Musician Does Not Mean Songwriter

March 21, 2014June 13, 2014 Music2Deal2 Comments

Chances are you are not a songwriter.

Playing an instrument makes you a musician. Playing an instrument really well and for a living makes you a pro-musician. You probably remember the time it took from learning the first chord to becoming a well-rounded musician who learns pieces quickly, even sight reads and records parts in the studio with very few takes.

All this playing, studying, all the lessons, all the gigs, all the jams, all the mistakes, all this time… all are necessary to make you the musician you are.

Now here is a surprise that really should not be a surprise. It takes a similar amount of learning about counterpoint, harmony, structure, ostinatos, lyrics, symbolism, listener perceptions, etc… to be an equally adept songwriter. Once you have done all that studying it will take a several years of writing for anything from country to twelve-tone music for your skills to become rock solid.

All the time you have spent playing has helped with an understanding of music, but it is by no means the full education required to become a great songwriter.

Just because you have written songs does not necessarily mean that you are a fully rounded songwriter either. I sometimes edit my show reels or samples from film projects I have scored. This does not make me an editor.

A little checklist:

Do fans or customers regularly pay for your music?

Do other people play your songs?

Do you know how to write four-part counterpoint?

Are you well versed in classical and jazz harmony?

Do you regularly write music on tight deadlines?

Is your work used in a commercial context?

I encounter the same phenomenon every day. There are many good musicians or singers with good ideas and concepts that managed to record a song / album that is passable. For a great album they would need a couple of years more songwriting training and a real producer. Unfortunately these artists spend their money and energy trying to force their sub-par material into the market, rather than either spending the time to improve the writing or hiring someone who can help.

The resistance to working with a professional on their music is almost comical. See my case studies article. Everyone on the Billboard charts has a team of experts, but you can accomplish this all by yourself?

While you were out playing gigs, someone else sat at up home and studied songwriting or got a degree in composition. The songwriter depends on your superior performance skills in the studio and on stage. Why would you not utilize somebody’s superior writing skills? A songwriter feels no shame having a better singer perform his music, so why is there an issue working with someone to make your songs better?

I was a full time lecturer for guitar and I still prefer to hire a professional guitarist who plays professionally and regularly. I write and produce all day. The professional guitarist will be in better shape to play.

Check out successful production teams and you will find that they have experts for each part of the production. If you are not a professional songwriter (meaning you pay your bills with your writing skills), you may want to think about the fact that you are undermining your chances as an artist, as a musician, on stage and on recordings by having an amateur create the core product for you as an artist.

There is so much music that sounds the same, so I think it is important that you fight for your unique sound and for your voice. Working with a songwriter, or an “old-fashioned” producer, does not mean that you will be turned into something you do not want to be.

It means that you will sound your best and become the artist you are meant to be. A good co-songwriter or producer will support you, sounding your best, not changing who you are.

Article by Lars Deutsch

Who are you? Or: How to disappear completely, while trying to get noticed

March 13, 2014June 13, 2014 Music2Deal2 Comments

Article by Lars Deutsch

True story.

I watched a music video yesterday. The video had a couple of good ideas and looked pretty good for an unsigned artist. The artist was female, kind of young and kind of good looking – I guess.

I am not being difficult. I really don’t know. After watching her video, I am not sure of her age – not even ballpark. Okay, she’s likely older than 13 and younger than 40. I am not of her ethnicity and I have no idea what she stands for or who she is as an artist or a person. The video tried very hard to follow and idea of what video “should be” , so did she, and so did the music.

Speaking about the music, I have no idea what kind of voice she has, or if she can sing or write songs. Her vocals were heavily processed, a lot of the music was either loops or sounds like loops, and everything was very compressed. I don’t think there were any real instruments or any custom writing in the arrangement.

If I spent four minutes watching a video and listening to a song and I have no lasting impression, then there is something very wrong. Isn’t the idea of a video to showcase the artist? Or at least the song?

There are several tools that artists use to tune their vocals. All of them change your voice. Autotune and its clones not only tune, but also mask the true sound of your voice. Add heavy compression and a filter or two and the character and nuance of a voice are eliminated.

While she might be a good singer, a beautiful woman and an interesting person, this artist has no chance of showing it. With heavy filters on the music and visuals, she has become “any/every female singer between 14 – 39”.

She went to great lengths to hide… to be discovered.

Being interchangeable and not leaving a lasting impression is the opposite of what an artist should want. What to do?

Give your voice a chance.

Choose the microphone that works for your voice, not the microphone that happens to be in your friend’s vocal booth. Make sure that you do not eliminate the character of your voice in mixing.

