¿Vale la pena firmar con un sello hoy en día? | Feedback Show de PO | E1

I wouldn't be too reluctant to show my work either. I sent songs to some of them and they told me, yes, I'm going to keep a little more of a percentage, but the promotion costs and all that are on me. We do the mastering, but a little bit of your royalties are deducted. This has been too long. 6 minutes 40. It's unnecessary for you to put here that you're registered with these academies or even that you've signed with someone else. It's something that people don't care about.

Other than wanting to share your music. They want you to pay them and they keep a larger percentage anyway. You're going to benefit more from showcasing your songs than from keeping them saved until a label wants to sign you. Welcome to the online Production Feedback Show. Here we review your music, your marketing and your artistic project and see how it can be improved. I'm Alex gonzalez from produccio acutenonline.com and if you want to appear, appear in new editions of this show, sign up here in the link that you'll find in the description of this video. Let's get started. Orlando is calling us from Mexico. How are you, Orlando? How are you? What do you bring us today?

Very good. Thanks for the space. Well, let me tell you, we're here from Mexico with a project called Elios Collective. I'm Elios as a pseudonym and collectee, because I'm forming a collective trying to be a showcase based on where I'm currently standing for all those who also want to be visible, to be heard, releasing their independent work under the same name.

Okay.

I've released an ep, a single, which fortunately has had support from Hernan Kanyo, one of my references, and, well, moving from here in my country, looking for a local scene. And I've had the opportunity to play in a club here in my town that brings people from an international background and, well, we're doing it. I'm also at a school over there with Mark Marson and art. I'm there with him. I also just joined Piton Academy, so I'm still in the process of training, but I've already built something, right? I've been a DJ for many years. I mention this because someone might have identified themselves as a DJ for 23 years, much of that time as an amateur, and kept telling themselves how I was going to be a producer, how I was going to make a living from this. And you know that old story, right? Until I'm 39 years old, my son was born, everything got even more complicated until, well, One day I decided to do it. I started looking and the hows came and well, I started to do it in a more professional way. And now I'm here with this opportunity to be with you, one of those great ones that have made a splash. And I'm very happy and grateful that you're having me.

Right.

Well, I'm delighted that you're here with us for this edition, if you like. Lets start by listening to your music.

Okay.

You sent me a song of yours and then we'll talk about the collective, which interests me a lot. Let's see how you're approaching it and what little things we can do here. Okay, so come on, let's go. Thanks. Let's put it on Ioban Sam. It's really cool. Or Donda. It's really good, man. Really? Thanks. I like the structure. It sounds really good. In terms of mixing, I think it's pretty fine. The elements fit together really well. How do you transition everything? How do they appear? How do you play with the vocals you're using? There are three things I want to tell you.

Okay.

The first one is that I'm going to tell you and it's one of the few cases, it's not the most common thing I say, but a better master would benefit you a lot.

Okay.

I think the song is a little weak overall, both in terms of tightness and volume. How are you mastering it now? I'm still training in the mastering part to finish learning it properly. I did it, but it's all about seeing. That's basically why. Yes, but what did you do? How was the mastering process? How did you do it? Okay, well, I'm relying a lot on someone who's teaching me, so I'm still leaving the mastering to him.

Okay.

Well, this also, when you get more into mastering, if you want, we can see about it. But anyway, it's simply a question of getting a little bit higher. In terms of. Exactly. In terms of. If you could tell me a little bit about how you do the chain, I might be able to tell you something. But if it's a topic that you're not very into right now, I wouldn't recommend that you get too involved.

Okay.

Because there are more things that we can analyze before getting into mastering. Because I see a couple of sounds that have caught my attention. I think I can hear two mono. Let me make up something.

Okay.

There are a couple of sounds like this synth that comes in here.

Okay.

