Studio Assignment

Question 1:

+4dbu and -10dbv are two measurement units that describes the signal level. The difference between the two is that +4dbu is a measurement used for balance line level connection. A balance line level connection is often used for professional studios, examples of equipment that we use that has balance line level connection is a mixer, a guitar amp, a keyboard, a interface and many more specific studio equipment. A balance line level connection can only be used for equipment that takes on +4dbu signal levels, the reason for this is instruments like amplifiers or mixers uses a lot of faults and if you used a unbalanced cableing connection there wouldn't be enough power to supply the amp or the mixer. A unbalanced connection measurement unit is -10dbv, this means that unlike a balance connection a unbalanced connection is weaker it uses lesses power and if you was to supply a mixer with the un balance connection it would litteraly distort the whole sound due to the amount of energy being used. Things that uses a balance connection is a mp3 player, a mobile phone, a laptop and computers. 

Question 2:

A cable that you would use to plug in a mp3 player or a ipod to connect into a mixer is a rca phono connecter cable, this cable has a central tip and a sleeve, they are unbalanced and any equipment like a cd player or ipod or iphone. A phono jack has one contact point that makes it unbalanced, but you can plug it into a mixer and get a unbalanced equipment eg. Phone to connect with a mixer which works. 

Question 3: Mic A because Mic A gives a wide rage of frequency both low and high frequency
it

Question 4:

20Hz - 20kHz,

Question 5:

24 bit wordlength, 44.1, 48, 88.2 sampling rate.

Question 6:

The most important piece of equipment that the most amount of money shoud go to is the audio interface. Having a good audio interface helps the quality of the sound recorded from a mic or a guitar and it also helps the quality of the sound on the monitors. 

Question 7:

A specific thing that people should not do with monitors is play it out on full blast, they should play it at a level that does not do long term damage to the ear. Also they should put the monitors at a place that's high but not to high, they should also make sure they know what type of line signal level the monitor is to prevent any serious damage to the monitors.

Question 8:

First thing I would check is the equipment that they have such as; the amount of xlr cables, the types of amps, amount of jack cables, also what microphones uses phantom power, and also what type of microphone they have. After all of that I would check the interface and I would check what type of interface it is and what type of mixer they have.  

Question 9:

Supply a list of all equipment, with explanations, pricing and wiring configuration (block diagram), that you would recommend for the following situations:

balanced level signal equipment

KRK RP-5G2 RP5 Rokit Powered 5 Studio Monitors

price £249,99

M-Audio M-Track - Two Channel USB Audio/Midi Interface

£79.00

Mic stand x 2
£9;99

Midi - Keyboard:
Avid KeyStudio 49-Key USB MIDI Keyboard + Pro Tools SE - £79.99


Condensor Microphone:
Audio Technica AT2020 Cardiod Condensor Studio USB Microphone -  £88.85

Headphones:
Noontec Zoro Studio Professional Headphones RED HD On Ear Genuine High Quality - £41.59
part 2
microphone stand - £7.65 x5 = £38.25
John Hornby Skewes Herald 5 Piece Drum Kit.- £249.99
suzuki digital grand piano - £1.599
suzuki grand piano includes:
*three dimensional stereo imaging sound
*80 watts of power
Digital Mini-Grande Piano
Matching Bench
Demonstration SD card
USB SD Card Reader
Student Series Tuition Course (Book 1)
Instruction manual
AC cable
Assembly Guide
Tools for Easy Assembly


Guitar - Lindo SLIM Red Electro/Electric Acoustic Guitar+FREE Carry Bag and Accessories -
 £167.49

sE Electronics SE2000 MKII Mic + Reflexion Filter Recording Bundle - £169


sE Electronics SE2000 MKII Condenser Microphone:

Cardioid polar pattern
1" Gold-sputtered capsule with mylar diaphragm
Frequency response of 20Hz-20KHz
125 dB Maximum SPL for THD < 0.5
Sensitivity of >16m V/Pa -36*+/-2dB
48V Phantom power necessary
Output impedance of < 200 Ohms
Output noise of < 17dB typical (A weighted)
Rubberised noise-dampening mic clip (included)

