Tips for Recording your first CD

One of my goals with the next album is to provide tips on how to record a CD. This past week I've worked several hours late at night putting together the details for the next album. However, I haven't touched the piano a single time yet.

Have a Plan
The most important thing I found with working in a studio is to use your time wisely. Studio prices can vary but for a good studio, you can expect to pay at least $75-$150 per hour, if not more. When you step foot in the studio, make sure you have a plan and know how you are going to spend your time.

Stick to your Plan
As you begin recording, you'll have ideas and things you want to change. Make sure that your budget allows for creativity, but these is an easy place to run over budget. Stick to your plan and if a song is taking to long, skip it and move on. You can always come back to it and try something new another night.

Be Prepared. Practice, Practice, Practice.
Your first step once you are in studio is to start tracking your songs. That basically means you play your music and the sound engineer hits the record button. You can always fix notes and mistakes but it takes time to do this. It's always better to play it right and not have to fix it. You have your instrument at home. If you're on a budget, practice your guts out before you go into the studio so that you can lay down 2-3 tracks of a song and move on. I've heard stories of people spending days on a single song. In my opinion, the studio is not the place to practice... unless you have money burning a hole in your pocket. Be ready when you get there and your performance and final product will likely be much better.

Editing and Mixing
If you've laid down a solid take or two, this should be easy. Software today is amazing and you can fix small mistakes, but big mistakes are harder to cover up. It's kind of like a small cut and a wound that requires stitches. A small cut heals and likely doesn't leave a scar. Stitches are going to leave a scar. Keep your mistakes and required edits small and it's likely that no one will notice. I've found that it works great to have your sound engineer piece together a draft track and take care of the major edits. After that, it is helpful to sit with the engineer and make work with them on the small edits. After doing this on a few songs, they start to understand what you like and they'll make fixes to those things on the next few songs.

The next steps include Mastering and most important of all, artwork and marketing. If you can't sell your CD you won't ever make your money back. I'll cover these items in an future post.

Jason
www.tonioli.com

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep the streets even as Michelangelo painted por Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'"

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Whatever you do, be great at it.

The CD is Finished!

Wow! It's been a whirlwind 2 months. I just sent final approval for artwork on the album and it should officially be printing sometime tomorrow. I'm hoping to have CD's in hand and ready to ship within the next 10 days or so. Thank you to everyone who has sent comments or pre-ordered the CD!

The final record includes Orchestral samples from the Vienna Symphonic Library and vocals from LOKO (Hiroko Araki) who is an amazing vocalist from Japan. We were able to record her thanks to David Stroud and speechlevelsinging. He helped facilitate her coming from Japan to record while she was in LA this September.

I hope you'll take a few minutes and listen to some of the tracks I've posted on my website. If you like what you hear, please share it with your friends!

What's New?

Thank you again to everyone who took the survey! The feedback has been extremely helpful!

I'm in the middle of putting together songlists for two albums. On July 20th I'll also be recording in studio with Elizabeth Urie. She is putting together an album with various artists and arrangements targeted at the Christian market. Two of my songs will be featured on her album. Eventide and Goin Home.

I've arranged both songs for a piano/flute duet and can't wait to hear the result. Her CD should be out early this fall. I'm planning on posting both of the pdf arrangements on my site in the next few weeks.

Survey Results

Thank you to everyone who took the survey. It was extremely helpful.

Here's a rundown of the results:

Survey question #1. How likely would you be to purchase the following?
The highest percentage of people said they would be likely to buy a CD of LDS Piano Solos.

However, nearly the same amount of people said they would also buy a Christmas or original composition CD as well, so the message is basically that people will buy a CD.

Many people responded that they would also buy mp3 files of my music, but about 40% of you said you would prefer a CD over mp3.

Solution, I'll offer both.

Survey Question #2: Please select the following based on your likelihood of buying one of the following albums with Jason's music:

69% of respondents said they would definately buy a new LDS Solo book #3
Just over 50% of respondents said they would buy CD's
Over 40% said they would buy a new book of original compositions.
75% of you said that you would buy or would consider buying a book of arrangements of pop songs.