The voice that makes this voice and this beep beep sound too diffuse and too Open. And this sometimes gives the feeling that when this song is listened to in a place where there is not much stereo width or in a mono system, they could get lost because they could have some phase problem. Have you measured if these specific sounds could have some problem with phase shift correlations that go too far? I just put the song on over the weekend. I didn't notice that. But now that you mention it, the voice did feel a little lacking in power. I mean, I do feel that, yes, it did get lost a little. It got lost a little. It ended up being too far in the background. Easy. Exactly. You can also anticipate this before taking it to any club, simply by using a plugin like Boxngo's Spam. It has a correlation meter below, which is like a horizontal bar that moves to the left or right from a midpoint. If you see that it moves more to the left than to the right, or if it moves a lot to the left, it means that it has a correlation problem, right? That is, the phases are not going at the same time. This means that when you listen to it on a mono system, it either gets lost a lot, or the volume drops a lot, or it ends up being canceled out. Normally the level drops a lot. And if it already sounds weak in stereo, it may end up getting lost. This sometimes happens when we open the stereos of a sound too much with plugins like Wider and others. Or when you are making a sound in layers and you are opening the stereos too much in the different layers. You are using effects like phaser flangers, lots of delays or reverbs. Well, that was completely the case with the voices just now that I mentioned it. Yes, exactly. Sure. Many times the more dry you leave it, the more you can be sure that it sounds good everywhere. And if you want to achieve this spatial effect, you can leave a track with the dry voice that safeguards you, that always sounds good in the center. And then you duplicate that track. You equalize it. You leave some part that really interests you more. Maybe not the entire frequency spectrum of the voice as you would leave in the central voice. And that part that you have duplicated and that you have equalized. That is how you can add more effects and do a few more filigrees. Because in stereo it will sound nice, but then at least when you listen to it in a mono system, it will sound like the central one. At least it sounds good because it is a cool vocal. It fits very well. It has a kind of hook. It is not a decorative element. It is a main element, just like the synthesizer that comes in this drop, which now I don't remember if it comes in a little earlier, but I know that it comes in this drop. So it is important because they are fundamental pieces.

Right.

But for the rest, it's very good, a very clean song. The kick drum and bass sound quite fine. So in this case, congratulations. And then as a next point, well, I would go a little bit more into the subject of mastering. Okay, tell me a little bit more about the subject of the collective. Well, let me tell you. Uh, well, this came about in the search for spaces of starting with enthusiasm and few open doors. The necessity itself led me to try to be a door and open them. So this project began to happen. Uh, what I was doing began to sound good, or at least better, especially with the support of Hernan Catanio. It began to give me a little more visibility and little by little, talents have been joining who have national projection here in my town. I began to get closer to them. We started working together and, well, right now I'm playing spaces. I also have two releases coming soon on the Elios Collective label under the pseudonym Elios, in collaboration with another producer. Arabian Tales is coming out on September 23rd through Cafe de Anatolia. So we keep trying to grow, we keep working. Social media is where I upload my material. I upload what I'm still progressing in a training process. Understanding all this stuff that isn't music but has to do with music, right? All this stuff about figuring out how to get there, how to manage yourself, you have to be an expert in that, how to manage your branding, all that stuff. I'm really working. I keep working, I keep getting my act together on that issue. Finishing the mastering process, which I've only been doing for a short time. And, well, with all the enthusiasm in the world and open to all opportunities and feedback like yours, well, it greatly enriches the whole journey. Let's leave the subject of mastering aside the subject of musical technician. Returning to the subject of the collective, I'm interested in knowing what your goal really is with this collective. For example, covering events, creating parties where you bring your dj, line up and throw the whole party yourself, the whole date yourself. Where do you want to get to? Do you want to focus more on the label and not work on both? Working on both. Right now I'm starting to throw parties on my own. Taking my entire life lineup, sometimes not necessarily me participating, but giving them the opportunity to make themselves known and have influence on the label. Obviously, I'd like to give it influence. I'm looking to position tracks with good support so that they start to be heard.

Right.

I'm working on those two things hand in hand. But what I'm also most interested in is that both me as an artist within the label, as well as my collaborators can have an impact with their tracks, not only as performers, as DJs.

Right.

But also to be able to position ourselves as producers and have our tracks played by important players. That would really be my goal. Okay, let's take a look at your social media now. At least the ones you sent me.

Okay.

On the one hand, I see the Elios Collective Instagram here, and it's not clear to me if this is your personal brand, if this is you as a producer, as an artist, or if this is the Instagram of the label Collective, this is the collective's Instagram. That's right. And for now, as an artist, I also promote myself there, so to speak.

Okay.

