You Can Do It!

I watched Maysoon Zayid’s TED Talk about life with Cerebral Palsy. Maysoon explained about her early life; her parents were told she would never walk again. By learning yoga she was able to learn how to stand up and walk and go through life easier. She had a passion for acting but was never casted for any high school or college plays because of her disability. She realized that she wasn’t what casting directors were looking for. She realized that maybe comedy would open more doors for her so she began pursuing a career as a comic.

She was a successful comic and comedy helped open many doors for her. She became a full time contributor on the Keith Olbermann Show. Maysoon’s story inspired me a lot. She showed me that nothing is impossible no matter what people say you can’t do.

Stage Fright

Today I watched Joe Kowan’s Ted Talk on how he beat stage fright.

Stage fright is a big problem that many artists have to deal with. They become so tense and nervous that it’s nearly impossible for them to perform. Most people don’t realize how hard it is to get on a stage and perform in front of a bunch of people. Stage fright only becomes worse when you’re performing original material. No matter if it’s a room with 50 people or a concert with 5,000 people in attendance when stage fright manifests itself the artist’s ability to perform and enjoy the performance is almost nonexistent.

Joe had a great way of bringing awareness of stage fright to people who may not know what it feels like. He did this by walking them through his stage fright. He explained how he feels when he knows he needs to be on stage and also what it feels like while trying to perform. He also made it clear that it’s not something that just goes away easily. He explained how he forced himself to be on stage week after week at an open mic show but still wasn’t able to get over his stage fright.

His break through was when he wrote a song about his stage fright and started his set with the song about his stage fright. I found this brilliant; he effectively created a connection with his audience based on his fear of performing in front of them. Sometimes artists need to realize that the people audiences are humans. All humans have feelings and addressing feelings puts everyone on the same page. By understanding knowing that his audience now understands how he feels being on stage he became more comfortable on stage.

We can all find these situations in our lives, we all have fears in life and letting people know allows for us to get help and be more comfortable at the same time.

Plugins

Plugins

As an audio engineer plugins are very necessary to get high quality sound when mixing in the box. But plugins can get very expensive, so how do we know what to buy and when to buy?

I advise people to buy one great clean EQ plugin to do most subtractive EQ-ing to clean up tracks, and a nice modeled EQ with some character to do additive EQ-ing. Same with compressors, a great transparent compressor is great for general leveling tasks and a nice 1176 or LA2A model can be great when you want to add some character, and of course every engineer needs a vocal tuning plugin. But these things add up quickly and most starting engineers don’t have the budget to buy all these plugins so most of them end up pirating plugins. Pirating is wrong and I don’t think any serious engineer should be involved in this. With some simple budgeting any working engineer can save up to purchase their plugins.

Slate digital recently started offering their whole plugin collection for a monthly fee. This is great news for engineers that want to use quality plugins but can’t afford to buy them out right. This definitely works; they offer a great assortment of plugins that offer character that any engineer can use. But it’s simply not enough for most of us. During the holiday season most plugin companies have sales, this is the perfect time to buy plugins. If a particular plugin is not immediately necessary I would save up and buy it in the holiday season so you can save some cash.

Plugins are important to the audio engineering industry. I have great respect for the people who develop these plugins because they make my life as an engineer way easier. If we don’t pay for plugins then we can’t expect for the developers to keep making them so let’s support plugin developers by buying plugins.

Why Quality Matters

With the advent of home recording and increased accessibility of recording equipment artists have an easier time creating music. Many artists tend to underestimate the power of quality. If you’re a serious artist the quality of you’re music will set you apart from the people who are just making music as a hobby. When speaking to artists about this I always tell them to know their short comings, and figure out ways around them. For example I you have beginner’s recording equipment at home you should understand that you’re equipment will be great for pre production and creating demos, but It will never sound like something recorded in a studio with an experience engineer. I recommend that If you’re going to be recording yourself at home you research basic audio theory, understand common home studio issues and things you need to be aware of. I always recommend for artists to create to record ideas at home and pick the best ones to go record at a studio. By doing this you show up to the studio prepared allowing you to save time and money. 

After you’re done recording make sure you pick an appropriate mix engineer to mix your song. There’s 3 things to consider when you pick you’re mix engineer the first thing is experience; Your mix engineer should have a few years of experience, letting your friend mix your song because he has he has a home studio and some cracked plugins will most likely not produce the results you’re looking for. The second thing to consider is the genre of your song; Realize that all mix engineers can mix a song but every genre has specific things that can make songs pop. If your mix engineer has never mixed a song like yours he or she won’t know these things, so look into their mix history while making your decision. The last thing to consider is budget; it’s important to know what your budget is, know what you can afford and what you can’t, have this conversation with your engineer so you’re both on the same page. Doing this early in your professional relationship will save you from bitter money disputes later.

Mastering is the final step of the production of your song. Depending on how far you are on your path as an artist your mastering engineer and mixing engineer may end up being the same person. Understand that experience is the most important thing to look for n a mastering engineer. You’re mastering engineer should have extensive knowledge of audio fundamentals. Mastering will make sure you’re song sounds good and consistent in any playback system. When it comes to mastering loudness matters but It’s not the only thing that matters, always pick quality over loudness.

Making music can be lots of fun but be sure to set yourself apart from the people who aren't serious about their career as an artist. Quality matters so invest in the quality of your music.