Bandcamping...

I've long signed up for Bandcamp but I never really found the time to properly set my account up with even just a single or something. I'm glad I FINALLY did. 

You see, bandcamp is a really nice platform to showcase your music as well as be able to sell direct to your fans using their site. And not only sell but give stuff away for free. I really won't go into the details as it's best to visit their site to learn how AWESOME the site is. 

The point of this post however is to let you guys know that as I finally found time to upload music there, it's best to let you know that I uploaded an exclusive album for FREE on it. Unfortunately, if you're on my mailing list, you already have this. But if you aren't then what are you waiting for? It's an 8-track affair which can you grab in the link below!

http://silverfilter.bandcamp.com/

Enjoy! 

Cy

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Free Reason Sound Patches

If you're looking for free sounds, I just came across this announcement for a site dedicated to providing user patch exchanges so if you're looking to expand your Reason sounds with new patches for any of the devices, you might wanna check this site out and get inspired.

www.repatcher.com

Enjoy!

Cy

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How's Your Ear? Test Your Listening Now!

CREDIT

For almost a decade now, I feared for my hearing. Having played the drums professionally a few times a week for a couple of years made me feel like I may have damaged it. All these years, I prayed (really) for God to restore my hearing like that of a child's. Why? Well, working in music professionally now doing mixing and mastering stuff really need the best my ears can give. When I go out now in clubs especially rock joints, I always have my ear plugs on or at the very least a pair of folded table napkin in my ears to protect it.

Our ears can hear a certain range of frequencies and as we know, the animals can hear more high pitched ones. As we grow old, the range of frequencies we're able to hear narrows down a bit depending on how you took care of your ears. 

Going back to my story, I never got around to having my ears checked and then I came across this site and did their test last night. I can't tell you how happy I was upon checking my hearing. The test starts from 22. I heard it starting at 18. For our everyday listening the higher ups are already high and it's really more piercing than pleasant.

Try the test out and lemme know which frequency you started hearing it?

http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_frequencycheckhigh.php

Cy

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How To Do DIY Style CD Album Packaging pt2

Here's part 2

Enjoy!

Cy

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How To Get On Beatport Without Having To Pay Anyone

Here's a short video on my story on how I got into Beatport without needing to shell out money to pay any distributor or label.

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How To Do DIY Style CD Album Packaging pt1

Here's a short tutorial I made on DIY album packaging. This is part 1. Part 2 to follow for other ideas :)

Enjoy!

Cy

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Mixing in Reason 6 Masterclass

I'm not the master don't worry :)

Here's a link to a recently shared video over at the Propellerhead forum on Mixing in Reason 6. This is a must for everyone who wants to develop their sound engineer side :)

There's a video window but scroll down a bit and you'll find a link to download so you can watch the video as much as you want offline. 

I have 7 mins left in my download as well as I type this :)

Enjoy!

http://www.musotalk.de/video/reason-6-mixing-masterclass-mit-gary-bromham-eng...

Cy

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Looking To Rhyme?

side note: It sometimes gets hard thinking of what to blog about but I always fail to remember that part of it is just simply sharing anything that may be helpful to others and so I shall from now on just post random stuff that can be of help to anyone in my field of interest :)

Jumping in...

At times, the pressure of clients breathing down your throat can be an inspiration killer and when I'm tasked to write lyrics for something, I go visit some sites when my mind draws a blank. I figured that for any songwriter out there (or even if you're a poet) this site might help you out if your juice isn't there and you need to finish something quick. 

Rhymezone and Rhymer

I use Rhymezone more coz it's easier on the eyes when searching for a word but you can try out both. 

These sites can help you look for words to complete a set of poems or lyrics for anything... Don't also just go to these sites if you feel like there's no inspiration. Sometimes finding the right words can be a jump off point for inspiration as well and you can keep searching for new words even if you feel you're on the go already.

Hope that helps :)

Cy

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Beef Up Your Reason Sounds Collection

Before anyone starts looking for Torrents, I'd suggest supporting the developers who spend time programming nice sounding patches for your use :)

Now to get on with the post...

Check out Reasonstation. It's an old site meaning it's been around for a while so the wealth of resources is vast as well. And to help you out, check out this link.

http://www.reasonstation.net/refills/browse.php?ft_type=rfl&ft_style=0&am...

Now this will lead you to refill packs you can buy and download to add to your refill collections!

If you are new to Reason, Refills are like zip files in your computer. Refills are merely a container for sounds/patches, that you can use in your Reason devices may it be a sound source or an effect. The onboard Refill that came with Reason are the Factory Sound Bank and the Orkester. Both are very capable to provide inspirational sounds and can last you for years just exploring what you can do with them. But if you find yourself looking for more sounds, then I'd suggest going on a Refill hunt. There are a lot out there that are free and some of the paid ones are also worth the money. Just make sure it fits your sound and you feel inspired listening to them for your own use. 

