How Long Does It Take to Record an Album? A Complete Guide for Arizona Musicians

Any refined artistic venture requires concentrated time and a lot of it. Especially ventures like music album production, which has several major steps, each requiring lots of quality time. Every artist has their way to approach album production, which may cause a variation in time. 

If you’re a lone wolf, then a solo producer/artist can take as little as 3 months to a year. Whereas for a professional music production studio, the album duration can be from 6 months to more than two years. 

Album production is made up of 5 major steps 

Now let’s go through each step to see what it is and how long it might take to finish.

• Pre-production 

Pre-production is the first step and an important one, as this is the phase where you plan your album and gather what your musical expression and inspirations are. As a new producer or an experienced one, giving the pre-production due attention and work is vital because it sets up the mood for the album it gives you a glimpse of what the final product can be. Writing your songs is a soul part of pre-production. Writing takes a huge chunk of the time required to produce an album, as writing needs time, mood, concentration, and most importantly, inspiration. An album with well-written songs can leave a strong impression on the listeners. An artist determines the theme of the album, the number of tracks, makes a tentative timeline, and writes new or completes previously written songs. The timespan of this stage can be short if the artist comes to the table well prepared with a vision and completely written songs, and it might take months for those who start from scratch. 

• Song writing 

After successful pre-production, the producer enters the second phase of production, Songwriting. This phase includes determining and choosing the correct melodies for the written song, experimenting with lyrical and melodic ideas, editing the songs along the melody-making process, and determining whether you’ll collaborate with other artists or go solo. Experienced artist, having developed their unique sound, can write a song relatively fast, while newer ones might take years to perfect their sound and tone, so the time span of songwriting varies according to the artist. 

• Tracking / Recording 

Now you have complete songs at your disposal, lyrically and musically. You’ve entered the recording stage of your production process. Recording takes relatively less time compared to its predecessors. To start this phase, one should first find a recording studio, recording studios come in all shapes and sizes. Expensive studios would offer quality services like high-end recording systems and equipment. Once you select the studio, just go in there and bring the music to life. 

• Mixing and post-production

The Fourth Stage of Mastering and production is relatively less time-consuming. This is the stage where to song is refined and polished, to come out cohesive and balanced. The mixing engineer is the one in control of the mixing and mastering phase. The engineer works closely with the artist to ensure each tract is in the mood the artist envisioned. Mixing and mastering may take a few days to a few weeks. 

• Design and Album Artwork 

Congratulations, your album is complete at least in terms of audio. We can say the body is created, now we must design the outfit. This is the Album artwork and design phase. It is of extreme importance as the album cover is the first thing potential listeners see. It is essential to give your album its visual identity and accompany your music to give the listener the visual experience and ultimately give your album its deserved acclaim. In this phase, the artist works alongside graphic designers and photographers, renting a photo studio might be an option according to your requirements, whether you’re looking for something simple or a bit extravagant.