Latest / Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast / The Dos and Don'ts of Music Editing For Competitive Dance

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The Dos and Don'ts of Music Editing For Competitive Dance · Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the table at a dance competition?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly what are the judges looking for anyway?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is Making the Impact, a dance competition podcast.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Each week we'll cover a different topic related to the world of competitive dance from the perspective of the judges behind the table.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: We've all been there.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: The perfect song for that epic routine is a whole minute too long, includes three bad words, and needs to be sped up.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: What's a dance teacher to do?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: Some of us might dabble in music editing, but to edit music well is a skill that takes practice.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Here with us today on Making the Impact are Amy Gibson, IDA judge and dance educator, and Morris Party of this world trench audio to give you the best tips and tricks to properly edit your music.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_03: Hey y'all, it's Courtney Your Tees.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to this week's episode of Making the Impact.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_03: I'm excited to be here with my co-host, Leslie Mueller.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Always excited to join you for our weekly podcast episodes.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_03: Me too.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_03: I'm so happy we're back.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_03: It feels so good to be home in podcast world.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Home in podcast world, across across the rivers and across the island of Manhattan from you, but I know together on the internet.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I'm I'm grateful that technology works in our favor for this to continue to happen because I don't think that when we started the podcast back in 2019, that we actually ever thought that we wouldn't be sitting next to each other.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_03: Because we always were sitting next to each other in my makeshift podcast studio in my apartment in Queens.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And now you're across the river in New Jersey, all the way over here in suburbia, but I do have a nice big room available to me to podcast where I do not get interrupted except for by the cats sometimes.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it's good stuff.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: And we are here with a really amazing episode today.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I am just so stoked for everybody to get to hear it and to learn from um our amazing guests.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_03: Me too.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: This has been an episode that has been one that I've been wanting to tackle for a while because, as I'm sure all of our listeners have heard, some pretty epic fails of music edits in the competitive scene.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: And maybe you are a choreographer who struggles with editing your music.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you are a self-taught music editor.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you have to do it for the first time this season.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you're a parent who listens in the audience and says, God, that song sounds horrible.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you just never know.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you we hear all different types of edits of songs that hit the stage.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: And we want to just bring a little bit of knowledge and guidance from different perspectives in the industry on this week's episode so you can walk into that competition season feeling very confident and prepared with your music before you submit it to the cop.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, I can't wait for everybody to just absorb all this amazing information.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: So without further ado, here we go.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: But before we jump into our episode, I have to tell you about our sponsor for this one, and that is Young Arts.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_03: Young Arts is an arts organization that supports young artists across 10 different disciplines, including dance.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: Their national arts competition is open to artists aged 15 through 18 or currently in grades 10 through 12, where selected winners can receive cash scholarships, mentorship from leaders in the industry, a lifetime of professional support, and the prestigious honor of being a young arts winner.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_03: To all of my dance parents, dance studios, and dancers out there, don't miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: You only have a few weeks left to get your application in for their 2024 national arts competition.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: The deadline to apply is October 13th, 2023.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: Learn more about Young Arts and start your application today by clicking the link in our show notes and visiting youngarts.org slash apply.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: All right, listeners, it is time to jump into this week's episode.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm so excited about this one.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_03: Leslie, are you excited?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, this is one of the hottest topics, I think, of all time in the competitive dance world.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because every day you open up Facebook and on one of the groups or three of the groups or nine of the groups, it's does anybody have a cut of this?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Does anybody have a cut of that?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: How do I get this word out of this song?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: And like, I can't do all of that.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: I can do a little bit of it, but you know, there's there's a lot going on when it comes to music editing, and we are here to talk about it all today.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: And we have two amazing guests to do so.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, we do.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_03: I'm so glad we're finally covering this topic.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: We've covered music at competition many times.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_03: We've had a 2.0 of that.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_03: So all of our listeners, if you want to hear the do's and don'ts of music and music that we never want songs we never want to hear ever again at competition, go give a listen to those previous episodes.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_03: They're a lot of fun, and I'm sure we'll have another 3.0 of that in the future.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: But this time we wanted to to zone in and talk about the editing of your music that we hear at competition.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: Who knew that being a dance teacher also meant that you have to now be a music editor?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_03: But we wear so many hats over here.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: So we have two fabulous guests joining us.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: The very first guest that I'm excited to welcome back to the podcast is an IDA judge.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_03: She's been on the roster for many, many years.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_03: I've had the pleasure to judge alongside of her.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_03: And you may remember her from some previous Making the Impact episodes.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: Season one, episode 22, Levels at Competition, one of the hottest topics ever.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_03: And season three, episode 77, the open category.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: Loved that episode.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: I'm excited to welcome back Amy Gibson to the podcast.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome, Amy.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, welcome.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_04: Excited to be back.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I'm so happy to have you back.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I know we were talking before we hit record, but you've been on some pretty popular episodes, Amy.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: And here you are again today.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_04: I know.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_04: I can't wait to talk about all the ins and outs of music editing from a judge and teacher standpoint.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, absolutely.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: Well, if you wouldn't mind sharing with the world a little bit more about you and remind them where you're based, any career credits you'd like to share, and what you're currently working on.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so I am in North Carolina.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_04: I went to North Carolina School of the Arts and UNC Greensboro, where I graduated with my BFA in choreography and performance.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_04: I worked several summers in summer theater and played roles all the way from an actor tech to a dancer to dance captain and assistant choreographer.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_04: Uh went on after college to perform for Disney World and some smaller modern companies.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_04: Always knew that I was gonna teach, though.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_04: I always had that drive to educate uh young dancers coming up.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_04: So moved back to North Carolina, taught for several studios, moved to a smaller town in western North Carolina where I started my own program a little over 10 years ago at a nonprofit art center.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_04: And it was to give, you know, people in the community a chance to dance in a non-competitive environment.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_04: But if they ever wanted to go the competitive route, I would help them foster that.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_04: I have coached competitive gymnasts, and I've been fortunate to work alongside some Olympic uh coaches as well as some Olympians, and I've been able to travel internationally doing that.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_04: I just got back from Sweden in July for the first time since COVID, and having my sweet little boy.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_04: So I was very excited uh to go back to Sweden to teach.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_04: And a couple of years ago, we made a big life change and moved to be close to the family.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_04: So sadly I kind of had to relinquish my program, but I'm still able to consult with the art center and help them keep that program up and going.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_04: I've been back for four weeks doing summer camps this summer.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I found a new studio home in my hometown, and I'm still judging and teaching and choreographing and getting to spend a lot of little a lot of time with my little boy that's growing up way too fast.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I know.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm I'm glad to hear that you were able to travel again because I know that was I always was so inspired.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like I loved seeing you take those beautiful adventures over to Europe and teach the you were teaching acro out there.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, I was the dance coach for these gymnastics clinics.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_03: Got it.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's so cool.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was great.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: Making the impact across the ocean.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: So that is just so awesome.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_03: And congrats on that.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm so happy to hear you found a new dance home in in your town.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_03: And yes, we love having you as an IDA judge for so many years on the roster and can't wait for another season ahead.