{"id":26396,"date":"2013-11-12T14:00:22","date_gmt":"2013-11-12T19:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=26396"},"modified":"2013-11-12T14:00:22","modified_gmt":"2013-11-12T19:00:22","slug":"cliff-goldmacher-stripping-down-your-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2013\/11\/12\/cliff-goldmacher-stripping-down-your-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Cliff Goldmacher: DIY Guide To Singing In Studio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"CliffGoldmachermaritz02\"<\/b><\/i><\/h3>\n

The DIY Guide To Singing In The Studio<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\u00a0Written by: Cliff Goldmacher (www.EducatedSongwriter.com)<\/p>\n

\"WomanWhy Your Vocals Are Important: <\/strong>Your career as a recording artist hinges on many things from the songs you choose to the musicianship on your records. But the single most important thing for your artist identity is your voice.\u00a0 Your ultimate goal as a vocalist is to sound exactly like yourself.\u00a0 In other words, the more relaxed and confident you are as a singer, the more people will know who you are and what you\u2019re about.\u00a0 In reality, it\u2019s predominantly musicians who listen to CD\u2019s for the musicianship, but the people who decide to buy your CD will connect with your voice first and everything else much later.
\nThis article will serve as a do-it-yourself primer for how to approach singing in the recording studio.\u00a0 In today\u2019s independent musical environment, it\u2019s typically the case that you will play the part of, not only the artist, but the manager, record label and producer, too.\u00a0 The trick when it comes to getting great vocal performances is to make the most of each of these roles by knowing which role to play and when.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be describing your responsibilities for each of these roles in the paragraphs below.
\nThe Role of Manager\/Record Label:<\/strong> In this role, your job will be to make sure you have a great place to record where you feel comfortable and can do great work.\u00a0 Otherwise put, you\u2019ll need to go out and find a studio, talk to engineers, listen to examples of their work, get prices based on your budget and ultimately lay the groundwork for an organized, low-stress recording process. Acting as manager, you might also decide to invest in your own recording equipment (beware of the learning curve!) to give yourself the added flexibility of recording whenever you want with no concerns about the studio clock.\u00a0 Whether you record at home or in a commercial studio, taking care of the details (which
\nO how smooth your vocal recording process will be<\/strong>: Regarding artist development, an essential task in your role as manager and record label will be to consider a vocal coach.\u00a0 The more you sing your songs and work on them before you go into the studio, the better prepared you\u2019ll be to give a great performance when the time comes.\u00a0 By studying your songs and working on the minute details ahead of time, you\u2019ll end up with a baseline performance that you can deliver confidently.\u00a0 Then when the light goes red (which can be stressful enough), you won\u2019t have to worry about how you\u2019re going to approach your technique or interpretation.
\n\"musicsheets01\"The Role of Producer:<\/strong> Here your role will be to not only find the songs that work best for you as an artist but to help guide the singing process by keeping an eye\/ear on a few very important elements.\u00a0 The first element would be the songs. It\u2019s up to you to find the songs that you can sing with emotion and sincerity. If you\u2019re a songwriter, it\u2019s easy to assume that the best songs to sing will be your own, but it\u2019s never a bad idea to look for outside material as well.\u00a0 Outside material will not only keep the level of songwriting consistently high but can also add the necessary diversity to a project. In either case, you have to know what your \u201cartist\u2019s\u201d vocal instrument is capable of and make sure the songs fit.\u00a0 The key of the song is another major consideration.\u00a0 Just because you\u2019ve always sung a song in a certain key does not mean it might not work better in a slightly higher or (even more surprising sometimes) lower key.
\nWhen it comes to the actual recording process, you will have to ultimately make decisions about when things are going well and improving and when enough is enough.\u00a0 This can be extremely difficult to do in the heat of battle but it is essential. Being both producer and artist is a very delicate balance.\u00a0 My recommendation would be to take a short (even 5 minute) break every hour or so and listen back to what you\u2019ve sung.\u00a0 The temptation is to keep singing and singing because that perfect take is just one take away. In reality, your best take might have come five takes ago and you\u2019ve been wearing yourself out needlessly.
