This website is the home of Matt Chapman’s audio work as a freelance professional.

Offering a range of audio products, services, 1-to-1 teaching, 1-to-1 coaching, a blog and other content to help people make the best music they can.

There are also links to be able to download music, use video resources.

The website is aimed at people working in music, hoping to improve their sound through learning, study or by hiring services.

There is also a link at the bottom of the page for patrons who wish to contribute to the site, enabling time to create more resources for the audio community.

The approach to audio is balanced between four discrete worlds: creative, technical, academic and industry.

Matt Chapman’s work as an artist is considered experimental in his genre, and some of these ideas filter into the commercial work, helping to use audio tools to enhance the narratives of the music.

The technical elements of the maths and physics of sound are often overlooked areas; however, this is an important area of practice to achieve precise results, accurate deliverables and technical quality standards.

Ongoing roles in a range of teaching and academia environments to keep knowledge current and diverse, and consistently develop new skills. This area also helps communication, ensuring that each session/tutorial is at the correct level of challenge.

The work in the industry can be seen on the credits page and has given keen insights into the commercial side of music.

There is a contact page on the website.

If you are interested in purchasing a service or product, and your question is not answered on the FAQ page here, then please also check the products and services themselves. Each product or service has a clear description and should be able to answer most questions.

However, if you still do not have the answer or if the service/product is not available, or if you have an offer, opportunity or introduction that you want to discuss, you can use the contact form.

Please be aware, responses will only be provided to messages that are a good match with schedules and interests.

Each project is different, but here are some general ideas as a starting point:

Format

Please send files as 24-bit, 44.1kHz, Wave (PCM) audio files.

32-bit float is also acceptable.

48kHz sample rate is also acceptable.

Please clearly state which one you are using in the file name.

Mono or Stereo files are acceptable.

Please do not send MP3 files or other compressed formats.

File Naming

Ideally, the files would be named using the following convention: if some of the information is not known, this can be left blank.

Part *GRP - (info) - Key Signature - BPM - (Format if required) - (Artist Name - Song Name)

*Please only add GRP if it is a group stem

Example 1:

Bass GRP - (Wreckless - Changes)

Example 2:

Lead Vocals - (No Reverb) - Cmaj - 86bpm - (Green Hand Band - Temperature)

Example 3:

Backing Vocals GRP - Am - 121bpm - (32bit, 48k) - (Emu Grazing - Jump Up and Dance)

All three of the examples above would be acceptable for file naming.

Most people will need to send multi-tracks

Multi-tracks are the individual audio files that make up a song. For example, Kick, Snare, Hi-Hat, Rhythm Guitar 1, Rhythm Guitar 2, Synth, Bass, FX 1.

With the lead vocal, you may consider sending it two or three different ways, for example: 1) Raw vocals, clean with no processing, 2) stylistic FX only (EQ, compression, autotune, pitch shifting, distortion), but no reverb or delay, 3) fully processed vocals.

In some cases, it might be required/beneficial to send grouped stems

Group stems are the name for when several individual multi-tracks have been combined. For example, 6 layers of synths might all be considered the ‘synth part’; they are already panned and processed as required, with ‘group processing’. It would be unwise to separate these and then expect the mixing engineer to recombine them perfectly. In this case, it might be suitable to send some grouped stems.

Another example when this is beneficial is with FX returns, such as an AUX reverb, which contains many processed signals as one stem.

Mix Bus Processing

Sometimes people have processing and FX on their final output (stereo out, mix bus or 2-bus). In most cases, taking this off is the best course of action; however, if this processing is essential to the sound, then you may need to leave it on. If you are unsure how to decide which is best, choose one of the options (with/without bus processing) and once you are done with exporting the stems, put them into a new session and press play. If it sounds like a good representation of your song, then all is well. However, if the character or mood of the song is lost, then maybe try the other option or as a last case scenario, try adjusting the wet/dry mix of the FX and retesting the stems in a new session.

Headroom

Please make sure that the audio files sent are not clipping and are free from unwanted distortion.

Of course, guitar pedal distortion, amp distortion, clipping plugins, distortion plugins or hardware are all part of the creative process. This is not what is being discussed here.

Unwanted distortions are things like unintentional clipping, clicks and pops and jitter.

