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The Importance of the Cover Letter

College may or may not be in person where you live this semester but that doesn’t mean school isn’t starting soon. As students prepare for Zoom or in-person orientations this August I encourage you to consider looking for places you may want to intern at or be employed at after school. While you may have your resume prepared and it is important that you do, do you have the cover letter to complement it? Recently when talking to my peers I realized that while most people talk about the importance of having your resume prepared, they don’t realize how important a cover letter really is! So why is it so important? If it is as important as a resume, how do I begin? Well…let’s talk about that!

The Importance of the Cover Letter

Resumes are important because it’s a look at what your qualifications are for the position that you are after. However, it’s no joke that if you are considering a highly sought-after job (like a top-liner for instance), you are competing with dozens – possibly even hundreds – of applicants. The ones looking over your application are having to scour through all those applications and resumes, and will likely only have the time to briefly review yours. The goal of the employer is to find the best-fit candidate, while your goal is getting hired. The cover letter is that extra life to make you more than just a name on some paper – it makes you a person. The cover letter is a brief introduction about you, your background, education (if any), and experience ( if any). With a cover letter, you are more likely to join that narrowed-down pool of candidates.

How to Write a Cover Letter With Experience 

If you have some experience already, say off a mentorship, internship, or job(s) you have done then a cover letter will be a breeze for you!

Let’s look at an example of one cover letter for a foley artist.

Firstly when finding out who to address – do your research before you apply. This is a no-brainer, if you want the job you make sure you know everything that you can before you apply. Maybe you need to email in your resume and cover letter, or maybe you are applying on Indeed/ a job site. In the case, you know the hiring manager’s name refer to them in a formal tone. In the case you do not, you could use the name of the venue or location of the job. Here’s a start :

 

Dear (Insert name)/ John’s Studio, 

I am currently a college undergrad majoring in film at the University of Jane, I am seeking the opportunity listed on Indeed as foley artist. 

I have experience in film in post-production, working on multiple foley stages around the northeast and abroad. Some films I have been credited to are Vampires Eight, Jakie John, and Horseshoe Mountain. My responsibilities included ____ and ____. I feel I am the best fit for the job due to my experiences working as a foley artist and my ability to work well under tight deadlines. 

I seek an environment that challenges and is proactive in bringing stories from page to screen, I identify with the values of your studio and I feel that John’s Studio is the perfect environment for me to flourish creatively as I look to work with your establishment for the next five years and so on. 

I hope to connect with you at your earliest convenience to discuss my qualifications further. 

I appreciate your time and consideration and hope to be hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Josephine Doe

In this example, Josephine addressed the studio they wished to work at, explained their education and experiences, and explained why they would best fit the studio environment. The best way to write a cover letter is to be formal, but authentic.

KEEP IN MIND! 

STAY AWAY FROM!

Writing a Cover Letter With No Experience

If you do not have job experience yet and want to apply, how should your cover letter look?

Well, most of the tips for the top portion are applied here as well, however, you will have to lean more into how you can benefit the company.

For example, let’s use Josephine again.

 

Dear (Insert name)/ John’s Studio, 

I am currently a college undergrad majoring in film at the University of Jane, I am seeking the opportunity to intern at your establishment under your foley department. 

I have managed our college fall festival and worked well with collaborating with others to create an entertaining experience, and throughout the project, I exhibited strong leadership and time-management skills. I recognize that working with strict deadlines is imperative to the position and I am prepared to work overtime if necessary to see the projects asked of me to completion. 

I seek an environment that challenges and is proactive in bringing stories from page to screen, I identify with the values of your studio and I feel that John’s Studio is the perfect environment for me to flourish creatively as I look to work my way up to joining the staff as a foley artist with hard work and dedication.

