the YellYo.com Blog: Archives

Start Out Small
Don’t reach too far when beginning to book regional gigs.  The overhead (gas, lodging, food, etc.) for long-distance shows and the time spent on the road with your bandmates could prove to be a fatal blow to the happiness and motivation of the group as a whole.  Try to target areas that are within a 100-mile radius of your hometown when starting out.  This allows you the option to return home the same night of the show, even if it means getting home at four in the morning, thus eliminating the need for a hotel room and keeping more of the money from the gig in the band’s pocket.  Another benefit of targeting areas closer to you is the bleed-over of the fan base.  (more…)

From the title, you may think that I am referring sarcastically to the ever-growing population of those on MySpace or Facebook who are sending bands messages guaranteeing exposure, radio play, etc. for a “small fee”.  Not true.  We’ll save that for another article titled, “Everyone is NOT a Promoter.” What I am discussing is the ease of promoting your band through means of your current fans, friends and family.  After all, they’re the ones who probably believe in what you’re doing the most.  So why not utilize them?  (more…)

With RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) making headlines lately, suing single mothers, college students, and even dead people for file sharing and illegal music downloads, we need to start asking the question: Who are they really protecting?  Not the artist, that’s for sure.  In fact, many major label artists are speaking out against RIAA, arguing that these lawsuits are no more than a means to help keep dying labels afloat in an ever-changing industry.  Wouldn’t their time be better spent working on a more up-to-date business model that embraces file downloads (i.e., iTunes)?  Of course, we’re talking common sense.  And being a lobbyist organization, they aren’t allowed to use any. (more…)

There’s a reason for the old saying about mixing business with pleasure. We all want to trust our friends and family, but one afternoon of watching court shows on TV will prove that mothers sue sons, friends sue friends, brothers sue sisters, etc…all indicative that trust in those close to us should not be assumed. As with a common stranger off the street, trust should always be earned.  Bands are no different. (more…)

With advances in technology and the subsequent lower prices associated with recording equipment/software, many of us have moved into the realm of home recording. However, owning the latest and greatest software and equipment does not qualify us as professional engineers by any stretch of the imagination. When I first started doing home recording, I could get great sounds coming in using only a mediocre setup. But when attempting to engineer and produce the songs, I had a hard time getting the instruments to properly separate in the mix, sometimes resulting in one or more tracks becoming virtually inaudible. My first inclination when this happened would be to increase the volume on those inaudible tracks. However, this resulted in tracks that were previously fine now getting buried in the mix. Eventually, everything was inched up more and more until the final result sounded like muddy noise. This is the Clash of the Frequencies. (more…)

When recording vocals in a home studio, it’s often frustrating when attempting to eliminate excessive room ambience or the noise of electronics used for processing the sound into your computer or multi-track recorder. This tends to be more problematic when recording vocals since the general volume of the voice isn’t loud enough to cancel out bad room sounds or equipment noise. At least with a guitar amp, you can crank it up and drown out most of the problems.

Vocal booths or professional studio rooms are the ideal solution. But the bulkiness and high price of adding a standalone vocal booth to your home studio make it less appealing as an option. However, there is a way to recreate the feeling of a vocal booth or studio room with minimal cost and effort. I call it the Magic Box, since the difference it can make feels like just that: magic.

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In this day and age, bands are putting too much stock in MySpace. The era of printing and posting flyers across your local area to promote a show is a fading memory. Instead, bands are relying on bulletin posts and event invitations on MySpace, assuming they have sufficiently promoted their show and should have a great turnout. However, your “friends” on MySpace may not even know who you are, may be three countries away, may not care a bit about your bulletin or event invitation, and possibly just wanted to increase their friend count when they accepted your friend request. There also used to be a time when bands would consider it integral to have a website, but that also has fallen by the wayside because of the ease and lack of cost when it comes to having a MySpace page. (more…)

Many times in a band, there is one band member who ends up shouldering the majority of the workload when it comes to booking, promotions, songwriting, etc. Having been a front man in many bands, I have found myself in this predicament and find it to be very stressful and a dangerous recipe for burning out. And if the guy (or gal) who’s taking care of everything gets burned out, the band as a whole will find itself greatly affected. (more…)