Minimalism in Production

On May 3rd of 2016, I had the opportunity to go to a special screening of a documentary called "Minimalism" which was based on the blogs, essays, and books of Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus.

They catalog personal accounts of becoming a minimalist by discussing their high paying corporate jobs and subsequent jarring life event which forced them to rethink their initial path; which inevitably led them to a more intentional lifestyle. Their story is compelling and life altering. It has forced me to rethink how much "stuff" I have and how to downsize in order to focus on more important things. If you are interested in learning more, I recommend starting with their blog and podcast at the same time. This combination paints the best picture of their lifestyle.

This got me thinking about minimalism in music production, specifically, those of us with home studios. How much "STUFF" do you have? Here was my simple list

13 guitars
4 keyboards
5 computers
30 XLR cables
50 misc cables
30 TRS/TS cables (various lengths)
400 CD's
100 books
30 Stomp Boxes
100 random assorted cables

If you are an audiophile like me, then you might have something very similar, including microphones and outboard gear. But in reality, how much of it do we need? The problem is, we hold value to things that might not have value at all. For example, out of my 13 guitars, only 1 held a value over $350. What was I holding on to?

I realized that my work space and my home space were stifling my creativity. Here was literally my thought on May 2nd, 2016: "I really should do some work on that intro song on my album, but my desk is a mess and I really don't feel like cleaning it. I just want to write. Oh well, I will just play some Fallout 4 instead".

On May 10th, I did something radical; I packed up most of my accessories and gear. I then only took out 2 of each thing, or as many as I would possibly

Q: Each guitar/mic/didgeridoo has their own timbre.

A: I did an experiment with this. I chose one guitar, an Ibanez RG series. As I plugged it in and recorded some pure tones from it, I challenged myself to try to mimic the pure tones out of my other 12 guitars using just this one guitar. The result: I was able to. What did this teach me?

That my ears were the most important commodity I had, not the guitar. If I was able to replicate most of the sounds using a combination of EQ, multi-band compression, and different distortion plug-ins, then, in reality, I didn't need 12 other cheap guitars.

Q: But I paid $500 for that thing!

A: If you have ever tried to sell something on eBay, you know that the actual market value vs the retail is very skewed. I paid $550 for an Epiphone Les Paul Thru Body Sun Burst guitar back in 2001. The guitar was immaculate and sounded just like a Les Paul. However, on the market, used, this was only worth about $150-200. I attached a value to it that was not reasonable. When we buy something from Guitar Center or any retail shop, it is steeply marked up. Once you walk out the store with it or let the money back guarantee expire, the item automatically loses most of its value. I really had to look at my stuff as sunk money costs.

Q: But I might need that for a future album!

A: Minimalism teaches the 90/90 rule. If you have used the item in the past 90 days, or will use it in the next 90 days, then keep it. If not, donate it or sell it. I was holding about 110 cables I havn't used since recording a full drum kit in my old studio almost 10 years ago now. The most cabling I use is to my guitar amp and my Korg Kronos now. I did hold onto enought to connect everything at once, and then 1 spare. I only have 20 cables total now.

Q: Who would want this specialized equipment?

A: Schools. Most schools teach production, but don't have the budget to buy new equipment. If you donate the equipment to a school, then they can give you a receipt for a tax deduction. That tax dedution can be worth as much as reselling your equipment retail.
If you want cash in hand, eBay or Pawn Shop. Or donate the equipment to a donation center or thrift store. JUST GET A RECEIPT OF DONATION!

The Results

After about a month of cleaning up, I have noticed a significant amount of clutter gone. I have done this to other parts of the apartment and my girfriend is loving the change. The best way to describe the feeling is "freedom". Without the clutter and the extra stuff, we have been both creative with our free time. It is amazing to think that random objects could take away from creativity, but the truth is, visual clutter dosn't alow for creative flow because it takes your attention away from your creative idea. Now, don't get me wrong, I still have shorts, shoes, and t-shirts. I still have mic cables, microphones and a few guitars still, but I got rid of the excess and the things that didn't bring value into my life. The results were more creativity and produtivity... and more time to build better friendships relationships.

