Tag Archives: “Daniel Beats”

Problematic Behaviors of Music Consumers and Music Artists:

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MusicSpam2

A music artist randomly tweeted me and shared his soundcloud link to listen to his music. I was so offended I call his tweet garbage and dismissed his music.. But why did I act in this way?.. What lead my behavior? Read below to find out.

There’s a disconnect in behaviors of artists who are reaching to music consumers and the way music consumers are actually behaving when searching for music.

Consumers are averse to using platforms such as SoundCloud or Reverbnation or reacting to direct marketing efforts by music artists, yet artists are directing consumers to these sites, often through direct marketing. The volume of overall interaction between music artists as a whole population and general music consumer population, is a seemingly one-sided relationship. Consumers feel overwhelmed by the volumes of requests to listen to music from bands they may have never heard of and have no affiliation with other than maybe sharing similar social media platforms.

In a study of mine, I sampled four days of twitter interaction with the key phrases “Free song download OR check out my new song include:retweets”. From those samples, on average I found that there are about 140 tweets in a 24 hour span in which various music artists had posted links to music consumers for download or to check out their music.

Keep in mind, these search terms are limited and music artists could use a wide variety of key phrase combinations that could severely increase tweets per day. Nonetheless, this sample of the total population of possible key phrases still demonstrates the volume of music artists tweeting available music to consumers.  Quantifying these findings, we can say music artists are tweeting requests for consumers to check out their music 980 times p/week, 3,920 p/month and a staggering 47,040 times a year.

Songs are often hosted on free social music platforms or on 2nd or 3rd tier distribution sites that are not traditional places where consumers search or acquire music.  Also, many music artists are engaging in follow-for-follow exchanges with other music artists, causing majority of their fan base on twitter to be other music-artists and not average music consumers. In the cases when they do add or follow music consumers, the follow is often not reciprocated as it was unsolicited and done in an unnatural way. Consumers are averse to listening to music being solicited to them if there is no relationship built or personal reason to do so.

Music artists are use  SoundCloud and Reverbnation to direct consumers to these websites; however, upon another study of mine, I found that the top selling artists of 2012 are also struggling to connect their fans to SoundCloud pages. This difference is shown in the counted plays on Soundcloud vs. views on YouTube which have differences in the 100,000s (YouTube being the winner). The study was conducted on Carly Rae Jepsen and Gotye listed in the ifpi report for 2013 as the top selling artists of 2012.

In a smaller study of mine, I polled 10 of my friends on their music behavior and found that 80% of them actually do not download music to a high degree and it is mostly acquired through their mobile device. Their preferred way of listening to music is through YouTube. The music searches are usually driven by searching for content they already know of, either through past history, YouTube recommendations or friend endorsement and especially if they have seen or heard it on other media sources, such as TV, Film, Games or Advertisements.

The sample also reports using streaming services where they have some control of the genre of music being played, but no particular song, band is searched for – unless the song/artist is significantly important to them in an individual sense. Few still admit to illegal music downloading for the latest songs played on radio.

The solution I feel is that music artists should withhold releasing music unless it’s hosted on 1st tier websites such as iTunes or YouTube. This will leverage existing behavior of consumers instead of trying for adoption of a new behaviors. Music artists should not partake in the social noise of requesting consumers to check out their music or listen to their songs, thereby devaluing their music even before it’s heard.  Music artists are better off focusing efforts on performing through YouTube or having music strategically placed in media, creating value by having it endorsed by a recognized authority on music. In other words, artists should look to have music endorsed by a recognized source that is visible by consumers so they are knowledgeable that it exists. This causes consumers to search for the music in their preferred music platform.

I also recommend that music artists should not directly market music to the consumer, as they are averse to this behavior. This is because the relationship of consumer and music artist is usually an individual experience for the consumer. The consumer wants to support the music artist as the music reflects the consumer’s internal beliefs. When music artists focus efforts on increasing visibility to the consumer, music artists will be naturally sought for on these social media sites, and the consumer will actually enjoy the experience of searching and finding  the music artist on their social media platform, so long as the artist is visible enough through a medium of the consumer’s choice prior to their social media experience.

Mirror Equalization: Bringing out the best and diminishing the rest

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I’m going to write about the strategic importance of mirror equalization in music. Remember, that mixing has to do with building an environment that guides the listener to understanding what is most important about the song.

I find when dealing with the topic of mixing, it’s sometimes helpful to think of another scenario that is similar to the process of mixing but different in reality.

Approaching Mixing like Organizing a Wedding:
I like to think of mixing much like a wedding, in that, everyone at the wedding has a voice, a relationship to the bride while the guests are important the bride is the focus of the wedding. As such – everything and everyone else besides the bride is diminished so not to steal away from the bride’s spotlight and to highlight her and make her the most beautiful person in the room. Next to the bride, are the immediate family who secondarily standout from the rest but still under the bride. Mixing and mirror equalization is similar to this idea.

In a song, every instrument has a role, but some instruments are much more important than the others and often one instrument (typically the vocal) is the most important. Knowing this, our job is to ensure that the most important instruments really shine, while all other instruments are diminished and are there simply to support the most important instruments and provide contrast to the environment.

