Acoustic guitar pickups are typically bridge piezo pickups or magnetic models installed in the sound hole. We explore the differences between the two, and what they can do for your recordings and live performance. Some artists prefer one over the other depending on what kind of sound they are looking for. Although piezo bridge pickups are more standard than a sound hole pickup because the piezo generally comes from the factory. It comes down to your particular recording needs, but keep in mind these may be best for recording. When playing live nothing can reproduce the sound of an acoustic guitar quite like a great microphone on an instrument.
We take a close look at some specific advantages and disadvantages of signing with an Indie Label. Every artist, band, and independent artist has their own unique path to follow. Every step leads you into a new direction and into a new learning experience. Many independent artists have thought about being on an Indie Label or actually pursuing it, but many labels in the music industry have there there are ups and downs. It is the artist that chooses what path best suits them, much like the sound of the music they play. With Indie Labels you will generally have more freedom and an added bonus of splitting profits evenly between the label and the artist.
Sage Audio’s advice on getting a great bass sound for your track. When it comes to recording a bass guitar adjusting your EQ will help you produce the best results. While recording the bass guitar and making adjustments , keep in mind you want it to mesh well with the frequencies of the other instruments in the track. Always make sure that it sounds and sits well in the mix with all of the other instruments. That often depends on the frequencies the other instruments are using. Once you attain the bass sound you desire make a duplicate track. This way you can make some extreme changes and then add it in very subtly with the original track and this will bring some surprising results. Always remember it may not be your bass sound that is off EQ and it could be the other instruments. So check and make sure all of the instruments involved in the same track have corresponding frequencies so not one instrument’s frequencies is covering another.
U.S. copyright law says in the “first sale doctrine” that because there is a physical copy that has been sold once already that you can resell the used physical copy again. This is the same with the resale of books, DVDs, and other media. ReDigi was a service that sold used digital song files. This was ruled that it violated the U.S. copyright law. In ReDigi’s reselling of a digital copy it is obvious there is no physical item to be exchanged. Capital Records is the company that actually brought this lawsuit upon ReDigi. Capitol Records claims that they did not have authorization to send the product to a second buyer and thereby violating the copyright terms.
The technical specifics of what gives different electric guitar pickups their unique sound. Almost all electric guitars use magnetic pickups that contain a wire wrapped around a bobbin or two. Noiseless single coils consist of stacking two single coils on top of each other. The main difference between a covered humbucker and an uncovered humbucker is that is covered by a rectangular metal plate. Covers can cause feedback problems when used at high volumes.
A look at which guitar pickups are best for your home recording. Single coil pickups offer great note definition. Humbuckers are louder than single coils and create a warmer tone. P-90 pickups fall between a single coil and a humbucker that produces a warmer sound. Hybrid pickups are built as humbucker pickups but can switch to single coil pickups.
Using an external hard drive in your home studio is a great way to provide extra processing power and recording space. Store audio files on a separate hard drive so that the computer can have more space and ram to help process all of the audio files from the separate hard drive. When choosing a separate drive it is highly recommended to go with an external drive because they tend to offer more storage, faster processing speeds, and better durability.
The specific acoustic guitar body style and pickup configuration will have a large effect on your recording. Here are a few guidelines to achieve the particular sound you need. The bigger the guitar will mean it will carry more low-end and be loader. The smaller the body means it will produce a thinner sound that will add character and layers to a mix. This is necessary when adding an acoustic to the mix.
New statistics illustrate how Pandora compares to traditional radio for independent musicians. Pandora has 200 million registered users and accounts for 8 percent of all radio listening hours. In 2012 Pandora had 10,000 artists that reached 250,000 listeners. During the month of January the top 3 terrestrial radio stations in the U.S. played 297,157 songs from 261 artists compared to Pandora that played 100,000 unique artists during that same time period.
A new report shows the digital music industry has reshaped the way we buy albums. This may be a good thing for independent artists. Due to piracy and a struggling economy album sales are down across the board. Another cause of the drop in the market share for albums is because the new digital music industry is definitely an advantage for independent artist. Because of digital distribution people are choosing to buy records from independent artists rather than spending money on more widely known musicians.
Spotify reaches the milestone of 1 million paid U.S. subscribers in just over a year, and 20 million users overall. And in a surprising move, Metallica releases its back catalog to the service. Spotify has paid out $500 million in royalties to artists and labels currently. That amount currently represents around 70 percent of the company’s revenue.
The Pay-What-You-Want model seems to barely exist now. Radiohead released their album In Rainbows with the Pay-What-You-Want model which was a success. This opened new doors to the digital music industry including services like Pandora, Rdio, and Spotify. These new services have taken a big part of the community in the digital music industry.
Sage Audio presents tips on how to mix an acoustic guitar. You will almost always want to add a high-pass filter to your track and obviously EQ settings will vary depending on your acoustic tracks. Usually you will only want a very small amount of compression. Effects can vary but if you are looking for a natural acoustic sound it is best to have as little as possible and sometimes none at all.
Digital music distribution service TuneCore paid its artists $102 million in 2012. TuneCore also had 79 million downloads and distributed 112,158 total releases in 2012. TuneCore differs from other digital platforms like iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify by relying on a yearly subscriptions. Since 2006 they have distributed 447,000 albums and singles, and has paid artists over $250 million.
Sage Audio takes a look at the record contract known as a 360 deal. A 360 deal entitles the label to more of the artist’s income from sources other than record sales. Also the label typically agrees to invest more money in all aspects of the artist’s career including touring, merchandise, etc. Depending on the artist will depend on whether a 360 contract will work or not. It is best to have a lawyer present in any contracts to be signed to make sure the agreement is as fairs as possible.
