Increase Your Recording Skills One Way Or Another

If you’ve been following Lalala Music, you may already know that I’ve been a musician for over 15 years and that I believe my recordings have never been my strong suit (at least I think so, people do say otherwise). I always believe I can make my songs sound better. So I am constantly looking for ways to improve them.

I have found that many musicians either lack the time or money to pursue something more professional when it comes to recording. So let us take a closer look at how we can overcome this challenge and get started on our own terms.

There are 3 main factors that, in my opinion, influence the recording process:

• Money
• Time
• Expertise

If you’ve got money, then great, you can hire the expertise. You have a plethora of options to choose from:

• hire highly skilled sound technicians/producers
• hire session players
• pay quality studio time etc.

Depending on the extent of skills you outsource, this will greatly reduce your involvement in the actual recording process. You’ll take on the role of a CEO/Director of your own recordings. You’ll provide a vision of the song and give directions so that this vision can be implemented correctly.

If this is not an option, and you don’t have much money available, you can invest something other than money to acquire the expertise: time. There are thousands of books available on Amazon that can help out beginners & professionals learn and perfect their recording skills.

There are also quite a few courses out there specialized on your expertise level. I have also searched for videos on Youtube and had great success in the past.

Keep in mind though that you’re not going to become an expert overnight, as there is really a LOT to learn. So if you’re looking for a short-term solution, then hiring someone to do the job for you is a smarter way.

Bonus Tip: This one’s actually quite obvious, but somehow people still tend to forget. If you haven’t started developing your network of skills, then you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to get a lot of discounted or free stuff.

I will be talking about building your network of skills in a future post. You may not know it, but you might have people close to you that could easily make your life as a musician tons easier.

For example, for my current songs you find on Her Sweet Suicide, I didn’t have to look far: my sister’s boyfriend, Ricardo Utsumi (you can reach him on Twitter @r_utsumi), a great producer and sound technician, helped me out free of charge (what he doesn’t know, or at least, it’s implicit, is that I actually allow him to take my sister out on dates now, lol!).

Resources To Help You Jumpstart Your Recording Skills

For those of you looking for books that will help you start out, I can recommend the following (aff. link):

Modern Recording Techniques – Conventional limitations in recording have subsided or vanished entirely, making it possible to create and record your own music in ways that few ever dreamed possible. David Miles Huber & Robert E. Runstein show you how in their newest edition. To learn more about the book and the goodies that come with it click here.

Mixing Audio – Mixing remains one of the most illusive arts of recording and can take a life time to master. Looking at practices, concepts, tools and mixing instruments, Roey Izhaki provides a comprehensive insight to the art and science of mixing. To learn more about the book and the goodies that come with it click here.