Can I Produce Myself?
Wednesday, December 26, 2007 at 09:38AM It is the day after Christmas and today I wanted to talk a little about producing yourself, which is something that I have done since my first recording for Wooden Nickel/RCA, though I did have a co producer on the first two albums and on the Freelance Human Being CD ( http://www.jamesleestanley.com/reviews.html --you’ll have to scroll down to the FHB review). With the exception of those three, it’s been me calling all the shots for the remaining seventeen albums. 
In the first article about producing I talked about choosing a producer and working with a producer. For most of us, that simply isn’t an option, so we end up producing ourselves. Not an easy job for a variety of reasons. In order to produce yourself, you need to have at least these four things:
1. The ability to listen to yourself critically and admit when something wonderful you did just isn’t happening. When that occurs, either do it again til you’ve gotten it, or admit that presently you can’t give it what it needs to serve the project and hire someone who can. On the solo guitar and voice CD Freelance Human Being, I wanted full performances; no overdubs, no punch ins, no edits. Consequently, I ended up sometimes recording the same song for three or four hours (in one instance, six hours) because that is what it took to get it where I wanted it.
If you don’t have the luxury of your own studio, then I recommend being completely and utterly prepared when you go into a studio; use the time for recording, not for practicing. When John Batdorf and I did All Wood and Stones (www.allwoodandstones.com) at my Beachwood Recordings studio, he showed up at each recording session completely prepared. If it was vocals, he was already warmed up, if it was guitars, his were restrung and stretched and tuned. Saving time in the studio saves you money. So be prepared.
2. Some distance from the project during it’s creation because you do fall in love with the stuff you work hard on. You need to be able to hear what actually happened and not what you think happened. I find that going on the road always brings a new perspective to what I recorded while I was home. On Freelance Human Being, I recorded the entire CD and then went on the road. When I came back, non of it sounded good enough to me, so I did it again, and then went on the road again. When I came back that next time, the playing and singing still didn’t sound good enough to me, so I did it a third time and that’s when I just stayed there and did each song until it worked. No matter how many hours it took, I didn’t stop til I had what I wanted. And yes, you can keep redoing it until you have completely wrung the magic out of it. So I keep every pass; every recording of it til I’m done and then I erase everything I’m not going to use. Don’t want some mediocre version of something by me to come back and bite me on the buns some day.
3. The ability to simply cut something from the project that you love if it isn’t serving the vision of the whole project. On my latest CD, The Eternal Contradiction, (www.jamesleestanley.com/eternalcontra.html ) there were several songs that I really liked that simply didn’t fit with the others when we were done. They weren’t bad songs or bad performances, they just didn’t flow into and out of the other songs in the way I wanted the recording to unfold. So I didn’t put them on the CD. Still love the songs, still perform the songs, they just didn’t make this CD.
4. A trusted friend, cohort, engineer or mate (my wife is the straightest shooter I know). When you are working a long time on something you can lose site of what you are doing in terms of the song, or the service of its vision. Sometimes I’ll be slagging away at some track and think that I’ve got the whole thing together, and she’ll walk in. I’m full of myself and what I’ve created and I solicit her opinion. If she likes it, it’s obvious from her smile. If she doesn’t like it, she will actually offer up a comment like, “it sounds like a train wreck.” OUCH! But sometimes that is what you need. If you decide that is what you wanted, then you go with it anyhow, but at least you thought about it from someone else’s point of view before committing to your own. I try to hear criticism and consider it against what I wanted and my vision for the project and then act accordingly. You also have to be able to handle someone not liking something that you love. Just ask yourself my favorite question, “what do you want to have happen here?”
Merry Christmas
Reader Comments (4)
So here's a production question for you. If I hired a producer, band, studio, but only did 6 songs...would you package those 6 songs into an album, or would you self produce the remaining 4 or 5 you want on the album, and do the whole thing together. The problem comes in that the remaining songs would be more "acoustic" feeling. I normally perform by myself or with another guitarist, so I feel the whole band production is not really what someone at a house concert is going to hear live, so...
What would you do? I could save the other 2K to get the other songs done, but in looking at a profit and loss sheet, that doesn't really seem good. However, I don't want the listeners to be halfway through the CD and go, "what happened to the band?"
Just wondering...
Along those lines too, "Should I play as many instruments as I can on an album or should I hire the work out?" I have a great Bass player and pianist that I could hire for about $50/song... I could do the parts myself, but should I focus my energy and creativity on the vocals?
Any help would be great...
