Bobby Owsinski's Big Picture Production Blog

Chicago's "25 Or 6 To 4" Isolated Parts

2013-05-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

A while back I posted the isolated vocals from Chicago's famous "25 Or 6 To 4," a perennial hit from their second album simply titled Chicago. Here's another shot of the same with more isolated parts, this time from the lead guitar, horns and vocals. Here are some things to listen for:

1. The horns are in stereo, and the stereo is spread out more than normal during some portions of the song.

2. The vocal reverb is pretty long, slightly delayed, and sounds really good.

3. The harmony vocals are incredibly tight, not only pitch-wise, but articulations as well. I would image the singers (Peter Cetera, Robert Lamm and Terry Kath) were more aware than most vocalists of their time about those things thanks to having horns in the band.

4. The sound of Terry Kath's guitar doesn't sound that good by itself as it seems distorted and muddy with little sustain, yet works great in the track (no shock there as it happens often). That said, it has some really nice short ambience on it.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Bruce Swedien's Mic Closet

2013-05-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

Bruce Swedien at his Harrison console

Bruce Swedien is truly the Godfather of recording engineers, having recorded and mixed hits from everyone from Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie to Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer and Michael Jackson. He's a mentor of mentors, as so many of his teachings are now handed down to a generation now just learning (his interview in The Mixing Engineer's Handbook is a standout).

Bruce is also a collector of microphones and will not use one he doesn't personally own, so he knows the exact condition of each. Recently he posted a bit about the mics he uses on his Facebook page, and I thought it worth a reprint.

A couple of things stick out to me.
1. His use of an Sennheiser 421 on kick. I know it's a studio standard for some reason (especially on toms), but I never could get it work on anything in a way that I liked.

2. His use of the relatively new Neumann M149, because it's eh...........new.

3. His synthesizer advice (under the M49) is a real gem.

Here's Bruce.
--------------------------------------------

Constantly being asked about my mics, so here goes:

My microphone collection, spanning many of the best-known models in studio history, are my pride and joy. My microphones are prized possessions. To me, they are irreplaceable. Having my own mics that no-one else handles or uses assures a consistency in the sonics of my work that would otherwise be impossible.”

AKG C414 EB
“My first application would be for first and second violins. It’s really great mic for the classical approach for a string section.”
Hear it on... the first and second violins in Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’.

Altec 21B
“This is a fantastic mic, and I have four of them. It’s an omni condenser, and [for jazz recording] what you do is wrap the base of the mic connector in foam and put it in the bridge of the bass so that it sticks up and sits right under the fingerboard. It wouldn’t be my choice for orchestral sessions, though.”
Hear it on... Numerous recordings for Oscar Peterson between 1959 and 1965.

RCA 44BX & 77BX; AEA R44C
“[The 44BX] is a large, heavy mellow-sounding old mic with a great deal of proximity effect. This is very useful in reinforcing the low register of a vocalist’s range if that is desired. If I am asked to do a big band recording of mainly soft, lush songs, I almost always opt for ribbon mics for the brass. I suggest AEA R44C or RCA44BX on trumpets, and RCA 77DX on trombones. Ribbon mics are great for percussion too.”
Hear it on... trumpets and flugelhorns in Michael Jackson’s ‘Rock With You’ (at 0:54); percussion in Michael Jackson’s ‘Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough’.

Sennheiser MD421
“The kick is about the only place I use that mic, and I mike very closely. I frequently remove the bass drum’s front head, and the microphone is placed inside along with some padding to minimise resonances, vibrations, and rattles.”
Hear it on... the kick drum in Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’.

Shure SM57
“For the snare I love the Shure SM57. In the old days it wasn’t as consistent in manufacture as it is now. I must have eight of those mics, and they’re all just a teeny bit different, so I have one marked ‘snare drum’. But the ones I’ve bought recently are all almost identical. On the snare drum, I usually go for a single microphone. I’ve tried miking both top and bottom of the snare, but this can cause phasing problems.”
Hear it on... snare drum in Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’.

Telefunken 251
“These mics have a beautiful mellow quality, but possess an amazing degree of clarity in vocal recording. The 251 is not overly sibilant and is often my number one choice for solo vocals.”
Hear it on... Patti Austin in ‘Baby, Come To Me’, her duet with James Ingram.