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_03: Me too.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thank you so much, Amy, for joining us again on the pod.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_03: I'm so excited.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_03: All right, and our next special guest who is joining us is someone who I've seen on the dance forums, and a lot of people might know their name as like a superstar music editor.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_03: When we were pick thinking about doing this topic, we were like, well, we gotta have an actual music editor who knows what they're talking about and does a lot of this and has a business in this, and I knew exactly the person.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: I'm excited to welcome the owner of Squirrel Trench Audio, Morris Parti, to the podcast.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome, Morris.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me here.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thrilled and it's an honor to be invited.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was like, I have to reach out and see if the if you're interested in joining us because there's a lot of different people in the industry that are doing music editing services for the dance community.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: But I was so inspired by the name of your business, Squirrel Trent Audio.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: Can you tell us a little bit about how that name came to be?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a funny story, but uh my ex-girlfriend was an amazing tap teacher, and she had two young girls when I first met her.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, way back in 2010, I was at her house and we got snowed in.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: We had one of those New England snow days where where it's impossible to drive on the roads.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And she had a bird feeder on on her back porch that the squirrels love to raid.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, so while while we were snowed in, I I asked her daughters if if they would be willing to help me try and make a moat around this bird feeder so that the squirrels couldn't attack it.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, so therefore, it that became a squirrel trench.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And in hindsight, of course, the the the squirrels, it actually turned out to be more of a squirrel amusement park.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think they just jumped over the trenches, but um I and I just thought it's like how funny is it that that we're making a squirrel trench?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought that'd be a funny name for a band.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time I was getting into music editing, I just figured, oh, why not go with some kind of a funny name that hopefully people don't forget?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_03: It's unforgettable, truly, it's unforgettable.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's just it's such a unique name and it's so fun.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm sure there's a lot of people who have probably used your service who have always been wondering, I wonder what that name means.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: Well, guess what?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: You found out right here on making the impact, everybody.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: Morris, if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit more about you, telling us where you're based.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: Tell uh I know you kind of hinted at that you that might have been your introduction into the dance world, but share a little bit more about how this business came to be and your experience in the audio world.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, absolutely.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, well, it it did come from my former girlfriend, and I knew I knew nothing about the world of dance before I met her, and um, and that's where I was just really amazed and inspired by how much time and effort she put into the dance world.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, she grew up in the dance world, she was a competitive dancer herself, she taught dance for decades, and and so so and for for a top-notch studio in western Massachusetts, and that you know went to all kinds of competitions, regionals and nationals.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that was my introduction to the dance world.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And and so, so my thought, my initial thought was, oh, she must be having her or her and her studio must be having her music done by some high-powered uh uh music studio in in the nearest downtown of the city.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and when I asked her, I said, Oh, are you using like XYZ studio in Springfield?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, No, no, I do it myself.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, knowing how and learning how much time and effort and expense and and love, sweat, tears, heartache goes into putting on a competitive routine.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, and you're doing your music yourself, really?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And she was pretty and she was pretty good about she was pretty good at it.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: I I I couldn't uh she she didn't have any of sort of the topical the typical top music editing mistakes in music, but I knew it could be better.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so so that was that was my introduction to doing it.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so after doing it for her for a couple years, I'm like, well, I wonder if if there are other dance studios who could use uh a step up in level of their music, and and what I'm I'm I'm absolutely amazed, honored, flattered that I now have dance teachers, uh uh clients all over the world, and and I've and and in getting ready for this podcast, I I kind of added it up and and and I think if I'm not mistaken, uh uh my my music edits and mixes have been used for more than 15,000 dance routines worldwide at this point.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, amazing.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that is awesome.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_03: So you have mixes that you've created for studios that they can purchase that are already pre-mixed, and you have like a catalog, it sounds like that they can just look at and say, Oh, I like this.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_03: Can they like sample the song?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like, how does it work?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you for asking that.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that that's sort of that's sort of my passion project because I I I honestly believe that every dancer deserves to have flawless music.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: So so I do custom music editing, but that at this time of year I am absolutely straight out with that.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: But but in addition to that, I have a catalog which has more than 900 different clean song edits and an additional, I think it's something like 400, uh, maybe 300 mixes and 150 production mixes at this point.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things and one of the things I'm very yeah, one of the things I'm very proud of is is uh is right.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people think about going to a professional for like a big mix for a big, you know, a large group or or s or such like that.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: But but my belief is actually that it's equally important for soloists or or even the recital kids, that there's no reason why their music shouldn't be uh uh uh music ha have that musical integrity, uh especially you know, I and I that's where I loved hearing your uh last podcast on music, listening to Kaelin and your other guests.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: I I mean I learned a ton listening to that.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's such a great valuable episode.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, our counting episode.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, with the Damien.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Damien, right, right.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was the one.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, Morris, I love I love that you say that because, you know, I feel like in so many studios, you know, like you said, the recital kids might get short end of the stick sometimes.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's just recital.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's just recital.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: We'll just fade it, we'll just literally turn it down at the end.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: No, like that's that's equal opportunity music is not that hard to come by.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: There are services like yours, there are people like me who can do the most basic, like, please don't pay me money to do this.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: But if you are desperate, I can chop your music off and put a button on it.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like there's things there's people out there that can do better than just fading.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you posted something recently, Morris, on your social media that people were up in arms about.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe this is, you know, something we can jump into later, but about fades and how dancers deserve more than just a fade.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh yeah.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's where I've I have very I also I have very specific reasons.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: I I was so glad that that you guys uh well, right.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: You I mean you talked about it on that musicality episode, and that's one of the reasons why I really took sat up and took notes.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, I'm not the only one who who thinks this is a horrible disservice to the dancer, which which actually can to me, yeah.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's save that for when we get into like the most common mistakes that that we that that me and you guys.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: A little teaser here, friends, for a later in the episode.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_03: Well, um, before we jump in, Morris, obviously your business is called Squirrel Trench Audio.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: Where can people learn more?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: What is your website?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_03: Can they follow you on social media?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: Any anything else you want to share about it before we dive in?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's where I recently hired uh a fabulous social media dance expert, Jenny Oliphant, and and I found her through one of the dance teacher boards.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: She is really amazing, and she got me set up on Instagram and is filling up my Instagram feed rapidly.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: But but where to find me online, aside from uh I have obviously a website which is scrolltrenchaudio.com, uh my catalog uh where where you can find those 1300 different 1,300 different song edits and mixes, and a lot of those have more than one edit length.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to if your dancer is good for a 200 routine or a 215 or 230 or 245, I have a lot of I have a lot in my catalog that has all those different lengths of whatever song it is you're looking for.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: But the other the other place that you can find me pretty often is that I'm a co-administrator of the Facebook group called Music Help for Dance Teachers.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and so that group was created as a spin-off from the original dance teacher network, that original one.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you guys were saying, Oh, there's so many people who post you you can't go a day in this time of year without seeing some sort of music request.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in in in the early days like 2015, when DTN was kind of the only large group on Facebook, pe people would get upset that that that other choreographers were asking music questions, say in February or March.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, Can we please not have any more music questions in here?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is supposed to be about dance.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: So this fabulous choreographer in Toronto named Jess Mahovich, if I'm pronouncing her name right, she she had the brilliant idea in 2015 of, you know what, instead of mucking up the DTN with music, why don't why don't I make just a separate new group, which is expressly for music help for dance teachers?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: She announced it on DTN and I'm like, can I sign up?
