recording Archives - Aaron J. Trumm

Home Studio Acoustics Primer

This article on home studio acoustics was written originally for the blog at Carvin Amps and Audio. I repost it here, and encourage you to check out Carvin’s amazing line of products! Also – notification: I sometimes use affiliate links. Some purchases may earn me a commission! 🙂

Many musicians and home studio enthusiasts place top priority on expensive plugins, computers, monitors, and other gear. Those are great things, but the well-initiated know that when it comes to making a home studio great, acoustics is where you can get the most bang for your buck.

Whether you’re recording and want to capture a better sound or mixing and want your mixes to sound great elsewhere, properly treating the room you work in is the best way to supercharge your results.

You may think acoustic treatment is the sole purview of expensive, professional facilities, but that’s not the case. In fact, it’s relatively easy to make a significant improvement to your acoustic environment, even on a budget – if you understand a few basic concepts.

We’ll go over some of those here to get you started improving the sound of your home studio.

Home Studio Acoustics: Why Treat?

If you’ve ever walked into an empty bedroom, you know why acoustic treatment is so important. In a hard cube with six parallel surfaces, sound reflects and interact with each other and the direct sound, causing peaks, nulls, comb filtering, and all kinds of undesirable acoustic phenomenon.

If you’re recording or mixing music, this obviously poses a problem. Since its unlikely you can rebuild the room a different shape, you’ll need to treat it to tame and control its acoustic characteristics.

Soundproofing?

Before we go too far, we should distinguish acoustic treatment from “soundproofing”. Soundproofing really means isolation – aka making sure your sound doesn’t leak into other rooms or bother neighbors (or vice-versa). Isolating a room is a very different job than treating it, and sometimes the two tasks are at odds. So, we’ll leave off isolation for another time, and just talk about treatment.

Absorption and Diffusion

There are two basic solutions to the problem of reflections interfering with each other and causing ugliness: absorption and diffusion.

Diffusion spreads reflections in an even manner, so interactions aren’t as extreme. In a big space, diffusion is an excellent way to create an even, beautiful sound which is not too “dead”. Many types of diffusors are used in big recording or concert spaces to create live, even sounding spaces.

Unfortunately, diffusion requires a lot of space to work and most home studios are just too small. So strategic absorption is most likely your best bet.

If it’s not obvious, absorption simply means absorbing all or most of a sound wave when it gets to a surface, rather than letting it bounce off and cause problems in the room. So, we’ll look at absorption from here forward.

Lows and Highs

While low and high-frequency waves are technically the same animal, they need to be treated differently, mainly because of their size difference (low-frequency waves occur literally over a longer distance).

For treatment purposes, think of low frequencies as anything below about 400 HZ and especially below 200 HZ. That’s the bass and low-mid bass area. For reference, middle C is 262 HZ.

Low frequencies are usually more problematic because you can’t hear them interacting just by clapping or yelling in a room. These frequencies build up or cancel each other out in different spots in the room, causing listeners to hear the bass inaccurately during mixing, or mics to pick up less than ideal low-end information during recording.

Low-frequency interaction might cause a room to sound boomy, a bass drum to sound dull, or a mix to sound thin, to name just a few examples.

High-frequency problems can be heard as ringing, resonating, boxiness, echo, phasing, or other audible phenomena. In recording, these problems can cause instruments to sound flat or extra boomy, make vocals sound ugly and lifeless, or even give a reverberant quality that you don’t want.

In mixing, uneven high frequency reflections may skew the stereo field, or create a wash of sound which makes it hard to hear the difference between left and right, how reverbs and delays sound, or even just how details interact in the mix.

Simple Solutions

As mentioned above, the quickest and often the best solution to these problems is simply to absorb reflections.

High Frequencies

At high frequencies, this is simple. Think of a high-frequency sound wave like a ray of light. It bounces off a wall at the same angle it approaches. In many cases can easily see where you might need high-frequency absorption, but here are some quick tips:

Floor or ceiling – Floor coverings can make an incredible difference in a noisy room very quickly, but professionals often leave floors uncovered and treat the ceiling instead.
Reflection-free zone – in a mixing room, it pays to absorb high frequencies in the area surrounding the mix position. Directly to your left, right, and above you are the areas that cause the most problems. You can also treat the wall behind your speakers, but not every pro does this because speakers don’t necessarily fire backward. Many pros leave the wall behind them live, or if the room is big enough, they use diffusion.
Even out a recording space – In a recording space, there’s not necessarily one area you’d like to sound good. You don’t necessarily have to treat every surface – in fact, that may create an undesirable deadness. Instead, evenly space acoustic panels around the room to tame reflections and even the response.

Low Frequencies

Because of their length (often longer than the room), low frequencies act less directional than high frequencies. Still, they do reflect and interfere with each other, and the solution is almost always to absorb them.

In theory, material that absorbs high frequency waves would also absorb low frequency waves – if it were thick enough. The problem is, in order to effectively absorb lower frequencies, panels would need to be very thick – think eight or more inches. Since most people don’t want to give up a foot of space around their room, low frequencies are usually dealt with differently. Consider these few principles to treat low frequencies:

Corner traps – Bass tends to build up in corners of the room, so this is a great place to absorb. Corner traps of various types are available for this purpose, and ideally should be used in every corner of a room.
Panel traps – A panel trap is a low frequency absorber which uses any of a number of resonating membrane techniques to absorb low frequencies while reflecting highs. This kind of absorber is very handy for taming the low end of a room without making it to dead sounding at high frequencies.
Absorb more – In most rooms, you can’t absorb too much of the low frequencies. So, look for areas beyond just the four vertical corners where you might use various kinds of low frequency absorbers. You can absorb too much high frequency information, depending on your goals and taste, but low frequencies should be generously treated until the room responds the way you want.

Further Study

We hope this primer has helped you get a grasp of the basics behind tuning up your home studio acoustics, but acoustics is a deep science, and we thought we’d give you a few more resources to jump to, so you can further your study.

