3 Secrets To Successful Music Production For Licensing

alright this video comes to you from how to license your music calm and learn audio engineering that met three secrets to successful music production for licensing producing music for licensing requires three things that are similar to but different than producing music for the radio section one organization and hard work those who approach their music production as well as business transactions with the greatest attention to detail and with the greatest amount of focused energy win the biggest simple as that those who approach their music production as well as business transactions with the least attention to detail and the least amount of focused energy lose the biggest again it's as simple as that when I was the advertising and promotion manager for a major music publication in Hollywood I was helping the band Guns and Roses among other bands craft their advertising campaigns these guys were extremely organized and very hard-working it was no surprise to me whatsoever when I saw them achieve international success and stardom they developed the habits of organization and hard work with music production for licensing the degree to which organization plays a key role is huge if you develop habits that include extreme and efficient organization assuming your composition and songs are good nothing can stop you but yourself and on the business side of things one of the best things you can do to develop the habits of organization and hard work is the 180 day music licensing challenge my best students have gotten great results from that production organization covers all aspects of the process of recording arranging tracking editing mixing and mastering section 2 uptrending attention to detail the quality curve it's fascinating that almost every one of my students myself included has gone through a very similar transformation prior to achieving success in music licensing I call it the quality curve each one of us has gone through the process of graduating from downtrending attention to detail to earning our degree in uptrending attention to detail though what I am about to tell you is simple to state putting it into practice is one of the hardest single disciplines I have ever seen accomplished myself included what is downtrending attention to detail down turning attention to detail looks like this in real life here's how it plays out my observation from 30 years of teaching and producing music I've noticed that most musicians are producers or engineers approach recorded music like this one they start off their projects with great attention to detail too as the project continues their attention to detail starts to dwindle down three at the most important part of the project near the end after many details have been added to the recording and when balancing all of these details is critical to the quality of the project their attention to detail suffers the most it's a sort of laziness that somehow occurs and it happens more and more as the project nears completion note when we talk about attention to detail we are not talking about specifications such as quote make sure the master busts out is at minus 18 DB or else unquote a lie or quote watch all of your meters closely unquote totally unnecessary attention to detail means Sonic attention to detail listening attention to detail hearing attention to detail sound attention to detail not watching anything listening the reasons for this dropping off of attention to detail or this increase in laziness are many but here are three main reasons I've discovered which seem to be common denominators among many musicians producers and engineers see if you can relate to any of these a near the end of the project when the mix is starting to come together the creator of the track starts to hear the birth of their musical dream right before their ears and they get so excited to share it with the world that they no longer give their track the attention to detail it needs when it needs more attention to detail than ever I call this a sort of crazy laziness because it's not lazy in a typical sense of the word it's not because the person is slouching over their track saying I don't feel like working on this it's fine it's done I'm done it's the opposite the person is super excited saying I can't wait to share this tract with the world I love this track this is so awesome wait until my friends and family and my fellow musicians hear this track I totally want to share this track with the world right now I think it's ready I mean it sounds so good now that I have all the elements together yeah it's ready I know there are a few things I should work on more but it's so good overall no one's gonna hear those things except me where's my soundcloud page so I can get this baby out there to the world now take careful note what I'm not talking about here is when a track has achieved a strong positive emotional impact and does not need to be overworked for technical perfections sake overworking a track beyond it being done can happen too but I'm not talking about that right now I'm talking about problems still existing in a track which cut across and lower the positive emotional impact that the track potentially has to offer and walking away from fixing those problems when a the strong positive emotional impact consistently from the beginning of the track to the end then it's done over completed time to move on but when problem spots in the tracks stop that consistent positive emotional impact from occurring then it's time to roll up your sleeves and work harder than ever with the highest attention to detail than ever before until you achieve that consistent positive emotional impact from beginning to end and that is way easier said than done that's the difference between downtrending attention to detail and uptrending attention to detail and now the second of the three common denominators of reasons why people drop their attention to detail be there's no other way to put it except pure laziness this one is not the crazy laziness of being overly excited to share their track this is where the person is slouching over their track saying I don't feel like working on this it's fine it's done I'm done and now the third of the three common denominators see something has