Last month I posted a blog post entitled 5 Things Your Band Needs To Stop Doing On Facebook. Since then I've had several readers suggest that I write a followup suggesting things that a band should do instead of what they should not. I wrote something up but I'm not particularly happy with it, mainly because what the hell do I know? I am no expert when it comes to these things, I just know what doesn't resonate well with me.
A few readers mentioned that they disagreed with my claim that asking your followers to "share" their page with their friends was annoying. Since writing that I've read that just asking people to share something makes them something like 3-5 times more likely to actually do so. But that alone doesn't make it right to me. If it is something that you have a financial investment in like an album or a Kickstarter campaign or something like that, then I can see it. But just a page? I don't like it. Of course I also have my head stuck up my ass.
All I know is that if a promotion technique doesn't seem right, I'm not going to do it. Reverbnation sent me some sort of "free promotion" that involves installing their apps all over my page and giving away free downloads in exchange for Facebook "likes." Don't like it, not gonna do it. I've read various music promotion blogs that involve things like paying for Twitter followers or paying for people to run up your hit counts on sites like Youtube. What I wonder is how widespread these tactics actually are.
It's worth noting that I've been reading these music promotion blogs for years and I don't think I've ever once bothered to click to listen to these guys' music. I think that if your blog talks about things like search engine optimization and paying for clicks then your music is probably not very good. I don't know if I'm right about that or not. But I suspect that most of these sites exist to generate ad revenue over anything else.
One thing I've actually had good success doing lately is posting to communities I've already been a part of. Instead of saying "Fans of Bell Biv Devoe, Vanilla Ice, and Janet Jackson should check out my band SHITSTORM, subscribe to my Youtube Twitter Facebook Bandcamp Assrape Myspace Tumblr and check out my newest single HITLERAIDS" just go to the actual communities and do it the natural way. You are a person, not a press release. I'm not impressed by your cut-and-paste abilities. Go out there, be a person, but let people know that you also record music. And then record lots of it.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
3 Vocal Editing Techniques I Have Been Abusing The Hell Out Of
1. Recording Lead Vocals at a Slower Speed
When I started recording vocals for Shards, I knew I wanted to create an "urgent" vocal sound. The song has a lot of internal rhyming and alliteration and I felt like my timing needed to be super precise. I ended up taking the BPM of the song all the way down to 90 or so, and recorded the vocals at that speed. When I sped it back up, I found that my voice had more personality, and I didn't "trip" over phrases with a lot of syllables. Even though it felt exaggerated at the time, upon playback it sounds surprisingly "normal." At some point I would like to stretch this out even further to the point where it sounds obvious, and maybe even try it in the other direction, where I record the vocals super fast and then time-stretch them real slow.*
2. Automating Effects
So far this album does not have a lot of synthesizer on it, so I've been trying to take out my knob-tweaking on the vocals. I've been setting up multiple FX channels with all sorts of reverb, distortion, bit crushing, chorus, you name it, and then bringing them in and out based on the flow of the song. Nothing like a nice swell on the end of a line to give it more intensity. This is making for a much more dynamic sound and really takes the listener for a ride. Of course, adjusting things like volume and EQ on the fly are obvious, but I like taking things to the extreme. Automating some of these effects in a rhythmic fashion can create some really strange effects. The key is to find the point where the effect is unnoticeable, then find the point where it sounds ridiculous, and then find a place somewhere in between where it is almost unnoticeable but also ridiculous.
3. Fuck Auto-Tune, How About Manual Detune?
Here is a technique that should be so obvious, but I stumbled upon by accident. While working on effects automation, I thought to myself that I could do a lot more if I could import my vocals as MIDI, and then control the settings like a virtual synth. So I loaded my vocals, line by line, each as a different "note" into my sampler and started screwing around. Playing with the cutoff and resonance and such was fun, but once I realized the fun I could have with pitch-shifting, it changed everything. You can adjust how sensitive you want the pitch wheel to be, so if you want to make very subtle changes you can do that, or if you want to stretch things quickly by the octave, you can do that too. Slight warbles really give things that analog feel, like when you would start up your car in the winter and the tape deck would take awhile to heat up. I prefer a subtle approach, where small adjustments make things sound just a little off, but not enough that the listener really thinks about it. I suppose you could use this method for slight pitch correction if you wanted to, but my way of looking at it is this: there are millions of recording artists out there trying to sound perfect. I'm not going to win that game. By deliberately trying to sound imperfect (and in some cases worse than that), I am embracing my limitations and creating something original that is unique to me. In the days of plugins and presets and Youtube tutorials on how to sound like anyone else, I'd much rather fuck around and sound like myself.
* A bad example of this technique would be the song "Sucks To This World," which was actually remixed by Greg Brendel** like 15 years ago. Back then I had to use separate programs for recording and editing, so I couldn't monitor my vocals as I was recording them, so I just stretched them out to fit each bar. In a downtempo song, I suppose it could have nice, full, menacing results.
