Musicians, please just take the time to write at least 10 actual songs before you get to recording an album. I don’t care if I have to wait a little longer for it to come out, it’s worth it in the end. Or just release an EP, it’s cheaper for everyone and fans won’t feel ripped off. And labels, don’t let artists get away with this, they’re cheating you too, by using filler interludes to get to the 10-song minimum.

Of course, everybody was raging, vowing to stop using Facebook and all. They don’t get it though. A huge site like FB needs ads to stay afloat. For those who don’t know, FB has quite a few full-time employees, and a huge site to keep up. A site like FB uses a ton of bandwidth, so it costs a lot to keep it online. Since FB is free, it has to make money somehow, and that’s through ads. Otherwise, everybody would have to pay for a membership, and I doubt FB would have gotten so big if it wasn’t free. Imposing a membership fee on current users means a good half of the users would jump ship to a similar, free service like Google+.

Among social networks, Facebook and Google+ have some of the least intrusive ads. These aren’t your 2006-era annoying Flash ads, they’re quiet (and mostly relevant) text ads, with small pictures, if any. They never bothered me, and I’m completely okay with seeing them. I don’t use AdBlock or anything like that, because as a web designer I understand the costs of maintaining a site.

I know with all of my posts defending Facebook’s decisions I sound like a PR representative, but I’m simply trying to explain these changes, because a lot of people just don’t get it.

Plus, if the streaming site of your choice has a server issue or shuts down, you’re left with nothing but the money you wasted on the subscription.

They’re currently being marketed as ultra-environmental, super green, and ELECTRIC. Sure those terms are the green party’s wet dreams, but if they only market to people who care about the environment, they won’t get into the mainstream. The makers behind these electric cars have to let go of this niche marketing, and start marketing towards the average Joe. The common Joe doesn’t care too much about environmental friendliness or carbon footprints, he just wants to hear how it performs, how affordable it is, how comfortable and/or luxurious it is. Basically, market it like you would with any car. Sure, you can mention that it’s electric, but make sure to focus on how it saves money as opposed to how it saves the environment.

And now about the cars themselves, make them look normal. I know it’s tempting to put lightning bolts and huge “ELECTRIC” stickers on the sides, but only a green snob will care about that. Most people don’t want their cars to stand out like that, make it look like other contemporary cars. Do what hybrids are doing now, have a small badge saying “electric” on the trunk if you like.

You only need to look at about a decade back to see how this worked for hybrids. Initially, hybrids were marketed just like electric cars, and had obnoxious “HYBRID” signage on them too, but they became truly popular once makers like Toyota started putting the hybrid system into their normal line of cars, such as the Toyota Camry Hybrid. Perhaps Toyota should make a Camry Electric at some point?

The movie itself was exactly the same, except seeing it now I noticed all of the terribly cheesy lines. The “3D” part of it added a little extra dimension, but nothing was that insane, probably because the movie wasn’t shot as a 3D movie, just converted to one. Some scenes were left as is, it was mostly the battle/race scenes that got the 3D treatment. Essentially, it’s just George Lucas milking more money out of the series, but I still enjoyed it. The fact that I saw it for free with an Optimum Rewards card made me feel less ripped off, haha. Overall it was a pretty good day.

• To have a place I can design, redesign, and redesign all over again at whatever pace I want. This isn’t some massive site like Facebook where a minor change causes outrage, I can change whatever I want here. I am my own master.
• To stay competent in proper English. Social networking sites and instant messaging are slowly killing our language skills, so I have this blog where I can write in full, thought-out sentences and paragraphs. It keeps my mind working and my typing skills intact as well.
• To have a place where I can share my opinions, thoughts, and knowledge. Let’s say I want to complain about badly programmed drums, or poorly designed websites. I can’t really do that on Facebook or Twitter, because most people these days say tl;dr to anything longer than a couple sentences. Plus with the semi-helpful articles I have, maybe somebody will find some use out of them at some point.
• For my own record-keeping. This blog is like a journal of my life throughout these past couple of years. Sure, I don’t get too personal, but it’s still really nice to be able to go back to 2008 and see what I fanboy I was, or how much I hated certain things at the time.
• Having my own chunk of the web makes me feel ever so slightly special. Shut up, I know this is a stupid reason, but it makes me happy.

