Sound Planning and Reference Tracks: Building a Foundation for Music Production

• Music Business
• Special Education

Your Recording and Mixing Session Plan: Part 1

Learning Objective

To understand the importance of planning in the music production process.

"Two Truths and a Sound": share two true facts about yourself related to music and one fictional fact.

The Importance of Planning

What Should You Include?

Creating a Recording and Mixing Plan

We will do this task in two parts. The first will be to:

• Choose a track you wish to record
• Identify instruments and personnel you will need
• Describe the recording environment
• List resources and equipment you will need
• Create a schedule 

Make a Start...

Now we will go down to the recording studio and tie everything we have learnt so far together:

• Instruments
• Microphones / Pop Shield
• Amplifiers
• D.I Box
• Cables (Jack, XLR, USB)
• Audio Interface
• DAW / Mixing Desk

We will also...

• Get a brief overview of the studio sound proofing and acoustic properties

• Create a multitrack project in Logic and record a short segment of a song, applying the concepts we've learnt so far

Group Discussion: Recording and Mixing Plans

Share key points from your recording and mixing plans so far.

Write down 3 things you learned in this lesson.

Have students enter three things they learned in this lesson. With this they can indicate their own learning efficiency of this lesson.

Write down 2 things you want to know more about.

Here, students enter two things they would like to know more about. This not only increases involvement, but also gives them more ownership.

Ask 1 question about something you haven't quite understood yet.

The students indicate here (in question form) with which part of the material they still have difficulty. For the teacher, this not only provides insight into the extent to which the students understand/master the material, but also a good starting point for the next lesson.