What I have noticed over the years is that people always underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete a task. Creating a music CD is no different. Your music is very important to you, you put your heart and soul into it. If done correctly the results are extremely satisfying to you and to your fans. The difference between a mediocre demo and a great demo can make the difference between whether you get signed to a recording contract and end up with a career in music, perhaps even stardom or whether you never go beyond the demo level. With stakes that high rushing through your session(s) is a very bad approach. Of course everyone has a budget but when setting that budget keep in mind what how much you stand to lose if the CD is not made to the best of your ability. My strong advice is to give yourself enough time during the music production (recording) stage to get everything recorded correctly. Check for things such as correct tempo, consistent tempo, correct pitch or tuning, correct lyrics, proper emotion or energy, anything that cannot be corrected during the mixing / editing stage. Never rush on to the next track or the next song until everyone agrees that you have what you need to perform a great mix. Next give the engineer plenty of time to mix each song. The amount of time required to do this is proportional to the number of tracks in the song, or in other words the complexity of the song. The better job that is done during the tracking phase the less time the engineer will have to spend correcting shortcomings in the recorded tracks during the mix. This will leave him more time do build a better song. See the Mixing page of this site to read more about the process of mixing. Again, giving the engineer plenty of time to mix properly will ensure satisfying results. Finally, I always suggest that the final mix of each song and of the entire CD be mastered by someone other than the engineer who did the mix. This should ideally be performed by an engineer who specializes in mastering at a studio built and equipped specifically for mastering. See the Mastering page of this site to read more about mastering and why it is necessary.
