I might be complaining and preaching to the choir, but when was the last time something of quality hit the main stream? I remember the old days when bands like Faith no more, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in chains, and Soundgarden ruled the earth. You can say what you want about their styles, but you can’t knock off their talent for writing music.

This was supposed to be an article about music recording software but has turned in to a rant. But old musicians should have the opportunity to rant now and then, because there aren’t that many other pleasures we get.

At this moment I am listening to a band that I had great hope for. I have been a fan for a long time, and also seen them live. The band is Mew, and they are from Scandinavia, more specifically Denmark. Their two first albums were magnificent, in spite of having a good deal of filler songs that were basically crap. But the good songs were really masterpieces! Their new album, No More Stories Are Told Today however, is total crap. It sounds like they have found a love for playing music backwards and have tried to emulate this on their album. A shame to music recording software if I must say so! With all the potential this band has it sounds like they got lost trying to reinvent themselves…

I have to continue rambling and talk about another catastrophic album that was released in 2009. Muse, a band I held in high regards, and still do, released The Resistance. Origin of Symmetry is one of my top 10 albums, but their new 11 track is a compilation of the worst of the worst. For starters, there isn’t a song on the album that I can’t sing to a well known musical or Queen song. But the worst is their lame Baywatch rip off. Listen to Resistance side by side the Baywatch opening melody. How can you be inspired by Baywatch…please tell me. And then go on to a full fledged musical? Are we digging a hole? Are we out of control? Yes, we certainly are

Yeah, I am in conspiracy mode, but on this album it really sounds like Matthew Bellamy listened a lot to his favorite Queen (We are the champions = United States of Eurasia), Chess/Abba (Anthem = Guiding Light), Baywatch (Resistance), Here Comes the Rain Again/Eurythmics (Undisclosed Desires).

Let me be clear on this, so I don’t get sued by a high paid lawyer: These are my opinions, I am not claiming anyone sucks for a fact, have copied anyone else’s music, or done anything else wrong. I am just saying that bands that have a certain amount of success almost always go ahead and produce crappy albums to follow. My opinion, as mentioned.

So I guess the moral of the story is that we unsuccessful musicians are actually the people best equipped to produce the best music. If you are pressed in to a corner, dirt broke, and living out of your mother’s basement, you will probably put a lot more effort in to your music. That is exactly why bands like Mew, Muse, Metallica, even Faith no more, have gone from making masterpieces to making terrible music that shouldn’t be published at all. It just shows that all the world music recording software, most expensive music recording studios and equipment, won’t help you if the motivation and TIME to develop you music from a basic riff in to an epic symphony isn’t there.

Music equipement and infrastructure

A balanced combination of theory and hands-on classes will give the necessary training to the music recording aspirants. Music recording schools teach students how to use the studio control panel. Students are taught to use beats, breaks, grooves, and mix music to create an ear-pleasing piece. You need an ear for music but a school with good infrastructure is definitely going to make a difference to your education. Apart from talent, you will gain from a school having a state of the art studio. A comprehensive curriculum will take into account present music trends while preparing you for the future changes in the industry as well. Right exposure to various situations of audio recording will hone your skills. Some schools offer internships at the completion of courses. In addition, joining an institute will be a great support if you are looking to find a job after the completion of course.
 

Learning music recording software

A broad range of music recording software is available in the market. Learning majority of the features of the software is a matter of few hours, but getting to master them is the real task. Using them to their best is a challenge. Cubase, Protools, Logic and Sonar are some of the music recording software available in the market. Music recording aspirants are given training on these software by the recording schools. The software’s price range from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars depending on the features they offer. These software come with equalizers, effects, sound synthesis, filtering and editing capabilities. They helps in clearing noises and making the music as neat and original as possible while allowing for addition of various effects, beats and sounds of various instruments to the music. Most of the music recording software are user-friendly but the challenge is to optimize quality of the music. Using their comprehensive features with skill can make a big difference to the quality of the final output. Thus, your dexterity with the software is as important as your knowledge of music. There are various music file formats. Importing and exporting them into various other formats is one of the features provided by these software.
 

Career in Television and radio broadcasting

There is a wide application of audio music recording right from Television and radio broadcasting, production houses, concerts, events, recording studious to movies. Focused training and education will certainly help in finding a good job in the industry. The schools generally concentrate on equipping the students with essential tools, software and skills to meet the industry requirements. To get quality audio music, you need high quality equipment that can deliver desired output. Quality of audio recording also depends on the input device capability and environment. Audio recording equipment includes CD recorders, direct to CD field recorders, straight-to-laptop recorders, and Hi-MD recorders. Loudspeakers, headphones, and all other speakers are audio equipment as well. Even perfect sound quality will deteriorate with each usage or manipulation. So good quality input is a must in audio music recording.
 

