So now that you have said gear, how do you go about ensuring that you’ll be productive with it, maximizing its use for your creative inspiration and workflow?

Two years ago, when nobody was reading this site (as opposed to the six of you now), I wrote a few articles trying to help you create better music more efficiently. Here’s a repost of one that I think still might be relevant for you:

The Chronology of a Good Mix

Let me know what you think. Was your Christmas wish list fulfilled? What did you get?

What To Do With Your New Christmas Gear is a post from: wax&wires

“Levels in Digital Audio” deals with overall theory in digital audio, which applies whether you’re in Logic, Cubase, ProTools, Ableton, or any other DAW.

It’s a very quick read and covers questions about bit depth, the various triggers and stages for clipping (and how to avoid them), whether or not to normalize, and he also debunks several myths about what can help or hurt your audio fidelity.

You can also find a great thread on GS about “Loudness when Producing and Mixing.” Very helpful.

About the author:
Holger Lagerfeldt is a Danish composer and record producer known for numerous pop and dance hit songs. Lagerfeldt received a Danish Grammy nomination as Producer of the Year 1999 and has so far received 50 gold and platinum records during his career. (wikipedia)

Levels in Digital Audio is a post from: wax&wires

Here’s a quick video from CyberPR’s show “Sound Advice” with Derek too.

[via cyberPR]

Derek Sivers 7 Critical Marketing Basics Every Musicians Should Know

Here are 7 wonderful lessons, which are great to revisit no matter how strong your marketing muscles are.

But before I dive in I want to start with how Derek got his own music career off of the ground. This speaks volumes about how he achieved his CD Baby success later in his career.  There is a huge marketing lesson in this story…

When he was a student at Berklee College of Music, Derek was attending a music business lecture.  Before the lecture started, he overheard his professor whispering to the guest speaker, Mark Fried from Warner Chappell Music, that there would be no time to eat before the lecture and it was a 3-hour talk. Mark was looking hungry and there had clearly been a miscommunication about eating before the class started. So, Derek slipped out of the room to a pay phone and ordered pizza for Mark and for the entire class.  Forty-five minutes into his lecture, Mark was eating pizza with the class and was extremely grateful to Derek (who was one of many students in the room) who went out of his way to help him.

After the lecture, Mark gave Derek his card and told him to keep in touch, which Derek did for the remaining 2 years he was at Berklee.  When he came to New York he would meet Mark for coffee and their friendship grew.  A week before his graduation, Derek called Mark to ask if there were any jobs at Warner Chappell opening up. Seven days later Derek had a job working at Warner Chappell in the tape room.

Lesson #1 A Marketing Golden Rule: It’s about THEM Not YOU

What struck me about this story is a simple marketing lesson that is also one of the golden rules. Always think about this question: How can I be helpful to other people?  That is what will make you memorable in the long run. It was Derek’s courteous consideration that opened all doors for him in the music business.

The pizza took Derek one phone call and $25 and it secured him a job in the music industry.  There were probably 45 students sitting in that lecture hall that day and he was the one who ended up with a relationship with Mark and in the end…a job.

Lesson #2: Unsolicited Actions Will Get You Nowhere

Derek then went on to explain what it was like in the tape room at Warner Chappell.  It was there he got to see first hand what it looks like from the inside when indie musicians send unsolicited music to a publishing company.  Warner Chappell is a large publishing company that was not looking to sign new artists and Derek saw the packages arrive by the dozen on a daily basis. From this he learned exactly what never to do.

Lesson #3: No One Is Coming To Save You In The Music Industry

Derek points out (and I have repeated this line in my own talks) that no one will come along and be your music business “fairy godfather”, it all has to start internally.  If you hire anyone to be on your team, no matter what they are doing for you, you must understand that that person is your hired partner.  You will both have to work to achieve your desired result. This is especially true in the realm of social media and online marketing.

Lesson #4: Marketing = Consideration

Reach People the Way You Want to Be Reached

Stop thinking of it as Marketing and start thinking of it as creative ways to be considerate. Think of things from the other person’s point of view: Imagine if you called your friend up and screamed into the phone: “THURSDAY COME SEE ME PLAY NEXT THURSDAY!” (HANG UP)

You probably would not show up if you were spoken to that rudely and then hung up on and it was funny to see Derek act this out but his point was: This is exactly the way most musicians speak to their newsletter lists.

If your friends spoke to you the way you speak to them on your newsletter list you wouldn’t be friends. Begin to pay attention to other artist’s messages and notice what works on you. The considerate thing is to be so novel and creative and innovative so that people say: you have GOT to see / hear this musician play!

Lesson #5:  Sharply Define What You Do

You cannot slice through the world’s attention if you are using a blunt knife and you will most definitely be blunt if you are trying to be all things to all people.  Your message must be sharp and pointed. It’s OK to exclude 99% and have 1% worship you! Be unapologetic in your bluntness.

