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Choosing the Right DAW

 

Your Digital Audio Workstation – or DAW for short – is the noble companion to every producer’s life. Having the correct DAW can have a major impact on your workflow so it’s essential to choose the right one for you.

There are many great DAW’s to choose from like Pro Tools, Logic Pro X, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Garageband, Cubase, and many more. In my opinion, it’s vital to do some research and narrow down which system meets your needs.

To aid this, I’ve broken down my experience with some of the major players Pro Tools, Logic Pro X Ableton, and Garageband to try and compare my experience using each one.

Garageband – Beginner Level / just starting out 

Garageband was the first DAW I used and it really helped me fall in love with producing music. I believe Garageband to be very user-friendly and the basic layout and features make it easier to understand if you’re just starting out. If you don’t have an Apple computer, I believe audacity is a great start for windows users.

Logic Pro X – Bedroom Producers / Ideal for singer-songwriter-producers

In my opinion Logic Pro X is the best bang for your buck. If you’ve come from using Garageband the layout is very familiar and you have the option to show or hide some of the advanced features. It comes with a wide range of software instruments and plug-ins that make it ideal for bedroom producers that don’t have access to live musicians.

Pro Tools – Great for recording / Industry Standard

To quote my sound production lecturers ‘it’s the industry standard’. If you want to make producing your profession and you dream of working in different studios, Pro Tools is the DAW to learn. In my experience, the learning curve is quite steep and sometimes can be a bit fiddly in places. However, once you find your way around, it’s great.

Ableton Live – You want to play live what you produce

Ableton is great if you want to make music and then perform it live. Its capabilities are incredible and I love that you can just create a beat on the spot and then add in melodies on the fly.

To conclude, all of these DAW’s are great for making music and I really recommend trying a few out to see what feels right. Most of the DAW’s mentioned come with free trials so take advantage of that and see what feels right.

Women Behind Film

 

Let’s talk about film composers – Women film composers. 

More precisely, the lack of representation of women in film scoring.

The centre for the Study of Women in Television and film released a report stating that of the top 250 domestic films in 2018, 94% were scored by men.

This year, Hildur Guðnadóttir was the first solo woman to win Best Original Score at the Golden Globes. It was a historic moment that I hope will advance the profession and therefore offer more scoring opportunities to women.

The world of movie scores tends to be male-dominated with composers such as Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Michael Giacchino, and Danny Elfman. However, with this new demand for content on platforms like Netflix and Amazon, we can only hope more opportunities for women to score films and series’ will increase.

For the first time in Oscar History a woman, Eímear Noone will conduct excerpts from the five nominated scores. This is a major milestone and hopefully will open doors for other women in the profession.

Although these milestones have been long-awaited, it is encouraging to see women being represented behind the camera. We can only hope that these are the first steps in evening out the playing field.

 

Music of the Decade

 

As 2019 comes to a close, not only is a new year approaching but a new decade.

So, what better way to honour the last 10 years than to look at some of the most defining moments in music.

January 2010

Touring is one of the biggest income streams for many artists and employs a number of roles behind the scenes from sound and lighting techs to stage designers and many more. So it was of major significance in 2010 when Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged.

January 2011
In 2011 saw the release of Adele’s record-breaking album ‘21’. Not only was this album successful in its release year but it has become the biggest selling album of the decade.

July 2012
During this year, Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ was released. It was the first video on YouTube to reach 1 Billion views.

December 2013
Beyoncé changed the game dropping a visual album out of nowhere on December 13th with no promotion.

2014
Taylor Swift Releases 1989. The album was a huge step in securing herself as a pop star. Another notable artist release was Ed Sheeran with the hit song Thinking out loud.

October 2015
Adele releases ‘Hello’ after a short hiatus.

April 2016
In April, Drake released ‘One Dance’. This was also the same month we lost the extremely talented Prince. Beyoncé also released her visual album ‘Lemonade’.

2017
Kendrick Lamar releases ‘Humble’.

2018
2018 brought us albums like Cardi B’s ‘Invasion of Privacy’, Drakes ‘Scorpion’ and Kacey Musgraves ‘Golden Hour’.