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Please let me in.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to help with this.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to give advice, tips, tricks, uh, and and even be a co-administrator with my social media background.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: And she she readily accepted, and I've been again honored to to be a co-administrator of that group.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_04: And I just have to insert like I have used Squirrel Trench Audio and the catalog is incredible.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_04: So check it out.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_04: It is wonderful.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, for a five-star review from Amy.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_03: That is that is so awesome.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: I actually also just used Squirrel Trench Audio.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: I sent I had a bad word in a dance uh for a soloist that I was literally going to rehearsal the next day.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I I hit up Morris and I was like, is there any way you can get this bad word out?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: Because I was about to veto the completely veto the song entirely because I just didn't think it was possible.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like I tried my hardest to get it out.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: And Courtney's a pretty good editor.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like, let's be real.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Courtney's pretty good.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: So you can't couldn't do it.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's hard.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, I don't know what to do.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_03: I have to, I have to send this to a professional.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: Outsource.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_03: And Morris hooked me up and it was it was awesome job done.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_03: And now dancer has stage ready music without a cuss word in it.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I was really excited about that.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm happy to tell you a little bit about how I did that without getting into the weeds or anything, but but this is this is where you know professional knowledge, equipment, ability can make the difference.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and so so what I've certainly had had plenty of experience with prior, you know, I mean, technology keeps moving forward, uh even you know, even in audio.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so the way I accomplished that, getting that word out, but still maintaining the rhythm, timing, and everything else.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is where if you just sort of have that razor blade approach to cutting, there's just no way to do it.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: But what what I actually have the technology to do is to separate the vocals from the entire rest of the music.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: I I even have software which will separate vocals from bass, from percussion, from everything else.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so so once right, right, exact that that's that's some pretty heavy yeah.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean that that used to not be possible, but it but it's now possible with advanced uh audio uh uh software.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so once you have those things separated out, and it's you know, it's it's not necessarily perfect, but it's good enough to make a decent separation that once you reintegrate those parts in the way you want, then you can eliminate a word, even though it wouldn't work otherwise.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: We live in the 21st century, you guys.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's so cool.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: But honestly, like that's a perfect example.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to line up cassettes.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like physically cutting the tape.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: Cutting it on the cassette tape.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_03: We've all been, we have all been there.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of the new generation dancers don't even know what a cassette tape is.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe they do.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: Vintage.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_03: Vintage.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: So fun.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: Well, let's dive in.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_03: Let's chat all about music editing.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: I can't wait to learn from this chat and I can't wait to vent on this chat.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: Let's go.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: Amy, I want to hear from you really quickly.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: As a judge, and I think this is something to just, we just want to explain this.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Why would you even want to edit music?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Give us some reasons.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: Give us some tragedies that you've heard on stage, you know, of oh, that wasn't good.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: That should be edited.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, why are we editing music in the first place?
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I mean, one, your music is basically, especially in the competitive world, it's the starting process of the creative process.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I mean, it is the beginning.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_04: We spend so much time with our dancers on technique and costume.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_04: The music editing should be no different because that's where your piece begins.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_04: So if you've got uh where it sounds where it sounds like you've like stopped and start, like if you hear the actual cut in a music, or you like cut in the middle of a musical phrase and you come back in and it's off tempo, and then the dancers are trying to like finagle back onto tempo, and then obviously lyrics, inappropriate lyrics and cuss words, like those are major ones, but then we're also editing for time as well.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_04: Like we have to make sure that we're like being conscious of our time limits for what the dancer can hold and what the stamina that they can help um hang on to while they're performing.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_04: So all of those elements come into play.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_04: But I always reference like we're creating a picture for our audience.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_04: And I say this a lot in critiques and to my dancers.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_04: And if you look at it like that, like the music is the paint that's creating that picture.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_04: So you have to just make sure that you know you've got your pastels and you've got your bold colors, and you can paint that beautiful picture and just make sure that your audience like gets a complete thought at the end of it.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you don't want anything to like interrupt that the flow.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the flow of your dance or what you're taking in visually watching it.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_03: You don't want to hear something that's going to interrupt your experience.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that definitely happens a lot at competition when we hear that jagged cut in the music and it's just like abrupt.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like I literally like jolt in my seat when I hear it because it just like you it might sound fine on your speakers at your studio, but when you put it on those competition speakers and it's just like filling the entire auditorium and you could hear that cut like nobody's business, and it's it's just hard to listen to.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: And Courtney, the what a great thing to bring up as we, you know, kind of dive into a tiny bit of the technical stuff.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Morris, what what is happening when something like that is happening, like audio-wise?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because we've all like you said, Courtney, you hear it in your headphones, it's fine.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: You hear it from your computer, it's fine, but then it it amplifies in a big giant room and the cut just sounds literally jagged.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like sounds awful.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: What is that?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: How do you avoid that?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know we've all been there.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me make sure that I return to that exact question.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: But first, let me preface a little bit and build on what Amy was saying about a picture that you're painting and you want to have it the right color.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you want to use those things purposefully.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so so first of all, I'd like to thank you for calling this episode music editing and not music cutting.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because, of course, the dance teacher common terminology, and I I hope that I've helped change that culture.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: So many people say, I need a cut, I need a cut, I need a cut.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, cut?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: That that sounds painful.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: That cut is what you accidentally do to your little brother.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: You accidentally cut him.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want I don't want anybody shaving or something.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I think what the fundamental approach is that I if I could convey to every choreographer and every editor is to approach it as almost like a movie soundtrack because in essence, that's what you're creating.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: A dance routine is a miniature movie or a movie scene, and of course, it's gotta have a start, a a middle, uh, usually and ideally you want to have an emotional peak or climax and then resolve to an ending.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's a move, you know, a movie in a nutshell.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's that journey.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: And and so that's where when you start that's a book, that's a song, that's a dance.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's literally art.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, exactly.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Every sort of art form has that arc of of a compl of a story that you know that's yeah, beginning, middle, end.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: A play has that, a movie has that, a book has that, and and a dance routine in it in its own essence has that as well.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so so so so the way I approach every single music edit is to is that you you can have a novel, you can have war and peace.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so like say a regular song, that's war and peace.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's obviously too long.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you could you can have a novelette, you can have a poem, which which which still has the integral parts, it still makes sense, it still has its integrity, it still has it still and and most importantly, it brings the audience along.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're talking about like that fade out that where you just start the song and you just and it goes and you're like, oh, to two minutes, 15 seconds, I'm fading out now.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Where that usually is is in the middle of the second first.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or or this or or it it just makes no sense there.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you are right in the middle of the story, right?