There are Reason haters and even users who say a track sounds "Reason-y" which I think is because they're so used to hearing sounds from the factory sound bank. It's not a bad thing but perhaps some people just don't tweak anything or try to explore more of the possibilities. For the more adventurous, this is where Refills come in and this is what makes your track indistinguishable from those not made in Reason.

Enjoy the hunt!

Cy

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Revelations. Reason. Refill.

Revelations.

It's funny as a blogger in progress, I often think I have to come up with something really great and allot time to plan out and think and write. I later realize that I just have to post something relevant and can even be really short at times may it be a note, text, tutorial, lead, or even a video. I guess what we bloggers in progress fail to realize is that we don't have to overthink things. Posts can be simple but may very well be helpful to those who read it. So don't feel pressured. It's just now also that I realize I have to loosen up LOL :)

Reason. 

Well, adjusting to Reason 6 is a blast and I've been loving the new devices from the Pulveriser, The Echo, and The Gator. All of which I've been using a lot lately in my productions and work-related tunes. I'm also loving the audio transpose function. Really handy for all the off tune singing that I need to fix for some projects I'm handling hehe So far so good. I'm still observing the CPU usage though as a lot have reported that R6 bring some heavy strain on the CPU compared to R5+Record which R6 is a combination of. Let's see.

Refill. 

And of course, as part of just posting things that can possibly help out, check this video out. It's quite inspiring :) I've also purchased the patches of this guy and they are AMAZING! Most of which have found their way in a lot of my productions for the past months both personal and work-related!

Check this video out!

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Reason 6! How to Update

Thank God for the Pay What You Want Scheme of Propellerheads for the release of Reason 6 for duo owners like me! It was a good move of them since it felt quite unfair that I bought Reason then Record then bought the upgrades and I'd have to pay the same price like all of the people who didn't even bother upgrading from older versions and not even getting Record so it's a fair move and one I gladly grabbed. 

I'm also thankful to God that I didn't experience the update woes of people as the forum has been filled with various issues in updating for other users so getting to update swiftly in my case was a real breather. I was hesitant of doing the update immediately at first since I was in the middle of a project but I guess I was too excited. 

Unfortunately, Installing Reason 6 automatically renders Record obsolete. I can run Record but not the same as when I had Reason 5. Now it's just Record so all the things I made inside Record with Reason needs to be reopened and re-saved inside Reason 6 now. Bummer. That's the only negative I can see from it but it's a minor thing. 

For those who haven't updated yet, the process is smooth. Just head on over to the props site then pay what you want. Don't feel bad if you can't pay much. They offered a dollar minimum so it's up to you. Don't feel pressured especially if you don't have the money to splurge at the moment. Just thank them if you get it low and buy a Refill from the prop shop later once you save up some money :) Once you've decided, you're led to the checkout page and it's self explanatory from there. I paid paypal so it's your choice if you want it thru paypal or Credit Card. Then after payment, wait a bit and you'll get your invoice and confirmation in the email. Head on over to your account section in the props site and you'll see now that there's a Reason 6 license in your products already. Now if you haven't yet, download the installer (full or demo is the same so don't worry about it). It's a huge file so download will take time. After completing the download, just open the installer file. It will ask you to drag the reason folder into the application folder. It will ask you if you wanna replace the existing one then just select replace and go for it (make sure you don't have files in the Reason program folder!). After that, you can now open the Reason icon in your application folder. It will then work in the background to manage the license online and to configure your ignition key. You'll be asked to restart but after that, you're good to go!

I've just been too busy lately with tons of work that's why I haven't experimented on the new devices, the expanded soundbank, etc but I'll give you an update soon!

Cy

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Where Can You Get FREE Quality Loops and Samples?

I'm often asked by first time producers where they can get free sounds, loops, and samples.

For new producers, I suggest diving deep into what your DAW can offer first. Try to make the most of the default sounds built in your system so you can get to know your software more and its capabilities. Remember, limitations often bring forth creativity and it's great exercise while you develop your craft. 

Once you've used your default library (which can usually take even a year!), then you can take the next step and expand your sound sources/lib. 

I think I once posted before some sample and loop sites on the blog which can be a good starting point but for the sake of the entry focusing on free, then here it is...

The most obvious path is to type in "free samples, sounds, loops, patches, synth loops" etc into google and you'll get a ton of links already. But one thing I've noticed is that as overwhelming as it is, a lot aren't really that good. 