I think it would be interesting to start with if we separated the two things.

Okay.

That you have an Instagram with your name, which I understand is Elios. That's right. Okay, this can be a bit confusing because of course, Helios, then. Helios Collective. Normally when a collective is created, it has a different name from the main artist, but it can be fine.

Okay.

What I'm also interested in is that the profile is separate. That is, if I want to see Orlando's material, where can I go to see it? And then if I want to see what Elios Collective is doing as a whole, that is, all the people who are part of the roster, where can I go to see it? Logically, you can then make joint posts that you can share on both accounts.

Right.

That's also interesting. But if you only have a clear brand theme, I think it would help you a lot if the project were separate. You might say, now I'm going to create an Instagram from scratch and such, and if few people follow me here, then even fewer will follow me on the other site. So I understand that you centralize everything in one place. It's not a bad idea. But in order to make it clear to the outside world what your project is, what your proposal is, I think it's clearer that you can separate it. And in the future, hey, we're having a party where the entire roster is coming. Well, that goes directly to Collective, which then, logically, on your personal Instagram, you'll announce that party and talk about how you're playing there, how you're creating it. And you'll be able to show more behind the scenes stuff, Right? But it's necessary that as a brand, as Elos Collective, it be separate and have its own space.

Okay?

Because right now, of course you're mixing things up about the label, but for example, you're talking about yourself because of course the one who signed up for Patong Academy and all is you, right? No, they're not all the people on the roster, right? So here I see different things. Okay, then another thing, and I'm telling you this from my personal point of view, from the way I see it from the outside, as a person who talks to many producers these days and who send me music and people, well, I see who might catch my attention the most or the least. Honestly, the fact that you put here that you're signed up for these academies, okay, even that you've signed with someone is something that people don't care about much. It's not something that's going to bring you much beyond what being signed up brings you. I mean, that's your thing. But we have to get rid of the idea that music is like a normal job where you have to present a resume and show all your awards and studies, okay? Because at the end of the day, what really works, what will really demonstrate your worth or give you recognition, is what you have achieved through your own merits. In the end, you are paying to be here. I mean, I could be there too and I would take note of it. It's not bad. But I know that you do it with the intention of, hey, look, I am part of this community or I am part of such and such. That's fine. But maybe it's not projecting what you think it is projecting, okay? Because that's what I'm telling you. It's not an achievement as such, but in the end it's something that you are paying for to be there. That's fine. You have to train yourself and that's great, right? But as a brand, especially if it's also the Elios Collective Instagram, this is something personal to you. You know, in any case, if you wanted to put it on your personal account, that would be fine. And I'm telling you that I wouldn't put it on too much. If you have signed with a major label or something like that, then if you want, yes, right, because it's like that is a professional achievement. But issues with academies where I'm studying, things like that, it's something that honestly matters to you and that's great. I mean, you have to Feel fulfilled and work and work on yourself.

Right.

But from the outside, it's not as visible as you think, and especially when it's already the brand's Instagram that you're using it personally. And this is fine right now, but I think that in the future it would make sense for you to start separating this. Okay, so one cool point that I see in your case specifically, okay, you have a pretty cool potential to use YouTube to upload sessions. Not only yours, but also those of the people on your roster. The sessions have been going very well for a while now, either in beautiful places or on a set that you can set up that's fairly cool. And also the type of music you make, progressive and such. Deep is a style of music that fits very well for everyday listening, that people put on while they work, while they're doing something at home or doing sports or whatever, because it's music that can be listened to all day long. And those sessions are highly sought after.

Okay.

I mean, without going any further, you have the master of this, Chris Luno, who basically goes to beautiful places, sets up a controller that costs €200, doesn't complicate things any further, and gets very good views.

Okay.

So it's a bit of that organic house style of music, maybe a little different from yours, but hey, this progressive music that can be listened to all day long. Okay, that's what I mean. So here you have a vein to reboost YouTube. Quite interesting with this. I don't know how you see it. Yes, I mean, at some point it's something pending that you don't get around to doing. And it stays pending forever.

Right.

