TheBrewer

Thanks a lot Tracy!!

Thanks Prometheus... :-)

Thanks guys!! When i saw the final result for the first time, i was really impressed! I'm not the one who did the montage... But the guy who did it is a real pro! He's great! :-)

Hi guys! I finally did produce my first video! The result is really cool, but i would like to have your opinions on it! Here it is: Thanks! TheBrewer

It's 30$ per song, which is really expensive...

That could be enough. But you will certainly want to extend your horizons by adding music vst softwares (drums sounds, guitar sounds, bass sounds, etc...). Audacity will probably do it, but i would recommend a studio software, like Cubase or Logic Pro.

Hi everyone! Did someone ever buy a guitar kit before? If so, how was your experience? I saw some cool videos on Youtube where you can have a good idea about the sound, the look and the build-up of the guitar and, actually, i can say i'm impressed cause i thought those guitars were cheap. But on the videos i watched, the 200$ (US $) range ones look pretty nice. So i decided to by myself one of those kits, a Strat like one. I will receive it friday, so i will be able to bring a full review here after that. Is there any of you who tried? Here's the one i got: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280796241688 It cost me 180$ (US $) including taxes and shipping. Pascal

Hi guys! Just passing by saying that the album has been released last week-end and it was crazy like hell! Really satisfied so far! Took 4 months to do everything, but i'm proud of it! After 2 days from its released, i'm at 9,7% of my selling goal. I have another show in Montreal, Canada this week-end to promote it a little bit more, my guess is that after the show, i should have reached between 20% and 25% of my goal! Wanna take a look? http://www.pascaldesbiens.ca . If anyone has a question about how i did it, How much it cost me, anything, feel free to ask if it can help you guys. My pleasure to answer! Pascal, The Brewer N.B. The english version of my website is really not up-to-date, so i suggest you go on the french one, anyway, it's on the main page, you'll see 2 sections: ALBUM CD and ALBUM MP3. Click on the mp3 image to be redirected to ITunes where you can hear samples...

Cool! Mine's there: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pascal-Desbiens/182272435167187 I'll go press on yours guys!

Hi everyone! When i first registered here last summer, i went right away to the 'Introduce Yourself' post category and introduced myself, telling you guys that i was owning a microbrewery, just sold it, and now that i was having the opportunity to record an album that would be launched in fall. Since i sold this brewery, i got right away a burn-out and suffered from a big depression that i still have at the moment. So i said to myself what should i do? My doctor at that time told me not to do a thing for at least 6 month to try to relax a bit, a thing that i'm absolutely not able to do at all... And in the far past, 17 years ago, i had a big passion that i abandoned at that time, composing songs and playing music professionally. So i told myself "my not making an album?", and so i did. Now, as John told me, to promote the album, we need to have some marketing plans. Right! So beside the fact that i really did everything myself in that album, i decided to hire a press relation person. What she did is she made me a press kit, and she will send it out tomorrow to all the medias around here in Montreal (TV, Radio, Papers, and so on...) and she will take care of driving the appointments and interviews. Cool! Beside that, because of the fact that i'm not known in this industry (and this is not the same thing in the beer's one!), we decided to endorse 3 causes and work with that to bring up the album at the end. Let me explain... I have an autistic child (cause 1, autism), i got a burn-out, a real one (cause 2, burn-outs related to be too strong for a too long time) and i live with a depression (cause 3, depression). What we will do with those is we will approach all medias with that saying that there's a lot of people living their with some difficulties and, even it sometimes it is not written in their faces, they can realize big things, sometimes even bigger than the majority. This is the kind of things that medias here love to talk about. I don't know if you know guys what it is to have a family of 4 kids, whose one is autistic, having a business of 23 employees and working 80 hours a week, getting a burn-out and on top of that, being under depression... Man, i had it all-dressed! So here's our strategy and so far, it seems to work here. Now, we need to build up another strategy for the internet music business. John is absolutely right here and so far, i have some ideas, but i don't have a strong and convincing strategy for this market that i have for my local one. This is where i need your help guys! Is there some suggestions you can make me? Is there some things that i can implement to make sure this market will be well spotted?? My album is a bilingual one, with a couple of catchy songs and some deep ones too. To make sure you'll propose the the good advices, here's a link where you can listen to the songs samples to have a main idea: http://www.pascaldes....ca/?page_id=12 . The website's english version is not up-to-date so far, but it will be for the launching... Thanks for the hints guys! I appreciate! Pascal, The Brewer