Telefunken U47
“I still have one of the two U47s that I bought new in 1953, and will still frequently be first choice on lead vocal. This is a mic that can be used on a ballad or on a very aggressive rock track. It has a slight peak in its frequency response at around 7kHz, which gives it a feeling of natural presence. It also has a slight peak in the low end around 100Hz. This gives it a warm, rich sound. For Joe Williams, another mic would never have worked as well. I figured out that it was the mic for him when I heard him speak. After you’ve been doing this for as long as I have, you begin to have instinctive sonic reactions, and it saves a lot of time!”
Hear it on... Joe Williams in the Count Basie Band’s Just The Blues

Neumann M149
“I have a pair of these that Neumann made just for me, with consecutive serial numbers, and they sound so great. That’s what I use now in XY stereo on piano.”

Neumann M49
“This is very close sonically to the M149, but not quite the same. It’s a three-pattern mic and the first that Neumann came up with which had the pattern control on the power supply... you could have the mic in the air and still adjust the pattern. I use these for choir recording in a Blumlein pair, which is one of my favourite techniques because it’s very natural in a good room. When I was recording with Michael and Quincy I was given carte blanche to make the greatest soundfields I could, so what I also did was pick a really good room and record the synths through amps and speakers with a Blumlein pair to get the early reflections as part of the sonic field. The direct sound output of a synthesizer is very uninteresting, but this can make the sonic image fascinating. You have to be really careful, though, to open up the pre-delay of any reverb wide enough to not cover those early reflections. They mostly occur below 120ms, so with 120ms pre-delay those sounds remain intact and very lovely.”
Hear it on... Andre Crouch choir in Michael Jackson’s ‘Man In The Mirror’, ‘Keep The Faith’.

Neumann U67
“The predecessor to the U87, and an excellent microphone, but it’s not one of my real favourites, as a purely instinctive reaction. It’s just a little bit too technical perhaps, and it doesn’t have sufficient sonic character for me to use it on a lead vocal, for instance. It’s a good choice of microphone for violas and cellos, however, and the U87 can also work well in this application.”
Hear it on... violas and cellos in Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’.

I'll post a bit of Bruce's interview from The Mixing Engineer's Handbook in a future post.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

The Ins And Outs Of Subtractive Equalization

2013-05-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

One of the most effective ways of equalizing is to use a method known as subtractive equalization. While the natural tendency is to boost when using the EQ, subtracting can be much more effective and sound better as well. In this excerpt from The Audio Mixing Bootcamp (a similar explanation can be found in latest 3rd edition of The Mixing Engineer's Handbook), you'll see just how easy and effective subtractive EQ can be.

"While it’s natural to believe that by adding some EQ here and there that you’ll make the instrument or vocal sound better, that’s not necessarily the case. There’s a very effective EQ technique called “subtractive equalization” that works by attenuating frequencies instead of boosting them. Many superstar mixers love this method because it makes the sound of the track more natural than if you boosted any of the frequencies. This is because every time you boost an EQ, there’s an slight amount of something called phase shift that’s added to the signal as a byproduct of the way an electronic equalizer works. By using subtractive equalization, you completely avoid this artifact. As a result, the track is better able to blend with the others.

Here’s how to use subtractive equalization:

1. Set the Boost/Cut control to a moderate level of cut (8 or 10 dB should work.)

2. Sweep through the frequencies until you find the frequency where the sound has the least amount of boxiness and the most definition.

3. Adjust the amount of cut to taste. Be aware that too much cut makes the sound thinner.

Alternately you can try a different approach.

1. Set the Boost/Cut control to a moderate level of boost (8 or 10 dB should work.)

2. Sweep through the frequencies until you find the frequency that really leaps out above all others. That’s the frequency to cut.

3. Adjust the amount of cut to taste. Be aware that too much cut makes the sound thinner.

There are two frequency ranges that are particularly effective when using subtractive equalization; from 400Hz to 600Hz and between 2k and 4kHz. The reason why 400Hz to 600Hz is chosen is because most directional microphones provide a natural boost in that frequency range because of the proximity effect brought about by miking an instrument or voice up close. Likewise, many mics that are known as good vocal mics have a presence boost between 2k and 4kHz. Cutting those frequencies a few dB (more or less as needed) can make the track sound much more natural than if you were to try to boost other frequencies instead.

These two problem areas usually crop up when you’re recording everything with the same microphone, since there’s a buildup in the those frequency areas as more and more instruments are recorded. By cutting a few dB from these frequency ranges you’ll find that the instruments sit better in the mix without every having to add as much EQ."

To read additional excerpts from this and other books, go to bobbyowsinski.com.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

My Top 10 Compressors

2013-05-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

I was recently intrigued by a really good article on Beatport's Attack blog called "Top 20 Best Compressors Of All Time." Since the bog is primarily dedicated to electronic music, you can probably dismiss some of its seemingly dubious entries to the way they're used creating that type of music. The article did get me thinking about the top 10 compressors that I like though, so I thought I'd do my own version.