My suggestion is to visit first the official site of your DAW, I'm sure they have a healthy community of users sharing sounds, patches, loops, etc. Propellerhead has a ton of free "refills" that can be downloaded. Those alone can fill up your library for another year of exploration :)

Then you can also visit commercial loop libraries. Why? A lot of them offer up to 1 gigabyte of sounds and even more just for signing up for a free account. If you also buy from some, you immediately become part of their "customer" list and so you'll receive free sound packs even weekly!

Some sites are producerloops.com, loopmasters.com, soundstosample.com and so much more. You can revisit my old entry on sample sites you can visit if you wanna sign up to get free sounds. Who knows, you just might have some spare cash lying around and you end up buying some :)

Enjoy the search!

Cy

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Do You DJ with Ableton Live?

If you're not yet part of the forum, you guys might wanna check this out:

http://abletonlivedj.com/forum/

I'm not actively part of it but have come across some helpful tips and tricks to help out my live set. Hope it helps you guys out too!

Cy

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If You're an Ableton Live User...

I came across this resource and thought it great to share with you guys. 

There are a lot of things you can pick up from the blog and it's pretty varied for any user level. 

Enjoy!

http://abletonlife.com/

Cy

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Bln.kr - Great Tool For the Promoting Musician

I've been in contact with the great guys over at Bln.kr throwing in some ideas and suggestions on improving their ALREADY AWESOME service. If you actually do a research on these guys, what they're doing has already made heads turn toward them and there's a lot of reasons to do so. 

I won't go into the history of it but go straight to the point...

Bln.kr is a great way to share your music to the world and your networks. 

It allows you to upload your track and be able to share it automatically in a lot of your networks, blogs, emails, etc. Perhaps it's close to how Ping.fm works by sending out the update in a blast but for music. That's just one side of it. It then gets you feedback from all over so you get to monitor if people are actually listening, downloading or sharing your tunes!

From the site "Every time we post a status update, blog post, photo, or video, we are doing so because we want to share a piece of ourselves with the world. And when we share, we seek a response.

As artists, we experience a little thrill every time we get a new comment on YouTube, or a "like" on Facebook, or a "retweet" on Twitter. And we feel anxious, annoyed, disappointed when our hard work goes unnoticed- especially after we pour ourselves into our music and struggle to perfect our songs.

The creative spark is a rare gift, easily encouraged, but just as easily extinguished. All artists need engagement from an audience to energize and accelerate their creativity. Creativity needs feedback. bln.kr is the best way to get it."

As I mentioned earlier, it sends it out to the networks you with to hook up with the service and from there, it's a one click affair in sharing your tune to all of them.

One feature that I LOVE about it is how it uses YouTube to promote your tune. I've always wanted to tap YouTube in promoting my music but I found the hassles of getting music into a video editing software, adding a photo, dragging it for the length of the song, rendering, etc... too tedious. With the YouTube feature, it's included already in the shared networks so it's SO EASY! This is one of the main reasons I'd push you guys to sign up.

What's nice once you sign up, is that they give you an automatic PRO account to try out for free so you can get a feel of how easy it is and how it can help your promotions.

Just type in bln.kr in your browsers address bar to go the site and sign up! The Pro account is also very tempting if you look at it so you might also want to consider that. 

With the PRO account, you get the YouTube videos, you get to upload multiple formats, you can also run FB/Twitter download campaigns, Host remix competitions, use custom images, protected tracks, QR codes, and more!

But don't feel the PRO account takes away the good stuff, the free account is more than capable to make signing up worth the time. Try it :)

Promote away!!!

Cy

Posted via email from silverfilter living

Bln.kr - Great Tool For the Promoting Musician

I've been in contact with the great guys over at Bln.kr throwing in some ideas and suggestions on improving their ALREADY AWESOME service. If you actually do a research on these guys, what they're doing has already made heads turn toward them and there's a lot of reasons to do so. 

I won't go into the history of it but go straight to the point...

Bln.kr is a great way to share your music to the world and your networks. 

It allows you to upload your track and be able to share it automatically in a lot of your networks, blogs, emails, etc. Perhaps it's close to how Ping.fm works by sending out the update in a blast but for music. That's just one side of it. It then gets you feedback from all over so you get to monitor if people are actually listening, downloading or sharing your tunes!

From the site "Every time we post a status update, blog post, photo, or video, we are doing so because we want to share a piece of ourselves with the world. And when we share, we seek a response.

As artists, we experience a little thrill every time we get a new comment on YouTube, or a "like" on Facebook, or a "retweet" on Twitter. And we feel anxious, annoyed, disappointed when our hard work goes unnoticed- especially after we pour ourselves into our music and struggle to perfect our songs.

The creative spark is a rare gift, easily encouraged, but just as easily extinguished. All artists need engagement from an audience to energize and accelerate their creativity. Creativity needs feedback. bln.kr is the best way to get it."

