Gangleri

A nice post. I've not done a lot of stereo recordings of me playing guitar but I'm really interested in trying that more. Only problem is I now only have a dynamic (SM57) and a condenser (Rode NT-55). Surely the big difference in tones that you'd get from the recordings of each microphone wouldn't lend itself to trying to making a balanced stereo image. I'm guessing there are creative ways around it though, like throwing the brighter and more defined condenser recording to the back with a bit of reverb and maybe short delay so that it sparkles a bit more in the back while the dynamic recording stays more in front.. Or something. Does any one else have any thoughts or experiences with recording with such different microphones?

This was a great post and something I've been thinking a lot about recently. Been trying to stay focused on keep a good stereo and frequency balance in my latest mixes. I used Logic Pro and have occasionally broken out that stereo spreader plug-in but not really known exactly how it works on a technical level and therefore not how best to use it. Can anyone explain what the graph and the sliders there are actually indicating and how to understand what moving them around does to the signal? Thanks!

Yeah, very useful pointers there, very worth working that into your big-picture-marketing-scheme. Overall however, I'd put forward that Twitter will in most cases not take you too far in building up a genuine following of sincere fans of your music. This is mostly based on Twitter obviously not being used as a way of discovering music. You probably already know this but Soundcloud will be your best resource for developing a Twitter-like following of people who actually like and appreciate your music. Not shouting down Twitter or saying that it's not useful or a waste of time. It's just better for connecting to new fans on a less musical level. If you want people to follow you through your music then Soundcloud will probably be the best place to spend your efforts. Still, Ricks84 gave us very good tips for Twitter and they shouldn't be ignored and nor should Twitter not be used at all. Different uses, different needs, that's all.

Hey guys, I've got a feeling that there might be a topic similar to this one out there somewhere so I'm sorry if I'm wasting people's time but I got a message yesterday that I want to respond to as quickly as possible but don't know what to say... So a friend wrote to me saying that for her course she's helping put together a film festival this year and they're making a showreel for it. She asked if I had any appropriate music for the showreel which I think I might do, but if not then I would consider writing her something quickly just so I can get the gig. Basically I have two questions. I haven't copyrighted my songs yet properly. I've only recently found John's post on how to do that and I'm basically waiting for some money to come in before I get to it. Is it then a terrible idea to give her my song to use? I was even thinking of cutting and reorganising the original track around a bit so it would fit more with the beats and actions of a 1 minute showreel, would that mean having to copyright that version too? Is the handy trick of posting the the song and all the project files from Logic etc enough to cover me this time round in case something happens? And my second question is, she asked me what my fee was and to be honest I've got no idea. These are students and I'm (probably) not going to be composing music specifically for them so what exactly would my "fee" be? I'm in the UK but I'm sure pricings are similar in most places so any input would be great. Again, I realise that this has probably come up before as a topic. I need to leave the house for the day very soon and want to get back to her by tonight so sadly didn't have time to peruse the boards. Thanks everyone!

Hi John this might be a silly question but this is all very new to me still. When you say create an ISRC code and "encode it into your master", how do you that exactly (the encoding part that is)? You might have explained it in the post, I'm just not sure if I understood it. Also, just in case you care, I noticed a small typing error in the first line of the paragraph before step 3. Just a heads up! Thanks for this post though, it's very useful and will definitely put my mind at rest after putting it into use.

So I'm looking to go down the route of doing film, tv or theatre music. I enjoy it, have experience and I think I work better when I know I have a project to work against, not only in terms of having deadlines but I like setting music to things. My question then is, is there anyone out there that either is a film/tv/theatre/whatever composer that knows how the land lies when it comes to using agents to get work? I'm not actually looking to do this just yet, despite having a good looking CV for it at the moment, I'm still looking to build my portfolio, not to mention my experience and knowledge. I just want to know for the future what the deal with having an agent is. Any thoughts?

Hey mykalallen, very glad you liked them! As far as I know they're totally unique, both in style and approach. I've seen them live (with the two-man line-up) and the member who drums when they play the songs live is ridiculous. I'm like you and my drumming is just non-existant, could never get it to a recording standard, but he's incredible and he can sing whilst he plays the drums which is always a big musical turn-on for me. I'll post you a video to show you (not on here so it doesn't clog up the nice clean thread)! And they seem like nice gentlemen which is always a plus.

Hi Tom, Thanks for replying, I absolutely agree, I'm starting to see the discrepancy in the design, it's not coherent and it doesn't tie things together. Excellent, at least that's decided on and I know I should change it! Not sure exactly what just yet but I'm sure I'll find something! Cheers!

Thanks Mahesh! I really appreciate it, I have to admit that I'm pleased with it. Thought maybe the levels or the balance of the instruments towards the started to lose its tightness but I'm overall happy with it, an often rare occurrence! Cheers!

I recently did some music for a company that makes online videos that help with educating kids on loads of school topics. I'm really excited and buzzing about it, it's close to being my biggest break so far in terms of tasty CV entry. Basically I'm sharing this to everyone so sorry for the shameless self-promotion here but have a look and see if you like it! Also, this isn't really just for self-promotion, I'm a guy who really genuinely appreciates feedback and criticism! There's nothing I can or will change in the music or the mix (as it's already been sent to the comapny and I've got other things to work on etc etc) but if you have any thoughts for next time or things to think about then it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Good comments, enough for me to know that I should probably change it, just to be on the safe side. Thanks a lot guys, very helpful!