** It is worth noting that I will post embarassingly bad old recordings any time as long as it allows me to namedrop Greg Brendel.***
*** Speaking of Greg Brendel, since he is my biggest fan, he is one of my 4 followers on Twitter. If you have been enjoying this blog, add me and I will let you know when I post new updates. Thanks!
When I started recording vocals for Shards, I knew I wanted to create an "urgent" vocal sound. The song has a lot of internal rhyming and alliteration and I felt like my timing needed to be super precise. I ended up taking the BPM of the song all the way down to 90 or so, and recorded the vocals at that speed. When I sped it back up, I found that my voice had more personality, and I didn't "trip" over phrases with a lot of syllables. Even though it felt exaggerated at the time, upon playback it sounds surprisingly "normal." At some point I would like to stretch this out even further to the point where it sounds obvious, and maybe even try it in the other direction, where I record the vocals super fast and then time-stretch them real slow.*
2. Automating Effects
So far this album does not have a lot of synthesizer on it, so I've been trying to take out my knob-tweaking on the vocals. I've been setting up multiple FX channels with all sorts of reverb, distortion, bit crushing, chorus, you name it, and then bringing them in and out based on the flow of the song. Nothing like a nice swell on the end of a line to give it more intensity. This is making for a much more dynamic sound and really takes the listener for a ride. Of course, adjusting things like volume and EQ on the fly are obvious, but I like taking things to the extreme. Automating some of these effects in a rhythmic fashion can create some really strange effects. The key is to find the point where the effect is unnoticeable, then find the point where it sounds ridiculous, and then find a place somewhere in between where it is almost unnoticeable but also ridiculous.
3. Fuck Auto-Tune, How About Manual Detune?
Here is a technique that should be so obvious, but I stumbled upon by accident. While working on effects automation, I thought to myself that I could do a lot more if I could import my vocals as MIDI, and then control the settings like a virtual synth. So I loaded my vocals, line by line, each as a different "note" into my sampler and started screwing around. Playing with the cutoff and resonance and such was fun, but once I realized the fun I could have with pitch-shifting, it changed everything. You can adjust how sensitive you want the pitch wheel to be, so if you want to make very subtle changes you can do that, or if you want to stretch things quickly by the octave, you can do that too. Slight warbles really give things that analog feel, like when you would start up your car in the winter and the tape deck would take awhile to heat up. I prefer a subtle approach, where small adjustments make things sound just a little off, but not enough that the listener really thinks about it. I suppose you could use this method for slight pitch correction if you wanted to, but my way of looking at it is this: there are millions of recording artists out there trying to sound perfect. I'm not going to win that game. By deliberately trying to sound imperfect (and in some cases worse than that), I am embracing my limitations and creating something original that is unique to me. In the days of plugins and presets and Youtube tutorials on how to sound like anyone else, I'd much rather fuck around and sound like myself.
* A bad example of this technique would be the song "Sucks To This World," which was actually remixed by Greg Brendel** like 15 years ago. Back then I had to use separate programs for recording and editing, so I couldn't monitor my vocals as I was recording them, so I just stretched them out to fit each bar. In a downtempo song, I suppose it could have nice, full, menacing results.
** It is worth noting that I will post embarassingly bad old recordings any time as long as it allows me to namedrop Greg Brendel.***
*** Speaking of Greg Brendel, since he is my biggest fan, he is one of my 4 followers on Twitter. If you have been enjoying this blog, add me and I will let you know when I post new updates. Thanks!
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Friday, June 28, 2013
5 Things Your Band Needs To Stop Doing On Facebook
One of the biggest challenges in starting a brand new project, of course, is building a fanbase. I've actually been spending a fair amount of time trying to get the word out through a variety of different methods, but of course the most effective way to do that is through "social media." Unfortunately, the most popular way to do this is through Facebook, which is not exactly the ideal platform. I would prefer a site that actually was designed for music fans instead of for pictures of your children, but that's just me. Most of the music-based social media sites tend to have pretty low traffic, or seem to be comprised entirely of musicians. So for the time being, Facebook it is.
I "like" quite a few bands on Facebook, and even as an artist myself, most of these pages piss me off. I can't imagine how annoying it must be purely as a fan. Here are 5 of the most annoying "marketing" "strategies" I see too often.
1. PLEASE HELP ME GET TO ARBITRARY NUMBER OF LIKES/DOWNLOADS/CHART POSITIONS!!!!11
Look, I know occasionally these kind of milestones can be cool. Earlier this week I got 100 plays on Soundcloud in one day and it felt good. It's one thing to set goals for yourself. But if you are sitting at 925 likes and you feel the need to beg for the last 75, then the last 50, then 20, etc. then you are not engaging your fanbase in a positive way. Most people don't care about these things. Trust me, as your fan it's annoying. Likewise...
