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A few years ago, software effects plug-ins never sound as good as the hardware outboard effects. But in recent years, when CPU power gets a lot better and faster than before, many mixing engineers do mix entirely in the box. This means all mixing are done virtually, all using computers.

For someone like me who definitely don’t have the budget to buy decent outboard effects, effects plug-in is the best alternative.  We call this mixing “in the box”, referring to doing the mix completely within a computer, using a program such as Cakewalk Sonar, ProTools or Logic Audio.

I just want to let you know that I mix the song Understand entirely “in the box”. The software I use is Cakewalk Sonar.

Take a look at my track views screen shot below.

This post is a part of Understand 明白 Series

Part 1: Songwriting - Fill up the melody

Part 2: Music Arrangement - tritone substitution

Part 3: Vocal recording - introducing Studio Project C1

Part 4: Mixing - totally in the box

Part 5: Marketing and promotion

• Gather comments from other composers at Be An Idol
• Promote music at Imeem

For subscribers (via RSS and email update only), look for the link
below to download my previous albums, absolutely free via direct link
or bit torrent.

Studio Project C1 Condensor Microphone for Vocal Recording

I own an Audio Technica  AT4040. This condenser microphone is good. But somehow I feel that it is not suitable to record my voice. The middle range frequency is nice but lacking a bit of treble. An used AT4040 is currently selling at US$150 at eBay.

I am thinking of letting it go for RM600 (for Malaysian only). If you are living in Malaysia and looking for a decent condenser mic, this is a bargain for you. The reason is because I already got another more suitable microphone - The Studio Project C1.

The C1 records crispier sound. I like it more than the AT4040. It is in gold silverish colour, which looks more sexy. I used this mic to record all the vocals for the song Understand.

This post is a part of Understand 明白 Series

Part 1: Songwriting - Fill up the melody

Part 2: Music Arrangement - tritone substitution

Part 3: Vocal recording - introducing Studio Project C1

Part 4: Mixing - totally in the box

Part 5: Marketing and promotion

• Gather comments from other composers at Be An Idol
• Promote music at Imeem

For subscribers (via RSS and email update only), look for the link
below to download my previous albums, absolutely free via direct link
or bit torrent.

Tritone Substitution & Chromatic Chord Progression

This video shows how I

• replace the usual perfect cadence with a tritone substitution.
• use a descending chromatic bass movement to construct a special chord progression.

Click the picture below for full size music score.

This post is a part of Understand 明白 Series

Part 1: Songwriting - Fill up the melody

Part 2: Music Arrangement - tritone substitution

Part 3: Vocal recording - introducing Studio Project C1

Part 4: Mixing - totally in the box

Part 5: Marketing and promotion

• Gather comments from other composers at Be An Idol
• Promote music at Imeem

For subscribers (via RSS and email update only), look for the link below to download my previous albums, absolutely free via direct link or bit torrent.

How to Promote Your Music at IMEEM

In my quest to promote my music entirely online, I came across another social networking platform - IMEEM. How did I stumble upon it? via 2v1g - the Malaysians latest chinese pop music group - 2 vocal 1 guitar.

In this post, I will discuss how I made use of IMEEM to promote my music. It will benefit you as a music lover.

1. Set up your account -

Click the image above will bring you to the sign up page. It is absolutely free whether you are looking for free music or promoting your own music.

2. Set Up Your Imeem Profile

You will be able to choose a specific url for your profile. Mine is http://www.imeem.com/kclau

Take your time to fill up the necessary information. Some tips are:

• if possible, use a short url for your profile.
• use a consistent photo or avatar - which you will be using the same pictures across other websites.
• remember to fill up your url address in the website box to gain maximum exposure to your own sites.

This is how my profile page looks:

3. Upload music to IMEEM

I uploaded the mp3 of Understand 明白 to Imeem.
Imeem will provide you a widget that you can embed on your websites. The widget can be embedded by anyone.

4. Upload Videos to Imeem

Most video formats are accepted including .avi, .mov, .mpeg, and flv.
Some general tips:

• make good videos and if it is worthy of appearing at the “Featured Videos” section, you will be able to draw in more fans.
• tags your video properly. More tags will enable the video to show up on many different tag pages which will increase your exposure.

Here is the video I uploaded at Imeem, embedded below:

5. Networking

After you have done your parts of uploading music and videos and all the other profiles stuff, you still need to promote your music to the other Imeem users. Thus, networking is a must.

