Here's an opportunity take all the skills we've learned from these past 5 posts and apply them to a real Fiverr gig. I'm not trying to make this pretty or pretend like I'm perfect at this, and that's what I want you to see. All the mistakes and oopsie-poopsie moments I make along the way, while still being able to deliver a quality recording to a client. I hope you're feeling more confident in your abilities to do this after watching me stumble through, forget tasks I've done hundreds of times, and not be able to read music properly despite 5 years of using Reaper and 20 years of playing experience. If there's anything to take away from these posts, it's that we're all making it up as we go

I wanted to cover what an actual gig looks like from start to finish. I show you the recording part in detail in my next post, but here's how gigs flow on Fiverr: GETTING THE GIG You have two options when it comes to getting gigs through freelancing sites: Submit to "Buyer Requests" (or whatever they're called on your site) or sit and wait for someone to come at you with a gig opportunity. I've used both approaches, depending on how much free time I have to submit to Buyer Requests. Option 1: Wait for gigs to come to you Of all the options you could've chosen. This is certainly one of them. That said, when I was starting off with session bassoon recording, I had very little competition on th

A lot of freelance websites exist that offer the opportunity to work remotely on projects all around the world. That sounds pretty appealing, so how do you ensure that you have a page that doesn't look like garbage? I'm not going to ask you to get professional headshots and book time with an audio engineer to get a good portfolio recorded. I didn't have money for that when I started, and I am running on the assumption that you'd like to not spend much money, yourself. Also, it doesn't seem to have a justifiable impact on session musicians' profiles. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do our best, though. So! Below, I'm going to give you some tasks to do before you go off and set up your freelanc

This is part 2 of my Remote Musician series, so I assume you did part 1 already or have the necessary gear to continue to part 2. If you're ready for Part 2, check out the video above. Here are the steps I mention in the video about how to find a sound you're happy with: Place the mic near your instrument (see reference videos below), pointing at a place where the sound emanates Turn the gain knob to about 75% Play a "test pattern" that remains the same (A scale or excerpt; something very loud; something very quiet) and watch the levels to make sure they are in the optimum range where -12db is the average. If the average is above -12db, turn the gain knob down, if it is below -12db, turn it

Our current situation has many musicians wondering how in the name of Pug we're going to make money if we're not performing or teaching. I want to offer one potential solution that may not pay off immediately, but is a good skill set to be able to call upon when you need it: RECORDING YOURSELF The goal of these posts is not to teach you how to be a professional audio engineer, it's to give some advice on: What to buy (especially when you're on a budget) How to record yourself on your own instrument successfully from your own space What you need in order to set up a freelancing portfolio How to deliver usable audio files to other musicians using Reaper What other applications your skills can

**EDIT 4/24/2020: Mobile devices now have an "Original Sound" option! **EDIT 3/25/2020: Does your instrument sound loud and distorted? I have something to try to fix that! **EDIT 3/16/2020: Added some info for Mac users so you can access "Original Sound" in Zoom settings!** So your school closed and your students all canceled due to COVID-19. You're probably feeling pretty bummed because a major source of your income has vanished. I feel you, and it is really hard to see this happen to many of my friends. In times like this, remote music lessons can be necessary for the survival of the human species (so people don't pass around the virus) and your own survival (because you probably like payi