What's a "Pre-Pro"?
Pre-production (a.k.a. pre-pro) is probably the most overlooked stage of any professional recording.
Imagine trying to paint a masterpiece without doing an initial sketch! Sure, it can be done but you're going in blind, keeping your fingers crossed that everything works out.
That's all we're doing with pre-pro. Building an initial sketch of the song so we can go into the studio with a clear vision of the final results.
Just like a sketch, it doesn't need to be perfect yet. The first take with the right notes in the right order is all we need at this stage. We're not making the final production.
How can I do this without breaking the bank?
I've compiled a list of the best very cheap or free tools I can find for recording a pre-pro without spending studio budget money. There are a tonne of options out there, and your chosen genre will likely dictate what you want to use.
The list below is designed to cover as many genres as I can! Hopefully, you'll find what you need here.
The Interface:
It's unfortunate we have to start here as this is the only step in the guide where I'm going to suggest something that, unfortunately, there is no free alternative to. I'm going to work on the assumption that you have a laptop or computer of some kind and that it has USB ports (sorry fancy new Mac owners you'll have to get an adapter...)
It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the selection of interfaces. The market has exploded over the past few years. That's great for us though! Prices have never been lower
Frankly, for pre-production, we're not interested in getting supreme ultra-high-quality sound. That's expensive and defeats the purpose of this article... What we need is something that's cheap, sounds acceptable, and doesn't cause our computer to bug out. A lot of people go with the Focusrite Scarlett range and these are a great option. They have the advantage of being so ubiquitous that you can find one on the second-hand market for less than £50 if you're lucky. If you're going second hand though, try and avoid the 1st generation ones. There's nothing wrong with them, but they're getting older and are more likely to cause glitches on newer computers.
Do I Need 300 Inputs?
Short answer: No. One or two is all you need.
Don't get me wrong, it can feel really cool to record a live demo from the comfort of your home. The problem is, when making a pre-pro you do want to spend some time on each instrument to make sure you're happy with individual parts, and how they fit together. Tracking live can easily tempt you into bashing out a basic recording of the first time you play the song together and calling that a finished job.
The DAW:
This is the first place to start. Your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) is the program you'll be doing all of your recording, editing, and tweaking in.
For these purposes, I'm suggesting Cubase LE as that comes with a lot of the other tools you'll need already bundled in, and it's free! For Mac users, GarageBand is also a great option that you'll already have installed and comes with plenty of useful features.
The downside of GarageBand is it can't load plugins in the VST format. Not a problem in itself, but many of the free plugins out there only come in VST format!
Drums:
Ok so let's stick with Cubase for now so we can get as much for free as possible.
The best place to start will be Cubase's Groove Agent SE which comes bundled in with the free version of Cubase LE. This comes with a huge range of drum libraries from raw and natural classic rock drums, to modern pop, to slamming metal shredder kits.
I think it's worth mentioning at this point that, while it's great to try and get a feel for how the song is going to sound in the final production, we're still just making the sketch here. Don't get caught in the trap of chasing perfection in the pre-pro. Not only do you risk killing your passion for the song by overworking it, but you can end up stuck with "demo-itis" leading you and your producer into the pit that is chasing the "vibe" of a demo that only sounds good to you because you've heard it 1000 times...
With that said, there are some genres where Groove Agent may feel a bit limited, so below I've compiled a few other places to look depending on what genre you're working in.
Pop
You're in luck here. There are literally thousands of drum libraries out there for pop artists. Samplephonics would be a great place to start. For more of a modern/aggressive sound Cymatics.fm have been releasing free sample packs for years
Hard Rock/Metal
Ahh, welcome headbangers. If you're making heavy music you not only need drums that sound insanely massive, but you may also need a whole bunch of toms and some extra cymbals you might not find in other libraries. I'd suggest going straight to Slate's SSD5 Free. Relatively mix-ready drums that pack a punch! What more could you ask for?