Some general tips:

• create playlists to help you find like-minded media fans
• join groups of your favorite artist so that they can come to your profile and listen to your music too.
• introduce yourself at dicussion groups

I need your help

I hope this post will guide you through Imeem. If you find this post useful and love to listen to my music, in return, you can help me to promote my music by:

• favorite my video and music at Imeem ( simply click the “Favourite” button below the video or music play box.
• feature my video and music at Imeem ( simply click the “Feature” button below the video or music play box.
• add my music and video to your website with just a few clicks. Supported sites are myspace, facebook, tagged, frienster, blogger, xanga and many more.
• write your comments

Here is the link to my video at Imeem
http://www.imeem.com/kclau/video/FVSZYIkp/kclau_understand_sentimental_piano_vocal_version_music_vi/

Thanks in advance!

This post is a part of Understand 明白 Series

Part 1: Songwriting - Fill up the melody

Part 2: Music Arrangement - tritone substitution

Part 3: Vocal recording - introducing Studio Project C1

Part 4: Mixing - totally in the box

Part 5: Marketing and promotion

• Gather comments from other composers at Be An Idol
• Promote music at Imeem

For subscribers (via RSS and email update only), look for the link below to download my previous albums, absolutely free via direct link or bit torrent.

Reference:

How to Use Imeem to Promote Your Next Video or Music Clip - Associated Content

Great Comment from Be An Idol

I posted my latest song Understand 明白 at BeAnIdol, a composer gathering site.

So far I’ve got 6 votes.

听了也想跳起舞来！唱得也很轻松！加油!
(Elley ) 7/12/2008 11:27:58 AM

好喜欢这种带有一点慵懒feel的jazz。。。
但歌手好像唱得不够jazz。。。哈哈！
歌词写得很好噢！
加油！
(rimo ) 7/11/2008 11:15:02 PM

This song i tell u, very good.very relax melody. i love it man
(jef ) 7/11/2008 12:59:39 PM

一个字，好！
同样和我那首歌名，
却是全然不同的感觉，
前奏一进来，
后面那个电子笛的effect很能抓住听觉的感受
轻快又有跳动节奏的拍子，
fusion feel的编曲很吸引，
还有层次感，
歌词的铺排也成立，
明白也是很好的记忆点
佳作！

加油加油
(kok.tzeyu ) 7/9/2008 10:56:09 PM

This is a good and nice melody. Keep up the good work!
(m5royalmusic ) 7/9/2008 7:18:17 PM

很久没听到你的作品了,这首歌给我的感觉就是新鲜感..很久没听到这样的风格..这样的唱法.喜欢你这种唱法..

好听好听..加油!其实你跟我是同姓的…嘻嘻!
(jianjun ) 7/9/2008 11:37:24 AM

从编曲就能听得出专业程度的音乐人跟普罗大众的不同。
简单，干净利落！！

词写得很有意思，也很有技巧。
谱的曲也抓住了这首歌的转折，让歌词有了生命。
(kairin10) 7/10/2008 7:32:50 AM

If you are willing to give me a helping hand, please help vote up my song. Get it to the top of the chart. Thanks in advance!

By the way, you can download the fully version of this song here. (right click and save)

This post is a part of Understand 明白 Series

Part 1: Songwriting - Fill up the melody

Part 2: Music Arrangement - tritone substitution

Part 3: Vocal recording - introducing Studio Project C1

Part 4: Mixing - totally in the box

Part 5: Marketing and promotion

• Gather comments from other composers at Be An Idol
• Promote music at Imeem

For subscribers (via RSS and email update only), look for the link below to download my previous albums, absolutely free via direct link or bit torrent.

Understand [Part 1]: Fill up the melody (明白 1:谱曲)

This is the part 1 of Understand series.

I started out writing songs since 14 years old. That is a long time ago. I started counting the songs I’ve written since about 10 years ago, it has come up to 254 songs. Some are properly recorded. Some are just rough demo.

This new song - Understand - is No. 252. This is the latest song that’s properly arranged, recorded and mixed as good as I am capable of. In this post, I am going to show you the structure of the song and some special stuffs that I had integrated which I think worth mentioning. Hopefully it will inspire you for your next song writing session.

First, let’s hear the song first.

