Announcing: latest video and new channel trailer

Well...there'll be a few changes (additions) to the channel:

And I released song no. 10

Working on the next releases so blogging will continue to be paused. If there's anybody out there wanting more blogs - let me know. Otherwise I'll focus on the videos...

DrScythe Thoughts - Part II: Tutorials about writing hits are nonsense

Last week I stated that every artist’s dream is to make a living by his art. There might be some exceptions but overall everyone wants to do things he/she/it loves and not being forced to do something annoying all the time (but most of us have lame jobs…).

That’s why I asked myself: why are there so many tutorials and books about ‘The hit formula’ or ‘101 reasons your photos aren’t selling’ or ‘The secret of Blablabla and how to make money with it’. Of course there are some basics you got to learn first for almost every hobby. Playing an instrument, know your camera and some stuff about exposure and apertures or which needles to use for knitting. And of course there are some principles and patterns that you can find in the successful songs, photos, pictures, etc. Be it some harmonic movements, arrangements, mainstream-stylistic stuff (guitars, amps, focal lengths…) – you get the picture.

But you got to ask yourself: aren’t you sacrificing self-expression for some sort of “success” using formulas? Using a specific sequence of chords for the sake of a higher chance to become famous? Framing a motif to comply with a set of rules but ignoring that you’d like it to look differently? There is an obvious difference between creating something and analyzing the reasons for its success later and forcing yourself to use a given framework.

It kind of contradicts the ‘make your dreams come true’-theme that’s behind the dream. There is always work involved in producing something. For my songs I had to learn the instruments, some knowledge about theory, vastly improve my language skills, mixing, mastering…video editing (and as you keep learning it’s a continuing process). But most of the time you enjoy that part as you just improve your ability to express yourself. Knowing how to get a result you can hear or see in your head before you begin is the ideal. It will save you a lot of time if you reached the point of ‘knowing what you’re doing’ and you can focus on the creativity.

And basic knowledge of the non-technical aspects might also be helpful just like music theory, typical elements of your favorite genre of photography, typical spices for your favorite cuisine. Depending on you, on your very own mind it’s more or less difficult to ignore all the rules sometimes to create something truly amazing, truly representing you or just find a path out of a dead end. But what those books about the “ways to success” do is reinforcing the borders. It will become more difficult for you to break through the walls of your knowledge. Your subconscious kicking in in the worst of moments: using this and that could make this a hit! It’s still up to you to decide against this then but the more facts you read and know the thicker the walls will be.

My way of writing music is pretty much impossible to be spoiled by this as I randomly play stuff and then improvise fragments of lyrics and work on from there. But I bought such a book years ago and it definitely would kill my relationship to a song if I’d go ahead and said: let’s write a I-V-vi-IV song. It wouldn’t even work for me if I had complete lyrics, used said chord progression and tried to sing as I always have a melody ‘in my head’ when I write lyrics. For photography I couldn’t resist looking for the perfect color contrasts, using the golden ratio and ‘correct’ exposure – although I never cared for “success” as a photographer. But for music it’s a completely different story.

Basically using such theories as the foundation of your creativity is like playing puzzle games with some blank areas for you to fill in on your own. It does not mean that you and others won’t like it. It’s not just the same level of being creative like coming up with it yourself (to me). Creating stuff is a quite personal matter so if you’re happy with something like that keep going. But to me it’s the completely wrong way. And I would feel really bad not creating ‘by accident’ but instead just try to force a hit song that has no meaning to me.

The question ‘why are there such books/tutorial?’ is easy to answer but why people believe that using formulas instead of just living their passion will help them is beyond me.

That’s it, I’ll release a new song this week, so long

DrScythe

DrScythe Recording Blog - Part I or What do you pay studios for? (2016)

For most of the time that the modern music industry existed you’ve paid for the equipment they’ve got and for the experienced engineers. But nowadays you can build and setup your own small studio for 1k and achieve an amazing quality. And it doesn’t even take the thousand bucks if you already got a decent computer (no matter if win or mac) and let’s say a mic and an interface. Freeware sounds excellent nowadays and so you just need to learn how to use it. If you already got money to spend, no matter if you’re a solo artist or a band it might be better to buy some recording equipment instead of just ‘renting’ the stuff. You don’t need a 128 track mixing console to get good results. Owning the stuff yourself will pay off when you want to record another song/EP/album.

Recording and mixing music isn’t that hard to learn (but to master – which is another story). Basically it boils down to this:

-       Adjust your ears to the overall sound instead of just your instrument

-       Understand what which piece of equipment does (EQ, Comp, Gate, Verbs...)

-       Know your hardware (adjust ears to monitors, know your plugins)

-       Practice repeatedly

Throw in some diligence while editing and you’ll be able to produce a nicely balanced mix of your songs. The ‘old masters’ weren’t born mixing engineers – they learned a lot ‘on the fly’. New technologies popping up all the time back then, tons of analog hardware with different characteristics (even if it’s supposed to sound the same) and so on. If you read The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook (by Bobby Owskinski; no ad here, just a reference) you will notice that the most valuable part of this book is indeed the one containing the interviews. You’ll notice that almost all of the engineers are very vague about rules and fixed settings. They just know what they want and how to achieve it. Years of practice may come in handy if you want to get a certain result. And that’s what you’re paying for. Their experience and understanding of (your) music. So if you know a studio or engineer that repeatedly was involved in the making of records whose sounds you love and don’t have the time or interest to learn – go for it. If you have a very precise idea of the result yourself – learn how to achieve it.

