Here’s an article on How to Get Paid for your Music. It deals primarily with writers who are interested in getting their songs into film and television and earning royalties. Topics included are:
Writing great songs
Recording your songs
Signing up with a Performing Rights Organization
Registering songs with your PRO
Registering songs with the Harry Fox Agency
Independent A&R services
Filing cue sheets
Anyone who is interested in making money from his or her music will find this article informative and useful.
Occasionally I post shameless self-promotional stuff. This is one of those times. On the up side, though, I thought it might be helpful to some of you guys doing recording projects that may be in need of session players but maybe didn’t know where to look. Well, look no further, my friends….Butler Productions Recording is here to serve you!
I’m currently taking sessions via the ‘net. Simply email an mp3 guide track, and receive a professionally recorded guitar or voiceover track that you can drop right into your recording project. You can choose to receive your files on a data CD-ROM or DVD-ROM by USPS or via FTP. Depending on the nature of your project and file size, you may be able to receive them via Email in a .zip file.
Contact me with project details and for booking. A 50% deposit is required upon booking the session. After your tracks are recorded, a low-resolution .mp3 “proof” of the performance will be sent to you for approval. To approve the performance, simply pay the balance of the session and your files will be sent to you promptly. Payments are made instantly and securely through PayPal.
We also work with other great session players in virtually any style, so feel free to inquire about other instruments as well. Butler Productions is here to serve you! Check out the complete scoop on www.butlerproductionsmultimedia.com/tracks
Students often ask me how to record great guitar tones at home. Since I’ve been working on renovating my own home studio for the past few weeks, my posts have been fairly sparse. But, I’ve written an article on Recording Electric Guitar in the Home Studio which has been published to eHow. You can read the article here:
I’m writing this after taking a break from re-organizing my studio.It’s been driving me nuts for months, and the cleaning/re-organizing part has been driving me nuts for weeks.Yeah, it was that bad.
Prior to about a month or so ago, the most strenuous work I’d been doing in the studio was doing voicovers, jingle sings, and midi-based music cues.Those jobs consisted of not much more than one channel at a time that I could leave in a ready-to-record state.Here lately, though, I’d been noticing myself not being as productive as I wanted to be.I had the desire to work, but every time I started a project, I’d get discouraged and frustrated.It then became clear to me that it was my lack of organization and poor ergonomics that killed my productivity.
My family always jokes with me, saying, “Your studio is never the way you want it,” or, “You’re never happy with it.” This is true not just because I’m a perfectionist, but there’s also another underlying cause.When I began building my home studio in 2006 (three years ago at the time of this writing), in my eagerness to get to work recording, I began to set myself up for my future frustration early on.As soon as the studio would get functional enough to do a little work, I would get focused on projects and put studio organization and ergonomics by the wayside.I was so fired up about being able to work in the studio that I became shortsighted and forgot about being ready for when bigger projects came along.Inevitably, when those bigger projects did come along, I would spend so much time and energy prepping the studio that I would lose my creative drive.I would then either not do as well on the project, or I would end up passing on the opportunity entirely–not what you want to happen when you record music for a living!
That brings me to my current juncture.The frustration has gotten too much to bear, so I’m overhauling it all.Here are some of the things that I’m doing to help improve my home studio:
Purging junk and organizing storage space
Re-wiring equipment and patch bays to make more logical sense
Labeling all cables and snakes
Making a notebook containing wiring diagrams, patch bay input/output lists, and midi routing
Pre-mic’ing guitar amps in the isolation booth to have instant access
Putting the most frequently used items, cables, modules, and processors at arm’s length
Networking computers for easier file transfer and printing
Creating a “workshop” area for guitar repairs and cable soldering
Improving the “office” area to more comfortably do the “business stuff”
Organize client information and contracts
All of these tasks help me to not only be more productive with recording and composing, but it also helps me to be able to readily accept more work without the preparation headaches.Hopefully, it will help me to gain more work, produce more output, and produce a higher quality product. All of these factors will help me “feel better” about working in the space, which, I’ve learned, tremendously impacts success with any business.
