• Find your inspiration:

Inspiration can come from anywhere. A sound such as a guitar or bass tone, a cool synth patch or drum sample. It could come from a drum groove or a cool rhythm. You might find it in a poem, story or a phrase, chord progression or melody. Simply listening to different genres or era’s of music is a great way to get the creative juices flowing. Finding this initial spark will light the fire of creativity and get your mind working to write. Writer’s block is common to everyone, so don’t get discouraged if it happens to you. Even if it doesn’t happen immediately (which is immensely frustrating to me), I’ve found that if you keep plugging away and searching for that inspiration, you will eventually find it. One last bonus trick is to form a writing group especially if you can keep your ego in check. Remember that no one of us is better than all of us and you may find your inspiration much faster working with others.

• Give yourself limitations:

This may seem counterintuitive but setting arbitrary limits can actually help you to narrow down your options and make writing much easier. If you’re anything like me, having endless choices may seem like a great thing until you have to make a decision, in which case you may find yourself having a severe case of analysis paralysis. By setting limits, you allow yourself to focus on a direction and take action. You can always change your mind later if it doesn’t seem to be working out. Some examples of the limits you might set could be things like lyrical content, a song key, how long the song should be or what type of instrumentation you want. You may even consider giving yourself a time limit to write the song which will force you to come up with whatever you can in the set time. You can always refine or tweak it later but at least you will have made some progress instead of having nothing at all. A bad song is better than no song as you can at least learn from your mistakes and perhaps make it better over time through revisions.

• Take action

It’s been said that “you can’t steer a parked car.” Take action and get moving. Just play around or jam, throw mud on a wall and see what sticks. Even if you’re going in the wrong direction, you can always make course corrections along the way. Too many people (including myself at times) refuse to get going because they think they need to have it all figured out before they start. The real truth is that you mostly figure it out as you go. Nothing is set in stone so don’t be afraid to make a mistake. You can always change it later. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve started a song, gotten half way through and then realized that I needed to start all over again because I finally figured out what the song should actually sound like and I never felt as though I wasted my time because I never would have figured it out in the first place if I hadn’t started the process. Yes, I know that was one heck of a run on sentence so let me see if I can restate it better: sometimes you have to go in the wrong direction to find the right direction. It all starts with action.

• Don’t be afraid to make a bad song

I’ve already touched on this but I think it deserves its own heading. I’ve found that generally speaking I have to write nine bad songs to get to one good one. You may have a better or worse track record than me but I usually hate 90% of what I write, and that’s actually very encouraging to me. That means it’s a simple numbers game. All I have to do is write ten songs and at least one of them is going to be good (at least to my own ears). Well I can write a bad song like nobody’s business so I just need to pump them out to get to the good ones. With those odds you can write a hit album in 100 days if you write a song a day even if it’s a terrible song. You just have to be willing to do it. Don’t feel as though every song you write needs to be a masterpiece (and believe me I know that a lot of musicians tend to be perfectionists, just do your best to get over that)  because in all reality, they just won’t be. Instead focus on writing regardless of how good or bad and eventually you will stumble across your next hit.

I know that some of you were probably looking for more specific techniques to writing songs and if you are, I highly encourage you to look those techniques up, but this is the process I use to write music and it works for me. I think it will work for you as well, especially if you use it alongside some of the more specific techniques out there which I may cover in future blogs. If there is an art and science to writing music, then the above list is more the science side of things and the art is learned along the way (and exponentially harder to teach as art tends to be highly individualistic while the science is something that can be applied to anyone). If you ever find yourself in need of help writing music then feel free to come to RCR Recording Studios and I’ll be happy to help you through the process.

Cary Crichlow – Senior engineer and producer

The post Song Writing 101: My Process appeared first on RCR Recording.

