General guide: up to 3 full takes of a single instrument on a ~3 minute song.
In this article, you'll learn about:
- What you can achieve during a Musiversal session
- What you will not achieve during a Musiversal session
What you can achieve during a Musiversal session
With Musiversal musicians, 30 minutes (or 45 in the case of vocalists) is enough to go over a lot of music material to a very high standard. After reviewing thousands of completed sessions, we discovered that 30 minutes (or 45 in the case of vocalists) is plenty of time to complete up to 3 full takes of a single instrument on a 3-minute song, or equivalent. There'll also be time at the start to get acquainted with the musician, and time to wrap up at the end.
Find out what can be achieved in a Mixing session here.
The clearer the material you provide, the more productive your session will be. If your material is clearly laid down in audio and/ or in written form, our musicians will be able to simply focus on what's really important: Collaborating and making great music!
Learn more about how sessions work and how to best prepare your materials ahead of a session.
⬆️Single sessions (30 to 45 minutes)
Single sessions are designed to record:
- Songs/ pieces of approximately 3 minutes long
That's the length of an average song, or short instrumental pieces.
You may achieve up to 3 full takes of a single instrument in a 3 minutes song.
Consider the length of the part that you wish to record. For example, if your song is 20 minutes long, but you wish to record just 3 minutes of drums, then that'll be adequate to record it in a single 30-minutes session. On the other hand, if the drum part is 10 minutes long, then it'll likely require more than one session to record to completion.
- Easy to sight-read and/ or improvised parts
If you'd like improvisation, you'll need to provide written harmony. A simple chords chart or sheet music will be sufficient for collaboration to take place.
- Multiples cues
If you have short cues to record, consider that the sum of all of them should not be bigger than 3 minutes in total.
If you'd like to record multiple "cues", and they're short enough to achieve in one session, we recommend sending only one set of materials for all the cues together (i.e.: one sheet music file and one audio guide with all the cues separated only by a few bars of silence). Failure to do this may result in the recommendation of booking multiple sessions (one per cue).
If you intend to do more than one cue in one session, then your materials should be flawless and not require the use of multiple DAW sessions.
⬆️Longer sessions (from 60 to 180 minutes)
Longer sessions are designed to provide more time for observations, comments, and online revisions with the artist.
Golden rule: The exact number of takes will depend on the duration of the session, and the duration and complexity of your song/piece.
These sessions are designed to record:
- More than 3 takes for songs/ pieces of approximately 3 minutes long
- Up to 3 takes of up to 6 minute songs/pieces
Both single and longer sessions are not designed to record:
For more information on these topics, refer to clauses 4.4.5 and 5.2.7 Prohibited practices of our Terms of Use.
- Western classical music from historically acclaimed composers
Do you want to record Tchaikovsky's violin concerto? Bach's Sonata for keyboard? Trumpet excerpts of Beethoven's 5th Symphony? If that's the case, this goes beyond Musiversal Studio's terms.
- Multiple instruments in a session
Some of our musicians are knowledgeable about multiple instruments. Even though it might be tempting to ask for more than one instrument in a single session, changing instruments require time. This is not possible in one session because we care for maintaining a good work flow and providing a comfortable experience for both you and the musician. If, for example, you want to have Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Banjo and Lap steel on a project, you should book an equivalent number of sessions. Common sense and flexibility are to be considered on a case-by-case scenario and some of this may be achieved, though it is not the default of how sessions work;
- Multiple parts (or overdubs) for the same instrument
Depending on the complexity and length of your music, our specialists might be able to work on more than a single part of an instrument (cello, for example). However, you shouldn't expect to record multiple passes or overdubs of the part in a single 30 minute (or 45 in the case of vocalists) session. That is unlikely to be possible and may require multiple sessions. The same applies for vocal sessions: lead vocals sessions, backing vocals and doubles may not be achievable during a single session, and our musicians are not expected to do it. Common sense and flexibility are to be considered on a case-by-case scenario and some of this may be achieved, though it is not the default of how sessions work;
- More than 1 song/ piece per session
A lot of time goes into preparing for each and every session. Requesting more than one song/ piece per session means significantly increasing the preparation time required for each session, which is not how musicians are compensated and therefore is not how the platform is designed to work. Our musicians are awesome, and sometimes they may be able to nail your track in under 30 minutes (or 45 in the case of vocalists). Nevertheless, that does not mean that you should use one session to record more than one song/ piece. The golden rule is: one song/ piece = one session.
If you have short cues to record, consider that the sum of all of them should not be bigger than 3 minutes in total.
- Highly complex pieces that would be hard to sight-read and would require the musician to study for hours
Alternatively, if you wish to use your credits’ quota to record your piece, you can do so. Multiple sessions will be necessary, and you can book them as usual. In this case, it may happen that part of your sessions will be used by the musician to learn your piece by sight-reading it.
- Pieces longer than 5 minutes (doesn't apply to longer sessions)
Example: you have a fairly standard part to be recorded, but it's 12 minutes long, or you have parts with many multiples pages of written material. If that's the case, you will need multiple sessions, which you can book as part of your membership.
- On the fly arrangements, created by the musicians
Who doesn't love a good old horns section? Or a string quartet? We do. And you do too, right?
If you want to record an ensemble (such as String Quartet or Horns Trio), you should provide a scored arrangement. The musician will not create part or parts of an ensemble arrangement for you during the recording session.
If you need someone to write or score an arrangement, whether for strings, woodwinds or a horn section, we can provide those services separately. You can request a quote via support@musiversal.com.
- Sample library music
If you wish to record samples in order to produce virtual instruments and/ or sample libraries, we provide those services separately. You can request a quote via support@musiversal.com.
- Compose your music
Musiversal musicians are not hired for composing, writing, authoring, or co-composing, co-authoring or co-writing music. Such practices are subject to copyright, namely lyrics and main melodic themes. This does not include an improvised melody over a harmonic progression, such as a saxophone solo, for example.
All music that is to be recorded must have been composed before the beginning of the session.
For example: the beat making sessions are, in no shape or form, a songwriting or composition session. The best way for you to approach these sessions is the same way you approach a drums' session: you're just asking someone to drop a beat on your track. Your track. Not something that the beat makers will write or compose for you. If you show up to the session with no files, then there's nothing for the beat makers to do because they don't have your idea to make a beat on top of. You need to provide them with your original song idea (audio file in WAV format) with a set bpm (or tempo map if there are tempo changes) in order for them to then create a beat to.
- For singers:
Recording sessions with singers are not songwriting sessions. Our singers will not create a melody for your lyrics, or lyrics for your melody.
Some of our singers are multilingual, but they don't offer translation services. They will not create versions of your verses in different languages.
Need help? Contact us to get personalized Support.