cut across the confidence of the person mixing this track to the degree where they are now suffering from no objective viewpoint on what they are listening to and feeling like they don't know what to do next this is a fascinating aspect of our industry it's one that I have dedicated my teaching career to solving for anyone who finds themselves feeling this way it's fascinating to me because the truth is the person who is feeling this way feeling that they don't know what to do is closer to solving their problem than they know they can absolutely solve their problem by firstly using the technique of a being a detailed look at a being is coming up in the next section and secondly educated by mentors in their field with a successful track record with licensing who can help them no longer fall prey to those who spread false information about mixing mastering and producing music this is one reason the course music production fundamentals was created in order to act as a mentor right there with you educating you on the truths about music production for licensing conquering the lies told which create mental blocks for anyone trying to objectively listen to their mix and help them get their mixes done with licensing success section three the secret of proper a being for music licensing the single biggest action you or anyone can take right now to increase your odds of licensing success is to properly a be reference tracks with your own music an important note about a being purchase your tracks from iTunes and convert to a WAV file when you a be do not download from YouTube or some other source these sources have altered the original file you want a higher quality version of that track to compare your work to otherwise you could be lowering the quality of your work with a faulty a being workflow the top mastering engineers in the music industry don't possess some kind of magic talent they're not born magicians when it comes to listening to mixes and mastering they know how not to fly blind when it comes to getting quality recordings which are successful in the marketplace they a be most people mixing music fall prey to flying blind which means they don't use the technique of a being thereby missing the mark with the quality of their mixes to the point where they are getting rejections when they submit music for licensing I heard one of the best mastering engineers in the industry say when I go home from work every day I burn a CD of the work I've done for the day I know no one uses CDs anymore but I have a CD player in my car so I burn CDs so I can a be my work to commercial recordings that I also listen to in my car I take notes when I get home and go back to work the next day until I get it right so it's not magic or the fact that this person has better ears than anyone else no your ears are just as good you just need to know what to do with them and here's what you do with them you a be your mix with commercial recordings not only commercial recordings but recordings which have been successfully licensed by companies that you are submitting to or would like to submit to that is so important it bears repeating not only commercial recordings but recordings which have been successfully licensed by companies that you are submitting to or would like to submit to here's an excerpt from the course music production fundamentals which shows you one of many ways you can a be properly now we're gonna a be again okay we're looping so you notice I made a loop out of the a/b track up there you know I kept a local out of it and other stuff so I could just work with it for a while and go over and over and a be the guitar so a being is not just about a being you know your track your entire mix to another entire song you can a be different instruments in this case guitar you know basses there's ways to get recordings of different instruments or sometimes they stick out in the arrangement you know they play a solo okay so here's the EQ that I have on my guitars I'm just listening again with a Bab and I have a de-esser on here listen to it without a de-esser I found some problems in the strings kind of buzzing real high-end you're that it was cutting through the mix it was a little annoying for me so here's a an example of using a tool that maybe you wouldn't think of de-esser for voices right well they're just their tools and the philosophy that I want you to develop is this when you're watching this or other tutorials you know it's not like oh I'm gonna use a de-esser on guitars from now on no the idea is to pick up on the philosophy the philosophy is this oh I can experiment with tools and try different things that may be very rewarding and give me an incredible sound and emotion and and you don't have to follow a formula this is an art it's not a science so experiment and the more you learn your tools the more efficient your experimentation becomes it doesn't take so long sometimes you have to experiment to learn your tools so I'm experimenting here with that de-esser so I got rid of this buzzy stuff and now I'm going to try to take those see I'm just experimenting I want to see what would happen if I took the buzzy stuff out with a de-esser and then kind of replace them with another EQ but I get the same problem does it sound better that sounds better yeah it's kind of brighter without all that buzz and junk in there slightly they're just slightly though and that stuff that will be covered up in the mix I think but that's what I'll do I'll be playing it with the entire mix and checking that out and that you have to keep in mind too that he's playing some different notes in different range on his instrument now I'm looking for annoying frequencies it's gonna hunt and destroy I'm hearing some stuff here at the low end too much pulling it down now down here around 50 Hertz I can just pull that down I don't want to get mugged down there the low-end I'm simply lifting up once very thin band of EQ listening for anything that's annoying here that yeah and then I'm trying to take it down using my ears see how much I want to take it down then I heard some of that rattle there okay here that now let's compare that yeah not bad for it for the song for this song it's coming along nice and I would say you know what we're doing is I'm sure what the engineer was doing on