February

Outsourcing your Music: A Real Asset to the Indie

Posted In: Recording, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

I’ve always been a die-hard do-it-yourself kind of guy. I like things to be done the way I want them done, so I tend to try to do everything on my own. After enough time spend trying to do everything myself, I started to reach the point of burn out. I was getting frazzled trying to complete projects, so I never seemed to get anything done. I found that, even though I could do some things decently, I still couldn’t approach the quality of having a dedicated professional do those things for me. The hardest part was being able to relinquish my control to someone else, and risk spending money on something that may not be exactly what I had in mind. But I’ve found that, even in music, outsourcing is a most valuable asset to my operation.

Outsourcing is frequently used in the business world to help get things done faster, better, and cheaper than one could do himself. On the other hand, outsourcing is rarely thought of when it comes to music. Sure, you would outsource your music to a replication house such as Discmakers, but there are other avenues to consider when it comes to completing your recording project better and faster.

Hiring a Producer. Most people hate the notion of handing their creative control over to a producer. Somehow, it’s equated with selling one’s soul to the devil. But consider this: if you’ve worked on a project for a considerable amount of time, particularly if you feel like you’ve been spinning your wheels, then a producer’s fresh ideas may just revitalize your project. If you’re starting from scratch, a good producer will help you zero in on a particular creative direction, help you stay focused, maintain organization, and generally help a project get to completion faster.

Using Session Players. Unless your specific project is a solo one-man-band album, then hiring session players highly recommended. I used to be adamantly opposed to the idea, preferring to try to play all the other parts on my own in order to save money, until I realized that hiring great, professional players only helped to make me look better. Somehow, I used to think they would make me look bad by playing better than me, but, in the end, the opposite was true. They played the parts solidly, with more feel, and faster than I could on those other instruments. Since they’re truly professional players, they know what “fits” within the context of the song, and they deliver quickly and consistently every time. Session players are a must for singer/songwriters, songwriter demos, and solo instrumentalists.

Mixing. If you’ve recorded your own music, then using a professional mixing engineer (or at the very least, one other than yourself), will breathe new life into your project. In general, a project will benefit from a fresh set of ears. As a project progresses, a person tends to develop preconceived notions — right or wrong — about how a particular mix is supposed to sound. A pro engineer will invariably help you maximize your sonic possibilities with new ideas and techniques.

Mastering. If there’s only one area you can afford to outsource, make it mastering. In fact, you can’t afford not to have your project professionally mastered. Mastering is the final step before pressing and release. In essence, makes your program “radio ready” with the use of compression, limiting and equalization. Mastering is what helps your recording to sonically compete on a professional level. Most importantly, however, it is conducted in a finely-tuned, acoustically treated room. Not only is it a good idea to master your project, but it’s best to have it be performed by someone other than the mix engineer. Here again, a different set of ears will do wonders for improving the overall quality of your recording project.

I know most “Indies” are staunch do-it-yourselfers. I also know outsourcing may cost a little more up front. But I also know it will help you get your recording project done faster and at a higher quality, with less stress than taking it all on yourself. That will, in turn, make your fans more likely to buy your music. Happy recording!

For your next project, let Butler Productions help you with your audio outsourcing with recording and production services, session players for your tracks, or disc duplication.

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January

25

My 50th on My 30th

Posted In: Band Management, Career Building, For Businesses, For Educators, For Worship, Marketing & Promotion, Music Theory, Recording, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

Today marks two milestones. First, I turn 30 today. Second, it’s our 50th blog post!

I don’t really feel like I’m “in my thirties”. Looking back, I did achieve one of my major goals of owning my own business and working for myself while still in my twenties. I’m so blessed that I get to do what I love–making music–for a living (sometimes in my pajamas). I like being able to say that I’m an author, musician, and an entrepreneur. More than that, I love being able to help others down that same path with the MusicIsMyBiz blog, classes, seminars, and books. Life is good.

So, this marks our 50th blog post! It’s been my goal to create a place where aspiring musicians can go for information about the music business. It’s a place where teachers and business owners can learn how to use audio to improve their productivity and achieve their goals. It’s a place where churches and ministries can learn how go grow, improve, and protect themselves when it comes to music and multimedia. If you use music or audio in day-to-day activities, then MusicIsMyBiz is designed for YOU.

It’s my desire that you succeed. That’s why I’m unveiling our new book on MusicIsMyBiz.com on such a day as today. If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to record and produce your own music, then I’ve put together the beginner’s guide, Recording Basics: A Beginner’s Guide to Producing Music. We’ll cover all the necessary information to get you started producing and recording music for yourself or for others.

Basic Acoustics
Digital Audio
Common Studio Equipment
Microphone Techniques
Recording Common Instruments
Microphone Types
Microphone Placement Techniques
Tracking a Live Band
Mixing Guidelines
Thinking Like a Producer
Chord Charts and Song Matrices
Musical Arranging
Audio Editing Principles
Introduction to the Mastering Process
Plus lots more…

As a bonus, you’ll receive the guide Home Recording Savvy: Tricks to Tracking Great Sounds at Home. Let’s face it, many times we can’t afford the luxury of a professional recording studio, especially when starting out. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t get great sounds, even if you’re recording at home. With this additional guide, you will learn great tips and techniques that you can apply in the home recording environment.

If you’re a budding songwriter who wants to make your own demos, or if you’re an aspiring producer who wants to work with other artists, then this book is for you. Check it out. If you don’t think the information you learn from reading this book helps to make your recording skills better, then let me know within 30 days, and I’ll give you a refund. You’ve really got nothing to lose.

Recording Basics Ebook

$19.95 Blog readers, receive a $5.00 DISCOUNT by entering the Discount Code MIMB.

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November

6

How to Get Paid for your Music

Posted In: Career Building, Marketing & Promotion, Recording, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

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.

Some related articles to this topic include:

How to Start your own Music Publishing Company

How to Improve your Songwriting Skills

How to Record Electric Guitar in the Home Studio

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November

6

Need session players, singers, or voiceover for your recording project?

Posted In: Recording, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

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

Rock on!
–CLAY

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October

27

Recording Electric Guitar in the Home Studio

Posted In: Recording, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

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:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5577865_record-electric-guitar-home-studio.html

To read my other articles you check out eHow and Associated Content.

See you next time!

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August

8

Making the Home Studio More Productive

Posted In: For Businesses, Recording, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

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!

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July

24

Wider is Better: Extreme Panning for a Better Mix

Posted In: Recording, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

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.

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July

10

Mixing Live Audio: Eliminating Competition with EQ

Posted In: Recording by claybutlermusic

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.

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July

9

Preparing for a Recording Session

Posted In: Recording, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

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!

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July

5

Great, Inexpensive Starters for Computer Recording

Posted In: Recording, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

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

These items are really great in combination with the free recording software that I talked about in my post “Creative Ways to Make a Living with Music (Part 1)”.

Until next time…

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