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Flipperwaldt posted:You make a website, get 10000 followers on youtube, facebook and twitter and soundcloud, constantly promote yourself, be charming, funny and interesting, network with people at gigs to hell and back, particularly those organizing them. You make free remixes or covers and post them to the original artists on twitter sparingly, hoping to piggyback on their retweets. Maybe hassle popular youtubers to use your music in the background of their videos. Do goddamn press releases. All without coming across pushy or desperate. Basically take on a second and third unpaid, fulltime job managing your presence like a business with your music as a loss leader and maybe you get noticed by someone. All assuming your music is any good to begin with. Yeah this is dead on. The people who succeed are the people who work incessantly trying to put their stuff in front of as much people as possible, and even then it's a crapshoot.
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Sep 8, 2017 01:52
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I am considering getting some custom made earplugs. I have tinnitus / hearing loss and don't want it to get any worse. Does anyone use custom made ones, or just foam ones? As much as I play, jam, and attend shows I'd like to get something nicer.
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Sep 8, 2017 02:17
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Planet X posted:I am considering getting some custom made earplugs. I have tinnitus / hearing loss and don't want it to get any worse. Does anyone use custom made ones, or just foam ones? As much as I play, jam, and attend shows I'd like to get something nicer. As someone who sits in front of a lead trumpet consistently, I'd highly recommend it. Custom earplugs can do a lot to save your hearing while not cutting out as many overtones from the spectrum you hear. I was in a town with an audiology program in their university and got mine made there, cost about $150 or so for me. They feel really comfortable and everything just seems dialed down rather than muffled.
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Sep 8, 2017 14:39
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Cobaltshift posted:As someone who sits in front of a lead trumpet consistently, I'd highly recommend it. Custom earplugs can do a lot to save your hearing while not cutting out as many overtones from the spectrum you hear. I was in a town with an audiology program in their university and got mine made there, cost about $150 or so for me. They feel really comfortable and everything just seems dialed down rather than muffled. Ditto. I really like my custom molded ones.
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Sep 8, 2017 15:57
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Where did you get them? Do I have to ask around local universities, or is there someplace online (or a store) that I can get this done?
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Sep 8, 2017 20:36
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Find a local audiologist and they will make a mold of your ear, and refer you to a company that will make you plugs. Usually cost ~$100.
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Sep 8, 2017 20:43
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+1 in the custom ear plugs, they're the best purchase I've ever madeLargeHadron posted:
Drink-Mix Man posted:So, then, how exactly does one get their record to pick up steam? Buy a physical copy of All You Need to Know About the Music Business by Robert Passman. Read it cover to cover. Take notes in it.
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Sep 9, 2017 01:15
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what's the best article/video on current levels to mix to? I'm currently matching some pro songs which I measure at -6.5 LUFS. Is that an OK way to go about it? What's the best practise here? A lot of what I'm reading contradicts other articles.
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Sep 9, 2017 16:12
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well why not posted:what's the best article/video on current levels to mix to? I'm currently matching some pro songs which I measure at -6.5 LUFS. Is that an OK way to go about it? What's the best practise here? A lot of what I'm reading contradicts other articles. Just curious as to how you are measuring the mix level of a professional track?
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Sep 9, 2017 18:38
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well why not posted:what's the best article/video on current levels to mix to? I'm currently matching some pro songs which I measure at -6.5 LUFS. Is that an OK way to go about it? What's the best practise here? A lot of what I'm reading contradicts other articles. From what I've gathered in my own research, the EBU standard for radio broadcast is -23 LUFS/LKFS, podcasts don't have a standard but seem to work well at -16, Spotify & YouTube will normalize it to -14 no matter what level you master to (so making it louder just reduces your dynamic range when played back on those services), and iTunes normalizes to -16. I don't know if the volume leveling on Spotify/YouTube/iTunes/etc has been fully rolled out yet (it's still just an option in Spotify, at least) but that seems to be where things are heading so mastering at -14 is probably somewhat future-proof. That's all in the mastering, though—I don't really know how that will affect you in mixing, since I haven't actually mixed any songs since I did this research (just podcasts/YouTube videos).
