Whole day mixage

Today was a day in the studio mixing eight works of grizzly noise. I received all files (2 gigabytes) on Thursday. For every composition there were 24bit stemrenders and a reference mix.
I started by placing all of the files in separate projects and then listened all of them twice. A day of rest and an intense discussion with the client about what actually was the intention. This is very important, especially if you haven't heard other music of this artist. "What is the creative starting point?" "Are you aiming at a dense mesh of waves? Or should we regard every sound as an entity that requires to have its own position?" After some back and forth we agreed that the latter was the case.

This gave me a clear direction but also posed a problem with some of the compositions. Some tracks were trampling on each others ground. If you have track 1 working at 150hz - 300hz, track 2 at 250-350hz and track 3 at 200hz - 450hz then you have a serious problem. Mixing a rock band is much easier, believe me.

So today I did five compositions, tracks 1-4 and 6. I can't get track 5 to work properly. It's a beast with three ongoing noise/drone pads. I am thinking of suggesting to let one go, in order to get a clearer picture of the sound. But we're not there, yet. Tomorrow I'll do tracks 7 and 8. and then get back to 5. Sometimes you just have to let go for a while.

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Short pre review

I get regular questions about what a pre review entails. To give you an example here's a quote from a short pre review I did for a dark ambient release: "listened twice now and made spectrograms of both tracks (see dropbox). The atmosphere is quite suitable for the subject/theme. I see that the structural development is taking place in a very dense and small area of the spectrum.
In track 1 nothing much is happening over 6kHz and track 2 is even quieter > top frequency is 4kHz. Looking at it from that perspective the sound is still remarkably 'open' but that is primarily due to the reverb which creates depth.
Your material for track 1 consists of a basic reverberated layer over which you 'sprinkle' small sounds that sound closer (due to less reverb). They also stand out because of relatively higher frequencies.Your material fro track 2  consists primarily of harmonic sounds, most times low freqs and then layered with higher freqs (harmonic). 

Personally I think the first track is more up to my alley because there are more 'actors' on stage and there is more entering and leaving the stage. There are a number of passages that I would mix somewhat differently but that is a matter of taste. As for track 2 you might consider bringing something new on board after the bass climax of approx. 6-8 minutes. Or taking something away, if you prefer. Just make that climax more meaningful.
It might be interesting to leave the reverb off the beat. That gives it more power (and so you can even take the volume down on that track).Here too, I have several thoughts about the mix (especially the spatiality and stereo image).
And check your phase linearity of track 2. There are various spots where the sound is out of phase."

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Do I need a new business model?

I had an interesting discussion this week about the future of the music business. I suddenly envisioned that we might well be at the end of an era. Music listening for millions of years was something that was dependent of the moment that the music was performed. Then, by the end of the 19th century someone invents a tool with which music can be recorded. This invention leads to an age where people listen to music through wax roles, lacquer discs, vinyl discs, tapes, cd's. A giant industry develops and millions are made. And then, 100 years later (a very short time when regarded in perspective of human history) we are done with that. The internet eradicates within a decade the necessity to distribute music on discreet physical carriers. Music is distributed without effort. The business model of the music industry has vaporized.

So, we're back to the situation where a musician earns his bread by performing his music. Music labels are forced to reconsider their role, their position. They are no longer needed by the artist to distribute the music, their role as producer/financer of the recording process has become obsolete or at least risky in the light of the vanished distribution channels (upon which their business model was based).

It is time that we take a close look at what the listener actually is prepared to pay up for. Obviously the listener is not interested in high quality recordings. The massive consumption of mp3's in favour of CD's shows that the listener thinks mp3 quality is fine enough when given the choice between paying (CD) or (free/cheaper) download.

Sooooooh, what does this mean for me and my music? If small quality labels are unable to sell more than a few dozens of copies of releases of artists that used to sell more than a 1,000 where does that leave me? I guess my days of traditional releases are over. I am forced to take a new direction. My primary drive is to make music, but to have it heard by other people adds a lot to that.

I guess that, together with me, a lot of musicians will be forced back from the professional into the semi-professional level and from that into the amateur level. A lot of artists will quit producing music because they have to take care of a family.

Nevertheless: I am convinced that new forms of musical production and distribution will rise. Small, fast, low budget. At this very moment someone is already working on the right concept for the future.

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Preparing performance

As some of you know I have invited myself to the Kapotte Muziek 25 year anniversary party. I shamelessly presented myself before Frans de Waard and offered my services. I support the ideas that are the basis of the KM music as long as I know about them (which is approx. 25 years) and also know Frans personally as long as that. Frans has also, through the years, slowly grown from being a groupie to kernel partner of THU20. So I figured I just HAD TO be in with the crowd there.

