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Great idea! The organization of the links will be pretty crucial for it to be useful, though, as there is a ton of videos online for all sorts of aspects of mixing.
Maybe set up a sub-division into instrument categories in advance (or build as we go), like:
Mixing preparation
Mixing drums
Mixing bass
Mixing vocals and dialogue
Mixing guitars
Mixing piano and keys
Mixing synths
Mixing orchestral
Mixing stems
Mixing approaches
Mixing genres
Mixing DAWS
Mixing interviews
Mixing creatively
Mixing for masteringJust a suggestion, to prevent this from turning into a hellish 105 page thread with tips and suggestions in all directions.
These are some interesting discussions, thanks everyone at MLR for sharing, this place is golden!
I wouldn’t sign away any writers share, and rather rot on a pavement where rats consume my guts, but also aware that I don’t have any clout for negotiation. Its take it or leave it, and next in line are the newb bedroom composers who don’t understand how markets are supposed to work. They probably take the deal. The skeptic in me tells me that some libraries are taking advantage of this, and sell music under par to clients who are pressed for time. It does feel like some of the libraries now feed off of ripping rights off from composers, rather than working to exploit the rights for the benefit of both parties, like good publishers used to.
Library music has always been at the bottom at the music business, and I wonder if this segment now is taken over by 13-23 yo newb composers, who use torrent plugins and sign away their music for next to nothing? The economy in most deals is not really sustainable for writers/ producers that have to maintain a working studio. If libraries have nothing at stake, can buyout music for free, and take the licensing, its a free ride, a nice money making scheme, isn’t it?
As there are so many rookie libraries, I also wonder why I would need them, anymore? If I started harnessing contacts and made inroads with music supervisors, cutters and directors directly, I wouldn’t have to sign away rights to feed the middlemen, and could deliver better products that are better targeted the use, better communication, better deals ect. This is 2017 and not the 1960s, we can travel and have internet and know how of contracts, so it should be a completely viable option.
I wonder if any of you have taken that route? Does the effort beat the current library/ publishing deals?
Thanks for sharing your honest thoughts and experiences in these times, where so many seem to carry their head under their arm.
It’s so important to be mindful, especially when storms rage, and this is exactly why MLR is so valuable!
Reelcrafter is a nice alternative https://reelcrafter.com
We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies. – Walt Disney.
I think the same applies for music. I’m an Amateur, but have played almost 30 years (some in bands). I got into recording after the home recording boom in the late 2000s, but only have about 100 recorded tracks (through about the same amt. of songs as a songwriter), done over the last 8 years, so to me, production music is like a portfolio, a CV to showcase for bigger gigs (like teaching, movie projects ect.). It can of course also stand on it’s own, and be an income stream in itself, but I would never expect it to be comparable with, say, a full time teaching job. I would like to step up the game, if I could hope to see about 25 grand a year for my pension (I’m 47), but hardly believe it is possible – so I just take it real slow and keep it real fun.
Many musicians today have to take a 360 degree approach to earnings, and creatively combine many different types of gigs, in order to achieve a full valid income. They have to jump on every opportunity imaginable. Easy to understand why young musicians becomes almost anarchistic in their political views. Thats a survival attitude.
For me, doing music is acceptable for the love of it (“amateur” literally means; one who loves) – but going professional as your only path, you need uncompromizable passion, undeniable talent, the right circumstances, careful budgets, few other commitments, or lots of money in the bank to draw upon. If it’s all about the money, I would find music at the bottom of my list of things to do. On my list “all about the love”, music is on top, as I get immediate joy when I’m playing, it’s very social, and music requires a lot of skill, so it also makes me proud and feel accomplished.
But as the big record selling days are over now, I guess we live in a world where our parents’ “get a real job” unfortunately is more true than it ever was before. The “Money for Nothing” myths that I grew up with, is today just that, a good story, with a little drawing power left still, but..
Like they say, music is about the only business where you spend two million to make one million.
That’s my expectations, and how I feel about the circus.
I use Hofa Project time in every template. Comes part of the free suite here https://hofa-plugins.de/en/plugins/4u/
I’ve found that inspiration often needs a “trigger”. Briefs are great for that, and so is a list of keywords, or just a desire to make an album and go through finding reference tracks for the project ect. Daily routines don’t really matter for me that way, as I can always set my self up, no matter when.
I haven’t found social media very useful, except for a few things. I use Facebook and LinkedIn to occasionally touch base with family, friends, collaborators, aquaintances and colleagues. No business ever comes from those channels, its rather business first, then save the contact on social media after the fact. So I try to minimize the time I spend on it, its non-productive but ok as relationship maintenance. But I am mostly B2B, and do not sell directly to private consumers.