Thanks
andrew,
you said, "So here's a production question for you. If I hired a producer, band, studio, but only did 6 songs...would you package those 6 songs into an album, or would you self produce the remaining 4 or 5 you want on the album, and do the whole thing together."
albums once had two sides and you had to flip them over. so frequently folks didn't even get to the other side until they tired of the first side. you have six songs produced. why not treat it like an old lp? have the six songs delineated by the title side a, and then a side b, which could be the best five or six songs from a live concert that you might already have recorded?
you said, "The problem comes in that the remaining songs would be ore "acoustic" feeling. I normally perform by myself or with another guitarist, so I feel the whole band production is not really what someone at a house concert is going to hear live, so..."
a live side would allow you to use the cd as a true calling card for gigs and a demonstration of what you can do with a band.
you said, "What would you do? I could save the other 2K to get the other songs done, but in looking at a profit and loss sheet, that doesn't really seem good. However, don't want the listeners to be halfway through the CD and go, "what happened to the band?" Just wondering...Along those lines too, "Should I play as many instruments as I can on an album or should I hire the work out?"
i play everything that i want to hear on any instrument that i might have. i also hire people to play and then i choose which part i like better. most of the time it is an amalgam of what they did and what i did. when that happens, i usually take no credit. seems like the gentlemanly thing to do.
you said, "I have a great Bass player and pianist that I Could hire for about $50/song... I could do the parts myself, but should I focus my energy and creativity on the vocals?"
vocals are the most important part and regrettably, we singers producing ourselves frequently forget that. if you can get someone in with you to listen and give you some feedback i'd do it. vocals are the big one. everybody plays guitar...hardly anyone can actually sing.
all the best and i hope that this helps. if not, let me know.
james lee
andrew, you said,
"Wow, thanks for the quick response! That is so great. And a great idea. I think that is what I’ll try. I intentionally made it 6 songs to do an LP (for self promotion, but also as submissions for publishing co, etc.), but, when I looked at the cost of getting it duplicated at Disc Makers, combined with the cost of recording the album, I would need to charge $10/CD to break even, and for 6 songs, I didn’t feel that was fair to my fans. With iTunes now, most people (around here) don’t want to pay more than $.99 per song, so even though you can get away with a 10 or 11 song CD for $15 at your shows, when it’s anything less than 10 songs, they don’t seem to want to buy it.
I have only done local house concerts, and have yet to set up a “tour,” but I was wondering if you knew approx how much one could expect from a week long or 2 week long “tour” of house concerts and coffee shops. Obviously, some can survive doing that, but have you ever not made enough to at least cover expenses? I am a very frugal person, and don’t have a problem with a budget, but in my head, I can’t see how one can pay for the gas and lodging and cost of merchandise, and still have anything left over for the bills back at home… Does that make sense? My wife has a steady job that makes most of our bills (which are very low) and I do music and odd jobs to fill in the rest, but if I branch out and hit the road…I have no doubts about my ability, but what is the likely hood of losing, breaking even, or coming out ahead? From what I’ve experience and seen, from a modest house concert, one can expect about $300 (30 people at $10/person) and then CD sales. So at $3 a gallon, gas would be about 100 gallons and in my van… about 2000 miles. So for doing the concert, I would break even on the trip, but what can one expect in CD sales? Enough to cover the cost and make about $300? That would mean each of the 30 people would have to buy one.
Maybe I’m just playing smaller house concerts, but out here in TN, I haven’t found too many, and then getting in to them takes time. CA seems to be the place where the best ones are…Is there enough to make the trip from TN though?
I understand there are tons of factors for all of this, but…I thought I’d ask and see what you thought, and see what is the best thing for a new artist to do.
I just did a house concert here in TN, and videoed it, so I’ll try to get it up on my website soon, (or on YouTube). Do you think that would help me get more gigs? So the hosts can see what you can do?
Thanks so much for the help.. Your ideas are brilliant and it is awesome you take the time to mentor us newbies.
Andrew
www.andrewlael.com"
andrew, i have been touring the whole country since 1973 and i can tell you it costs more every single time and with the new airport security stuff it takes longer to fly to sfo from la than it does to drive, and then you get to the gas...
what i've decided to do is to concentrate on gigs within 500 miles of los angeles this year. playing every single place that i can and promoting myself only in this area. a thousand dollars for promo spread over the country is nothing, but a grand spent within a small area will go a lot further. don't go for a national tour yet. go to the house concert site i touted in the house concert article and find all the ones in your area and there are a ton between ga, tn, sc, nc and ky. and all the college radio stations and the internet stations and all the local papers in these towns. it's much better to sell a thousand cd's in tennessee than to sell a thousand cd's across america. more impact.
speaking of which, i always sell about half as many cd's as there are audients. but i play all the songs from the cd that i brought with me. so the focus is on one disc. i have 23 releases, so i have to focus.
hope this helps,
james
I feel I should say, I absolutely love this blog. Could tell me how I can go about keeping up to date with it? By the way I discovered this website through Lycos
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