As I mentioned earlier, it sends it out to the networks you with to hook up with the service and from there, it's a one click affair in sharing your tune to all of them.

One feature that I LOVE about it is how it uses YouTube to promote your tune. I've always wanted to tap YouTube in promoting my music but I found the hassles of getting music into a video editing software, adding a photo, dragging it for the length of the song, rendering, etc... too tedious. With the YouTube feature, it's included already in the shared networks so it's SO EASY! This is one of the main reasons I'd push you guys to sign up.

What's nice once you sign up, is that they give you an automatic PRO account to try out for free so you can get a feel of how easy it is and how it can help your promotions.

Just type in bln.kr in your browsers address bar to go the site and sign up! The Pro account is also very tempting if you look at it so you might also want to consider that. 

With the PRO account, you get the YouTube videos, you get to upload multiple formats, you can also run FB/Twitter download campaigns, Host remix competitions, use custom images, protected tracks, QR codes, and more!

But don't feel the PRO account takes away the good stuff, the free account is more than capable to make signing up worth the time. Try it :)

Promote away!!!

Cy

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Take One Artist Series PT1 - Madz Abubakar

Here's the very first of my artist series for my YouTube show, Take One! We have Madz Abubakar giving in to my QnA for part one and we have him talking about his live set for part 2 coming soon!

Enjoy!

Cy

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Virtual Monotribe

If you don't want to spend on a Monotribe for now (well, in my part of the world, it'll take some time before it gets here), then this would be fun for the meantime :)

Try this > http://ht.ly/4CTAf

Enjoy!

Cy

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Got Some Cash for New Sounds?

If you have some cash to spend for new sounds, you might want to visit these sites for your next tune! Add to your sound library and be inspired :)

WARNING : This may make your credit card cry. Proceed with caution.

Posted are the links and short descrptions of the site as to how I see them. I may miss out on a thing or two so better pay them a visit online.

http://www.eastwestsamples.com - One of the ones who's been around for quite a while already. Aside from their online catalog as a digital store, they also create some of the BEST sound banks one can find.

http://www.soundsonline.com - I think this is a subsite of eastwest as it features a big logo of them on top but also offers other libraries worth checking out.

 

http://www.timespace.com - Another one of those companies who's been around since way back. They have an extensive catalog of everything you need to make music.

 

http://www.soundstosample.com - I frequent this site often because of the catalog and I like the collection that they have there. Their demo player is convenient.

 

http://www.loopmasters.com - I believe they were once creators only and now they've built themselves up by using their site as a digital store for various brands as well. Quality stuff here. I just don't like their demo player that much.

 

http://www.producerloops.com - online seller of sample libraries that cover styles from all over. I frequent this site recently for some work-related stuff. What I like about their site is that their demo's are downloadable so you can really come back and listen to a particular demo on your drive if you're deciding to get a particular product.

 

http://www.primeloops.com - If you're more on the hiphop sound, this is your place.

 

http://www.soundsondemand.com - Another huge source you must check out. 

 

http://www.bestservice.de - This is the main site I believe of the company handling soundsondemand.

 

http://www.audiomidi.com - something like timespace, that serves as a portal to all your music needs, this one's a huge one as well. It pays to go on their mailing list as they have crazy deals from time to time.

 

http://www.nativeinstruments.com - Need I say more? They're particularly a brand unlike most of what I posted here which are digital stores. But since they have that facility to handle orders, it's worth checking out directly from them and see their catalog. One of the biggest players in music software these days.

The thing with these sites is that particular sites also carry exclusive brands that offer really good sounds as well so it's not enough to just pay a visit to one big site and just do your search there. It's worth visiting as much so you can have more choices and you can even save more in the process :)

Enjoy!

Cy

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FL for Reason? What?!

Some Reason users may have forgotten or possibly weren't aware that you can load up soundfonts in your NNXT module. This opens up a whole new world of sounds that you can load up and use in your Reason project. 

As a Reason user, I sometimes find myself searching for lots of free sounds out there and there are a lot to be had! But most of the time, we may be used to just searching via google with search terms including "refill" or "refills."

Reminding everyone that soundfonts are a valuable source for new inspiration, here's a link I came across while searching for new free sounds for a client. 

http://www.flstudiomusic.com

It's a nice resource for anything related with FL Studio. however, it also has its own little soundfont search engine for those sharing their stuff online so it's worth a visit to add to your Reason sound library :)

As most users enjoy Reason being self-contained, the possibility of adding soundfonts to your sonic arsenal really adds to what you may have making your sound expand more avoiding as well the usual "Reason" sound as others may say. 

Enjoy!

Cy

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