But you're absolutely right. In the end, it's just doing things. And yes, it's a huge area of opportunity. Exactly. Also, well, not only at the beginning, since you would start, but the moment you can invite a colleague from the label or something, you can make cool content. Ah, what it's like to set up a camera and record a party for an hour or two. Even if it's just you and your colleagues from the label, everything that can come up in that time, really cool things can happen that can work really well on social media. Beyond that, man, there's not much I can tell you. You have the musical quality, which is super important. So beyond that, keep working and keep chipping away. Very good, very grateful. Alex, thanks for taking the time. I can imagine everything you're dealing with and well, thank you very much. Thanks for continuing to work. I know you don't need flowers or Anything but as a way of paying back or having your feedback taken into account. As soon as I do a session and everything, I'll tag you just so you can see to what level your feedback has been taken into account. Great. Thank you very much, Orlando. Thanks for being here and I'm glad it was helpful to you. So, a big hug and let's get going with the project. See you soon. See you later. Thanks, Alex, come on. Bye. A big hug. The next guest is also from Mexico. His name is Eduardo. So. Hello, Eduardo. How are you? What do you have for us today? Hello, Alex. Good morning. Good morning. Here in Mexico, I bring you a house track. Deep house. Well, I tried to put a bit of soul and all this jazz vibe into this track and mix it with something I really like. Okay, Come on, let's give it a listen. The base is really cool, huh? Thanks. Let's take and say the things we used to say let's take and say the things we used to say. How cool, man. Very elegant, huh? Very nice. Congratulations on the work, really. Thanks. Thanks. Very good topic. I'm going to tell you a few things, okay. That I think I would change in terms of structure. Look, at first, it seems a bit long to me that the bass doesn't come in until minute one, because the base is also very cool, very gruff. It fits in superbly with the mix. I wouldn't stop letting it come in at second 30 as it spends too much time in which everything is filtered. It lacks bass. It lacks bass. So I'll go straight to this part that you've done here, which I think perhaps lowers the energy of the track a bit. It ends up being dry. This part is the one that should perhaps come in here. Instead of so much pattern, instead of so much organ, maybe.

Okay.

And then the harmonies start to appear a little later. You save them for a little later as they appear here. By the way, it's really cool how you've played with the stereos, how one appears on each side. And here you can also see that it's super well mixed. You can really notice the difference. But as I said, this part, although it could be used for mixing as a DJ and so on, I think it would be good if it came in at second 30. Realize that if this is a structure design for DJs, which I don't know if you did it like this or not, it's a little weird that instead of coming in with a kick, it comes in directly with the voice. So I would come in, I would start the Introduction based on this percussion and bass that comes in from second 30 and at most, some organ. Some of the pats that you've used, you can use some vocal chops, pretending to intertwine so that you can see that it's going to start at second 15, for example, but not the entire vocal from the beginning, because the vocal is the main hook of the song. It's what gives it life. If you show it in its entirety from the beginning, you kill that trick a bit. Exactly. That very important trick of having something like this voice that is also very good and looks really cool on the track.

Okay.

In general, I would change this at a structural level and make it a little shorter. A little shorter track.

Okay.

I think these two drops seem a bit long to me. Not because the track isn't cool, but because if you modify the structure a little, change the vocal theme and make it a track that's not longer than three minutes, you have a great track that can go viral on Spotify if you promote it well on social media, which is a whole other world, and if you even work on Facebook ads, which we can talk about a little later after we stop talking about the technical part, but you have a very, very, very commercial, very cool track that can be quite successful.

Okay.

But I think I would approach it differently, both in terms of the short part of the short version for Spotify and if you want to make an extended version for a DJ set. In both cases, I would change the structure.

Okay.

Above all, how you approach the intros for the extended mix.

Okay.

Regarding the DJ version, even the short part would be the same. The short version, the traditional radio edit for Spotify, would not exceed three minutes and a bit. And it would also continue with the advantage of working on the structure differently to make it shorter. In the Spotify version, you can play around with the vocal coming in a little earlier, especially if you're going to make it short.

Okay.

