For the independent recording artist, sounding amazing isn't a rarity only available to big time artists anymore - it is a requirement. 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! Artists 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. Simply put, there is no excuse for an artist to put out poor recordings. For some people, audio engineers are still a mystery. To others, they are ‘evil' manipulators of sound, creating fake, auto-tuned, robots out of unskilled artists. This, however, is far from the truth. Every recording, no matter the type, gets taken care of by a recording engineer, mixing engineer, and mastering engineer. The recording engineer uses many of microphones and technique to accurately capture and record the artist's performance as it occurs in the recording studio. The mixing engineer takes all of the separate audio tracks and crafts the music to sound great and convey the song's emotion. He sets the right levels, panning, equalization, compression, and adds special effects where needed to complement the musician's vision. Lastly, the mastering engineer uses unique gear and highly trained ears in an acoustically accurate room to subtly polish and prepare the production for final release and ensure the music 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. Recorded music is more often used as promotional vessel for musicians. The most income currently is in live shows, publishing, film and TV placements, and merchandising. When a fan connects with a band'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 apparel, and follow and interact with the artist through social media. As the group grows in popularity, their music may be chosen for sync placements in movies and TV, which not only provides great exposure, it also pays very well. To make it to this stage however, it all starts with well written song and polished recording. The rise of DIY recording has led to more artists releasing music than ever before. With a powerful laptop, some microphones, a digital audio workstation, and a little know-how, anyone can record and release music. One area where many musicians fall short is failing to recognize their weaknesses in mixing. An experienced engineer 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 mixer will take your productions to the next level and help you stand out from the crowd. 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 song and arrangement are as solid as possible. Then and only then, book time in the best studio you can afford to record your basic tracks. Find a local or online mix 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 a mastering house for that final polish. Once your record is finished, you can get the music into multiple sites and into the ears of your listeners and fans. Scott Horton is the epitome of today's contemporary mixing engineer/producer/songwriter. Scott has collaborated with a myriad of artists and labels from around the world in all musical genres ranging from Pop, Pop-Rock, Hip-Hop,RnB, Urban and more. His online mixing and mastering service, Virtual Mix Engineer, delivers musicians with industry standard sounding mixes which make impressions that count. Come say hi to Scott at http://www.virtualmixengineer.com
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