From the first-hand experience

You asked very good questions, Brandon, as I see misunderstanding among many producers about how labels work and what they actually do. It is mistaken to think that a record label should do everything: marketing, bookings, management — these all are distinctive aspects of the music business, usually done by different people or companies.

To answer your questions on a deeper level and give a first-hand experience, I asked an expert’s opinion of Nishan Sankhe, Digital Om Productions partner and co-label manager. From there Nishan tells:

Nishan Sankhe, label partner and co-manager.

Digital Om Production is one of the leading Psytrance record label based in India and Nepal
digitalom.in

Well, just to begin with, I would say that it is every label’s frontmost duty to put out the best possible promotion using their entire experience and network for each and every release they do by bringing the maximum exposure to the music being released. Now coming to the question of the label you released your debut title with not doing enough as per your expectation to promote the release. The answer to this is very straightforward: discuss things in details with a label in the first place, while you are still in talk and negotiations about starting to release with a particular label as a roster artist or maybe a guest artist. It’s very important that you being an artist first try and evaluate your own expectations and then make a note of things you are really expecting from a label to do for you, and also understand what that particular label is actually willing to do and offer in terms of assistance and support.

Each release goes through some basic work process as mentioned below :

• Pre-release period: mixing and mastering, creative development, pre-promotion and marketing, distribution, sub-licensing;

• Post-release period. This majorly involves marketing and promotion of the release from a few weeks to months after the release is out. In some cases also bookings for the artist if it’s already part of the pre-negotiated deal. And finally a collection of proper sales royalties from all channel partners, distribution, and reimbursing the artist back with his share as per the deal of the previously signed contract.

Now coming to the main question, ‘What Record Labels Actually Do’.

The answer is very subjective depending on what record label you are working with and is already somewhat answered in the explanation above, but to emphasize further I’d say that it is not a record label’s job to find bookings for the artist. The music industry in any sense is now so organized, that there are specialized booking agencies who pick and source upcoming talents. These agencies frontmost duty is to bring maximum exposure to the artist as a whole, start to manage his existing bookings and along the line bring him more bookings via the booking agencies ever-growing network.

Also, I remember I have read in one of the previous advice here, there was a question about artist managers where Daniel wrote what actually artist manager does and what are the pros & cons of hiring one. So, in simple words, it is a job of such artist managers and booking agencies to work towards bringing more bookings for the artist, not a record label.

Artist manager: who is that person, and three question to think about

To emphasize more on a record label job, I would say that it is label’s Job to constantly keep updating themselves with various promotion platforms, new social media trends, think of more innovative ideas to promote their releases, always look for best distribution channels and renegotiate the deals when needed. It is very important that label stays in touch and sync with the roster artist keeping them updated on new development and plans, same as collects genuine feedbacks from fans and other artists, as well as DJs in their network about each and every release and pass them back to their releasing artist. Labels also need to start building connections between artist to bring out some possible remix and collaborations opportunities. So, these are the most important and mandatory things that any record label should be doing for their artist’s roster.

Very interesting thing is that some record labels who have been around for a while and have already managed to establish themselves strongly in the Industry either by consistently releasing quality music for years or sourcing out producers with unique sound which resulted in building them as pioneers of certain style or sub-genre within a genre of music over time. As a result, gained massive fans and cult following globally are now also managing bookings for their artist by themselves or partnering with some independent global/regional booking agencies. We somehow feel this should be each and every label’s ultimate goal to not just build a very organized distribution and promotion network for their artists, but also lay a very strong platform for achieving global bookings.

All the above things are possible only with a very fair open hand in hand working relationship between the artist and label. There is no compromise at all when it comes to putting in more than 100% and keep doing always better than what your last effort was.

Special thanks to Nishan Sankhe for his time and expert’s opinion. On cover image — complex mechanisms of the music business, it works properly only when all pieces are combined together.

Based on a true story

Evgeniy, I’m not sure that you’ll get anything useful out of my story because every artist’s experience is unique. Some things that worked well for me doesn’t necessary will work for you, and vice versa. Also, keep in mind that preparation for local and international gigs are quite different things. But anyway I’ll try to answer your questions and add some practical tips by the end.

I started to play live in 2012 — before that, I played with a DJ sets only. At this point I want to clarify: I call set a “live” when you do some live real-time manipulations and edit/transform or change tracks on-the-fly (and these tracks doesn’t necessarily have to be yours), as the opposite to traditional DJ sets when you simply mix track A with a track B. It was a Progressive-Psy night with Serbian headliners, and I was a closing artist. Obviously, as an up and coming musician, I was very happy about this opportunity.

Live and DJ sets difference

As soon as my set was confirmed, I asked the promoter to show full lineup and timetable — who and when is playing. I’ve checked every single artist (including local DJs), found their social profiles and listened to their music. Also, I went to the venue website to see photos from the previous events. That allowed to me to get an idea of what can I expect from this event, whom I’ll meet on the stage and what music they gonna play.