We looked at various recording studios around the area and every single one of them was out of our price range so I naively hit upon the idea that we should build our own studio and record the music ourselves. My brother had a bit of a technical background and we agreed that he would be our engineer. The recordings were absolutely horrible. We had no idea what we were doing. I thought what we need is better equipment and a proper room to record in so I convinced my parents that if they would invest the money into turning their home into a recording studio we could cheaply record our bands music and maybe make a bit of money on the side by bringing in other bands. Naturally my brother would be the engineer and I would produce and bring in clients. It was the perfect solution to our problems I thought to myself. I couldn’t have been more wrong. After about a year or two of more terrible recordings and nowhere near enough clients to make up the costs to my parents, my brother, frustrated with his lack of ability and my constant criticisms, decided that he wasn’t cut out for the job and quit. I had two options, either we close the doors to the studio or I would take on the responsibilities of being the engineer on top of being the studio salesman (which I was failing at). I was worse than my brother at the engineering side and had absolutely no clue how to use any of the equipment or tools but I dug in my heels and refused to quit. My brother left me a few notes on how to at least get a session setup and sound to get into our DAW and I began the arduous task of recording a friend’s band on the super cheap.

I have no idea how I was able to convince people to record with me in the beginning. I was a terrible engineer and had lackluster people skills. I was ignorant to most of the recording process and had no idea how to mix a song. But I persevered and after an extremely frustrating learning process which took place over 15 years (and I’m still learning and trying to improve to this day) and working through failure after failure, I am where I am today. I’ve been blessed to work with some of the most talented local groups in Cleveland including Tropidelic, Carlos Jones and the Plus Band, Vibe and Direct, C Level and many many more artists and bands. I’ve learned a lot on my journey (and still have much to learn). It’s funny how life works out sometimes isn’t it? I went from wanting to be an A list rock star to becoming a top engineer and producer in Cleveland. I never would have thought that I would end up here.

The point in telling this story (if there is any) is that you never know where life will take you. Be open minded and don’t be afraid of the inevitable failures on the way to where you’re going. Enjoy the journey and learn the lessons on the way because although you might end up on a path you never thought you would take, it could be the path that leads you to where you were meant to be. I’ve dedicated my life to music and have made some wonderful friends and music along the way. The future is uncertain, but you might just end up where you were supposed to all along. I wouldn’t trade my journey for anything. I have some small hope that if you’re reading this, then perhaps it will give you hope that even if you’re not where you think you should be, that you will find encouragement to press on because you have no idea just how great your future can be.

Cary Crichlow, Senior Producer and Engineer

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RCR Recording Studios: Be an original, not a copy. The world is full of unoriginal ideas, what it needs most is your unique sound. We are just beginning 2024 and if you listen to the top 40 music charts you may start to see a pattern. Every song is well produced and well written and sounds like a carbon copy of the last song you heard on the chart with rare exceptions. Music these days is becoming more and more homogenous (that’s a fancy word meaning more of the same) to the point where the biggest criticism today is that music is becoming boring. My dad likes to relate a story that when his father, a very talented jazz musician, was listening to the new pop music coming out at the time (like the Beatles or Rolling Stones) he told my dad that it was just noise. Why? Because it was new and different. When my dad heard some of the music, I was listening to growing up he said nearly the same thing, that’s not music it’s just noise (He has since come around to appreciate that music by the way). No one is saying today’s music is just noise, they’re saying it’s boring. There is no one breaking new ground or trying new things, today’s music is just copies of each other. There are many reasons for this (The internet, major labels and a slew of others) but I’d like to talk about reasons why it should not be this way.

Being forced into conformity can feel stifling and creatively bankrupt. And when that happens you lose the passion for music you had in the first place. You have to risk being offensive (musically, not just being a jerk) in order to stand out from the crowd and get away from what everyone else is doing. It’s so much easier to just copy what’s hot right now but all that’s doing is devaluing the actual value of music. Who cares if all the music sounds the same if no one is paying attention in the first place? Well, I tend to think that’s why no one cares about music anymore. It’s just background noise. Why should I pay attention to background noise? Write music that demands to be listened to and demands to be talked about. Who is talking about the new hit single these days aside from industry shills? When was the last time you heard a song that really made you think or helped you to understand the world in a new way? I’d venture to guess it wasn’t recent.