In real life we all have tastes and styles of fashion, our personalities can draw a lot of attention and in the case of music, an instrument is much the same, however, in a wedding environment, these characteristics of yourself are usually diminished. From what you wear, where you sit and even what you say is restricted by what’s approved and accepted in relationship to the bride. The last thing the bride wants, is anyone stealing the show away from her, regardless if it’s in a good or bad way.

In mixing and mirror equalization, the same principles apply. Typically the bride is the vocal, some  instruments are then classified as supporting instruments to the bride and the others are simply guests who are present but play no significant role, other than to provide contrast in some meaningful way. Sometimes, just being present allows others to shine more than they could on their own. This is the principle of relativity, and it exists in this relationship of mixing too.

Achieving the Mix
The first step is to ensure that the main voice is really present in the mix. This is done by boosting a frequency range in the vocal that allows it to shine. All other instruments are then diminished in this frequency range to further enhance the contrast between the most important instrument (The vocal), and the least important ones.

On a micro level, each instrument may also want to compete with other instruments that fill the same frequency spectrum. In that case, it’s important to understand what relationship that instrument has to the most important instrument (the vocal), and how significant it is to that relationship.  The more important, the closer in relationship it is with the bride, and thus must come out more than the other instruments in the mix.

Seating the Competing Instruments:
In this case of competing instruments, you have to classify the ones known as supporting instruments to the bride and guest instruments. You seat the supporting instruments closer to the bride by boosting the amplitude of the frequencies best known as the characteristics of that instrument (it’s recognized timbre), and diminish the amplitude of the frequencies  that are not typically defining characteristics of that instrument. For the guest instrument, you attenuate or lower the amplitude of the frequency ranges that you boosted in the supporting instrument.

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What this does, is allow the supporting instruments (to the bride vocal) to sit closer and in better relationship with the bride, they are more visible. The guest instruments are then also seated, still present but in a location that just provides to the contrast of the mix. They enhance the experience just by being present but are definitely not in the spotlight.

Conclusion:
In this way of mixing and mirror equalization, we really stick to the ideas of prosody. We keep all things that are meant to be central, central and all things meant to provide contrasting relationships, in those relationships. The result is a mix that in-itself, builds an environment that dictates the choices between what the listener should be paying attention to and what not. Most importantly – we keep the bride happy :)

Music Production Info: Timbre, the Foundation of Genre Specific Music Production

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My name is Daniel Ram, I’ve been self-studying music production for 10 years and specialize in producing remixes of top 40 music and hip hop. This year is my first year taking an official course on music production and so I’d like to thank Berklee Online for providing the course and to the professor for taking the time to share his knowledge.

I’ve decided to take the topic of timbre for this discussion. I will first cover the technical and fundamental aspects of timbre as discussed in the course.  I will then expand the discussion to cover timbre and it’s relationship to genres in music. I will lastly talk about  how we can use timbre as a separate philosophical approach for producing genre specific music. Let’s get started.

Technical Overview of Timbre in Music Production:
Timbre is the unique sound of a tone. In class we saw the professor use a spectrum analyzer and shift between a sine and saw-tooth wave. What we first heard was a sine wave with it’s one fundamental tone and no amplitude of it’s overtones or harmonic series. As the professor switched from the sine wave to the saw-tooth wave, we heard a difference in sound even though he was playing the same note on the keyboard!

The difference in what we heard was the fundamental frequency, plus the unique mixture of amplitudes of the overtones for that frequency, all playing at the same time. This unique amplitude of overtone frequencies is what defines that particular saw-tooth wave sound.

More than just Digital!
Have you ever noticed how the same instruments can sound drastically different from one another depending on the manufacture who makes that instrument?  Such as the unique sound of a Steinway Grand Piano vs a Yamaha Grand Piano. Even though you play the exact same chords, don’t they sound a bit different? That has to do with the unique mixture of different amplitudes of the overtones of the fundamental. It’s also what gives that piano is distinct unique sound, just like the saw-tooth wave.

Timbre, Amplitude and Filtering – What’s the relationship with Instruments?
If we then know that a tone can have a unique sound based on it’s distinct mixture of amplitudes in the overtones, we then could then make the argument that certain ‘like’ instruments such as a Yamaha Piano and a Stienway Piano  have ‘natural’ attenuation and amplification of certain frequencies in those overtones. This ‘natural’ attenuation and amplification could then be thought of as a filtering effect and each manufacture has a different type of filtering effect on those overtones that give it that distinct sound!

Expanding the ideas of Timbre to Music:
We now know that ‘like’ instruments can sound different, simply based on the filtering of the overtones of the fundamental frequency. We also know that ‘differing’ instruments such as a bass and piano sound different, because of the similar principles but with much more radical changes to those overtones. But how does this relationship work in the context of music?

Well couldn’t we make the argument then, that a pop song, sounds different from a rock song, even though the same chord tones are being played? That it’s not about what chords are being played, but in the ‘way’ those chords and overtones sound that defines that genre of music?

Similarly, couldn’t we say the rock bands such as the Rolling Stones and Our Lady Peace both sound different based on their particular unique tones and overtones?  But that the filtering of those overtones are not as drastic, allowing both bands to fit into one genre of music? I think so!