The wonders of digital recording

Digital music recording is one of the most cost-effective ways of re-distributing music. A computer and recording software are the essential parts of digital music recording. The analog signals are converted to digital signals by the computer. Digital music recording has brought revolutionary changes in the way music is transferred, sold and distributed. The internet has given it a big boost and now you can download or stream a beautiful digitized piece of music online anytime, anywhere. Learning the ins and outs of digital music recording will equip you to deal with the dynamics of audio engineering.
 
Learning and practicing with advanced music recording equipment in a state-of-the-art studio will definitely give you an edge. During your study at the recording school, you will be required to learn a variety of audio equipment and software to master the art of music recording. Some of the leading manufacturers of audio equipment include Apple, Neumann, Digidesign and Sennheiser.
 

Get an edge with a music recording university degree

A university degree will definitely help in getting a good job in the industry as it will stand testimony to your qualification and equip you with necessary skill-set, though a music recording professional has to always keep updated with the latest advancements owing to rapid technological changes. Users now notice even slight differences in sound quality and companies are aspiring to meet the best quality. Persistence and an ear for music will keep you stay afloat in the long run.

 Professional musician

As kids often do, especially sons, I wandered down the same path as my father and dreamed of becoming a professional singer, no I will be honest, I wanted to become the biggest superstar of all. It started with me playing the guitar and my hero was Slash of Guns and Roses. Man, I remember getting Marshall Amplifiers for my birthday and shortly after a boss guitar pedal. That really made my day, and for a couple of years I lived in a fantasy world where my room was Wembley stadium and I had a 60.000 large crowd outside my window. Still no sign of music recording software, I used a tape recorder to record music (I should use quotations on “record music” as it sounded awful). Lets just be grateful Youtube.com wasn’t invented back than, because I would definitely not have won any musicians choice awards for my guitar skills. More likely I would become a Youtube sensation, for all the wrong reasons, because I sucked to be honest!

 Music high school

Later I was accepted to one of the music high schools where I live, after an audition where I stopped playing the song mid-way because I didn’t know the rest. The song was highway to heaven, a pretty easy song to play on the guitar. Give me half an hour to practice now and I would be able to play it, and I haven’t played the guitar since then…it’s that easy. In other words, I didn’t only suck, I was a sucker guitar player, and with no marshall amplifiers or boss guitar pedals to hide behind, you could hear my lack of technique at the first tone. Luckily, or perhaps unfortunately, I probably had the best grades of all the other kids applying, and was accepted solely because of that. My quest to become a professional musician had begun.

What a shock I got when I heard the other guys at the school play the guitar. It is amazing how 15-16 year olds can be several levels better than the best guitar players in the world, or at least those that the guys on the street THINK are the best guitar players. I was embarrassed to say the least over having to play for them. After all, I couldn’t play a single song all on my own. Pretty soon I came to the realization that I would never become a professional musician by playing the guitar. Little did I know that I was on a path to become a singer songwriter instead.

 Professional singer instead????

At just about the same time I was asked by one of my class mates if I could come over to his house and sing a song for his band. I had never sung a note in my life, that is, without hating it more than anything in the world. I was supposed to become a guitar player superstar like Slash of Guns and Roses, a professional musician that won MTV music and musicians choice awards. Singing was out of the question. Imagining myself in a music recording studio as a singer just made me nauseas.

 Singing in a band

Long story short, I ended up going over to my friend’s house and sing for his band, and guess what…it was pretty cool! The week after we did it again, and I was bit by the bug, I was now going to become a professional musician again, but this time as a singer songwriter. I rushed to the head office at my music high school and asked to change instrument to vocals. Strangely, they accepted without question. I see now why that was so, as they probably thought I was the least talented guitar player ever. At that point of time music recording software had slowly surfaced, and I might have some digital music recordings from back then. Who knows, perhaps it’s not too late to become a Youtube sensation.

 My first music recording software encounter

Back to the subject at hand, or back to my music recording ramblings. Things went A LOT better after I started singing. Somehow it fitted me better, as I have never been especially good at physically technical tasks. Singing was in comparison to guitar playing pretty easy, and I soon received my first “musicians choice award” from my fellow classmates. At this music high school there were three age-divided classes and one big-band that had the best on each instrument picked to play with them on merit alone. I was picked to sing for the band, and this was quite some accomplishment for me back then. Now I was the leader of a group of the best musicians at the school, musicians I was embarrassed to play guitar for a year earlier. Wow, how things changed.