3 CD Baby Artists Who Are Sharply Focused

Eileen Quinn – Create A Niche

One of CD Baby’s all time top-sellers is an artist named Eileen Hoyton. Eileen is from Nova Scotia and she owns a boat.  She recorded her music on the boat and the title of her album is called Songs For Sailors, and it’s a top seller at CD Baby. Why? Because it’s laser focused. It speaks directly to a niche audience. I bet you can find a copy of her album on every boat that you set foot on. Eileen also laser focused her PR and marketing efforts on her niche audience.  Since sailors read boating magazines, she went after reviews and features in boating mags, (she could have cared LESS about Spin and Rolling Stone) and she got publicized to a select group of people she knew would love her music and she sold tens of thousands of albums!

Regina Spektor – Don’t Be Afraid To Be “Out There”

Regina Spektor also understood laser focus but it took time. She did a Tori Amos style thing for years and with those albums, she did OK but when she added the hiccups and the “weird” themes and she started banging on her piano bench with a drumstick while she played people really started to notice her. This is what led her to her record deal and to her popularity.  She really stood out from the crowd.

David m. Bailey – Find A Small Hill To Dominate

David was a lawyer who was diagnosed with brain cancer. Out of that experience he became a top seller at CD Baby. David was given a few months to live and he immediately quit his job and decided to record an album.  He beat the odds and he survived brain cancer.  He is now the poster child of surviving brain cancer.  He has since recorded 7 albums and brain cancer patients often find him online through research, they then logon to CD Baby and buy all 7 of his albums at once.

Lesson #5: DIY Does Not Mean Do It All Yourself – Decide It Yourself

DIY does not have to mean do it all yourself.  Doing it all yourself will surely set you up for exhaustion and will leave you no time to be creative.

Instead Derek recommends that you think of DIY as: Decide It Yourself – you call the shots but you MUST learn how to delegate, put your fans to work and get things off of your plate. If you have a sense of STRESS and UPSET around every decision and everything becomes so important you really miss the point. Just try delegating things and don’t make it all so serious and significant. Start every decision with: Let’s see what happens if… and try it!

Lesson #6: Act AS IF….

“You are whatever you pretend to be.”

-          Kurt Vonnegut

This part of the talk really inspired me….  Most people do not know this: Derek Sivers is an introvert by nature.  His instinct when at a music conference is to retreat to his hotel room. To combat this he ACTS as if he is an extrovert. Pretend to be the biggest extrovert possible for an hour at a networking event or at a party.

Lesson #7: It’s Who You Know Mixed With How You Persevere

Everything major that happens in your career starts with someone you know.  Here’s Derek’s story of how he got the gig touring with world-renowned Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamato:  Derek’s roommate from school was working wrapping cables in a studio and he overheard the musicians saying that they needed a guitar player to go on an upcoming tour.

To prove that he was the perfect guitarist for the gig, Derek got a hold of some of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s music that he was in the process of recording, wrote all of the guitar parts and mixed it and sent it back.

After a few days when he did not hear from Ryuichi he wrote a cello part out of another one of his songs and sent that to the studio.

After the third day he got the call and toured Japan for 2 months in front of 20,000 people each night.

But Derek proves that it’s not only who you know but also what you do once you get the connection.  He demonstrates how to fully take advantage of each situation.

Persevere With People

Get used to staying in touch with hundreds of people with blogs and with your newsletter – it’s a psychological shift in your head but once you can make it you can be very very effective staying in touch with many people.  This is the miracle of technology.

Make yourself meet 3 new people every single week: Do this by picking up the phone – people get hundreds of emails and dozens of phone calls.

TIP: AVOID saying the words “pick your brain” to anyone.  That says: I want something from you….  and when you do talk to people, prove that you have already done your research.  Derek says that people will ask him: So, what does CD Baby do?  And It’s totally disrespectful – you want to let them know that you care enough to have spent some time learning about them before you talk / meet.

PR Tips With Derek Sivers is a post from: wax&wires

[via prophead's site]

Ever wondered what THE bass sound in THAT track was? How they made the harp glissandos in that movie, the shimmering strings in that commercial, or why the snare in that track sounds so familiar? We did. And that’s why we’re presenting our favorite producer’s and artist’s top sounds.

Check it out

Reason Artist Patch Charts – Get The Sounds Of Your Favorite Artists is a post from: wax&wires

I’m going to use up this entire article dealing with one subject, because I think it’s vital to the success of your music promotion efforts. Every day I see the same mistakes being made in this area and feel I owe it to you to drive this crucial point home.

Suppose you walked into your local record store and one of the employees (a complete stranger to you) came up and handed you a box filled with CDs and said, “Here, these are extra promo copies. You can have any CD you want out of the box.”

Now let’s pretend that you were not familiar with any of these artists. As you picked up each CD to consider whether or not you wanted it, what would be the first question to pop into your head? In other words, what basic question would you need to answer first before you could make an intelligent (and quick) decision on which one you’d take?

Would it be “Who produced this CD?”

No.

Would it be “What record label put this out?”

No.

How about “What are the names of the musicians and what instruments do they play?”

No.

Would it be “I wonder how great these folks think their own music is?”

No.

Is That Your Final Answer?

Hopefully, you’ve come to the same conclusion that I have. The first question that anyone asks when encountering new music is: “What kind of music is this?”

