Song Evolution

When listening to one of your favorite songs, what you don’t hear are the various stages it goes through before reaching that final stage. If you did, it might not be your favorite song anymore. Below, we’ll detail what we call each of the stages and what they mean.

Creating

In this stage, an idea goes from your head into the airwaves. The creation process is different for everyone. Some like to write songs on the piano, others a guitar. Some may write lyrics down on paper or their phone, and others choose to keep it all in their head. Your creative process is personal, and can define how your music sounds. Find a process that works for you!

Pre-Production

Before the actual production, you want to prepare. This is the process of getting ready to record your final idea in the studio. The best way to prepare is to do it yourself. Making a demo is the most efficient way of fully realizing your goal and completing the creative process. By recording pieces of your song in scratch takes, you can add layers and fully work everything out. We’ll touch more on demos later. 

Recording 

This is the first step where we come into play. Once you have a clear understanding of how you’d like to construct your song, you can come to Studio 117 to begin the construction. Offering a demo if you have one is very helpful to streamlining the process of recording. We’ll work one piece at a time, and record everything to the highest quality. Once all parts are recorded and you are happy with your performance, we will then begin mixing.

Mixing & Mastering

The mixing process is where we help your track really shine. In the mix, we treat all of the individual elements we recorded to help them fit together. The mixing process is also a very creative part of the song, so if you ever have ideas for the mix, reach out to us! We’d love to have you come in while we work on the creative elements of the mix.

The mastering process is the treatment of the entire song as one, rather than the individual pieces of the track. For this reason, a song only goes to mastering once you are completely satisfied with the mix. Mastering helps to prepare your song for release on streaming platforms, and bring it to a level that is consistent with your favorite songs. Your final mastered files will be delivered in high quality .wav format. At this point, your song is ready for release. 

For more information on the mixing process and mix pricing, please visit our FAQ page

Publishing

Once you are satisfied with the master, upload your song to your preferred distribution platform. Distrokid, CD Baby, and TuneCore are all good options, and used by millions of artists. If you ever have questions about publishing, just ask!