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February 4, 2010

Diary Of A Free Album - Part 2.

pic by Nic Hamilton

See also:  Part One.

I.D. & Baobinga - Bass Music Sessions.  Diary, week 2!

Having got the tracks together to form the album, we needed to consider a few points for the actual release.  The tracks would need to be 'mastered' (for any non-techies, this is a kind of 'finalising' process where the finished track is tweaked, subtly but importantly, by an engineer with the relevant expertise), we needed to arrange the artwork, and we needed to think about how we were going to get it out there to people.

This, then, brings up a question posed in the comments last time - how is it free for us?  Mastering costs a lot of money, and artwork usually isn't cheap either.  The answer basically comes down to this - we pay for it with our time; either time spent now, or time spent over the last few years.  This is becoming increasingly clear, and making me realise that the 'free' mechanism won't work for everyone.  To get a full album mastered, for instance, you'll be looking at several hundred pounds, and it's an important part of the process.  

We've done it ourselves.  The reason we feel we can, is because we've been producing for over a decade, and releasing music for 8 years now; over the last year or two, we've even been finding that sometimes we prefer our own 'home' masters to the final versions we get back later.  We spent a lot of time on it, and even though we wouldn't claim it's going to be as polished as you'd get from a top-end studio, we know it's good.  So this is 'free' to us in that we didn't lay down any cash, albeit at the cost of 8 -10 years of learning how to be professional engineers, hundreds of released tracks, a few albums, and various production work for 3rd parties.  We've also had plenty of chance to test things out in the dance and tweak them - as shown here, Baobinga dropping the track 'Man Down' in Poland (it comes in at 1:25) - 

With the artwork and video, we're not paying cash-money upfront there either.  This one is harder because we can't do it ourselves, we actually need someone with real talent to help us out, so what we really have to do is find someone who can justify working for free to themselves.  The best way to do this, and it's what we've done in the past, is to find a designer who doesn't have any music artwork stuff on their portfolio, and wants to get some experience under their belt (a university would be a good place to start looking).  You'll also need to be flexible - you can't really expect someone to spend hundreds of hours adjusting and reworking something they won't get paid for.  But we do have some compensation we can offer; we have this blog, for instance, and can plug someone, or even offer them a free advert (once I get the custom theme sorted!) - which would have monetary value.  However, that's only because we've spent the last 8 months working hard getting the blog to a place where ads or plugs would have value.

In the meantime, please visit Nic Hamilton & Ted Moore's respective pages!

On top of all that, there's the promotion angle.  Again, promotion is something that can really cost a lot of money, and it's something that in this case, I am handling myself.  Which is an interesting proposition, since I've not worked on anything like this before.  Once again, however, when you think about it, I've already got a headstart; the years of producing and DJing mean I have a certain amount of contacts with other producers, DJ's and promoters that may be interested; and that I can hit up to try and promote things.  

Then there's this blog.  It's something of an asset in itself - it's currently getting around 35,000 pageviews per month, so it's undoubtedly a valuable platform, but on top of that, working on it has provided a really good learning experience into how people market and promote their stuff - I'm a million times more aware of how internet promotion works now.  And that's only come with a lot of effort, too.  I'd really recommend starting a blog, though, to anyone wondering how to promote themselves online.  Even if the blog itself doesn't go massive, you'll start to become aware of how people use blogs and stuff to get their name around, and it'll give you a lot of ideas.  

It's a gradual thing though, and I'm constantly seeing new ideas that I could or should do (or should have done already) - as posed in the comments last time, why not have some photos of 'work in progress'?  A great idea, and one which it is unfortunately too late to do now, unless you want to see pics of me typing blog entries.  However, the same person also suggested videos of the tracks in action, which a quick trawl through youtube did yield.  Thanks to Vanatoski for uploading that one - you were a step ahead of us back in May!

So thinking about all this, it becomes clear that an unknown producer/band who wanted to release a free album would struggle to make much impact.  Although we're not laying out much cash, that's only possible because we've built up the skills, contacts and profile to be able to do things ourselves - things that you would otherwise need to buy access to from other people.  Tricky.  Does this rule out the whole 'free' thing to all aspiring start-up producers?  Not necessarily, I don't think, but you'd certainly need a different approach.

Back to the album at hand then, where is it up to now?  Well, the promotion to artists and DJs is well underway, and I'll elaborate on what that really entails in a couple of weeks.  I'll also show you where and how we'll release it.  In the meantime, please join the discussion in the comments below, if you've got any questions or insults to hurl our way, feel free!

=====
i.d.