Trying to sound like everyone else can be frustrating on another level as well, because you will inevitably become disappointed when you sound like a second rate copy instead of a first rate you. You begin to feel inauthentic and disingenuous. You start to feel like a tiny needle in a sea of hay and have to just hope and pray that someone is looking for you. A single flower in a barren field stands out more and can be so much prettier than one flower amongst many in a garden of beautiful plant life. Variety is the spice of life. If you ate pizza everyday you would eventually get sick of it. That’s what’s happening in today’s music industry. Go eat a steak or some tofu or anything other than pizza and you will begin to come alive and get excited about food. 

So how do you embrace your own authentic sound? In a word, courage. Courage is needed to stand out from the crowd and go in a different direction. You will risk criticism, naysayers and people who may be jealous of your talents but that’s no reason to conform. It’s all the more reason to press forward. It’s been said that no one erected a statue of a critic. Only people willing to have the courage to try something new and different get noticed and that’s going to generate haters and wannabes. They may call you crazy, naive or just plain untalented, but “they” are often wrong and if you embrace your true unique sound, you will have a much better chance at garnering a following of people hungry for something new, something authentic. In short, have the courage to be yourself.

At RCR we foster an environment where you have the freedom to be yourself and we encourage you to be the best you, you can be, not a second rate someone else. Have the courage to start your musical journey and we will help you on your path.

Cary Crichlow, Senior Producer and Engineer

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It’s been said that writing a song is easy but writing a good song is very very hard. That’s always made perfect sense to me as to be totally honest, writing a song really requires no understanding of music or language. Anything goes and the sky’s the limit. You can use as much or as little creativity as you want. Can you make a random note with your mouth or musical instrument? Can you beat your hands on your knees or table? For bonus points use a word with the note or sound you made. Congratulations you’ve just written a song!! This no holds bar approach to writing can be incredibly cathartic and expressive not to mention super fun. Now on the other hand writing an objectively good song is a bit more complicated and requires you to follow certain standard and familiar formats and loose formulas. Here are just a few examples of some of the “rules” you will commonly find in popular music of any genre.

• Using standard song formats like ABABCB (A=verse, B=chorus, C=bridge) or ABCABCDCC (A=verse, B=pre-chorus, C=chorus, D=bridge) etc..
• Using common chord progressions like I V vi IV or vi IV I V (in key of C: I=C – V=G – vi=Am – IV=F) etc..
• Using commonly relatable  lyrical themes like love, loss or overcoming adversity etc..
• Using simple rhyming schemes to help make the song more memorable
• Using simple memorable melodies

These are just a few examples but hopefully that gives you a rough idea of some commonality between commercial or popular songs. Why bring all this up? Because I have found that there tends to be two very distinct approaches to writing songs both with their pros and cons and figuring out which type of writer you are may help you to become better at writing songs.  

Commercial: I call this the standard approach because it is the one that most of us are familiar with listening to. People who use this style of writing tend to stick to the “rules” above and become very good at following them. Most songs on the Billboard Top 40 over the last 70 years have followed these guidelines. That doesn’t necessarily make them good or bad songs but there is undeniably a sense of familiarity in popular music and people tend to like what is familiar. So the big upside to this style is that you are more likely (but not guaranteed) to have other people enjoy the songs you write and more willing to pay you for them. So what’s the down side to this approach? The formulaic nature of this style can put some people off, especially those who want to flex their creative and artistic muscles. The limiting facets of following the “rules” can be hard for some people to adhere to and lead to writer’s block. In a nutshell, if you are more concerned about other people enjoying your music and a greater likelihood of making good money from your songs then this approach is probably the one for you.  

