Posts by Tony Rockliff
Common Mistakes When You Build a Song Arrangement
“Arrangement” refers to which instruments are used in a recording or performance of a song and what and where they play. The instruments chosen provide the colors, the textures, the atmosphere and the visual backdrop for the song that help paint the picture that the song lyric and melody is trying to communicate. How you…
Read MoreWhat is Record Production?
So what exactly is record production? Record production is a skilled craft that ideally should include a working knowledge of music, engineering, writing, diplomacy, organizing, budgeting, and sometimes marketing. THE MAIN TYPES OF RECORD PRODUCER There are basically two types of record producer. One strives to capture on tape or hard drive the energy, the…
Read MoreThe Visual Mix
When mixing a song it can help to visualize the mix as a 3D cube. EQ (bass, middle and treble) is the front face of the cube going from the bottom (bass) to the top (treble). Panning places the instruments in the space between the left front wall and the rght front wall. Volume…
Read MoreTreble Trouble and Marilu Henner’s Mixing Tip
One of the problems with long mixing sessions is that the ear very quickly becomes acclimatised to the amount of treble (high frequencies) and it is easy to succumb to the temptation to add more and more as the mixing continues. Then you listen to it later or the next day and go, “What was…
Read MoreHome Recording & Social Media Tips for Musicians
The Articles area is where you can find information on home music recording and Internet social media marketing tips to help you with your career. Feel free to add comments or questions to any posts that interest you. If you’d like to be a guest columnist to share your knowledge or experiences, let me know…
Read MoreLive Social Media Counter
This is an interesting constantly-updating tool showing what’s going on in social media in real time:
Read MoreMastering Tips – What is Mastering and Why Should I Care?
Mastering is the combined science and art of taking a finished mix and tweaking it in ways that can range from adding a professional polish to really taking the mix to a whole new level. Sometimes the before and afters can be quite dramatic and what you thought sounded great before can tend to now…
Read MoreComping, Schmomping, I Don’t Need No Stinking Comping!
There are many ways to record vocals but there are two major ways, each of which have their proponents. 1) is to record the vocal track(s) and then go back and have the snger punch in to try and fix any areas where the pitch or the feeling or the timing is off. 2) called…
Read MoreThe Top 4 Mistakes Most Musicians Make Online
1) MAILING LIST MISUSE Sending emails to their mailing list only or mainly when they want to sell something or get people to a gig or other event. Here’s the bottom line on this – and I can’t stress this enough – your email list is your most valuable asset. It’s long been observed that…
Read More9 Ways to Check the SEO Strength of Your Competition
In the last article I showed you how to do keyword research and how to find how many sites are competing with you for those keywords. This article will cover ways to check the SEO strength of your competition. What this means is that for any particular keyword, the top 10 sites in the search…
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