benedictrm

This is what people focus on and I understand (I am no different) but my point was that these things are surface things and don’t change human nature. People still need to trade. How they trade may look different on the surface but how (and why) they trade from a psychological perspective remains no different. A bone needle, a bronze hair slide, an iPhone… all the same. Not to look at but in the reasons we desire and get them. A smart salesman is aware of demand for or against all these things but still focuses on that which drives the sale. You can get away with being a poor but successful salesman if you are lucky enough to be holding the iPhone when the wheel stops at that nail, but for everyone else, the real salesmanship starts when you realize that the object is incidental. The need is eternal. 🙂

2021 is really not going to be any different from 2020 or 1920 or 1020. People act like they change a lot but really they don’t. At least not in any way that is significant. It seems that way because in 2020 more people watched Netflix then in 1020. But you know what? If in 1020 they could have watched Vikings on Netflix (rather than in their front yard) they would have. New people coming into a market do create upheaval, but again they only amplify what was already there. Online freelance spaces were already full of clueless people and those who prey on them. They had them in 1020 remember, they were called Vikings. in 920 they were called Visigoths, in 820 they were Romans, in… So in 2021, 2022, 2023… you should be doing exactly what you were doing to get customers in 2020. If the problem was that in 2020 you weren’t getting customers then you have to look to see if you were playing Viking or victim of Vikings. If so, you need to work out how to be someone who trades rather than steals/gets stolen from. Even Vikings traded and respected trade markets - i.e. they didn’t steal from them and smash them up as they needed them to buy & sell themselves. 🙂

Reason almost never crashes (without being pushed by a poorly coded VST). But I assume you want the feature-fest that is Cubase etc. No doubt they will fix the issue anyway. Steinberg haven’t been in business for this long by being silly so don’t make yourself have to learn a whole new workflow if that is the only reason. 🙂

Today it probably is because they are more interested in penny pinching (and destroying quality along with it). Ask Sir David Attenborough or Richard Burton how much audio post he does… Because a thing is does not mean it is the best way. Would a slave defend slavery? Actually many did because at least they knew where the next meal was coming from 😉 🙂

I like in the sub tropics so I know all about it. Recent screencasts have been with a headset so I can keep doors open. 🙂

I do a lot of Post Production for Audio Program for salesmen, doctors, lawyers etc. Much of what you see online about wall padding and mics etc is total BS. What matters is the Selling Power of the Story - and of course the audience. No point making cute-bunny slasher-epics for 13 yo girls. A properly set up SM58 style mic like a Behringer XM8500 in a room with enough soft furnishing to stop it sounding like a shiny ballroom will do a fine job. The fancier the mic, the harder you make it for yourself. Same with mics on phones. Post editing is not necessarily your job. And if your client thinks it is then charge them for it and pass it on as it is not for the feint of heart, or the lazy - no manner how much the software sellers promise. Roll that price in or remind the buyer that you are Voice Talent (therefore not a specialist mix tech) and let them hire some cheap idiot and die with it after your work got massacred. Yes, the air con will have to be off, and the dog, and the thing people almost always tap against the mic stand (which they should never touch). Make sure you have an easy way to read scripts and turn pages when NOT Speaking. Don’t forget a quiet chair. Squeaks, creaks and bangs in voiced don’t magically go away. 🙂

This is a real skill and something taught in acting school. You can do a bit of “lazy” stuff with pitch shifters (Goa’uld), ring modulators (Dalek), vocoders ('real" Cylons) and the like but if you can’t change your ‘character’ then it falls flat pretty fast. So… the advice is to “become” the person you are playing. This will see you alter your presentation to suit. The more you can understand the character (motivations etc), the more you can deliver differently. It takes time and practice. Walk around being SpongeBob or Winston Churchill. 🙂

Yes sadly I know exactly what you mean there. My job is to help people tell their story but I can only do that when a) they have a story, b) they have delivered it. I am talking to someone right now who has a nice song that he could sing but he is so convinced that he needs Eddie Van Halen & Axl rose to do it that I think it will never happen. A shame as my advice in this situation is: Your job is to help that song get into the world. That song came to you for a reason so respect the song and its choices and get it done. Fear is understandable but not helping that song get born. He keeps talking about VST plugins like they will get him there. Sigh. That I fully agree with too. As I often say to try to get people to realize this: Sting could play every part on his records but he brings in other players so they can bring what they do - not what he says to do - to make a greater record then he (or they) could do alone. It would be nice if we could work alongside some time. 🙂

Ya’ll didn’t need to be tellin’ me who them Texas Playboys were 🙂 While I am not remotely connected in Country or otherwise, those old acts were amazing. They really knew their craft. I aspire to that sort of mindset in what I do. JD I had to look up but the work sounds solid on a skip through. Great to meet you. 🙂

