly and
and then you can kind of go in
into your next time and be a bit more deliberate with
(24:27):
OK what do I need to do to get the sound that I want
out of this microphone
and what do I need to adjust about my performance
or my proximity or um
my plosives or or things like that
in order to get a really good performance
I also in general by the way
you guys everybody listening
(24:48):
singers listening
practicing with a microphone and then listening back
like listening to the recording of it
is one of the best things you can do
because it helps you hear
details that you probably haven't heard before
so it changes your vocal performance
like it changes some of the choices
that somebody then makes uh
it helps you sing with less effort because you realize
(25:10):
oh I don't need to work so hard
so it gives you a bigger
range of colors that you're then using and uh
it just makes the vocal performance more interesting
because there's more details in there
that you can now actually hear
so always always
always recommend that practicing with a microphone
recording it listening back
(25:30):
and then make vocal choices based on that
based on what you hear right
you can't lie to a tape no
no you cannot no
you cannot
okay cool
so I feel like at this point we're feeling prepared
to go into the studio what happens at the studio
sure uh so it
(25:51):
it depends on
if you're making that scratch track yourself
um whereas you're
you're playing along with yourself so that
that first step is doing that
that scratch track and that can be at the studio
that could be at home if you're really good at
if you have a setup at home
if not do it at the studio
they'll be able to to
to help you do it really quickly and efficiently
(26:13):
and have it sound good
and be really solid on that click track
um
as far as a the vocal day
often that scratch performance just gets trashed it
it doesn't end up on on the final record uh
you build up all the other parts
and then once you get that song built
all the way up till it's just the the
(26:34):
the last vocal you you hear how it's gonna sound
it's a it's very inspiring um
and you can really
hear what all the other instruments are doing
and it can help you really play off of what's going on
in the track um
typically what I do is I
I try to get at least 5 good takes of the main vocal
(26:58):
okay
and that gives me a chance to do what's called comping
or you're making a composite track
and so you're taking the best
sometimes you go syllable by syllable even um
or phrase by phrase or word by word or verse by verse
um you're
you're taking the best performance
from each of those tracks
(27:19):
and putting them all together
taking pieces of each and to piece together the
the best possible lead performance you can from those
uh from those takes and then from there what
what we try to do is we try to create vocal doubles
okay hold on
before we dig into that that's already the next step
do you mind if I ask a quick question
(27:40):
sure yeah
um for the lead vocal
cause we're
we wanna talk about the lead vocal real quick um
you said you like having five takes
do you ever separate it into like
we're recording just the verse
and then just the chorus
or is it five times through the entire song in a row
or like how do you how do you go about it
uh yeah
(28:00):
we actually do break it down pretty often it's
it's at least um
verse by verse chorus by chorus um
if not sometimes taken phrase by phrase OK
um and just making sure I've got five good takes of
of each part of the song
so it typically it's gonna be hard to get a really
(28:23):
not really solid performance five times
all the way straight through
um it
it by breaking it down into discreet sections
you can put a bit more focus and attention
into each individual part
especially any part that you're gonna struggle with um
say you've got a bridge
where you've got a really high note
or something that you gotta hit
(28:44):
uh you can put that attention just in that one section
um to make sure you got really solid takes
yeah I
that's definitely how we recorded as well
and how I know everybody out there when they record
they go section by section uh
and sometimes even just like hey
we have the whole verse down five times
(29:04):
but this one word in in Phrase 3
I wanna keep working that
can we just do Phrase 3 a couple times in a row it
but it really kind of depends on the vocalist
I would say to like
do they need the context of like the entire verse
or can they do just phrase 3 um
and get a good take out of that
(29:26):
I
I think it sometimes depends a little bit on the singer
right it does absolutely yeah
okay so we have the entire song recorded
we have a bunch of takes then you like the producer
the engineer goes in and does the comping right
like
taking the different parts from the different takes
to get the quote on quote perfect uh
lead vocal right
(29:46):
like whatever it is we wanted to be
that's it awesome
now doubling
I interrupted you there
so tell us more about what is that
yes a lot of modern production
you will hear big vocal stacks
so there will be multiple versions of the same
the same vocal line
(30:08):
and what that does is it gives a really um
full sound to the vocal and it creates um
some
a dimension to it and it kind of has a
a a smoothing effect in
in how uh all
all of those different parts kind of coalesce into a
(30:28):
a really nice round uh
vocal sound some pop productions
you'll have 20 versions of the same vocal
which is which is crazy
um but that
that's another good skill to practice
before you come into the studio
is being able to sing the same part
the same way over and over again
(30:50):
and that will make your session run a lot more smoothly
do you do doubles on the entire song
or just certain sections
uh it
it's definitely more common in the chorus
to give it a bit more fullness
um
it it really depends on the piece
OK there are some songs where we'll do a uh
(31:14):
hard pan double and there is no lead in the middle
it's just two of the same performance on either side
and it gives a very wide sound to
to what you're hearing
because they're not exactly perfect
they're close but they're not exactly perfect and uh
it takes that vocal from just sitting right here
in the middle of the stereo field
(31:35):
to making it uh
spread all the way across mm hmm
well cause that
you know you
could be like well
why do I need to double it
why can't we just copy paste the
the main the lead vocal
why do I need to record it like the same way
cause it's
you wanna try and get it as close as possible
to the main right when you're doing doubling
(31:58):
so why not just copy paste it
you want those slight differences in the performance
this slight uh
slight timing differences
you want the slight pitch differences
they all coalesce to give what's called a chorus effect
and that's a
the sound of having multiple of the same parts
(32:18):
all stacked right on top of each other um
and and if they were all the same
it would just be louder
but you wouldn't hear any of the interaction
between the different parts
that makes sense and also maybe just to
to clarify too
just because you're doubling a vocal that to the end
(32:39):
like a the
the listener at the end like the finished product
it's not gonna sound like they hear you three times
right right right
yeah you would experience it
I mean it depends
it like the one I was talking about
where they're hard panned yeah
you would probably notice that yeah
um but in terms of like a
a lot of the modern pop productions
it would just sound like a
(32:59):
a singular voice
but it's all supported by much lower levels of the
of the doubles so they're down
a little bit lower in the mix
but you lower in the mix meaning quieter
quieter in the mix yeah but you would feel it if
if I were to push
play with just one version of the vocal there
(33:21):
and then I stopped it
and then I push play with all of the doubles
you would go OK
it's it's it's hard to really describe the effect
it's easier to experience it
and I'm sure if you go on YouTube
you could find videos of people explaining are
are showing you demonstrating that that effect yeah
yeah and when you record doubles
(33:42):
do you do that the same day as you record lead
or do you have people come in like another day
it it's easier if you can do it the same day OK
it it gives you a lot more continuity in performance
and like
everyone's voice sounds a little bit different yeah
from day to day yeah
(34:03):
so the the more you can sound exactly the same
the the smoother the effect will be
and it's also gonna be fresh
like how you just delivered
that performance is gonna be more fresh
in your brain in the front of your brain
does that mean you're doing comping
kind of like as you go like rough comping at least
so we you
you're doubling the take
(34:24):
that you're actually wanting to double
cause otherwise you're gonna not have
you know
the doubles are not gonna line up with the lead
if you change the lead right
absolutely so we'll do some
some rough mixing and right on the fly okay
very cool
and it's often easier with the artist right there uh
you can kind of go well
which of these performances do you
(34:45):
do you prefer do you like the way you delivered this
this word
or do you prefer the way you delivered it in this take
okay very cool awesome
so we have lead done we have doubles done um
what about if we wanted to add any harmonies or ad libs
or anything like that yeah uh
depends on if you're doing your own harmonies
or you've got a particular singer
(35:07):
or somebody in your band that
that sings along with you um
a lot of it's going to come down to their ability to
like listen
um and
and make sure they're
trying to match your timing as closely as possible
