Episode 27: RJB Music Production

Introducing RJB Music Production: A New Era in Music Collaboration

In this episode of the Face Your Ears podcast, hosts Rich and Justin celebrate surpassing 1,000 downloads and welcome their special guest, Burak Yildirmaz, a seasoned composer and mixing engineer. 

Together, they announce their new venture, RJB Music Production, and discuss the journey that brought them together. The team outlines their roles: Rich coaches and arranges vocals, Justin handles production and arrangements, and Burak focuses on mixing and mastering. 

They share insights into the collaborative process and their passion for helping clients realize their musical visions; aiming to transform simple ideas into polished, professional songs. 

Listeners are invited to explore more about RJB Music Production and the services they offer by going to www.rjbmusicproduction.com

00:00 Welcome

00:32 Celebrating 1000 Downloads

01:04 Special Guest: Burak Yildirmaz

01:24 Burak's Journey in Music

04:01 Announcing RJB Music Production

04:24 How It All Started

13:11 Rich's Role in RJB Music Production

15:19 Justin's Role in RJB Music Production

18:42 Barak's Mixing and Mastering Process

22:32 Why Work with RJB Music Production?

25:45 Conclusion and Farewell

For Production Services, Coaching and Lessons, visit:

www.rjbmusicproduction.com

For help prepping your songs/voice for the studio:

www.bozicvoicestudio.com

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Transcript

Rich 0:11

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Face Your Ears podcast. I'm joined here with my good friend, Justin Hoschela. How's it going, buddy?

Justin 0:21

hello, rich, it is going well in my beautifully renovated manmade random studios. Thank you again for your services.

Rich 0:29

No problem. Yeah, it does look great.

Justin 0:32

So we have currently over 1000 downloads of this podcast. So I'm really excited to announce that. And I just want to say thanks to everyone for making that happen. It's a very exciting milestone for us.

Rich 0:46

thank you everyone for joining us on this journey. We've come a long way and we have a long way to go. And we're so glad to be able to do this.

Justin 0:55

that is a very exciting announcement indeed. Are there any other exciting announcements that you'd like to share?

Rich 1:04

we do have a special announcement today. We have a special guest joining us Our good buddy and Partner in musical mischief, Barak Yildirmaz all the way from Alta Norway, Barak Yildirmaz is a composer and mixing 25 years of experience. He began honing his studio craft in his early twenties. From an early age, he demonstrated a passion for sound and recording technologies, leading him to seek answers to satisfying his curiosity and increase his knowledge. Music also played an important part in his journey, as he was a self taught keyboard player in his early years. His skill for composing and recording Was added throughout his career as a recording engineer as he helped mold songs from raw ideas into finished pieces. Combining his strong background in computer technologies with a passion for music production gives Barack a unique edge. His ability to connect these two areas means he can contribute creatively to songs while ensuring that the mathematical and sound wave components that make a song polished and done are in place. In 2009, Barack joined the live sound scene, working with various local venues and bands, with a passion for keeping up With the latest trends, Barack draws on his extensive experience in live sound design and performance to inform how to bring a song to life in the best balanced way. he has a natural curiosity for the physics of sound which brings an unmistakable perfection to his final mixes and masters. Barack has an eye for detail and steadfast perseverance. which will get your song over the finish line with a modern, professional sound. After spending 21 years in the US, he now lives with his wife in Norway above the Arctic Circle, where he continues to provide audio and video technology consultation, mixing, mastering, live sound services, and remote mixing for YouTube live streams. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you Burak Yildirmaz.

Burak 3:30

Hello,

Justin 3:33

Hello, Barack. Welcome to the podcast. We're glad you're here.

Burak 3:36

I'm glad to be here today.

Rich 3:38

It's quite a nice bio there. I really like all of that broad range of experience from live sound to recorded sound. I remember Burak when he was a young whippersnapper here back in New Jersey, starting up his live audio production company., those were good times, weren't they,

Burak 3:56

Oh yeah, also scary times for myself.

