Indie Musicians: Stand Out From The Pack By Sounding Your Best
For the independent artist, sounding good isn't a rarity only available to major label artists anymore - it is a must. Music sales may have diminished, but that doesn't mean that recorded music is on its way out. Far from it. More music is being consumed on more devices by more listeners than ever before in history! Artists are making their music available on internet and satellite radio, online music streaming services such as Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, Deezer, and YouTube, selling on direct-to-fan sites such as CD Baby, Bandcamp, and ReverbNation, and still pushing sales through ‘traditional' online retailers such as iTunes and Amazon MP3. Simply put, there is no excuse for an artist to put out sub-par recordings.
To many, audio engineers are still a mystery. To others, they are ‘evil' manipulators of music, creating false, auto-tuned, drones out of unskilled artists. This, however, is far from fact. Every record, no matter the type, gets touched by a tracking engineer, mixing engineer, and mastering engineer. The recording engineer utilizes a plethora of microphones and technique to accurately capture and record the artist's performance as it occurs in the recording studio. The mix engineer takes all of the separate audio tracks and crafts the music to sound great and convey the song's emotion. He sets the right levels, panning, EQ, compression, and adds creative effects where possible to enhance the artist's vision. Lastly, the mastering engineer uses unique tools and highly trained ears in an acoustically accurate room to subtly polish and prepare the track for final release and ensure the sound plays back well on a variety of speakers. "While many audio techniques can enhance the final production, we engineers are not magicians and can't replace a poor performance or terrible recording," says Scott of Virtual Mix Engineer.
Recordings are more often used as promotional tool for artists. The big dough currently is in converts, publishing, sync placements, and merchandising. When a listener connects with an artist's music, they'll listen to their records, tweet, and share the music with their friends. The fans want to support the artist and buy tickets to their concerts, purchase apparel, and follow and interact with the artist through social media. As the musician grows in popularity, their music may be chosen for sync placements in film and TV, which not only provides great exposure, it also pays very well. To make it to this stage however, it all starts with well written song and quality recording.
The rise of DIY recording has led to more bands releasing music than ever before. With a powerful laptop, some microphones, a DAW, and a little know-how, anyone can create and distribute music. One area where many musicians fall short is failing to recognize their weaknesses in mixing. An experienced mixer has the right tools, but most importantly the knowledge to make a production reach its full potential. Though it can be hard for an artist, letting go and trusting your engineer will take your productions to the next level and help you stand out from the crowd. Fans are instantly attracted to a well-written and performed song that sounds like a hit.
Spend a good amount of time in pre-production, ensuring your song and arrangement are as strong as possible. Then and only then, get into the best studio you can afford to record your basic tracks. Connect with a local or online mixing engineer within your budget whose work and personality you gel with, and tweak the mix until you're satisfied. Finally, send the songs off to the mastering engineer for that final touch. Once your recording is complete, you can get the music into multiple stores and into the ears of your listeners and fans.
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