it really really depends on the effect you're going for
cause sometimes it it
it it's really kind of a magical effect when you're
(35:29):
harmonizing with yourself
because your voice is just
your voice obviously lines blends well with the
with itself right
and and you can want that or
or you might not want that it
it sometimes it
the contrast between the harmony voice and
the lead vocal is nice to have that contrast
cause you can have like a
a deeper singer or you can have a higher singer
(35:50):
and that contrast really gives you a bit more spread
in how you're experiencing
the harmonies yeah
I recorded all of my own for my songs um
and I know a lot of people that do that
but then there's also like bands right
like when you're working with a full band
then they're all doing their parts
and so it just depends on your preference
I guess like you said absolutely um
(36:13):
ad libs is that something you do before you do doubles
after you double do doubles
is that you know the last thing you do it
it's definitely preference or what the
the singer's capabilities hmm um
typically we'll we'll start out by doing a
a full run through of the whole song and uh
(36:34):
you know in in that they would
they would do the ad libs as as it came in the song um
if if
if that doesn't work
or they don't really know what they're doing
and we can make that a a particular focus of of a
a session or a a part of the session
and where they can kind of really focus on
(36:55):
nailing something that sounds really good
mm hmm um
it depends on the the skill set of the singer or okay
whether that's like a feature or just sort of
a thing they do at the end of a phrase or something
how long does that process take
usually recording vocals let's say you do the lead
you do the doubles you do the harmony
(37:16):
and maybe you have a little bit of ad libs in there
but you record everything yourself
how much time
should a singer set aside for something like that
I would say a four hour session
you should be able to get a really good lead takes and
uh vocal doubles and uh
get it comped and then at least get a good start on a
(37:39):
on the harmonies
if you're not able to bang them all out
yeah yeah
with my songs that I recorded again years ago
it took me four hours a song
usually like a little less depending on
you know how many harmonies and things like that
we had to record but usually yeah
around 4 hours
so I'm glad you're on the same page there
(38:00):
yeah absolutely
hahaha and a lot of that comes down to like how
how well the the singer can do
can deliver the same same performances or so
like the more practice that you do ahead of time
the more prepared you are ahead of time
the more efficient your session is going to be
and the cheaper it's going to be over the long run
(38:22):
yeah cause you don't have to do as as as many sessions
you can get it done in fewer number of hours
and also the more familiar you get with the process
you know
like maybe song 3 will be much faster than song one
yeah because you know you're
you know what to expect now
you have been through the whole spiel
the whole system
so now you know what to expect and you know
(38:43):
you can get through it a little bit more
a little bit more quickly
but yeah uh
very cool so everything is recorded
the vocals are recorded the instruments are recorded
or we have an electronic track
like whatever the music's all recorded
what now
mixing okay so
(39:04):
sometimes
that's the same engineer that did the tracking
the recording
sometimes it's not
it's up to you who you want to have mixing your song
you can
you could even find the mix engineers that mixed the
your favorite songs from the radio
they're all professionals
they all have a rate so
(39:24):
you can send them an email
and see how much they want to charge
for mixing your song if
if you want um
otherwise if
if you go with the
the studio that you did the recording at
you can have them mix on their own time
and then send you
um draft mixes
you can um
(39:44):
book the time and sit there with them while they mix
that can be really useful um
I think one thing that can be uh
that can help help you get the product
that you want out of the process
is to come up with reference tracks
so these are songs that sound similar to what you want
your song to sound like at the end
(40:06):
and that gives the engineer a
a way to know that he's on the right track
or to push the song in the direction
that you want the song to go
otherwise
they will bring their own biases and interests and um
you know whatever they're into into
into that mixing process
(40:27):
so having really solid reference tracks can be a
a way to communicate ideas
in ways
that you might not have the words to communicate
but I want it to sound like this
and that gives the engineer a whole lot of information
and in a whole lot of different aspects as to
how to go about mixing your sound
(40:48):
to get you the product that you want okay
and when we look at mixing for vocals like specifically
cause most people listening and watching are singers
for vocals specifically is this where you know
you add reverb and autotune and delay and whatever
plug ins
and maybe finish up the comping and all of that
(41:12):
is that where mixing is that what that happens there
absolutely yeah
so you can use autotune or I I tend to prefer melodine
it's the same sort of concept
but it gives you a bit more transparent effect so you
you don't hear that like flipping that you do with yeah
with autotune a lot of times which can be really good
it can be a something useful
(41:34):
and if you're really going for that
that flipping sound like you hear from t
pain or Post Malone or you know
artists like that sometimes it's really useful to
to put that in while you're tracking
so you can sing into that autotune
plug in and hear exactly how it's flipping
and you can use your voice um
(41:55):
in particular
to make it do those sounds that you're wanting
and all of that's just pitch control and
and choosing how how you're doing your vocal runs
to make it
do the flipping sound that you're looking for
yeah uh
and sometimes even like I heard this from Simone Torres
a vocal producer out in LA
(42:16):
she records for some of the like vocal production only
not all of the other instruments too
but just vocal production specifically
she works for some of the biggest singers in Hollywood
or with them um
and she says that she's only ever worked with two
singers who don't use auto tune as they record
not to you know
(42:37):
get the typical auto tune kind of sound
but to make them not worry about the pitch
for Simone she likes to make sure that the emotion
comes out of them rather than worrying about
am I getting the pitches and the notes right
so you can record with autotune on and then always like
not use autotune in the final
(42:58):
like when you're mixing right
then she uses meladine she actually uses both
she uses meladine and autotune for the final mixing
but that's just you know
different producers do it differently yeah
but yeah she's worked with many
many many many
many singers and only two of them
don't record with autotune on the mic
as they are recording so
what you hear is already the pitch corrected version
(43:18):
as you're singing
like as you're recording the vocals
only two don't like that fascinating
that's interesting yeah
but it
I guess it depends on the the singer's preference
I actually tried it out uh
when I was doing this workshop with her very recently
that was the first time for me that I was recording
with autotune on
I didn't do that when I was recording my stuff
(43:39):
but that was also years ago
so it wasn't very common yet back then
yeah um
and so I was doing that with the autotune on
and I was like oh my God
this is so interesting it sounds
it does sound different like
because I've been recording one way for so long
that it's like oh my gosh
this is different now
but I kind of liked it because it just gave me that
(43:59):
peace of mind you know of like yeah
like the pitch doesn't matter
I we can fix that
it's the emotion the tone the little details
that's the thing that we can't fix haha right
I may have to steal that trick
no there you go
there you go shout out to Simone
we love you you're amazing haha
yeah
but I guess it depends on like what does the singer
(44:20):
what does the singer like
yeah and also what style
you know if there maybe a little bit more folky Blue
Grassy that kind of stuff then maybe that's not needed
but if you're doing more a pop track
yeah it might be helpful absolutely
so okay so the mixing is all the plug ins
so basically like the vocals gonna
you know you have the delay
(44:41):
the reverb the whatever
I don't know anything about that stuff
a lot of stuff goes on there
so that the vocals sound perfect
they uh is this also where you make the doubles
and the harmonies like blend already
or is that a mastering thing
yep that will be happening in the mixing stage
in the mixing as well okay
um so typically in a vocal chain you'll have um
(45:03):
some sort of pitch correction
you'll have um EQ which uh adjust the
the frequency balances so you can make the
the bring out some of the higher end
or you can kind of tame some of the lower frequencies
depending upon what the performance demands
you can use you'll typically see a compressor
(45:24):
used in the vocal chain this is to
compress the dynamic range of the performance
and that's that's that can help keep the
the vocal sitting in the mix in the right place
so you don't get too quiet and get uh
lost among all the other instruments
or too loud in certain sections
(45:46):
and you're way out on top of the instruments
it just keeps you sitting in the right range
and it can add a nice uh
saturated effect uh often
depends upon what compressor plug in you're using or