5 Tips for eating healthy on the road… A different perspective

Want to eat healthier on the road? Try getting more sleep. One of the most difficult things to do when working either as a crewmember or artist is to keep a healthy lifestyle on the road. The constant push to keep moving and arrive at the next destination on time or better yet early makes the traveling portion a major grind. Long hours on the road or airport while eating on the way at fast-food joints or even worse, gas stations.

Here is what I have learned over my years of doing road gigs: I get hungry when I am tired. Yes, I tend to go for the sugar and carbs when I am absolutely exhausted. It’s like my body’s saying, “Hey, you are tired but need to keep going? Have some sugar and fast food (which is really bread [sugar carbs] and sweeteners) so we can keep this pace up”. Although for you road warriors and other crew types, you know that sleep is pretty much a premium. During one of my first tours as a green A2, I was shocked to see crewmembers getting a 2-hour break and then spending it curled up under a staircase or on a set of road boxes. This would often be the sleep they would get before another 8-hour shift.

So as I grow a little bit older, I noticed that when I was well rested, I tended to eat much healthier. Mostly vegetables and protein; no fast food. When I get tired at night, I sleep a minimum of 7 hours. This leaves me well rested and actually ready for the day. I tend of have more cognitive engagement as the day progresses as well. I translated this new behavioral process to my road warrior lifestyle and so far, so good.

Here are my 5 tips for eating healthier on the road:

1. Get sleep in a minimum of 3.5 hour blocks.
2. Eat mostly plants and protein (meat or vegetarian options)
3. Try to have 2 hours of downtime for yourself somewhere in the day. Play video games or do something mindless you enjoy.
4. Naps are great, take a 10-30 minute nap if possible
5. Work out! Yes, work out. 30-60 minutes of increased cardio helps curb appetites and makes us crave better food and sleep!

Time Management Part 2

Part 2 of time management in the studio.

4) How to use "No" effectively. 
Sometimes, we just don't have enough time to do what is asked of us. It is up to us to know our boundaries and limits. Saying "No" can be a tough thing because we are so conditioned not to turn down work. However running in a negative sleep balance can not only reduce our productivity, but reduce our work quality, which is going to negate any positive work acquisition gains.

1. Listen effectively
2. Say no honestly,
3. In some cases, explain why (Give only 1 valid reason)
4. Offer an alternative

5) Meetings: Have an agenda,
Don't go over the formatted time. People hate this. They also hate showing up to meetings, so don't be afraid to start the meeting without anybody in the room. Yes... I said talk to yourself. Why? Because when people do enter the room and the meeting has started;
     A) They might think you are crazy,
     B) they will respect you for respecting their time and not building in 5 minutes of prep time when               you should be meeting.

6) Manage interruptions
The average interruption is 10 minutes. So,use that door to manage interruptions. Schedule interrupter time if needed. This way you won't be unavailable all day.
If you have an open door policy at your place of employment, use a simple arrow cut out of paper. When the arrow is "up", you are available. When the arrow is "down" then you are unavailable.

7) Manage expectations
Let people know realistic deadlines for your work. If you don't give them a deadline, they will automatically assume their project is an ASAP for you. If you give them a due date realistic to your workload, then you will be managing their expectations for workload and project completion.


These are just some simple steps that we can take to make our time in the studio more efficient. The less time we waste with mundane tasks or issues in communication, the more time we can spend mixing and making music beautiful.

Time Management Part 1

How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.

This is time management at it's core. This post is dedicated to getting your life under control and organizing your precious minutes to make every one of them count. This post is going to be full of cliches so get ready... We can't save time and put it in a bank.

Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. Time management is all about motivation. When you choose a habit, you choose a result; which is why we want to choose good habits in order to facilitate good results

External deadlines suck, internal deadlines rock. How many times have we all procrastinated on that paper or report that was due the next morning? That's because our motivation came from an external source. If we can somehow switch that motivation to an internal reward system, then we can be less stressed and feel a greater sense of reward. Example, if I finish this paper a day before hand, I won't have to lose sleep that night and can treat myself with video games or reading a novel.

