Archive for 'One Song One Month Challenge'

As 2011 comes to a close, you have to ask yourself the question: How much music did I make this year? Whether you are primarily a musician trying to record your own material, or an engineer trying to produce other peoples’ music, the question is the same. How much did you actually record, edit, mix, and release in the past 12 months?

If the answer is disappointing (that you didn’t produce much after all), then you need to assess what went wrong this year. Were you just not writing much music? Were there not many clients? Or perhaps, you were distracted in your studio time doing other things like troubleshooting, re-organizing, or drooling over new gear. If it’s more of the latter, then I’d like to (If I may) offer some suggestions for the coming New Year.

It’s All About The Music

No matter what anyone says, recording and mixing in the studio at any level is always about the music. If you truly care about the music you’re recording or you care about making a living off of producing the music you’re making for someone else, then you have to elevate the music above all else. This means not focusing on the wrong things like gear, or peoples’s weird opinions.
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How much music have you recorded/produced in the past 6 months? Have you released any new tracks? Are you in the middle of a project? This year is officially half way over, what have you got to show for it musically? Well, I have a little challenge for you. Hear me out on this one…

Release Your Next Album 6 Months From Today

You read that right. There are 6 months left in the year, so why not release an EP of 6 songs in the next 6 months? No reason why not! You have to set some kind of deadline in order to get those creative juices flowing. I think giving yourself 6 months to do a project is a great deadline. It’s actually doable, but still just crazy enough to make you panic.

Now, I’m assuming many of you don’t record music full time. You have a day job that takes up a lot of time. Have no fear. This challenge is for people exactly like you. I’m challenging the regular, everyday, hardworking, person who has a home or project studio on the side, to write, record, mix, and release a 6 song EP in the next 6 months of your free time. Bam! So how exactly do you do this? I thought you would never ask!

Your 6 Month Road Map

One potential way to accomplish this task is to focus on one song at a time, start to finish, per month. You could follow my example on the One Song One Month Challenge videos I put together. If that fits your workflow, then give that a shot. But let me suggest a different road map that might help you compartmentalize things a bit more.

• Give yourself just 2 weeks to write and record each song. You don’t have time to over think the writing process. Take an idea and run wild with it. Whatever thoughts come to mind, do them. You aren’t mixing just yet, simply recording one for two weeks and then moving on to the next track. You will record as you go more than likely, and this is where having a simple and accessible setup will do wonders for your workflow! (Total Time – 12 weeks)
• Spend only 1 week mixing each song. Once your tracks are recorded, give yourself no more than 7 days to mix it. Don’t mix multiple songs at once, simply pick one and mix it all week. This can include any slight edits or tuning that you’d like to do, just as long as you stop tweaking after a week. Having multiple days to come back to it (even you spend just 30 minutes a day) will give you fresh ears and perspective. Try the 3 hour mix concept and see if that helps you. (Total Time – 6 weeks)
• Give yourself 1 week of mix tweaking. This is a crucial week of listening to your mixes in different environments and getting perspective on them after having spent 6 weeks mixing. You can make changes and adjustments to any and all 6 songs in this week. After the week is up, your mixing phase is complete. No more mucking around! (Total Time – 1 week)
• Spend 1 week mastering your tracks. This will be a total DIY mastering project. Take your final mixes from the previous week and import them into a mastering session. Do final EQ balance and limiting so they are ready to be played in the real world. This will be the week where you pick an EP name and song order. You’re almost there! (Total Time – 1 week)
• Do a 2 week digital release of your single. Pick your best song of the 6 and put it out for the world to hear. Blast it on Myspace, Facebook, Soundcloud, wherever! This is your time of promo. Get people pumped that you have a new EP coming out in a few short weeks. Allow people to download the song for free if you want. It will really get people excited for what else you have! (Total Time – 2 weeks)
• Put your new EP up for sale online. With less than a month left in our 6 month plan, you can now sign up with a site like TuneCore and have your EP available for sale digitally in places like iTunes and Amazon within days! It costs less than $50 a year, but it’s a small investment for your music. Plus you already have a small fan base from your free single the past few weeks. Just hit those people up and get them to buy the EP! (Total Time – 1 week)

That’s it! Go from nothing to digital release of a killer 6 song EP in a total of 23 weeks!

You Can Totally Do This

Am I crazy for suggesting this? Or am I actually on to something? What’s the worst that could happen if you tried it? You might actually record and make some killer music. And after all, isn’t that why you’re hanging out on this site in the first place?

Fight the doubter inside you, commit to making an EP in the next 6 months, put everything you have into it, and see if just wasn’t one of the best things you did in a long time. I hope to hear your EP when it’s done!

Here in the US, today is Labor Day. A potential day off for many of us from our actual labor and a chance to relax at home with the family. If that is the case for you and you have some atypical free time coming your way this afternoon (or any day really) then why don’t you commit just one hour of your time today making music in your studio? The only way any of us are actually going to be productive in our home studios is if we push ourselves to churn out something. Deadlines lead to productivity and creativity, so let’s create a short deadline today!

