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Content tagged with Music Production

Musical Integrity: Should Performers Only Be Creators?

Abstract: The music industry has always looked down on musical ‘faces’ who have nothing to do with music production or creation. Is this snobbery justified or are they different skills that should be treated with different forms of appreciation? Or should this distinction warrant a new kind of appreciation for creators – one that’s separate from admiration of the performer?

Here’s a (probably) familiar situation for any independent music fan (you are Y):

rihanna performing liveX: I love Rihanna; she’s so great

Y: Yeah, her music’s pretty fun, but she doesn’t write any of it so…

X: Who cares? She’s way better than [insert cool unsigned artist Y likes here]

Y: Well, at least they write their own music though – like, I have way more respect for people who actually write their own stuff.

X: But Rihanna’s such a great performer – she’s a part of the music without being a part of the music, if you get me.

Y’s defence is one I have used more times than I can count in my lifetime, and I doubt it’s one I’m likely to stop using, but, to be totally honest, it’s not one I’ve actually examined in much detail at all.

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Music Producers Leading a Revival in the Music Industry

Interest in the music production arts, recording technology (software and hardware) and artist branding is at an all time high and is slowly revitalizing ‘music making’ in the industry.

It’s hardly unexpected when you think about it. The old model was based on control. The powers that be purposely limited things on the supply side, which naturally increased demand for new music by a handful of branded artists and bands.

The result…limit the supply and human nature kicks into high gear. We instinctively want a piece of what we can’t have! Scarcity rules!

stage dive - chaosHowever, digital music changed this and for the past 10 years there has been a veritable online digital orgy of the masses converging on new technology to become the next big thing or simply get hands in on a small piece of the free pie. And to the dismay of powers that be, you can’t limit supply in a digital world.

Eventually the laws of economics (supply and demand) decided to crash the party, bringing order back from the grips of chaos. Now in an oversaturated market, where much of the music has very little value (or is free), many artists are now faced with a conundrum. How do we make music profitable again?

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CMJ Music Marathon & SonicScoop Team Up to Present ‘Studio Time’

CMJCMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival 2010 has partnered with SonicScoop.com to present “Studio Time,” an intensive two-part program focused on music production at New York University’s Kimmel Center.

Open to all CMJ badge holders, “Studio Time” provides emerging artists, engineers and producers with recording and mixing insights and inspiration from expert music creators.

Studio Time’s “Part I: Mix Reconstruction” sees three top mixers taking the audience through their personal mixing process. Each mixer will discuss how they approached and ultimately mixed a song from their discography, playing pre- and post-mix examples to illustrate how they work. Basic techniques and creative solutions will all be examined in this illuminating event.

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Music Licensing

musiclicensingSteve Veloudos owns and operates Zebra Music LLC. It’s a one stop shop for jingles, radio production, custom music, library music, and sound design. Visit Steve’s web site and get free monthly music that you can use for your productions. http://www.zebramusic.com

Music licensing can be a very confusing subject. My intent with this article is to give you enough details on what music licensing is and what are your rights to use music in advertising and / or video productions.

A few months ago I was contacted by a company that was celebrating 20 years in business. They wanted to put together a radio commercial that highlighted their celebration. Their request was to use Kool and the Gangs song Celebration in their radio spot. I explained to them in order to do this they would have to obtain a licensing which would cost them quite a bit of money. This was not an option for them due to their limited budget and ultimately they told me that they “went another direction” with their advertising.

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Sound Effects For Your Music Production

soundeffectsGrace Antoinette is a professional graduated musician. She has been performing music since she was 6 years old. Now she has her own music studio and has produces music in her home studio. She also teaches music in her studio. Thousands of her students are saying that they get “The Most teaching Method ever”. Her experiences in the music world are more than 35 years. http://www.promusicproducer.com

To produce different sound effects for your Music Production, let me begin by covering the different types of controls you will generally find in filters and EQ effects.

Cutoff frequency/Cutoff point. At this point a filter comes into play and starts to affect the sound. This determines what part of the frequency spectrum the filter works on.

Attenuation. This reduces the target frequencies.

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