I’ve used this box of free CDs example to make a point: This is exactly the same position that music editors, radio program directors, A&R people and music publishers are in when they receive your unsolicited recordings along with dozens of others. Even though it’s great to think that everyone already knows who you are and what you do, the sad truth is that most of your contacts will be clueless. That’s why giving them the first (and most important) clue up front is essential.

Human beings need some way to process information and file it away in the proper place in their heads before proceeding to any follow-up questions, such as “Where is this band from?” or “What unique spin do they put on this genre?” Without creating a mental category or comparison to something fans are already familiar with, it’s nearly impossible to get to these important follow-up questions. And if you can’t move this sorting-out process along in a swift manner, your music marketing efforts end up dead in the water.

Why, then, do so many people who promote music either ignore answering this fundamental question — “What kind of music is this?” — or bury the answer so deep in their press materials that the reader gives up out of frustration before ever uncovering it?

Unless you are (or are working with) a well-known artist, the people receiving your promo kits will be in the dark as to who you are and what you play. Your job, therefore, is to answer that first all-important question right off the bat: “What kind of music is this?” It should be one of the first things people see when viewing your press package.

Straight From the Slush Pile

Here’s an example I randomly pulled out of the overflowing box of review CDs in my office not long ago when I was a music editor. When opening the package, the first thing I see is a cover letter. Here’s how it reads (I’ve changed the name of the person, label and band to protect the misguided):

“My name is John Jones, vice-president of Widget Records, here in New York. I’m writing to announce that one of our bands, the Losers, will be playing in St. Louis on July 24.”

It’s important to Jones that he announces who he is and what he does right off the bat. I’m sure this makes him feel good about himself. But how does this introduction move him closer to his goal of getting media coverage for the poor Losers? At least I know about the St. Louis date, something that should matter to me. But since I don’t know what kind of music this is, I’m not impressed. On to the next paragraph.

“The Losers’ music is already on national college and commercial radio.”

Excellent. His mother must be very proud of him. But is this jazz radio? Alternative radio? Polka radio? Ten stations? Eight hundred stations? Huh? I’m still being kept in the dark.

“The Losers are a new band founded in 1994 in New York City. These shows are part of the year-long tour to promote their debut album.”

More senseless background details before I even know what kind of music this band plays. But one thing I do know is that Jones sure likes talking about his band and its accomplishments. Now I’m starting to doze off from reading this.

The Music Needle in the Haystack

Finally, I come across this line …

“The Losers’ music combines Celtic violin with punk-influenced distorted guitars and melodic rock vocals …

What? A description of the music? Say it isn’t so! And I only had to wait till the fourth paragraph to get it. And it ends up being a pretty cool description: Celtic violin with punk guitars. Now that’s different. That’s something I’d like to pop in the CD player and check out. What a great media hook for the band.

Unfortunately, the label’s vice-president has done the group a disservice by burying this vital piece of information in a dreary cover letter. Most media people would have given up on it long before they got to the intriguing description.

But this never occurred to Jones. It was much more important for him to pound his chest and proclaim his name, title, city and the fact that his as-yet-undefined band was getting radio airplay. What a missed opportunity! Don’t make this same error.

How much better it would have been if his letter went something like this:

“Dear Bob,
When we first told people we had signed a band that combined Celtic violins with distorted punk guitars and melodic rock vocals, they told us we were crazy. But we proved them all wrong with the Losers, a band that is now on a major roll. Last month alone, over 325 college stations around the country were playing cuts off the band’s new self-titled CD. And now you can experience the Losers for yourself when they come to St. Louis on July 24. I think your readers would get a kick out of hearing about this unusual Celtic/violin/ punk/melodic mixture …”

This version (though it could probably be reshaped and made even stronger) pulls you in and lets you know what you’re dealing with quickly and interestingly — as opposed to Jones’s dry resume listings.

Are You Guilty of a PR Felony?

Now take a look at some of the promotional tools you’re using right now. What’s the first thing you see? Your address? The band members’ names? The record label name? Some vague reference to how impressive your music is without a specific definition of it?

Stop beating around the bush and start getting to the heart of the matter. Media and industry people are partly overworked and partly lazy. Don’t shroud your message in mystery, hoping it will tease people and make them read further. Remember this important rule: No one will ever be as interested in reading your press materials as you will. So give them what they need up front, fast and simple.

And answer the most important question first: “What kind of music is this?”

The First Question You Must Answer When Promoting Your Music is a post from: wax&wires

(disclaimer)
This was written on a bumpy Euro-bus ride across the wilderness – may ramble a bit but I think the point gets across.
TR

I posted a message on Twitter yesterday stating I thought The Beastie Boys and TopSpin Media “got it right” regarding how to sell music in this day and age. Here’s a link to their store:

[illcommunication.beastieboys.com]

Shortly thereafter, I got some responses from people stating the usual “yeah, if you’re an established artist – what if you’re just trying to get heard?” argument. In an interview I did recently this topic came up and I’ll reiterate what I said here.

If you are an unknown / lesser-known artist trying to get noticed / established:

* Establish your goals. What are you trying to do / accomplish? If you are looking for mainstream super-success (think Lady GaGa, Coldplay, U2, Justin Timberlake) – your best bet in my opinion is to look at major labels and prepare to share all revenue streams / creative control / music ownership. To reach that kind of critical mass these days your need old-school marketing muscle and that only comes from major labels. Good luck with that one.