But in the extended version, I would leave it for later. Exactly. And in both cases, I think I would make the draws shorter both in the extended and the short version. So based on this, I think you've tried to move it, that you've tried to send this song or other songs to a label and you've had some experiences. What do you want to tell me about this? Yes. And apart from this song, I've done many more. And when I want to get it to a label, it's sometimes hard for me because I either can't find the person or just contacting the label because sometimes it becomes complicated. I have nowhere to send it. So that's exactly it. And I've been using a tool from bitport called Label Radar, where you can, like a peach of your track, several record companies listen to it and tell you if they like it or not, and so on. But the truth is that I've realized that what these record companies are looking for more is like the business of charging you for the master. They charge you for promotion and all that, instead of, Well, I mean, what a label would do, right? Not putting business ahead of music. Or at least that's from my point of view.

Right?

So. Well, why? Why? Well, tell me about that. Tell me from that perspective. Well, I think that before, or at least when I started producing, which was about 10 years ago, I remember sending songs to some of them and they would tell me, like, okay, we'll give you. I mean, yes, I'll keep a little more percentage, but the promotion costs and all that are on me. If the master is good, just as you sent it to me, then we'll take it, and if not, then we'll do it. But then they take a little bit of your royalties and all that.

Right.

I mean, it was a little different. And now I feel that beyond wanting to share your music, they want you to pay them a little more. Yes. All this issue of expenses, and they keep a larger percentage anyway, so. Well, it's complicated. Exactly. I understand both sides, because maybe before there were so many people making music, now there are more people making music. So from the label's point of view, they have plenty to choose from. And they say, look, if you want to release with us, at least I can make sure I don't lose. If we earn something from there, all the better.

Right?

So they make you cover the expenses that might be incurred when it really shouldn't be that way. It should be, hey, I trust your track. I think I can do business with it enough to at least cover the expenses and that we can earn something.

Right?

Starting from that perspective, at a business level, as an artist, it's frustrating. I totally understand it. Because in some way, it's like you don't feel valued. You're saying, well, sure, if I assure you that I'm not going to make you lose money, then you'll sign me. But if not, no. Also as a business, as a label, I understand it. Because in the end, people are working to earn a living and they are not NGOs, right? So maybe what used to work or was easier to sell is not anymore, because there are More people in the market selling music or making music actors. On the one hand, I think it's good to understand a little bit about what's going on and why it seems like artists are treated this way. But on the other hand, it's also a good time, I think, to realize that if you're not feeling valued as you think you deserve, then be the one to release this song and take all the benefits that this can bring, right? And it's easier than ever. As long as you have something good, you have a good song to release. So you can put it out on your own if you think it's not getting a place on any label or that you're simply not getting the time to get it heard. Because one of the real downsides of going after a label is that you run the risk of this song being shelved 12 months. And it's true that this is quite timeless. This will probably sound just as cool next year as it does now. But life goes on, you know? And it seems that if you have projects on hold, it's like your artistic life is on hold. And that's not cool either, because you always have the feeling of, well, what would that track have been if it had come out? You know? And damn, it took a lot of work to get it out. It took a lot of work to make it so, at least in my humble opinion, always in these cases, as long as the song is obviously good in any case, right? The song has to be good whether you release it on a label or on your own. But in your case, even more so. Something that really has potential on social media and has potential on Spotify. I recommend that you release it on your own and go through the whole process yourself. Learn the whole process what it means to release the song on your own. And today it's easier than ever. Easy in quotes. You know what I mean? That you can do this yourself. Start moving across networks, not only on your own networks, if you have a community, which is the smartest thing to do and what I recommend you do from the very beginning, that you start building your own community. But even at the level of paid advertising, if you want to invest in this topic, there are many people I know who work a lot in this genre who are doing very well on Spotify, working with Facebook ads. We saw this in the previous episode of the Feedback show, episode one. There was a colleague in a situation quite similar to yours. A different style, but very good musical quality, and he even had a fan base, right? So in that case, I recommended the idea of looking at how the world of paid advertising works to direct people from your social networks to Spotify.

Okay.

Because sometimes it is difficult to move people from one platform to another. Just because you have followers on one side does not mean that you are going to take them to another. But there are ways, especially in terms of paid advertising that do work for this and these topics. This style really works because there are cases that exist and that are going very well.

Okay.

I don't know if you know the artist Gent, an artist called jnd? Uh, no, I don't have the pleasure.

Okay.

Well, if you think about it a little bit, this artist even makes content about how to get streams on Spotify. This is something I wish I knew how to do, but since I can't do everything, what I do is investigate and research people. And this guy has a million and a bit monthly listeners and the vast majority of the music he releases. Well, it's all on his own label.

