Back when I was a younger man there was a thing called pre-production which was done before every recording project. This was in the day when the music producer moniker was given to someone who helped facilitate the production of an album or single.
For those who don’t know what pre-production is/was. In a very general sense, for an album, a producer would be chosen for the project. Maybe they were audio engineers too. They would meet with the band or artist to get a feel for each other. The artist or band would have some songs that they had demoed for the producer. They would go through these songs and choose what they felt were the strongest for the album. They might then go into a rehearsal space and really get these songs nailed down. They’d tighten up the structure, work on parts for each instrument etc. They’d record these sessions and listen back. Once this pre-production process was done and they were confident they had everything relatively laid out THEN they would start to record.
Super Easy
Now, the ease with which you can record everything in parts and build songs for an album combined with the lack of time/budgets for a week or two in a rehearsal room means pre-production is much rarer.
It’s not that pre-production doesn’t happen, it’s just less structured. Demo’s grow into the final track and spend months bouncing back and forth to other trusted ears being massaged into shape. Fundamentally, there isn’t anything wrong with that.
That said, I’ve heard it said that if you spend 10% of your time planning at the start of any project you’re going to have a much clearer path, a more efficient execution and better end result.
The Takeaway: If that single is going to take 20 hours to produce, why not try spending 2 of them planning what to do with the remaining 18. Try the pre-production process with your next song. Give yourself a time budget for pre-production. Demo the songs. Spend time planning, writing and working out your parts etc. See if the process is more enjoyable, more comfortable and how the song sounds in the end. Maybe deliberate pre-production is a process that will make your music thrive.
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