Once a record is mixed it still needs to be mastered.

There seems to be a lot of confusion on that process and it’s necessity, so let me clarify a few points.

For the purpose of this article I am limiting my expertise to CD mastering. Mastering for Vinyl is a whole other ball game and definitely needs some specialized equipment and understanding.

Mastering is the final step in the recording process. The main goal of mastering is to prepare your CD project for replication and to balance your tracks that they will sound great on any system.

This often includes :

• making sure all songs are in the right order
• making fine EQ adjustments, so that each song has a balanced sonic signature
• enhancing the stereo image, if necessary
• carefully adding some compression, to obtain the same perceived volume level
• ensuring that all songs have a similar sonic signature ( balance between bass, miss and highs)
• making sure that the spacing between the songs feels just right
• making sure that the fade outs are clean
• adding ISRC codes (which will let your songs being tracked by SoundExchange and such to collect performance royalties)

Even though there are an abundance of tools and plug-ins for mastering available, such as Izotope’s Ozone and several others, I highly recommend letting somebody else master your project.  In today’s world most projects are recorded and mixed either in a home environment, or at different studios by different engineers.

For one, I would never master a project in the same room and on the same speakers where it is mixed.

Mastering facilities have a finely tuned room with highly accurate speakers and amplifiers. Your home studio and even some professional facilities have their own characteristic sound. Some rooms (especially home studios) will have some shortcomings , so do have cars and living rooms in which you might double check your mixes. So if it sounds good at home is not a necessarily guarantee for it sounding good on other mediums.  A neutral listening environment and a good mastering engineer will ensure, that your CD sounds good wherever it’s played back.

For your CD to sound like a coherent project, the mixes need to have a similar sonic signature. If you get tracks mixed by different engineers in a variety of places, you will definitely have big differences within your mixes. Even though each mix might sound great in itself, you will like likely encounter that one track might be much louder, more bass heavy or has more treble than the other. The lead instrument, or voice might be louder on one track than another and mastering is the art of making all these mixes sound like they belong on the same album.

I am still a believer in albums and I cherish the experience of listening to a whole album in sequence, as opposed to downloading the one or other track. As an artist I want to take the listener on a musical journey. I spend a considerable amount of time figuring out the right order of my songs, not unlike putting a setlist together for a live show. There a subtleties I learned over the years that have quite an impact on the listening experience, such as spacing between tracks and the speed of fades. The generic 2 sec pause does not always sound right.

Finally if you want to make some money from your recording through airplay, you will need to have ISRC codes embedded into the files. These codes ensure that companies like SoundExchange, which collect monies for the artist and the master owner, properly track your song.

Mastering engineers are experts with a specialized skill set and equipment. But they are not magicians. So the old “we fix it in the mix” (to dismiss problems in the recording process) is just as wrong as “we fix it in mastering” to dismiss problems in your mixes. Try to get your mixes to sound as good as you can before you send them to mastering. And don’t over-compress them; leave the mastering engineer some room to work in.

And don’t get cheap on this process. I learned the hard way, when I tried to safe some money on mastering and going to a cheap place, just to find out that the final result was horrible. A bad mastering job can actually destroy your project. I went and borrowed some money to have it done properly and was rewarded with a great sounding album.

There are many great mastering places out there. If I may recommend someone, then it is Ron Boustead at resolution mastering. He mastered my last 5 albums and he is excellent and reasonable. Your music can be uploaded digitally and can be delivered digitally by him directly to the printing facility. So even if you are not local, you should check out his services. Here is a link to his site. RESOLUTIONMASTERING.COM

Until next time this is Nils signing off

PS:  For the last few years I have been helping new and established artists by writing and creating tracks and getting their music presentable for radio and commercial distribution. For those of you you need some great material and want some songs recorded, check out my site nilsmusicproductions.com

On Saturday, the rehearsal for my concert was rough. I had suffered an upset stomach the evening before, and I was very shaky and could hardly stand up during rehearsal. Fortunately the band knew their stuff and we got through it just fine. I just went to bed afterwards to rest. I had to be fit for the show on Sunday. I was the last act to close down the festival and wanted to make sure that everybody stayed to the end and danced. Paul Taylor had joined me on “Pacific Coast Highway” at the All-Star concert. So I asked him to sit in on a couple of tunes on my show, to give my set another dimension, which he did. The concert went very well, the sound was good, the band felt solid and the audience was totally into it.
The whole room turned into a party and we had the best of times. I sold every last piece of merchandise I was able to bring, which is always a good indicator, that I reached the audience’s hearts.

