CD production

[SwissMatthias]

Hello,

we want to produce our first CD. We have no experience in producing a CD. So we need some advices from you. What do we have to bear in mind?

Regards

Matthias
P/M http://www.lucaledonians.ch/

[Bill M]

Assuming you're looking to do a studio recording, for best results the pipes & drums should be recorded separately - not necessarily at different times, but in different rooms in the studio, or at least in different areas of the studio, where the pipes won't be picked up on the drum mics & the drums won't be picked up on the pipe mics. Any decent studio engineer will want to record that way. The trick is that the band may not be used to this sort of arrangement. The engineer should be able to feed a pipes / drums mix to headphones so you can hear each other while recording. Again, this may take some getting used to from your band. But it will allow the engineer(s) to have more flexibility in the recording & mixing stages. Also, I'm not sure how big your band is, but it may work out better to only have a handful of pipers & a few drummers. Although, it may be tough to decide who's on the recording & who's not. Good luck!

[Patrick McLaurin]

You'll need a few of these from the corresponding agency in your country for each tune under copyright:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_license

Start now, in my experience, these guys couldn't care less about pipe music. It has taken more than a year for MCPS-PRS (the UK agency) and Harry Fox (the USA agency) to fulfill some of my requests. Some still remain unfulfilled. And these are tunes that are already registered with MCPS. MCPS can't grant you mechanical licenses, you have go through your country's license agency because of differences in laws.

[ThomasL]

Originally Posted by Bill M

it may work out better to only have a handful of pipers & a few drummers.

That`s true. It is not necessary to record more than 5 Pipes, because of the mastering after the recording. That`s the difference to a live gig.

And, if You want to save some money, preparation is one of the most important things before entering the studio.

[ScotDrumr]

Originally Posted by MacTom

And, if You want to save some money, preparation is one of the most important things before entering the studio.

Even with that in mind, it generally takes way longer than you think it is going to.

Ron

[Iain Sherwood]

You should shop online for a CD production company that offers a package deal; you send them the gold master, some photos, graphics, and copy, and they'll whip up your cover art and packaging. Try looking at www.discmakers.com for samples and some packaging alternatives.

[magsevenband]

Good points from Iain, just a word of caution regarding DiscMakers. I was very disappointed in the art/graphic design department. On a recent project, many proofs came back for my approval that ignored basic rules of design and layout. I suspect that they are using designers in India or some other Third World country where they are cranking out work like an assembly line. Plus, they wouldn't let me speak to the graphic "artist" who was working on my project. Very suspicious indeed. I wound up doing 95% of the design myself in order to get it right. Caveat Emptor.

Cheers,
Al
www.theroyalpiper.com

[Iain Sherwood]

They must have changed their policies since I used them in 2002, because they were very helpful and communicative back then. Oh, well, things change....there are several other companies to choose from.

[kiltrocker]

with todays tech , you can easily do all of this yourself . A 32 track digi recorder can be had for under $850 . Most of these machines can burn a cd on board . Then once you have mixed , matered and burned you can pick up a high speed duplicator from any on line retailer that deals in pro eletronics . With a good computer and printer you can do all of your art work and copy . Remember The Beatles Sgt. Pepper was recorded on a 4 track reel to reel . Things have come a long way .

[kiltrocker]

that is mastered not enough caffine yet ( I hope)