New In Recording

.Music

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 06:59:00 +0000

Most people are familiar with .com, .net, .org, or .gov basic suffixes for internet web pages. The nonprofit group Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) has proposed to add new endings for webpages according to a NYtimes.com article.

These suffixes give more incite on what the website contains, unlike the mysterious .com. Examples listed in the article are .movie, .tickets, .multifuctional; and of course, .music.

To put it simply, this just means that instead of your favorite artist’s page ending in .com, it would end in .music. It makes sense and seems easy, but it could go a bit too far.

The article brings up a few issues with this new .music suffix. One, and the main focus of the article, is who will own this title. Another is the so-called “land grab” this will bring. My own is how much is too much?

The article says that there are eight different companies bidding to own the .music suffix. Among them are a group backed by the RIAA and many other big names in the music industry; a company, oddly enough, named .MUSIC; Google; and Amazon. Naturally, it would make sense for something of this nature to go to a company related to the RIAA. It only makes sense.

With the “land grab” in effect, it may be possible for bands to lose their ideal domain name due to someone buying them all up. Some people may try to secure the domain name and sell it to the artist it would belong to for more money. Something to this tune has already happened in the Internet world. Since then laws have been made to protect companies from this.

Now, how far is too far? The article says that a great number of these suffix ideas are being proposed. The .multifuctional suffix mentioned leads me to think that these may become too detailed and become more complicated than need be.

Overall, I think it could be a good idea if used sparingly. It could possibly open up the same domain name with different suffixes for different types of media. An example would me a movie and a band with the same name. One would be .music and the other .movie.

Reference:

Sisario, B. (2012, June 13). Digital notes: Plans for a new music suffix, but who will own it?. Retrieved from http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/digital-notes-plans-for-a-new-music-suffix-but-who-will-own-it/?ref=recordingindustryassociationofamerica

Tucker Martine

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 18:01:00 +0000

In the music industry, it is always good and inspiring to have a lot of passion. Tucker Martine, a well-known producer and audio engineer, has been in music for most of his life.

Like a lot of young and aspiring engineers of today, Martine started as a musician. As the article and interview in Mix magazine says, he started playing the drums at a young age. From there he progressed to both the music side and the sound side. He started recording the bands that he played in as well as other bands. This is very similar to how young aspiring engineers (high school and college-aged, mostly) begin their climb through the industry.

Of course it was a lot of work to get to the point he is at now. It took him fifteen years to become well known in the industry. As the interview goes through, Martine worked very hard just to start his own studio. He started saving everything he could, just working as a bartender. From his savings, Martine would buy small pieces: a microphone here, one there, and another small piece of equipment.

At the same time, he was making connections. Of course connections are always important in any part of the entertainment business. As he says in the interview, Martine was basically working for free. He was gaining experience and learning techniques.

His first studios were only basement studios. At the start of his studios, he only asked for $5 to $7. Of course, this is nowhere near the amounts that big studios and big name producers ask for.

The way he started was very smart. He knew who is target audience was and how to reach them. He knew how to price his service and make his service absolutely necessary to the bands.

Overall, I find Tucker Martine’s rise in the industry rather inspiring. He worked very hard to get to where he is now. It takes a lot of passion and dedication to work as he did. Your average person would not work for free to learn and get connections in the industry. They also wouldn’t dedicate all their savings to starting up a studio.

Reference:

Jackson, B. (2012, June 01). Producer's desk: Tucker martine. Retrieved from http://mixonline.com/recording/tracking/producers_desk_tucker_martine//index.html

Business Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 17:44:00 +0000

There is a lot to be learned from professionals in the business consultants just from their views on business plans. In the previous post, I researched Frank Gloey and Dave Lavinsky. These two have similar views that I found rather helpful. They both talk about realistic assumptions and how realistic the business plan is (Lavinsky, 2012) (Goley, 2012).

I incorporated information from both professionals in my business plan. Goley stresses being genuine and realistic. I made the most realistic assumptions in my business plan as possible. As a company, we care genuinely about our clients and their music.

From Lavinsky, I found it best to make a unique company that has a high edge on the competition. In the specific area my company is located in, there is no other company just like it. As my business plan describes, the studios in the area are focused on other things. They are not focused on building the music scene in Pittsburgh. JustRiot Productions uses the management side to help their bands and really grow the music in the area. This is what I have incorporated into my company. I also incorporated scalability. My company could easily expand. Another studio could be built anywhere in the country, and there is no real limit for the amount of studios we could expand to.

