powwow mixtapes????

[Dakota Sandz]

I was just wondering the other day about powwow groups marketing themselves. I was wondering if any groups or anyone for that matter ever thought about making "mixtapes" like rappers do. Most of the time, specially up here in canada, its so hard to get your fave groups CD..if they have one at all, or if you catch the group at a powwow, their sold out or didnt bring any.
Nowaday's powwow recorders can make a good recording at CD quality with their lil' recorders and to me, that would be good way to market your music to the masses at a cheap price, and often, knocking out cd's when ever the heck you wanted, using stuff like paint shops n stuff to do your covers. You can even make full powwow mixtapes of powwows in general, with the committies and contract powwow groups blessings of course.
I just think that would be a cool idea for someone to do, being that powwow groups are under indy labels as it is and the market is wide open.
You look at most of the powwow groups signing contracts with groups and there getting PHUKKED from jump street. paying 6000 or 7000 for 500 or so cd's and not even getting royalties and finding their music on "compilation" cd's that their not even getting paid for. Stop getting screwed over people!!!
Make that money!!! singers are the lowest paid people on the powwow circuit and yet the most important..

hey its just a thought... your feedback please.

[cconn9c]

im already doin it

[kneegrow_native]

A drum group could get themselves a halfway decent multi track recorder, decent mics, cables, and mic stands for around $1,000 and make their own master, and for a few more bucks some monitors to for mixing, editing, and mastering. That might sound like a lot of money, but it would pay for itself. I see a few more drum groups these days going this route, and why not. A drum group can control everything themselves and cut out all middle men, and my humble opinion there are a lot of poor quality recordings going around.

[Dakota Sandz]

A drum group could get themselves a halfway decent multi track recorder, decent mics, cables, and mic stands for around $1,000 and make their own master, and for a few more bucks some monitors to for mixing, editing, and mastering. That might sound like a lot of money, but it would pay for itself. I see a few more drum groups these days going this route, and why not. A drum group can control everything themselves and cut out all middle men, and my humble opinion there are a lot of poor quality recordings going around.

damn straight!!! I buy a cd from a powwow for $20 and the quality of it is no better then me standing at a drum with a tape recorder!! well some of em. Nowadays, you can buy those digital recorders for bout 100 bucks and a good mic for about that price and buy some graphic equilizers and sound check stuff for your comp for maybe 200-300 bucks, and put out a Cd at CD quality. Best part of that also is that you can crank out as many albums as you want without having to PAY your record company for more copies. Need more cd's? Burn it.

[RezDawg]

I was just thinking about this same topic the other day. I recently started a business that I hope can help out the drums. I am creating ringtones for cell phones, and I am going to specialize in pow wow ring tones. I have already been in contact with a couple drums, and they agreed to come on board. I will be keeping records of the ringtones I sell, and I will cut the group in on royalty fees at the end of the year for their music. I also want to get into the business of negotiating for these drum groups with the rcord companies, I also believe they should be getting alot more than what they are getting from these companies. The market for pow wow music is limited to a few companies and this does not give these guys much to choose from. I have worked in the music business for awhile now, booking shows, negotiating with agencies, so I believe I can do a good job for these groups. As for me, before anyone starts thinking bad things, I am an enrolled member of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, I have lived on the reservation practically my whole life, and still do to this day, so I am not a greedy white guy looking to cheat these guys out of anything, I was a singer for quite a few years with Eyabay, so I know what these companies are doing. So if any drum groups out there want to contact me about any of these services, especially the ring tone thing, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] so we can work out the details. And no, this is not a shameless plug, I believe that our drum groups deserve everything they have coming to them.

[kneegrow_native]

One thing I would strongly advise to drums groups going their own way is to consider getting their cd's pressed as opposed to burned. You can still have non compatibility issues with burned cd's and this is a lot less likely with a pressed job.

One of drummers last year bought a digital recorder with 8 xlr inputs and ability to record up to 16 tracks total (this might be a little overkill) but it is a nice unit for about $700, a couple of audio techica compressor mics designed for high sound pressure level (spl) at about $125. With this setup the recordings are pretty sweet, the mics pick up everything in the room.

[John Wesley]

I agree, I agree, I agree. When I did my solo underground unit, I did it with a radio shack cd burner, a radio shack brand mic, and my living room for the first layer. I then finalized the cd and went to my brother's house with my hand drum, mic, cd burner and and blank cd. He had an entertainment center in his living room. I then played the first cd that I sang on, on his stereo and sang with the cd, I recorded myself singing along with the cd onto the underground that quite a few folks have a copy of right now. Not one person has come back to me with any issues of quality in any form at all...and I did this on Memorex, TDK, and some Durabrand stuff, packed into the paper sleeves with a song list insert. Some, I sold for 20 bucks, some I gave away, just because I wanted to. I was in complete control and didn't have to deal with someone telling me what to do with my product, that is a very independent feeling and it also gives you the right to do whatever you want to do with the prices and the publicity of your product. For any group that wants to go solo, I say to go for it with everything that you've got. It make take some work, but anything worth having, takes work...you've got to work for it so that you can truly appreciate it. If there are any groups out there that want to contact me for any pointers or advice, you can PM me and I'll help in any way that I can. Just remember to do what works for you and let that be your focus. Good luck to any and all that step out on the INDY path, it will be exactly what you make it!!!

