Backstage Pass & Inside Scoop: Recording an Album with Katherine Moller
December 7th, 2016 by Katherine Moller
There is so much involved in recording an Album! So many more steps than just going into a studio to record! Let me give you a peek into what it has looked like so far in recording my new Album so far:
- Writing: If you are going to record music, you need to write a lot of music in order to have enough high-quality pieces to record. I worked on writing the music for this Album over several years, and am actually recording some that I wrote 15 years ago!
- Selecting: For all my past recordings I have put together my medleys and picked out the music myself. For this recording, I wanted to try something new and worked with two producers. I took my catalogue of music with me and we picked out the music at the studio. Even though it was a nerve wracking experience, it was really interesting to see what other people think about my music and how to put it together.
- Arranging: This is where my producers were instrumental for me. They not only helped out a lot with picking the music, but also with arranging it and orchestrating it.
- Recording guide tracks: For this Album we recorded a guide track of fiddle. This was not the final fiddle track, just one to work with to work on the orchestration and recording the bed tracks (More on this next). This was quite difficult as it was just me playing to a click track, which is essentially just a metronome.
- Recording bed tracks: This is where we record many of the other instruments that serve as back up for the fiddle tracks on the Album.
- Recording lead tracks: I went back about a month after we did our first recording session to record my final fiddle tracks. It was much easier going back to record the final tracks, than to do this all at once.
- Finishing Back Ups: Normally all of the backing tracks would be finished before recording the lead tracks. In this case, we decided to wait and record guitar and bass once my tracks were finished.
- Selecting wardrobe: Not only is your album about the music recorded on it, it is also about the image you want to portray on it and with it. I have ordered some new clothes for this Album to represent the Storm Queen. I am pretty excited about the look that we will be creating and the photo shoot to come!
- Photo shoot: Time to do a new photo shoot with the new look for the new Album. I have not done this yet, but am excited to do so!
- Album notes: I have started working on the notes for this Album. I have been writing out the stories for each of the tracks and will be working on tightening it up over the next little while.
- Launch plans: I have started planning my launch in June. I have booked the venue and musicians for the event and have started working on the set list as well.
- Fundraising plans: I will be holding a fundraising concert in January and doing a fan funding campaign in February. I have been looking into venues and thinking about possible rewards for my fan funding.
There is still a lot more to be done! I still need to get the Album artwork designed, get posters designed for the launch, design my incentives for the fan funding campaign, advertise the launch event, and plan a series of launch concerts. I will also need to get my music online and ready to launch in June. I am sure there will be more steps that I have not thought of just yet! It has been a fun process!
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