There is a lot to think about as an investor. Many things come together to make a company strong and profitable. What I think is most important is understanding the business plan and implementing it completely. This is a concept of Frank Goley’s, and I’m sure many other consultants us the same concept (“About us,” 2012). I think knowing your business plan shows investors that you know what you are doing. I also find it important to be scalable, unique, and genuine. Scalability speaks loudly to investors. They want their money back and to make the most out of a company as possible. A good exit strategy goes hand-in-hand with scalability. As Lavinsky stated, the exit strategy is where the investors make the most off a company (Lavinsky, 2012).

Resources:

About us. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.businessconsultingabc.com/About_Us.html

Lavinsky, D. (2012, May 13). Finding angel investors & convincing them to give you funding. Retrieved from http://www.growthink.com/content/finding-angel-investors-convincing-them-give-you-funding

Goley, F. (2012, May 9). Effective investor and venture capital pitch tips. Retrieved from http://abcbusinesssuccessblog.businessconsultingabc.com/2012/05/09/effective-investor-and-venture-capital-pitch-tips/

Investors and Business Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 17:59:00 +0000

FRANK GOLEY

Frank Goley is the business consultant at ABC Business Consulting. He has worked for many years in a vast variety of different business industries. He has also published books about business plans and success. (i.e. Business Planning book and The Business Success Guide) ("About us," 2012).

The way ABC Business Consulting and Goley operate is through planning, consulting, and implementing. As they say, the plan will only work if it is implemented. Anyway, what good is a plan if it is never put into practice ("About us," 2012)?

There are many important critical and key components that investors look for in a plan. One important one is being genuine. Being perceived fake is not going to get you or your business anywhere. Realistic assumptions in a business plan are also important. Realistic assumptions can show investors that you are not expecting too much and that you know what you are doing. It makes you and your business both look credible (Goley 2012).

DAVE LAVINSKY

Dave Lavinsky is the founder of growthink. Growthink helps “entrepreneurs to successfully start, grow and/or exit their companies,” (Growthink Inc, 2012). Lavinsky has written over 100 business plans and hundreds of article about entrepreneurship, business planning, and capital-raising, according to his company’s website ("Dave lavinsky," 2012).

Some of Lavinsky’s tips for investors consist of scalability, high barriers to entry, and your exit strategy (Lavinsky, 2012). Scalability determines how much the investors are going to make off of your business. They are not going to want to keep putting more and more money into your business to get it to be full scale and growing. They want to make the most money off of you while putting the least amount of their own money in. High barriers deal with competition. The harder it is for others in the industry to compete with your company, the better. You want a definite, strong edge on the competition. Your exit strategy is where the investor will potentially make all their money. You want your company to be likely to be bought out or to go public, according to Lavinsky (Lavinsky, 2012).

Resources:

About us. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.businessconsultingabc.com/About_Us.html

Dave lavinsky. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.growthink.com/team/dave-lavinsky

Lavinsky, D. (2012, May 13). Finding angel investors & convincing them to give you funding. Retrieved from http://www.growthink.com/content/finding-angel-investors-convincing-them-give-you-funding

Growthink Inc. (2012). About us. Retrieved from http://www.growthink.com/about-us

Mobile Recording

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 22:09:00 +0000

When the iPhone became popular, developers began making more and more apps to do a variety of things. From games to finances to even being able to control Pro Tools from an iPhone. This introduced an even easier way to use mobile recording.

ProRemote has been around since 2007. With Pro Tools LE, the app gave 8 channels of faders. These channels ran in real time and even gave colored monitoring like that inside Pro Tools, itself.

Not only did ProRemote run on iPhone, it is available for iPod touch, as well. Mobile recording became even more popular.

Pro Tools is not the only DAW with an iPhone controller. There are also controllers for Logic, Ableton, and many other DAWs. Many of these can be run from ProRemote.

The remotes available in the App Store are getting more and more advanced. They allow you to do even more away from your computer than ever before. DAW Remote is much more advanced. It allowed for a lot of control over Pro Tools, Logic, or Ableton Live.

DAW Remote is much more advanced than ProRemote. DAW Remote even allows the user to add and delete markers, scrub through the session, punch record, and many other features.

