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Cameron Landers is a sound engineer, software engineer, vocalist, songwriter and performing musician. He has formed and fronted live bands and trubute shows and has performed all over the western U.S. circuits.

Cameron's Studio is a sound and media engineering lab that serves all your music and audio needs. Combining state-of-the-art digital equipment, the latest software and tools with decades of sound engineering expertise, Cameron provides expert multi-track recording, mixing and mastering services.

Cameron produces radio-quality demos, singles, albums and EPs. He also produces original music for TV, radio, film, commercials, corporate presentations and more. He can create and edit YouTube videos and produce custom backing tracks for bands, live performances and events of all kinds.

Click the "Contact" link in the menu above if you would like to get in touch.

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Articles:

How Sound Engineering Can Boost Your Brand +

Tunecore Exclusivity And Youtube Ad Revenue +

Is the Shure SM58 the best performance microphone? +

AI in Sound Engineering: The Future of Music Production +

How Sound Engineering Can Boost Your Brand

In a world increasingly saturated with visual stimuli, it's easy to overlook the profound influence of audio on perception and behavior. Research suggests that sound plays a crucial role in how we experience brands. As a result, investing in high-quality audio engineering services is an essential strategy for enhancing your brand identity.

Sound plays a crucial role in shaping brand identity.

Just as visual branding uses visual elements, sonic branding uses sound to evoke emotions, create memories, and strengthen the connection between a brand and its audience. Audio engineering services, which involve the technical and creative manipulation of sound, are key to crafting a brand's sonic identity.

Consistency and creativity in audio branding can enhance brand perception, increase recognition, and improve engagement. As such, investing in professional audio engineering services is a strategic move for any brand seeking to stand out in today's competitive marketplace. To leverage the power of sound in your brand identity, consider investing in our professional audio engineering services.

Audio engineering refers to the application of technical expertise to the creation, manipulation, and production of sound. This discipline covers numerous areas, including music, film, television, and live events. In the context of branding, audio engineering helps to shape and reinforce the sonic identity of your brand, making it more memorable and distinctive.

This article will guide you through the reasons why audio engineering services are an essential investment for your brand identity.

The Power of Sound in Branding

Just as visual identity employs colors, shapes, and images to evoke particular emotions or associations, sonic branding uses sound. From the melodic chimes of Windows startup to the iconic roar of MGM's lion, sound can evoke powerful emotions, create lasting memories, and build a stronger connection between a brand and its audience.

Sound creates an emotional connection that goes beyond the conscious mind. It is an integral part of our lives, influencing our mood, triggering memories, and even guiding our decisions. This emotional influence can be harnessed by brands to craft a powerful and unique sonic identity, reinforcing their overall brand identity.

The Role of Audio Engineering in Branding

Audio engineering services are key to creating a brand's sonic identity. Whether it's designing the perfect jingle, enhancing voiceover quality in commercials, or creating immersive soundscapes for interactive media, audio engineers have the expertise and tools to help your brand stand out from the crowd.

Precision and Consistency

In audio branding, consistency is just as important as in visual branding. The sonic elements used must be of high quality and consistent across different media and platforms. Audio engineers ensure that your brand's sonic identity maintains a consistent quality and character, whether it's being played on a car radio, a smartphone, or a home theater system.

Creativity and Uniqueness

Audio engineering isn't just about technical precision – it's also about creativity. Audio engineers can help your brand create a distinctive and unique sound, one that captures your brand's personality and differentiates it from competitors. With their expertise in sound design and music production, audio engineers can craft memorable and impactful sonic experiences.

How Investing in Audio Engineering Boosts Your Brand Identity

Investing in professional audio engineering services can boost your brand identity in several ways:

Enhanced Perception: High-quality, professionally produced sound improves the perception of your brand. It signals a commitment to quality and attention to detail, which can strengthen your reputation and build trust with your audience.
Increased Recognition: A unique and memorable sonic brand can increase brand recognition. Every time your sonic signature plays, it reinforces your brand identity in the mind of your audience.
Improved Engagement: Sound can enhance engagement with your brand, particularly in the digital realm. From interactive ads to augmented reality experiences, immersive sound design can create more engaging and memorable experiences for your audience.