I hope to connect with you at your earliest convenience to set up an interview,

I appreciate your time and consideration and hope to be hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Josephine Doe

In this example Josephine doesn’t have the film experience written out in the first example, however, Josephine is able to relate a personal story to the position. From explaining their experience managing the festival they demonstrated leadership skills, resiliency, and management capabilities. They show they can collaborate with others to get work done, and that they see themselves with John’s Studio, establishing their timeline.

While considering places you may want to intern or apply for jobs this fall consider writing a cover letter, it might help bring you to places you dreamed of being.

More Resources on Resumes and Cover Letters

Understanding Confidence

If I had advice for my sixteen-year-old self it’d be this: Stock up on toilet paper and hand sanitizer- you’ll be a millionaire in a couple of years.

No really, I would tell her the power of having confidence in herself. For her, it was a constant need to mix well with everyone. What are their wants? What are their needs? Never taking a second for herself in fear that it would displease others, I can think of distinct moments where I would freeze up mid-sentence just because I thought I would sound stupid. The older I got the more I realized that unless I wanted my back to become a carpet permanently I would need to pamper and understand myself more fundamentally. What are my wants? What are my needs?

So since the clock is only moving forward, how about instead of giving some advice to a sixteen-year-old me, I give it to you? Cool? Cool.

Remember That You’re Learning 

You don’t need to be a prodigy or have a doctorate to be considered smart. Surprised? Probably not, it is perfectly normal to be clueless when you start out on a new passion or career. That could be learning a new instrument, crafting, even learning how to solder. If you have aspirations to work in a recording studio, for instance, you don’t need to do every job. Monitoring engineers, audio technicians, booking, event planners – they all have a role to play. In larger settings some studios have people just to tune the instruments, someone, only to track, and someone only to mix. Smaller settings may have people doubling up jobs, so the tracking engineer might also be the mix or master engineer for that studio. Learning is always power in any setting, and while you don’t need to do every job it can help to not pigeonhole yourself into only one thing you can do. For our studio example, say you get hired on for mastering tracks for commercial use. If the person tracking a session cancels at the last minute or is running significantly late and you know how to track, not only does it make your wallet happy but you distinguish yourself as an asset. You show how valuable you are and if the client hits it off with you they may go on to recommend you to other studios and projects.

In short, you don’t need to do everything, but by learning how things line up and work together you will be able to expand yourself and only develop in your career or hobby. Remember that you are learning, and learning different and innovative ways to do things is one way to set up success for yourself down the line.

It Isn’t Weak To Ask For Help 

The stigma around asking for help is ridiculous. Saying you need help doesn’t mean you are not valuable, tying into the learning part, you are still learning. You don’t need to know how to do everything, if you need something ask for help.

Trust me, I understand the human factor of this. Here you are getting a chance to go after your dreams, you’re in a room with tons of professionals with likely high-end names in their portfolios. Say, move, do anything and that’s it! It can be mind-numbing, anxiety-inducing, all, and any other

synonyms to describe how terrifying it can be. I want to say this next part with love, not asking for help when you’re stuck should be more terrifying. The last thing a professional producer, engineer, or showrunner will want is you slowing down a production. If you don’t know a key cut in the DAW that the studio has, ask. It will not only help the production of what you are doing go smoothly but you also learn how to do it.

If you risk not asking you might leave a bad impression (the thing you tried to avoid) because you could patch a signal wrong, not cue the light at the moment needed in a live production, fry a wire, etc. Assume anything and everything can go wrong if you don’t know something, it could save your employer time and money.

Have Drive. 

The global music industry is over twenty-one billion US dollars. Anyone that says working in the music industry is not a financially smart idea simply does not understand the huge caliber of this number. I know many friends from high school and a couple from college that loved to do music but kept being told no due to family or financial scares. So some of them went on to become teachers, one went on to work as a bank teller and that was that. In a “normal” job most retire the day they turn 62, in the music industry established artists and mixers don’t retire unless by choice or health concerns. So it makes sense that finding a job in this field can be daunting to say the least, but that’s okay. What makes you different from everyone going after the title of Madonna or the next DJ Khaled is that you are willing to put in the work.