Once I’ve got all the needed information, I started preparation of my set. Don’t be confused here: “preparation” doesn’t mean pre-record a set as some people think — at this point, I just test tracks to see what works together, and edit arrangement if necessary — cut too long breakdown or fix non DJ-friendly intro/outro. I always keep in mind those pairs that work nicely, so when some track is playing to the sound system, I know which track will fit in the mix next.

How to make smooth mixes

I was nervous a lot, obviously. That was my first live set, after all! To calm down shaking hands and get more confidence, I practised hours and hours long. By practice I mean turn the world “off”, and playing 1-2-hour sets like if I would play on the stage for real. And this actually helped a lot.

At that time my setup was the following: Novation 25 SL MKII MIDI-keyboard/controller connected to a MacBook Pro by USB, and external audio interface Native Instruments Traktor Audio 2 connected to a DJ-mixer via stereo RCA-cable to Line-In channel.

I’ve chosen this midi-controller due to its unique specifications: 8× encoders with infinite rotation, 8× 270° knobs, 8× channel faders, and the keys. Faders are quite rare things on the MIDI-controllers, and this is exactly what I wanted to use with my setup. As being said at the beginning, this works for me, but doesn’t necessary will work for you too, so please don’t buy this equipment just because you read about it here. Just for the record, nowadays in 2016, I use Novation 25 SL MKII in the studio only.

Ableton Live is the heart of the setup. In 2012 I posted my Ableton setup I used at that time, so if you don’t mind I’ll just quote myself:

“My Ableton setup for performance at stage”, posted on Facebook on July 31, 2012

My Ableton setup explained, 2017

“I’m using from 8 to 10 channels. The first three Audio channels – main decks for mixing. Channel #4 is for mashups (melodies, voice etc). On top of this channel – a sidechain-compressor with 4/4 kick pattern from another MIDI channel to prevent kick overlay. Channels #5-6 for some extra hats and percussion loops. On each of these channels – EQ-Eight with Hi-Pass filter. Then some MIDI-channels with VSTs – I’m using it for live versions of my own tracks, playing some melodies or modulate synths in real-time. Then Send/Return channels with various effects such as Reverb and Redux. I send these effects to other channels via return, except several effects, for instance, Beat Repeat. All of these things and many more such as scene select, play, stop, pitch control, filters, and more I control in real-time using MIDI-controller Novation 25 SL MKII.”

So that is how I’ve spent the last few weeks before the event — preparing, practising and tweaking the setup.

The day “X” — the party time. My set time was 5 AM, as far as I remember. I’ve made a little mistake and came up around 1 or 2 AM, so I had not a chance to check out and see the stage routing in details prior to the event. I went to the stage in about 15 minutes before to my set, put equipment on the desk, and plugged cables. Okay, now is the time. People applauses, I pressed the play button... and heard no sound from the sound system. Damn! Luckily, I realized that I connected my sound card to the wrong channel on the DJ mixer and quickly fixed it, but it was the scariest 20 seconds of silence in my life!

“Promo video 2012”, recorded at that event

Recap:

1. Do research: learn more about other artists in the lineup, local DJs, and venue.
2. Prepare your set: make sure you know each track in your music library perfectly.
3. Do rehearsal. This way you can get more confidence and take away the stress.
4. Double-check your equipment. Make sure all your software and hardware piece of gears are up to date and works properly.
5. Arrive at the venue prior to the doors opening, so you could do a soundcheck, get to know the venue and the crew.
6. Take your fee on arrival if you get paid by cash.

Perhaps, dear readers would like to share their first live set experience in the comments below?

On cover images: myself playing at one of my first live set. Forest Quest Festival, Russia, 2012.

A quick guide to harmonic mixing

James, good mixes are made of a few components:

Tracks selection. This is something that is very subjective, it’s purely up to your taste, feel, mood, and the story that you’re trying to tell. Digging and finding good and original tracks is homework for every DJ, and this is probably the hardest part. Unfortunately, I can’t help here.

Beat matching. This is one of the core principles of DJing, and It used to be quite a tough thing. In order to master beatmatching on vinyl and CDs, you had to do everyday practice, but the digital era has changed it entirely. The sync button and grids alignment make your tracks play beat-to-beat so easily, so I won’t stop on this either.

Vinyl vs. sync button

Harmonic mixing. Basically, this is a technique which shows how to mix the tracks in a specific way in order to achieve those smooth transitions as you’ve described. I listen to tons of various mixes, podcasts and radio shows, and I’ve noticed that only very few DJs use this technique. So let’s go deeper over this one.