So recently I changed the design of my Bandcamp site (a site that hosts your music for people to buy from) and I uploaded a much fancier header/banner that I made with my name on it and stuff. My housemate came down and immediately insulted it but that's his way and so I immediately ignored him. Because he can be a dick like that. But now whenever I go on the site, I genuinely feel like my eyes are a bit like "gah, no, wtf!". Either there's something in the sharpness or colours of the image or it's my head playing tricks on me because my housemate's comments got to me. Could you guys have a look? I promise this isn't a shameless way to direct traffic to the site (though I'd be lying if I said that I minded!), it's just I'm sure we can all agree that having a site that doesn't look good will immediately turn people off you and I don't want that to happen at all. Any comments appreciated, here's the site.

Ok this is an old-ish post but I'm bored I'm hoping this might be of some use to you if you're quite new to music and music theory. Sorry if you already know this!! Exactly what Jim622 said, familiarise yourself with chord structures for keys and that's a really good way to start because a lot of popular songs don't deviate from their home key and so harmonically follow the same chord structure throughout. Let's use C as our example as it's easiest. For the C Major scale, your chords are: C | Dm | Em | F | G | Am | Bdim In most cases, if it's a minor song then it's likely that the minor chord structures of that key are exactly equivalent to what is called the "relative major" of that key. To find the relative major of a minor key, go UP three semitones (three frets on a guitar). Conversely, to find the relative MINOR of a major key, go DOWN three semitones. (The reason I say it's "likely" is that there are actually a few different minor keys. There are also different major keys too but the different minor keys more often yield different patterned chord structures. Another lesson, another time!) So the relative minor of C Major, if we go down three semitones we get to (B, Bb and then) A, so it's A minor. And lo and behold A Minor has exactly the same chords as C Major. Same goes for D Major and B Minor, Ab Major and F, C# Major and Bb Minor (probably dicking on enharmonics with the last one there, I'm losing my attention to detail, don't hold it against me!). All of these pairs of keys have the same chord structures as each other and it's pretty much exactly the same chords as the ones I wrote out above but just shifted to a different key! (To illustrate that, the F Major chords are F | Gm | Am | Bb | C | Dm | Edim, same pattern just different pitches!) The basics of music lies with THESE CHORD PATTERNS. If you want to start experimenting with putting chords to your lyrics then these chords will get you started. Like I said, so many big dogs get by using only these kinds of chord patterns. The most commonly used chords are the First, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth (for C that is: C, F, G and Am). This might be all stuff that you already know and I'm sorry if that's true!

Being Icelandic and a sentimental little soul, I think I'd have to pick a Sigur Rós song. Decided this would be my funeral song many years ago and I'm pretty sure it'll remain so for a while. Should probably write it down..

I've not had a chance to listen to your track yet so I couldn't judge at all on your singing ability but I've got a few thoughts on how effective talent tv shows are in launching your career. I'm sure other people on this forum will have other and much better insights, so what I'm saying is pretty much just from personal belief rather than experience. Also, I'm sorry if this is all stuff you've heard before. I think at the heart of the point I want to make is that you need to ask not if you can do it and make it to the end of the competition, but what it is exactly that you want from your talents and what it means to achieve your musical goals. Do you want respect or short-lived notoriety and even potential public hatred? I've no doubt that you're most likely a lovely person but people are cruel when others are put on a platform for them to judge, even if they're very nice people. There have been quite a few years where I've followed X Factor through and through so I'm not a complete cynic who scoffs condescendingly at the sidelines, having not watched the show at all but reacts mostly to the public response or tabloid portrayal. Whilst I've often enjoyed the show and been amazed at some of the singing talent amongst contestants, I can't help but notice that all in all, the public exposure and attention-span towards these talented people is very short. Very few people have gotten to the end of X Factor or Where-evers Got Talent and 5 or even 3 years later still been of interest to the general public. You might not mind not being in the public eye constantly or being in the charts every few weeks. Even so it seems trends see even the most successful participants (and not necessarily final winners) of these talent shows never heard of again within about a year. Except at University fresher balls or low-key ribbon-cutting events where the attendants laugh and judge at how they're stuck doing these gigs to keep their name alive in the fame-books (those examples were fairly cynical and may not really be representative of reality). It's a hare and tortoise situation. Success in X Factor means a fast track road to benefits and fame that actually might not turn into what you want. And with each passing day you'll wonder why people are forgetting you and it might be very difficult to handle. On the other hand, if you play the tortoise and work hard and patiently at your art, you'll be a lot more in control in where you end up and the reputation that you build. Going on X Factor throws you into a spotlight where everyone nationally and sometimes globally judges you and you can't erase that sort of exposure. Long rambly post, I'm sorry. What I'm trying to say is that I don't think it's worth it. If you're genuinely talented and you learn how to play the slow game then your benefits will be a lot better than if you try to make it all happen at once. Global attention might be your aim but it won't last long and that might hurt you a lot. So evaluate what you want from your talents and you should find your answer!