What next? Well, I'm half way finished with a new LDS Book #3, and I hope to have that go to the printer this fall. It's coming along well. I'm currently talking with several studios to find out more about recording an album and should definately have something together in early fall. I'm hoping to do a mini Christmas album that people can use as gifts that is $5-7 for an album as well as an LDS album.

Survey Question #3: What do you feel would be a fair price (that you would be willing to pay) for one of Jason's CD's?
The majority of people voted for the $12.99-$14.99 price point on this one. Thank you to those of you who were willing to pay $16.99 or more for a CD. When I finish the album, I'll gladly accept that amount as well, but it looks like I'll have a lot more buyers if I keep it around $14.

Survey Question #4: The following list includes songs from Jason's two published LDS Piano Solo Books as well as songs that will be in a third LDS Solo Book to come out at a future date. He is considering several songs for an upcoming LDS Piano CD Album. Please choose your favorite 6 songs that you feel should be on Jason's album in order of importance.

Top votes were:
31 = Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
26 = I Need thee Every Hour
21 = Praise to the Man/Called to Serve
21 = The Spirit of God
21 = I Know That My Redeemer Lives
20 = Till We Meet Again/I'll Go Where You Want me to Go
19 = Joseph's First Prayer Medley
18 = Abide with Me
18 = Sweet Hour of Prayer (Medley)
17 = Beautiful Savior
16 = We Thank Thee O God For A Prophet

Survey Question #7: Would you be interested in having Jason come to perform in concert, do a workshop or fireside in your area?

Over 53% of you said that you would like me to come and do a concert or fireside in your area. I'm more than happy to do a concert and enjoy performing. If you have a small group and would like a workshop, I do that to. If it's a long ways from Ogden, UT, all I'd ask is that you cover my travel expenses and then the fee would vary depending on what you are looking to have me do. Typically I charge between $100-250 for a workshop or concert depending on the amount of time. I also am happy to play at weddings.

If you would like me to come to your area, email me and let's talk. I'd love to start performing more!

Survey Question #8: Would you like Jason to play for a private concert, special event, FHE, fireside or family party?
Again, just email me and ask. I'm already booking dates to perform for small family gatherings around the holidays and don't mind doing smaller events. If you have something you'd like me to come to, let's talk and see if we can work something out.

Thanks again to everyone who took the survey!

I sent out a survey to my fan email list earlier this week trying to decide where to focus my music. As of tonight 58 people have taken the survey. The answers are all over the place, but it's looking more and more like I should focus on producing an LDS Piano Solo Album on a CD and make it available as an mp3 download as well. A huge group of fans also wants me to focus on publishing a 3rd LDS Piano solo book.

So, I have my work cut out for me. I'm going to try and get into a studio in the next few months to record a few songs and hopefully I'll have a new book ready to hit stores early this fall.

I still need more feedback, so if you'd like to,
Click Here to take survey

I'm going to try and post more results from the survey later next week. I'm planning to post the results on my blog and keep everyone updated as the two projects progress.

I received this email from Becky Carter and I wish I could have been there to see the performance. I know that I have a note on my arrangement of Called to Serve that says the arrangement is not appropriate for Sacrement meeting, but I suppose if you have Primary kids singing to it in Stake Conference, it might be all right!

Thank you Becky for sharing! If any of you have other fun stories like this, please share them!


Hi Jason,
I just wanted to tell you what I did yesterday. Hope it's OK .......I'm the Stake Primary Music Leader and I was asked to have all the Primary children sing in stake conference. Well it was yesterday. I put together an arrangement that started with your "Called to Serve" accompaniment to the children singing the first verse of that hymn. It then went into "Holding Hands Around the World" and then finished with "Armies of Helaman" and I added parts of your "Called to Serve" at the end and also intertwined the other two songs. It was just the COOLEST thing you have ever heard!! All those little Primary kids standing tall and "rocking out" to "Called to Serve". I was complimented over and over about how wonderful the arrangement was and of course I told them it was all from YOU....and of course the help of Heavenly Father. But it was just amazing. You'll have to hear it sometime.
Thanks for sharing your talent!!
Becky Carter
Kaysville, UT