First of all, check out the “Master Handbook of Acoustics”, by F. Alton Everest, for a deep look at treatment, isolation, and even building for acoustic purposes. For a look specifically at building your home studio, try “Home Recording Studio: Build it Like the Pros”, by Rod Gervais. Finally, to get a deep dive into the physics of sound, try Thomas Rossing’s “The Science of Sound”.

Let us know in the comments your favorite techniques and acoustic products, and don’t be afraid to share pictures of your home studio treatment!

If you have questions or want to talk, just hit me up on Facebook @AaronJTrumm or Instagram

In-Person Recording Sessions – Let’s get together!

Or do we need to anymore?

This article on in-person recording sessions first appeared in Recording Magazine. I reprint it here with permission, and I encourage you to subscribe to that publication, as they are a stand up bunch of folk! PS: you may find affiliate links in this post and I may get a commission if you buy something. 🙂

Let’s face it: COVID-19 did a number on us. Live performances all but stopped, toilet paper became a precious jewel, and getting together became a risk-takers-only proposition.

So where did that leave in-person recording sessions? Right where it was, it turns out.

It hasn’t been technically necessary to get together in the same room to record music since…since the 40’s, actually.

That was when Ampex was working with Les Paul on multitrack technology. By 1954, they’d produced the first 8 track. Since then, there’s been no reason you couldn’t record a guitarist and bring in a singer weeks later.

Even as far back as the 80s, you could use ISDN to record full-resolution audio from great distances in real-time. For a few years now, remote collaborations have been as normal as walking down the street – more so, maybe, during COVID. You can jam together online, manipulate shared DAW sessions in the cloud, or shoot wav files back and forth via Dropbox and co-write on Zoom.

It’s cheaper this way, too. A vocalist can spend a few grand to set up a specialized vocal studio, a drummer can do the same, a mixer can mix from a bedroom, and nobody has to pay for studio time.

When COVID-19 hit, one potentially good thing it did was dispel any myth that we’re required to put on clothes, drag ourselves down the highway, and arrive at a place somewhere to do something. Now remote collaboration is normal in every industry. Some people intend to keep working from home forever.

So, is it even necessary to get together to record anymore?

Not technically. But as our illustrious editor-in-chief Paul Vnuk, Jr. puts it, “long-distance relationships suck”.

And that’s the rub. Humans aren’t built to sit in a vacuum and talk to blips and bloops that look vaguely like other humans. We’re built to be close, and music has always been the ultimate form of physical/spiritual connection – second only to something else we don’t mention in family magazines.

Those of us who were around for the beginning of the internet saw this discrepancy immediately. Yes, you can talk to someone in Timbuktu in your underwear. Yes, you can make music and send it all around the world. You can even create a romantic relationship in a text-based adventure game…

But none of that even comes close to real life. We even made a point of distinguishing – hence the term “IRL”. “I’m laughing IRL” – in real life – we’d say. Musicians and performers spent hours and hours and thousands of dollars promoting things online – only to find out the power of being in a room dwarfed the power of online promotion. You could sell as many CDs in an evening out as you had all year online.

And take it from someone with experience – both from being online and on tour a lot – long distance relationships do suck.

So, we shouldn’t expect getting together to play and record music go away. In fact, it seems likely it’ll surge as the pandemic eases. Sure, we’ve learned a whole lot about the infinite possibilities, and we know we can get a lot done from far away.

But we’re hungry for connection. Musicians miss musicians. We miss being in a room where we can hear each other, look each other in the eye, adjust and flex immediately. We miss being able to say, “let’s try it this way” and hearing the result right now – not in 5 minutes when the file downloads.

Yes, we’ll have to put on pants and shower. We’ll have to lug drums and amps and crap across town, and it’ll feel stupid and inefficient at first, and we’ll miss Survivor and some of us may even have to wear masks. But even if we’re not playing out, we’ll still do it to make records. We’ll get together with whole bands in big rooms like they used to do in every other decade, and we’ll play music like they’ve always done: with in-person recording sessions.

And we’ll also make a whole lot of music remotely, with people from other countries and towns. We’ll do both, and that’s the beauty of it.

No, we don’t need to get together to make records anymore. We never did. But we’re gonna.

I record remotely and may one day appear live again in the real world, like a real boy. Help coax meout via Facebook @AaronJTrumm or Instagram @AaronJTrumm

What is a Record Label?

This article asking what is a record label? first appeared in FlyPaper by Soundfly. I reprint it here with permission and I encourage you to check out their courses. You can get a 15% discount code on a subscription using the promo code AJTRUMM15. Finally, you may come across affiliate links, and I may make a commission if you buy.

Twenty, even years ago, the answer to this very basic question – What is a record label? – would have been pretty straightforward. Now, it’s a philosophical quagmire, and you’re likely to get a hundred different answers if you ask a hundred people.

It’s true, the role of the record label in music as a whole has changed. The role a label may play in an individual artist’s career may even be different, but contrary to popular opinion, the record label is not dead, nor is it likely to be soon.

So rather than spend a thousand pages (and we could) on the subtle history and nuance of record labels, their role in the music industry, and all the varying opinions on their usefulness or morality, let’s start by sticking to the basics, and get a fundamental understanding of what a label does.

So, first things first: The standard definition which you will see a thousand times if you Google “what is a record label?”:

A record label is a company that manufactures, distributes, and promotes music recordings.

A Simple Proposition

In the real world a record label may be complex, but at its heart what a label does is simple. A record label monetizes recorded music.

That’s it. Record labels’ sole business mission is to find ways to make money from recordings of music.

They do this by contracting with music artists who make recordings either with a production team or on their own or in collaboration with another company. They may fund the recording process or not. They may fund manufacture of recorded media such as CDs. They may not. They may fund distribution of recorded media, say to old fashion record stores. And most importantly, they put money into promotion of music.