Give Yourself One Hour

Let’s make this simple. Just block off one hour today to shut yourself in your studio room, turn off the internet and the phone, fire open your DAW, and just start creating. One of the fastest ways to get up and running is to start with a songwriting template. This way you aren’t having to create tracks and assign things to correct inputs every time you want to make music. If you haven’t already, today might be a good day to do this.

Whether you start with a template or not, you most definitely could benefit from my series I did here on The Recording Revolution for the new year, called the One Song One Month Challenge. These are a series of short videos that walk you through the song creation process step by step to sort of motivate you to actually start and FINISH a song in a certain amount of time. You may not be able to do the entire thing the way you want in one hour today, but you can get a lot done in that hour and have a plan to finish this song within the month!

Keep Things Simple

So maybe you’re cool with the idea of blocking off an hour to get some music made in your studio today. Great! But just a heads up, you’ll need to keep things simple. Don’t spend forever finding the perfect synth patch or drum loop. Don’t test out multiple vocal mics to see which one works best for the given song. Focus less on your gear, and more on the music you hear in your head. Then just jump in and see what happens.

If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and download my free eBook The #1 Rule of Home Recording. I wrote this little ebook to help people be more productive and effective in their studios by learning to shift their mental approach. One of my readers a while back really took this to heart and made some serious progress. Here is what he said:

I enjoyed The #1 Rule of Home Recording very much. The eBook is a big part of what has motivated me to get back to working on my music. In the past week I have accomplished more for my music than in the past six months.

The big difference for me was what you said about working with the tools that you have. Previously I had been thinking that before I could start making recordings that would sound good I would need to finish converting my office into my studio. For this endeavor I still need to fix the sound of my room. While I know this is still important it is not as important as actually working on my music.

Working on music is more important than gear obsession. This is the difference. In the past week I have created a music website, uploaded all of my previous songs (most of which are just scratch tracks and sound like garbage lol) and I am currently working on a new song using what I have learned on your site. (The one song in one month videos are VERY helpful).

-Daniel

Just Make Music

This is exactly why I write this blog. I want you to be free from the trap of gear obsession and sound obsession. We tend to actually not get a whole lot done in our studios because we spend too much time thinking and talking about gear and making things perfect. The only way to learn is to jump in and try to make music. The more you mess up the faster you will get to making better music!

So keep things simple this labor day and just make music for an hour. See what happens. I bet you’ll be surprised (and encouraged) by what comes out of your mini recording session. Happy music making!

Busy week this week, but I wanted to bring some of my previous tutorial videos covering mixing techniques all into one convenient place for you to enjoy. Take a few minutes, review the content in them, and apply them to your songs. If you do, I know you’ll see an improvement in your mixes. Also, please let me know if these videos have helped you in any tangible way. Have fun!

Quick Mixing Tips

Compression Basics

Mixing Drums

Since wrapping up January’s One Song One Month Challenge I have had a number of you readers email me and drop comments about how much you’ve enjoyed the challenge or were inspired to take on the challenge yourself this month. I am so encouraged to hear this! To me, the challenge has been a huge sucess if it has motivated others to be creative and productive.

One of my readers, JR, was kind enough to share his final song from the challenge with me and brave enough to allow me to post it here! Here’s a guy who before last month had never as much as touched Pro Tools or used real recording gear. He did a phenomenal job of taking the advice and challenge head on. The result? Major growth in skill and ability (and a great song) in just 4 short weeks!

Below are his thoughts on how this whole experience has gone. Read it, listen to his song, and be inspired! Thanks JR for sharing!

When the One Month, One Song Challenge was introduced I had barely even assembled my new recording setup.  After years of recording my demos using a computer microphone and Sony Vegas movie editting software I was now equipped with gear that I had purchased upon the recommendation of one of Graham’s earlier blog posts.

I forged ahead rocking my new MBox 2 Mini and AT2035 condenser mic and after numerous humbling attempts of trying to record my main guitar part to a click track (a new endeavor to me) I finally had my guitar parts recorded.  I got some quality tracks laid down and auditioned numerous drum loops that came with my Pro Tools software until I had spliced together percussion for the entire song.

After laying down some virtual instruments, vocals, and a bass line, I was able to follow along with Graham’s video and add some delay, EQ, and compression to get a quick mix on what would be my first ever recording using a real set up.

Did I sacrifice more than a few hours of sleep trying to figure out what I was doing till 3 or 4 am some nights?  Sure.  But in those hours I spent messing around attempting to find my way around a completely new system and with the assistance of Graham’s video blogs, I was able to record a song in one month as a complete Pro Tools rookie. I know I’m only scratching the surface but for a first time recording I’m pretty please with how it turned out.