Okay.

Gen Records. Gen. I mean it's his label. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out and look at the views he gets.

Right.

How does he achieve this? Mainly with paid advertising?

Okay.

What he does with advertising is direct people to his own playlists. It's very important to have your own playlists. The more followers followers you have on your playlists, in the end, it's like a community that you already have there for free. For future tracks that you upload, you put them on your playlist and you'll get views organically. Obviously you don't always put them on your playlist topics of your name, but you can put topics of other people that you might be interested in having and that are also good. And in between you can put your topics or the topics of your colleagues.

Right.

For example, this guy or this guy are people from Jen's label. They are like a collective.

Right.

So it is very interesting to do unfocused advertising, to bring people to your own playlists and also to bring people to your own releases. If you want to see what kind of content these people are making on Facebook. Well, Facebook has a very cool thing called a repository. Let's see, the repository H book is called the ad library.

Right?

So you go to the Facebook ad library and you simply go here to all the ads and search for the person, for example, Gent, and see what ads this person is actively running right now.

Okay.

You can see both the ones they have active and the ones they don't have active.

Right.

In this case, they have 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 active campaigns running right now. What kind of videos does he make? Well, this is it. It's an ad to get people to your playlist. One of the playlists we just saw. For example, you've released a new song. Sorry, this fits in very well with your topic because these types of videos are often stock videos that you didn't record yourself, but videos that can convey the emotion of the track. And you also play around with adding lyrics. Your song has lyrics, it has a little bit that you could use to create the video for this ad. You end up with the title, the COVID and I'll refer you to the evidence. Here are the results. Obviously, the quality of a really cool guy. I mean, this guy produces very well. He's been doing this for a long time. It's not overnight, but it's a way. Okay, to be independent these days. Especially if you have a song that could fit into Spotify right now and what you're doing is mainstream enough that it can reach a lot of people, a lot of streams. Okay, this is absolutely crazy that a kid from his house gets 70 million views, plays releasing the song on his own label in something electronic that is not mega pop either, but it is not super obscure underground techno either, which logically, no matter how much advertising you do, you are not going to reach 70 million plays, right? But this deep house is there at that point where it is worth it, it is worth investing in it because there may be a lot of people who connect with this style of music. And the song you have, man, it is a great song. It is very good. And I see you reflected here. So I would not rule out the idea of trying this and seeing how far it can take you. Yeah, perfect. I think it is a good idea. In fact, I have released songs on my own, but I had never tried this with Facebook ads, which in the end is also a huge opportunity. Of course, I am not an expert in this subject. It is something that I am getting into now. I am testing and I am seeing how far it can go. But of course, for all the people I know lately and for what I am researching, it is one of the. The channels that today I don't know about tomorrow, but today they are working. And especially in cases like the ones you mentioned, I think they could work well for you. Logically, this is based on money. But what I would recommend from now on is that you start if you're not already doing it. You haven't shared your social networks with me, but that you start creating your community and start creating your own free organic content and that you build your community by yourself, showing a little bit, well behind the scenes how you do it, what your day to day life as a producer is like, how you achieve this thing that you've done so well. It can be very interesting for many people. And there are many people making content today for producers who are doing very well and from whom you can take ideas. So if the product is good, man, that you already have it, now it's time to enjoy it and promote it. Because I could tell you to promote it a little bit. But if later on when you get people, when you get the attention, it arrives and there's nothing. No, it's worth it. But in your case, man, now I would focus fully on getting attention, how to get people to end up on your Spotify, basically, or whatever platform you want. Perfect. Thank you very much, Alex, for all the advice. Great, man. Well, I hope it was useful, Eduardo, and thank you very much for being here and well, see you next time. See you.

Great.

A hug.

Bye. The next guest is called Nicolas and he's calling us from Colombia. How are you? Nicholas, how are you? What do you have for us today?

