Stephen C. Shapiro

Cliff Goldmacher over at Serve The Song recently posted a great article called Recording Your Indie Album: a Pre-Production Checklist. This is a blog I read frequently and would encourage all songwriters, band members and alike to check out.  You can read the article here.

Here’s an interview Ryan did over the phone during our last recording sessions. He talks about writing, recording, distribution, touring and of course, starving children.

It’s a great interview, but I thought I would point out that I completely disagree with him when he says “I know that anytime I try to raise my voice in any capacity to yell, I sound like I’m telling my dog to get off the couch.” There were a few times in the recording sessions when he would start to get really loud, and I thought, “this is what was missing from the last record.” I’m really glad we got some of that recorded.

I just wanted to give a big shout out to Guerilla Drum Making. Thanks to them I made a custom snare drum with fantastic results for just the cost of the parts. I am not good with crafts or handiwork, so if I can do it, anyone can. The DVD should not be your only source for advice, but the DVD’s companion website gives plenty of helpful links that nearly guarantee your success.

It was a scary but rewarding process. I’m not rushing into the custom drum-making business, so I don’t know when I’ll make another drum, but for a $40 DVD, I saved hundreds from ordering a custom drum.

YouTube: Part 1 • YouTube: Part 2

Full Quality Video (MP4) 

Notes

Intro

Pro Tools LE comes standard with a single track version of Beat Detective, which is what I will be using for this video. A Multi-track version of Beat Detective comes standard with Pro Tools HD, and is also available for LE users as part of the Music Production Toolkit, which can be purchased for a couple hundred bucks. If you don’t want to spend the money and have comparable results with the standard software, here’s what you can do. Read the rest of this entry »

In operating a home studio, you will eventually enter a situation where you are working solely with a singer/songwriter.  If you have never done this before, it will highlight the difference between simply being an engineer and a being a producer. In band situations, most of the time you can get by just taking orders from the band, and let the members deal with the arrangement and instrumentation while you try to “capture the moment.” Read the rest of this entry »