Producing your own CD
Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2013 1:00 am
I want to start off by saying, I’ll appreciate any feedback or experiences that you may have about this topic. (I’ll give a long winded version of my experience of producing my own guitar CD from start to finish here. I’m being transparent telling all the fun and pitfalls that I’ve had this past year on producing this CD from start to finish!)
I’ve heard Doyle Dykes say more than once, that every guitarist should record. Even if you don’t record a CD to sell, you should record at least for your family. He also said it will make you a better player. You hear things that you can improve on when you record yourself.
My first attempt at making a recording was back around the early 90’s. I recorded a gospel guitar cassette. I did it all myself on a 4 track cassette mini studio machine. I recorded the background music with a cheap keyboard. I look back on it now and some of the background music sounds down right cheesy!
The past several years a guy I work with asked me over and over again: “How’s that Christmas CD coming along?” To begin with, I had no intentions of recording a Christmas CD, but the more he asked, the more I began to think about it. So, at the beginning of this year, I finally decided that I would record a Christmas CD. I made the announcement on Facebook that I was thinking about it and some people said that I should do it. I decided early on that I wanted it to sound professional this time. I decided to lease professional backing tracks from Daywind studios in Hendersonville, TN. Daywind is primarily a Southern Gospel recording studio which I was familiar with. Leasing backing tracks is fairly expensive, about $125 per song. This entitles you to record with each track that you lease on a one time basis and you can have as many copies as you want to produce. I went that route, because I planned on recording my part with my computer software and take my time. I could have went to a real studio, but as many times as I re-recorded to get it right, it would have cost me a fortune! After recording my CD I decided that I’ll go a different route next time. First off, a lot of Christmas songs have been tough for me. I only play them once a year and a lot of them I never took time to learn them well. With backing tracks I was stuck with their background arrangements and I had to work my arrangements around that. Next time I make a CD I think I’ll record a gospel guitar CD recording thumbstyle tunes that I’m more known for and use Band In A Box for my backing tracks. There's a guy on the Chetboard that goes by "MitchC", he uses "Band In A Box" for his backing tracks. I'm really impressed with the background music that he gets with Band In a Box. Give him a listen: https://soundcloud.com/mitchc-1 This is the type of background music that I think I'll try on my next CD, it's simple, yet very effective. It reminds me of a lot of Chet's old LP's, it put the guitar in the forefront. I had Band in the Box years ago and it didn't sound realistic, now I'm very impressed. They actually have some real instrument clips to choose from. Mitch said if you can afford it to get the "Everything PAK". It's kind of expensive, but it's still way cheaper than what I paid to lease the backing tracks. Give Mitch a listen, I think you'll be impressed.
I leased the backing tracks, all public domain songs, and began recording in the spring. I got a free musician website from fourfour.com to help promote my CD along the way. I also used Facebook and the Chetboard to promote my CD updating what I was recording throughout the year. I used my Zoom G3X to record direct with the bundled Steinberg Sequel LE3 studio software. I used a cheap Behringer C-1 large Diaphragm mic with a Behringer Tube Ultragain MIC200 pre-amp to record my Del Vecchio. I used Audacity to filter out the background hiss. I also used Audacity to do the mastering myself. I was really pleased with the results that I got by doing it myself with the equipment that I have.
Once I got it all finished, I made the decision to have the CD’s replicated instead of duplicated. To have it replicated you have to order at least 300 copies. I ran the numbers and figured I should order a 1000. (Mistake! LOL) I figured I only need to sell around 20 something more CD’s to pay for the extra cost of the 1000 over the 300! I figured I would only need to sell 220 something to pay for my total investment, then everything past that would be pure profit! Well as it turns out I ended up selling 89 copies of my album this Christmas season. Next project will be duplicated and only 100! I ended up using Nationwide Disc to replicate my CD and I think they did a great job and they have very good prices compared to some of the more well known CD manufacturers.
A little background on me: I just play at church, usually 3 services a week. I don’t do concerts or play out much. I do play at our annual Gospel Guitar Jam in the spring and I help organize and play at our Gospel Guitar Night in the fall. We go to a Holiness church that runs about 125 people on Sunday morning. We sing Hymns out of the Hymnal and Southern Gospel type music. I feel that playing the guitar is my ministry. I feel that I’m a good guitarist, but not a great guitarist. There are some great guitarist here on the Chetboard. So, unless you tour and do shows all the time 100 CD’s is probably more than enough.
I went with CDbaby to do my distribution. They charged a $49 one time fee. They sell your physical CD’s and downloads. They also distribute to the most popular digital outlets such as iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon. Being on iTunes sounds impressive, but don’t expect too many sales there unless you are well known. I ended up selling the most CD’s to my co-workers – 34 CD’s. I sold the most at one time at our Gospel Guitar Night -21 CD’s. I only sold 9 online and only 2 people downloaded my album.
I had a blast promoting my CD this year, mostly through Facebook. You will find that many people will like your Facebook posts about your new release, but few will buy. Also, I found that paying for Facebook promotion ads was a waste of money for me. I also did a YouTube video of one of my tracks to help promote the CD. I had a drawing on the Chetboard and Facebook and gave away a couple of CD’s. That was fun. I sent out CD’s to about 12 radio stations, both real stations and online. I ended up on 8 on air stations (6 were on the same network) and 3 online stations. That was fun and exciting. (One of the stations actually contacted me and asked if I would be willing to send them my CD for airplay!) The trick to get airplay is to send your music to niche stations. I sent it to online Christmas stations and to gospel stations that might play my type of music.