The monitor thing that jramm brought up is absolutely true, believe me! It's been more than 1 month now i'm trying to have clarity on all my mixes and it seems to remain impossible... 'til i got my studio monitors yesterday! Every sounds balance and clarity became so obvious yesterday when i plugged them in that 1 did 3 mixes in about 3 hours and , even that time is too short (i will review everything this week), everything came out clearer and nicier than my one month work i did on them! It is absolutely true that you'll see the difference right away between 'speakers' and 'studio monitors'... I bought a nice pair of M-Audio BX5a Deluxe for 264$ and it worth the spend, believe me! I was about to give my album mastering work to a mastering engineer for more money than this, and this engineer was always coming back to me saying do this and do that to your mix.... Now that i've listen my 3 mixes in different environments, i can tell you that i'll finally save a buck at the end!!! My 2 cents!

Thanks John! I appreciate... In fact, i mentioned that i did everything myself, well it's true but only for one thing: i hired someone who works in communications and media relationships for the press file and she'll send them to her contacts she has for a long time to promote the album... We established a plan and we'll play on the fact that i did a burn-out 6 months ago, i'm in a depression now and also that i have an autistic child and 3 other kids, and on top of that, i had a big microbrewery before the burn-out... All the strategy will be based on the fact that a lot of people is not in the better situation in their life, that sometimes it could show it's cool, but it's not always cool... Those people are in the community, we talk to them, we know them, but we don't know everything about them, and those people sometimes can do a U-turn in their life and show people they can do great an amazing things, even if they're sick or in a hard situation. Medias here like those kind of things... Our team has 2 members so far..!!!! Thanks John!

Oh yeah... By the way, i didn't have time yet to update the 'The Album' section on my english version' website. If you have a chance, go see the same section in the french one (L'Album) and you'll see how it will look like shortly on the english one too... This page is an HTML5 version, very neet but on the english one, it's a flash version... Thanks!