Producing Genre Specific Music with ‘Timbre’ Philosophy:
An interesting thing happened to me one day as I was struggling to understand, why I couldn’t make the music I was producing, sound like the hits I have on my iPhone. I played similar chord progressions, I used similar virtual instruments and fiddled with propagation and compression settings to match the wave form of a professionally produced track.  After hours of mixing the rendered track and comparing it to a top 40 pop song scratching my head, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

“It’s not about what instruments you play, it’s about the way those instruments sound”

More specifically, it’s not about the instruments you play, it’s the way those instruments sound in relationship to that genre of music. That each genre of music has a unique timbrel shape, and that the best songs follow this basic timbrel shape. That a genre’s basic timbrel shape consists of instruments that all have their own unique timbrel qualities, and the mixture of these genre specific timbrel affected instruments, create that genre’s timbrel shape specific sound.

Simply put, that in dubstep – the piano will have a basic ‘dubstep’ timbre, the kick drum will have a basic ‘dubstep’ timbre and of course the bass will have a basic ‘dubstep’ timbre.

That the genre will require those instruments to have those basic timbrel shapes in order for it to fit that genre of music. The filtering or amplification and attenuation of those basic timbrel shapes for those genre specific instruments allows for different ‘styles’ of music that still fit within that genre.

Concluding Thoughts when using the Genre Specific Timbre Philosophy:
Since we know that genres have basic timbrel qualities and shapes, we can then design instrument patches or select instruments that would best fit the timbrel shapes required by that specific genre.

In this case, we would then be separating timbre away from it’s technical use in music production and begin using it as a philosophical approach and frame of reference in context of producing music for a specific genre.

That timbre becomes the first fundamental tone in music production and all other technical knowledge of ‘how to achieve that timbre’ become the overtones of music production that can be attenuated and amplified as needed.

My thank you and final thoughts:
I’d like to thank the peers who have reviewed my article and submitted their input to the dialog I’ve put forth. I thank you for taking the time to read my research as I know it’s a lot to cover, but felt that this would be a great opportunity to share my insights as well. I felt I had achieved the goal of explaining my view points on timbre as the fundamental building block of music production and I hope you enjoyed the read.

Reference Material:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbre

http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.12.18.2/mto.12.18.2.blake.php

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-elements-of-music.html

Music Business: Do it yourself and you’re destined to fail

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The argument I am proposing, is that you cannot be successful in the music industry, without a team that is focused on a mission of getting your music placed in the right streams and is packaged in the right way.

Being a successful musician in the modern day is quite different from the pre 90′s era when record labels still invested in the artist in hopes they would produce enough revenue to pay back all the work done in breaking their music to the public.

There is a lot of services rendered when a top level artists, signed by labels, break into the mainstream music market and that means, there is a team of people working like an organization in supporting the mission of mainstream success. The revenue generated by mainstream success is astonishing, imagine $.99 x 500,000 = gross $495, 000 in downloads from itunes (not inc their fee) – and that’s on a mediocre release.

So where does that leave indie musicians? In the dust, unless you reconsider the age old motto of the “do it yourself, marketing, designing, engineering, booking, etc etc”. And rethink the importance of building a team. There is simply way too much to do and take care of, for one person or one band to take on.

Luckily for me, Kristin Thomson, a top level researcher at http://www.futureofmusic.org delivered a luncheon lecture called “All You Need is Love…(and a manager, an accountant and a web designer). Making it as a Musician in an Increasingly Networked World” hosted by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, so I didn’t have to do much research this time around.

Kristin’s team put together a survey, that polled 5300 musicians around the united states that are in the profession of music and asked them key questions regarding revenue, team members and the relationship of the two. The findings were that artists who were successfully employed or generating revenue from their craft usually made more money when certain tasks were delegated to team members.

In the lecture, she mentions that while technology has empowered musicians to be able to do much on their own, it also a double edged sword as they will either need to enlist the help of a team or juggle between different demanding roles of marketing, graphic design, photography, networking, accounting, web coding and web interaction.

While it is possible with efficient time management skills, access to educational resources and having a level of accountability for self, the odds of being successful at this, is quite low.  Interestingly enough, in the same lecture, her studies show that a musician with a team actually generates more revenue than a musician who is doing everything on their own.

Kristin also believes that no matter what role we’re talking about, there are three top level team members that creators often need, or have:

  • A manager, who plays traffic cop on ALL of the other elements
  • An attorney, to review contacts
  • An account, to deal with compensation and taxes

I think the above is important at a certain stage in a musician’s career, however, it is not productive for an indie musician to contract or enlist the services above unless they are well into their EP releases and have generated a very popular buzz that show signs of mainstream viability.  Her research also included artists that are on salary from their labels and other businesses such as session players and performers.

Kristin goes on to state other team members that are important to the success of a musician, which I feel are critical to an indie band’s initial success, prior to taking the steps to break into the mainstream.