or hardware unit um
it'll often uh have reverb or delay sounds uh
(46:08):
so delay is just a repeated version of of the vocal um
could be really cool effect in a lot of pop songs
especially at like the end of phrases
you can hear the delay pop out a couple times um
delay can be really useful
because it tends to be a little bit cleaner than reverb
(46:28):
there's not as much just uh
kind of muddiness that reverb can add
um there are a lot of different kinds of reverb
there are a lot of different kinds of of delays
you can have a stereo delay
where it'll go to one side first
and then go to the other
and that can give you a really cool sense of dimension
there are a lot of tricks you can do
(46:49):
you can um saturate so your
your
making it sound like it's
running through a tube amplifier
um it gives it kind of a fuzzy sound fuzzy
thick sound so think somebody like the The Black Keys
hmm that's a very saturated vocal sound
and it's very distinct
(47:10):
it's not something you'd want on everything
but on their music in particular
it's just a really cool effect okay
awesome and maybe we also need to say you know like yes
there's a lot that you can do
like to make it sound fuller and blah blah blah
blah blah but really
the only thing that is fixable in quotes is pitch right
(47:32):
like it's still not gonna make somebody who cannot
carry a tune sound like Celine Dion right right
like right the vocal delivery needs to be there uh
when you're recording
to really get an awesome end results
there's a lot that can be done to you know
really get the most out of it
but you can't you you know
(47:54):
make something really bad sound really great right
performance is king and yeah
getting that really good performance is really
that's where the magic happens
and I think that trick you got from Simone
might be really useful
cause I think even if your pitch isn't perfect
or your timing isn't perfect
if if your emotion and
(48:15):
and how you're delivering it is super impactful
that may be a better performance than one that's like
really technically perfect
but it's lacking some of that energy or interest
100% 100% totally agree I love that
and then the last stage is mastering
what happens in the mastering
(48:36):
so mastering is
is the final stage of the process and the
the goal of mastering is to make your song sound good
on every format so it sounds good in the car
it sounds good through a phone speaker
it sounds good on Spotify
it sounds good on a CD
so basically it's taking that
(48:57):
that final mix that you've got and you'll have a
a stereo mix so it's just a
a left right channel kind of a
a sheen that goes over the top
it's like the final polish and buff that
that really makes it pop and sound great
so they're adding things like multi band compression
so they're compressing different frequency ranges
(49:18):
differently or they'll have uh
yeah often an EQ
just to set that final EQ mix
to make sure there's not too bassy
doesn't sound too thin um
and again they're
they're trying to to hit that
like middle ground
to make sure that it sounds good on every format
(49:40):
and when when
when you're submitting your song to some place
like Spotify you want your song to sound uh to
to sound like
it's at a similar level to all the other songs
you know yeah
there's nothing worse than when you're in a playlist
and then one song is really loud
and then the other song is like really quiet
and you have to like adjust on the go
like that's where mixing comes in
right
(50:00):
to make sure it's all the same throughout everything
mastering yep
sorry mastering
yeah sorry
my bad absolutely
and uh humans have a bias towards louder things
and so if your song is really quiet people
are just not gonna like it as much
or they're gonna think less of it
just professional just based on that
(50:21):
and not
your song won't get quite the chance that it should
had you used a mastering engineer
that is good at their craft
but that's not something the singer needs to do
there's people that can do that for you
I never did it absolutely
I mean
it depends on if you're trying to do it all in house um
(50:43):
it is a learnable skill for sure yeah
but absolutely
and one thing I actually always recommend for clients
is that they go to somebody else
for the mastering
if we did the mixing and the tracking
I think
it's always really good to have another set of ears
on your product I'm just somebody else who can yeah
(51:04):
hear things once once you listen to the same song for
you know hours and hours
yeah
you don't hear it as accurate
either you start to be desensitized to certain parts
or you just kind of gloss over certain things
that another set of ears who are fresh to it
will pick up on yeah
no for sure for sure
(51:25):
that's that's a good point
so
you don't need to be able to do everything all at once
all at your say like at at the same time no
maybe not even at the same time
but on your own I get help get higher people who know
what they're doing and collaborate
I think that's great
I love that so the song's done yeah
now we just need to release it and that's a
that's a conversation for another time
(51:45):
but like getting it distributed and
and all of that stuff
that has nothing really to do anymore with the
recording process of it but that was super
super helpful we have we can prepare for it
then we record the stuff
and then we mix it and then we master it
and then there's a lot more that goes into it
but also it's a streamlined process yeah
(52:06):
right absolutely
anything that we didn't talk about
about the whole recording process that you
Wanna mention I
I I think all of that can sound really intimidating if
if you're a new to the whole process
and if you don't have a whole lot of money
there are ways to go about doing it
cheaply that are going to get you a
(52:26):
still a really good product
and a lot of it's going to depend on doing
a lot of legwork ahead of your session
so if you if you can find a band of musicians
and you can figure out how to perform
be able to deliver a really good performance
you could all get together in one room
the the engineer can set up all of the microphones
(52:48):
and you could really bang it out really quick
in one session
and that's probably the most affordable way to go
it gives you a lot less control on the back end
on the mixing and mixing end
but again it performance is king
and if you can get a really good performance that way
you could get your song recorded and finished
(53:11):
and out into the world for much cheaper
and it just requires a little bit more organization
and rehearsal and practice on the front end okay
very cool um
if people are locally to like the Indianapolis area
and they would like to work with you
how can they reach out to you
(53:32):
yeah Milkman recording.com
or how did you come up with that name
haha yeah
and how did I come up with milkman
yeah so my partner's name is Rob Glass and the
the first building that we were working in was
an old building that was a Roberts Dairy building okay
(53:52):
so you walk in the front door
and there's a big mural of a milkman okay
right there on the front and awesome
I love it Milkman Recording Studios
that was the Genesis you can email me
cam at milkman recording.com
would probably be the best way to get the ball rolling
or you can message us on social media
(54:13):
Facebook and Instagram at milkman recording perfect
I'll be sure to link to all of that as well
thank you so much
anything else you wanna get off your chest
no I'm just grateful to be here
thank you so
much for giving us an insight into
what is the recording process like
cause like you said it can feel very intimidating
but it's really a lot of it is in your head right
(54:35):
you're built you're building it up to be this
this big thing but when you're actually doing it
it's like oh
there's people helping you with it right
like they're walking you through everything
they their whole job is to make you feel comfortable
so there's really nothing to be afraid of
and just give it a shot and
and then you have an amazing recording of your song
and you can release it and share it with everybody
(54:57):
it's a really cool process
I think so too I love it
thank you so much Cam
for being here thank you
everybody for tuning in hope this was helpful
let us know in the comments if you have any questions
and reach out to Cam
if you're a local to the Indianapolis area
for some awesome recordings
thank you for tuning in we'll catch you next time
bye bye
what else what else do we need
we need we need a scratch track
we have the music part figured out
we need to practice to a metronome so that we can
you know get those takes
what else do we need before we go in the studio
I would practice singing into a microphone
mic technique is really crucial to getting
the right product
being able to control your what are called plosives
(00:25):
so like P sounds
those like puffs of air can really
when you have a really sensitive microphone
that's right in front of you
you could have a really good take
and if if your explosives aren't in control
or you have a lot of like s sounds
that and and how you're pronouncing the s's
and the direction in which you are
the angle at which
(00:45):
your delivery is into the microphone
can really affect how much of that is picked up
and there are some things we can do
in post production to control some of that
or bring some of that back down
but if you can get it right going into the microphone
it's gonna give you the best
(01:10):
hey Vox Star and welcome to from singer to artist
I'm Lara Chapman award winning singer and songwriter
turned viral vocal coach and the host of this show
at VoxTape Studios
we help singers from all over the world
level up their voices
by teaching them the three fundamental skills
