Doing it For The Exposure... Do's & Don'ts!

'It's good exposure'. The single most horrible phrase in the music industry. It's the one people use when they've just asked you to spend thirty or forty hours working on a remix for no cash, or to trek down to London, DJ at their club night and then get the first train home in the morning, all without the promise of even the train fare. Nightmare, right? Well, it's not always a bad thing. So read on, as we take a closer look at this thorny issue.

If you just look at the principle, there's really nothing wrong with the idea of doing something for no upfront payment, if the fringe benefits (usually publicity) can be significant. Indeed, a lot of artists and labels spend good money trying to drum up publicity in a variety of ways. So spending your time and energy in return for exposure is, on paper, no worse than spending your hard-earned cash.

The problems come when 'the exposure' is out of proportion to the effort that you put in. This normally happens when a label or promoter don't want to pay someone. It can occasionally be tempting, but few landlords will accept exposure in lieu of rent, and it should really set alarm ringing. Why don't they want to pay? The most common reason is usually that they're just trying to bulk out a product in the hope of bringing in a spot of extra cash for themselves. As such, you need to get a little mercenary in your thinking.

What exactly is the exposure you'll be getting? Can you do better? If you're being asked by some no-mark label for free product, you'll likely resent the process, do a poor job, and they'll not bother promoting it too hard because they didn't have to invest in it. It's a lose-lose all round. Instead, try hitting up a label you like and asking to do a remix 'on spec'. This means that you work for free, with no obligation to the label to pay you or even use the mix, but that if they like it then hopefully you can work something out later. Most labels are open to the idea of free stuff so it's often possible to get some remix stems. This way you are much more motivated – it could be your big chance, imagine getting a remix out on this great label – so more likely to spend time and do a good job, which increases the chances of the label liking it and wanting to release it. A much better result than being remix 7 out of 8 on some tiny label that doesn't want to pay its artists.

Free tune giveaways can be useful too, but again, are best off done on your own terms. Far too often a free tune is given away via some small blog or inconsequential website and garners no attention. Disclosure, on the other hand, kickstarted their whole career with a free tune giveaway; managed via their Facebook page, it required a 'like' to be downloadable. As it was such a good track, it proved very popular; and several thousand 'likes' later they were suddenly flavour of the month. A much better result than a few thousand downloads from a magazine site where people may not even click through to their fan page.

DJ gigs are a little more complex – most nights will have plenty of budding DJ's queuing up to play, but you should still exercise a little discretion if you're asked to play for free. Again, what's in it for you? It doesn't have to be anything big - the promoter owing you a favour perhaps, or, and this would be the most common reason, the sheer fun of it. A good set in front of a decent crowd, with a few beers and some taxi money home can be one of the best nights out you can have. Conversely, playing a backroom to no-one on a broken P.A. isn't a good, or fun, use of your time. Anything involving travelling should, however, be treated with great caution. If you're spending money on trains and staying overnight, there's more to lose – so try to make sure you're getting something back in addition to playing out; for instance coverage on the promoter's blog or a mix on their radio show. It's not always plain sailing; your author recently spent a hefty wedge travelling across the country to play a free show for a famous fashion magazine, in return for a feature in the print mag. As soon as the gig was over, however, the magazine stopped returning calls. Very frustrating.

Overall, doing things 'for the exposure' can be a great way of putting your name out into the world, and getting yourself onto releases or into press that you would not otherwise get. But it can also be a great way of letting people casually rip you off, without getting much in return! So make sure that before you do anything in return for exposure, you're clear about what that exposure is going to be, how you're going to get it, and make sure that there isn't a better way of doing it yourself!

Fine Tune Your Perfection!

We always hear about the importance of getting tracks to sound just right - spending time in the mixdown and arrangement to ensure that every detail is perfect. Everyone wants their beats to sound as good as they possibly can, of course - but can this approach work to your detriment? Join us now as we take a look at the tricky area of being a perfectionist...