So, since I have not performed since that night in Eindhoven (which I think was 2007? any archivists around?) this is something exceptional for me AND the audience.

I am preparing material for this show. I am thinking of using quite a bit of the new material that I've prepared (percussive, heavy material), Audiomulch in conjunction with my midi controller and a Tape Recorder. I have gotten an old Akai GX 4400D which is about as old as Kapotte Muziek itself. So that's sort of appropriate. Dunno what I'm gonna do. Frippertronics perhaps?

Aside of this: reworking my Karawane material. Yes, again!! But the more I learn with the mastering skills (EARLabs.services) the more often I think that something or other could be done better. A pain in the butt, but also very gratifying.

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There it is!!

I've done it; I've put my small business online. As of yesterday all of the information about my services is public on the EARLabs site. If you go [ there ] you can read about the services that you can order from me. With a track record of 30 years of composition, 20 years of writing about music and 10 years as a consultant I thought it was time to combine this experience into a little business. The past six months I have actively acquired projects for other people and all of them were satisfied with the result. Take a look at the list of [ clients ]. All of these projects were for free, for the client to get to know me and for me to get a feeling of how things might work out.

In 2010 I have decided to step up to the next level: a proper catalogue of services and online information. The business model is still quite low profile. I have been thinking about prices and looked at what competitors in this market ask for their services. This put up a dilemma: I want to aim at artists and labels with a small budget but on the other hand I want to deliver professional quality. And no matter what: quality requires time and good tooling.

Contrary to what people in my environment advised me I have decided not to start with a list of rates, like so and so many euro's per minute of music and so many tracks, etcetera. I think this business is very personal and I want to leave it up to the client to pay a fair price.

What is a fair price?
A fair price is an amount of money that satisfies both our needs. It depends on what you can afford to pay and what you think is fair to compensate me for my work. Yes, that is  more difficult than just say : 5 euro's per minute of music for mastering or 15 euro's per minute for  a 24 track mixing job. I was juggling with figures until I thought "what the heck, this might leave out all these guys whose music I love and who have done a great job musically but are unable to pay".
If this still makes you feel uneasy, then please ask me what I think is a fair price.

So there we are and here I am, distance is not an issue
I live in The Netherlands. That can be far away, geographically. But that doesn't matter anymore. We can work out everything via the Internet. I have a large server space where we store all of the music stuff and where we exchange the original material and the edited material. We have free teleconference software which allows us to discuss the music real-time. I can let you follow exactly what I do when I do it.

I think this getting on the same level with each other is important. Although most times I can work at a fast tempo and deliver the master of a song within 24 hours, I really want to get on the right level with the client. Can you imagine that you have worked a couple of months and a total of 200 hours on a series of songs or compositions and then decide that you need the master within let's say a day? No, you want to hand over this stuff very carefully to someone you trust.

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Live by the end of February

After a very long hiatus I will be doing two solo live performances again. [ Extrapool ] in Nijmegen organizes an event to celebrate 25 years of Kapotte Muziek. Date is February 26. Two days later I will be in Amsterdam at the [ OCCII ] in Amsterdam to do something similar.

In the mean time: I have been doing a lot of mastering/remixing of works by Jeff Surak and Alexei Borisov. Noisy stuff that needed and received royal treatment.

The EARLabs.services will kick off by February 1st. There are several services. I have been in doubt about the business model, especially the financial aspect. I have decided that I will open shop on a 'pay what you think is reasonable' basis. Of course I have a price in mind, and I think I deliver professional quality services but I trust my clients. They will pay me what they can afford and think is reasonable. Plus, if I see/hear that someone is pulling my leg then I still have the right not to do perform.

My own work has been under cover for a while now.

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Building up EARLabs.services

During the past months I have started working for other artists. Mastering, remastering, alternative mixing, coaching. The idea behind this is to build up a more professional studio with professional services. This will all be published in a week or so.

In the mean time I have been working on an assignment by Howard Stelzer. I've done some tuning of a live recording. I actually started this already early November but for some reason beyond me I only got my arms around it this weekend.

Anyhoo, time to make a fresh start for the new year. I'm really looking forward to new developments. As for my own music: I've made great progress with the 'dub radio soundtrack'. I'm getting close to the point where I start putting all the bits and pieces together to get an image of the big picture. See where the holes are, where things have their natural place. I hope to be able to give you a closer look at the process next week.

The bad news: the label that agreed to release my stuff of Karawane 1917 sent me a message telling that they were struck by hard times in 2009 and that they had to reconsider their release schedule. It's postponed at best. Too bad but understandable never the less. We'll see.

Signing off.

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