A drill artist from the north west with six songs written, two beats bought from this site on Premium licences and four more to choose, wants an EP out before the end of the year. These are the notes for how three sessions would run, from the first phone call to the files going to distribution, and the three decisions that decide whether the EP sounds like one record or six singles.
Session notes, illustrative. This is a composite of sessions, written to show how a job like this runs. No artist is named, no result is claimed, and nothing here is a client's track. The decisions are real; the artist is not.
Before the first session
- The six songs sent as voice notes over the beats, so the keys and tempos can be checked and the running order sketched before anyone is in the booth.
- Two beats changed, because two of the six were in keys that fought the artist's range on the hook. Cheaper to swap a beat than to tune a hook.
- Licences confirmed for all six: Premium for four, Exclusive for the two singles, so the stems are in hand and the release is covered. Why the tiers differ.
Session one: the two singles
Headphone mix first, five minutes, with the beat a touch under where the artist wanted it, because a loud beat in the cans makes a rapper push and the pushed takes do not sit. Lead vocal for each single in full, four passes, comped in the room. Doubles on the hooks only. Ad-libs last, with the artist off the mic a step, which is where ad-libs live. Two clean, dry leads leave the session; nothing is tuned in the booth.
Session two: the four album tracks
Faster, because the sound was set in session one: same mic, same position, same chain. Two tracks before the break, two after. One track rewritten on the day when the second verse was not landing; a session is the right place to find that out. The artist takes rough mixes home that night, loud enough to live with, not loud enough to release.
Session three: the mix, together
- Lead vocals tuned lightly, timed where a line dragged, de-essed, and sat at the same place across all six, because an EP is six tracks with one vocal sound.
- The two singles mixed first and signed off, then the four tracks mixed to match them, not the other way round.
- One master pass across all six at the same loudness target, with the true peak under the ceiling, so the EP plays as one record on a playlist and on a phone. Why the loudness target matters.
- Files delivered as the distributor wants them, named, with the artwork sizes checked, and the licences in the same folder.
The three decisions
Swap the beat rather than tune the hook. Set the sound in the first session and keep it. Mix the singles first and match everything to them. Those three are what make six songs an EP, and they are the three most artists try to skip. The studio page covers booking; custom beats covers a beat written around the artist rather than bought off the shelf.
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