If you’re a recording artist or performer, you might also need the services of:

  • A publicist: to help you promote new releases to radio or reviewers
  • A webmaster, to help you with your internet presence
  • A graphic designer, to help with packaging, t-shirt design, logos
  • A photographer
  • A videographer
  • A Publisher – For Composers/Songwriters
  • A CD manufacturer
  • A Promotional Firm
  • A Reputable Booking Agent
  • A Funding Source – Because someone’s gotta pay for all this

And if you’re on tour a lot, you’ll probably have bandmates. You might also need:

  • a tour manager
  • a sound person
  • road crew

It’s important to note, that you may not need to enlist the services of each team member all at the same time. You may need a graphic designer, only once when the full album has been recorded, or when you need merchandise produced, or maybe do those together with the posters you’ll need for your tour dates – but at least you won’t be managing this project on your own and you might get a deal on price!

The other important factor that Erin McKowen (A road musician and researcher at http://www.futureofmusic.org)  mentioned, is that street teams are typically unreliable when asking them to complete a specific task, such as selling merchandise at shows. It’s far more better to contract a team (pay) someone to manage that task or a list of others along with it.

What surprised me most about the data presented by Kristin, is the amount of work related to that of a Recording Artist. Recording labels are in-house organizations that not only provide an advance to the artist for recording and touring, but offer services of manufacturing the physical albums, PR leverage, publicity and so on. It’s clear that an artist on the indie scene that is determined to “do it themselves” is almost destined to fail, as the expertise in these fields are life-long pursuits of some of the professionals involved with record labels.

While there are many musicians that have made it, and claim that they have done it by their own teeth and grit, I think it’s fair to say – from all the data collected by Kristin at http://www.futuremusic.org, ”the do it yourself approach” to a successful music career is a romanticized idea at best and far from the reality needed to become successful in the music industry. Your best approach is to build a skilled team that can support your vision for a music career.

References:

http://futureofmusic.org/blog/2012/04/18/musicians-who-your-team

http://money.futureofmusic.org/teams/2/

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2012/04/thomson_mckeown

http://wilkins.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2012-04-10_music/2012-04-10_music640.mov

http://about.me/kristinthomson

http://www.erinmckeown.com/

Artist Development: Intro to the Music Industry (Relationships)

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Intro Music IndustryThe music business, is just that, a business. It’s products are songs, albums, concerts and merchandise. The business requires product development, research, manufacturing, sales and advertising, lawyers and accountants just like any other business.

Many people who enter the music industry are confused about how money is made. The short answer is relationships.

But what does that mean?

The music business works on a network of trusted relationships between individuals who operate outside the industry, and these relationships are built early on in the careers of many of the top-selling artists you hear today.

Those relationships were built on trust and belief in the artist’s ability to be successful, and many musicians, producers,songwriters and sales and marketing teams are involved and for the most part, many are not paid for their services when the artist first breaks out in the public eye. It is usually after the initial success, when residuals and advances are earned by the release of the album, when money is paid back to the creators through sales and record company advances.

There is no such thing as an unplanned number one hit record. There are many players involved in its release, from the songwriter, producer, composer, engineer, instrumentalists, publishers, marketers and promoters who are all working to see the album become successful artistically as well as profitable too

All individuals involved have strong relationships with one another. They are all vested in the overall success of the album release. Each player knows their significant contribution to the album, their role and their commitment to release quality output. Their belief in their collective ability to produce a hit record is what makes a hit record.

Many of the most successful road artist (people who play for successful live acts), as well as studio artists (people who record the album version of the song in studio), start out in bands in their highschool/college days. They dreamed of being famous, but they never let that dream get to their head. They hung around studios and helped out for free, recorded demos for nothing, they were essentially apart of every record the came through the studio or played at every live gig for every band they could, they promoted every artist that needed exposure and did all the legwork.

As a result, they were rewarded with valuable relationships that lasted into their own musical successes.

These people were also very good at what they did and were moderately good at other things related in the music industry. They not only played their instrument like no one else could, they learned how to operate gear to help record demos, they learned how to sing to do backing vocals of songs that were never cut, they promoted other artists in the efforts to help them become signed. Everybody knew them as the person who was just always around doing stuff, and people eventually respected their ability, their help and drive to to be the best. These lead to calls for paid work later on for these artists.

To get started in the industry, first understand that the second you pick up an instrument, you are IN the industry already. Second, realize that the biggest reason why any artist becomes successful is because there is a group of people behind that they have built strong relationships with. These people are now experts at what they do and want to see this artist successful and are willing to work hard to see this happen.

When people complain that they are not connected, it is because their ego is too large for them to understand that relationships are built because people trust you. They trust you because you are not only good at what you do, but you are always around, you’re helpful around the studio, you record demo tracks for free, you promote and market other artists around you. You’re a likeable, helpful musician, that people know and remember.

Those people are your team. They know you’re skill, they like you, they connect with you and eventually through respect and belief in your dream, they will be a phone call away to help you when you need them.

The music business, is a relationship business. Because relationships take time to build, and because not every album is going to majorly successful, income in usually earned sporadically. Income in the music industry is not stable and for the most part it is usually earned only after the release becomes successful enough to earn residuals.

In the rare case, salaries can be earned, but a certain level of success needs to happen first and those are usually paid by record companies to see your solid progress.

Many of the most top-selling artists knew this, and as a result worked part-time jobs while continuing their efforts in not just their own music, but building relationships and being helpful to everyone around them in the industry. This is what lead to the grand network of relationships they had and access to the expertise they needed to make their dreams in music come true.

