Wednesday, January 11, 2011
It’s the BIG question?... Do you create your music from your choreography, or your choreography from your music?
This is a hugely debated topic in the Cheer World. First and foremost, the best answer is to do what is most natural and right for your team or coach. Generally, experienced and high level teams or coaches have custom music built to fit their choreography. Thus, there is more flexibility in this process. Premade customers, perhaps choosing music first, do not have to worry about the process of creating 8-count sheets, which can be overwhelming.
Here are our thoughts regarding Choreo or Music first when creating your Cheer Routine:
Choreography First
- The main purpose of competitive cheer is to perform your skills.
- The music score is intended to support the performance, not the other way around.
- It involves more effort on customer and producer, but is truly custom.
Music First
- Building choreo from music gives an outline for coaches and cheerleaders to follow.
- Makes it easier for new coaches to build a complete routine.
- Limits choreographic creativity.
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 8:17AM
Monday, December 12, 2011
CheerSounds at AYC
Where was CheerSounds this weekend?? At Nationals for American Youth Cheer! We were psyched to see some of our Custom Mix teams!! Check out Howell Rebels who’s Voiceovers were turned into their team shirt!!
And Wall Knights who rocked out with us during Registration when they asked us to play their mix over the speakers!!
Congrats to all that competed!!
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 9:17PM
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
What Motivates Us!!!
What motivates CheerSounds to continually produce unique and awesome mixes? The love for our customers and teams!! We wouldn’t do what we do, if you didn’t love us too!
Check out the following chat exchange between one of our customer’s coaches and his kids in response to their CheerSounds Custom Mix for this season:
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 9:17PM
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Glow Bows from The Ultimate Bow
Check out one of our favorite cheer vendors: The Ulitmate Bow! Are you ready to GLOW!! Custom Glow- in- the- Dark Glow Bows just in time for Halloween! Make your competition spooky and fierce!
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 10:11PM
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Check out what CheerSounds is up to!!!
What has CheerSounds been up to? Making FANTASTIC Mixes of course! Want your team to be on top? Check us out and get started on making your custom mix TODAY! LIKE US if you’re excited about this season’s Cheer Music!
Check out a recent mix for Vegas Cheer Authority, one of this season's most fierce competitors!
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 7:25PM
Saturday, September 17, 2011
More about our Free Custom Mix Winner!
Cami Skaggs, our September Custom Mix Winner, is the Gifted and Talented Coordinator and Perryton High School Cheer Sponsor for Perryton Independent School District in Perryton, Texas. She originally became involved in cheerleading at a very young age and have been involved with it in some way pretty much throughout her life- either through participating, being a parent of a cheerleader, or currently sponsoring the Perryton High School squad.
She coaches a combined squad of 13 girls. Seven are considered junior varsity (Freshmen and Sophomores) and six are my varsity cheerleaders (Juniors and Seniors). They cheer for all varsity home football and basketball games, as well as perform in weekly football pep rallies.
This year, Coach Skaggs’ team is excited about bringing back some old traditions and mixing in some new ideas. They are an energetic group, full of talent and smiles, and have had a wonderful start to this season so far!
Good Luck this season to Coach Scaggs and her Perryton High Cheer Squad! Interested in winning big with CheerSounds? Join our mailing list at CheerSounds.com!
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 9:23AM
Monday, September 5, 2011
CONGRATULATIONS Cami Skaggs! Our September Free Custom Mix Winner!
Cami is the coach of the Perryton High School Cheerleaders. Cami was chosen at random from our CheerSounds Mailing List. Interested in receiving special deals and updates?... Sign up on our homepage and be a part of our Mailing List. We can't wait to share more about Cami and her Perryton High Team!
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 8:31PM
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
CheerSounds Q&A Article In The Cheer Leader Magazine
A few months ago, The Cheer Leader Magazine asked us a few questions about cheer mixes. They put together a 3-question Q&A and some awesome exposure in their latest issue! Here are the pages, and make sure to subscribe to their mag at http://www.thecheerleadermagazine.com
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 11:30PM
Sunday, July 25, 2011
WSA Coach's Conference
This past weekend, we attended WSA's first Coach's Conference in New Orleans. It was a heck of a drive from Melbourne, FL - about 11 hours each way - but it was worth it. We are really excited to be part of WSA and have the opportunity to provide cheer music for its teams. We gave away a whole bunch of discounts/upgrades towards our mixes, and one free custom mix was won on our prize wheel! The two-day conference allowed us to meet plenty of coaches, and even sit down with a few and talk about their mix, from song selections, to style and voiceovers. We brought plenty of sample mixes along with us to share with everyone and keep the conference rockin'!!