With the iPad, things have been no different. One specific company is embracing the power of the iPad.

PreSonus is introducing their new version of AudioBox. This update includes software to use with a free iPad app.

With this app, almost anything inside Virtual StudioLive (the DAW for AudioBox) can be controlled.

Controls include:

Volume

Pan

Aux Sends

FX Buses

Fat Channel Parameters

Not only can this app be used as a live console with AudioBox and a laptop, it can be used as a studio controller. As a live console, AudioBox can function with small gigs as a mixer or for recording. With studio work, it can be used as an extra set of faders.

The recording industry is facing a new, more mobile way to work. These apps can be very helpful in the studio or doing live work. The ability to check levels while being away from the computer can save a lot of time. Being able to mix and edit can save a lot of time, as well. Mobile recording will continue to grow with the growth of smart phones, tablets, and laptops.

Resources and links:

http://eumlab.com/daw-remote/

http://mixonline.com/news/presonus_audiobox_interface_update_1406/

http://www.folabs.com/proremoteLE.html

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/presonus-ab1818vsl-remote/id531541393?mt=8

http://www.presonus.com/

http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=65

http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=53

Pictures:

http://eumlab.com/daw-remote/images/app-daw-remote-timeline.jpg

http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Purple/v4/0f/4c/6f/0f4c6f51-f338-6c59-ee2a-2c5b774e16e4/2p8f4nTaMwZ8hkfrG4zUfw-temp-upload.ywopopze.480x480-75.jpg

Affordable Analog Recording

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 23:16:00 +0000

Even though the digital world has taken the recording industry by storm, analog is still hanging in there. Unfortunately, using tape and the equipment needed for it is not affordable for everyone. A company named Endless Analog has made it a little more affordable to get the analog tape sound, however.

Endless Analog offers a system called CLASP. CLASP stands for Closed Loop Analog Signal Processor. Sounds complicated, right? Well, technically it is, but is pretty simple to use. CLASP allows for an easier workflow will still getting the tape sound and sample accuracy.

Retrieved From:
http://blog.mixonline.com/mixblog/wp-content/uploads/
2012/05/covershot-web11.jpg

CLASP is both a hardware piece and a software program to be used with a tape machine, console, and a DAW (Pro Tools, Nuendo/Cubase) (Clasp, 2012).

With CLASP, the audio is fed from the tape machine directly into Pro Tools (or the available DAW of your choice). This eliminates a lot of hassle. Instead of recording everything to tape and then dumping it all into Pro Tools, it goes straight into the DAW. Also, you don’t have to use extra channels to go from your tape machine to your DAW. CLASP does it all with much less hassle.

CLASP can be used for up to 72 channels of analog recording.

The Endless Analog website offers a lot of information about CLASP and how to get it up and running. They include the signal flow of CLASP with your console and tape machine as well as all of CLASP’s functions.

Endless Audio now offers CLASP 16 and CLASP 8. According to Mix Magazine, these are, “scaled down versions of the original CLASP so those with more limited analog track counts, don’t have to pay for 24 channels,” (Becka, 2012). They have also released the Machine Matrix and Machine Matrix I/O. The Machine Matrix gives you 8 channels of audio. The Machine Matrix I/O gives an additional 8 channels.

Resources:

Becka, K. (2012, May 08). Endless analog bows new products. Retrieved from http://blog.mixonline.com/mixblog/2012/05/08/endless-analog-bows-new-products/

Clasp. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.endlessanalog.com/what-is-clasp

http://www.endlessanalog.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/CLASP-Closed-Loop-Analog-Processor/73345181839

Podcasts

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 01:24:00 +0000

The Intellectual Property Law Podcast series has a lot of very helpful information. The first part goes over what intellectual property actually is and intellectual property law actually covers. This may be the most important part of the podcast. There are many different types of intellectual property and many ways to cover it. Its important to know what kind of law you need to cover your intellectual property properly. There are patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secret law. Professor Beckerman-Rodau goes through each kind of intellectual property law. The most important types of intellectual property law for my business plan are copyright law and trademark law. This series has also showed how certain intellectual property laws can come up a bit short. Patents and copyrights eventually come to an end. Once the protection time is up, these pieces of intellectual property go into the public domain. Once in the public domain, anyone has legal access to it (Beckerman-Rodau , 2012). As Professor Beckerman-Rodau says in the podcast, this is where trade secrets may pay off more than a patent. His example was the trade secrets of Coca-Cola. If the company had used a patent for their recipe, it would be in the public domain by now. By using trade secrets, they have kept the recipe secret for over eighty years. (Beckerman-Rodau , 2012)