all singers need technique
awareness and artistry whether you're looking to go pro
(01:31):
or just develop your voice for fun
my team and I are here to help
check the link in the description
to book your first session
or grab some of our other resources Alrighty
are you ready let's get started
maybe you have written some songs and you're like
awesome I love these songs
I wanna get them out into the world
but you have no idea how to record your music
(01:51):
or what the process would be like
maybe it feels a little bit intimidating
uh if that's you
then I have some very good news for you here
because I have a very special guest with me here today
talking about the whole recording process
what you need to prepare uh
and what it's gonna be like in the studio
welcome Cam Melton
hi thanks for having me
(02:11):
thank you for being here so you're a singer uh
but you're also an engineer
and you have a recording studio
so not only have you produced your own stuff
but you've also produced music for other people too
right absolutely
so uh
thank you for taking the time to be here
and chat with us
a little bit more about what actually goes into
(02:35):
taking the song that you have written now
and making it a reality so that you can
you know burn it on a CD
old school or have it on Spotify or whatever right
absolutely so
let's
maybe get started real quick with how you got into um
creating your own recording studio
(02:55):
I believe you opened it in 2019
yeah right at the very end of 2019
we had our first client um
January of 2020 okay
hahaha very well timed
yeah oh goodness yeah
um but I
I had started recording my own music at home
I had built a a very amateur recordings studio at
(03:18):
at my house and I had
you know
two channel interface and I was mixing in Ableton
which in hindsight was probably not the most
well suited to the type of music that I was
making but you
you get your entry however you get your entry
uh from there I
I I was writing my own music
(03:38):
I started performing my own music out in public
I started touring around the Midwest playing music
I met a really talented engineer
and he was looking to open a studio and
you know we got along really well
and we opened Milkman Recording Studios in very
tail end of 2019
(03:59):
and we do original music from little singer songwriters
all the way up to full band productions
and we do podcast recording and post production
so mixing mastering of songs and videos
you have a whole a whole setup
(04:20):
you got a lot going on there
that's awesome
you gotta do what you gotta do to keep the lights on
yeah
fair enough fair enough
so you have like
just so I like
we can kind of paint the picture of what that studio
looks like because of
you know technology these days
it's become so much easier
uh like
you know bedroom producers essentially right
(04:42):
like making your own music
recording your own music at home in your
in your bedroom um
but with your studio with Milkman Recording Studio uh
what does it look like is it like a
one big room where everything gets recorded
or do you have multiple sections
or are there instruments laying around
is it kind of like what we see in the movies
or is it something completely different
(05:03):
paint the picture for us absolutely
so we've got two main rooms um
a third if we need it okay
um the
the the room in which the music
is actually made is called the live room
mm hmm that's
and in that room
I've got a bunch of acoustic treatments
I've got uh
sound absorption
panels that are hanging from the ceiling
and I've got some on the walls
(05:24):
do you like mine I do hahaha
they're the cheapest things I could find on Amazon
hahaha I get that
it's expensive it is
it can it can be expensive
they're
they're a lot more affordable if you build your own
and so I I
I built a bunch of wow
all of our acoustic treatment amazing
um you can buy panels off the internet
um that are um pretty affordable uh
(05:47):
Owens Corning
UH7O2 it's a yellow rigid fiberglass insulation
that's what a lot of like the pro level uh
sound absorption panels are made out of
but you can buy those raw panels
and then wrap them in fabric yourself
and put a little frame around it
and they're way more affordable
uh huh um
we also have what
what are called gobos and these are mobile
(06:11):
um sound absorption panels
so the ones I've got in in our studio are about
about this wide and I've got some that are 4 feet tall
I've got others that are uh
about seven and a/2 feet tall
and you can use those to separate
different sound sources
so say you have a drum kit in one part of the room
and you got a singer in the other room
(06:32):
you don't want the drums in that vocal mic
because you wanna be able to
to mix just that vocal in the
in the vocal mic and you don't
and conversely
you don't want the vocal in all of your drum mics
you wanna just be able to get the crack of the snare
and the thump of the kick
and not worry about some ghost of a voice that's
that's in that microphone
(06:53):
so we can position those Gobo's
in between different sound sources to
to help isolate cool
so is that the majority of
what you do is like that live recording
where the entire band is playing together
at the same time
or do you sometimes do one instrument after another
I
I actually prefer to do one instrument after the other
(07:13):
okay it gives me a lot more control on the back end
when we're going through the mixing and
finishing process
um and in
in order to do that
you kind of have to start out with that concept
at the beginning uh
and I think that was one of the things
I was gonna talk about so
if you're a songwriter and you have a song
and the process can be really intimidating to
(07:37):
record it and release it um
it it can be expensive it can be time consuming
it's hard to coordinate
getting all the musicians together uh
so one way to kind of go about it in a way that's
it's a lot more approachable
is to create a scratch track
and a scratch track is a basic outline of your song
(07:59):
typically you'll do it to a click track
what's a click track
so a click track is a metronome so it's
it's what keeps you on rhythm so it's
and that's what keeps all of the musicians locked in
and so if you go back and you're mixing
and you wanna take a take from
at this section everything is easily lined up
(08:22):
so you can mix and match parts
and yeah
in order to get the best possible overall performance
and if you do it to a click track
it's so
it makes that so much easier to line everything up
uh so one skill that a lot of singers don't have
and a lot of singer songwriters don't have is
is practicing to a click track
(08:44):
practicing to a metronome
you can find them
there are free phone apps
there are even just on Google
if you type in metronome it'll show up right there
you give it the BPM the beats per minute right
how fast the metronome is clicking and it's
it's right there on Google
it's super easy um
and so if you get a really solid click track
(09:07):
uh scratch track performance
it makes it really easy for your musicians
to really lock into the rhythm
and to follow the overall structure of your song
and you can really go piece by piece
so you record your scratch track
and then you can bring in a drummer
whenever it's convenient for the drummer
drummer will come in lay out the drum part
(09:29):
playing along to your scratch track
then you can bring in a bass player
bass player can play along with the drummer
or you can play along to the click track
and theoretically
they are both locked in with each other
even though they're not playing together
even though but because they have the click track
and the scratch track they
they can follow along what if uh
what if I'm a singer and I have my song
(09:51):
and basically all I have is the lyrics
the melody and the chord progression right
like maybe I can play guitar or a little bit of piano
or somebody helped me with that
and I don't know any drummers or bassists
or people who would like
play the instruments
what what then
well networking is
is your friend in that regard
yes hahaha
(10:12):
um but any
any good studio is going to have a
a whole roster of of drummers that they know
mm hmm and there
there are so many drummers out there that are they're
they're they're busy gigging
but they're almost all looking for session work
where they can just
come in and bang out a session part
which is what they call when
(10:32):
when a drummer comes in and just plays a part
and then leaves and that's a session musician
and typically that is a work for hire sort of thing
so
you'll pay them somewhere between 50 and 200 dollars
apart depends on what level of musician they are
I I think 1 hundred dollars is
is fairly standard right now in Indianapolis
(10:53):
at least for um
kind of mid level yeah
uh
in some major cities
it might be a little higher than that
absolutely and if you're going for a top level drummer
even considerably more than that
but yeah you can get really
really good drummer for $100 a
a a song and uh so if
(11:15):
if you're working on a budget
and you're kind of worried about how your cash flow is
doing it the scratch track
and then slowly building out your song
that way you can do it in a piecemeal fashion
so you don't have to
to fork over a whole bunch of money all at one time
you can kind of do it in in little pieces
yeah and build your song over time
(11:36):
there are also like um you know
like producers out there that sometimes like the
all of the music like none of the music is played live
it's all electronic music that was
that was put together um
there's I know a lot of producers that do that
is that something that you guys do at milkman too
or do you only do live um like instruments
(12:00):
um we've done a a combination of of of both of them
um I
