While it would seem like common sense to not put something dirty back in your ears when you can visibly see residue on it, everyday I watch musicians put wax filled dirty things in their ears. After doing this, these musicians will then wonder why their ears are clogged up and feel swollen. The easy solution is to carry some hydrogen peroxide with you in your road kit. Simply dip your plugs in and then with washed hands pull the gunk off. With In-Ear monitors, dipping the plugs in a cap-full of liquid may not be recommended, but you can Q-tip the solid part down with the liquid to get rid of any excessive gunk.
In exciting news for music fans and everyone who can't stand corporate assembled, payola filled radio playlists, people powered Jelli Radio has launched on 10 new radio stations. If you are not familar with Jelli, the radio determines their playlists purely on what is requested, much like Digg does for web content! This is an exciting way to get your music out there if you can rile up your fanbase and start requesting your music through them. Here are some of their new stations.
- WBOS Boston, MA
- WPST Philadelphia, PA
- KXTE Las Vegas, NV
- WJBX Fort Myers, FL
- WJLK Jersey Shore, NJ
- WKRL Syracuse, NY
- WKLL Utica, NY
- KISN Bozeman, MT
- KBAZ Missoula, MT
- KTRS Casper, WY
The sad reality of the music business today is that even when you are running a successful studio, there are times when there is going to be either no time or money to budget in using your favorite mastering engineer. This reality has creeped more and more into my life as time goes on and the fast pace of putting up content on the Internet has made many artists need things fast. One of the most important things about the mastering stage is to get an objective perspective on your mix and have someone else's ears hear what you may have missed. One of the most valuable things I have found in my recording world is having friends who can listen to my mix and master when there is no time to go to my mastering engineer of choice. Often times they hear what I have lost perspective on and end up giving me some of the most valuable advice I can find. If time is rushed make sure you call a buddy with good ears and get a second perspective on what you are doing, return the favor to them and you have a valuable team that can help make your recordings much better.
The blog Pro Tools For Media has assembled an awesome list of video output options for Pro Tools that can help you decide which may be the best for your setup. Check it here.
Over the years, one of the most painful things in my recording life has been splitting a guitar between two amps. Although it can be fine in a live setting, when using a Morley A-B-Y pedal in the studio, your tone goes straight to hell. Radial's JD-7 and Little Labs PCP overdo it in the number of options and the price is a little much for someone looking to simply use just two amps. Thankfully, Radial recently introduced their Bones ABY pedal, which does this job simply and with no real difference in tone when plugged directly in. They employ a Drag control to make up for any loss the splitter may bring and it is also another fantastic tonal option. I am thoroughly impressed by it on the record I am presently making and for around $150.00 it is a steal.
Not bad for a $4 app - easier to use than a lot of expensive pedals you'll find and sounds pretty amazing. Great tool for songwriting on the fly.
Writing and rearranging a song in the studio is never the ideal situation, especially if you are on a limited budget. Though it isn't ideal, in order to make a great record, it sometimes has to happen. Over the weekend, I spent the past 3 days rehearsing, rewriting and rearranging 16 songs and tracking them on drums. Due to a tight touring schedule and time constraints, the band I am working with didn't have time to properly pre-produce and demo their songs. Walking into recording we had to refine the songs as well as get the drums tracked in a weekend. While we could have done this on the recording drumset, when playing hard pounding rock music, all of the drum heads would have needed to be replaced constantly, taking up precious time and money.Instead, we setup a second drumset and whenever we were rehearsing or rewriting a song we would work on that drumset, in order to keep the tuning and heads fresh on the recording drumset. When a song was finished being written and played confidently, we would take it over to the recording drumset and track the song. This not only saved us time and money, but got us in a work ethic where we committed to the song being fully written before we got into a recording situation. This did us great good in the mental focus department and made it so we were able to keep the two processes separated as they should be.
This past Saturday was March 6th, which while being insignificant in the
grand scheme of things, this was a big day for Musformation. After two
months of planning, brain storming and research Todd and I officially
started posting to Musformation on a daily basis on 3/6/09. It wasn't a
planned launch as much as a bunch of bugs got fixed, we started giving
out the URL, and we had something to say. The later part of that saying
is a lot of what this site is about. We have something to say.
In a move that had been rumored for quite a while popular online punk merch store, SmartPunk has been sold to online store DistrictLines. We are curious for any info on how they are handling their transition with the many small indies and unsigned bands who SmartPunk dealt with. Any insight into the transition you may have please leave it in the comments! You can read a letter from DistrictLines in the jump.