2. IF THIS GETS 100 LIKES I WILL POST A NEW SONG/VIDEO/WHATEVER
Dude. You're going to post it anyways. Let's not kid ourselves here. Your fans shouldn't have to "earn" the privilege to hear you.
3. SUPER SECRET THING COMING SOON KEEP CHECKING WWW.MYBAND.COM EVERY DAY FOR UPDATES
Building anticipation is one thing and you do have to withhold some information. Maybe you have a show coming up that you can't announce yet or you are close to releasing something really exciting and that's great. But just do the damn thing and post it. Don't expect that I'm going to F5 your website all day long in anticipation of your upcoming gig in Iowa City.
4. DON'T FORGET TO SHARE THIS PAGE WITH YOUR FRIENDS! TELL YOUR FRIENDS HOW GREAT WE ARE
You know what? If you are really that good, your biggest fans are going to do this anyways. The percentage of people who would actually promote your page just because you told them to is probably lower than the percentage of people who scan those fucking QR code things on advertisements. Which, by the way, is zero. Trust me, if anyone used those things I would have Goatse'd the world a long time ago.
5. PRODUCTION PROMOTIONS PRESENTS: SOME BIG MUSIC EVENT EVERY DAY SOMEWHERE 1000 MILES AWAY FROM YOU
This one is tough, because as far as I can tell Facebook events are based off of your personal profile and not your artist page, which means that if someone I don't know is a fan of my page I couldn't even invite them to an event if I wanted to. But seriously take the time to create some lists on Facebook. Group them by city, state, region, scene, whatever and work locally. Greg Brendel might be my biggest fan, but when I'm ready to play my debut gig at the dive bar down the street on a Tuesday night, he's probably not going to make the drive from Pittsburgh to Madison to come see me play.
Unfortunately, there is a ton of noise out there on Facebook, and no matter how much you try you will still probably get grouped in with most bands who employ these strategies. Even worse, you will get lost. This is the truth. But please, please show some restraint and some respect for your fans. We have to improve the signal to noise ratio, no matter what scene you're in. Taking the extra time to not come off as a douche will help you maintain a less cringe-worthy social media presence.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Video for "New Storms"
Lots of firsts. Well here's the first Odd-Sky music video. Check it out: http://youtu.be/hu2xo4xRwHc
Friday, June 21, 2013
What and When to Release?
Certainly one of the biggest goals of the Odd-Sky project is to release a full-length record at some point in time (and I do mean record as in vinyl, by the way, but I'm probably getting ahead of myself.) Despite the fact that many people seem to just release music individually as singles, I still enjoy full albums. Almost all of my music collection is full albums. Of course I like going on Soundcloud and listening to individual tracks, but I rarely download these tracks. I would rather wait for the "finished album" before adding it to my collection. Unfortunately, most of these albums go unfinished, and often times one might not have ever been planned.
I'm a little torn on how to release new Odd-Sky material. These first few songs obviously I wanted to post online ASAP, mostly because now I can actually say Odd-Sky, you know, exists and I have something to show for it, but also because quite honestly I'm proud of how quickly these tracks came together and how good (at least to me) they sound. Also being able to promote a new track every week or two seems like a good way to build a fan base, in theory at least. But if I do that with the end goal of releasing an album, what do I hold back? It creates a tough situation. Some would say put everything online. Some would say wait with the whole thing and maybe release some teasers to maintain interest.
I should also say that I really enjoy the instant gratification of being able to click the upload button and getting feedback just a few minutes later. It's hard to keep a good secret, you know? And of course I always go in with the idea that each track I write should be better than the one before it, so in theory I am always releasing the best stuff I have, but holding off on the (yet-unwritten) very best stuff to come.
What do you guys think? I want as many opinions on this as possible, because it matters a lot to the future outcome of this project.
I'm a little torn on how to release new Odd-Sky material. These first few songs obviously I wanted to post online ASAP, mostly because now I can actually say Odd-Sky, you know, exists and I have something to show for it, but also because quite honestly I'm proud of how quickly these tracks came together and how good (at least to me) they sound. Also being able to promote a new track every week or two seems like a good way to build a fan base, in theory at least. But if I do that with the end goal of releasing an album, what do I hold back? It creates a tough situation. Some would say put everything online. Some would say wait with the whole thing and maybe release some teasers to maintain interest.
I should also say that I really enjoy the instant gratification of being able to click the upload button and getting feedback just a few minutes later. It's hard to keep a good secret, you know? And of course I always go in with the idea that each track I write should be better than the one before it, so in theory I am always releasing the best stuff I have, but holding off on the (yet-unwritten) very best stuff to come.
What do you guys think? I want as many opinions on this as possible, because it matters a lot to the future outcome of this project.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
I Don't Wanna Work Today
Here is another ODD-SKY demo for you to enjoy. It was meant as a song to wake up to. It also includes a secret shoutout to my new Madison peeps.
I Don't Wanna Work Today (demo)
I Don't Wanna Work Today (demo)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)