The Ingredients for Success:

Meeting the Producer and Chief Engineer

In this video, Mike Brown of Lava Room Recording discusses the first step in the recording process, the initial consultation with the recording artist.

The initial consultation with the band or recording artist is crucial. During the first meeting, several issues are addressed and the overall project begins to take shape.

All of the details for the recording are mapped out

• We will listen to demos, if available
• Various arrangements of the song or songs to be recorded are listened to and discussed at length
• Instrumentation is listened to and discussed
• All of the details required for a successful recording are discussed in order to prepare for the project

Interestingly, many artists have never worked with a professional record producer or an experienced audio engineer. Additionally, most emerging artists have never been inside a professional recording studio.

Consequently, the consultation is as much an education as it is a working session…and that’s as it should be!

It is crucial for the artist or band and producer, engineer or engineers, and the support staff to be as comfortable with each other as possible right from the start. If magic is going to happen in the recording studio, there has to be the right kind of magic, the right chemistry, between everyone involved in the project right from the start, as well.

In fact, it is quite common for the chief audio engineer to also act as the producer; and, there are many benefits to this sort of arrangement. From time to time, there will be an independent producer. However, at Lava Room Recording, Mike Brown functions as both the chief audio engineer and producer. In other words, Mike Brown will produce the project; and engineer, track, and mix the recording.

What a professional producer brings to the recording is the skill, knowledge, experience, and business sense to form the recording or recordings within the broader context of the overall project.

A professional record producer will shape the project in such a way as to make it both radio ready and ready for mass marketing (i.e., iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, Grooveshark, etc.) of the final product:

• Single
• EP
• Double EP
• LP

Additionally, the producer serves as a sounding board and a trusted advisor. A competent producer will be someone the artist and/or band members can bounce ideas off of, someone who puts the artist’s or band’s interests first.

Some of the areas a professional producer/engineer might help with are:

• Lyrics
• Melody lines
• The arrangement or arrangements of the song or songs
• The songwriting structure

If the songs not great, it doesn’t matter how good the recording is!

We will make sure all the components are in place for a great song. Once we are sure we have all the necessary ingredients for a great song, everything else will fall into place…or be that much easier for all concerned.

Ultimately, we are after a great recording of a great song…every time!

The pairing of an experienced engineer and professional producer, working out of a full-production, top-quality recording studio can make it all happen in a way that is just not possible in someone’s garage.

Lava Room Recording was built from the ground up with one thing in mind:

• A great recording of a great song
• A great recording of a great song that is going to get played
• A great recording of a great song that is going to get noticed
• A great recording of a great song that is going to get shared
• A great recording of a great song that is going to go viral

And yes, a recording that is going to carve a name out for the recording artist or band in the very competitive music business!

Significantly, all of that planning, the mapping out from start to finish, happens before a single note is played. The success of a recording is set in the template stamped out in the initial consultation.

All the rest is music…and magic!

Check back in a day or two and Mike Brown will discuss the next step in the process of making your first professional recording. The first step towards making it in the music business.

Contact our expert staff anytime!

Lava Room Recording
5000 Euclid Ave
Cleveland, Ohio 44103
216-334-1172