How to you get major projects done? One small step at a time.

1) Give yourself a peptalk
It sounds dumb, but it works. Studies show that repeating a mantra sometimes helps reduce stress induced by clutter and organization issues. I personally put on the show Hoarders and that motivates me to start organizing.

2) Make use of lists
Projects don't consume time, tasks consume time. In order to manage tasks, start using checklists.

In NASA, they have a checklist for everything. Why? So that astronauts don't have to remember every procedure, just how to DO the procedure. This eliminates the possibility of forgetting to do a critical step in the process.

     How to make a project checklist
a. For your project, write down every action step that you will need to do in order to accomplish the project.
b. Now write down every step and resource you will need to accomplish each task.
c.  You now have an action plan and can start chipping away at the project.

I Personally switched all of my notation and lists to Evernote in the fall of 2013. Evernote is a nice elegant way to manage notes and lists across all devices and platforms. It also has a sophisticated search that will bring up related notes and projects from other programs and allow you to cross reference very easily.


3) Keep paper flowing, paper tends to breed like rabbits.
     Use the TRAF system
          Trash, Refer, Act, File

Basically this is a great way to follow up and organize action items immediately. Have separate folders for the TRAF system and then start organizing your papers into
     a. The Trash
     b. A folder in which you will Refer, or hand off the paper to somebody else
     c. An imediate folder in which you will act upon
     d. Important papers to file away or scan

More about TRAF and organization

Remember!
Clutter = stress

Part two coming shortly

Pre-Production Part 2

Scheduling. Why?

Because.

The ability to effectively manage a small group of people is key for any producer or engineer roll. You are a leader in the control room (that's what you wanted right?). So now, it's time to step up. What do leaders in the 21st century do?!

paperwork...

So, in pre-production, it's absolutely ok to over schedule the bejesus out of the project. As we all know, schedules and life changes every second so having a plan for your recording and mixing allows for other people to work their personal schedules around their work schedules. Here is an example of a pre-production schedule I did for a previous project.

As you see here, every date, time, room and task is laid out in order to allow for the band to know who needs to be where. 

Even if this project doesn't go according to plan, you can alter and change if needed. But, people now know what is expected of them in this recording process and the project can move forward with the same time commitment expectations. 

Also, as you see, emails and contact information is on the sheet so once you look at the schedule you can contact somebody in the same time frame. It's just convenience without losing time trying to look up people's information that you could have spent on mixing. 

Time management next!

Pre-Production Part 1

So I get a lot of people asking me what exactly "Pre-Production" is for their clients and how they should go about doing "Pre-Production".

Pre-Production: Noun. The most important step of the recording process which takes the most time but reaps the most savings in time, cost and liver damage.

Here is my pre-production process.

1) Meet with the band
My initial meeting with the band usually involves instruments but very little playing. The number 1 goal of any meeting is to make everybody feel comfortable and heard. If they bring instruments, there's an expectation that we will listen to the songs in their live form and really capture how the music is suppose to convey their message.

• Prep for meeting:
• Ask band for all lyrics, charts, paper napkins with structure that they can find. If they don't have it, they have to come up with some sort of road map to their music for you. This way we have a common GPS to navigate their music
• Bring any demos they might have recorded (just to hear what they might be thinking in terms of recording) but tell them that their live performance is much more important. 
• Start an spread sheet to map out possible input sheets per song
• At the meeting
• Always start it exactly on time. This establishes the tone for the entire project. This lets the band know you mean business and that their and your time is valuable and is not to be wasted. 
• True story. In my corporate life, there was a culture of showing up 5 minutes late to meetings. I started my meetings exactly on time, and sometimes started speaking to nobody in the room.When people finally walked in (after some odd looks) nobody was ever late to one of my meetings again, and they appreciated the fact that I wasn't there to waste anybody's time. 
• Take copious notes!
• What is the style (fashion) of the band?
• Sometimes this can say a lot about the attitude of their music
• What their coffee order was
• What their ideas of their music is about
• What are their influences
• What do they want to get out of this process
• Listen to them play live
• What is the song structure?
• What is the tone of the music?
• Agressive?
• Love song
• Melancholia?
• Do you want to reproduce their live sound or go with a more produced sound?

