Make A Music Album In Rs. 50, 000 by Huma Sattar9 comments

Make a music album in Rs. 50,000- A tutorial for young, aspiring, penniless musicians.

By Huma Sattar

Ready?

You have spent the last couple of years either down in your garage with your musical instruments and your band members, jamming, or locked in your room writing truly soul-searching lyrics for songs you would later on compose for. Then, one day you wake up to realize your work is not finished. Yet. You realize, the purpose of all those times you toiled at those songs and those compositions was to share it with the world. Let the world know what talents hid behind those sound proof doors of the garage. I am not exaggerating. You, an aspiring and a rather inspired musician are finally ready to hit it big. You are ready to put all those lyrics and compositions and jamming sessions together to make a music album of your very own- with your face on the cover, your songs in the CD and copyrights in your name.

Get Set.

So we all know you have astounding talent and immaculate skills as a musician. You have a vocal range of an opera singer, your guitarist has fingers which could literally swim on the fretboard and your drummer is a wizard with those drum-sticks twirling between his thumb and forefinger. You also happen to have a keyboard player who could beat Beethoven at his own tune. Taken it a bit too far, have I? Well, maybe I have. But the truth is, you know you and your band mates have worked really hard,  composing those songs. You have practiced them innumerous times and performed them in all the small gigs you could get your hands on. What you people don’t have, however is a high budget to create a music album which could take the world by a storm. With a budget of 50,000, you can’t make squat. Or can you?

Go, bring studio home.

Let us assume here that you do not want to record and mix your songs in a studio but want to do all of that at home. For this, other than the guitars and vocals, we would suggest you to buy softwares for drums and pianos and sequence them together. These softwares are called virtual instruments and VSTI softwares which can be installed on your PC. You would need a 16 bit sound card and a midi (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) device which allows various musical instruments to communicate or play harmoniously. MIDI is a limited method of playing sounds as it will only be capable of playing the instruments available to your sound card. Generally, most computer sound cards will have a MIDI port which allows for several musical instrument devices to be connected to the computer such as a MIDI keyboard or a synthesizer. Before connecting any of these devices to the computer, you will need to purchase a separate cable which takes the MIDI/Game port connection into the standard 5-pin DIN midi connector. So make sure to get a compatible sound card. A midi device would cost around Rs:12-13,000. Next, you would need Studio monitors preferably Yamaha NS-10 which can cost cheap if you get them second hand or from shops you know, sell them cheap. They would cost around Rs. 8-10,000. You would need various cables and instruments which are connectable to your PC like electric or semi acoustic guitars and keyboards. You have a secure sound card and speakers (NS 10) which have a very pronounced midrange which make them excellent for identifying sound related problems. People also seem to like them for checking vocal tracks. You would need an amplifier for your guitars and microphones for the vocals of the songs. Once all this is done, you are set to go and start recording. You might need studio help in mixing the song if you can’t do that with the VSTI softwares already available to you but since you saved on buying new instruments, you would have money to spare. It is always a good help to have someone around who has enough knowledge to help you get started on the controlling of these equipments but usually, they are user friendly and once you start recording, you learn. You fall and learn but you learn, nevertheless. Nobody said it’d be a smooth ride.

Out of the box, we think…
We posed this question at some of our very well-loved and successful musicians and producers and most of them found the idea hilarious. They laughed. Out loud. We told them we were serious. How could we create a 7 to 8- song music album worth listening to in the market with a budget of Rs:50,000? The producers were a bit taken aback but our musicians did not disappoint us. Here is what the experts say:

Zeeshan Pervez:
The best way to do it in Rs: 50000 would be to get some equipment with you. You would need Microphones, a couple of cables, an electric or a semi acoustic guitar, some pirated softwares [original softwares are extremely expensive], a midi controller, or a keyboard.. It would take about 25000 to take a good system running. It doesn’t matter if the equipment is second hand. You would also need monitors {speakers} but they would cost you a lot considering your budget so it is preferable to go for second hand speakers. The same would go for a keyboard. A second hand keyboard costs around 5,000 to 6,000. You would, [how could I forget] also need an amplifier. Once you get your equipment sorted out you are confronted with the question of your aesthetic sense: ‘how well do you understand music, sound and melodies?’ And how well are you familiar with the instruments and equipments around you? You solve THIS dilemma and half your work is done.

Fawad and Xulfi [E.P]
Firstly, remember that you won’t be able to approach studios so if you wish to record an album in this budget, you do what we did when we recorded our first album. You try to do maximum of the work at home. It means you record guitars, sequence drums instead of playing live drums and basically use instruments that can be plugged to your PC. Grab a minidevice, a keyboard and plug them into your computer. Obviously if you want a better sounding album you would need to spend more money. You can get a 25 key keyboard from a range if Rs: 4000 to Rs: 8000. A midi device would cost between Rs: 2000 to Rs: 8000. Make sure to use guitar processors and a decent sound card to record your guitars. Once you have done most of the work at home and are ready to sequence your songs, please remember that studios would be charging you per hour and you would want to make the best use of this time. Leave only the vocals for the studio. There are some studios that would record a track for Rs: 5000 but they’ll be using the same technique as you so they would be really ripping you off *chuckles*.  Lastly don’t keep extraordinary expectations. Your album might not sound out of the world but it’ll sound like most of the songs you hear on Tv which is good enough.

Khawar Javed [Musician and producer]

Rs: 50,000. Sounds impossible! Most producers charge around Rs: 40,000 per song but what musicians can do is save money on studio timing and do most of their work on their own PCs.

Zeeshan Hayat [Musician and producer]

The key is to remember that although it is possible to make an album with this budget, you have no guarantee that your album will sound as good as the songs being played on Tv today. However, if a song is well mixed and properly sequenced, there is no one stopping your album from making it to the top. Most producers take Rs: 30,000 to Rs: 40,000 per song but they are professionals and the product, when you listen to it at the end, is worth listening to. If you decide to bring recording equipment at home, make sure to learn how to operate them before getting down to the real job. Basically, you will have more work to do and would need a lot of time to complete it effectively.

End note: a pitch higher than usual

Surprised, are we? Well, we did say it was possible. It is however more possible than probable. Most bands fail to make any music albums or release any of their singles because their pockets do not allow it. It is important to keep in mind that there has to be a start somewhere. Music sells. Especially good music. If you are truly satisfied with your compositions and you think the whole package can lift the spirit of millions, there is no way anyone could stop you from doing that. After all, our nation needs to be lifted now and then. However, we would add that such an album would need extra work put into it. It means, you would have to do research on the softwares you would be using. You would have to understand your equipment to its very last wire and keep your instruments at their best shapes. You also would have to remain in the good books of other musicians you may know. There is never such a thing as ‘abundance’ of outside help. You need it. You also need one last thing- Lots and lots of good luck. So keep those prayers going and those fingers crossed, preferably – I would say- on the F#m chord of your guitar.

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