If you’re finding yourself frustrated and unproductive, try these little tweaks for yourself and see if they help.Comment with your ideas!
Right now, I’m headlong into teaching a Music Theory for Producers class.My students are struggling with the reasons behind having to learn music theory and read music.They question, for example, why they have to know the difference between a simple triple meter and a compound duple meter.What relevance does this knowledge serve?Does knowing make my music better?
If you get right down to it, the answer is no.Many musicians strictly play by ear, and a large portion of musicians in general don’t know the mechanics and theory behind what they’re playing.So, understanding music theory or being able to read music is not an absolute necessity when producing or being a musician.But what it does do is help you communicate with your musicians and session players.Oftentimes, we’ll get an idea in our heads, but we won’t quite be able to convey that idea in a way that others can understand.Learning at least basic music theory will give you a knowledge base that will help you be able to formulate your ideas so you can articulate them.When you’re able to speak to musicians on their level, you are more likely to get exactly what you want out of them. Also, if you’re asked a question, you’ll likely have a better answer.However, if you don’t understand the theory behind the question, you may not have an answer at all!
A second consideration is sequencing.My students are pretty much split equally among three categories:rockers, rappers, and non-musicians (audio engineers or producers only).Understanding music theory, particularly when it deals with rhythm, is of particular importance to those who want to produce hip-hop beats.Not that you can’t “feel” the beat and go by instinct, but understanding rhythm and meter do help a great deal with setting up your tracks and sequencer.For example, if you’re setting up your metronome on your sequencer to record a track, you might question whether to the meter of your song to 3/4 or 6/8 (which is, by the way, an example of a simple triple meter and a compound duple meter).They both contain the same number of eighth notes, but they group the notes differently.Understanding the difference between the two, and being able to hear them both in your head, will lead you to the right solution for your track.
You don’t have to be a master of music theory to make great music.However, understanding how music works can help ease the process, save time, and alleviate frustration.
Perhaps nothing makes a mix more interesting than a wide stereo field.However, having instruments panned to the left or right not only makes a mix more aesthetically appealing, but it also helps to create a more stable, balanced mix.
Before I start preaching the benefits of extreme panning, let me first provide a disclaimer.Mono does have its place, particularly when mixing for telephone (such as on hold messaging and music), checking mixes intended for television (many older sets are mono), and checking for phase problems.Therefore, never discount checking your mixes in mono before you print a final mix.
Separation
In a previous post, I discussed eliminating competition between instruments in a live mix by using EQ. Since many live mixes are mono, I didn’t mention panning.If your mix is stereo, though, the first step to creating separation and eliminating competition between instruments is to reach for the pan knob.When two instruments are similar in range or timbre, it’s usually a good idea to pan them opposite from one other. This technique works particularly well if you’re having difficulty distinguishing between two instruments or between what each instrument is playing.The results are instantly noticeable.
Width
Many engineers neglect extreme panning, opting for a more narrow sounding mix.However, panning some instruments “hard left” and others “hard right” and others in between can really open up a mix, creating a fuller sound.While it creates a greater sense of balance within a mix, it also creates a greater sense of width.Extreme panning can also create a “larger-than-life” type of sound.
Aesthetics
To take the concept one step further, if you have an instrument or part that is doubled, try panning one hard left and the other hard right.This technique is often used with doubled rock guitars to create a massively wide guitar sound.
