I heard back from a vocalist interested in collaborating on a track I am working on. He is really talented and I am excited to work with him. His vocal demos (of other songs) are recorded at a decent enough audio quality for a professional track. As an aside, you actually do not necessarily need to record vocals on an amazing microphone for many types of music. With processing, relatively inexpensive microphones (less than $130) can be good enough quality for electronic music. He said he had some ideas for the rough draft of the song I sent him. I sent a brief reply offering to give feedback on the lyrics as I write lyrics as well as write music.
The track is basically written in terms of the music and melodies. However, I am not necessarily happy with the level of production and mixing I have done so far. Once we get some vocals added I might reach out to a few producers I know and see if they are interested in getting involved in the project by helping me with the sound design and audio engineering. I can do these things OK but I am not amazing and I want this track to get signed. That process of working with another producer is relatively easy in this age of the internet. Remixing is common in EDM and basically, you can give a fellow producer a remix pack with some .wav audio stems and/or midi files of the melodies and they can make an entirely new track out of them usually referred to as a remix. In fact, I remixed a track in January and only used one element from the original mix which was a recording of the bass synth from the original. In this case, we wouldn't call what the producer came up with a remix though, rather probably just make it the original version, using my original songwriting and the vocalists original vocals. Finally, I will see if a friend of mine who is working with me on an unrelated track who is also a mastering engineer will master the track for me for free or at a discount (his normal rate isn't really in my price range!). If not, I know several great mastering services that are $20-$40 per track which is much cheaper than it used to be in the days of analog and vinyl record mastering.
I haven't encountered any major issues yet. I have completed so many songs over the past 5 years that the process is familiar. The main focus on this project is threefold: 1. make this song more professional than anything I have made before. 2. Make it a song with vocals. 3. Get it signed to an established EDM label. There is plenty of room for failure in those 3 requirements. I am already having some fun with the project, so that is covered as well.
The track is basically written in terms of the music and melodies. However, I am not necessarily happy with the level of production and mixing I have done so far. Once we get some vocals added I might reach out to a few producers I know and see if they are interested in getting involved in the project by helping me with the sound design and audio engineering. I can do these things OK but I am not amazing and I want this track to get signed. That process of working with another producer is relatively easy in this age of the internet. Remixing is common in EDM and basically, you can give a fellow producer a remix pack with some .wav audio stems and/or midi files of the melodies and they can make an entirely new track out of them usually referred to as a remix. In fact, I remixed a track in January and only used one element from the original mix which was a recording of the bass synth from the original. In this case, we wouldn't call what the producer came up with a remix though, rather probably just make it the original version, using my original songwriting and the vocalists original vocals. Finally, I will see if a friend of mine who is working with me on an unrelated track who is also a mastering engineer will master the track for me for free or at a discount (his normal rate isn't really in my price range!). If not, I know several great mastering services that are $20-$40 per track which is much cheaper than it used to be in the days of analog and vinyl record mastering.
I haven't encountered any major issues yet. I have completed so many songs over the past 5 years that the process is familiar. The main focus on this project is threefold: 1. make this song more professional than anything I have made before. 2. Make it a song with vocals. 3. Get it signed to an established EDM label. There is plenty of room for failure in those 3 requirements. I am already having some fun with the project, so that is covered as well.