Just last week I delivered my mixed master to the record company. Two months earlier they heard my demos for a new CD and they were excited. These were songs I considered mostly finished and it was decided, that my next CD should be released in August. A September release date was not available and October seemed too late to create enough momentum on a single before radio shuts off the charts for Christmas. They usually don’t increase spins or add new songs to their playlists to make room for Christmas songs, starting as early as last week of November. An August release means the CD needs to be delivered by the first week of June. This is when the record label announces the CD to their distribution channels, registers the ISRC codes that help track the songs and so forth. This way the distributors will have the CD listed in their catalogue by July and can ship the orders in August.

I thought – no problem. All I had to do is schedule a few keyboard sessions, a bass session and record lead guitars, (something I like to keep for last) and then mix it. I also was two songs short, but since I had been working on an acoustic guitar album as well, I decided to pull two songs from that project and convert them to fit this new CD. I also had an additional song ready. I like doing that just in case I am not happy with how one of the tracks turns out. So I worked this month and fine-tuned the production on all the album tracks, recorded the missing bass parts, ear-candy, like percussion and additional keyboard parts and made sure I am happy with each song. By the end of April I was pretty much set with everything, except lead guitars and mixing. The demos sounded great, I was happy with the production and the compositions. Then it hit me: this is going to be an intense month.

I usually spend about a day per song to do a lead guitar track for my own record. I take my time to find the right sound, try different amps and mic placements. Then I relearn and practice the melody from my scratch track, maybe come up with a even better way to interpret the song. I will record several takes until I get the perfect performance. With ten more lead guitar tracks to record that’s 10 days. Mixing a song takes about a day and a half. At least that’s what I spend to make sure I get it right. For 12 songs that’s 15- 18 days and I’m talking 8 – 12 hours per day. So if I work 6 days a week and do nothing else I would just make the dead line and deliver.

That’s when I realized this is going cost me. As a contemporary jazz recording artist I am not independently wealthy. Other than collecting royalties, I have to make a living by either touring, or producing and writing for other artists, and doing guitar sessions. I also teach a few lessons or give lectures here and there. But to meet my deadline I had to put everything on hold for a month. Fortunately I had a record budget that allowed me to do so.

The lesson is that you shouldn’t underestimate how much time you need to get your CD finished. Try to get songs really finished early to avoid getting under a time crunch with your deadline at the end. But if you don’t set yourself a deadline, you’ll run in the even greater danger of never getting your project finished. I know of several wonderful musicians, who work on their album for years. They just keep changing it with out getting any further to the finish line. As I like to say (and I’m not sure who I am quoting):

“a good production, as well as a good mix is never finished, it’s just abandoned at some point”

I have been attending almost every year since I was a young adult in Germany. It is usually closed to the public, so you have to be invited, be registered by a company or sneak in, which gets harder every year. In the old days there was one day for the public, but not anymore. I guess too many people figured out how to get in anyways to turn the event into a zoo. And a Zoo it still is. 100’s of musician dressed as if they were ready to go on stage along with their groupies are crowding the isles. In between are business men trying to take orders and closing deals. There are lines of people cueing up to shake hands of well known musicians signing autographs at a booth of whatever company they are endorsing. All of a sudden a procession of body guards is clearing the way. It’s Stevie Wonder. I wave to him, but he doesn’t see me. :0)
The show is setup in several halls at the Anaheim convention center. One hall is mostly for software, one is mostly for recording equipment, one for guitars and basses and one is for drums and percussion. Unless you are a drummer you probably want to avoid this one. It is the nuttiest and loudest. Imagine 100 drummers banging on things to their own beat at the same time. Around the convention center there are now a lot of stages and bands perform to showcase their talents. Most of them are unknown. It’s not a paying gig. But there are also concerts sponsored by companies that feature world class musicians.

Nils and Reinhold Bogner

NAMM changed over the years, but mainly I think that my expectations changed.
Where I used to go just out of curiosity and to maybe catch a performance, I now go for business relations and to be up on the latest developments. I rate the show by the “WOW factor” and the “Accomplishment factor”.
The “WOW factor” scale rises when there are some truly exciting new items to see. I remember the day Melodyne was introduced, a software that let’s you manipulate audio recordings in radical new ways. We can now change a single note within a chord in an audio file without affecting the other notes around it, effectively fixing a bad chord or changing it from minor to major for instance. Before that, you could have paid me to hold a lecture why this is not possible, but those mad German scientists did it. Don’t ask me how, but audio editing was forever changed. – WOW!
The “accomplishment factor” comes into play when I can secure an endorsement (free gear) or a memo loan (free gear, which I eventually have to give back) from a manufacturer. Also (re)- establishing personal relationships with others from the industry.

On those scales, this years show did quite well. I am excited about the new upcoming Omnisphere 2 synth, which is one of my favorite tools. It got a major overhaul. Also Bogner has two new guitar amps, that I now need to have. The Goldfinger with one of the best clean tones I have ever heard and the Alma which is just soooo small and portable, while still sounding amazing. I am starting my Christmas wish list early.

Then I had some face time with Tim Godwin from Taylor guitars. I have a Taylor acoustic guitar and love it. He agreed to let me use one of their guitars for the recording on my upcoming acoustic album. More tonal variety -great.

I also met several of my peers and talked shop and updated contact infos. I was happy to run into Ndugu Chancellor, who I had not seen in years.

Nils and Ndugu Chancellor at NAMM 2015