Bass & Guitars
Right we're getting into the nitty-gritty here. There are once again hundreds and hundreds of possible options out there, but guitar tone especially is something that is heavily dictated by genre and can make a huge difference in how we perceive the vibe of the song. Ideally, I'd tell you to go and splurge on a professional suite of amp sims like Amplitube or Guitar Rig, but that's not why we're here. So let's talk about free options:
A great place to start will be the free Amplitube CS. If you can learn to ignore all the shameless upselling then this will do a lot for you. Amplitube CS comes with a good number of pedals and 6 amp heads, but most importantly it does "cabinet simulation" which means you can expand it for free by replacing the amp heads with some of these:
Emissary by Ignite - great for the heavy rock/metal heads
Ace by Shattered Glass - good for the more classic old school fender sound
Free Pack form LePou - comes with a selection of different amp heads ranging from Marshall-inspired Brit flavour to full-blown Mesa Rectifier aggression
Wait, we've not talked about bass yet...
Let's do that! Sadly, much like in the rest of life, the bass is a criminally overlook instrument in the free plugin world. The aforementioned Amplitube CS does come with a bass amp which works well for clean tones, but if you want some more grit you'll have to look elsewhere.
BOD v3 by TSE is a fantastic emulation of the classic SansAmp pedal used on countless records.
BOD v2 is the previous version of the plugin and interestingly sounds noticeably different! Both great.
Bass Grinder by Audio Assault has a lovely grind to it as you might expect.
Bass Deluxe by Lost in 70s is a versatile option for those looking for a more classic bass drive sound. It also comes with pedals!
Vocals
Wow, it almost feels wrong leaving this until the end given how important vocals are.
I realise now that I was mistaken when I said there's only one place you need to spend money. An interface is the big one, but ultimately we'll struggle to record vocals without a microphone...
The upside is it's very likely you or your vocalist already own some kind of microphone of some kind.
If they don't then don't sweat. There's only one mic you'll ever need for this, and they're cheap (especially if you get one used.) The Shure SM58.
There are no two ways about it. These mics are practically indestructible (nicknamed "the hammer") and they're also purpose-built for vocals. Not only that but they're great live so you'll be able to take yours with you and avoid sharing germs with all the chainsmoking droolers that share the house mics.
Not only that, but they're also super common and as a result, it's easy to pick one up second-hand.
Raw vocals sound like shit...
Yes. Let's talk about processing.
I might be driving the point home too hard at this point, but we're not making a final product. Don't get caught up in this.
With that said, a little EQ, compression and reverb will go a long way to bring the song closer to your vision. Luckily, Cubase LE comes with all of these.
It pains me a little as a professional producer to admit this, but frankly, your best bet is to open up the stock plugins and slap some presets on there. With time you'll get more used to the tools and might decide you want to tweak things, but if this is your first time recording anything then you're likely to end up down a rabbit hole that can totally kill how you feel about the song.
Aren't we forgetting something?
Yes. Unless you're some kind of superhuman, you probably can't nail every note perfectly in tune. If you're anything like me, that's going to bug you when you listen back to your recording later.
If you don't like vocal tuning then feel free just to skip this section. If however, your vision for the song is highly polished then, in our sketching analogy, leaving the vocals raw would be like sketching a picture of an old banger with 100,000 miles on it when you want the final painting to look like a brand new Lamborghini.
I'd suggest downloading MAutoKey from Melda Production for this. There are plenty of other free plugins that can do similar things, but MAutoKey allows you to write in MIDI to control exactly which note you're aiming for. This is great for keeping things clean, but also lets you tweak the melody in post if that's something you want to do.
Let's Put it Together!
I'm hoping, once you make it to the end of this article you've got everything you'll need to make amazing pre-productions and blow your producer away when you turn up actually prepared like the professionals. So before I sign off, I want to leave you with a few important things to keep in mind as you work.
This is not the final production. What we need is as simple as "the right notes, in the right order"
No one else will ever hear this. If you need to fake some parts to get them right, do it. Slow it down, and speed it back up in editing. You'll learn it before you go into the studio for real (right?)
Don't over-expose yourself. I know it's tempting to put your new song on repeat, but seriously don't! Demo-itis is a serious thing.
And most of all get creative! This is the perfect time for trying different fills, playing with which melody you like best. Try things and see what works
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