Trouble is, even after you spend so much time programming a drum track, it still screams “fake.” I’ve recently had to program drums for one of my band’s songs because our drummer wasn’t able to track them that day, and I learned a couple of new things about working with computer drums.

Make The Drumming Realistic

This is where most beginners mess up. Don’t program blast beats or kicks at 64^th beats, few real drummers can do that, and it generally just sounds fake as hell. Don’t make the entire song one drum beat either, that gets really boring and sounds amateurish. If you have no idea what drum parts/fills to use, look up Guitar Pro tabs (you can open them with Tux Guitar which is free) of your favorite songs. Chances are, they’ll have drum parts tabbed out as well, so you can see what kind of beats professional drummers use. Throw in a couple creative drum fills here and there to liven things up, much like what a human drummer would do. If you have a drummer friend, study his/her style while drumming and try to replicate that in your programming.

Drum Sounds

The second hallmark of bad drum programming is a terrible overall sound. Boxy, flat snares. Way-too-clicky bass kicks. Dead-sounding cymbals. Sound familiar? Fortunately, this is a pretty easy problem to fix.

All you need is a drum replacement plugin for your DAW (ex: Logic, Pro Tools, Cubase) and some good-sounding samples. There are free drum replacement plugins out there, you just have to find them. Being a semi-professional audio producer, I opted to buy what is widely considered the industry standard in drum replacement: Drumagog. A basic license costs $90, and it can turn the worst-sounding drum tracks, whether programmed or real, into sweet-sounding beauties.

Drum samples can be found pretty much everywhere on the internet, you just gotta find the really good ones. I’ve found Steven Slate drum samples to be rather good sounding in my mixes, so I’d recommend checking them out. They’re not free, but they’re totally worth it (of course there are ways of obtaining it for free).

However, even with amazing samples and perfect drum replacement, there is still some more work that needs to be done. First, resist the urge to turn up the kicks super loud, that’ll only highlight how steady (and robotic) the drums are. Unless you specifically want that sound, of course. Turn the cymbals down, and apply some basic compression on them to make them fit into the mix better and sound less grating. EQ and compress the snare until it sounds punchy but not too hollow, and make sure to apply a good amount of reverb onto it. While it may sound weird to have so much reverb on just the snare, it sounds pretty darn good in a mix.

With these two main tips and a little bit of effort, you can make drum tracks that sound fairly convincing and realistic. Remember, how good your drums sound is directly related to how much effort you put into programming and tweaking them. Don’t expect to get a pro-quality drum track in five minutes, unless you’re directly ripping off another band. Which I wouldn’t recommend doing unless you’re doing a cover.

Getting the permit itself wasn’t terribly time-consuming, I was in and out in less than two hours. I didn’t go super early either, I went at like 1pm or so. I guess I just always happen to be somewhere at the right time, when everything’s running smoothly. So far, no complaints about the DMV. The written test was easy beyond belief. I barely read the rules before taking it, and I got 18 out of 20 questions right. Perhaps it’s because I’ve always watched my dad and my friends drive (I’m almost always shotgun). Making sure my picture didn’t suck was the hardest part, haha.

After I got my permit, I started driving literally the next day with my dad, who’s teaching me how to drive. I first drove around in a former airport, lots of room to get a feel for the van. The van I’m learning on is a Toyota Sienna, from around 2003. It’s not terribly big or wide, and it helps to learn on a van, as I’ll be driving a commercial-size van for touring with my band.

I started driving on the streets the next day, and while I was initially slightly terrified, I’ve been getting a lot more confident behind the wheel. I drove on several highways like two weeks after I got my permit, also slightly scary but I got somewhat comfortable with it. I’m driving to the Bronx tomorrow again, should be fun.

Parallel parking’s also getting a lot easier, as well as backing into parking spots and driveways. I do hope that I don’t get too cocky, because I really don’t want to be a bad teenage driver. I’d rather follow the speed limits and come home alive each night.

Not Double-tracking Guitars

Come on, this one should be obvious; we live in the age of stereo. It’s simple enough, record two guitar tracks, pan one to the left, pan one to the right. Sounds easy right? Well some of these guys actually get it wrong. I’m not sure whether it’s out of ignorance or just pure laziness.