I haven't done a whole lot of strictly electronica or
um electronic music in that way
um I would like to it just hasn't been um
the circles that I ran in
yeah Indianapolis
like we have a lot of like
(12:21):
folky singer songwriter style musicians here
so it's um it's maybe a little less electronic
but all of my songs that I released
way back when I was still doing that
um the producer that I was working with
he would maybe on one or two songs
uh record a live guitar
(12:42):
but everything else was all electronic
no real instruments so
it just really kind of depends on
how you're going about it
and what kind of music uh
what kind of music you're making but networking
I like that you brought that up and um
studios have session musicians that they can recommend
maybe so that's awesome there um
(13:03):
let's pretend we have that figured out
either
we have the musicians that we're gonna work with
or we are using an electronic track either way
as singers what else what else do we need
we need we need a scratch track
we have the music part figured out
we need to practice to a metronome so that we can
(13:24):
you know get those takes what else do we need
before we go in the studio
I would practice singing into a microphone hmm um
the the
mic technique is really crucial to getting
the right product um
you know being able to control your
what are called plosives so like a P sounds
(13:48):
those like puffs of air can really
when you have a really sensitive microphone
that's right in front of you um
you could have a really good take and if
if your plosives aren't in control
or you have a lot of like s sounds that and
and how you're pronouncing the s's
and the direction in which you are
the angle at which your
your delivery is into the microphone can really affect
(14:10):
how much of that is picked up
and there are some things we can do
in post production to control some of that
or bring some of that back down
but if you can get it right going into the microphone
it's gonna give you the best best chance yeah
yeah do you ever adjust the microphone
depending on who you're working with
(14:30):
absolutely and
and different voices work
differently with different microphones um
it's it's a lot of times it's just kind of uh
guessing and trying out different microphones so you
you might spend some time
your first time in the in the studio
trying out a few different mics
and seeing what you like the sound of um
(14:54):
there are a lot of different mics
I mean this mic right here
a a SM7B is a classic
Michael Jackson used this microphone
but you see a lot of podcasters use it but it
it's really good
because it doesn't have a whole lot of like
proximity effect
and it's doesn't pick up a whole lot of room noise
(15:16):
so if the room that you're singing in
isn't as well treated
it's not going into the microphone yeah
um but
another
type of microphone that you'll probably encounter
in the studio is a
large diaphragm condenser microphone
and it's it's a really sensitive microphone
and so it picks up a lot of the intricacies of
(15:38):
of your voice and
but it's also going to pick up a lot of the room noise
so
it's pretty crucial with a large diaphragm condenser
to have acoustic treatment in the space that you're in
to reduce some of the echo
that you're hearing in the room or or some
some bad interactions between sound waves
(15:59):
as they're bouncing around off of hard surfaces okay
cool yeah
um microphone choice
I uh
when I was in the studio again many years ago uh
I was also I
I don't remember what the mics were at all
with the producer that I was working with but uh
he also switched it out on me uh
(16:21):
after the first couple takes
I was like actually let's
let's let's use this one
um'cause I have a very big voice haha
sometimes and so yeah
he was like actually
let's try this other microphone
and it made a difference to him I
I never like heard like you know the
the different takes on the different microphones
so I I never like really
you know noticed the difference
because I never heard both of them
(16:42):
but he knew what he was doing
so I'm sure there was a reason why we did that haha
yeah each
each mic has its own frequency response
so it
it picks up different levels of different frequencies
so some mics have kind of a darker color to them
meaning they're
they're a little more pronounced in the low end
(17:03):
and there's a little bit less uh
high end frequency content
relative to other microphones
and it really depends on an individual's voice
whether that suits it or whether it uh
kind of hinders the the the process so it
it really is a kind of just try it out
(17:24):
see what we see what you like
I can make some informed guesses
based on hearing someone sing
what kind of microphones are gonna work for them
uh huh um
but uh it
it can also depend on what
what the vibe of the song is that you're going for yeah
um
some some microphones give a a more saturated sound or
(17:47):
um or a a kind of a vintage sound and you know
that might be really cool for a song that's really
kind of a a classic country vibe or uh
kind of an old crooner vibe
you know that that's
it'll really suit that sort of song whereas for a
a more modern um production
(18:08):
you might want something a bit cleaner
and just more straightforward transparent okay
cool you mentioned microphone technique right
like practicing with a microphone because depending on
you know how you're singing into the mic
it'll really change it
do you have a couple tips for microphone technique
(18:29):
for singers in the studio specifically
cause studio singing and live singing is is different
yeah absolutely
one thing is if you're getting a lot of plosives
or a lot of the siblance which is the s sounds
and you can kind of sing just a little bit off axis
not super far but just a little bit
so that puff of air is going right to the side
(18:53):
or right over the top of the microphone
as opposed to going right into the
the capsule um
that can be really useful
um another thing I
I would recommend is getting used to singing
without reverb like
I know a lot of singers love having reverb because it
it makes you feel supported
but when you're trying to get a really good performance
(19:14):
you really want to focus on the
the tail end of every word that you're singing
and sometimes with reverb you can
it lets you get a little bit sloppier yeah
with that um
whereas there's no hiding if there's no reverb
you're just hearing exactly
what you're putting into that microphone
so interesting okay
(19:34):
it's so fun to
to see how the different engineers and producers
like go about it some
some like having like ask their singers
do you want some reverb on that
and then you know the
the singer chooses if they want that on there
you recommend not doing that so that you can get exact
like hear exactly what you're putting into it
rather than what kinda
(19:55):
like the finished vocal is gonna sound like
cause you're gonna add reverb after the fact
100% generally yeah OK
um and
and trust the engineers gonna
gonna treat you right in in the mixing process um
I mean there's definitely two schools of thought
which is and you can make the singer hear it
as close as it's gonna be on the
(20:15):
on the final record
and to give them kind of an inspiring feeling of
of how they go about it uh
it's so much of it is just getting
figuring out different ways to
to get that perfect performance out of the singer
mm hmm and I think everybody is
is a little different
in what's going to help them get there yeah
(20:36):
and so you can try both okay
cool that might it if you're struggling
try something else okay
yeah yeah
don't just keep repeating the same thing over and over
again but try something else and see if it helps yeah
right that that makes a lot of sense okay
so we practiced we have like we have
(20:56):
we practiced with a scratch track
and we have a scratch track
we practiced with a click track
we practiced our microphone techniques um oh
microphone technique also like proximity to the mic
do you have any notes on that
yeah absolutely uh
the closer you're gonna get to a microphone
you're gonna get a pronounced uh
proximity effect so
that really
(21:16):
enhances a lot of the lower frequency content
so you get a really nice deep base sound
which can be really good for certain parts of a song or
um certain types of songs or certain singers
but other times you really don't
want that and so um
by practicing singing into a microphone now
(21:37):
you can see how it affects the sound that's
that's going into the microphone
by how close you are to the microphone
typically with a a large diaphragm
you're gonna wanna be at least like 4 inches from
from the microphone to minimize and you can put a pop
(21:58):
what's called a pop filter
to prevent some of the plosives
this one kind of has like a built in
it does pop filter
yeah
but a lot of the large diaphragms come very exposed
it's just a a grill
a metal grill and you can even see the capsule inside
so there's nothing really protecting it
so you can put a pop filter there
or you can stand a bit further back again
(22:21):
that's depending
upon how much acoustic treatment you have in the room
um how much gain is on that microphone
cause some songs
you wanna have that microphone super hot
so that picks up all of the intricacies
and you can hear even the mouth sounds and everything
so you feel like that singer is just like
(22:41):
right there in front of you yeah
and that is um perfect for you know
somebody like Billie Eilish
she she has that very breathy singing
and she's probably really close to a very yeah
hot microphone
which is a a gained up microphone where it's
it's the volume is up very high on the microphone
(23:01):
and you can and if you have your own microphone
you have your own interface