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, it's like it's like wait, yeah, and and and why we re and and so I've been thinking about this.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, why does that feel so wrong?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's because it it we got into we got fooled as an audience.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: We got fooled, and audiences don't like to be fooled.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: We we expect, I mean, after our you know uh uh scores of years of listening to music, we expect music to to feel like it's gonna end and then end, right?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the music actually tells us where we are in the routine.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like like you could be you could and so and so it and I and and I've watched my share of competition routines.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: I I've spent the days watching that, and so and that's where my hats are off to you guys.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like, wow, what you guys do, that like you guys are de whatever you're paid is not enough.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: So so I understand like your frustration with you know less than stellar music being blasted at you at 95 decibels.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: That that's not adding to your enjoyment of your day.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: But so approaching it from that soundtrack point of view, beginning, middle, end, and that that the audience understands.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: So so what I've also seen in those competitions is like you're you're watching a routine, watching routine, and and and you know, after after you do this for a long enough, you start to you just intuitively understand where two minutes uh is, and you're like, okay, is this wrapping up?
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, where are we going?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes the music can give us cues of like we've only begun this journey, but we're two and a half minutes into this, and then suddenly it ends, right?
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like out of nowhere, and you're like, what what just happened?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like it feels wrong.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and so musically, uh not to get again too into the weeds, but but most pop music is intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, and then an ending.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: And what and so here's the other thing that the chop or the fade out in the middle robs the audience of, whether you're a judge, audience, parent, whatever, is it robs you of the usually of the emotional peak of the song.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're missing the the emotional high point that then leads to the natural ending.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: And that can dictate how you approach choreography too.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_03: Like me as a choreographer, I actually, if I have a song that is three minutes, three and a half minutes, and I know I gotta condense it down to 215, I can't even start the choreography process until I have finalized that song down to what feels structurally correct to me, to be inspired to see the sections visually in my head before I can even start.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: I know back when I was growing up, my teacher, like before like music editing was easier with our capabilities of technology and computers and things, but like I remember my teacher would be like, Okay, we're gonna take a pause right here, wait it out.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_03: We have to wait.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_03: I'm, you know, cut, I'm cutting out the four counts of eight here.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm just like, how do you even visualize that?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I need to hear it make sense.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_03: I can't just visualize this cut's gonna work musically.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_03: So that's why I think I've taught myself how to become a better music editor because I, of course, like I'd be happy to pay people when I can't physically do it, but I just figured I'd rather teach myself how to do it, even if it's a rough mix that I can then send off to someone to finesse.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: But I, as a choreographer, I have to hear that beginning, middle, end, I have to see the arc, I have to know it makes sense.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_03: I can't even get into the artistic flow and groove before I do that.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_03: Like that's the starting point for me.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_03: So if it's not like when I hear people do a fade out, I'm like, obviously, you just knew there was a time limit for the dance and you weren't choreographing to the music.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_03: I probably could have put any music on right now and it'd be the same dance.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_03: Like that tells me so much about you as a choreographer.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the other thing where where I feel it's a strong disservice to the dancer is that you're essentially if if the dancer's instruction is as soon as you start to hear it fade out, then you just go waltzing up into the wings.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: What you're doing is two things is well, I mean many things, but the the two worst things that happen with that is your audience is fooled because you're like or they're like, wait, it wait, is is this the end?
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, I've said that so many times.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: And they don't know to applaud, and once they realize it is over and they start oh it's uh oh oh oh it's over now.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh now it's time to applaud the dancers in the wings.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: What especially for the younger dancers, why don't you want them on stage to take that applause after they've worked all year to on the this routine?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: So so that's my rant.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna try and stop ranting.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: You're allowed to rant.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: Amy, I feel exactly like you.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Anytime there's a fade, I'm just literally like, I oh oh okay, bye.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like I just don't I just don't know what to even do because you didn't give me an opportunity to wrap my critique up because you didn't even wrap yourself up.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: You just all of a sudden you're done.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_04: Like, and we don't want to like question like was that intentional or did something happen and they had to go all stage?
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_04: Like, we want like a clear, like finish.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_04: Take your moment, finish, then take your bow.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: D did the sound system crap out all of a sudden?
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_03: And something else to I just want to mention as we're talking about like this, you know, fade out debacle that we are probably gonna hear a lot this season, regardless of this podcast episode.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: I do want to mention that there are obviously songs where their endings have a fade out that exist.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_03: We aren't really talking about that because if that's how the song ends, that's how the song ends.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_03: We're talking about when, well, you can change it, I'm sure, Morris.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_03: You can adjust it to have a button or something at the end if you don't want it to be a fade out, I'm sure.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so so I I will give away one of my one of my tips and techniques for how to I'm that in a certain sense, there's no reason why any song can't have a butt- I mean, su sure you can have a fade out if intentionally your choreography calls for it.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh obviously it's not disallowed.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: But but like like you guys see, 95% probably of what you guys are seeing on the comp stage, that fade out's not intentional.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: It is just lack of knowledge and so forth.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: But but even if a song doesn't have an ending, look up how that band performed it live.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, interesting.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's a good idea.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: You virtually can't end a song with a fade out live.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: It for a musician, it feels weird.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like you just start playing, you start playing your instruments lighter and lighter and lighter.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: It just kind of back away from the microphone.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right, yeah.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Once you understand how awkward it is for a musician to actually try to play a fade out, well, then it's equally or more so awkward for a dancer to try to perform a fade out.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually get a decent amount of work where people say, Hey, I love this song, but it fades out.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Can you give me an ending?
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm like, I I so nowadays there's virtual instruments.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: I have I have entire orchestras sort of at my disposal virtually that I can play in via keyboard and and other methods to to recreate potentially the instruments or find another part in the song that I can use those elements in order to create an ending.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: But but that that's where my my exposure to the dance world, I never heard of the term button ending until I was watching some show about about Broadway.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I s I still I'll get requests of like, hey, can you do something about this fade out?
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, You mean you want a button ending?
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, What's that?
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, doesn't I get it's a Broadway term?
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_03: It's definitely a musical theater term.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: But it should be universal and danced.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_03: I I mean I I use that term all the time though.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and it's just like when you go to an audition and you're singing, you know, we're only singing maybe maybe you're lucky, maybe you get eight bars, maybe you get 16 bars, but you have to have a button.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like the song doesn't end where you've chosen the cut to sing.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: So the the pianist has to figure out dun dun dun dun dun dun button.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like whatever it is doesn't actually exist.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: They just have to create it.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where music editors literally are the same.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: They're musicians as well, just like a tap dancer, just like you know, anybody else, creating something out of nothing musically, you know, to make it a package, like a package deal.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, well, I was just gonna return to the question that Leslie asked earlier about, well, I think which was sort of why do so many bad edits arrive to you on the competition stage?
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: And and so so there's a there's several there's a couple reasons for that.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: The most I'd say the the biggest reason why you hear so many just sort of generally bad edits on stage, not that they're gonna like actually knock you off your seat, which that's possible, but the reason why so many bad edits make it to competition stage is that audio engineers have to work fast.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: They have to know their craft and work fast, because if you work on any piece of music, a section of music, whole song, whatever it is you're working on, and you listen to it over and over and over again, even if there are mistakes in it, your brain, your psychology starts to think that's normal and that that sounds right.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so so that's where it in the dance world, if if if if a choreographer sort of does that rough edit at at the beginning of the year, and so like I'll fix those glitches later, but then they're they're they're spending an entire year using that rough edit over and over and over again, they'll think it sounds normal, even though anybody else listening to it for the first time is like, whoa, what's happening here?