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February 1, 2010

Noise Porn 'acquired' by Symphonic Distribution

Here's an interesting one.  Posts up at NoisePorn over the last few days show that it's been acquired by Symphonic Distribution; a digital distro company.  NoisePorn has been one of the biggest dance music blogs around for a while now, so it makes sense that a company looking to get a blog on board would look to them, and I'm sure that some kind of investment of time or effort or money from a 3rd party would help the blog get on with some of the things they've been planning.  The upshot for NP is that they're going to be having a redesign, go for more of a 'magazine' feel and start a record label.  Which kind of all makes sense, they're all related activities.  

I don't know what's been going on behind the scenes obviously, but it raises some interesting questions.  I've been suspecting that blogs are going to take the place of record labels (to some extent) - people like Scatterblog and Top Billin have been combining the label/blog/production angle quite well for a while now.   Is the record label going to be replaced by the all-purpose 'internet media portal'?  Are NP going to alienate their established readership by 'going corporate'?  (Doubt it tbh.  It's not like man avoids Resident Advisor on account of it being non-blog format).  Is the age of the honest to goodness enthusiast's blog coming to an end?  (doubt that, too). Interesting times.  Good luck to NP with their new path anyway.

====
i.d.

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January 28, 2010

Diary of a Free Album; Part One

So, you may have seen, or caught word, that there is going to be a free I.D. & Baobinga album released around the end of February.  You'd be in the know, in that case.  It's going to a 10 track, multi-genre thing, with tracks that have been played out by everyone from Claude Von Stroke, to DJ Friction, to Buraka Som Sistema, to TRG and Untold.  

It's gonna be called 'Bass Music Sessions'.

You can guess from that list of names, then, that these are not just a bunch of tracks we couldn't get signed - in fact we turned down offers from labels, in favour of releasing them for free.  It became apparent that there were loads of good reasons for releasing it this way.  First, there's the flexibility - we can do it when and how we like.  Second, there are no financial issues - we've had situations in the past where a distributor goes bankrupt and takes 1000 copies of your album with them, and you end up making a loss.  No worries there.  Also, the stress of people pirating your album:  doesn't matter, it's free.  Take it, and give it to all your mates while you're at it.  And with any luck, you might get a lot more people downloading it free than the couple of thousand who are willing to pay £10 for a CD or £7 for a download.  So there were some compelling arguments going on there.

It's a bit of an experiment, really, and that's why I'm writing this diary to round up what we do, how we go about it, and how it pans out.  Maybe it'll contain some useful advice for people thinking of doing something similar, or maybe it'll just show up some mistakes to avoid!

It's really become obvious over the last 12 months that blogs are getting a lot better and more interesting, that sites like www.bandcamp.com are starting to supercede the likes of myspace in terms of providing a platform for getting stuff to fans (and not looking crap), twitter and facebook provide a quick and easy method of getting word around - so there are all sorts of handy tools for the DIY crew.  We also, however, have the added advantage of this blog, which gets a lot of readers, and I think that's going to prove rather important (more on this in future).

So then, the basics.  We've got the album written, we've decided on the tracklist.  We've been playing some of the tracks out for over a year now, so we've had lots of time to tweak the mixes and make sure they all work on the floor.

From there, we needed some artwork, so we hit up the awesomely talented Nic Hamilton - he's the guy who did our logo - and asked if he'd be up for coming up with anything.  Fortunately, he was, and so he's working on that at the moment - hopefully we'll be able to show you the results in the not too distant.

We also figured that we could use a video, something Youtube-able, something bloggable, that might help when we're sending everything to blogs - maybe they could embed it in their posts.  So we hit up our friend Ted Moore, who has done videos for us in the past, and most recently did some wicked stop-motion animation videos for Rogue Element.  He's now on the case with a short animation - about one minute - and we can't wait to see it because he really is a genius.

That's the basic product lined up then - music, artwork, video.  Now we just need to get as many people as we can to check it out.  Which I'll elaborate on later.

If you've got any questions or suggestions, please put them in the comments (or email us) - we'd love to hear them.

====
i.d.

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December 10, 2009

Industry Pundits: Do Keep Up!

I have had my hackles raised all week by an essay from one Dave Allen - the provocatively, excellently titled 'Musicians: Please Be Brilliant Or Get Out Of The Way'.  It's annoying for a number of reasons, not least because it's so confusingly written I struggle to see what the point is, what 'getting out of the way' might mean or how it's even possible to be in the way, and so on.  Luckily he summarises later on, in the comments - after concluding "Please embrace the web", he suggests that musicians should 'get in control' and 'go it alone'.  

I won't engage with the numerous self-contradictions and bizarre assertions in that particular essay because I'd be here all day.  But it's symptomatic of a wider malaise in the Music Biz Pundit Industry and it's really starting to wind me up.