or an amplifier or something
you can really practice
you know making that microphone really hot and
and see what it sounds like
when you get real close to it
see what it sounds like
when you get back a bit from it um
and you know
that can be a really good way to practice so
(23:22):
you know when you get into the studio
you already know what you need to do
to get the sound that you're looking for
out of the microphone or into the microphone more
and so when you're saying like practice it
like with a microphone is like actually also record it
so like
you can hear the recording then at the end of it
cause I feel like a lot of times it's
it's difficult to hear as we're doing it
(23:45):
for a lot of singers sure
and so we we
we listen to the recording to see what we just did
how it affected it
so not just practicing like singing into a mic
but then like
also like recording what you're practicing
so you can listen back and see how
what you did affected it yeah
right that that can be super useful
(24:05):
um I think it it's
it's really important to kind of do that
debriefing at the end of a
a practice session
where you go back and listen through what you
what you were doing and
and see if you were hearing it correctly and
and then you can kind of go in
into your next time and be a bit more deliberate with
(24:27):
OK what do I need to do to get the sound that I want
out of this microphone
and what do I need to adjust about my performance
or my proximity or um
my plosives or or things like that
in order to get a really good performance
I also in general by the way
you guys everybody listening
(24:48):
singers listening
practicing with a microphone and then listening back
like listening to the recording of it
is one of the best things you can do
because it helps you hear
details that you probably haven't heard before
so it changes your vocal performance
like it changes some of the choices
that somebody then makes uh
it helps you sing with less effort because you realize
(25:10):
oh I don't need to work so hard
so it gives you a bigger
range of colors that you're then using and uh
it just makes the vocal performance more interesting
because there's more details in there
that you can now actually hear
so always always
always recommend that practicing with a microphone
recording it listening back
(25:30):
and then make vocal choices based on that
based on what you hear right
you can't lie to a tape no
no you cannot no
you cannot
okay cool
so I feel like at this point we're feeling prepared
to go into the studio what happens at the studio
sure uh so it
(25:51):
it depends on
if you're making that scratch track yourself
um whereas you're
you're playing along with yourself so that
that first step is doing that
that scratch track and that can be at the studio
that could be at home if you're really good at
if you have a setup at home
if not do it at the studio
they'll be able to to
to help you do it really quickly and efficiently
(26:13):
and have it sound good
and be really solid on that click track
um
as far as a the vocal day
often that scratch performance just gets trashed it
it doesn't end up on on the final record uh
you build up all the other parts
and then once you get that song built
all the way up till it's just the the
(26:34):
the last vocal you you hear how it's gonna sound
it's a it's very inspiring um
and you can really
hear what all the other instruments are doing
and it can help you really play off of what's going on
in the track um
typically what I do is I
I try to get at least 5 good takes of the main vocal
(26:58):
okay
and that gives me a chance to do what's called comping
or you're making a composite track
and so you're taking the best
sometimes you go syllable by syllable even um
or phrase by phrase or word by word or verse by verse
um you're
you're taking the best performance
from each of those tracks
(27:19):
and putting them all together
taking pieces of each and to piece together the
the best possible lead performance you can from those
uh from those takes and then from there what
what we try to do is we try to create vocal doubles
okay hold on
before we dig into that that's already the next step
do you mind if I ask a quick question
(27:40):
sure yeah
um for the lead vocal
cause we're
we wanna talk about the lead vocal real quick um
you said you like having five takes
do you ever separate it into like
we're recording just the verse
and then just the chorus
or is it five times through the entire song in a row
or like how do you how do you go about it
uh yeah
(28:00):
we actually do break it down pretty often it's
it's at least um
verse by verse chorus by chorus um
if not sometimes taken phrase by phrase OK
um and just making sure I've got five good takes of
of each part of the song
so it typically it's gonna be hard to get a really
(28:23):
not really solid performance five times
all the way straight through
um it
it by breaking it down into discreet sections
you can put a bit more focus and attention
into each individual part
especially any part that you're gonna struggle with um
say you've got a bridge
where you've got a really high note
or something that you gotta hit
(28:44):
uh you can put that attention just in that one section
um to make sure you got really solid takes
yeah I
that's definitely how we recorded as well
and how I know everybody out there when they record
they go section by section uh
and sometimes even just like hey
we have the whole verse down five times
(29:04):
but this one word in in Phrase 3
I wanna keep working that
can we just do Phrase 3 a couple times in a row it
but it really kind of depends on the vocalist
I would say to like
do they need the context of like the entire verse
or can they do just phrase 3 um
and get a good take out of that
(29:26):
I
I think it sometimes depends a little bit on the singer
right it does absolutely yeah
okay so we have the entire song recorded
we have a bunch of takes then you like the producer
the engineer goes in and does the comping right
like
taking the different parts from the different takes
to get the quote on quote perfect uh
lead vocal right
(29:46):
like whatever it is we wanted to be
that's it awesome
now doubling
I interrupted you there
so tell us more about what is that
yes a lot of modern production
you will hear big vocal stacks
so there will be multiple versions of the same
the same vocal line
(30:08):
and what that does is it gives a really um
full sound to the vocal and it creates um
some
a dimension to it and it kind of has a
a a smoothing effect in
in how uh all
all of those different parts kind of coalesce into a
(30:28):
a really nice round uh
vocal sound some pop productions
you'll have 20 versions of the same vocal
which is which is crazy
um but that
that's another good skill to practice
before you come into the studio
is being able to sing the same part
the same way over and over again
(30:50):
and that will make your session run a lot more smoothly
do you do doubles on the entire song
or just certain sections
uh it
it's definitely more common in the chorus
to give it a bit more fullness
um
it it really depends on the piece
OK there are some songs where we'll do a uh
(31:14):
hard pan double and there is no lead in the middle
it's just two of the same performance on either side
and it gives a very wide sound to
to what you're hearing
because they're not exactly perfect
they're close but they're not exactly perfect and uh
it takes that vocal from just sitting right here
in the middle of the stereo field
(31:35):
to making it uh
spread all the way across mm hmm
well cause that
you know you
could be like well
why do I need to double it
why can't we just copy paste the
the main the lead vocal
why do I need to record it like the same way
cause it's
you wanna try and get it as close as possible
to the main right when you're doing doubling
(31:58):
so why not just copy paste it
you want those slight differences in the performance
this slight uh
slight timing differences
you want the slight pitch differences
they all coalesce to give what's called a chorus effect
and that's a
the sound of having multiple of the same parts
(32:18):
all stacked right on top of each other um
and and if they were all the same
it would just be louder
but you wouldn't hear any of the interaction
between the different parts
that makes sense and also maybe just to
to clarify too
just because you're doubling a vocal that to the end
(32:39):
like a the
the listener at the end like the finished product
it's not gonna sound like they hear you three times
right right right
yeah you would experience it
I mean it depends
it like the one I was talking about
where they're hard panned yeah
you would probably notice that yeah
um but in terms of like a
a lot of the modern pop productions
it would just sound like a
(32:59):
a singular voice
but it's all supported by much lower levels of the
of the doubles so they're down
a little bit lower in the mix
but you lower in the mix meaning quieter
quieter in the mix yeah but you would feel it if
if I were to push
play with just one version of the vocal there
(33:21):
and then I stopped it
and then I push play with all of the doubles
you would go OK
it's it's it's hard to really describe the effect
it's easier to experience it
and I'm sure if you go on YouTube
you could find videos of people explaining are
are showing you demonstrating that that effect yeah
yeah and when you record doubles
(33:42):
do you do that the same day as you record lead
or do you have people come in like another day
it it's easier if you can do it the same day OK
it it gives you a lot more continuity in performance
and like
everyone's voice sounds a little bit different yeah
from day to day yeah
(34:03):
so the the more you can sound exactly the same