Although the other list was primarily hardware compressors, this list is a combination, since most of us live in a DAW world these days. Okay, here we go.

1. Universal Audio 1176: I don't care which version you use, the 1176 is about as close to a desert island compressor as you'll get due to its versatility. I like to use it on kick, snare, guitars, bass, vocals - just about anything. It can be aggressive sounding, but nothing pulls an instrument out of a mix in the same way.

2. Teletronix/Universal Audio LA-2A: Once again, I don't care which version of the hardware or software you use, the LA-2A has a sound and feel all its own. It can work pretty well on most instruments, but stands out for vocals, and is dead easy to use. I never use too much, as I like the sound of 2 to 3 dB in most situations.

3. Universal Audio LA-3: Perhaps the ultimate electric guitar compressor, I've used it successfully on piano and keyboards as well. Nothing works quite the same with electric guitars in a mix.

4. Fairchild 660/670: When it comes to buss compression, the Fairchild 670 stands is king of the hill for many kinds of music (especially retro or acoustic). It just adds a glue and warmth that you have trouble getting any other way. Just a little bit (a couple of dB) works a lot better than a whole lot. The 660 is the mono version of the more widely known 670, and was the sound you heard on many of The Beatle records (Ringo's drums, for instance).

5. SSL Buss Compressor: This is the sound that made so many pop and rock records in the 80s and 90s, and it still works great in those genres. I once worked in a studio that had the buss compressor on their 9k labeled as "The Good Button." Why? Because no matter how your mix sounded, once the SSL buss compressor was engaged, it sounded better.

6. Waves L1: You can't beat a classic and the Waves L1 is probably the first software limiter that worked so well that it was abused. If used correctly, few limiters are as capable of controlling the peaks of a mix. If used badly, it can suck the life out of a mix faster than you can say "hypercompression."

7. Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor: Few modern compressors have caught on so widely as the Distressor, and that's because there are few that are as versatile. I like to track with it on vocals to keep the peaks under control, but there are few compressors that are as effective on room mics, especially when it's set to "Nuke."

8. dbx 160: I just love the 160s; any of them. For a punchy drum sound, you can't beat the hardware 160X's (or even the A model). In software, the UAD 160 sounds great. My favorite for aggressive kick and snare, but it will pull a piano or acoustic guitar up front as well.

9. Neve 33609: This is another case of a buss compressor that really works well, especially if you only need a little to tighten up the bottom. It's not always my first choice, but it usually works in a situation when the previously mentioned ones don't.

10. FMR Audio RNC: The Really Nice Compress (RNC) is a great little hardware unit that provides tremendous bang for buck. I don't feel that it necessarily excels at any one thing, but it does work well in most situations. For a home studio with not a lot of money to burn, the stereo RNC (and it's companion RNL -Really Nice Limiter) is a must-have.

Honorable Mention. Pro Tools Native Digirack Compressor/Limiter: I personally think this is one of the most versatile compressors that you can find. It can sound transparent and it can sound aggressive, and since it doesn't take up much in the way of systems resources, you can use a lot of them in a big mix. Don't overlook it.

Once again, these are my personal opinions because these are what I always use. There's lots of other great ones out there (especially in software), but I've come to rely on these units because I know what they'll do in most situations.

Which are your favorites?

By the way, check this out for a good lesson on compressor setup.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

New Music Gear Monday: Rupert Neve 5060 Centerpiece

2013-05-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

Desktop mixers and summing amplifiers are all the rage these days and rightfully so. We live in a DAW world and well over 90% of all studio music mixing is done in-the-box. We've seen SSL and AMS-Neve recently introduce their own products in this category, but a new one from Rupert Neve Designs (not to be confused with AMS-Neve, his old company) is something completely different.

The Rupert Neve 5060 Centerpiece is basically a 24 channel summing amp with a monitor controller built in. What makes it unique is that it also has 4 stereo inputs each controllable by a fader as well as a master fader. Add a USB/MIDI transport section, and RND's totally unique Texture color control and the 5060 Centerpiece becomes a unit different from anything else on the market. Retail price is $7995. Check out this video for some of the details.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Making A Ribbon Mic Part 2

2013-05-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't experienced the joys of using a ribbon mic, you don't know what you're missing. Ribbon mics are incredibly natural sounding and the tracks recorded with them take EQ very well. What's more, modern ribbon mics are extremely robust and not nearly as delicate as many of their predecessors were.