Crazy by JR Mondell

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Today marks the official end of our One Song One Month Challenge here at the Recording Revolution. It’s been a busy and productive month of January, one that I definitely will remember. If you’ve been following things the past 4 or 5 weeks then you know that I was putting out videos weekly to walk you through recording a whole song start to finish.

If you’re new here or just want to do the challenge again on your own, I’ve put the links to all 5 weeks below so you can do your own challenge. I figured if you can finish a song in a month, then you can do a lot in one year. And that’s ultimately what I want for you guys is to be more productive in your home studio and to have fun. Let’s spend less time lusting after gear and more time creating killer recordings!

Week 1 – Creating your session, setting tempo, initial recording.

Week 2 – Using loops and drum machines to fill out the session.

Week 3 – Using virtual instruments to enhance your arrangement.

Week 4 – Comping vocals and overall cleanup.

Week 5 – Basic mixing tips and technique.

And just for fun, I’ve included my song for the challenge. You’ve heard bits and pieces during the videos, but here is what came of it all. I hope you enjoy and I also hope to hear from you about how your challenge went this past month!

A Song For Chloe

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It’s crazy to think that a month has already passed us by since we began this challenge. If you’ve been taking the challenge with us, you should be pretty far along at this point. Ideally you’ve got all your tracks recorded, cleaned up, and ready for mixing. If not, no worries, these videos aren’t going anywhere so you can go at your own pace of course.

Today we are going to cover some basic mixing techniques. Now, mixing is a complex art that can take years to perfect, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t jump in and get after it! All of today’s popular DAWs (Pro Tools, Logic, Sonar, Cubase, etc) come with a wide array of professional mixing plugins for you to use, and they sound great. So fire them up, watch this video (it’s in two parts) and make it happen!

Just a reminder if you’re just joining us…below are the 5 weeks of this challenge with links to each video. Enjoy!

1. Starting Your Song – Creating a session, setting tempo, initial recording
2. Rhythm – Using loops and drum machines to fill out the track
3. Virtual Instruments – Using MIDI tracks to enhance your arrangement
4. Editing – Comping vocals and overall cleanup
5. Mixing – Basic mixing tips and technique

Part 1

Part 2

We’re back and better than ever this week with part 4 of the One Song One Month Challenge. If you’re just joining us then welcome. We’re in the middle of writing and recording an original song in one month. Sound like fun? Then join us! Check out the videos below to catch up…

Here is how the weeks are broken up for our challenge:

1. Starting Your Song – Creating a session, setting tempo, initial recording
2. Rhythm – Using loops and drum machines to fill out the track
3. Virtual Instruments – Using MIDI tracks to enhance your arrangement
4. Editing – Comping vocals and overall cleanup
5. Mixing – Basic mixing tips and techniques

Today I want to take a quick look at doing some basic edits to your tracks and cleaning your session up to get ready for mixing. Even in a simple session like the one I have, you’re going to want to do some edits and comping in order to get your tracks sounding perfect. Let’s take a look…

We find ourselves in the middle our month long challenge…that is to write, record, and finish a song in the month of January. At this point you should have a session created with your main instrument of choice recorded along with some drum loops or rhythm of some kind. If you’re just joining us you have plenty of time to catch up. Just head to week 1 and week 2 by clicking the links below and enjoy!

This week we are going to tap into the power and convenience  of using virtual instruments to fill out our arrangement a bit. Just a brief disclaimer: to really take advantage of all that your DAW has to offer by way of virtual instruments you need to use a keyboard controller of some kind. I wrote an article on it a few weeks back so be sure to check it out to get some ideas.

Just another reminder, here is how the weeks are broken up for our challenge:

1. Starting Your Song – Creating a session, setting tempo, initial recording
2. Rhythm – Using loops and drum machines to fill out the track
3. Virtual Instruments – Using MIDI tracks to enhance your arrangement
4. Editing – Comping vocals and overall cleanup
5. Mixing – Basic mix and bounce for the web

Enjoy the video…and hey, feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. I’m here to help!

Welcome to Week 2 of the One Song One Month Challenge! Hopefully you joined us last week as we started 2010 with a bang of creativity and productivity! The goal of this challenge is to get you moving in your studio right away, eliminate excuses to making music, and to set a realistic deadline to complete something. If you can produce a song in one month, you can complete an album in a year! Nice!

As a reminder here is how we are breaking down the five Fridays in January:

1. Starting Your Song – Creating a session, setting tempo, initial recording
2. Rhythm – Using loops and drum machines to fill out the track
3. Virtual Instruments – Using MIDI tracks to enhance your arrangement
4. Editing – Comping vocals and overall cleanup
5. Mixing – Basic mix and bounce for the web

This week we are going to build on that original riff you recorded by adding some drum loops and taking a peek at using virtual drummers. I hope you’ll enjoy this video and get motivated to keep working on your song!