DONE Unit 1.1,1.2 and 1.3: Pre production

Pre-Production Planning for a Music Recording

Project Outline: Plan of Action

What is the Type of Production? 

For this production I am going to record a cover of a pop song. With the chosen pop song I plan to make an alternative cover of it. This would allow the client to be able to release a single of the cover song, but something that is a bit different to the original. Making the single appeal to a wider audience as its alternative and interesting, therefore making more sales.

The Song.

The song that will be covered is Hold My Hand by Jess Glynne. I have chosen this song because it is very popular at the moment in the pop genre and has a lot of airplay on the radio. This means that a lot of people have already heard the song, therefore should be interested in hearing a cover of it. I thought that it would be good if we did a bit of an alternative cover to the original so it doesn’t sound like a ‘karaoke’ version of the song. This would allow the artist/band to create their own personality within their music and add character and variation to the piece.  

Who is my Client? 

My client is a small group of musicians from Tamworth who would like to record their first cover of a pop song to put on YouTube. They plan for this to be one of many and we are all hoping that this release will be successful in gaining an audience and starting a fan base. 

The group have left me in charge of all aspects of planning for their production, which included the arrangement of the song (specialized for their instruments), creating the perfect recording environment, selecting the correct microphones and studio equipment, mixing of the tracks, an album cover and advertisement of the cover.  

As the producer and technician of this project I will need to be extremely well organized and communicate well with the rest of the team.

The Team.

Assistant Studio Technician

This is a very important and helpful role within the studio as they will be fulfilling many necessary jobs and roles within the studio and recording process. If the production was a bit bigger and involved more people with a bigger budget then you would have more people doing more jobs in the project. I will list the jobs available within the studio that will have to be shared between me, the producer and technician and the assistant:

Receptionist and Bookings Manager- This person would have to be extremely organized, as they would be in charge of the running of the studio. They would need to be able to book people into the studio and make arrangements with musicians and record label to keep the company in plenty of business. 

Studio Manager- This role would be very similar to the Bookings Manager but instead would act as a leader for the whole studio, running the organization. 

Studio Technicians- These people are usually apprentices or people who haven't got much experience within the music industry at the moment. They will take direction and instructions from the studio manager and work within the studio hosting recordings and completing mixing on tracks. With a bigger production/project, you may have a main studio technician who would act as a leader to the assistant technicians. 

Studio Engineer- This individual will be in charge of the recording and mixing of the track and may have an assistant engineer to help them out within bigger projects. 

Mastering Engineer- This is a very important job within the final release of the track. They will complete the final mixing and mastering of the the track, and then put the track onto CD, Vinyl or whatever the client would like the output to be.

My Ideas for a Media Production.

 I plan to record a cover of a pop song for my client. For this I will record all audio tracks separately allowing me to make remixes and alternative versions of the song. Also I will be able to mix the track to be able to create a near professional standard of audio.
For this project I plan to use both audio tracks and instrument tracks allowing me to use both sequencing, music technology skills and also music recording skills. This is partly why I have chosen this song, as it is a very diverse song within its instruments, meaning it includes instruments like the bass guitar and piano, but also electric instruments like synthesizers and midi sounds.

Copyright

The copyright of a song is owned by the songwriter and/or the publisher. This acts as protection for the works of the artist and ensures that the original artist gets the correct and fair royalties and recognition deserved for their work when it is used by other people. 

To be able to legally publish a cover you need a mechanical license. This is basically the permission needed from the publisher to record and distribute covers of the song which they own the right to. 

Before uploading this song we will need to ensure that we have the correct licenses that will allow us to share this song legally. This is a very important factor to consider when covering song, as it allows the original artist to get their fair share of the profits made off the production. Usually this would involve contacting the original artist and getting permission from them and also paying for a mechanical licence, which allows you to cover songs legally.

As we are singing somebody else’s song we will need to purchase a mechanical /compulsory license which will entitle us to do our own cover of a published song by receiving permission from the publisher to release a cover of a song that they own the rights to.

The best thing to do for this cover would be to purchase a mechanical license which can cost as little as £15. This is a little price to pay considering if you use copyrighted music without permission then you will get charged around £2500. 

For example: Adeles hit single, Hello was sued by Lionel Riche for stealing one of his most famous songs 'Hello'. This is because Adele sung the first line 'Hello' in exactly the same was as Lionel Riche did in his 1980 single. This is not a good thing, as the original artist Lionel Riche feels violated because his musical themes and inspirations have been stolen from the artist, yet Lionel has not been given any credit. Currently, this case has not been responded to by Adele's legal team, but fines could be in line for British singer Adele and her number 1 hit album. 

What is the Budget for the Production?

I will be needing a lot of equipment for this production, I will display this equipment in a table with; the item I need, why I need it and how much it will cost. 

