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In today's music landscape, full production is generally an afterthought. Many of today's producers often do not see a project through to completion, instead they sell or rent a beat to an artist and that is often the end of contact.
In order to develop your sound and meaningful reputation as a serious producer, you must see a project all the way through. A producer must not only compose the beat either directly or via third party but they must have a vision for how the vocals must sound as well as how the mixing and mastering is done. A producer is often the coach for an artist, the same way a coach is for an athelte; their job is to get the best performance in the studio. A producer must not pass off the beat and leave the artist to do their own thing unless, they are 100% comfortable with the artist being able to rock your beat without assistance. To be fair, there are some artists that are uniquely talented enough that you can leave them alone to do their thing but their are others that have the raw vocal skills but need a little guidance to make the song pop. A producer must determine this by vibing with the artist in order to learn their personality and skill level. If you are new to the production game, you may not feel comfortable coaching an artist or sitting in on a mixing session, but as you grow, this is a valuable asset that you must add to your skill set in order to be placed with the professionals.
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I my studio sessions with new artists the question almost always comes up and that is How do I get noticed as new artist.
Many will think a move to Los Angeles, Atlanta or New York is the instant fix but as anyone who already lives in those cities will tell you, it is not that easy for them either and they live there. So moving is not always the answer, especially in the digital age. During the 90's and early 2000's, if you lived in Chickenfoot, Texas, a move to a bigger city would be necessary. After all, how could you promote in a town of 200 people? But, now in the digital age, you can bring the big city to Chickenfoot all at the click of a mouse. The first thing you need is a great song. Whether it is Rap, Pop, Country, R&B, EDM or whatever, the song has to be great. Not just good but Great! You need to stand out from the crowd. You may ask, how do I know my song is great? Put it out on the internet and test it! Get you a soundcloud, youtube, facebook, twitter and instagram account and release your song to the world and see what feedback you get. Social media is a must in this digital age! If you don't have many followers, I suggest you get to working. It is hard work but it can be done if you want success bad enough. Once you get this first step done and working you are well on your way. Next month I will bring you part 2 of the process. But for now get to working on part 1! In the studio on saturday July 13, 2013 and just finished listening and analyzing the new Jay- Z album which had just came out a couple days before i wrote this blog. I have been listening to it in the car but this was my first time listening with purpose in the studio. I have to say that it is a masterful album in my opinion. I thought that it was well crafted and well produced. Now how that relates to today's state of hip hop, in my opinion, is this.
I think that creativity is coming back strong, for awhile hip hop was very stagnant and narrowly focused with the same old thing done over and over. The same old beats, sounds and concepts of women, drinking, smoking, ect. Now we all know those are common themes in hip hop and I am not knocking that, even though coming from a christian perspective there are broader themes to talk about. But what I am saying is this, look at Kendrick Lamar, he is very creative and his album shows it. Jay-z is a master, Kanye is super creative. J cole, has a different sound. Hip Hop has to get back to the variety it had in the 80's and especially the 90's in order for it to keep growing. We now have christian hip hop artists that have stepped up their game, like Lecrae and the whole reach records crew. In the mid 2000's hip hop was bleeding and was dying a slow death with one hit wonder artists that had one song but no substance and were gone within a couple of months. I can name a few but I won't. You know the ones I am referring to. It's not that they were bad artists per say but they lacked substance and creativity which you must have to stay in the game long term. I believe Jay-z will go down in Hip Hop history as the longest artist to stay relevant in consecutive years. So if you, as an artist coming up wish to do the same, I suggest you take notes from the elders, do your homework, learn and execute. If you think you know it all and don't have to study your history, you are destined to fail and become the next one hit wonder. I'm done...... Check out my first video in a series of How to Mix and Master Tutorials. This video is pt.1 which talks about the proper way to mix and master Kicks and Snares. More to come.. Sorry for the delay in posting, I have been busy mixing, mastering and working on our other website which houses our new Radio Station called The Super Throwback Party. If you are like me, you love old school music, not to say that I don't like today's current music because I do. Well, some of it anyway. But it's just something about the R&B and Soul of the 70s. the funk and foundational Hip Hop of the 80s and the variety of Hip Hop of the 90s that today's music lacks. Well I invite you to check out the radio station at www.superthrowbackparty.net and give it a listen. If you like what you hear, and if you have a website, feel free to get the embed code from our player and post it on your own website or blog. Also if you have the free tunein app on your apple, android or blackberry device you can search "Super Throwback Party" and listen on the go! As a matter of fact check out the station right here, then visit the site for all of the latest music news. Then continue to visit here on this site for all of your mixing, mastering, recording and beat needs. I will be uploading new beats monthly. So stay tuned! Ya boi Cee!  The wait is over! Digital Performer 8 is shipping now! The new version is now compatable with Windows 7 and beyond.
