Open More Doors – And Close More Deals!

A New Look At The Low End

Today's post is a guest post from my producer, Gary Gray.  Take it away Gary...

This month, collaborating with one of my students, I was able to help close a 12 song exclusive licensing contract with one of the top Music Licensing Corporations in the world – Megatrax.  My student sent me over some basic fundamental tracks and asked if he could hire me to bring them up to pro standards for submission to Megatrax. After submitting the first two tracks, which I re-wrote, arranged, mixed and mastered, my student received this initial response within 1 hour from Megatrax:

“Man, these sound great!!! I'm gonna have some meetings this week to find out where we are at with me scheduling stuff and the post production bottle necks we have.  If they give me the green light I'll put the contract request in this week or next week. I'll let you know as soon as I do because I'll have to get some info from you and your cowriter.

Talk to you soon!”

Green Light

Within a week, I had the contract in my inbox (the subject of a fascinating future blog on music licensing production – stay tuned!) and the first payments in my bank account. 

I’ve stated before, and I don’t think it’s been any other way than this in the past and I don’t think it will ever change in the future, that “Quality Production (considering your composition is good) wins every time in Music Licensing. As important as networking is (hugely important!), the quality of your tracks, if excellent, will all by itself, open more doors and close more deals than you can count.” 

Here are samples of the two tracks I submitted:

https://soundcloud.com/garygrayproductions/persephone-produced-by-gary-gray

https://soundcloud.com/garygrayproductions/electronic-music-with-soul-for-licensing


My student, Eddie Grey, who himself has started a company called High Frequency Tracks, is an extremely talented and hard-working individual. He sent me a new track that he is submitting today to The Disney Music Group (one of my clients), and asked me for a critique. When I listened to the track, one important, but seemingly very subtle aspect popped out right away, and I responded to him about it in great detail. The subject was so important, though, that I felt it would be vital to share the information in that email with anyone who is looking to improve the quality of their music and the amount of money they are making by licensing their music. See the email below. 

And by the way, Eddie has been doing The Music Licensing Challenge with Aaron Davison. I cannot say enough about how much Aaron and the website he Founded, HowToLicenseYourMusic.com have done to help indie musicians around the world succeed with music licensing. I’m honored and proud to be the resident producer/engineer of HowToLicenseYourMusic, and I can personally point to when my music licensing career started turning around for the better – it was the day I discovered Aaron Davison and HowToLicenseYourMusic.com.

Here is the email:

“To move even closer towards top pro standards, which you are completely capable of doing consistently, here is an additional lesson which is rarely taught to composers, ​songwriters, arrangers, producers, engineers and orchestrators. I learned this by observing some amazing bass players throughout my career, including Jeff Berlin, who was rated the #1 bass player in the world per the Playboy Jazz Poll (I managed him about 10 years ago). 

The bass instrument in almost every style of music is, besides the voice or the lead melody instrument, considered the most important element in a performance, recording, band or ensemble by many composers, band leaders, songwriters and producers. I agree with this viewpoint. 

Why? Because the low end provides both the rhythmic and harmonic backbone upon which the remainder of the musical performance or recording is relying upon. I find that the human ear tends to focus mostly on the top (melody) line of a piece of music and secondarily on the bottom (bass) line. It sort of fills in the remainder as the next priority. 

In performing live with and recording many bass players in studios through the years, I noticed something that the best bass players did that lesser players did not do. 

It seems subtle at first, but when it comes to the final performance or recording -- it's not subtle at all. 

​When practicing a piece of music for a recording or when playing at a rehearsal, I noticed that the best bass players would try two main approaches to each phrase they were playing. 

Approach 1:

When the snare would hit, or when the backbeat would occur (if no snare or no drums were playing), the best bass players would mute their strings right there on that backbeat. Usually, in modern western music, 4/4 time is used, and within the structure of 4/4, usually the backbeat is on beats 2 and 4. So, in 4/4 music, the bass players would experiment with each phrase, or with each measure and decide whether they were going to stop the ringing of their bass notes on beats​ 2 and 4 -- OR. . . 

Approach 2:

They would take a different approach which would be to let the notes ring out on 2 and 4. 

A Combination Of Approaches 1 & 2

It would be fascinating to watch the best players decide if they were going to mute ALL the notes on 2 and 4, NONE of the notes on 2 and 4, or if they were going to selectively and individually decide on each note -- whether to mute it on the backbeat, or whether to let it ring on past the backbeat. 

The FEEL of the music, the OVERALL ARRANGEMENT and the EMOTIONAL RESPONSE I would experience were amazingly different with each approach. That statement is worth repeating, especially since this is not something I’ve seen taught before: The FEEL of the music, the OVERALL ARRANGEMENT and the EMOTIONAL RESPONSE I would experience were amazingly different with each approach.

I started to see this pattern of experimentation and decision making, in only the best bass players. And I started to notice an omission of this pattern in lesser players. 

Even when I tried to get players who were not used to this approach to try it out, they would stumble through a piece and say that it was limiting their ability to "just play naturally."  This is what tipped me off to the fact that this ability is not easy to do. It's an acquired ability for a bass player that takes time, hard work and dedication to attain. 

Good News 

For a producer, engineer, arranger, composer, songwriter and orchestrator, it's much easier to experiment with. That's because non-bass players don't have to PERFORM the parts on a bass guitar, they just have to make the decisions and adjust either their written scores or their audio or midi file editing parameters. 

This can even be true with a Kick Drum track – especially in hip hop, pop and hybrid genres. Even though it's not a BASS LINE per se, the kick drum does offer a low end pitch – WHEN IT CONTAINS AN ELEMENT OF SUSTAIN. Which makes it at once both a percussion instrument and a bass instrument. 

Sometimes I hear the sustain of the kick drum ringing through the same way every time it plays. It's quite possible that you could get even more professional sounding performances and/or recordings by spending some time on your kick drum sustain. 

As a drummer who played under Berry Gordy at Motown, I can tell you that this kick drum concept is not a new concept. Drummers have always been able adjust the sustain on kick drums by either holding their foot down after striking the kick (creating a short, muted sound) or pulling their foot back as soon as it’s struck the kick drum head (allowing a longer, more sustained sound). 

So, with all that said, you can now go through your recordings from beginning to end and experiment with exactly where the sustain of low end instruments are to be muted or not muted. (For bass guitars and bass synths, try to mute the sustain of the low end instruments when the snare hits [or on the backbeat if there are no drums] to begin with).

As a first experiment, try ALL the notes muted when the snares hit, compared with the original track. And then experiment with mixing it up - muting the low end sustain only where you feel notes should be muted and letting them ring where they should be let to ring in your estimation (you make the calls, because you are the artist, and art cannot be taught - no one can "teach" you where to mute the notes or let them ring, that's the joy of creating for you as an artist) -- then you will be stepping up to the next level in your career as a producer, engineer, arranger, composer, songwriter and orchestrator. 

Moving Up Even Higher

To move up to an even higher level, the next step of experimentation and ability would be exactly how long each note should be let to ring (including the possibility of making some notes very very short and some notes even longer than they already are). If you have the focus and patience to become a craftsman with the low end in this way, your music will be more pleasing to you and your listeners -- and you will become more successful in the industry. 

Hope this helps!” 

Gary Gray
February 2016
Los Angeles

I’m always available for you to share your music, questions and successes with me. You can email me at gary@LearnAudioEngineering.net or text 818 536 8742. (818 53 MUSIC) Watch this testimonial video from Eddie Grey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqrr6lDcoyM