that daughter session you know so just hear that I just felt like the mids with a little thin right in there a little bit what I'm listening for is I'm listening for when I feel emotionally comfortable and it's pleasing you know it's not Tecna again it's not a science you know people always want to hear well--what frequence do you do you turn down on acoustic guitars and which ones you turn up oh well forty seven point three Hertz make sure you turn it down and seventeen you know pump it up and then up around five K make sure no no music is an art in these raw material you're working with are like snowflakes they're unique so they have to be treated with care and you have to listen and listen and feel the emotion now here are some additional secrets you may not know about with some reference materials you may not have known even existed which can help you increase the quality of your mixes beyond anything you thought you could achieve on an immediate basis one not only a being your mixes with commercial releases which are already mastered but a being your mixes to other mixes there are several places where you can get actual mixes prior to them being mastered so that you can compare the stage of production you are on mixing prior to mastering to someone successful in the same exact stage of production mixing prior to mastering what you want to do is compare apples to apples as much as humanly possible during your a being process when people a be at all I found that most people don't a B they either don't do it consistently or they don't pay close attention to detail on making sure the volume of the commercial track is adjusted to the mixing volume of their track what they get then is apples and oranges instead of apples and apples and this can not only throw off the process of a being but it can damage the person's confidence because the commercial track will sound better because it's louder and for no other reason when their track might be sounding just as good if the volumes were matched by lowering the commercial track during the mixing stage to not only a being entire recordings to entire recordings but a being vocals to vocals drums to drums bass - bass guitars - guitar since the since since producing music for licensing involves the creation of stem files I've made available a library of professionally produced stem files so that you yourself can create a library of reference tracks which you can use with confidence during the mixing stage where you can compare exactly what you are doing on each element to the same elements professionally mixed since I also supply you the finished mastered versions of those tracks you can then compare apples with apples while you master comparing your mastering sessions with mastered licensed tracks and by the way these are all available for free just email me for one example you can listen to this vocal track if you'd like the original wav file of this recording at no charge so that you can a be your vocal mixes to an actual vocal mix simply email me at Gary and learn audio engineering dotnet okay this is a very interesting track it was done by Elsa the winner of the international music licensing contest one of the grand prize winners and she sent me a bunch of these takes in the bottom you can see there and I'll let you listen to this and what it is it's she did it on Garageband of all things she was going to go into a major studio and I gave her instructions I'll send you the email that I actually sent to her and you can see that you don't have to go into a major studio to get great quality vocal recordings so this is a song I wrote and it's being put together here for NPR radio and mothers sisters and brothers husbands and wives they all lost their lies in America that's the hands of the devil dirt meets shovel as we bury the dead under blue white and red in America in America millions of candles we part in the night lighting away straight to hell I hear the voices of spirits who sing singing the anthem I will remember 11 September not for the tears but for conquering fears in America we stand together for freedom forever so sing your children this song freedom lives on in America in America great job by Elsa and by the way she does vocal studio work now so if you're interested in getting a good vocalist let me know just shoot me an email so this mix will be available to you you know pre mastered so that you can a be this track this vocal track with any vocal track you're doing also you know that's free so just email me if you need any of that stuff and this next track is a track called celebrate and this track was actually picked up for a publishing deal with HD music now and these stem files are available as well so that you can have these at no charge so that you can a be them with your mixes these are the mixed versions and then you'll have the mastered version of the song that you can a be with any songs that you'd like to a be in the mastering process and this is more of a pop dance track so here are some excerpts of those stem files for you to listen to and again just email me at Gary and learn audio engineering net if you'd like any of this material break the good times Oh shake the room dance best everything is alright breathe in breathe out feel all the energy all around you turn it to the max get ready ready tonight we just don't get dirty boom bow shake the room dance that's the crisping is alright we hit two sets all night oh that's all night your troubles behind it's as I said this one action of a being can make the biggest difference in raising your odds of getting your tracks licensed this is exactly what happened to me when I tackle the discipline of a being and developing these creative secrets of a being elements and if you'd like to sign up for the 180 day music licensing challenge with Aaron Davison over at how to license your music comm which I highly recommend you'll receive the music production fundamentals course as a bonus check out the link below this video or write to Aaron at info at renegade music marketing.com thanks

Channel: Aaron Davison

Views: 8,083

Rating: 4.7257142 out of 5

Keywords: music production, music licensing, sync licensing, music publishing

Id: RxrwFUi3A0E

Length: 28min 38sec (1718 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 24 2016