We also received a compliment from the guy who runs the soundboard at the WSA competitions, Ryan. He said with a chuckle, "I like your mixes, your levels are great. I don't have to ride the fader throughout the mix, and it's not overwhelming with bass or burning my ears off like the other guys. Good job man, thumbs up". Awesome, thanks Ryan!
We're looking forward to attending more of WSA's conferences and competitions! Thanks again to everyone who stopped by our booth to come and see us!
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 5:40PM
Tuesday, July 20, 2011
Prize Wheel
We are preparing for the WSA Coach's Conference, and have decided that it would be awesome to give every team a chance to win a custom mix for free! We created a Prize Wheel with all sorts of give-aways such as Unlimited Edits, $50 off, Premium Voiceover Upgrade, Free Custom Mix and many more! Each coach that comes by the booth gets to spin the wheel and win one of these prizes. We are looking forward to the conference and the opportunity to work with you!
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 11:26AM
Sunday, July 18, 2011
Where is CheerSounds Located?
Many customers ask where CheerSounds is located. We actually have two locations!
CheerSounds started in Boston, MA and eventually grew out of the New England area. Steve now operates out of New Hampshire, and Carmine operates out of Florida.
Our main location is in Melbourne, Florida. This location includes a business office and a studio equipped with a voiceover/solo booth, drum booth and piano studio.
The Melbourne studio build started in May 2010 and took six months to complete. In order to make our remixes the way we want, we needed a complete studio with isolation booths to properly track record all instruments and voiceovers. This helps us give our cheer mixes even more of an edge.
The New Hampshire build was originally set to be the main location, and was started in 2006. However, the project went on hold for several years and was resumed and completed in 2011. It is now an all-in-one cheer music production factory, where some of the world's best All Star mixes come from!
Everyone loves pictures, so here are a few of the two locations.
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 1:50AM
Saturday, July 17, 2011
Do I Have to Fill Out an 8-Count Sheet?
The season is definitely here, no question about it! We have been receiving this question quite a bit lately, so I wanted to address it. The short answer is "no", but there are really two schools of thought on the subject: music from choreography, or choreography from music.
You don't have to provide 8-count sheets for your custom cheer mix, but that is somewhat contradictory. For example, if you asked someone to remodel your kitchen, would you tell them what you wanted or would you prefer they guess? It only makes sense that you tell them you want espresso cabinets with artic white granite counter tops and stainless faucets. nice.
8-counts may feel tedious or overwhelming, but they really aren't a punishment. They are to ensure your mix matches your choreography as best it can! With complete 8-counts, we can make every song, beat, voiceover and sound effect start, end, studder and switch precisely where it emphasizes your cheer routine. We enjoy making a full custom mix that is orchestrated for your team! Without 8-count sheets and details, we really can't do this.
On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with ordering music before you have finished your choreography. Many teams prefer to purchase music first and then build their routine to the music. The only information we request from you to do this properly is song selections and a routine layout. A layout can be as simple as "2-opening, 4-stunts, 1-transition, 5-pyramid...." and so on. Each section in cheer music has a certain style to it, and we want to make sure that we know each section of music corresponds with the appropriate section of your routine. We can then fill in all of the music blanks. After your choreography is finished, you can tell us where to place the sound effects and voiceovers!
So get together those song selections, and a complete 8-count sheet or a routine layout, and lets make some music!
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 9:26AM
Saturday, June 25, 2011
The Season is Starting!
It's pretty clear that the cheer season is starting, with postings about tryouts and chatter on facebook about everyone's mixes and styles everywhere! Discounts were mailed out to everyone on our mailing list as well as last year's clients. We have also extended offers to many gym owners that we had the opportunity of meeting at Nationals and Worlds!
Something new we have begun doing is asking users questions on facebook, such as their favorite cheer celebs, their favorite tumbling song, their opinion on music styles, etc. We are LOVING the feedback and conversations this generates!
We are beyond excited for this upcoming season. We have spent much of the off-season coming up with new beats, mashups, remixes and ideas that we can't wait to incorporate into our customer's routines. We have also "officially" started working off of videos of your choreography to make sure our mixes line up perfectly with your routine! Contact us for the "click track" to get stared with that!
CheerSounds is also excited to be working with several other cheer companies, such as The Cheer Leader Magazine, INEWear, Cheer For A Cause and Cheer1FM.