If you’re an artist signed to a record label, you’re an independent contractor contracted with the label to make recordings.

Before we go any farther there is one thing to understand about a record label: A label is not a publisher. A publisher finds ways to make money from the songs themselves. This could get confusing, because many companies operate as labels and publishers, but the two are separate.

Make Money How?

This is where things get more complex, as there are myriad ways to make money with recordings, and a ton of complexity gets introduced in contracts, with even more confusing twists and turns added almost daily due to streaming, new internet thingamabobs, and various and sundry other craziness.

So, let’s boil it down to basics again.

Recorded music generally is monetized in one of these ways:

Sales – Sell a CD in a store. Sell an MP3 download. Sell a vinyl record. Sell a tape. This means sales to customers who then listen to the music for their own enjoyment.
Licensing – If the producers of a TV show or movie or any other project such as a live show or a YouTube video want to use a recording in their production, they need to negotiate and pay for a Master Use License. Remember this is separate and distinct from licensing the song itself.
Digital Performance Royalties – A recent addition to the list. Traditionally, broadcasters of recordings such as radio stations are only required to pay songwriters/publishers for “performing” their songs, not the owners of recordings. Now, however, labels can make money from performances on digital platforms such as the internet or satellite radio.

That’s the list! Every way of making money directly from music falls into one of those categories.

Of course, in today’s world, record labels don’t necessarily stick to these two categories – labels nowadays often do more than just sell music. That makes most record companies more than just record companies.

A modern label might make money from merchandise like shirts or stickers, YouTube monetization, licensing the likeness or name of an artist, live appearances and concerts, or any number of things that are traditionally not the purview of a label.

What IS a Record Label??? Another Way Of Thinking About It

Now that we have the basic picture of what a record label is, if you’re an artist you may want to think about it another way (this is going to help you when deciding who to submit to).

From an artist’s perspective, you could think of a record label as a service. This service is the business structure that allows you to make money being a musician. The label provides services like recording funding (think of this as a loan you could never get elsewhere), manufacturing, graphic design, marketing and promotion, and distribution.

If you sign with a label rather than building that structure yourself, you will have to pay them. Luckily, you don’t pay up front. Instead, you share the revenue generated from the monetization of your music.

Of course, in most cases you won’t be getting the majority of this money – in fact you might only be entitled to 10 to 25%. It’s up to you to decide if that’s worth it, but the idea is your ability to build the structure and promote your music is so miniscule compared to a big company that even 10% is a world better than 100% of what you could make on your own.

This theory was definitely true in the beginning. Even to have access to a recording studio was such an expensive proposition that artists had no way to make a record without a label.

Now Things are Different

Now of course, it’s only partially true. Not only can you make a recording on your own, with a little knowledge and work, you can even build a following, distribute music, promote, and create the entire structure yourself, skipping the label entirely. Think of Chance The Rapper and you’ll see how far its really possible to go.

That doesn’t mean there’s no place for a company that can do all that for you. The fact is, not all musicians want to become graphic designers, recording engineers, digital marketing gurus, concert promotors, and agents.

Still, many musicians have trouble with the idea of sharing the wealth. If you think of a label as an organization you’re paying to help you with your music career, a lot of what you see in the contract might make more sense.

There It Is, In A Nutshell

Record labels and the music industry in general are complex things. We haven’t even scratched the surface here, but we hope that understanding what a record label is at the most basic, fundamental level will be a good first step toward your understanding of the industry.

So, there it is in a nutshell – the basics of record labels.

While you’re here, if you’re going the independent route, take a look at one of the most important pieces of your music business structure – distribution.

I’m a producer, vocalist, and writer. When I asked myself “what IS a record label?” my life became all roses and puppies. Do you believe me? 🙂 Let’s talk about it on Facebook or Instagram

How to Beat Writer’s Block

February 8, 2023 by Aaron

Audio Instruction, Flypaper by Soundfly, Instructional Stuff, Music Business, Music Thoughts, Rants, Randomness, Published Work

aaron j. trumm, aaron trumm, home recording, how to beat writer's block, music business, nquit music, professional audio, professional music, recording, songwriting, writer's block

This article about how to beat writer’s block first appeared in FlyPaper by Soundfly. I reprint it here with permission and I encourage you to check out their courses. You can get a 15% discount code on a subscription using the promo code AJTRUMM15. Finally, you may come across affiliate links, and I may make a commission if you buy.

I don’t know what to say about this. Blah blah blah. Doop dee doo. La la la writer’s block shmiter’s block.

As you can see, anyone can run into a little writer’s block from time to time. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, the waxing and waning of creative energy is an important part of the process, and everyone experiences a lull in creative flow at least once in their career – and usually it comes at regular intervals.

So, creative professionals have an entire toolbox dedicated to getting back their mojo in a predictable way, so they can go on meeting deadlines, writing hits, and winning Grammys.

And as it turns out, generating creativity is a predictable process, and writer’s block is not some mysterious demon that rears its ugly head because you’ve some how angered the muses with your unworthy lyrics or dastardly lifestyle.

Writer’s block usually indicates something in you that can be addressed – an emotional blockage, physical exhaustion, or a simple running out of ideas.

Here, we’ll go over some of the best, most tried and true remedies for the dread blockage (besides just using this thing), so you can get on with penning your next great work of art.

Fill The Well

Writer’s block is often the result of putting out a lot of creative energy and not getting any back. So one of the best ways to get your juice back is to consume other people’s art. Read a new book, explore new music, get out and enjoy a movie, take in a play.

Pro tip: in-person experiences like going to see a live concert or comedian usually have more impact.

Exercise

Writing music isn’t exactly physically taxing. Getting up and moving around will not only help you maintain your health, exercise has also been shown to increase creative thinking. Getting a good workout in on a regular basis is a necessary part of being a healthy person, and also an important part of a strong creative flow.