To get started with harmonic mixing, you have to find the keys of your track. You can see the keys on some DJ stores, like Beatport:

... or use special software to analyze tracks on your computer. There are several such kinds of apps, but I’d recommend Mixed In Key as the best one. Mixed In Key scans your entire music collection and displays key results in their special way, named ‘Camelot Wheel’. Here is how it looks like:

Organizing music library

There are two circles: the inner circle with Minor keys, and the outer circle with Major. Most electronic dance music is written in Minor, so you will work with the inner circle mostly.

Now you need to know how keys are compatible with each other. That’s pretty simple, thanks to Camelot Wheel: compatibles are the same key ±1 one step to the left or right. For example, if our Track A is Am, to find a good Track B to mix with you have to look for Am, Em, or Dm keys, as highlighted on the screenshot:

Pretty much, that’s it! The transition between compatible tracks sounds smooth, pleasant and harmonic.

It is recommended to move only 1-side during the mix — either clockwise, or counter-clockwise. For instance, your harmonic mix could look like this: Fm → Fm → Cm → Cm → Gm → Gm → Dm → Dm → Am → Am.

Some more information and advanced techniques are available on the Camelot Sound website

I hope this is what you were looking for. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask in the comments box below.

On cover image: myself playing in Moscow back in 2011. At that time I had no idea about harmonic mixing and mixed intuitively.

Yes, you can split a stereo track in Ableton, which is quite easy. First things off, let’s take a stereo sample as a source signal. I’ve quickly made a new one using Ping Pong delay, waveform clearly shows the difference between the left and the right channels visually:

Next, I duplicate this channel and put in a built-in Utility device. On the Utility, change Channel Mode from Stereo to Left in the drop-down menu. Don’t be confused here — when the Left is selected, the right channel is ignored, and the left channel appears on both outputs identically. In order to completely separate channels, shift the panorama all way to the left and reduce the volume output to -3 dB to compensate volume boost to be sure your splitted sound is performed at the same level as the source audio:

Then I gonna do the same for the right side, bounce both channels (right-click → Freeze Track → Flatten), and rename it to Left and Right respectively to keep things organized:

As an alternative, you can add an Audio Effect Rack, create two chains, and put Utility device to each chain with the same settings as described above. Like this:

And one more hint. You can save this Audio Effect Rack as a preset by clicking on the diskette icon on the top right, so next time you would like to split a stereo track, just drag and drop it from the library. For this particular reason, I like this method even more.

In Ableton Live, there are at least two easy ways to do that using built-in devices: Ping Pong Delay and Simpler. They give slightly different results, so choose whatever better suit your needs. Let’s go over both methods.

Method #1: Ping Pong Delay

First things off, we need to take an audio sample which we will use for the processing. I’ll grab just some random phrase from my library, a one-shot speech sample says “Dark”. It’s pretty raw and dirty, but okay for this example.

Put this sample to a new Audio Channel, and add Ping Pong Delay on top. By default, Ping Pong use an algorithm called “Fade”, we need to change it to “Repitch”. Click right mouse button on the device title and select it from the list:

From now on the modulation of the “Beat Swing” parameter will affect the sample’s pitch. Change it to the maximum value of 33.3%, and draw automation down to the end, at -33.3%. Here is what we’ve got so far:

The effect itself is fine, but as you can hear the sound fades out over time, and we don’t need it. To fix this, simply turn on the freeze function, a small square “F”. Now the delay effect will last infinitely as long as the freeze is turned on:

Method #2: Simpler

Now let’s take a look at the alternative method. It requires a few more steps, but I like it more. I’ll put the same source sample to a new MIDI Channel, Ableton automatically creates a Simpler device. By default, Simpler has some parameters that we don’t need, let’s change it in four clicks:

• Turn on the “Loop” button. With this, we can use a single MIDI note in order to repeat the sound.
• Turn off the “Snap”. Snap to grid a nice feature, but to make the effect smoother, we don’t it here.
• Change Warp method to a “Tones”. Other algorithms can work too, but I found this one is better in this case.

I highlighted these changes on the screenshot:

Now create a new MIDI clip, and draw a single MIDI note up to the full length. Make sure to put it on C3 — this is a default note for most samplers where a sample is played with the original pitch. Since we turned on the “Loop” function, it will sound like this:

Now comes the most interesting part. Select the Simpler and press ⌘+G (or click with right mouse button on the title and select Group), it wraps the device into Instrument Rack. Then click on the top left button to open a Macro section, like this:

Then we have to make a MIDI mapping on the length and transpose parameters. To do that, do right click on the Length parameter → Map to Macro 1, and right-click on the Transpose → Map to S Length, as highlighted on the picture:

By default, it maps the maximum values of the parameters from left to right direction. It means that the maximum amount of the Macro knob (127) equal to 100% sample Length, and +48 semitones of Transpose. But we want quite the opposite, at 100% sample Length pitch should remain unchanged while reducing the Length should drop down the Pitch.