Conventional wisdom would have it that we should all take whatever measures we can to make the best tunes possible. It's a reasonable starting point, but of course the meaning of this changes depending on what kind of tunes you're writing. If you're working on clinical techy D&B then the goal will be highly polished mixdowns, space-age effects and searing bass. Artists like Teebee or Reso famously spend weeks on every tune, finely tweaking every detail until the mix shimmers. If you're writing loose, jazzy beats then the mixdown will be much further down the list of priorities - but you'll need to be pretty solid with the harmonies and chords, for instance. Someone like Hyetal, known for his more lo-fi approach, spends hours perfecting his aesthetic; making sure it's lo-fi but interesting. The hiss and grunge in his tracks is by no means accidental, or a result of poor technique. It too has been slaved over, layered, re-sampled, EQ'ed and filtered.

This much may seem obvious. But in fact it's something you need to keep in mind at all times - what is the point of the track?

So, we should spend ages on every track to achieve perfection, right? Well, this is where it gets complicated. Of course, if you can see an obvious flaw in your track, then fix it - a breakdown that doesn't really grab the attention like it should, a groove that just doesn't flow nicely, a click that shouldn't be there. But it doesn't always help to go looking for things to tinker with. Some tracks simply don't benefit from endless tweaking - if it's not a great track to begin with then the world's best mixdown won't cover that up. Equally, some tracks are simply beautiful in their simplicity, and trying to overproduce, or embellish the basic idea, just makes it worse.

Many producers and songwriters will insist that their best tracks came together in a day. It's true that inspiration can strike quickly but it doesn't negate hard work! Most of these producers will go on to say that they then spent another two days trying to add to the track before deciding - and this is the crucial point - that it was best in the original incarnation. So in these cases, perfectionism is manifested in knowing how to spot when a track is at its best, and knowing when to stop adding more parts.

Of course, spending a long time on a track has other downsides. For a start, it takes ages! This goes double for those of us with day jobs or kids, for whom a track can already take weeks anyway. In this case, a great way of identifying what really needs changing is to hear the track on a club soundsystem. Add the pumelling subs and crunching tops of a big system into the recipe and you'll find that most of the fine details in the track are somewhat obscured, leaving you no choice but to focus on the main issues of groove, structure and melody. Do they work? Does the melody come through? Does that bassline need to drop out for an extra 8 bars somewhere? Get these simple factors right and the rest of the track will fall into place fairly easily.

One last aspect of perfectionism is not in the melodies or mixdowns, but simply in the methods you use to produce. Legend has it that Burial took only a fortnight to write his iconic second album. But he didn't just sit down with a blank canvas and wonder what to do; over the preceding three years he had perfected his methods of production, so that he could write quickly within certain parameters. The layers of hiss, the pitched-down R&B vocal samples, the atmospheres, the garage swing, the unquantised beats - these were developed over a long time and contributed as much to the unique ambience of the album as the melodies and basslines themselves.

So perfectionism in production is actually much more than endless fine-tuning. It's about identifying the essence of what your track is about, and then working towards that - which could mean polishing up the mixdown, leaving the production raw, or adding a huge keyboard solo. But whatever it is, make sure you're improving the track and focusing on what's important!

Sign A Deal!

At some point, if things go well and you've been paying close attention to this blog, you may find that a label wants to sign you up for a single release. Often, they'll then send over a contract for you to sign. But what do all these terms mean? Everyone's heard about 'getting your lawyer to look over the contract' - but in the real world, no normal person is going to get a lawyer involved for a contract that might cover 300 vinyls and a handful of digital sales. These contracts are usually pretty perfunctory anyway, but there are a few things you need to know about. So let's take a look at some of the things you need to keep in mind as you scour that first contract!

First, there will be the 'term'. This is how long the contract will last (or to put it another way, how long the label will own your tracks). It's usually in perpetuity - that's forever - which is a touch harsh, we feel. Some more progressive labels these days use a term of something like 7 years, after which you'd be free to offer the tracks for free download on your own site, for instance. If this appeals, it might be worth asking to change the contract in this respect.

Then there may be some talk of 'an advance'. If there is, you're lucky - the advance is an endangered species and has been very rarely seen in the wild since about 2008. An advance is exactly what it suggests; you get some of your share of the profits up front. This is, of course, re-coupable - so if you get an advance of £200, then when the money comes in, the first £200 from your side will go to the label. If the record doesn't make that much profit, then technically you will owe the label the difference. In practice though, they can't charge you for it. An advance is definitely a positive - it shows the label has confidence in your release, and forces them to commit to working hard to make sure it sells enough to make the money back.

