Author: Sue Larsen

I am a singer/songwriter who has been performing my own material and cover songs for 40+ years. I am currently working on the production of my first album...getting all ready for distribution. Be well.

by on

It has taken me a while to discover all the ingredients I needed to make better quality mixes and masters. I’m in my 5th year or so of producing my music and I’m not trained in sound engineering. Most of my issues revolve around equalization, cleaning up the middle frequencies and removing resonances…not so much the balance of instruments or making them able to hold their own frequency space in the stereo field. So, let me get to it and recommend some really helpful websites. I have not read all the pages on any site, and you may already know a lot that is shared. But, you may also learn a few extra nuggets to put in your tool chest.

Just to clarify, I am not getting compensated in any way by any website or plugin company.

The first really helpful website is Music Guy Mixing . The site offers mixing and mastering services and trainings, but there is so much there to learn on multiple topics. The second website is Sage Audio. The link goes to one of their articles on creating the best mastering chain using free plugins. From there you can redirect yourself to any area you want to learn about. They also provide mixing and mastering services. Thirdly, Jono Buchanan Music, has a very informative YouTube channel about techniques, plugins native to Logic Pro, and creating space in your mixes. You could be there for hours. He offers courses in mixing and mastering. Good luck with all of the above. Also, through Mastering the Mix, I joined the EQ Academy which is ear training for discerning frequencies and changes. It is an app for your desktop that is like playing a game.

Now on to the most helpful plugins for my setup. Some of these are free and others I paid for. I’ll start with the free ones.

Cableguys – PanCake 2

Bedroom Producers Blog – BPB Saturation

Native Instruments – Ozone 11 Equalizer and Ozone Image 2

Klanghelm – IVGI 2 Asym Saturation

Polyverse Music – Wider 2

Slate Digital – Fresh Air 2

Tokyo Dawn Labs – TDR Koteinkov, Molotok, Nova, Vos SlickEQ

ZL Audio – ZL Equalizer

yg331- JS Inflator

Now to the plugins that require some money.

Tokyo Dawn Labs – TDR SlickEQ Mastering, TDR Kotelnikov GE, and TDR VOS SlickEQ GE

Sonnox – Oxford Limiter I caught this on sale

Celemony – Melodyne 5 Studio I caught this on sale as well

oeksound – Soothe 2 I bought it on sale

Plugin Alliance – Shadow Hills Mastering Compression

Leapwing Audio – StageOne 2 I caught it on sale

Mastering the Mix – Bassroom, Limiter, and Reference

I hope you find some or all of this information helpful. All the best with all you are creating! Sue

by on

It took me 6 songs and 4 years, but I finally did it. I’ve sent all my songs to a radio plugging company named iPluggers and each time I got the stock answer, “It’s not what we are looking for at this time.” Ok, so I sent my last release, “You Don’t Know The Trouble You’ve Caused” figuring I’d read more of the same. But, I didn’t. I received an acceptance letter! I chose this company because they have been around 13 years and they have a promo package that is reasonable. Being a relatively unknown brand, I didn’t want to spend 2-3 thousand on radio promotion. The best known stations tend not to play indie artists. My song was plugged for 4 weeks and it ended up in 14 different countries. It was placed on playlists on a few FM stations and internet stations, but received the most traction with companies that sell music/playlists/stations/custom channels to retail, hotels, resorts, restaurants, professional offices, cable networks, and B2Bs. Now, one of these companies has 400 million subscribers in over 150 countries. One company has 580,000 commercial locations in 41 countries. One runs over 100 radio stations, another has 50,000 locations in 20 countries. You get the picture. I won’t have any idea how often my song is played or where until royalties come in from SoundExchange, which maybe 9 months from now or more. There are services out there that you can pay to track your songs, but since I only have one out there right now, I’ll wait.

So what did I change…yes, I did purchase and add some plugins. Tokyo Dawn Labs has some great free plugins and some you need to pay for. I added their Slick EQ M to help me with mastering and their Slick EQ GE to help me on individual channels in the mix. I also downloaded their free versions of 2 compressors and an EQ. Great sounding transparent plugins. From PluginAlliance I purchased the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor. It is something I am still learning to use. From oeksound, I picked up soothe2. From Mastering the Mix , I added Limiter and Bassroom. I already had Reference2. From Leapwing Audio, I added Stageone 2. Cableguys has a free plugin called PanCake 2, which made my panning less time consuming. Lastly, I upgraded my Melodyne Editor to the Studio version (on sale). What else did I change…me…my propensity to keep parts, patterns, beats, and phrasing predictable. I allowed myself to have more fun with the recording and mixing. I believe also my hearing, my discernment, has improved. My critical listening skills are better. I believe it is a skill that can be continuously improved with dedication and honesty. So, I hope you found this helpful and continue on your creative journey! Best Regards, Sue