These sorts of usage license contracts are done in one of three ways: a huge boilerplate legal document vetted and adjusted by lawyers on both sides as is common in the big end of town.similar boilerplate contracts passed in the mid-level of the business but vetted and altered by no onea simple email or similar note from the creator stating what can and/or cannot be done with the workI don’t like to quote on anything without a clear understanding of expectations. Once the customer has shown the usage of the work, like is this film going to a couple of little festivals, Cannes main screen, Coke advert, Hollywood A release… I can clarify the work required and the value of it Creative work should not be valued on a per hours basis - and that is probably the way you want it as 20+ hours at specialist wages is not cheap so if you assign Credits (rights) the creator can be paid less up-front and then be sent some of your profits over time. Asking for full rights is dumb as it means that you need to pay assumed value over 3-5 years which is 3-4 times what you would otherwise pay up-front. All whilst ensuring that the creator hasn’t a care in the world how well your project does - crash & burn for all they care as you paid em already. This is why professionally-minded creators don’t work this way (and similarly buyers should not ask). To answer the second half - what if you change usage? Easy, contact the creator and get a new agreement. It may include cost as you changed the value of the work. Not doing so is stealing. How would you feel if you got paid $5 for a family slide night and then it is there as Superbowl Half-Time for Amazon and not only is your name not on it but they are making millions from a misrepresented agreement? Yeah, I’d have Jeffo in the Red Room with 50 Mr. Greys for that and he’d expect it so never do it in the first place. 🙂

The concern with Audacity is that it is really not a DAW in the same sense as Reaper, Logic, Cubase, Reason etc. Audacity does what it does well enough but doesn’t do a lot of the things that Sequencer DAWs do. Reaper is not really that easy to use at all. Not trying to start a war or diss anyone who likes Reaper at all but it is very unintuitive and complex in a techie Excel kinda way. If that is what bothers you then try Reason or Studio One as they are more elegant in workflow (even if that makes them seem less feature-rich on the surface). Bitwig is rather elegant too in its own way, esp for very electronic music. 🙂

My advice would be that if Rob likes to play and deliver on-demand like a good Studio player he could get an electronic kit and deliver not only the stereo audio but MIDI of his performance. That means an electronic kit. Alesis have cheap ones but a better used set from someone upgrading from Roland, Yamaha or the like may be better. The Alesis kits will do the job and last well enough if he is good with his kit. Me: I left school in 1986 wanting to be a Record Producer like Alan Parsons. I was lined up to go be a dogs body, aspiring Tape Op then Sound Engineer at a commercial studio in the big smoke but when I got there the place had gone bust. A few years later I met another person with a small commercial studio making AM Radio jingles and got my way in there. I worked unpaid in exchange for being trained to Mix. Initially it seemed like a poor second to people I knew in band studios but in hindsight working on tracks that had to be just so, deliverable quickly, and told their story clearly, was a really great thing. I started noticing that lots of those band kids couldn’t deliver a mix, they could talk a storm about gunna this and should that but never a result. I saw how frightened people were of the synths (1988), decided that was a skill I could give myself and bought a used synth. It had a great manual (as things did back then) and I pored over it to work out how to build sounds on-demand. The studio thing fell through (hands where they don’t belong and all that) and I found myself having to make my own tracks to work on. I spoke to bands all the time but they only wanted me if I came with free studio time. So I was making my own music and had my first cassette EP in the Alternative Music Stores in early 1990. I spent the next few years chasing everyone and got interest from several labels. Sadly the rise of Techno, Rap & Grunge overturned the whole industry so nothing panned out in the end or I could have been another NIN (seeing I was mining the EBM/Industrial seam at that time). I spent the next few decades writing my own kind of music and did bits of mixing when I could. I also scored some Indie films & games that got awards. This is a recent album. I have Mixing & Composing Gigs here (and on other platforms) but the frustration is that every kid claims themselves a Pro Mixer (often under photos of gear they don’t or cannot own and a stolen DAW) and this has diluted the market so much that true skill & experience have no value to people who would rather believe “happy daftie” lies. The DAW & VST sellers have also created the idea that all you need is gear and you are going to be Pro which has evaporated the value of a true craftsman under ideas of owning the right piece of gear and having the right settings. Always happy to help those looking to do something that matters. 🙂

I remember Creamware with the all the sharc chips. I was in lust. But no I didn’t ever go down that, or any similar path. I ended up exclusively in Reason 12+ years ago after using just about every sequencer (as they were called at the time) as it is such a clean and open workflow for what I do and how I think. I still lust after other things like Omnisphere or Falcon but it doesn’t take me long to work out how to do that thing - or my equivalent of it seeing I loathe being a cloner - in Reason, very often with just Thor, Europa or Subtractor. And some extra LFOs from somewhere like Pulsar or Kron. When I do look at other DAWs I find that information is much harder to see in many ways than in Reason rack - esp seeing I now have three screens Seq/Mixer/Rack - so when doing mixes it is really easy for me to have the processors visible without being open and cluttering up my space (as VST still do in Reason). It is what you get used to but I really like how easily I can see what is going on without opening up lots of windows. 🙂

The whole Q revolves around: a) Can your job be done well in a very short amount of time? I know I can Mix & Master a song in a hour or so, but that does not mean that it is a particularly good job as if nothing else, I have no time to leave it overnight and listen again in the morning to see if my quick decisions were indeed good decisions. Sure I delivered fast, but I also know I didn’t do my job properly. b) Does your preferred client care? I know that I get no joy from trying to work with people who expect their song back in a few hours so making a thing of being fast 9at the expense of quality) is not a great plan for me. That said I know there a lot of people who leave the mix until deadline and expect instant results. It is about knowing who you want to serve. 🙂

This is true and really scary when they are more concerned about a small amount of money than the project that should have inestimable value. Can’t change minds, can’t kill em so you can only shake your head. And try to recognize the signs next time and shut em down before they get to play their sad little games. 🙂

A good buyer will accept that some other buyers are not well behaved. The unwarranted bad reviews, and how you handle them, are still a good thing for you. Sounds odd but we are driven to negativity so a bit of biffo will make us look longer. So long as you handle your response to this comment that clearly shows the complainer to be silly, you are golden. 🙂