If you’re forging your own path, read on.

* Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters.
To clarify:
Parter with a TopSpin or similar or build your own website, but what you NEED to do is this – give your music away as high-quality DRM-free MP3s. Collect people’s email info in exchange (which means having the infrastructure to do so) and start building your database of potential customers. Then, offer a variety of premium packages for sale and make them limited editions / scarce goods. Base the price and amount available on what you think you can sell. Make the packages special – make them by hand, sign them, make them unique, make them something YOU would want to have as a fan. Make a premium download available that includes high-resolution versions (for sale at a reasonable price) and include the download as something immediately available with any physical purchase. Sell T-shirts. Sell buttons, posters… whatever.

Don’t have a TopSpin as a partner? Use Amazon for your transactions and fulfillment. [www.amazon.com]

Use TuneCore to get your music everywhere. [www.tunecore.com]

Have a realistic idea of what you can expect to make from these and budget your recording appropriately.
The point is this: music IS free whether you want to believe that or not. Every piece of music you can think of is available free right now a click away. This is a fact – it sucks as the musician BUT THAT’S THE WAY IT IS (for now). So… have the public get what they want FROM YOU instead of a torrent site and garner good will in the process (plus build your database).

The Beastie Boys’ site offers everything you could possibly want in the formats you would want it in – available right from them, right now. The prices they are charging are more than you should be charging – they are established and you are not. Think this through.

The database you are amassing should not be abused, but used to inform people that are interested in what you do when you have something going on – like a few shows, or a tour, or a new record, or a webcast, etc.
Have your MySpace page, but get a site outside MySpace – it’s dying and reads as cheap / generic. Remove all Flash from your website. Remove all stupid intros and load-times. MAKE IT SIMPLE TO NAVIGATE AND EASY TO FIND AND HEAR MUSIC (but don’t autoplay). Constantly update your site with content – pictures, blogs, whatever. Give people a reason to return to your site all the time. Put up a bulletin board and start a community. Engage your fans (with caution!) Make cheap videos. Film yourself talking. Play shows. Make interesting things. Get a Twitter account. Be interesting. Be real. Submit your music to blogs that may be interested. NEVER CHASE TRENDS. Utilize the multitude of tools available to you for very little cost of any – Flickr / YouTube / Vimeo / SoundCloud / Twitter etc.

If you don’t know anything about new media or how people communicate these days, none of this will work. The role of an independent musician these days requires a mastery of first hand use of these tools. If you don’t get it – find someone who does to do this for you. If you are waiting around for the phone to ring or that A & R guy to show up at your gig – good luck, you’re going to be waiting a while.

Hope this helps, and I’ll scour responses for intelligent comments I can respond to.

TR

TopSpin Media info:
[topspinmedia.com]

** quick update:
Thanks for the insightful comments already – when I get a moment (and a reliable internet connection) I’ll respond to some of your very valid points. Please keep in mind – these were just some thoughts I quickly wrote down and posted and not meant to be a complete guide by any means. I’ve neglected to get into publishing and some other things. I’ll update pretty soon.

You can read the comments and any updates here.

It’s difficult to assess whether or not Trent’s advice is sound, based on the fact that he never did it from the ground up on the indie front. He has seen the major side and the indie side, but only after his major label success (which is the exact argument he’s trying to refute above). At the same time, I would hazard a guess that he has more experience and knows more about the music industry from the artists’ perspective than you do, so you may as well heed his words.

Trent Reznor On What To Do As A New/Unknown Artist is a post from: wax&wires

Here she is giving a quick 5 minute talk on whether or not to quit your job to tour with a rock band, which she has first hand experience with. As down on being a musician as she comes off, keep in mind that she would not be nearly as renown had she not made that tough decision. Nonetheless, the presentation is informative, real, and charming to say the least.

Cellist Zoe Keating used to be in tech before taking on the “glamorous” life of a touring musician. In this week’s Ignite Show Episode, she talks about the pizza, the long bus rides, odd work hours and making a living when you’re just getting started.

Should You Quit Your Job And Join A Rock Band? Ask Zoe Keating is a post from: wax&wires

The main difference between MySpace Local and Yelp is that MySpace Local will prioritize reviews and rankings based on your friends and interests, as gathered from your MySpace profile. “That’s a critical difference,” claims Jeff Berman, the MySpace president of sales & marketing. Reviews mean “a heck of a lot more when you know the reviewer.”

So let’s bring it home. How does this impact the local musician?

1) If you’re in a band that plays regularly at a club, users can review the music at venues for better or worse, so bring your best. Conversations regarding the bands at various venues can be opened up on MySpace Local for the rest of the world to see, creating a great opportunity for artist promotion. If you see that clearly you’re pulling in 200 people that wouldn’t otherwise come out to that club, maybe it’s time to show the club owner the reviews and ask for a raise. If you see that people are saying, “The sound sucks here, it’s so much better at Venue X.” Maybe it’s time to move the gig to Venue X. Make sense? Keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on around your music.

