Recipe – A complete song
Cooking time – 1hr 20 minutes
Ingredients – Guitar, Voice, Coffee or Beer (optional)
Hey
Many of you have asked me I manage to record so many songs, so quickly.
To be honest with you, it’s not always easy to find the time and I’m sure it’s exactly the same with you too.
There is always something that will get in the way of spending an hour or so recording my songs, so when I do get the opportunity I like to make sure that I get the most out of it, otherwise it can be a recipe for disaster!
So what I’ve done is come up with a cheat sheet recipe of recording tips that help me and I sure hope they help you too.
As you know having tried out many home recording programs my preferred software is Mixcraft.
Why? Because it’s excellent value, quick and easy to use and perfect if I just want an instant fix. I can just plug straight in and within minutes I’m laying down a track.
Check out my Mixcraft page here for more tips:
http://www.songwriting4guitar.com/record-your-songs
Something else that I keep getting asked about is how I get a realistic drum sound on my songs.
Well I can tell you now, I can’t beat an egg and I certainly can’t afford a session drummer either…so I cheat!…well kinda 
What I need to be able to do is lay down a drum track fast because it really helps to build a song structure, and a good sounding beat is crucial to most songs.
But let’s face it, one beat doesn’t fit all now does it? You need a way to be able to change the beat, raise or slow the tempo, add a few fills and just make it sound like you have a drummer in the room with you.
This is where Beatcraft comes into its own. I just go through the library of 100′s of pre written beats and fills, and again within minutes I turn my little old PC into Cozy Powell! ( am I showing my age a little)
Check out Beatcraft here:
http://www.songwriting4guitar.com/beatcraft.php
Download the latest version of Beatcraft here for FREE >>
Once I’ve got my guitar, bass and vocals recorded it’s the time ‘master’ the song. Mastering is in effect the moment that you gel the whole thing together and mix the song down to an MP3 so that you can send it out and share your song with the rest of the world.
If you want to really ‘spice’ up your final mix then I recommend using an amazing FREE plugin for Mixcraft called Endorphin.
It can turn any bland mixture into a tonguetastic feast!
Check out my Endorphin page here:
http://www.songwriting4guitar.com/endorphin
And that’s about it. It may not be the best recipe in the world but it sure tastes pretty good to me!
Serve hot to as many people as you can and ENJOY!!
Regards
Shayman 