The fully redesigned program includes many new plug ins and a beefed up user interface. Some of the new features include: 64-bit support Take full advantage of your 64-bit computer system Today’s plug-ins and virtual instruments are incredibly powerful, but they also require massive amounts of memory. DP’s 64-bit support lets you take full advantage of all your computer's memory for optimum performance. Windows 7 support Award-winning design and features for Windows Version 8 brings Digital Performer’s award-winning design and features to Windows 7 and beyond. Operation is almost identical to the Mac version, making it easy to work on either platform. 17 new effects plug-ins From creative musical effects to precision mastering From meticulously modeled guitar tones to world-class mastering processors, Digital Performer’s 17 new plug-ins add to an astonishing array of 84 included effects. You get everything from modeled analog EQ to stunningly realistic convolution reverb. 15 new themes Artistically crafted UI designs to titillate your muse Other audio sequencer applications give you shades of gray. DP8 gives you dozens of artistically crafted user interface themes that completely transform the look of the app. From the whimsical “Hi Fi” to the sinister “None More Black”, you can instantly choose a style that fits your mood. Punch Guard™ confidence recording Take the stress out of punch-ins Never again worry about accidentally cutting off the head or tail of that perfect record pass. Digital Performer’s new Punch Guard features always captures extra time before and after punch points, so you can simply uncover any additional material with a quick edge edit. 100% Cocoa UI for Mac OS X Goodbye Carbon, Hello Cocoa Many third-party plug-ins you’ll use everyday with DP are being converted from Carbon to Mac OS X’s ultra-modern Cocoa UI platform, and DP is 100% ready to host them. Cocoa is the future, and Digital Performer is there. New video playback engine Audio for picture as it’s meant to be Enjoy full-screen viewing of 720 or 1080 HD video clips on a primary or secondary computer monitor, or on a conventional HDMI or SDI video monitor connected to a MOTU video interface like the HD Express or HDX-SDI. In-line control panel Conserve precious screen real estate You can now embed the control panel in the consolidated window to conserve screen space. Customize what appears, including the shortcut buttons and editor tools. Pop it in or out at any time. Plug-in management Organize and manage all your plug-ins Version 8’s new plug-in chooser lets you organize and quickly find the effect or preset you are looking for. You can also organize all your plug-ins, factory and third-party alike, just the way you prefer, regardless of format. Rewire and VST plug-in support Run third-party VSTs and Rewire clients With support for VST plug-ins and Rewire on both Mac and Windows, you can easily move DP projects from one platform to the other seamlessly, with no additional steps required. Just open the project and go. Available at Motu.com now. I will have it available at this site for purchase soon! In part 2 of this blog series, let's discuss how you can get paid if you maintain the ownership of your publishing. Everyone likes to get paid, right? I know I do!
That is why publishing is one of the most valuable assets to a producer, songwriter or composer. The ownership of this will allow you many different streams of revenue for years to come. One of the most popular ways to get paid is via ASCAP,SEASAC or BMI. These are called performance rights societies and they collect money on your behalf every time your song is gets a spin on broadcast radio, tv or cable. In order to receive this money though, you must sign up with either of the three as a publisher member or a writer member. A publisher member is the entity that owns the rights to the composition or lyrics within the song. A writer member is the author or creator of the lyrics or the music. If you own your rights and you are the creator you can sign up as both and get paid twice! If you have signed over your publishing rights to another company, you can only sign up as a writer member. That is why it is valuable to hold on to ownership of your publishing, unless a big publishing company is gonna offer you some big bucks or some other incentive to give it up. Sometimes, this can work to your benefit if a big publisher wants to sign you, because they will actually work to get your songs placed with artists, which is what a publisher's job is. But, a lot of publishers, just want to take the money and they do nothing for you in return. So you must be careful. There many other ways to get paid from publishing besides the ones mentioned above. In the next part, I will go deeper into that. Stay tuned… Don't forget to check out my "beats" page on the site, we have beats for lease as low as $10. Thanks for stopping by and we hope that you will let a friend know about us. Also if you like playing fantasy football, join the fanduel fantasy football site where you can win money just for playing! Check it out at by clicking here. As always, Keep Bangin' Cee Music Publishing is kind of a strange animal in the digital age. A lot has changed over the last 15 years or so. This is such an in-depth subject that I will not be able to cover it in one post. So I will be posting topics on this subject in a series of posts. This is going to be part 1. Now keep in mind, that I am NOT an attorney, so please consult one before signing any documents. This series of posts is meant to help give you a little insight into music publishing from my experience, this post should not be taken as 100% accurate, therefore I can't be held liable for any damages from you not consulting an attorney. Now with the disclaimer out of the way, let's get to it.
The basic definition of music publishing in everyday terms without using the attorney talk (legal definition) is this: You own it unless or until you sign it away!!! From the time you create the beat, if you are a producer or the time you write the lyrics, if you are a song writer; you own the publishing rights. That is no one can do anything with your songs, without your permission (i.e. release them commercially via record labels, put them in films, play it on the radio, put them in video games ect.). The legal definition is this: Consists of companies mainly engaged in acquiring and registering copyrights for musical compositions and promoting and authorising the use of these compositions in recordings, radio, television, motion pictures, live performances, print, or other media. Companies in this class represent the interest of the composers ( beat makers or Lyricists) , or other owners of musical compositions, to produce revenues from the use of such works, usually through licensing agreements. These Companies may own the copyright or act as administrator of the music copyrights on behalf of copyright owners. Also included in this class are units publishing sheet music (including in bound book form). When or if you sign with a record label, you still own the publishing rights, which is the P.A. Copyright (Performance Artist), the label will own the S.R. Copyright (Sound Recording). You will own these rights unless you sign either all or part of it away. Unless a company is offering you some real big money, it is NOT advised to sign over ALL of your publishing. Most companies will want you to sign over a portion, which is fair up to 50% but not over that. Beware of any company that wants more than 50% In the next post, I will discuss how you can get paid by owning your publishing, so stay tuned!!! Well for the last year or so, i have telling you that I was gonna start putting up some beats for sale and for lease. Now they are finally here! Just go the beats tab and check them out. If you are an up and coming rapper or singer, we have the beats for you. Over the next couple of months I will be uploading more so stay tuned.!!!
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AuthorI am a total music fan and enjoy working in the studio. To know me is to know music. Archives
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