Trust me, you are worth it. The moment you start to see that these intimating numbers and faces are just people that put in as much as you are now, that is the moment you understand confidence. Confidence is knowing that everyone is subject to human error and success. It means you are capable and value yourself and your capabilities.

Have the drive, the rest will steer itself.

FabFilter Plugins

Are you aware of the story of Noah’s Ark? You know, the one about a man who builds a huge vessel to hold his family and two of each animal to save them from a great flood that would envelop the world?

Well… I’m going to assume you did! Fabfilter makes me think of this story vividly. Why? It has everything you need to fine-tune the sound you are looking for! It’s a little quirky that THIS is what comes to mind when I think of these plugin packages, but it’s 100% true! Just as Noah had all he needed in that vessel sailing the flooded lands, I have what I need for sailing my sessions in the mixing or mastering stages.

Fabfilter has gotta be my first choice for equalizing, gates, de-essing, and limiting. Let’s have a look at Fabfilter’s Pro-Q 3, Pro-G gate, Pro-DS, and Pro-L2 Limiter. While Fabfilter offers more than just these plugins such as the Saturn saturation, for example, I will be focusing just on the ones listed above. If you want to do some of your own research after this, more power to you!

Pro-Q 3

If you just started to work with Pro Tools, chances are all you would have at your disposal is built-in plugins. So your first EQ is probably going to be either the EQ 1-band or 7-band. While starting out, these EQs aren’t the worst in the world- they are limited. Compared to Logic’s Channel EQ, however, the 1-band/7-band are, frankly, not good for professional studio recordings, especially dialing in high tones in soprano vocals ( and I should know! ) or mid-tones in pianos.

Enter the Fabfilter Pro-Q 3! Equipped with a high-quality phaser, dynamic EQ, individual band mid/side processing, solo features, built-in gain, and wait for it….

The spectrum analyzer!

Why, oh why, would I need to gush about the spectrum analyzer? By sectioning out a part of my track, I can dial in low cuts, the after-effect ringing from a guitar slide, cut out the highs’ and correct the mids. All while using both my senses of sight and hearing to figure out what I’m looking for. While I would never recommend you just do visual mixing, It can be extraordinary in expediting the EQ process. The smooth response time and attention to detail added to this make it a winner all on its own.

Pro-G Gate

For the best sonic outcome while gating I would recommend the Pro-G Gate. Setting your threshold, range, and wet-to-dry ratios is a breeze. Like the Pro-Q 3, you can visual mix here as well. 7 times outta 10 I gate purely drums. Getting the snare out of the ride is somewhat possible while in the EQ process, but gating is just way more effective. Gating drums with this? A little too easy. With the Pro-G side chains, precise metering, and visual aspects are more than enough to buy what they are selling.

Pro-DS

You could shell out on the best preamps, spend thousands on that microphone you think is “the one”, certain words in vocal tracking just always seem to pop the wrong way. With post-it often becomes more apparent. The Pro-DS is transparent which is what I love about it. It comes with modes like single vocal and all-around, which can help with high-frequency limiting. Its look ahead up to 15 ms is perfect for fine detailing ahead of the current. This de-esser is great for triggering gain reduction effectively without much effort on the engineer’s part. Built-in plugins can’t touch this.

Pro-L 2

So you gated, de-essed, and EQ’ed the session. Yet, you still think that your readings are coming in a little too hot. Enter Pro-L 2 limiter. Peaks, clips, and loudness metering are standard for the Pro-L 2. While I personally wouldn’t use this in my mixing process, I would use it in mastering. Getting my levels ready for release in today’s music marketplace is key. We all are used to how a track should sound – even the crazy razor-sharp metal engineers know the sound quality is key to an optimal experience. To adhere to these loudness standards the Pro-L 2 does it well and using advanced settings to dial in only helps the customizability needed for a mastering engineer’s arsenal.