2) If you’re looking to increase your fanbase, but don’t know where or how, you can tap into MySpace Local as a means of finding gigs. There’s no magic “gig finder” or anything, but because you can see reviews on venues and how different music was received at various locations, you can run a search to find venues that you might do well in and snag their contact info right off the MySpace Local page to get booked. That’s a heck of a lot better than randomly picking a club halfway across the country and hoping they have crowds and a decent sound system for you.

While all of that is an unintended side effect of MySpace Local’s intended purpose, it’s a great way to harness a new tool to promote your music. The most successful musicians will be the ones that hustle, and are not just simply keeping up on new trends, but constantly thinking of the ways in which every little thing could help their musical career.

You can check out a demo of MySpace Local here.

What MySpace Local Means For Musicians is a post from: wax&wires

My first year of college was the last year that MySpace wasn’t a household name. A fan of a band I was in at the time kept hounding me to start up an artist page on MySpace, to engage fans better. I seriously said something to the effect of “Why? MySpace is just the next Live Journal, and it will be faded and un-trendy within a year.” Clueless. This was on the heels of mp3.com going down and everybody waiting to see what  site would emerge as the next big web music player (as if there could only be one). I staked my bets on PureVolume and completely ignored the rest. That was the wrong play. A year or two later, MySpace blew up, and those first few artists that jumped on the MySpace train really saw dividends from their time investment into the site. So my laziness and skepticism robbed the band of an opportunity to capitalize on a brand new social media market that would later prove to be one of the biggest influences of our culture today. Now, I’m on the flip side of that coin. I try to engage every facet of web presence possible to be sure I don’t miss the next web phenomenon.

Don’t let your snobbishness or fear of investing your time in a dying trend keep you from seizing an opportunity to promote your music (or knock other musicians… if that’s your bag).

Here are Jason’s 5 points (you can also read his full article here):

1) Add functionality that will connect to your fans.

In crafting your digital marketing plan, first ask, does this technology add functionality that will connect to your fans? Many artists fall into the trap of using a digital asset simply because it does something interesting or innovative. When they first came online, a slew of artists adopted video remix contests, but soon found that their fans were not willing to put in the time and effort to create a usable finished product. As people learned the hard way in the late ’90s, technology for technology’s sake often results in amazing software with no users. If the product being implemented does not encourage repeat use and add something to a fan’s experience, it is effectively useless. A great technology used once is barely better than nothing at all.

2) Technology is not a “one size fits all” solution.

Different technology platforms are geared towards different users. Mobile music marketing rarely makes a dent for older-facing musicians, while many youth-facing pop and hip-hop artists have used phone technology with tremendous results.

Shareable widgets often have massive value, but only if the artist’s fan base is naturally inclined to spread things they find interesting. Nine Inch Nails fans are notorious for being a tight-knit community; technology that engages them will not work for an artist whose fans are simply into their music and not the associated community.

3) Do not understimate time commitments.

Next, artists must consider how much time they are willing to commit to implementing the chosen technologies. Just as a fan only using something once has little value, there’s little value when artists do not follow through in their marketing efforts.

In fact, depending on the scale and depth to which fans have been involved, abandoning efforts can have a negative impact on the artist’s reputation. For example, if a musician begins using the micro-blogging platform Twitter, builds a large base of followers, gives them a glimpse behind the scenes, then abandons the effort, these fans may not just lose interest but take their disappointment public in the form of message board posts, social network comments, and other inter-fan communication.

This has happened recently in the political arena as a number of President Obama’s Twitter followers publicly voiced their annoyance that his tweets had dried up since taking office. Often this only has a limited effect, but, given the viral nature of social media, this can damage an artist’s brand in the long run. If a long-term digital marketing effort is not sustainable, a more realistic or shorter-term alternative needs to be substituted.

4) Create a plan for implementation and awareness.

Artists must also develop a plan for creating awareness of these digital tools. Without fans’ eyes and ears, the quality of the product and the plan are irrelevant. Musicians must find a balance between using forward-thinking technology and spending time on core fan-building techniques. The enormous benefit of music technology is that it enables artists to continually give their fans a reason to pay attention. However, if a band only has a weak fan base to begin with, their foundation must be strengthened before the value of these digital tools can be realized.

5) Use all available web properties.

An artist must use sites they control (official site, social networks) as well as online social media (music portals, blogs) to maximize the reach of these assets. Without a combined effort on these two avenues, fans miss the communication and the marketing message falls flat.

Fortunately, most of the issues outlined here are fully within an artist’s control. Once an artist has an understanding of his fan base and the means to reach them, he can begin building a digital marketing strategy, one that will engage, inspire, and create long-term interest.

Five Tips for Musicians to Engage Their Fans Digitally is a post from: wax&wires

1) Set time limits on sessions.
I know this seems counter-intuitive, but force breaks upon yourself. If you’re trying to nail a particular part, or find some new creative mojo, working yourself until you’re exhausted is only going to belabor the process and get you nice and frustrated in the process. Take an hour break, come back fresh and ready to kill it. Your brain will inevitably continue working on the song while you’re away from your desk, and that’s great. Some of my best creative ideas have come when I left the studio to go wash dishes or water the lawn for an hour. Some part will pop in my head that completely transforms the vibe of the song.