Rich 3:59

it's great to have you here today. The reason Barack is joining us is because the three of us have a special announcement to share.

Justin 4:08

That's right, rich myself and Barack have officially established our music production venture, which we are calling our JB music production.

Burak 4:19

going

Rich 4:20

about how all this came together, how we met. How we started working together, etc.

Justin 4:24

I guess I'll start from the very early days. So rich, you and I met it. Through our now wives, then girlfriends at the time. So Rich and I met a little over 20 years ago. My wife was going to university of Michigan for graduate school, for voice Rich's girlfriend at the time, Katie was also in the same program as my wife and they became fast friends in their program in grad school. And Rich would come up to visit. Katie in Ann Arbor and I did the same. And so that's how rich and I initially met. And this is like what, 2003, four, no earlier, 2001 or two, I think. Back in the, the days of the game cube, which we connected over in those early days. yeah, we met through them and we actually met in Michigan funny enough and so that's how you and I met and then funny enough our main connection in early days was gaming and then you know, Music became the next big frontier that connected us and through that process, we delved more and more into music and introducing each other to different aspects of music, different genres and so forth. So rich introduced me to Metal and that whole world and I introduced him to more of the electronic synthesizer based music and through many a conversation, we eventually. Came up with the idea of doing this podcast. And from there I started to work with some of Rich's clients, some of his students in his studio that were songwriters. And I began to produce some of his students work. And so that's kind of how I showed up into the picture. That's sort of my Quick story of how we came to this place of establishing our JP music production. I'll turn it over to you, Barack, to sort of integrate how you, came into RGV music production

Burak 6:27

think we go back all the way 20 years or so. I used to live in Highland Park with two roommates

Rich 6:33

That's right.

Burak 6:34

and Rich and his girlfriend at the time, now his wife, they decided to move in New Jersey and they didn't know many people, but one of my Rich's cousin, cousin, yeah, they were

Rich 6:49

Or cousin. Yes.

Burak 6:50

And there was a, I will say, interesting coincidence happens. They moved in, they drove their truck with all their stuff from Baltimore, I believe, in Highland Park,

Rich 7:02

Mm

Burak 7:02

and obviously they need help to carry everything. It was a Saturday or Sunday, and it happens that I was available to help. I don't want to get into too much details. But that help ended up opening a friendship that we have. Still lasts today,

Rich 7:19

Yes.

Burak 7:20

once we figure out that we are both in the music that's made us more connected over the years.

Rich 7:26

it's like one of those things wherever I go I seem to always find the person who's the Into recording or as a player I remember meeting Barack and then I think within like probably the first, like hour of talking to him. We started chatting about music, And then it just took off from there. And I gotta say Barack I think understates it, his influence on my world as a musician if you were to come to my studio and take a look at everything I have basically it was under the consultation of Barack. He advised me on everything from my keyboard, all the way to my recording setup and help me get it up and running. And I thank you for that I have to say he did this years ago, he introduced me to these things. When I lived in a, in another place, he introduced me to this world and tried to coax me in that direction. But I was just so overwhelmed by the prospect. I kind of shied away from it, but now I'm in and look at us, look at what we're doing now.

Justin 8:25

It's amazing to see your, technical journey over the years. Rich. I remember when I first met you, you were still using a PC and um, battling that

Rich 8:35

Different demons.

Justin 8:36

different demons. Yes, exactly. Your studio now is phenomenal. It's outfitted with a lot of fantastic equipment, thanks to Barack's consultation and advice. And it's just been awesome to see you. Grow in that regard to mastering that equipment in recording and producing your artists that you're recording and everything. So it's awesome.

