With the recent release of my album Motherhood, I have had a lot of folks ask me about the process of recording a CD. Plus, they always ask "How much does it cost to record an album in 2024?"
In this article and accompanying video, I walk you step-by-step through the entire process from start to finish. I'll walk you through the writing and rehearsing process, what takes place during the studio, how many days we recorded PLUS a walk through the entire post-production process.
If you are an aspiring recording artist or someone who is just curious, this article is for you!
The Process: Three Steps to Creating an Album
Producing an album requires these three steps:
Step #1: Pre-production
Step #2: Production
Step #3: Post-production
Read on to hear what takes place during each part of the process...
PLUS - at the end I answer the question "How much does it cost to record an album in 2024?"
About the Project
Motherhood is an album of 10 original songs that I wrote about the "real life" experience of mothering in the 21st century. I had been thinking about this project since my pregnancy (12 years ago!), writing down little ideas and singing bits and pieces into the voice memos on my phone.
In case we don't know each other, I am a jazz pianist, vocalist and songwriter, in addition to my life as an educator, YouTuber and online course creator.
I have released 6 other albums as a leader and have a relatively decent following. I am an independent artist, and do not have management, a record deal or a booking agent. I have always done my own projects myself and release them on my own independent record label.
I had intended to self-fund this project, which the objective of getting this music out into the world. This is good for my life as an artist, great for me to book some new concerts and festivals and a great business move for me to. Win-win-win!
Step #1: Pre-production
During pre-production, we do everything needed to get ready for the project. This includes:
Writing the Music
As I mentioned before, I had been dabbling some ideas down over the course of many years. In November of 2019, I was invited to a 10 day residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Alberta, Canada, where I composed 8 of the 10 songs that ended up on the album. Locked in a studio in the woods, complete with a grand piano and some quiet time away from my family, I finally had the time I needed to get the job done. I had a very successful time writing, and even ended up recording demos of each song while I was there.
Rehearsing/First Performance
When I returned from Banff I immediately book a show at Rockwood Music Hall in my home of New York City, so we could premier the music with my band. We had a rehearsal as a group where I was able to hear the songs played for the first time. The show went extremely well and I got a great audio and video recording of the performance. The plan was to record in spring of 2020, but a wee think called the Covid 19 pandemic derailed that.
Bringing the project back to life
In May of 2023 I felt it was time to finally get this project heard. I spent that summer rewriting the music, I composed the last two songs for the project, and I had a few rehearsals with the rhythm section of the band so I could finalize all of the arrangements. I spent a lot of time listening to recordings of the rehearsals, making corrections to the sheet music and practicing.
Getting the music in shape
Once the songs were completed, it was time for me to learn to play and sing them! I spent a lot of time practicing and recording myself and listening back to make corrections. I took a few voice lessons to get my voice in tip-top shape and took a few acting coachings to help with with a spoken word song I wrote called Sharp Edges.
Step #2: Production
Production is the step we take to actually record the music!
The recording session took place over three days at two different studios. The primary tracking took place at Samurai Hotel studio in Queens, NY.
Day #1: Samurai Hotel Studios in Queens, NY
On day one (in early October), we tracked seven of the ten songs on the album. On this day, we had the full band of instrumentalists, including myself singing/playing piano, Evan Gregor on acoustic bass, Ross Pederson on drums and special guest Ingrid Jensen on trumpet. I hired Grammy-winning engineer Chris Allen to do this project as engineer, mixing and mastering engineer. (He engineered by 2013 album Right About Now!)
We had the studio booked for 8 hours and during that time we "tracked" (recorded) all of the songs live. This means that we were all playing the music together as if we were playing a life concert. This is typical for jazz musicians, while pop and rock artists often play one instrument at a time in the studio. I was in the main space of the studio and each of the other musicians was in separate isolation booths, which makes for easier mixing and allows us to make corrections as needed. We did 2-3 takes of each song, which gave me options for which version of each song I wanted to put on the album.