You could put a quick bounce of your song on your iPod and go for a drive too, though I usually find it best to avoid hearing anything during that time. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, if you listen to a song too much, everything starts to sound right. That’s bad. Get out of the studio. Don’t get stuck in tunnel vision.

2) Recycle your old stuff.
There’s nothing wrong, or creatively taboo, about using your old stuff again. This goes two ways.

Sigur Ros used to reverse vocal tracks and such from older albums and put them on their newer albums with tons of reverb to help create a nice ambience behind the newer tracks. So the first way is to actually use things you’ve released before, modify them beyond recognition, and reinsert them into your new material.

The second way is to create a folder on your computer for sounds and ideas you like, that might not sit well with the particular song you’re working on at the time.

A few months ago, I was working on a track in Ableton, and for some reason, when I went to export it, the computer glitched and gave me this really funky, bit-crushed, slowed down digital pattern. I loved it, so I dropped it in a folder. By the same token, I’ve stumbled on sounds I liked before that didn’t fit the key, mood, or timbre of a particular song, so I saved the clip to a bin on my computer. Every few months, or if I feel like I’ve hit a wall with a song I’m working on, I’ll dig through that bin of sound clips and get a nice creative shot in the arm.

3) Organize your files.
Develop a naming convention that works for you so that you can find songs and samples quickly.

Several years ago, when I was working in a pretty big studio down here, we used to have to label our DAT tapes and files with the format “yyyymmdd-sessionName”. I ended up adopting that format in my personal projects as well, because it makes so much sense. It takes up just 8 characters to name your files in such a way that the computer will always have them in chronological order. If you name them with the day or month first, the computer would sort them by the day or month, and files become harder to find. I’m not saying that’s hands down the best way to do it. I am saying that you should find something that works for you and stick with it.

Along with that, keep tabs on your favorite samples and patches (as mentioned above). That way, when you need a particular sound that you’ve used before, you can recall it quickly, rather than digging through thousands of samples and patches to find it again.

4) Keep your tracking materials handy.
If you don’t have a dedicated space in your house for your studio stuff, do your best to compromise. It makes such a difference when all I have to do is open up a program and hit record to lay down a new idea, rather than digging mics, cables, instruments, interfaces, etc out of the closet. By the time you get all that gear set up, you’ll have lost your train of thought, inspiration, and the energy to perform well. This includes keeping 9V batteries on hand for guitar pedals and tuners, strings on hand etc. When creativity strikes, you need to be ready to lock it down.

5) Use Templates.
This is an extension of the previous step. Just as you need to have your hardware ready to go in a moment’s notice, do the same with your software. If you have a great idea in your head, the last thing you want to do is spend 10 minutes adding tracks, arming them to record, adding the appropriate virtual instruments and plug-ins before you can even record. Figure out what you use on a regular basis, and have those tracks and plug-ins preloaded in your template session.

I noticed a few years ago that just about every song I make in Reason has piano, a big fat bass, some form of Dr. Rex and tight acoustic drums. I set up a template so that every time I open Reason, my favorite piano, drum kit, and synth bass get loaded up automatically, so I can jump right into making the music. Don’t give yourself enough time to forget your idea!

6) Use Multiple Monitors or Spaces.
You need enough space in the physical world to make your music, the same is true of your computer screen real estate. I used to use a 20″ and 24″ monitor. I could keep my soft-synths and mixer open on one side, and then have my audio editor open in the other. That helps you work quickly between programs that might be rewired into each other, as well as helping you see the big picture of your song and what all you’re using. I recently moved to a laptop as my main computer, and my production slowed down a lot since I have to use spaces to jump between windows and such rather than seeing everything in front of me.

7) Collaborate.
Work with artists that you know and trust. Trade sessions with each other to bring new ideas and views of your songs to light. The drummer in my old band and I used to work really well together. I would come up with some melodic idea on guitar or piano and bring it to him. I would be completely stalled out, and he would start laying down drum parts. A lot of times he would lay down a part in double-time, or half-time from what I was hearing in my head. That was exactly what I needed to find the heart and life of the song though. That simple spark would let the rest of the song simply fall in place.

Not only does this off load some of the creative work to give you a break, but it gives you a great opportunity to network and get some time in on other people’s tracks for new inspiration too.

7 Quick Tips To Speed Up Your Workflow is a post from: wax&wires

A week ago, in Fix It Before You Mix It, I wrote about 8 simple things you can do to set yourself up for success leading up to the mix stage of your project. In this article, I’ll try to take you through a few things that can help you during that mix stage.

The mixing stage, including editing, can often be the most daunting task of a recording project. It’s here that you have to make the final decisions on which guitar solo to use, how much you want the bass to punch, how saturated you want that reverb, etc. All of those choices will undoubtedly shape the sound and in extreme instances, even the genre of the album.

1) Choose your sound. Identify some albums that you really like, that sit in the same genre of music you’re aiming to create. If you’re having trouble finding an artist that relates, pick some albums that have influenced you and listen for what you like about those albums. Maybe it’s Coldplay Parachutes, and you like the intimacy of Chris Martin’s vocal on the album. Maybe you like the drums on John Mayer’s Room For Squares. If so, refer to those albums during your mix to see if you’re achieving the same result that makes those albums so alluring to you. How compressed do they sound? How much reverb is on them? How loud are the overheads compared to the rest of the kit? Can you hear the room in the tracks, if so, how much?