A few weeks ago I posted a segment from the How It's Made television show that described how a ribbon mic was made using an AEA R44 ribbon as an example. Here's another segment on the same subject, this time showing how a Royer Labs R 121 is made. I like this segment better in that it shows a number of details that were left out of the first one. By the way, I'm a big fan of Royer microphones (as well as their Mojave Audio condenser mic cousins).

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Announcing The 2 Millionth Page View! Thanks Everyone!

2013-05-16T10:12:00.002-07:00

I'm proud to announce that The Big Picture production blog has just crossed the 2,000,000th view threshold.

Many, many thanks to everyone who's supported me in this endeavor! It takes a lot of time every day to prepare these posts, but the fact you continue to check in makes it all worthwhile.

When I started this blog 4 1/2 years ago (November 2, 2008) there were 7 views the first week. I'm thankful that you've all encouraged me to stay the course.

As they say in politics, here's to "4 more years."

Fall Out Boy:" My Songs Know What You Did" Song Analysis

2013-05-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

Reader Jim Yeomans requested a song analysis of the Fall Out Boy hit "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark," which is from their 5th studio album entitled Save Rock And Roll. The song was a worldwide hit, reaching the top 5 in the US on iTunes and in singles charts in the UK, Scotland and Ireland. As with all song analysis, we'll look at the song from, the arrangement, the sound and the production.

The Song
"My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark" has a fairly simple form of intro, verse and chorus with no bridge or solo. As a result it clocks in at only 3:11, a timing that's built for radio, which loves the short song (and even speeds many songs up in order to play more songs per hour).

The form looks like this:

Intro, Verse, B section, Chorus, Verse,

B section, Chorus, B section (2x), Chorus, Tag

What's unusual about the form is that the title of the song appears in the 4 bar B section. The song is built around a single chord pattern, and that limits the melody somewhat, but there's still a melody there, which is more than you can say about many songs these days. Likewise, the lyrics work fairly well within the context of the song, telling a story and rhyming well without seeming forced.

The Arrangement
When a song is built around a single riff, chord or chord pattern, it needs a great arrangement to succeed. So is the case with "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark." The arrangement elements looks like this:

* The Foundation: bass and drums, vocal loops

* The Rhythm: vocal loops, rhythm guitars, claps, synth line

* The Pad: none

*The Lead: lead vocal

* The Fills: vocals, effects

The song begins with a vocal loop and claps for 4 bars, after which a second vocal loop enters along with the drums for four bars, and then an electric guitar for the next four bars to complete the intro.

The first verse sees the lead vocal enter as well as a 16th note bass following the chord pattern. A sound effect occurs after the first two phrases then again after the fifth and sixth. The drums fall out during the B section when the title lyrics are stated, which leads into the big chorus with the drums switching to a half-time feel. On bar 5 "hey's" enter on the upbeat of beat 4, then on the second half of the chorus, the "whoa's" are answered by "I'm on fire" along with a new single note synth line, and then with an "In the dark, dark" vocal sample at the end of each chord pattern.

On the second verse a synth is added behind the sound effects, and a floor tom enters on bar 5. The band drops out completely on bar 12 except for a lighter sound effect. The second chorus is almost identical to the first, but with the addition of some bigger sounding guitars.

The song then returns to the opening 4 bars of the intro with the addition of some very reverbed out "hey's", then to a standard B section that's repeated, only with a very lo-fi vocal. The last chorus is bigger than the previous 2 thanks to additional parts. The song ends with a 2 bar tag of "whoa's" without any music.

The Sound
While the trend in mixing was to keep everything dry for a long time, but "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark" shows what seems to be a new trend back to layered effects. Each vocal loop has a different reverb, as does the snare and the sound effects. The vocal uses a stereo tape delay simulation (you can tell by how it gets fuzzy and dull as it repeats), which is also somewhat of a trend these days.

The song is very compressed and borderline distorted, and I wonder just how much better it would've sounded if there were some dynamics left in it.

The Production
As stated before, when a song is built around a single riff, chord or chord pattern, it needs a great arrangement, as well as great production to succeed. "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark" is pretty cool from the standpoint that there's always something new going on as you go through the song. There's either a new sound effect or a new vocal loop in every vocal hole, the song's intensity changes, or a different reverb or echo can be heard.

What's also cool is the unusual drum beat in the intro and verses that then changes to a half-time feel during the big choruses. What's also unusual is that for a guitar band, the guitars aren't featured in the song. Of course, add all of the above together and you have a hit.

