If you just want to get on with performing and sounding / looking as good as you can be, here is a range of simple, effective and affordable services that have been designed to help you the Artist to operate and promote yourself in a professional manner.
Including Web Sites, Photography, Audio (demo) Recording, Showreel & Video Editing, Media Encoding and Backing Track Optimisation.
Our Artist Websites are designed to be simple and easy for your prospective clients / bookers / agents to view and use.
To keep the cost as low as possible they are all based on the same framework (template) into which we place your content and media. There are a select number of colour schemes and fonts (text styles) to choose from that best suit your image.
The websites consist of 3 or 4 pages as follows:
1. Biography / About
2. Playlist & Audio
3. Photo Gallery
4. Video (not on package 'One')
In terms of your domain name you have 2 choices: either an address on our server (included in the price of your site) or to purchase your required domain. For example if your stage name was 'Singing Simon' your site name could either be:
What's the difference to you?
Number 1 is free and guaranteed to be available, number 2 will cost (approx £5 per year for a .co.uk and £10 per year for a .com) and might already have been taken / is your responsibility to renew.
...As in the real world it's an address to send people to - either way they can get there.
There are 3 levels available to account for the amount of content (Audio, Photos, Video) you have and want to display on your website. (see price table below)
Audio and Video tracks are to be a maximum length of 4 minutes each. Media longer than this will be faded out to the 4 minute mark.
It is your responsibility to ensure you have permission to post the material to your website.
These prices only apply when content is supplied in digital format (ie by email or on disc).
Your content (Photos, Audio, Video) will be what makes your site look more professional and impressive - that is what will help make you the artist more memorable and employable.
If you do not have sufficient or suitable content or you want to update your promotional media please see below for options on Photography, Audio Recording and Video Editing.
We provide a relaxed yet structured service to quickly provide you with a useable portfolio of photos.
At the end of the actual shoot you will review the images and choose your favourite 30 for basic editing. (All useable images are made available to you at screen resolution at the end of the session)
You can either have your shoot at our small studio or at your choice of location. Studio shots are onto a white background.
Please take time to consider your choice of location, if outdoors the weather will play a big part. Public spaces offer 'real' and interesting backdrops / props - check you have permission and remember that by definition there may be members of the public present.
You are primarily getting the photos done to help promote you as a performing artist - a picture of you singing will not need explaining for people to know what you do.
Our Artist Photo ShootPackage is as follows: 1. 60 minute photo shoot.
2. Unrestricted access to all useable images (screen resolution - up to 1042 x 1024).
3. Basic editing of up to 30 selected high resolution images.
4. Online viewer for 30 selected images.
Studio Price: £130
Location Price: £230
Please note these prices do not include actual prints, the images are supplied on disc.
How you can help to improve the process.
We all seem to have a time of day when we look our
best / worse - choose a morning, afternoon or evening session accordingly.
Consider your journey to the shoot - a stressful or rushed one will still be on your face when you arrive.
Drink lots of water (in general) for better and healthier looking skin.
Remember - unless you're a model you need to feel how you want to look.
Being comfortable is the key.
A relaxed yet structured approach provides the best results. We have a comfortable workspace and will work with you to get your best possible performance. Your overall session time is 3 hours, this is split ev. At the end of this time you will walk away with your best takes on CD. We recommend recording up to 3 tracks during your session depending on their complexity and how well you perform them.
Please ensure your backing tracks are of the highest possible quality. Please bring the tracks you wish to use on either CD or a USB memory stick. We can work from other types of media (minidisc / MP3 player) but please be advised that they will need to be captured onto our system in real time which will eat into your overall session time (it will also result in loss of quality from an already compromised source). ie - bring them on CD at their original and optimum quality!
Our Demo Recording Package is as follows: 1.
90 minutes recording.
2. 90 minutes editing / mixing.
3. Your edited / mixed / mastered tracks on a standard audio CD.
4. Your edited / mixed / mastered tracks in MP3 format.
Price: £130
How you can help to improve the process.
There will b
e a time of day when your voice is at its best - choose a morning, afternoon or evening session accordingly.
