Briefly Taking You Back A Few Years

Imagine recording and mixing your music without ‘having or needing a waveform’ to ‘show’ what you are doing? Just some short time ago music-makers and engineers studied and learned how to hear their music. They processed and shaped their sound by what they heard, and didn’t depend on a visual preset. They didn’t need a grid or a map to know when a sample was in place. Every knob on an out-board processor had meaning and significant value because the producer knew how each one developed their sound. Many would perform various music editing techniques without a monitor. Picture that!!! (*pun intended) They respected their craft and the gear they produced it on. They didn’t make excuses every time someone didn’t like their music. They knew when to go back to the drawing board as ‘time and effort’ wasn’t an option; it was a must! They were patient and didn’t expect overnight success. If they had a room full of gear, it was not to impress their hangout cheering squad, and you better believe they knew how to use each piece proficiently.

There was no such thing as producing a track in 10 minutes, and if there was such a rare occasion, they were too ashamed to ‘brag’ about it because of their incredible work ethic. I know this all too well because I am a product of that era, and I have to say, I’m proud and honored!!! I developed a discipline because a certain chip of respect for the craft was embedded in me and I learned how to work with what I paid for and get better than satisfactory results.

The Importance

I think it’s important to be grateful for the gear you have and more importantly learn to use it and stop depending on software and hardware developers to spoon-feed you because you can’t function without ‘a function’. Sure, if we spend our money on a product, we expect it to do what it says it does… and some of us forget that it does!!!  It’s okay to create a wish-list, but respect your gear enough to know that you didn’t buy it for what it does not do or does not have!  And while it would be great to have all the tools you need in place; try focusing on getting the best out of what you have… and lose the spoiled and whiny attitude!

The responsibility in music today is a gross effect of the mentality surrounding it.

Photo Credit: Crying Baby by Brandon Baunach

1. Album Mix (The original mix)
2. Radio Mix (Usually edited in length and lyrical content, and the dynamics of the mix may be altered differently from the studio mix)
3. Vocal Up Mix
4. Vocal Down Mix
5. Instrumental Mix (No Vocals)
6. A cappella
7. TV or TV Performance Mix (Lead vocals are the only tracks removed)
8. Mastering Stems  (There may be an occasion where stems may be required for the mastering engineer. This is not the same as stems for mixing, and it’s aside from the delivery of a traditional stereo mix for mastering. Stems are several stereo submixes of instruments, vocals, etc which gives the mastering engineer better control of the various final/mastered mixes.

An ID3 tag is a data field which contains the audio image, artist name, song title, genre, year, additional comments, etc.

Several audio platforms in both applications and hardware (such as MP3 players, tablets, smart phones) support ID3 tags.

You may already have access to an ID3 tag editor through your main DAW or favorite audio editor. But in the case you don’t, the following list takes care of the job for you. Keep in mind, some ID3 editors may have more metadata field choices than others.

ID3 Tag Editors

Stamp ID3 Mp3 Editor Software
MP3Tag
AbyssMedia ID3 Tag Editor
Pa-Software ID3 Editor
MusicBrainz Picard
ID3 Tag Editor
ID3 Editor (for Mac)
UltraTagger