Wanna record Album-Quality songs at Home?? (Don't Skip This Step!)

If you want album-quality mixes, it starts way back in the songwriting and pre-production phases.

Recording crystal clear pre-production demos is an essential step in the production process and it can be done in even the most unideal of locations with the cheapest gear imaginable.

In this video, I share my actual prepro setup for an EP I'm currently gearing up to record.

I'm using an 11-year-old laptop, Shure SM58 and a 2-channel USB interface...recording entirely in a tight corner of a basement.

[Noxeeql]

My favorite part of pre-production is when you come to recording phase - you already have a complete track with all instruments. So it's feeling not like building something from scratch without proper goal and with different expectations about ending result (if we speak about band). It's more like improving your song by replacing demo tracks with new good recorded ones. And it's also more inspiring to play under the full song then under the soulless click :)

[Trazodonemusic]

He ain’t lyin. Everything that I’ve done to make my music sound way better is because I followed Bobby’s videos and I’ve bought a few programs. It’s seriously that easy. Finish your writing before you finalize everything. And get those tones at the source and make sure you get your BEST takes it’s crazy how a hair off will ruin your song but when you record it right and EDIT to fit in the pocket there’s barely any tweaking you need to do.

[PreteristMetal]

The biggest reason I did pre-production demos to all my songs is because that's how I write in the first place and also I needed to communicate to the people who participate in the final product what I want them to play. That's pretty hard to do if you don't play guitar. In my case an absolute essential is Shreddage by Impact Soundworks. It is the metal guitar equivalent of midi drums.

[jrmcelro]

In a world where everyone has already made every video on music production, you found one that needed to be made and hadn’t get. Well done, sir!

[fuzzylogickben]

This seems more like songwriting than preproduction to me. I can't believe people want you to mix stuff that hasn't even got this far!

I don't tend to go into what i call pre-production until we've gigged the songs a few times. We'll have made some scratch recordings like this during the songwriting. Pre-production is where we decide on things we're going to add that can't be done live, overdubs background vocals etc.

[joemarta]

Sounding great already! I kinda view prepro as the modernized version of full sheet music. Me and my boys have a lot of success doing prepro by actually building out the guitar pro with everything on it including guitar fx and violins etc for the vocals. Pretty happy with that process. It does leave a little to be desired around things you can write to sheet music like vocal inflection or fx based vibe and pedal based sounds.

[maxfreniere]

Awesome. Man, it is so inspiring. Can't wait to see the rest of this series..I'm putting more and more attention into Pre-prod thanks to you, and really starting to see some benefits in organisation, workflow and creativity..

[ConstantineM]

I made 11 songs of pre-production just using my KZ AS 10 earphones with some EQ and with Line 6 Helix as interface and midi drums and bass.

And it's great!

[CrushingAxes]

SM57 is great for everything! Pre Production sounds very nice already!

[strangelet]

The nonsense vocal track! I love doing this. It really frees you to focus on inflection, melody and rhythm of the vocals. Sometimes it even spawns an idea for the lyrics.

[leearmitage]

Great tips, doing something similar with 3 or 4 songs that I'm working on at the moment that I think I'm going to release as an EP

[joerojas]

I don't know when you started recording, but as a for me, when I was a teen there was a thing called the Potra 02 by Tascam. It wasn't much, 4 track with 2 track simultaneous record, with only Volume and Pan. yet, I was able to get great pre-production with that. I believe you strip the gear down even more because of digital recording nowadays. However approach you use, pre-production is key.

[Soulpiercerofficial]

Unreal information, thank you man. This is going to up my productivity. I did exactly what you said NOT to do… I’ve been going round in circles for a few weeks. Feel like I have the most efficient process with your tuition. Thanks again dude

[CreativeMindsAudio]

Back in the day all my preproduction was done in rehearsal studios. Get decent mics throw them up in the room to get the drums and a decent balance of guitars and bass. Take a stereo board feed and it’ll sound good enough to get the vibe down to track along to. After that it really depends on how many layers they want. Ideally this works well for straight raw bands vs more complex stuff that’s everywhere these days. It’s all about the vibe. And these days it’s even easier to get a great multitracked live recording. If the band has an electric kit you can get a 4 channel interface and do it all live. Midi/usb drums into computer, lead vocal mic, 2 guitars, and bass and done. If you can’t get the feel of a song and all of the parts in a live setting it likely isn’t something I wanna work with 😂.

[Fred.A.Dubeau]

working on music in a basement is best haha such a relaxed environment! maybe i’m crazy but i don’t like super tidy hyper professional studio environment, it’s stressful for me for some reason

[geoffdoucette]

Hey Bobby, big fan, thanks for all your hard work and helping me so much with audio production. I don't know where I'd be without your help. I also wanted to say, I don't think this has ever been done before (?)! This is super interesting and a great idea, and I'm hooked and can't wait for more parts. Cheers from Western Canada man, thanks again.

[MikeBellMetal]

For about 15 years I've done almost all of my pre-production through Guitar Pro. Tinkering with the song until it feels basically ready to go, then either recording a demo for the vocalist to work with, or jamming it out in the rehearsal room before recording a demo. Basically, if a song sounds great on Guitar Pro, it'll sound even better when recorded! 👍

[thomasyuen]

On a side note, the song actually sounds like 2010s All That Remains lol

[FATALN]

You are such an inspiration dude ! i use fl studio because im a game dev and i primarily use it for game audio but with metal its been abit tough to get right ! Love from SouTh Africa !

[dfnymusic]

Love the song! And I’ve learned from you the importance of pre pro. Game changer. Would really love to see your song/riff writing process also. That would be sick!