the the smoother the effect will be
and it's also gonna be fresh
like how you just delivered
that performance is gonna be more fresh
in your brain in the front of your brain
does that mean you're doing comping
kind of like as you go like rough comping at least
so we you
you're doubling the take
(34:24):
that you're actually wanting to double
cause otherwise you're gonna not have
you know
the doubles are not gonna line up with the lead
if you change the lead right
absolutely so we'll do some
some rough mixing and right on the fly okay
very cool
and it's often easier with the artist right there uh
you can kind of go well
which of these performances do you
(34:45):
do you prefer do you like the way you delivered this
this word
or do you prefer the way you delivered it in this take
okay very cool awesome
so we have lead done we have doubles done um
what about if we wanted to add any harmonies or ad libs
or anything like that yeah uh
depends on if you're doing your own harmonies
or you've got a particular singer
(35:07):
or somebody in your band that
that sings along with you um
a lot of it's going to come down to their ability to
like listen
um and
and make sure they're
trying to match your timing as closely as possible
it really really depends on the effect you're going for
cause sometimes it it
it it's really kind of a magical effect when you're
(35:29):
harmonizing with yourself
because your voice is just
your voice obviously lines blends well with the
with itself right
and and you can want that or
or you might not want that it
it sometimes it
the contrast between the harmony voice and
the lead vocal is nice to have that contrast
cause you can have like a
a deeper singer or you can have a higher singer
(35:50):
and that contrast really gives you a bit more spread
in how you're experiencing
the harmonies yeah
I recorded all of my own for my songs um
and I know a lot of people that do that
but then there's also like bands right
like when you're working with a full band
then they're all doing their parts
and so it just depends on your preference
I guess like you said absolutely um
(36:13):
ad libs is that something you do before you do doubles
after you double do doubles
is that you know the last thing you do it
it's definitely preference or what the
the singer's capabilities hmm um
typically we'll we'll start out by doing a
a full run through of the whole song and uh
(36:34):
you know in in that they would
they would do the ad libs as as it came in the song um
if if
if that doesn't work
or they don't really know what they're doing
and we can make that a a particular focus of of a
a session or a a part of the session
and where they can kind of really focus on
(36:55):
nailing something that sounds really good
mm hmm um
it depends on the the skill set of the singer or okay
whether that's like a feature or just sort of
a thing they do at the end of a phrase or something
how long does that process take
usually recording vocals let's say you do the lead
you do the doubles you do the harmony
(37:16):
and maybe you have a little bit of ad libs in there
but you record everything yourself
how much time
should a singer set aside for something like that
I would say a four hour session
you should be able to get a really good lead takes and
uh vocal doubles and uh
get it comped and then at least get a good start on a
(37:39):
on the harmonies
if you're not able to bang them all out
yeah yeah
with my songs that I recorded again years ago
it took me four hours a song
usually like a little less depending on
you know how many harmonies and things like that
we had to record but usually yeah
around 4 hours
so I'm glad you're on the same page there
(38:00):
yeah absolutely
hahaha and a lot of that comes down to like how
how well the the singer can do
can deliver the same same performances or so
like the more practice that you do ahead of time
the more prepared you are ahead of time
the more efficient your session is going to be
and the cheaper it's going to be over the long run
(38:22):
yeah cause you don't have to do as as as many sessions
you can get it done in fewer number of hours
and also the more familiar you get with the process
you know
like maybe song 3 will be much faster than song one
yeah because you know you're
you know what to expect now
you have been through the whole spiel
the whole system
so now you know what to expect and you know
(38:43):
you can get through it a little bit more
a little bit more quickly
but yeah uh
very cool so everything is recorded
the vocals are recorded the instruments are recorded
or we have an electronic track
like whatever the music's all recorded
what now
mixing okay so
(39:04):
sometimes
that's the same engineer that did the tracking
the recording
sometimes it's not
it's up to you who you want to have mixing your song
you can
you could even find the mix engineers that mixed the
your favorite songs from the radio
they're all professionals
they all have a rate so
(39:24):
you can send them an email
and see how much they want to charge
for mixing your song if
if you want um
otherwise if
if you go with the
the studio that you did the recording at
you can have them mix on their own time
and then send you
um draft mixes
you can um
(39:44):
book the time and sit there with them while they mix
that can be really useful um
I think one thing that can be uh
that can help help you get the product
that you want out of the process
is to come up with reference tracks
so these are songs that sound similar to what you want
your song to sound like at the end
(40:06):
and that gives the engineer a
a way to know that he's on the right track
or to push the song in the direction
that you want the song to go
otherwise
they will bring their own biases and interests and um
you know whatever they're into into
into that mixing process
(40:27):
so having really solid reference tracks can be a
a way to communicate ideas
in ways
that you might not have the words to communicate
but I want it to sound like this
and that gives the engineer a whole lot of information
and in a whole lot of different aspects as to
how to go about mixing your sound
(40:48):
to get you the product that you want okay
and when we look at mixing for vocals like specifically
cause most people listening and watching are singers
for vocals specifically is this where you know
you add reverb and autotune and delay and whatever
plug ins
and maybe finish up the comping and all of that
(41:12):
is that where mixing is that what that happens there
absolutely yeah
so you can use autotune or I I tend to prefer melodine
it's the same sort of concept
but it gives you a bit more transparent effect so you
you don't hear that like flipping that you do with yeah
with autotune a lot of times which can be really good
it can be a something useful
(41:34):
and if you're really going for that
that flipping sound like you hear from t
pain or Post Malone or you know
artists like that sometimes it's really useful to
to put that in while you're tracking
so you can sing into that autotune
plug in and hear exactly how it's flipping
and you can use your voice um
(41:55):
in particular
to make it do those sounds that you're wanting
and all of that's just pitch control and
and choosing how how you're doing your vocal runs
to make it
do the flipping sound that you're looking for
yeah uh
and sometimes even like I heard this from Simone Torres
a vocal producer out in LA
(42:16):
she records for some of the like vocal production only
not all of the other instruments too
but just vocal production specifically
she works for some of the biggest singers in Hollywood
or with them um
and she says that she's only ever worked with two
singers who don't use auto tune as they record
not to you know
(42:37):
get the typical auto tune kind of sound
but to make them not worry about the pitch
for Simone she likes to make sure that the emotion
comes out of them rather than worrying about
am I getting the pitches and the notes right
so you can record with autotune on and then always like
not use autotune in the final
(42:58):
like when you're mixing right
then she uses meladine she actually uses both
she uses meladine and autotune for the final mixing
but that's just you know
different producers do it differently yeah
but yeah she's worked with many
many many many
many singers and only two of them
don't record with autotune on the mic
as they are recording so
what you hear is already the pitch corrected version
(43:18):
as you're singing
like as you're recording the vocals
only two don't like that fascinating
that's interesting yeah
but it
I guess it depends on the the singer's preference
I actually tried it out uh
when I was doing this workshop with her very recently
that was the first time for me that I was recording
with autotune on
I didn't do that when I was recording my stuff
(43:39):
but that was also years ago
so it wasn't very common yet back then
yeah um
and so I was doing that with the autotune on
and I was like oh my God
this is so interesting it sounds
it does sound different like
because I've been recording one way for so long
that it's like oh my gosh
this is different now
but I kind of liked it because it just gave me that
(43:59):
peace of mind you know of like yeah
like the pitch doesn't matter
I we can fix that
it's the emotion the tone the little details
that's the thing that we can't fix haha right
I may have to steal that trick
no there you go
there you go shout out to Simone
we love you you're amazing haha
yeah
but I guess it depends on like what does the singer
(44:20):
what does the singer like
yeah and also what style
you know if there maybe a little bit more folky Blue
Grassy that kind of stuff then maybe that's not needed
but if you're doing more a pop track
yeah it might be helpful absolutely
so okay so the mixing is all the plug ins