Get Out

One of the best authorities in the business of building up creativity is Julia Cameron’s “The Artists Way”. Walking is a crucial part of Julia’s method, and for good reason. Not only is it exercise, but it gets you out of the house, seeing new things, interacting with the detail of the world, and refreshing your perspective.

Sleep

Artists tend to romanticize the all-nighter. While the creative vibe at night can be super compelling, in general lack of sleep does damage to clear thinking and creativity. Best to get plenty of sleep to go along with other healthy habits, if you want to remain creative for long.

Play

Sometimes you just need to get out (or stay in) and have some fun! Make something weird, run around the room, rock out with your…ahem…friends. Socialize or play a game or do whatever it is that makes you forget everything and just be. If you’re lucky enough to get juiced up like this by being on stage, then you can use your gigs to have a blast and rejuvenate your creativity.

Freewrite/Jam

Sometimes the way to get out of writer’s block is to write your way out. Journaling in the morning or taking your instrument and just improv’ing for half an hour can work wonders. When journaling or brainstorming, make sure not to edit, or even think about what you’re writing. Write three or four full pages by hand without stopping. Even if the whole first page says “I have nothing to say” over and over again.

Perfectionist? Stop It

We’re always hearing about some great maestro or famous producer who’s just the ultimate perfectionist. Every little detail has to be right and she never quits and never accepts anything until its absolutely, totally, unequivocally perfect.

Poppycock. Perfectionism will stop you dead in your tracks. There’s a point, when you’re finishing a song, or if you’re a mix engineer, where you’ll need to be thorough about the details. But even then you have to let things be, and when you’re thinking about your next song, you should not be concerned about how great it might be or trying to get it right, much less perfect. Leave obsessiveness to the people writing about you.

Get Away From It

Sometimes you just have to let things lie. If you’re in the middle of something and you’re stuck, let your subconscious work on that puzzle while you take a walk or learn to cook. As a creative, you shouldn’t try to prove your worth by sitting in front of the computer 16 hours a day. Creativity is as much about letting it happen as it is about doing something.

Another pro-tip: try hanging it up for the day before you’re out of ideas. Just stop working while you’re still into it and come back tomorrow.

Find A Purpose

It’s amazing what having a reason to do something does for creativity. Not just a deep, spiritual drive to create. No, what we mean here is a real, tangible, reason. For example, getting paid to write an article about writer’s block. Money can sometimes be a mind killer in the arts, but sometimes doing a job that has a real, tangible purpose will be just the kick in the pants you need.

It doesn’t have to be specifically about money and you don’t have to wait to get hired. Book a gig in 3 weeks and promise to perform all new songs, for example.

Look Back At Your Own Stuff

It may sound a little self-aggrandizing, but sometimes you can get a real spark from listening to your own old stuff. If you’re like most of us, you remember your old stuff as being absolutely terrible, but with a fresh perspective, you may be surprised at your own talent. This exercise can help you remember how creative you really are.

Pro-tip: Watch out for wanting to re-do your old work. You know more now, so you might hear something you could fix. Better to move on, letting your former self inspire you.

Get Help

Finally, it’s worth acknowledging that writer’s block can happen when your emotional state is not its best. Psychologists have identified a number of deep-seeded reasons that writers and artists get stuck for long periods of time, and there’s no shame in admitting you may have reached an impasse that’s bigger than normal. After all, artists do deal in some pretty heavy emotions, and life does throw us a lot of curve balls. So, if you find that nothing is working, or the joy you once had for creating seems gone for good, it’s not a bad idea to seek the help of a qualified counselor.

It doesn’t mean you’re crazy! It means you’re a dedicated craftsperson, who knows how to do the work to keep in top shape. Just like an athlete would seek the help of a physical therapist when injured.

Ok, Let It Flow!

Every creative person has their own way of working, and that includes getting past blockages. Let us know some of your favorite techniques, and the next time you’re stuck, see if something – or everything – from the above list helps.

And now – let it flow!

I’m a producer, vocalist, and writer. I get writer’s block when I have to write what I don’t want. Let’s talk about it on Facebook or Instagram

Following the Competition (aka chasing music trends)

This article on chasing music trends first appeared in Recording Magazine. I reprint it here with permission, and I encourage you to subscribe to that publication, as they are a stand up bunch of folk! PS: you may find affiliate links in this post and I may get a commission if you buy something. 🙂

I was reading some literature on the insurance business and came across this headline:

“Following the Competition Isn’t an Innovation Strategy”

Amen! But a friend pointed out:

“It might be an income strategy, however – and knowing the difference between the two is the difference in surviving the arts or not.”

There’s the Rub

I was struck by how accurately this exchange describes a problem I’ve had with the music industry for a long time. So many times, gatekeepers ask for something they’ve heard before, and artists who need to put food on the table attempt to copy the vibe of some currently famous act.

Some musicians are incredible at it. In fact, it is true that a tidy living can be made – especially in sync licensing – with the ability to match a vibe without plagiarizing. The game is simple in theory: use the same formula but write a different song. This behooves video producers because rough cuts are often made against hit songs but when it comes time to secure licenses, the expense is too great – or labels refuse a license outright.

What’s a content creator to do but try to find a cheaper option that matches the vibe? The closer the better. Musicians who excel at this have an almost endless stream of available income. So, buyers ask for “something really close to Ed Sheeran but also modern, fresh and new” or “a modern hip-hop track ala Drake”. But this kind of keeps us all chasing music trends.

Of course, the very second you emulate a current sound you’re already behind the curve. In the 80’s and 90’s, if you bought a new synth and used a preset you’d sound like Prince, because he bought them all first.

This isn’t new. Ray Charles started his career this way – playing in clubs, matching the sound of famous acts like Nat King Cole. He was known for being a chameleon of sorts, and his talent made this doable.

