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Turn Me Up: The War Against Sound Squashing Continues

December 10, 2008 by Mike Leave a Comment

turn me up certificationMost modern-day popular music is heavily compressed (i.e. quiet sounds are increased in volume) to increase a track’s overall "loudness" and apparent intensity.  Audiophile purists hate the trend, because it prevents the creation of truly expressive and "dynamic" albums.  Many consumers, however, perceive the "loudness" in a modern day track to reflect a higher level of quality.  Hence the Loudness War that ensues.

One organization, Turn Me Up!, is trying to "…create an environment where artists will feel comfortable making the creative choice to release a more dynamic record—without the fear of it being misunderstood by the consumer."  They’re doing it by creating a new certification process:

To address this we’ve created Turn Me Up! Certification, which would allow records meeting our criteria to display the Turn Me Up! Certified label to inform the consumer nothing is wrong, this record is simply more dynamic and all they need to do is Turn Me Up!

The message on the label they’re suggesting is:

Turn Me Up!™ Certified

To preserve the excitement, emotion and dynamics of the original performances this record is intentionally quieter than some. For full enjoyment simply Turn Me Up! (www.TurnMeUp.org)

It’s the old trade-off between your target consumer’s "perceived value" and your own "artistic integrity."  That is, if acoustic dynamics are extremely important to you.  Personally, I think disregarding your fans’ tastes is risky business; walk that path with extreme caution!  In Turn Me Up’s case, the basic message, "Do you think this CD sounds quiet?  Then turn up the volume." seems a little funny to me, though I appreciate the effort.  Would it be better to brand the certification as a "premium" label, rather than a "requires increased volume to fix the sound" label?  That almost makes it sound broken…

What do you think?

(Thanks for the link, Jay!)

Filed Under: Digital Home Recording

Audio Tutorials: Read 'Em & Write 'Em

July 7, 2008 by Mike Leave a Comment

Audio TutsThe same gang of creative folks that created all the Rockstar sites, such as PSDTuts, a Photoshop tutorial site, and Audio Jungle, an audio loop and sound effect ecommerce site, has launched the new audio tutorial site, AudioTuts.

It only launched in June, but there are already a few cool tutorials such as "Create a Reverse Reverb Effect", which is one I’ve actually wondered about in the past.  Check it out.

Btw, you can also submit a tutorial of your own and score $150 (assuming it’s accepted).  Rockstar Sites apparently has a model that’s working for them — pay the massive public to create great content, do some PR, and sell advertising to monetize the incoming traffic.  Commercialized crowdsourcing….well, not really, since it’s selective.  Not too shabby.  I can’t complain about commercialism as long as the content is solid, and so far, it’s off to a good start.  :)

Filed Under: Digital Home Recording

WellMixed Masters ProTools and GarageBand Projects

June 22, 2008 by Mike Leave a Comment

Isn’t it awesome to be part of digital audio world where home recordnig is a reality?  As a musician or band, it’s fantastic.  It can also be great for audio pros with good ideas that can adapt to the new recording landscape.

WellMixed is a company on the verge of launching an internet-based mastering service catering to bands with GarageSpin (or ProTools) song projects looking to achieve a professional sound for their music.  Not a bad idea considering the huge number of Mac users that have GarageBand, but not much else.  (A Cakewalk user, for example, is probably more invested in the equipment, etc., but GarageBand is included free on Macs.)  But…not that I’m one to talk..but hopefully they’ll whip together a better logo…

I’m sure this is only the beginning…keep an eye out for more.  (Thanks, Taylor) 

Filed Under: Digital Home Recording

Remember to Back Up Your Audio Projects, Kids

April 20, 2008 by Mike Leave a Comment

As much as people always tell me to back up my projects…I never have.  Stoopid, stoopid, stoopid.  I learned the lesson the hard way, but not the hardest way.  The most recent version of my lastest song project file was somehow corrupted last week, and I lost about 20-25 hours of work (my most recent separate file save was dated in February…d’oh!).  That’s pretty friggin’ annoying…but certainly isn’t as bad as losing an entire hard drive of audio data.  Obviously, I need to backup everything ASAP.

Don’t let this happen to you…please, back up your files!

Filed Under: Digital Home Recording

Microsoft Admits: Vista Stinks (Tragedy in Three Acts)

March 10, 2008 by Mike Leave a Comment

Once again, I am SO glad I stuck with Windows XP with my new DAW rather than up upgrade to Windows Vista.

The NY Times has a great article that pieces together the events leading up to Vista’s many woes using email content taken from a current court case.  It’s a little sad actually…basically, a ton of people at Microsoft protested what they knew would be a problem, and were ignored by certain higher-ups.  (I love the fact that "Vista Capable" stickers slapped on new machines actually meant "Vista could possibly be used on this machine if you upgrade after buying it."  Too funny.)  An interesting and tragic read. 