Studio Equipment;  

Item	Why I need it.	Cost
Apple Mac	This is a great device for music and sound production as Apple Macs are very dependable and reliable. They also have music software like Logic, exclusively available to iMac users.	£1849
Shure Sm57 x2	The classic Shure SM57. It’s a great mic for recording such a diverse range of instruments. As it is dynamic microphone is is extremely durable, plus they’re price isn’t too much either.	£80 (£160)
Beyerdynamic DT 770 M x3	These studio headphones are great for listening back to audio files. Their sound isolate feature is great and works really well as they are a type of closed back headphone, keeping external noise out.	£100 (£300)
PreSonus Eris E4.5 (2-Way Powered Studio Monitors (Pair)	IT is important to have a good pair of speakers to hear and listen back to the audio you are producing. Pre Sonus is a trusted brand within the music industry therefore you know that you are getting good quality product.	£115
Microphone Stand x3	These are just a necessity within the studio. Mic stands need to be adjustable and flexible in order to meet the requirement for your recording set up.	£25 (£75)
Pop Shield x3	Pop shields are great, especially for vocals, they isolate sounds and make them sound clean.	£10 (£30)
XLR 10m Cable x3	Again, another studio necessity. XLR signal for audio and are very good at giving a balanced audio connection.	£8 (£24)
XLR to Jack Cable 6m x2	These are also very important within the studio. These leads deliver audio signal from XLR to a 3mm jack connection.	£6 (£12)
Behringer XENYX XL1600 16-Channel Mixer	This will allow me to balance and position the effects on the audio channels and therefore successfully sculpt the sound. EQ can be controlled using this as well to vary the bass, treble and mid way to improve audio.	£470
Neumann TLM 102	This is an amazing condenser microphone for vocals. Due to its high frequency response, it will give a perfect sound and audio of vocals.	£350
Total		£3385.00

With all this equipment we are obviously going to need somewhere to set up all of the things and also we will need transport for all of the equipment. This will come at a large cost to us.

Researching on the property and renting market, the average price to rent a studio per commercial month, which has already been sound proofed and ready for personalised acoustic treatment, usually prices about £950 (excluding tax and electricity). So to rent this space for one month I would have to pay around £1050 or maybe more. Then for transporting the equipment I could rent a van from Anker Van Hire, which would cost £78 to hire their biggest van for the day. On top of that I would need to pay for the fuel which I would be using to get from A to B, but all VAT, insurance, roadside assistance and unlimited mileage is included.

When we add these figures into the total of the equipment we need to purchase it comes to,  £4543. 

                                                                                                                                                                     Total    £4543.00

Advertising and Target Audience:

The song that we are going to be covering is a top 10 2015 pop song, which is very well known within the music industry. This is a good thing for us as many people will already know the song, therefore will be interested in listening to the cover. Our target audience will be people who are interested in pop music and maybe a young audience as this cover will be streamed mostly on youtube and soundcloud, not the radio.

It will not cost us that much to record as we are only going to be recording one track, with 5 instruments (bass, guitar, drums, vocals and piano) and voice. Most of the advertising for this cover will have the most coverage on popular social media platforms like; Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. This will get the message out to our target audience, and is also a very inexpensive but personal way of advertising.

Production Requirements:

Requirements	Source
What is the budget for my project?	My budget for this project is £10,000. There is a table above listing all of the equipment that I require and why I need it. You will notice that this only comes to £3424, but I will also need to hire a venue and transport for all of the equipment.
How will the project be financed?	For this project I am going to apply for grants by providing a business plan for the next year.
What production equipment do I require?	The Production Kit needed is listed above and should be covered with the £10,000 budget.
What post-production equipment do I require?	I will be requiring a lot of software for after the audio tracks have been recorded. The software will be used on the apple mac. I plan to spend about £700 on new software for the Mac. I will need Cubase, Reason, Ableton and Logic.
What transport is required?	I will need to transport my studio equipment in a large vehicle like a van. I could either buy a van or hire one.
What 'talent' do I require for my project?	·       Music Technologist ·       Sound engineering ·       Vocalist ·       Guitarist ·       Drummer  ·       Bassist   ·       Pianist
What crew do I require?	As the production manager, I will need a team of people helping me out and working on the project too.  ·       Music Technician ·       Instrumentalists/Musicians ·       Advertising and Press ·       Media (Photography and Music Video)
What facility hire is required?	For this project I will need to hire a studio, depending on location the prices will vary. I have decided to complete my recording within School the hire will be very cheap or even free.
What clearances are required?	Before uploading this song we will need to ensure that we have the correct licenses that will allow us to share this song legally. This is a very important factor to consider when covering song, as it allows the original artist to get their fair share of the profits made off the production. Usually this would involve contacting the original artist and getting permission from them and also paying for a mechanical licence, which allows you to cover songs legally.
What copyright issues need to be addressed?	As we are singing somebody else’s song we will need to purchase a mechanical /compulsory license which will entitle us to do our own cover of a published song by receiving permission from the publisher to release a cover of a song that they own the rights to.