2) Know your room. Are you mixing in your bedroom or on headphones? How much commercial music have you listened to through the same system? How many mixes of your own have you heard on that system, and how have they translated to the rest of the world? This is one of the most critical and toughest things to hammer out because it takes time. Spend some time with music on while you’re just hanging out or working in the room, but also dedicate an hour a day to some critical listening in your mixing room. These steps will familiarize your ears with what a good mix sounds like on your system, so that you can replicate it with your mixes. Good ears and a good knowledge of your room will go farther than the best gear and plug-ins you can buy.

3) What’s the driving force behind the album? At the first big studio I worked at, my boss used to reiterate that there were two main schools of mixing in pop music (and I use the term “pop music” in the looser sense, describing all radio-playable music including rock, country, hip hop, etc):

Nashville and LA.

With Nashville mixing, the lead vocal is the driving force behind every song. When you get to the mix stage of a project in which the lead vocal is the focus, start your mix with the lead vocal. Mute all of the other tracks and only listen to the vocal track. If you’re going to be comping a good take together, do it here. If you’re taking a straight take, identify you’re winning take and start to work on any sibilance and honkiness with EQ, dial in your compression, and find a tasteful reverb for the vocal. After you’ve nailed the vocal down to exactly what you want it to be, start pulling in the other instruments and mix them so that they sit well and complement the vocal, not vice versa. Be sure that after each track you un-mute, you can still hear the vocals shining through the whole mix.

With LA mixing, the rhythm section and guitars drive the song. This was hugely popular with rock in the 80s. Check the mix on your favorite Poison or Motley Crue album; the vox are totally reverb saturated, drums kick hard and at times you can hardly hear the vox when the guitars are kicking in. That creates a louder, in your face hard rock mix. In LA mixing, you’re conceding that the instruments are driving the song. Start with the rhythm section. Mix the drums to kick your teeth in, be sure the bass is locked in with the kick to maximize impact. From there, add in your face-melting guitars and be sure they’re EQ’d to cut through really well. Lastly, drop your vocals on top. If the vox get buried at times, you’re cutting your losses since you’ve already yielded with the vision of the song that the vocals are not what’s driving it forward.

It’s mostly a question of priorities and identifying the style of your mix. At any given moment, what is it that you want your listeners hearing and focusing on? Are you guiding their ears to that part with your mix?

4) Don’t make too many rough mixes. You can call me a hypocrite on this one, as I’m still sitting on some mixes of my own from 2004 that I have yet to release. If you start making rough mixes and listening to them over and over, you’re sabotaging the process. The faults in that mix will start to sound right since that’s the way your ears will learn to hear the song. It also has huge potential of zapping your creativity since it will be tough to add something to a song on a production level when you’ve heard it so many times that it sounds finished to your brain. At that point, anything you add starts to feel like you’re corrupting the song, and you’ve got to bring a new set of ears to help you finish.

5) Impose a Deadline. This stems directly out of number 4. Give yourself one afternoon to mix the song. If you notice glaring mistakes, clicks and pops, things like that later, of course you can go back and fix them. However, do not go into your mix under the impression that you’ll just work on it a little bit, listen to it for a few days, then work on it some more. You will never finish. We can make small tweaks into eternity; we can wait for better plug-ins and outboard gear for years. If you don’t finish your mix with some sense of immediacy, the song will be irrelevant and the genre will be dead by the time you get it out. It’s happened to me before, and I still kick myself over things like that.

I’ll crank out another article soon with more practical how-to’s on getting a cleaner mix. These 5 steps will help you gain a clear vision for your project though, and help your workflow so that you can get more music out there.

The Chronology of a Good Mix is a post from: wax&wires

1) Good recordings start at the source. Before we get into more step-by-step practical things to do, you have to really buy-in and believe that statement. If you don’t internalize the fact that you MUST take your time when setting up the source of sound, you’re already limiting the quality of your recordings. Spending the extra time to acquire good tones and good takes will pay dividends when you get to the mixing stage of your project. You could have an arsenal of the greatest plug-ins, outboard gear, and even ears, known to man; but if you’ve got fret buzz on an out-of-tune guitar clipping through the 8″ speaker of a 15W solid state crate amp, it won’t matter (unless that was the sound you were going for… but I doubt it).

2) Practice man, we talkin’ about practice. Get your arrangements tight. Every performer needs to know what songs you’re recording and the right arrangement of each one. Be sure that parts aren’t stepping on each other (no drum solos while the singer’s singing, etc). When we mix, we make sure that every instrument has it’s own room in the frequency spectrum through the use of EQ, and it’s own space through the use of panning. The same principle should be applied on a compositional level. If the vocal is the main feature for a few beats, don’t have complex guitar lines and bass runs that confuse the ear as to what it should be listening to.

