Gem

18/06/2022

As part of series of events organised by Make Music Lagos in celebration of the World Music Day 2022, I participated in a panel discussion alongside other industry professionals where we talked about "Music Monetisation" opportunities and hurdles, particularly in the African market.

I did put together a few clips from my session but the full length videos are available on their YouTube page.

16/03/2018

01/02/2016

SOME TIPS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF YOUR MUSIC

1. The Producer, Not The Gear, Makes The Music

A producer who doesn't know what he's doing cannot produce golden sound, even with the best gear on the planet. Give a great producer even just decent gear and he'll still manage to produce quality results.

Point: Do not put so much hope and trust in long mixing consoles and green/blue/red lights flickering all around the studio. Most often than not what you see are faulty equipment that are kept to create an illusion of sophistication.

2. Record Dry, Add Effects Later

Most producers add effects to tracks even before you sing your first line. Well, this can be counterproductive. This measure could make everything sound nice in your ears and avoidable errors could be ignored or even not noticed.

Point: Keep your recordings clean on the way in and the mixing stage will offer many more possibilities for creative work.

3. Garbage In, Garbage Out

Most artistes go with “the producer will fix it” mentality. To get the best, put in the best. Do not be in a hurry, pay attention to details and fix necessary errors during recording.

For example: A low-level recorded or weak signal will be much closer to your noise-floor. Adding compression to this weak signal during mixing will pull up the noise along with the signal.
Out-of-time-rhythm will be too much headache to fix in the mix.

Point: Always aim to get the best possible audio down while recording. Don't settle for less-than-great takes unless you're absolutely pressured to do so.

4. Close Your Eyes To Open Your Ears

The visual sense takes priority with most of us which means that while your eyes are open the ears are pushed to second place.
The visual aspect of computer-based Digital Audio Workstations makes music production much more of a visual activity, often at the expense of good sound.

I remember a particular client of ours who gets excited at the sight of fat k***s. This gives him the illusion of a perfect mix and trust me, the music sounds great in his ears at the introduction of any plugin with a fat k**b.

Point: Close your eyes to make your ears into the top priority sense. Trust your ears when hunting for a good sound. If it sounds good to you, it probably is good.

28/01/2016

AUDIO QUALITY vs SIZE

MP3 has grown to become the most popular and most acceptable format for audio distribution especially on the online platform. The ability to shrink audio files without drastically compromising quality is undoubtedly the major selling point of this invention.

Nevertheless, it's been observed over the years that music artistes pay little or no attention to whether and how this widely accepted choice of audio coding affect their products.

Let me save you the trouble of fighting the too many ambiguities in the science behind audio conversion and coding by not discussing it (you can send a PM if you wish to indulge), but it is vital to understand the basics and how it could affect your work and hence, your career.

MP3 coding softwares present a wide range of options in terms of resolution and your choice determines how good or how bad your audio will be.

Consider these:
Low Resolution = Smaller size, low quality audio
High Resolution = Bigger size, high quality audio

In other words, the audio quality and size are affected or rather determined by your choice resolution. Meaning that resolution too high will result to very big file size + fine audio and too low will result to a small file size + very bad audio.

What are the best options then?

The answer to this is highly dependent on the purpose of the audio. It could be for a record label owner, a radio dj, a club dj, online promotions, album listening party, etc.

For such purpose as sending your song to a prospective record label boss, a 44100Hz sample rate and 192 kbps bit rate (stereo) will be appropriate.
The reason for this choice is this: If the file size is very big, download might become a hassle and if it is too small, quality will be compromised.

Also, considering such factors as high cost of internet data and slow internet streaming a 44100Hz sample rate and 128 kbps bit rate (stereo) will be a good option for home based online promotions.

PS: This topic is very broad and will be discussed in detail during our seminar which comes up soon. Interactions and questions are entertained only on our WHATSAPP group. Inbox your number to join the discussions if you haven't done so yet.

Always remember: IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR PRODUCER KNOWS, YOUR MUSIC WILL BE TWICE AS NICE.

19/01/2016

If you sent in your number and have not been added to our Whatsapp group, please do well to resend it.

The discussions are on right now.

Connect!

24/06/2014

Victor (Etrackz) and Pst. Chinelo Dillimono after a recording session at Etrackz Studios PHC

16/03/2014

Wishing u a bubbling Sunday...with love from all of us at Etrackz Music!!!