Home Recording The Scott Cooley Way - My Method in 2024

Things.  I basically do two things:  1)  write songs;  and 2)  record them.  Well, I also 3)  release them publicly.  If anything at all, it's the third thing that makes the content of this blog potentially interesting.  If I just wrote and recorded songs that no one ever heard, it wouldn't make as much sense to write about doing those things.  It was more interesting earlier in my "career" because I was among the first wave of DIY artists to release home-recorded CDs on Amazon and downloads on iTunes back in the days when such things first became possible.  Now, of course, everyone and their brother has things like a computer, a microphone, an audio interface, and a little money to distribute through an aggregator to the streaming services without the need for a record label contract.  Since my last public release of music in 2022, as has been the case for over 20 years now, I've continued to write and record.

I'm getting ready to release another album soon.  The target "drop" date is June 21st - my birthday - as usual, and I'll probably include 13 songs, again as usual.  Every two years I weed out about half the songs I write, record the rest, and I typically record a song in about an hour.  So it's not like it takes me a ton of time to record an album - it could be done in a couple days, but I spread it out as free time allows.  I usually average writing about one song per month, but they come in spurts.

I generally write a song and then record a first take on my phone's audio recorder app with just my voice and acoustic guitar.  Then if after listening back to those first takes I like them, I record them on my computer and add additional parts.

The phone recorder app is easily scrollable and shows the record dates organized by month.  Looking back at my writing/recording productivity since the last album released in June 2022, here's how it broke down:

• Jul. 2022:  Wrote two, only recorded one of them
• Aug. 2022:  Wrote two, recorded both
• Oct. 2022:  Wrote one, recorded it
• Apr. 2023:  Wrote six, recorded all of them
• Aug. 2023:  Wrote two, recorded both
• Oct. 2023:  Wrote two, recorded both

So, this time around, I only weeded out one, and that gave me 12 songs recorded since the last album, within the last two years, but I haven't written any since October of last year.  I have several recorded that were previously weeded out, so I'll be choosing one of them to include...unless I write & record more between now and June.

Evidently, there was no activity in Sept. 2022, then a huge gap of 5 months time between Nov. 2022 to March 2023 with no activity, then another 3 month gap in May/June/July of 2023, another no activity month in September 2023, then nothing in about the last 6 months.

I don't know why I wait 2 years between albums, and I don't know why I choose 13 as the number of songs on my albums, but as you can see, it just sort of works out that way.

I usually have way more to choose from in a 2-year span of time, so I'm a little nervous about that. Also, I usually weed out way more of my first takes on the phone, and never record digital multitrack versions of them.  You might think the song quality will suffer as a result, but one never knows.  I like to keep a low bar for myself, yet it feels like my hurdles have been higher this time around the track.

The writing may take only a few minutes per song, but sometimes I'll recycle old scraps of lyrics, and sometimes I'll sit on musical ideas for a while, so there can be a long span until finalized.  Then I really do crank out the recording part fast once I have a finalized song ready to go.  Obviously, I'm not a perfectionist.  I just like to keep things fresh, get each song recorded close to how I imagine it sounding, get 'er done, then move on to the next.

How do I record my songs so quickly?  How do I get the sound I get when recording in my little home "studio"?  What order do I do things in when recording?  What equipment and software do I use?

The short answer is I have a desk in a spare bedroom now in my house, and on it is a computer, a small midi keyboard, and a small audio interface that allows for software insert effects.  On a shelf above it are two small speakers, a single microphone and a printer.  Next to my desk is an acoustic guitar.  That's it.  I use software for everything else.  Pretty simple and low footprint.

Most people wouldn't want the Scott Cooley sound, but people have asked me how I do it over the years.  I am completely self-taught.  How you record can be thought of by some people as almost being like a proprietary trade secret.

I don't mind sharing my approach, but the overall sound I get is probably well below the level of quality anyone else would want to strive for.  Also, it's important to note that my approach has evolved over the years, and there are always variations depending on the song.

As a home recording person who does everything alone with zero training, I've just figured out through trial and error what works for me.  That, and reading the user guide and/or online help that comes with the DAW software.  I've googled how to do things, watched a couple youtube how-to videos, and learned from a few online forums too.