This lead to me joining a band out of school and for the first time going to a music recording studio with the latest music recording software and recording three songs. My first encounter with a studio since my dad brought me to his, 13 years earlier. But that’s history, and now I am sitting here rambling in front of my computer. It’s getting late, so I will have to continue this story some other time.

 See yah next time!

Stay tuned for more music recording software articles, as I am going to have a closer look at the options out there shortly. I wrote a post on free music recording software a while a go, you might want to check that out before you go buying anything expensive. I will also be looking at Marshall amplifiers and Boss guitar pedals to see if they are still at the top where they were when I was a kid.

To all the musicians, or ex-musicians like me, out there that hasn’t received a real musicians choice award, I bid you good night until next time! Later…

Can save you a lot of hassle

If I had gotten a copyright for music way back then, it would have saved me a lot of hassle later on. You see, you can have a music copyright that doesn’t stop people from sharing your songs. The important thing about music copyrights is that they allow you to establish ownership of the song. Otherwise, it is difficult to prove that you wrote a song if someone wants to rip it off. This is exactly what happened to me. Because I had no music copyrights, when one of my songs was stolen it was impossible for me to prove it. Although there was some evidence that I had been playing that song for a while before it came on the scene under someone else’s name, it wasn’t enough to make my case.

General Public License Copyright

Even if you want people to be able to share your songs, it is still a good idea for you to research music copyright laws. There is a thing called the general public license copyright which is perfect if you want to show authorship without limiting people’s access to your music. It allows people to freely copy, trade, and modify your song as long as they give you credit for it. Had I gotten this kind of music copy right, it would have saved me a lot of hassle and heart ache. Now I know better. I copyright my songs religiously.

Protect yourself

Just because you are concerned about intellectual property music protection does not mean that you can’t copyright your songs. No matter what rights you want people to have with your songs, there is probably a music copyright that is set up for your use. Nothing is more crushing to an artist than to have his or her work stolen. Do what you can to protect yourself against it!

Normal studio recording package

At times, your trip to a music recording studio is going to be pretty straight forward. You are offered a price for a certain amount of work (or a by the hour rate), and you go in, record, and take home your product. For many people going in for the first time, this is what they do. As a part of your price you may be offered pressing for your CD (if you choose to use that format) and other duplication fees. Again, all of these things are for a package price you have agreed to before you began, and probably need to pay before you start.

Extended deal

In some other cases, you may come upon someone who claims to be a producer as well as a sound recording engineer. This can be a problem for some people and a great break for other people. They may offer recording and packaging, but you may see the price is much higher. Included in what they offer you they may say they are going to shop you around to try to get you signed. They may offer some other things too. For the most part, this is not typical of a music recording studio that most unknown performers can afford. When this comes your way, it may seem very exciting, but you have to settle down and use your head.

To good to be true?

Beware of any offers of things that are too good to be true. No matter how wonderful something sounds, you have to use your head before you fork over the money. There are great producers sitting around in a music recording studio near you, but you have to reconcile what they claim they can do for you with what your head tells you is possible. Dreams are great, but you don’t want to spend thousands on something that was never possible. Take any offer, research it, sit on it, and then make up your mind when you emotions have calmed down.

Compare prices and choose carefully

All of that aside, there are a few things that you should look for in any music recording studio when you want to do business. Make sure they have up-to-date equipment, paying special attention to the mixing board, and be sure you like the feel of the place. If you are not comfortable in a studio or feel strange about it in any way, you are not going to do your best work. If you have the luxury of more than one music recording studio nearby, take the time to comparison shop for the best price and the best experience for your once in a lifetime project.

Starting out with a free music recording software product can be a great way for a musician to get their “feet wet” to the world of hard disk recording. Learning the ins and outs, lingo, and common functionality in these programs can take some time, but it is worth it. Using free software, which doesn’t have all the bells and whistles as the expensive products, can be help you focus on what’s important. After all, you want to make music, not sit for days reading a manual. 

Here is a list of free music recording software that can be found on the Internet for immediate download.

Audacity

A free, open source, music recording software for Windows, Mac, Linux and other operating systems. Their web site states that you can use the software to:

• Record live audio to your hard disk
• Convert tapes and records to digital recordings or CDs
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.

Audacity can be downloaded at: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Kristal Audio Engine

A free audio recording software, for personal, educational and non-commercial use. It is a powerful multi-track recorder, audio sequencer and mixer, and is great for anyone wanting to get started with digital recording.

