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Does anyone know if BMAT picks up better than Tunesat overall? Or better yet, what is the best service or is it better to be a part of all of them?
@uniqueplace I don’t think any of us are disputing respect for publishers, but most people don’t have a business arrangement with their significant other for dinner. That is a terrible analogy.
If your publisher gives you a deliverable for a set of tracks and you are going to be weeks late with it what do you do? Not tell them? No, you are going to call them and make alternative arrangements. And if you don’t, do you think they are just going to sit and wait for you?
So really what you are saying is we just have to take what treatment a publisher dishes out and we have no recourse of action and the composer isn’t a priority. Sorry, but the COMPOSER is ALWAYS the priority. Without great music they have nothing to publish. Business is business. Period.
Music1234 hit the nail on the head. Many composers you run into in this side of the business do this as a side hustle so they can afford to just let their product sit. But those of us that do this for a living it just isn’t profitable to let material sit in queue. If your life depended on the tracks you submitted would you want them to sit in queue or get processed in a timely manner? Choose your destiny….
I use Backblaze and it works well!!
For me I have found it depends on 2 factors –
1. What the library makes a request for and how (meaning on the 1 beat or possibly a pick-up into the 1.
2. Depending on what market you are targeting can impact your length. My stingers typically fall between 6 and 10 seconds.
3. Maxquaini stated 15 seconds, but for me that’s pressing it as that is almost a bumper.Disclaimer: This is just my own 2 cents on stingers.
Start with the pink noise, 6db or white noise method to get your feet wet and develop from there. EQ, compression, reverb, etc are all other areas of the craft that will need to be learned as well, but this should put you close to where you need to be. If you are mixing ITB be sure to throw in a piece or two of analog gear and you’ll be set.
I have always rendered from beat 1 on everything and never had any problems or difficulties.
I certainly notice these annoying you can make it TV licensing schemes and I think they need to be called out on their weak game! There are a couple that automatically come to mind and each time I see them it makes me sick….
Hey Art!! Am I allowed to name some names? I am sure we have some “Enquiring minds that want to know” and some that need to be saved from peril…Hi Xev-
There is a saying in the mastering world that pretty much goes “You can’t polish a txxd”. Be advised that I am not saying that your music is a txxd. The only thing that mastering does is sweeten something that already should be sweet. In the case with Extreme those tracks probably already arrived in top shape. Paul gives some excellent tips about the utilization of reference cues. What I’d like to add is that regardless of what anyone says, if you know what you are doing YOU CAN get world-class sound from an in-the-box mix environment. Plugins may not sound exactly like the real hardware, but they get you about 95% of the way there.
To me your mixes are off to a great start, but there is something you are not hearing and as BEATSLINGER stated they need to be opened up. This can be due to a variety of different factors. Are you mixing with monitors or headphones? Room treatment? Your overall listening skills and do you know how and what to listen for? Do you know what tools (EQ, Compression, Reverb, etc.) to apply and how to use them? One of the best drills I was taught when learning how to mix in-the-box was to forget the plethora of plugins that exist and choose one decent channel strip plugin. Put it across every track and that’s all you get. It truly is amazing how you learn about sound when your tools are limited. There truly is an art to mixing and there is no secret mojo out here that mastering will provide to make things sound magically spectacular.
Understood Art and definitely not what I meant to convey. All composers should try new genres as I certainly do and sometimes quite miserably. But, if you are a new composer and/or serious about being a composer and doing this to make ends meet by all means try new genres as well. But, definitely hone in on your specific niche so you don’t starve. In fact, I recently recall a famous library composer stating to blitzkrieg your primary genre to break through and then spread your wings in additional genres. The hobbyist and those that have day jobs that pay the bills in my opinion can afford to freely try many genres and not have the electricity cut off should they fail. So just to clarify again…yes, everyone try new genres and grow.
Please clarify as to why that is such a bad comment Art. How else does one learn but through trial and error? Perhaps I may have missed something somewhere but most have learned pretty quick if they can or cannot compose in a genre by attempting it. And that’s not just in music. Maybe I should have been more clear on what I was stating.
I think it really depends on what your goals are and where you are at in your career as a composer. If you are new and trying to break in honing your skills in one genre until you can get paid and put food on the table is most logical. From that point, branch out and test the waters. If you are in this as a hobby I say try it all…but that’s just my two cents.
There is no one size fits all to this question as there are just too many factors to consider. And since you just registered on dozens of non-exclusive libraries you can multiply your factors to consider by dozens. For instance, what type of libraries and what size are they? Are they US based or foreign? What type of music are you submitting?
You hit the nail on the head about it being a really odd time. I recently watched a video posted by John Fulford in regards to things happening right now in licensing. He basically said no one really knows what they are doing right now and it’s true. I could probably submit a 60 second sustained sine wave and it will be my golden egg….
Nice track that can fit a ton of places.
Elaborating on what BEATSLINGER has said:
As a rule of thumb try to make a change/addition (even if somewhat subtle) every 4 measures. This will also assist in giving you additional edits. For instance, I hear backing strings and a ticking clock along with this track, but that’s just my 2 cents.
And, the “broadcast quality and professional mastering” stuff…That is highly subjective and debatable. I am a award winning professional sound engineer and had things rejected due to supposed sound quality. I have also had things that I consider mixed horribly and they have been placed in film/tv. Don’t get caught up in that game and sacrifice valuable time. As BEATSLINGER stated, mix it the best you can and I will also add here mix tonally balanced. Set it roughly at about 11 LUFS and you should be go to go for production music. Any more than this is icing on the cake. Now, be advised that I am not saying that mastering would not enhance your tracks. If you are submitting to EX M, DW, WB etc. yes you may need to have that extra edge to get you over the hump.