So Is Fabfilter Noah’s Ark For The Sonic World…?

To me, although some might call it silly, yes. The story reminds me that even if a storm is going on outside, as many sessions can be, my sturdy ship of plugins can help me navigate the weather.

Give Fabfilter a try, I really think it can help a lot of new engineers like students just starting out. If you are a broke high school or college student tight on cash, they do offer an educational discount of 50% off. Just fill out a form and picture of your student ID, and music teachers also qualify. So definitely check it out, 100% helped me out.

 

 

Not Everything Needs To Be Perfect

 

We are only four ( going on five ) months into the year, and even though Covid-19 still exists, I find myself stressed once again despite it. I want to be the one to shine a positive light whenever my stress tries to overtake me but I’ll be real here: being constantly positive isn’t easy. Yes! Yes! I can already hear someone call out that I’m a real Sherlock, nevertheless, it’s the truth. I’ve been beat-making constantly in-the-box for the last couple of weeks and sending my various hooks and verses to those that had requested them without having a moment to just stop and air out for a bit. I knew that if I wanted to avoid becoming a music zombie, I would have to step back though I hesitated a lot. I was pumping out melodies based on references emailed over to me, then I was meticulously nit-picking every little thing I could, followed by spending hours with the EQ because it just didn’t sit right.

What was I doing so wrong? Why didn’t the sounds in my head line up to what I heard from my speakers? I think, looking back at this, I clearly wasn’t on the verge of being a music zombie – I already was.

So for this month, I wanted to highlight some points and tricks to help you stay on track and avoid serious burnout.

Step One: Remember – You Are Unique

This might come as a shock to you, but surprise! You have been declared authentically yourself. That means you have thought processes, personal experiences, and a sound that can only be described as you sounding. Confused? Allow me to elaborate: if you are a cellist for argument’s sake, you might be able to fit into a classical musical genre with the way you learned to play. However, you have the dictation as to what your sound is. You can fit into any mold because you choose to. Your creative choices are born of the ability you have learned throughout lessons and experiences. This is true for the engineer, who may color rhythm sections in a session as blue and the record track as red out of either a practical or stylistic choice, and the singer may only sing songs composed in C major because they know that major key best fits their sound.

You’re not the next Rhianna, Prince, or 50 Cent. You’re you, and while these songs you love are references that can be good as inspiration and, well, references, you don’t need to mimic your favorite song or mix it identically the same. Embrace what you can bring to the table.

Step Two: Remember One Central Goal

If you find yourself stressed on where you want to start- or like me- find yourself debating if panning hard or slightly left will make the track better – take this advice: focus on one central goal! What is the impact you want to leave on the client, fans, and/or yourself? Do you want to finally pick up one song from the backlog and finish it? If so, work on that one track, and don’t go starting side projects! I guarantee the moment you do you’ll gain an “ I’ll come back to it“ mentality and WON’T come back to it. Take it by the day, something like this ( Yes! It’s time for a list within a list! ):

Day One: Writing lyrics or revising lyrics. Simply take the day to just put some words down. You don’t need to have the final product down yet – but what you will have is an idea of what you’re dealing with.

Day Two: Simple chord progression, a drum loop you like, maybe you play the piano and create something that’s just perfect. You don’t need to mold the sound of it to the lyrics – just feel the song out. Make sure you record whatever you come up with – it doesn’t need to be high-end – voice memos will do just fine.

Day Three: Time to see what’s been cooking the last two days! Place the beat in any DAW – it could even be Garageband on your phone, and bring up that beat you made. Now try mumbling total nonsense while keeping on the beat, it’s a little silly but it works! Any words pop out during mumblefest? You might have stumbled upon something you want to expand on. Experiment! Bring back in those lyrics from day one, and build it up from there. You have all the puzzle pieces. A beat, a vibe, and words. Also, don’t worry about editing – right now it’s all about the music.