[SPINNA]

A drum group could get themselves a halfway decent multi track recorder, decent mics, cables, and mic stands for around $1,000 and make their own master, and for a few more bucks some monitors to for mixing, editing, and mastering. That might sound like a lot of money, but it would pay for itself. I see a few more drum groups these days going this route, and why not. A drum group can control everything themselves and cut out all middle men, and my humble opinion there are a lot of poor quality recordings going around.

youre right, there are a lot of poor recordings going around, but the drum groups going out and buying all this equipment and doing it themselves is not going to solve that problem. they're just going to put out MORE poor recordings (unless they happen to have a recording/mixing engineer in the group). sometimes it's not the best idea to cut out the middle man, and this is one of those cases...especially if youre trying to get your music globally distributed. mix tapes/cd's is one thing...but as far as a drum groups album is concerned, i would definitely leave it to the professionals.

[kneegrow_native]

youre right, there are a lot of poor recordings going around, but the drum groups going out and buying all this equipment and doing it themselves is not going to solve that problem. they're just going to put out MORE poor recordings (unless they happen to have a recording/mixing engineer in the group). sometimes it's not the best idea to cut out the middle man, and this is one of those cases...especially if youre trying to get your music globally distributed. mix tapes/cd's is one thing...but as far as a drum groups album is concerned, i would definitely leave it to the professionals.

The point being, it would be THEIR bad recording and a drum group would not have to completely rely on a company that might not come through for them, and then still have that company get paid for a poor job.

I have too many buddies who had bad cd's made by companies that didn't come through with the promised quality and quantity of CD's. I think most drum groups would know someone who could hold their hand and give pointers. If not, with a little reading one can get the general idea how to record, edit, mix, and master.

[SPINNA]

The point being, it would be THEIR bad recording and a drum group would not have to completely rely on a company that might not come through for them, and then still have that company get paid for a poor job.

I have too many buddies who had bad cd's made by companies that didn't come through with the promised quality and quantity of CD's. I think most drum groups would know someone who could hold their hand and give pointers. If not, with a little reading one can get the general idea how to record, edit, mix, and master.

Ok I see what youre saying here and I think I know what the problem is. There are too many people trying to capitalize on Indian music right now...they start these so called lables up and have no idea what they are doing when it comes to recording engineering or the music business period.... so the drum group does end up getting screwed, because now they have a crappy recording and theyre not getting what's promised to them. But youre trying to cut out the wrong person...you should be cutting the label, not the recording engineer...

Go indy, (i think every drum group/musician period should do this), you dont have to get caught up in these crappy contracts with "I'll record you for free, but you have to buy x amount of cd's at $X a piece", or however that crap works. Simply find a reputable studio, one that you can hear previous recordings, and pay them to record, mix, master your project, and then they hand you over the master...they have nothing else to do with the project after that. Take the master to a company like diskmakers, and have duplication done complete w/j cards, and get as many as you want when you want them. You can even find your own list of distributors, and really watch your sales increase.

The reason most groups, bands, rappers..etc want to get signed to a label anyway is distribution...But actually groups can do that themselves...that's why indy bands, rappers, etc make so much more money, the cut the label out...but they still go to recording studios to have their projects done...so dont eliminate the wrong person....peace

[kneegrow_native]

Ok I see what youre saying here and I think I know what the problem is. There are too many people trying to capitalize on Indian music right now...they start these so called lables up and have no idea what they are doing when it comes to recording engineering or the music business period.... so the drum group does end up getting screwed, because now they have a crappy recording and theyre not getting what's promised to them. But youre trying to cut out the wrong person...you should be cutting the label, not the recording engineer...

Go indy, (i think every drum group/musician period should do this), you dont have to get caught up in these crappy contracts with "I'll record you for free, but you have to buy x amount of cd's at $X a piece", or however that crap works. Simply find a reputable studio, one that you can hear previous recordings, and pay them to record, mix, master your project, and then they hand you over the master...they have nothing else to do with the project after that. Take the master to a company like diskmakers, and have duplication done complete w/j cards, and get as many as you want when you want them. You can even find your own list of distributors, and really watch your sales increase.

The reason most groups, bands, rappers..etc want to get signed to a label anyway is distribution...But actually groups can do that themselves...that's why indy bands, rappers, etc make so much more money, the cut the label out...but they still go to recording studios to have their projects done...so dont eliminate the wrong person....peace

Good suggestion there about going to a studio, because they you are guaranteed a quality recording. In the long run this might cost more with each successive CD, but it will be quality stuff.

[shinobmatt]

recording

i found what i think is the perfect recording device, a sony mini disc recorder. people in the now here in okc told me it is better than some of the more expensive recording devices. cost me 500 but the playbacks even compressed sound quality is amazing cd quality only problem i have is mic placement it can be too sensitive.