2019
Billie Eilish released ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’

Looking back, this decade has changed quite considerably in terms of genre and style and it’s wonderful to know that we are entering a new decade led by a wide variety of different artists. I’m sure we are all in anticipation and looking forward to what is to come in the next decade.

 

The Buskers Equipment Guide

For many people, busking is a great way to hone your performance skills and try out that new material you’ve been working on. Often though, many performers don’t know where to start in terms of the right tech or equipment for performing in unconventional spaces. So, I’ve compiled a list of equipment to get you started that suits wherever you’re performing.

A Portable PA 

Emphasis on the word portable. For performers playing in obscure spaces, whether that be outdoor gigs or small venues, it’s important to get a portable PA that will suit your needs. For instrumentalists or singer/songwriters, I recommend the Cube Street EX or the Behringer MPA40BT.

Durable Mic and Cables 

As you will be transporting the equipment around, it’s important to invest in gear that can take a few hits. I recommend the Shure SM58 when you need a dependable, dynamic microphone and definitely invest in some good quality XLR cables.

Promotional Materials 

This last tip doesn’t have to apply to everyone, but if you want to gain maximum reach with your performance, perhaps think about some promotional materials to accompany your performance. For example, an A4 poster with your name and where people can find your music, or perhaps some business cards beside you.

Overall I hope some of these tips can be helpful in your search for finding the appropriate gear. You can rest assured knowing that after you’ve got all the technical stuff sorted, you can focus on the music.

 

 

Creating Suspense 

Recently I’ve been working on a couple of projects that require some suspenseful swells of music. After trying out a few different methods, I decided I would share some of the techniques I used that seemed to be quite effective.

The first method I tried was to bury some long gong sounds leading up to the peak of the suspense. This worked as it was a very classical sounding score. However, if you were wanting to use this in another genre, you could always edit the sound with a pitch shifter, reverb, sending it through pedals. Etc.

My second tip is to just keep layering sounds during a build-up section. The idea of suspense could mean that the first section of your piece can be very controlled but the build-up really needs to grow. A really great way to do this is to add new sounds to every bar. This can be anything from recorded sounds to synths and instruments.

My final tip is to increase the volume automation throughout your build-up. This really helps especially when the music needs to be minimal but you still want the audience to sense some kind of change.

I hope some of these tips can help you create some suspense in your pieces. My advice is to just always keep playing around with different elements of the score, and eventually, you’ll find something that works.

 

 

Deconstructing a Song

 

Songwriting can be one of the most rewarding parts of being a musician. The beauty of songwriting is that nothing is right or wrong, and the world of music is filled with a wide range of different genres and styles.

But, if you are new to writing, I decided to deconstruct a simple song structure to help get you started.

In my opinion, the most straightforward song structure to apply to your writing is the pop song structure. It goes a little like:

From my experience, the best thing to do before writing a song is to plan what you’re going to write about. For example, this could mean anything from deciding the name of the song and the topic, to write a few sentences about what you want to communicate within it.

Then I usually tackle the first two verses.

I think of writing verses like telling a story — you’re helping to build a world for the listener.

The pre-chorus is an excellent way to transition to the chorus, and you can also change the melody slightly here, which usually will perk up the listener as they will hear something new.

The chorus typically features the title of the song or repeats a specific phrase. This is the part of the song that I think you can get really creative with exciting melodies and rhythms.

The bridge of a song I like to think of as a little plot twist. You can often change the key of the song, or if you’ve written upbeat lyrics at this point, you can change them to something more somber.

Then you can nicely transition back to the chorus a couple of times.

I hope some of this information helped, especially if you’re new to songwriting. It can often be an intimidating and vulnerable thing to write a song if you’ve never done it before.

The best thing to do is to keep it up and keep practicing. You’ll have a couple of albums worth of songs before you know it!

 

The Rise of Audio Branding 

 

Music has always been a fundamental part of advertising, whether we are aware of it or not.

