For the independent recording artist, sounding great isn't a rarity only available to big time artists anymore - it is a must. Music sales may have wanted, but that doesn't mean that recorded music is going away any time soon. Far from it. More music is being consumed on more devices by more listeners 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 put out poor recordings. For some people, audio engineers are still conundrum. To others, they are ‘evil' manipulators of sound, creating phony, auto-tuned, machines out of unskilled artists. This, however, is far from the truth. Every record, no matter the type, gets touched by a tracking engineer, mixing engineer, and mastering engineer. The recording engineer utilizes a plethora of microphones and technique to accurately capture and record the artist's performance as it happens in the recording studio. The mixing engineer takes all of the separate music tracks and crafts the music to sound correct and convey the song's emotion. He sets correct levels, panning, EQ, compression, and adds special effects where needed to enhance the musician's vision. Lastly, the mastering engineer uses specialized equipment and highly trained ears in an acoustically accurate room to subtly polish and prepare the music for final release and ensure the music plays back well on a variety of playback systems. "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 tool for musicians. The real money currently is in touring, publishing, sync placements, and merchandise. When a fan connects with an artist's music, they'll listen to their music, comment, and share the music with their friends. The fans want to support the artist and buy tickets to their concerts, purchase apparel, and follow and interact with the band through social media. As the artist grows in popularity, their music may be chosen for sync placements in movies and TV, which not only provides great exposure, it also pays quite well. To make it to this stage however, it all starts with a great song and convincing recording. The rise of do-it-yourself recording has led to more artists releasing music than ever before. With a powerful laptop, some mics, a digital audio workstation, and a little knowledge, anyone can record and distribute music. One area where many musicians fall short is failing to recognize their weaknesses in audio engineering. An experienced mixer has the right gear, but most importantly the skills to make a production reach its full potential. Though it can be hard for an artist, letting go and trusting your mix engineer will take your productions to the next level and help you stand out from the others. Fans are instantly attracted to a well-written and performed song that sounds like a hit. Spend the proper time in pre-production, ensuring your composition and arrangement are as solid as possible. Then and only then, get into the best studio you can afford to record your basic tracks. Connect with a local or online mixing engineer within your budget whose work and personality you connect with, and tweak the mix until you're satisfied. Lastly, send the songs off to mastering for that final touch. Once your record is complete, you can get the music into multiple sites and into the phones and computers of your listeners and fans. Scott Horton is the ultimate example of the modern mixing engineer/producer/songwriter. He has collaborated with countless recording artists 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 artists and record labels with great sounding mixes which make impressions that count. Visit Scott at http://www.virtualmixengineer.com
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