Hi guys! I'm in the middle of my album's production (actually, there's 10 songs out of 12 that are mixed so far) and i have to tell you that i learned so much during these 3 last months... VST's, AU's, DAW, mixing, mastering, recording tips, how to market an indie album, building an entire website, setting up an e-commerce solution to sell my album online, Subscribing to a release-on-demand cd pressing company, doing all the album artwork on Photoshop, Youtube tutorials, Blogs and groups advices, midi configurations, preparing a press file for medias, preparing 3 official launchings, organizing schedule to arrive on-time with the master to have the CD ready for the launchings, how to use social networks (Thanks John!!), arranging songs, high pass filters, low pass filters, Compressors, limiters, spreaders, and so on... Man, that was a lot of work! and there's still some to complete so far... I need to record 2 more songs, mix them, and after all, do the mastering, and all this for the 31st! This is what my schedule says and i'll do it, i'm not afraid of that... But the most interesting part of that project, i guess, is that i did everything myself and it is go cool! I have to admit that for a first album, i will be completely satisfied, and i have to tell you that i'm a freaking perfectionist!! The most surprising thing in this is probably the fact that, after 17 years of doing absolutely nothing on the music related side, my writings and singing has improved so much, well, this is what i personally think... I would really try to help people here if they have any related questions or advises to ask about making an indie album and how to promote it. A lot of people helped me by giving me some good informations, i wanna do the same in return. As for an example, the release-on-demand cd press company was absolutely something i didn't have a clue of the existence, and it is so, so, i mean so nice to be able to deal with those guys... I don't know if you already did things with one of them, but mine (Indie Pool) is giving me the opportunity to have 2 major options, here they are: - SMRT setup: they organize everything for your cd to be produced. They do a file check on the artwork with possibilities to verify 3 times for approving. They provide you a CUP code to put on your album. CD's are Digipaks and they are shrink wrapped. They can be produces in any quantity (from 1 to 2000 if you want, it will always be the same price for one cd! Quality is very nice. They give you cart buttons, checkout buttons, everything you need to put on your website to sell your cd (hard copy). Let's say 8 people check out for a cd on my website, automatically Indie Pool receives at the end of the day a report and they will produce the cd's on demand under 48 hours! They even ship the cd directly to the customer and apply to them the regular shipping rate for it! At the end of the month, they keep a small amount by cd for them and that's it! They send you the rest! - Digital distribution: They put your album on 40 different affiliated album sellers sites (Amazon, Chapters, Itunes, Napster, HMV, etc...). They even put your album inside a catalogue which is distributes throughout 350 music stores in North America and music stores can order one or more if they like, even on a customer' special demand! For those two options, you have a once-on-a-lifetime subscription fee by album and it is a ridiculously small one! The album will be there for life! You can decide to not doing business with them anymore by cancelling under a 30 day notice without any fee. They don't keep any rights on your music, they're just helping you to distribute it. They keep 20% of the cd selling price (for hard copies) and send you the rest every month. That's all it costs! For the digital distribution, you have to deal with the percentage of every single reseller's site, but Indie Pool don't make anything on those. They just help you to distribute your music, that's it! So far, i'm really satisfied with the sample i received (they made me a sample for approval). It looks really professional! Now the album release will be on November 19th, and from there, it will be available for ordering online on my website, but i can even order some myself for my launchings for the same price (20%) + the small shipping fee they're charging me. If you'd like their infos, i can provide but they're located in Toronto, Canada... Anyway, stay tuned to my website if you would like to hear some samples of my songs after the release ( 2 are featuring right now, but they are only rough mixes, no masters for now) and if you like what you hear.... :-P Thanks guys and hope that this topic helped a bit and will help in the future! Pascal

I figured out i used the word CPU instead of MEMORY... This is what i wanted to mean... Thanks Ret Rex! I'll play with Kontakt and Logic a little bit tonight to verify...

I guess i have a clue why... Would it be less demanding on the CPU if i would have my Kontakt's plug-in opened up in the same Kontakt player than having one opened for every Kontakt's plug-ins? I mean, i freeze all my tracks to be sure i won't use too much of CPU and memory, but doing what i assume is going to help me?? Thanks!

Being a computer engineer for a couple of years, i can tell you that i was only using PC's before for everything i was doing. When i started making music, i first used my best PC and i realized quickly that i didn't fulfill my needs (i tend to be a CPU power user :-P). I switched 2 months ago for an IMAC and i'm in heaven since then... Pascal

I'm right now in the process of mastering my album. First time i'm doing mastering. Not so obvious. I read a lot of things in the last month about mastering and the most difficult part is not to put too much of this and too much of that. First time i did master a track 3 weeks ago, i sent it to someone who is helping me with my album and he told me right away 'you put too much of effects in this man!'. I understood what he meant right when i listened to it again and removed a little of this and a little of that gradually... Everything became clearer when i did that. Now, first thing i'm doing is apply the compressor, the limiter, the meter, the Multi-Band harmonics exciter (flat) and the Spectrum Analyzer EQ (flat too). I setup the compressor and the limiter and verify with the meter if it looks ok. Once that done, i begin to analyze the frequencies with the spectrum analyzer and then, i adjust the EQ gradually, little by little and when i'm pleased by the frequencies, i take off a little bit of my adjustments i did. After this, i play a bit with the mutli-band harmonics exciter, again little by little and once i'm pleased with the sound, i remove again a little of my changes i just made in it. Then i bounce everything to a track, go in my 2 cars and listen. I then take notes of what's good and what's bad and i try to compare at that stage my track with 2 or 3 more cd's i have handy in the cars. Once i did that, 85 to 90% of the work is done. I then go to my Sonic pro, ply a bit to makes some changes in my EQ and my Harmonics exciter, regarding to my notes i took in the car, i bounce everything again and return in the cars. At that point 95-98% of the work is done. Finally, i ask 2-3 people to listen to it and finally adjust everything to end up with the final product. I usually try to limit myself to those mastering tools. Sometimes, i will try to put some stereo spreader for everything that's over 450 hertz of frequencies, but again, it never goes up to 9 or 10% of spreader. It would be interesting to know what others do when they master their tracks.... Feel free to suggest me some other things, i'm not the 'mastering God' yet! Pascal