Hello, Alex. Hey, how are you? Well, look, I sent you my track called World. It's a track that I was inspired by more than anything by the tech house. A Carolero sound that I call it like Marco Carolles style, if you know what I mean. I'm presenting it here so you can listen to it, tell me what it is. Come on, let's get to it. You have some good material here. Okay, you have some good material. I think the atmosphere you achieve with the. The track is pretty cool, but there are a few things that I think could be improved. Okay, let's start from a more structured production side and then I'll tell you about some mixing issues. Although they're also production related, they could really be fixed there. Okay, right off the bat, I think you have two main problems. The first is that it lacks a second hook. It lacks a hook, actually, because the vocal isn't really a hook. It's like a second hook to reinforce. Lacks the main hook. Something that hooks me here because it's still a bit basic. Okay, let's say this is what a vocal is like that you mean? It could be a vocal or it could be a settee, or it could be another element that you sample that you get, that repeats, that creates a loop that hooks a hook. Something that hooks, that keeps you hooked to the Track and that you can play around with, making it appear, making it disappear, playing with the background vocal. Now one thing sounds, now another, now both sound at the same time. It would give you a lot of room to play so that the structure doesn't end up being so monotonous.

Right.

Speaking of structure, the second thing I wanted to tell you about this is that I think it's been a very long song. 6 minutes and 40 is unnecessary from my point of view, for the material you have. Okay, six minutes and 40 is something that makes more sense, perhaps in progressive songs, things where there's more of a story to tell, where there are more elements, where the story progresses much more.

Right.

But in something like this, that's DJ able, something more club oriented, let's say with five minutes, including the extended mix, that is with the intros, to play it in a DJ set, I think it's more than enough. Okay, more than anything. Because even if you add the hook that I'm telling you about, it's going to be a complete song and it's going to be cool. There's not much more to stretch it to make a song that long. So I would cut all these parts down quite a bit. Notice that here in the middle, you've put a kind of bridge before the second break, that it's a bit lame. For me, my energy drops off a lot here. Nothing happens either. And this is a part that I would cut off here especially. Okay, look at this whole section where the kick doesn't sound, where the bass sounds until it breaks and then makes the break. This bridge is unnecessary. Even this part here could be useful if you DJ and want to play only this first drop and then use this part here to mix the next song in case you want to make a change, so to speak, quickly and not wait for the second drop or the other one to change. This fragment here could be useful, but this fragment here is already too long for me because if I leave this song directly until this sounds, too much time will pass and it will sound practically the same there. I think my energy would drop off quite a bit at the moment I'm DJing this, okay. Imagining it as if you were DJing it in a session, even if you take this to Spotify, even less. So, I mean, I wouldn't just do the. A shorter version, but then I would do the version, the radio edit of all time without the intros and it would not be a five minute track, but a track of three minutes and a bit, which is what is being done now even less sometimes. Okay, then at the level of structure, other intros, I mean, the structure is good. I like how this progresses. A playable structure is cool. Although perhaps if you had designed this to be an outro that can be used to mix with the next song.

Right?

In the event that you want to play the entire song, notice that here you have finished with the background atmosphere, but at the beginning you start more dry with only percussion. It is good. It is good that if you do this thinking of it as a dj, you get rid of the atmosphere.

Okay?

Because it is cool to have a final part only with percussion. It is easier to dj. It will fit better with whatever you put. If I am dying here with the atmosphere until the end, maybe I need to not have that atmosphere with the next thing I'm going to put on because it might not fit or hook me. Maybe if I leave a small part so that the tracks die out, leaving only the percussion, it's easier to mix, right? And if I want to leave the atmosphere, I'll make a loop here while I mix. I leave the atmospheric section before it disappears and you know, you're a Dilla and you know what I'm talking about. Then moving on to mixing issues, I would also tell you to make the up sounds a little shorter and try to add a little more energy. Whether it's when adding some processing effects or modulating the sounds you have here a little more. Maybe with delays you can use some arpeggios that can even be used to chop and cut some of the sounds you have here. I miss it. Maybe in some snur it might work well or even do the opposite, gradually killing the sound, gradually dying it out, and instead of making an upward rise, make it downward. And that's a different way of distributing the intensity and energy. In the end, I really like how it breaks. It's really cool because as I told you, the atmosphere is a very strong point of this track. And I like it moving on to the mix, which isn't so much the mix, it's the whole production level. The bass, it sounds really good here because you have a sub completely in the center. It's mixed quite well with the kick. I like how the kick sounds. Yes, it's muted, dark, but with body. But when you get this mid range layer, the beat by beat by beat, it's too open in stereo, so it distorts it a bit. It loses a bit of the power, the energy that this bass can give you. Okay, look, it's super open. I don't know if in this case you're also keeping the sub that sounds here and they're two separate tracks, or how you did this. Yes, yes, yes. It's the sub and the bass, which is what you told me. Sounds more in stereo. Yes, exactly. It's good that you separate it because even if this were played on a mono system, the sub would still sound. And that's cool, but maybe I wouldn't open it up that much. What did you do to make this sound so open? Did you use a plugin, a wider one? Or is it just a synthesis plugin? It's a plugin called kh's Distorian that has a saturation option and an option that's like white to open up the stereos a little more in. It sounds good to me. But you've played around with the spread parameter, right? This is what you've used to open it up.