Boom Mic Stand by Gear4music:

Mic Thread: 3/8" (10mm)
Min Stand Height: 35" (90cm) (floor to boom swivel)
Max Stand Height: 64" (163cm) (floor to boom swivel)
Folded Length: 36" (93cm)

XLR (F) - XLR (M) Microphone Cable, 6m:

Length: 6m / 20ft
Jacket and Insulation: PVC
Spiral Shield: 64 x 0.12mm
Conductors: 20 x 0.12mm
Connectors: Female XLR to Male XLR
Colour: Black

Microphone Pop Filter Shield for Mic Stand:

Stops damaging noises from 'p' and 'b' sounds
Protects your mic
Flexible gooseneck holder
Swivel mount for easy positioning
6" diameter circular pop filter
Universal mic stand clamp

Features/Specifications:

• Ultra-compact headphone amplifier system for studio and stage applications
• 4 independent stereo high-power amplifier sections
• Highest audio quality with virtually all types of headphones even at maximum volume
• Phones Level control plus accurate 6-segment LED output meter per channel for easy level monitoring
• 2 balanced stereo main inputs with independent Level and Balance controls for individual mixes, selectable for all 4 headphone amplifiers
• Accurate 6-segment LED main level meter for precise level indication of both line inputs
• 2 headphone outputs per channel (front and rear panel) allow a total of 8 headphones to be simultaneously connected
• Parallel Link Output allows cascading of several headphone amplifiers
• High-quality potentiometers and illuminated switches for long-term reliability
• All Mini Series models can be stacked on top of each other to create an ultra-compact signal processor solution
• High-quality components and exceptionally rugged construction ensure long life

Production Diary

Production diary

Mic used:

Titan - titan is a condensed mic witch uses phantom power due to the amount of energy it needs, the reason why i chose this microphone to record vocals was because it picks up a lot of low frequency, mid frequency and high frequency. It has three different polar patterns which are cardioid polar pattern which are very suitable for high notes or high sound and its also a figure of eight by directional polar pattern which is good for a duet recording. The third polar pattern is omni directional which picks an all round sound. The polar pattern that i used was a cardioid polar pattern on it which was useful to me because I had a lot of loud notes recorded.

C414XLS- the c414 offered me a great quality of the vocals because it picks up a lot of details

Other:


Mic Stand - the reason why i used a mic stand was to adjust the microphone to a comfortable position where it would help my vocals come out comfortably into the mic for the recording.
Stands for the speaker - having stands for speakers kept the monitors at a position where you could hear the sound from two different angles without having anything blocking them because the stand was used to lift the speakers above the computer level.

adjustable chair - the reason why i used an adjustable chair was because i needed to use the midi witch was on my left side and i also needed to use the computer witch was in front of me, so the chair was really useful because it had wheels to move around and i adjusted it to a position where i would sit comfortably. 

keyboard stand - normally i use the keyboard in front of the computer monitors but because i wanted more control of the mouse and the computer keyboard i had to use a keyboard stand to put the midi on my left hand side.

Mac - i use logic pro 9 and this program is only suitable for mac computers, and also macs generate a lot of ram to get the software working.

logic software - logic is the software i use, it's where i use a lot of sampled instruments and its where i also record vocals, its a very useful software because its really clear to use, really easy to handle.

noise cancelling walls - i kept a noise cancelling wall around me to block extra sound bouncing off the walls that creates reverb. The noise cancelling walls kept the sound as dry as possible so it would be easier to have control of the recorded sound due to the small amount of reverb.

interface - i used the scarlet audio interface to plug in the microphone and the headphones in to it and also to set the volume for the monitors, it was also going to be useful for an instrument because it has a jack port in it but due to the lack of guitars i was not able to use a guitar.

Mixer - i used a mixing desk to put the gain at a good level to record vocals and i also used four buses to control the loudness of the instrumentals.

headphones - the headphones was very useful to me because if i didnt have the headphones there would be a lot of bleeding in the sound due to the instrumentals played being recorded onto the mic. So i used the headphones to keep the instruments playing within the headphones because there would be no bleeding into the sound.

monitors - whilst recording i didnt really use the monitors. The monitors became very useful to me when i was doing my final mixing, normally what i do is mix the initial part of the work in my headphones then at my final mixing i used the monitors to do the final mixing.

