How The Intimacy Album Was Produced

 A BRIEF HISTORY OF MY MUSIC JOURNEY 

... AND WHAT CHANGED EVERYTHING! 

     My name is Daniel Rydstedt.  When I made my 2 albums in the 1970s and 80s they were miracles. Studio time was expensive and it took over a year of me driving a cab to get the money to get the first one done. I was blessed to have some incredible musicians contribute including Rick Lord, Scott Wesley Brown and Bob Kauflin, one of the founding members of the popular CCM group Glad. 

      When I moved back to the midwest in the 90s, I had no musician friends and no resources to go into the studio to record any of the songs I continued to write. Fast forward to 2025 and to my surprise, technology has allowed me to start to produce the many songs I have written through the years without the cost of a studio and without knowing talented musicians. I am going to describe my process of how I have utilized the power of AI to produce the Intimacy album. 

      First, let my address a common misconception. Many people think that it takes no talent to make a song with AI. That can be true for someone that just puts in some general prompts and allows AI to create the lyrics and melody of a song. That usually results in digital slop and takes no talent at all. But for producers and musicians there is a way to harness the power of AI to output songs they have written into a finished version that is astonishly polished.  

 HOW I PRODUCED THIS ALBUM 

      I have used AI to shape the songs that I have written from the beginning of the process to the finished product.

      I first imput my lyrics and my melody to the song I had written into my AI app.  At this point, I put on my producers hat and told AI what the structure of the song was to be ... where the verses and choruses would go ... would I use a bridge or refrain in the song? ... what instruments would I use and where in the song would they be utilized ?... what kind of introduction and ending of the song will I design? ... will I have an instrumental lead break in the song ?... will there be background vocals and/or harmonies added to the song? ... if so, where in the song will they be added? ... what will the style and mood of the song be? ...  etc.

     I defined all the parameters which shape the song by inputting detailed prompts into the AI app. I then evaluated the result AI generated for me. The process of getting the exact rendition, arrangement and style that I have in my mind, usually involves regenerating each of the songs dozens of times, continually tweaking the prompts  until the final version of the song is perfect.

 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEN AND NOW 

     This has been so much better than the times I recorded in the studio in times past.  Back then, I was blessed to know some incredible musicians from the greater DC/VA/MD areas.  There was no official producer although Rick Lord functioned as the one overseeing the making of the tracks on the first album "Song For The Morning."  But really the Holy Spirit was the producer, directing all of the incredibly talented musicians showing them what they should play ... weaving a tapestry of songs that were truly anointed. That album will always be special.  I never tire of listening to it.  I will be releasing that album for all to hear on this channel in the future. 

     I was so blessed to have such talented and anointed musicians that were willing to donate their talents to the making of both of my albums.  Without their generous contributions I could have never released my first two albums.

     Normally, there is so much cost to make an album ... paying  for musicians, a producer and paying for studio time by the hour for the laying down of the tracks ... mixing the tracks and then finally mastering the tracks.  When you are on a tight budget, paying these costs by the hour, you are under a lot of time pressure.  Often, because you don't have time to make changes in the studio to your satisfaction, you can get final versions of songs that are not what you had envisioned.

      With the use of AI in production, I have been under no time pressure to get a particular song produced. I can experiment to my heart's content  to try different arrangements, differing styles and the introduction or removal of certain instruments.  That is one of several reasons it has taken me 7 months to perfect each of the 12 songs on the album.

     AI has revolutionalized  the music industry giving tools for the songwriter, artist and producer to make demos and even finished projects.  Major people in the music world are increasingly using AI in the production of their albums.

 GETTING  BACK TO EXPLAINING MY MUSICAL PROCESS 

    Using AI is only part of the process.  Once I have the exact version of the song that I had envisioned when I started the production process, I break the song down into "stems."  This puts each instrument, lead vocal and background vocal on different tracks.  I then download those separate tracks into my daw, or digital audio workstation.

     There I make adjustments to the volume of the instruments and vocals. In addition I "pan" the different tracks.  That means I assign a place in the mix, left to right, for each instrument.  Lead vacals are usually in the center.  Once the tracks are in the daw, other adjustments to the instruments and vocals can be made like modifying eq (equalization), compression, reverb, fading, cutting and pasting etc.  Then once you have the mix of each song the way you want it, you can start the mastering process which results in the final version ready for release.

     I share these details for those who are curious so they can know all that goes into a 4 or 5 minute song you listen to from streaming or a CD.  Maybe it can also inspire some of the musicians that read this to use the new AI technology to produce songs that they may have written.

 SO IS THAT YOU SINGING ON THE ALBUM? 

    When I started this project, I was fully intending to put my vocals on these song tracks.  But it soon became clear that although I sing for the Lord in my bedroom, I have not publically performed in decades.  Through the years I have lost some of the range I had as a younger CCM artist.  So I decided to experiment and feed my voice into the AI app to try to clone it.

     On my first try, the AI "clone" voice did not sound very much like me.  If I would have continued to feed samples of my voice to AI it undoubtedly would have gotten to where my "clone" voice would have sounded a lot more like me.  

     However, on my first attempt at cloning my voice, the result it gave me was a voice that I loved.  This voice, that I jokingly refer to as "Daniel Cloney," sang with so much feeling  and had such an incredible range, that I have decided to use this voice on all my songs for the "Intimacy Album"  and all future projects.

     This album is not about me and my singing.  I no longer perform and do concerts.  This is about the songs themselves which were birthed from times of communion with Jesus.  They are intended to be an aid to Christians everywhere to help them express their passion for their groom, Jesus, and to encourage them in their pursuit of a lifestyle of intimacy with Him.    

     I tried to craft these songs on the Intimacy album to be excellent in every way, ... style wise, instrumentally and vocally.  I believe you will be blessed by each of these Holy Spirit anointed songs as you use them to bless Jesus.