Embrace the web!  It's the same mantra that we hear day in, day out, from various sources; always those who have a vested interest in convincing people that no-one has done so.  These seem to be the pundits or the people who think all music should be free, and that artists should make money in other ways, either by touring or by monetising their experiential awareness (I shit you not).  Are these people the only people in the world who don't receive a thousand spams a day from bands on Myspace, from people on Facebook suggesting that they become a fan, from dullards on twitter?  Are they the only people who can't seem to visit a music website without tripping over a free download from this producer or that band?

Honestly.  What year do they think it is?  Every band worth their salt has a Myspace page, a facebook page, has had them for years in fact, and I can tell you that most of them are also engaging extensively with blogs too.  I get more stuff sent to this blog than I could possibly publish, and it's not like we're all that big in the general scheme of things.  As far as I can see, everyone HAS embraced the web, and there is now a cacophony of voices all trying to achieve the same end - i.e. use the internet to get publicity, to sell their t-shirts and so on.  Which, as these pundits insist, is some kind of answer to the fact that no-one wants to pay for music any more.

The kicker to all that, though, is that all this stuff has progressively less impact, the further it goes along.  Five years ago, giving away a free track would guarantee you some publicity.  Now, of course, producer XYZ can give away all the tracks he wants on blogs and his myspace, but it will pale in comparison if (say) Orbital give away a free track on the NME website; so we return to a situation where those with the loudest voices and biggest marketing budgets get heard.

The clincher, of course, to really nail down the fact that in 2009 you don't know the state of things on the ground and are in fact just parroting what the last guy said, is to cite Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails.  Two great bands; yes.  Two examples of pushing new, creative and genuinely innovative (if arguably gimmicky) business models; yes.  Two examples of what can be achieved with the internet if you've got a ready-made fanbase, a few million pounds in the bank, some staff and a couple of decades of major label marketing behind you.  How are they relevant to a band starting up today, who don't have access to this kind of money and infrastructure?  Certainly, these bands set some balls rolling, but In Rainbows was over two years ago; the pay-what-you-like model is already essentially useless to indie musicians.  The main lesson to take from these artists, I think, is to have an innovative idea and market the shit out of it.  Unfortunately, the average aspiring artist can only get as far as step one there - marketing budgets are not an option.

The reason I say the pay-what-you-like model is useless, is that it falls victim to the 'lessening impact' point.  A quick case-study:  Ugress from Norway is an indie musician and film & TV composer.  He's got a tight website, a popular blog, a great line in self-marketing, he runs his own label, he's on all the major social networks as well as youtube, flickr, LastFM, thesixtyone, iTunes, iThinkmusic, Amazon, he streams concerts online, flogs merchandise, gives away free tracks, 'communicates' via his mailing list and twitter, and all the rest of it.  He has embraced the web about as much as it is possible to do with your clothes on, has done so since 2002 and is now 23 albums deep(!).  He also released his last album as a 'pay-what-you-like' download.  Conclusion?  

"Financially and theoretically speaking, if I could release an album like this every month, with those figures, I could actually make a living directly from that.”

Ouch.

But I digress.

The truth is that everyone is on their hustle now.  We all know about word-of-mouth marketing, everyone is trying to get their friends on facebook and twitter to re-tweet their latest gig details, wear their t-shirts, buy their music, play their music, recommend it on iLike or favourite it on Last FM.  There is no golden ticket - the old rules apply (you still have to write good tunes) but apart from that it's all (kind of) open.  Which, in many ways, is pretty exciting when you think about it.

As to pundits like Mr Allen?  You can stop telling us the Earth is round.  We figured that one out.  

===========
i.d.

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November 10, 2009

What Is Mastering? In Depth with Kevin @ Wired Pt 2 - Exclusive!

(continued from pt 1)

What are some interesting projects you have worked on?

They're all interesting in they're own way!!!!! I know that's a total cop out, but I really mean it. Obviously some are better than others musically, but I get a lot of enjoyment out of meeting the artists and bands. It doesn't always follow that the people that make the best music are the most fun to sit in a studio with!! My website has a list of some of my projects on, and only the good ones we REALLY liked doing make it onto the website. 

What makes something interesting to me would be incredibly dull to someone else… sorry.

What's your 'standard' signal chain, and why is it better than the kind of plug-ins bedroom producers have access to now?

