Short Tips for Copyright and Meeting Deadlines
- Jordan Bayne
- May 1, 2019
- 7 min read
Updated: May 5, 2019
Is there a deadline you have to meet that's creeping up on you?
Does it feel like you have an overload of work still needed to be done before your deadline?
Well I've got a few tips for you!
With one week left until part A of my album needs to be finished, the fourth and final song for the project is in it's final stages of composition. As stated in my Project Plan, I intend to create a seamlessly endless progression through each track, meaning that the Introduction and Couda of each song will blend into one another. Once the composition of all four songs is complete, I will have to move onto the mixing stage before mastering. Now, I only have one week left to do all of this, so time isn't on my side at this point; not to mention the professional composition of post mortem documentation regarding my process for this project. Oh, I also forgot to mention the audio assets I need to supply for animation and film students by the same deadline. First things first, I need to focus on completing the production side of things before any reflection documentation can be made (how can I reflect on something I haven't done?). So that's the initial goal for this week, complete production.
I have been in contact with two students in different disciplines, one is in film and the other is in animation. After a few emails, back and forth; I agreed to supply audio assets for their projects. The animation student (Nicholas Castiglione) has created a short animation and requested a looped sequence of music to overlay the imagery. A small project like this will fit perfectly into my workload.
Tip 1: Don't assign yourself to jobs you can't complete
After agreeing to produce audio for Nick, I asked him what style or genre of music he wanted, he replied with "For the exact style, I'm not very fussy preferably not techno, just a music beat to support the animations. Maybe a drum solo style track or similar." Perfect! Now I have guidelines that will help me delivering something that will satisfy the customer (Nick). By simply asking a question such as this, I give the customer freedom of choice; this also creates a good relationship with them and shows them that you are easy to work with. Long story short, I used samples from recordings I did with two artists that I previously introduced for my project; Jacob Thrum & Dominic Ward. Due to already having the recordings done, it was just a case of mixing and composing the piece before sending it through to Nick.
This is the final product.
Nick was really happy with the end product, he said he really liked it and that I should continue to work on it. But from my point of view I would have preferred to know the total length of the animation before creating the audio for it (note taken for next time).
Tip 2: Cover your behind when it comes to copyright!
Usually, when an animator or film composer wants to use a piece of music that has already been composed or released, and add it to their own project; they must go through a registry (such as APRA AMCOS) to obtain a blanket copyright license to ensure no charges are received.
"The APRA licence gives the venue or artist a blanket licence to authorise the performance of all copyright music." (AMCOS, A. 2019)
But luckily for Nick, not only has he received permission from myself (the producer) to use my music, he also outsourced the original piece specifically for his work; not to mention the project is for an educational purpose. This has saved him a lot of trouble if he decided to publish the animation, with confirmed proof of obtainment through emails that were sent between us and it being specifically for his project.
Let's say Nick had to go through a copyright registry to obtain a license for my work, his best decision would be to choose a production license rather than a commercial license. A commercial license is generally for companies and business' that are active in the public sphere (e.g. Hotels, clubs, radio, cafes, sporting events etc.) that wish to use commercially released pieces of music. A production license is for music that is specifically written for all forms of audio and audio-visual productions (AMCOS, A. Research 2019). Licensing can be an inconvenience to deal with during your production if you're on a low budget, but it is still a substantially smaller amount to pay compared to the repercussions that follow illegally using copyrighted music. For example, obtaining a production license for a short 30 second animated film such as Nicks, and to release said work on all online platforms, he would have to pay $30.80 (with GST) and an $11.00 processing fee (Appendix A). That's not too bad considering that penalties for copyrighting music in Australia can be fines of up to $60,400 for individuals and $302,500 for corporations (per infringement), you can even receive 5 years imprisonment for the crime. (Music Rights Australia, 2019)
Appendix A -
Tip 3: Never give up!
