A Day In The Life Of The Production Department

The Production Department at The Music Factory Entertainment Group serves not only Mastermix, but also all the other divisions within the company: Tidy Trax, Pure Energy, Jive Bunny, Kids Stuff And Things and Music Factory Special Products.

We have 4 fully functioning studios, one with a vocal booth, a mastering suite and a QC (Quality Control) suite.

This blog is designed to give the reader a quick glimpse behind the scenes of this busy department and get an idea of what goes on within the Music Factory…

Wednesday 14^th July 2010

9am. After the first coffee of the morning, the Producers make their way into their respective studios to pick up on their ongoing projects. This week Jon Hitchen and Danny Holland are both working on Pure Energy releases for Mastermix’s sister company. As well as being mixed in time and in key, the 60 minute mixes have to be edited into 32 count phrases and in most cases have a rising BPM, known in the industry as the Aerobic Curve, read more about that here.

10.00am. One of our Session Singers, Lauren, pops in to record the vocals for Chipmunk’s ‘Oopsy Daisy’ and to personalise a few ‘Happy Birthday’ and ‘Lullaby’ songs which are ordered through our website www.kidsstuffandthings.com Producer Nick Wild takes the session; Nick’s been with the Music Factory for a couple of years now, having first joined us on Work Experience from school! On Thursday afternoon MC T Dogg will be joining us to record the rap vocals of ‘Oopsy Daisy’, as well as the rap part of ‘N-N-N-Nothing On You’ (which I’ve been singing to myself all day today…)

10.30am. Senior Producer Richard Wood has been mixing down a batch of cover versions that we’re currently creating; we’ve submitted 10 tracks to an international gaming company for use on the latest edition of a popular Wii game – more details about this to follow in a later blog! The company have accepted 3 of the tracks already, Richard’s just waiting to hear the verdict on the remaining tracks… fingers crossed! In the meantime, Rich is completing an upload to mobile ringtone company Index Multimedia who take looped edits of all our cover versions for sale worldwide.

1.15pm. Chaos descends on the Production office as Bassline DJ Shaun ‘Banger’ Scott and his sidekick Snaggle arrive to update the content on their website www.mastermixbassline.com This is a spin off from the main Mastermix Digital site, supplying the DJ market with Bassline, 4×4, and Old Skool classics. Shaun and Danny Holland have formed the production partnership ‘SBS Goes Dutch’ and are producing a range of mash ups for the Bassline VIP Lounge. Snaggle is in charge of updating the Bassline Facebook Page and YouTube Channel which both have massive followings even though the site is still quite new.

2.00pm. Mastermix Label Manager Richard Lee pops into the Production office to discuss ideas for the next Mastermix release, Issue 291. These chats generally revolve around a lot of scribbling on the office whiteboards which can be changed and updated as the month progresses – the Issue is always a combination of retro and upfront mixes, the latter being left until the final few days to ensure we have the most recent tracks on there. Issue 290 has just gone to press, so ideas are starting to flow for 291. Rich and I (Helen) will decide between us who will do which mixes; which will go out to freelance Producers and which will be kept in house. It’s my job to distribute the work evenly and make sure we hit deadlines, and Rich’s to decide which Producer will do which mix justice. Not forgetting that the Producers themselves tend to have a say in what they want to get their teeth into, and both internal and external Producers are always contributing their own ideas – each Issue is a total team effort!

3.00pm. I’m informed by Sam Townend, Tidy’s Label Manager, that the content for his next release, Tidy Music Library 24, will arrive with us on Friday for mastering. I acknowledge this with a smile – I have never known the Tidy Producers to deliver a mix on time yet! (…these creative types!)

3.30pm. Is it really that time already? Production Assistant Ryan Bailey and I need to start preparing this week’s upload to our digital sites. A company in Holland delivers the audio and video content for all our platforms, and we upload it on a Thursday, ready for them to ‘ingest’ it (their terminology, not ours!) on a Friday, in time for the next week’s sales. This week we’re sending Pure Energy’s July releases, Mastermix Issue 290, Grandmaster Mashed Up 3 and some new lullabies and kids songs. It’s a meticulous process making sure the right content goes to the right site!

5.20pm. Peace descends on the Production office… Every Wednesday night all the lads play 5-A-Side football so I get a bit of peace and quiet to finish the day off! I check on our Facebook pages, add a few updates, and inform Marketing of what content will be appearing on the sites next week. July’s Mastermix Xclusive content has now gone live, and Marketing need to know this in order to pass the message on to you guys! I might just pop upstairs for a chat with the girls before we head off home – after a full day being surrounded by the boys, I’m in need of some female company!

Helen x