Thank you!

I rather not start writing music first thing in the morning but truth is, it is the most productive time for myself and many people. There are different modes of working. Probably the best mode is scribble down my cheat sheet, practice my parts and play them in, that takes me at least an hour, cleaning it up another 30 to 60 minutes, then swapping out instruments at least an hour, arranging another hour, fiddling with the mix another hour, pondering another hour..... I calculated one minute of music takes me at least one day. Anything over 4 minutes is at least a month, work increases exponentially with time. I was helping my neighbor add some reverb to his guitar tracks, doing it the old way, play the tracks in a cement room capture that. Almost 4 hours moving around kit, finding cables that work etc. Definitely sounds amazing. It takes some time to make music

I need to go ALL IN and put everything else in a box 💯

Your presentations are always brilliant Eric👍👍

I just make music for my own personal fulfillment...not for $$$. I have no idea how much time I have left on the planet and want to focus on making music, not making $$$.

So much change on my end, too. I leave my publishing administrator at the end of June. After tomorrow’s new “Mark Rushton” album is out, I’m no longer releasing anything to Spotify, if I can help it, ever since Spotify quit paying royalties for tracks that get fewer than 1000 streams a year. Rebooted my “Ambient Rushton Podcast” to Substack. I broadcast “live ambient” via YT, FB, and Twitch a few nights a week - I don’t care if anybody shows up because all that music is edited and scheduled for release or will be put into Pond5 and other libraries. I need to get sounds into Identifyy - I used to be with AdRev.

Yes BUT what happens when your client puts his video and your music under ContentID and the next non-exclusive client gets a Claim? You can't even clear it at that point. I've seen this happen using non-exclusive beats for songwriters, you make a song, and get a claim (or worse a strike) because the first person to use that non-exclusive beat put it under ContentID. It's a mess!

Cubase 13 pro

I'm on Reason 12 but I'm learning FL Studios. If I were to change Daw's I'd go to FL. Since in already learning FL, if I had to decide on another Daw then it would be Ableton. Cubase and studio One are both dope as well.

ProTools would be my weapon of choice!

Do Crucial place many vocal-led songs with lyrics?

They don't display any placements on their website and the Internet isn't forthcoming with syncs by Crucial. Can anyone point me to any?

Ableton 12 !!! 🤩🤩

So, I’m just 5 minutes into this video, and I’m already thinking, “wow, I’m glad you’re covering this topic.” I’m in the process of a huge system overhaul. Cutting the chord to Adobe suite, cutting the Microsoft chord and moving to Mac, etc. I was seriously considering Logic, but now I have to listen to what you are to say. 20 years ago I used Cuba’s, one of the earliest versions. I was mostly doing MIDI stuff, and it was great. Steinberg makes some solid software. I’ve used WaveLab, and I’m currently using Dorico Pro for all my scoring. I think perhaps I should consider Cubase for my DAW. Now 8 minutes into your video…. I’ll keep listening.

Ironically, the AI stuff in 11 strikes me as being really useful for making stock music. As my guess is it would be fast, but not particularly creative. But according to you, that income stream has dried up. 🙂

Thanks to you both for this amazing video. So much valuable information to utilise you were speaking of synchronisation platforms. Can you recommend a few that you use please? Thank you.

I presently use Cakewalk by Bandlab. When Sonar is introduced, I will probably switch over. But if that doesn't work out, since most of my work is editing Midi, I would switch to Cubase.

I’ve moved away from Logic in the past but always come back to it. I think Studio One is a good alternative. It’s inevitable that they’re all going to implement AI sooner or later apart from maybe REEPER which has a super small footprint 😎🎵🎸

Studio One gang

Wow this video was so incredible useful to me Eric and Steven. Thank you! ❤

Reaper Features 1. 128 audio channels per mixer track 2. Advanced routing features 3. Advanced "side chaining" & modulation for All parameters on any plugin 4. Built-in pitch correction (both auto & manual) 5. Great stock (fx) plugins plus use any 3rd party plugin format {including CLAP, LV2} 6. Extremely Advanced render options & render queue with flexible naming options when rendering multiple items. 7. 32 customizable tool bars 8. Create your own keyboard shortcuts 9. Create custom macros which automates multiple commands into 1 action then map that to a keyboard shortcut 10. Portable install 11. Advanced multiple layered "track freeze" with the ability to go all the way back to the original state even after closing the project 12. Load project in offline mode to troubleshoot buggy vsts 13. Extremely low RAM & CPU usage 14. Amazing noise removal 15. Vocal alignment function built-in 16. Versatile time Stretch options 17. Open & switch between multiple sessions 18. Remote session collaboration tools (NinJAM) 19. Online repository with over 2000 community based enhancements including plugins 20. Sub-project linking. Great for Mastering workflow 21. Remote control daw via any web browser ON ANY DEVICE 22. ChordGUN for Key/chord degree music theory workflow 23. MIDI key lock 24. Save "undo" as a part the project for unlimited "undos" even after closing & reloading sessions 25. Loop record & create take lanes for both audio & midi to capture the perfect performance or use comping to achieve the perfect take 26. Tempo lock samples to your project with built-in sample browser 27. Delta solo 28. Ara support 29. Agnostic tracks... Meaning there are no specific track type. 30. Put Midi, audio, mono, stereo, video or image files, all on the same track 31. Media browser can show 🎶 notes (C, C#, Gb etc) being played in the sample being previewed 32. Video editing & rendering 33. Oversampling for any individual plugin 34. Oversampling for any plugin chain 35. Spectral audio editing 36. Separate GLOBAL slots for Monitoring FX 37. Parallel & multi-band processing for any plugin 38. Advanced automation clip editing & manipulation 39. Midi side processing workflow for any plugin available for any plugin 40. Support for CLAP plugin format 41. MPE Support 42. Markers & Mult-layered Region Marker Reaper 7 43. Create & save plugin containers 44. Track spacers 45. New parallel signal workflow on a single track. Both with plugins & plugin containers 46. New take lanes workflow with new "swipe comping" tool., while still retaining the old comping workflow 47. Gain reduction read out for compressors & limiters that support it 48. Supports 512 physical inputs & 512 physical outputs 49. Advanced Surround sound panning 50. Retroactive midi recording 51. Advanced time stretch algorithms