Day #2: Samurai Hotel Studios in Queens, NY
The next day, we came back in just with the trio - myself singing/playing piano, Evan on bass and Ross Pederson on drums. There were three songs to finish and we were able to record multiple takes of each song. At the end of the second day, Chris (the engineer) sent me home with a rough mix of every take we had done in those two days.
Day #3: Owen Mulholland Studio in Manhattan, NY
A few weeks later, it was time to overdub the backing vocals. I had spent the prior weeks listening to the rough mixes over and over to decide which take of each song I wanted to use. I also made notes on any corrections or details I wanted to work on with Chris in the post production process. Plus, I wrote and notated all of the backing vocals I wanted for the session and recorded a demo of my singing all the parts for the backup singers to practice up.
Now later in October, we met in the studio again with Chris Allen with vocalists Melissa Stylianou and Nicole Zuraitis. Five of the songs needed backing vocals and I booked the studio for four hours to track all of those parts. We stood in a room altogether, each with our own microphones and sang all of the backing vocals together. For the songs that require three backing singers, I lent my voice. When there were only two backing vocal parts, Melissa and Nicole sang those parts and I conducted.
Four hours later and we were done the tracking. Time for post production to begin!
Step #3: Post-Production
The first order of business in post production is to mix and master the album.
Mixing the album
Mixing is the process of assembling all of the components of the album and making adjustments. I spent a lot of time listening to the final tracks and the vocals we had overdubbed. I let Chris (the engineer) know about final takes and then I set about taking tons of notes about what I was hearing. I noted pitch issues, small errors and instrument balances. I also spent some time thinking about the "sound" of the album.
On day 1 of mixing, I went to Chris' home studio. The goal on this day was to get through all of the songs and make all the corrections we needed to. We were in the studio for nearly 11 hours that day and we got through everything. He sent me home with another set of mixes to listen to. He also had some technical work he wanted to do on his side and he kept me updated.
A few weeks later I went in for a 5 hour day of mixing to finalize everything. We made a few volume adjustments and a few cosmetic fixes.
Mastering the album
Chris the engineer was mastering as he went along, so he had very little to do once we had finalized everything. Mastering is like Photoshop for recordings. Adjusting volume and sonic levels so they are all even and consistent. I didn't want the album to sound too "perfect" or "produced" and Chris did a fantastic job of making it sound polished and ready.
Visuals
Now that the music was all set, it was time for the visuals. I had a very specific look in mind for this project and I was excited to team up with some amazing folks to make it happen!
Photography
I was excited to work with Matt Baker - a fantastic photographer who is also a great jazz pianist. His has a very stylized look to it and I knew it was perfect for what I was going for. I went into his studio for 8 hours, where we shot a ton of looks. He has his own in-house hair and makeup artist and we got a lot of great shots. The purpose of our session was to get photos not only for the album, but also to use for promo shots, headshots, material for the website and a few odds and ends for my teaching practice too.
Videos
In today's world, you need to have A LOT of video work. Luckily Samurai Hotel has an amazing video setup. They have two cameras in the main studio and cameras in each of the isolation booths, so we were able to get all the footage from the entire session.
In addition, I hired my friend Erika Kapin to do additional video footage and additional photography of the recording sessions. She came to Day #1 of the recording and took close up photos of all of the musicians that we were able to add to the long form videos of each song. She also took still photos of behind the scenes of the session and the awesome photos of the band. They did the same thing for the vocal session as well.
Samurai Hotel studio has a fantastic editor named Grady Bajorek, who edited all of the studio footage and created beautiful videos of each song, like The Endless Wait below.
Erika also filmed my entire EPK video at my apartment, which is a series of interviews to promote the album. I did all the editing for this one myself!