3) Buy, rent, borrow, do whatever you can to get the best gear for your project that you can find. We already mentioned the guitar and amp above, I think a big area where I’ve noticed a difference here has been with cymbals on a drum kit. If I get a drum track where the skins sound bad, we can dynamically trigger the snare, toms, and kick using SoundReplacer or Drumagog (both great plug-ins); but cymbals are pretty much impossible to replicate in post. There’s far too much variety in timbre and velocity to be able to copy it using any number of samples. Spend a few hours in music shops or backline companies trying out cymbals to save yourself a few days worth of EQ or failed attempts at authentic sample replacement. The end mix will thank you for it. An extension of this goes without saying to have fresh strings and drum heads on and ready to go for your session. There’s no plug-in that can magically bring your dead strings’ punch back.

4) Place your mic with your ears, not your eyes. I know we have all these techniques on where mics should be placed, and there’s solid theory behind those methods, but you shouldn’t be relying on pictures of other peoples’ set ups, or your eyes, to tell you how something sounds. I don’t listen to my food to see how it tastes, or feel a flower to see how it smells, so why would I look at where a mic is to hear how it sounds? If you’re micing a cello for example, get down on your knees, close your eyes and move your head around in front of the soundhole. You may even want to try moving the instrument to different locations in the room. If you find a spot that it sounds good, put your mic where your ear just was. After that, at least if you hear something about the tone that you don’t like back in the control room, you know it’s the mic or your preamp and you can try a different mic or preamp, but you know that you heard the sound you wanted in front of that cello; now it’s just a matter of capturing it. DON’T OVERLOOK NOISE EITHER!!! A big part of using your ears to place your mic is identifying noise. If you’re listening for a good spot to place your mic and you notice that you can hear the air conditioner on, or train tracks outside, you need to solve those noise problems first. If your ears can hear it, your mic can too. As a disclaimer, with crazy loud sources like drums or rock guitar amps, I wouldn’t recommend putting your ear against the source to place your mic (so let’s have a bit of common sense here). Instead, get a studio hand to go into the live room with closed headphones on. Patch a talk-back mic to his headphones and have him move the mics around while you listen in the control room and instruct him through the talk-back mic on where to move each mic. The biggest argument here is essentially, don’t just put an SM57 an inch off of the edge of your guitar amp’s speaker because that’s what you’re supposed to do and it looks right. Use your ears to find the sound you’re looking for.

5) Tune, Tune, Tune. Get a few tuners to be sure they all agree. I use a little Korg cheapo $20 tuner, and then a Peterson Strobe tuner to be sure guitars are in line. Have them set up and intonated before your session too. You could be perfectly in tune on your open strings, but if your intonation is out, as soon as you have to use your fretboard (so… as soon as you have to play…) you’re out of tune. Next, tune after EVERY take. Nothing is more frustrating than packing up your gear and striking your mics, and THEN finding out that your B string was out when it gets to mixing time. If you don’t intonate your guitar and bass first, the smallest infraction can really hurt your vocal take, as your vocalist won’t be able to find center as easily.

6) Use a pop filter on vocals. If you get a lot of boominess and plosives on your track, the main feature of your song (the vocal) is going to be lackluster and unprofessional. Spend the money on a good pop filter (or use a coat hanger and pantyhose to make one if you’re hard pressed, it’s better than nothing). EQ and compression can only go so far, and they won’t be able to satisfactorily repair any abuse of hard plosive consonants. Don’t eat your mic either. Besides hygenic infractions, this could cause an overload of proximity effect and mouth noise. Get at least a few inches of space between your mouth and the mic to allow for a good amount of presence without sacrificing body. Sing right into the mic and don’t turn your head around or jump up and down. Contrary to popular belief, the mic doesn’t know where your mouth is, and can’t move with you. Focus on producing a good vocal tone and solid placement to give you a strong and consistent take.

7) Warm Up. This is especially true with vocals. Spend 10-20 minutes warming up so that your takes are cleaner. Don’t kill yourself singing Kelly Clarkson, but run simple, low scales to shake the rust off of your vocal chords. The same is true with guitar. Spend some time playing some scales and helping your brain reload the song and your fingers’ muscle memory to recall how far apart the frets are, etc.

8) Keep the monitors in check. As a rule of thumb, only put into the artists’ headphones what they need to get the track right, and at just enough volume for them to get a good feel going. You don’t want click bleeding through every sustained chord on a song, or snare drum blasting through and getting re-tracked via vocal mic on your singer’s take. You need to give a solid enough mix and a reasonable enough volume for the vibe of the song to come across, otherwise you might get a passionless take, but don’t let the volume of the headphones get out of hand. Mix the headphones via subtraction not addition. You might also want to kill the click send right when the last chord rings out to avoid any bleed as the instruments fade out. Some people like tracking a clean and click-less take of the final chord witht the whole band to avoid click bleed; I usually just sit in the control room and mute it right as they strike the chord though. Wait for the chord to ring out fully, and THEN cut. You can always fade out later, but you can’t generate the sound that would have been.

That’s all I’ve got for you in this post. I’ll continue to write as I get more ideas on helpful topics. Feel free to comment and add any tips or tricks you might have, or refute any of mine. I’d love any input you have.

Fix it Before You Mix it is a post from: wax&wires