Conclusion

In a world where brands compete for attention, audio engineering services can be a game-changer for your brand identity. It's no longer just about what your brand looks like, but also how it sounds. Investing in professional audio engineering services can help your brand create a stronger emotional connection, achieve greater recognition, and stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Seize The Moment.

Don't let your brand get lost in the visual noise. It's time to leverage the power of sound to enhance your brand identity. Invest in our professional audio engineering services today and experience the transformative effect of quality sound on your brand. Contact us to schedule a consultation and discover how we can elevate your brand's sonic identity.

Tunecore Exclusivity And Youtube Ad Revenue

This discussion is about digital music distributors who are also publishers. I decided to post this in case some artists may not be aware of the exclusive nature of the agreements surrounding some of these services, particularly with respect to ad revenue on YouTube.

Let's first take a look at some stats. Tunecore, INDMusic, CD Baby and Rumblefish are the top music distribution services that also offer publishing services. Here is a quick rundown of their market share.

As of this writing:

Tunecore has roughly 20,000 songwriters signed up with their service. Their catalog contains roughly 250,000 songs.
CD Baby has over 31,000 songwriters signed up for their "Pro" service. Their catalog contains roughly 145,000 songs.

These two services easily represent most of the market share--more than all others combined. We'll stick with Tunecore as our primary example in this article, although many of the issues described here apply to both.

What is the difference between publishing and distribution?

Distribution, in the context of this discussion simply means distributing your music to retail outlets like iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and many other online retail outlets, or even brick and mortar stores for that matter. This has nothing to do with publishing.

Publishing means to actively promote your music to target markets. Publishing (in this independent artist context) includes all aspects of marketing, branding and promoting your music, in many ways similar to book publishing.

Publishing includes placing ads in various online venues on your behalf, and/or providing you with tools that enable you to do so. Publishing services may also include synch licensing, which means promoting your music for use within program content on TV and in film, such as scenes, themes and credit rolls, scores and underscores, TV commercials, video games and any other such placements where your music is "synchronized" to video, motion pictures or other visual imagery.

Sync licensing placements may or may not utilize your entire song--many placements in which original music is licensed only utilize a few seconds of the given music composition. I’ll post a more in-depth article on synch licensing. For now, we’ll leave it at that.

Down to the brass tacks:

The purpose of publishing is generally to create a market for your music, to make the public aware of your music and to promote your music to your chosen target audience.

The purpose of distribution is simply to establish a pipeline through which your audience can access and purchase your music.

More generally, you could say:

Publishing is how people find out about your music.

Distribution is how you get your music to the outlets where people can buy it.

The rest of this article is specific to the use of your original music in videos posted on YouTube--whether it's your own videos, or videos posted by others.

Now, let's get back to our Tunecore example and the real reason for this article.

Tunecore offers YouTube publishing as part of its Tunecore Publishing Administration service. On YouTube, this becomes an exclusive representation agreement in the context of collecting royalties and disbursing ad revenue.

This means when you sign up for Tunecore's "YouTube Publishing Service", Tunecore becomes the exclusive publisher for your music on YouTube. Many songwriters do not realize this when they sign up for the service. Later, when a Tunecore artist tries to post videos on YouTube that contain his own songs, only then does he find out that his songs are under an exclusive agreement.

Because Tunecore takes exclusive ownership of the Youtube publishing of your music, Tunecore registers your music under their name in YouTube's Content ID system.

Artists uploading and attempting to monetize their own videos containing their own songs on YouTube have been seeing YouTube Content ID notices. In most cases, YouTube will still allow them to monetize those videos, but when they do, Tunecore gets the ad revenue generated by those videos. In other, worse cases, YouTube may completely disallow monetization of the video.

Let's take a look at both cases, one at a time:

Case #1:
YouTube shows a Content ID message when you try to monetize your own video containing only your own music.