 Recording

Track 1


The first thing I did to start this track was to decide what track I wanted to make, I decided to make this track a hip hop track. Then I decided to create a mood, in music you create a mood by choosing the appropriate chord sequence to make the song happy or sad. So I made the song more towards evil and wicked by choosing the bass chords with a mix of majors and minors. Before I played the notes I went onto media on the right hand side of logic, went on library then the instruments came up, then I went on bass then went on synth bass and then I chose basment bass as my instrument. Once I chose the right bass instrument I played the notes by recording live from the computer keyboard because I did not have a midi controller at home. After I recorded my bass line I copied and pasted the midi data I did this by pressing alt dragging the midi data next to the previous data then letting the mouse go then letting my finger of the alt button, then I repeated this action till I didn't want to copy and paste the midi data.


Then I added a new instrument voice space, what I did with voice space was I copied and pasted the same midi data as the basement bass, and then after that I added another instrument glow stick which sounds like a synth you would use in a dubstep track and like what I did with voice space I copied the midi data from the basement bass midi data, so after I copied and pasted the midi data I made it a octave higher to harmonise with the 2 other instruments I used. So I made 3 instruments doing the same thing.


Next the I did was the piano, with the piano I chose piano's dream because it had a good amount of reverb which had the space design reverb witch is a plug in you get in the side already made on it. After I chose the piano I added auto filter to the piano, synchronized the beat, chose the waveform which made a dubstep wobble, chose the rate of the beat which wobbles at a half pace, I turned up the cutoff mod all the way to 100 percent. After that duplicated the piano's dream instrument twice and then I copied and pasted the high octave synth onto the second duplicated piano and then I played the piano live on the second bar to varie the piano sound, and the first piano only became a compliment due to the style of mixing I chose for it, then on the third piano I played manually a different melody.


My next step was the drums, first step I chose a specific kick drum, it was already compressed so what I decided to do was change the EQ, I made sure that I took out a lot of the bass from the kick drum to prevent the original bass being distorted, then I added a second different kick drum, this was the latin kick, the latin kick is really dry and natural so what I decided to do was to put the volume really low then I added gold verb, once I chose the gold verb as my plug in I made sure the option was according to what I wanted the sound to sound like, I chose the mix option to 45 percent, my reverb time was kept at 1.05 seconds, then my density was kept at 50 percent, my high cut was kept at 4200Hz, kept the room size small at 10m to get the reverb really realistic. I played the kick drum manually and quantised it to 1/8 note.


I then added a snare the roland tr 606, I kept the snare clean, chose the pre EQ option to the sound I wanted, I played it live and quantised it to 1/8 note. then I added a seventies kit, with seventies kit I didn't use a eq I kept it on a straight line but I added a lot of reverb on the averb option and made sure the room size was at a 100 percent, the mix was at 44 percent, denisity/time on 75 percent, reflectivity was at 20 percent.


I then chose the roland tr - 808 as my high hat kit, instead of playing the kit live I decided to edit it by holding command and clicked on the bars I wanted, I done it for less then a beat and copied and pasted where I wanted the high hats to be played at.


I added the broken beat kit for my second high hat, I made sure that I took out the high frequency on the EQ option, I done that because it almost gave a harmony between the 2 high hats, I copied and pasted the broken beat kit at the bottom but instead of playing 2 high hats at the same time I put the second broken beat kit to play quarter of a second later then the first high hat kit.


After I did my beat, bass and piano, to finish the track I added audio, the first sample I used was already in the libary so I looked for an abstract atmosphere 134 because it was a sound of a police speaking on the radio witch is what I wanted. After that I really wanted it to sound like a voice coming from a radio, so I took out all of the low frequency EQ which made it sound like a radio effect, then I added averb, made sure density/time was 100 percent, the room size on 100 percent, the mix on 22 percent and the reflectivity on 20 percent, then I added an echo which played at 1/8, then I added automation for the panning, I panned the sound to the right and left really fast which made a wierd sensation in the sound.