The 'option' is very important and commonly misunderstood part of some contracts, and will usually be used in a context like 'the option of two further singles'. This means that the if the label is happy with the release, they can exercise the option and extend the contract - thereby contracting you to deliver more singles (which they will also own). You would theoretically have no say in this. In practice, it's usually not as sinister as it sounds, many labels wouldn't exercise the option, and it's usually used by labels who want to develop with an artist, rather than constantly release different artists all the time. But it's important to check a contract to see if this clause is there, and to understand what it could mean for you. If you're not happy with it, ask for the clause to be removed.

Most contracts will also include the phrase 'the artist waives all moral rights'. This means that you waive your right to veto if, for instance, the label manages to get your track licensed to a cigarette advert or arms company. In practice, the number of arms companies that go around licensing underground dance tracks for their adverts is pretty much zero, and most dance tracks don't get licensed at all, let alone by morally suspect types. But again, if this bothers you, it's worth asking to remove it.

Publishing is occasionally mentioned in contracts, although it's more often a separate issue. But it's important. In short, when your track gets radio play, TV licenses, compilation use or anything like that, you're entitled to a royalty. A publisher rounds up all these royalties, takes a cut and passes the rest on to you. Often these days, especially with medium to large record labels, a label may want to sign the publishing on the track, as well as the recording rights. That's not necessarily a problem, but make sure you get some details on what their publishing arm is like - it should usually be 'sub-published' by a larger company who can handle the admin, and so on. There's nothing wrong with signing the publishing to your label, but make sure you're confident that they'll do a decent job!

Lastly, there's the issue of costs. In general, most dance music deals these days will just split the profit 50/50 after costs. That's about as fair as it gets - so just make sure that this is what is stated in the contract. We have seen a couple of contracts that split the cash before costs, and then take the costs out of the artist's side. This is old-school major label behavior, and not really suitable to today's landscape. If a label tries to pull this one on you, we'd suggest you politely take your tracks elsewhere!

One thing we've emphasised here is that you can always ask the label to change the contract. Many people, especially newcomers to the industry, are often too shy to ask for changes to the contract, worrying that it may somehow jeopardise their release. Not so - it just shows that you're keen to know what's going on, and paying attention. And anyway - if your tracks are genuinely good enough, there will be plenty of other labels who'd be happy to take them on should negotiations go sour.

As you can see, most contracts are actually fairly straightforward - the legal jargon can look impenetrable but in fact it's just wrapping up some quite simple concepts. So bear this in mind as you scan through that first contract from a new label, and don't be afraid to get in touch with them if you don't like the look of things. It doesn't need a lawyer after all!

Give Your Voice Some Room!

One step that many producers are keen to take at some point in their career is to work with a vocalist. It's something that can give tracks an extra edge, something that can add a catchy or memorable hook, and may even provide a touch more commercial potential. But writing tracks for vocalists can be very different from writing instrumentals. So what are the things you should look out for? Read on, as we take a deeper look...

The first thing to consider is that song structures for vocalists are going to be very different to normal electronic track structures. They may, in fact, even be actual songs! This is a far cry from the standard dance arrangement which usually goes something like 'intro, beats, breakdown, beats, outro'. Instead, you'll want to be thinking more about verses and choruses. Verses and choruses don't necessarily mean you need to be writing big soaring catchy pop melodies or anything like that. Listen to many of the big RnB or hip-hop tracks out there and you'll notice that the backing tracks often don't change a lot from the verse to the chorus - sometimes it's as subtle as a couple of extra percussion sounds or a pad line - but the point here is that it's sectional and pretty straightforward. Your author once sent a lovingly crafted backing track to a well known grime crew for a vocal - lovingly crafted to the extent that it had all sorts of interesting diversions, 4-bar bridges, little switch-ups and so on, and got back an email that basically said 'sorry, we didn't understand the structure, so here are 3 verses and 3 choruses'.

