Mega Music Talent

Posts Tagged ‘recording’

CD Description
Including eight years of groundbreaking recordings, the Beatles Stereo Box Set contains the individual albums, as well as a two CD Past Masters collection of non-album tracks. Painstakingly remastered over four years by a team of dedicated studio engineers at the legendary Abbey Road studios, they utilised vintage studio equipment in conjunction with state of the art modern recording technology to bring the catalogue to the highest fidelity it has seen since its origi (more…)

Amazon.co.uk Review
Strummmmm! That dramatic guitar chord that kicks of A Hard Day’s Night (album, song, movie) still jumps right out at you, slaps you in the face, and jump-starts your heart. And you know what? Both the music and the film are still as crisp and lively as they were in 1964. Of course, only the first seven songs are actually in the movie (and they are the strongest of the bunch, from the rousing rock & roll of title track and the hit single “Can’t Buy Me Love”, to th (more…)

CD Description
Packaged together on CD for the first time, ‘Past Masters Vol.1 & 2′ gathers singles, oddities and B-sides, saving the dedicated Beatlemaniac considerable time. VOLUME ONE covers the first half of the Beatles career from 1962 to 1965, while VOLUME TWO deals with 1965 to 1970.Such was the enormous success of the Fab Four’s breakout singles “She Loves You” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand” that their vocals were recut for German versions (“Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” and “Si (more…)

Amazon.co.uk Review
Their first-ever album, Please Please Me is raw and rough and still very rock & roll. Having already scored two hits when this appeared, Lennon and McCartney were only just beginning to flex their writing muscles and so relied heavily on the cover material to see them through. Their insecurity about their own abilities seems curious in hindsight since they’d pulled the title song and “I Saw Her Standing There” (with thanks to Little Richard) out of their ha (more…)

Straying from his usual soulful crooning about ladies and love, Usher is tackling politics in his new music. The R&B singer attended President Barack Obama’s inauguration and told http://MTV.com that he dedicated a new song (which will appear on his forthcoming new album) to the voter-registration process. Usher took the stage at the “We Are One” inaugural concert in Washington D.C. the Sunday prior to the inauguration of our 44th president and said his political experience over the past few years has positively impacted his music, revealing more about the song: “I did a song that I dedicated to the voter-registration process called ‘Hush.’ [It is] primarily a saying, ‘If you’re not going to do anything about it, then hush.’ Consider it community service-you physically taking time out of your day to go stand on a line. Because a lot of people, it was hard for them. But making that choice to go and vote could make a difference.”

Usher was first plucked out of Atlanta obscurity (a talent show) by a La Face record exec and asked to audition for La Face co-founder L.A. Reid when he was just 14. Born Usher Raymond, the fledgling singer stripped down his name to simply “Usher” and released his eponymous debut album in 1994. P. Diddy (who went by Sean Combs back then) was on the production team and the album’s lead single “Think of You” garnered Usher instant recognition. Usher recorded a national Coca-Cola holiday jingle and released a duet with Monica all before graduating from high school and then issued his sophomore album My Way in 1997.”You Make Me Wanna,” the lead single from My Way, was a hit and “Nice & Slow” and “My Way” followed suit, making Usher R&B’s ‘It Boy.’ Around this time, Usher tried his hand at acting with roles in 1998′s The Faculty and 1999′s Light It Up while continuing to deliver to his music audience with the concert recording Live in 1999. His third full-length album 8701 followed in 2001 and three years later Usher scored with the club anthem “Yeah!,” which featured Ludacris and was produced by Lil Jon.

In 2004 Usher received a Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B Album for his fourth album Confessions, a decade after he first appeared on the music scene. The dreamy singer-turned-actor starred in the 2005 film In the Mix before releasing his most recent album, 2008′s Here I Stand. “Hush” will appear on Usher’s in-the-works album, which is the follow-up to 2008′s platinum-selling effort Here I Stand. Usher previously told http://Billboard.com that he wants his next album to be a “worldwide entertainment experience,” revealing that he wants to record with artists in studios across the globe. Thus far, Usher has clocked studio time in Las Vegas and has confirmed collaborations with Pharrell Williams and Maroon 5′s Adam Levine. Usher’s second son, Naviyd Ely Raymond, was born in December; he is married to stylist Tameka Foster. Check out http://www.stubhub.com/usher-tickets for Usher tickets.

