“Chamber Waves” should have been out July 1st. Not sure how many of you were waiting but I have to apologize for the delay. As of right now, the album has been pushed back until the early part of Fall. I don’t want to make excuses so I won’t. It’s my fault the album missed the release date but I will do everything in my power to make sure it comes out early Fall.

There are going to be some changes on the album, about which I will post at a future date.
Thank you.

That’s it for now………

Fourth track off of Roll Call ‘10!  My contribution, “Casa de Luna [2 Seater].” This will appear on Roll Call ’10, and on ADM’s upcoming album “Chamber Waves.”  A mashup version with a rendition by ADM is also in the works and will also be featured on both albums.  This is a definite departure from what you’re used to hearing from me, as it is akin to the new house music that’s out today, combined with some elements of trance and other genres.  It’s also the first track that I’ve completed that uses Illformed’s Glitch plugin, which people have claimed that Timbaland has used it in past tracks for reverse, gate, tape stop and other juicy mid-bar effects.

More coming soon!

-mnshyn

I created a really simple video in Motion 4 as a promo for the song “Screamer” on the upcoming “Chamber Waves” album due out July 1st, 2010 by ADM.

Click play on the video and it will automatically start in 720p HD. Or click the ‘YouTube’ logo in the video to see the video on their site. Once there, switch to 720p (in the lower-right of the video) and see a larger version with clean audio.

Enjoy.

That’s it for now………

Second track off of Roll Call ‘10!  ADM’s contribution, “Circumstance,” featuring Black and Blue Ink.!

More coming soon!

-mnshyn

Roll Call ’10 Updates:

1. More work done on the FoRcE oNe track, which also now has an official title: “Top Pedigree feat. MooN ShynE.”  We did a few more takes of Uno’s first verse and finalized the hook.  I also wrote my verse and did some amendments during the week, so I’ll be ready to record this weekend.  Once again, we’re aiming for this Saturday, and since we’re more than half-way done at this point, that goal is much more realistic this week than it was last week.
2. ADM’s contribution had a decent amount of discussion this past weekend.  K-Maculate will be spittin on this track with me, and after intense debate and clarification of miscommunication, we’ve got a concept and structure that we are all very excited about.  Hopefully this coming Sunday we’ll be able to finish this one as well.

That’s it for now, we’ve got more coming to you, so stay tuned!

-mnshyn

Today, we have a kit from established producer Soleternity, who has production credits with over 20 gold/platinum artists.  The homie Sol competed in the Grind Time Now Battle of the Bay 5 Producer Battle, and he has donated the kit that he used for that occasion to our vault.  Now you can get these drums as well!

Head over to the MsP Production Vault to get this kit, and last week’s kit.

Also, take note of the new MsP Mailing List! Sign up to get weekly updates on our blog, the Production Vault, and other MsP related news and updates.

Some updates on Roll Call ’10 this week:

FoRcE oNe recorded his demo verse for his contribution to the album.  The track is yet to be titled.  It has a very strong Young Money influence as he is a big fan of them.   We’re looking to have this one finished by this Saturday, so keep checking back to see this and more new releases.

Also, ADM and I started work on his contribution, which is a hip-hop track that he is producing and I (and possibly K-Maculate) will be supplying the vocals for (Peep the previous post for more details).

The last update we have for this week is work on Brian Bullion’s contribution, which will be an Incubus-influenced track.  We’re a few alphas in, but we’re still missing some key ingredients to make this what we’re looking for.  Hopefully, we’ll be breaking some ground soon.

Keep checking back for more updates!  People are staying busy with the music hustle, and with the summer coming up and everyone on break, output is sure to pick up.

-mnshyn

Pipe organs – check.

Plucked chord drops – check.

Epic strings – check.

Dirty drums – check.

Long Beach to Compton – check.

1995 – check.

Ice Cube – check.

If you haven’t picked up on it yet, I have scored and am producing a hip-hop track (yes, hip-hop) on the MsP collaboration album Roll Call ’10.  It has the flavor of an old-school, mid-’90′s, West Coast track.  It’s not really a “Gangsta” track, though the theme for the song will be gang related, but only to a degree.

We don’t really want to give away too much on the content of the song but what we can tell you is that it will not be POV – the lyrics will be from 2 bystanders/observers.  The track WILL play on your state of mind and you WILL feel like you just watched some psychological drama.  Beyond that, you’ll have to wait and see.

Last night (4.4.10/Easter Sunday)  MooN ShynE and I discussed how this track should progress and we came up with some interesting ideas as far as the “theme” of the song.

This track will feature:
MooN ShynE – vocals / mixing / mastering / arrangement
K-Maculate – vocals
ADM – producer / composer / storyline (partial)

I would appreciate MooN ShynE’s input on this as well…

That’s it for now………

Between my first two solo albums (“Phase 1 – Neolyrical” and “Phase 2 – Lyrics to an Identity“) and the one I just released, “Phase 3 – L.Y.R.I.C.A.L. Without Fear“, there was a five year gap, 2005 to 2010.  Of course, within that gap, so many things have come to the internet, including ways to make it easier for us at-home musicians/hobbyists/aspiring musicians.  From a marketing aspect, you have MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter for your social networking, and you also have internet radio stations like Jango and Last.FM.  Even Performance Rights Organizations like BMI have ways to register music online.

Recently, ADM told me about this one site called Pump Audio who offers services in getting your music to filmmakers and such who need music.  Basically, there’s licensing involved, and you get a cut of the royalties when someone decides to use your music for their project.  Not a bad thing, right?