Playback computer 
–> 
Weiss EQ1 (Digital Parametric Equaliser) 
–> 
Apogee DA16X or Apogee Rosetta 200  (Digital to Analogue Converters) 
–> 
Maselec MTC-2 (Master Transfer Console) 
–>
Maselec MEA-2 (Parametric Equaliser) 
–> 
Maselec MLA-2 (Stereo Compressor) 
–> 
Chandler TG12413 Zener Limiter (Stereo Compressor / Limiter) 
–> 
Manley Massive Passive Mastering Edition (Parametric Equalizer) 
–> 
Maselec MPL-2 (Peak  & High Frequency Limiter) 
–> 
Apogee PSX 100 (Analogue to Digital Converter) 
–> 
Weiss DS1 (Digital De-Esser / Compressor / Limiter) 
–> 
SADiE (Destination Computer).

The most relevant part about this signal chain is the Maselec MTC-2. It is the heart of the studio. It's essentially a two channel mixer, with multiple insert points. The great thing it is that all of the outboard can be flicked in and out of the signal chain at the touch of a button. It also has high & low cuts, an elliptical filter and stereo width adjustment. It allows me to use the inserts in M/S at the flick of a switch and also to use the Chandler as a 'parallel compressor' - along with all the standard stuff such as being able to monitor in mono, and out of phase etc.

Most importantly is its ability to monitor at any point down the signal chain and at matched gains. When a piece of outboard is inserted into the chain, if it increases the gain by even as little as 0.5 dB then it can give you a very false sense of its actual merit. It is CRITICALLY important to be able to evaluate every eq and compression adjustment at exactly the same level. If it's louder it's going to sound 'better' and that's not necessarily the case.

I would also add that although this is my signal chain that doesn`t mean that EVERYTHING gets pushed through it regardless. There are times when just a little bit of extra gain and a 0.5 dB shelf on the top end will do! The way the desk works means that if the insert points are not switched in then the signal doesn't go through the kit - which is very different to running music through kit in bypass mode. Again, there are times when just a little bit of digital EQ with the Weiss will suffice, so then the audio won't go anywhere near the analogue domain. It is very important to treat each track on its own merit, and not just religiously bang tracks through the same path for the sheer hell of it!

As far as why this chain is better than a load of plugins, that's easy – they sound better. Of course I love all the big buttons & flashing lights, who doesn't, but honest to God, if the plugs sounded better then I would use them. Ultimately, it's about the end result. I would love to hit save on my computer rather than having to note down every setting, I get through an awful lot of notebooks! I do think that plugins are getting very good nowadays and there are certain situations where they are as good if not better - it just depends on what you're trying to achieve with them. Again, ask me the same question in a year or two…

What's the pimpest bit of kit you have?

The room, speakers and amps! They work in conjunction with each other, so I kind of view them as one. Everything else is utterly irrelevant if you can`t hear what your fancy compressor is really doing. Besides, if by 'pimpest' you mean 'most expensive' then they definitely come out on top!

Cheers Kevin!

************************************

Binga.

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November 10, 2009

What Is Mastering? In Depth with Kevin @ Wired Pt 1 - Exclusive!

Wired Masters is a mastering house in London that works with a massive range of material - everything from Black Sabbath to Ibiza Annuals, from Tectonic Plates to Bjork... and The Body Snatchers album, which is where I met their main man, Kevin, and proceeded to drive him mad with requests like 'make it loud...  but not too loud' and 'this one needs to sound epic, but in an intimate manner' and 'have you got any more biscuits, I'm hungry'. 

'The Madness of Sam Binga' aside, Kev did an amazing job on the album, working both from final stereo mixes and from stems, allowing us to make sure things like vocal and bass levels were properly set and matched across the album. It was also really interesting to spend a day sitting in with someone who has such a passion for audio and geek out on the equipment, techniques and approaches involved in mastering.

Wired recently moved to a super slick new facility, so we thought it would be nice to catch up with Kevin and get him to shed some light on what can often seem like a highly-respected but little-understood area of the music industry. So, without further ado, here is the Bass Music Blog Mastering Interview with Wired Masters!

How would you describe what you do, and what are you trying to achieve?

What I essentially do is to make music ready for commercial release. 

Mastering is in essence the final stage of the recording process – the last chance to address sonic issues before delivery to the public. Personally, I am trying to achieve loud, open, well balanced masters. On an album project I want a general good sonic consistency to every track so that the album has a sense of continuity. And of course, I want happy artists & happy record labels!

Why is mastering important?

Mastering is  the last chance to address any mix issues, breathe some life into, or just squeeze that last few percent out of a track before delivery to the public. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, delivering your music in its strongest possible form is absolutely essential. From a dance music point of view you may have musically the strongest composition in the world but if it sounds weak on a system, no one is going to play it!

Also as so much dance music is made 'in the box' (i.e. entirely within a computer - bmb) it is the last chance your audio has to see some nice transformers, valves & circuitry before becoming digits again. I think most audio 'deserves' the chance to be analogue at some stage in its life prior to manufacture!

What are the most important techniques you use?

