Episode 15: How to make a banger on a budget

Are you dreaming about putting out songs but it feels expensive and overwhelming? This episode is for you, my friend. This is my list of ways to keep the spending down and still make a song you can be proud of.

Helpful Links:

Equipment I mentioned:

ATT2020 USB microphone

Shure SM58 Microphone

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Interface  - I think I got the price of this wrong in the episode, and I’m including a link of a bundle which includes good headphones.

Canva for cover art

Book a Voice Lesson with me

Transcript

0:17

Hello, hello, hello. And welcome to the Jewish singer podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Hope you're having a wonderful day so far. Don't forget to rate and follow the podcast, subscribe on YouTube, uh, whatever it is on Apple. I don't even know what it's called. I should figure that out, huh? Please share with your friends, especially this episode. I think it's going to be really, really useful for all of you singers out there who are, wanting to bust into the Jewish music scene, this is a great episode for you. Today we are talking about how to release a banger on a budget. You like that? Like what I did there? For all of you who don't know what a banger is, that's just a cute way to say, like, you know, a cool song. Okay, so how do we release a song when we don't have, you know, money pouring out of our pockets? You don't have a big, big budget set aside to make a song. This is one of the biggest obstacles, if not the biggest obstacle that I hear people talk about when it comes to Getting themselves out there and branching out into the music world because producing can be really expensive. It's just, there's no two ways about it. And honestly, I would love to learn music production myself and just be able to do my own songs, you know, at least like bare bones. And then, you know, you know, Pull in the professionals when needed, because not only is it really cool to have control over the process creatively, but obviously it costs much less money. So there is obviously a bit of investment in setting yourself up that way, including like learning and things like that. But, uh, Um, I think it can be worth it in the long run. If that's something that interests you, if you're not really interested in being a producer, you're not interested in making songs that way, then I wouldn't necessarily advise you to spend the money to do that because chances are you'll just be like, Oh, this isn't a good enough track. Anyway, you don't have the, the like desire to really like learn it. Anyway, that's not really what I want to talk about today, because I'm assuming that most people are not going to take all of the steps to become their own music producer. Most of us will not. Most of us are singers and that's what we want to focus on. We're focusing on writing our music, focusing on being the best singer possible and coming into our own self as an artist. So I want to go through a list today of the things that you can do to produce a track on a budget. The things that could cost you less money during the process. And the things I'm going to go over will sometimes apply to only cover songs, but most of this is for any song. So hopefully you are writing original music and that's a huge thing to figure out how to release your own original music on a budget because you can't use preexisting tracks, right? If you have original music, you have this beautiful, holy stuff that you want to put out into the world and we need to hear it. We want to hear it. So So let's talk about today, how you can get it out there and not have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a track. So the first thing I'm going to talk about is applying to cover songs, and that would be to use a preexisting instrumental track. Uh, you do have to be careful about this, that you don't just like pull a track off YouTube and go, yeah, here's my, here's my backing for this and send it to your producer. In most cases you will not have permission to do that. Meaning the person that put that karaoke track or whatever out onto the web will assume that you're using it for just like your own purposes. Singing along to it and nine times out of 10, those people have links to a website that they are selling tracks. And so you want to be really careful about that, that you don't just rip a song off the internet and then think that you can use it because it's out there for free. Make sure that you purchase the track, uh, legally, And for sure, for sure. There's so many websites out there these days where you can. Remove vocals from a track. There's, there's a lot out there and you don't want to do that because it's not good quality. The track that it comes out with is you can hear the vocals in the background a little bit. It's a little warbly here and there like you don't want to use that. Don't, don't even try that. There is a website that probably some of you already know about called All Playbacks. It's a Jewish site and they have so much Jewish music out there that you can purchase the track for and use it in your recording. They cost about$50 or 180 shekels, and it's super easy way, like$50 for, um, instrumental track. You know, like if that, if this is something you're gonna be putting out there on Spotify, YouTube, whatever. That's, that's