I have read about the positives and negatives about sites like Pump Audio.  Some talk about the royalties split, some talk about whether or not they give you the exposure that you expect, and some even say that they take your music and try to repackage it.  That last one is the scariest.  Money to me isn’t that important, since I have a full-time job that pays ok.  Exposure, well I can take any exposure I can get.  As far as repackaging it, although only 1 or 2 claim that and it was never truly proven, that scares me a lot.

With that story told, you should now know why I’m now talking about copyright, and hoping that this post will give people some insight on what they can do for copyright.  I’ll be updating this post with some more information to make sure I’m 100% accurate, as what is a resource when it’s not fully reliable?

FRIENDLY REMINDER: You copyright music.  You don’t patent or trademark music.

To start off, copyright law says that if you made it and it can be shown, you own it. (See the When is my work protected? question in the government’s copyright official copyright section)

That’s quite easy to say, but unfortunately, that’s hard to prove in court.

Secondly, let’s address the “Poor Man’s Copyright,” which basically is the method of mailing your work to yourself and using the postmark as proof.  The copyright site debunks that as well since there are ways to presend an envelope then put the materials inside.  So no go with that. (See the I’ve heard about a “poor man’s copyright.” What is it? question in the government’s copyright official copyright section)

The best way, albeit a little pricey, is to go with the REAL, AUTHENTIC copyright.  Meaning, you go straight to the government and submit your music to the Library of Congress.  If you’ve got the certificate of copyright, you’re good to go in court.

Back in the day, (sounding like an old man, yet not at or above the age of 30), there were different forms you had to fill out if you wanted to do it the right way.  Those familiar with the process know of forms like the SR form, or the PA form.  You would pay $45 and submit your music on CD along with the proper forms.  Like doing your taxes, different forms were used for different situations, and you really had to read the print to know what’s going on.  It would get confusing also.  One of the biggest questions for me was, do I need to send $45 per song?  I have a 16 track album, so that means I have to shell out more than $700 just to copyright an album?

Well the answer to this is yes and no, depending on what you’ve got.  If you are the sole writer/performer of all the songs, you could actually submit one CD with all the songs, and only have to pay $45 once.  Good deal, right?

If you’re like me though, that won’t work.  Half of my songs are collabs on my albums, usually.  Since I’m not the sole writer/performer, you can’t submit just once.  You need to submit each song separately due to the spread of copyright between different writers/performers.

Examples are on this page. Scroll down to see the examples.

Then there would be the long wait time, because you’d have to mail it, wait for them to receive it, and then wait for your certificate.  One thing to note though, YOU ARE PROTECTED THE MINUTE THEY’VE RECEIVED IT.  So when you mail, you would attach a return receipt, and you can deem the song as properly copyrighted once you get that receipt back acknowledging that they’ve received the package on whatever date.

Since the last time I’ve had my hand on this, the copyright office has done two things that have made this easier.

The first is now there is only one form: The CO form.  Great!

And as an allusion back to my whole 5 year gap and the internet thing, the copyright office now allows ONLINE SUBMISSIONS, or what they call the eCO.  The price of submitting an eCO is $10 lower, probably because of smaller admin costs. You can peep here if you want to see what’s up.

So with all that, we musicians can now do our copyrighting online!

I just tried it, and I submitted two songs up on one CD (both solely mine), and coincidentally the same songs I’m going to use for Pump Audio.  It was very easy to do.  I signed up, filled out the online form, paid through their ACH/Credit Card system, and submitted the mp3′s.  Can’t really get much easier than that.

Now that I know they’ve gotten  my payment and my mp3 submissions, I can consider those two songs copyrighted!  They’ll be sending me the certificate after going through the processes.  I can now send to Pump Audio without fear of them stealing stuff and not having any protection.

Hopefully that helped you out, if you wanted to know anything about copyright.  I’ll be studying this more to see if I can add in some more useful info.

And as far as Roll Call ’10 info, aside from the work previously announced, Brian Bullion’s submission looks like it will be an Incubus style track, and ADM is submitting a rap beat (yes, a rap beat!) for use in the compilation.  People are leaving their comfort zones to mix stuff up.  Let’s see how this all goes down!

More to come, as always!  Keep it locked.

-mnshyn

It took a while to really figure out what to do to get that particular sound, but I think I’ve pretty much gotten it down.

It consists of three different parts.

1. “K034″ from the Deep/Hard Kicks set (I believe from Modern Beats?)
2.  EQ this kick around 150Hz, raising it, with a fairly wide Q,
3. Compress the kick: Threshold = -1.2dB, Ratio: 11.5:1, Gain: 7.0dB, Attack = 23.4 ms, Release = 2205 ms

At the end of that chain, that kick will knock you on your ass.  A few alphas before, I had a much higher gain, higher ratio, and faster attack.  This one sounds pretty good to me though; a nice pumpy bass sound with a nice kick in the attack.

One thing I have noticed in these songs is that some of them were heavily limited (limited as in the compression effect, not limited as in with a restraint).  Thing is, some of the versions I have of these songs are limited so hard that even the vocals sound pumpy from the mix.  They obviously all hit very hard, but the mix itself sounds terrible from an overall standpoint.

Hopefully, I’d like to try to get a mix of both worlds; get a good pumpy feel without compromising the rest of the mix.  If I can get the bass to pump and still achieve a favorable mix, then I’d say we’ve done a good job.  The pump of it all (I guess it’s what gives that fistpumping action) is part of the genre, I feel, and without getting that, I’d be betraying the sound we’re trying to achieve here.

So far, ADM and I have gotten a pretty good track so far, and I’m getting REAL excited about this.  We’re looking to work on Sunday to get in some vocals and get this song into the beta stages.

As always, I’ll make sure to keep you guys updated!

-mnshyn