I think my experience parallels yours exactly. Can it be done? I have full-time writer friends, and it's a full-time hustle, but the rewards (as such) become less and less, and there's no security. Friends of mine who have written recent books for pretty substantial sums, however, prove to me that that industry, unlikely as it is, is apparently somehow doing OK. People love rock bios/oral histories.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 6 May 2016 17:39 (eight years ago) link
I'm doing better than OK with freelance gigs in the last 18 months but I wouldn't have pursued this without the comfort of a full time job even 20 years ago. This happens to be my particularly abnormality, not a recommendation.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 May 2016 17:41 (eight years ago) link
on the rolling clusterpresident thread, there was a quote from a talking head that media work/writing is white collar work with blue collar wages and yes.
― ulysses, Friday, 6 May 2016 17:46 (eight years ago) link
I have this same conversation with musician friends all the time.
― Heez, Friday, 6 May 2016 20:12 (eight years ago) link
Big turning point was when I realized that there were more people playing in the NBA than in positions of making a comfortable living, benefits etc like I was in my particular field of entertainment journalism. If I lost my job where could I go?
― rockpalast '82 (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 6 May 2016 20:15 (eight years ago) link
If the NBA teaches us anything, China.
― ulysses, Friday, 6 May 2016 20:18 (eight years ago) link
Sad!
― Οὖτις, Friday, 6 May 2016 20:23 (eight years ago) link
In my neighborhood you had two choices: Sell drugs or write listicles
― Blowout Coombes (President Keyes), Friday, 6 May 2016 21:17 (eight years ago) link
Either you wrote for Vox or you had a wicked jump shot
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, 6 May 2016 21:47 (eight years ago) link
I Had to Write Click Bait To Escape Poverty... And That's Okay
― ulysses, Friday, 6 May 2016 21:58 (eight years ago) link
All Of My Dreams Died ... And Here's Why
― tylerw, Friday, 6 May 2016 22:03 (eight years ago) link
You Have To Read Upper Mississippi Sh@kedown's Epic Takedown of His Career
― rockpalast '82 (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 6 May 2016 23:57 (eight years ago) link
Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool: The 5 Most Important Things To Know
― niels, Monday, 9 May 2016 11:52 (eight years ago) link
We hear eerie glissandos (you know, like when there’s a cliffhanger at the end of a Lost episode) We hear eerie glissandos (you know, like when there’s a cliffhanger at the end of a Lost episode) We hear eerie glissandos (you know, like when there’s a cliffhanger at the end of a Lost episode) We hear eerie glissandos (you know, like when there’s a cliffhanger at the end of a Lost episode) We hear eerie glissandos (you know, like when there’s a cliffhanger at the end of a Lost episode) We hear eerie glissandos (you know, like when there’s a cliffhanger at the end of a Lost episode) We hear eerie glissandos (you know, like when there’s a cliffhanger at the end of a Lost episode) We hear eerie glissandos (you know, like when there’s a cliffhanger at the end of a Lost episode) We hear eerie glissandos (you know, like when there’s a cliffhanger at the end of a Lost episode) We hear eerie glissandos (you know, like when there’s a cliffhanger at the end of a Lost episode)
― Wimmels, Monday, 9 May 2016 11:54 (eight years ago) link
also, This Mortal Coil didn't write "Another Day," rock geniuses
― Wimmels, Monday, 9 May 2016 11:59 (eight years ago) link
someone tell them to up the res on the photos on the front page. whole things blurry as hell
http://i66.tinypic.com/11vsdtv.png
― de l'asshole (flopson), Thursday, 12 May 2016 17:32 (eight years ago) link
it's because they are in heaven
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Thursday, 12 May 2016 17:59 (eight years ago) link
Scrolling up and down, I am born again,” Thom Yorke sang on OK Computer’s “Airbag,” which was written about a car accident, but could also describe the experience of using a message board.
― de l'asshole (flopson), Friday, 13 May 2016 14:21 (eight years ago) link
lol
― nazi pugs fuck off (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 13 May 2016 14:28 (eight years ago) link
all album reviews should compare the listening experience to that of using a message boardso is it written, so shall it be
― ulysses, Friday, 13 May 2016 14:30 (eight years ago) link
I had never even seen a message board before.
― le Histoire du Edgy Miley (difficult listening hour), Friday, 13 May 2016 14:50 (eight years ago) link
scrolling up and down, I am born again - best screen name ever?
― schwantz, Friday, 13 May 2016 17:01 (eight years ago) link
a supergroup whose lineup includes some of the Bush era's most forward-thinking punk musicians: Jordan Billie and Cody Votolato of the Blood Brothers, Justin Pearson and Gabe Serbian of the Locust and the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Nick Zinner
One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other Dept
― Wimmels, Friday, 20 May 2016 14:19 (eight years ago) link
Do you mean the faulty parallel construction?