明白 (Understand)

曲: KCLau 罗觥荃
词: WindySaturday

清晨醒了过来
日光洒在阳台
你昨天说的话
我忽然明白

在那蓝天之外
有道光线存在
照射过的人
都渴望恋爱

拨了电话 我要你明白
你的暗示 效用是否还在

你心中明白
别扯到蓝天之外
明知道爱上了心动了
就该说出来

你需要明白
把一切清楚交代
我在等你自首承认后
才能拥我入怀
I was given the lyrics by a good friend - C.Y.Ooi. His friend, Windysaturday wrote it.

Tricks used in the song writing process:

• Start with a great lyrics - since the lyrics are well structured into 3 parts - 2 verses, 1 pre-chorus, and 2 choruses, it is pretty easy to come up with the melody.
• Start with the chorus part - As usual, I sat at the piano and started off with the chorus part. It is important to lay down the melody for the chorus part first and foremost. Many times the unfinished songs are stuck at without having a stronger chorus part. You may write a memorable verse but couldn’t finish off the whole songs because your chorus and bridge parts seems too weak.
• Unique chord progression - at 0:42 to 0:45, there is a catchy progression which use some chords that’s not in the key of C. You might have noticed that this song is in the key of C Major. This part is the pre-chorus, the part that is leading into the chorus. The progression is FMaj7, Bm7, Bb7, Am7. In fact, this is the last part I wrote in the song. I was stuck here for quite long. I get the beginning of pre-chorus with FMaj7. After the phrase end with Bm7, it is some sort of jammed over there. Later, I put in the chord progression of Bm7, Bb7, Am7, and it nicely resovle to Dm7 and then G. This is an imperfect cadence where it will lead to the chorus nicely.

This post is a part of Understand 明白 Series

Part 1: Songwriting - Fill up the melody

Part 2: Music Arrangement - tritone substitution

Part 3: Vocal recording - introducing Studio Project C1

Part 4: Mixing - totally in the box

Part 5: Marketing and promotion

• Gather comments from other composers at Be An Idol
• Promote music at Imeem

For subscribers (via RSS and email update only), look for the link below to download my previous albums, absolutely free via direct link or bit torrent.

Free Music Download for Subscribers

At the end of this post, you will be given a 500 hours of my hard work.

I launched two solo albums before.

1. Kite Shepherd (2002)
2. Simple Melody (2003)

It has been five years since 2003, making music, without publishing any. All these years, I’ve been busy with business, earning a living and some family stuff.

Before I publish any new music here, why not have a listen to my previous music.

Do you know how much time needed to get a 3-5 minutes fully arranged complete song done? On average, it is about 50 hours of hard work, from song-writing, music-arranging, sequencing, audio-recording, final mixing, to the end track-mastering.

You will get 500 hours of my work here, absolutely free.  If you sleep 8 hours a day, that will be more than 2 months of sleep. Imagine that I’ve sacrifice 2 months of sleepless nights to deliver this music to your ears.

You will get a download link if you subscribe. The link for downloading my best 10 tracks can be found in the RSS footer. You can only see it if you subscribe via RSS or email update.

If you use any RSS reader, you will be able to find the link right away.

If you don’t know or don’t care to use RSS reader, you can subscribe via email. You will get the link on the next email update.

Enter you email now: (you will only receive email update whenever a new post is published in this blog) - no spamming I promise.

I do hope these music will please your ears and mind.

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五年前,我发行了两张专辑

1. 风筝的牧人 (2002)
2. 简单的旋律 (2003)

在这五年里,一直在忙工作,赚钱,养家. 有一点时间做音乐,却没有机会发表作品.

我把这两张专集里最好的歌曲收录在这里,提供免费下载.

只需要Subscribe就可以在你收到下一封电邮时找到下载指示.

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Welcome to Klavier Creation

The music industry has evolved so much. I’ve seen many local musicians struggling to make a living out of it. Luckily I don’t depend on my incomes derived from the music industry to survive. That also means that I can get to enjoy doing solely the parts that excites me - composing, arranging, producing, mixing and marketing the music that please my ears.

Klavier means piano, in German. That is the musical instrument I master the most. I’ll put forward all the good stuffs I made out of it in this blog. I don’t use the conventional English spelling of “Clavier”, because I want the short form of “KC” (Klavier Creation). It sounds like my name.

This will be a journey from starting with creating music in your bedroom, fine tune it, and market it throughout the world. I will share with you how I:

1. create my music, write my songs, collaborating with other artists and musicians
2. arrange my music using MIDI sequencing, audio softwares and plug-ins.
3. produce and record live tracks
4. mixing and mastering audio tracks
5. marketing music in this exciting Web 2.0 environment.

Stay tuned!

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