a, that's a deal, you know what I mean? Um, just be aware because I know not a lot of people know this. Side note, that if you are going to reuse that track for any purpose. Like a different recording or a performance, a live performance, you do have to pay a reuse fee. So make sure that you go back onto the website and find the place on the website where you. I think it's like 25, maybe a bit more now for re usage of the track. Okay. You want to make sure that's, that's the way that he has asked that people go about it and that's the, you know, quote unquote, legal way to do it. So make sure that you are compensating the producer who took his valuable time to make these tracks available to us. Okay, so moving on to the next item, so number two thing that can be done to keep the cost down on your track is be really clear about your vision for the song. And this is true for a cover song, but especially more if you're doing a original song, without a preexisting track. So you have an original song and you know, it's floating around in your brain. You have the melody, you have the words, you've got the whole thing. Maybe you even have like the chords on the guitar. Okay. Um, or maybe you play piano or something like that. If you play an instrument, it's extremely valuable so that you can play along with yourself and that can be a reference for the producer. You're going to send it to them and you're going to say, I really want this kind of vibe. Also I would say even in addition to that, even if you have your own, like, you know, pared down instrumental version of it, that you go and look for songs that are in a similar style to what you're going for. And so the producer might even ask you for this, like, Hey, do you have reference tracks for me? And that's going to mean like, could you give me, you know, three songs or something, um, uh, in the style that you like. And you could even be picking out certain elements. Like you could say, Hey, I really like the, just like the feel and the vibe of this song. Um, I like the vocal aesthetic on this song. Or, um, I like the instrumentation. I like the use of the piano. I like the use of the guitar, whatever it is. Like, and, and you also have to start getting good at like hearing those elements in songs. This is how you really pump up your artistry and don't become so reliant on a producer to figure it out for you. You know, the more you start to get to know yourself and you get to have a good ear and listen for things in other people's songs, then you can start to pick those elements out and go, yeah, I want this kind of vibe here and I want that type of instrument here. And that is really helpful in speeding along the process with a producer. Otherwise, they have to really just kind of go on it by themselves and or have to ask you a lot of questions and that can prolong the whole process. I mean, there's always going to be that back and forth, um, and that's like the fun of it in my opinion. But yeah. Uh, you want to give them as clear a vision as possible, because especially if sometimes you just, you just vibe with people and the producer will like totally get what you're talking about and they'll give you back exactly what you wanted and you didn't even really say, you know, all the specifics, but it's perfect. Right. And sometimes really, really not, you know, sometimes you'll get back a track that's like, that is not at all what I meant, but you didn't tell them, you know, like they can't read your mind. And sometimes people's. own um, aesthetics and just the way that they normally go about doing things don't align with what your vision was in your head. So you have to be really specific about it, okay? And that will save you time because if you get back a track and it's not anything near what you wanted it to be, then they're gonna have to go back to the drawing board, you know? That's going to cost you. Okay. Cause you still had to pay for all that time they spent on the thing that you didn't like. Okay. So that's a really big one. If you're producing original music. Okay. Point number three, how to make a banger on a budget, record your vocals at home, if you have a little setup. Okay. Now some people have like mamash full on recording studios in their house. And. That's amazing. I wish I do not have a full on recording studio, but I have the ability to record decent vocals and the, the producer can take those vocals and put it into the track, pitch, correct, what needs to be pitch, correct, uh, corrected. Edit mix, all of that stuff. It's usually good enough. Okay. So if you are working really on a budget. This can be a way to save potentially a few hundred dollars. So let me tell you though about what the investment would be in getting yourself set up that way. Okay. So it means like an initial investment and then it could mean for you later on down the road as you do more projects that that's, you know, it's paying for itself. But initially it is going to cost a little bit of money. So I'll tell you the kinds of equipment that I have in my studio here. And you'll see that it's really not too pricey, thankfully. So the microphone that I'm talking into right now is a blue Yeti, which is really more of a podcasting mic. So I don't know that I would advise you to buy a blue Yeti for, singing vocals, but if you're also, for some reason, needing a