Send me your song requests for analysis (no originals, only hits) at "requests at bobbyowsinski.com."

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

The Talking Robot Mouth

2013-05-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

One of the common every day things that we take for granted is speech. It's an incredibly complex operation, but one that we never even think about until we see the following video from professor Hideyuki Sawada at Kagawa University.

While most robots speak using electronic technology (mostly speakers), this one actually mimics the human body in that it's a working mouth, complete with nose. As you'll see, there's so much more that goes into speaking than you ever thought.

The robot is still primitive (it still doesn't do "f" or "s" sounds), but it just makes you appreciate the human body all the more.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Using Automation To Add Dynamics To A Mix

2013-05-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

The heart of a modern mix lies in it's precision automation and the soul of a mix is in the way it dynamically breathes in the right places. In this excerpt from the new Advanced chapter of the Mixing Engineer's Handbook 3r Edition, we see 10 tips to use a DAW's automation to instill excitement in a mix by adding dynamics.

"For the most part, a mix where the faders remain more or less static can be boring and unexciting. Even before automation, mixers were constantly riding instrument and vocal faders during a mix in order to make sure they stood out in certain places or added an extra intensity to the mix. The best part about automation is that those moves can be exactly replicated on every playback.

Among the ways to add dynamics to a mix are:

Slightly boost the rhythm section during fills, turnarounds and even choruses (usually only a couple of dB is all that’s necessary, but it depends upon the track).

Boost the snare and toms during fills.

Boost the kick, snare or cymbals on accents or the downbeat of a new section.

Duck the rhythm instruments during an instrument solo to help clear out space in the mix.

Boost the high-hat in parts where it’s being struck and decrease it where it’s not.

Add additional reverb or delay to an instrument when it gets masked as other instruments are added to the mix.

Pump a strumming rhythm guitar in time with the music, pushing it especially on 2 and 4, or push it on the upbeats (one AND two AND three AND…)

Gently boost the fills or other instruments in between vocal phrases.

Pull back the downbeat of a chorus if the drummer hits it too hard.

Pump the “4 AND” on a percussion track.

TIP: The key to understanding how to use automation to add dynamics is by observing a performance by a great band. This will help you to be able to hear all the nuances that the dynamics of the mix needs in order for it to be exciting. "

To read additional excerpts from this book and others, go to bobbyowsinski.com.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

New Music Gear Monday: UAD Ocean Way Studios Plugin

2013-05-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

We live in a world of plugins to the degree that even old school pros with a ton (literally) of available analog gear use what's in their DAW as a matter of course in their every day work. While most plugins now attempt to be some emulation of an old piece of gear or a new variation of an old concept, every once in a while something new comes along with some truly out-of-the-box thinking. Which brings us to one of the most unique and useful plugins to come along in a long time - the Universal Audio Ocean Way Studios plugin.

The Ocean Way Studios plugin works on any of the UAD hardware platforms and takes room simulation to the next step by modeling the sound of two of the studio's famous Bill Putnum-designed tracking rooms (Putnam was the original owner of both United Studios - now Ocean Way - and Universal Audio when it manufactured hardware starting back in the 1960s. Bill Putnam jr. runs Universal Audio today). You're able to choose from a number of Ocean Way owner Allen Sides' great vintage mic emulations and place them any distance in the room, as well as mix and EQ multiple combination of mics.

After using the plugin on a project that I'm currently mixing I can say that there's really not anything exactly like the Ocean Way Studios plugin on the market. I can see how this could be a great addition to a home studio owner who only has a small room to record in, but wants it to realistically sound like a larger one - and with the Ocean Way sound to boot.

Check out the video below for more details.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

A Musical Genre Overview

2013-05-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

This is one of the coolest interactive sites you'll ever find. Want to know the genealogy of different music genres? Just about every type of musical genre you can think of is included (like chillwave, cowpunk, slow core and mbalax, to name a few of the more obscure ones). Click on any genre and you'll see who the practitioners are.

genremaps

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

An Arrangement Lesson From Lynyrd Skynyrd

2013-05-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

The key to keeping a song interesting is in the arrangement. A song that's well written, performed and recorded still might sound flat and unexciting if the arrangement is unimaginative. Even worse, if the song has the same changes that repeat over and over for 3 plus minutes, you better be thinking of how to change it up a little so you don't lose your listeners.

Reader Fred Decker recently sent an email asking to take a look at the arrangement of the solo section of Lynryd Skynyrd's classic "Free Bird," something that I've done in some of my books like How To Make Your Band Sound Great and The Music Producer's Handbook. Skynyrd's arrangement is superb in that it changes ever 16 bars (even though those 16 bars repeat over and over), elevating the song and pulling you in. Even 40 years later, it's energy is inescapable.

