Copyright 102

So you’ve reduced your work to tangible format and Officially dated it and by law (South African Copyright Law….which should apply everywhere cause copyright is copyright) the work and all its rights belong to you as the author. Although you have now copy written your work it probably still doesn’t feel right…I mean, how do you keep track of who is using your material and ensure that you get royalties accordingly. There are two ways to get this done.
1) You do it your self. This means that whenever your track is used by someone other than you, you make the effort to contact them to claim any money you entitled to and to ensure you have been credited accordingly.
2) An administrative deed of assignment. This means that you register your work to a Company that manages your material in terms of making sure you are credited and paid for every use of your material. They take on the responsibilities you’d have to under go yourself….AT A FEE OF COURSE. A relatively small fee though. They do a better job that you could probably do by yourself trying to head hunt everyone who was due to credit and pay you for usage of work.
Oh yeah there is a third way too….as unpractical as it may be to some of us.
3) A SHYLOCK!! If you have the money and know a SHYLOCK who has a clear understanding of entertainment law you could hire them to ensure you receive everything you are entitled to. Probably give them a handy cam to take some footage of certain stubborn offenders…

“that~boy” © (in case any of you wanna thug my very AYOBAARRRR name…niggas!!)

Goota keep it going?

Recently I was ask if I still get “that feeling” when I finish a beat or working on a project….Yes I do. The question that followed was how I keep the passion alive. My feeling is this…just like anything else, whether it’s a relationship, a skill or a hobby (for example you are a good soccer player, seeing as it is the soccer season) you need to focus some of your efforts on nurturing and developing this relationship, skill or hobby. Keep yourself interested, practise, share your love/interest with someone (although I don’t recommend this where the relationship is concerned). What I find works for me is listening to other peoples work and comparing it to mine, applying techniques that work to my future pieces. Checking out composing styles on videos on Youtube. Buying new equipment, new refills, new sounds and collaborations!! I honestly feel that if you truly enjoy what ever it is you are doing though these things should come naturally but seeing as people aren’t the same try these things if you struggle to keep the feeling going.
“that~boy”

My Spirit

Have a listen to the embeded track...What do you think

Copyright 101

So you've made your music and it sounds great....now what!? Its a question I've asked myself a couple of times. From here its either you do one of two things: Sell your music or use it! You can do this by recording an artist, selling to an artist, sending in a demo to a record label, handing your music over to an influential person in the industry or anything in effect of getting ahead in your craft. What if the person you're depending on STEALS your work? truth is we ALL get screwed at some point or the other. Sometimes its petty and an experience you can forget but other times its up the ass with a grater and no lubrication. So how do you protect yourself?
1)Establish copyright....its actually very easy....no formalities involved(and this applies to everything, not just music) Transfer your work to tangible format, and give it an official date. Make sure it is your work else you are probably breaking copyright law yourself
2)Always find out what the influential person or label is doing with your music, Make it your business to know. if they have a problem with that....
3) If you get screwed, you at least know that your work is good. MAKE something knew and approach your success differently
Goodluck getting out there people
"that~boy"...

"that~boy" public announcement: Online ENT

My site management team (me) was reviewing my site and giving me suggestions on how to make the blog beta. Well what they told me was that the articles were interesting but there was nothing to keep readers entertained while reading. Naturally i was like "WTF!!!", "boring my ass, My blog IS FUN!". I knew what I had to do though. Since then the team has integrated a music player onto the blog. Now while you reading articles, you can listen to some "that~boy" tunes and keep yourself entertained. Hope it makes you log on ,more. There are downloads available as well now. Enjoy!

Free Beat

"that~boy" is selling Beats now. Yeah...true story...(nodding head slowly) this is a free one though. I'm ma be giving off some older beats to the public for them to use. If you do use it please credit me appropriately. Hope you enjoy it
http://www.mediafire.com/?1lzyyw22duz

Mixing on the Behringer MX900

Depending on how low to the ground your production ear you’ve probably heard someone somewhere who has finished making a beat/track saying that all that’s left for them to do is for them to mix it. Ever wondered what they meant. Well all that they meant was that they have to change the audible volumes and frequencies of the different instruments and or voices in a track so that none of them clash with or mask each other. There are two ways to do this, through a mixing desk or a DAW (digital audio workstation) like pro tools, cubase, cool edit or acid. To start mixing first export all the different files used in your beat separately as wave files. By the way, by saying all and separately I mean, just the kick drum alone then the snare, then the piano etc. Once that’s done, import the all required files into the DAW of your choice and start changing individual levels, panning sounds and EQing out unwanted frequencies. Unfortunately there is no by the book way on how to mix so I can’t even give you instructions on how loud each instrument should be. Each mix is different and must be done by ear until it sounds right to you. As a start though, you may want to listen to a well produced song that you like and try to imitate the way that song was mixed. It’s a great way to get yourself started in this field. Things to remember: Bass is generally panned too the middle (mono) Kicks must be heard throughout the song (mono) Vocals must never be masked by other sounds and must sit comfortably in your mix. (mono