Filed Under: Digital Home Recording

Riffworld – Song Collaboration and Social Networking

January 30, 2008 by Mike Leave a Comment

Somona wire works riffworld.comRiffworld.com is Somona Wire Works’ entry into the music collaboration and social networking space.  Rather than re-phrase, I’ll quote from the press release:

Using the RiffWorks desktop recording application, up to four musicians can connect and collaborate on a song simultaneously. As a layer records, it instantly streams to other players’ running RiffWorks. As the Riff loops, other players can add more. All contributions are saved on RiffWorld.com and can be opened later for further collaboration. 

Kind of an interesting spin on the space touched on by music collaboration & social networking sites Kompoz, Light Speed Audio, eJamming Audio, SpliceMusic, and a bunch of others.  They’re all pretty different — some focusing on loop-generated music, some focusing on pure songwriting ideas, and others focusing on live interaction.  Riffworld is definitely worth checking out…I haven’t tried it myself yet.

Pretty cool stuff…and just as I was getting so comfortable writing and recording in the bubble I’m in…  Whatever happened to anti-social networking and brooding rockstars?  :)

Filed Under: Digital Home Recording

NJ Recording Studios 'n' Home Recording

August 9, 2007 by Mike Leave a Comment

I had the opportunity to provide a little commentary to another recording-studios-facing-threat-of-home-recording themed article published today by the Courier News, kind of similar to the recording studio article last week.

My new hero is John Forrestal, a 19-year (old also quoted in the article) whose home recording studio became a small business while he was still in high school.  He records jazz artists, singer-songwriters, etc.  (I think I was still collecting comic books in 9th or 10th grade.  Fortunately, I also started playing guitar around that time.)  John’s way ahead of his time, but then so is the entire Apple GarageBand generation, I guess.

It’s great to be a songwriter in the 21st century.

Filed Under: Digital Home Recording, Do-It-Yourself

Big Recording Studios vs. Home Recording Studios

July 27, 2007 by Mike Leave a Comment

Scott Galupo of the Washington Times wrote an article titled Music from a Closet about the recent passing of many large recording studios (the Hit Factory, Cello Studios, Music Shoals Sound Studios, and most recently, Sony Music Studios), and the explosion of home/garage/closet-based studios.  A good read, check it out.

Scott was kind enough to invite my thoughts on the subject, but I (unknowingly) missed his deadline while boogie boarding in North Carolina.  Rather than let mediocre writing go to waste, I thought I’d include my thoughts here so they would have a life outside of Gmail:

"Digital audio recording has advanced to the point where it’s difficult to differentiate between home-brewed audio and pro analog sound.  While audiophiles may disagree, the vast majority of iPod owners are perfectly happy grooving to mp3 files, a "low fi" sound format.  The recent 50/50 split between digital and analog single sales in the UK strongly supports that trend.

"The production process is evolving towards a point where the bulk of song writing, recording, tracking, and mixing will take place in home studios.  Some studios will always exist to provide superior acoustic spaces, superior mixing and mastering software and hardware, and most importantly, expert mixing and mastering expertise, all of which are difficult for any DIY artist to duplicate.  And of course, there will always be great bands who have no knowledge of or desire to record their own albums.  The studios that can offer bundled services (CD duplication, studio musician rosters, music submission channels, song advice, industry contacts, mixing/mastering expertise, etc.) and other difficult-to-duplicate benefits will survive and succeed."

Quoting one’s self is so lame.

Filed Under: Digital Home Recording, Do-It-Yourself

How Not to Produce Amateur Recordings

February 19, 2007 by Mike Leave a Comment

Home Tracked - home recording techniques blogIf you’re new to the home recording scene, and want to avoid some classic pitfalls of an amateur recording, avoiding these top ten recording pitfalls is a great way to start.  Uneven  or muddy vocals, and especially acoustic bleeding caused by a small room, are some of the most common problems bedroom-based rockstars face.  Des at Home Tracked provides a bunch of tips for avoiding the biggest pitfalls — check it out, as well as his daily recording tips.  Great stuff.  You can tell he knows his stuff by checking out his music as well….

Filed Under: Digital Home Recording, Do-It-Yourself

HomeMade Hit Show Podcast Approaches 52nd Show

November 21, 2006 by Mike Leave a Comment

I’d like to extend congrats to the HomeMade Hit Show podcast for nearing its 52nd weekly episode.  Not too shabby at all.  The focus of the show, as its name suggests, revolves around music recorded by musicians at home studios and PCs.  The music stylings and nationalities of the artists are all over the place, making for a rather entertaining change of pace from my recycled iPod library.  The DJ (PJ?) throws in a couple mini-news bits to spice it up as well, including product demos, "dumbass of the week", and other bits — I’m listening to show #51 as I type.  Anyway, fun stuff for musicians, or anyone looking to hear new songs by new artists…several of which have prompted me to go mp3-hunting…

Filed Under: Digital Home Recording, Podcasting

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