Way Too Trebly/Loud Cymbals

When it comes to mixing and mastering, EQ is your best friend. Hear those nasty sharp high frequencies coming from the cymbals? Cut them a bit. Same goes for their volume. Unless you’re an amateur, each drum mic outputs to a separate track. You can make the cymbals a bit quieter than the rest, so that they’re not the main focus of the mix. Having the cymbals in the background and not overwhelming the mix is part of what makes a mix sound professional.

Not Replacing The Kicks/Using A Bad Kick Sample

Unless you’re trying to go for an old-school lo-fi vibe, a modern metal mix should have audible, consistent kicks (that’s what the double bass drum sounds are called in the industry). Use a plugin like Drumagog to get a nice clean kick sound that will cut through the mix properly. Kicks usually go with the guitar parts and help keep the tempo of the song, so they should be heard well in the mix, they shouldn’t be muddy or lacking in treble. On the other side of the “doing it wrong” spectrum are extremely clicky kick samples that sound like a playing card stuck in a bicycle spoke. Avoid those, because they’re more annoying than anything. You want something that’s not excessively fake sounding or clicky, so take your time in picking a kick sample.

Dry Vocals

Vocals with no effects usually sound bad. I’m not talking about autotune, I’m talking about basics such as reverb, delay, and compression. It’s not cheating to use those, every professional does. Reverb helps with the acoustics of the vocals, and can often make up for recording in a less-than-ideal environment. Compression smooths out the peaks and brings all the vocals up to a more or less similar volume, so that there are no big jumps in loudness depending on how close the singer/screamer got to the mic. On the flip side, overusing effects can be just as bad, so use reverb in moderation. Also, chill with the overlays. Yes they sound cool every once in a while, but you’ll never sound like that live unless you have 2-3 full time vocalists.

Improper Cab Mic’ing

Mic’ing up a guitar/bass cab can sound really good… if done right. Trouble is, most people don’t do it right. I’m no mic’ing expert, so I use digital guitar amps and cabs. I suggest that to up-and-coming producers who don’t have the resources and/or experience to successfully mic up a cab. Because even a bad digital tone will still sound better than a horrible mic’d real guitar amp.

Bass Mixed Too Loudly/Too Quietly

Some local producers mix the bass way too loudly in the mix, to the point of where it’s competing with the guitars and making the mix sound muddy. Others mix it so quietly that it’s barely heard, negating the whole point of having a bass. Mixing bass tracks is something that should be handled delicately.

Awful Bass Tone

I’ve heard bass tracks that sound like floppy rubber bands, and others that sound like fat blobs of bass. For most metal mixes, a distorted bass sound fits in quite well with the mix. Not too distorted, but just enough to blend with the crunch of the guitars, while simultaneously standing out every so slightly. The fact that I’ve dedicated two separate points to bass is testament to the fact that a lot of local producers completely skimp out on the bass tracks. Just because it’s not front and center doesn’t mean it should be ignored. When done right, the bass can add a lot of punch and character to the mix.

Poor Mixing In General

I’ve heard local bands with terrible mixes. Every factor could be perfect, but a bad mix can ruin everything. A lot of people half-ass the mixing process, even though it is vital to a good sound. Mixing is not something that should be done in 10 minutes. You have to tinker with it, see what’s too loud, what’s too quiet, etc. Then you have to come back a couple hours later and then listen to it again, to see if anything stands out too much. Vocals are usually mixed too loud these days, which is fine for pop, but not for rock/metal where the instrumentals are just as important. Also, a lot of producers don’t listen to their mixes on various systems. I’ve seen producers only use expensive studio monitors, or only headphones. Great monitors or great headphones make any mix sound better, but the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of music listeners are not audiophiles with perfect studio headphones. No, the vast majority of listeners listen through crappy iPod headphones, or through terrible cheap computer speakers, or in mediocre stock car sound systems. Therefore, you have to test on these systems and make sure your mix sounds good on everything.

In conclusion, this is by no means an exhaustive list of everything that can be done wrong; it’s simply the most common mistakes I hear with a lot of demos. As much as you might think it’s all about the music itself, a good recording is crucial to getting people to listen to your band more than once. Plus, unless you’re extremely talented/unique, a good quality demo will attract a potential label’s attention so much more than a half-assed mediocre one.

A demo is everything for a local band, why half-ass it?