Next I chose the vocals that I wanted to use, I downloaded the vocals from youtube which was actually a rapper freestyling live accapella, because he did not have a track playing he kept on going in and out of time in this recording, there also was a lot of people around him, having different conversations which made a amature recording of his vocals, his voice was quite loud so I decided to use that to my advantage, after choosing the vocals I decided to pick the parts that I wanted and the parts that I didn't want, the parts that I wanted I made sure it was on time with my track and I also used a useful plugin which is called bpm counter, bpm counter gave me the time that the track was at, it said 127.3 beats per minuet so I typed in 127.3 into the tempo of my track to make the audio in time with my track, I kept the time signature at 4/4. After that the first vocals I made the EQ and I took out all the low frequency on the EQ option, then I added a lot of reverb in the averb plug in, then I added a different reverb which is called aumatrix reverb, after choosing that plug in I chose the pre setting at a medium hall 3 and kept the settings the same, then I used channel EQ took out some of the low frequency then I added a speech enhancer plug in, which helps the vocals become clear, I chose the denoise at -33dB, then I kept mic connection on, then I chose the mic model which was powerbook g4 titanium, then I kept the voice enhancer on and chose the male solo option, then I added another plug in exciter, kept the freequency at 6600hz, made the harmonics at 113.000 percent this was helpful because it brightened the vocals. Then I used pitch shifter 2 witch is a plug in that deepens the vocals or makes it thinner, I wanted a evil dark and low sound to his voice so I kept the mixer at 100 percent, chose the semi tones at -7 which made the vocals really low, then I chose cents at -23, after I chose the vocals option. Then I copied and pasted the parts that I wanted and I repeated a lot of the same parts. Once at about 1min 1 second into the song I chose a different verse that the rapper was using and up to that part the rapper vocals was at a low pitch, so what I did to change the dynamics was to add his orignal voice on top of the low pitched voice which created a harmony, once the harmony was created I made sure that the vocals was clear enough by using the same channel EQ speech enhancer and the exciter as the second low pitch vocals, the only difference was that I didn't use a pitch shifter.






Mastering - The mastering is where the song became a part of a quality album,EP or mix-tape. A lot of people think that mix downs is the same as mastering but they are different Mixing should be done whilst you are adding instruments to your beat or adding audio to your software, Mastering on the other hand is the final task. once the you have a group of track you need to have them having the same level you need to have a good flow to the album by not having too much space or not enough space between the tracks. but if I was to sum up what mastering is using my own word I would say "making everything it smooth" as my sum.

Here is what I've done.


My Mastering:

step 1 - My first step was to choose from my choices of created tracks to go together on the album, My choices where Put my name on it (Hip-Hop Trap) and whats cooking (Grime) both tracks have different feeling to it but are similar when it comes to the way I structured them.


Step 2 - After the songs was chosen I had to bounce it to WAVE format then I had to make sure it was set to 24bit to get the best quality for my CD.


Step 3 - once the tracks was bounced I needed to make sure I had a empty logic project opened, Then I had to chose empty tracks on logic. Once that was done I chose audio tracks instead of software instruments for my 2 songs. I added my Songs by searching for it on the search option on the top right corner. I loaded songs 1 to track 1 and song 2 to track 2 in the Logic pro software.


Step 4 - at this point I made my self listen to similar songs to help me make my mind up about what I wanted the first track to sound like. Track one I only used the EQ to increase the bass, then I increased a bit of the mid section of the frequency to make things like the snare, piano and the vocals to stand out more especially the vocals. Song 1 was not hard to master because I mixed it very well, so all I needed to do for song one was the change from song 1 to song 2 , what I did to end song 1 was to use the volume fade on the top right hand side, then I pressed ctrl and click to give me the option to change the pitch instead of the volume once that was done at the end of track 1 I added the same effect to song 2 but instead of the pitch fade slowing down It started slow and low until it went to the normal speed. song 2 was easy too because like song one I mixed the song well also. I made the vocal stand out because the vocals is the most important aspect of my track, then I made the bass a little stronger. I also made sure the track matched the same volume as the first track.