Listening! Assessing what needs to be done before diving straight in!

It is so easy to get lost in adding a little bit here, a little bit there, a shelf here, touch of bass there, all of a sudden you`ve just basically turned the track up but in a really awful clumsy way!

From a technical point of view, I guess the most important techniques are 'corrective EQ' & compression in series. 

I don`t think that I can really talk too much about EQ, other than to say that I fix what needs to be fixed and push what feels right to push! I tend to use high and low cuts on all dance music - cutting anywhere between 20 to 30Hz and 18kHz to 25kHz. There just tends to be crap above and below these frequencies that takes up energy.

Each of my EQs has their 'sweet spots' so I tend to use different outboard for different frequencies. Also I tend to 'feather' the EQs a bit. That is to say, I'll use maybe two or three overlapping bands of EQ to add some of the missing frequencies rather than just have one band doing a lot – to my ears it just sounds a bit nicer that way. Unsurprisingly, I tend to do corrective surgery at the start with a digital EQ and all the nice sweetening EQ with my analogue EQs.

I use several compressors & limiters all doing a tiny bit of compression. You will hardly see much movement on the gain reduction meters moving in my studio. None of the kit is ever working that hard from a gain reduction point of view - it's the sum of the parts. Unless I'm going for a real compression 'effect' I don't want to hear them working. They all have different attack and release times and it's the way they interact with each other that gives the overall effect.

I guess the way I get nice clean level increases is by hitting all the outboard kit pretty hard, and letting the overall gain build up throughout the chain. It is a very personal process but one that sounds good to my ears; it keeps the music sounding 'open' which is very important.

What can producers do to help you get better results?

For me, several things:

1. Build a relationship with your Mastering Engineer. All of my artists and producers speak to me on a continual basis. They send me tracks long before their delivery deadlines and we talk about them. If things can be fixed in the mix and not at mastering that is far better. I would much rather spend my time and use my equipment to sweeten things rather than fix them!

2. Make sure that you are not mastering the day before your delivery is due (oops - binga). This can buy us some time to correct any issues if needs be prior to the mastering.

3. Critically listen to your peers. Most artists have a 'sound' that they are going for. Cross reference against finished tracks that you know sound awesome in a club. It is all to easy to sit in a studio making music, thinking it's the nuts and then get it out on a system and realise it's a million miles away from where it needs to be.

4. Play your track out as much as possible and get a feel for the overall vibe of it as well as the sonics. DJing it out on systems is invaluable. I know this is stating the obvious, but I'll do it anyway - play it on as many home systems, laptops, cars, DVD players as you can. Each different system will give you a different insight into the track. Record a DJ mix with it in and listen back to it in the context of other tracks. It's really important to know how it will work between other tracks – if you are thinking 'wow, this is the fattest track ever, it's got more bass on it than anything else I`ve ever heard' then chances are that you're in problem territory!

5. Be HONEST with yourself. Mastering can only do so much.

6. Don't smack the shit out of it with a limiter.

7. Attend the mastering session! If needs be, bring your laptop - a large percentage of my mastering is done directly of artists' laptops. That way, as I'm working on it, if needs be we can change one element in the mix. If the bass is great but the kick is weak, we can treat just the kick, rather than having to notch up the kick on a stereo track, which will ultimately affect the bass as well.

How did you get into mastering?

Someone I knew told me that a mastering facility was looking for a tea boy / tape duplication 'engineer' and I applied. They didn`t want anyone with skills, just someone who was prepared to work hard and learn! I got the job and spent about two years making tea, changing light bulbs, emptying bins and copying tapes. I got paid atrociously, but I spent all my spare time hanging out with real engineers, learning. When I got a chance to move up the ladder, I was ready. I think that is pretty much the standard way. 

To be honest, I didn't know what mastering was! I wanted to be a multi track engineer with a big desk and loads of outboard, but there were no jobs going. I saw an opportunity and went for it. Initially I thought that I would piggy back into recording or mixing, but as I learnt, I really got into the process of mastering and thought that it suited my personality  – really anal and a bit OCD! It's all about attention to detail, and I`m definitely good at that!

Has mastering been affected by the downturn in the music industry?

Not for us down here. As record labels have been selling less units per release, they have had to put out more releases to keep their profits up. Every release still needs to get mastered, so in fact we're busier than ever. 

Also, because more and more music is being made in bedroom studios, I think the mastering stage is now more critical than ever, as it has to iron out the inconsistencies in 'bad' monitoring environments. This is much more so now than say ten years ago, when much more music was being made in studios. A&R are much more aware of this now and are themselves seeing mastering as being more critical than maybe it had been.