by on

I recently did all the administrative pieces for my next single release which is happening August 4th. I had received an email from BDS Virtual Encode that they were no longer going to be handling the monitoring of radio stations and that Mediabase was taking on that aspect near the end of 2022. I had uploaded songs to Mediabase before so I wasn’t too concerned. Now they have a new link and have partnered with Luminate, which used to be Nielson Soundscan. If you are unfamiliar with Mediabase and it’s functions, in a nutshell they monitor terrestrial and satellite radio stations in the US and Canada. The data gathered along with published music charts is provided to radio and record industry folks. So, if you are actively trying to get your material on the air waves, register your songs with Mediabase. You’ll need your UPC, and ISRC numbers. I know I inputted my ISWC number somewhere today…well, have it on hand. If you want to get your songs on the Billboard charts, you will need to register your song title and ISRC number with Luminate. Luminate does analytics on songs, artists, airplay, streaming viewership, etc. actually, just about anything in the entertainment business. Well, sticking to music, their data goes to Billboard and that’s how the charts are created. Luminate has two different links, one for your title registration and one for your ISRC. I had to do a little research to find out who took over who and then find the right links. The page I am linking you to is Luminate’s Knowledge Base page. It has the links for their two Google forms and Mediabase’s New Music Notification page. You will need to upload a metadata free mp3 to Mediabase…no artwork or data. I use the software Kid3 to handle my metadata. It’s free and open source. Here’s the link to get your material registered…at least in a few spots. Support MRC Data All the best and have fun with your creating! Sue

by on

I know in my previous post I wrote that I wasn’t going to change out the songs on the streaming platforms. Well, this whole process has been a learning process so, why not learn some more? I do want to put my best foot forward always and in all ways. So, I decided, what the heck. I did Google what other people’s experiences had been like and thought, they survived, so will I. I use DistroKid as my digital distributor and this is how it went. I deleted the old track. The Hyperfollow page for that track vanished instantly. I uploaded the new remastered track and used the same metadata as the original track. I also used the same release date as the original. A new Hyperfollow page for that track was created within minutes. Within one day the new track was on Spotify and within three days the updated track was on all the playlists that I checked and the old track was gone. I did not lose the stream count of my original track. So, it was swapped out pretty quick. Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer and the rest were not so fast. They took 12 days. That’s not soooo bad. What I really needed to be mindful of was all the places that the link for the older version was and update them. All the pages on websites, store, Linktr.ee, EPK, and my Sue Larsen Hyperfollow page needed updating. The new Hyperfollow page was nearly empty except for the re edited music video and the Spotify link. Other than Spotify and Apple Music you need to find the URL locations on all the other platforms to set up a link wherever you need it. That’s a bit of a drag, but a necessary step to share your music. The finished Hyperfollow page is HERE if you are interested. I do plan on remastering my other previous releases and I will do the same process again.

So, what did I do differently to add life back into my track? I need to point out that it is amazing how my ears and my brain got “used to” or “conditioned” to hearing the song as I originally released it. I thought it sounded good. I did use reference tracks. At least three and still I was fooled. I found out later it wasn’t “radio ready” and wasn’t “polished”. So, what does that mean? I had used too much compression or not used it properly in various tracks and had squashed a lot of dynamics. I went back to the mix and lessened and changed the compression settings on the drums, bass, vocals, some synth parts and some guitar tracks. I had also been too conservative in my use of panning. I spread a few parts out wider in the stereo field using the panning knobs and added a little gain on the side only material on the overall mix. I also used a touch of the Directional Mixer to had a little more stereo spread. I then used three different reference tracks and used the Reference 2 plugin to compare my stereo image, EQ settings, and my compressing to the reference tracks. I think the whole process took about 8 hours to find all the culprits. I also mastered the mix to sit at around 11 LUFS instead of 14. I am looking forward to hearing my other songs a little differently!

All the best! Sue

by on

Since my first release back in 2020, I’ve learned quite a bit more in regards to mixing and mastering. I decided to remaster my first three releases. I will leave what is in the digital stores because DistroKid doesn’t have an easy way to swap out song files. There would be a possible 3 weeks window to take the old versions out of the stores and then another 2-3 weeks to get the new masters on the platforms. I will use the new masters on the 10 song album and resubmit the songs for radio play. Those stations that are playing my songs, I’ll ask them to exchange them. The metadata will be the same as I am not changing the duration of the songs by more than 10 seconds and I’m not changing notes and arrangements.