The Content ID message says you are attempting to monetize material in conflict with an existing copyright. The message also says you may go ahead and monetize the video, and that the copyright holder has agreed to allow this.

This happened because you signed up for Tunecore publishing, and you submitted that song to Tunecore. When you did that, Tunecore registered your song with YouTube. In the registration, Tunecore stated that they own all YouTube publishing rights for your material.

Sometimes, when an artist sees the above YouTube Content ID message pop up, telling them that they are attempting to monetize copyrighted material, they get pretty annoyed--because it is, after all, their own material! And because an artist may not realize they signed an exclusive agreement for YouTube publishing when they signed up for Tunecore publishing, they naturally file a Content ID dispute with YouTube, which is the only recourse they are given.

Next, YouTube promptly sends Tunecore a notice that their Content ID claim has been disputed. Tunecore investigates the claim, and determines that in fact (because you signed up for Tunecore Publishing) Tunecore does own the rights to YouTube publishing for your song. Tunecore cites evidence of this to YouTube, and they win.

YouTube doesn't know you, and they don't really want to get in the middle of this. All they know is, Tunecore is the publisher on record in YouTube's Content ID system, and they have validated their claim. So YouTube sides with Tunecore.

Instead of filing a Content ID dispute, what happens if you (the artist) just go ahead and monetize the video?

If you monetize the video under these circumstances, then going forward, YouTube (via Google Adsense) will pay Tunecore all the ad revenue ever generated by the video, since they are the registered publisher entity on record for the song.

This is where most artists start to see red...

Case #2:
YouTube does not allow you to monetize your video at all.

The YouTube Content ID message indicates that the video cannot be monetized due to multiple conflicting claims against the copyright. This happens when multiple parties (probably only you and Tunecore) have filed disputes over Content ID claims to the music contained in your video. You will start seeing this message a few days after you submit your claim dispute when Case #1 above happens to you.

YouTube will only ever allow one entity to monetize and collect ad revenue from a video. So when more than one party claims copyright, YouTube's de facto policy is to throw their hands up, and disable monetization for that video until God or somebody sorts it out.

Bottom line: Caveat Emptor when it comes to Tunecore's publishing administration service.

One might argue that regardless of exclusivity, Tunecore can get you more ad revenue and more synch licensing placements than you could ever get on your own. My answer is, I doubt that.

All these services--Tunecore/INDMusic, CD Baby/Rumblefish and many others distribute to the same "outlets". Some of the smaller services claim to distribute to more stores, but I question whether those extra stores matter much, since the 80 or so top online retail outlets cover more than 99% of online sales.

I'm also not sure Tunecore can get your music placed any better than anyone else, nor am I convinced that they actively promote your music to music supervisors for synch licensing placements, as they claim to do. I can't prove this, but I would bet that just as they are exploiting YouTube's INDMusic network capabilities to grab all the ad revenue from all uses of your music in videos, they are likely just adding your music to their so-called "Exclusive Sync & Licensing Database", rather than actively pitching your music to anyone. Note the word "Exclusive" there. They mean it.

Please consider this just my opinion. I have no data to back it up, other than a ton of complaints all over the music blogs and music industry discussion groups wherein artists have been getting YouTube Content ID notices on their own videos, and didn't realize that signing up for the Tunecore Publishing Administration service resulted in an exclusive agreement.

Note that Tunecore's exclusive agreement only applies to music used on Youtube or in sync licensing placements that come through their library or (supposedly) their active pitching efforts. You are still free to pitch those songs to other opportunities, but be aware many libraries and publishers will need to know about your exclusive arrangement on YouTube with Tunecore, and it might affect their desire to do business with you.

You can "whitelist" your own channel when you sign up for Tunecore Publishing. If you do that, Tunecore says they won't claim the revenue generated by your own YouTube channel. But they will still take the ad revenue from other people's videos that contain any piece of your music. So that doesn't solve the over-arching problem of exclusivity, which is not prominently covered when you sign up for Tunecore publishing--meaning you have to dig deep in the TOS to discover it.