\nI am a firm believer in the composite (comp) vocal because it allows the singer to sing the song from beginning to end multiple times going for the performance without worrying too much about the details.\u00a0 Getting bogged down in trying to fix a word or line can be draining and quickly take the life out of a vocal performance.\u00a0 Creating a comp vocal is as simple as recording multiple passes of your lead vocal without allowing your editor\/critic into the equation.\u00a0 In other words, sing the song several times (as if you were doing it live) without stopping or redoing anything. Then when this is done, put on your producer hat and listen back to each pass while marking on a lyric sheet which pass is good on each line.\u00a0 It\u2019s possible to have lines where several passes work.\u00a0 I hope this is your biggest problem.\u00a0 After listening to every pass and taking the appropriate notes, if there are still a few lines that need work, you can go after them then knowing exactly what you\u2019re missing and how to fix it.\u00a0 The key to this process is to stay out of your own way while you\u2019re singing.\u00a0 Try to prevent yourself from judging what your doing while you\u2019re doing it.\u00a0 There will be time for that when you\u2019re listening back.\u00a0 The more you keep the producer and artist separate during this part of the process, the more effective you\u2019ll be in getting a great performance. If you have the budget to actually hire a producer, you\u2019ll be very glad you did.
\n\"from_the_stage\"The Role of the Artist:<\/strong> This role is strictly musical. All of the groundwork has been laid. When you step up to the microphone, your only task is to remember that these songs move you and to sing them that way.\u00a0 Stay away from any and all technical concerns such as whether you\u2019re hitting the notes exactly on key or whether your timing is good.\u00a0 All of this can be addressed when you sit back down in the control room to listen to what you\u2019ve done.
\nA piece of advice I give all my singers when they get bogged down worrying about hitting the note and sounding good is to think about the words to the song and what they mean.\u00a0 The best singers sound like they\u2019re talking to you.\u00a0 You believe what they\u2019re saying because they believe what they\u2019re saying.\u00a0 Simply put, just tell the story and the pitch and the tone will follow.
\nOf course it can be nerve-racking the first few times you go in to record your vocals but the more you do it the easier it will become. Every bit of work you do in advance as your own management, label and production team, will make you that much more prepared to deliver a great vocal performance as the artist you are.
\nGood luck!<\/strong>
\nBio:<\/strong> Cliff Goldmacher is a songwriter, producer, session musician, engineer, author and owner of recording studios in Nashville, TN and Sonoma, CA. Cliff\u2019s site, http:\/\/www.EducatedSongwriter.com<\/a>, is full of resources for the aspiring songwriter including monthly online webinars. Go to http:\/\/www.educatedsongwriter.com\/webinar\/<\/a> for the latest schedule.
\nCliff\u2019s company, http:\/\/www.NashvilleStudioLive.com<\/a>, provides songwriters outside of Nashville with virtual access to Nashville\u2019s best session musicians and singers for their songwriting demos.
\nYou can download a FREE sample of Cliff\u2019s eBook \u201cThe Songwriter\u2019s Guide To Recording Professional Demos\u201d by going to http:\/\/www.EducatedSongwriter.com\/ebook<\/a>.
\nFacebook: www.facebook.com\/EducatedSongwriter<\/a>
\nTwitter: edusongwriter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The DIY Guide To Singing In The Studio \u00a0Written by: Cliff Goldmacher (www.EducatedSongwriter.com) Why Your Vocals Are Important: Your career as a recording artist hinges on many things from the songs you choose to the musicianship on your records. But the single most important thing for your artist identity is your voice.\u00a0 Your ultimate goal as a vocalist is to sound exactly like yourself.\u00a0 In other words, the more relaxed and confident you are as a singer, the more people will know who you are and what you\u2019re about.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}