The flow of the music industry is simple. Invest in the people around you, help them reach their dreams, and when you’re ready to put your dream together, these people will be there for you.

The music business is a community, it isn’t a place or location.

Artist Development: People Buy You, Not Your Music!

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I’ve struggled with a burning question ever since I became a music producer.

How is it that celebrity artists can rake in millions of dollars through record sales, tours and merchandise, whereas a local artist rakes in, well, nothing to just “cost-covering” sales?

After much research and reading through magazines, documentaries and books, I’ve discovered something very critical to the sale of music, and generally, to the sale of entertainment.

People don’t buy music, they buy the person behind the music! People may like your song, but that doesn’t mean they will even spend a dollar on it. The reason is because, when money is exchanged, it’s business, plain and simple and business is about a relationship. That relationship is where one person, is solving another person’s problem.

 “Being an artist, is a service to the people” – Pharrell Williams. 

Understand the statement above? A service is a solution, but a solution to what problem? There is a reason why people turn to art, it’s because it does something for them emotionally. It allows them to emotionally connect to the lyrics of the song. Your music, isn’t just your music you see… It’s gateway for others to feel validated for how they feel inside, collectively with you and through others who enjoy your music as well!

For those three minutes, they can feel whatever they want to feel, and it is okay, because you as an artist provide the medium to do so. THAT is why people LISTEN to you.

Look at that last sentence, people listen to you. To get to the level where people are LISTENING to you, people have to TRUST you first. Before you they can trust, there needs to be a relationship and prior to a relationship, there needs to be a connection.

How do you connect? How everyone else connects, people need to LIKE you as a person first and then as an artist :)

Just because you have a good album of songs, that doesn’t mean people will listen, it isn’t enough these days. We have to understand the problem better. People turn to artists THEY LIKE to make them feel better or help them through things. If people are fans of one particular artist, it is because THEY TRUST that the artist will continue to make them feel better.There’s a relationship difference here.

The biggest factor of breaking the ice with a new listener of your music, is your likeability appeal to the person hearing it. It’s a basic human behaviour, we stick around things we like because they make us happy. People aren’t looking for music that is technically good, or unique or even different. People like all sorts of music, even top 40.

The difference is that people support different kinds of music from particular artists they like, because they make them feel better. Your likeability is the first appeal to your audience for them to connect with you.

If you’ve gotten attention from your audience based on your likability, that’s great! But it’s going to take much more than that for them to exchange their hard-earned money for your music! You need to give them a reason to connect with you and build that relationship that turns them from ‘fans from a far; to ‘die hard supporters’ and this has to do with creating an emotional positive experience through your music and (somewhat) through your media.

How do you as an artist, meet this expectation? Well, it isn’t through social media, because it isn’t personal enough. It isn’t through a music video, because anyone can watch your music video, it isn’t personal enough. These do work in some cases, but often it’s because the song either really spoke to them individually, or because the artist was recently seen on TV shows, featured on other music or has an online buzz (which is usually because someone else had a good positive emotional experience with that artist).

People strive for one thing in life, and that’s connection. People want to connect, However, you can’t connect over a computer screen, or through a TV. You need to  personalize this experience with each fan individually, or as many as you can and through you, others will connect.. You are the beginning and the gateway of people connecting. The emotional positive experience of your performances, promotions and media is what differentiates you as a musician from another within that same genre.

In closing, the process of becoming a professional artist has been the same for generations, it’s the same formula of how we remember great sports players like Mohammad Ali, activists like Gandhi, historians like Socrates and even politicians like Trudeau.

Be likable, develop a connection by showing interest in your audience, build trust by solving their problems through use of your art and provide positive emotional experiences that make them feel good about themselves. This is what usually sets apart the professional artists aside from the struggling artist.

I’ve adapted much of the information on this article from the book: People Buy You by Jeb Blount. Check out his book below, it’s a great read!: http://www.amazon.ca/People-Buy-You-Matters-Business/dp/0470599111

Daniel Ram.

How To Be A Music Producer: Intro to Physics of Sound (Consonance and Dissonance)

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Audio PhysicsThese are introductory notes into understanding the physics of sound.

Sound travels through the air in what we call, sound waves. These waves oscillate (Or vibrate) a certain number of times per second  (faster or slower) and our interpretation of these different oscillations or vibrations give us the perception of pitch in sound.

The number of times per second a wave vibrates, is also called ‘cycles per second’ or traditionally Hz (Hertz). When a waveform vibrates at 200 cycles per second or Hz, we can graph this and identify where on the audible sound spectrum it exists.

Sound waves are complex forms that are made up of ‘partial’ sounds, or better known as ‘harmonics’. These harmonics are embedded into the complete pitch and combined along with the ‘fundamental’ sound to create the characteristics of the complete sound.

In example, when the note C is pressed on a piano, the harmonics of note are also present in the note of C.

The harmonics of a sound are related to each other by the ‘harmonic series’. To calculate the harmonics, which define the particular fundamental sound, you would use the formula ‘n * f’ where ‘n’ is the number of the harmonic in the series (ie: 1st harmonic, 2nd harmonic, etc) and were ‘f’ is the fundamental sound or note, expressed in Hertz.