These are just a few things in the pre-production meeting that we look at. This is your opportunity to get to know the band and establish a working relationship with them and deliver your expectations. Remember, you need to be extremely organized in order to give direction and allow the band to just worry about the creativity, not the nuts and bolts of the recording process. 

Next up... scheduling

The Music Business (Part 2)

So let's talk about this being "personable" business...

Mr. Tishler discussed how he once had an intern that was a bit afraid of talking on the phone. He did an exercise with them in practice cold calls where he would be the client and they would be the person requesting to speak with the boss. It's a silly example but practicing that skill got the intern to network and thus future employment.

So how can you be personable and learn to network? Communicate comfortably?

It's a tough question, let me tell you about my experience.

When I was 16, I got a job at a local shoe store selling and fitting shoes. That job wasn't bad and I learned a lot about retail. The biggest thing in that store was customer service and acknowledging people as they walk in the door. My manager at the time Lance always lead by example and showed the staff how to great people and attend to their needs.
It might have been a silly retail job but the biggest thing I got out of it was the ability to walk up to people and immediately learn to read their body language to see if they needed help or not. I got comfortable with being uncomfortable and began to turn it into a game. I started to try to figure out a story about people and try to learn one new thing a day about the customers.
This is networking.

Mr. Tishler and Mr. Chance both stated that they always talk with people, because you never know when down the road you might rely on them for information, jobs or even just a cup of sugar. It's called future human capital and we all need to start collecting it. As the world shrinks due to technology and social networking, we are missing the "social" part of the "networking".

So again, how do we network?


Literally, practice.

Talk with people at the subway, in the grocery store, in the lobby of the hotel, in the bar. Anywhere, just talk. Don't look for something from them, just have conversations for conversation sake. See what works, learn why people might run away from you or gravitate towards you. See if there are certain types of people. What you learn might surprise you.

Try this exercise.

Next time you are at a bar or concert, try to pick out somebody holding a drink towards the front of them. People with open body language tend to be more open to unexpected conversations. Introduce yourself and then ask their opinion of Taylor Swift. Tag that with saying "I am in the music business and am trying to get data on why people like or dislike her brand". THEN, follow up with one question from what they told you.

If the conversation continues, great! If not, now you have the experience (and a little bit of information) and can start chipping away at your insecurities of approaching people. Pretty soon, you will be chatting up a storm and starting to network with similar interested people. Remember, this business we are in... is a communication business.

The Music Business (Part 1)

This week, the place where I teach at hosted two guest lectures on different aspects of the music business. One lecturer, Jordan Tishler is studio owner in the Boston area and the other lecturer was Dr. Terry Chance, a Country and Western star from the 70's and 80's.

Students asked questions, mainly directed at how they could break into the music business themselves. There were to main themes that were very pronounced in both lectures:
1) Know the business inside and out
2) Be personable and unique.

I think this is absolutely the key to being successful in anything, especially music.

Dr. Chance explained that you have to be unique in order to be marketable in this day in age. Nobody wants to listen to the same music that has already been done. So the big question is how do you market yourself as unique? I think the bigger question is, how do you make yourself stand out?

Mr. Tishler explained that standing out really involves knowing your business and making sure you can make connections through networking. It's often the small connections that lead to bigger opportunities down the road.

In regards to knowing the business, I can't emphasize this enough. No matter what job you have or industry you work in, you MUST know:

• How most people make money in the business
• Who are the biggest players in the industry
• Why are they the biggest players
• How did they get there
• Who are their competition
• How does their products work
• How do they distribute them to the masses
• Why do customers keep buying their products?

When you begin to dive into these topics, then you find an overwhelming expansive knowledge base that can frustrate yet intrigue you. If you want to be an expert however, you must have a passion for the subject matter and want to contribute or help change the industry.

