The Self-Recording Band

APPLY FOR A FREE IN-DEPTH 1-ON-1 COACHING CALL WITH BENEDIKT:
https://theselfrecordingband.com/call

Download the free Ultimate 10 Step Guide To Successful DIY-Recording here: https://theselfrecordingband.com/10stepguide

Join the free Facebook Group ("The Self-Recording Band Community"):
theselfrecordingband.com/community

Benedikt's voice on this episode has been recorded with the Antelope Axino Synergy Core

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In this episode we’ll help you figure out how much your music is really worth to you. How much you can and should spend on making and promoting your music, your gear, improving your skills around music making or any external services to help you achieve your goals.

Why we recorded this episode and why we think you should listen:

We’re here to help you help you reach your goals. To help you succeed as artists. We're super passionate about that. That’s our why. And if you're super passionate about your music or your career as an artist, we wholeheartedly believe that your actions, including your spending habits and how you make use of your limited time, need to reflect your goals and priorities.

Here's what we see over and over again:

Many people can’t answer the questions:

“What’s your budget?”
"How much time and effort are you willing to put into this?"
“What are you willing to spend?”
"Are you willing to do what it takes and go the extra mile to make something really amazing?"
“Here's what it takes, would that be worth it to you?”
"How much time have you set aside for this?"
"Have you blocked those dates on your calendar?"
“Can you find the time and can you find a way to come up with that amount of money?"

Instead they just ask:

“What does it cost?” 
"How long does it take?" 
“Do I have that kind of time and money right now?” 

They are looking at their current situation as if it couldn't be changed. They don't think about the potential, the return on investment and the value of something, they only see the cost and their currently limited resources, expecting some magic change to happen some day. 

All while they get very creative when they need to find time or money for other things they want in their life, although they claim those are less important.

So you need to be very clear about the value and the ROI you’re getting in return for what you’re spending. And you need to be honest with yourself when you're defining what your true priorities are. You probably can't have or do it all.

So what can you do? How do you change your mindset and behaviour if this is what's holding you back (it's exactly what's holding back most people)?

Here's what we're doing in this episode:

We give you questions to ask yourself that will help you define your goals, set priorities, figure out the value of a certain service or product (ROI) and calculate a budget that you can justify spending on your next music project based on all of that. 

In fact, you should be happily spending that if you do the exercise correctly. It’s like a mini coaching session that will help you discover your true “why” and show you a path to actually achieve what you claim is important to you.

For full show notes go to: theselfrecordingband.com/106

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

APPLY FOR A FREE IN-DEPTH 1-ON-1 COACHING CALL WITH BENEDIKT:
https://theselfrecordingband.com/call

Download the free Ultimate 10 Step Guide To Successful DIY-Recording here: https://theselfrecordingband.com/10stepguide

Join the free Facebook Group ("The Self-Recording Band Community"):
theselfrecordingband.com/community

Benedikt's voice on this episode has been recorded with the Antelope Axino Synergy Core

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Big, amazing sounding tracking rooms are a luxury you don’t always have access to. So you need a way to get a great drum sound, even if the room was small and not ideal. 

“Great drum tone” is usually a combination of the punchy transient you get from close mics and the size, length, sustain, width, depth and character you get from overheads and room mics.

On this episode we're discussing different techniques that you can use to get the most out of your close mics and overheads and then we're explaining how to create “fake room mic tracks” to make your drums sound as massive as you want, even if there are no "real" room mics in your session at all!

Things we cover:

• Ask yourself: Do you even need huge sounding room mics? (maybe dead and dry is ok)
• (Parallel) Compression/saturation/transient shaping to get length and sustain out of close mics/overheads
• Duplicating overheads and creating a fake “small room” mic pair from them
• Using reverb and room IRs (and how to do that properly)
• Using room samples
• “Reamping” drum rooms
• Gating room mics (sometimes parts of a “bad room” are okay - so only let that through!)

Let's go!

Click here to get The Room Sound drum samples we've mentioned on the episode (Affiliate Link - This means support for us at no extra cost for you, yay!)


For full show notes go to: theselfrecordingband.com/105

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

APPLY FOR A FREE 1-ON-1 FEEDBACK CALL WITH BENEDIKT:
https://theselfrecordingband.com/call

Join the free Facebook Group ("The Self-Recording Band Community"):
theselfrecordingband.com/community

Download the free Ultimate 10 Step Guide To Successful DIY-Recording here: https://theselfrecordingband.com/10stepguide


Benedikt's voice on this episode has been recorded with the Antelope Axino Synergy Core

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We show you how to use software (your plugins) like a hardware chain, so you can commit on the way in or track both processed/clean signals without expensive analog outboard gear. 

