Musicians' Corner

[For a listing of musicians who play in Milwaukee's Kirtan with Ragani, go to Kirtan. For photos of kirtan musicians in action, see photo gallery. For bios of Ragani's kirtan musicians, see Press Kit.]

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This Musicians' Corner page contains some useful information for musicians and bands that I wish I'd known about when I started playing, producing, recording, and marketing music and CD's...

LIVE PERFORMANCES: We use Shure's sm58 mics (vocals) and sm57 (instruments) for all our back-up musicians at the live events. We love Shure microphones! These are high quality durable mics, and they are industry standards for many pop artists too. Don't forget mic clips (the sm58 and 57's come with mic clips). The lead mic (Ragani) is a Shure KSM9 microphone (formerly she used a ShureBeta 87). We love the KSM9 and all our Shure mics! All our mic stands have short booms (that is, they are not tall!). We use a Mackie CFX-20 mixer for our live events--it's a big one (they make smaller ones) because we've got a 14+ member band for our kirtan event each month. The CFX-20 also has built in effects (hence the "FX" in the name!). Speakers are Yamaha powered speakers, model MS400. We also use a "snake", a piece of equipment which allows us to mix sound from the back of the room (read about snakes).

PRODUCTION & RECORDING YOUR MUSIC: Get ProTools! I whimpered at the idea of having to learn a computer program in order to record music, but in the end it saved me a TON of frustration, time, and money. Having a digital quality recording is the industry standard, and ProTools is the program that's on the cutting edge of the industry. I bought a Digi001 with ProTools back in the dark ages (in 2002) and by now they have even better versions that will save you time and give you the kind of flexibility and plug in's that you'll want with your music. Worth every penny! And to gather some sound guidance on production, check out the great articles by Ronan Chris Murphy, a professional producer I met at the Taxi Road Rally.

MIXING & MASTERING YOUR CD: DV STUDIOS in Milwaukee, WI. Contact Dave Vartanian to learn more about his professional studio/sound room  for recording, mixing, mastering, etc. Dave has years of experience working with incredible, well-known national musicians (you'll recognize lots of the faces in the photos on the walls of his studio). Very professional work. He'll make you feel like you're his only customer! Highly recommended! 414-962-8020.

MARKETING: INDIE BIBLE: THE resource publication for independent musicians. I spent hundreds of hours trying to collect some of this data, and then I discovered that someone had already done it for me! The Indie Bible has listings of contact information for thousands of publications that will review your CD, thousands of radio stations that will play your music, articles and lots of information about promotion and marketing your music. It will take me years to get through all the delicious, neatly organized (I love it!), indie promotional information in here. And it is regularly updated--so you'll have current information on all your contacts. Sign up for their free newsletter and get more of the latest information! This book is fabulous and highly recommended. Get your copy!

SELLING YOUR CD's: CDBABY is THE place to sell your CD as an independent (indie) musician. No record labels here. Costs a $35 one-time set up fee, which gets you an entire webpage for your CD, with 2-minute sound samples of whatever songs you want, descriptions (edit them yourself), places for folks to post reviews, etc. The folks at CDBaby respond to all my e-mail, and are always on time with their payout checks, which go out every Monday. Over 150,000 visitors a day (though it's likely higher by the time you read this!) come through their search engines wanting to buy music like yours. Derek Sivers (founder) is a marketing genius who has cracked deals with iTunes and the likes, all to promote YOUR music and send YOU lots of customers. Ride on his coattails! Check them out!! Go to CDBaby website or check out their cool CD photo gallery for fun!

WEBSITE HOSTING: HOSTBABY is CDBaby's wonderful hosting offering (they host this website of ours). See their website for pricing details-- not only do they host your website, but they are also familiar with musicians' unique needs (streaming media, calendars, guestbooks, etc.). And you can now easily build your own music website with them too! If you need good hosting (whether you have your own website or not), this is a great place to go! Great customer service too! :) And for domain registration (that's where you purchase the name of your website-- for example, ours is "raganiworld.com"), I highly recommend godaddy.com. They're on call 24/7 to help you with all your needs! :)

PHOTOS: If you want to post your digital band and event photos online (or send them to friends via e-mail), you'll save yourself a TON of time resizing your photos with this software: Advanced Batch Concerter. And while it's about $75 (for commercial use-- $45 for personal use), it's WELL WORTH IT! It's the only way I was able to post 100's of chorus photos for the CD production pages (see a CD production page sample), and not lose my mind! This program allows you to resize and reformat tons of photos in a few second's time! No kidding! You can do big batches of them all at once. I previously used photoshop, and it took me hours just to get 50-60 photos resized for posting on the website (or sending digital copies to friends). I give 5 stars to the Advanced Batch Converter software-- go see for yourself (and you can try a 30-day free trial too-- that's what I did)!

BUSINESS CARDS: VISTAPRINT.COM: You can get 250 FREE full-color business cards at this website. No kidding. And why not use them to advertise your band or CD? These crazy people have given away literally thousands of their free business cards (and you only pay shipping), and they brag about it too! (I guess their motive is to get you to buy more when you run out.) The entire website is a thriving business and has lots of business-related goodies for sale. Check out their business card designs--several to choose from. It's really true! I had to add it here, because I've ordered my free business cards and loved them (and yeah, I did order more when I ran out too-- guess all that free stuff works!).

ONLINEPRINTHOUSE.COM: And once you decide you really want to make lots of your own full-color glossy business cards, you'll definitely want to check out ONLINEPRINTHOUSE.COM. (My personal contact there is Mike at 954-943-7505.) They will print 2500 glossy full-color (on BOTH sides!) business cards for only $65 (plus a few bucks for shipping all those cards to you). If you give them away to as many people as I do, this is the place to go. It's the best deal I've found anywhere, and they have an incredible quick turn-around. I've checked dozens of print shops and this is definitely the BEST print deal! You won't find double-sided print jobs with thick cardstock paper (like a postcard) for this cheap anywhere else (and if you do, send me an e-mail)! Give up the raised ink two-colors and get a classy full color look with these guys! :)

CDSTANDS.COM: Display your CD's in storefronts and cafes-- these nice handy little stands come in white and black. I've researched lots of stands (acrylic, cardboard, etc.) on the web, and these are definitely one of the best bargains. You can use them as they are or dress them up with paint (spraypaint them too), or cover them in cloth or other materials. Cheap prices and free shipping on orders of 5 or more.

GET YOUR MUSIC IN A FILM: Go check out VersusMedia.com, a place where independent film makers go to find music for their films. You can post lots of your music information, song categories, and contact information on this website for free. You can also upload song clips for all to hear. They'll e-mail you when there's a film producer seeking your kind of music (I usually get 1-2 e-mail a month from them), and you can go check it out. A very cool site. 5 Stars!

AND FINALLY- SELL YOUR MERCHANDISE (T-SHIRTS, MUGS, etc.): Check out CafePress.com (see their image link below), a place where you can design and sell your own merchandise without ever having any overhead costs. You get paid when your items sell, and you don't have to pay for any setup costs or stock merchandise. Check out our Kirtan Rocks store >>

 

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