However, ask me the same question in a couple of years and it could be a VERY different answer. A lot of labels went bust a couple of years ago when the distribution companies like Interscope / Pinnacle et al went down. As a commercial studio if too many of your labels go, you're gone. So far we've been lucky that most of our clients haven't been affected too badly.

Any thoughts on the loudness issue? Do you get a lot of stuff that has been compressed / limited to death before it reaches you, and why is that a problem?

I both hate it and understand it. I think that we're ultimately tying ourselves in knots. There's the whole 'iPod shuffle syndrome' and then there's what sounds good. Ultimately, the client is right and if they want a track to sound as loud on their iPod as a Black Eyed Peas record then it's their call. It's fine on a crappy little system in a bar where there is never enough level, but on a big system the tracks sound better to me when they haven't been hammered. I have certain artists where I make them an unlimited version for playing out on big systems and a 'LOUDER' version for giving to the labels and for retail. They all claim that when they play the unlimited version out on a big system the whole club 'breathes'. Speaks volumes….

Yes I get a massive amount of tracks that have been peak limited. Am I able to get new versions – often not. Labels unfortunately leave mastering to the very last minute and then getting hold of an artist to get an un-maxed out version in time is virtually impossible. That said, it`s not always too bad and I wouldn`t say that you HAVE to supply an uncompressed / unlimited version - it really depends on the program material.

I know a lot of artists now that actually write into a compressor and limiter. It can give a very current / trendy clipped & aggressive sound and it can actually suit certain styles of music. If they pulled all the compression and limiting off before they sent the track to me then the mix would fall apart. I would probably then be far too 'respectful' to the audio and perhaps not give it the aggression that they're after – and then I'd end up with an unhappy artist.

Undoubtedly I can do much more with some headroom, but I`m not so precious as to reject material that has been hammered. No it's not ideal, but it`s the world we live in. We are talking about dance music here, not audiophile jazz! If it's part of the sound, I'll work with it. One thing I would say however is that if you are writing into the plugs then leave them on, but if you're flinging them on afterwards just to get some level then don`t bother.

For me, the main issue is - does it sound good? I get some stuff through my door that sounds AMAZING and it's clipped to shit – does it sound good? That's really all that's relevant. There's also an element of knowing what you can get away with. You're not going to get a big gospel house record as loud as a techy minimal one. The techy minimal one can come in to my studio battered and I can still do a surprising amount, but if the gospel house one comes in battered, there's very little I can do.

What are some interesting projects you have worked on?

They're all interesting in they're own way!!!!! I know that's a total cop out, but I really mean it. Obviously some are better than others musically, but I get a lot of enjoyment out of meeting the artists and bands. It doesn't always follow that the people that make the best music are the most fun to sit in a studio with!! My website has a list of some of my projects on, and only the good ones we REALLY liked doing make it onto the website. 

What makes something interesting to me would be incredibly dull to someone else… sorry.

(continued in Pt. 2)

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October 30, 2009

Interview with Boris @ Dub Studio - Mastering, Acetate and Vinyl

Aight so originally this was gonna be part of the Free Tune Friday section but Boris - aka Borai (who did the Funky take on We Here) aka the studio manager at Dub Studio - got back to u just after we posted it up so we're separating em into two - aint no thang tho :)

BMB: Boris, you work at dubstudio - could you tell us a bit about what dubstudio does?

Boris: We are a digital Mastering and dubplate cutting house for DJ's, producers and artists - we master for CD/WAV and cut tracks to Vinyl or Acetate Dubplate.

I've had some direct to vinyl dubs cut at dubstudio - are you doing acetate as well now? Why would people prefer acetate to vinyl?

Yes we do cut to acetate, and this is a good question. We look at acetate as being a premium product, like in the Hi-Fi world some people just want it to sound the best and acetate can give you that. The sound quality is higher, more "vinyl like" and can give more of that analogue warmth that people strive for. 
Saying that some people just prefer playing acetate dubs!

What would you say the advantages are of cutting dubs over playing CDs?

If you are ever planning on releasing your music on vinyl it's a good idea to have an understanding of how the sound is going to change when its cut to vinyl,    getting Dubplates cut can be a big help as this is the closest thing that you can get without pressing up 500 copies of your tune! If you play out vinyl and don't like playing CDs or off a laptop (like myself) then you have an alternative! And also, bass heavy music will always sound better off vinyl or dubplate.

Who does dubstudio cut for? 

We don't like client lists (for many reasons) but we do like to grab interviews with the clients that excite us and post them up on the site, some of whom can be seen here http://www.dubstudio.co.uk/info/artist-features 

What musical projects are you involved in yourself?

I have been DJing in and around Bristol for the last 11 years and producing for the last 10 years, i have watched the Dubstep scene grow out of nothing and become the monster that it is today and been guided by some of the best Artists and DJ's Bristol has to offer along to way.