Sometimes a heavy vocal effect can be a storytelling tool or there is a good reason for it.
Not being able to hit the notes should not be the reason you use effects.

Artist or DJ?

Loops are great tools, but loops do not contain your “heartbeat” or character. Loops do not respond to your vocal line. Loops do not use an inversion when you need a new color the second time around. Loops are other people’s music that you are playing, just like a DJ.

Whatever your style and background, your music should be custom-made. The fewer premade elements the better. The more you shape your material to be unique the more you are an artist. Please check out my other text about music writing for a fuller exploration of this topic.

Ok, everybody in the first row!

High frequencies make a sound appear closer. Combine high frequencies and a lot of compression and it is “in your face”. If everything has a lot of high frequency and is heavily compressed, everything is in your face. This is another good way to loose nuance and character.

Your voice might sound dull after everything else has been treated with an extra layer of high frequency and heavy compression. This usually means it is time to heavily treat the vocals as well.

While this might not be good advice for 2014, this is good music advice:

Keep everybody’s high frequencies under control, so there is a room in front of the “band” for the vocals. The end result is that the vocals will not need to be treated in order to cut through the noise.

What is hip now is not hip when you hit the market place

Having idols and learning what works is great. You might be happier and more successful aiming for something that is more ”you”.

Real life and pen and paper solutions:

Write about your topics, write songs that have your heartbeat, your sensibility and that support your stories. Stay away from producers / songwriters that would make you sound the same as their last ten productions. No sound is more unique than your voice, and you should protect it. Find a way to turn who you are and what interests you into the core of your artist persona.

English · Tips

How To Check Mixes Before Sending Them To a Mastering Engineer

February 24, 2014June 13, 2014 Music2Deal1 Comment

Article by David Jones / Mix Asylum

Today’s topic doesn’t so much relate to production techniques, but is about the final stage in the production chain, Mastering. It is perhaps something that people take for granted (“if I’ve got a good enough mix, the mastering engineer can fix it”) but it is in fact a much more delicate and important part of the production process than you might realise.

I’d like to share with you today what a mix should be sounding like sonically before you send it to the mastering engineer, and showing you if done right, how mastering can truly take your mixes to the next level. Let’s get to it, shall we?

The pre-master

The pre-master is your final stereo mix before any mastering takes place, but let’s think about some of the things your mix should have before you send it to someone:

Does my mix have a good stereo balance? – Are the overall levels ok, or are things ‘jumping’ from loud to quiet? Does your mix sound like it has ‘space’ and sounds clear, or is everything squashed and fighting for that vital stereo image?

Sonically, have I got the ‘sounds’ I want in my mix? – There is no ‘magic button’ for the mastering engineer to suddenly get your main guitar channel sounding like Angus Young for example. If your tone isn’t sounding as you want it, fix it in the mix. There is absolutely nothing the mastering engineer can do to sonically alter instrument/vocal sounds.

Is my master channel level set right before bouncing off? – It might sound simple enough, but you would not believe the amount of mixes I have been sent through where the mix has been bounced off to such a high volume level, that there is absolutely nothing I can do to fix the track. Remember, mastering will make the output of the track louder, so if there is no headroom in the track before an engineer adds any effects, imagine how loud the track would be if someone attempted to add mastering to it….I shudder to think of the loudness to be honest. Always make sure your master channel is low enough so that the engineer has the headroom they need (somewhere around the -20dB mark would be best).

What is Mastering?

Now that we’ve looked at some of the requirements for a ‘good’ mix to send for mastering, let us now explore what exactly a mastering does to your song. A useful definition of the process comes below, courtesy of Tape Op Magazine:

“At its basic core, mastering is the process of making a cohesive, playable audio collection out of a group of recordings that may be less than consistent. After mastering you should be able to play the record without getting out of your chair to adjust the bass, treble, balance and volume controls as each song comes up. It should also be free of extraneous sounds – clicks and pops – that interfere with the experience of hearing the music. Beyond this mandate, there is an art to the process and every mastering engineer (ME) will do things a bit differently. But in order for these “masters” to arrive at the point where they can exercise their art, the bottom-line “cringe factors” of less-than-perfect recordings must be dealt with”.

[Acosta, A., Carroll, J., Stamey, C. (2008)]

Please take note of the passages in bold text. Although the first line may refer more specifically to albums, it reinforces my point earlier that your song should not have wild volume changes throughout it, as this constant changing of levels could make a listener ‘switch off’, which is something no one wants. Always keep this in mind when using automation processes.