Let me explain what I am doing differently and perhaps help you with some new ideas or methods. I am using a M1 mac mini and Logic Pro X. I finally am utilizing busses for group effects. This is really helpful with background vocals or like guitar parts. It also uses less CPU of the computer. I created names and saved all the plug in patches that I used. This way if I like the settings of a particular plug in, lets say for a piano sound, it’s real easy to find and use again. I added Melodyne Editor 5 to my arsenal and use that as a plug in. Gain staging is super easy, particularly with the vocals, to make a more cohesive track if needed. The ability to correct pitch issues is also much easier in Melodyne than using the tools in Logic. Moving or changing notes is also more intuitive and visually easier. My version of Melodyne can analyze and manipulate polyphonic tracks which is not possible in Logic.

On the busses I am utilizing the Logic Multipressor plugin to create parallel multiband compression on vocals, drums, and bass. If it sounds good with other instruments, I add a little bit. This usage fattens and tightens the track. I recently purchased Soothe2 which eliminates the need to make notch EQ adjustments to eliminate resonances. I use this plug in a few busses and have settings for guitars, backing vocals, and lead vocals. I am also using the plugin StageOne. This plug in helps create width and depth in your tracks. I have one setting in the busses for lead vocals and one for the backing vocal tracks. It also works great with parts that are “ping ponging” back and forth in the stereo field.

On the Stereo Out in the mixer I have added the Gain plugin to boost the side only material to widen the stereo image. I have also added two instances of Channel EQ. One with mid only and one with side only adjustments. Soothe2 is placed before the EQs to take out the “junk” and I end the plugins with the Directional Mixer giving a touch of stereo width to the mix.

The last piece of software I added was Reference 2. It is the last plugin in the mastering stage. With it you can compare your original track with multiple reference tracks. Within it’s display, you can compare the levels, EQ curve, dynamics, compression, and stereo width within frequency ranges of your master mix with your reference track. Logic Pro has Match EQ which enables you to compare the EQ curves, but can’t compare the stereo field or the dynamics of the songs.

I hope you find some or all of this useful. Keep learning and creating! Sue

by on

I am just over two weeks away from releasing my first ballad, “Really Up To You”. You can check out my DistroKid Hyperfollow Page HERE. There are quite a few administrative pieces that need to happen, particularly if you own the rights to the sound recording, if you are your own publisher, or if you are the songwriter. Or if you are like me, all three circumstances apply. In order to be paid proper royalties, you need to make sure your metadata is accurate and that you have all the proper numbers to embed. I created a spread sheet to help remind myself of what needs to happen. Here it is:

Now, you don’t necessarily need to create a press release, or you may choose to only send one to your local media. I use Send2Press for distribution of my more than local press releases. You also don’t need to run ads, but it is an important way to promote your work. You can see that I am an ASCAP member, they are my PRO, DistroKid is my digital distributor, Songtrust, is my publishing administrative company, SoundExchange collects royalties for featured performers on a track and royalties for all sound recording played on non-interactive digital radio, and I have a profile on Musixmatch, which distributes my lyrics to all the digital platforms that accept lyrics. I am not bothering to send information to AllMusic anymore, as my 2nd and 3rd releases never made it to their platform after several attempts. It’s so haphazard. I have another spread sheet for all the radio stations I will be submitting this song to.

I hope you found this helpful and all the best to you and your creations! Sue

by on

This post has taken a while to develop. I took the time to learn new mastering techniques to create something a bit fuller tonally and wider in the stereo field. I added parallel compression to the master to add more punch and fullness. It can also be used to create more volume, but that wasn’t a concern with this song. I also added side and mid EQing. I used one of the Vintage EQs in Logic Pro for the mid channel material, for warmth, and used a Linear EQ to gently boost the highs and mids on the side channels and applied a very slight gain on the side material. On the mixing end I added a touch of the Stereo Spreader. When my album is ready to go, I will remaster my first three releases so they will come to life a bit better.

Another time saver was using Melodyne. I left it active on all my tracks. It may drag your computer down, if you have it on, depending on how many tracks you use it on. After I had mastered the song some digital artifacts were noticeable. Going back to the mix to find these abnormalities and fix them was so much easier with Melodyne. For me, during the mixing sessions, Melodyne allowed me to manipulate any notes or chords faster and easier than Logic’s tools. I didn’t use any De-esser and it was easier to see what I was doing. I’m glad I went that route…buying Melodyne Editor.

Lastly, I only had two drum tracks, one vocal track, and four instrumental tracks. It was much less to process and make the tracks play nicely together. On the other hand, because there were so few tracks, each one had to stand on it’s own…there was no place to hide or bury something.

I am now in the next phase of getting everything ready for my next release “Really Up To You”. It’s release date is set for September 16th. It’s time to put that music video together!