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Sep 9, 2017 18:39
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MrSargent posted:Just curious as to how you are measuring the mix level of a professional track? YouLean or Insight on a track in Live. Might not be the correct way to do it, now you mention it.
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Sep 9, 2017 20:05
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MrSargent posted:Just curious as to how you are measuring the mix level of a professional track? The standard is imaginatively called ITU-R BS.1770-3 and was introduced by the European Broadcast Union. It has seen some adoption in recent years in radio, tv and streaming. The general idea is that by playing everything at a moderate "average" loudness that leaves room for peaks, they are taking away the incentive to squeeze the crap out of your mix for maximal loudness. All that happens if you still do that is that your music will be played back at the same level as music that doesn't, but it will lack impact because you're not using the available dynamic range. Well, the main purpose is to prevent the need of the listener to constantly adjust the level on their playback device, but it's nice that it stops the perceived need to push everything into the red constantly for producers as well. Compress and limit for aesthetic value, to change the balance within the mix, instead of as a louderer-mechanism. Mix with relative levels in mind, instead of absolute. Mixing towards the standards CaptainViolence mentioned is sane, as is mastering that mix fit for purpose later. CD players don't have volume leveling built in, so if your stuff is going to end up on a compilation CD, you're going to have to participate in the loudness wars still, to some degree at least. If you're going to distribute your stuff as files on some platform that hasn't adopted volume leveling, by all means, take a look at what everyone else is doing. You want vinyl releases or archival quality mp3s, it'll probably pay to be a bit more conservative. -14 or -16 LUFS is probably a lot more dynamic than most of us are used to, but it's a workable compromise, even for electronic music. It won't stand out excessively in non-volume leveled contexts except against the most extreme examples of late 90s, early 00s crunch. If you make folk or acoustic stuff, -23 LUFS is probably more appropriate. You are by no means forced to oblige though and it's still too soon to call all this effectively an industry-wide standard yet. That you can see articles contradict each other reflects that. Some may even be from before the invention of the standard. Others aren't aware of it or sold on it. There is still some idealism required to adopt it. With every additional streaming/mp3 selling service implementing it, the point becomes more moot though. But -6.5 LUFS is just about enough headroom to prevent your music from collapsing in on itself and it will certainly not raise eyebrows anywhere. Is it best practise? That's up for discussion and depends on context, I guess. well why not posted:YouLean or Insight on a track in Live. Might not be the correct way to do it, now you mention it.
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Sep 9, 2017 20:18
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If you drag a track into Ableton though, you are dragging in a mastered track so wouldn't the levels you measure only be relevant for comparing to another master?
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Sep 9, 2017 23:57
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99% of my music production is through software instruments or plugging my guitar straight into my Scarlett Solo. I know next to nothing about microphones, but I own a DRI100 and want to learn how to record passable acoustic guitar. I don't have a standard mic cable, so I plugged the mic into the 2nd port on the Scarlett with a cheap XLR to 1/4 inch cable. With the Scarlett set to Instrument input, I got a ton of buzzing that overpowered any of the actual music. I could get the buzzing to subside by placing my hand on the interface or the mic itself. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a weird electrical issue? I tried moving the interface and mic away from my other electronics, but nothing seemed to help. Do I just need to buy a regular mic cable?
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Sep 10, 2017 08:29
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Lester Shy posted:99% of my music production is through software instruments or plugging my guitar straight into my Scarlett Solo. I know next to nothing about microphones, but I own a DRI100 and want to learn how to record passable acoustic guitar. In this situation I don't think you want to use the "instrument" setting on the input; that's usually reserved for when you're using your recorder as a DI. What's probably happening is that it's changing the impedance on the input channel, and you're trying to drive a high-impedance input with a low-impedance microphone.