The evening after the last show, Christian invited all the musicians and their partners to a wonderful dinner at this rustic old restaurant. The food was fantastic and the atmosphere had something of a family gathering. It summed up the whole experience in a perfect way. It felt we all got a bit closer to our fellow musicians.We shared stories and wine, with Nate (East), Joey Summerville, Gerald Albright, Steve Cole, Gail Johnson, Paul Taylor and Sandy Shore and Donna from smootjazz.com

Now I’m sitting in the lobby, waiting for our shuttle back to the airport.
After a long series of extended goodbyes, we leaving this beautiful place wishing we could stay longer. We took it all in, the music, the location, the beautiful hotel, but it seemed it went by just too fast.

When we arrived at the hotel it was first class all the way. There was a welcome banquet, and the hotel and staff are just wonderful. Christian Bößner, who organizes these Festivals, really got this one right. I am happy to see that his hard work is paying of. It seems to get better every time I come back.

The next morning we had a rehearsal for the All-Star concert. Everybody got to pick a tune, something simple enough for everybody to learn quickly. Most artists were fighting their jet lag. I was glad that I had a full week in Europe already and was used to this time zone.
The All-Star concert took place in the most spectacular setting. An unfinished church offered the backdrop to an open-air venue with its majestic walls.

The concert was a total blast, we don’t always get the opportunity to jam with each other, so for the artists and the audience this was a special treat. Each night there are two concerts and then an after party. Richard Edwards is really a superb DJ and had the crowd going all night. When I left at 3am it was still in full swing.
I heard it went on until 5 am.

Tonight I have to go to bed just a bit earlier, because I have rehearsals for my show on Sunday in the morning. The festival provides the backing band for each artist. I had played with some of the musicians before in previous years at festivals in Augsburg and Biberwehr. They are very capable players and I hope we can take the show even further now, that they are familiar with my groove.

I will let you know how it went. Til then……

Knodd

Mittens likes watching TV

Then I installed an app called Viber, which allows to call over Wi-Fi. So while in the hotel on a Wi-Fi network, I could talk to my wife for two hours without occurring any call charges, once she had installed the same app on her phone.

As I am trying to upload this to my blog, I was kicked out of my Wi-Fi from the hotel. I had purchased the option for 72 hrs and I think my time just ran out. I’ll try to connect later. Hopefully one day we will have ever present internet access and look back at these primitive times thinking how ridiculous and unnecessary complicated things were. Just like we look back now at a time before we had cell phones.

read on to part 7

This is the third day in London. The show yesterday was already quite a bit better than the first day. The room was pretty much packed to full capacity. And it feels more comfortable to play with the fellows after a few shows. I told Michael (Lington) “by Sunday we will be so tight, that we can take it on the road” He laughed in agreement knowing that after Sunday we would all go our separate ways.

Tonight’s show is sold out and I am really looking forward to it. I dialed in my guitar tone and I feel at ease with the set. Several people came up to me after each show, and noted that it is no small feat to get this room up and dancing, which is exactly what we did. I never leave the stage before I get everybody up and dancing. And I make no exception for the crowd here in London. They might seem a bit more reserved at first, but once you get them going, they are really good party crowd.

Nils & Michael Lington at the Pizza Express

The hotel is just a short 3 min walk from the club. And it feels great walking through London. The small streets, old buildings, double decker busses.

There are crowds around the pubs at night, people just hanging out, talking and having a beer. The city is just buzzing like a bees nest. It feels so much more crowded than LA, mainly because the roads are smaller. Crossing the road at rush hour is like a game of jousting with two opposing parties trying to cross over to the other side. It’s fun for sure.

I am getting a lot of use out of the warm coat my mom got me last Christmas in Germany. After a little sunshine in honor of my arriving, the skies returned to standard issue London weather: cloudy with some rain. I looked at some umbrellas today and realized that I haven’t owned one in almost 30 years. I’m tempted to buy one, but that will just add another item for me to “shlep” around when its time to catch the plane to Berlin on Monday.

I found a laundry. They wanted 13.5 GBP (20 bucks) to do one load of laundry. I opted for buying some more underwear and socks for 10 bucks to hold me over until I get to my parents house in Munich. Problem solved.
read part 6

Nils & Paul Humphreys

Tomorrow I will have to start thinking about laundry. Nobody tells you this, but it can be a major problem on a tour. My dirty laundry already exceeds my clean stuff. And I will definitely run out of clean socks and underwear before Berlin, unless I find a washing machine somewhere.
I’ll keep you posted
……to be continued
read part 5

Monday April 11^th , my flight to London was leaving on Tuesday, so I decided to spend one day in New York rather than flying back to LA. At the airport I was trying to check my big suitcase in and was told it was 8 pounds over the limit, even though I had sold a bunch of CDs. I must have packed less carefully. Rather than spreading my laundry and everything over the airport floor, I opted to buy an extra bag for 25 bucks, fill it with my garment bag and a fairly heavy foot switch. I can deal with it in New York. Southwest let’s you check it two free bags so there was no big problem there. I got to Newark that evening, managed to find the air-train to the shuttle to the hotel and settled in my room. I opened the big suitcase to take my clothes out and put them on a hanger, when it hit me. I had grabbed my guitar, the carry-on suitcase, the big suitcase. But the bag I purchased for $25 I had left behind at the airport. I just totally forgot about it and never picked it up. Panic struck me: my stage clothes and the foot switch for my computer system. By now it’s midnight and I get a shuttle back to the airport. I got there just in time, before the Southwest counter closed and thank god they had my bag.