So the simplest thing is to aim for a structure based around verses and choruses that are 16 bars in length. Generally you can skip the extended beats intro - nobody wants to hear two minutes of kick drum while they're waiting for a vocal to come in - and the same goes for the outro too. If you need a DJ-mixable version you can do that later, once you've got the main track sorted. A short bridge section might help add variety if your vocalist is interested, but you should make sure that this or any other part of your track can be binned (or extended) if necessary. The main thing is the vocal, and you'll be working around it where possible. If your singer only wants an eight bar chorus, or no chorus at all, or has some other ideas entirely, you should be able to be flexible enough to do this.

Equally, since the main thing is the vocal, you should be leaving plenty of space for it in the arrangement. A super-busy percussion section, a huge lead synth, a massive 'filth' bassline - all of these are largely incompatible with a full vocal. That's not to say they have no place in your track - you just need to be careful of having things competing for space. You could try having a very simple chorus vocal which could sit on top of a filthy bassline, and then drop out the bassline (or Low-pass filter it) to focus on the vocal for the verses, for instance. But be aware that a lot of those little details which in an instrumental tune add a touch of interest for the listener, can simply distract from a full vocal.

When writing synth lines and melodies then, don't be afraid to put them in your original idea, but with a view to reducing or reworking them later. They can often give a singer ideas for melodies or harmonies - but then when you record the vocal, they may be masked by the very vocal they inspired. That's fine - don't try to mash everything into the mixdown all front and centre, you can chop them so that they simply accent or answer certain vocal phrases.

The summary of all this is that you should be thinking about the singer and the vocal they will eventually provide, all the way through the writing process. Writing a full track and hoping to graft a vocal on at the end will usually end in tears - you need to consider what the vocalist needs, what the vocal will mean for your arrangement, and how you may have to compromise certain aspects of the track to really make the vocal work. Flexibility is key. If you need to change the track around once you've got the vocal then do it - nothing should be set in stone!

We've covered producing and mixing vocals in a previous article, but if you write well for a vocal, then half your job is done already. So why not take the plunge - get in touch with a local singer, borrow a microphone off a friend and get writing. Who knows where it could take you!

Stay Focussed!

A common problem in the tracks of novice producers - and it's one that is manifested in a couple of ways - is that the tune lacks any kind of clear focus. Which is unfortunate, because often there's a great track in there just waiting to be unleashed. So how can you avoid this fate, and really let your tracks shine? Read on, as we suggest ways of taking a step back to see your tune more clearly...

It's a bit like taking a photo. You can point your camera at the most beautiful landscape, but if it's out of focus, or your brother's clapped-out motor is stuck in the foreground, it won't make for much of a picture. All the ingredients are there, but the end result doesn't quite work. And so it is with music - you might have a great groove, and loads of superb musical ideas, but unless you arrange and mix the tune to show off these strengths in the best possible light, you may just end up with a mess.

So the key is to identify the best parts of your track, and push them forward into the spotlight. If they're strong enough, they will carry the vibe by themselves. Cluttering up the arrangement will only distract listeners from the main theme of the tune, or worse, obscure it completely.

Consider Todd Terje's track 'Ragysh'. One of the standout tracks of 2011, it is defined by a huge breakdown, and runs to nearly 9 minutes in total. But there are essentially only 3 sounds in the whole track, plus the simplest of drum beats. No big risers or snare rolls in the breakdown, no crazy FX or edits, no acid line or ravey strings to bolster the track in case it gets dull. It just has strong melodic ideas shown off to their fullest, and the discipline to leave them alone.

At the opposite end of the dance music spectrum there's the junglist DJ Die, famous for his rollers. He's said in interviews that his motto is 'don't over season the soup' and it shows in his tracks; usually a beat, simple bassline and couple of samples for ear candy. He identifies the essential elements and pares the track down to just these - and the results are incredibly effective.

So you need to take this into account when you're writing. Don't fall into the slacker's trap of just doing the bare minimum - make sure there are plenty of ideas in your beat before you start arranging it, and then you can pick the strongest ones, discarding most of the others. (If you really like the sounds you're losing, you can always use them in the next track!) Start thinning things out, muting channels to see what works on its own and what's just filling out the spectrum. It should be possible to get down to the essence of what the track needs to be about.