The Borai name has managed to rear its head on track co-written with my good friend Dj October for Fluid Ounce (The Letter I) last year and i have been working closely with the Shanti Sound guys (Embassy, DJ Rapid) both DJing at the monthly Cosies gig and working in the studio.

This a nice pic of a lathe like the kind we use - it's not ours, because we are yet to have any pics taken of the newly renovated studio! 
We have also replaced the shown rack gear with hand picked equipment http://www.dubstudio.co.uk/studio/studio-info

Cheers Boris! And if you want to step up to the big boy DJ level, Dub Studio are well worth checking out.

********************

Binga

 

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Filed under  //   dubplates   dubstudio   Industry   Interview   mastering   ridiculous haircut  

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September 24, 2009

Musings on the industry, success, hype...

Image respectfully borrowed from http://www.marriedtothesea.com/ - awesome website, visit it now!

So, as I might have mentioned, it was my birthday on Friday.  It's been happening more and more lately - I could swear they're about every 6 months or so now - and so it prompted a bit of a reflection.  You know - all the usual stuff:  where's my zimmer frame, why am I waking up in the middle of the street, where did my trousers get to.  That type of thing.

It also got me thinking though, about the efforts I've had getting established in all this. It's nearly 5 (!) years after my first release with Baobinga.  Since then we've tried plenty of things in our respective attempts to sustain successful careers in the dance music industry, some of which have been more useful than others.

It's been an interesting time, because the dynamic of the music industry has changed completely in that time.  Web 2.0 has appeared and pretty much swept away the whole existing framework - and, if you ask me, made irrelevant the entire debate about filesharing.  Which again, is interesting because it's only this week that Lily Allen has set up her filesharing/industry blog.  (edit:  and in fact even closed it again!)   Oh well.  You can't read it anymore, but there were loads of contributions from various folk like that tosser from Muse (who thinks that if you are a heavy user of the internet you're obviously a filesharer and definitely not just watching Strictly Come Dancing on the iPlayer, and therefore should pay more), that tosser from Keane, who thinks that ISPs are being lazy and greedy and should find a way to examine every file you download to see not just if it's an audio file, but also if it's an audio file that you don't have the appropriate rights to be accessing, but one that somehow doesn't invade your privacy (yes seriously), and a bunch of other tossers.  

It strikes me that the horse has well and truly bolted on this one.  I mean, who even fileshares these days anyway?  What's the point when you can just download Spotify, and listen to anything you want, whenever you want (especially now you can 'take your playlist offline') or go on Youtube etc?  I don't think I know anyone who downloads torrents or bothers to Soulseek now  (in contrast to 5 years ago when everyone and his dog was at it), as it's a bit technical for many - but I know plenty of people who listen to a lot of music - legally, or at least semi-legally - without ever paying for any.  No need to fill your HD when you can just stream owt.

(What concerns me more is that these legal alternatives seem to be no better for the artist - neither Youtube nor Spotify have ever made a profit, and don't seem to hand any money down either.  They get plenty of investment money for their head dudes, but I don't know anyone who's received any money from them for the use of their music.  Not to whinge here - obviously there are people getting millions of plays, who are further up the queue than us dance music producers - but since Youtube made the PRS sign a secret deal I guess we'll never know if and when people will be getting paid).  

But I digress.

(pic from Alicia Berger)

So anyway, if you're an aspiring producer, you may as well forget about getting paid for writing music for now.  Register with the PRS - if the likes of Mary-Ann Hobbs picks up on one of your tracks you might get 50 quid at the end of the year, so it's worth it, but it's not something you can bank on.  When you've got some hype behind you, then maybe you can start asking for money up front for remixes and single advances.

It may have been the case a few years back that to release singles or an album on a decent label would pretty much set you up, get people's interest and bring the gigs rolling in.  As I said in a previous blog though, that doesn't really hold any more.  There are so many labels - physical labels, mp3 labels, free labels - that the cachet of having these releases isn't what it once was; it's getting ever harder to be heard above the crowd.

The main thing is that you're basically gonna struggle unless you've got that mystical quality of 'hype' going on.  This is the holy grail; this is what gets you the DJ bookings, it's what gets you the remixes.  You just need to figure out exactly how to generate it.  Just releasing an album, or getting a feature in a big magazine, or on a popular blog, or hearing your track on Radio 1 - none of these things will do it on their own.  They don't (really) generate hype, they reflect it.  