microphone for, uh, like zoom meetings or podcasting some other purpose, and you already have a need to buy this, or say you already have this, then you can play around with it. there's different settings on the mic that will be better for certain types of voice usage. So for singing, I don't remember what the, the setting is on the top of my head, but, um, you can play around with it. So this could be something that you, you use. But the microphone that I bought, I have a couple other microphones. That I use to track vocals when needed. And the first one I have is the ATT, it's Audio Technica 2020. I have the USB mic. Cause when I first bought a microphone, I was thinking like, I don't want to deal with having like another piece of equipment, like the interface. I didn't want to spend the money on it. So it's a USB mic that plugs directly into my computer. And then I record onto my DAW and that was about 99 or that's how much it costs right now. I'm not sure if that's how much I paid for it back then. Uh, so it's not too expensive, you know, a hundred bucks. That's pretty, that's pretty decent. And it, I did a lot of research at the time about like, What was going to give me the best bang for my buck, like the best microphone for the least amount of money and after a lot of search, this was the one that came up as being a really decent vocal mic. And it also comes in a non USB form. It comes in the XLR form, which you do need an interface. So you can decide. I don't know, to be very honest, that there's like a huge difference in sound quality from the XLR to the USB. It could be that there is a little bit more, um, you know, running it through an interface. And the interface that I have is the, Scarlett, uh, forgot the number of it. I will link all of this that I'm talking about in the show notes, but I have a small universe interface. It's not big, it's not one of these like huge ones that you would see in a recording studio, but you know, it's one that you can plug in the XLR mic and then it plugs into your computer and you can mess with the gain and the volume and all of this. So that costs about a hundred dollars on Amazon. Okay, so you're looking at about 200 for an XLR mic and a interface if that's the way you want to go or something just like 100 for a USB mic. Um, another XLR mic option that I have is the Shure SM58. Which is also apparently a really popular mic, even amongst like professional singers. Like it's apparently a really great performance mic as well. So that's one that also needs, um, an interface to be plugged in if you're going to be using that. Uh, but that could be dual purpose for you. Say you need a microphone and a, an amp to travel to gigs and stuff. That might be a good microphone to get because you can use it, you know, in your recording studio as well. And then the thing I mentioned earlier, uh, I said a DAW, but I didn't explain what that was in case Some of you don't know what that is. A DAW is stands for a digital audio workstation. And that is the program on your computer that you can record into. So if you are fortunate enough to have a Mac device, a computer, Oh, well, also the phone, but I don't know that you would want to like, you can't like actually record, from a proper microphone onto a phone, but if you have a, you know, a Mac book or whatever. Then they come already set with GarageBand and GarageBand is a plenty decent program to record vocals on. And then you can send it off to your producer. And of course, like you check with that person, check with the producer, like, is this good enough? Is this going to work? And mostly, most of the time they'll tell you, yeah, it's, yeah, it's good enough. You know, if you tell them like I'm on a budget, this is what I want to do. And they'll say, yeah, I can, I can doctor that up. It doesn't, you don't need to be on a 5, 000 microphone or, whatever. And here, here's a big, big. caveat the environment in which you record the vocals is actually almost more important than the microphone that you're using. So if you want to get good vocals, you have to really make sure that you're not in a very echoey room. So in this room where I am right now, you can probably even hear it on the podcast. It's a little boomy. I have not sound treated. This room have not gone around, gotten around to doing it. And it's a decently sized room, you know, like a bedroom size. So I, what I have set up in my, in my office here, those foam things on the wall, right in front of me where I'm sitting right now to record this podcast, but it's not on the entirety of the room. And I do have a. A shield on my microphone stand that works a little bit. So that was, I don't know, maybe like 60 bucks that I bought on Amazon, but here is like the really, really bare bones way to do this sounds silly, but literally stand somewhere where you're against a wall and put up behind you like blankets. And just basically surround yourself, if you can, or if you have like a, one of those standing hanger racks or something, some way that you can enclose yourself in, into like a kind of a small space and put thick material, like blankets, scarves, whatever, that kind of thing. And it really, really dampens the echo and kind of just keeps you in, it makes the sound really dry. Honestly, that's good enough. Or even if you have like, um, a closet here in Israel, we have