If curious at all, you might like to know this abbreviated sequential list of steps that I usually follow:

1. turn on the metronome in the DAW and set it to desired click tempo
2. while listening to that in one headphone with the other off my ear, record the rhythm guitar track into a microphone clean, angled from neck to soundhole about 6 inches away
3. record a scratch vocal track into a mic, clean, while listening to the rhythm track with one earphone off, so I can hear my own voice too
4. record bass track, used to always do a mic'd acoustic, but sometimes a direct electric bass, and more recently, just play a MIDI keyboard, tried a mic'd amp w/ electric, but never got good results, and the DI electric into audio 1/4 input can have bass eq/comp and/or bass amp sim plugin with mixed results, the keyboard way offers the best sonic quality so far, but this one is always a challenge to get a good sound
5. record kick, then snare, then toms, then hat, then crash each separately, all with midi keyboard and virtual sounds, used to mic a djembe and use a nylon brush on a snare various mics, but virtual on keys is my preferred method now
6. record percussion - tambourine, shaker, etc. into mic if desired, also mic'd congas/bongos if desired, or cowbell ocasionally (never enough)
7. mix the drums, muting other tracks, adjusting volume and pan for each, doing the kick centered, each of other panned wider as desired
8. mix the bass volume to fit in with the drums, panned center
9. mix the rhythm guitar to fit with the bass while muting rest
10. record backing vocals, usually 2 takes, then pan L & R
11. record lead vocal, with large diaphram condenser, usually takes many tries, then I pick the best, I've comped before, but prefer do-overs until I get it as good as I can all the way through in one take
12. record lead acoustic guitar into mic, doing intros, fills, instrumental break solos, outros, etc. as desired
13. apply effects processing to each track, and by this I usually mean EQ, but sometimes a little compression, and sometimes reverb.  I have presets and saved scripts for a lot of these, and I usually leave the bass and kick pretty clean.
14. mix down to stereo wav, listen on speakers, car speakers, etc, take notes, then return to make volume/pan adjustments (pre-mastering)
15. master the wave with some overall eq/compression - again, I have some saved scripts I run for these
16. done!

That's generally "how" I do it, but here's "what I use" to do it with:

I used to do all of the above in Adobe Audition v.3.1, then I tried Cakewalk for a while for just the recording part only because it was free and supported the new MIDI keyboard I purchased, and now I use Logic for just the recording part and some of the effects, then bounce and export/import into Adobe Audition for the mixing and mastering still.  I still love Adobe Audition because it has outstanding noise reduction features that just don't exist in other DAWs, and these are necessary when recording everything into microphones from real instruments, and the mastering tools are also on par with out-of-box Logic or even Ozone, which I've also experimented with.

I've purchased and experimented with about 5 or 6 different microphones over the years - dynamics, condensers small and large, but have now replaced them all with a Townsend which has simulation settings to make it sound like any mic, and integrates well with my Universal Audio Apollo interface and Logic.

I've purchased and experimented with about 4 different audio interfaces over the years - a Roland, a Focusrite, a Tascam, but now replaced them all with a UA Apollo Twin lightning bolt.

For years, I used a Dell running Windows 7, and still use it for mastering with the Adobe Audition, but now I use an iMac with Logic for the recording steps.

I've had two MIDI keyboards, but the one I use now is a Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol because it integrates really well with Logic.  It's the smallest one they make, and has software that lets you play a piano or organ chord with a single key, and also to make the keys sound like drums, bass, etc.

The Mac/Logic/Townsend/Apollo/Komplete is the ultimate setup for me, it all plays well with each other and makes things efficient and easy.  If Logic had good noise reduction, it might replace the need for Adobe Audition, but I also have all these batch scripts that run customized effects processing sequences I created in there, so that's a big time-saver.  Spent hours of my life A/B testing them all 'till I found combinations I liked, so I keep the AA for now until my old Dell dies on me, then I'll have to consider other options.  There are so many options in Logic I've never even tried, so might experiment in there further someday, but I like my process the way it is for now.

I have a Fender Jazz bass, which I love playing but hardly ever use anymore for recording, and a bass amp that is totally unnecessary, and a Martin HD-28 acoustic that is too bassy/boomy, but still great.  I have a Takamine non-upright acoustic bass guitar, but hardly ever use it anymore.  I have several electric guitars, a multi-effects pedal board, and an amp.  Similar to the various ways to record electric bass, I never seem to get a good electric sound no matter what I try, and I just prefer the sound of an acoustic.  However, it's fun to crank it up to 11 sometimes and jam.  I have the percussion stuff, the bongos, a set of Hohner special 20 harmonicas, a ukulele, and a hawaiian weissenborn for acoustic slide playing, and still have the old snare drum, the djembe, and cymbal I used to use.  Small JBL monitors and Sony MD headphones.  Oh yeah, I've got my wife's marimba I record with quite a lot too.  I've borrowed my friend's mandolin a couple times, but just can't get into it due to fat fingers.

Now, I've evolved to not needing much to get the sound I get.  I pretty much do songs with the full (acoustic) rock band treatment with only my voice, my Martin acoustic, and my keyboard for the bass, drums, piano, etc., so almost all in-the-box now.  All the other crap is in the basement storage now, awaiting my death after which my nephew will likely take it all to his basement and possibly use and/or sell some of it.

As you can hear with my studio recordings, I don't use many effects at all, just some EQ on most tracks a little reverb on the vocal.  I like to keep it clean, real and acoustic sounding, even though I've embraced virtual instruments.  No racks of hardware, no preamps, nothing like that.  It's all done in the software.  Everyone says I should use a preamp, but the ability to do "on the way in" insert effects on my Apollo interface combined with the virtual microphone simulation and insert channel strip effects on my Townsend mic negate the need for one.