Worse yet, some artists that only used Tunecore distribution to get their music on iTunes, etc. are getting their YouTube videos flagged by Content ID. This is happening because INDMusic (the YouTube partner network that provides the capability of scanning YouTube for copyrighted Music) discovers that your songs are on both iTunes and in Tunecore's database. Apparently the distinction between Tunecore artists that only signed up for iTunes distribution and those who actually agreed to the Tunecore Publishing Administration service for YouTube is not all that clear to the INDMusic algorithms.

If you're not confused by now, you're in the minority. Is that their intention? Maybe.

There is so much more to this than I can write here. If you have specific questions, send me an e-mail or post them on my Youtube channel (search "Cameron Landers" on YouTube), and I will try to answer them.

Is the Shure SM58 the best performance microphone?

You may have heard the reports that Bono (lead vocalist of the band, U2) uses a plain old Shure SM58 microphone, which we all know has been the "tried-and-true" performance microphone preferred by thousands of musicians for decades.

In fact, Bono recently revealed that he not only uses an SM58 for live performance, but he even uses an SM58 for recording his records in the studio! If that seems to conflict with everything sound engineers and studio pundits have always told you, you're not alone in noticing that.

The Shure SM58 has enjoyed a great reputation as a reliable, all-around general performance microphone, and it has lived up to that reputation for decades. There are better live performance microphones, but not in the SM58's price range.

This article is about my move to a better performance microphone, after decades of performing with the old faithful SM58.

If you're not ready to spend the money, my advice is to stay with the Shure SM58. It is in fact still one of the most realiable, high-quality performance microphones in its price range in my opinion.

After many years as a front man doing live shows, singing into SM58 microphones (both wired and wireless versions), I decided to spend some time testing and evaluating many of the latest microphones, across all price ranges. I won't bore everyone with a brand-by-brand comparison. If you want that, let me know. If I get a lot of requests for such a comparison, I'll publish one.

In recent years, after having evaluated lots of different performance microphones, I finally moved from the Shure SM58 to the wireless version of the Shure BETA 87a. Due to my experience with the Beta 87a, I have to say I will never go back to the SM58. The remainder of this article is my attempt at explaining why I feel that way.

The first thing most people will notice with the Beta 87a is that it reproduces every tiny detail of your phrasing—perhaps more detail than you may want—until you give it some time. Once you have worked with this microphone for a few weeks or months, you begin to realize how hearing this much detail actually benefits you as a vocalist.

If you try this microphone and it makes you feel like you're “under a microscope”, it's because you are hearing a lot of the details of your phrasing and your tone that you have never heard before. My advice is, you need to get over that, and get used to it. If you force yourself to keep using the 87a, it will make you a better live vocalist.

There are lazy habits that many of us singers don't even realize we have developed-- the results of which can't even be heard on an SM58. And that's how those habits formed in the first place. Over time, we learn to depend on certain subtle aspects of our singing being “lost in the mix”.

That's like using a crutch. Once that “protection” is gone, and nothing is being covered up in the mud of the mix, you hear everything, right down to the last detail. You can hear every breath, all your 2.5k sibilance, all the variations of your tone as you hold notes, slightly sharp and flat harmonics, every aspect of your attack and decay on each note, etc. It's all there for you to hear—good and bad!

Even the most subtle aspects of phrasing and syllabic articulation will come through clearly on the 87a. I'm talking about lazy phrasing and muddled transitions that were being covered up in the mix when I was using the SM58. I discovered bad habits that the Beta 87a has since forced me to correct!

I felt like the 87a game me almost the level of detail in my live performances that I normally only hear in a studio setting. Being able to hear that much detail has improved my vocals, and it has also given me increased confidence. What I hear now is unquestionably better. And so is what the audience is hearing.

If you want to give the 87a a legitimate try, you must spend the time to get used to its in-your-face accuracy. I mean, really spend some significant time working with it and don't be discouraged. Hiding your subtle misgivings in the mix is only fooling yourself. The best thing to do is face them and correct them. You'll be glad you did!