Episode 23 of Gordon Firemark’s Entertainment Law Update Podcast covers the topic of Righthaven. According to the podcast, people go around collecting copyrights and suing people that have used them. A lot of people just settle instead of fighting against the infringement charges. This brings around something to be very careful about. For my company, it may be possible to get sued by a group like this. This podcast shows that the courts are now more aware of these types of situations. It’s better to fight the charges than to just pay them off (Firemark, 2011).

Episode 29 of Gordon Firemark’s Entertainment Law Update Podcast goes over the 360 deal in the music industry. The 360 deal lets the recording company share in every part of the musician’s music career. According to the podcast, this type of deal is in violation of talent agency regulation acts in certain states (Firemark, 2012). The podcast focuses on the California label code (Firemark, 2012). It brings up a very important topic in general. Though my company is based in Pennsylvania and the podcast does not mention any sort of law in the state, it is an important thing to look into. There are laws that my company could break without even knowing about it. When starting deals with bands, we will have to look into Pennsylvania law to make sure everything will be legal.

Podcasts:

Beckerman-Rodau , A. (Performer) (2012, April 25). Ip law concentration. Intellectual Property Law Podcast Series. [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from - http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/intellectual-property-law/id388454392

Firemark, G. (Performer) (2011, August 10). Episode 23. Entertainment Law Update. [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.entertainmentlawupdate.com/2011/08/elu-episode-023-monkeying-around-with-copyright-law

Firemark, G. (Performer) (2012, March 29). Episode 29. Entertainment Law Update. [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.entertainmentlawupdate.com/2012/03/episode-29-360-deals-rights-of-publicity/

Industry Controversies

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 01:57:00 +0000

In the recording industry, there are many copyright controversies. One of the biggest is definitely due to pirating. Not only is pirating stealing, it is copyright infringement. It is an ongoing problem and controversy in the music industry and all other entertainment industries. Though the United States’ government has tried to find ways to stop it, it does not seem that they are going about it correctly. The extent that pirating has gotten to is ridiculous. The music industry loses a very large amount of money each year due to pirating. Of course, I think there will always be some extent of pirating. It will always be a controversy in the industry. However, I do think we need to find a way to cut back on it.

While looking around at different controversies in the music industry, I came across a very interesting one. The Borromeo String Quartet has started using MacBooks and foot pedals in place of sheet music. Instead of having sheets and sheets of music to read, it is simply on their MacBooks. To change a page, they tap the foot pedal. This results in fewer missed notes and a much easier way to perform for the musicians. This presents a problem with copyright infringement, however. Edward W. Guo has made a website to host all the sheet music. This makes it possible for others to also upload sheet music to the site. Not everyone that uploads the music is a copyright holder. Also, anyone can access the site for free. This presents a lot of infringement issues. While I think this is a very awesome idea, I think it needs to be run differently. There are ways to host this site without the copyright infringement and the controversy.

Sampling in music causes another controversy. It has become very popular for bands of many genres to sample older songs. Sampling can be using the same rhythm and notes as another song, sampling a clip from another song, or even sampling an audio clip from another course. If the proper legal action is not taken with this, the song can be in violation of copyright law. I think this is a very important thing to think about. Though there are only a few notes that can be used, there are a variety of ways to use them. In most cases, I do not think it is necessary to use a previous artists work. There are more creative ways to make music than sampling. In some cases, it comes off as lazy, to me. Though, I will hand it to them, some artists do use sampling very well. They just need to make sure they get the right permissions to use them.

Resources/Articles:

http://www.riaa.com/physicalpiracy.php?content_selector=piracy_online_the_law

http://brianrowe.org/LIS550/2012/02/24/online-music-scores-cause-copyright-controversy/

http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2009/06/article_0007.html

Dangerous Updating

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 02:06:00 +0000

It’s very well known that Apple updates Mac operating systems very often. They have already made it the whole way to Lion, and I’m sure the next update is due soon. All these updates can cause a lot of compatibility issues for digital audio workstations and other digital audio programs. I have had issues with this myself in upgrading to Lion.