But that’s not what made him a household name. To do that, he had to create something never heard. The same is true for any big name from Queen to Zappa to Marley to Eminem. It’s the courage – or maybe the naivety – to break the mold that makes innovation happen. Not sticking to what worked for someone else.

But I gotta eat!

You can’t fault a person for doing what works financially. In fact, high-minded adherence to artistic purity has been the ruin of many an artist. Smart professionals don’t put their ego in the way of cash flow. If a company wants to pay to license a 2-inch corner of your 40-foot avant-garde canvas or use just the kick and snare of your seminal rock opera in an ad, why not let them?

One of my songs exclaims “I’ll be high-minded and pure as soon as I’m sure that I’m not about to end up dead”.

This is why Dr. Dre makes rappers do a clean version of every cuss word before they leave the studio. Its why there are song structure formulas at all. It’s not a bad thing, really, to consider the audience. After all, art is a shared experience. Take it from a 28-year veteran – working in a vacuum gets old. And like it or not, money makes the world go ‘round. After all, we gotta eat.

Striking a balance

We all have to eat – and we have to keep the lights on if we want to make music. But that doesn’t mean we have to fall into a rut or make generic sounding tracks that fit whatever formula we’re emulating. The key, it seems, is to strike a balance between this chasing music trends crap and being super unique.

Forgetting about business for a minute – isn’t money just a measure for how much we’ve impacted people? Maybe the balance is struck by caring about others and what moves them as much as what moves us.

Perhaps the game is to search for the next new sound which is different, but different in a way we didn’t realize would work. Something that moves us both because it touches something we already know and something we hadn’t found in ourselves yet.

I for one ignore licensing briefs when they come across my desk. I’m awful at matching vibes. But I do listen, and I care deeply how what I do affects others. I may never make a mint in sync, and who knows if I’ll ever change the world. But I can try.

I am no Ray Charles, which is my only hope. Discuss it all with me on Facebook @AaronJTrumm or Instagram @AaronJTrumm

Oh – btw – here’s a book I just found that’s sorta kinda about this? I think I might read it. It’s called Two Beats Ahead: What Musical Minds Teach Us About Innovation. Hmm! 🙂

13 Books Every Musician Should Read Yesterday

January 24, 2023 by Aaron

Audio Instruction, Flypaper by Soundfly, Instructional Stuff, Published Work

aaron j. trumm, aaron trumm, books about music, books about music business, home recording, making it in music, mixing, music business, musicpreneur books, nquit music, professional audio, professional music, recording

Notice: In this piece on books every musician should read, you will see affiliate links in this post and I may make a commission from sales – rest assured, however – these are all books I have read, have on my shelf, and recommend. There are other books I think suck 🙂

As a musician or any other independent creative, not only are you an artist, you’re also a marketer, content creator, and business owner. As such, education should be one of the main ongoing investments you make. That’s what going to help you avoid the pitfalls most of us fall into when building our business.

But sometimes all online courses and YouTube vids and blogs can be a bit disjointed and overwhelming. Not to mention, when it comes to “making it” it can be hard to know who to trust.

Plus, online courses can be expensive. They’re awesome – but expensive. So, sometimes the best thing you can do is turn off the screen and read an actual, old-school book. With that in mind, here are 13 books I’ve read that I think every musician should read ASAP.

The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron

The quintessential and necessary foundational mindset book for any creative professional. This is the book on how to deal with what it means to have art as your mission and/or job.

Confessions of a Record Producer: How to Survive the Scams and Shams of the Music Business – Moses Avalon

A must-read in its millionth edition, for getting a real perspective on how the old-school music industry works. Necessarily foundational.

How To Make It in the New Music Business: Practical Tips on Building a Loyal Following and Making a Living as a Musician – Ari Herstand

One of the very few books on “making it” or being in “new music business” that I would recommend.

The Musician’s Guide to Licensing Music: How to Get Your Music into Film, TV, Advertising, Digital Media & Beyond – Darren Wilsey and Daylle Deanna Schwartz

Not the only knowledge you’ll need about licensing, since the game has evolved so much since it was written, but important foundational information so you don’t get confused by people’s unclear explanations of the business.

Master Handbook of Acoustics, Seventh Edition – F. Alton Everest and Ken Pohlmann

Before you screw around with audio, it’s helpful to understand the physics of sound itself. This is a slog, but it’s the root source of everything else you’ll learn about sound.

Mastering Audio, Third Edition: The Art and the Science – Bob Katz

Incredibly valuable for fundamentals of audio, not just for aspiring mastering engineers.

The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook: 5th Edition – Bobby Owsinski

I consistently go back to this book as a reference. Super concise, clear, and systematic methodology for improving mixes.

Zen and the Art of Mixing – Mixerman

Totally different approach than Bobby Owsinski’s book. This book is more of a philosophy around mixing, including being a mixer for hire. For me, this book and Owsinski’s go hand in hand to give a well-rounded picture of mixing.

Zen and the Art of Producing – Mixerman

More of the same basic philosophy, but from a producer’s perspective. Great for actually understanding what the word “producer” means, which is an important thing to understand.

How to Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck: Advice to Make Any Amateur Look Like a Pro – Steve Stockman

Like it or not, music is a visual art as well as aural. In this world, you need to at least have some competency with video.

The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help – Amanda Palmer

The famous Dresden Dolls singer who then raised about a gazillion dollars in the early days of Kickstarter has always been ahead of her time when it comes to nurturing fan relationships. This is philosophical and inspiring but also fundamental knowledge.

No B.S. Direct Marketing: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Kick Butt Take No Prisoners Direct Marketing for Non-Direct Marketing Businesses – Dan S. Kennedy

Dan Kennedy is one of the premier digital marketers on Earth. Don’t get squicked out, digital marketing is what music marketing is, largely, and digital marketing is simply direct marketing online.

The Copywriter’s Handbook, Third Edition – Robert W. Bly

I read this to help with launching my copywriting business, but as it turns out, strong copy is the biggest difference maker you can hope for in any business endeavor. It pays to understand it.