Artistic: This style of writing is actually very similar to the commercial approach except that instead of following all of the “rules” they only follow some of them. For example they may incorporate a standard song format and relatable lyrics but experiment with the chord progression or melody. Each “rule” that you break will take you farther from the commercial approach and push you deeper into the artistic one. In essence, you need to know the “rules” so well that you can start creatively breaking them in an artistic way. This approach can be very creatively appealing and a fun challenge to your songwriting chops as well as open up an endless amount of variety to incorporate into your music in fun and creative ways. It can allow you to think outside of the box and add your own unique touches to the songs you write. There is often an element of elitism in this approach that comes from wanting to show off and impress your peers with the talent you worked hard to develop. The down side to this style of writing is that typically the more “rules” you break the less likely others are going to be to want to listen to or enjoy your music so the real challenge can become knowing which “rules” to break and when (assuming you want others to enjoy your music). That being said most people who choose the purely artistic approach tend to be less interested in what the general populace thinks and are more concerned with what they and their musical peers think. If you’re writing primarily for yourself and your own gratification and don’t really care about making a lot of money from your songwriting, then this approach is probably the one for you. Rapture in the glory that is your song and reap all the enjoyment you can out of it.  

One style is no better than the other, they just have two different goals in mind. Basically the question you need to ask yourself is, am I writing this for my own enjoyment or am I writing for others enjoyment? There is no right or wrong answer here and keep in mind that following the “rules” is no guarantee of a good song and breaking all the “rules” is no guarantee of a bad song, but you will be putting the odds in that favor. Whether you’re writing the next artistic masterpiece or commercial hit, RCR Recording Studios can help take your music to the next level.

Cary Crichlow, Senior Producer and Engineer

RCR Recording Studios

The post Song Writing 101 – Which Type Of Writer Are You? appeared first on RCR Recording.

Chances are if you’ve wandered into the Cleveland music scene over the last few years you’ve heard the name Tropidelic thrown around. They’ve sold out the House Of Blues in Cleveland toured with 311, Bad Fish and other huge names in the reggae rock scene and managed to release an album a year on top of a rigorous touring schedule. Mixing a blend of reggae, rock, funk, punk and soul Tropidelic is quickly becoming one of the biggest bands to emerge out of the Cleveland music scene. But how did they get here? Here are a few reasons that I believe have made them so successful.

Develop a niche – The band started off as a small group from Kent State University that played local shows around the campus. They managed to garner a small but dedicated following of students hooked by the fun and upbeat music. Featuring engaging performances and raucous stage antics, Tropidelic quickly established themselves as the premier party band in Kent and while the band has matured and evolved both musically and professionally, they never lost track of their roots and fanbase. Instead they grew that niche slowly overtime inviting more and more people to join their community and spread the Tropidelic message of good times and eerie vibes. They never tried to please everybody choosing instead to remain true to themselves and their fans and let their fans grow the Tropidelic community.

Hard Work – This probably won’t surprise anyone, but hard work is a critical component of success in anything and Tropidelic is no exception. They’ve spent countless hours on the road touring relentlessly and writing new material and that’s just the obvious stuff. Behind the scenes the work is even harder, and they’ve had to get out of their comfort zones in order to create and pursue the opportunities that propelled them to where they are. Hard work is inescapable if you want to have success.

Smart Work – A popular definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. Tropidelic on the other hand learns from their mistakes and failures and works to prevent those same outcomes from happening in the future. Through trial and error, they have learned how to get better by analyzing their failures and making corrections as they go. Because of their willingness to do that they’ve been able to enjoy some tremendous successes.

Attitude – One of the things I admire most about Tropidelic is their attitudes towards themselves and their fans. They are extremely appreciative of their fans and want to be the best they can be to show that appreciation. The genuine love and affection they show to everyone around them makes them irresistible. You just want to hang out with them because they’re so down to earth and relatable. They know how to have a good time and give everyone around them permission to have fun as well. They are not primadonna rock stars that feel they’re entitled to everything while living up in their white secluded towers but instead share their love and passion with a humble and appreciative spirit.  

