Category: This & That

English · This & That

Music2deal Showcase 27th October 2013

Music2Deal1 Comment

On 27th October Music2Deal UK and Malta held a music showcase at the Captain’s Table restaurant on the tiny island of Gozo in the Mediterranean.

The venue was packed out to an extremely appreciative audience and we were incredibly pleased that Mario Christiani – Managing Director of Music2Deal came over specifically to attend the event and co-host with UK Music2Deal Managing Representative Richard Rogers.

The acts that played were particularly diverse and included artists from Malta, Scotland, Gozo and England.

The evening started off with a cracking set from Chris who sent the audience off with his exceptional falsetto delivery of various songs over the last 4 decades. This was followed by Gozitan band The Run who released a tight set of new numbers from their forthcoming rock album and proving that there is a lot of untapped talent on this small yet beautiful island.

Following this an excellent performance by the superbly under-rated Scottish pop act Kevin McGowan, mixing a heady mixture of self penned material and styles based on his love of artists such as The Beatles, The Kinks and Gerry Rafferty but still containing an excellent individual sound that the audience adored. Standout tracks were the forthcoming single ‘Hibernation’ and the recent hit ‘Stockholm’ with his band Racecar.

Filling in following a last minute dropout were Stevie D. and Les performing 8 tracks from their extensive repertoire that had parts of the audience lapping it up at the front of the stage. Next up was Maltese artist Indigo Darkpsych playing a goth metal rock mix of material from her first three albums including material from her recently released All That Remains album. Some decent songs, good mixing and a strong vocal ensured an excellent end to a wonderful evening of talented artists.

Mario Christiani spoke of the excellent blend of styles of the artists and recounted his thoughts of an wonderful evening of entertainment. In fact so good were all the artists that Mario and Richard have decided to give them all a free professional account on the Music2Deal site.

The Music2Deal Showcase in Gozo is just one of a series of showcases that have been put together over the years particularly in the UK and shows the commitment towards its members by Music2Deal.

Thank you to everyone for all their help and support and to the artists themselves for what was an amazing show.

 

English · This & That

Call To Mobilize

Music2DealLeave a comment

Allen_20JohnstonArticle by Allen L.  Johnston – The Music Specialist
http://www.asha.com

This year I came to a drastic realization that American Urban based artists, publishers, producers; writers, film makers, label owners, magazine owners and entertainment industry entrepreneurs are wholly under rated and under represented on the world market place. During one of my daily walks around the MIDEM convention exhibition area, I ventured in to the Electronic / Urban Village at Midem.  The name suggested that here would be a place where various types of Electronic and Urban based musical products and opportunities would be found. A place where companies from around the world could come and find music, DVD’s, film, magazines and digital deals from the best Urban and Electronic makers in the world. Feeling that the Urban marketplace should be over flowing with product by and about people of color I went looking for the best in the world

What I saw was several different spaces occupied by every nationality BUT people of color.  Blatantly missing were American Hip Hop, R&B, Southern Soul, Blues, Jazz and Gospel companies.  In fact I saw NO REPRESENTATION at all from any Black or Hispanic owned company from the United States in this area.  At least 50% of all the music I saw, and heard during MIDEM came from people of color world wide, but there was less than 5% participation from African Americans conference wide and less than 1% booth participation.  The only Hip Hop artist of any notoriety that I saw making meetings and doing deals was Chuck D, and he brought a group of business people with him as a support factor. American Hip Hop has made major influence around the world I saw Death Row Records from Germany and even though South Africa has licensed Little John’s music thru TVT there was not another Atlanta based rapper or representative at the conference.

Countries from around the world were looking for music and DVD products from American based “Urban” companies yet there were virtually none to be found. The Japanese, South Africans, French, Belgium, Swedes and every English speaking country are all looking for American Hip Hop, Jazz, Gospel, Southern Soul and Reggae, but once again there were NO representatives of any of the major artists nor any revenue generating INDEPENDENT  COMPANIES available that I saw or heard of.

This has to stop now especially while there is a window open for such great financial and cultural reward.

So I am making the first call to mobilize the American Urban based artists, publishers, producers, writers, film makers, label owners, magazine owners and entertainment industry entrepreneurs.  I have started talking with different companies and organizations to acquire a cadre of African American owned entertainment businesses that will be able to represent their products and make deals on an International basis for MIDEM 2014.

Please take a moment and look at your long range goals, if they include a digital market or an International market lets find some time to talk.  Plan your work THEN work your plan.

 

English · This & That · Tips

How To…Export Tracks From Garageband

Music2Deal1 Comment

Hello, David Jones from http://www.mixasylum.co.uk again with a blog not about production tips today, but a process that people perhaps take from granted, but for some can be a challenging aspect of getting their tracks professionally mixed or mastered. I would like to explain the export process of Garageband.

This problem came up with a client I was working with this week, so I thought, “why don’t I try to help fellow readers in a similar situation?”  For this example, I am using Garageband ’09. So, let’s get started shall we?

How to export individual tracks from Garageband

1. In the window with all your tracks, press the speaker icon on all of the tracks you want to mute. This will ensure only the file you want is heard in the bounce. The track that will be hard turns an orange colour, the tracks which won’t be heard turn grey.

bild1

2. To export your soloed track, press ‘Share’ and then select ‘Send Song to iTunes’ from the top Garageband menu.

bild23.     A menu pops up where you can name your playlist (and other details) where the file will go in iTunes. Press Share, and the track begins to export. 

bild3

PLEASE NOTE that this is only a playlist where all the tracks will be held from this session, which means you can’t name individual tracks yet.

4.   iTunes now appears, so scroll down until you find your playlist name.

bild45. Click on the playlist, and it will open, showing the track(s) that have just been bounced. As you can see, the track defaults to the same name as the playlist. It is best to rename your tracks as you bounce them, as you would probably get confused with 20 tracks all called the same thing!

bild56. Click on the name of the track until a cursor appears. This lets you be able to change the name of the individual track. When you’ve renamed it, press enter on your keyboard.

bild6

7. Repeat the above steps until all of your individual tracks are in the iTunes playlist.

8. Job done!

The final word

I know this process may seem like sucking eggs to some, but I just want to help out people who are just starting out in production be able to find their feet so that they are able to hear their own compositions as a professional .AIF file for the first time. I remember when I did my first bounce and heard my compositions for the first time; it was a joyous feeling knowing my tracks had portability for the first time.

If you want to discuss anything about this blog, please feel free to get in touch with me via email at:

techniques-mixasylum@hotmail.co.uk or send a message through my facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/mixasylum

Any feedback is appreciated, good or bad, or if you’ve got personal tips on the exporting process of Garageband, then I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks, look out for my next blog!

David Jones

http://www.mixasylum.co.uk