Example
Here’s an example of a typical rock band:acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboard, bass, and drums.Try a wide mix with these.Typically, we would keep the bass in the center.Our drums would be panned to either audience perspective or drummer perspective.With a typical right-handed drummer in drummer perspective would be Kick in center, Snare in center (or slightly to the left), Rack Tom at 9 o’clock, Mid Tom at center, Floor tom at 3 o’clock, and stereo overheads.To create even wider drums, pan the toms even wider than 3 o’clock an 9 o’clock, bordering on hard left and right.Now place the electric guitar and keyboard opposite from each other at hard left and right.This leaves room for the acoustic in the center.Another trick is to pan the reverb of a panned instrument to the opposite side of the stereo field.For instance, if you pan the guitar to the left, pan its reverb to the right.
These are just a few examples of the benefits and uses of extreme panning.Try it out on your mixes and see how it expands your mixing horizons.Next time we’ll talk about treating the studio mix as a live stage.
To review, when a students has a reading disability, the student should not suffer academically due to this disability. Having a test played from a CD increases test validity and decreases stress on everyone’s part. The CD can be easily paused when someone asks for more time on answering a question.
This CD can be used in many instances. The first is the Exceptional Education teacher that must meet accommodations for students with disabilities. The teacher prepares the CD ahead of time and then simply presses “play” while the students follow along with the paper copy on their desks. This allows teachers to have a “clean read,” instead of worrying about their inflection during the reading of certain answers. If you are using a CD, there is no way that a cough can turn into a “cue” for a correct answer!
Another way to use these CDs is in a Regular Education classroom. Many times, the teacher does not have the staff available to take a student out of the classroom to read the test. A student can use a CD player and headphones to complete the test, while the teacher meets this legal accommodation. Even better would be to play the CD for the whole class. Every classroom contains students that may struggle with reading. Think of students with test anxiety. Having the test read aloud may help a student choose answers more carefully and accurately.
The last way to use a CD like this is in the case of an absence. Teachers hate to be absent and worry if their substitute is carrying out classroom duties appropriately. If the sub is able to walk in, press “play,” and monitor student behavior, the test will have a better chance of being fair and accurate. Also, in the case of a student absence, the student can use the CD player and headphones to complete the test, without having to pull more staff members to read the test individually.
As you can see, read aloud test and quizzes are much easier when recorded to CD. Use software to record these at home or find a local recording studio that can complete a set of CDs for you for the school semester or year.
Today, I’m going to enter into more technical territory and discuss mixing.As the title says, the key to obtaining a better mix is by eliminating competition.Too often, engineers who are just starting out focus only on volume for mixing.While volume is a huge component of mixing, it’s not the end-all-be-all.Unfortunately, many newer engineers don’t fully embrace the practical use of equalization and use it only for aesthetic purposes.However, EQ is a crucial tool for eliminating competition between instruments, which is the start of building a good mix.
So, how does EQ eliminate competition?Sometimes when mixing, you get into a sort of “volume battle” between instruments.You turn up Instrument A because you can’t hear it over Instrument B, only to turn up B because you just masked it by turning up A.Rinse and repeat until your eardrums cringe and you’re so frustrated that you want to pull your hair out.EQ is the answer.Instead of EQ-ing instruments to sound good by themselves, try EQ-ing them to work with each other.If two instruments are playing in the exact same note/frequency range they will be difficult to distinguish from one another in the mix, no matter how hard you try with volume.If you have boosted 400Hz and 1.5KHz in one instrument, try cutting those frequencies in the offending instrument.The “mirror image mixing” approach goes a long way in clearing up a mix.While the instruments may not sound great on their own, in combination they have a better chance of being distinguishable.
Use EQ to eliminate “unneeded” frequencies from instruments.Doing so will reduce excess acoustical energy, in turn providing more clarity at lower volumes.If a lead vocal is not clear enough in your mix, increasing the volume may not always help without some EQ help.However, boosting frequencies with EQ may not be the answer either.First, try the “subtractive” EQ approach.Cut unnecessary bass frequencies from the vocal to reduce “muddiness” before increasing the volume.If that’s still not enough, find the frequency range you need to hear more of in the vocal and CUT it from other instruments.That often solves the problem without increasing any overall volume.
