For the independent recording artist, sounding amazing isn't a luxury only available to big time artists anymore - it is a necessity. Music sales may have diminished, but that doesn't mean that recorded music is on its way out. Far from it. More music is being consumed on more devices by more fans than ever before in history! Musicians are making their music available on internet and satellite radio, online music streaming services such as Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, Deezer, and YouTube, selling on direct-to-fan sites such as CD Baby, Bandcamp, and ReverbNation, and still pushing sales through ‘traditional' online retailers such as iTunes and Amazon MP3. Let's face it, there is no excuse for an artist to release sub-par recordings. For some people, audio engineers are still a mystery. To others, they are ‘evil' manipulators of sound, creating false, auto-tuned, robots out of unskilled artists. This, however, is far from fact. Every record, no matter the type, gets taken care of by a recording engineer, mixing engineer, and mastering engineer. The recording engineer utilizes many of microphones and technique to accurately capture and record the artist's performance as it happens in the recording studio. The mix engineer takes all of the separate audio tracks and crafts the music to sound great and convey the song's emotion. He sets proper levels, panning, EQ, compression, and adds creative effects where possible to complement the musician's vision. Lastly, the mastering engineer uses unique gear and highly trained ears in an acoustically sound room to subtly polish and prepare the music for final release and ensure the sound translates to a variety of speakers. "While many audio techniques can enhance the final production, we engineers are not magicians and can't replace a poor performance or terrible recording," says Scott of Virtual Mix Engineer. Recordings are more often used as promotional vessel for artists and labels. The most income currently is in touring, publishing, sync placements, and merchandise. When a listener connects with an artist's music, they'll listen to their records, tweet, and share the music with their friends. The fans want to support the artist and buy tickets to their shows, purchase t-shirts, and follow and interact with the group through social media. As the artist grows in popularity, their music may be chosen for sync placements in film and TV, which not only provides great exposure, it also pays very well. To make it to this stage however, it all begins with well written song and quality recording. The rise of DIY recording has led to more artists releasing music than ever before. With a powerful laptop, some mics, a digital audio workstation, and a little know-how, anyone can create and release music. One area where many artists fall short is failing to recognize their weaknesses in mixing. An experienced mixer has the right equipment, but most importantly the skills to make a production reach its full potential. Though it can be difficult for an artist, letting go and trusting your mix engineer will take your recordings to the next level and help you stand out from the masses. Fans are instantly attracted to a well-written and performed song that sounds like a hit. Spend a good amount of time in pre-production, ensuring your composition and arrangement are as solid as possible. Then and only then, go to the best studio you can afford to lay down your tracks. Connect with a local or online mixing engineer within your budget whose work and personality you like, and tweak the mixdown until you're satisfied. Finally, send the songs off to mastering for that final touch. Once your recording is complete, you can get the music into multiple outlets and into the phones and computers of your listeners and fans. Scott Horton is the ultimate example of the contemporary mixing engineer/producer/songwriter. Scott has collaborated with countless artists and labels the world over in all musical genres ranging from Pop, Pop-Rock, Hip-Hop,RnB, Urban and more. His online mixing and mastering service, Virtual Mix Engineer, provides recording artists with spectacular sounding mixes which make impressions that count. Get in touch with Scott at http://www.virtualmixengineer.com
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