― geoffreyess, Friday, 20 May 2016 15:34 (eight years ago) link
assume he just means "the YYYs aren't a punk band" which definitely seems like something worth posting here
― reader, if you love him so much why don't you marry him? (DJ Mencap), Friday, 20 May 2016 15:57 (eight years ago) link
saddest supergoup
― scott seward, Friday, 20 May 2016 16:44 (eight years ago) link
this is bad:http://pitchfork.com/features/article/9894-the-dark-art-of-mastering-music/
purports to explain mastering but mostly resorts to a bunch of different bad metaphors and continually referring to it as mysterious and inexplicable
― Immediate Follower (NA), Friday, 20 May 2016 19:03 (eight years ago) link
"If rock stars are the sex gods of music, mastering engineers are its druids, the ones who work methodically and meticulously, and to whom people come for mystical wisdom and blessing."
there's good useful stuff mixed in there but mostly their conclusion is that the job of the mastering engineer is to make stuff sound good, which isn't a very good explanation
― Immediate Follower (NA), Friday, 20 May 2016 19:05 (eight years ago) link
there is an excellent interview with Scott Hull of Masterdisk in the new issue of Tape Op Magazine that i just got in the mail. very illuminating.
― scott seward, Friday, 20 May 2016 19:21 (eight years ago) link
also a long interview with Don Was that is good. don't think i knew that he was now the president of blue note records.
― scott seward, Friday, 20 May 2016 19:22 (eight years ago) link
i certainly didn't
― da vinci beaver testicles (contenderizer), Friday, 20 May 2016 19:43 (eight years ago) link
that mastering article was so disappointing
― just sayin, Friday, 20 May 2016 21:29 (eight years ago) link
no one knows what they do... so we wont try to explain
this fits my lifestyle and my kicky new windswept summer look.
http://wwd.com/media-news/fashion-memopad/conde-nast-traveler-pitchfork-launch-musical-magazine-spotify-10434908/
― scott seward, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 18:28 (eight years ago) link
ow, that mastering article made me angry! One because, it reeks of non-musician-dumbsplains-music-stuff, and two because I actually have a hard time believing MC Schmidt doesn't know what mastering is!
Here's mastering: after a track has been recorded and mixed, you send the completed audio file to a mastering engineer. He makes (usually subtle) changes to it, including compression, EQ and overall volume/gain. The important difference between this process, and the mixing process, is that in mastering, you're working with a single audio file -- the whole song, that's already been recorded and mixed -- which is why the changes are usually subtle (but important).
Why would that have been so hard to explain in that article, like maybe somewhere in the first couple of paragraphs?
― Dominique, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 18:49 (eight years ago) link
Re: "Traveler"
Yep, nothing makes me feel like I'm barrelling down the open road of summer like the line "he came out a little late / maybe that's where frustration's born"
― geoffreyess, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 18:55 (eight years ago) link
hey dominique that's a really good and concise explanation!
― niels, Thursday, 26 May 2016 09:13 (eight years ago) link
L.F.W
― da vinci beaver testicles (contenderizer), Thursday, 26 May 2016 13:40 (eight years ago) link
this is still one of my favorite interviews on mastering: http://roberthenke.com/interviews/mastering.html
― μpright mammal (mh), Thursday, 26 May 2016 14:35 (eight years ago) link
no offense, but let me translate that to a general audience because you lost me at "mastering":
the master is given a box containing an ocean of sound. they pour the water out onto the board with hundreds of unknowable knobs and waves begin to form over certain areas. the master makes a few adjustments, and then turns to talk to the biggest asshole musician of all time, plus his evil twin manager who does the talking. everyone pretends that everything is pretty good but could be a little better. after sending the noobs out for a restroom break, the master adds a little Oomph to the low end and a little twizzle to the high end (these correspond with sounds that bounce off of the ear lobe and the top part of the ear, respectively). the most important part of mastering is maintaining a straight face at the end of the process, after the high fives, when the master talks about what changes were made and why. this is difficult for both parties in the conversation but absolutely necessary for a good mastering job.
― I look forward to hearing from you shortly, (Karl Malone), Thursday, 26 May 2016 15:47 (eight years ago) link
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 26 May 2016 15:52 (eight years ago) link
classic behind the scenes footage of the mastering process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJsYKhEV6o0
― I look forward to hearing from you shortly, (Karl Malone), Thursday, 26 May 2016 16:00 (eight years ago) link
So what you're saying is you would have been lost at the headline of any article about mastering.
― Dominique, Thursday, 26 May 2016 16:03 (eight years ago) link
actual photograph of famed mastering engineer steve hoffmanhttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/JosephWright-Alchemist-Cropped.jpg
― tylerw, Thursday, 26 May 2016 16:03 (eight years ago) link
xpost
thanks niels!
lol dominique i was just kidding, and i agree with niels btw!
― I look forward to hearing from you shortly, (Karl Malone), Thursday, 26 May 2016 16:06 (eight years ago) link
haha ok. I so rarely do anything helpful for anyone, was too protective of my paragraph
― Dominique, Thursday, 26 May 2016 16:10 (eight years ago) link
in real life laugh out loud at "after the high fives"
― tylerw, Thursday, 26 May 2016 16:11 (eight years ago) link
KM that's some top notch Clickhole style writing
― Evan, Thursday, 26 May 2016 17:17 (eight years ago) link
I'm about to send an album out for mastering. Is there like a Yelp for finding someone good or is it all word of mouth?
― Heez, Thursday, 26 May 2016 21:22 (eight years ago) link