The past decade has witnessed an explosion of independently produced recordings with the proliferation of digital recording technology—including technologies that make home recording a snap. But sometimes the home studio isn’t enough. Whether you are an amateur who wants to elevate to the next level, a student who needs a high-quality audition tape, or an emerging artist who needs a commercial-quality CD to promote his or her career, you can now produce a professional product without breaking the bank.

This can be both educational and fun if you develop a battle plan before you begin. But attempting to record without a clear understanding of the steps involved is akin to building a house with no blueprints or production schedule. After all, if the concrete truck pulls into the driveway before the footer has been dug, you have a serious problem on your hands.

Recording projects often turn into “salvage operations” because of poor planning in the preproduction phase. A few simple steps, including some practical tips on the preproduction and production phases of a project, can help you to avoid this fate. Each phase addresses certain questions and procedures that will keep things running smoothly. You do not want to spend two hours trying to figure out how to overdub the intro to a song with no count-off because you accidentally erased the beginning of the scratch guitar track with the original count (maybe that actually took me more like three hours).

This article doesn’t discuss the post-production phase of a project. But when your project is in the can, you must also consider the following tasks: mastering, photography, liner notes, graphic design, bar codes, publishing, copyrights, replication, and royalties.


Preproduction
Assess your goals. As simple as this may seem, the first and most important step in any project is to develop clear and reasonable goals that you can actually accomplish. If your weekend bluegrass band wants to put out a CD, then your budget and time commitment need to reflect the degree to which this is a serious hobby. If your bluegrass band has serious aspirations to compete in the same market as Alison Krauss and Union Station, then your project must be nothing short of perfect, and you must be prepared from the outset to spend the time and money necessary to make this happen.

Develop your concept. How do you envision the final product? What overall aesthetic will give shape and cohesiveness to it? You should consider instrumentation and material at this point, and once these questions have been answered, you will need to choose the additional musicians, if any, whose help you need. If some or all of the selections have been published, you should take this into account now.

Assess your needs. Once your goals and concept are clear, you can start to determine the level of sophistication required to realize your vision. Will an eight-track demo studio do the job, or will you need a large space, expensive microphones, and a piano? You also need to begin work on your graphic-design concept at this point (most projects are delayed in the end by the artwork and printing). Can your cousin do an adequate layout on his Mac, or will you need the services of an experienced professional? Look to your goals for the answer.

Develop a budget. You need to consider the following potential expenses: a producer, studio musicians, travel, a rehearsal hall, a music copyist, studio time, an engineer, tape and other materials, equipment rental, mastering, printing, a bar code, photography, graphic design, replication, royalties, and advertising. Covering all these elements in detail is beyond the scope of this article, but we will touch on some of them as we proceed.

Develop a time line. Determine the order in which the pieces of your particular puzzle need to be in place. Obviously, mastering cannot precede mixing, but you can accomplish many things concurrently.