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_04: That makes sense.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's where it's important to, you know, make sure that you step away from it because your ears can play tricks on you.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I will do some editing myself and I will feel that I have the cut correct.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_04: Sorry, the edit correct, and then I'll step away from it for the day.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_04: I'll come back, I'll listen to it the next day, and if it still sounds good, I'm like, okay, but then I'm gonna take it a step further.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna like have like friends and family who have no idea what this song is listen to it.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna send it to a mus to a musician friend of mine and say, hey, what do you think of this?
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_04: Then see if they notice anything.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna play it on a big speaker, right, which makes a huge difference.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm gonna see if they're if it's really good or not.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_04: And then if it's not, then I'm gonna hire a professional.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_04: Like I'm gonna outsource it.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna reach out to someone because we've got such a plethora of resources through all these social media networks now that we can get our music out there to make sure that the edits are correct and make sense.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_04: You know, even if you just have put it on the, you know, the dance teacher network or music helper dancers.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, can you listen to this?
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm happy to listen to it and say, Yeah, that sounds great.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_04: I don't notice anything.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_04: You know, have you tried it on, you know, the big speaker?
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's just about just we have to be really intentional.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_04: We can't just like say, Oh, we'll fix it later, because then we get busy.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we have to just make sure that it's we just it has to be taken care of.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_04: We have to make sure that this is just as important as choreography and costuming.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_03: Each year since 1980, Young Arts has been helping support up-and-coming artists for their future ahead.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_03: Young Arts hosts a national arts competition where artists in over 10 different disciplines can submit to be considered as one of the best in their field.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_03: Only 20 dancers are named winners each year, and all genres of dance are accepted into the event, including contemporary, ballet, tap, hip-hop, jazz, world dance, and more.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_03: Winners who are high school seniors also have the opportunity to be considered as a U.S.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_03: Presidential Scholar in the Arts, one of the nation's highest honors for high school students.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_03: As a previous young arts winner myself, I encourage all dancers who are looking to pursue a professional career to not miss out on this important opportunity.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_03: Applications are now open for their 2024 arts competition.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_03: The deadline to apply is by Friday, October 13th, 2023.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_03: If you are in grades 10 through 12, head to their website to learn more and apply now before it's too late at youngarts.org slash apply.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you to Young Arts for continuing to support me as one of your alumni and for supporting our podcast.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I agree, Amy.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_03: I would love to mention that it is extremely important on the choreographer's end for them to understand music a little bit because it is very apparent to me as a judge when someone makes a music cut that is literally in the middle of a count.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_03: Account or a phrase or a measure.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_03: And it doesn't musically make sense when the song comes back in.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's like you chopped off a count and it's missing like so now it was like a seven count tag instead of full eight count.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_03: And these poor kids.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_03: I'm all I'm thinking about are the poor kids.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_03: They already are struggling to count their music, and you're making it 10 times harder because you obviously don't even know how to count your music because you poorly cut this song in the middle of a phrase.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like it has to make sense.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_03: It you have to understand the what a song beginning, middle, and end is, and then you have to cut it to reflect that, to condense it.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_03: It is possible.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_03: And like Amy said, if if you cannot do it, then you have to outsource it, or you need to take a trillion tutorials on YouTube or whatever you need to do to learn how to do it properly, because it's doing a disservice to the dancers who are working really, really hard.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_03: And then you're wondering why their execution score is so low because you gave them music that they literally can't dance to because you cut it in the middle.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_03: Like that's when I will speak up on the mic when it when I hear that.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_03: I will speak up when I hear a jagged cut that sounds very abrupt.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I will I will speak up when it's a like apparent fade out that makes no sense.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_03: That is like everything, uh and if there's a cuss word, I will say this music needs to be edited, you know.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't I don't think that even at at this point, I don't think that just blanking out the cuss is something like that is you still know, like you can like half hear what the word is, like you can everyone knows what was supposed to be said there.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_03: Like, let's be real, right?
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_04: So I mean if you have a thought, if you have a word, if it says like mother, and then you do like a cymbal crash or something, we know what's coming after that word, people.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_04: Like we know it's obvious, you know.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I don't want to know that that lyric ever existed in the music.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_04: Like, we need to just there and there are ways we can take all of those things out to know that like those lyrics never existed in that song.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_04: But then we also have to think of the age group too.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_04: Like, if it's a junior age or under, like I personally like there pick another song.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_04: Like, if it's got inappropriate lyrics or like words, cuss words.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, there's so many millions of songs out there because what if you didn't give them the edited version and your mini age dancer wants to show Grammy her solo, and so she pulls up her song on YouTube.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_04: YouTube or Spotify or whatever streaming and then both of them are hearing all the lyrics.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_04: And then it's like, uh oh, you know, like so.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's also like, look at the age of your dancer too.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_04: Like, if it's like really inappropriate, just find another song that has that same vibe that you're going for.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_03: Totally.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and what happens too sometimes with music like that, you know, yes, people will go to the lengths of editing it, but then it becomes so choppy that you're not even hearing words anymore.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, oh, at that point, like, how how much editing is editing is too much editing?
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you have to edit a song that much, perhaps you need to look into a different song where you could actually utilize what the artist actually did.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because we could get in that conversation too about, well, I need your art from my art, but I have to um chop your art up to get it to service my art.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: Is that even okay?
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like we could get into the weeds here for sure.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah, most definitely.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that's at least a good starting point is if you have to chop it up within an inch of its life, maybe it's not worth it.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a parent as well.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: So so I also want everything that I do to be clean, and I I clean so many songs.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: And every now and then I'll clean a song, but but later somebody says, Hey, wait a second, it's got that word in it.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh my gosh, I missed that the first time around.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'll fix that.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think one of the most challenging when you're saying that, right?
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: How how much do you have to remove?
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: And and I I mean, I I I think probably the song, and I'm not going to make an opinion about whether it should be used or not.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's actually relatively not empowering to use, is Barbie Girl.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: Which is a lot of of very inappropriate lyrics.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, but I replaced it with these fabulous, um, and again, this is virtual instrumentation of these marimbas, like an entire marimba section, so that you so that it still feels correct musically.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can still work with it, and you and you don't go, oh, I know what word was there, because like these entire phrases have to come out because there is no way I would ever want a dancer performing with the lyrics as they are in Barbie Girl.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is coming from just a regular old dance parent out there, guys.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're listening trying to use Barbie Girl in its entirety, here's here's somebody who doesn't want to hear it.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, and and like also like smart for you to bring that up right now, Morris, because I think we're gonna be seeing a lot of Barbie stuff next season at competition, whether it's Barbie Girl, Aqua Barbie Girl, or if it's the new Barbie stuff, which I don't know if that's inappropriate.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe it is inappropriate.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it is really good, but like inappropriate.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I just released Dance the Night clean version, both both just sort of a regular clean version and also one which incorporates dialogue from the movie.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a lot of fun.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh but yeah, the clean version, yeah, damn.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: They there's damn a couple times in that one.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_04: And I think it's easier for like those teen and senior levels, like if if there's a word or a lyric that's like not perfect, I mean I think it's easier to take it out for those level for those age groups, sorry, not levels, you know, but yeah, I think once again you just gotta look at like what the age of your dancer is and what you're giving them.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, because like we've said before, uh you're hearing this week after week after week after week.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: And what are we putting into our kids' heads?