On Soundcloud I have a few old tracks up, but now mostly use the private function and occasionally for pitching and submitting to libraries. My experience has been that if you dont protect your tracks, they end up on dubious sites in eastern europe and asia, and shortly after you get tons of spam. Critical voices claim that Soundcloud is the free music library for the third world, but I have found nothing to substantiate that. I have found my tracks hijacked on dubious sites, though. So hiding my tracks have worked the best for me.
Twitter i sometimes use as a trash channel to participate in competitions. Thats about the best use of it, I know of as is.
If you are looking for a job in a professional elite studio, you need pro tools for sure. Thats what they use, especially in the us, so contenders need to learn how to use it.
In a project studio, I believe its more mixed, and depend more on collaborators ect. If you have friends that use the same daw, you can share settings on plugins ect.
In a home studio, where you are the engineer, producer, mixer, performer and artist all at the same time, you should rather use whatever makes your creativity tick.
Im in the latter category and swear by Studio One. Started out with Ableton Live but migrated. I think Ableton mainly are for the electronic crowd, and I missed a lot especially when it came to recording audio, midi editing, mixing and mastering. I didnt love the workflow nor the looks either, but its a highly personal thing in the home studio, and we are fortunate to have lots of choices.
In Studio One, the main issue is the sounds it comes with, imho. They are not great, but I use third party vi’s almost exclusively, so. But for features and workflow, I love Studio One. I don’t think anything less than the full version will do, though, but I believe that applies for all of the daw’s.
To control articulations theres a free extension available from a private developer. Havent tried it though. http://studioonex.narechk.net/index_en.html
I also have a good eye to the new Faderport 8 for more tactile experience with Studio One https://www.presonus.com/products/FaderPort-8
I think of Studio One as the new and modern pro tools, and love the apps for ipad where you can record (Capture) http://www.presonus.com/products/Capture-for-iPad
and mix (Studio One Remote) http://www.presonus.com/products/Studio-One-RemoteAnd the new integration of notation software, where you can compose on a bus ride, and just sync it when you get home. THAT is workflow! http://www.presonus.com/products/Notation-Software
I sound like a commercial, but these things are just incredible to work with.
Not really, but I work with an umbrella of genres, and ongoing develop the template for each. Sometimes I try something funny (for me), and keep the template so I can practice my chops for it along the way.
Hi Marina,
Really great to see your takes on tagging. I need all the help I can get on this issue. It’s hard enough composing something of relevance and high quality, not to mention describing it properly afterwards in the pitching process.
If I may ask, I wonder what target group you have in mind when suggesting tags, is it music libraries, supervisors, the google search engine.. or are you proposing tags for description in general?
Hope the question comes across right, I just wonder if you consider tagging in a context of use, or if you more try to tune into how the music may be described independent of that?
Why not record with a dynamic mic?
Check out this test https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04vdECGx-8k
What I got from this is that a simple dynamic mic like the SM58 sounds great on acoustic guitar, and a dynamic mic demands much less from your room. Just get up close, and have a baffle or a heavy blanket behind you when recording. Try a Beta58 if you don’t have a dedicated preamp, as that is 4db higher in output than the regular SM’s.
Condensers also makes the track bigger sounding, which can be harder to mix because it takes up more of the frequency spectrum, so try a dynamic or small diaphragm condenser, it may make your acoustic recording more workable.
Of course if you need that big Nashville acoustic sound in a solo guitar piece, sometimes a condenser could be preferable, but double tracking and hard right/left panning with a dynamic can also go a long way.
I would not put a baffle around the mic as it can produce comb filter effects, which you cannot remove from your recordings. I’ve had bad experiences with that. Imo, getting a solid acoustic recording is more about the right mic for the job in the environment you have, and being aware of the directionality of the mic.
So, just a plug for not underestimating the power of a dynamic mic.
I think woodsdenis sums it well up. But this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to create something unique, though. Even though library music is hard core “market driven”, that doesn’t mean that the market always knows what it wants all the time. So you can try to do what you love, slice it down to an acceptable form, and see if there are any takers. If the music is irresistible, they may just want what you’ve got.
I believe the way out of the minimalistic fee’s has to be that you can deliver something that many others can’t, or something fresh. If library music really is a market, and not just sublimated slavery, core marketing ideas like “unique selling proposition”, “blue ocean strategy” and “positioning” should be able to help you.
For midi guitar, you should try this. http://jamorigin.com I’ve had both Roland and Axon setups, with dedicated 13pin in the guitar. I tried Jamorigin and sold everything I had.
Great, please report back what information you get from them, if you can.