I’m a producer, vocalist, and writer. I’ve been in this indie game for 28 years and this list of books I think every musician should read is a small piece of a vast firehose of knowledge I’ve come by – some of which is hogwash. This list is good stuff. Let’s talk about it on Facebook or Instagram

The Abbey Road Trick and Friends

How to EQ Reverb Sends to Free Up Space in a Mix

This article about the abbey road trick first appeared in FlyPaper by Soundfly. I reprint it here with permission and I encourage you to check out their courses. You can get a 15% discount code on a subscription using the promo code AJTRUMM15.

Also – you may find an affiliate link here and there and I may get commissions – it’s part of how I keep afloat!

Reverb may be the most important effect you can use in your mix (besides all the others). It’s reverb that gives your mix depth, makes it sound “real”, and creates a sense of space and character. Often, the use of reverb is the defining characteristic of a particular mix or even an entire style or genre.

Can you picture 80’s hair metal without copious amounts of reverb? Of course not!

But reverb is by nature messy. By definition, you’re taking clean, succinct sounds and spreading them out, adding to them, and generally putting more into a mix than is there naturally. This means using reverb is one of the easiest ways to make a mix muddy.

Abbey Road to the Rescue

One of the easiest and most straight forward ways to free up space in a mix is to use EQ to clean up your reverb sends. There are a few ways to do this, and we’ll mention a couple forthwith, but first and foremost there’s the Abbey Road Reverb Trick.

The Abbey Road trick is so named because it was invented at Abbey Road studios, to help create space in mixes that may otherwise be overwhelmed by reverb. The technique is quite simple and surprisingly effective.

It goes like this. Set your reverb plugin up on its own buss (you should be doing this anyway, rather than inserting reverb directly in tracks). Use the send on your dry track to send your preferred amount of signal to the reverb. Make sure your reverb plugin is only outputting wet signal (most plugins mix the dry and wet signal by default).

Now the Abbey Road part. Insert an EQ plugin before the reverb plugin. It’s important to insert this EQ before the reverb, because you want to tame frequencies that are hitting the reverb to begin with.

Now set up a high pass filter and filter out everything below 600 HZ. That’s not a typo. You want to take off all that low-end mud. Next set up a low pass filter and filter off everything above 10 KHZ.

And that’s it! This simple trick opens up space in a mix in almost magical fashion, by eliminating boomy, low frequency tails in the frequency range that tends to get jumbled anyway, while also taking out distracting high-frequency tails that can sound unnatural.

Oh, and you could try this on stage with hardware reverbs too….just sayin.

Other Tricks

Notching

Once you’ve set up an Abbey Road style EQ before your reverb, you can also try notching in particular spots for certain instruments. For example, on vocals try a 1 to 4 db drop at around 2 KHZ to smooth things out (especially for a yelling tenor).

You might also try a small boost to enhance certain frequencies on the way in to the reverb, but be careful if you’re trying to create space.

Band-Pass Adjustments

When you’ve gotten a handle on the basic function of the Abbey Road trick, you can start playing with the band-pass. For some reverbs, perhaps a purposefully boomy kick drum that appears sparingly, you might drop the high-pass some to allow a little more low end rumble. Or you could try increasing the amount of low-pass filter to clean up even more of the high-end shine. Often, adjusting to 6 KHZ instead of 10 KHZ works great for this purpose.

EQ After Reverb

You can also use an EQ to fine tune the reverb’s output after the fact. You can do this to further tame your sound even if you’re already using an Abbey Road EQ before the reverb.

In this case, you still might want to apply high and low pass filters, cutting below 250 HZ or so and above 10 KHZ, depending on the signal. In addition, solo the instrument or vocal plus reverb, and listen for any resonances that might be getting in the way, and apply a narrow cut in these areas.

Using The Reverb’s EQ

While we’re at it, don’t ignore the EQ setting in the reverb itself. Most reverb plugins include some sort of rudimentary settings, if not a full-blown EQ section. Often this setting is a simple low pass frequency which you can adjust or remove entirely, and many reverbs have both a low and high pass filter.

Be aware that in most reverb plugins, the EQ section is affecting the signal post reverb, so you can’t specifically apply the Abbey Road trick in this way. Nevertheless, the EQ section in your reverb plugin is still a good place to rough in a cleaner sound.

Listen Critically

The key to any EQ job is critical listening. Listen to your moves in the context of the entire mix, not just on solo. The Abbey Road Reverb Trick is a great starting place and will instantly clean up your mix in almost every case. Especially with vocals, this trick creates space for the voice to remain clear and up front, while maintaining a sense of space and depth.

In any case, when making tweaks to either your Abbey Road EQ or your post-reverb EQ, make sure to listen carefully, because the exact same fine-tuned settings won’t apply every time. And finally, don’t be afraid to experiment and spend some time with your reverb EQ. Treat the reverb as carefully as you would any instrument and it will play just as important a role – without getting in the

I’m a producer, vocalist, and writer. I have “Abbey Road” presets in all my EQs, that’s how much I love that trick. Let’s talk about it on Facebook or Instagram

6 Tips for Audio Mixing on the Go

This article about audio mixing on the go first appeared in FlyPaper by Soundfly. I reprint it here with permission and I encourage you to check out their courses. You can get a 15% discount code on a subscription using the promo code AJTRUMM15.

Also – you may find an affiliate link here and there and I may get commissions – it’s part of how I keep afloat!

Let’s not beat around the bush. You probably got stuck at home for a long time due to the virus which shall remain nameless. So maybe “on the go” is an ironic thing to say, but the concept of mixing outside of the normal studio setting is what we’re talking about here.

You can use some of these tips to help you get quality mixes while you’re stuck at home, and even if your actual studio is at home, and in an open world you can take them out to all the coffee shops, park benches, and hotel rooms your heart desires.