Where the magic happens:  My dusty home studio 

You can see earlier incarnations of it here:  https://www.scottcooley.com/studio.  I don't like a cluttered room.  No room treatment either.  I do also have one of those acoustic foam things behind my microphone, but I don't know that it makes any difference or not. I don't really have any desire to add any equipment or software for recording.  As long as nothing breaks, I have everything I need and want already.  Took a long time to arrive here, a lot of trying out different things to see how they sound, a lot of mistake making and learning, and quite a bit of money.

Future Plans Beyond This Year:  My next thing will be to try to get a good electric guitar sound with software only and just directly plugging it into the audio interface.  I'm not much of a fingerstyle player, and realize the types of songs I write would probably lend themselves well to being electric guitar rock songs instead of acoustic.  Also, I can now appreciate the value in releasing singles - so I might try the staggered release of one song at a time approach in the future.  For the few fans out there who enjoy my music, and crave hearing more, they wouldn't have to wait as long to get their fix.

My Secret Public Life As A Musician

If you’re like me, you have a secret-yet-totally public part of yourself that is your online music presence.  You never talk about it with people at your day job, or with your family, or even your friends.  Only a few people you’ve run across in your life know little tidbits - maybe they remember you mentioning you taught yourself a few chords on a guitar, and maybe that you like to strum and try to make up songs once in a while in your free time.  Technically, since you’ve had no formal training, don’t read music notation, and basically don’t think you’re very good, you don’t even qualify to be able to say you’re a real musician.

Most people you know don’t know you have a blog, a website, and your songs for sale in online stores.  You love making music, and can’t go long without getting cravings to do it some more, but few people know about this habit of yours.  Maybe you’ve kept it that way because you’re modest.  Maybe you’re modest because of your personality but also because you’re not confident that this passion of yours will result in your music being appreciated by other people.  A part of you wants people to know, to listen, to compliment you, to buy your albums.  A part of you envies other amateur musicians who go for it, and make it known to everyone they know, even though they’re not that good in your opinion.  No guts no glory, but you want to keep this part of your life separate.  

Even though it’s nothing to be embarrassed about, nothing that could wreck your career if people found out, you keep it hidden, yet it’s out there online for the whole world to discover.  Your music isn’t all that controversial or explicit or even overtly rebellious.  It’s pretty tame and far from being reputation-damaging, aside from the potential fact that it might not be good, which then might cause people to feel sorry for you, or ridicule you, or think less of you.  Yep, when you’re like me, and when you’re kind of afraid of playing in public, and you have a cheap little home recording rig, and a few cheap instruments, and you like to make up words and sing, you put your recordings of your songs online and nobody notices or buys them.  This helps solidify the notion you already had in your mind that you’re not very good at this little hobby.  

You still love doing it though.  You don’t have money for advertising and you have no fan base or mailing list.  There are little things that you can focus on, which might help attract listeners.  For example, since you’re up against short attention spans, which means you’ve got to have short intros in case someone ever hits that play button.  It might help if the songs are really good, but they’re not.  It might help if you have a great voice or great instrumental chops, but you don’t.  There’s got to be a way to improve your chances of gaining an audience.  

You think about these kinds of things when you’re not writing & recording.  You know how it is yourself to surf around the internet and stumble upon music and listen with your headphones on.  Maybe it’s a recommendation, maybe an accident, maybe someone you know, or someone that someone you know knows.  When you’re a closet recording artist, or non-performing songwriter like me, you miss out on audience feedback from playing live, and you’re forced to take into consideration what can get you recognized online.  This boils down to catchy song titles.

A few months ago, I ventured out of my basement studio and performed some of my original songs in front of a live audience for the first time in at least 15 years.  I had been scared beforehand because it had been so long, and also because the audience included many professional performing singer-songwriters.  I decided to go for it and do the best I could, and it worked out fine.  I got the audience to sing along, got lots of applause, and even got compliments afterward.  This made me feel good.  It also made me feel like I could do this more often if I memorized more of my own songs and practiced more.

Overall, it made me look back on my involvement in music – from my beginnings as a music fan, to someone who learned to play guitar, to someone who played in duos and bands, to someone who played solo at open mic nights, to someone who wrote his own songs, to someone who records his own songs while playing multiple instruments and singing.

Prior to the recent live performance, I had evolved at my own pace to become someone who treated music as a hobby – writing songs and recording them alone in my basement.  In my home studio – where I have a computer, audio interface, multitrack recording software, guitar, bass, drums, microphone, etc. – I have taught myself to be able to record one track at a time and mix those tracks together to produce a song that sounds like a band had played it.