Last week, we told you about Root Music, a great way to make your Facebook pages look better. These videos show some of the features and ease which you can use the service.
- How To Pursue A "Corporate Sponsorship" To Get Funding For Your Music
- Band Tip: Spend Energy Making New Fans Instead Of Badgering Your Friends
- Lessons On Building Fan Community From Lady GaGa
- Surround Sound Coming Soon To iTunes
- Getting Paid By SoundExchange - Watch The MetaData!
- Music Business Reality - You Need Smart Management And A Smart Label
- Root Music Is A Great Way To Make Your Facebook Page Look Fantastic
- Why Attending Your Mastering Session Can Hurt Your Record
- RockBand Network For Unsigned Artists Has Launched
- Exercises To Improve Your Controller/Button Timing
- Initial Reports On Rock Band Authoring Is DIY Is A No Go
- Scratch Off Record Covers Are All The Rage - See The New MGMT Cover In Action
- MP3Cut Is A Website To Edit MP3s/Make Ringtones
- Mistakes You Shouldn't Make When Writing A Press Release
For a third time we have to link this fantastic film. It is now available to watch for free online. By far one of the best films made in showing how Creative Commons licenses can benefit your music. A must watch
Electronic artist BT discusses his fist Mac, his new album and composing music using technology. Very insightful.
Control is a hard thing to give up, and after you have made your record you now need to put it in someone's hands to do crucial final tweaks. If botched it can ruin the experience of your record or if done properly it can accentuate and give your record a breath of fresh air. Mastering is the last creative step in making any record that has the potential to be great get to that greatness. Unfortunately, many times trying to keep control at this stage can be one of the things that brings down your record. The relationship between an engineer's speakers and their ears has a value which can never be calculated. That said, many times artists/producers will walk into a mastering engineers room and try to make critical decisions on the sound of a record when they do not know the room very well and can't make proper judgments. In the hundreds of records I have made over the years, one of the smartest decisions I have learned to make is to stay home from the mastering session and have the mastering engineer send me files to listen to on my own speakers in my own room so I can make educated decisions on how I want the record to sound. By being in my own comfortable environment this has made it so I am happier with my records and know I am always making the right decisions.
We at Musformation read A LOT of blogs. Like, A LOT! We often find
things that are interesting, but we don't have the time to write em up
for you guys. This makes us feel bad since we are trying to make our
community a more educated and entertained one. So every Wed. I will be
sharing with you Recording Nerd Links. So if you are that particular
brand of nerd/insomniac/internataholic/crazy shut in, enjoy. Nerd.
We recently told you that TuneCore will now allow you to upload ringtones to iTunes. If you are looking to make edits to a song to make it into a ringtone or just edits for a DJ mix you can now use browser based editor MP3Cut to do the job. Simply upload your MP3 make the desired cuts and it will let you download a new file of your edits!
From our initial conceptualization of Musformation, the idea was to help create an open community with spirited dialogue and a constant flowing ideas instead of attempting to be the final word or end-all-be-all site of musical elitism. We are musicians and producers who write about our real world experiences that are our own personal reality. But we also want to hear from you. We have a loyal audience, a great set of consistent commentators and a very intelligent readership that always surprises us. Agree with us, disagree with us, love us, hate us, but give us your own take. We love links, articles you've written, ideas and anything you've got. It's been an amazing run so far and 2010 is looking even better. Keep it coming, ya'll. 
- Recording/Mixing Tip: Don't Get Lost In Overdubs And Double-Tracking
- 7 Ways To Inflate Your Mailing List
- Using Shuffle To Improve Your Mixes
- BroadTexter Can Help You Text Your Fans When You Come To Their Home Town
- Engaging Your Fans Through Creative Contests
- Band Tip: Get To Soundcheck EARLY!
- GigLeader Is Another Site Where People Can Search For Your Band For Potential GigsWhy SoundCloud Is Great To Get Your Music On To Blogs
- Band Names Are Running Dry, How To Avoid a Generic Name
- TuneCore Now Offering Ringtone Uploads And Free Software With Tutorial To Do So
- ReverbNation And AudioLife Go Public With The Reverb Store
- Gain Studio Is Studio Management Software
- How To Setup A SoundCloud Remix Contest
- SellABand Will Reopen Under New Ownership
- Is Your Client Dense? You Still Have To Make It Work!
- Innovative Album Packaging - Scratch Off Album Art
- Aphex Twin Outdoes Himself Again - Embeds His Face In A Spectragraph
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