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we've had that conversation in many different episodes, you know, so that's another another point, you know, that you bring up, Amy, is just like think about think about it, you know?
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_03: Something else that's I've witnessed as a judge many times and I've I've had to talk, and it's primarily about like those big huge mixes that we hear at competition in the hip-hop category or the production category are typically where we might hear that.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_03: And it's very clear when someone is trying to do a mix on their own and it wasn't done by an editor, and the it's not even that like I mean, most of the time, yeah, the edit is poor no matter what.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um, there was one time I heard like an entire production dance where they used about seven different songs, but they just did a really awkward fade out when they felt like it, and then they just and then there was a beat of silence, and then it faded back into the next song, and that's how it was the entire dance.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, you please God, this is throwing the momentum of this dance off so bad.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_03: You please hire a video, like please hire a music editor editor.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_03: I really don't think that you did.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I can tell that this wouldn't have happened if you'd hired appropriately.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_03: But with that, there's a lot of times when we combine songs and we switch to the next song, but the level of the volume of the song isn't matching the same level that the first song started at.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_03: And that's something that's like I've been really my ear goes to very easily now that I do podcasts, because it's all about the level and the vol the volume level and making sure it sounds pleasant for the listeners.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_03: So, listeners out there, I hope we sound lovely right now because we've spent a lot of money to have a proper editor edit this and mix it properly.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_03: I think the I think I could be wrong.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_03: Am I correct on the word mixing the the levels, Morris?
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_03: Is that correct?
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, really, I mean, I mean, audio music editor is something I made up for myself as a terminology, but but really what I am is an audio engineer and and musician.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_00: So so audio, yeah, and and what audio engineers do is is mixing.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, absolutely, that that is mixing.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: And levels is is not really something that amateurs have a easy time dealing with or the knowledge of how to handle that properly.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I get that all the time in and when people send me mixes to fix, yeah, the the levels can be all over the place.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes a mix is or the entire level of a mix or even a song edit is reduced from the original, and there's no reason for that.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's no reason whatsoever that that should be dropped down.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: So so when somebody gives me something to fix, I go back to the original to make sure that the the quality of the music, the integrity of the music isn't compromised.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: And one other quick note related to what you heard in the mix is where it drops down to nothing between songs, which is weird.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_00: I I mean what what horrible.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the other thing which I often come across in mixes uh uh that that other people do, is is like if they want to incorporate dialogue, it'll the music drops out on the dialogue between songs, and there again is absolutely no reason for that.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: That the pulse that that beats, the thing that we're counting, there's no reason it can't keep going behind the dialogue.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: So you can have the primary song, and then it's time for dialogue to be the transition for the song or in the middle of a song or whatever.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's no reason whatsoever that there you don't suddenly don't have the pulse.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have the beat, you can't count.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think Morris, you made a really I like what you were saying about, you know, when you're when you're creating a mix and your levels are in and out and up and down, and because the levels of the song itself were already a mess.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_01: So if you show up to dance competition with that kind of a mix, you don't know what kind of sound engineer, audio engineer you have at competition.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_03: Probably not an actual sound engineer, let's be real.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and I've worked with excellent sound engineers.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: And they they really can't fix that.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and they can they can manipulate a little bit here and there if they're noticing it on their screen, but like But that's not their job.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_01: You can't rely on that because half the time it's just some dude who set up some speakers.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're right.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, in a certain sense, they could do what's called riding the fader and tr but but the thing is they don't know what's coming next.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_00: So so if they turn it up, right.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_03: They don't, yeah, exactly.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: They they don't they're they shouldn't turn it up.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right, because if they turn up a soft section because it just isn't sounding right, they they really shouldn't, because as soon as it goes back to normal volume, now you're blasting you guys and the entire audience.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really not their job to compensate.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_01: It is not that it's not their job.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a product that's ready to go because I've seen so many of the on-site sound guys get reamed from studio owners who are pissed that their music sounds terrible, and they're having to try to explain, well, you gave me a file and then you they show it on the screen, like we can see the sound waves or whatever, at least the ones I've been around.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: And you're they're like, Well, this is what your music looks like, and it's a tragedy of up and down, and it does it doesn't look normal.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, at least to my eye.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why is because it just didn't come to them in any kind of format, properly formatted, right, to be able to be useful.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_04: I was gonna say, like a biggest pet peeve, it's not only the volume, but then we're looking at the tempo changes too.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_04: Like they're not correct with like tempo changes from one song to the other as well.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_04: Like correct.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_04: I love production or I love mixes.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_04: I I mean, I think it's awesome to have like a stream of songs, you know, it's exciting, especially in the production category.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_04: I think it really, you know, lends itself to that.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_04: But, you know, we talk about the pauses.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, transitions in music are just as important as transitions in our choreography.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_04: We don't want a blank stage in the choreography, so we don't want a pause in the music, you know.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_04: You want a clear in and out.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_04: Same thing with the volume.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_04: The volume thing reminds me of like TV commercials, you know, you're gonna you're watching a TV show, yes, and then the commercial comes on and then you're like blasted, you know.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_04: Like we just have to, I mean, this is all things that we just have to take into account.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, maybe sometimes as teachers, we just don't we're looking at just like song and song and song.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_04: We're not looking at all those intricate details that are gonna help put that all together.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_04: We're not necessarily maybe we're not thinking about vlogging.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe we're just looking at getting, you know, song A, B, and C connected, and we're just working on that.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_03: So now that we're talking about this, I feel like that music is the one part of a dance that is overlooked the most.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_03: Now that we're talking about this, I think everybody put so much emphasis on every other aspect about cre the creation of a dance, even when it comes down to like building props.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_03: You like you've spent how much money building this prop?
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_03: You have like screwdrivers and drill bits on stage and all the things, and dad's hauling this thing around the country.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_03: It costs so much money, and your music cut sounds horrible.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like that, I now that I really think about it, even like down the same thing that we talk about with the one shoe thing, like you spent$500 on your bedazzled costume and you have one shoe on.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_03: Like, that's almost the equivalent to me as your music not sounding good.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I think that if people are if studios are concerned about the expense of hiring an actual audio engineer or music editor to do their music, then you need to put that into the equation of of the the fee for the creation of choreography.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like tack that on.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's I I mean, Morris, do you have like an example of how much it costs to do music edits?
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what's the going rate right now for like is it per edit?
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_03: Is it based on like complexity of what's requested?
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, absolutely.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, boy, oh boy, I you know I and I hope you invite me back soon because we've talked about so many things that and I have so much additional that I can that that is going by rapid.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, I can I can address that one, I can address that one.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I totally agree.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, one time when I'm learning about the dance world and and try and one time I like calculated like how what's the average cost per routine of a competitive routine that say has like 12 kids in it and is competed at three net three regionals and a national.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how much money are the parents combined putting in divided by all the routines that their kids are in?