With no formal music training and limited natural talent – particularly vocal talent – I do the best I can with what ability I do have, and with the help of the internet, learn little things here and there about music along the way through trial and error.  I take it slowly, and my progression with the craft of songwriting and recording has slowly improved over the years in small ways that may only be noticeable to me.

Live audience feedback can be a good indicator of memorability.  Herein lies a missing ingredient – the input of others.  Although I sell my recordings online, I don’t sell much, and I get very little feedback from those who do buy them.  Playing live would probably help me sell more, and it would also give me an idea of which songs are better than others.  Instead of relying on my own intuition or a review by a relative or friend, a live audience would help as an additional means of weeding out prior to releasing.

So, the pre-conlcusion here is playing live would no doubt help my cause to bring people my best songs.  What works and what doesn’t in front of a live audience would also help me refine works-in-progress.  There is potential to self-market when playing live and get more people to buy my music online.

Another conclusion I came to when playing live recently was that people love a funny song.  In a live performance setting, people remember your funny songs, or your songs about drinking or partying, much more than your love songs or statement songs or story songs.  When you look at the list of an artists songs online, you read the song names and certain ones jump out at you.  The ones that are funny always do, and the ones that are unusual in some way.

What’s going on here is that catchy titles and humor seem to rule the age of internet singles.  Which brings to mind something music consumers have always known - catchy titles are more important than you might be willing to admit.  For the same reason you liked Fat Bottom Girls by Queen or Big Balls by AC/DC, or even songs whose name you remembered because of a memorable phrase it contained like Hair Of The Dog by Nazareth, catchy titles combined with a little humor and/or rebelliousness stick in our minds.  As a songwriter, you don’t intentionally try to write these, but they happen, and even though the artist in you never admits that such cheap novelty tricks work, they nonetheless do.  

There are artists whose entire careers are built around songs about drinking and partying.  They’d be nothing without those songs.  The music business has evolved into more of a singles business versus an album business.  In an era where single-song downloads are the norm, catchy titles rule.  Memorable song titles that grab the attention of potential listeners seems to be more important than ever.  Something tells me that the kinds of songs artists are remembered for most are the ones that are humorous, controversial, and rebellious…and most importantly, have those elements reflected in the song title.

My guess is that a song is more likely to be downloaded when it has a catchy title and poor melody/lyrics, and that a song with great melody/lyrics that does not have a catchy title is less likely to be purchased.  A part of me thinks it’s unfortunate, but a part of me thinks it’s always been this way.  It’s just emphasized more due to the way people find and buy music online now.  Videos seem to have great potential to help a cause like mine, but I don’t like seeing myself on video, and I never like how I look or sound, just like when you first got an answering machine for your phone and recorded your first outgoing greeting message and played it back...you said to yourself “Is that really me?”  People discover YouTubes every day and overnight sensations are made and recordings get bought.

Just like no one will ever discover this blog if I don’t do anything different than continue to write rambling posts like this one, findability, “sticking outedness,” getting noticed, getting remembered ain’t gonna happen by happy accident.  Naming is important.  Artist/band names get noticed first, followed by album titles, then song titles, and it helps for all three to be attention-grabbing in some way.  Nailing down what constitutes ‘attention-grabbing’ is part user preference - that is, based on the individual’s personality and taste, but also part advertising.  General advertising principles apply, such as the fact that babies and sex sell products.  Songs that have familiar places, famous people, or that have blatant nose-thumbingness in their titles stand out in the crowd of song titles online.  Other qualities that appeal to the masses include anything popular - from popular phrases to cultural colloquialisms to well-known slogans to favorite words, etc.  These same principles are similarly important for books and movies as well.  

Theme time could be the right time.  Just as authors become known for a certain style of writing, songwriters/performers become known for a style of songwriting and performing.  Take Jimmy Buffett for example - chances are if you brainstorm a list of words that are tropical (coconuts, palm trees, sandy beach, ocean, etc.), you will find them in his album titles, song titles, and within the lyrics of the songs themselves.  There is a clear theme to his music.  You can say the same about instrumentation for certain musicians, as well as their clothing, performance style, dancing, etc.  Certain musicians are well aware of the importance of aesthetics - Jack White of White Stripes fame comes to mind here with the red & white theme he created for that band.  Album art can no doubt draw people in, but not as much as the old LP brick and mortar record store days.  Not only do you have a theme in visual style, but you also have a theme of musical style, and a big part of musical style involves the lyrics.  Lyrical themes delivered consistently create an expectation, and thus, draw an audience accordingly.  Here you get into pigeonholing, labeling, classification, categorization, genres, tagging and so forth, which goes against the grain of artistic freedom.  Having a recognizable signature style evolves out of experimentation, and can eventually help one build an audience.