• 16 audio tracks
• 32 Bit floating point audio engine
• 44.1 to 192 kHz sample rate*
• Downmix to 16/24/32 Bit audio files
• 3-band parametric EQ &
• 2 VST insert slots per channel
• 3 VST master effect slots
• ASIO low latency audio driver support
• Supported file formats: WAVE, AIFF, FLAC, OGG Vorbis

Kristal Audio Engine can be downloaded at: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/index.php

One of the most important steps to band promotion nowadays is getting a Myspace music page. Everyone has to do this. It is easy, straightforward, and essential. You don’t even need to set it up that well. It just gives people who like your music a convenient way to check out what you’re doing, see dates for upcoming shows, and link to your page to feel like you are a part of their life. You should also have an official  band website. My space pages are alright, but having your own well-made website can take your band promotion to the next level. You can sell merchandise, show live videos, and do it all in a style that is more unique and expressive. This can really help you give your band a certain look.

One of the most important band promotion steps you can take is to get some good merchandise. The fact is, people won’t buy shirts they don’t like even for bands they do. On the other hand, I know a lot of folks who will buy a rock band t shirt just because they like the way it looks. Having band patches, pins, and posters is also important. You don’t need to print out a lot of merchandise at first. Just having a few on hand so that people can buy a piece of the show to take home with them is enough to get you started.

Of course the most important part of band promotion is networking. You need to meet a lot of local bands, music organizers, and other people in your scene, and find ways to work with them. You will get your start opening for other local bands,so be sure to always be nice to people and make connections with your scene. Ultimately, the more you connect, the easier it will be to get your music out. After all, playing in front of an audience is the best kind of band promotion there is. If you are good enough and know how to put on a live show, you won’t have to worry about promoting your music for long.

I never really considered myself an electronic music artist until recently. I was just sort of an experimental musician. Some of the things that I messed with were electronic instruments, but I also used a lot of acoustic stuff. I was as likely to pick up a guitar as a keyboard, an accordion as a Theremin. Still, as I progressed, I got more and more interested in digital music processing. You see, nowadays it is much easier to make interesting electric effects by simulating them than by actually recording them in the field. Electronic instruments have gotten so good and so sophisticated that you can get pretty much any sound you want out of one. Of course, it isn’t quite that simple. It requires quite a bit of knowhow and programming savvy in some cases. Even so, most experimental musicians – if they stick with it for long enough – End up as electronic music artists.

Of course, the electronic music artist scene is much different depending on what part of it you are in. If you’re an indie musician, the target audience is usually hipsters in their late teens through late 30s. If you’re a DJ, you can play for pretty much anyone. Club music is in, and there are gigs anywhere from weddings to raves. If you are a more experimental musician, however, you really have to make a niche for yourself. Not every city has an electronic music artist scene and the ones that do are often sort of insular. By networking and getting to know people within your scene, you can make a living and start to meet with some commercial success.

Like any musician, an electronic music artist has to get his music heard in order to succeed. In some ways, this is easier for electronic musicians. Because a lot of your music is digitally produced, people don’t necessarily have to hear you live to get a feel for what you sound like. Your live shows will be much closer to your recordings than with other musicians. This has both its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, you never hear about electronic music artists who are only good live. Most electronic musicians learn to put together a good recording. On the other hand, this makes it harder to make an impression on people during a live show. You have to do something really spectacular to make the right impression on people.

Related posts:

1. Music copyrights

Even cheap computers today pack the power needed to run the latest audio recording software. In the past you probably needed a high-end, scsi-based (quick, but expensive hard drives), computers to be able to run the programs without hick ups. The hardware alone could easily cost anywhere from 2000$ to 6000$ at the higher end of the scale. Now you can even run these programs on a laptop. How far humanity has come in terms of processing power (if only we could excel as fast on the music “creativity front”).

My first home studio was based on a relatively powerful build-on-purchase tower computer with a 6 gb scsi drive and 64 mb of ram, if I remember correctly. It was expensive and ran slow, with the tempo of the songs often hicking up if there were to many tracks. At half the price today I would get a quad-core with 5 discs, 8 gb of ram, and be prepared for track on track with out glitch.

The software I used back the for my music recording studio was Cubase VST. Today these are some of the great offerings from music recording software companies:

• Cubase
• Cakewalk
• Audicity
• Pro Tools

If you are on a budget try to buy hardware and software that you can expand later, instead of going for the most expensive option in either areas. Here are some ways to save on your first system:

• Check if the motherboard of the computer can be upgraded with more ram
• Check if the tower (preferred over desktop) has room for more hard disks
• Does the music recording software brand offer a discounted “light” version

Focus your budget on making the core system as upgradable as possible. That way your home studio will be competitive for a longer time, upgrading it when your needs increase.

Tips: This is an area I really messed up on when I purchased a music recording software for my home studio the first time. Read the manual! I repeat, READ THE MANUAL! Remember, it is not the software that makes the music, you do, so if your understanding of the software is low, you will really be held back on the creative side while making music. You need to master the software to be totally free to make the music you want!