Years ago, I was working on a song with a group and something funny happened. While we were getting the tempo of the song it sounded really good at 142 BPM when the instruments were the only thing playing. But the vocal melody totally fell apart unless it was a little slower at 138 BPM. Throughout tracking the song we could never feel the right vibe of the song after recording it at the slower tempo. Then one day a happy accident happened.While grabbing dinner in the band's car we had made a cassette rough mix of the song and sure enough the cassette player played the song back a little bit fast. All of a sudden the vibe was there, and we had the tempo we initially wanted with the vocal in sync to it and an even more on-fire performance than we ever hard before. This was still in the days when I was making records on tape, so we simply mixed the song and then would speed up the tape machine a bit and listen back and tweak the mix until it sounded right, since the faster tape speed would take a way some bottom end. Now of course, this is as simple as dropping a time stretching plug-in on the whole mix and you are ready to go. No matter how you get there, every once in a while you will find yourself working on a great song that's missing just a bit energy. Giving it a bump of a quarter of a semitone or two tempo steps can sometimes really make the difference between a good and a great feeling track. Add it to your toolbox.
Famous musical spawn Dweezil Zappa has announced 4 day/5 night music bootcamp in the upstate NY called DWEEZILLA. Ranging from June 20-June 25, DWEEZILLA aims at giving musicians improved improvisation skills and an enhanced sense of melody. The course features a wide array of classes, including some one on one sessions with Dweezil and members of his band. The events take place at the Full Moon Resort in Oliveria NY, and like any good camp, this one also features campfire meetings and free-for-all jam sessions. Another aim of the camp will be to focus on and analyze some of Frank's music and discuss his impact of legacy. No word yet on the cost of this extravaganza, but you can email for more information and prices.
- How To Choose A Record Producer/Recording Studio - Part 1 - Recognizing Past Failures
- Ask A Non-Music Dork For Perspective
- Programming Note - One Year Of Musformation!
- Anatomy Of A Buzz Band - How Many Publicists Does Neon Indian Have?
- You're So Much Better Live Than On Record? Why Does No One Know This?
- Band Tip: Don't Sweat A Bad Show
- How DIY Artist Noush Skaugen Got 1.2 Million Twitter Followers
- Watch A Great Video On Pitch Speaking
- Live Lessons: Have A Backup Guitar Ready In Case A String Breaks
- GuGuChu Is A New Service To Find And Promote Your Gigs
- Use A Rehearsal Drum Set For Writing In The Studio
- Words Of DIY Wisdom From Blood Red Shoes
- I Stand Behind It - Radial Bones Y Splitter
- If You Want Your News Shared On Facebook? Put It Up On The Weekend
- Use Hydrogen Peroxide To Clean Earbuds/Earplugs/In-Ears
- Jelli Radio (Digg-Like Radio) Expands Nationwide!
- Buddy Up For Cheap Mastering
- Take Advantage Of Google Buzz Sharing With ReBuzzThis
- A Video Introduction To Root Music's Facebook Pages
Getting perspective on what you're doing is one of the most important things you can do for your music. Not only are musicians too close to their art because they spend so much time with it and have so much emotional involvement, but they also know too much about what goes into the product. Some of the best advice I have gotten recently on my mixes and on my band's live shows has come from non-musicians and those who aren't walking musical encyclopedia nerds. While they might not be able to tell what kind of reverb you should be using live or notice that your room mics are phasing slightly, they might be able to tell you that your vocals aren't clear enough or that you don't move onstage as much as you could. In a given song, there is often so much going on (especially if you also record your own music) that you can very quickly lose sight of some of the most important things about your music. Many times musicians spend so much time crafting a "clever" song they forget to ask - does it have a memorable hook? The average musical listener is much more likely to pick up on this, as opposed to the many intricacies you so carefully constructed. For better or worse, they layman's point of view is often unfettered by all the "knowledge" that music dorks have lodged deep in their craniums. Sometimes asking a family member (who cares about what you're doing but probably thinks Animal Collective is a group dedicated to saving the rainforests) or a friend who doesn't play an instrument or isn't a huge music dork can yield much more interesting advice than you might expect.
At Musformation we have decided to follow Twitters lead and suggest
you a Twitter feed we find to be totally awesome every week. We figure
it is time to show people by example who is using Twitter right and
good the awesome resources it holds.
It's been a while since we featured a Follow Friday tweeter, since we haven't been finding new and inspiring tweeters to point you to. That ended this week when I stumbled upon the AWESOME tweeter, CreateMusicTips. They constantly tweet out the same kind of cool tips and tricks you find on Musformation and if you like us, you will surely like them.
It's been a while since we featured a Follow Friday tweeter, since we haven't been finding new and inspiring tweeters to point you to. That ended this week when I stumbled upon the AWESOME tweeter, CreateMusicTips. They constantly tweet out the same kind of cool tips and tricks you find on Musformation and if you like us, you will surely like them.
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.
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.
- 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
Electronic artist BT discusses his fist Mac, his new album and composing music using technology. Very insightful.
Gary Numan talks intimately about songwriting, guitars vs. keyboards and reminisces back on his musical career. Later he shows us a bit of his studio and discusses keyboard sounds.
