Excerpts from various free guides offered by Disc Makers on topics that range from home recording to touring and promotion, press kits and marketing to songwriting advice, and much more.
Updated December 2019. Over the years, we’ve posted articles that include advice and insights for vocalists from every genre. From recording tips to video warm ups, from vocal health care tips to production tricks, we’ve covered a lot of ground. Here are some of our more popular posts collected in one place. Read the posts.
Five For Fighting’s John Ondrasik exploded onto the music scene with the release of “Superman” in 2000. Having written thousands of songs in his youth, the public adoration of “Superman” stunned his mother – a way to actually make money songwriting and playing music! Ondrasik’s father was less surprised, recognizing he had dedicated 45,000 hours into honing his craft. Read more.
Originally from North Carolina, Byron Hill has been a professional songwriter in Nashville since 1978, with his songs generating more than 700 recordings, 77 RIAA certified Gold and Platinum awards, 10 ASCAP awards, and 31 US and Canadian top-ten chart hits. Hits Byron has written for major artists include “Pickin’ Up Strangers” (Johnny Lee), “Fool Hearted Memory” (George Strait), “The Pages Of My Mind” (Ray Charles), and “Born Country” (Alabama). Read more.
A soulful vocalist and innovative keyboardist, singer, songwriter, and producer Rachael Sage has become one of the busiest touring artists in independent music, performing 150+ dates a year with her band The Sequins throughout the US, UK, Europe, and Asia. Sage’s own MPress Records released her 10th album, Haunted By You in 2012. Read more.
Growing up in Lexington, KY, Kent Blazy became musically inspired when he heard Roger McGuinn playing “Mr. Tambourine Man.” By the mid-70s, Kent was band leader, playing guitar and touring with Canadian legend Ian Tyson. A first place win in a national songwriting contest persuaded him to move to Nashville in 1980, and in 1987, Kent was introduced to Garth Brooks. The first song Garth and Kent penned together was “If Tomorrow Never Comes,” which became their first #1 song. Read more.
The holiday season, especially the golden month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, is the most lucrative time of the year for retail sales. As an independent musician, it can be a time for you to move a ton of product – professionally manufactured CDs, merch, and more. There are many ways to take advantage of this time of the year, and our new guide answers questions about how to prepare your order and make your new release something special for the holidays.
Read more and download your FREE PDF.
Our latest recording studio guide, The Art of Running A Successful Recording Studio: Advice and Insights From Studio Pros, focuses on how professional studios can better navigate the waters in the new music industry. Eight of our esteemed Disc Makers Studio Partners offered excellent content for the guide, including what they see as the qualities to success in the recording studio business. Read more.
The Home Studio Handbook includes material from our popular home recording studio guides – plus we’ve added a wealth of additional recording tips. Our new guide starts with vital information on how to make your own home recording studio – whether it’s a professional A-room or a budget-conscious home recording studio setup – and ends with creating a great mix. The 40-page Home Studio Handbook is free and available for download now! Read more.
What is dithering?
In your English class, to "dither" means to act nervously or indecisively. When we’re talking about digital audio and home studio recording, dithering is the process of adding noise to the audio signal. Adding noise, you say? Why would you want add noise? Basically, it’s a trade — low-level hiss in exchange for a reduction in distortion when you convert 24 bit to 16 bit audio to transfer to a CD. Read more.
If you sing without a vocal warm up, you can encounter all sorts of problems. Warming up is very much about relaxing and preparing the muscles and mechanisms for what they are about to do, and it is also about getting your mind and body into the flow of breathing correctly – which will ultimately help you sing better.
Read more and download your free guide today.
In addition to your microphones, DAW/console, and room, an essential part of any home music studio set-up is your audio signal processing gear. From the dynamics control of compressors, limiters, and gates to the effects processing of reverb and delay, these tools are integral to producing a professional-sounding audio product. Read more and download your free guide today.
If you’re putting your media kit together and need advice on your press release, marketing strategy, publicity campaigns, and EPK, we’ve got it. When you’re ready to create the perfect sales pitch for your indie band, here are some expert blog posts that will help you get your marketing campaigns and press kit in order. Read more.
For the recording enthusiast who has endeavored to outfit space in his/her home for the purpose of recording music, step two is amassing the studio gear for the task at hand. And yes, recording equipment and accessories are much more affordable than ever, but you’re still going to spend a chunk of money before you’re ready to hang a shingle and call your buddies over to record at your project studio.
While most bands would like to have a marketing plan and budget that would allow them to promote their latest album on TV, radio, and billboards, it’s more likely you have just enough to print up posters for your next gig. And yet, indie musicians can get the kind of attention that can build a real fan base and help make a career in music with the right songs and the right marketing strategies and promotional approach. Read more and download your FREE guide.
The dividing line between what used to be referred to as “home studio” vs. “professional” recording gear is barely discernable – and the performance and specs of nearly all of the contenders in the home recording marketplace are now near parity. As a result, the differences that distinguish one model from another are often the user interface, the quality of tech support, and whether or not there’s an established user base that can offer ideas and tips for how best to use any particular system. Read more.