It will make you feel like the first time you ever heard your vocals recorded in the studio and played back with the rude solo switch engaged. It's that clear, and (dare I say) that honest. That can be uncomfortable, if not embarrassing... that's why it's called the “rude solo” switch. But it's worth it. You need that honesty. In these days and times, when pitch correction is running rampant in songs on the radio, I'll say that again: You need that honesty.

But wait, there's more. This microphone cuts through the mix and lets you stand out on top of even the most complex back-lines. You can be heard in crisp, yet full-range detail, even when singing through a mix of horns, keys, big drums, percussion, multiple guitars, etc., even when you're singing low, subtle detail parts.

You'll require less channel equalization, if any. You'll get more of your natural sound. It also forces you to be more aware of managing your microphone distance at all times, and if you master that, so should also require less compression.

Unidirectional Versus Multi-directional Microphones

Some microphones, especially those used to amplify a group of singers such as a choir, are intentionally designed not to be “directional”. This is for applications where you want to pick up a wide area, such as a group of singers in a choir. You need a multi-directional microphone for that application. Usually condenser microphones, rather than dynamic microphones are chosen for that purpose. Not only are they less directional, but condenser microphones can more accurately reproduce sounds that are farther away from the microphone.

A "unidirectional" microphone on the other hand, is a better choice for use on a single vocalist, or a single instrument where it may be undesirable to pick up other sounds within close proximity to the target.

Some of this is determined by the baffle system and cover design, although there are design aspects of the inside element that make a microphone more or less directional as well.

If you take all of that out of the picture and assume those aspects are equal, then in general, one might say condenser microphones tend to have more “bleed” characteristics than dynamic microphones. But like any generalization we can make, there are exceptions to this, and it ultimately depends on the microphone.

Microphone placement and modulation style is a huge factor in the perceived sound quality and natural voice tone reproduction. Learning to properly modulate a microphone is something for which there is no substitution, regardless of the microphone used.

Most outdoor venues are so noisy that the amount of clarity and tone improvement you can hear between microphones can be hard to discern from the perspective of the audience, especially once the sound engineer realizes how much “hotter” your blessed Beta 87a or KSM9 microphone is than the others, and he backs you down in the mix.

The amount of discernible quality improvement between either of those microphones and an SM58 is easier to hear in a controlled setting, such as an indoor venue. The SM58 sounds “muddy” compared to a Beta 87a or KSM9. As well, the SM58 does not have nearly the frequency response overall that these other two microphones have. These other microphones are just plain hotter, meaning they cut through the mix a lot more, allowing your vocals to stand out.

Here's how you can prove that:

On your mixer, if you set the EQ for the SM58's channel so that it sounds good when you sing through it while the whole band is playing, and then you unplug the SM58 and plug in a Beta 87a or KSM9 without changing anything on the mixing board (except for engaging the required phantom power switch), you will experience an immediate, giant wave of feedback that might even annoy the Pope from a show in California.

This happens because these modern condenser microphones have so much hotter frequency response across the whole applicable spectrum (and consequently more gain) than the SM58. What's more, you don't typically need to EQ these microphones at all.

Both the Beta 87a and the KSM9 microphones reproduce vocals with wonderful, full-range clarity out of the box. The reason I chose the Beta 87a instead of the KSM9 is the 117 dB dynamic range and low distortion characteristics of the Beta 87a, not to mention that it's about a 3x cheaper price. The KSM9 offers switchable supercardioid and cardioid polar patterns, which is cool, but it's something I don't happen to need. I'd rather have fewer potential points of failure, and I value the wider dynamic range. The Beta 87a also boasts a lower susceptibility to RFI and electromagnetic hum, which can be a hindrance in a live venue setting.

Any EQ settings that need to change might consist of cutting frequencies to match room characteristics if you're indoors, or to account for other items in the signal chain that might influence your natural sound, but you should not need to boost any frequencies.

Outdoor versus indoor venues

You can discern the quality difference if you're paying attention to it, even in a noisy outdoor venue. But you'll really notice the difference in your monitors. And if your monitor is a good set of in-ears, the quality and clarity is like night and day difference when you plug in a Beta 87a or KSM9.