Figuring out what people like while not repeating a formula is something to keep in mind.  Rather than taking a risk of your music being considered contrived, you can blow off trying to repeat something that appealed to many.  Record companies who get a hit out of an artist want another just like it, and rightfully so.  However, no artist wants all of their songs to sound the same as each other.  AC/DC stuck with a formula and have had a consistent signature sound, whereas Led Zeppelin included more variety in tempo and style, doing reggae, country, folk, and ballads as well as hard rock and blues.  You can change tempos, instruments, song forms, singing style, etc. and still sound like you, but sometimes, it’s contrived when it’s obvious you’re intentionally stretching too far from your home base.  

Punk rock musicians who suddenly switch to classical, or jazz musicians who change to recording country are rare.  Crossover attempts sometimes occur, but other times they are more contrived like when Garth Brooks recorded a rock album as a different persona.  Nashville songwriters seem to successfully pitch formulaic songs to mainstream country artists and it’s noticeable.  Sometimes you notice, and you don’t care, you like it anyway, and it just works.  There’s no accounting for people’s tastes, except that you can bet something fairly new and different will come along eventually that will be a breath of fresh air, and then others will try to emulate it.

Dealing with this knowledge can be tricky.  Despite knowing all of the above, I still just write what I feel like writing, and record the best of what I come up with.  The self-rated keeper ratio remains about the same from year to year, and I throw away about three fourths of what I write.  The remaining one fourth may suffer further weeding out due to not sounding so great after my best effort with the recording process, and then I’m left with a handful of songs every year that I consider “release-worthy”.  The songs I release are perhaps unconsciously influenced by my knowledge of what works, but I never set out to try to write a hit according to my knowledge of what worked in songs by others I enjoy.  My songs just happen, and although I’ve done some rewriting that worked on occasion, it’s usually a case of trusting the weeding out process I use.  The song has to be pretty good from the get-go to make my final cut.  The best ones fire on more cylinders than others right from the start, as if by pure accident.  More often than not, those that make the cut have some of the important catchiness in their titles and lyrics, and always in the music, but getting people to hear the music is greatly aided by the title.  

We’re in a try before you buy world now, where you stream it online first.  Prior to hitting play, the song title matters.  Can you rename a great song so that the title stands out more?  Yes, but only if it doesn’t take away from the song.  It usually means rewriting the chorus too, so you have to be careful.  The bottom line here is if you have a few attention-grabbing song titles, you’ll maybe be lucky enough to get fans who want the whole album.  They might be intrigued enough to try out the more boring-sounding song names as well.  Catchy titles happen naturally for me, but I never start writing with a title in mind.  It’s an accident, but when it happens, it helps to have a catchy song title.  The beauty of it is when you’re writing a song, maybe mid-way through, and you realize it’s going to be good, and then you realize at some point it’s going to work out that it has an attention-grabbing title according to the aforementioned criteria, you’ve got a definite keeper.  It’s cool when that happens, and I know that if I write enough songs, the keeper ratio will produce another.  It’s just a matter of time.

From a bedroom, basement or woodshed, you can get a somewhat decent recorded product, depending on your quality standards.  Nowadays you can record at home, then sell online, and never have to get out of your pajamas.  You can remain anonymous if you want to, and develop a following without ever needing to play in front of people though viral online recommendation.  Since I don’t even have a good voice, and am not a great guitar player, I shy away from playing in front of people.  I’m realistic in knowing I’m not a good performer.  Yet, I think my finished recordings show that my songs are pretty good.  It’s not that I doctor them up with fancy digital trickery - in fact I intentionally resist these temptations and try to produce a very realistic version of each song using the bare minimum of effects.  I must admit that I wish my music could reach a wider audience.  I’d love it if people liked and bought my music, and so that’s why I’ve made it available for sale in digital retail stores.  So my main confession is that I want that to happen without having to perform live.  Secretly, I’d like to maintain a slight bit of mystery, and maybe someday there would be a demand for me to play live.  If that ever happened, I would definitely be excited to learn my own songs and play them for people.

My Recording Process

I recently received some complimentary feedback on my latest album, Cherchez La Femme, from someone who has inquired about my recording process, so I decided to write a blog post about it. The nice note:

Damon – you asked, and now you shall receive. Your kind comments and question inspired me to blog about how I record, so maybe this will inspire you further. Welcome world to my explanation of my simple and efficient recording process – the one I’ve used for the 65 songs and 5 albums I’ve released so far. First of all, I have to let you know I use a simple audio interface with an XLR microphone jack that connects to my desktop computer via Firewire, and then I use a multi-track audio editing software application to mix and master on my computer. I have two microphones, and two acoustic guitars, one acoustic bass, and some drums and percussion instruments, a marimba, and some harmonicas. To see the exact brands and models of my equipment and instruments, you can check out all the detailed info and even pictures of them on the gear page of my website: www.scottcooley.com/gear. My recording process is to go as quickly as I can from writing a song to having a finished recording. I find that the less time I spend on trying to get it perfect, the better it sounds and the more I like the experience. I can go from starting to write the song to having the finished recording of it in about as little as one hour, and the most I ever spend would be about three hours on one song, start to finish – assuming the song is already written first. Sometimes I write a song in fifteen minutes, while others linger as drafts for years, but that’s outside the scope of this blog topic. I never memorize my own songs. This may surprise some people, but since I’m not a live performer, I don’t need to, and haven’t had the desire to. When I write a song, and when I get it somewhat complete, I record a first take on an old Sony recordable walkman cassette recorder. The first take cassette tape catalog and the finished digital recording are typically the only two recordings I have of most of my songs, and then I never play them again. Usually, that’s the only time I record it playing it live while singing it all the way through – on the 1st take cassette. I used to review the cassette versions and pick the best to record digitally, but now I just know which are good enough. Before I hit record on my computer though, I type up the lyrics (which I’ve usually done in advance of the time I decide to record when I wrote the song), and I also usually tune my guitar first.

