While we all love the creative side of our work, a recurring thought on the mind of an independent audio engineer is money and how to make more of it. The simplest way to up your game is to work faster by quickening your setup and turnaround times between songs and sessions. Another way is to watermark your work with metadata so you can prove your participation in a project as it travels toward the consumer. It all comes down to documentation and by using two simple, and free plug-ins – namely Soundways' RIN-M and Snapshot, you can quickly recall your signal flow for future use and lay a trail of breadcrumbs back to you as the work progresses.
RIN-M Plug-in
RIN is the acronym for Recording Information Notification – a standard created by DDEX for documenting recording session and music project info as metadata for use along the audio production supply chain. The RIN-M plug-in offers scalable documentation of project participants including musicians, the engineer and studio, songwriter, publisher, record company, management, plus ISNI, ISRC, and ISWC codes, and more. RIN-M stores your participant data on your system meaning the more you use it, the easier it becomes to populate data into future sessions.
Snapshot Plug-in
Created by Pro Tools Expert's own Russ Hughes in collaboration with Non-Lethal Applications, Snapshot is a simple yet powerful tool allows you to store photographs of session hardware inside a plug-in instanced on a track. Once all the pictures are loaded into a single song, you can quickly bring them into other sessions in a project by using Pro Tools' Import Session Data dialog.
By using these free tools, you're building speed into your workflow and giving yourself and others the ability to track your work as it travels downstream to the consumer.
Watch this free video tutorial to see all these tools and tips in action.