Example: Harmonics of fundamental 110hz:
2nd harmonic: 2 * 110 = 220 hz.
3rd harmonic: 3 * 110 = 330 hz

In the harmonic series, when a harmonic doubles the value of the fundamental (ie: f=110hz and h=220hz) it means this harmonic is an octave above the fundamental. These are special relationships in sound.

When creating music, it’s important to note that when two instruments occupy the same fundamental frequency, their harmonics are also occupying the same space in terms of harmonic series.

This also means, when an instrument is playing an octave above another instrument, and the frequency range of the instruments are the same, we are also dealing with the same harmonic series. The result is a smooth sound or a consonance sound in music.

However, if we play an instrument which does not occupy the same frequency range and also doesn’t occupy the same harmonic series, what we get is different oscillations or vibrations in the music that create a roughness or dissonant sound.

When we create music, and certain intervals are used, we must understand that we are not only playing the note itself, but also the harmonic series to create an intentional use of consonance and dissonance in music. Otherwise, we could be creating an unwanted perception of sound, which is music that is either out of key or distorted.

In popular music, there is very minimal use of dissonance and more use of consonance. This is true with most Top 40 music. Many of the instruments in the songs, are mapped to frequency ranges that would compliment the idea of consonance in music.

Artist Development: The Obession with Fame and Fortune

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Everybody FamousTop psychology studies state that there is a growing epidemic in today’s culture, everyone wants to be a celebrity.

I think they are wrong. I think that in today’s culture, everyone is celebrity. There is a reason why people pimp out their facebook profiles, update their twitter every 45 seconds, and add a billion friends they don’t really know; it has to do with mimicking celebrity (not the persons, but the status).

Why do people search for fame or celebrity? It’s due to our human nature and psychology. It’s human nature to want acceptance from 80% of the people we meet, it’s human nature to want to feel like what we say matters and it’s human nature to want to live in abundance and have lots of friends.This is the image of celebrity being pushed by media.

Our primal instincts tell us to achieve the ideas of celebrity as well. Apparently, when we were primates, we would watch the strongest members of our species to learn what they do for survival (monkey see, monkey do). We would mimic the behaviors of stronger primates in an attempt to become stronger ourselves. There was no physical difference between the ‘stronger’ primates and the ‘weaker’ primates, they both had the exact same physical attributes, it was all psychological. In a way, we have been pre-conditioned to want celebrity. It’s the very nature of the human being, we want absolute acceptance, we want strength, freedom, power for survival and we want to be on-top of the heard. We want to matter.

Now we know why people want it. But what is celebrity in reality?
Celebrity is nothing more than a psychological phenomenon that happens in the human mind. The problem is that celebrity is not a physical thing that can be experienced, nor is it typically something that can be earned through hard work or education. The majority of all celebrity is based on three factors, your marketability to sell, likeable personality/convertibility and chance. Chance is important because you need the chance or opportunity to meet someone who has connections with marketing dollars to push you through the media pipeline.

Take notice of one other thing. Talent is not part of the equation of celebrity. Talent is achieved by hard work and dedication. Celebrity is achieved through money exchanges between media companies who have vested interests.That’s right!

Media companies made celebrities. You don’t think that the media companies wouldn’t leverage a basic human want?… That’s not unheard of, well actually, that is the business of media! Media companies leveraged the psychological behavior of our early primates and because celebrity is a form of advertisement in today’s culture, we blindly pay attention to celebrities because we see what we could possibly have/be like.

Media companies have created an expectation of what we should be like, and they switched gears. It used to be that you could only dream of becoming a celebrity(1960s – 1980s). Now, media companies endorse the idea that anybody can become a celebrity, even for doing nothing. This is far from the truth, seeing as they are the ones who select celebrities that are good for business

Are you sure this relates to Music and Artists?

Think Justin Bieber, a kid who can’t exactly sing, dance or rap well. Yet, media companies picked him up and pushed him through the media pipeline. What is the message? Anybody can become a celebrity, just keep posting vids about yourself singing online. What is the reality? Nobody cares about you singing, they are too busy posting a video of themselves singing. Having a million likes doesn’t bring home the bacon and it doesn’t mean anybody really cares about your music enough to buy it.

Think Jersey Shore, here’s a show that glamorize drinking non-stop, partying like animals and that lack of responsibility is cool. What is the message? Go out every night, get hammered and party till you drop and you’ll live the celebrity lifestyle. The reality? Alcoholism, STD’s, lack of financing, dead-end job, car accidents, early childbirth and brain/kidney damage.

Think twitter, here’s an application people use to follow (or stalk) their favorite celebrities. What is the message? Now you can get more personal with your favorite celebrities all the time and share information about them. The reality? A constant reinforcement of the importance of celebrity in your life. More influence for you to be like them, less like you. More exposure to media marketing messages. You will mimic their activity (add friends, post non-stop, etc) Not to mention, you will spend a total of 24 hours on twitter at some point in your life, that’s one full day, was it worth reading all that crap? Did you learn anything useful?