Why would you want to do that? 

Committing as you go and not leaving all the decisions for later will 

• be more inspiring and fun
• save you time (you need to do less in the mix)
• lead to more unique, “imperfect” and exciting results
• save you CPU power in the mix
• help you learn quickly
• make recording decisions easier and give you more clarity as you build layers and tones on top of each other

We'll show you how to do that, what to watch out for and you'll get some examples of chains you can build immediately to start experimenting.

For full show notes go to: theselfrecordingband.com/104

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

APPLY FOR A FREE 1-ON-1 FEEDBACK CALL WITH BENEDIKT:
https://theselfrecordingband.com/call

Join the free Facebook Group ("The Self-Recording Band Community"):
theselfrecordingband.com/community

Download the free Ultimate 10 Step Guide To Successful DIY-Recording here: https://theselfrecordingband.com/10stepguide


Benedikt's voice on this episode has been recorded with the Antelope Axino Synergy Core

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On this episode we'll explain how to pick the right type of guitar amp for any production.

People often use whatever they currently have or pick the "wrong" one because they don’t fully understand the differences between all the available amps and categories of amps. And even if they do, they are often not really sure which of those differences actually matter. 

We’ll break it all down into some basic, broad categories, explain the main tone and distortion characteristics of each of them and give you great starting points, as well as ways to figure out whether or not a certain amp is appropriate for what you’re trying to accomplish.

We discuss:

• High gain / crunch / clean
• Tube / solid state
• “British” / “American”
• Hi/lo wattage (“big” / ”small” amps)
• preamp / power amp
• Different types of distortion pedals
• Tricks for getting the most out of an amp (i.e. using tube screamers for compression/mids/tighter low end, boosting with a pedal vs plugging directly into the amp, using attenuators, replacing/changing tubes, keeping cable chains short, ...)   

Let's go!

For full show notes go to: theselfrecordingband.com/103

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

APPLY FOR A FREE IN-DEPTH 1-ON-1 COACHING CALL WITH BENEDIKT:
https://theselfrecordingband.com/call

Download the free Ultimate 10 Step Guide To Successful DIY-Recording here: https://theselfrecordingband.com/10stepguide

Join the free Facebook Group ("The Self-Recording Band Community"):
theselfrecordingband.com/community

Benedikt's voice on this episode has been recorded with the Antelope Axino Synergy Core

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Benedikt has just joined/co-started a new band and they’ve gone through the process of setting up a simple system that lets them collaborate well (remotely). We decided that we should share that with you!

We discuss:

• If, when and how to use group chats (WhatsApp, Messenger, etc.)
• File sharing (Dropbox, etc.)
• Trello (or other project management software)
• Checklists
• Having a band email address
• Sharing a calendar
• If, when and how to use video meetings
• Managing your time, communicating and respecting boundaries and setting expectations
• Tracking expenses and handling band finances
• Software vs paper planners

Let's dive in!

For full show notes go to: theselfrecordingband.com/102

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

APPLY FOR A FREE IN-DEPTH 1-ON-1 COACHING CALL WITH BENEDIKT:
https://theselfrecordingband.com/call

Download the free Ultimate 10 Step Guide To Successful DIY-Recording here: https://theselfrecordingband.com/10stepguide

Join the free Facebook Group ("The Self-Recording Band Community"):
theselfrecordingband.com/community

Benedikt's voice on this episode has been recorded with the Antelope Axino Synergy Core

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If you've been trying to compensate for a lack of width in your mixes by using magical ‘widening’ plug ins on your mix bus, this episode is for you. 

What we talk about on this episode: 

• We explain why there isn’t "wider" than your pan knobs will give you. Only the illusion of wider. 
• Why abusing those tools leads to phase issues
• Why trying to achieve the width on the mix bus is not the way to go about this
• What perceived width actually is
• Alternative (and better) ways to achieve wider mixes
• Why making the mix brighter can also make it sound wider
• Why a solid center can make things sound wider 
• Why you should be especially careful with your low end when you're using wideners
• Why width is a production decision and shouldn't only be addressed in mixing & mastering
• Tools you can use to check for problems and properly compare your width to reference material

For full show notes go to: theselfrecordingband.com/101

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

APPLY FOR A FREE IN-DEPTH 1-ON-1 COACHING CALL WITH BENEDIKT:
https://theselfrecordingband.com/call

Download the free Ultimate 10 Step Guide To Successful DIY-Recording here: https://theselfrecordingband.com/10stepguide

Join the free Facebook Group ("The Self-Recording Band Community"):
theselfrecordingband.com/community

Benedikt's voice on this episode has been recorded with the Antelope Axino Synergy Core

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There's not much to say this time. Except that we are insanely grateful for our community and the fact that we got to do 100 episodes of this podcast, which has helped so many people from all around the world.

