RECORDING ESSENTIALS
[ THE ART OF MAKING GREAT RECORDINGS PART II | Doug Doppler ]
PRE-PRODUCTION IN THE DIGITAL AGE
get stuck so you can act accordingly.
The Voice Memo app on my iPhone is the
modern equivalent of the mini cassette recorder
As I mentioned in the last issue, pre-
CAPTURE THAT MOMENT
production is key to getting consistently great
Many, if not most songs are about capturing
recordings. Like cooking a great meal, you
the essence of a feeling, reaction, or revelation
can have all the right ingredients, but without
at a very specific moment in time. Not capturing
appropriate preparation the end result can
a truly inspired moment can turn into a painful
fall disappointingly short. Even worse, many
process of hide and seek as we try to recreate
musicians’ creations never reach the point of
the magic of a moment passed. Long before
consumption, ending up as part of an ever-
he was known for performing his million selling
growing catalog of abandoned recordings. In
songs, Michael Bolton made his living writing
more extreme cases, songwriters end up with
them for other artists. In an interview in the
more incomplete recordings than final mixes,
mid-eighties Michael mentioned that he never
creating a psychological burden that can
left the house without a mini cassette recorder.
Bolton used back in the day.
suck the joy right out of the creative process.
Wondering if a song is going to end up in the
While you may not aspire to sound like Michael
incomplete bin is never the headspace you
Bolton, the fact that he’s sold over 75 million
want to be in when you start recording. The
records is a good indicator that he knows
goal of this column is to provide some great
a thing or two about capturing an inspired
tools for maximizing the success of your
moment when it strikes.
recording projects.
PROCESS
Many “creatives” excel at building process into
other areas of their life, but choose not to do so
when it comes to making music. One of the main
reasons this happens is that creatives tend to
use their emotions as a musical thermometer,
and until things feel a certain way, the job is not
Buried amongst the hundreds of voice memos
done. The danger of this approach is that we
I’ve recorded are dozens of songs that
can easily linger too long at each stage of the
died a timely death, undeserving of further
creative process. Noting that recording is not
development.
all fun and games, by the time we actually start
recording a song, we can easily get distracted
OWNING THE MOMENT
by the next musical idea to come along. The
One of the key advantages of using my
end result is that once again we’ve added more
emotions as my musical thermometer is that
material to the incomplete bin.
when I come back to a good idea, I know it
right away. That said, when the creative juices
In this column we’ll cover specific tools for
are flowing is one of the times I give myself
capturing inspiration when it strikes, a strategy
permission to linger. If I’m really feeling a
for determining the keepers, as well as tips for
section that I’ve written, the best time for me
rehearsing songs to life prior to taking them into
to start adding additional pieces is while I’m still
the studio. By looking at how you use your time
in that creative space. Rather than focusing on
at each phase of the pre-production process, it
nailing an exact arrangement, I generally use
becomes much easier to see where you tend to
this time to come up with the distinct parts that
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Nov Dec 2016
ChristianMusician.com