Rich 8:56

I thank both of you because I know Justin you've helped me many a times at that midnight hour when something has gone awry to bring things back to the path. The, thing I want to ask Barack is so how is the music scene up there in Norway? Can you tell us just briefly what are you up to

Burak 9:15

Since I live in a small town, the population is a little bit over 21, 000 people. There isn't really so much going on in terms of live sound. Once in a while, I got called to mix a children choir or some other type of music event in the cathedral over here, and that's about it. It is not as busy as New York, of course, or New Jersey. So majority of my work goes remotely or mixing and mastering other clients.

Rich 9:44

And that's how we got Barack on board actually. Cause Justin and I had initially started working together, as he mentioned with some of my clients on getting their songs produced. And I remember as we were working through things Thinking, man wouldn't it be great to have someone who could do the mixing and mastering who could really specialize in that area so that it could free Justin up to focus more on production. And the first person that came to my mind was Barack.

Justin 10:12

for me it was challenging because as a producer working on the song, I've already heard it hundreds of times at that point. And so, I don't have the objective years to mix it properly and master it. It's very difficult to do all of those things. It's not impossible, but it's not recommended to produce the track, mix the track, master it at least without some time. Between to sort of let your ears and your mind reset before you go into it with a more critical lens, if you will. So I was so thrilled. It's brought up Barack because I'm like, yes, it's the aspect of the overall production of a song that I don't necessarily Thrive in or enjoy as much. I seem to gravitate more to that production space where it's coming up with the different parts and the arrangement I was always so impressed with Barack's critical ear and how well he's able to bring the mix together and that final mastering of the track. And so it was just a perfect compliment to have somebody. Focus on that area someone who's not only really good at it, but also that really enjoys it too. I was thrilled when Barack came into the picture,

Rich 11:33

Absolutely. Yeah. All those years of live and studio experience have come to a head and are being utilized now in RJB music production.

Justin 11:45

Brock, do you find that to be true? If you're producing something to have to like, immediately go into mixing it. I've found that to be challenging

Burak 11:52

that goes for all sorts of multimedia, like audio, video when you deal with something for so long. You become immune, so you lose your sense how good or how bad it is. So another angle of view or listening is very important, sort of fresh air or fresh eye. So this trio that we formed, I think it makes so much sense for clients too.

Justin 12:15

Yeah. Everybody's able to kind of come from an objective standpoint. When they're focused on their particular area of the production, be it the recording, the vocal arrangement, the actual production of the song, and then the mixing and mastering.

Rich 12:29

That's a great segue. What is RJB Music Production? What do we do exactly? Barack? Can you enlighten us?

Burak 12:38

vocal recording, instrument recording, song production, mixing, mastering, audio and recording, technologies related, technical support, production training, More audio editing. This is one big pool of things that are interconnected to each other and each ability fulfilled nicely.

Rich 12:59

it's a Symbiotic relationship, We all have different specialties and we all are able to feed off of each other and help each other out.

Justin 13:11

Rich, can you talk about your specific role within RGB music production and what you focus on and what you do for our clients?

Rich 13:18

I basically start at the training aspect where I get the singers up to par for recording. I also help them acknowledge that they have a vision and then. Bring that vision to a place of where it's ready to be worked on. And that might mean getting the composition finished to a rough form to be fleshed out by Justin or to Flesh out specific aspects of the composition to get it to that place. But basically I helped them get the song to the place of where it's ready to be produced. And then once the song is produced, I am the guy who will coach the singer to get their voice up to par, to reach the optimal delivery. Of the vocals for the track and then help them record the song and do the vocal arranging, adding back of vocals, things like that.

Justin 14:16

Yeah, I think one of my favorite aspects of what you do, Rich is the vocal arrangement. and creating different parts. I think that really elevates the song. you do a great job of polishing the voice with that client, getting them up to speed to perform at their best. And I think what just takes the overall production to that, professional level is the arrangement part of the, harmonies and the different improvs and all of those details that really lend to that. polished sound and making it sound like a professional song which it absolutely is with your fingerprints on it. So I love that.