The second job I accepted was much smaller, it was just an audio clean up for a short segmented piece of music that was supplied to me by a film student (Meryl Holloway). This was done in a matter of minutes; barely an hour. Meryl wanted the reverb removed on the audio file. This isn't a very easy task to do; funny though, considering its very easy to add reverb to a piece of audio, yet much more difficult to remove it from an already processed file. I was able to do this by applying a chain of audio effects. I used an Izotope RX6 De-Reverb, alongside a noise gate, Multi-band Dynamics and an EQ Eight. (Appendix B)
At first I wasn't able to access the de-reverb plug-in that Izotope supplies in their RX7 Audio Repair bundle, so I had to use the the other 3 tools that I stated. I used the EQ to apply a -48dB low cut EQ at 300Hz to eliminate any unwanted low end background frequencies, as the source audio's lowest frequencies were around 385Hz. I then used the noise gate to eliminate all sound below the -29.1dB threshold with a 9.90dB return to ensure that any source audio below that point can still find its way into the mix. The simple multi-band dynamics effect was used to further eliminate frequencies below the certain threshold. This was effective but it had only reduced the reverb from a hall to a bright room sound, this was due to most of the reverb on the audio having a dB level similar to the source audio. I was not happy enough with the product to send back to Meryl.
Appendix B -
Once I had access to the de-reverb, it was the perfect tool to use to clean up the rest of the mix as it is designed to recognise foreground and background audio and seperate the two. Even though it is most effective for vocal audio files, it still was of much use for me because I had already previously removed some of the reverb through other processing. Once the separation had been made, it's simply a matter of adjusting the hi, mid and lo frequencies and smoothing out the difference. Compare the before and after product below.
Tip 4: One step at a time
Now that I have my two little side projects out of the way, I must focus on my own project, ATOM'S WRLD. I will finish the production of the fourth song within the next day and then move on to mixing the individual tracks. After that I will look into mastering them and making sure they all flow as one extended piece of music. Then I need to promote my project on social media and publish them onto a digital platform for the public to view. The plan is set in my mind... But how can I execute this efficiently and with the time frame I have left?
In a previous post I wrote on The Effects of Procrastination, I talk about a process called time-boxing. Time-boxing is when you designate yourself set times to achieve specific goals within those times, whilst allowing yourself to take breaks. For example, I will allow myself one day to complete the composition of my final track. Within that day I will set myself to one hour of melody writing and then take a half an hour to and hour break. Then go back into the studio for another hour for sound design, then take a 30 minute break. Then another hour to add a bass-line, take a 30 minute break; and so on. By doing this I give myself a time bracket to focus on one thing, one step at a time. The short breaks in between not only give me free time to do what ever else it is that I wish to do, it can also maintain a creative flow in my mind and generate new ideas for my production. Now, this is only a guideline, if I am in the middle of composing a chord progression and my one hour time period is up, I can continue to work on the progression if my creative flow is still present and I'm gaining inspiration from things around me. Once I get stuck on a section or think, "What's next?", that's when I will take my 30 minute break.
These are all small tips that I try and keep consistent in my life, in all aspects of what I do. I still have a lot to finish by the deadline that I have to meet, but I have techniques and tips to help me stay calm and complete my tasks to the highest level I can.
Jordan.
References:
AMCOS, A. (2019). Music Creators. Apraamcos.com.au. Retrieved 1 May 2019, from http://apraamcos.com.au/about-us/faqs/music-creators/
Music Rights Australia - Copyright FAQs. (2019). Musicrights.com.au. Retrieved 1 May 2019, from http://www.musicrights.com.au/antipiracy/what-is-copyright/
(2019). Apraamcos.com.au. Retrieved 1 May 2019, from http://apraamcos.com.au/media/customers/2019-PM-Rate-Card_AU.pdf
AMCOS, A. (2019). Research. Apraamcos.com.au. Retrieved 1 May 2019, from http://apraamcos.com.au/music-customers/licence-types/research/
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