And not knowing everything is ok! Because the music industry is CONSTANTLY changing and evolving, its more of your job to know the history yet also keep up with the updates. We are always learning and none of us can know everything about our business. It's almost impossible, but knowing key concepts and important items can help other people see that you are unique and understand what's happening with the industry... Which makes you unique.

Twenty-Five Things Every Basement Recording Studio Needs

When I was a freshman in high school nothing excited me more than sneaking out during my lunch break and heading down to the local Guitar Center in Danvers, MA to play with all the new toys and recording equipment. I would walk into that room where they showcased the huge consoles, tons of monitors, racks of compressors and dream of sitting down in front of one, moving the faders and knobs to make a record. I had no idea what any of the stuff did, but I knew that this would be a way to combine my love of music and technology into a future career. After bartering with my mom with house chores and good grades, she took me down to that particular Guitar Center where I met Thomas Moore: manager of the store by day, a Beatles cover band member by night. He showed me the way to my first cassette 4 track: a Tascam Portastudio 414. 

After fumbling around for a good two months and realizing I didn’t have any idea what I was doing, I decided that I would have to get some education in what all these knobs and faders did. I bought a copy of Tape Op and I studied that magazine like it was God’s commandments given to me by Bob Clearmountain. One of the first articles I read explained some simple supplies needed for recording in your basement studio. I rode my bike to the Danville Village Market and bought duct tape, pink string (that’s all they had), electrical tape, four 9-volt batteries and a pad of paper. On the ride back, I found a huge branch that had fallen in the road with the wood exposed and no bark, and brought it back home. With a little bit of duct tape and string, a radio shack high impedance ¼ TS microphone and a dead branch mic stand, I had started my home recording studio.



Those early days recording my friends were magical, albeit frustrating. Mics sounded like tin cans, sometimes I would record over the wrong track, and the mic stand would break and have to be repaired or cut to accommodate a different instrument. But I progressed moving on from that Tascam 4 track to Pro-Tools free, to Cakewalk to Pro-Tools 001 and up.



Thinking about what this Tape Op article meant to me, I wondered if these same sets of principles and supplies could be applied to the current set of recording tools now available. How has recording changed or stayed the same since that article came out 12 years ago? What are the other random things you might need in a modern day project studio?



1. Leatherman: An all around multi-tool that you will eventually need. You never know when you might need to survive in your studio for days on end and build fires or fix a mic stand.

2. 9-Volt Batteries: Because every pedal out there runs on them and they will most likely die because the guitarist never changed them.

3. Guitar Strings: Have a few packs on hand incase the face melting solo melts a few strings as well.

4. Guitar Picks: Keep an assortment on hand: hard, medium, soft nylon picks.

5. Guitar cables: Guitarists. Enough said.

6. ¼” to 1/8” TRS Adapters: It’s more than likely you will need to swap headphones for ear buds, etc.

7. One set of Drum Sticks: Even though you don’t play, the drummer does and sticks break. 5As are pretty standard.

8. Two XLR Male to Male and Two Female to Female Turn-around: When you run that 100 foot mic cable backwards and is impossible to re-run before a session, these will come in handy to reverse the gender of the connectors to the correct type.

9. Duct Tape or Gaffe Tape: To tape down wires, secure those lose mic stands and fix mic clips. Gaffe tape is more expensive but will not leave a residue of adhesive behind it.

10. Masking Tape or Rumble Tape: To label your tracks if you have a mixer or to label microphone inputs into your I/O. Again, rumble tape is more expensive but doesn't leave a residue like masking tape might.

11. Sharpies: They are clear and bold to stand out when labeling. Multiple colors aid in organization.

12. Cinch Cord or Heavy String: To hang aux percussion, or hang a microphone in a tight spot. Also useful for hanging blankets and other sound treatments.

13. Heavy Blanket: to put over guitar cabs or inside kick drums to provide a little bit more isolation. To use for a picnic.

14. Two DI Boxes: To convert the hi-impedance guitar signal to mic signal, record Bass or to use for a possible re-amp situation.

15. Pad of Paper and Pencils: This is for documentation. Yes pencil and paper is still faster than typing and cheaper than a tablet.