It's amazing how much of the sound is sapped away in a wide open outdoor venue. All that open air and ambient wind noise really dissipates the sound quickly. It's just harder for speakers to vibrate air molecules through wind. Even the slightest breeze can make a big difference in carrying sound.

That's why it always takes a lot more amplifiers and more speakers to push an outdoor venue than it does for the same audience size indoors. The confines of the room will trap the sound and allow it to carry better. There is also less ambient white noise and less air rushing around indoors. Outdoors, the sound just sort of goes POOF, and quickly dissipates.

Update: I Just Changed Microphones Again!

Yes, it's true. As much as I loved the difference when I moved from the SM58 to the Beta 87A, a friend and fellow sound engineer introduced me to the Audix OM6 recently. I became so impressed after trying it in a live show, that it is now my gotta-have-it performance microphone!

What's more, I use it for recording in the studio as well. Not for speaking, but definitely for singing. It so freaking clear and crisp that it's an obvious and amazing upgrade to my signal quality, even compared to the Beta 87a or the 3x more expensive KSM9.

AI in Sound Engineering: The Future of Music Production

The world of music production and sound engineering is constantly evolving. New technologies and innovations seem to be continually raising the bar. In the past year or a bit more, one of the most significant game-changers to hit the audio world is artificial intelligence (AI). AI technologies are revolutionizing sound engineering and music production in ways that were previously not even within the realm of possibility. In the areas of recording, mixing, sound processing, mastering and digital audio workstation (DAW) plugins, AI is seeping in and making waves.

We'll take a deep dive here into the exciting world of AI and its profound influence on the sound engineering industry and the awesome experience of what AI makes possible in music production today.

AI for Recording

First, let's have a look at AI in the recording space. The recording process, a crucial first step in the production of any piece of music, has traditionally been sufficiently complex that it requires an acute understanding of thing like acoustics, microphone placement, and dozens of other things that experienced sound engineers know. Today, AI technologies are beginning to drastically simplify and even elevate the quality of the recording process.

As a conventional vocalist, I'm not a fan of using pitch correction on vocals. But pushing that aside for a moment, let's consider the product, Antares Auto-Tune, the pitch correction tool that in many ways, has transformed contemporary music. Its latest iteration, Auto-Tune Unlimited, has embraced AI. The AI-powered "Auto-Key" feature automatically detects the key and scale of the music, removing the tedious process of manually setting the pitch reference for your tracks. For those who do use this tool, this isn't just a time-saver; it's a tool that helps maintain consistency and accuracy across the project, allowing the sound engineer to focus more on the creative aspects of the music.

Now let's look at Izotope Spire Studio, an AI-driven smart recording device. This is another shining example of AI in recording. Spire Studio offers an AI-based Soundcheck feature that listens to your performance, identifies the instrument you're playing, and then applies a custom mix. This tool is powerful in optimizing recording levels and tone, essentially offering a simplified and more streamlined recording workflow, particularly for newer indie artists or those new to sound engineering, who may be less experienced at mixing. The benefits? No more tedious adjustments or concerns about peaking levels during an inspired performance. That's the advantage AI provides.

AI in Mixing

Next, let's look at how AI fits into multi-track mixing. Mixing is a complex and time-consuming process. It is a crucial stage in music production where we balance individual elements, adjust timbres, and add depth and space to the tracks. This delicate balance can make or break the entire vibe of your music. There are new AI-based tools emerging that can reshape the mixing process by offering unprecedented accuracy and consistency, making the mix engineer's workflow a lot smoother and less time-consuming.

Consider the Mixing Station X Air app, which uses AI to automate the mixing process. This is an Android app that helps musicians and bands create mixes on the fly. It works by analyzing the audio signals from each instrument, automatically adjusting the volume levels to maintain a balanced mix. This is particularly useful in live situations where you might have to manage numerous tracks simultaneously. It's like having a co-engineer that never misses a beat.