Design
Simon Paul is a Toronto-based designer and illustrator. I can't remember how I found out about him, but he has a long and illustrious career designing a ton of amazing album covers. I fell in love with his work and when I spoke to him on the phone I knew he was the perfect fit. I gave him my concept for the album cover, told him which photo I wanted and the colors I liked and set him loose. Within a few days he had created a stunning album package for me and I couldn't be happier.
He also provided me with all of the gorgeous custom lettering he used, designed logos and some YouTube thumbnails. He also illustrated this amazing graphic for The Loose Tooth Blues!
Website Upgrade
Now that I had all of the visuals done, it was time to call upon Janelle Reichman. Her design firm Ellanyze does the most beautiful sites around and she has a knack for making the sites extremely functional and user friendly. (She designed this site too!! And I was one of her first clients when she started her company over 10 years ago!)
She took my existing artist website and gave it a much-needed facelift. She used the gorgeous photography and designs and built new landing page for the album too. I'm so excited with the results.
Publicity
I decided to get a publicist to help me with this album and it was a no brainer to hire Ernesto Cervini at Orange Grove Publicity. OGP is a boutique firm that specializes in jazz recordings. Ernesto is a jazz drummer and bandleader with lots of albums under his belt, so he knows the process better than anyone else. I sent him 200 copies of the album, which he mailed out to folks around the globe. He ensured that the album got radio play, arranged some great interviews and got some fabulous press for the album. Money well spent!
Social Media
Social media is a necessary evil and I felt way too overwhelmed to handle this myself. I called on my friend Jonathan Orara, who is a singer, voice actor and runs a digital marketing company. I was so relieved to have him jump in and help me! We had a meeting to discuss dates - when the album would be released, when the singles would come up and when the album launch concert was and made a list of digital assets we would need, including REELS (short videos) and still graphics. He was able to create a ton of content using my song videos, EPK and some other bits and bites I had and he scheduled everything for me. Took a HUGE weight off my shoulders!
Let's Talk MONEY: How much did it costs to record the Motherhood album?
Musicians: $7800
This includes both the instrumentalists and the vocalists. When you hire the best, you pay a premium. Money well spent!
Recording: $8720
This amount includes the cost of the studio time and the money I paid the engineer, plus studio expenses. Samurai is a fantastic studio and very budget friendly considering how amazing the studio is, the quality of the piano and the fact that they shoot live video.
Photography: $3850
This includes the behind the scenes content that Erika shot, the photo shoot for the cover plus a LOT of extra photos that were touched up for me. I got so much amazing footage that I'll be able to use for years a lot of different purposes.
Design: $1800
This includes the album cover, posters, thumbnails, some merch design and all of the files for the beautiful logos.
Website: $2550
This included an update of the site, a new landing page and some backline work that desperately needed to get done.
Publicity: $5400
This includes postage of nearly 200 CDs and the cost of the publicists time following up, sending emails and making calls on behalf of the record.
Video: $3322
This includes the shoot for the EPK, two days in the studio filming behind the scenes and what I paid for Grady to edit all of the song videos.
CD Manufacturing: $1245.49
CD Baby charges this much for 500 copies of the album, plus digital distribution.
Social Media: $1000
The rate I paid to have a variety of assets created and scheduled on various platforms.
Miscellaneous: $600
This includes payment for ISRC and UPC codes, some postage, a few random fees and other bits that come up here and there.
Total: $36,288
Grant received: $23,585
I was very fortunate to receive a Canada Council grant valued at $32,500 Canadian dollars for this project.
What I paid out of pocket: $12,703
Does this surprise you?
Although it was expensive, I think every penny I paid was worth it. The Motherhood album sounds exactly as I wanted it to, I have gotten some amazing reviews and I am already booking a ton of gigs and festivals. This was a dream project for me and it was a dream to make it.
When am I recording the next one? Ask me in six months when I've recovered from this one!
Support the music!
If you love artists, the best thing you can do is support our work and BUY the music. Streaming services don't pay diddly squat - and now you can see how expensive it is to make this music for you!
Check out my artist website HERE.
The Tide is High Piano Tutorial