Step One – Have The Lyrics In Front Of Me 

First, I need the song I wrote to be “written.” Years ago, I would hand-write w/ pen or pencil on paper the lyrics, sometimes writing the chord letter above the word where played, sometimes not. I’ve regretted not writing those chords down since the first-take cassette tapes wear out and listening back is the only way to know what the chords were. Since I have a bad memory, in recent years I try to remember to put the chord letters on the lyric sheets, which I now type in electronic document files and store on my computer. I used to print out the one-page song on my printer, and prop the sheet up, but now I even save that step because I have a wide computer monitor that allows me to tile vertically the screen. On the left is the lyric / chord file, and on the other the multitrack recording software.

Step Two – Record Rhythm Guitar Track 

The sequencer/editor/multitrack recording software application I use has a built-in metronome. I usually have an idea from when I wrote the song and played it through once on the 1st-take cassette what the tempo is going to be, so I set it accordingly and put on the headphones. I also know from the lyric sheet how the song is arranged because I’ll type the intro and instrumental break chords as sections along with the verses, chorus, bridge, repeats, etc. sequentially on the page. So, I’ll usually just write something like “last two lines of chorus chords” for the intro, or “verse chords” for the intstrumental break, and instinctively know to move my eyes to those sections to get the chords and play the right number of measures or bars, even though I don’t really know what measures and bars are exactly. So, with the headphones on, I’ll hit record, wait ether 4 or 8 beats, then start playing the rhythm guitar track all the way through. I usually nail it in the first take, but sometimes screw up, hit delete, and start over. I like to nail each track live in one take, so consider it a personal challenge to play every part perfect live while recording. It’s also a big hassle time-wise to do any tricky punch-ins or splices or whatever those are called because I’ve never really been able to figure out all the features of the software for that, and I think it loses some authenticity that way in the overall sound. I don’t really know how to fingerpick, but sometimes I fake it to get a good sound using three fingers on my right hand. Sometimes I sort of strum with just one finger. Other times I’ll use a standard flat pick to strum with. It all depends on the style of the song. Quite often, my preferred and signature sound is such that I like to have two rhythm acoustic guitar tracks and pan them out wide in the mix. I do not copy a single track and make one left and one right, however. Instead, I repeat the process and have two separetely-recorded takes. They never sound perfectly in sync with each other, and this way they really complement each other nicely. Sometimes if I knew I was sort of weak in a couple areas on the first take, I’ll accentuate them in the second. For both I use the AKG C1000S small diaphram condenser mic w/ phantom power about six inches away from the soundhole of my acoustic guitar, and I record it effect-free. Way later in my process I might add some reverb, but not much.

Step Three – Record Bass Guitar Track 

While listening to only the metronome in the headphones, I record the bass track. Rarely do I listen to the rhythm guitar track while recording bass, because it screws me up a little and makes the bass match the percussiveness of the guitar too much. I like it to be spontaneous and fresh, and metronome-only works best for bass for me. Again, I look at the lyric/chord sheet while recording. I use the Shure SM7B without the low cut or high boost, so the settings on the mic itself are flat, and then I crank the gain since it’s a dynamic mic. I play a non-upright acoustic bass guitar, and I cannot tell you how hard it is to get a good recording of this instrument, but the mic is the key. I’ve tried the Sure Beta 52 which is touted to be good for this, but I’m here to tell you it’s not at all – it sucks. Also early on I used the bronze wound strings, but since I switched to the black nylon, the sound is way better. It’s not as loud, but who cares when you’re recording, you can always boost the volume later. These strings allow me to avoid the sound of your fingers sliding across the strings, and it also makes it sound more like an upright bass. Additionally, you can avoid the miscellaneous pull-off and transitional clicks if you don’t play precisely enough. Some imperfection can sound cool, but too much is bad, so these strings seriously help. So, the mic and the strings are the key ingredients here. Sometimes I have to do two or three do-overs until I can nail it all the way through. I have no idea how to actually play bass, so I stick with mostly root notes. I’ll also usually do a little warm-up before I hit record, making sure I know what I’m going to play for each part, and practice the walking transitions between verse, chorus & bridge. My audio interface has built-in DSP effects, and for guitar I do Compression > EQ, but for bass I switch them to EQ> Compression in the signal chain. I read somewhere on the internet this is what to do, and it does sound better. I have no idea why, and don’t really care, but it works. Most people who record go direct with a plugged-in electric Fender bass, but I’ve never tried that. I know those are way easier to play, but you don’t get the neat acoustic sound I get.

