The Changing Face of the Music Business

Local musicians often ask me how best to promote their music and bands. As a music business professional for the last twenty years, one would think I might have some advice on the topic. In reality, the answer to that question is very complex and ever changing. The face of artist representation and music distribution has morphed significantly over the last fifteen years.

When we launched our independent music label, Babyjane Records, back in 1997, the question was how to get distribution so that anyone could hear the great music we were producing.  Online digital music was just ramping up, MySpace wasn’t around yet, and the Internet was just beginning to mark the change in how new music was discovered.  The major labels were still in control of which artists were promoted and the A&R reps were still roaming the country looking in clubs and festivals for the next big act.  We were producing physical CDs and struggling to find record distributors who were interested in small independent label releases, particularly ones that didn’t fit neatly into their dictated genre categories.  It was not an easy task.

The new digital downloading age has changed all that. Many mainstream artists these days, like Colbie Caillat and Justin Bieber, are discovered online as a result of songs or videos they’ve posted on MySpace, YouTube and other websites. Recently at RMR we came across a good article regarding album production in EMusician, which we wanted to share with you. Check out the article here.  The article talks about producing music for the new digital age.

For the past several years, we at RMR have been encouraging aspiring bands to consider the EP or single. It can be recorded economically at a professional facility where the high level of production will give the recording the best sound, and therefore the best chance of commercial success.  Artists who want to record in a world-class facility, but lack the resources to cut an entire album, have a viable option.  And they can spend less time stressing about a lot of songs at once.  More focus on the individual song as a product of its own has merit.

Is luck and timing the biggest factor in being discovered and making it in the music industry? Maybe, but producing the absolute best quality recording of your music is a huge factor in catching the attention of those producers and label people looking for the next big act.  Professionally produced music makes a difference. You may have one shot at that music industry person hearing your stuff, so make sure you record in a facility that can make you shine!

Post by Guila Chavez, Business Affairs Manager

Getting a Superior Piano Recording

Getting a Superior Piano Recording

At Rocky Mountain Recorders, we love pianos and pianists and making great sounding recordings of them. There are a lot of exceptional, talented, semi-talented, aspiring, beginning, aging, and not-so-talented pianists out there.  There are a lot of reasons to record any or all of them. For the young, it may be a chance to document the early stages of their playing. For the older, perhaps it’s a last chance to capture that special skill, as a gift to them and as a legacy for their friends and relatives. For the extremely talented, it could be time to produce a professional CD of original compositions or famous pieces. (One of our favorite piano artists who records here at Rocky Mountain Recorders, has produced such a wonderful solo album that she is in contention for a Grammy Nomination this year.) And for those that fall somewhere in between, recording can be a chance to enjoy the awesome environment of the professional studio, play on a wonderful instrument, and sound as good (and better) than you ever have before. Here are a few tips on achieving your best recording:

• Select a program you can manage. Whether it is 2 or 15 selections pick music you love and that others will enjoy hearing.  Feature pieces you perform well that are at or near the top of your playing ability. Try to include music that will show off the sound of the piano – powerful bass notes and brilliant high passages. This thrills the listeners.

• Work on your technique. Make the piano sing! Don’t be afraid to go from pp to ff as a grand piano has a huge dynamic range.  Try not to overuse the sustain pedal as this can make passages and transitions sound “muddy”. Learn to “nurse” the pedals to decrease the “thump” from releasing a pedal quickly. Some players will remove their shoes to minimize pedal noises. You are moving a lot of parts in the action with those pedals, and the sensitive microphones pick up everything; including loud breathing!

• Practice the heck out of your program. This is a no-brainer. The better prepared you are, the faster the session(s) will go and the less money you will spend.  While practicing, be aware of keeping your time constant, especially on passages that have obvious rhythm to them. If you are reading the music, copy all the pages and spread them across the music stand to avoid the noises and pauses of page turning.

• Find a great instrument. The better the piano, the better you will sound.  Seek out a studio that has a grand piano that is over 6’ long.  At RMR, we feature a 7’6” Yamaha C7 conservatory grand. (Watch for a future blog post on specifics about pianos themselves.) The piano should reside in a quiet, sonically well-designed space; you want to feel comfortable at that piano. This may require visiting a number of studios and trying out the instruments. Don’t be shy about this.  Any professional recording studio should be happy to have you check out their piano before you commit to recording there. While you’re in this process, you’ll get a sense of your comfort level with the facility and the engineers with whom you will be working very closely. Be sure to ask about the care that the piano receives. It should be well maintained, evenly “voiced” and serviced (tuned) before you begin your recording on it. A really good tuning is crucial to the integrity of the final product.

• Be confident that the recording personnel are experienced at capturing the best performance that the instrument and you can put out. Ask to hear other recordings that have been done on that piano and discuss your goals regarding how you want your performances to sound. It helps to have musically oriented engineers recording you, as they are best able to help you evaluate a performance and are better equipped to edit musically, as well as “mix and match” sections from different takes.

• Don’t freak about playing everything perfectly! A skilled editor can combine sections and fix mistakes to make your final performance nearly perfect. It is good practice to have multiple takes of each piece for this purpose. Ask any pianist who has recorded at Rocky Mountain Recorders about miracles we have performed to enhance their performances.

• Plan on having fun! This should be a joyous experience. Sure, there will be some nervousness – this is like a concert that will live on… and that’s so great!

• Finally, think beyond the music itself. When you are done with your project, you will want it to look good too. Even a beginner’s recording should be packaged nicely with either photos of the performer or other art work and a description of the project from the artist’s or patron’s point of view. Seek professional help at any point in this final part of the process if you can afford it. Your studio can likely guide you to some extent on packaging and duplication.

A professional piano recording can become a treasure for years to come and should be something you and your listeners will enjoy hearing again and again.

Simple HD and SD Video Explanation

A Simple Explanation of SD vs. HD Video

Video is a part of an audio post houses daily routine. People are ofte surprised by how much audio engineers know about video. However, many audio post production houses are still questioning frame rate differences in HD video and time code. They’re confused about how to deal with 1080i or 720p and some don’t understand the difference between scanning in intervals or progressively, or a frame rate and/or a time code rate. We at Rocky Mountain Recorders are not confused.

Here are some simple explanations.

i or p
Here is the simplest explanation that we can give you. Televisions spray colors across your screen one line at a time, from top to bottom, faster than you can see it happening. They do this one of two different ways. They either spray the odds first, then the evens last in interlaced video. Or they will spray all the lines in sequence 1,2,3,4… progressively. These two ideas are how you get 480i or 480p. The i stands for interlaced the p stands for progressive. The benefit of progressive scanning is that you don’t get a jagged image.

480, 720, 1080
What about all those new numbers? These numbers define the quantity of lines drawn on your screen. The more lines you get on a screen the better the resolution. It’s much like photography where the more pixels you have the better the image looks, particularly when blown up to large sizes. Anything over 525 is going to be better than standard definition television and in most cases considered HD.

4:3 and 16:9
We know you don’t like ratios, but these are simple if you do this…
4:3 = old CRT (Your old heavy TV.)
16:9 = new flat screen
See no math required.

Here is a wiki with common resolutions.

Dealing with SD and HD video in audio post production is a totally different question, which I will cover in a different blog.

Thanks for reading.