16. Digital Camera: For taking pictures of all your mic placements.

17. Spindle of CDs or Bundle of USB Thumb Drives: To burn those rough mixes, 512 MB USB drives are really cheap and you can find them in bundles online.

18. Extra Hard Drives: You never know when one will crash. Preferable a giant 2 TB minimum hard drive with a back up of your computer OS and apps. In the event of a catastrophic failure you can simply replace the hard drive quickly.

19. Local Take Out Menus: Bands get hungry too.

20. Pop Filter: An easy way to get rid of plosives and to protect your microphones from moisture when recording vocals.

21. Egg Shaker: A fantastic addition to any track when called for.

22. Tissues or Paper Towels: These are handy not only for cleaning up, but when that snare just has too much ring in it these are handy to fold into squares and tape on the head to get rid of it. This technique also works great for toms.

23. Ambiance: Lava lamps provide extra light and also create a comfortable atmosphere in the studio. Other things like plants and art help keep the mood relaxed.

24. Extra headphones: Somebody always forgets or breaks them. Keep at least one extra set on hand.

25. Tool Box: A place to keep all this stuff in!


My first recording studio: Testa Projects and Sounds. Complete with Tascam Portastudio 414



Updated 4 years later with a Mac G3 and Pro Tools Digi 001.





Updated for the final time in 2008 with Pro-Tools and Digital Performer 4 while recording on a Yamaha 01V.

The Timbre of Pics and Guitar Woods

Back in 1996, I saved a great insert from Guitar Magazine. In May and June respectively, they did a special called "Toy Box" which cataloged and described the differences in Picks using different types of materials and the tone they produce. They also did a review of different woods for guitars. Here are the original charts.
The original writer was "Lisa Sharken"

No More Cable (From February 9 2009)

For the past week I have been living an alternate lifestyle.  I decided to ditch our Cable TV service. We have been toying with the idea for a bit now however when this month’s bill came in, we were charged $145.97 for basic HD cable and basic cable internet service. We were paying $99 for our tv service and $39.99 for the internet service of 12 Mbps. 

Our lifestyle doesn’t particularly lead to much TV watching. We enjoy watching our DVR’d shows such as The Office, House, Nip Tuck, Survivor  and her favorite America’s Next Top Model however we recently discovered X-Box 360 can stream Netflix directly to the console. Going through the Netflix library, all of our shows were available for direct download to the X-Box 360 so we decided to purchase the lowest possible monthly Netflix subscription which allows for 1 DVD at a time and 6 instant downloads at a time. 

With that we were on our way to dumping our Cable TV plan. Since we rarely watched live TV, why bother paying for it? We can rent the DVDs or buy them if we wish or even better, watch TV online. We recently discovered the joy of Hulu, Joost and Veoh, not to mention ABC, CBS and NBC releasing their content on the websites as well. This sealed the deal for me. So I called Comcast and told them our intentions; remove our cable TV service and increase our internet bandwidth to 40Mbps. First off we had to go through a “service manager” who wanted to know why we would want to cut out fundamental service. When I explained to him that we would be increasing our internet bill but removing our TV package he still had a hard time figuring out the math. In the end we ended up saving $50 a month by increasing our internet and dumping our cable TV yet no decrease in content consumption. 

Technically what we did. 

So obviously now that we have Netflix on the Xbox 360, movie quality depends on quickness of download rate. Because of this we increased our internet bandwith to 40Mbps download and 15Mbps upload. We had to purchase a Motorolla Surfboard  to handle the larger bandwidth but we kept our Linksys wireless router . I did some testing on internet speed using (http://www.speedtest.net/), a website that tests up and download speeds to servers all over the world. Here is what I found. 

With the wireless connection we get a 21Mb download max. 

Wired directly into the router or the modem we get a 39 - 41Mbps download max. 

This will allow for Blue-Ray downloads when they become available on Netflix downloads. 

Game play on the Wii and X-Box 360 is noticeably faster. 

So with the speed tests complete, we can observe that the obvious slowest component in the chain in the wireless part of the router. Makes sense because wireless connections are notorious for slow RF data transmission due to their low power output. 