Step Four – Record The Djembe 

Since I already have stuff set for bass, I always record djembe next because I use the same settings and microphone. I just angle it about 5 inches from the top. In the headphones, I’m listening to the rhythm guitar track only. I want it to be fresh and blend with the bass, so it doesn’t work well if I’m hearing the bass track, so I do rhythm guitar only in the cans. This I usually nail in one take, because I’m just playing it in a minimalist way, and the hits are where a kick drum would normally be. I hear in my head where I want the hits to be somehow, so instinctively know. The key to my success here is keeping it simple, and also, I’m slapping my knee quietly with the other hand. The free hand is slapping the snare drum part. That’s my secret. Instead of recording w/ overhead mics and playing djembe & snare on the same track, I have them separately panned in the mix in the final recording because I record them separately.

Step Five – Record The Snare 

I do this exactly the same as the djembe, only switch to the AKG condenser mic, and switch back to the Comp > EQ order on the input. So, I listen to rhythm guitar track w/ metronome in headphones, and this time I slap my knee with the free hand to what the djembe would be playing. I don’t want to be thrown off by the djembe sound, so I mute that in the phones, but my free hand slaps my knee where it would be played, while my other hand hits the snare – usually with a nylon brush. Again, I just instinctively know where I want the snare hits to be. The hard part is the “fills” or “transitions” or “runs” or whatever those are called in between verses and choruses. I usually figure those out and know what I want to do before I hit record. I don’t claim to be good or knowledgeable at any of this stuff, but this is how I produce the sound I get, be that good or bad. Technically, I know I’m “off” a lot, but I do the best I can and the authenticity is refreshing and the simplicity lets other parts of the song shine. It’s “light” and “complimentary” the way I play drums.

Step Six – Record Cymbal and/or Percussion 

Now I’ll do individual tracks using the same snare setup for hi-hat cymbal, crash cymbal, tambourine, shaker, whatever the song calls for. I have some conga/bongos, and a wood slit mallett drum. I’ve used a cowbell a couple times and a washboard too. I just sort of hear in my head what the song should or should not have and take it from there.

Step Seven – Record Scratch Lead Vocal 

Now I listen to only the rhythm guitar in the headphones and record the vocal. I get it close to how I wanted it and that’s it.

Step Eight – Record Background Vocals 

Now listening to the rhythm guitar and scratch lead vocal in the headphones, I’ll record usually four separate background vocal tracks. For this I switch to the Sure mic, only I use the low-cut filter and high boost switches on there. I usually nail these in 4 takes, then pan 2 left and 2 right for the mixdown later. Sometimes, if the octave/key is right for my voice I’ll do 2 high and 2 low and blend. Instinctively, I sort of “hear” where the oohs and aahs should go, if at all, and whether I should sing all or only part of a chorus. I usually plan this out before I hit record. If I can understand where I can hit different notes than the lead vocal I do, however, this harmony stuff is difficult for me to do naturally, so I usually go with a softer, laid-back, more breathy version of the lead vocal but hit the same notes. I’m always amazed at how good my background vocals sound given my limited ability, but this really seems to improve the overall sound of the recording for most songs.

Step Nine – Record Instrumental Solos and Fills 

I don’t do many “fills” throughout the song, but this is when I would do those, along with the solo intrumental break and intro parts, sometimes a melody line in the chorus. I might use harmonica or marimba, or slide guitar, but usually do a standard acoustic guitar solo using a pick. The hardest part is to learn the actual melody line if I’m not doing a free-form pentatonic jam. To do this, I listen back to the lead vocal track while playing the instrument to get the notes to match. I learn it just for the purposes of recording the track, and then never remember any of it. This would be just for marimba or slide or guitar. On harmonica, I just do a free-form thing that sounds close, since again, I have no idea how to actually play harmonica. My slide sound is a Hawaiian Weissenborn lap-style slide bar, so it has a nice acoustic sound I like. Having a true melody line sounds good on some songs, where on others, just wailing out a jam naturally sounds pretty cool.

Step Ten – RE-Record Lead Vocal 

Here’s where I try really hard for several takes, saving them all, then I go back and do a complicated listen/delete process where I remove the worst parts of each track, then eventually find the best parts of maybe four or even five takes and mute or silence out the rest and then bounce down a “greatest” of all five into a single mixed track, which serves as the final lead vocal. I know this is cheating, but I’m a really bad singer and this allows me to get it as good as I can.