Author Bio: This article is sponsored by StubHub and was written by Kirby Brooks. StubHub.com is a leader in the business of selling Usher tickets, sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and special events tickets.

Category: Entertainment
Keywords: Usher, music, concert, tickets

CD Description
From Please Please Me to the White Album, all the original Beatles mixes are represented here in full, glorious mono! The Past Masters CD has been recreated as Mono Masters to properly reflect this period. This set duplicates the Past Masters track listing with the exception of those tracks that only ever appeared in stereo. However, as an added bonus, five tracks, never previously released in mono, are included in the package. These are “Only A Northern Song”, “All T (more…)

Most groups often feel that getting signed by or being offered a recording contract is the ultimate goal of their musical career. In some cases this can be true but frequently it can be the start of a whole new bunch of issues that no artist could ever foresee or want.

These days a recording contract is nothing more than a a large sum of money to be recouped by the recording company through sales of your product. If it doesn’t sell to expectation you still have to pay the money back somehow. Music companies are a business and they are there to make money not lose it. It is no different than going to a bank and getting a loan to market your music your self, except the recording companies have the methods to make the product sell, get airplay and distribute the product throughout the country or even the world. Recording companies loan you the money to make the music and get their money back by distributing it. Typically artists make a small fraction on CDs- most of the money comes through merchandise and tours.

If you can get a recording company to get behind your music, that’s good. But beware of recording companies who try to influence and change your sound, often to the point of rewriting your songs and even changing members of your band or, worse still forcing you to record songs made by other peoples.

Here are some horror stories that can happen to musicians who get signed and think they are on their way to fill stadiums around the world.

Getting shelved!

A band gets signed, gets some money advanced for recording. The songs are recorded and completed but the record company ‘shelves’ your act and you never sees the light of day but you can’t take your product anywhere else because you are already signed. Often you can’t even play live gigs without giving a % of your performance fee to the record company. This happened to Billy Joel who waited his five year contract out playing in piano bars.

The song gets changed.

Often you will be all ready to record your songs and the record company will bring in a co-writer or producer who alters your compositions beyond all recognition to “fit in with label’s style.” You started to make a hard rock album and you end up with a rap album with all your instruments removed and samples replacing them. You thought you were Metallica only to end up like Jack Johnson. Then you have to go and promote something you really hate and your product is no longer recognizable.

Where did all the money go?

Beware the big advance of money, to make and promote your music. If it doesn’t sell you will have to pay the money back, with interest, just like the banks. How do you pay it back? Live gigs, touring, radio shows, shopping centers for the next ten years. How do all those artists who make millions of dollars end up bankrupt? All the bills they didn’t know they had to pay. They had so much fun, they never watched where the money was going. Read the fine print so you don’t end up like MC Hammer.

Where did my band go?

Quite often musical differences between band members and record companies are solved by the company getting rid of and replacing any member of the band who doesn’t agree with them. They are always trying to get work for their own players and artists who have already been signed. Quite often you will find all your guitar player’s work re-recorded by the studio guy or producer to fit in with the label’s sound or smooth over tensions within the band.

I thought I was a musician not a pop star.

Increasingly recording companies are trying to “cross media” any act in anyway they can. They will market you anyway they can, and they will get you to do things to increase your and their exposure any way they can. You may end up on dog food commercial, on big brother or, god forbid, on Australian Idol. Many recording companies are just offshoots of the big media groups who control TV, radio, music, and the print media, and they will market you anyway they see fit to re-coup their investment in you. Most musicians have a short shelf life so companies want to maximize their profit now before the public listens to the next big thing. (We’ve all heard of the sophomore slump!)

Remember that the music business is 95% business and 5% music. Try to go independent if you can, promote yourself on the web at sites like Axebay and build your own presence in the world. The more successful you are in the beginning the more bargaining power you have with the recording companies. If you do get an offer, get a good lawyer. You don’t want to waste five years in piano bars.

Author Bio: Matt Kepnes is a guitar worshiper who lives and breathes guitars. Check out his website at Axebay. There you can find a lot of information on used guitars and guitar tuners.