I’m sure there are many other aspects that contributed to the success of Tropidelic, but these are certainly some of the biggest. I truly look forward to seeing how far they can go and I believe in them and their message wholeheartedly. I highly encourage you to check out their music and if you have a chance to see them live, their live shows are truly spectacular and incredibly fun.

Check out the video at top of the page to get a behind the scenes view of them recording their latest album, Here in the Heights.

Cary Crichlow, Senior Producer and Engineer

RCR Recording Studios

The post What I Learned From Tropidelic appeared first on RCR Recording.

If you really want your music to get heard, it’s probably best to get it heard by the people most likely to identify with and love it. If you’re a heavy rock act, you probably won’t get too many soccer moms listening on a regular basis. If you’re a neo jazz group, don’t expect metal heads to be checking you out. You need to identify your demographic (a fancy word which here means target audience) and make everything from social media to the way you dress and the music you write directed at gaining those people as fans.

The best way to do this is to develop a niche (another fancy word which here means denoting or relating to products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population market by getting as specific as possible). In other words be as specific and narrow as you can when identifying potential fans. Ask questions like where do people who would listen to my music work, shop, eat and hang out? What do they do for fun? What are their interests or hobbies? What are their world views? Even basic questions like age, sex, location and income can have a huge impact on what the best way to market to them will be. The more specific you can be when figuring out your niche the better you will be able to market to and gain those new fans.

This is definitionally a small group of people and believe it or not, the smaller the group the better off you will be. It will make marketing and branding very easy because instead of trying to be everything to everyone you can focus on being the best most authentic “you” you can be. Believe me once you’ve won over this small niche they will go out and spread the gospel of YOU to all of their friends (who presumably share similar tastes in music) and bring you new fans. Put simply, you develop the niche and the niche will grow your fanbase.

Cary Crichlow, Senior Producer and Engineer

RCR Recording Studios

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Cary has a way of getting to understand what a made a band become successful, not just that they had great music.  He then uses these principles to help the bands and artist he works with in producing there albums.   RCR Recording Studios is excited to continue the production of these videos, since we believe it is a great way for artists and up and coming bands to learn how the ‘successful’ bands did it.

These videos are entertaining, as well as insightful, bringing Cary’s experience in working with bands and artists into a funny and educational experience.

Here is the next one, What I Learned From Redhot Chili Peppers.

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These videos are entertaining, as well as insightful, bringing Cary’s experience in working with bands and artists into a funny and educational experience.

Here is the next one, What I Learned From Dispatch.

The post What I Learned From Dispatch appeared first on RCR Recording.

So over the next few months, we will be posting these videos to our blog. They are very well researched, and are entertaining to watch. We believe, this is a fun way to learn principles of success for up and coming artists and bands, as well as, what not to do if you want to last.

Here is the first one, What I Learned from The Imagine Dragons.

The post What I Learned From The Imagine Dragons appeared first on RCR Recording.

No one is perfect. We all make mistakes big or small, some of us on a daily basis. And while learning from your mistakes is an invaluable way of growing and improving, I find that when possible it’s always better to learn from the mistakes of others. This is a list of the 11 most common mistakes made by artists that I’ve recorded with. To be fair I have personally made every one of these mistakes (and many, many others) in my ten plus years of engineering and none of them are life threatening, dangerous or world ending but hindsight being what it is, avoiding these mistakes will make your time in the studio cheaper, faster, more creative, fun and ultimately get you better results. So here they are in no particular order.