So, without further ado – let’s talk about six tips for mixing on the go.

Listen More Ways

The fact is if you’re doing this audio mixing on the go thing, you’re probably doing so in headphones. If not headphones, you’re listening in rooms that aren’t treated well. If you’re at home, you could start treating the room you’re in, but if you don’t want to go down a home studio rabbit hole, or if you’re actually out in the world, consider various listening devices.

Try listening to mixes on your main headphones, then your laptop speakers, then a set of earbuds. Try exporting the mix to an mp3 and listening with your phone. Or connect an old boom box with aux input. Listen on your TV. Listen in your car. Take notes everywhere you listen so you can make adjustments.

Believe it or not this was common practice even back when everything was mixed in big fancy commercial studios.

Small Tweaks

When you make adjustments from listening to various speakers and devices, make them subtle. If you hear too much hat on the laptop but it sounds fine in the headphones, pull it down a bit so it starts to sound better on the laptop but doesn’t get lost in the headphones.

Remember the name of the game is having mixes translate on various devices, so making subtle tweaks is usually best. It’s also better in general when you’re not in the best circumstances to make small tweaks.

Develop Over Time

Since you have a DAW and you can save mixes, and even save alternate mixes, you don’t have to do it all at once. You can use this to your advantage to let a song develop over time, rather than trying to get it all right in one go.

This evolution of a mix over time is sometimes the best way to get past the limitation of being in less than ideal mixing environment.

Get Feedback

Since you do have the luxury of letting a mix develop over time, take advantage of other people’s listening environments (and ears!) by getting feedback. Take notes and try to make subtle adjustments based on what other people hear. Usually, you can implement everything everyone says in a subtle way and strengthen your mix over the course of a little time.

These people don’t have to be experts either. A healthy mix of expert ears and lay-listeners can really give you the best bead on how your sound is landing.

Use Reference Tracks

Starting off a mix session by listening to a view great mixes that are in the ballpark of the sound you want is always a good idea, but it’s especially necessary when you’re in unfamiliar territory. You still won’t be able to hear sub bass your headphones can’t reproduce or shimmering highs missing in your temporary speakers, but you will be able to calibrate your listening so you can more quickly get to the sound you’re looking for.

Come back to your references periodically, especially if you’re in headphones, to keep your perspective right.

Corrective Software

Finally, you may be able to improve your ability to mix remotely with the use of corrective software such as SonarWorks. Although not the only game in town, SonarWorks is the best at calibrating headphones so that you can get a reasonable even, reliable sound to mix with. Other calibration packages include IK Multimedia’s ARC, ToneBoosters, Dirac, and Waves NX. All these packages are simply filters you insert between your master buss and audio output, which eq the sound according to a headphone or room profile, evening out the sound for a more accurate mix. You may be surprised at how game changing this can be. (By the way, you could probably use some room correction in your space too – check my video on how I do this for – basically – free).

Go Forth – Or Stay Home

Whether you’re languishing in a house with no studio, or you’re living in the post COVID utopia of travel and socialization, you can get a great mix on the go with your laptop, DAW, and a little bit of tenacity and inventiveness. And you can always check your mixes later at the real studio to see how well you did. Using some of the tips here, we hope you’re pleasantly surprised!

I’m an artist, producer, and writer. I used to mix all over the place. Now I stay more put. Let’s talk about it on Facebook or Instagram

The Value of Real Musical Instruments in the Time of Computer Magic

This article on real musical instruments first appeared in Recording Magazine. I reprint it here with permission, and I encourage you to subscribe to that publication, as they are a stand up bunch of folk! PS: you may find affiliate links in this post and I may get a commission if you buy something. 🙂

It wasn’t long ago that you could spot an amateur a mile away by the cheesy sound of their fake drums and lame piano samples. Back in the dinosaur age – aka 15 years ago – you couldn’t make a record if you didn’t have a bunch of great players, instruments, and a tricked-out studio to record them in – unless you were specifically making “synthy” music.

Oh, how times have changed. Now even the most experienced of us are hard pressed to tell what’s “fake” and what’s not. You can create a convincing drum track from samples or pre-recorded loops (which aren’t actually fake…), piano soft synths are phenomenal, and many film scores are done entirely with virtual instruments. Even sick basslines are often virtual (see Charlie Puth’s “Attention”, done with Trilian Bass Module).

Not only that, but certain genres of music aren’t exactly trending toward “organic”. So, is there even any value in recording real, live instruments? This month’s theme should tell you where we stand on that.

Real Musical Instruments Do Have Value!

Real instruments aren’t getting replaced any time soon, for a variety of reasons. Some of the biggest include:

Convenience – Sometimes creating a virtual track that sounds “real” takes a lot longer than just plugging in and playing – especially for a great player.
Live music – Not all recorded music gets played live, but when it does, it’s still cooler to actually play it than call up a track.
Some fakes don’t cut it – Horns are a great example of an instrument which is still really hard to get right virtually. As a backing track maybe, but solo horns are still just better in person, as are guitars (mostly).
Collaboration – It can be a lot more satisfying to work with other people than all alone – unless you’re Deadmau5. Using real players is a great way to do it.
Human performance – Even the best pre-recorded drum loop is still a loop. Sometimes a drummer – or a bassist, or a guitarist, or a pianist – just gives you that extra something.
Really real stuff – Some genres are still not cut and paste, computery genres – Jazz ensembles, for example.
Fun – It’s super fun to mess with big things like cellos and Hammonds and oboes and microphones and rooms and knobs! Why would we stop doing that so we can look at a screen all day?
Skill – Some people are better at playing and conceiving music with instruments than with a computer – and not just old farts.
Who’s going to record the loops – Many drum loop libraries are actually recorded by drummers…you see where this is going.

These are just a few of the reasons real instruments still have value – and why it’s still important to study and improve the technique of recording them. But it’s not really an either/or situation. The fact is that now more than ever, recordists have a multitude of tools at their disposal, and there’s no rule about which instruments should be “fake” and which should be “real”.

