Neil Speers

Hi, I have a client who's talking to sync supervisors about a few of his tunes. They love some but had some comments about a few of the tracks. Now off the top, I know he's not the best singer in the room. Anyways - I would love to get some feedback a couple of the tunes I mixed for him. https://open.spotify.com/track/4AluIOMeLaYMHhI69ZAz6I?si=b9b66f0ab9be4b90 https://open.spotify.com/track/3liqSYb0XVvKfUVQ5jKTbq?si=277a19ac2c6d4a24

New comment 6d ago

Neil Speers

1 like • 7d

@Zach Burger Thank you for the comments. If given a chance I'd love to change some of the arrangement elements in instrument selection. I think that would make the biggest change in the mix.

Neil Speers

Jul 19 •

General discussion

How long to record a song?

Yes, yes, I know it's somewhere between 2 hours and a year lol I'm talking with a friend I've been doing some recording for - and he is paying me - but trying to set some budgets and expectations for future work.The plan is to record two songs a month for his own sync library. So I'll pose a hypothetical scenario and would love to hear what you'd suggest to clients. - working with singer/songwriter with okay vocal skill (sometimes really good, sometimes struggle) and not a great guitarist - music is roots/americana/classic country rock feel - create a scratch track to use with remote drummer, playing guitar while singer puts down temp vocal track - work with drummer to get the right drum beat and dynamics - record all instruments yourself, rhythm and lead guitars, bass, two keyboard parts - singer can record vocals on own time and own gear (he travels a lot for work so bought gear to do that - it's decent quality.) - edit vocals - probably get replacement vocal done - mix - master I'm a pretty good guitarist but I find it takes several takes to find the right lead guitar parts. I'm decent at creating ostinatos and fills on keyboard but I ain't no piano player lol. What would you tell a customer to expect for time on a project like this.

New comment Jul 31

Neil Speers

0 likes • Jul 28

@Jason Tufts Actually we've completed an album and two singles now. His plan is to record two songs a month to use for sync placement marketing, not so concerned with listeners on spotify etc.

Neil Speers

1 like • Jul 29

@Jason Tufts I'm finding it's about 18 to 25 hours each song for the singles. We are doing two at a time, ish. We like to have two for the drummer to do so we don't have to keep going back to him. The album took quite a while (6 months?) but there was a lot of time waiting for someone who ghosted the project. As for how many hours for that took me, I have no idea. It was probably 15 to 18ish hours each song, we did all the drums and bass guitar the first week.

Inez Roanna

Jun 20 •

General discussion

Soon, creatives won’t be hired—they’ll be acquired. .

Hi, I'm new here—and I felt compelled to share this before you're positioned out of your own power. You know the game: top of the charts but broke, while everyone else eats. Just ask TLC—or any artist who went #1 and still filed for bankruptcy. Brands, investors, and AI are rewriting the rules. If you’re not building your own system, you are someone else’s asset. I’m dropping a blueprint for artists ready to move from performance to ownership—cross-industry, cross-platform, unapologetically sovereign. To give you a taste, I distilled it into a 15-minute AI-narrated audio preview—key insights pulled from my upcoming book to help you move fast, think bigger, and protect your creative power. Would you rather experience the full version as: – a chill, podcast-style audio – a classic audiobook – a digital book – or a video space to unpack together? Wanna listen and drop your thoughts? Ask me anything—I’ll share what I can. TIA, Inez ♥️

New comment Jul 20

Neil Speers

1 like • Jul 20

I personally prefer video these days, or an actual book. I have dozens of unread ebooks on my computer 🤣 What i find creators doing that is quite interesting is doing a video series, but only doing the second video after having a chance to look at responses to the first video and incorporating that into the next video. Something for your consideration.

Neil Speers

Apr 15 •

General discussion

Well this is interesting. Want to fight back against AI scraping your music?

Just watched this video by musician and tech guy Benn Jordan, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMYm2d9bmEA

New comment May 12

Neil Speers

0 likes • May 6

@Jacky Brister Basically, a lot of musicians don't want AI to learn how to create music just like their music. Adding the embedded coding to their music will make an AI trying to learn their music create results very different from what the AI was supposed to do.

Neil Speers

0 likes • May 12

@Jacky Brister I know what you mean - it's kind of like AM or FM radio to me. I get the difference but how either "actually" transmits music or speech is beyond me.