Think Facebook, an application that keeps you connected to people you know in real life, all the time. What’s the message? Connecting with friends, share and get your photo’s ‘liked’. The reality, The ‘Like” button in reality, is just a button.. It doesn’t mean they even watched your video, listened to your music or even read your status. Being on-demand all the time and allowing everyone access to you 24/7, even online, is an exhausting experience.

Think Kim Kardashin, here’s someone who got famous for a sex tape. What’s the message? Having sex is fashionable. The reality? STD’s, pregnancy, emptiness.

Celebrity today, is distortion from reality. It is fantasy, it is selfish desire. Celebrity when we were primates, was about showcasing a unique skill that could be useful for other’s survival.

Don’t chase celebrity, or money as an artist, rather chase your artistic freedom and expression and as Michael Jordan says “Let your game, be your marketing tool.”

Video: Documentary: CBC – The Passionate Eye – Episode – Teenage Paparazzo.

Learn How to Produce Music: Introduction Audio Compression Notes (Technical)

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audio compressor

Figure 1.0 – Before and After Compression and Boosted Gain.

Introduction to Audio Compression
Audio compression originated in the 1920s when an audio engineer for the Orchestra would anticipate when the orchestra would get louder in their live performance and he would then turn the gain down on the output so that the live performance would appear to be playing at a consistent level of volume. As technology improvements were made in the field of audio, a compressor was created to basically mimic the behavior of that audio engineer of the orchestra.

The main goal of a compressor the was to reduce peaks in audio so there is a consistent level of volume in the entire track. It does not push up the volume, it actually reduces the volume of the loudest part of a song. What pushes the volume up, is the gain knob, which is separate from compression. The result after compression is extra sonic space in the audio file as the peaks were normalized to a regular volume, this would allow for the volume of the entire audio file to be boosted closer to 0db without clipping (see Figure 1.0)

In vocal compression, anytime you use a compressor, you change the way the vocal sounds. In most cases, the vocal will usually sound more synthetic and less natural. This is because the compressor is processing all dynamics of the vocal, and not just the peaks that stand-out as loud parts that annoy you.

Depending on the vision for the track (if it’s an intimate natural song, or a heavy dance track) adding compression to the vocal may be out of taste with the artistic identity of the song and you may have to consider the alternative to compression.

The alternative to vocal compression is “Gain Riding”. This is a form of manual compression whereby you would (automation)  lower the fader/volume of a peak in the audio file to a consistent db level in contrast to the other peaks in that file..

If you decide to use compression on a vocal, it often helps to use a basic compressor rather than a multiband compressor. This is of course, by preference. Many engineers will use multi-band compressors to enhance and limit different frequency bands of a recording.

In terms of vocal compression, adding a compressor to the lower frequencies, will allow for higher band frequencies to shine through, which may be a desirable effect if you’re looking to cut the mids out of a vocal and increase the shine.

Multi-Band compressors are often used more on different instruments to add accents and highlights to the frequencies that define that instrument. For example, an acoustic guitar compressor may slam the mid low-end frequency bands cut out the mud and allow for the higher band frequencies to shine in the song to make it sound sweet.

Compression settings vary track to track and are really more defined by the vision of that particular song. Before any settings are touched on compressors/EQ, one should have a clear idea for the vision of the song. What are the defining characteristics of the song and how do you bring them out more in the mix via compression/EQ. What are the elements that are just horrid about the song and how can you use compression/EQ to limit or reduce their presence.

Compression is also a great mastering tool and can be used  to make audio sound the same on various different speakers and headphones. This is known as “Snapping Compression” and can be achieved by setting the compressor to a long attack and fast release rate. This allows for transients to come through first and then the body of the compressed sound will be smashed, creating an almost snapping effect, this is great for snare drums.

At the end of the day, compression, much like EQ has to do with taste. When you think of taste, think of food. Adding too much salt or pepper will ruin the meal, but just the right amount will bring out the flavours that you enjoy the most.

Artist Development: How to Truly Get Over Bad Relationships / Friendships

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Bad Relationship

To truly get over a bad relationship or friendship, it takes 3 parts acknowledgement and 2 parts action.

These 5 Steps will lead you through the process of eliminating the negativity in your life and get you back on track to being happy :)

 

But first: “How did I get myself in a bad relationship in the first place? I’m not stupid!”
You’re not stupid, you’re an artist and you will get into many relationships with people some significant, some not so much. It’s your job. We all generally believe that the more relationships we have, the better off we are; however, some relationships will cause you more bad than good.

The following five steps will get you outta, over and passed this bad relationship and on to the road to focusing on success and happiness!

The Five Steps to Truly Get Over a Bad Relationship:

1. Acknowledge that YOU are in a BAD Relationship:
Not all people are good, have you seen the news? There are bad people in this world and you have to accept the reality, that you probably have got into a relationship with a bad person. You can’t always beat the odds.

Relationships are about give and take, so ask yourself, how much has this person taken from you? How much have they given back?

Once, I thought I had a strong connection with this girl. For over two years, I surprised her with gifts, made her laugh, listened to all her problems and supported her in her goals. I was always there for her. One day, I let her know how I felt. She said she wasn’t ready for a relationship and needed to focus on herself and I respected that. Less than a month later, she got into a relationship with another guy. Basically, I had to cut contact, I felt like such a sucker for thinking I was anything more than bank/counsellor to this person.