Final Step - My next target was to turn the songs into album so I sent each song 1 and song 2 to my iTunes, I applied to right name for song and the name of the album and for song 1 and 2 so they merged together.Then I created I play list, pressed ctrl click then I chose burn track to CD option, I then applied the CD to burn the songs in to it. After five mins I played the CD in a different system to see if it worked properly (it did).

Term 3 Listening

Maria Gadú - Bela Flor






Genre: Bossa nova






Guitar playing:


She starts by playing single strings with the soft tip of her finger making the lower frequency of the sound stand out at the start. She also uses the small fifth finger on her left hand to mute the strings and at the same time she uses her right hand to slide her fifth fourth and third finger making a muted effect.






Through out the songs she picks the strings she wants played but when she says the fraise "bela flor" she strums the strings






The vocals






She often keeps her tone very sweet due to the fact that she has a very whispery voice which adds to the sweetness of the song giving the listener a calm relaxing feeling coming from her tone.






The lyrics of the song talks about a (beautiful flower that grew in the river properly referring to a beautiful woman that grew up in Rio)


The way she interprets the song really stands out when she strengths her voice whilst repeating the song






One other thing that I noted is that she has section in the song were she calms her voice and soften her voice other part were she picks the strings harder and harden her voice too, its a hard technique to master but it is a vital bit of skill that needs practicing the reason this is so important its because strengthening and softening the sound of you vocals and the guitar helps determine wether its the verse, chorus bridge






Area of performance






The area that she sings at is quite big there's lots of space in which the sound travels and if there was to be an empty space you would hear an echo because the sound would take a few seconds to bounce back from the hard surface or the wall making a delayed play back of the sound, but since theres an massive audience which sucks in a lot of the sound because of the bodies.The initial sound let alone the reverb wouldn't be able to stand out due to the loudness. To solve this problem everything that needs to be heard has a mic on, thats a standard sure 57mic and the other is a line mic thats within the guitar.The vocals has a little bit of reverb which is noticeable due to the size of the place in which the singer is performing and also theres a small amount of reverb added by the sound engineer, the guitar has a different type of mic positioning then the vocals because the positioning of the mic for the vocal is out side the mouth right at the centre whilst the guitar has the positioning of the mic built internally this makes the sound better if the guitarist wants the focus to be on the lower part of the frequency and also the mid part but not so much for the high frequency.

Marketing Yourself

What i do?

I am a wannabe artist and a upcoming producer, i currently do a level 3 course that helps me acheive skills and improve my ability to this course, over the past 2 years has developed my performing skills, my producing skills and my overall theory of music. I currently want to work on my producing skills and sound engineering skills so i can get knowledge not only on the practical side but also on the academic and technical side of the industry. The reason why i want to have this amount of knowledge on this side of the music industry is because i want to creat my own independent label and release all my work as a artist and a producer independently without any strings attached.

Marketing materials:

The people that would likely be my target fans are people who buy music and also enjoy experimental songs. I likely age of these target audience are about 16 - 28 years of age. The reason why is because
16 - 18 year olds would most likely get the parents money to buy my songs and 20 - 28 year olds would probably buy it then selves. Sources that i would mainly use to get my fan base increased is sound cloud, twitter, band camp, proffesional blog, wordpress, youtube, facebook and instagram .

Soundcloud:
Soundcloud is useful to share mp3 files for free so listeners can stream it for free from any where that has internet acess, its also useful to share high quality music with wave file.

Twitter:

Having a lot of followers on twitter means that you have a lot of people hearing what you have to say and whatever post that you post within the social network can be highly credited. A useful thing to do to promote me as an artist on twitter is to post links to other websites witch show off my skills as a producer and a artist or post about what time my ep is coming out and dates for tours and gigs.

Facebook:

Facebook is useful as a network that promotes other useful websites that promote items.