The section we're going to analyze begins about half-way through the 9 minute song when the solos begin at 4:56 and the song goes into double time.

To see how the arrangement develops, first understand that each section of the ending is composed of 16 bars that repeats the G - Bb - C pattern 4 times. The section repeats 9 times (10 if you include the fade), and this is what it looks like:

1: straight double time

2: accents on beats 1 and 2

3: straight double time with the accent changed to the "3 and" (anticipation of beat 4) on the 4rth bar of the 4rth repeat

4: accent on the "3 and" of every 4rth bar

5: accents on beats 1 and 2 with the band stopped for beats 3 and 4

6: straight double time with 2 guitar solos

7: snare double time. On the 4rth repeat of the chord pattern, beat 1 is accented with a crash cymbal.

8: snare double time with each beat accented with a crash cymbal. The bass gradually climbs from the low to high register. On the 4rth repeat of the chord pattern, the crash cymbal changes to 8th notes.

9: back to straight double time with a push accent on "3 and" on the 4rth bar of the 4rth repeat. On the last bar of the last repeat, each beat is accented against a chromatic descending line from C to G.

10: fade against straight double time with accents on beats 1 and 2 and an accent on"3 and" on the 4rth bar of the 4rth repeat

As you can see, the same G - Bb - C pattern repeats 40 times (10 full sections), but you never get tired of listening since there's always something different happening, either with the drums, bass, solo or the entire band accenting. And best of all, the entire solo section has a form where it gradually develops to a peak on the 9th section.

Love the song or hate it, there's no doubt that "Free Bird" is one of the best examples ever of great song arrangement and development.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Introducing The Mixing Engineer's Handbook 3rd Edition

2013-05-07T21:30:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to announce the release of the third edition of the best selling book on mixing ever (I'm proud to say) - The Mixing Engineer's Handbook.

This version of the book differs from the previous in a number of ways:

1. The emphasis is slanted towards in-the-box mixing, since even so many of the pros are now doing it this way. Don't worry, traditional console mixing techniques are still retained, since the basic principles of mixing have so much in common no matter how it's done.

2. There's a whole new chapter on prepping your mix, which is a requirement in this digital age that we now operate in. The Advanced chapter includes:

Track cleanup
Adjusting track timing
Pitch correction
Sound replacement
Automation techniques

I don't think there's a book yet available that describes how the pros approach these elements, which are now such a necessary part of the sound of a modern mix.

3. New interviews with Andrew Scheps (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Adele), Robert Orton (Lady Gaga, Carley Rae Jepsen), Bob Brockman (P Diddy, Christina Aguilera), Bob Bullock (Kenny Chesney, Reba McEntire), and Ken Scott (The Beatles, David Bowie). These new interviews (along with the other 20 retained from previous editions) are incredibly helpful and fun to read. Worth the price of the book alone!

4. For those of you who use this book for teaching, a new Instructors Resource Kit is now available, containing a syllabus, lesson plans, Keynote and Powerpoint presentations to go along with the lessons, and tests.

Even if you own a previous version of The Mixing Engineer's Handbook (thank you!), I think you'll still find this new one worth owning as well. There's a wealth of new information, and as stated before, much of it is just not available anywhere else.

If you bought the book already, please let me know what you think!

Read excerpts from this book and others at bobbyowsinski.com

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

How Ribbon Mics Are Made

2013-05-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a great segment from the How It's Made show on the Science cable channel about how a ribbon mic is made. In this case, we follow the birth of a new AEA version of the vintage RCA 44 mic (the AEA R44C).

It's fascinating to see just how much construction is done by hand. I'm a little surprised that the ribbon is cut and corrugated by hand, since that's such a critical piece and one would think requires the utmost in precision, but this mic is so well regarded that the way it's done must be precise enough.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

New Music Gear Monday: Acer Aspire R7 Laptop/Tablet

2013-05-05T21:30:00.000-07:00

Today we're not going to look at a piece of audio gear per se, but a laptop. Since so much of our musical lives revolve around the computer these days, including one in New Music Gear Monday seems more than appropriate.

Before we go any further I want to admit to you that I'm an Apple fanboy. I've had Apple computers as far back as the Lisa model and the very first iMac and I've been extremely happy with them. Sure, I've had some PCs along the way, but I could never get my arms around any version of Windows. The Mac just works and I don't have to think about it, so that's what I gladly use.