If you do the Spotify thing…you can Pre Save the song by clicking on the link…Really Up To You

Thank you and keep creating! Sue

by on

Hi there, I’m in the process of recording my next single release and discovered that using a click track would have been in my best interest. I’m not the best at keeping perfect time while playing the keyboards without some rhythm, but I really liked the passages I had recorded. I didn’t want to just scrap it all. I’m using Logic Pro X and up to this song, I didn’t use anything in addition to “what’s in the box”. Using Logic’s Smart Tempo I was able to reign in the final finished track of the piano part, and along the way to that finished track I used Melodyne 5 Editor in order to adjust the timing of the piece as a whole and individual notes of the polyphonic track. Logic has no way to adjust the pitch, placement, attack, or decay of polyphonic material. Thankfully, Melodyne is not that difficult to grasp after watching a few of their tutorial videos. I ended up purchasing the Editor edition. Here is the link to learn more about Melodyne and the various versions. Here is the online spot I purchased Melodyne so you can save some money…JRRshop. I have not used Melodyne yet to process my vocals, but I have been researching what a huge help it has been to so many. I will be able to cut out using a de-esser and use Melodyne instead. I’ll find out!

On another note, DistroKid, my digital distribution company, is now offering a free landing page for artists. I set mine up and here is the link Hyperfollow Page Sue Larsen. If you are an indie artist, and not sure which company to choose, this might help you make a decision. Keep creating and being your true self! Sue

by on

It has been a busy time of learning since my last blog. I immersed myself in mixing and mastering improvements of which I identified over 30 different techniques I could implement. Some things will improve my workflow as well. For example, using track stacks for like instruments, putting my effects onto busses, and using a high pass filter, or when it makes sense, a low pass filter on all my tracks to to clean things up and create more space in the mix. I also dove into mid-side processing and using parallel multiband compression to “fatten” vocals or drums. I will also be using drummer tracks for the first time in Logic Pro X in this next song. At least, I believe that route is the best for my ballad “Really Up To You”.

Since I am not a “real” piano player, based on my experience with keyboardists that have been in and out of my life, I allowed myself three weeks of practicing in preparation for the recording of the piano. I just completed that step and I’ll let my listeners decide how I did. I believe that challenge, of performing on the piano, was the hardest part of getting this song off the ground. I am really looking forward to the finished product.

In regards to the promotions I did for my previous songs, I am still seeing the results of it. My YouTube Channel has over 300 subscribers and when I started the campaigns I had less than 30. Here is the link if you want to check it out, Sue’s YouTube Channel. I am aware I have a long way to go, but this is encouraging. In regards to Spotify, my song “Hardly Hiding” is still on three of the original playlists from the promotion and it has been nearly three months. You are guaranteed 30 days, so I am very pleased with that result. Here is my Spotify Artist Link if you want to check that out, Sue on Spotify.

So, the good news is that everything is “out there” and available to you. If you are willing to put in the time, effort, and sometimes money into whatever you are doing or being, you will see the results. If you have any questions, feel free to email me…in the meantime, keep creating and keep working on your dreams or passions. All the best, Sue

by on

I hope you are well. I am getting ready to get back in the studio and record my first ballad. I actually needed a breather, so I spent time doing more of the marketing stuff that was needed and analyzing the data. I also spent a good portion of my time learning a few more mixing and mastering techniques to make my next songs more marketable for radio play. I was tempted to remaster my first three songs and then decided to let them go for now. If I remix them, I will change the style a bit for each one, so that I can call them remixes and create different metadata and copyright those new sound recordings.

My promotion wrapped up on Spotify, officially the end of last month. All of my songs are still on some of the original playlists they were placed on. Right before the promotion started, I had 19 monthly listeners and under 600 total streams. I was on maybe 3 playlists. Now my songs have been on over 90 playlists, have been streamed over 36.5K times and as of today, I still have over 8.7K monthly listeners. That number will continue to fall until I release and promote more songs. At the apex of the promotion, I had over 17K monthly listeners.

Numbers don’t lie!

The same company also promoted my three music videos on YouTube. I started the campaign with 20 subscribers, I now have over 235. I had a total of 1.3K views at the onset and now I have 75K views and my videos have been on over 110 playlists. I will be using that company again!
The links for my Spotify page and YouTube channel are just below if you want to check them out.
Sue’s Spotify Artist Page

Sue’s Official YouTube Channel

If you are interested in promoting your own material, here is a link to an article that I found helpful, 19 Best Music Promotion Services Online in 2022 or you can try this article, The 13 Best Indie Music Promotion Services That Are Worth It.
On another note, two more radio stations are playing my tunes. Both are in the UK. One is playing “Hardly Hiding” and the other is playing all of them. I’ll take it!

I am hoping that with my next mixing and mastering attempts I am able to have the same company promote the songs on over the air radio worldwide. That’s up to me…

Until next time, keep creating and be well! Sue