TallCat Talk: Radio Records

The music industry is something to behold. The depth of work that goes on is beyond people’s general idea’s of music and recording.

For every track you hear on the radio there’s a ridiculously larger group of people behind it that make it work. It might start with a couple people messing around with instruments, then a couple riffs turn into a solo and a song appears around it. However it happens there’s a team behind it to make it real. All we see translated is one song with one artist/group once it all gets placed properly together, polished and ready to shine on the radio.

So within this group you will have some, all, and more of these roles:

Vocalist: The vocalist/vocalists on the track. This could be one or more persons.

Producer: The creative force behind the project. Gives it direction, focus and sculpts the project. The producer must have knowledge of all things including creativity and knowledge backing up what they want to accomplish.

Writer/Writers: Responsible for writing lyrics, if applicable, for the record. This can be one person or many parties not necessarily the singer.

Beat-Maker: Makes the beat for the track based from samples or something that the producer directed as an idea on. The beat could also have been leased or exclusively bought from the person who made the beat.

Tracking Engineer: Concerned with tracking* the recordings, manipulation and mixing of the sound and is not responsible for the product as a whole.

Mixing Engineer: Engineer in charge of mixing** the project.

Mastering Engineer: Engineer in charge of mastering*** the project.

Label Rep If your artist is represented by a label, the representative in charge of that project will be there to make sure the record is in line with what the label wants to put out.

Those are some of the main roles you’ll see going on, plus the marketing teams and artists that go into the publishing side specifically for radio or whatever media outlet you wish your track to be on. At TallCat I haven’t seen a better group of people put together to do all these things + more. I’ve seen quite a few artists that come in with no idea of what they want or need and leave ready to take on the music industry. Which is what we want! We’re trying to change the way the world hears music. If you’re interested in a project check out our SoundCloud or click the audio tab above for more info on examples of what we can do for you.

* Tracking is the process of recording.

** Mixing is the process of manipulating levels of signal frequencies and other characteristics in a mix.

*** Mastering is harmonically balancing all the levels in a mix more in depth than the first mixdown.