Recording Schedule

Performer	Set-up	Control Room	Instrument	Location	Mic
Dan	Lauren	Lauren	Guitar	Control Room	Direct Input
Dan	Lauren	Lauren	Bass	Studio	DRUM VARIETY (Dynamic)
Lauren	Lauren	Dan	Vocals	Studio	SAMSON C01 (Condenser)
Tom	Lauren	Lauren	Drums	Studio	DRUM VARIETY (Dynamic)
Tom	Lauren	Lauren	Piano	Studio	C1000S (Condenser)
Lauren	Lauren	Dan	Backing Vocals	Studio	RODE NT42 (Condenser)

Planning: 

Risk Assessment

Hazard			Who Might Be Harmed?			Risk Rating	Preventive Control Measures		Risk Rating	Communication Findings
Where is it?	What is it?	Likelihood?	Who?	How?	(Risk) Severity Update		Precautions	(Risk) Severity Update		Communication
Studio, Classroom and Practice Rooms	Electricity	3	Students, Teachers and Musicians	Electrocution	2	6	Ensure that electricity is always used with precaution.	1	3	Brief people explaining dangers of electricity before their use of the studio.
Studio (especially the control room)	High Volumes	2	Students, Teachers and Musicians	Ears/hearing may be damaged over long periods of high volume listening	2	4	Listen to music sensibly and don’t listen to high volumes if unnecessary. If listening to loud music for long periods of time, ear defenders should be considered to prevent the overall effect of the sound.	1	2	Allow people, and inform people to wear ear defenders.
To and from the studio	Heavy Lifting	4	Students, Teachers and Musicians	From lifting heavy equipment and hurting/stretching muscles in a wrong way.	3	12	You should lift with your knees rather than your back. This is the correct way of lifting.	2	8	To ensure safe lifting a short heavy lifting course/induction should be completed.
Studio, classroom and practice rooms	Plug Sockets	3	Students, Teachers and Musicians	Plug sockets could also present a risk of electrocution.	2	6	When plugs are not in use make sure that they are covered with safe plug socket fillers and that all liquids are kept away from electricity.	1	3	Inform people to keep the studio tidy and keep plug covers in when they are not in use.
Classroom, practice rooms, especially in the studio	Cables	4	Students, Teachers and Musicians	Due to lots of cables being around the studio there is a high risk of tripping over.	4	16	Ensure that the studio is tidy and that all wires and cables are kept in neat order.	2	8	Display notes and posters around the affected areas asking people to put equipment away in a certain order, this helps the studio to become a safer place with a happier working environment.
Studio	Instruments and Equipment	3	Students, Teachers and Musicians	Instruments and equipment could present a risk of being an obstacle. This increases the chance of people tripping over and hurting themselves.	3	9	The studio should be kept neat and tidy to ensure that everything is in the right place. This decreases the risk of tripping over obstacles as people know where everything is, therefore more likely to avoid them. Clear pathways should also be made.	1	3	Having designated areas for certain instruments and equipment. This helps to decrease the risk of tripping over instruments that shouldn’t be in certain places.
Studio, classroom and practice rooms.	Fire	2	Students, Teachers and Musicians	This could happen when electricity isn’t used with enough precaution.	2	4	Ensure that all electrical appliances have been checked and are in good working order, ad chords aren’t frayed or damaged.	1	2	Let people know where fire extinguishers are, and ensure that all electrical appliances and components are checked and are issued with PAC codes.
Studio	Food and Drink in the Studio	2	Students, Teachers and Musicians	Food and Drink in the studio is unhygienic and also proposed a risk. For example; if a drink is spilt over electrical equipment it could increase the chances of electrocution or damage of equipment.	2	4	Let everybody know the rule, so they are aware not to do this.	1	2	Display posters around the area asking for no food and drink to be consumed within the area.
Studio, classroom and practice rooms.	Lights	2	Students, Teachers and Musicians	When fitted with the wrong bulb with the wrong wattage, there is a possibility of an electrical fire being started.	2	4	You can do this by checking the electrical maximum wattage on the light fitting before installing the new light bulb. It is also very important that no materials are left near or touching the lamp, as the material could heat up and ignite causing a fire.	1	2	Ensure that if someone has to change the light bulb in a fitting they know exactly what light bulbs they can or cannot use. Alternatively, only one person could be allowed to changed the bulb, and they should know what bulbs to use.
Classrooms but especially studio.	Extension Chords	3	Students, Teachers and Musicians	Misuse of the chord could result in an electrical fire.	3	9	The appliance should be plugged directly into the outlet. Extensions should only be used as a temporary fixture.	1	3	Let people know that extension chords should only be used as a temporary solution.