so basically like the vocals gonna
you know you have the delay
(44:41):
the reverb the whatever
I don't know anything about that stuff
a lot of stuff goes on there
so that the vocals sound perfect
they uh is this also where you make the doubles
and the harmonies like blend already
or is that a mastering thing
yep that will be happening in the mixing stage
in the mixing as well okay
um so typically in a vocal chain you'll have um
(45:03):
some sort of pitch correction
you'll have um EQ which uh adjust the
the frequency balances so you can make the
the bring out some of the higher end
or you can kind of tame some of the lower frequencies
depending upon what the performance demands
you can use you'll typically see a compressor
(45:24):
used in the vocal chain this is to
compress the dynamic range of the performance
and that's that's that can help keep the
the vocal sitting in the mix in the right place
so you don't get too quiet and get uh
lost among all the other instruments
or too loud in certain sections
(45:46):
and you're way out on top of the instruments
it just keeps you sitting in the right range
and it can add a nice uh
saturated effect uh often
depends upon what compressor plug in you're using or
or hardware unit um
it'll often uh have reverb or delay sounds uh
(46:08):
so delay is just a repeated version of of the vocal um
could be really cool effect in a lot of pop songs
especially at like the end of phrases
you can hear the delay pop out a couple times um
delay can be really useful
because it tends to be a little bit cleaner than reverb
(46:28):
there's not as much just uh
kind of muddiness that reverb can add
um there are a lot of different kinds of reverb
there are a lot of different kinds of of delays
you can have a stereo delay
where it'll go to one side first
and then go to the other
and that can give you a really cool sense of dimension
there are a lot of tricks you can do
(46:49):
you can um saturate so your
your
making it sound like it's
running through a tube amplifier
um it gives it kind of a fuzzy sound fuzzy
thick sound so think somebody like the The Black Keys
hmm that's a very saturated vocal sound
and it's very distinct
(47:10):
it's not something you'd want on everything
but on their music in particular
it's just a really cool effect okay
awesome and maybe we also need to say you know like yes
there's a lot that you can do
like to make it sound fuller and blah blah blah
blah blah but really
the only thing that is fixable in quotes is pitch right
(47:32):
like it's still not gonna make somebody who cannot
carry a tune sound like Celine Dion right right
like right the vocal delivery needs to be there uh
when you're recording
to really get an awesome end results
there's a lot that can be done to you know
really get the most out of it
but you can't you you know
(47:54):
make something really bad sound really great right
performance is king and yeah
getting that really good performance is really
that's where the magic happens
and I think that trick you got from Simone
might be really useful
cause I think even if your pitch isn't perfect
or your timing isn't perfect
if if your emotion and
(48:15):
and how you're delivering it is super impactful
that may be a better performance than one that's like
really technically perfect
but it's lacking some of that energy or interest
100% 100% totally agree I love that
and then the last stage is mastering
what happens in the mastering
(48:36):
so mastering is
is the final stage of the process and the
the goal of mastering is to make your song sound good
on every format so it sounds good in the car
it sounds good through a phone speaker
it sounds good on Spotify
it sounds good on a CD
so basically it's taking that
(48:57):
that final mix that you've got and you'll have a
a stereo mix so it's just a
a left right channel kind of a
a sheen that goes over the top
it's like the final polish and buff that
that really makes it pop and sound great
so they're adding things like multi band compression
so they're compressing different frequency ranges
(49:18):
differently or they'll have uh
yeah often an EQ
just to set that final EQ mix
to make sure there's not too bassy
doesn't sound too thin um
and again they're
they're trying to to hit that
like middle ground
to make sure that it sounds good on every format
(49:40):
and when when
when you're submitting your song to some place
like Spotify you want your song to sound uh to
to sound like
it's at a similar level to all the other songs
you know yeah
there's nothing worse than when you're in a playlist
and then one song is really loud
and then the other song is like really quiet
and you have to like adjust on the go
like that's where mixing comes in
right
(50:00):
to make sure it's all the same throughout everything
mastering yep
sorry mastering
yeah sorry
my bad absolutely
and uh humans have a bias towards louder things
and so if your song is really quiet people
are just not gonna like it as much
or they're gonna think less of it
just professional just based on that
(50:21):
and not
your song won't get quite the chance that it should
had you used a mastering engineer
that is good at their craft
but that's not something the singer needs to do
there's people that can do that for you
I never did it absolutely
I mean
it depends on if you're trying to do it all in house um
(50:43):
it is a learnable skill for sure yeah
but absolutely
and one thing I actually always recommend for clients
is that they go to somebody else
for the mastering
if we did the mixing and the tracking
I think
it's always really good to have another set of ears
on your product I'm just somebody else who can yeah
(51:04):
hear things once once you listen to the same song for
you know hours and hours
yeah
you don't hear it as accurate
either you start to be desensitized to certain parts
or you just kind of gloss over certain things
that another set of ears who are fresh to it
will pick up on yeah
no for sure for sure
(51:25):
that's that's a good point
so
you don't need to be able to do everything all at once
all at your say like at at the same time no
maybe not even at the same time
but on your own I get help get higher people who know
what they're doing and collaborate
I think that's great
I love that so the song's done yeah
now we just need to release it and that's a
that's a conversation for another time
(51:45):
but like getting it distributed and
and all of that stuff
that has nothing really to do anymore with the
recording process of it but that was super
super helpful we have we can prepare for it
then we record the stuff
and then we mix it and then we master it
and then there's a lot more that goes into it
but also it's a streamlined process yeah
(52:06):
right absolutely
anything that we didn't talk about
about the whole recording process that you
Wanna mention I
I I think all of that can sound really intimidating if
if you're a new to the whole process
and if you don't have a whole lot of money
there are ways to go about doing it
cheaply that are going to get you a
(52:26):
still a really good product
and a lot of it's going to depend on doing
a lot of legwork ahead of your session
so if you if you can find a band of musicians
and you can figure out how to perform
be able to deliver a really good performance
you could all get together in one room
the the engineer can set up all of the microphones
(52:48):
and you could really bang it out really quick
in one session
and that's probably the most affordable way to go
it gives you a lot less control on the back end
on the mixing and mixing end
but again it performance is king
and if you can get a really good performance that way
you could get your song recorded and finished
(53:11):
and out into the world for much cheaper
and it just requires a little bit more organization
and rehearsal and practice on the front end okay
very cool um
if people are locally to like the Indianapolis area
and they would like to work with you
how can they reach out to you
(53:32):
yeah Milkman recording.com
or how did you come up with that name
haha yeah
and how did I come up with milkman
yeah so my partner's name is Rob Glass and the
the first building that we were working in was
an old building that was a Roberts Dairy building okay
(53:52):
so you walk in the front door
and there's a big mural of a milkman okay
right there on the front and awesome
I love it Milkman Recording Studios
that was the Genesis you can email me
cam at milkman recording.com
would probably be the best way to get the ball rolling
or you can message us on social media
(54:13):
Facebook and Instagram at milkman recording perfect
I'll be sure to link to all of that as well
thank you so much
anything else you wanna get off your chest
no I'm just grateful to be here
thank you so
much for giving us an insight into
what is the recording process like
cause like you said it can feel very intimidating
but it's really a lot of it is in your head right
(54:35):
you're built you're building it up to be this
this big thing but when you're actually doing it
it's like oh
there's people helping you with it right
like they're walking you through everything
they their whole job is to make you feel comfortable
so there's really nothing to be afraid of
and just give it a shot and
and then you have an amazing recording of your song
and you can release it and share it with everybody
(54:57):
it's a really cool process
I think so too I love it
thank you so much Cam
for being here thank you
everybody for tuning in hope this was helpful
let us know in the comments if you have any questions
and reach out to Cam
if you're a local to the Indianapolis area
for some awesome recordings
thank you for tuning in we'll catch you next time
bye bye
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