these. You know. Everything is super tiny and squishy and we don't have walk in closets here. But if you have a walk in closet with clothes around you and it's a dry sound in there, that works too, actually. So, get creative, you know, like, sometimes it can feel like, oh, everybody's making these really fancy Uh, recordings and these recording studios. And I want to go do that. And I want to post it on social media and like, listen, it's cool. Like I do it too, but if you need to record it in your closet so that you can put a song out, then do it. Okay. Don't be. ashamed of that. I would if I had a walk in closet, I would totally be recording in there. I just don't. Um, okay. I feel like that can be one of the bigger ones that people get overwhelmed by when it comes to cost and when it comes to how can I possibly do it by myself. And I hope that that, that gives you a little bit of inspiration as to how you can get creative when you're on a budget. And let me go back for a second about the DAW. If you don't have a Mac, there are plenty of DAWs out there available. I use Logic, but it's only available for Mac. That costs about 200 one time payment, and you, you know, can use it forever. When it comes to others, for windows and, and all that, I believe there's Ableton, I'll link it in the show notes. I can't remember the other names of them. I've heard of a couple others that people like, and those do cost money also. So that, that is, an initial investment. And so, like I said, if you have a Mac, this is a much easier thing to dive into because you already have GarageBand on your computer. All right, next item for number four, when it comes to visuals, okay, everybody these days is making their fancy videos and it's so pretty and y'all want to make videos. I want to make videos. To be very honest with you, I just recorded a song that's going to be released soon. And I made the decision to do it somewhat, um, what's the word? Impulsively. And I, I didn't have like money set aside to do, I didn't have like a A budget that I planned for and saved up for. I had an idea in my head that I was going to do a nice little video like out in nature. And after all was said and done, and it took a little longer in the studio because I did not record the vocals myself. Um, it took a long, a little longer in the studio than I anticipated. And you know, the back and forth with the producer about what the vibe of the song should be. It came out to pretty much what I thought that I would want to pay for everything included, including a video and to no fault of, of the producer, obviously, but just, that's just, you know, stuff, stuff takes more time. And I wasn't maybe following all of my tips here that I'm giving you. And so I had to, I had to decide not to do the video, which was really a haval, but, but whatever. So that is an option. Okay. I'm just saying like, you don't have to do a video. It's obviously much cheaper not to do a video, or you can get a little creative and have a friend who you know would give you a really great deal or who wouldn't charge you anything at all, uh, film it for you. Maybe even just film it on their iPhone. I've seen plenty of people do that because sometimes just having a visual is, is better than no visual visual at all because you can post on your, on all your platforms and whatever and people like to see it. It's a way to get people engaged. People don't want to just listen and see nothing. Right. We live in a video age. So even if that's just the way that you go and have your friend, have your husband take the iPhone and be like, okay, I'm walking down the street or I'm standing in the park or, you know, whatever it is, like do your makeup, get dressed and, and, and make it look decent. You know, that's something it's better than nothing really. The other thing. Is if you need cover art, I had one time I, I went to the park and I had my husband just snap a bunch of pictures of me. I had my makeup all done. I was wearing like this bright pink dress and people were looking at me like, what is she doing? But he took pictures of me and they were good enough. And I, I ran it through, um, Canva, I used Canva to stick my picture in, removed the background of, of my picture and stuck in another background and, and made a cover art, right? It didn't cost me anything, 0. That was great. Another way to get a little cheaper visuals is if you do want to have a video and let's say you're not into the whole, you know, video it yourself and you do want to pay a videographer, you can do that. You can even do like an in studio shoot. So go, to the recording studio and have them video, you know, you singing on the mic and that's going to cost way less. It's way less time. know, You don't have like a whole concept and you don't have multiple people to hire to be there. You probably have one or two camera angles and it's not a big long shoot. Much less editing. That's a good way to get a visual in without spending a lot of money. Another option is to do a lyric video, which can be done pretty cheaply with someone who could do it for you, or you could attempt to do it yourself too, obviously. If you feel like you can undertake that. But it usually doesn't cost that much money if you want to outsource that as well. So that's another cheap option in terms of visuals. Okay. Number five, don't be like me and plan