There is also an innovative platform called LANDR. It's an AI-powered platform that offers an automated mastering service. Using machine learning algorithms, LANDR analyzes your track, identifies all the sonic elements, and applies signal processing techniques such as equalization, compression, and limiting. It basically mimics the decisions a human engineer would make. The result is a polished and balanced mix that's mastered really well compared to what a novice could do on his own.

Another incredible tool in a modern AI mixing toolkit is Izotope Neutron. This is an AI-based mixing assistant that listens to your tracks, identifies the instruments, and then suggests custom presets to achieve a balanced mix. It's like having a seasoned sound engineer by your side, helping you make nuanced decisions to attain the best sound.

AI for Mastering

There are also AI tools that are used in signal processing in the Mastering context. Mastering is the final stage of music production. It's where the magic really happens - adding that final polish to make a good track sound great, setting the optimum loudness without over-modulation, etc. Mastering has traditionally been considered an art form, requiring years of experience and specific, dedicated gear that until very recently, was done exclusively on expensive hardware. However, AI is breaking down these barriers, making this complex process more accessible to everyone.

For example, there's Izotope Ozone. This is an AI-powered mastering suite. Ozone's Master Assistant uses machine learning to understand the unique characteristics of your final mix track. It suggests a custom starting point for your mastering chain and loudness level. It's a feature that can get you incredibly close to a professionally mastered sound, minus the countless hours of fine-tuning and high cost to hire a mastering studio.

Another player in the AI-innovated mastering arena is a tool called Emastered. By analyzing thousands of professionally mastered tracks over time, this AI tool has learned how to apply processing such as EQ, compression, and stereo widening for optimization. This powerful AI tool can master your final mixes quickly and efficiently, bringing them up to a level acceptable for production release as a "radio quality" master.

AI in Digital Audio Workstation Software

Now, let's look at the implications of AI in Digital Audio Workstations or DAWs. These days, digital audio workstation software is at the heart of modern music production. As AI continues to emerge onto the scene in the audio world, it is no surprise that many DAWs have started to incorporate AI tools to improve workflow and optimize creativity.

Steinberg Cubase for instance, has an AI drum replacement feature that can automatically replace drum sounds in a mix. This can be a huge time saver, eliminating the need for manual retakes or triggering samples.

Similarly, Apple's Logic Pro has a Drummer plugin that uses AI to create realistic drum tracks based on the user's instructions. It can adjust the rhythm and feel based on the other tracks in your project, essentially behaving like a real, responsive drummer. It's pretty amazing. I have used it myself.

You might also have a look at the Tracktion Waveform Free DAW, which also has embraced AI. It offers several AI-powered features, such as a chord companion, arranger track, and pattern generator. These tools can be great aids in songwriting and arranging, suggesting chord progressions, creating song structures, and generating musical patterns for songwriters trying to come up with new ideas.

Wrapping Up

Artificial intelligence is ushering in a new era in music production and sound engineering. From the initial recording phase all the way through final mastering, AI tools are transforming the music production landscape, enabling unprecedented accuracy, efficiency, and creative freedom.

Are you ready for the power of AI in your music projects? I encourage you to experiment with these AI tools and others, to discover how they might help you achieve your best sound. This is more than just a technological revolution; it's a creative experience as well. That's how I view a lot of this stuff.

Remember, AI in music is a very new thing. I think this is just the beginning of something that will dramatically alter the music scene every bit as much as the emergence of MIDI changed music back in the 80s.

The field of AI in music production is growing at a an alarming rate, with new tools and features being introduced every day. As we continue to explore this new frontier, who knows what amazing innovations will emerge next?

I invite you to continue this journey with me. Check out all of the videos in my Sound Engineering Video Series on my YouTube channel.

This is a series of videos dedicated to sound engineering, wherein we dive into all aspects of music and sound production for bands, musicians, indie artists and performers of all kinds. Don't miss out!

Keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible in music. As music creators, the future of music and sound is in your hands. With the emergence of AI, it's sounding better than ever.

Till our next deep dive, keep experimenting and keep creating. Your best sound is yet to come!