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and that's like eight to twelve thousand dollars.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like that used to be able to buy you a car, now it buys you half a car, maybe, but but when that much money is going into routine and you're spending literally zero on on the music, it's just it's it is baffling.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_00: But but I I kind of I kind of can empathize is because dance is primarily a visual medium.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're an expert in the visual aspect of all this, how can you also be an expert in the audio end of all this?
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so to bring it back to sort of like that that little bit of a movie thing, it to understand the emo the the power of the emotional power of music to a dance routine, it's the same as the emotional power of music to to movies.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and so to me, like like if you if you want to explain to a non-uh uh uh expert at at this what is how how powerful is music, you can go online, go on YouTube, and search for Star Wars minus Williams.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_00: John Williams is the composer for Star Wars and every every Steven Spielberg movie.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_00: And what you'll find is the final scene in Star Wars where Princess Leia hands out the awards to Han Solo and Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca and R2D2, and like the entire Imperial Guard is assembled to watch them in this you know, this it's like almost like a graduation ceremony, like the you know, the medals go around their necks and everybody applauds.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_00: So somebody somebody very cleverly recreated that scene and it starts out with the music, but then it but then as soon as the intro couple intro notes start, and then it goes to silence, and then the entire rest of the scene is nothing but silence, except for you know, like the noises Chewbacca makes or the noises that come in the crowd, and and it's like it's the most weird, unemotional, like non-impactful thing you can imagine.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's crazy how weird that is.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, in the movie theaters, we see it with the dun da, you know, the Imperial March, and everybody's excited and happy, and it's the and so when you see it like with and without the music, it's like guess where the emotion in that scene comes from.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's comes from the music.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_00: And now with dancers, you've got the actual dancer to provide the emotion and emote, but they're emoting based on the music.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, they should be, they should be doing it right.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_03: They absolutely should be.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_03: So for all of the studios out there who are listening and are probably like freaking out right now, they're probably like, oh my god, whoa, I never really thought about music like this.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I guess I need to really get who's gonna edit my music this year and how am I gonna do this?
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_03: Is there do can any of us even from our, you know, obviously Morris is gonna share some advanced technology tips, but like, do we have any tips on how to become a better music editor if let's say you don't have the ability to hire and source it out?
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_03: What types of programs are we using?
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_03: What how long does it usually take?
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_03: Any tips from our experiences that we can share with the listeners out there?
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_04: I use Goldwave Audio.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, what's that?
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_04: It's just a program that I was introduced to.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know any other program.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_04: I kind of played around with it, taught myself.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's got like pitch control, and I can like zoom in and really get those super fine uh areas of the song.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_04: And I just I just try.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_04: Like I will play around with it and I map out what I want my song or what I want my uh dance piece to be.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_04: Like I look at time, lyrics, all those things, and I map it out.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_04: And then I go in and and I, you know, I can zoom in and like I said, fine-tune it.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_04: It shows me volume.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_04: I can cut and slice other songs in.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_04: But at the end of the day, if it's not it, I'm self-taught, but if I if I don't feel comfortable, I'm going to reach out to someone else.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_04: So I think my advice would be to find programs that work for you, try them all out.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, if you're not comfortable or you don't have the resources to pay someone, try it yourself.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_04: And then if not, I feel like once again, our social media networks, I feel like if you were really in a pinch and you put it out there that you needed something, I I would hope that we are in the world where we're here to help a friend.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_04: We're here, we're here to help a fellow dance teacher, a fellow choreographer, and you know, help them get that music to where it's stage ready.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_01: That one's called Gold Wave, you said.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Gold Wave.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_01: Is that a paid program?
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_01: Or do they have a free trial or anything?
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know?
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_04: There is a free trial, and but mine was paid for and I don't even it's been so long since I mean I've been using it for like 12 years, 15 years.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_01: I will say I I'm similar to you.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_01: I started with but before I had a Mac and GarageBand, you know, comes with Macs.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_01: I had a HP computer and I was introduced to Wavepad, and WavePad is the one that I used for a long time.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_01: And even though it's actually less intuitive than Garage Band, I knew it better because I did it for longer.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then when I got a Mac, I was like, why GarageBand is so hard?
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_01: What is happening?
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really not, it's just slightly different.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, that's another one.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_01: So if you guys, if there's any non-Mac users out there, I thought WavePad, again, self-taught, know a teeny tiny bit about music theory, and I was able to figure out enough to be able to, you know, do the slice, the chop.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_01: I could put uh put a button on it, I can edit the pitch, you know, and and that's kind of it's not that's it, it's not that it's that it's all you need, but that is a very good start if you are looking to teach yourself something on, you know.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh WavePad does have a free version.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_01: It it's limited as to what it can do, but that's another resource out there, you know, that if you can figure it out for the basic level, I like I liked WavePad.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna chime in really quick and share how I do it.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_03: And then Morris can give the advanced uh technical real way of doing music edits.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right, because we're all over here self-taught, just trying to figure it out.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_03: Struggling.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_03: I will say that like for me, and I've already said that like I have to hear my music before I even start the choreography process.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_03: But when I was a new choreographer 15 years ago, breaking into the industry, I felt obligated to self-teach myself how to cut my music.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_03: It was there's not like I didn't take a course, I didn't, I just played around on GarageBand on my Mac, which, like Leslie said, is free on your Mac.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_03: It comes with their computer.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_03: So I just played around on it until I kind of started to get the hang of it.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_03: But I've gotten way better through the years, and now I feel really confident.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_03: Like there's not many songs that I can't cut properly.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_03: And something recently that I discovered, which I can't even remember how or why, pretty much what I'll do is I'll put the song in, I know where I want to cut it.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_03: I'll actually like close my eyes and like tap the rhythm of five, six, seven, eight hit one, and I'll stop it on the one and I splice it there.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_03: And then I go to where I want it and I go five, six, seven, eight hit one.
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_03: And then I chop out the middle, put the two together and line them up exactly right.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_03: And I that's how I used to like cut it before.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_03: But now I'll go into the volume and I'll pinpoint where the the splice happened, and then I'll extend it in either direction and then give it a little bit of a fade in and out on each end.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_03: So it's not the the fade doesn't overlap.
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like, oh well, I guess the fade does overlap, but like there's never a point where you hear the fade.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's just like it's overlapping.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_03: It overlaps, yeah, it overlaps, and then it's just like beautifully beautiful.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_03: And if I timed it out right, then that's my main goal is I have to hear that that beat, that downbeat consistent.
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_03: And if it worked, then it worked.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_03: And if it doesn't, and I can't figure it out and I have to keep tweaking and tweaking, whatever.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_03: But like it takes a little bit of time.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like I would say it probably takes about like 20, depending on how many cuts, 15 to 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes if it's complex to cut a song.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, you're spending a lot of time doing it, but like that's how I'm self-taught with my cutting.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if my method is what you do, Morris.
• 1:04:28
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure it's not, but that's my that's my version, right?