ahead. I mean, sometimes you just get that fire underneath you and you're like, Oh, I got to do this and I need to make it happen. And so then you make it happen and more power to you, whatever I'm all about following your, your artistic and creative impulses. Um, but sometimes. It's good to plan ahead or just kind of be on a normal rotating, process of planning for a project. Like you don't necessarily know what it is, but I know that I'm going to want to make a song this year, or I'm going to make two songs or three songs this year. And so you start planning. So, you know, that you need to set aside from whatever money you make a hundred or 200 dollars each month, to plan for that recording you're going to do that in six months. It might need to be even more than that, depending on the scale of the project, but, that's something you can just plan for. Make it a part of your normal budgeting. If possible, I know everybody's strapped in this economy when, eggs and milk costs an arm and a leg, but if you can afford to, to set aside money, then you won't feel that that heavy strain on your budget when you do decide to go in. Like, if you decide that month, you're going to record, but you had no money set aside, previously in the year, it's going to feel like, Oh, where am I going to come up with a thousand dollars, you know, to make a, a track. Which as I understand it in America is probably pretty standard, um, for producing an original instrumental and recording like that. Maybe even on the low end to be honest these days. So yeah, plan ahead, set aside money each month for the potential of a project. Uh, the next thing would be number six, how to make a banger on a budget. Pick up a side gig to earn more money for artistic projects. Okay. So this is like, not to do with the project itself so much, but just giving you some ideas, creativity about like, how can I make more money available to me to work on the projects? So many of us, we just don't have the money set aside to To come out of pocket for these projects every month, you know, it costs a lot of money and costs a lot of money to produce. And for a lot of us, it can feel like a hobby, even though this is, you know, something that is so important to you and you, you want to make this part of your career, but as you're getting off the ground, it's like, nobody's paying you. You're not getting. A million dollars from Spotify when you release your song, you know, that's just the reality of it. So, pick up side gigs. It's a, it's a time old tale. Is that the right expression that singers teach voice lessons to supplement their gig life, you know? And if you are gigging, most of, most of us are not earning all that much from gigging in the Jewish world. But if you are like, you can do bus mitzvahs and kumtzs and things like that. And you're not a fantastic way. And teaching is also a fantastic way. And it is so rewarding. It really, really is. If you enjoy teaching, it's, it's so rewarding. And if it's something that you're interested in doing, please be in touch with me. Um, I would love to help you get started and perhaps even talk about training you and adding you as a teacher to my studio so that I can give you students and you can get experience and all of that good stuff. Please be in touch. I would love to discuss that if that's something that interests you. Um, you could even, it's like kind of going out there just a little bit, but you could even like have a, you know, one of those fundraiser pages, if you have a particular project and you know that there are people in your life that might want to donate to you, like, that's something you could try. I know a lot of people are doing all these fundraiser pages and it can get a little overwhelming, but you know. That, that is an option or things like, uh, Patreon, if you've heard of Patreon, it's like, kind of a subscription thing where people who follow you and like you and are big fans can give you money each month and you make content for them to consume. So you know, you can have, it could be a place where you put on little mini concerts or, you know, and add videos and everything and people can basically. Subscribe to be a part of that. So I'm not sure how popular that is in the Jewish world, but it exists and it's like it's a thing. So that could be an option for you. And I noticed that even uh, some artists have a PayPal link or like a buy me a coffee button on their websites or their link trees. So if you have an Instagram and you have like a link tree, there could be a button at the bottom that's like, buy me a coffee or, you know, appreciate you appreciate my music. Like, you know, send me five bucks or whatever kind of thing. And so honestly, like, why not? Like, if that's an option, you can try it. Why not? Okay. I think that's the end of my list now of all the ways that we can release a banger on a budget, and I really am so looking forward to hearing your songs that you released, so please be in touch with me and let me know if this was helpful and what projects you're working on and if I can be Of any assistance, or if you just want to like chat about it or ask me any questions. I'm here. I'm available. You can DM me on Instagram at Nechamaleah music, or you can email me Nechamaleah music at Gmail. I'll put links in the show notes of these and have a wonderful day. Happy singing.