Carl guitar session – One Day
March 31st, 2011 § 2 Comments
Tracking guitars for Katherine Penfold‘s upcoming single, One Day. I like guitar overdubs, there’s usually a lot of room for experimentation, and I think it’s because I’m a keyboard player that I find it so fascinating. It’s not as static an instrument, or as precise, or as in-tune, haha. There’s a million guitars, amps, picks, pedals…….. ahem… cables. You name it. I’m not a guitar guy, but I’m sure Carl can elaborate regarding the session setup for us. We had Laura Gow assisting, and I’m determined to show her everything I know regarding music production (actually I don’t know much about anything else..).
You may not be aware, but the tortoise has had a bit of a rough ride throughout the last few hundred years. According to one of my favorite shows, QI, it didn’t even get a proper Latin name because they were, well, so delicious. And now Carl’s using picks made from the shell. Alas.
But this tune’s coming along, time to mix soon…
Greg Sczebel Juno Win!
March 31st, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Juno win!
Anywho, Greg’s album sounds great, he got a lot of people involved in the project, and it got the recognition it deserved. Way to go man.
One Day Bass
March 15th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Working on a new Kat Penfold tune, “One Day”, with Julian. Brian showed up near the end to grab his amp “Paul”. We’re drinking regular green tea, not the super awesome kind you can find at the Canister or Davids Tea.
Michael Peters – New Album Out
March 14th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
This summer I had the privilege of working with this fine bearded-fellow, Mr Michael Peters. Julian was in the studio one day I think laying down some bass line for a cover tune, and he mentioned that he’d like his friend to come down and chat about a recording. I don’t do a lot of engineering gigs these days, but I liked the idea of tracking some real players in a real room, and also got to really delve into dynamic mic technique. Gotta love the dynamics. Keith Price produced with Michael, and I actually think he managed to avoid playing anything… ah yes, he hummed a few bars on mic. Oh, and the whale noises! The combination of the two, both probers, meant long and fascinating conversations between the two about where the tunes could go. I’m prone to leap out of my chair and not eat or sleep till the song’s done, once I get an idea in my head, and this was quite refreshing sitting back and dialoging instead of pulling all-nighters. There’s a lesson in there for me, somewhere…. oh well time to finish another idea….
Anyhow, good times were had by all. I think Michael has written one of the saddest songs of all, “Ain’t None But Jesus”. He tells the story, in classic fashion, and we accept it as fatalistically as it’s told. These are the moments I look for in music; they touch something I can’t explain, and therein lies their virtue. If the message penetrates and garners a reaction before I can even finish lyrics, and by the time I do I realize what’s happening, well, that’s just great storytelling: Michael’s magic. A varied setlist, and not every song/lyric will be everyone’s cup of tea, but a man who cares about what he says.
Lots of good stories and shenanigans, including the infamous whammy-bar-tuning-infinity-loop, the double-pick solo, and my favorite phrase over the sessions, “Ya now that we’ve recorded it I have a great idea for the arrangement.” Classic!
Beds were done with all 3 players, Curtis Nowosad on drums, Michael on various instruments and vocals for the scratch guitars, and Julian Bradford on a few basses. Overdubs were guitars, vocals, pianos, percussion etc… I think mostly dynamics on everything, maybe U67′s on overheads and vocals. The solo ballads, we’d create an array of mics around Michael at various distances, and let him do his thing. I’m pretty sure we didn’t even take the cover off the piano… Michael was partial to Fury guitars, brought some neat pedals, and I think Mr Carl Strempler loaned us his pedalboard for an afternoon as well. Which was good, because it took us the whole afternoon to figure out the thing!
If he ever manages to get the thing onto iTunes, I’ll post a link. Until then, try here for more info.
Thanks for the fun, Michael!
Sounds n Sample Search
March 5th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I’m just about done the outlines and script for the upcoming MakeProMusic production tutorial series, and the last bit deals with programming, sounds, sample arsenal, anything and everything to do with how we make noise and turn it into music. Pretty chaotic and personal stuff, so there’s bound to be some strong opinions.
I’ve been typing all week and working on new Kat Penfold stuff, and starting a whole new (and involved!) section on a Friday, especially since it’s also ‘eat-anything-i-like-day’ (diet described here by these fine folk), and after that much sugar I kinda keel over every hour or so.
So it turned into a creative day, looking over and finding new sounds to play with. I haven’t had this much fun (and sugar) in a while (week)!
I first dove into all the cool user-made libraries for one of my favorite synths, Reaktor. There was all sorts of cool stuff, a lot of synths expanding on some of my favorite patches will lots of options (some still pretty lame). My only complaint is that I wish they’d clean up all the dead links from some libraries. I’d get all excited seeing the title “Super accurate vintage Prophet 5 Emulator” and of course, dead link. Still, this should cram all sorts of FM, Subtractive and Granular synthesis down my clients’ ears for years to come. A healthy refresh.
What excited me even more, though, was finding samples people had made for my main sampler Kontakt. Soooo inspiring. I think back and give thanks for all the hard work my Japanese friends put into at Korg with their old M1 series. Those patches kept me going for years. And now, the whole world is contributing to an online synthesis database giving people access to their own inspiration. The things people will do with these rad sounds!