That said, I am open to other things, especially when they have some interesting features. The Acer Aspire R7 is as interesting as they get, with a Mac-like look and a nifty pop-up, reversible screen. What's more, it also acts like a tablet in that the screen is touch sensitive and the fact that it can almost lie flat like an iPad.

This might be one of those cases where a device tries to be all things to all people, so it's yet to be seen whether this can actually make it as a DAW platform (especially since the trackpad is moved above the keyboard), but at least Acer is thinking outside the box. Check out the video for a more detailed description.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Moody Blue's Mike Pinder And The Mellotron

2013-05-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

During their time, the Moody Blues were very musically influential for their use of an orchestra with their music, but also for using one of the first simulations of an orchestra with an instrument called the Mellotron, played by the vastly underrated Mike Pinder. In the following movie, Mike describes how he used the instrument in the band and a bit of how it works.

The second movie is an interview that Mike did in Los Angeles in 2010 where he answers questions, plays some famous parts that you'll instantly recognize, and describes the Moody's influence on The Beatles.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

The Next Disruption

2013-05-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

Guitar body made from a 3D printer

We live in an age where business disruptions come fast and furious. The biggest one that applies to musicians, of course, is what digital music has done to a music business that basically worked the same for more than 50 years. Now we're living through another as streaming becomes the choice of music consumers over buying downloads.

We've seen other disruptions in the music business as well, how about:

the digital audio workstation kills the tape machine business and the commercial recording business
music copy software like Finale kills the copyist business
sample libraries decrease the need for orchestras
loop-based music decreases the need for studio musicians

Probably one of the earliest disruptions was the drum machine, and for a while drummers had a problem getting work making records. We've seen how that turned out, with producers and artists eventually rebelling against the sound and stiffness of the machine, with a new generation of drummers developing who could hold tempo as good as a drum machine with better feel.

Of course, we've lived in a world of disruptions for a long time, with our everyday lives changed almost overnight thanks to a new bit of technology. How about:

the typewriter being replaced by the computer and printer
the cell phone killing the landline
digital cameras killing the film business
LCD tech killing the old CRTs in televisions and computer monitors
the Web and Wikipedia replacing encyclopedias
desktop publishing replacing traditional publishing

And if you want to take it back even further, you have:

the automobile replacing the horse and buggy business
steamboats replacing sailing ships
plastic replacing metal and wood

I'm sure you can think of dozens more. The point is, we live in a world of disruptions, and they sometimes happen right before our eyes without us realizing it. That's why I want to call to your attention the next major disruption that's happening right now, hidden in plain sight - 3D printing.

A Personal 3D Printer

3D printing is sometimes called additive manufacturing (traditional machining is subtractive manufacturing) and is the process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model. The way this happens is that successive layers of material are laid down to make an object that couldn't never have been traditionally manufactured.

Large companies have been using 3D technology for some time to do rapid prototypes of everything from cars to footwear to architecture, but the technology exists to actually make drug compounds and even human organs from stem cells. In fact, the price has come down to the point where personal 3D printers are available for much less than $2,000, with one even being shown at the 2013 Winter NAMM show.

As you can see from the guitar on the left, we're not that far away from making our own instruments, regenerating new parts for the ones that need to be fixed, or creating musical items that we can't even conceive of at the moment, right in our homes with technology as ubiquitous as the inkjet printer that we all have. The fact of the matter is, we're further along towards the goal of a true Star Trek Replicator than you might think.

There's a lot of money to be made in this space, and we're right at the beginning of the disruption. Make sure you ride the wave.

More on 3D printing in this video.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

The 2 Principles Of Acoustic Isolation

2013-04-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

Whenever I do clinics at universities I always get a number of questions about home studio construction, since most every musician wants and needs one. One of the most frequent questions is about ways to increase isolation so the neighbors won't hear what you're doing. Here's an excerpt from The Studio Builder's Handbook that explains the two principles involved in acoustic isolation.

"When building almost any kind of space (especially a home studio), the first question that both musicians and engineers ask regarding acoustics is, “How can I make sure that my neighbors don’t hear us?” There’s really no secret to this one, although everyone thinks there is. All it takes is adhering to the following principles during construction:

Isolation Principle #1 - All It Takes Is Mass

If you want to increase your isolation, you’ve got to increase the mass of the walls and ceiling of the structure that you’re in.

The more mass your walls have between you and your neighbors (that includes walls made from cinder block, brick, wood, drywall, etc), the more you’ll keep the outside sound from getting in, and the inside sound from getting out.