You should then build the arrangement around these important areas; dropping other elements out when your main themes come in. Indeed it's often advisable to drop one major element out of the mix when another comes in, to let the listener focus more clearly on the new factor. If the main idea on it's own doesn't quite seem to cut it sonically, then instead adding another element, consider reinforcing it with EQ, adding some FX or perhaps subtly doubling it with a synth line playing the same pattern. Often the added sonic weight will work better than cluttering up the mix with more details.

Your mixdown process should be tailored to similar ends. Anything that isn't the main focus of the track can be pretty low in the mix, and it should lean towards the main idea - just listen to the average Rihanna track for instance, and see how incredibly loud the vocal is mixed. Many novices mix vocals way too quiet, and the vocal sits amongst the various elements of the track, instead of taking pride of place at the head of the mixdown.

The same goes for EQ - while your main idea should sound full, the supporting cast of your track can be whittled down to just what is needed. It's often advisable to use subtractive EQ on some of the background sounds so that they don't clash with your main theme. If you're not sure how to start, try using a frequency analyser on the main element of the track to see where it sits in the frequency spectrum, then doing a gentle EQ cut on those frequencies in some of the other sounds.

It's not easy to stay on top of all this as you're writing your tune. But it's essential to make sure that the essence of your track is not lost in amongst all the things you put in to support it! So make sure that at every stage of the writing process, you keep asking yourself - what is the focus of this track? Is it being pushed front and centre, so that it's the thing people will remember? Do these other parts really help, and do what they're supposed to do? Make it into a habit, and you'll soon find it becomes second nature. So keep writing, and stay focussed!

How To Find Your Production Style!

One of the biggest difficulties for a lot of producers, especially those who are just starting out, is finding and developing a recognisable style of their own. How do you get there? Where does this style come from?

Styles don't just develop randomly - they are usually a combination of influences and borrowed ideas from a range of music. It can be deliberate or subconscious, but it doesn't happen without plenty of creative input from somewhere. So let's take a look at how you can take influence from other artists, scenes and genres without stepping into those dangerous territories of pastiche, or worse, just plain rip-off!

It's all very well being a scene player - as we've outlined on this blog before, writing tracks that fit neatly into a particular scene can get you a fair level of recognition in that scene - but to really stand out you need to bring something else to the table. This is what the best producers do, and you can afford to be quite open about it, so long as you approach things in an artistic way. Consider the early tracks of bass music mainstay Untold - tracks like 'Stop What You're Doing' were a welcome breath of fresh air in a scene that was looking for new sounds, as they used huge bass stomps in place of kick drums. Untold himself was very open in interviews about how this was strongly influenced by Wiley's early productions, but what made it fresh was that he took this technique and incorporated it into a dubstep-inflected scene, combining the two to bring a whole new take on an existing style. As it was also extremely well-executed, it immediately catapulted him up into the ranks of respected producers.

A 'pastiche' is copying a style completely - take the melodic styles, the same kind of synth patches, the same drum machines or patterns, and write an original track. It's not plagiarism, as you've written an original piece, but people could easily think it actually came out years ago, when that style was originally popular. Writing a pastiche is often actually a lot of fun, and you can learn a lot from it, as you try to copy production techniques and figure out how they were done, but it will never excite people in the same way as something genuinely new.

So, a better way to think about incorporating other styles into your beats, is to take what you've learned about these genres and bring it into your existing tracks. This way you can take a signature sound from a genre and bring it wholesale into your own stuff, without compromising your identity. Basement Jaxx are a classic example; their tracks pull in samples and riffs from latin, soul and early 80's boogie records all the time, but since they are then putting these in the context of a UK house music sound, the result is something fresh and original.

Or take dBridge, who saw the sparse minimalism of early dubstep and started using those clipped halfstep beats in his drum and bass tracks. It was a straightforward concept, splicing together two existing genres, but it was a fresh new sound, and simply by dint of being one of the first people to do it properly, he was rightly hailed as one of the originals in the scene.

It's something you hear constantly in the evolving field of dance music. Right now producers across the globe are taking footwork and juke sounds and throwing them into bass music structures; veteran dubstep producers are taking their soundsystem roots and using them in house tracks; classic Chicago house drum machine beats are suddenly all the rage amongst UK bass music producers.

