UNDERSTANDING PRE-PRODUCTION

Understanding Pre-Production
#mixdownonline #musicproduction #homestudio

After writing a GOOD song, Pre-Production is a very important stage in producing music.

In this video I share with you the way I see Pre-Production, what a Pre-Production Cubase session looks like and why I believe Pre-Production is mandatory before getting to the Recording stage.

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[paulsaunders]

Three Production Workflows - Analogue, MIDI and Digital.

1. Analogue. Back in the 70s I used to write songs with pen and paper. Then I'd record each instrument to tape in a single take, starting with drums, then rhythm guitar, then bass, then lead instruments and finally vocals (bouncing back and fore between two stereo tape machines). It was very primitive. For mixing I used a 10 band graphic EQ on each instrument as I recorded it.

2. MIDI. In the 90s I made MIDI music with Cubase and a few sound modules, doing everything with a keyboard. I wrote, arranged, recorded, edited and mixed everything all at the same time. I'd write and record a full arrangement with a dozen tracks for the verse before even starting to write the chorus. That really wasn't the best way to do it. Worrying about performance, editing and mixing really slowed down the writing, and spending too much time on the verse meant that sometimes I forgot what my idea for the chorus was!

3. Digital. I now try to split my workflow into three stages - 1 Writing, 2, Recording, 3 Mixing.

1. Writing. Most of what you talk about in Pre-Production I do in the writing stage. To me the arrangement is part of the writing. Sometimes I'll just pick up a guitar and write chords and lyrics in Notepad (like the old days), but more often the arrangement is part of my original idea - I'll plan out the instruments, sounds, panning etc. as I'm composing the music in my head (I usually record the idea in Sound Forge, singing my ideas for the various parts and describing the arrangement). Then I'll run Cubase later and write the various parts by recording them. I don't worry about the performance or getting the perfect sounds yet, they'd just slow me down. It's important to write quickly when the idea is still fresh in my mind.

2. Recording. Once written, I like to record everything again (if necesssary), concentrating on getting the best performance, but not worrying about the mixing. I also edit at this stage. I can still add new ideas while I'm doing this, since the arrangement isn't final yet.

3. Mixing. Finalise the instrument sounds, then bounce all the tracks to audio, removing inbuilt effects from virtual instruments (sometimes bouncing a wet track as well as the dry). Then concentrate entirely on the mixing, no changing the music now. I need to be happy with the music before doing this (although nothing is ever perfect, so it's best not to obsess over small details).

It's also a good idea to take breaks between each stage, and work on different songs. Working on the same song non-stop can drive you slightly crazy...

[marcelcouture]

Again an excellent video as usual. This time very comforting as I realise that my own process is very similar. May I suggest one thing : it would be very informative for us to have you go through all your 6 steps of music production with one single project that would walk us through the whole thing from composition to mastering.

[BESI]

Hi Chris,
A few days ago I was able to control (and record) multi midi tracks from my KORG keyboard to Cubase simultanously. Ex, I could rout Bass to a Midi channel 9, Drums to Midi channel 10, Perc to 11 and so on, and each keyboard Midi out channel could send signals to the corresponding Midi In channel in Cubase. Now I don't know what happened, but Cubase won't receive exernal keyboard's channels seperately although they are routed accordingly. Instead, all the external keyboard Midi channels are going to one same single Midi track in Cubase, to which ever channel I am clicking on, and as a result, all the notes of different instruments are geting blended and mixed into one midi track.
I have been sitting now two days and evenings trying to fix it so that when I play a keyboard style, I can save midi information into seperate Midi in channels, tried to uninstall whole Cubase and reinstall, but without result. Could you please tell me what is going wrong, with Me or with Cubase?

PS: I am new to Cubase (have recently bought it), and have subsrcibed to your channel because you are a Cubase expert and I found your tutorials very helpful.
I would really really appreciate your help.
Thanks in advance!

[pascaltoyer]

Chris, you open a huge chapter, and several videos on that theme will be usefull. Some questions: how do you manage to test several ideas, for instance, several sounds for a epiano or several drums patterns: do you choose at this stage or can you keep several tracks to test them afterwards ? Regarding the structure of the song, do you play with arrangements ? How do you manage several version of a song, do you make a project for each version or do you mute this or that track do you manage librairies...all versions content in a single librairy or one librairy per version....Hapy to know more. Thanks !

[mcsweet]

Thanks Chris, I really like that kind of Video, It`s more of a global/workflow or a mindset kind of Tutorial. I`m slowly moving Back from Pro Tool to Cubase and so far so good !

[korkenknopfus]

Hello Chris. Sometimes (well, almost always) I am confused how to solve some things at the recording stage, specially at complicated compositions. I (and I don’t know why not) hadn’t thought in a dedicated pre production stage, just to ORDER the whole thing, and still using the DAW. You can’t imagine how this advice helps me to order the work (you can say it if you want: “you amateurs”).

[Pidzej]

I didnt find but have You movie how use vst drum in pre production or maybe You have a good link to YT where can I see it?

[paulsaunders]

I understand the logic of recording drums and guitars again during the recording stage, but what about keyboard parts (virtual MIDI instruments)? Do you quantise them during the pre-production stage then record them again to get the real feel of a performance, or leave them as quantised MIDI?

I also wonder about recording drums along to a quantised drum track. Wouldn't that affect the real feel of the drumming if you're playing along to a "robot"? As a drummer myself I used to record to tape with no click track, and even though I use electronic drums now (to trigger samples), I still think that recording drums with no click is the best way to get real feel and a naturally variable tempo.

I can run Tempo Detection on the drum track afterwards to synchronise it to the bars and beats and make it easy to set markers, loop points etc. The other instruments can then be recorded to the natural drum track instead of to the robotic quantised one.

I think this approach (although less convenient) would give a more natural overall feel to the music, but then again, I'm sure there may be good reasons to record to a fixed tempo, so maybe it depends on the style of music? I think I've heard that film and TV music should be recorded to a fixed tempo, is that right?

Thanks again for the great workflow tips and informative videos.

[cocokids]

What is the name of program that i should use???? This is my problem and no more but no one respond to my i wish i get answer from you😍😍

[Michael-umcw]

To much to thinkin about.... i make my music by doiung and try to have some fun....that tips are only for pro´s not for ppl who make music only to get creativ