From car ads grabbing our attention with upbeat pop songs to the instantly recognizable short jingles created by the likes of McDonald’s and Microsoft. Audio branding is essential to creating a catchy advertisement.

In today’s world, the business of audio branding is expanding with the likes of Facebook and YouTube ads continuing to grow meaning there is more opportunities to get involved than ever before.

So here are some points on why audio branding is a good idea.

Music and Memory

Music has a significant connection with memory allowing people to easily recall short jingles and phrases of music. Hearing also has a more powerful connection than sight within the brain allowing a more emotional response to hearing certain sounds rather than seeing.

It Gives a Brand Identity 

It provides a musical phrase that can be repeated in a number of different advertisements allowing your brand to be easily identified by its sound.

Creating Trust

Repeating a certain sound or jingle allows a brand to be easily identifiable and therefore becomes familiar to a customer. The act of consistency within a business is key to customers trusting the company and products. So, by creating a sonic experience, you can develop a customer’s trust by exposing them to something familiar every time they visit your brand.

Overall there are a lot of positive aspects to audio branding and creating a recognizable sound or jingle for a brand. For musicians and producers, this can potentially mean more work and it allows another outlet for creativity.

With its ability to impact customers, audio branding is here to stay.

Further Resources:

What Is Audio Branding? – ISA – International Sound Awards

The Rise of Audio Branding – Gary Vaynerchuk

Why audio branding is key to brand identity – Marketing Week

5 Benefits Of Audio Branding | Branding Strategy Insider

Audio Branding: Does Your Business Need It? – Neuromarketing

 

 

 

Dealing with Burnout as a Musician

Burnout can come in many different forms for musicians. It might manifest as writer’s block, or the feeling of being overworked, or perhaps financial stress has taken its toll. For whatever reason, burnout can be difficult to manage however, you don’t have to go through it alone.

Here are some tips to help battle burnout:

For a lot of musicians, it’s hard to draw the line between creating music as part of your job and writing music for yourself or for fun.  Even if you do enjoy it, it’s important to have a life outside of music.

Financial stress is not something new to musicians. Almost every week in the U.K there seems to be a new report about funding cuts or lack of work for people within the arts sector. It’s a difficult situation to be in and there is no easy answer to secure a financially stable future however, planning your jobs out in advance can certainly help ease your mind about where the gaps are and perhaps spark a few ideas on how to fill them.

When you’re in the midst of burnout it’s often hard to see the positives. If you take five minutes out of your day, try to write down or at least think about why you decided to create a career in music. Hopefully, you’ll remember the positive reasons for wanting to be a musician.

Good luck and just remember you’re not alone: this too shall pass.

More Resources:

Tips for Staying Healthy on the Road

Health and wellness on the road. Why you owe it to yourself.

The Tour Life is Hard — Homeopathy Can Help

Rock ‘n’ Roll Yogi

A Red and Sensitive Topic

Let’s Talk About Mental Health

Fit on Tour

 

 

A Simple Method for Recording Drums

Recording drums is an important part of any project but the process can often seem quite daunting. Often in-studio pictures feature an abundance of microphones on and around the kit, suggesting that you might need a lot of equipment to get the job done.

However, one simple method of recording drums that is highly effective is the Glyn Johns method.

It uses only four microphones and is relatively easy to set up.

What you need

Overheads

First, begin by placing one overhead mic about a metre (3 or 4 feet) above the snare. The microphone diaphragm should be pointing down at the kit. Then take your second overhead microphone and place it to the right of the drummer (so the microphone diaphragm is facing the Hi-Hat). Then measure the distance so that it’s the exact same measurement from the first overhead mic (so about a metre). Pan the two mics in the mix and you should get a nice balanced sound.

*The image shows the distance of the microphones but not the correct diaphragm placement

Snare + Kick Drum

The snare and kick drum microphone placements can be played around with until you find a sound you like. Often with kick drum mics you can place the microphone inside the drum or have it set up on the outside.

Overall this is a great and relatively easy way to record drums.

 

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