I have a few questions regarding studio singing. I'm after your experiences for curiosity to get a picture of how fellow singers cope when it really matters.

How do you do when you sing in a studio? Like do you sing multiple songs after another or do you save your voice by singing 1 at a time?

Do you take any breaks between cuts and rest your voice? Maybe really pressed by the time limit and just push until it's done?

Do you feel relaxed or stressed in the studio?

Have you ever had to change something because your producer wanted to and how did you solve it, how did it feel?

Anything you want to put in here about studio experiences is well appreciated

I have my own studio and I am my own producer so money and time aren't an issue for me. But I will give you my opinion on your questions:

I would suggest being VERY WELL PREPARED before attempting to pay money to be recorded. When I say prepared i mean that you know your vocal stamina limits. I recommend that you practice your entire album at home and get a feel for how many songs you can do back to back, and how long you can go before your quality starts to diminish. This will give you the answer to how many songs you can do in a single day.

I definately recommend resting between takes, but you mentioned that you may feel rushed because of paying by the hour in the studio. I recommend that you don't think about booking studio time until you have plenty of cash that you don't have to worry about time. If you are worrying about your dollar then the quality of your takes may become compromised as you may be settling for a lower quality because of time constraints.

Personally, I spend a whole day on a single song when recording.


your Q about whether you should listen to your producer's creative ideas: How much power does the producer have? for example, are you part of a record label where the producer is getting to make decisions, or have you just hired this guy to record you? How do you feel about his ideas? Or do you feel that he throws them at you and you have no time to know? Express honesty. If you feel that there is no real way for you to know if you like his ideas yet or not, you should ask him to try his idea (if you are interested in it) and then listen to that, and then continue doing it the way you wanted to do it. You can compare after. Don't make final decisions on a whim just because he has an idea, you may not like it in 2 months. be honest, express what you feel.


SONG WORK:

I suggest you practice your entire album's worth of songs, in a very light voice, like a falsetto. rest 20 minutes, Then run through the entire album a second time, ramping up the power a little bit. this is also a great warmup pre-gig as well.


Hope this helps,

Phil Moufarrege
http://www.bushido-self-improvement.com

This is exactly what I love to read about! Very much appreciated! Thank you for your time Phil!

First of all, I'm jealous of your situation. I would also like infinite time in the studio taking time to perfect everything!
I mostly sit at home making noise from my drawers, flapping spoons and record with a slight delay on my computer. It gives me great ideas but nothing I can't rely on.

Love your warm up! I even tried it and it's a perfect match! I sometimes feel that it's hard to warm up, but this is genuine perfection for me. I have about 1h car travel to the studio so I can fit the warm up while traveling and save valuable time.

We are unsigned and aren't bound to any form of demands but the hindrance of time.
I'm game with testing various ideas from my members and producer, though crazy things might reduce my stamina. It's hard to prepare to whatever crazy ideas they want me to do. I guess I should know my limits better and make a decision what's possible and not.
I often feel okay about it, but I'm usually a perfectionist but in the studio it seems I'm mostly fine with whatever. And I'm scared of that side of myself, I might accept something I really don't like after 2 months like you said. And then I'm screwed, or just have to embrace it and learn to love it.

1 day studio is a month's salary for me since I'm unemployed, I wish I'd could do 1 song a day to really have time to listen careful what I did and so on. But money is really a hindrance to me.

You know. I was singing 8 songs in the studio, loads of lyrics from smooth singing to growl and high pitches, grit and you name it. 56 minute album in total. If it hadn't been for my extreme adrenalin boost from making progress I'd probably been exhausted by half of my repertoire. That's why I created this post to prevent mistakes and build a stronger more reliable singer :) We did our album within a week, and after you made me think about quality I'm slight depressed of what our outcome could have been if we put even more money and more time into it. But what can we do when we love music and lack dollars? I don't want to spend years preparing and forgetting either because I think it would kill some of the passion. This is starting to sound like a sob story. Not like it, I'm just worried u see.

1 song a day for me feels like a lot of time since I've only had a few hours myself at most. Do you sometime feel that it's too much time or even too short?

I could upload a song to show what kind of techniques I'm using which contains most of the above so you can get a picture. If you're interested that is. It's a 12:27 min song with a wall of text so it might be too much. But I will happily share for anyone that's interested.

Again I bow in grace to your tips and thank you for taking the time to share your experiences and thought! I love a great forum where people really can ask anything troubling their minds and get feedback!

And please you all out there, feel free to put down comments as well, your experiences and thoughts! I want to improve and learn. Enlighten me people!

I've been writing songs for 10 years but never could sing or play instruments. I had to wait years before I had the skill to play the songs I wrote years ago. I've only recently hit a level where my skills aren't holding me back anymore. I've had some songs that took me a total of about 3 years to get finished (off and on) because I didn't want to settle. You know when you've hit the spot in terms of what's good or not. "If in doubt, leave it out".

I've got other songs that only took weeks to finish, because I found "the spot" quicker and easier.

The point is, if I had put a time limit on myself, I may have quit way too soon on songs/ideas or settled for a quality that doesn't represent my standards/imagination. For the longest time, I never had evidence that I would ever be able to sing well or play instruments. I had all these great vocal/song ideas in my head, but only now, years later, am I at a level where I can express them. it's a snowball effect.

