An Indie Musician's Diary VOL. 1

Finding Your Sound & Reference Songs for Mastering

Happy July 4th to my American friends! I am from the U.S. too so I just had to mention it! 

What is your sound? I really don't think most of us know in the beginning. I surely  didn't. When I began I had no idea. In the beginning, my voice was rather weak and I needed to train it. I found that as I got better at singing and when I sang different songs that I'd written publicly, people started to say I sounded like this or that artist. I still don't really sound just like anyone else but I'm getting closer to finding a few that sort of sound like me. 

Because I write songs in many different genres, I have to search far and wide to find the common denominator. It was through searching for reference songs that I began to better understand my sound...

It is important to be able to tell people who you are and what you sound like. It's part of marketing and promotion and plain old communication. If you are not well known, you might just say I sound like this artist, then people can get an idea what your music is all about. 

Reference songs - what are they used for? 

When an indie musician creates great music it is good to have something to shoot for that sounds like his/her song and is commercially successful. Many indie artists start by being influenced by a certain band's or artist's music and get their inspiration from there. Then as they write a new song, mix it and master it, they use that other band's song as a point of reference. It can affect many decisions from what kind of instruments one should one use, the structure of the arrangement, the choice of microphones, panning and much more. When it's time to master the song, the reference song is used to make sure that you shot close to the point of reference concerning volume, frequency spectrum (sound), and sonic consistency (that it sounds good on all types of devices). 

I did things backwards.

I had so much music in my heart when I began taking my songwriting seriously that I just sat down and wrote my songs without comparing them to anyone else. When I started the Change My Mind album, I had no idea that I needed a reference song for each track. I thought "I am writing this song and I like it. Let me see what I can do with it..." Thant's all. It wasn't until I contacted Sonic media in Gothenburg, Sweden about mixing my first song that I heard that he needed a reference song to shoot for. I was like, "What is a reference song?". I felt like a total space cadet. 

Anyway, he found something to use as a reference song and the end result was good. I didn't think about it anymore until the next time he asked for a reference song (when I submitted the second song). I said, "I don't have a reference song now either" and from then on he didn't ask. He just found something. 

When I started producing the songs on the album I didn't take time to think about a reference song for each one until I was done mixing. This is much harder. When you do things backwards there are advantages like an original sound, but the disadvantage is that you might have to use multiple released songs to compare to your song. One might explain the overall feeling, one might explain specific instruments. 

The cheap way to buy reference songs: I used to shop at iTunes but it got expensive. So I shop at second hand store for cheap CDs. That way I get ten or twelve songs for less than a dollar. Then I go home and drag the songs I want into my computer. I then load the reference song(s) into my Magic AB plugin and use them to compare them with the song I am working on.  If you don't have Magic AB you can do it another way. See the video on top. No matter how you choose to do your referencing, just make sure that your song and the reference song have the same output volume as you compare. 

Getting your mix ready for a good master

I am in the process of getting my mixes ready to master. there is a lot to learn. Here is a video I watched that shows how to use reference tracks to do it without Magic AB. 

The Goal is: To make the mix more balanced sonically. Getting the amount of each frequency to a healthy level is necessary in order to get a great sound. Generally this means a very even frequency spectrum that allows your ears to hear all the frequencies. No muddiness. No spikes at a certain frequency. Just one mix that is pleasant for our ears to be able to hear everything. 

How do you know when it is good enough? You reference your song to a great/hit song of a similar breed. You "A/B" them, comparing the way they sound at the same volume level and check to see that they have somewhat similar frequency distribution with no spikes. I am just getting into this now.

So I took some time today to find reference songs for all of the songs on the Change My Mind album. And I found some ladies that have some music that sounds like mine. I was amazed at what I found: Shakira; The Cardigans; Fleetwood Mac; Lisa Miskovsky; Christy Nockels; Dixie Chicks, Pet Shop Boys  and  and more. It took me a couple of hours to find songs that sounded like mine. Of course their music doesn't sound exactly like mine, but I found songs with a similar feel and similar instruments and in some cases a similar voice. They were sort of in the same range. I guess I have a combination of these women/bands.

Free to be who you are: Long ago, it used to be that you got signed and then they forced you to brand yourself as a singer within one single genre. Now, as an indie, you are free to be whatever you want to be and do as many genres as you want. I have multiple genres on mine and that's because it is telling a story. So don't feel that you have to keep yourself within a single style.

At the end of the day, I think it was great to do this exercise because now I know what I am going to use in my A/B efforts as I mix and now I can describe more who I sound like. Cool!

Now, back to mixing....

Have a great one!