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Post by Girl Friday on Apr 28, 2008 22:11:00 GMT
I was contacted recently by Quickstar Productions asking me if I'd be willing to submit "Beautiful Lies" (see my website) to their "Chill Out" Compilation CD. If I choose to do so, they recommend sending in a CD-R with the digital audio files. They said standard audio file is 16 Bit, but their facilities can accommodate 24 Bit recordings for optimal quality. Frankly, I don't even know what that means. I'm not quite there, yet!! Their preferable file format is an uncmpressed.wav, however they say they can convert almost any digital audio file if needed. What I have on MySpace is an MP3, which I know is compressed and a lesser quality than what they're looking for. What are the files on the CF card? I kept the original tracks. What should I do next? Ideally, I'd like to run to a recording studio and do it all perfectly, but the deadline is May 10th for submission, so I don't know if I could even get in. Quickstar will do the mastering. Any thoughts? Is there a way to convert what I have into a .wav? I have included Quickstar's website if anyone wants to check them out for more detail. Thanks guys! www.quickstarproductions.com/
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Post by chrisr on Apr 28, 2008 23:29:11 GMT
GF,
What they are looking for is 16 bit (or 24 bit) uncompressed. You now have 16 bit compressed, and that is indeed lesser quality.
There is a way to convert your mp3 into WAV (you can even do that yourself with Audacity), but since the "original" is compressed, this will not result in better quality, of course.
Mike or Stan may be able to help you find a better solution, but I can only see three possibilities :
1. Ideally, you could go to a recording studio, and re-record the whole song from scratch. Since the deadline is May 10th, this will be a bit difficult, indeed. Of course, if you have a friend with a 24 bit home-multitracker, you could re-record that way also. If Stan were Houston based ...
2. You could contact a pro recording studio, and see what they can do with your existing (compressed) file to turn it into a better quality file. I would not put my hopes too high though.
3. Since the Quickstar guys themselves say that they can "convert almost any audio file if needed", you could simply submit the files that you have (mp3 and/or PS5 files), and if they feel that it "is needed", they can convert into anything they want.
In my humble opinion, solution N° 3 should be first on the list.
Chris
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Post by mcarp555 on Apr 28, 2008 23:49:00 GMT
Several things:
1. The PS5 native files are proprietary, and not accessible outside of the PS5, so no point sending them to anyone who doesn't have a PS5.
2. The PS5 only outputs .mp3 files (obviously). These are not as good as .wav files, but they can be converted with minimal loss of quality. There are tons of converters available online (Google it).
3. I had a look at Quickstar's website. As a jaded and grizzled old vet, I can't say I think their motives are entirely trustworthy. It's a typical 'vanity press' sort of setup, promising to send a CD with your song to here there and everywhere, blah blah blah. And all for free!
The potential problems include things like the fact that in today's world, no radio station plays unsolicited CDs they get in the mail. Meaning, if you're not on a label, we toss your CD in the trash, unlistened. So scratch the promise of 250 promo copies being sent out. Useless.
Go to your local Best Buy and see how many of their compilations you can find. Let me know if you can find any. You may be able to find them on iTunes or Napster, but who would be looking for them? How would they find them? I'm dubious about this.
I had a look at their list of artists. Never heard of any of 'em. I'm out of the loop on new bands, so if anyone can tell me if they've heard of ANY of them, I'd be interested. Ask yourself, if they're in this deal, why haven't I heard of them?
The kicker is that apparently, they put your song on the CD, with no personal information. If you want something like your phone number, or contact details, or even your NAME, you need to PAY them. And it looks like $200 smackers via PayPal. If you don't fork out the cash, your song is on a CD that nobody will ever see or hear, and even if they did stumble across it somehow, they would never know how to get ahold of you.
So what kind of promotion is this? I'm not out to bust anyone's bubble, but I don't want to see anyone getting taken advantage of, either. You can still send in the song for free, but I'd be doubtful to expect anything to come from it.
But then like I said, I'm jaded and grizzled...
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Post by chrisr on Apr 29, 2008 0:36:03 GMT
GF,
Further to Mike's third point : well, for you to decide if Quickstar's motives are trustworthy enough, and if their compilation deal is what you really want or need.
I myself seriously doubt that, as I think we all do, but again : your decision.
In my own third point, my hint was that Quickstar would most probably have no problem accepting your mp3 as is (and convert it into anything they need), so that any extra investment (studio recording, etc...) from you would be waisted time and money, as far as this kind of deal goes.
Chris
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Post by Girl Friday on Apr 29, 2008 1:27:32 GMT
I appreciate your thoughts and advice, and it's actually the real reason I wanted to throw this out to you all. When I mentioned something about it to Rob, a red flag immediately went up, and he suggested I get more feedback. I admit the offer is very tempting, simply because it's nice to think that someone liked my song enough to contact me, but I think you hit it on the head when you questioned not so much the legitimacy of the deal, but whether or not it really suits my needs at this time and what would its real purpose be. I was actually contacted a few weeks ago, and just sort of dismissed it, but then they followed up twice, so I thought I'd just at the very least investigate and open it up to you guys. It's all a learning curve for me. Truthfully, I think the only reason I even entertained it was simply to say I'm published, and the idea of that is far more appealing than the actual practicality. The only gain for me would be that it's something to add to my resume for my live performances. It would look much better on paper than it actually is. Don't apologize for being jaded. I tend to be too much the opposite and totally Pollyanna about things, so it's good to have that balance, especially since I know you guys are experienced. Thanks.
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Post by mcarp555 on Apr 29, 2008 8:05:58 GMT
Unfortunately, outfits like this troll through places where people have music available, such as MySpace and Soundclick, and just send out mass emails. Why would it cost $200 to include your name on a CD booklet? Or to put it another way, what's the benefit to them to do all this work for free?
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sgulley
Superstar
If you really like music and recording it then never stop trying to get better at it.
Posts: 2,994
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Post by sgulley on Apr 29, 2008 15:17:14 GMT
Hi GF, I don't know a whole lot about the music business but I do know that CD sells are a poor-man's market, and single digital downloads are taking over. Paul McCartney knew this when he release his CD last year. I think he had something like 10M downloads the first week (0.99c/per download) You can market your singles on Myspace but Snocap is not the way to go. I've never seen anyone make a single sell. ITunes/Napster are your best bet. I'm assuming you are brainstorming right now, but like I previously suggested, I'd love to see you get a CD out there at some point. kunaki.com/ is a much lower cost than any CD manufacter out there and will mail-drop straight to CDBaby webstores. A CDBaby webstore is $35 and is guaranteed to stick around for life. This is where the majority of "home recorderist" go to market CDs. They also digitize singles for you and post them all around the world. You will see your songs posted on ITunes, Napstar, Amazon (Germany), in Japan, & all around the world. CDBaby takes a good part of your profits on CD sell so you won't get much there, but you will see some pretty good digital sells on singles. If it is exposure you want then the $35 at CD Baby is worth it. Kunaki is great for ordering a few CDs at a time (no 100 CD minimum order to produce) so you can sell at live gigs and get the best margin of profit. If you just want a CD out there then CafePress is available at no charge to you, but will take most of the profits. I don't know what your future plans are, but you might want to copy and paste for a reference if you decide to market at some point. Stan
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