In this episode we're hanging out with artists from our community, our listeners. You'll learn about their projects, bands, main takeaways from the podcast and their answers to the ultimate question: Pizza or burger?

For full show notes go to: theselfrecordingband.com/100

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

APPLY FOR A FREE IN-DEPTH 1-ON-1 COACHING CALL WITH BENEDIKT:
https://theselfrecordingband.com/call

Download the free Ultimate 10 Step Guide To Successful DIY-Recording here: https://theselfrecordingband.com/10stepguide

Join the free Facebook Group ("The Self-Recording Band Community"):
theselfrecordingband.com/community

Benedikt's voice on this episode has been recorded with the Antelope Axino Synergy Core

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This is a meme at this point, as you probably know. Everybody is struggling with their snare sound and we remember how we just couldn’t figure out how to make a snare sound amazing when we started producing and mixing. 

So we wanted to talk about what it actually is that causes a snare to sound “bad” or amateur and tell you what to do instead.

Here's what we cover in this episode:

• Tuning, head selection, muffling, snare wires
• Phase / Polarity
• Playing technique
• Stereo image
• Snare bleed in overheads / other mics
• Room
• Mic placement
• Compression
• EQ
• Limiting/Clipping
• Samples (or lack thereof)
• Reverb
• "What the heck am I meant to do with this bottom mic?"

For full show notes go to: theselfrecordingband.com/99

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

APPLY FOR A FREE IN-DEPTH 1-ON-1 COACHING CALL WITH BENEDIKT:
https://theselfrecordingband.com/call

Download the free Ultimate 10 Step Guide To Successful DIY-Recording here: https://theselfrecordingband.com/10stepguide

Join the free Facebook Group ("The Self-Recording Band Community"):
theselfrecordingband.com/community

Benedikt's voice on this episode has been recorded with the Antelope Axino Synergy Core

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Benedikt made some experiments at the end of 2021, mostly comparing analog gear to plugins (among other tests he did), trying to figure out where he can make things more efficient without sacrificing quality. Ideally even improving the quality of his work while also moving faster and more intuitive.
 
We wanted to talk about it and share his findings, as we think it will be encouraging and empowering to you.

And there's more to this: 

If you've been listening for a while, you know how much we love efficiency. But we thought about it again and decided that we really wanted to talk about the importance of setting a high quality standard for yourself, going the extra mile and not sacrificing anything for convenience.

Art is not convenient. But creating art can be more efficient and frictionless than a lot of people believe. 

So the questions are:

Where's the line? When are you starting to compromise the quality of your work? And when is a supposed "quality upgrade" not really worth it or actually a downgrade?

Let's discuss!

For full show notes go to: theselfrecordingband.com/98

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

APPLY FOR A FREE IN-DEPTH 1-ON-1 COACHING CALL WITH BENEDIKT:
https://theselfrecordingband.com/call

Download the free Ultimate 10 Step Guide To Successful DIY-Recording here: https://theselfrecordingband.com/10stepguide

Join the free Facebook Group ("The Self-Recording Band Community"):
theselfrecordingband.com/community

Benedikt's voice on this episode has been recorded with the Antelope Axino Synergy Core

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Should my room be small or big, dead or live?

Can I use the spare bedroom I have available? 

Do I need to rent a big, massive sounding space for my recordings?

How can I optimize my space and make it work, so that I can get the desired results and exactly the ambience I want?

These are questions we constantly hear from our listeners and the artists we're working with. 

Yes, a great sounding room is a beautiful thing and probably a big part of the sound of your favorite records.  But what if you don't have access to that kind of space? Should you just give up? Or can you make it work and get the room sound otherwise?

And what if your space is too big and live? Can you control it? Can you still get an upfront, direct sounding recording? Do you need to build a vocal booth?

We thought about all of that and wanted to talk about what really matters when it comes to your home studio room. 

Let's discuss!

For full show notes go to: theselfrecordingband.com/97

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: [email protected]