Okay.

Maybe I would lower the sprit a little more. I don't know what percentage you have. That doesn't really matter, because what's important is how it sounds to you. Maybe I would lower it a little more to make it sound a little more centered. It's fine. Uh, it sounds open because it gives the impression that it sounds bigger. Uh, but I think from my point of view, it's too open, man. And apart from that, it's really good. I mean, it's a really good track. The idea is cool. The atmosphere. I'm telling you, the whole thing is cool. That's what's cool. Of course it has potential, but the priority, the most important thing, is to find a way to play this. Make it shorter, simpler, don't overcomplicate it, especially with all these parts. And I think you've got a good point here. Great. Well, Alex, I have a question. If it comes out off camera, there's no problem if the track is signed to a record label. What do you mean that if this track is signed by a record label? Yes, yes. Right now it's not signed. But what happens if I want to release it or sign it? Regarding it appearing in this video, do you mean. Yes, yes. Well, a priori, nothing should happen, but there may be labels that want exclusivity so that no one knows about it or knows about it until it's signed. Normally, this should worry you if the bullet you're going to shoot is going to be a super label. So you tell them if everything works and you go try it. But. But depending on what's going to come out, they'll Understand, I fully believe that maybe you've not only shared this topic on your social media, which is the most normal thing in the world, like maybe you've played it or touched on it somewhere. However, this is going to come out on an online production channel. People are going to see it. If you think this could be a problem for you, comment on it. If they tell you there's a problem with this, we'll leave this recording and instead of putting it in the next episode, we'll put it in a later episode. That's why there's no problem. No, no. It doesn't seem right for them to come out in this episode. Yes, that's fine. I just had that doubt to be sure and to make sure there's not, let's say, a problem later.

Okay.

The best answer I can give you is to talk to them directly. We're also in the era of exposure and communication. In fact, songs end up being signed and end up being more successful the more promotion they've had before coming out. And then many songs end up being signed and end up being more successful the more promotion they've had before coming out. And then many songs end up being released and becoming more successful the more they've had before coming out, and then many songs end up being released and becoming more successful the more they've been promoted before coming out. And then many songs end up being released and becoming more successful the more they've been promoted before coming out, have gone viral, and other labels have come and said, I'll sign it for you because it's getting traction. Which I'm not saying will be the case, but these are songs that have already had a lot of visibility before being signed, and they have already been signed precisely because of having that visibility. So in general, as general advice, I wouldn't be too reluctant to show my work whether it's signed or not, because as I said, unless you have something that you really think could have potential with a really big label and you think they really care about it, then, well, I would keep quiet.

Right.

But for the vast majority of those who call me, those of you who I know in the community, you're going to benefit more from showing your songs than from keeping them saved until a label wants to sign you or whatever. Because at the end of the day, everyone is going to look out for their own interests, and the one who ends up winning in the vast majority of cases is you by promoting your work. That's my vision, general on this topic. Okay, yeah, sure. No, I don't understand you perfectly. I would really like the video to come out right and to listen to the song, because otherwise it doesn't make sense. That's the way it is, man. Well, Nicolas, I hope this little well has been useful to you. Thank you very much for stopping by. Nice to meet you and well, see you next time. Okay, thank you very much. It really is an honor for me to be here. Well, yes, thank you very much for accepting my call. Well, man, keep up the good work and keep going. Come on. Bye. Go on, go on. See you later.