Every now and again, I come across posts by aspiring film composers asking about “mastering” their cues: “What should I use in my mastering processing chain?” “How much compression and limiting should I use?” “What do people normalize their tracks to?” Please, just … don’t. Unless you are delivering your music to a production library or for release as a …
Music Streaming vs Radio Royalties – Numbers on a Napkin
Okay, it’s perhaps unpopular at the moment, but I’ll say it right up front: Apples-to-Apples, on a per listener basis, streaming pays songwriters much better than traditional broadcast royalties. Even the suggestion of discussing music streaming with a bunch of songwriters and musicians is a good way to polarize a group. In the grand scheme of things – music industry-wise – …
The Pono Pretense
FWIW, I have nothing against Neil Young nor do I dislike high-quality audio. Quite the contrary. I’d never classify myself as a “fan” of Neil. I could take or leave his music – perhaps blasphemous to other Canadians out there, but, it is how it is. I’ve long given up paying attention to the opinions of artists. They may have …
What’s an Artist?
I go on these spurts every once in a while where I’ll revisit some of the forums that I’m registered at. Depending on my workload or how I’m feeling, this will be every other week or every other month. It’s kind of like this blog on my site – not really a regular thing. Just when I feel that I have …
2012 “Discoveries”
My third “annual” discoveries post is finally here! It was odd, in that I’ve been thinking about this for the past month – not obsessively or anything like that. I found myself almost dreading “drudging” through the music I’d downloaded as I couldn’t really think of any key albums or bands that really stood head-and-shoulders above the rest. Once I …
Say “No” to Stock Responses
Over the past few days, I’ve been able to kind of sit on the proverbial “other side” of the boss’s desk. Instead of me pounding the pavement and knocking on doors offering my wares, I’ve been (the “boss”) entertaining requests from around the world to consider the merits of others’ creations. It’s been enlightening to see the variety of approaches …
Silence Can Be Creative
When mixing tracks, I don’t always take the view that I HAVE to use every track I’m given. A lot of times, the impact of the song is strengthened by making (sometimes liberal) use of the Mute button.
2011 Discoveries
My second annual list of music discoveries. This list of albums were not necessarily released in 2011, but I did “discover” them over the course of the year and found myself listening to them repeatedly.
Stop Hiding Under Covers!
Alright, what is going on? I’ve been noticing an annoying “trend” happening the past few months. Artists and labels are starting to re-hash old material and releasing albums of cover songs more and more frequently. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a great cover song at all. An artist who records a cover of a well known song has …
Get Rid of Pesky Static Cling
I’ll freely admit that I’m the type of person who can NOT live without variety when it comes to music. If you know me, you’d definitely put me in the “Type B” slot. It’s not that I’m restless, impatient or anything like that. There are some things that I don’t mind being routine but there are others that, in my …