Mixing desks

There are three types of desks you can get as a producer making music. 1) the one you saw in your friends bedroom studio. 2) the one you heard they have at Krystrodrm studios 3) the one you saw on an American hip hop video. Lol..okay, let’s get back to business. The three types of desks available to you are a normal channel desk, an inline console desk and a split console desk respectively. The normal channel desk can probably be seen in use at any big church with a PA system put up in it. This desk will typically have a set number of input channels, a gain section, a simple EQ section and a stereo output. If you are lucky though, your desk will also have bus/sub-group outputs. These desks are not the most convenient for production as complete reconfiguration of cables would be needed to switch between input mode and mixing mode of the desk.

Inline console desk

An inline console desk is typically bigger than the normal channel desk. It will have 16 or more input main channels which will double up as monitoring channels, a larger Parametric EQ section, bus/sub group outputs, direct outputs a stereo output. These desks serve the mixing purpose better than the normal console because by simply pressing a button labelled “FLIP” on each channel you activate an extra input where you can connect input signal that will allow you to mix your track.

Split console desk

A split console desk is the biggest of the three types of desk. It will have two totally different sections, the recording and monitoring sections, separated by a master section. What this means is that

Producer porn

To be honest...I only started believing in headphones last year when I started my sound engineering. I was born again and clensed this year after I bought these headphones, the SENNHEISER HD201s. Don't listen to what ever anyone else tells you..these are (as much as I hate to say it)AYOBA!! So whats da deal with headphones in general? Well, the thing is that sometimes we as starting producers don't have enough money to buy studio moniters to mix on. Good headphones are the next best thing to mix with. The SENNHEISER HD201s give quite a flat frequency response. This means that you don't hear too much bass or too much treble etc. What you do hear is what the engineers of the song intended for you to hear when they made the song. I must say tho that with some songs there seemed to be a lot more frequencies in the 1-2Khz region although that may have been those songs. Thats my only functional complaint. Looks and durability are a Pass though. the 201s will set you back R500 but no need to stress cause as long as you treat them right they will last you a while. If you happen to buy a pair comment on what you think bout em....
till then, KEEP MAKING that MUSIC
"that~boy"

Yamaha RY-10

This is an ancient DRUM MACHINE and I'm fortunate enough to have laid my hands on one through "inheritance". Compared to the DRUM MACHINES out there today this one is useless! So why do I, and so many other people out there, love and treasure it so much? Its great for lacing ideas as you get them. It has an easy to use interface with both step sequence recording and real-time recording. You only have three goups of sounds to choose from: Drum, Perc and Bass. In the drum and perc group you have up to a combined number of 90+ sounds to choose from when creating something. The bass will only offer 12 'bass' sounds though. Its super portable and can run on either six AA sized batteries or from a DC adapter on your mains. Being so old its sounds are also very edgey and 8-16bit sounding. Great for making music with an old school feel or just to phatten up modern drum, perc or bass sounds. Anything that you make can be stored onboard the machine in one of fifty pattern storage slots. These patterns in the slots can be linked up using the 'SONG' function to make tull length songs ready for playback. You are also given 'Fill-in' storeage slots to store any fill-ins you program onto the machine. These add quite the spicee to any composition. Things aren't all good though. As composers we can tend to get carried away in our creativity when programing music and its frustrating that the RY-10 is limited to Drums, Perc, and Bass. You can never create a detailed flawless track on it and on many occasions, because of its limited sounds and quantizing abilities, have failed to transfer a musical idea on to the RY-10. SO...is it a must have? No! Its a nice to have. If you have extra money you'd like to spend on a good cheap old Drum machine this is the best investment to make. If on the other hand you are still trying to establish yourself and your studio save your money and buy something that you really need.

"that-boy" looks back

The past year was quite the year. First year sound engineering student, running a blog, and being in cape town. I'm doing a little reflection now seeing as its a new year. (even though being three months into da new year is a bit late) I do alot of reflecting when making music as well. I critisise my musical pieces and try to make every new piece of the one before it....it WORKS! Well so far so good. If your not doing it yet its bout time you started. Talking bout reflecting, I learnt what to do and what not to do, with regard to the blog and posting on it, so this year things should run a little smoother. This year imma be focussing alot on 'studio equipment' and how it works and why it would be a good idea to invest or not invest in it. I'm excited! Thanks for da support...and provided that you have proof of your support imma put you on da thank you sleeve of all CDs. Lol...jokes fellas.
on da real though thank you for taking time out to read this.

"that~boy"