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Sep 10, 2017 08:42
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MrSargent posted:If you drag a track into Ableton though, you are dragging in a mastered track so wouldn't the levels you measure only be relevant for comparing to another master? On the other hand, you get people doing their own mixing and mastering, often not really as two distinct stages. The language gets mixed up. I'm pretty sure the question was about what sort of levels are appropriate for distribution, conceptually implying mastering as well. It's not some major gotcha, in the sense that the ideal mastering process is just about getting everything in line with what's appropriate for the distribution media and if that means nothing needs to be done to the mix, that's platonically perfect. In the past this was all just theory, because you were in a competition for a loud enough mix and the mastering engineer had the superior, super expensive compressors, limiters and monitoring. You'd undershoot the levels and the mastering engineer would bring them up as transparently as possible. This was always somewhat artificial as a goal and the mastering engineer would always aim for doing the least damage. With today's technology and goals, provided you have quality monitoring, what you (as mixing engineer) are shooting for and what the mastering engineer tries to achieve, can be closer to each other than ever. Level-wise and for all platforms that have adopted volume leveling, at least. Instead about levels, the question is about what use do I make of the available dynamic range, which becomes an artistic decision, which is a matter at least as much in the hands of the mixing engineer/producer as the mastering engineer, if not more. So it used to be that you got warned against comparing your material against mastered tracks, in essence because you couldn't get there yourself at home and should be shooting for something else and thus comparing it to something anything but mastered material. However, if today you properly volume level your mastered reference material against your own unmastered music, you're not comparing loudness anymore, you're not fighting the technological limitations anymore, you're not mixing towards something that must be different from the end result and you can just make the mix that sounds best to you. The reference levels in LUFS become flexible sanity checks instead of the hard limit of the 0dB line. There are still jobs for mastering engineers to compensate for your lovely home monitoring, obviously. And again with the caveats of adoption rates of volume leveling according to those standards and what not. But it has its place in a discussion about best practise, imo.
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Sep 10, 2017 15:28
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Jazz Marimba posted:Buy a physical copy of All You Need to Know About the Music Business by Robert Passman. Read it cover to cover. Take notes in it. Thanks, I'll do that
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Sep 11, 2017 11:55
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Is there not a singing/vocals thread
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Oct 1, 2017 00:41
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AverySpecialfriend posted:Is there not a singing/vocals thread I really wish there were, cuz that's what I need the most help with
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Oct 1, 2017 01:23
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Seems like an obvious thing imo but I'm just starting to seriously pursue singing (like literally had my first lesson yesterday) so I hardly feel qualified to make a thread
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Oct 1, 2017 01:40
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Oh hell yeah we should have a vocal thread. We did a long time ago I think...maybe I will make one.
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Oct 1, 2017 02:40
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Hawkgirl posted:Oh hell yeah we should have a vocal thread. We did a long time ago I think...maybe I will make one. You can rip the template or anything useful from my drum/percussion thread if it'll help
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Oct 1, 2017 03:01
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Can anybody come up with a great song to mashup with careless whisper? I'm in a group that's playing a one-off show and want to include CW as a joke but it doesn't warrant playing it for the whole song. Key is Dm, tempo in the 75-ish BPM range.
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Oct 2, 2017 18:00
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LargeHadron posted:I know I'm going to get made fun of for this one. Echoing others, yea, getting signed requires that you have a brand the label can capitalize on or they think they can develop a brand out of you. More likely than not its the former. How do you develop a brand? Marketing. Most people do shows and in my opinion getting out there and touring is the most effective form of marketing because it gets you out there and it gets your merch out there, which is double marketing points. But there are other ways to do it. Make a music video out of your best song. Make it look professional. Advertise it - Facebook is actually not too bad for this if you know how to narrow down your audience and avoid bots. Professional looking artist Facebook page. Stay engaged with your fans. Other social media is good too. Make sure you have a Bandcamp. Sell merch on it. You'll need art for this. Typically it's your album art. Make sure this looks really good. Don't skimp. Shirts. Always shirts. But feel free to get creative with other merch. It's marketing that you make a profit on. Get your album on Distrokid so it can go out to all the major music services. Get a website, but in my experience no one really goes to that. But you'll want it for the professional factor. All this stuff will require quite a bit of investment on your part. A really professional looking music video is definitely going to run you a couple thousand at least. A good supply of short term merch (mostly shirts) is around a thousand. Advertising is going to add up fast. And really good album art (or professional photography, if you are into that) will be in the hundreds. I guess the keys are to make everything professional and market the hell out of it. If your stuff looks, sounds, or feels amateur, that's what people are going to assume you are.
