Last Week’s Bonus Round (I was definitely having a bad typing day last week!):
“"I Wanna Talk About Me" is a song written by Bobby Braddock and recorded by American country music artist Toby Keith. The single was released on August 20, 2001 as the second single from Keith's 2001 album Pull My Chain. The song was his seventh number one single on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
Braddock ("He Stopped Loving Her Today") initially intended the song for Blake Shelton's debut album, which Braddock produced. When audience testing of the song yielded negative results, Shelton's record label decided against including it on the album.[1] Recalling the spoken-word verses of Keith's 1998 single "Getcha Some", Braddock then decided to pitch it to him.[2]
Keith told Billboard magazine that he knew he would get "banged a little" for cutting the song. "They're going to call it a rap, [although] there ain't nobody doing rap who would call it a rap."[3]” Credit: Wikipedia
Note on the “Chat” feature: While I think it’s a cool addition to the SubStack toolbox, I’m going to wait to make further use of it until the feature is available for Android and website users as well as iOS users. That’s only fair, and we’ll see how engagement plays out then. It will probably end up being a place for subscribers to get a preview of upcoming post topics, but if there are questions or things to talk about, it has a great deal of potential. We’ll see.
Why am I giving the answer to last week’s Bonus Round today?
Well, because tomorrow’s post is going to be something special!
I’ll give you the reason for that in a minute. First, a few weeks ago I mentioned I was prepping for a jam with some friends this past weekend. This jam was with mostly folks I hadn’t met before. It was both a blast and very… umm…motivating. Within the first 5 minutes, I realized I was playing t-ball in a room full of Ken Griffey, Jrs. These guys were GREAT players. They were all so gracious to me, and I learned a lot, but it was also a definite ego check for how far I have left to go. And that’s a very good thing!
Which brings us to why tomorrow’s post is going to be something very cool!
“Serendipity” is “an unplanned fortunate discovery”, and tomorrow’s post and my jam experience are tied together in a fortuitous bit of serendipity.
A week or so ago, I got an email from Sweetwater. Many of you may know Sweetwater as an online music outlet that sells gear - guitars, pedals, stage equipment and such. I get a lot of “cold call” emails from these sorts of businesses because I’ve purchased something from them or otherwise somehow ended up on a mailing list. I usually glance through them and delete.
This one was different. Sweetwater, and some other online gear sources call their sales reps “Sales Engineers” and they usually have a short bio and invite you to call or email if you’re looking for something - my Sweetwater sales engineer is now a gentleman name Mr. Paul Koehn. I’ve purchased stuff from Sweetwater and many other online gear outlets in the past, and I wrote back to Mr. Koehn that I was full up on gear right now. I’m not in the gear hunt at the moment because I’m trying to get at least one song out and distributed before the end of the year. More to come on that experience.
Anyway, I read Mr. Koehn’s bio and was impressed with his interesting background, so I did what I usually do when someone interesting pops up and asked if he would be interested in doing an interview. He said yes, and what resulted was what I think is one of the most interesting and informative interview I’ve ever done. I think you, my readers, may learn a great deal about a some of the “inside baseball” details of performing and working with others in the music business. I’m looking forward to sharing this with all of you tomorrow and I’m hoping you will in turn share this very insightful piece with others you know who can benefit (you’ll see a LOT of “Share” buttons I hope you’ll take advantage of). I found, and I think you will find, some of the wisdom Mr. Koehn shares will apply to most all of us “doing music” at some point.
The serendipitous part is Mr. Koehn’s email responses arrived in my inbox a couple of hours before I left to go to the jam, so I was able to read it first. Putting all of the above together, my guess is when you read tomorrow’s interview, you’ll note the parts that were really good for me to read before I headed out.
So, some links for today - I may have posted one or more of these before, I’m trying to clear out my browser full of articles I save to share on here, and have possibly forgotten which ones were previously posted - good stuff in any event:
Mastering info “Stem” mastering - “stems” are the parts of a recording that are either “raw” because they haven’t had any processing applied, or in some more advanced state of mixing because they do have some processing applied. I tend to think of tracks and channel strips where plugins and processing including automation are applied and tweaked way differently than a studio engineer mastering a single mixed down stereo track would. I also think that’s probably typical of all of us who do home studio recording in a DAW on their laptop. A studio engineer who is listening to a vocalist/guitarist, or a band playing together in a studio is processing and mixing in real time and knows how to mix the various sounds in real time, with a minimum of cleanup before mastering.
At home in your studio where you’ve done your best to make it acoustically quiet, it’s pretty much you and maybe some friends/bandmates playing together on separate tracks or recording separate tracks while monitoring previously laid down tracks and overdubbing, then processing the individual tracks via plugins and channel strip controls and track functions and automation. Still it takes processing to “take the room out”, whereas a pro studio is built and contructed to “remove the room”, so you’re already doing at least some “stem” mastering in order to get to a pretty good “stereo mix” for a professional to “final” master for you. This article does a reasonably good job of covering some of those issues and topics.