If you are interested in becoming affiliated with CheerSounds, feel free to contact us at info@cheersounds.com.
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 3:36PM
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
CheerSounds Is Hiring!
There are many operations aside from music that keep CheerSounds running. As we continue to grow, we have not had as much time to handle non-music-related tasks. As a result, we have added two customer service staff to ensure that our customers receive the best experiece possible!
We are currently looking for one to two more people to assist with Sales, Marketing and Promotion. This off-site position would mainly involve social network marketing, mail marketing, networking and occasional event appearances. A degree in Marketing is preferred; being a cheerleader is a plus!
If you are interested, please contact us at info@cheersounds.com or call at (321) 549-2704. We look forward to hearing from many of you!
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 1:05PM
Thursday, March 17, 2011
CheerSounds Express Launched!
Hey All,
CheerSounds has launched CheerSounds Express! As you may know, this is our online store where you can preview, search, browse and instantly download mixes! Premade mixes are a great solution high school, middle school and youth cheerleading and dance teams, as well as individual routines. CheerSounds Express also offers music for college and all stars teams, and every mix is less than $100!
Check it out at http://www.CheerSounds.com/store/
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 8:25PM
Friday, February 25, 2011
Premade Mixes Almost Here!
We're only a few days away from the launch of CheerSounds Express, the online store that offers premade cheer and dance mixes. During the development of this, I tried to keep in mind all of the inquiries we have we received for premade music over the last few years. We started our music business by making custom cheer mixes, and would ocassionally receive an inquiry about premade mixes, or downloadable mixes. Over the years, I noticed we were receiving more and more of these questions. I started asking questions in response: What would you like to see? What categories of music? What type of team? What skill level? What price?
With this data, we have built an online store that has mixes categorized by duration, but we have also built a search feature. The search will allow you to simply type an artist, or a song that you like, and all mixes featuring that artist or containing that song will appear. You can also sample all mixes in full quality, and download purchased mixes instantly.
When I would ask customers about what they would like to see in the premade music store, many of them mentioned the option to add voiceovers. What a great idea - a way to customize premade mixes. Therefore, CheerSounds Express offers a voiceover package for each mix.
Since we are building a premade cheer music store, I have to look at competitors as well. There is one trend I noticed among all other premade music sites: They all use 2 or 3 songs in a full-length premade mix. I guess their thought process is "I'm not selling this for much, so I won't do much". That's stupid. All of our premade mixes are made in the same style as our custom mixes. This is probably why most of our beta tester customers could not tell the difference between our premade mix and our custom mix!
Although prices are not set in stone yet, the mix prices will range from $50 - $100 based on duration and production time. Additional voiceover packages will be between $25 and $55, depending on the number of voiceovers/cheers/raps and effects. Discount codes will also be available to existing customers, and anyone enrolled in the mailing list (you can join on the cheersounds home page). The store will launch with about 25 - 30 mixes on it, but we will continue to add mixes throughout the summer in preparation for next season.
We are very excited to finally offer this service and we look forward to providing mixes for more teams each season!
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 6:54AM
Friday, February 18, 2011
Valentine's Day Raffle Winner!
Late announcement! CheerSounds recently attended the Queen of Hearts competition here in FL, and we had a Valentine's Day raffle for a free mix! The winner of the raffle is Coach Christina from Wellington Cheer and Dance! Congrats, Cougars, you just won yourselves a free custom mix!
For a chance to enter into one of our raffles, stop by our booth at competition, or enter into our online drawing on the homepage!
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 10:47 PM
Tuesday, February 2, 2011
A Beginner's Guide to 8-Count Sheets
Hey again!
One of the frequent questions Steve and I get is "how do I use the 8-count sheet? I've never done this before." At first, they may seem daunting - all that whitespace, so many boxes, grey'd-out-areas, ahh!!
They really aren't bad at all - in fact, they are great! They help us make the best mix possible for you, and you can use them to help plan out your choreography!
The article covers:
- Explanation of the sheet
- What to include
- What to exclude
- Examples
Click here to read the full article, A Beginner's Guide to 8-Count Sheets.
Posted by Carmine at 10:58 PM
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Hey, the website looks different!
Hey all! For the new year, it seemed appropriate to update the website a little bit. The most exciting part of the new site is the Premade Mix store, which is to be released March 1st. Of course, we will continue making custom mixes as we always have.
We are really looking forwads to the upcoming competitions and the 2011-2012 season, which is right around the corner!!
Posted by CheerSounds Team at 3:58 PM