We’ve all heard the saying “a place for everything and everything in its place”.The same principle applies with EQ.We touched on this a little when we talked about “mirror image mixing”, but let’s take it one step further.Each instrument should reside in its own frequency range.Ideally, the players themselves should take the first step by playing in different registers from other members.If they don’t, it’s left up to us as the engineer to compensate.Try carving out niches for instruments to sit in.Pull some low mids out of the keys to make room for the guitar.Pull mids out of the guitar to make room for the keys.Let the acoustic just handle the high “chingy” stuff.Pull the lows out of everything else to make room for the bass.Granted this is a very simplistic, oversimplified example, but the principle works very much this way.
So, if you’re having trouble with getting a solid mix without the volume battle, give these techniques a shot.Be mindful of excess acoustic energy, put everything in its place, and eliminate the competition!
Until next time, here are two great books on mixing that I refer to often.
I’ve been slammed this week with recording sessions, production deadlines, and church music obligations, so I’ve been quiet for a couple of days.It’s funny how you get antsy to blog when you’ve been away for a little while!We’re gearing up for an album recording session here at Butler Productions, so I thought I’d share some tips for getting the best out of your demo or indie album recording.
First of all, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!Nothing is more frustrating than when you’re renting studio time and watching the clock (and dollars) tick away while you practice parts that should have been worked on during your own (free) time.Spend the extra time in pre-production rehearsals to make sure the band is as tight as possible before you go into the studio.Understandably, problems arise and mistakes happen, but your time will be spent much more productively if you’re ready when you hit record.Because the band I’m working with is new to recording as a full band, they have been in pre-production rehearsal mode for about a month.They’ve been tightening up the more difficult spots in the songs and working with playing to a metronome (more on that shortly). Hopefully, I’ve instilled in them this mantra: “Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong.”
Second, make sure all your equipment is in good order before you enter the studio.This sounds a bit childish on the surface, but your demo is only as good as your instrument maintenance.You’d be surprised how many demos I’ve produced where the jacks in guitars were shot, strings were dead, or the intonation was out.Similarly, make sure that your drums have new heads and are in tune.Aside from eliminating noise by making sure everything is in working order, new heads and strings have a presence of transient frequencies that get lost over time.No amount of EQ can recreate these frequencies or fully compensate for dead strings or heads–you can’t boost frequencies that were never recorded. Furthermore, even though you may be able to “autotune” vocals, you can’t fix an out-of-tune guitar in the mix. Spend the worthy time and expense to make sure everything is in tip-top shape.
Finally, practice and record to a metronome or click track.There are practical aspects of recording to a click, the most important of which is that it makes for easier editing of audio.Moreover, it improves musicianship.Many bands and musicians have an aversion to metronomes.They say it removes all the life from the music.While this is a valid point, to some degree, I submit that being able to maintain a steady tempo makes one a better musician.In my opinion, I think it’s the mostly inexperienced musicians that complain or make excuses to keep from playing with a click.I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not easy when you start out.That’s why getting so comfortable playing with a metronome that it becomes second nature is crucial for recording musicians.That’s when the real fun in recording begins–when you stop focusing on the mechanical restriction of the click and really start playing.
Hope this is valuable to those of you new to recording.But now, I’ve got a session to conduct!
I keep getting a lot of questions about inexpensive starter options for computer recording, from students and emailers alike. I wanted to share two really cool pieces that should be in your toolbox.
I ran across this baby, and fell in love with it! It’s an XLR to USB cable made by SoundTech for less than $40. Essentially, it’s a sound card in a cable! I highly recommend this one for mobile recording or as a quick and easy way to get started in computer recording. Click the pic for more info.
I also recommend the Samson G Track USB studio microphone. I’ve recommended this one before, but this is an all-in-one USB studio microphone with a built-in audio interface and headphone jack. You can also plug a line instrument, such as a guitar, into this puppy. Click the pic for more info
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