THE MAKING OF AN ALBUM

There are a lot of people who write music. Some may have notebooks filled with lyrics, while others have music staff paper with bits and pieces of melodies lying around the house. The goal of working with producers and a studio, such as Madison Records, is to help you get those songs onto an album which you can be proud of.

Here are a few things to know before heading into your first studio session...

Bring Everything. The final album might only have 10-12 songs, but those are usually chosen from at least 15 or more. Our goal is to carefully go through everything, even ideas for songs that might only be 20 percent complete. Something you might feel is terrible, can change dramatically once we add a little special something and make some tweeks. Before you know it, we’re jamming with it!

Rehearsal Rocks. You might think that working with a producer means you’ll spend most of your time in the studio recording. You will get there eventually, but first we spend valuable time in the rehearsal studio. We set each group member up just like a live show setting, in order to get a true feel for the songs and the band. This is where we’ll make decisions about which songs to include, and then proceed to spend time working on each song. We absolutely understand most songs aren’t coming into us at performance level, so we work on tightening things up in places, maybe adding solos or depth with additional instruments, while cleaning things up overall. The idea is to get the arrangements down during rehearsal, so that when we move to the studio we focus purely on performing.

The Studio Experience. Once the songs are lined up and the arrangements are complete, we’re ready to next go into the studio. One of the great things I like about producing is we get to work on so many different types of music. At Madison Records, we tend to focus on alternative rock and alternative pop, but we’ve done many other genras as well. For a 10-song album, we might spend up to two months working six days a week, recording in the studio.

Patience is a Virtue. Once the studio sessions are complete, we spend another month or two working on post-production, mixing the songs, and getting them in top shape. Overall, the process from beginning to end can take about four to six months.

If you’re interested in getting your songs into an album, give us a call. We’re always excited to work with new artist, helping to bring new music to the world.