Steps needed to get your cd ready for release.

Hi guys,

Well I thought I'd do a post today about the different steps that are not necessarily required to get a cd ready for press... but are highly recommended if you want your product to sound professional. Generally for hip hop tracks there are certain steps taken to ensure a professional product, they are.


Production
Recording
Post-Production
Mixing
Mastering

I will explain each one for you, although most are well known there's a lot of people that don't understand the different elements so this is for them.


Production

This is where the actual musical part of a track is made. Generally with hip hop you will have a producer, whether it's yourself, a friend or a paid producer make you a beat and send it through. This will give you a framework for your track. It is important to try and select beats throughout a release that don't differ too greatly on the one cd. It is fine to have variety but try not to go too far (ie. Don't have a grungy rock beat followed by a trance beat.) Listeners can become disjointed when styles are changed too much during the one release so it pays to try and keep a particular style. This means you can still switch up from a happy party track to a reflective sad track.. just don't take the actual music style too far.

Recording

This one should be fairly self explanatory but just incase, this is the part where you record all your vocals over the track. This includes your original verses/hooks. Vocal backups for layering and any adlib tracks you may want to include. Remember it's better to record too many vocal layers than too few. Whoever is mixing your project will have an easier time if they have more material to work with.

Post Production

Not everyone takes this step but it's often one that can make the difference between a standard track and a professional quality sounding release. After recording vocals to the track, it is then sent back to the producer to then adjust the beat to suit. This often is very simple things like adding beat drops to put extra emphasis on certain parts of verses. Sometimes the producer will hear a section of the beat that clashes with the vocals and he can adjust accordingly. The producer should still keep all the vocal layers seperate to the beat though for the mixing process.

Mixing

Mixing is the process of taking the track and making it sound like a work of music. This includes many aspects. Things like compression and reverb are part of the mixers job but the most important aspect a mixer does is get the volume levels just right for each vocal layer. A good mixer will know a good level for your main vocal tracks and a good level for your backups. They should also know equalisation techniques to eliminate any muddy mixes from happening. I will go into greater detail on mixing in a future post, for now I'm just explaining what it entails.


Mastering.


This is the final stage of a cd production. Your tracks should be all finalised and when you listen to them they should sound exactly how you want them to sound. Often the person mastering tracks can change the sounds but there is a limit on what you do, so make sure the mixes are smooth and just right.

Mastering is the process that takes your raw audio files and turns it into a pressable professional cd product. This includes making sure the volume levels of all tracks are similar and to a standard set by most commercial releases. It also entails equalising all tracks to be similar across the entire release. Having one track with booming bass followed by a track with subtle bass isn't desirable. You want your product to sound consistant. Most mastering businesses will have very high quality sound systems and will be able to also hear any faults in the audio that may have been unnoticable before.


Mastering also takes into account things like making sure you have the correct gaps between tracks and the cue points are all in correct position. CD text can be included and also any hidden tracks should you choose to have them.

The mastering stage really is the difference between just burning a cd and having a finished product. Of course it's overall a lot more complicated than I have explained but try and think of it like the difference between having a microwave dinner compared to going out to a fancy restaurant.


So thats the basics behind it all. If anyone has any questions or requests feel free to post them in the comments here and I'll work at answering them in future posts!