In the industry, it is common knowledge that you should check compatibility before updating your computer or your software. Pro Tools, one of the most popular digital Audio workstations (DAW), even has a page to tell you when it is safe to update your operating system. Different operating systems can cause a lot of weird bugs in audio programs. With as many Macs as there are in the industry, it is surprising that there are still so many OS updates. Lately, it seems the updates have not been that much different than the previous version anyway.

It’s not only in the audio and recording industry that new operating systems can cause problems. The latest version for Mac, Lion, is not compatible with anything previously made for Adobe. Though this brings in a lot of money for other companies that update their software and sell it as a new version, this can be hard on a lot of people. Not everyone can afford to upgrade all the time, whether it is the operating system or his or her software. After upgrading one, it’s not likely you want to spend the money on even more upgrading.

It seems that most companies are starting to upgrade more often. This is fine as long as the upgrade is worth it. Even Pro Tools has released two new versions in the last two years (Pro Tools 9 in 2010 and Pro Tools 10 in 2011). Luckily, for those that recently upgraded or bought Pro Tools 9, Avid gave free upgrades.

Upgrading is a very tricky business. It is very necessary to be aware of the upgrades and what they will actually mean and do to your computer.

Resources:

Osx lion: Welcome to the jungle!. (2012, January 10). Retrieved from http://www.recordingmag.com/blogs/post/151.html

Audio Fidelity

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:52:00 +0000

Since the development of digital recording, there has always been an argument over which is better: analog or digital. It is always interesting to me to see a remastering project; a project where they take old analog recordings and mix them digitally. While I was at Full Sail University studying Recording Arts, we went over analog in many of our classes. In one particular one, we went over “baking” analog tape. The process is tricky and can easily ruin the entire recording.

Audio Fidelity specializes in remastering old classic rock and pop albums. Currently they are working on a James Taylor album. They have remastered many of his albums before dating as far back as 1970. The album they are working on now is Mud Slide Slim. As the Mix Magazine article says, they have been lucky with the analog masters. They are in good shape so little to nothing has been lost from the original recordings.

It is very interesting to see a company that specializes in remastering analog recordings. It’s not something I have come across before. After reading the article, I wanted to look into Audio Fidelity more. Audio Fidelity has remastered many well known, bug name artists old recordings. Examples would be the Beach Boys, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Marley, and Stevie Wonder.

President Marshall Blonstein has been working in the recording industry for many years. He has worked with many record companies including Island Records and Artanis Records. As his biography on the Audio Fidelity site says, he was one of the first to recognize the potential of the CD.

Through years of experience, it seems the team at Audio Fidelity has perfected the art of remastering. They have brought many old recordings back to life and will continue to do so.

References:

About us. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.audiofidelity.net/content/about-us

Marsh mastering remasters james taylor for audio fidelity limited edition. (2012, March 2). Retrieved from http://mixonline.com/news/marshmastering_remasters_audiofidelity_0203/

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:41:00 +0000

SOPA

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:21:00 +0000

Since the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was first brought up in congress, there has been a lot of protest for it on the Internet. As an idea, this act is fantastic, but put into practice…well, that’s a different story.

Though parts of the industry are for this act because it is to stop online piracy, it is not the best way of stopping or hindering piracy. Put into action, this bill would censor a lot of the Internet. It could go so far as shutting down social networks. Without a real way to communicate easily and quickly, this would cut back a lot on how people share music, movies, and every other part of their lives. The also would not have the same easy access to music on the Internet. Without people spreading the word of new music, sales would probably plummet. They could lose just as much money that way as they do through pirating. The act would also take away a lot of promotion and advertising. It would be harder to promote concerts and shows, not only for big labels, but small local bands as well.

SOPA would revert the industry to times before social networks and YouTube. I do not think the industry could really deal with that kind of revert. They would have to find a new way of promoting their artists and bands. Local bands would have a hard time finding shows and then promoting them and getting the word out. Times have changed a lot and with a censored internet, word will not travel nearly as far. People would have to get used to other ways of communicating again. A lot of promotion would have to rely on word of mouth. I do not think that it would work too well. It would take a long time for people to adjust and there would be a drop in the entertainment industry during this time.

Overall, I think they need to look over this act more. It has a lot of aspects that could cripple many business and industries.

Album Sales Growth

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:11:00 +0000

It is no secret that the recording industry has been struggling. Thanks to digital downloads, various forms of pirating, and other losses, album sales have not been too good. Since 2004, the industry has not had a positive album sales growth. That is, until this past year. After seven years, sales have finally gone up.