I hope to record another CD, I learned a lot this time. I’ll do things a little different on the next one. If you are like me, you will want to make the CD as economical as possible, but yet as professional as possible and at least break even. Most of all have fun!
Merry Christmas
I’ve heard Doyle Dykes say more than once, that every guitarist should record. Even if you don’t record a CD to sell, you should record at least for your family. He also said it will make you a better player. You hear things that you can improve on when you record yourself.
My first attempt at making a recording was back around the early 90’s. I recorded a gospel guitar cassette. I did it all myself on a 4 track cassette mini studio machine. I recorded the background music with a cheap keyboard. I look back on it now and some of the background music sounds down right cheesy!
The past several years a guy I work with asked me over and over again: “How’s that Christmas CD coming along?” To begin with, I had no intentions of recording a Christmas CD, but the more he asked, the more I began to think about it. So, at the beginning of this year, I finally decided that I would record a Christmas CD. I made the announcement on Facebook that I was thinking about it and some people said that I should do it. I decided early on that I wanted it to sound professional this time. I decided to lease professional backing tracks from Daywind studios in Hendersonville, TN. Daywind is primarily a Southern Gospel recording studio which I was familiar with. Leasing backing tracks is fairly expensive, about $125 per song. This entitles you to record with each track that you lease on a one time basis and you can have as many copies as you want to produce. I went that route, because I planned on recording my part with my computer software and take my time. I could have went to a real studio, but as many times as I re-recorded to get it right, it would have cost me a fortune! After recording my CD I decided that I’ll go a different route next time. First off, a lot of Christmas songs have been tough for me. I only play them once a year and a lot of them I never took time to learn them well. With backing tracks I was stuck with their background arrangements and I had to work my arrangements around that. Next time I make a CD I think I’ll record a gospel guitar CD recording thumbstyle tunes that I’m more known for and use Band In A Box for my backing tracks. There's a guy on the Chetboard that goes by "MitchC", he uses "Band In A Box" for his backing tracks. I'm really impressed with the background music that he gets with Band In a Box. Give him a listen: https://soundcloud.com/mitchc-1 This is the type of background music that I think I'll try on my next CD, it's simple, yet very effective. It reminds me of a lot of Chet's old LP's, it put the guitar in the forefront. I had Band in the Box years ago and it didn't sound realistic, now I'm very impressed. They actually have some real instrument clips to choose from. Mitch said if you can afford it to get the "Everything PAK". It's kind of expensive, but it's still way cheaper than what I paid to lease the backing tracks. Give Mitch a listen, I think you'll be impressed.
I leased the backing tracks, all public domain songs, and began recording in the spring. I got a free musician website from fourfour.com to help promote my CD along the way. I also used Facebook and the Chetboard to promote my CD updating what I was recording throughout the year. I used my Zoom G3X to record direct with the bundled Steinberg Sequel LE3 studio software. I used a cheap Behringer C-1 large Diaphragm mic with a Behringer Tube Ultragain MIC200 pre-amp to record my Del Vecchio. I used Audacity to filter out the background hiss. I also used Audacity to do the mastering myself. I was really pleased with the results that I got by doing it myself with the equipment that I have.
Once I got it all finished, I made the decision to have the CD’s replicated instead of duplicated. To have it replicated you have to order at least 300 copies. I ran the numbers and figured I should order a 1000. (Mistake! LOL) I figured I only need to sell around 20 something more CD’s to pay for the extra cost of the 1000 over the 300! I figured I would only need to sell 220 something to pay for my total investment, then everything past that would be pure profit! Well as it turns out I ended up selling 89 copies of my album this Christmas season. Next project will be duplicated and only 100! I ended up using Nationwide Disc to replicate my CD and I think they did a great job and they have very good prices compared to some of the more well known CD manufacturers.
A little background on me: I just play at church, usually 3 services a week. I don’t do concerts or play out much. I do play at our annual Gospel Guitar Jam in the spring and I help organize and play at our Gospel Guitar Night in the fall. We go to a Holiness church that runs about 125 people on Sunday morning. We sing Hymns out of the Hymnal and Southern Gospel type music. I feel that playing the guitar is my ministry. I feel that I’m a good guitarist, but not a great guitarist. There are some great guitarist here on the Chetboard. So, unless you tour and do shows all the time 100 CD’s is probably more than enough.
I went with CDbaby to do my distribution. They charged a $49 one time fee. They sell your physical CD’s and downloads. They also distribute to the most popular digital outlets such as iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon. Being on iTunes sounds impressive, but don’t expect too many sales there unless you are well known. I ended up selling the most CD’s to my co-workers – 34 CD’s. I sold the most at one time at our Gospel Guitar Night -21 CD’s. I only sold 9 online and only 2 people downloaded my album.
I had a blast promoting my CD this year, mostly through Facebook. You will find that many people will like your Facebook posts about your new release, but few will buy. Also, I found that paying for Facebook promotion ads was a waste of money for me. I also did a YouTube video of one of my tracks to help promote the CD. I had a drawing on the Chetboard and Facebook and gave away a couple of CD’s. That was fun. I sent out CD’s to about 12 radio stations, both real stations and online. I ended up on 8 on air stations (6 were on the same network) and 3 online stations. That was fun and exciting. (One of the stations actually contacted me and asked if I would be willing to send them my CD for airplay!) The trick to get airplay is to send your music to niche stations. I sent it to online Christmas stations and to gospel stations that might play my type of music.
I hope to record another CD, I learned a lot this time. I’ll do things a little different on the next one. If you are like me, you will want to make the CD as economical as possible, but yet as professional as possible and at least break even. Most of all have fun!
Merry Christmas