Thanks for all of the great comments, quotes and support on the book. For this week’s column I am reprinting some thoughts I was asked to contribute to a new product line that Presonus have coming out:

Ok, before you do what’s next, have you done what’s first?
You know the easiest way to put together 12 GREAT-sounding, well-written songs? You write and record 20 or 30, then 10 or 12 will just be that much better than the others – that’s a great tip for getting a better result.

Don’t be afraid to experiment – with sounds, with words, with textures, with everything! THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG. You aren’t paying $100 an hour for a studio and a jaded, washed-up, bitter engineer’s opinion about your music, so it’s just about how much time, energy and thought you want to put in. Be careful – you can completely over-work a song – keep saving – remember what you liked about a song or an idea in the beginning. Why did you move forwards with this one over that one? Are those elements still there – still interesting to you? Choose those elements and showcase them as Geordie from Killing Joke would say, “Feature it or FUCK IT!” If something is sonically getting in the way – then decide if it is one of these important sounds – and make a decision. You can always go back to an earlier version if you decide you have taken a wrong turn. Sometimes wrong turns are good, sometimes they are indeed, wrong turns.

The only bad news I think with all of this independence is that, not only are you unplugged from all of the invoices from commercial studios and the unwanted opinions about your music and your sounds, you are also unplugged from some of the wanted and needed opinions too. So, try and make up for this by reading some home recording magazines, talk to others online about getting sounds, working song structures, etc. and LISTEN……use your ears and your brain. You can ALWAYS listen to anything you want and A – B, (that means switching between two sounds or songs to analyze what’s similar and what’s different about them) – this way you can always improve.

When you are recording, document the process. It’s good to educate yourself about the progression of songs and mixes, the decisions you made, but it is also great CONTENT for your rabid fans. You’re not HUGE and not many people other than a few friends and family members care very much right now, but, sometime soon, more people will and, if you work hard, more and more and more will. Keep early mixes – sometimes an early version of a song has some elements that you are experimenting with that, for some reason, don’t make it onto the final version – sometimes this is because the pieces just don’t work for the song, sometimes it’s because the vibe changes. Very often these early versions can sound like re-interpretations of the finished track – actually they are pre-interpretations. You should also snap a few pics and run some video too if you can. It’s all great to put up on the web and get people to see the whole story - “Here I am in the studio playing with my knob!”

Song Content and Order
Think about the order of your songs. Some bands put their best song third or last (to be difficult). PUT YOUR BEST SONG FIRST!! The person listening might be busy and only have a few seconds….yes that’s right, a few seconds – that doesn’t just apply to busy industry professional like myself……(oh yeah!) …….that’s EVERYONE ON THE PLANET! So, don’t mess around, you might only have ten seconds to GRAB someone that has drifted along to your site so – get with it!

A Word about Mastering
There has been much discussion in print and online about the subtleties of mastering, this is the last remnants of the digital vs. analog debate I think. To me, there is no debate – Fuck Subtlety – this is AMERICA! Tape makes drums sounds better – it’s just a fact. I cried when I fired up the 8 track machine and listened back to drums that I had recorded a decade ago– I cried – then I played with my knob. BUT, these new tools do more for creativity than the subtlety of a better sounding bass drum – and, anyway, you can always grab one from my sound library discs! (Out soon on Cakewalk!) Use mastering tools carefully and sparingly, use some compression or light limiting to make the songs sound immediate and audible through those magnificent 1/2” speakers in your laptop. Think about treating songs differently for disc or Myspace.

Song Structure/Lyrics/Arrangements for Specific Purposes
Just a little bit on this subject – as it applies to the whole mastering/best song first process. IF you have a great song with a moody, subdued introduction, be careful about putting that up on line as your single, especially if it is going to be one of your first tracks out there – this is a generation of channel surfers – how long do you stick with a channel that isn’t grabbing you? Not long (for me it’s about 4 hours). Consider doing an internet edit of this song – so it SLAMS straight in – you can always do the extended version for the velvet-triple-fold-out-vinyl box set.

IF you are making POP music (whatever that means) then I always suggest that a song have at least ONE t-shirt in it. What do I mean by that? Well, some hooks or lyrics from a song make great t shirts. Does your song have any phrases or lines that would work well on a shirt? IF NOT then you are closing off an avenue of extra sales and possible cash to help fill the gas tank and get to the next show.

When you are finally finished with that mix, mute all of the vocal tracks and run a mix as an instrumental. It’s great to keep handy in case a game company wants an instrumental version of a song – and you’ll hear all of the mistakes you thought the vocals and that really noisy keyboard patch were covering up.

I’m on the road for the next couple of weeks:
I’ll be at The Black Sun Festival Saturday, Aug. 11th in New Haven, CT at 3:30pm for a panel discussion about the future of the music business. I’ll be there all day Sunday the 12th too, so drop by and ask me some questions or better yet – send me an e-mail and I’ll put some time aside for ya!

Monday night August 13th I will be at Ceremony in Boston at 6:30pm for a FREE and informal lecture on my trip to China, then I’ll be spinning later on (doors for the DJ event are at 9:30pm). I’ll have some Red Bull to keep you all going after the weekend’s madness and I’ll be giving away some tickets to OZZFEST.

Wednesday the 15th I’m in NYC at Fuse Gallery at 6:00pm for the opening (with refreshments) of my retrospective gallery show. View the gallery video HERE.

I’m playing drums with my old bandmates (pre-Killing Joke and Pigface) The Lunar Bear Ensemble @ The Court Tavern The Court Tavern, Thursday night the 16th in New Brunswick, NJ. I haven’t played in a while so come and watch my hands bleed. I’ll be at the gallery until 22nd then I’m off to the Hole In The Sky Festival in Norway to conduct a Tour:Smart seminar – come on over and ask me some more questions!

Also, for CMJ this year I’ll be moderator of the panel "Scaling the Wall: Taking Care of Business in China" at CMJ. The panel is Wednesday, October 17 th at 10:30am in the Rosenthal Room at NYU's Kimmel Center if you miss me in the next month or so.

AAAAND. . .If you haven’t gotten a copy of Tour:Smart yet, just visit TSTOURING.COM!

See you on the road!!!

Martin Atkins