My new CD

[rorybbellows]

Heres my plan. A mate said he has all the gear in his bedroom needed to record some tunes . He could then burn as many copies as are required. I could then get some covers printed up with a photo copier and put them up on ebay.
What do you think? Would this be a good way to go about it or would it be better to get professionals involved.

RORY

[Nanohedron]

Do some trial recordings first and see what you think. If all you can get is a "kitchen" or "archival" style sound, you may want to ask yourself if it's acceptable to your vision. Plus, it's not an easy sell these days. Then again, there are some great programs such as GarageBand that in capable hands can overcome that and get you pretty close to a decent studio sound. It won't be perfect in direct comparison, but it'll be close.

If you have the scratch, I'd suggest going with the pro studio, so long as the sound engineer is accustomed - and most importantly, sympathetic - to trad aesthetics. I had one guy who, despite his contact with the tradition (a rather glancing contact as it turned out, although he was a decent-enough trad whistler), resolutely wanted to apply rock band parameters to the sound, and I can tell you that with each thinking the other was wrong, it was an ongoing battle that made everything take way more time than needed. Needless to say, that studio was a one-time deal for me.

[WannabePiper]

These days anyone can make a pro sounding small studio with a laptop, some software, a good mic or two and a good preamp/interface. Of course, the end result all depends on the abilities of the "engineer" and/or "producer." Additionally, one's performance may be affected by one's comfort in the studio setting. I'd say to go for it, especially if your mate isn't charging you. If it turns out really good, you could even send out the final product for pro duplication and packaging.

[Thomas Wiedemeier]

A Harp playing Friend of mine tried that for her second CD and it worked well. Her first CD was a Studio Production and for the second one she recorded everything with a Zoom H2, mostly in her living room. You can hear some of the home recorded Stuff on http://www.reverbnation.com/karingunia She said that the main difference was that she could record at any time she wants over a longer time, not having to do all the work on a few days in the studio, always with the ticking clock in Mind. BTW.: The second cd is the more popular one.

After that I tried it out for myself with the Pipes (O.K. I don’t sell CDs and even don’t play Gigs, just playing for fun und for some friend but wants to record something anyway) I used the same H2 setup and it sounds totally crap for me. Listen to http://www.reverbnation.com/paderpiper if you like, comments welcome.

I think you should give it a try, maybe the recording setup of your mate sounds god for pipes.

Thomas

[Ian Lawther]

One thing to think about is how and where you are going to sell them. I've been running a specialist CD store on line for the last six years (bagpipes being the speciality) and there are few discs that sell in large numbers. If you are a gigging musician you are most likely to sell most at gigs to folk who "want to take a little piece of you home" but if you are trying to seller to a wider market you are going to need to have name recognition to be able to sell enough to cover the cost of professionally recorded and pressed product.

The options really are totally self produced which is the cheapest, professionally recorded and home replicated (which is what I have been doing with my own recording for some years) or a totally professional product which is going to mean a lot of money up front and an expectation you can shift several hundred copies.

Add to the calculations the fact that more and more people are moving away from CDs and buying downloads.....based on that alone I wouldn't go for my third options above....though of course you can use that as the basis of selling it as downloads on several major websites.

Ian Lawther

[rorybbellows]

Thanks all for the suggestions ,but seeing I'm skinted I'm going for the cheapest option regarding the production and marketing . But that said I'm quite surprised by the quality of what we've done so far. I think its makes a big difference that the person in charge of the recording knows his stuff and takes pride in getting the best possible sound quality .I'm luckly that my friend is such a person.

My idea was to sell them on ebay but selling at gigs is a good idea and matbe I'll do some busking in the summer and have them for sale there as well . I may try sending copies to trad music shops and things like that.

RORY

[PhilD]

Make sure you include a digital download option when your ready to release. I'm no youngster, but CD's are a little 20th century. Don't get me wrong I like to have something tangible to hold myself, but having a digital download will open up your audience.

I would have bought a lot more piping albums had they been available for download!

You should also think about a website to help support your album's release, and give it a web presence. Need not be a big deal, or expensive to do.

[myles]

Alternatively, you could get some 78rpm records pressed up, add the odd scratch, sneak them into the record bins of a few junk shops and confuse the hell out of the antiquarians

[Mr.Gumby]

Alternatively, you could get some 78rpm records pressed up, add the odd scratch, sneak them into the record bins of a few junk shops and confuse the hell out of the antiquarians

Tom Munnelly once told the story how he shared an office with Breandan Breathnach in UCD. In the office was an ediphone cylinder machine and the college's collection of (piping) cylinders. All matter of people, many of them pipers, dropped in for a chat and/or listen to the archive recordings. One day Pat Mitchell brought along his pipes and they recorded him playing 'Don step on my Blue Suede Shoes' in the style of Mici Cumba on a blank cylinder and put that with the collection. 'We have yet to hear back on that one' Tom concluded.

and there's ofcourse the precedent of Ron Kavanagh including a bogus 78 rpm in a compilation CD.