In case you’re wondering about the term:
“Overdubbing (also known as layering)[1] is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more available tracks of a digital audio workstation (DAW) or tape recorder.[2] The overdub process can be repeated multiple times. This technique is often used with singers, as well as with instruments, or ensembles/orchestras. Overdubbing is typically done for the purpose of adding richness and complexity to the original recording. For example, if there are only one or two artists involved in the recording process, overdubbing can give the effect of sounding like many performers.[3]
In vocal performances, the performer usually listens to an existing recorded performance (usually through headphones in a recording studio) and simultaneously plays a new performance along with it, which is also recorded. The intention is that the final mix will contain a combination of these "dubs".[4]
Another kind of overdubbing is the so called "tracking" (or "laying the basic tracks"), where tracks containing the rhythm section (usually including drums) are recorded first, then following up with overdubs (solo instruments, such as keyboards or guitar, then finally vocals). This method has been the standard technique for recording popular music since the early 1960s. Today, overdubbing can be accomplished even on basic recording equipment, or a typical PC equipped with a sound card,[4] using digital audio workstation software.
Because the process of overdubbing involves working with pre-recorded material, the performers involved do not have to ever have physically met each other, nor even still be alive. In 1991, decades after her father Nat King Cole had died, Natalie Cole released a "virtual duet" recording of "Unforgettable" where she overdubbed her vocals onto her father's original recording from the 1960s. As there is no limit in timespan with overdubbing, there is likewise no limit in distance, nor in the number of overdubbed layers. Perhaps the most wide-reaching collaborative overdub recording was accomplished by Eric Whitacre in 2013, where he edited together a "Virtual Choir" of 8,409 audio tracks from 5,905 people from 101 countries.[5]” Credit: Wikipedia
Yeah, a lot of us are probably doing “overdubbing” at home without ever knowing there was a whole other word for it….
I’ve mentioned before my songwriting process is to write lyrics and then put music in the form of chords and chord change placements to those lyrics. I truly admire those who are able to write lyrics to music and even more so those able to write either way. One reason is that in rehearsing some of my songs for the jam, I realized I was locked in pretty hard to certain chord progressions, even if the key, timing and sung melody were distinct. I probably won’t rewrite songs I have on the shelf with new melodies/chord progressions, but any that are still in the “lyrics only” stage will be prime for changing things up with different keys (hello, capo!) and more interesting progressions. As well, returning to the piano/keyboard a lot more will likely help me (and you!). These two links may help:
Adding Melody To Lyrics Pretty interesting suggested process
Put a Tune to Song Lyrics Note the option in some DAWs to import lyrics into a score and write melody from there. Interesting, and I’m definitely going to figure out how to take some of my songs still in the lyrics only stage and import them into Logic Pro and see if it’s helpful. I’ll let you know.
Demo Tip I’ve talked to folks who are audio/studio engineers and producers who view the idea of a scratchy, poorly recorded voiced tape recorder type of demo is a relic of the past. Most folks in a position to help a new musician will insist on a much higher quality recording, though not perfect to get started. This article is a good place to start, even if you’re limited to something like GarageBand and an inexpensive USB mic.
So I tend to come back regularly to the sites below and share links from them more often than others. The reason is pretty simple, in addition to trying to sell me something, their emails usually include the sort of articles and blog posts that I can use, and also pass on to my readers. These sites in particular seem to have the interesting stuff up front, which draws me to the more commercial end of their email where they’re offering stuff for sale, because I feel like I received something of value from them up front. Whether I buy anything is more of a function of what I need and can afford, but at least they’ve got my eyeballs on what their selling and if I do need something I can’t find at my locally owned guitar shop, they’re the outlets I’ll go to for gear, instruction, whatever, first.
Disclaimer: Nobody’s paying me anything for saying what I say on Michael Acoustic, neither readers or the companies whose articles I link to. Just sayin’…
12 Bar Blues If you’re interested in this classic, “real” blues, not just blues based music, here’s a good place to start.
Your original songs in sets with covers If you’re a live show performer, mostly doing covers, but have original works you want to get in front of an audience, some tips on doing just that
Links from the Disc Makers blog on some fundamentals:
Great video from Mr. Paul VanVeen of Disc Makers. Don’t be too confused about the term “licensing” as used here. It kinda sounds like the process for getting a driver’s license, but there isn’t a test involved, it’s really just a way to ensure the composer, publisher and owner of the master recording get the royalty streams they’re entitled to, just as you would expect those royalty streams to be paid to you if someone covers one of your songs. If you have a contract with a record label they’ll take care of it for you. If you, like me and probably most of my readers who write and perform songs, are an independent artist, you definitely should be affiliated with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO) like ASCAP or BMI, and if you’re going to release original works or covers, a publishing admin like Songtrust or CD Baby Pro or others and a distributor like Distrokid or CD Baby or others. Part of registering your recordings for release, including covers, will be answering the question of whether the song you’re releasing (via publishing administration services and distribution services) is an original work by you or a cover of someone else’s song, and if it’s a cover, those organizations will take a part of your earnings and pay the rightsholders their share of royalties they’re entitled to. If you’re the artist whose songs are being covered by someone else, it’s really important to have your “meta” information - such as PRO affiliation, IPI numbers for both you as a composer and your business entity as a publisher, an ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) and ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) as well as US Copyright Office information included in your “meta” data - the stuff that’s important, but not part of your actual “song”.
Next Week’s Bonus Round: Those cats…
Hope you enjoy tomorrow’s post!!
Cheers and keep playing!!
Michael Acoustic