1. Not being prepared – This is probably the most important mistake to avoid and includes stuff like rehearsing the songs beforehand and knowing the arrangements so that everyone involved is on the same page. It also includes everything else on this list so remember the boy scout motto before you come in to record: “Be Prepared”
2. Writing in the studio – Never write songs in the studio unless you don’t mind wasting a bunch of time and money that could be spent on more productive things. It eats up a lot of time typically and slows down the creative process for everyone involved. It is far cheaper and more fun to have the songs and parts written before coming in believe me.
3. Recording without a click track – Recording without a metronome makes everything harder in the long run. Editing becomes a nightmare and overdubbing becomes nearly impossible to get right in some cases. Using a click makes everything sound smoother, tighter and more together. It is definitely worth making your drummer (and everyone else for that matter) practice with a metronome.
4. Using subpar musicians – When it comes to tracking, my philosophy has always been to use the best available musicians you can. The more talented the musician the better the results tend to be. Please don’t feel that you need to play the part if someone in the room can play it better. It can be tough to set your ego aside but the results are usually well worth it.
5. Expecting things to be fixed in the mix – While there are certainly many clever tricks modern engineers have at their fingertips, nothing beats getting it right during tracking. Make sure the sounds you’re getting and the performances being tracked are what you want up front. It is much harder to make a bad recording sound good than to make a good recording sound great. It’s well worth the extra time and effort to get it right up front than to have to backtrack and attempt to fix things later.
6. Putting in minimal effort – It’s sad that I have to include this one but I have worked with plenty of people who think that just by showing up they are putting in all the effort necessary to get a great final product when in reality nothing could be farther from the truth. No matter what you’ve heard, no one ever made it big by being lazy and not trying very hard. This includes everything from writing to practicing to performing. It is just unpleasant to work with someone who expects you to make lazy or bad performances sound good and believe me, those poor performances are very, very obvious. If you’re not willing to put any effort or hard work into your craft why should anyone else?
7. Using poorly maintained gear – This includes everything from making sure you have fresh guitar/bass strings and drum heads to making sure said strings and heads are tuned properly. Having your instrument set up properly can help with intonation and tone. Make sure the tubes in your amp are in working condition and that you have minimal hum/hiss coming from any of your gear. If you’re a singer you may want to avoid certain behaviors or activities (you know the ones) the night before a session to ensure your voice is at peak condition. Unless you’re going for that lo-fi, ugly, grimy sound, use the best gear you can because it will make a difference. Remember you want everything to sound as good as it can before you start tracking.
8. Not understanding the gear you have – You don’t necessarily have to be an expert electrician to get an amp to make a sound but understanding what the different knobs will do to the sound can certainly make dialing in that perfect tone much easier. If you’re using a synth, knowing what the different sounds and options do can make for a much smoother and faster creative pace in the studio. Bottom line, spend time before coming into the studio to figure out how the gear you have can be best utilized so that you don’t need to spend five hours dialing in that perfect sound.
9. Having unreasonable expectations – There is a common assumption by most people that music engineers are wizards that can somehow mysteriously make anything sound amazing using “studio magic”. This is for the most part just untrue. If you want a great sounding recording, then you better give a great performance on great sounding instruments. Expecting otherwise will set you up for frustration and failure.
10. Poor communication – Nothing leads to stress and conflict quicker than poor communication. Countless books and articles have been written on communication and I highly recommend learning as much as you can on the subject, but for our purposes let’s just leave it at this: Communication is not what you say or even what you mean to say, it’s what the other person hears. Try to be as clear as possible and don’t be afraid to ask questions for clarification.
11. Being late – Musicians are not generally known for their punctuality but most studios charge you for the scheduled time whether you show up on time or not at all. Showing up on time allows you to get all your money’s worth of studio time and also lets the people you’re working with know that you consider yourself a professional and that you respect their time and your own. Trust me, when you treat others with respect they are far more likely to treat you with respect and do a better job as well.

So that’s the 11 most common mistakes people tend to make in the studio. If you are able to avoid making them you will find that your sessions will be cheaper, more creative, more fun, more productive and yield much better results. So good luck on your next session!!

Cary Crichlow, Senior Producer and Engineer
RCR Recording Studios

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