One way, in fact the only cast-iron, guaranteed way, is to write amazing tunes.  Tunes that change the game, which sets you as the head of a new subgenre.  Joker has just done it, before him Rusko, Caspa, Herve and Sinden did it, before them Burial and Digital Mystikz... and so on.  But that is rather obviously easier said than done.  Then you've got people with gimmicks - people like Kissy Sell-Out who, despite his obvious talent, rapidly became as famous for taking an air horn on stage with him as for his tunes.   And it's certainly clear (and indeed always has been) that the people with the best tracks or best production don't necessarily get the hype and the gigs - we've all got a favourite producer who never hit the heights they deserved (why isn't Toasty a platinum selling millionaire?  There's no justice!).  There's a lot more to it than that.

So what does work?  Ah.   

Besides writing the best tunes ever, I suppose persistence.  You certainly have to spend a lot of time emailing, phoning, hassling people - magazine reviewers, blogs, promoters, labels, whatever.  Most of them will probably ignore you, because they get a million mp3's a day or just plain don't like your stuff, so you need to keep at it.  A lot (but trying not to be annoying with it!).  Probably spend as much time on promotion as you do on actually writing tunes, I'd say.  You also need to know people - people at magazines, radio stations, labels, wherever.  There's an amazing amount of nepotism in the industry, so if you don't know these people, get to know them.  Contrive to meet them, email them until they give in, do whatever - but these are the people you need to be speaking to, persuading them to do you a favour and so on.  Maybe try to go round the side - start a clubnight or something, where you'll get to meet people that way.

 DJ mixes are OK to an extent, but people are pretty flooded with them these days; just look at this blog for instance, we usually have one a day - so people don't take as much interest in them as they once did.  Free tunes help too, but again, it's not the draw that it used to be - when people like TRG and dBridge are giving away free tracks, it makes it harder for the average Joe to get attention to their own.   I've got to say, it sometimes feels like some kind of voluntary slavery - to get to the higher echelons, people lower down the chain usually have to work for free - offer to do free remixes, do some cheeky mashups and punt them out to blogs, play the warm up at the local clubnight.  But then all the creative industries are like that - people doing unpaid internships at magazines or TV studios and whatnot.   So it's kind of the way of things - but ultimately, if you put the work in at this level, you should get there eventually!  It can be a long slog.  But chin up...

If anyone comes up with a more efficient way of doing things, please let me know.  Or add it in the comments.  What do people reckon? 

Oh and, er, check the new mix, eh?  

-------
i.d.

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Filed under  //   Behind The Scenes   Industry   Rants  

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September 1, 2009

Getting on in the industry

The music industry is, in general, a twat.  That's my considered and eligible opinion.  

Still though, I thought I'd round up a few links that I find sometimes find helpful for tips, advice, whatever, in case it was of any use to aspiring DJs and producers out there.  It's a funny time right now because to be quite honest (and not that I want to undermine the following sites) no-one really knows what the hell is going on.  

10 years ago, you could live off dance music production alone.  Now, however, the money in dance music is a lot less than it used to be, so really you'd want to be DJ'ing for your your bread and butter.  A couple of years back, I'd have said you have to get tracks released on a few labels to build up your profile, which should then lead to some DJ gigs.  But now, labels are so ubiquitous, I don't think that always works either.  And everyone's giving away their music for free anyway, so just having some tunes out doesn't really mean much.  So really, I think everyone needs a kind of multi-pronged attack for the minute, while we all figure out what's going on.  Get some tunes on labels, give some away for free, start a club night, start a blog or website or other kind of 'business', get an internet radio show, anything you can think of.  Some of it will probably be pointless, some of it might really help, but right now there is no guaranteed way of getting gigs and sales.  Well, there is one way, and that is to write amazing tunes that completely 'change the game'.  That one has always worked and always will.  But it's not as easy as it looks...

So anyway.  First up, have a look at those rabble of sample CD websites we mentioned earlier in the month.  Prime Loops and Loopmasters both have advice, technical and tips and tricks sections, and they both give away loads of free loops too, if that's what you're after.

Buzzsonic - 'DIY Music Industry 2.0'.  Sounds bent, but it's got loads of interesting posts about where the music industry is going and how we can use that, and it's got a bit of a dance music angle to it, too.

Sentric Blog - Sentric seem to be a kind of publishing company for unpublished artists.  Check out their main site, but also this blog, whilst not the most frequently updated, is full of seriously detailed, extensive posts.

Music Think Tank - More music industry musings, goes pretty in depth.  Bit of US slant to it.

Digipendent - More of a news site, but has some cool advice and tips articles too.

Bedroom Beats- For aspiring bedroom DJs and producers - samples, tips and tricks etc.

Fresh On The Net - More useful articles.  I am getting bored of writing these little descriptions.  

Lastly, if you really wanna go hard (no homo) on the industry side of things, peep some of these - 

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