Make Assumptions

They say not to ever make assumptions. I say that's bullshit. For instance, isn't it healthier to assume that you will be successful in your current efforts and endeavors, than to wait and find out? I believe assuming success will provide you with the confidence to carry out your actions in such a manner that will BRING you that success.

The belief that making assumptions makes you look like an ass is rooted in the idea that acting without proper knowledge will have negative consequences. It basically just means, be prepared and educate yourself about the situation to the fullest extent possible. However, telling people to never assume anything can be very misleading. Furthermore, it is not always necessary to know every detail about every situation. Why? Because its okay to make mistakes, and the only way to get anything accomplished is through ACTION, not constant research or question asking.

This being said, i am not advocating acting within the shroud of ignorance. I'm simply saying that sometimes its okay to assume something. If you end up being wrong, so what? Cross that bridge when you get there. This is how you calibrate and develop instincts. Act, fail, learn, act, succeed.

Trey Songz - Can't Be Friends

New Pro Tools HD Hardware

Anybody had the pleasure of using any of these interfaces?

Cee-Lo Green Does It Again!

This man always finds a way to make something as comical (and profane) as a "fuck you" song sound timeless. This song is a classic. Am I the only one who could hear Sam Cooke singing this?

-ZS

Monitoring Levels

I am blessed to meet a lot of talented producers. Usually the first thing they do when they find out that I am an engineer is ask me what they can do to make their mixes better. Obviously, there is no magic pill to give you mixing skills overnight. There are however, a few things you can do that will make dramatic improvements. Since I love you guys so much, i will share these.

The first one that comes to mind is the elusive obvious: vary your monitoring levels.

Producers, as a general rule, like their music LOUD. They turn it up, make sure the 808 is slammin', and mix the whole thing with the volume banging on 11. The problem with this is that you are fooling yourselves by taking advantage of the Fletcher Munson curve.



Explanation: The louder the volume, the flatter the frequency response. Meaning, if you turn it all the way up, there is less difference between your lows and highs. This will give you the illusion of having a more balanced mix. But then when you turn it back down, it will not be as balanced.

You want to vary your mix levels. Its okay to turn it up and make sure that kick is knocking, but mixing at that volume is bad for your mix AND your ears.

Hope this helps. Leave Comments/Question!!!
-ZS

Trey Songz - Passion, Pain & Pleasure: Coming Soon

This is one of the projects I have been working on for the past couple months. The album is going to be amazing... great music. It drops Sept. 14th 2010.

Make sure you check out the first two singles:

Bottoms Up ft. Nicki Minaj

Can't Be Friends

Videos for both songs are on the way!

3 Steps to Cutting Cleaner Vocals At Home:

1.) Get your gear right. If you use a $100 microphone, its gonna pretty much sound like garbage no matter what you do. Remember, you are using the mic to capture the a voice… so the better the microphone you capture it with, the better it is going to sound in the long run. I’m not going to get into which microphones are the best, because that depends on what your budget is and what sound you are trying to get. Go online and do some research before you buy anything. On that note, buy a decent pre-amp, too. It’s the same principle. Everything that is in the chain before the signal gets recorded has an effect on the sound. That includes cables.

2.) Isolate. If you don’t have some sort of makeshift vocal booth, put the microphone in a different room from the computer. Especially if you are using a desktop computer. Computers tend to make noise. External hard drives make noise too, and this noise, while it might not seem like a lot to you, will be picked up by the mic. Also, try not to have your headphones on 11. Keeping headphones at a lower volume will not only save your hearing, thus extending your career, but it will reduce headphone bleed into the mic.

3.) Avoid parallel walls. When two sound waves of equal frequency and amplitude are traveling opposite directions, they interfere with each other, causing standing waves, which sound really harsh and unpleasant. This is likely to happen with parallel walls, and your microphone will pick them up. This includes ceilings that are parallel with the floor, although carpet should help a little bit with this. Also, a lot of people think just because they have a walk-in closet, they can stick a microphone in there and it will sound isolated. That’s a terrible idea. The best thing you can do to treat a parallel wall is put up a screen or lean a mattress against the wall at an angle, something like that.