Bandcamp:

The good thing about band camp is tht band camp is specially made for upcoming artists and producers and its easy to post eps and albulms or songs for free on this site and if registered you can also get a profit from the sales, and the people buying the item can choose the amount they want to pay witch sometimes can be a sucess for the artist. I myself will be making a target to publish a ep on bandcamp as soon as possible.

Wordpress:

Wordpress is where i have my blog that links up every networking site that i have meaning that i have music from soundcloud, links to instagram, link to twitter, facebook.

Instagram:

Instagram is kind of new to the promiting business, its a great way to get me as an artist and producer closer to my fans, having pictures of day to day life helps people identify not only with your music but with day to day life, witch is very useful to attract new dedicated fans.


wordpress: http://danstamford.wordpress.com/gallery/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/DanstamfordProductions

blogger: http://danstamfordproduction.blogspot.co.uk/

Self - Management & Professionalism

Freelance work:

A freelance worker works for them selves, the way that they manage themselves is by having control of their performance side and business side, they have a flexible contract meaning that they could choose to manage the money how they want. Also that means that there is a lot more organisation involved for the artist. As a freelancer you have to professional for example you wouldnt just work for a singer or a producer you wouldn also have to have a job to earn money to be able to pay for your career as a producer.
Freelancer signs temporary contracts for a certain amount of time this is known to be a session contract. Some other freelancers sign fixed term contracts witch would aply for a project or a job that would last for a while.

Finance in freelance:

The more difficult part of working as a freelancer whether in music or in a different business is the finance and knowing if you come under income tax and do a self assessment or personal allowance is key place to start.
Money makes the world go round and knowing how to control it is a crucial part in any business and as a freelancer you can choose to have someone controlling your budget, or you could save money and control the budget yourself, meaning you have to decide if you need extra money for the tours or maybe money for new gear, but also having enough money to pay tax.
One way to reduce the amount of tax that you pay is to keep reciepts of every cost that you had associated with your work, meaning if you wasted money on buying a computer for producing, instruments or even what ever things that are associated with your work you could get money taken off your tax to make the tax easier to pay. This form is called tax return and can be found in the hm avenue website.

Good and bad of working as a freelancer -

Good:
Being able to do whatever you want and whatever you like creatively and financially is a great option to have if your an independent person. Having a good organsiation skills, also being social could actually make you see profits and it is also great if you want to do other things other then music and keep music as a hobby because you will be allowed to be more flexible with your time choosing dates, time for whatever you like.

Bad:
The bad thing about being a freelancer is that having all this freedom could sometimes turn into a headache and a massive disaster if the artist is unorganised or unsocial, it could lead to stress, banked robbed and in extreme occasions leading the artist homeless. But these are extreme cases that could be a putt off to become a freelancer.

Being professional:

Being professional is sometimes just means following a task, but being a professional as a freelancer means taking responsibility of everything for example: how much money you need to rent a coach for a tour, making sure of time and the venue, controlling what comes in and what comes out of the bank, if you need to put your own money to secure the bands financial state. All these different examples is a few things that you need to be aware of when taking the decision of becoming a freelancer, being flexible with the time and having social skills meaning using the internet or meeting new friends within the industry, having a knowledge of the industry itself, being polite and friendly, being good with targets and time set for a specific release or tour dates are all commandments for a freelancer to follow if they are going to be successful in the industry.

Me as a freelancer:
If i was to become a freelancer i would make sure i would have a good knowledge all round, based on the business, based on the creative side of the music, i would make sure that i would have enough experience as a performer, work hard to increase my fan base as an artist, make friends with upcoming producers, create a portfolio both for the music that i produce and music that i would perform as an artist, i would also make sure to gain experience in mixing to get extra money, and i would also make sure that i had a job outside the music industry that would pay me a stable budget.

What im currently doing to meet my targets is a level 3 course in music production and sound engineering, im also learning about the music industry, learning to develop as an artist and also the theory in music. Im currently trying to creat a portfolio with a few of my recent work to show off my skills and im also working hard to socialise with people that work in the industry. I currently have a job with a stabled budget that can support me to make a start.