There you have it. You made a goal, and instead of trying to cram it all into a couple of hours, you took it day by day- each day with fresh ears and new perspectives that only benefit the song you made. While this example might help artists heavy-handedly, it can be applied to sound designers, engineers, and FOH.

Step Three: Stop Doing

Opinion incoming! Alert! Here I go! If you love what you do, do NOT make it your job. A job is something you can like, hate, neutral, but it’s just a paycheck. A hobby is something you do as an enrichment activity, but what you love? With elbow grease – It’s a career. A lifelong commitment to your job and hobby getting hitched together. You meet like-minded people, explore depths of yourself you never knew existed! The moment you let the burnout get to you though? That’s a job, something just for a paycheck. Learning more becomes homework instead of an adventure. Make sure to do other things besides your career, you have the knack for this line of work sure! Yet you are so much more moving pieces. If you stop whatever you are doing and just take a moment to get some oxygen, read a book, watch a new show. You allow yourself the right to be and do more than one thing. It tells your fatigue that this is not a job’s obligation but a career desire.

You are not a robot, not everything needs to be perfect.

 

 

 

Luna Guitars

TO RIVAL OTHER BRANDS?

It feels like every guitarist must remember the first moment of holding a guitar. How did the body of it mold onto yours? Did the frets feel sharp or was it cleanly shaved down? There are memories here embedded in the guitarist- in fact, I’m more than sure that this is true for every musician. The pianist and drummer could concur.

The first guitar I remember buying was the Luna Guitars’ Passionflower Acoustic-Electric Guitar. It was a maple build with a Preamp: Orion 4-Band EQ w/ Digital Tuner; its neck was a Mahogany/Rosewood with Luna’s iconic Mother-of-pearl Inlaid Moon Phase Fret Markers with a purple body. A flower surrounded the soundhole cut-out. I was so memorized when I saw it, it looked like a drawing I once painted had come to life! It begged for me to play it, and so I took it home.

Luna Guitars have been around since 2005 and was founded by stain-glass artist Yvonne de Villiers. According to Armadilloent de Villiers inspiration came from watching her mother’s struggle over her 40-year bass guitar career. She sought instruments that could be uniquely tailored to fit different players’ bodies, hands, and musical styles. She also wished to avoid the same boring look that most guitars had, but rather making the instruments look and feel radical.

Today you can find Luna guitars everywhere! From Sweetwater to Sam Ash, from Reverb to Guitar Center. I frankly find it crazy that Fender (founded 1946), Taylor (founded 1974), and Yamaha (founded 1887) guitars can all be sold at the same in-store level as a Luna can with them only being 16 years of age! However, just because Luna lacks the age that other companies have, they make up the difference with the quality of a $1,000 instrument without breaking the bank.

To make this comparison using Sweetwater, I chose Sunburst-themed guitars from Yamaha, Fender, Taylor, and of course Luna. My only requirements? They had to be in the Sunburst theme, electric-acoustic, was a six-string, and its neck build had to be mahogany for consistency.

The Yamaha was a CPX1200II

6-string Acoustic-electric Guitar, with Spruce Top Rosewood Back and Sides, Mahogany Neck, Ebony Fingerboard, and SRT/System63 Electronics – Vintage Sunburst. For $1,349.99 you can get 3-band EQ, Focus/Wide control, Resonance control, and Blend control. It definitely thrives off bottoms and lower tones audio-wise, but is it worth the money?

Fender granddaddy Newporter

6-string Acoustic-electric Guitar with Spruce Top, Mahogany Back and Sides, Mahogany Neck, Walnut Fingerboard, and Fishman Electronics – Sunburst. Pay $429.99 for a very balanced guitar for players at any stage of the musical journey, especially for those players hanging around with the mid-sounds. The Fishman pickup/preamp is a personal favorite of mine for accentuating the guitar’s natural timbre.