The next morning I made my way into Manhatten to meet up with one of my clients, Al DeGregoris. Jeff Lorber and me have been producing tracks for him and he is currently working on a new project. It’s always good to get some face time. So we had some lunch at the Carnegie Deli. I also used the opportunity to get a 9V power supply that could handle all voltages from 120 – 240 and had 4 outlets for my pedals. The batteries, seemed like a good idea at first, but some of these pedals go through them in a few hours. The delay crapped out on me on the boat due to an empty battery and there is no warning. Plus a big bag of batteries is even heavier than the power supply, and weight counts. I did spend more time when repacking the big suitcase this time and it came in just under 50 lb, which is what the allowance is.

Currently I am charging all my devices waiting to board the plane to London.

I will write the next installment from there.

Cheers

…. To be coninued

you can read part 4 here

Now as I am about to start my tour through Europe and want to document my trip for you. Hopefully I can give you an idea what it’s like to be on the road as an artist and shine some light on what is involved. I will travel by myself without my band. All the festivals that I will be playing provide a house band, which have been sent my music in advance.

I am writing this segment in a plane from Charlotte, NC to Chicago, and on the airport in Newark waiting to board a plane. But let’s take a few steps back.

My European tour is starting in London. I was lucky enough to also get booked at the Mallorca Jazz Festival later that same month. So I made some calls and was able to book a few extra dates in between. I managed to get myself a gig in Berlin and I got an offer to come to Amsterdam. On off days I could visit my parents in Munich. I also was to perform at the Waterfront Jazz festival in Mooresville, NC, before I left for London, and I agreed to play with Danny Kusz at his CD release party in LA. I produced his CD and I always try to support my clients. So here is what my calendar looks like:

• April 8th CD release concert Spaghettini with Dan Kusz
• April 9th travel to North Carolina
• April 10th performance in Mooresville, North Carolina
• April 11th travel to New York
• April 12th flight from Newark to London arrive April 13th
• April 14 –17 shows at the Pizza Express in London
• April 18th flight to Berlin
• April 19th off day in Berlin
• April 20th performance at the Ellington Hotel in Berlin
• April 21st train ride to Amsterdam
• April 22nd performance in Amsterdam
• April 23rd flight to Munich
• April 24/25 off days in Munich hanging with family
• April 26th flight to Mallorca
• April 27- May 1st Mallorca Jazz Festival

So far so good. I started to book flights and hotels. I spent quite some time researching the internet for the best deals. I prefer to fly with Southwest in the US (they never hassle me taking my guitar onboard) and Virgin or Lufthansa to cross the Atlantic.  Quickly I realized, that all airlines have different luggage restrictions, so I had to pack light.

I would need to bring enough merchandise for the tour and I needed my equipment for the show: Laptop with MIDI and audio interface, wireless, guitar effects. Another google search revealed that all the electronics had to be compatible with 3 different voltages and plug types.

So here is how I packed:

• Guitar in gigbag. I never check it in, I always insist on taking it onboard and you are supposed to be able to. I packed cables and a few small stomp boxes into the gig bag pocket.
• 1 big suitcase with stage clothes, 50 CDs, audio interface, wireless, A bag with electrical adapters, clothes, wahsbag, shoes. it was close to 60 lbs as I found out later
• 1 small carry-on roller suitcase. I usually would bring just a computer bag when I carry on my guitar, but I needed to push the limits. Inside another 50 CDs, Laptop, iPad, headphones, iphone/ipad/ computer chargers Another footswitch for my audio system, batteries for the stomp boxes and for the wireless.

I packed Thursday April 7th, because Friday I had rehearsal in Seal Beach and the Show with Danny. The gig went great. Danny’s new album is really hot, and the show was well received by the audience.

We played until 10 pm, I was gone by 10:30 and got home just before midnight. I loaded up my car and went to bed around 1am. At 4:45 my alarm went off to go to the airport……. To be continued.

read part 2

Nils interviewed by Victor Allen at PaxStereoTV

Much has been said about the tumult in the music industry. CD stores are almost a memory of the past. CD sales have been declining, and even downloads are giving way to streaming, which pays the artist and the record label next to nothing. The old model of the music industry has been shattered.