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Oct 2, 2017 20:46
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This is a really dumb question but if you use the master fader to leave headroom for mastering (let's say 6dB), when you've mixed and mastered, do you then move the fader so it peaks near 0 or are you meant to just get the loudness back in mastering and leave the fader where you moved it? I wrote a song which I brought down to -6dB peaks but it still sounds quieter than the original even after some basic 'mastering' using an Izotope preset. Here's the song for comparison if it helps to explain: Unmixed - https://soundcloud.com/user-992144703/test/s-bm2Ou Mixed - https://soundcloud.com/user-992144703/asphyxiwankworkinprogress
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Oct 2, 2017 22:42
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Don't touch the master fader. Have your stuff peak at -6 (or whatever) with the fader all the way up. Then yes, regain that in mastering.
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Oct 2, 2017 23:15
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TheQuietWilds posted:Can anybody come up with a great song to mashup with careless whisper? I'm in a group that's playing a one-off show and want to include CW as a joke but it doesn't warrant playing it for the whole song. Key is Dm, tempo in the 75-ish BPM range. Killing in the name of could probably sound really cheesy with a mashup of some careless whisper? It's a bit faster though, 89 bpm.
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Oct 3, 2017 02:31
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Silly question, but can adults rent brass instruments? I want to try my hand at trumpet but don't want to be chased out of the music store like some sort of pedophile.
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Oct 7, 2017 03:10
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TequilaJesus posted:Silly question, but can adults rent brass instruments? I want to try my hand at trumpet but don't want to be chased out of the music store like some sort of pedophile. Someone will be right along to help you. edit: Pretty sure adults have to rent brass instruments as children do not typically have credit/security deposits/income.
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Oct 7, 2017 12:02
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TequilaJesus posted:Silly question, but can adults rent brass instruments? I want to try my hand at trumpet but don't want to be chased out of the music store like some sort of pedophile. Um................yes. Relax dude, if anything they'll be happy you're spending money at their store.
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Oct 8, 2017 02:53
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TequilaJesus posted:Silly question, but can adults rent brass instruments? I want to try my hand at trumpet but don't want to be chased out of the music store like some sort of pedophile. Common advice here is to simply tell the employee that you are renting the instrument on behalf of a child.
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Oct 8, 2017 21:49
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Or tell them that you're an adult who's interested in learning an instrument but doesn't want to commit to buying. I don't understand why you're being so neurotic about it.
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Oct 8, 2017 21:53
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This whole discussion is baffling.
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Oct 9, 2017 03:38
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You don't even have to give a reason "hi I'd like to rent a hyperlydian double flute tuned to a432" "that'll be 426 exposure bucks per millisecond" "toot"
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Oct 9, 2017 13:25
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ELI PORTER posted:Common advice here is to simply tell the employee that you are renting the instrument on behalf of a child. yeah, when you're worried about looking weird, definitely add in a lie about a fake child to look more normal.
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Oct 9, 2017 15:19
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ELI PORTER posted:Common advice here is to simply tell the employee that you are renting the instrument on behalf of a child. Should I have a magazine clipping of a child's photo in case they ask to see a picture? 
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Oct 9, 2017 18:45
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TequilaJesus posted:Should I have a magazine clipping of a child's photo in case they ask to see a picture? You might also want to head over to Thunderdome for some help workshopping their tragic backstory. They might ask!
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Oct 9, 2017 18:52
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Just say you need to rent a tubamaba for your daughter, Lisa Simpson. Maintain steady eye contact until they crack. This is the only way, and highly risky
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Oct 9, 2017 19:01
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TequilaJesus posted:Should I have a magazine clipping of a child's photo in case they ask to see a picture? Sure, why not.
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Oct 9, 2017 19:04
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I have a friend whose dad was lead writer/singer in a 1960s band that enjoyed a modicum of success and has a following among some critics. Before he died recently, he made a home album which had been mixed and mastered. His son and widow have access to the music and were wanting to get it out there for his fans and were wondering what the best way to do it. He was thinking about uploading it to Apple Music and letting the critics (including one who interviewed him before his death) know via e-mail. Is there a better way to do it? I don't think that making money is an issue at all but would be interested in any financial aspects I might not know about. Also, is there any way to link it somehow to the former band's music?
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Oct 15, 2017 16:10
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