What I’m trying to say is, this person had taken so much from me, (in time, money, advice, the things that matter) and hadn’t given anything back in appreciation.. nothing. All I really had was the hurt, and when someone leaves you with hurt – they aren’t leaving you with happy.These are what you call bad people in your life.

Until you acknowledge this fact and reality,that this person is bad, you cannot move on or get past this bad relationship;  you will keep justifying it’s existence. If you can accept it, move on to step two.

2. Acknowledge Your Feelings Unhappiness and Loss in this Bad Relationship:
Of course you’re going to feel unhappy and as if you lost-out, bigtime! You had put in a lot of time and effort into this bad relationship. What did you lose? You lost the investment of time, and that is something you cannot get back no matter how much you kick and scream. It’s so significant that it affects you subconsciously.

What did they lose? Not much.. They didn’t make the same investment you did; they may not even feel as if they lost anything but a number on a cell or a face on a facebook; as hard as it is, this is the reality, so don’t expect that they will come back to you out of some epiphany (feeling) they had at some late hour.  (plus this is about you, not them)

Because this loss affects you subconsciously, your conscious mind will get confused. You will look at this BAD relationship as if it was a GOOD relationship. You will remember times in the relationship when it was fun and good or focus on how ‘good’ of a person they are. Do not be fooled by this illusion. (good = happy, do they make you happy?)

What you are actually doing, is holding on to hurt and pain. These memories, physical objects or anything that reminds you them, has nothing to do with being happy, it has everything to do with pain and hurt and continuing to think of them will only lead to one thing, more pain and hurt.

Stop the pain and the hurt! You do this by first removing anything that reminds you of them. The memories will come, it’s subconscious, but at least now you are aware of where they will lead, stop them in their tracks!

After acknowledging this bad relationship and understanding your feelings of loss, the next step is turn this bad relationship into something of real value, not just a life lesson.

3. The Importance Getting Something of Value out of a Bad Relationship:
I don’t mean a life lesson or a physical object. If you’re trying to get over a bad relationship, you’re feeling the way you do because you didn’t get anything out of the relationship itself.

When you think of the other person, they sure as hell did. For me, the girl got my time, money, advice and support for the two years while she needed it. What did I get? Diddly squat.. How do you reconcile that?

You do that by doing what I’ve done here, you create something of value from the experience of the bad relationship. This way you at least get SOMETHING from the bad relationship that has value.

For me, I wrote this article and created a resource for other people who may be going through the same thing. You don’t have to write an article, or make a movie about it, but you do have to create something of value from this bad relationship that can be shared with others, this is because your feeling of loss will never be reconciled otherwise.

This process does two things.
First, it gives you back ownership of the investment you made in that bad relationship and gives you back something of value that you can take away from it, something real that made it somewhat worth your effort.

Second, it rids you of the responsiblity of being the sole person burdened with the pain of this bad relationship. Once it’s in the world, it’s shared by everyone - literally!

Once you’ve released yourself, you will feel relieved! You won’t be happy but now you can focus on becoming happy!

4. Getting Happy – Why It Isn’t an Overnight Thing:
Anyone who tells you that happiness is a choice, or simply giving it time is the cure, is either a complete crock, and is in denial. If this were true, you wouldn’t be reading this and I wouldn’t be writing this.

I am convinced that you don’t get to be happy just like that;  it’s a struggle, a fight just to be happy and has been for centuries. You need to understand something, you lost something so significant in this relationship, forget the person, you lost time and you’re not getting it back, and in return for that time, you got nothing. So now your struggle for happiness is even harder!

Acknowledge the substantial loss that this is and you’ll understand why it is so difficult to move on and do the things that make you happy. Giving yourself time doesn’t help the feeling of loss and distracting yourself doesn’t handle the pain, it just masks it.

The only way to truly become happy again, is by dealing with the loss in a different way (next step) and stopping the pain by making the conscious effort to catch any subconscious thoughts, memories that occur and shutting them down immediately.

The next step is how happiness is really attained after the loss of a bad relationship.

5. The Real Path to Happiness
It’s time to take action! This is gonna take hard work and tons of effort! You need to rebuild your level of happiness, one inch at a time and in the beginning it’s going to suck, bigtime!

I compare gaining happiness, a lot like going to the gym. In order to get the body you want, you’re going to have to force yourself to hit the gym and train hard even when it hurts and you don’t want to do it. But at the end of all the hard work - YOU WILL get the result you’re looking for. You’ll love the way you look and so will other people.

Gaining happiness is the same way, you gotta start a routine and be consistent! Do one thing each day that ‘should’ make you happy (even if it doesn’t), You’re not looking to get happy right then, you’re looking for the end result of happiness. As long as you keep working on gaining happiness, inch by inch, at the end of all the hard work –  YOU WILL get the result you’re looking for. You’ll love the way you feel and so will other people.

If you follow these steps, exactly.. YOU WILL get over any bad relationship and back to making great music and connecting with valuable people again!

The Lesson:
“Never make the foolish mistake to invest time in people who do not understand what your time is worth.”