Poor Man’s Copyright

• The “Poor Man’s Copyright” consist of copyrighting your music by the postal service. It works by creating a CD and mailing it to yourself without opening the package. The stamp on the envelope will serve as your date and time of the copyright.

• The “Poor Man’s Copyright” is basically a myth. If any musician goes to court over any copyright infringement issues, the person with the copyright from the Copyright Office will be in favor. Copyrighting is one thing you cannot go cheap with. Do it illegal the first time so you will be covered in the future.

How To Copyright

• Copyrighting your music should be one of your main priorities. Before you even put a single on the radio, you will need to copyright your music. After you complete your album, you need to copyright your music. How do you copyright your music?

• Copyright.gov is the place Americans should go to copyright anything. It’s very simple! Create an account, type in your information, load your files, and pay. As soon as you click the pay button, the file you upload is legally copyrighted. You will be able to use your song without worrying about anyone illegally claiming the song as theirs.

Copyright Prices

• The price to copyright a song is around $35 per submission. Some people pay $35 per song but many people wait and bundle their files up as a zip file and copyright their files as a complete project.

• Don’t be fooled by third party websites that will copyright your music for less of the United States Copyright office. The U.S. Government is the only place you can legally copyright content. Just go to the site and do it the correct way. Basically, go straight to the source!

Choosing Monitors

Monitors are one of your biggest and yet best investment that you will make. Without a nice pair of monitors, your sound will sound like total chaos. There are generally two types monitors, playback and reference.

Playback Monitors

Playback monitors should be use only to play your music back. They should not be used to mix down your vocals. Basically, playback monitors will give you an idea on how

your song will sound in a car or a club. Playback monitors should not be on your must have list right now, but should be consider later on in your studio.

Reference Monitors

• These are the golden ticket to accuracy. Reference monitors are your mixing monitors. Reference monitors will make your mix sound great and accurate.

• We recommend brands such as Event, Mackie,Jbl, and Yamaha with a price span spanning from $330-$500 for a pair. Reference monitors are a must have in the studio and should be on your priority list.

Powered or Unpowered

Your new awesome monitors must have some electricity to work. Monitors can come either powered or unpowered. Let us talk about the two types of powering methods.

• Powered monitors are powered by an amplifier located on the speakers. All you have to do is connect the outlets, press the power button, hook up your connection, and Bang away. An unpowered monitor uses a separate powering station that is not attached to the speaker.

• Unpowered monitors powering stations can bring up some issues.  Some people decide to go the super cheap route by using an old stereo receiver to power the monitors. This is a serious issue because you will never get a true sense of your mix because your receiver may be tuned to a specific equalizer setting. The other serious issue is the cost of an external power station. They can be very costly!

We suggest that you go with powered reference monitors. Event, Mackie , or Yamaha would be a great choice!

Microphone Chords

Believe it or not, microphone chords are a major deal. Many people do not focus on buying a good chord but would rather just grab the cheapest one they see. Chord selection is not really hard; just say that the best are gold.

• We use only the best microphone chords in our recording studios. We use Mogami Gold. They are quite pricey at $80 for a 6 foot chord but they will make cheaper chord seem like toys.

• If you cannot dish out the $80, we suggest the monster cables. They are robust and excellent for studio and performing purposes. They also sound pretty good and is worth the $30-$60 for  a  6 foot chord.

Home Studio Recording Equipment (Before You Buy)

Technology has given artist and bands the chance of making nice solid music from their own home. Everyone is getting into the latest craze of owning their own home studio, but the only problem is that many people do not know what to buy right off the back. Let’s talk about the things you should ask yourself before you invest.

Investing

Investing in the proper equipment is the key to owning a rock solid home studio. Artist and bands fail to realize that in order to produce a nice sounding record; you must have

some great equipment gear. So how much are you going to invest? That’s solely up to you, but the word “cheap” will catch up with you in the long run. Do it right or not at all!

Questions to Ask Yourself

You must ask yourself a series of questions before you start a home studio. You should think deeply about what level you want to take your recording. Remember, quality is the only thing that sells. Let us look at a few key questions.

• How serious are you about recording?

• Do you know the basic music terminology?

• Will you buy used or new?

• Who are you going to record?

• Are you going to charge people in the future?