These tips were based on questions that I received via email. I realize they are quite basic. Do you guys want me to address more complicated issues? Let me know. LEAVE COMMENTS.

I have some other questions to answer, so you will be reading more tips of this nature very soon. I also have a video to post that I am very excited about. It demonstrates a few more ways to get cleaner sounding vocals in a home studio without a recording booth, so keep on the lookout.

-Zach

Why does "crap" still dominate the radio?

WOW! Its been so long since I updated this. I have been terribly negligent, and for that, I apologize. I have so much going on. I have been working at the studio, building www.zsteele.com, and trying to get more freelance work, all at the same time, on top of a few other endeavors. But enough excuses…

I have been receiving some very good questions via email, facebook, etc. I will respond to as many as I can via this blog and Youtube. I am starting with this question:

Why is the radio still dominated by crap?

There are several answers that make sense to me. It is easier to make music with little or no budget. It is easier to promote music to an enormous audience with Internet marketing becoming increasingly important.

There is also the idea that it doesn’t matter what you know, it matters WHO you know. Crappy artists get signed to labels that have a lot of pull on radio stations. Blah.

I think all of those answers are irrelevant in comparison to this one:

The music you think is “crap” is greatly enjoyed by millions.

Everybody has different experiences, and evaluates their music, along with the rest of their life, through a different lens. Some people identify with the energy and style that Soulja Boy presents. Most of these people are teenagers, and I’m sure a great deal of them are girls. So if you don’t like it… you aren’t really supposed to.

Then there are other people who live a completely different lifestyle, and can’t identify with that music at all. Maybe they can identify more with a rock band that is angry at the world.

In addition I think there are a few different things that people like about music, and everyone’s criteria is different. Do you like music with a good beat and could care less about the lyrics? Do you like music with thoughtful or poetic language? Do certain songs just speak to you, and you have no idea why you like them, and feel like you probably shouldn’t tell anyone that you like it because it is someone who you and your friends have a general distaste for?

Long story short, different people like different shit. In fact I think I like a lot of the music I hear on the radio. There, I said it.

Somebody needed to tell em...

I’m growing tired of overly opinionated rappers. You know, the type that spend more time talking about who sucks than they do making music? And when they do make music, most of the lyrics are about how good their lyrically lyrical lyrics are? Yeah those people.

Usually these opinionated rappers are underground artists with 0 followers other than their friends and their friends little sisters.

What the fuck is the point of writing a whole song about how good you are at writing songs? How can you preach about having a message in your music, and then the only message in your music is that you have a message in your music. I think I’d rather hear some simple nonsense about partying or hoes.

Rather than rant all day about this, I pose the following question.

Are you really mad at them for being wack and still having fans and money, or are you mad at yourself for working twice as hard on your music and having no fans and no money (or anything else to show for it)?

I think it would be far more practical to ignore the artist than to talk shit about them. First, when you talk about them you are adding to their press and thus adding to your problem. Second, you are wasting your own precious time.

EVEN BETTER SOLUTION: Study these artists. If they managed to become successful with music that you think sucks, and you think your music is better, then you should have plenty to learn from them. Maybe you could take something from their marketing techniques or work ethic.

The industry is not a conspiracy against anyone with real content in his or her music. In fact, I personally believe that content of music and talent are almost entirely irrelevant to your level of success. You can suck and still be successful or you can be awesome and be successful. On the flipside, you can suck and be broke or you can be awesome and broke.

All I’m saying is this: Rather than looking at what other people are doing and what they have and judging them for that, work on yourself. I guarantee Soulja Boy isn’t somewhere riding in his Lambo with a bad chick, telling her how wack YOUR lyrics are.

I'm saying this cause I care. Ha.