Consider your journey to our studio facility, you will already be slightly nervous - being on the last minute / rushing to get here on time will not see you performing at your best.
Know your material inside out (definitely have the lyrics committed to memory).
Send us your Audio, Photo and Video footage on disc (CD or DVD) and we will put together your showreel containing highlights of your best work.
You do not have to be with us for us to complete the work but you can (on request) sit in on the editing (as long as you promise not to fidget too much if you get bored). If there are specific elements that you want to make sure we include in your showreel you can either sit in or send us a list of them with your footage.
Please bear in mind that the end result is very much dependent on the quality of Audio, Photography and Video that you send in. If it is low resolution your showreel will not look great on a large television screen.
Your finished showreel will be 3 minutes in duration.
Artist Showreel Editing includes: 1. 3 hours of editing and mixing.
2. Your showreel on DVD.
3. Your showreel in the correctly encoded format for optimum playback
on the internet.
Price: £130
If your Audio, Video or Photographs aren't looking or sounding as they should online or they are taking way too long too download or play, it may well be that they are not in their optimum format for use on the internet.
The other scenario is that you want to restrict the quality of the work or media that you give away for free or make available for other people to use (saving the best for sales or for a specific purpose).
Photography
We can quickly and cost effectively batch process your pictures to make them more manageable and useable.
This process includes: 1. Naming and numbering the batch of your photos to help you find them more easily.
2. Inserting a watermark if required (eg Artist Name and/or Website).
3. Your photos in 3 sizes - Small, Medium, Large. Price: £40 (for up to 120 photographs)
Do you have a favourite photograph(s) that you want to add something different to?
We can enhance most pictures to bring out the best in them. This can be cropping, changing to black & white, removing or enhancing colour elements or any combination of these. Price: £5 (per picture / version)
Audio We re-encode audio files to their optimum level for different purposes including the internet and MP3 / iPod playback.
You don't have to know / understand much about bit rates (if anything as we'll do it for you) but there's an ideal rate for most purposes. In a 99% of the time nutshell CD is as good as it gets and MP3's are lower quality.
The bit rate of a CD is 1141 kbits/s, widely used MP3 rates are 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256 and 320 kbit/s.
Basically 128k should be your absolute minimum and it will download quickly on the internet, 256k is noticably better (use this as your download rate in iTunes) and 320k is when most people will not hear an appreciable difference between MP3 and CD quality.
Blah, Blah, Yawn- What does this mean for me?
Incorrectly encoded audio files for internet use can either take too long to download if their resolution is too high or they don't sound very good if it is too low. The scenario is similar for MP3 / iPod use - higher resolution files take up much more space, but low resolution files don't sound as good.
We will re-encode your demo CD for optimum internet playback. Price:£5 (per track - volume discount available)
Backing Track Optimisation / Format change Send us the original backing tracks to your main set on CD and we will give them an audio makeover.
Are some much louder than others? Do some seem to have more sparkle than others?
The latest tracks you buy are more likely to be of a higher quality but the old ones are most likely sounding tired and dated.
We will: 1. Even out volume level between tracks to stop you having to dive for a fader when a certain song comes on.
2. Apply multiband compression and audio enhancers to give ALL of your tracks 'sparkle'.
3. Supply a mono version of each track processed.
4. Supply an enhanced stereo version of each track processed.
Price:£5 (per track - volume discount available)
We're not suggesting you optimise your complete library, just your main set. Maybe just get one done to see if it makes a difference - it's a major part of your sound and your performance.
Minidisc to iPod
We can transfer your tracks from minidisc to MP3 and apply all of the enhancements listed above. This has to be done in real time so there is no volume discount.
Price:£5 (per track)
Video
SImilar to audio files (but more complicated) video needs to be encoded at the optimum rate to acheive a balance of quality and download speed on the internet.
We will re-encode your original video footage from CD or DVD to whatever format you require.
Price on request.
Wasp in a Jam Jar (1.7Mb)
Optimum (13Mb)
Too large (31Mb)
These are just small thumbnail examples, visually it makes a big difference with larger images - see our MEDIA ENCODING PAGE for larger examples.