Rich 14:56

Thank you. Aside from the RJB Music Production website, if you want more information about What I do. And you want that kind of consultation with regard to singing and polishing up your vocals and finishing up your song, you could find me at Bozic voice studio. com, that leads me to you, Justin. what do you do in this mix here? Can you talk about your role?

Justin 15:23

I play a few different roles within RGB music production. So chief among them is music producer. Arranger. And then I also do training and a little bit of technical support. so what that looks like with our clients is I'll do a pre production planning meeting with a potential client. And that's where I sit down to really collaborate with the client. planning the overall process, including them selecting reference tracks that allow me to sort of understand the sound they're looking for. Just gives me a general ballpark, if you will, approximation of what they want their song to sound like certain drum sounds, certain bass sounds arrangements and so forth. And that also allows us to talk about their vision for the song what they envision it sounding like, or feeling like that sort of thing, helping me understand their perspective. And then on a more practical level, just talking about the production timeline, I think it's one of the most important things to discuss because Something like this is very creative. It's very subjective. And so if you let it, it could go on forever. However, we don't have forever to work on it. So one of the things I do up front is explain the timeline and the due dates and how we'll work together and how we'll collaborate. And one of the unique things that we do as a team is we work together. Remotely. So I am in Michigan, Rich, you're in New Jersey, Brock's all the way in Norway. And so through the power of today's technology, we're very easily able to connect with our clients and work with them remotely. once I get all of that preliminary information from the client, it's then time for me to move into creating a demo, seeing if I'm in the ballpark, so to speak and get input and feedback from the client. So that's where I'm working on the arrangement and the composition of their track. Just making sure the instrumentation is correct. Do they want it to sound more like a rock song? So should I use more of a traditional drum kit or do they want it to be more of like an upbeat dance kind of song? So should I use more electronic drums, that kind of stuff. And so I'm just dialing in all those different sounds to their liking. And then. Just ensuring that it's got that distinctive sort of sonic signature. I like to call it that they're looking for. my mindset, every time I'm working with a client is I am there to serve.

Burak 17:57

Erin

Justin 17:57

It's not about necessarily what I think sounds good and what I like. Although I use my experience and knowledge to help get them to where they want to go. So it's really me serving their vision and in their desires for their song. So that's what I do with the client. And then once I get it to a place where they're really satisfied with their, instrumental music bed for their song. They can take that and then work with you rich for recording those vocals and getting that. So it's all lined up with the instrumental of the track. And then once all those recordings are in place, that's where we send everything over to Barack for mixing. and mastering. at this point, it makes sense for us to talk about your role, Barack. So once I've finished my production, which is recorded all of the vocal parts tell us about your process and what that looks like

Burak 18:53

so Justin and Rich, they are two phases where everything starts and I am the last phase to complete the. Production. The Talent and Justin, they get together to create a vision, a sound that they are looking after. And after Justin's arrangements, And the vocal recording, the talent comes to me and maybe sometimes they pinpoint a specific sound or vocal type they want to sound like. And I start working on the goal of the polishing the song. What does it mean? Polishing a song means that you are able to hear everything in a good balance, in a good dynamic range. And a pleasing way according to the talent, of course if it is a rock song, it has to sound like a rock song. If it is a disco, it has to be sounding like a disco song. once I do the first revision, I sent the mp3 file to the talent to get his or her opinion. And this is very first step in my face. And after that step, actually, the talent is in charge to guide me. I will do whatever he or she asks, in terms of directing and bending the sound, the audio, the way he or she likes. And that's called mixing and mastering.

Rich 20:17

So can you differentiate for those who might not know what, how does mastering differ from

Burak 20:24

mixing is basically balancing every single element of the music within the, also if you have a dynamic moments in the song, such as sometimes the beginning of the song, maybe you want drums louder, but in the middle section you want softer. So this is a dynamic process you have to adjust on the go. So overall you adjust everything, you EQ, you pan. And then you come up with the mix itself. Once it is done, the next process is called mastering. mastering is the last step where, when you publish the song to the online platforms, it should be easily, Compete in terms of quality. When you do a mix itself, it's not enough. So mastering is another layer, overall layer that will adjust overall equalizer settings, maybe some other dynamics. So that you make it even clearer intelligibility increase and the loudness, when I say loudness, which is very important because it is a very hot topic, no matter which year you live in. It was a hot topic in back in 80s, 90s, 2000. You have a limit, you can, you don't have an unlimited amount of volume you can offer the song. So you are. Limit it with that limit so that you need to adjust everything carefully.