Rough Mix and Reference Mixes

A rough mix is your mixed version of the song. Most artists will send their version of the mix to demonstrate the approximation of the levels, panning, effects, mood and feel of the song. This is taken into consideration when mixing. It is highly recommended that a rough mix be included.

A reference mix is a professionally mixed and mastered track that has a similar quality, character, level and feel to how you want your final mix to sound. Please note that professional masters will be louder than the final mixes. This is because the final mixes are pre-mastering.

Please send a PDF with notes for the mix

A PDF with some notes for the mix, highlighting the main elements, providing links to reference materials and reasons for choosing them, and also including any other important information about the project. All of this is encouraged and can be really helpful to the process.

The following are general ideas around this area:

Format

Please send 24-bit or 32-bit, Stereo, WAV or AIFF (PCM) audio files.

44.1kHz is the sample rate used by most DAWs, so use the same sample rate that is in the project.

Higher sample rates are acceptable.

Please do not send MP3 files or other compressed formats, unless this is an artistic or experimental choice. However, compressed formats are strongly discouraged.

File Naming

The final mixes would ideally be named with the following convention: if some information is unknown, then this can be left blank.

Artist Name - Song Name - State - Key - (Format Details)

Example 1 -

Necrobia - Nervous Tension - Final Mix - (24bit, 44.1k)

Example 2 -

Flying Androids - Raindance - Pre-Master - Gm - (32bit, 96k)

Both of these would be acceptable for file naming.

Peak Level / Headroom

The internet is excellent at insisting that pre-masters are delivered at -6dB.

In truth, many peak levels are acceptable and -6dB peak on your final output is a fine level to send the track.

A little lower or higher than that is also acceptable.

However, avoiding mixes that clip would be strongly recommended; leaving at least 1 or 2 dB headroom would be ideal.

Mix Bus Processing

Ideally, there would be no mix-bus processing on your final mix. However, if you have been using a mix bus compressor or some other similar plugins for the whole time you were working on the mix, then this may need to remain to keep the feel/mood of the track. If in doubt, send the final mix twice: 1) with all the mix bus processing, 2) no mix bus processing.

Rough Master and References

If you have completed a rough/home master that gives an overall sense of how you want the track to sound, please send this over. This is encouraged and can be taken into consideration when completing the mastering.

References are professionally mastered songs that are similar in terms of your sonic, aesthetic and loudness goals. These can be sent as links and taken into consideration. However, please remember that this is a guideline.

Notes

It is recommended to send a PDF document with any notes/ideas/comments about the work or any important information.

1-to-1 teaching an online class where you will be able to learn about a topic or area of music production, with a lesson that is tailored to your level and requirements.

The sessions are normally 1-hour and will be interactive by way of discussion, hearing sounds, asking questions and being able to explore a topic in as much depth a required.

The sessions are just you and the teacher, so you and your learning get the full attention.

More information about 1-to-1 teaching can be found on the website store.

Coaching is for music producers and artists who are looking for someone to help them work towards a specific goal.

This may look slightly different for each person, but the role of a coach generally consists of:

• Providing you with a framework for a large-scale project, album or EP.

• Providing you with accountability in a way that acknowledges both the creative process and working to deadlines.

• Providing you with detailed, timely feedback that focuses on areas for improvement and ways to achieve this.

• Review your current working practice and explore ways to enhance/disrupt/explore/develop/re-think/adapt

• Have conversations around mindset in music and approaching a balanced practice.

• Suggesting areas for further study and reading

The reasons that people can be interested in coaching can be very different, but most people are looking for improvements in their creative practice. This can be in a range of different areas, such as:

• Finishing more music and finding a process to maintain output consistency.

• Streamline the creative process to make it more time-efficient.

• Getting unstuck from writer’s block and breaking out of the ‘loop stage’ of music production.

• Developing a specific area of their skills through a creative project, for example, synthesis or sampling.

• They are frustrated with learning from YouTube and want to be able to talk to a real person about music production topics.

• Finding and developing a more distinctive sound.

More information about the coaching service can be found on the website store.

Teaching focuses on someone delivering information and another person receiving information, in a more traditional sense, the ‘knowledge’ flows from the teacher to the student. However, in the 1-to-1 classes they are made to be as conversational, inspiring, interactive and engaging as possible.

Coaching focuses on achieving a particular goal. Most importantly, the information flows in the opposite direction to that which we just discussed above. In most cases it is up to the coachee to provide the answers and the information.