Though the growth is not a gigantic amount, it still is a great sign for the music industry. Since 2010, album sales rose by almost 1.5%, close to 4 million album sales (Christman, 2012). As I said before, this is the first time album sales have raised since 2004. Music sales all together were up this year. Sales are up about .1 billion since 2010 (Christman, 2012). There were even more musical releases this year than the previous year. After 2010’s loss in album sales, this gain is very good to see. Album sales were down 12.8% in 2010 (Morris, 2012).

Many are giving a lot of credit to Adele for this gain. She had both best selling album and best selling song. Her album 21 sold 5.82 million copies since its release in March (Morris, 2012). Of course it was not only her album sales that made such a difference. There are many, many other artists that deserve credit. Hopefully this will pave the way for even more gain in 2012.

This rise looks good for the recording industry. Hopefully it continues to rise this year and the years to come. It has been a long time since sales have gone up. The industry is starting to do better with the changes in technology and the way music sells today. Physical and digital sales must be taken into account now instead of just physical sales. As long as technology does not throw another curve ball, the recording industry should continue to grow, once again, and expand even more.

References:

Christman, E. (2012, January 4). Soundscan's year-end charts: The numbers behind the first positive album-sales year since 2004. Retrieved from http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/record-labels/soundscan-s-year-end-charts-the-numbers-1005793352.story

Morris, C. (2012, January 4). Album sales post first gain since 2004. Retrieved from http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118048134

Stefon Harris

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 01:45:00 +0000

The TED speech I watched was Stefon Harris: There are no mistakes on the bandstand. His speech was not just words, but music. The first six minutes are just the band playing music. This was a great way to start his speech because it caught the attention of the audience and provided an example of what he talks about.

He shows the passion of the bandstand through his speech and his playing. He talks about mistakes in jazz as opportunities instead. Without reacting to it, you continue to make something beautiful out of it instead. He also describes it as accepting others ideas.

Through his musical examples and words, Harris inspired the audience. He inspired them to look at music, and possibly life in a different way. Take things and make them into a melody instead of the end of the song. It all depends on how you react to them. He talks about micromanagement. That is not how bandstand music works. You have to just let it flow instead of forcing it.

This has given me a new perspective on things. Instead of having a poor reaction to a mistake, turn it into something better.

Resources:

http://www.ted.com/talks/stefon_harris_there_are_no_mistakes_on_the_bandstand.html

THE RIAA and Piracy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:10:00 +0000

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) offers a lot of information to members of the recording industry. One thing they are very popular for right now is the fight against piracy. Internet and physical piracy have been a problem for the recording industry for years. Internet piracy, however, has really taken a toll on the industry over the last few years.

On the RIAA website, they provide a lot of information on piracy. They list examples of Internet piracy, who it hurts, and even some things they are going to help stop piracy. This section is not limited to online piracy; it also covers physical piracy. Though physical piracy has been overshadowed by internet piracy, it is still a problem in the music industry.

The RIAA has many studies on piracy and how to make it stop or at least make it have a lesser impact. There are many articles about the effect that piracy has had and on what they are doing to make it stop. They have many statistics on piracy over the years. They also have many studies on the subject.

If the RIAA is successful in cutting back on piracy, it will have a very big impact on the recording industry. First, the industry would start making more money again. It is no secret that the music industry has taken quite the blow to their annual income. With less pirating, the industry would not be declining.

As a result of more money for labels and studios, they would be more likely to take risks on artists again. This could open up the industry to new artists and genres, not just trending ones. It could also mean more money for the real artists. 360 deals would no longer be necessary, though I am sure they would still be around. Bands could start making more money from touring again instead of the labels taking most of it.

References:

http://riaa.com/

Troy Germano opens new studio

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 02:37:00 +0000

Troy Geramon, part of the Hit Facotry family. He runs a Studio Design Group that has built numerous famous studios. He is now building a new recording studio in Tampico, Mexico. The owner of the studio is Jose Reyes. He is also Germano’s strategic partner. This studio will be called RG Germano Studios Tampico (Brown, 2011).