Justin 21:54

think about like perceived loudness,

Burak 21:56

Perceived, yes,

Justin 21:58

I think is a good way to put it because you're right. There's a there's only so far you can go without it getting into distortion and and sounding bad. And so, um, In today's world, it's more about this perceived loudness where it's almost like a psychoacoustic phenomenon going on with mastering, where the listener hears it or perceives it as being really loud. and so that's a very hot topic guest in today's music world as you release music to Spotify, Apple music, YouTube, et cetera.

Rich 22:29

That's a great encapsulation.

Justin 22:32

So guys, I wanted to ask you, what do you like most about working with clients? on top of that, like what, Can clients expect when they work with us? and why they should work with us.

Rich 22:42

If I may start. What I like about working with a client is being able to help them bring. An idea, that they had that might've just been something that was like very simple chord progression and maybe a little melody they thought of. to be like, Hey, this can be a song, let's work on it a bit and finish it up. And then It to a point of where we could flesh this thing out. my favorite part of it. I mean, In particular, there's a client that Justin and I all of us have worked together with he had songs under his belt from when he was in his, I do believe like twenties. I think now he's a lot older now. I would venture in a sixties now. He had those songs sitting dormant. On a four track recorder for years, and it was great to be able to dig into that and bring it to life with modern technology.

Justin 23:37

Yeah, that, that was a lot of fun to work on. it makes me think about what I really enjoy about working with clients. I think one of the things that I love is the element of surprise and delight. I'll come up with something that I might feel is like risky I'm not sure if they're going to like this, but I'm going to try it. And then I show it to the client and they're completely blown away and they love it. I think that for me is the joy of this work is collaborating with someone, getting their input, their ideas, and bringing that to life in a way that goes above and beyond. Their expectations, and that's my goal is to make somebody overjoyed with what they're hearing, go beyond what they initially thought about or conceived. And I think that's one of the reasons I would say to clients why you should work with me is because that is something I bring to the table every single time. I'm always endeavoring to create something that they really love. I enjoy the process of collaborating and being creative. That's something I absolutely love doing. And sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes the client's like, no, it's not really what I was going for. It's not really what I wanted, and that's okay. That's part of the process. That's not why I'm here. I'm not here for my ego. I'm not here to feel good about myself. I'm here for the client. I'm here to serve the client, and that's what I love about it is meeting really cool people who have a great song. And to your point, Rich, taking it from a very simple sort of song structure, chord progression, that sort of thing and growing that into something huge and massive that they really love. that for me is what I love about it. How about you, Barack?

Burak 25:25

For me, I feel lucky to hear that song first time after like maybe two or three other people. So that's something exciting for me. when I get to work on those songs, I bring some sort of creativity and in a way I shape it. For me, that is exciting.

Rich 25:44

excellent. This was great It was great hanging out with you guys. It's great to unveil RJB Music Production to the world. Check us out at rjbmusicproduction. com today we talked about RJB Music Production and what clients will get out of the process and then we Went into a little bit of detail about what each of us brings to the table and what we enjoy about the process, but definitely check us out on rjbmusicproduction. com We'll leave that in the show description I want to thank justin and brock, especially brock a brand new guest on the podcast

Justin 26:22

Yes. Thank you.

Rich 26:23

Hopefully you'll come back and we'll be able to talk to you in other capacities about sound and mixing.

Justin 26:30

Thanks so much everyone for listening. We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll be back with another one soon. Bye for now.