How to Make Your Songs Sound More Professional

At the time that I am writing this article, independent music is starting to quickly become the standard of the music industry. It seems that the age of the giant record labels and giant recording studios is starting to phase out and be replaced by independent labels and home studios. Of course the big labels and big studios are still being used to touch up and distribute final product, but the power of music success is starting to come more and more into our own hands as independents.

In my quest to help keep the quality of the music high and help other up-and-coming artists achieve success, I want to share with you a few tips and techniques that will help you record more professional quality songs. Recording professional songs will help you stand out and be noticed among the rest, and give you a great chance at overall success in the world of music.

In the first section, we will talk about improving the quality of your songs, and then from there we will talk about improving the quality of your recording. So here are a few tips that I give to all of the artists that I produce:

Have you every noticed how some of today’s songs share similar concepts, or styles. They don’t exactly sound alike, but they do have something that puts them into today’s time of music. It is important that your songs are relatable to the genre that we are living in. I am not saying that you want to make music just for today, what I am saying is that if it’s 2012 and your new music sounds like its from 1994, then you may have a hard time, unless it was a song born in the ninety’s and was a classic jam that everyone remembers.

You should try to make songs that can stand the test of time, that people will want to listen to 20 years from now. You notice how those commercials come on tv selling ‘Solid Gold Soul’ or ‘Classics from the 80’s?’ You should strive to create the music that will be featured in those commercials 20 years from now.

When listening to current music, there are 4 questions that you can ask:

1. What makes this song catchy?

2. Why is this a hit?

3. What makes the artist likeable?

4. Where will this song be 20 years from now?

Then, ask these same questions about your own songs that you are creating, and be honest with yourself.

As you listen to these chart-topping songs, turn your ears off to everything that is in the front, and listen and pay attention to the details in the background. Listen to the subtle things that you never noticed before, which make a world of difference to the song. You would’ be surprised at how much of a difference these little tiny elements such as whispers and breaths add to the song, and without them, the song wouldn’t even be the same.

In today's industry, there are a number of places where fans can listen to music online, so you have to be able to stand above the rest.

If you want to be taken as a serious, professional, & reputable artist, then you should make sure that you have serious, professional beats and instrumentals. This is important for whatever genre you are in. Most of the artists that I work with at AaronBeats.com are in the genres of r&b, rap/hip hop, pop, and gospel. As a result, they are usually looking for rap beats, hip hop beats, or r&b instrumentals, although the types instrumentals that I create go way beyond these genres.

The beats and instrumentals that you use are important because they are usually the first thing that your listeners will hear, and it is important that they beats grab your listener’s attention before they change the station or hit the ‘next’ button on the player.

Think of the beats & instrumentals as the canvas or paper on which you are painting your picture. Without the proper instrumental/canvas, there is no medium or support to hold the paint, and therefore your image will not be able to be seen. But it is equally important if you are recording new indie music for you to pick the right beats & instrumentals so that your song will be most effective.

You wouldn’t want to put oil paint on notebook paper, because the lines would get in the way, and the paper would curl up when dry.

Sorry about that weird analogy, but I hope that you get the point. Don’t build your strong songs on weak instrumentals that can’t properly support them.

It is interesting how I meet artists who spend all of their time and energy writing their verses, but they put a half-behind effort into coming up with effective and catchy choruses. That approach is quite backwards. Please understand that it is important to put good effort into the entire song, but also understand that the chorus/hook in most cases is the one part that sticks in your listener’s heads, unless they are true loyal fans who memorize everything you do.

Think about how many songs that you have the chorus memorized, but you struggle with remembering the verses. If you catch your listeners with a catchy hook that they can sing or rap along with, over a hot platinum quality rap beats, or whatever genre of music you are in, then they will remember you, whether they remember the verses or not. Most of them time, they probably won’t even pay much attention to the verses, unless they are a singer or rapper themselves.

The point is, spend time and effort on your choruses just like you do on the verses.

Do you ever listen to some of the ‘big-time’ songs and wonder why your recordings don’t sound exactly up to par? There are many things that help give the ‘big dawgs’ the ‘industry sound.’ And to be real, some of those things may or may not be within your budget. But there are a few quick fixes that will help give your songs a more professional sound without costing a lot of money. First I want to give you a tip that will improve your performance as well as your recording, and that tip is…

A metronome is a device that produces a rhythmic click sound, and the tempo, or speed at which it clicks can be sped up or slowed down. I recommend this to a lot of the artists that I am working with to help them with their timing and pronunciation at higher speeds. You would be quite surprised at how much of a difference this can make to the sound and professionalism of your recording.

There is a concept called ‘garbage in – garbage out.’ What it is basically saying is that you can’t get diamonds out of dirt…er somethin’ like that. Basically, don’t record on a crappy $5 mic and expect to get this amazing warm professional million-dollar sound in your final recording. Don’t panic though (I hear some of you worryin’ that you’re gonna have to get some $5,000 mic, but its not true.)

The room that you record in is also important. If you’re not fortunate to have an advanced studio with a padded vocal booth, you can create the impression of it by placing your mic in a room that doesn’t have extra echoes. For example, some people place the mic in a walk-in closet with clothing in it to absorb the delays and echoes that drywall would create.

Do you ever listen to some of your favorite artist’s songs and wonder why they sound so full and stereo? Then when you turn on your new song, you can’t figure out what’s missing? Why are their vocals so smooth and thick and why does it sound like a group singing in unison or harmony instead of just one person?

What you are hearing are layered vocals, sometimes known as ‘stacks’ or ‘doubles.’ This is the process of recording multiple takes of the same parts and ‘stacking’ them together. It is done on most genres, including r&b, pop, and hip-hop. Also important is what you stack, where you stack, and how the ‘stacked’ vocals are mixed.

When I work with artists, the parts that I usually layer are: choruses, parts that I want to stand out, and background parts or phrases.

This applies to r&b, pop, or rap/hip-hop, and the number of unison tracks that I record depends on what I feel the song needs, which I will talk about in a future article.

From here, I overlay with harmonies, whispers, or whatever type of vocal effects I feel will help the song sound more full, without over-doing it. Sometimes I will pan the harmonized vocals in the same way, or in some cases I will put one key group of vocals in one part of the mix, and another group in the other.

There are many approaches for doing this, and this is just one of the many ways that you can enhance the quality and professionalism of your songs. Feel free to try it and experiment with it, and feel free to visit AaronBeats.com and send me what you did as well so that I can check it out!

1. Record the chorus on 1 track

2. Record it again on a separate track, and get the artist to sing in unison with the previously recorded vocal

3. Repeat a 3rd time

4. Sometimes I will do the same thing another 1 or 2 times to get 4 or 5 tracks, or depending on the situation, 3 will be enough

5. I pan one all the way to the left, then pan another all the way to the right, and then if there are only 3, I leave one ‘stack’ in the center. If there are 4 ‘stacks’ I put one all the way left, another all the way right, and one a little left, and the other a little right, and if there are 5 tracks, I do the same and put the 5th one in the middle

One of the final and crucial elements to making your songs sound more professional is the mixing and mastering process. This is the stage where the vocals and instrumental elements get eq’d and the levels get put in the correct place to make the overall song sound clear, clean, punchy and radio ready!

I will have future articles and videos on how to get the most out of your mixes so you can get the most out of your songs, but don’t feel like you have to do it all yourself. If you have the resources to get it done professionally by a mixing engineer, then take advantage of it. As I said, I will provide helpful tips on mixing in a later article. Until then, I hope this article helps you to take your songs to the next level, and feel free to contact me and let me hear what you are working on!