I have used them all and Bitwig smokes every one of them in innovative features, workflow, performance and stability.

I am in the process of building out a website for artists to sell their stock music online. If anyone watching this has any input as to what they would want in a website like this I would love to hear it.

Been in Cubase and pro tools for the last 20-25 years. I switched to reaper a few years ago, as it can do everything all the others can combined. If you're not happy with the functions, you can write your own script. But generally it actually does much more than the others like being able to oversample per plugin or plugin chain to to video editing etc etc etc..

Ableton 12

Reaper. Not bloated withj BS you don't neet. And the possibility to add what you really need.

Reaper.

Maybe I would switch to Bitwig or maybe Cubase, but Cubase looks so cluttered to me!

I used Logic for 20 years, 3 years ago switched to Ableton. Happy - great workflow, great for routing midi internally, great warping for sound design. lately also use Luna sometimes for mixing audio and summing and mastering.

Have used logic, cubase and Reason over many years but can't get away from Reaper. Love the super low CPU consumption. Just had a jam with Luna.

Greatly helpful! Thank you both!

I've been a lifelong Logic guy but if I were to switch it would probably be Ableton. I would consider Pro Tools, but even as a professional musician I just gag at the price. I'd be more willing to pay that insane subscription price if I were already entrenched in the Avid ecosystem, but I'm just not lol. I'm pretty much all Apple anyways, and already so used to Logic so I figure why fix it if it ain't broke. Plus... I paid 200 bucks over a DECADE ago and haven't been charged once since lol. Also on the topic of the AI "session players"... I'll be honest I had basically zero expectations of them, but I've been pleasantly surprised so far. I pretty much never use the drummer, since all the grooves always felt "canned" to me. I'll try it out, and then just get annoyed when I hear a specific fill or hit in my head, and just program it in myself since it's quicker and easier than trying to tell the AI what to do lol. But the keyboard player... I'm honestly kind of blown away. I had a session the other day and figured I'd try it out (I'm a guitarist, on the guitar I can lay down ideas very quickly but my chops just aren't there on the piano so for stuff like basic piano chords or synth pads, I usually just program it in). Honestly, the stuff the keyboard AI comes up with is actually super useful as a jumping off point, and actually felt way less "canned" to me than the drum grooves ever did, which was the opposite of what I expected. It's not really there to come up with melodies or anything super integral. Just some broken chords or whole notes to follow the harmony that feel like a human played them. I'd recommend anyone go into it with an open mind, you might be surprised like I was.

I use Reason 12 (have been with Reason since 8) and have just downloaded Luna (Windows).....I would switch to Logic Pro however I'm not an Apple person and I don't earn a living from my hobby.

Great interview! I am very grateful! Thank you for your time and honesty

I have a concern right now about Songtrust, with applications to register a song hanging up for 8 MONTHS, and very little support. I don't see ANY registration of the song at my PRO (PRS) and Songtrust support just says "it can take up to a year" and no further response. No feedback on if there is a problem, nothing, nada. Meanwhile the song is getting streams every day and I have some licensing interest for the tune. It is a worry and I don't know what to do abnout it (find another admin pub maybe). SONGTRUST if you are reading you NEED to make your registration process more transparent AND improve customer support. ONE YEAR to procvess registration is TOO LONG in 2024!!

Great Video!The downside of Songtrust now is it's customer service it takes months to get a response from them regarding your catalog issue..thanks for the information!

Very inspirational video. Thanks Eric.

Hi I am based in France paris can I register to songtrust ?

Hi, my question is if I am am in-game and decide to hold a virtual concert with my friends - would a sync licence be required? Because its not actually being recorded - how is this navigated especially with the rise of online virtual worlds?

So many gems!

Great video. Thank you. I see this is 2 years old so you may not care, but the pond5 affiliate link is not properly linked. Only the domain part of the url is linked and the referral string is not so the link just takes you to the home page.

i don't care about the money. I would do content id because of horror stories like someone else stealing your tracks and put content id on it. Bunch of headache.

Hi Eric, if I license music with a non exclusive stock library, can I still license that same music with an exclusive sync library? Or is there a conflict there? Love the content!