But dear fellow musician, do not despair. I’ve seen the future, and I am telling you the future looks bright. The internet and digital file sharing might have killed the old way of doing business, but it opened a whole new avenue for us performers.
For one, Internet radio is slowly, but surely becoming the driving force in presenting our music to the audience. Now with new cars models offering wifi access, you can listen in your car, the office and at home to your favorite music mix. And I must say the selection is way more exciting than traditional radio, covering a wider variety of artists and fresh sounds.

Last weekend I did a TV taping at PAX Stereo TV an internet TV channel, run by Mario Hemsley and Victor Allen. My main reason for going was to create some new content to promote my new CD ALLEY CAT. As I mentioned in my previous blog “smooth jazz artist as content creator “, this is a new central part of my job as an independent artist. I have been seeing them a few times before, when there were maybe 15 viewers. This time we did some basic publicity on social media and had 500 – 1000 tuned in who then re-broadcasted the show to another 500 or more of their friends and followers. Internet TV and live streaming is still in its infancy, but the pioneers at Pax Stereo TV showed me what is possible.

The whole thing was very low key. I brought Clydene Jackson, keyboardist and singer extraordinaire and we literally picked up a drummer off the street who happened to walk in. Turned out this was Marvin Smitty Smith, drummer of the Tonight show band for 15 years. That’s just one of the perks about living in LA. We had a relaxed hang, talked about the new CD and played live a few of the new songs. We got a great response and questions came in from Hawaii to Australia. I immediately understood the potential.
With adding pay-per view into the mix, we could organize a party and invite fans all over the world to tune in at our house concert. The business model is simple: everybody could tune in to a free preshow. Then they would have to pay a modest fee to stream the actual concert live into their living room. The after show would be free again advertising a paid download of the concert for those who missed it.
The tools are available, the technology works. There are several platforms available and right now most of them offer their service with a free trial for you to check it out.

Nils Interviewed by Meko streamed through iPhone

Another great aspect of this technology is, that it is interactive. We had 4 live streams going, using cameras and cell phones. The viewer can switch different angles and follow interviews done by online personalities like Meko Williams or Victor Allen. Take it a step further and the paying viewer could place a camera into their living room and I would be able to see their party on a monitor and interact with them in real time. Anybody ready to have us perform at New Years eve in their living room?

I see only exciting possibilities, like cliniques, Q & A sessions or join our rehearsal.  Just let you imagination flow. And its all in the hand of the artist. Indeed I think the future is bright I gotta wear shades.

Here are some resources for you to explore

Streaming apps for smartphones:
Periscope
Meerkat
ANGL

Links to streaming services:

http://paxstereo.tv

http://www.numubu.com
http://www.dacast.com

Big terrestrial radio stations have been on the decline, especially in the Smooth Jazz genre , but in others as well. However, internet radio stations and also internet TV stations ( like PAXstereo TV) are popping up everywhere. These are stations, are usually not reporting to the Billboard charts and are therefore rarely serviced by the record label. They are also always looking for content. I do realize, that there are many of them, which have such a limited following, that they are not worth your effort to create content for. But it’s the sheer number of them, that sometimes makes up for it. Also some of them get more popular as they gather more interesting content. And since you will be delivering your content digitally, how long does it really take to paste another e-mail address into your delivery?

So what kind of content should you create, other than your music? Here are a few ideas:

1. Behind the scene footage / “The making of “ – collage

Ricky Lawson

Whenever I record an album I try to collect photos, cellphone video and camera footage from the sessions. You could take such items and edit a short 2min short in iMovie or similar program. Distribute it to Internet TV station, YouTube Channel, Facebook etc…

2. Do your own interview

Write out some questions. Maybe have a friend come over and ask you those questions and record that conversation. Don’t go overboard, this doesn’t have to be an hour long 5 min is plenty

Distribute to Internet radio stations

3. Interview your peers

A few years back I came up with the idea to interview my peers back stage at the festivals we were playing. I called it “Backstage Pass with NILS” . click on the link to hear an example

Distribute to Internet radio stations

4. Create generic song ids.

Hi, this is ______ and you are listening to my new single ________ from the album______

Distribute to Internet radio stations with your single and CD

5. Create your own zero budget Video

Ideally we like to have a slick looking video but as a new and independent artist the budget might not be there. However you can create a Video with virtually no money as long as you have a cell phone. Even if you just sit and play along with your song, this will be more interesting to watch than a static picture with your music playing behind. Check out my friend Johnny Britt’s Video as an excellent example “I Tried” official video

Distribute to Internet TV stations, social networks

6. For more ideas go to my YouTube Channel and check out the “Behind the scenes”, section

For Alley Cat I did a series called “Anatomy of a Song”

For my City Groove CD I did a series called “The Making of”

For my guitar book I did several instructional videos