Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece.
Sometimes the price of an accompaniment track, can catch someone by surprise when the process is not well understood by the person looking for a soundtrack to accompany her/his voice when singing in a church or public venue setting.
The making
An accompaniment track could be one instrument (usually a Piano), or a combination of several instruments, thus creating rich layers of sounds that will serve as the accompaniment track for soloist, vocal groups, or instrumentalist.
You must use a studio to record the pianist, the bass player, the drummer, the guitar player and so on. if there is a mistake (and there will be), the recording process must start all over, although there are phrases that could be recorded over without the need to record the entire verse or chorus of the song. A lot of back and forth is expected in the making of a track.
The process of making a soundtrack with live musicians could take hours if not days depending on the complexity of the song.
Each instrument is laid on its own track (multitrack recording), e.g. if the piano or any other instrument is too loud at a certain point in the song, the engineer can lower that instrument without affecting the other instrument. This is called mixing: Which is the process of blending and combining audio tracks so that each element has a pleasing sound and distinct space in a finished stereo recording.
If you must pay each musician to record their part and add the cost of the recording studio and engineer for the making of an accompaniment track of 3-4 minutes in length, the price can add up quickly.
Studio time can range from $50 to $300 per hour, depending on the studio and the services they offer.
Do not think because the song is only three to four minutes in length it can be done in a few minutes as well, especially when using live musicians, it could take four to six hours assembling, clean up, tuning, and then getting a rough mix all together.
Now there are alternatives that will help decrease the cost, if you decide not to go with live musicians, and that is, using a programming musician.
We will explain this, in the second part of, “The Creation of an Accompaniment Track.”