ASCAP & eSession Member Profile: Philip Lindholm

Seattle based Singer/Songwriter, Philip Lindholm is currently using online technologies to affordably create a world-class album on his own.

http://www.myspace.com/singersongwriter

Philip is an ASCAP member and has been a member of eSession since October of 2007 and has been using the site to produce his forthcoming album entitled "The Open Road".

Philip worked with some of our top session musicians and engineers including Kim Carroll on guitars (http://eSession.com/KimCarroll), Eric Bolvin on trumpet (http://eSession.com/EricBolvin) Scott Koziol on Bass (http://www.esession.com/ScottKoziol) and mixing some of the final tracks will be Grammy™ winning engineer, David Thoener (http://www.esession.com/DavidThoener).

While completing his doctorate in Theology at Oxford, Philip has been writing and producing his album for almost 2 years and performs vocals, guitars, piano, harmonica and "anything that creates a frequency" in his Pro Tools home studio. One song includes the subliminal hum of his refrigerator while another has the accidental chime of a grandfather clock at an appropriate moment that somehow fit into the song.

Half of the album was recorded more conventionally at Seattle's London Bridge Studios (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc), while the other half was recorded and produced over the internet with the help of eSession. Philip says, “The only way to economically produce an album on your own is to circumvent the hourly rates at a studio whenever possible. We're discovering as the industry evolves, that physical studios have great advantages but also huge limitations. It's a massive production getting everyone together in the studio, setting up gear, getting sounds, taking beer breaks etc. I just don't have time for that anymore. eSession is filling a much needed gap and is geared toward the 21st century musician who is doing everything on their own and working with the strictest of budgets. “

Philip says, “I love giving my tracks to the players and just letting them have creative freedom. I actually prefer working remotely because with eSession, multiple players can be working on any or many songs simultaneously.”

He continues, “The Negotiation System is great because it gets everything out front and avoids the awkwardness of verbally negotiating fees and deadlines. It can be tricky sometimes with these guy's busy schedules, so it’s invaluable to have someone like Marc Rosenberg who can work around the system. He has been infinitely helpful and always available throughout my entire project.”

Marc Rosenberg is eSession’s Director of Operations and is a brilliant musician, technician and one of the most versatile people I have ever known. Not only does he handle the site’s support and development, but also functions as a kind of talent concierge if eMembers need help choosing and contacting specific musicians.

Philip says, “ I’ll always record with a band in the studio because some songs just call for that kind of production. But, other songs beg for one part at a time and for songs like that, eSession is perfect. There’s a breadth of talent and instrumentation available that is unprecedented anywhere on the internet.”

Philip’s plan is to finish his album in the next few months and sell it at local shows while pursuing major distribution and label interest. He says he won't just release the album independently because “an album is worth a hell of a lot more to a record company if you haven't released it yet”.

“The Open Road” is an edgy blend of rock and folk with strong sense of melody and musical and lyrical sophistication. Philip says, “I just tried to stay true to myself and I’m really excited to say that what came out was a sound that I believe will resonate with people.”

Here is an example of a song that Philip created using eSession.com

Thank you Philip!!!

The Digital Songwriter - Article 2

In this day and age of high tech, low budgets and the increasing green consciousness, the internet provides songwriters and artists with an endless array of creative choices. In this article, I’m going to focus on real-time collaboration and how co-writers can work together without leaving their homes.

The basic ingredients you need are a computer, high speed internet connection and a web cam. While you don’t need a home studio to co-write over the internet, there are huge advantages for those who do use some kind of music software such as Garage Band, Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase etc.

The easiest solution to co-write over the internet is to use a free chat application such as Skype, AIM, Yahoo Messenger etc. While these free applications do allow you to connect and work in real-time, the disadvantage is that you are limited to using your web cam’s microphone and your computer speakers. You also have to deal with the delay between two users over the internet. This delay is called Latency and it makes it impossible to play with or sing with someone at the same time. If you just want to bounce ideas back and forth, a free chat app, will work just fine and it’s very convenient to use the text chatting for co-writing lyrics.

The ideal solution for the professional songwriter is an audio/video plug-in called Virtual Glass for those who use some kind of music software. We developed Virtual Glass at eSession.com to allow two people to write, produce and record music over the internet from within their music software. For those who don’t know, a plug-in is a piece of software that plugs into another piece of software. For example, Photoshop has plug-ins that add certain visual effects to photos. All music applications have plug-ins that allow you to add reverbs, delays, compression and even virtual instruments to your songs.

There are two major advantages that Virtual Glass has over the free chat applications. The first advantage is that the instrument you’re playing and/or the music you have recorded in your audio software goes through Virtual Glass directly into your co-writer’s audio software. So, instead of playing your guitar into the web cam’s inferior microphone, you’re sending your co-writer your guitar directly from your music software to theirs. For example, I could be playing guitar in Austin using Pro Tools while my co-writer plays piano in Nashville using Digital Performer. When I hit the spacebar to play my song, he/she hears it from their studio speakers, not their low quality computer speakers.

The other huge advantage is that Virtual Glass allows two people to work in sync. We built the plug-in with Latency Compensation and Rewire Synchronization, so, one user tells Virtual Glass to send sync while the other tells Virtual Glass to receive it. The user who is sending sync can then control the transport and location of both user’s software. For example, my co-writer in Nashville could sit back and play guitar and I could be stopping and starting both of our songs from my computer. I could stop playback if the player makes a mistake and say, “hey, lets take that chorus again” and play from the new location.

The plug-in is designed in 3D to depict a conventional recording studio that has a glass partition between the control room and cutting room. The glass partition in Virtual Glass is the video screen between the two users, so it’s as close to working in the same studio as you can get without the hassle, use of fuel and expense of travel and studio time.

If you’d like a one-on-one training session how to use Virtual Glass, please contact eSession’s Director of Operations, Marc Rosenberg, marc@eSession.com.