One thing I love is that I have access to a big ol studio, so getting ‘big, awesome’ sounds is a fairly regular affair, and manipulating those samples is easy and happens all the time. But unlike back in the day when I’d carry a laundry basket full of gear from studio to studio, getting unique, organic sounds depends entirely on getting unique, organically dressed hobo music dudes in with their unique, organic-looking instruments. And that doesn’t happen often. Well actually, it does, but getting all that organic-ness to align with whatever organic-ness I need at the time, is, well, tough. Plus coordinating all those outfits.
Anyway turns out people are really passionate about sampling their own instruments, kitchenware, pets, you name it. And it all has that pleasant charm of not sounding like a slick, corporate studio. Cause I’ve already got piles of those.
To be honest, I did spend some money on ‘official and pro’ sample libraries, but those were on super expensive vintage instruments and sounded nothing like a studio session of today. I’m really digging Yamaha CP70s right now, and Fairlight CMI samples.
I got ridiculously excited when I was suddenly playing patches used on old Peter Gabriel records, I even found the patch used on Sledgehammer! Such a treat. Turns out angels didn’t descend and make those flutey-sounds for the solo section, after all. It was a patch. Well stay tuned for those sounds, bound to sneak in there somewhere. The design effort put into the pads and string sounds back then are absolutely unmatched. All the patches from the top stuff these days only manage to match how well they sit, and even then that’s a rarity. I just wanna call up a pad, and have it sit well in the track! Well now, guess I can.
Well, back to finding more sounds! I hope I can take some mics this summer and sample everything I see, to give back to this awesome online community that spreads inspiration.
Katie Murphy – New EP out
March 4th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Katie Murphy’s got a new EP out – Exes & Uh-Ohs
I mixed the first song on the record, Oooo! (She’s got a lot going on!). Good times!
Del Barber – Juno Nom
March 4th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Here’s some cool news: Del’s album Love Songs for the Last Twenty is up for a Juno this year. I met Del a year ago, and did some keyboard tracks and mastering touch ups on the record.
He’s a good time, and I’m pretty darned impressed with what they did on the album, capturing great vibe and energy, and sounding, well, very much like Del. It’s easy to lose sight of who an artist is in the recording process.
I ran into Del again this January at a WSO fundraiser at the concert hall, and what really impressed me was how he answered the usual question during small talk, “keepin busy? on the road lots?” He said, ‘Heck ya, 200 show last year.” Wow. That’s inspiring. Even more inspiring, I asked, “Taking it easy this next year?” He replied, “No way, I’m aiming for 200 more shows this year.”
People like that are SO fun to be around! Best of luck, Del!
And there goes another mastering rule…
March 1st, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Had a creative day today…. on a few mastering gigs! Who’da thought. Most times you’re supposed to remain ‘technical’, not walk all over the mixer, not get all ‘producer’ in the middle of the session. I can imagine the look of horror of a band’s face when the mastering guy suddenly jumps up, “Hey!!! I’ve got a great idea!!!” And 10 plugins later… it’s unrecognizable. I think the nature of the gig is a nice blend of ‘stay the heck out of the way’ and ‘well i guess the buck stops with me’. In today’s case, it was only… 12 plugins. On a Cuban record.
I’m not sure there’s a safe place to begin that’ll shield me from the purists out there. Anyone younger off is thinking, ‘no way man, way to use your head and try new things! there’s no rules!’ Well, ya, there aren’t, but you’ll learn you don’t get gigs because you’re known as the guy that’ll always mess with your work because he’s ‘feelin it’.
It was also one of the first times I’ve been able to use my Airfield Audio Liminator 2 compressor on the 2-bus. It’s used all the time in mixes on all sorts of stuff, but never on the mix because my Blue 230 is handling that. For most mastering gigs, the STC-8M is the tool of the hour. This time, however, I got to use all sorts of toys.
It started with a call from the engineer, my friend Larry Roy, who said go ahead and add some space if you think it’d help. Turns out, I agreed. Larry’s got a great studio, comes from an excellent musical background, and mixes with all sorts of API eq’s and comps, Millenia gear, distressors, and much more through Lipinski 707 speakers. So the mixes came in ready to rock. In the ambience department, I called up a convolution long room with a slight tail that complimented the existing space, as well as a complex, heavily diffused Lexicon PCM Native room. Both verbs had their channels pre treated with SoundToys Decapitator Preamp module, making sure that the sound feeding the plugs was a shade different than the direct source. There was a tricky goal of adding space yet character yet being subtle enough to pass through mastering. The mixes of verbs varied greatly between songs, of course, and the name of the game was to always make it sound better, not worse or just gratuitously add verb to be a ‘creative’ mastering guy.
The Airfield was brought in as a parallel comp, very quick attack/release times, light ratios, low thresholds, and it added considerable volume and body with cool compression characteristics. Transformer 2 was used, though transformer 1 is a better starting point when using the comp as an insert on a master. Also in parallel was the Drawmer 1968ME, a tube comp that was used in more of a traditional role. These two comps fed the STC-8 which was on a standard light mastering setting, and voila. Mix to taste per song, usual variable eq tweaks, and you’re left with a rare case scenario where an all-acoustic record is given a little more vibe with judicious use of mastering/mixing tools. Of course the verbs had to be of high quality, or they’d stick out compared to the high quality System 6000 verbs originally used at mix time.
I’ll post a link to the album by Trio Bembe, as soon as it’s available online.