So there you have it, we officially live an alternate lifestyle. We don’t have cable TV, and I feel more connected than ever. It’s pretty cool. 

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/06/internet.tv/index.html

Going Green in Audio (From Dec 22nd 2008)

By nature, audio and video are not very "green." It is power consumption to quality ratio. Typically, the more electricity we add to the signal the better it looks and sounds. So how do we as audio engineers, producers and musicians do our part to conserve electricity and do our part to contribute to the green movement?

1)   Outside the recording studio 

Before we go deep into power consumption inside the studio, lets look outside the studio to concert venues. 

KT Tunstle, System of a Down and Dave Matthews Band were recently talked about at Grammy.com (http://www.grammy.com/Recording_Academy/News/Default.aspx?newsID=3010&newsCategoryID=3 ) for their contributions to the green movement. These artists have partnered up with a organization called Reverb Rock which organizes and manages eco friendly concerts. For example, they provide bio-diesel for vehicles and generators, waste reduction and biodegradable catering. (http://www.reverbrock.org/site/index.htm)

If you can't afford bio-diesel generators or hiring ReverbRock.org to plan your event, you can do small things like setting up recycling bins for the venue, print programs on recycled paper and make your merchandise out of recycled products. It not only helps the Earth but is a good marketing point for you're fans.

Onstage there isn't much you can do; you need power to run the amps, guitars, microphones etc. However, you could include an acoustic set in your concert.  Running the acoustic instruments thought the PA system would take significantly less power than turning the amps on and micing the amps. Explain to your audience that you are trying to contribute to greener concerts and by shutting the amps off for a bit it will conserve electricity. Shutting some lights off on stage as well and asking the audience to hold their cell phones up for light will not only contribute to an intimate vibe but also allow the audience to participate in the concert instead of just experiencing it.

2)    Inside the recording studio

So again, there isn't much we can do about signal quality vs. power consumption. So lets look outside the signal path again. Look at your workflow. Do you use session notes? (If so, god bless you.) Well you don't have to get rid of your paper work just yet. Having your notes on a computer in a word document is not only more “recallable” but customizable and allows you to really detail your recalls. You can download faceplates off of (http://teaboyaudio.com/trifle/gearTable.php ) and pencil in through Photoshop or paint your settings. If you just can't get rid of the tactile feeling of paper and pencil then do this, when you are finished with your project, scan the notes into your computer and recycle the paper notes. You can always re-print them but in the end, it saves the clutter in the archiving process.

Switch to LED lighting for your studio. Not only will you save money in light bulbs per year, but also your electric bill will go down a good amount. Did I mention that LED lights are very low noise as well? ( http://www.environmentallights.com/categories/1003/led-light-bulbs-fixtures?gclid=CIeorO3zmJcCFQpuGgodnSQRJA) (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en-us&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=LED+light+bulbs&spell=1)

Get away from paper plates, cups and plastic forks. Buy some real dishes and cutlery and take the time to wash the dishes. It will offer a nice break during the session to clear your ears. You will save money on restocking the mic closet with party supplies.

Give the band a re-writable CD or flash drive for their rough mixes that they can bring in everyday. You not only save on blank CD media but you can also customize your USB flash drive with your studio or production company's logo. (http://www.ipromo.com/?fuseaction=subcategory.main&categoryid=1&gclid=CIOrwsT3mJcCFQEoGgodA0-Q_A) 

For bands, carpool to gigs. It might be uncomfortable and cramped but make signs or customize magnets for the outside of your car promoting the fact that you are on your way to a gig and you are carpooling for the good of humanity. Don't forget to include where you are playing and your website address. (http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/businesscars.aspx?GP=11%2f28%2f2008+5%3a54%3a54+PM&mk=Car+Magnet&ad=broad)

Look into rechargeable batteries for your fx peddles. Not only will you save money in the long run by purchasing fewer batteries, but also you are only an electrical outlet away from recharging them and getting fresh batteries. (http://www.all-battery.com/?source=adwords )

Doing small things can quickly add up. Not only is it a good marketing for your band or production company but also it contributes to a healthy environment.