I am not bashing studios here. If no one in your band (or you as a solo artist) is interested in recording and mixing then using their services is fine. If you got an album prepared and never recorded or mixed before you shouldn’t consider ruining your creative work by practicing on it. But if you are a/the songwriter/composer and if you can hear the final song ‘in your ear’ while writing it then you might be better off learning to record and mix yourself – at least in the long run.

What do you need to begin is a PC or Mac (tablets can do the trick but for handling more than say 6-8 tracks I wouldn’t bother), some sort of interface and a DAW (recording software). There are a lot of ‘recording beginner buyer’s guides’ and as they change constantly due to new hardware I suggest that you just search for those or head over to sites like gearslutz.com 

As soon as your system is up and running and you grabbed all the free plugins (e.g. vst4free.com) you need/want you should begin recording and mixing. Not the full tracks but riffs and parts. Try a little automation. Get used to your monitors. You don’t need a pair that costs 2000 bucks and is the most neutral one can buy. It’s more important that your ears know what they’re hearing. So listening to your favorite tracks (sound wise!) isn’t a bad idea. If your first mixdowns sound like you want them, choose the song with the simplest structure and fewest instruments involved to practice. There are many small traps ahead. I will let you know for which ones I fell in a future blog.

Don’t be afraid to experiment. It is right if it sounds right. Of course there are many ‘ideals’ you can aim for (‘hear everything clearly’, ‘punchy and tight sound’ or ‘warm and vintage’ etc.) and there are some basic qualities which separate the ‘decent quality’ mix from the ‘well-I-placed-a-mic-and-pressed-record’-mix. But the ‘sound’ of a song (or a whole album) is part of what the listener experiences so it might as well add some character (your character) instead of being a generic production. Just to clarify that: a studio will (should) add character too. But it might not be what you originally intended. That’s another reason why I chose to do everything myself. It might not be the best possible quality in the ears of some but it’s closer to what I want than any mixing engineer could ever achieve. The only thing I would give away is the mastering. A second pair of ears for the final polish cannot be that bad.

So long

DrScythe

PS: I mostly trained on soundsamples I made. Just like this one here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIvEV8QcL0Q

Or this one (for a competition):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raMqbQRgXYA

The future of DrScythe

Welcome back! To conclude the blogs about my personal story I want to tell you what’s going to happen with DrScythe. I will sort this by topic as it seems the most logical structure for this – a kind of prophylactic FAQ.

Overall

Release songs, grow the channel/fan base and see what happens. I have thought about a lot of stuff (see below) but for now I will just keep going no matter if win or lose listeners. That sounds arrogant but the objective was to release my songs and be happy if someone likes them. If someone has good ideas or constructive criticism to offer – great. If someone just likes pop or death metal better – not my problem. As easy as that.

Songs

There are about 30 almost fully written songs left and according to my plan of releasing about one song per month I got material until 2018. Considering that I will write new tracks on the way you can expect a new song every month for three years straight from now.  The first 13 to 14 tracks are intended to be an album called ‘Light People’ which will include two exclusive interludes. Although I plan to release this until the end of the year I won’t stop my own creativity. So if an idea strikes my mind and it also got some relevance to things going on in the world right then I’ll release it instead of the planned track.

Videos

As I was already asked about that: there will be a video for every song. There are several reasons for that choice but mostly I want it to be more personal. As I do everything including the singing I feel better showing myself doing so. Also other platforms are focused on remixes (not intentionally) or lack the option to really communicate with listeners which I want to do. So YT was the obvious choice. And as I don’t like lyrics videos at all I chose to do this kind of performance videos. And I’ll keep doing this.

CD/LPs

There won’t be any. At least not if I don’t become super famous or something like that. As I live in Germany it’s quite complicated and/or expensive to release physical stuff containing music and it’s just not worth the effort for now. I might reconsider it one day in the future (under certain circumstances and with help of kickstarter).

Live

You might notice the difficulties of playing live for me alone. So it’s not an option right now. But I enjoyed playing live in the past and if the interest is large enough I will try to get this on the stage. As there are a lot of different scenarios I cannot predict how it will be. A slowly growing fan base and musicians I keep working with might lead to something like a classic type of band that just had a different beginning. Exploding numbers of fans all over the world would definitely require some hired professionals who can play the songs after listening to them once or twice. So: live – yes! How and when – no idea.

Merchandise

It’s never been easier to sell merchandise. If the demand is high enough I am prepared to use the logo and variations of it (thumbnails on YT, album cover) for that purpose and then team up with someone who is able to design proper stuff.

Covers

Not gonna happen. I enjoy playing other peoples’ songs but on the downside are tons of covers already out there and the licensing here in Germany is just a mess. So as long as I live here and I don’t have the best idea ever there won’t be any recordings of me covering famous songs.

Vlogs/Reviews/Tutorials/…

Basically videos that are not songs. Will happen if the requests for that emerge. For now it’s not really adequate and would cost too much time.

Next blog will be some band advices. So long,

DrScythe