Mark Harrod is a guitar instructor with Prairie Music Academy. He has recorded several albums of his own compositions, which you can hear samples of at www.markharrodmusic.com. Mark has also sold a song to the Chicago Cubs and frequently tours and performs throughout southern Wisconsin and Illinois.

I just finished a new album.  This marks my first solo attempt after already doing two albums with a band.  The recording process can be stressful and exciting and expensive, but I’ve found some great ways to get the best bang for your buck.

Recording Tip of the Day – Mix your instrumentation to scratch vocals.  That does many, many things for you.  Not least of which, it allows you the ability to listen to the instrumentation tracks without being distracted by that ever up front and hyper critiqued vocal.  By using scratch vocals, you still hear them but are not consumed by their accuracy.  Secondly, it allows you time in mixing to focus on the instrumentation.  The scratch vocal will need to be mixed as well, but again, you don’t have to worry about accuracy and performance as much...yet.  Finally, and possibly the biggest benefit, once the instrumentation is mixed, you get to take it home and sing to it.  Let me tell you, there is nothing more enjoyable than singing karaoke to a song that your recording.  And what I mean by that is this. You’re vocals are going to be the loudest, most up front and attention demanding.  By singing to the finished instrumentation, you are singing to what the music WILL sound like on the album as opposed to kind of faking it before mixing.  The mixed instrumentation has all the energy and movement in it, and that affects your psychology as a singer.  In my situation, I sang better.  I wasn’t worried about whether or not the instrumentation sounded good enough or loud enough at parts.  That was already done and passed and over with.  I couldn’t do anything about it.  I just needed to SING.  And that was a great relief.  So my advice to all you aspiring recording musicians out there is this.  Take your time. Focus on the instrumentation first.  Mix that to scratch vocals. Bring the instrumentation home, and then see what kind of magic happens when you sing to that.