Producer’s First Impressions [Free A-Z Series]

I’ve recently put a production team together to bring you a new series called The Free A-Z Music Production Series.

Each week we’ll be looking at the song ‘Disguised Grace’ by my friend, Arthur G. As we record new tracks, they will all be made available as a free download.

Go here to learn more about the process and sign up for free updates: http://www.davidglennrecording.com/a-z-mp-series-volume1/

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In today’s post, I want to talk about my first impressions. Arthur (the artist), recently came through my studio and showed me the foundation of the song. Check out the pre-production track below.

Featured Song: Disguised Grace

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Artist Meeting #1 (Song introduction)

As Arthur played me the song for the first time I tried to avoid my natural tendencies to begin picking the song apart. I listened first as a fan of music.

Once he finished the first run through I asked him to go to the chorus and play it few times. Only then did I begin to ask both what the song was calling for and where he as the artist wanted to go with it. Chord changes, lyrical tweaks and production ideas started to pop into my head. I was pretty stoked to switch gears into producing again after mixing pretty exclusively the past few years.

Next, I asked him to try different tempos. When he introduced the song to me he seemed to change tempos a lot. He started slow and the sped up quite fast. I want to say it was about a 20-30 bpms difference from verse to chorus. We settled at 110 bpms for the pre-production track but it’s very possible that we’ll be switching tempos between sections. (BTW, you can download the files here: http://theazseries.com)

Artist’s Vision

After we worked through some tempo changes I asked Arthur what he wanted for the song. It’s important to have good communication when dealing with someone else’s art. As the producer, I’ll have my moments to inject some of my taste, but the most important thing is for me to align my talents and ideas with the artist’s vision.

Arthur seemed pretty open to ideas, which in all honesty is my favorite way to work. He shared a few songs that he was digging at the moment, including, Hillsong United’s song ‘Touch the Sky’. I downloaded the track and gave it a quick listen. The production seemed nice. The song is definitely centered around the female lead vocalist and I have a feeling that the production choices we make for this one will be also.

We wrapped up our conversation about letting the song be open and organic, but also not afraid to push towards some of the modern pop stuff topping the charts. I have recently become a fan of Ryn Weaver after I heard her song, ‘The Fool‘. I really like the mix of raw and hyper real effects in that song so we’ll see if some of that inspiration finds its way into Disguised Grace.

The Process

We already have a pre-production track so next up will be for my co-producer Victor Encarnacion and myself to get on Skype and begin talking about the arrangement and chord structure. I think we’ll do well to experiment with some different progressions before laying down an official scratch track that will more so resemble the final track.

Once we lay the new scratch track down we’ll follow that with some miscellaneous production. Maybe a beat or loop to add some rhythm or at the very least some keys or acoustics to help dictate the direction to our drummer. Then…

SoundBetter.com

I’ve recently discovered a site founded by Shachar Gilad and Itamar Yunger. They have built an impressive resource for us music professionals and I’m excited to share that we’ll be hiring musicians for this process straight from their site. I’ll be giving an inside look to the hiring process in a coming video that you’ll be able to see over on The Pro Audio Files’ YouTube channel.

Legal Issues

Did I scare you? Lol. Aside from you not being able to sell the song, you have complete creative freedom to do as you please with these tracks. Re-record, edit, mix and do whatever else you please.

Resume and Portfolio Use

Yes, you may ABSOLUTELY use what you do for your resume or portfolio. Just please give appropriate credit to the artist (Arthur G.) or any of the musicians performances that you include with your version.

In closing, what do you hear for the song? Any thoughts on the direction or production? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks for being a part of this process!

All the best,

 

David

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