Step Eleven – Muting/Noise Reduction/Effects 

Now I’ll go and mute unwated sounds, clicks, pops and use the software to perform noise reduction on every track. After each track is totally “clean” I’ll go through and add a little reverb to the lead vocal and sometimes the snare.

Step Twelve – Mixdown and Master 

The mixdown is just a software function, and then I’ll do a little EQ, Compression and and Normalization to the final mix. Maybe fade outs at the end of some songs. Then I trim to cut out the intro and end silence.

Overall 

When I assess my overall sound as a performer/producer/engineer, here’s the brutal honesty:

Acoustic-Only

My sound is all acoustic, which even if played and recorded perfectly, can still sound amateurish. If I were to use electric instruments, however, I would need to get a full drum kit and actually learn to play the drums better, which I don’t have the space or desire to do. Electric guitar and bass would make it sound more professional.

No Keyboard

I don’t have a piano, and the cheap casio I have doesn’t sound like a real piano, which is the sound I would want. My wife’s accordion on a few tunes sounds awesome, even though I have no idea how to record it properly. I suppose I could teach myself piano too, but don’t necessarily want to take on yet another instrument, particularly since that’s one where it’s more important to be able to read & write actual notation in order to understand how to play. Piano would make it sound more professional.

Weak Rhythm Section

Since I’m also self-taught in bass, drums & percussion, I’m just as bad as I am with guitar, probably worse because I’ve done it less. I would know enough to teach a band the general idea I have in mind, and if I were to ever put together a band, they could listen to my released demos and take it from there. Hiring session musicians to record on my demos to play these instruments would make it sound more professional.

No Effects

Effects-wise, I could do a lot more, but this would only sound good if I also played electric instruments to begin with and had a more polished overall sound. I like it to sound raw, unpracticed, and unpolished, so it is very real-sounding. More effects would mean a big cost – either for plug-ins, harwdware channel strips, pedals, etc., and a big learning curve to figure out how to use them. Effects would make it sound more professional.

Weak Vocals

Doing it more doesn’t necessarily mean improvement for me. Just as I admit I’m self-taught with instruments, I also have no formal vocal training. Not only that, but I don’t have any natural ability to control my voice. This is not something I have a desire to invest in to improve, either with money for lessons or time. I try to make the lyrics clearly understood, and muster enough style to get some emotion across. I do the best I can with what I’ve got, and it’s good enough for my purposes. I do envision my songs being sung by pros, and wonder how much better I’d think the songs were if that happened. Hiring professional vocalists for my demos would definitely make it sound more professional.

Mixing

Mixing to me is just a matter of getting the relative volume levels of each track right for how you envisioned the sound of the song, and also panning the instruments how you want them to be. The rest is just software. I pan acoustic rhythm guitars and background vocals out wide, drums less wide, bass and lead vocal in the middle, and that’s about it. I then try out how it sounds on a car stereo and readjust volume levels accordingly, which is technically part of mastering, not mixing I guess. I do go the extra mile with recording each track separately, so have more control even though it’s more time-consuming. I suppose a pro engineer would improve over what I come up with however.

Minimal Mastering

I don’t spend much time learning about mastering, but do the best I can with what I have available in the software. On the one hand I don’t want it to sound electronic and over-polished, but on the other I know I could do better. It’s just a matter of testing what all the options do to the sound, and I don’t want a room full of hardware racks and all that. Overall, I’ve found less is more, and I’ve learned that no amount of mastering can make bad tracks sound like a great song, so the performances of each track are way more important. For music that is this amateur-sounding, paying a pro doesn’t make much sense. Pro master would make it sound more professional though.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, it is what it is. I have lots of room for improvement, but limited capability to improve. I could invest more in better equipment and/or lessons, but don’t have the desire. I’ll never be cut out for being a great performer or singer. So, the pipe dream is selling a song, getting a cut. Honestly, I can’t help doing this, even if I never improve or take it to any other level. I can’t go long without writing songs, and recording the best versions of them I can. That said, I like to be ultra-efficient about the process. I’m someone with minimal talent/skill who maximizes it using a minimalist approach. My taste is such that I don’t want to use synthesizers and electronics to mask imperfections. I like to make it sound real, yet the best I can make it sound. I like the challenge to be able to play each instrument track perfectly live without any fancy tricks, but then I purge my temporary memory of how I was able to briefly learn all the parts and never play the song again. I know, it’s weird. I guess I wanted to have a huge catalog of songs first before I decided which ones were good enough to memorize and play live for people in the living room or at the beach fire. Then of course, I maintain the dream of having a famous artist record a version that becomes a hit, and also to put together a band where I’m the lead singer/ guitar player and play only my originals someday. The reality is I love doing it, and like to maximize my free time by going for a quality/expense/speed ratio that I’m comfortable with. Hopefully, reading this will help you do the same.