If you can visualize it, you can achieve it. How long it will take is the unknown part. REMEMBER THAT PARAGRAPH. IT HAS A LOT OF POWER KNOWING THIS. Anything can be achieved. anything! It's just most give up because it may have taken longer than they expected. THey may have even quit a day before getting whatever it was they were after!

May I suggest you get a job, so that you can support your interests. You will have less time, but most people dont' use their time properly anyway. You are unemployed, you should have an extra 8 hours of time than someone who works. If you are finding this is not so, then it simply means you aren't managing your time properly.

Get a job or may I suggest you get the songs perfect before you record them in an expensive studio. You are paying a lot of money, that is the time to record, not compose! It's hard to just "slot something in", you usually need a few days to really see if an idea will work or not. If you just throw in an idea into the song, it may soujnd good, but 2 weeks later you may hate it. get the songs solid before you go in

If a producer gives you an idea, to me it's not enough to just be willing to try it. YOu have to really like the idea to include it in, otherwise you may regret it.

My rule for composing or anything to do with creative ideas is: sleep on it. listen to it the next day, does it still sound as good as it did yesterday?

Have you thought of maybe not recording in the studio yet, until you have the songs ready to go? Record them by yourself and listen to them for a few months. If the songs are still great in a few months then you are ready to take them into the studio.

As for struggling with warming up. I know wha tyou mean. The vocal coaching scene seems to be obsesed with just 2 minute "lip bubbles" for warming up. In my opinion that's not a warmup. A real warmup is about awaking the "middle voice". My warmup is a full 1 hour 20 minute vocal workout. Rest 30 minutes then you are ready to sing ANYTHING. THe breaks totally disappear. Either do that, or run through your entire album at a light intensity. Before I warmup, I can't even sing my own songs. After 1 hour and 20 mins, I can smash them out.

YOu mentioned you don't want to spend years. But you may have to. I did. I wanted it all far before I was ready. You need to let go. THe more time you spend the better you will get. There's no need to stress yourself out with time limits. It's because you are spending money. Maybe think about what I said about going back to self-recording. talk to your band. you don't want your quality to suffer. Enjoy the ride, and focus on creating quality content instead of stressing about how long it's taking. WHat you focus on will change your mood and outlook. Focus on the fantastic art and progress you are making.

Golden rule: go for quality FIRST. everything will follow from that. Don't settle.

I know exactly the feelings your going through. I was so eager to become a pro-musician way before I was ready for it. My ideas are always far ahead of my skills. Its frustrating to have to wait for your skills to catch up to ideas you had years ago. But no one will ever see your great ideas unless you give your body a chacne to catch up.

You may need to get a job, or cut back on studio time and go into more garage recording style.

Check my page out if you want to learn how to save money (saving is more a psychological thing than a physical thing, people stretch their spending to what they earn). http://www.bushido-self-improvement.com/habit-building.html

Everyday you should be spending some time on your passion, so that in 1 years time you can look back and see progress. Progress comes from daily repetition.

Hope it helps

Phil Moufarrege
http://www.bushido-self-improvement.com

It's quite hard for me to get a job without having to leave the band and move far far away. The work situation in Sweden is a bit screwed up and with my looks, I hardly get anything before 150 other applicants on every work that pops up. Typical hard rocker with long hair and beard, their first impression of me is mostly the drug-user warning. Got to love prejudice. And I will not accept a job that demands me to get rid of my 7 years-of-saving-for-the-future look to clean a warehouse! It's preposterous!
I've managed to earn my trust through youth working. Don't take me wrong. I've never done that **** called drugs ever. I don't drink or smoke either, since I know what I want with my life! I wanna be on stage and entertain as a musician! Anyway, I have a part time job but if I would put away all savings from my salary after I paid the rent it would take me 2 years to record a week in a studio. Luckily we're 4 more in my band and we can split the cost. I have a hard time even managing the food right now. It sucks, BUT, I've chose this life myself! And I'm well aware of my sacrifices, and I'm proud over myself for following my dream ;) (OMG so kliché)

I'm really well prepared and I have a clear goal before I go into studio. I have a few "tryouts" in mind I can't try at home myself, but I always know what I want to achieve. So I'm not experimenting to 100%.

I sometimes feel that if I'd put too much time I'd spend all my energy on making everything too perfect. Not a single flaw, lots of tiny effects and in the end I won't even be able to perform it live since it's impossible to comprehend. I try to put my all into it, knowing what I want, and aim for the feeling that screams from within my whole body that "YES, YES THIS IS RIGHT!". I don't want to end up with a robotic, enhanced manipulated product with no soul in it.
From many years ago I learned from a story. There was a painter that spent so many months time in the details that they overshadowed the main picture, a portrait. It ended up with him erasing the high level of detail, all his long perfected work, and went back to a blur to get a strong focus on the main picture. And it became that painters masterpiece.

I don't want it to happen to me. I don't want to strive from my goal by adding the mind of a perfectionist. I solved it by choosing a producer I really trust and like as a person, to help me achieve my goal and him telling me where to go. I give him clear directions and thoughts about my lyrics and music and let him understand my feelings I have put into the songs. And from that he guides me and tell me when I start to sway away from the concept. I can truly trust him.
Is this something anyone else would consider madness? I don't know, but we have found the right man and I love our cooperation.

Again I most appreciate your time and answers. I really had to think this time and I feel that this is something very important every one should think about. Certainly marvelous!
Thank you!