Unwanted noise is also an issue to take note of. If your singer coughed half way through the guitar solo, make sure you remove this from your mix, as mastering will always highlight mistakes. It might give more of a ‘live’ vibe, but someone enjoying the music might be put off!!! In all seriousness though, take care of unwanted noise; it makes the mastering engineer’s job so much easier.

What does the mastering engineer do?

Obviously this all depends on the song in question, some songs may need more processing, others less. As a general rule though, the mastering engineer is likely to use/do the following on a track:

Compression

Delay/Reverb (to add character to the mix)

Appropriate fade in/out for song

This list could go on forever really; it does all depend on the source material that the engineer has to work with.

The basic role of the mastering engineer is to get the overall volume of the mix to a professional and acceptable standard, while making sure it has body and depth across the entire stereo spectrum, while making sure the levels do not exceed maximum limits. To say this role is a ‘juggling act’ is perhaps an understatement!!

What should my waveform look like before I get it mastered?

I hope so far this blog has given you some insight into just how much source material plays a crucial role into what the mastering engineer has to consider when mastering a song.

Let’s say that your mix ticks all of the boxes which we’ve discussed so far and you’re saying “David, I’ve got a great sounding mix, I think my levels are to a reasonable level, but how do I make sure?”

Well, this is where overall waveform levels are exceptionally important. I’d like to share with you now a few screenshots from some recent mixes I was sent to master, and what they sounded like.

This first song is called “Ghost Train” by Bruce Niemchick. Here is the original unmastered song which Bruce sent to me:

https://soundcloud.com/techniques-mixasylum/blog-6-mastering-grace-train

“Sands of Paradise” by HURSH

https://soundcloud.com/techniques-mixasylum/blog-6-mastering-sands-of

“Tornado on The Way” by Rick Ivanoff

https://soundcloud.com/techniques-mixasylum/blog-6-mastering-tornado-on

Please notice that the waveforms are to a very low level (you can tell this by the space between the lengths of the audio file region). Waveform’s like this are exactly what a mastering engineer needs in order to work their magic well, they have optimum headroom for effects and give the feeling of space and clarity which is just waiting to be exploited by the mastering engineer.

Now, here are the same waveforms again after they have been mastered (along with the new mastered audio):

“Ghost Train” by Bruce Niemchick

https://soundcloud.com/techniques-mixasylum/blog-6-mastering-grace-train-1

“Sands of Paradise” by HURSH

https://soundcloud.com/techniques-mixasylum/blog-6-mastering-sands-of-1

“Tornado on The Way” by Rick Ivanoff

https://soundcloud.com/techniques-mixasylum/blog-6-mastering-tornado-on-1

Please do take a look and listen to the un-mastered and mastered versions of these tracks. I hope they have conveyed that with some care and consideration how a good mix can turn into a fantastic master ready for distribution.

*All mastered and un-mastered tracks have been collated at the end of this blog so you can easily go between the two comparisons.

The Final Word

I hope this blog has gone some way to enlighten you to some of the techniques that can lead to an excellent sounding mastered song. Please try and remember that headroom is an incredibly important part of your mix, and try to ask yourself “has my mix got enough headroom for the mastering engineer?” before sending it to a paying engineer. Ask a friend/neighbour/housemate etc just to take a listen to your mix before you decide to send it, fresh ears always make a world of difference!!!

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 even if you’ve got personal tips on how you prepare your mix before mastering, I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks, see you next time!

David Jones

Blog References

Acosta, A., Carroll, J., Stamey, C. (2008) Interviews > Mastering Focus. [Internet]. Available from: http://tapeop.com/interviews/68/mastering-focus/ [Accessed: 11^th December 2013]

Audio Examples

Here are today’s audio examples collated into one section so it is easier to compare the differences between the mixes. Thank you to the artistes for allowing me to showcase their material.

“Ghost Train” song by Bruce Niemchick https://www.facebook.com/bruceniemchick

Original Unmastered version:

https://soundcloud.com/techniques-mixasylum/blog-6-mastering-grace-train

Mastered version by Mix Asylum:

https://soundcloud.com/techniques-mixasylum/blog-6-mastering-grace-train-1

“Sands of Paradise” song by HURSH

https://soundcloud.com/dj-rash-sinfobia

Original Unmastered version:

https://soundcloud.com/techniques-mixasylum/blog-6-mastering-sands-of

Mastered version by Mix Asylum:

https://soundcloud.com/techniques-mixasylum/blog-6-mastering-sands-of-1

“Tornado on The Way” song by Rick Ivanoff