Taylor’s 714-ce V-class

6-string Acoustic-Electric Guitar with Lutz Spruce Top, Indian Rosewood Back and Sides, Mahogany Neck, Ebony Fingerboard, and Taylor ES2 Electronics – Western Sunburst, takes the cake at $3,199.00. It definitely balanced the high-mid-lows better than the other guitars mentioned.

While I could go into a more detailed review on each of these, does the Luna stack up to the massiveness that Yamaha, Fender, and Taylor have? Well, Yes! Definitely! Luna has definitely amassed a dedicated army of fans. If we look into Luna Safari – 6-string Acoustic-electric Guitar with Spruce Top, Mahogany Back and Sides, Mahogany Neck, Walnut Fingerboard, and Luna SL3 Electronics – Tobacco Sunburst Satin. While it lacks the built-in Fishman pickup/preamp or resonance control it makes up with an effortless grab-and-go travel ability. It did sound a bit tin-like on the higher end but for $199.00 for a premium feel – it definitely could be a contender for the next acoustic-electric you pick up.

For a woman-founded company to compete with musical giants, it is an inspiration for other ladies to lead their own companies alongside Luna. As for me? Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking, but my Luna is the best-sounding guitar for me.

Sources:

 

Subway Conversations

 

 

The time is 12:46 PM. I sit here staring at my Macbook – cutting tracks and writing all at the same time. As I wondered what would be the best to write about, I came to look at the world around me. You can hear the eerie nature of the quiet set over New York- this city only last year had tourists bustling in the streets; Broadway both on and off was popping with showstoppers like BeetleJuice, Lion King, and Little Shop of Horrors.  The walls of music were not confined to the four corners of the room I sit in now, but it was the symphony of speeding cars and dozens crowding into the subway.  Concerts on every platform of the underground brimmed with light only seen in Hallmark Christmas films- This was my home.

My home is not the music in the city, rather it is the individual that sings, the one that strums a guitar on the M train, and the ones in the studio that are recording ad-libs for the twentieth time. These artists are at home, replaced by MTA workers fumigating the station like clockwork. I never thought I would come to despise this quiet.

Recently I had to break quarantine to go over to the city from my bubble in queens. I expected the trains to be mostly empty with scattered commuters in each train car, and believe me it was. We went through each stop with people dripping in and out. Yet when I got to 34th st. and went up the escalator I heard something familiar. A man sat on a bucket playing his saxophone -his mask laying on his chin. I was early to where I needed to be so I listened for a while.

I asked the man after his set if I could bother him with some questions, he said he would be willing to as long as I kept his identity anonymous. He claimed that he played down in Greenwich Village,  and when Covid-19 hit he lost most of his gigs since bars shut down. “I got Blasio don’t want people to get sick. I got that, but if I can go to an Applebee’s now and have a beer with my fries – hell will it make a difference if I go in with my sax.” he vented.

The mayor and governor Cuomo have recently reopened restaurants to indoor dining – but only to 35% as of yet.

“ Y’all know that zoom isn’t the best concert hall, even with the Carnegie Hall filters.”

When asked how he felt inspired to come out here today he came back with “ All these funny people have that cash to tell everyone else to do what they say. I say if I wanna play without pay – I’m gonna do it in the only city that will appreciate it.”

When asked about his plans for post-quarantine? “You’ll catch me back at the Village”

With that, he went back to singing with his saxophone. With each note as I listened, I felt nothing but inspiration. With more patience ( and believe me I know that’s easier said than done ), and a lot of creative solutions we might be able to get back to pre-quarantine life. Tourists will come to the city from all over to see a Broadway show, eat at a showy or simple restaurant, and maybe even see a concert down in Greenwich for a show like no other. The eerie quiet over this city is slowly starting to fade- replaced only by the symphony of speeding cars and dozens crowding into the subway, concerts on every platform of the underground brimming with light, and the knowledge that this last year of only being confined to the four corners of our rooms was temporary – even when it felt like it wasn’t.

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