How Do I Record With No Money?
Friday, August 31, 2007 at 07:09AM Recording With No Budget and No Equipment
Bobby Brogan wrote in and asked about how to record with no budget. I told him I would get on it, and then I realized that this is a very broad subject and I took a couple of days to think about it. The first thing to be considered is why you want to record.
If it’s to compete with commercial recordings, develop a career or get rich, then this recording with no budget is a little unrealistic, Michelle Shocked not withstanding. So let’s start by asking THE QUESTION. What do you want to have happen?
Let’s start with simply wanting to hear a song you wrote or a song that you perform particularly well. The big thing here is preparation. The more prepared you are, the less time you must spend in a studio recording. So if you don’t play, then you must find players and find a way to convince them to rehearse thoroughly, so that when you get to the studio they record their parts and are done.
Two more things to consider at this juncture. If you never have recorded before it is best to find a producer who gets what you do and who has had experience recording, arranging and producing. Believe me, this will save you enormous amounts of time and money.
The other thing to consider is, if you have a computer that is relatively new, then you have the makings of a recording studio already. But you have to factor in an enormous learning curve. These programs are very dense and are rarely intuitive, so you must go thru the enormous manual and believe me, they are rarely written by people who don’t already know how to do it, so they always start someplace after you think they should.
However, if you still wan to do it this way and if you manage to scrape a little money together, then perhaps you should think about picking up a good microphone, a preamp and a computer recording program. You are also going to need some analog to digital converters. All these things cost money, but you only spend it once. After that you have them. I have gotten a lot of stuff used or on ebay.
If you go into a studio, when you come out, you only have what you recorded. You leave the equipment behind and must rent it again if you need to do something else. And for that matter, if you live in a larger city, you can probably rent microphones if you can’t afford to buy them. But I strongly reconmmend that you consider first working with someone who knows what they are doing and what equipment seems to work the best. So let’s consider the idea that you have no money at all and return to Bobby’s question. How else can you do this?
The most obvious answer is to locate someone with both some equipment and expertise. Approach them and see if they are interested in some kind of bartering system. Perhaps they need an assistant? Their grandmother needs to be read to twice a week at the home? They need some gardening done…whatever. What you do is make a deal with them. Studio’s normally charge between fifty and three hundred dollars an hour. Common laborers usually can charge between five and twenty dollars an hour, so it seems unlikely that they would trade you hour for hour, but some arrangement can me made; two or three hours of work for one hour of studio time perhaps? You have to make it appealing to them. You can possibly make this same arrangement with a commercial studio, but it is more likely that you can cut a deal with a project studio.
And you can’t let the time you’ve accrued amount to too much or you’re gonna have a person who is feeling resentful no matter what the deal and you’ll have a hard time scheduling the studio time. Start slowly and make it easy on you both. I also think that the best you can expect to come away with the first time is one song.
So when you get three hours, go in and lay down a basic track for one song; drums, keyboard and / or guitar and bass would be the basic sort of set up; just enough for you to leave with a rough mix that you can use to practice.
Now practice with that. If you are going to have background vocals work them all out with that rough mix. The same goes for any other instrumentation you might have in mind. Make it so when you go back into the studio you already know what you’re gonna do in their and can take full advantage of the next three hours.
I’ll think about this more and see what I come up with, by the same token, please let me know if any of you have come up with another way to get some studio time.
Reader Comments (9)
Hey thanks for giving me your time and energy to come up with a response...funny I often think of Michelle Shocked...I have always thought that story was at least a little bit doctored...their at least has to be some post production no matter how good the boombox...
I asked for your opinion to see if you knew something I didnt...that maybe thee was a magic puzzle piece i'm missing...something that opened the door to the emerald city
And of course as per usual it all just involves hard work some luck and imagination
i have a friend who has a portable recording and mixing board that even has a burner
Then there is a professor of mine that has loads of recording eqpt and producing experience...and recorded me three years ago for my first "professional" demo...
Now its time for a new demo
The problem is that I am bullheaded and want to do it all on my own...but you have given me insight...especially by keeping THE question in all of its neon flashing glory...THANK YOU JAMES!
Bobby
bobby, i also invited anyone else to contribute if they had another idea. one just occured to me. lot's of clubs have the ability to record live. you could always put a show together and record the whole thing. it happens in one evening and if you have the producer on board, he can actuallyl mix the thing there so you come away with a two track master. tho the logistics of putting together a live band rehearsed and ready to be recorded might be a little daunting, but if you are singing to tracks, it's a piece of cake. in any event, hope i helped you some.
james lee
You've helped lots...you usually do
Thanks
Bobby
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