The environment one records in is very important. Unfortunately this is often overlooked. Nowadays, there are many home studios. When I say home studios, it’s not always a real industry professional with the proper equipment and knowledge to make a great sounding track from home. Often times a “home studio” is a person with a Digital Audio Work Station (Ableton Live, Reaper, Logic, Pro Tools, or even Fruity Loops or any other DAW) and a cheap microphone or two. Though it is possible to make a great sounding recording with these things, without a good sounding room or the proper technique, you might end up with nothing good at all!

Recording vocals in a closed in area can make it sound dead. Many at home studios, when first starting out use closets to record vocals. The end result, if you don’t know how to use plug-ins to fix it, can sound terrible. In the end, it is just not a quality recording.

Geramon’s studios provide a much better environment for recording. With proper sound and acoustic treatment, a studio can sound fantastic. Standing waves can be eliminated. The boxy sound of a closet used as a vocal booth is eliminated, as well. With Studio Design Group, they build the studio completely to guarantee a great sounding room. Having a great sounding room saves an engineer a lot of work. He or she does not have to spend time fixing errors from the room in the mix. They can just focus on mixing great sounding tracks!

References:

Brown, J. (2011, October 27). Germano teams up on large-scale recording destination in mexico [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.sonicscoop.com/2011/10/27/germano-teams-up-on-large-scale-recording-destination-in-mexico/

Pro Tools 10

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 18:29:00 +0000

Recently, Avid has released Pro Tools 10, a digital audio workstation used for recording and post production. This has come as a shock to many people. Just last ear, Avid released Pro Tools 9. This new version seems to have come out of nowhere.

Though this new release comes with a lot of interesting and very useful things, I feel it is not the smartest business move for Avid. The new software costs $699. If you’re not lucky enough to be one of the people that has bought Pro Tools 9 recent enough to get a free update, it’ll run you close to $300, if not more. I don’t see many studios, large or small, wanting to fork out the money to update. With the economy the way it is at the moment, I think Avid should have waited to release this update. They could have done a lot more with it, especially with the introduction of the new Native and HDX systems. Cross grading to the new system can run from $6,000 to almost $8,000.

The new systems and cards allow for much bigger sessions on fewer cards. This, in the end, will make it cheaper to have big sessions than previously before. However, if you already have a system, it is still going to run you a lot. Upgrading to the new system will take a huge hit on any company’s budget.

It is very important that Avid has opened up Pro Tools to other software. With the release of Pro Tools 9, the software became open to interfaces not made by Avid. This extra step may be a good selling point for Avid. Though the new additions to Pro Tools are certainly helpful. I think Avid still just has it’s timing a little off. It’s too soon to be putting out a new program.

Resources:

Avid releases pro tools 10 and aax plug-in format. (2011, October 21). Retrieved from http://www.kvraudio.com/news/aes-avid-releases-pro-tools-10-and-announces-aax-plug-in-format-17524

Introducing the biggest advancement in daw recording since pro tools|hd [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/protools10/

AEA Listening Room

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 16:15:00 +0000

Often times, a audio engineer will hold off on buying a microphone until they know how it sounds and have seen reviews on that. Well, AEA has an answer to this problem now. AEA, a ribbon microphone company has recently debuted their online listening room.

This online listening room allows for the buyer to hear the certain microphones before they buy it. At this time, there are not many mics to listen to, but it is still a very interesting concept. The online listening room offers some samples with just the microphones and some that also use AEA preamps. The samples with the preamps are especially interesting. For some samples they not only include the isolated instrument track, but they also include the full mix so you can hear how the recorded instrument sits in the mix.

As the author of the Mix Magazine article on this topic pointed out, the listening room uses SoundCloud to post the samples. Though SoundCloud yields lower quality than desirable, AEA has made high quality, uncompressed files to download.

I think it is helpful that they used SoundCloud for a few reasons. For one, many, many people are now using it. It can be helpful to hear how the sound of the microphone is going to compress down to that formatting. It is very important to still have good sound on something like SoundCloud or whatever other site an artist uses to broadcast their music. Another reason I think using SoundCloud for this project is good is because people listening to the samples can easily comment on the sample tracks. These comments may help other customers. If there are any questions, they can be asked right on the track at the specific time that their question pertains to. It would make easy for people to discuss things about the microphones. This could cut down on people having to do more outside research on the microphone (though it would be wise to still do more research).

Overall, I think this online listening room is a fantastic idea. It allows for a new level of communication between the manufacturer and the customer.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:07:00 +0000