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_00: If I could wave my magic wand and give one audio, just one audio tip to all the choreographers who are doing this themselves out there.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is the first thing you do before editing a song is to determine the song's tempo and lock it into the tempo grid.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_00: If I said nothing else, if you had just what that one sentence on this show, and there's obviously a lot more to that fact, to sort of what that just that top view statement is, but that would solve 99% of the editing issues out there.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_00: That would that solve all of these miscounts, these weird counts.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_00: The the the instead of having a count of eight, you have a count of five and a quarter, which which I I you guys hear it.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_00: I s I see it when people send stuff to me for repair.
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yeah, the the the downbeats are not aligned.
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um it it's it's like I can understand because of phrasing and lyrics that it's sort of you wanted it to work that way, but it just does not.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_00: So so that so so if you first determine that tempo, and that's where and again, not to get too far into the weeds, but it prior to about the 2000s, most music was recorded freeform or to a metronome, or even the tape decks had a little bit of wobble, so you couldn't lock it into an exact tempo.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_00: But everything from about 2000 onwards, 95% or higher, it's on an exact, exact grid uh of beats per minute.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_00: And once you lock that into your software, you it's almost then hard to go wrong.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_03: Love it.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_03: Great tips.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_03: I love these tips.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_03: I can't wait to try this out.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm like, hmm, whose song can I edit?
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_04: I know.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_04: My my my brain is like turning.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_04: But don't we all do like a happy dance though when you do nail editing?
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_03: You're just like, you're like, can you hear it?
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_03: No one can hear it.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I get so excited.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's so true.
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's so true.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_03: The little victories that we have as like makeshift music editors over here.
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_03: We're just dance teachers, everybody, but now we're we're also music editors and costume designers and all the things.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_01: So many things.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, this has been again, we say it every time.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_01: We could talk for another hour about all of this, and we certainly will, I think, maybe next season or the season after, because there's so much more to cover.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_01: But but yeah, I loved this conversation and I cannot wait to hear Morris how many more, how much more business you get after this because you're gonna be so busy.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think so, for sure.
• 1:07:18
  unknown: Yeah.
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_00: I I am so excited again.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just I'm honored because I might be one of your only like really non-dancers to come onto your podcast.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_00: So uh so thank you.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm honored and thrilled to to be here and and hopefully some of these tips can help the thousands of choreographers and their students out there.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_03: I definitely think so.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I think the biggest takeaway that we all have learned from this week's episode is to edit your music, y'all.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_03: And you better edit it before that season comes around, and it's coming up quick.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_03: So make sure if you think that edit is is finessed enough right now, the one that you're using in rehearsal, check it again.
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_03: Double check it, triple check it, send it away to a music editor if you need it finessed and fixed.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_03: But we want to hear stage ready music at competition in the 2024 season.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_03: That is what I am crossing my fingers for.
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_03: So please feel free to share this with all of the teachers at your studio, whoever needs to hear it.
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_03: We want this to get to the masses so we don't hear those those jagged uh fade outs and rough cuts on the competition stage anymore.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_03: And shout out to our spectacular guests, Amy and Morris, for joining us on this episode.
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_03: We loved chatting with you, and I learned so much listening.
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_03: I hope our listeners have as well.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_03: And for our leado, we always have our guests end with one final thought on the topic.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_03: And you can talk to whoever you'd like out there: studio owners, teachers, parents, dancers themselves, choreographers, other music editors, whoever you want to speak to when it comes to music editing for the competition stage.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_04: So, my best advice is going to be invest in your music editing like you do every other aspect of your creative process.
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_04: Be thoughtful of your song choices, the length of time, for the dancer's age.
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_04: Make sure your edits don't sound like edits.
• 1:09:08
  SPEAKER_04: Don't be afraid to reach out to a professional or your network of teachers and fellow choreographers.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_04: The music is the beginning process part of this entire process, and it shouldn't be shortchanged.
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_04: It's not doing your dancers any service, and we want them to shine on the stage.
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I should I should have gone first because Amy, that's the perfect one to end on.
• 1:09:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now I feel bad.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_00: I gave you all my tempo alignment tip.
• 1:09:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and that's where on that tip I feel like if if choreographers could see how I approach editing and music, uh um, and and a select handful have seen how I do it, it blows their mind.
• 1:09:49
  SPEAKER_00: They they can't believe how much faster they could do it if they tempo aligned to the tempo grid that all software is.
• 1:09:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and one one quick tip what's the best audio editing software?
• 1:10:01
  SPEAKER_00: I I we get this question on audio engineering forms all the time.
• 1:10:06
  SPEAKER_00: The answer is the one you know.
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_00: The one you know.
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because the more the just yeah, just like any tool, technique, whatever, the the more you know it, the better you know it.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_00: You you're used to it, you understand how the workflow, etc.
• 1:10:20
  SPEAKER_00: So so the the one last tip I'll give you, uh and this goes back to one of your earlier questions, Leslie, of like what why do you as judges sometimes get blasted out on the stage with some great big giant thud, boom, click, whatever.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's usually because the choreographer, when they edit their music, they're doing it on their phone or their laptop, and they can't hear what's going on in the low end.
• 1:10:44
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't have a full-range stereo system where you can hear, because certainly the sit sound systems you're listening to it have have those giant speakers.
• 1:10:55
  SPEAKER_00: So so if you're if you yourself as a choreographer are not listening to it on a full-range sound system where you can hear the bass, then you then all kinds of mistakes, thumps, whatever, or it could be super bass light.
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_00: There could be I've I I've actually got that.
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody came to me saying, Hey, there's no bass in my song, what's going on?
• 1:11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's because they and and they'd rehearsed it all season, they get to the uh stage and suddenly there's no bass, and they didn't know it because they couldn't hear it.
• 1:11:24
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't have the capability to hear full range, the next best thing is a quality set of headphones.
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because most decent headphones that cost a hundred bucks or more, they have usually really good bass reproduction.
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_00: You'd be able to hear it that way.
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode, All About Music Editing.
• 1:11:46
  SPEAKER_03: Shout out to our special guests, Morris and Amy, for joining us.
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_03: Don't forget to follow them on Instagram.
• 1:11:51
  SPEAKER_03: You can find Amy at Maze Amy and Morris at Squirrel Trent Audio.
• 1:11:58
  SPEAKER_03: And if your studio is in need of a music editing service to cut your music or make you custom song mixes, then be sure to check out Morris's in-demand service, Squirrel Trent Audio.
• 1:12:09
  SPEAKER_03: Visit his website to view his catalog of over 1,300 clean and pre-cut song edits.
• 1:12:15
  SPEAKER_03: And receive a quote for your music editing requests by clicking the link in our show notes or visiting his website at squirrel trenchaudio.com.
• 1:12:24
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• 1:12:32
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• 1:12:38
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• 1:12:45
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• 1:12:55
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• 1:13:00
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• 1:13:03
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• 1:13:09
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• 1:13:15
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• 1:13:26
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• 1:13:33
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• 1:13:43
  SPEAKER_02: Season five of Making the Impact is on a roll, and we've got more great episodes coming your way.
• 1:13:48
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• 1:13:55
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• 1:13:57
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• 1:14:01
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• 1:14:02
  SPEAKER_03: Until then, keep dancing.