Combine Real Instruments with Everything!

Use EZ drummer and a MIDI bass line and record your shredding with a PRS and a virtual amp, then get a real cellist to overdub a track and top it off with a virtual choir – nobody cares! As the great Andrew Scheps has said, “all that matters is what comes out of the speaker”.

It means that all of it – from vintage Steinways to ultra-modern soft synths – is valid. It is indeed a beautiful thing that a whole world of sound is available to anyone with a laptop and an idea, and nobody wants to go back to the days where only rich folk could make something great come out of the speakers.

But if you’re a player, don’t count yourself out just yet. After all, the technology to record a real, live instrument is also much more accessible now, so there’s a lot of need for great instrumentalists too – and people who can record them.

Still, at the end of the day, who’s to say what’s “real” or “fake”? If it sounds good it is good, as they say -which is a case for virtual instruments and old-fashioned playing.

It’s all just a matter of making something beautiful with whatever tools you have.

I can play a few things, program a few things, and I spent decades waiting for it to be “ok” to use MIDI drums on a track. Talk to me about it at Facebook @AaronJTrumm or Instagram @AaronJTrumm

5 Creative Ways to Use Delay in a Mix

This article about creative ways to use delay first appeared in FlyPaper by Soundfly. I reprint it here with permission and I encourage you to check out their courses. You can get a 15% discount code on a subscription using the promo code AJTRUMM15.

Also – you may find an affiliate link here and there – it’s part of how I keep afloat!

Delay is one of those staple effects. No DAW is without at least one delay plugin, and most mixes utilize this bread-and-butter effect in some way. Not to mention, hardware delays are a lot of fun too. There’s a good chance you’re using it regularly, perhaps to create a repeating effect, make a ping-pong happen, or any number of creative things. There are, in fact, a whole host of useful things you can do with a delay, so we thought we’d go over five creative ways to use delay in a mix.

Create and change rhythms

One beautiful use of delay is to create or change rhythm tracks. You can take an otherwise boring drum beat, say boom bap boom boom bap, and make it swing and sway, turn it into a whole different thing, or just make the snare do a few interesting flims and flams. Try sending both kick and snare through a tempo delay set at factor one half (8^th notes). This will turn boom bapp into Boom(boom) Bap(boomBi) Boom(boomboom) Bap (boom Bi). Adjust the wet dry mix to emphasize or deemphasize the original rhythm and use decay time to adjust how long the new delayed rhythm plays out.

Or try using a stereo delay that’s locked to your project tempo. Set one side to factor three quarters and the other to one half. You can use feedback to mess with the rhythm further, and if your delay has a crossfeed setting, you could even automate that to come up at certain times to create variance in the pattern and pseudo fills. You could even combine feedback and crossfeed to create crescendos. Use your imagination, try a whole bunch of different things, and you can create a ton of rhythms you wouldn’t have thought of.

Use delay instead of reverb

To get quite technical, reverb is simply a kind of delay. You can set your delay to basically give you reverb, or even better, use delay instead of reverb to create space without washing out the sound. For example, here’s a trick that adds depth and presence to a vocal track:

Send the vocal to a buss and insert a tempo-locked stereo delay. Set one side to a 16^th note and the other to a 16^th dotted or triplet. Set the feedback to something low like 7% on the left and 9% on the right, so that you get one or two repeats. Bring the buss up until you have what you want. You can use this effect instead of a reverb, or in combination with one. It works as an in-your-face effect in some mixes, and sometimes it’s appropriate to use it subtly, like something you only notice when it’s gone.

Make a mono track stereo

If you’ve got a mono track, perhaps a synth or guitar and you want it to be stereo, you can use a delay to do this. Just copy the signal to another track and pan each copy hard left/right. Then insert a delay on one side and set it somewhere between 5 and 20ms. Make sure the wet/dry is set to 100% wet, with no feedback or crossfeed (unless you want to see what happens!).

Alternatively, use three tracks with the original in the center. Insert a separate delay on both left and right with a similar setting, say 5 to 20ms on the left and 10 to 30ms on the right, making sure they’re different. Bring the two sides down or up to taste to create your new stereo track.

Create a metallic effect

If you set your delay to a very fast response, say around 15ms, and set feedback to a generous setting, say around 50%, what you’ll get is a very metallic effect, akin to some kind of robot sound. This effect is enhanced by a high pass filter cutting out low frequencies.

Play with the feedback and crossfeed settings to create more metal effect or decrease the delay time even further to inch toward a flange-like sound.

Delay the delay

Finally, there’s no rule against combining delays. To put some of the previous examples together, I created a simple pattern with kick and snare. Next, I inserted a delay and set the delay time to around 17ms, with a feedback of 40% and a wet/dry mix of 44%. Then I inserted a stereo delay, this one tempo locked, and set the left side delay time to factor one half (8^th notes) and the left to three quarters. I set the feedback at 26% and the wet/dry mix to 34%.

That was cool enough, but the fun part was automating the crossfeed setting in time with the rhythm. On the metallic delay, bringing the crossfeed to around 50% at the last beat of the measure created a kind of synth accompaniment, and jamming it all the way to 100% created basically a wobble bass, as the low end from the kick modulated, then interacted with the second delay. Next, I tried automating the crossfeed on the second delay, which created fills and variations in both the drum track and the new pseudo synth.

All of this coming out of only one drum patch, with a simple kick and snare pattern.

Put it into practice

If there’s one thing that comes up over and over in audio, music and mixing, it’s that there are no rules. You can find creative ways to use delay any way you see fit, and it’s a great idea to experiment. Play with settings, break the rules, and find your next crazy, interesting, beautiful sound.

I’m an artist, producer, and writer. I’m very punctual, even though I love delay. Let me know your creative delay tricks on Facebook or Instagram