Interesting, very interesting! There's a lot to learn from you John! I appreciate!!!

The english version is now online... Website/Blog is not finish though, but now, we begin to have something... :-)

Hi Gangleri and John! I'm in the process of establishing one on my side since 4 days (John already knows it) and it's already online. Not complete, but already online. I even sold 2 songs today ;-P Seriously, John is right. It will be from now on a big work to do and keep doing. For now, mine is in french but i'm in the process tonight to make the english version and it will be probably online by the week-end. Can you guys have a look at it and tell me what you think about it? I put a translator on the pages in the meantime, but don't use it as it's not showing all the flash stuff.... I mean you can use it, but i suggest after your first tour of the site. After the english version will be online, this translator will be taken off... Let me know what you think! Pascal Blog link with ecommerce solution inside too: My blog

Hey John! Nice website you have! Thanks for the reply. Hopefully, i know that there's way more than html. The thing i'm implementing is more than this (PHP, MySQL, etc...) and it almost looks like your site. But what i'm adding to this is a cart plug-in related to Paypal and all this is not so hard to do with some editing tools. What i meant with HTNL is that with those tools, you need to know some html stuff anyway... But yes, there's more, you're right! What about others thoughts? ;-)

Hi guys! I was browsing the web yesterday and i found this article who was pretty interesting: Article You might take a listen to the audio post there cause there's something we need to learn from this guy. My opinion on this is that an artist can probably succeed in doing what Jonathan did but there's 2 things i guess that were on his side to help him: 1- His music is really, i mean really universal cause he bet on the humoristic side of his songs rather than trying to impress with a 'commercial' side of them. My guess is it's probably easier to sell your stuff to somebody who never saw you by doing that way... What is your impressions on that guys? 2- This guy knows how to promote himself! Being in the computer industry, even as a technician, is probably a winner thing for him cause he has access to a lot of forums and a lot of communities on the web that are specialized in the subject. I mean, if he drops a post here and there in 'his' communities only to promote what he's doing, by the fact that his stuff is funny, he probably doesn't have any difficulty to sell his stuff, at least less difficulty than a lawyer would have, no? I'm not trying by saying this to show any dislike of what Jonathan does, i wanna be clear on that. I mean, i'm really impressed about what he did and today, this guy is making 500 000$ a year, man he's my god!! My question to you guys is do you think that it could be a way to live from our stuff? IMO, i think that the answer is yes, but only if we find an intelligent and strategic way to promote it over the web. I began to work on an e-commerce solution myself right after i saw Jonathan's stuff and you know what? It will be easier to implement than i thought... and cheaper too! I mean if you have basic knowledge in html programming, you can do it. There's a lot of 'turn-key' solutions offered on the web, but it will cost you something and at the end, you're not sure if you will make money or loose some. The solution i've chosen will cost me... 0$! The only cost will be the commission money that Paypal will earn by check-outs that will be done on my site, but at least, if i don't sell a thing, i won't pay a buck neither... I'm anxious to see what you think about it guys! Let's see... Ciao!

On my side, it always starts with a phrase that goes with a melody in my head... Then, from there, i begin to build up a chorus by starting with the chords first, decide the subject i'll talk about and then i go with the rest of the phrases that complete the rest of the chorus. Now from there, i build up the entire musical structure of the song, and after all that, i write the rest of the song... I would say it's like that 90% of the time... Salut!