Mike Check
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Mike Check
MemberSeems like you’re taking a thoughtful approach to this which makes sense. Make sure you fully understand what you can accomplish with a self release vs. what an indie label would provide you (obviously you need an offer to know this). Reason I say this is that a lot of indie labels aren’t doing much more than what you could do in 1/2 a day of administrative work to release the EP yourself. I know it’s cool to say you’re on a label but if they aren’t putting some marketing behind it they’re really not helping your career or exposure & it might not be worth signing over your tracks to the label.
I was listening to your tracks while typing this ….good stuff. Work Work Work is great.
MemberI’ll just throw out some random thoughts:
1. Producing is a lot less like DJ’ing than you make think
2. You’ll probably produce some pretty crappy songs at 1st but it’s important to let people hear them
3. You need thick skin b/c hearing someone critique your musical creation isn’t easy to stomach
4. Almost any DAW software will work regardless what people say they prefer
5. You need to understand musical theory on some level beyond BPM & the key of a song
6. Patience patience patience…Try to have fun with it 🙂
MemberGetting it out there & heard are different things. A digital distributor is probably your best approach for doing a self-release & would probably run in the ballpark of $35-50 annually (it’s a recurring fee).
Having your album heard is the difficult part because that requires marketing and adverstising. This is where labels still have relevancy because they have marketing budgets and business connections. So being an unsigned artist you need to take on this advertising burden which will require hustling your EP. Even if you find an indie label to release it there’s a good chance that they don’t have a budget to market it ….basically they are just doing the adminstrative work that you could do yourself w/ a digital distributor.
My view on this is that you do the self-release and focus the majority of your energy promoting it to influential people such as labels, music blogs, etc. If you can drum up some interest you might get signed and have some marketing power behind your next release (or they’ll re-release your EP).
MemberAnd it probably wouldn’t hurt sending over the tracks you think you’ll use to the sax player prior to the gig. He’d probably appreciate it & at the very least he’ll know when he jumps in what key the song is in.
MemberQuality is a different topic…. but as far as sheer numbers of current DJ’s and new entrants, yes the number has significantly risen since the advent of digital.
MemberBar & club owners just need to decide what genre or vibe they want to go for. From there I think it’s just a matter of hiring through an agency that can match that style. Owners never really need to worry about gauging talent, the agency does that for them.
MemberHe could just plug the feed from the guitar into it’s own channel on the mixer, bring up the line level, and have at ‘er.
You can’t simply run an instrument cable from the guitar to the mixer. The signal would be virtually nothing without a preamp…. not too mention without any guitar effects the output would be hella flat.
MemberIMO it’s fine. I’ve done mashups that take me a week to create with all the editing, slicing, dicing, looping, etc ….it really gets down to producing & would be straight up impossible for me to do this live. I don’t think the crowd minds either, case in point Girl Talk.
MemberRock music. I’ve spun some indie rock gigs & find it tough to seamlessly mix songs. For Top 40 you can find club edits that make tracks far easier to mix but I’ve found that the indie crowd is kinda music elitist (or snobs) and a lot of times they don’t wanna hear no dance mixed with their indie rock ….so club edits aren’t always an option either.
MemberThis is a cool video but I don’t think it would translate live. Also to do this little trick you’d need some form of audio interface for your guitar plus you must be using software that also doubles as a DAW. Personally I’d be too fearful that my laptop would crash w/ all this going on.
And I don’t know if you’ve started playing out yet but most DJ booths don’t have room for you to comfortably play a guitar. Also you’ll need to have that guitar standing somewhere for 99% of the night which would take up space or be subjected to drunk people messing with it or running into it.
Good thought tho’. Personally I like when original artists incorporate DJ with live instruments, but I think that the crowd who sees those acts (e.g. Moby, Dirty Vegas, etc) are also looking for that musicianship…. a club crowd is a different animal.
MemberInteresting but I think very inaccurate.
MemberThis is a bit shocking & not a very thought out decision. Look @ all the negative buzz this generated for the club by disrespecting a national act for what ….keeping a few high rollers happy 1 night before they fly home to wherever.
If you’re booking a national act you know exactly what you’re getting & you can’t really expect anything else since that DJ has built a reputation on a genre. Recently I saw this happen when DJ Erra played a Top 40 club here (and it was the club’s grand opening). The opening DJ was more mainstream & had the floor packed but then her set being more techno was bombing. Rightfully the club rode it out for the night even though I’m sure someone was thinking about how they wish they could have had the opening DJ back up in the booth.
MemberProducer/DJ’s that write their own songs, such as your friend, tend to have a slightly different view of live performance. The line gets blurry with titles anymore but these producers tend to see themselves as more original musicians and DJ’ing as a necessity for live performance. In other words if you were in an original rock band you’re going to play your set of songs that you wrote, maybe you’ll switch up the order or throw in a cover song but you’re still not deviating much from that piece of paper taped to the floor….. even if the crowd isn’t digging it. Now I’m sure someone would say a DJ should read the crowd and adapt but that’s where these individuals will fall back on my original point that they view themselves more as original musicians & not DJ’s.
MemberAny DAW can probably accomplish the same thing …you’ll see a lot of people swear by certain programs but similar to virtual DJ software those comments are more opinion based more on preference. End of a day your songwriting ability & production skills far outweigh the importance of the DAW you use.
As far as understanding how synths work I’d recommend looping a piece of music & then open the VST and fiddle. You’ll start to see what certain knobs & features do & how it alters the sound. I doubt your Mixtrack is going to help for production so you’ll probably need to get familiar with the piano roll feature unless you can get your hands on a MIDI instrument. Also just keep reading forums, watching Youtube videos, etc. I’ve been producing far longer than DJ’ing and I still invest a good chunk of time trying to learn how to do certain things. Production takes a lot of time & patience. Look at most popular producer/DJ’s ….sure there’s an occasional youngster like Avicii or Afrojack but most of the pros are in there 30’s and 40’s because it simply takes years to start producing good stuff.
MemberAs someone who also produces original music my advice is put it everywhere you can. It’s a pain in the butt to keep about 8 social media type sites updated but exposure is key and not everyone uses the same site(s).
And you may know this but I’d probably not call my original music “mixes” as you did in your title. At least to me that implies other people’s music. Good luck!
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