To do so, click on the “Map” button near to the Instrument Rack title, it opens the Macro Mapping window. Then right-click on the Transpose parameter and click “Invert Range”, set the maximum value at 0, and minimum up to your taste — I’ll set +36 semitones, which equally to 3 octaves.

That’s it. Now just draw an automation curve of the Macro 1 parameter, and enjoy the result:

Dear readers, if you know more viable methods how to achieve the same result, feel free to post it in the comments below.

Vând Sunete focuses on music recommendations and features everything from new releases to genre classics. By the end of the year, they summed up the year with different nominations, with Daniel Lesden named as “Producer of the Year”.

Getting even closer to the end, we encounter the fourth category in the series, which is Producer of the Year. Though I’ve been impressed by the output of a fair few names this year, one of them did deliver the release which convinced me beyond any shadow of a doubt.

This mysterious name I keep referring to and stubbornly not mentioning is clearly visible up there in the title..thing, but let’s have it appear down here as well, yeah? For 2015, this title goes to Daniel Lesden. Why? I thought you’d never ask.

Collaborating with Mekka on Aurora, Daniel kicked off 2015 on a high note with the Borderline Music single, and being a fan of previous Borderline releases, I immediately took to the combination. The fusion of progressive and psy really appealed to me, which is why I gladly paid close attention to what he had to offer next. Though leaning much more towards the psy end, his Thru The Stars, Life Simulation and Another Earth EPs hit all the right notes as far as I was concerned, resulting in a pretty permanent spot in my playlist for all of them. Then came what was the deciding factor which swayed things in Mr. Lesden’s favour.

His releases hit all the right notes, resulting in a pretty permanent spot in my playlist for all of them.

First teased at the beginning of February, Daniel’s collaboration with Cosmithex (which we later found out was dubbed Genesis) saw the light of day near the middle of August, but it was bar none one of the most eagerly anticipated releases of this year for me. It really did tick all the boxes and managed to offer a modern equivalent of those highly addictive Goa masterpieces from the 90s. The fact that the folks at JOOF Recordings paired it with mixes from You Are My Salvation and Steve Birch surpassed even my wildest expectations of how good a package can be. This irreversibly planted Daniel’s name on the top of this fourth category of ours and it made sure his name stayed there.

Just to be sure I got the message as clear as I could’ve, he traded places with You Are My Salvation later in the year, remixing the Swede’s Research & Development release, As The Horizon Comes Closer. After that, he ended on the uniquely titled Enuma Elish (which is the name of the Babylonian creation myth, for those not familiar) making yet another appearance on the JOOF family of the labels.

If the releases still haven’t convinced you, he’s also doing a weekly knowledge exchange on his site, covering a variety of interesting topics for you aspiring musicians out there, or for those like me who just enjoy reading things regardless of the subject.

Link to the original post
Text — Florin Bodnărescu

Indeed, for the last several years many artists moved their web space away from regular websites to social media. Facebook became a new main website, Twitter — a new blog, Instagram — a new photo album. And it’s so attractive.

On social media, It is so easy to upload and manage your content. Plus, it’s way cheaper: creating a page cost nothing, and you no need to pay for hosting service and domain name. On top of that, all your audience is there!

“Why on earth someone may want a regular website? We’re live in the 21^st century!” — this is something that I hear all the time. However, there are two important things that usually people forget to mention.

You do not own the content on social websites. All your posts, photos, videos, music, blogs, and everything else are owned by big companies. Basically, it means that your content can be deleted anytime just because it’s against someone’s policy, or because the company went bankrupt, or any other reason. In fact, these giant companies are like soap bubbles. Do you remember what happened to Myspace? That’s the lesson we’ve learned. Don’t solely rely on social media.

You cannot organize the content. Simple question: can you find anything that you posted on a specific date two years ago? I can’t, seriously. Once you post something, it pops up in news feeds over a few days, and then it’s gone almost forever. Unlike of Facebook, you can organize your website whatever you like: make a structure, create sections, add tags, filter, search, and highlight important things.

Don’t solely rely on social media

A small remark. I’ve noticed that website constructor services like Wix become more popular these days. Don’t fall into this trap: having a website using 3rd party service is no better than Facebook, it has exactly the same two downsides as described above.

Yes, I have to admit that making a proper website isn’t cheap. Also creating a good website is just one side of things, but keeping it up to date throughout the years — this is where the real hard work comes in.

Remember, all your posts are your time and your efforts. If you care about it and think your content is worth to ever get back to it again, I definitely recommend keeping it on your own website.

What should be on a musician’s website

Answering your question, I found the best strategy is to have all your important content on your own website and link it to social media. This allows you to reach a broader audience, not risking and having everything under control. I won’t hide, this is exactly what I’m doing with this blog and my website in general, and it works pretty well.