So instead of just waiting for your productions to develop their own signature style, take them by the scruff of the neck and make one! Draw on that love you've always had for salsa music, or classic New York house, or experimental noise, and start referencing it in your garage, jungle or hip hop tunes. Take influence from wherever you can, and don't worry about being too obvious – just make something new. Be bold, make a statement!

Layering Synths For Bigger Sounds

Are your synth lines not really cutting the mustard? Does the top end lack a little fizz, or do you find the lows to be a touch inconsistent? Then perhaps you should indulge in a spot of layering....

When people discuss 'layering' up synth lines, they're usually talking about getting the same MIDI part playing on two or more synths at the same time. There are plenty of reasons why you might want to do this, and a few why you wouldn't, and that's what we'll be examining here.

The first, and arguably most common, reason for layering up your synths is that you want a bigger sound. If your lead line isn't quite cutting through the mix, then try doubling it with a fizzy sound, high-pass filtered such that it doesn't clash too much with the main line (at least above 1 - 2kHz). In general you should be looking for a fairly subtle effect; take a simple synth patch, blend it in very quietly, and make sure it's doing only what's required. The majority of the character of the sound should be coming from the main synth patch; if you start trying to get several big and crazy synth lines playing at the same time you'll only end up in mixdown hell as you try to compress, sort out phases and automation and volume on several synths simultaneously. To this end, don't be afraid of using presets or simple sounds for any synth layers that will secondary to the main sound, although many producers like to stay away from presets for reasons of originality, here you're just using it as a tool, to bulk up another sound. It's the main patch people will be listening to, so just grab something that works and move on!

Similarly at the low end, many big synth patches make great bass sounds, but don't quite cut it for sub-bass. In this case, try high-passing your synth at something like 150Hz (or perhaps even up to 200Hz if it's getting muddy in your mixdown) and layering in a straight sine wave for the sub bass. Again, simpler is better, and a sine wave is perfect for sub bass. Be sure to make the volume envelope match that of the main synth (or at least make sure it will sound good on a system, by giving it a touch of decay and release), add a touch of compression and you're good to go. It really doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.

When layering a new synth line to complement an existing patch, you need to make sure it matches your main patch in a number of ways; chiefly volume, space and filtering. If your main patch filters up and down, make sure your layers do likewise to avoid leaving them high and dry (try sending them all to a buss and filtering that for simplicity). Send your layers to the same reverbs for consistency, and if your main patch moves around the stereo field, then ensure your layers do too. If the volume of the main patch changes, then reflect this in the layers. Paying close attention to all these points will help the layers blend in with the main patch much more than anything else. So many forum heads will insist that you jump straight in with frequency analysers and multiband compressors, this is a tricky and complicated way of solving a problem that can often be avoided!

On the subject of filtering, one common reason for requiring layering is that when you change filter levels, the weight of the sound can change with it. For instance if you've got a chunky bass sound with a resonant low-pass filter on it, then when the filter cutoff is at a low frequency, the resonance will give you a boost at those low frequencies. But then when you turn up the cutoff, the resonant boost moves, great for giving that acid adrenaline feel, but it doesn't help when you wanted to keep the low-end weight. So in this case, it's often helpful to double the synth patch with itself, and have one patch with the filter down, low passed and unchanging. Then high-pass the other, and you can alter the filter as much as you like, without affecting the weight of the patch.

Another area where layering synths can come in extremely handy is with samples, especially melodic samples taken off an old vinyl. Typically, these may be badly recorded, lacking in high or low end (or both) but will usually have loads of character. So in cases like these, you can use the same techniques, get an unobtrusive synth patch, programme it to match the sample, and fold it into the mix as subtly as you can to fill out the sound. With a little tweaking, you'll end up with a full-spectrum sample that sounds crisp and finely EQ'd but that still keeps all the character of the original.

The possibilities of layering up your synth sounds go well beyond the scope of this article, but this should give you a few ideas on how to proceed! The golden rules are to keep it simple, make sure you program the layers in detail to keep them true to the main patch, and watch out for clashing or overlapping frequencies. Once you've taken heed of these, feel free to layer away....