You’re officially a professional 
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I love those Casiopea vibes at times. Great work!
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So, I got a little involved in the production of an original song.
We are using DistroKid to upload to all kinds of streaming services.
Are there technical things to consider? Like normalizing to a certain level? @howard?
Any other advise for a newbie?
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I am guessing “go read everything on mixing and mastering at iZotope’s site” as a bare minimum start is a nonstarter for you? 
For a very short answer you want to master to a target of -1 dBFS peak and -14 LUFS loudness. Try not to compress the living shit out of everything to get there.
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No worries - I am not allowed to compress anything. The song is done by a bedroom producer and he does not want his mix to be touched otherwise. Mixing and mastering is his thing….
I’m working on a remix that adds bass guitar though. But that will only be uploaded to YouTube for my personal pleasure…
That was what I was looking for, thanks!!!
good luck!
That’s great! But the rest of your post is a bit like:
”I write a book in Dutch! I found someone to distribute it in China. Are there any language things to consider? Like translating to a certain understandable level?”
Trying to cut out the middleman is not always a good idea 
(In other words: someone who knows how to master has this all covered!)
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Hahaha, yeah - I agree 100%.
The thing with bedroom producers is that they create a wonderful mix that sounds great on their bass heavy “monitors” … but they (in this case: he) has no interest whatsoever in the organizational rest, like: making it good for Spotify/Bandcamp/YouTube, be involved in band pictures, writing a little bio/text about themselves, making a video, etc.
Being somehow commercial is like dancing with the devil himself … for both of them. They are heavily involved in the local antifa, so that might explain it.
Generally he stays in his bedroom - his great looking new girlfriend does not help (well she does, but not for the music production).
The park-punk-chick who raps/sings (truly great) is in absolute despair. I think, she needs to find a new bedroom producer (not me). Somebody who takes care of beats and synths, but also of some of the overhead.
Please note: I have great sympathy for him, as he just returned from the Ukraine frontline and surely suffers from heavy PTSD. But from a producer perspective it s#cks, of course…
What I do is: help with the technical part as good as I can (with the help of BassBuzzers), shoot pictures and make a cover thumbnail (done today), help with the bio text and maybe shoot a little video.
And of course create “my” remix with a real analog bass line, yay!
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My comments have really nothing to do with the ennui, the weltschmerz, the artistic messages. It’s really all about the technical aspects… and, really, knowing them as a set of numbers is probably not quite enough. And wanting to help, while commendable, is also not enough to compensate for lack of technical know-how.
To stay with my stupid example: I really would like to help with translating your book from Dutch to Mandarin, but I doubt the results will do anyone justice (in particular, given that I neither speak Dutch nor Mandarin).
Mastering is an interesting process, and IMHO even harder to scrutinize what is going on than during mixing.
Anyway, as Howard said: Good luck!
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Great work, Jörg! Very lovely and lyrical. Bravo, brother! 
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Thank you kindly, Mike! 
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True … but based on @howard and your input I read this now:
https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/mix-and-master
Ok, that is complicated stuff. I need to reflect on that. A lot!
What I did was throw the, ehm, final mix into this:
Youlean Loudness Meter - Free VST, AU and AAX plugin (free version)
All values are way off, especially LUFS loudness. The bedroom producer does not care…
So I threw the mix at this:
It’s free and it gives you back a WAV, not an MP3 like some other free services.
It sounds much better now and the values measured with Youlean Loudness Meter are also within limits now.
The bedroom producer does not care for the new version 
But … I am learning a lot of new stuff now, thanks!
I will definetely use this for my remix.
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I am interested in mixing and mastering. And I took some lessons from a seasoned sound engineer. But… I found out that my time is more wisely spent on the creation process before (composing, arranging, recording, producing…). I mean, even there, you can make tons of mistakes if you just mindlessly tweak knobs.
Sure, “trust your ears” is generally a good motto, but there is so much more to this whole thing of getting sounds out of your head and onto some medium and further out to people.
Worthwhile endeavor, but choose your battles wisely!
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Same here!
But:
Same here
This is really an exception (except for my own covers), cause I want the park-punk-chick to succeed. Otherwise it’s wasted talent, and I already have to listen too much to wasted non-talent, as soon as I stumble over most contemporary stuff, especially whatever is in the charts.
But this track is already uploaded to DistroKid, f#ck f#ckity f#ck f#ck, so I have no good feeling about success. What a waste!
I will do my “remix” (= add my bass line) and optimize that version with everything I’m going to learn about the mixing and mastering process.
And I hope that the park-punk-chick will find somebody who is not only great … but also motivated to succeed…
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Would be my punk band name… were I ever to start one (which might not happen within this universe’s lifetime).
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That’s a totally solid band name
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I think I’d prefer something a little closer to home, like “Wasted”. Been there. Done that. Can’t find the t-shirt or my pants.
Hi:-) Not sure if this goes as an original song, but I made the bassline and lyrics. Used Suno and Moises to get the stems I needed, mixed in Reaper and mastered in Logic. Video made in Premiere Pro, used Open Art for images/videos.
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I think this is a great tool to learn about song writing, song structure, arrangements and instrumentation etc. And then to use such a “song” to learn how to develop bass lines and all that.
And then there is the whole workflow with video editing and so on.
And, great lyrics!
But, I am not going to lie (and this is purely my own opinion): I am not a fan of AI-generated stems. Yes, it lets you get results quick(er), but I feel it’s ultimately not helping you advance beyond a certain point, if you only/mainly rely on AI stems. (Perhaps this is just the opinion of an old grumpy guy!? )
I think there are benefits in using these as tools/crutches, but I would never let anything with them out into the wider world.
(EDIT: of course, it all gets more and more fluid where the borderline between extensive sampled loops and grooves and full-blown AI stems is; and whether using one is “OK”, but not the other…)
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I finally wrote my first song. I came up with a guitar riff at the beginning of the month and a week later started playing with it. Spent several hours one day coming up with the bass line. Spent another three days on the lyrics. One day messing around on the piano, I don’t play the piano but it worked out. Another couple hours another day with the piano. Spent a week moulding it together. Finally put drums to it, just went at if for an hour or two. A couple more days mixing. Very intense process. I haven’t gotten much else done this month. I wrote the lyrics during one of the worst weeks of my life. A little too personal to want to share more about it for now. Hopefully there will be more to follow. I’m sure the first one is the hardest.
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