October, 2007

Equipment — Comments Off
31
Oct 07

Tips On Buying Keyboards And Digital Pianos

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketThere are so many keyboards and digital pianos on the market today. How does one make a selection? Here are a few tips to help you choose one that meets your needs.

1. How much can you afford?

With such a wealth of keyboards available, a working person shouldn’t have a problem finding one that fits their budget. Low priced keyboards are all over. But this doesn’t mean that you should settle for anything. As the old adage goes, you usually get what you pay for. Usually the more money you invest, the greater the returns.

2. Do you need weighted action or synth action?

Weighted action means that the keyboard comes with heavy (weighted) keys and feels like an acoustic piano. You need some muscle to play such keyboards. If you’re a trained pianist or you want to develop your piano skills a weighted keyboard would be better suited.

Synth action would mean lighter keys. You can usually play faster and easier with a synth action keyboard. Are you gonna be playing synthy and techno stuff? Then synth action is what you need. Continue reading →

Equipment / Performance — Comments Off
31
Oct 07

The Free $1000 Techno Machines

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketI sometimes don’t like to admit it, but I am nostalgic. I like 80s music, old type computer games (Street Fighter, Defender..come on!) and classic techno making machines.

Why?

I think they forged through and made todays music what it is. Machines like the TB303, TR909, JD800 and the famous Moog- what an effect they have made on dance and techno music! The rise in popularity of techno, i.e, with the makers and in the audience, was down to the cool sounds and the general compatability (sound wise) between the machines were the key.

In some cases limited numbers were made and the increase in popularity only meant two things. 1) An increase in the same old songs, rehashed versions that sounded similar in everyway, and 2) The price went into overdrive. Machines like the TB303 were selling for silly money. This trend is still being seen today. You can buy one of these machines for between $600-$1000. Continue reading →

Marketing — Comments Off
31
Oct 07

Music Marketing How to Rectify The Two Most Common Mistakes Everyone Makes

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketMusic marketing is by and large difficult for most artists, that is something we need to realise. Marketing yourself, being confident to allow people to listen to your tracks and most importantly, handling criticism takes a bit of time to get used to. In the majority of cases though, marketing plans do fail. you may have a great sounding track, but if it is not marketed properly then it will just be white noise.

However all is not lost.

The main reasons why music marketing fails is that 1) there is always some money involved, and 2) we market our music.

They all sound a bit strange I know, but my plan is for you to get over these hurdles and to get your music out there without any hassle. I will take each of the above points in turn, but remember they are interlinked:

1) Money marketing. This is bad. The economics of this is so: you have to sell slot of tracks to get back the amount you spent on marketing, then you need to sell a few more to make any profit. The problems is, why are we spending so much money on music marketing, or, why are we spending any money on marketing at all?! The Internet has greatly reduced the cost of marketing by 100%. Yep, marketing should be free, then any tracks that you do sell is pure profit. There are so many music marketing strategies, some of which are simple ideas that are not being utilised. Continue reading →