Royalties

Royalties:

Artists and composers are very important in the music idustry and they do a lot of creating and making music and get their music commercialised all over the tv, radio, adverts, movies etc. Whenever their music gets played they need to get payed because its their music and their right, whenever a composer or an artists music is being performed they get payed for it.
For the artist and composers to get payed for their work they need to apply for royalties so the collection agencies of the royalties can keep a contract that the artist or composer signed and have rights from the composer and artist. So once the artist or composer has joined the collection agnecies for the royalties they save records of the artist or composer's music and rights of what the composer has written and the artist has written and they track whenever their music is played and then the artist or composer gets payed.
The artist's recorded songs get played all over but there are different royalties for different rights meaning there is 3 types of collection agencies.

Collection agencies of royalties:

PRS - (performing right society)
MCPS - (mechanical copyright protection society)
PPL - (phonographic performance limited)

PRS - prs is when the writers and composers music gets performed, they get the money for it. The performer does not get money for performing the writers and composers music because the royalty collection angency is for composers and writers and their original recordings. For example either a composer, writer and artist write a original song from scratch and create everything in the song and they then go and record the song and then publish is, so once their song is published to be broadcasted the prs will record every single time that song has been played and they automatically get payed but if it is a band that created the song the prs has to split the money between the band and the most important role gets more then the other band members.
To join prs you have to pay 10 pounds to join for life, but this gets deducted from first payments. In april, july, october and december is when the payments are done.

MCPS - the royalties of mcps is collected from the sale of recordings and the owner of the copyright of the recording.
This means the record label that has signed with the artist, composer and writer own the recording and whenever the recording of the song has been sold the owner of the recording and the composer gets payed for it, so through mcps they collect every time the recording has been saled and the owner and composer gets payed. No one else can get payed only the owners and the composers because the mcps is made for them and works around them.
If a composer is unpublished they are still eligible for royalties of mcps.
The publishers would collect the money for the artist only if the artist uses a publisher. But if an artist comes and performs on the recording they dont have rights from mcps because they are just performing and they are not the owner of the copyright of the recording.

PPL - ppl royalties collects from a performance of a song, a broadcast of a song so the musicians performing on the recording get the royalties of ppl.
So only people that are performing on the recording have rights to get collections from ppl royalties.
So this means when someone performs in a song doesnt matter how long they get payed everytime they perform in the song and the song gets broadcasted. This applys to instrument players such as: piano, guitar, drums, bass etc. Singers or any sort of voices, rappers etc.
It does not cost to join mcps.


When a song is used on tv or film it earns either the composer, writer and artist money, so whenever the song is played on tv or film it gets the artist and composers and writers money.
Publishers of the artist or composers and writers give permission for the company using the specific song to use license for the song and gives you a synchronisation fee.
For example: a artist wrote an original song and recorded it, so the recording gets published around and a director has heard the recording and wants to use it for their film so the director has to get a lisence from the recording label that worked with the artist so they can use it on their film, because once the director has the lisence and pays the record label for the lisence the director can use te song for the film but only for the film, if the same director wanted to use it for another film they have to get another lisence for that film and be able to use it in the film.

The reason why royalties, copyrights and lisence are so important is because without the royalties there would be no organised method to pay the artists, composers and writers, and it would cause a mess in the industry with payments and there could be occasions where some artists, composers and writers dont even get payed for ther hard work and efforts. So it is good that there are 3 different types of royalties because it organises the paying methods and it makes the artists etc feel safe and secure and know that they would get payed for their rights. The way these 3 types of royalties get seperated for the rights of 1. Writers get payed for their original work being played 2. Owners and composers of record labels get payed for when the recordings get saled and 3. Performers on the recordings get payed for when the recording gets played. It all becomes simple but then there is lisences and copyrights with the recordings this is important to have in the music industry because lisences is for people to be able to use the songs and broadcast them and copyrights is for people to have rights to own the song by buying the song. Without lisences and copyrights the owners of the recordings meanig artists, writers and composers would not get payed properly maybe not at all because people would just be using the songs for free and the artists and owners would not get their money that they deserve. So this is why it is good that there are copyrights and lisences because it keeps the industry organised and people get payed for what they deserve and no problems occur.