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. 
This week SoundExchange's John Simson penned a article for Billboard that held some very important wisdom in making sure you get paid for your music. With online radio's growing strength it become more and more important that you properly register with SoundExchange and you data is in order. Some of the more to-the-point advice on getting paid properly is below.
"Copyright holders must include complete metadata on all tracks. It is essential that creators include all relevant metadata on each digital track they release, including, at the very least, artist or group name, copyright holder or label name, and track and album titles. Artists and labels often send out tracks with little or no metadata attached, making it very difficult, if not impossible, to determine who should be compensated. Due to insufficient metadata, millions of dollars wind up in buckets labeled as "promo only," "self-released" and "label unknown.""To read the rest go here.
- 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
Hey Everyone,
First off thanks for baring with us through our growing pains. As the site grows, the internal gears get cranky and need some oiling. Jackie as always did us solid and tweaked out some of the problems with RSS, Commenting and the site crashing. Thanks so much for baring with us and as always if you have any problems please email us here. Sorry for the trouble and as always thanks for the support.
First off thanks for baring with us through our growing pains. As the site grows, the internal gears get cranky and need some oiling. Jackie as always did us solid and tweaked out some of the problems with RSS, Commenting and the site crashing. Thanks so much for baring with us and as always if you have any problems please email us here. Sorry for the trouble and as always thanks for the support.
One of the things that separates professionals from amateurs is the ability to deal with who is hiring them. Often times we do not get to work with ideal personalities when working in the music business and our clients can be so ridiculously slow you want to go to their childhood home and look for lead paint on the walls. The sad thing is if you blame the client you will probably fail them and you will not continue to grow your business. What a true professional does is learn how to idiot proof their process and get through even the most dense mind. Smashing Magazine, despite being aimed at graphics nerds, has written a fantastic piece on this subject that can be enjoyed by anyone who works in the music business and looking to gain a little more peace in their life working with mentally "special" people in this business.
Music Radar has up a fantastic article on the process that goes on behind one of the groups that is influencing a great deal of the musicians in the world today, everyone's favorite indie band Animal Collective. The article gets into great detail on some of the bands intricacies and creative thoughts and is a great read for anyone looking to
- WaTunes Announces Marketplace To Sell Music Directly To Fans
- Ian Rogers Of TopSpin Talks Staying In The Newscycle
- The Bizmo Launches Hit Or Not Facebook App To Test Your A&R Skills
- The World's First Remixable YouTube Video?
- Walmart Will Allow You To Sleep In Their Parking Lot On Tour
- Guitar Intonation Intricacies
- YouTube Launches Automatic Playlist Generator/Music Discovery Tool Disco
- Giving Superfans With Tattoos Free Admission To Shows
- Tips From Consumer Reports On Keeping Your Van Running For Less Money
- Facebook Album Downloads/Sharing Start To Heat Up With Angels & Airwaves And GBC
- Merch Strategies - Don't Just Give It Away, Get An Email Address
- The Jamie Thomas Ruling Shows 1 Illegal Download = 3 1/3rd Dead Relatives?
- The Lessons From Public Enemy's SellABand Fail And How To Do Crowdfunding Right
It seems like for a while people have been trying to tap it's potential and we're not sure it's quite there yet, but here is a pretty good stab at a remixable YouTube video. Created by Henrik Leichsenring, it's being touted as The World's First Remixable Youtube Video, although we've seen similar ideas before and don't necessarily know if it deserves that exact title. What we will say is that it's a great concept and a step in the right direction.
- Announcing Musformation Services And Consulting!
- MUST READ! - TopSpin Explains It All - Selling Records in 2010
- Using Fortune Cookies To Get More People To Listen To Your Music
- Re: Using Fortune Cookies To Get More People To Listen To Your Music
- Spreading The Word - Give Out Free Stickers In Exchange For A SASE
- Getting Good Publicity Is A Discouraging Battle If You Don't Know What To Expect
- The Ultimate List Of Music Licensing Companies
- Nimbit Tells All With Stats On The New Might Mighty Bosstones Album
- Google Goes To War With Nearly Every Social Network With Google Buzz, But How Does It Affect Music?
- Ditto Music Now Links To Billboard SoundScan
- BandJob Is A Place To Shop For Music Based Graphic Design Work
- Getting Good At The Art Of Shameless Promotion
- ReverbNation Has New, Versatile And Very Good Looking Widgets For You
- PayPal Announces Virtual Terminal - Take Credit Cards Over Wi-Fi!
- Akron/Family Launch Website To Showcase Covers Of Their Song/Free Show Admission
- Bandcamp Goes Music Community
- The Management Secrets Of The Grateful Dead
It took 10 years to make, but Strange Powers, the new Magnetic Fields/Stephen Merritt documentary, will finally appear at this year's SXSW. Complete with commentary from Carrie Brownstein, Peter Gabriel and (strangely enough) Sarah Silverman, the preview looks like a very interesting film about an especially intriguing songwriter.
An amazing peek into the man, his studio, his philosophy and his process as a musician. Absolute required watching.
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