I only very recently started using buses as effect sends and having been reaping the benefits in my mixes. I love panning an instrument a bit to the right and then sending about -20db of the signal to a bus with a short delay and reverb and panning that hard left to really expand the stereo field. So many options with so many different effects. I've been experimenting a lot with it lately and I was wondering if any music producers amongst you have any favourites that you go to for certain instruments and styles. It's great for unloading the pressure on CPU if you want a lot instruments to have the same reverb or something but do any of you guys use it stylistically or for purposes other than giving your computer a break?

I'm going for a modern track and a somewhat unkown one (as far as I can understand). It's a band with a really interesting writing and recording style and they're a big influence to me and I think should be to any budding DIY musician. It's three guys (now only two) who write, record, produce and mix everything themselves (after the first couple entirely self-made and -distributed albums, as you can imagine, they passed the mastering onto someone else). But the most awesome thing about them and how they approach music writing is that they ALL write and perform all of the instruments themselves, there's no drummer or guitarist or bassist, it's all a mix of whatever feels right and whoever feels like playing what instrument when it comes to pressing record. Naturally MANY bands have done this but what these guys also do is that they approach songwriting just as liberally. All of their songs are written bit by bit by each member contributing what they think should go on top or should happen next and then passing it on to the next person to do as they will. As they describe it, it's a very democratic way of writing songs. This song is a good example of that craft in work. You've got the verse that kicks in straight away with a little slide guitar interlude in the middle and then it completely diverts into a powerful and slow hymn with this fantastic organ. And then I guess they liked the verse so they just copied and pasted what they needed to and let it finish! I recommend them! Good thread suggestion!

Been about a year since I've posted on the site, glad to be back and back doing music after a year of studying! I write songs both for guitar or live fretboard instruments (my favourite that I own being the Irish bouzouki!) but I'm mainly writing songs on my computer, using Logic. This means I'm usually writing as I'm producing and don't always know where the song is going when I'm half way through. Does anyone else do this with their songs? I think it's a bad habit for me (I know bands that do it amazingly well), I reckon that I need to think more carefully about the pace and journeys of my songs for them to be ultimately successful. Anyways, I've been doing a lot of composing for film and theatre recently so they tend to get used for that, then I upload them to Youtube and Bandcamp but any personal songs I do I upload to Soundcloud to test how they do and then remaster them a little bit because I undoubtedly feel unsatisfied with certain elements. I want to start building more of a base of my own personal songs on Youtube, not just my soundtracks. As for promotion, I'm mainly using Facebook. Got an artist page a couple of months ago and whilst the fans are still mostly made up of friends, I've started to get a few friend-of-friend likes which has been positive. Unsure of many other ways to promote myself. I figure playing live would be excellent but I can't perform my Logic songs live and I don't have recordings of my guitar and bouzouki songs so what would I be promoting aside from just my name. Evidently need to think a few things through! Glad to be back, hope to be back on track with the learning.

Good input on how to approach listening to one of your compositions when trying to decide whether it's ready or still needs work, I think you've definitely got a point there. To know when a song is ready, one has to be able to take off the ears that one has been using to write or mix the song and get some new ones and yeah, having the song in the background should help. I'm pretty sure that I've picked up on things whilst just having my songs on in the background that I never noticed when I was listening intently and with all my energies focused on it. Great tip, will definitely remember it for the future!

Lots to think about there, I thank you John! Definitely plenty there to get started with as you say. I'll start thinking about my satellite blogs then! Many thanks John. I'm sure a good deal of other people stumbling upon this will find it immensely helpful too.

Hey Mahesh, thanks for your response. Yeah I thought that that's what John meant by satellite blogs. Not a bad idea at all and easily done with Blogger, which is the blogging platform that I think I've decided to go with. I actually wrote my first post today, I'm gonna look over it and edit it because I think it needs refinement, I was too focused on just getting words down, I need to make it sound a little bit more interesting before I start sending the links to people. How long have you had your blog? How are you finding the experience thus far, are you attracting enough of a readership to feel happy yet? Do you use it for any specific purpose such as to sell your music?

Nice, thanks for that, that was a bit of a mouth-watering read, I'm very tempted by it! If I was slightly richer I'd be going for it, looks like a lot of fun.

Whoa, the live mash-up of Pop Culture just blew me away a little, great video. How exactly does that machine work? Where there was a light on, was there a separate sample playing?

Just to reiterate what Tambarskjelve said above, I was in a heavy metal band once where the lead guitarist, a very talented guitarist, would use up most of his solos shredding indistinctly and incomprehensibly. With distortion it kind of sounded cool and flash, but I'll bet you that if we turned that off and listened to it clean it would've just sounded wrong and limp. He definitely didn't start slow and he thought he could use distortion to mask his mistakes. Don't do the same! I suppose what to take from that is to make sure that every now and then you play without any effects to make sure that you're hitting all the notes perfectly and smoothly, don't try to lie to yourself and others with lots of heavy fuzz and stuff like that..