One of the ways that most pro studios accomplish soundproofing is by building a room within a room, which is done by putting the floor on springs or rubber, and building double or triple walls with air spaces in between on top. Needless to say, this gets expensive and is impossible to do if you start out with a small space that’s only 10 foot x 10 foot to begin with since you’ll be left with no room to work in an area that small. But there are other ways to improve your isolation that can really be effective and completely acceptable (though never completely soundproofed) that are quite a bit cheaper.

We’ll go over this a lot more in the following chapters, but here’s basically what needs to be done. All it takes are some construction tools and a little time.

Add some mass to the walls and ceiling to increase your isolation. This could be as simple as adding another sheet of drywall to your existing wall, all the way up to building double studded walls with an air gap in between (see the figure on the left). Before you go nailing up another sheet of drywall and expecting total isolation, you must be aware of some acoustic realities.

Walls are subject to what’s known as a “mass law” that states that every time you double the mass of the entire wall, you get an extra 6dB of isolation, which you can hear but it’s not a huge difference (you can barely hear 3dB). The problem is, you need about 10dB of extra isolation for the sound to subjectively decrease by half. This means that you need about four times the mass to get only half as loud, which is not nearly enough to isolate something like a rock band.

To put it another way, if you add another sheet of 5/8 inch drywall to your single stud wall, have a listen and decide it’s not nearly enough isolation, you have to add six more layers (for a total of eight) in order to cut the sound in half. And that assumes that there are no leaks in the wall and the sound isn’t going through another path such as the ceiling, floor, side wall, or window, in which case NO amount of extra drywall will help.

You can see the limitations of just adding more and more drywall. First of all, there comes a point in time when the wall just gets too heavy for the underlying frame, and as you’ll see, there are much more efficient methods to increase the isolation.

Unfortunately, there is just no easy or cheap way to isolate a room. The easiest way is to use what’s known as “mass-spring-mass” or MSM walls, which means you have a wall (the mass), then an air space (the spring), then another wall (the mass). That gives you a double stud wall, which is essentially a room within a room (see the figure on the left again).

Isolation can be increased slightly by sound damping products like Green Glue and resilient channel (see Chapter 5 for more details), but mass and MSM walls are still the best way to get some major isolation. This brings us to Principle #2.

Isolation Principle #2 - Leave No Air Gaps

Isolation can be easily defeated by air gaps anywhere in the room.

Think of air like water.

If you fill the room with water, any space between any construction joint would let the water (or air) leak out, so the idea is to make sure that there are no air leaks.

Leaks that allow the sound to violate the isolation is called “flanking transmission” and is a major cause of poor isolation. You can have four foot thick concrete and MSM walls but you can negate those benefits if there are air-gaps anywhere in the room. This is especially true for doors, which are the greatest culprits for acoustic leakage, but can also be true of windows and seams between drywall. There can be no air gaps if you want maximum isolation, it’s as simple as that. It’s best to use an acoustic sealant on these spaces because it doesn’t break down with age, but any kind of caulking will work in a pinch. It’s also important to have a tight seal around any light fixtures and on-off switches, AC outlets, mic panels, wall junctures, and HVAC vents.

Sometimes, just eliminating the flanking transmission can increase the isolation by more than you think, so make it a priority."

The big problem with isolation is that the principles are easy but they're labor and materials intensive so they cost a lot. Luckily, acoustically treating the room is much easier.

You can read additional excerpts from The Studio Builder's Handbook and other books at bobbyowsinski.com.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Eno's Music For Hospitals

2013-04-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

We always think of music in the popular sense, selling millions of tracks to adoring fans, or at the very least, to other musicians who dig our work, but there are a number of other avenues for music worth pursuing. One of these is music therapy, where music plays a part in the rehabilitation of the sick or injured. Brian Eno, who has specialized in his own brand of "ambient" music for decades, has taken that to a new level with several audio and light projects to help sooth patients in hospitals in England.

Eno is debuting two new projects at the Montefiore Hospital in Hove, England. One is entitled "77 Million Paintings for Montefiore," which is a sound and light installation in the hospital's reception area. The other is a special "Quiet Room for Montefiore" in a custom space for patients, staff, and guests to escape the hectic daily hospital environment.

Anyone not familiar with Eno's "Music For Airports" ambient project, which was designed for soothe weary travelers, should give it a listen, since it's some of the most relaxing music you'll find anywhere. Apparently this was also the basis for the hospital project as well, as he reportedly began work after a local surgeon related to Eno the positive effect it had on his wife and how he could see it working in a hospital environment.

While most hospitals are filled with the latest in tech, they've not always kept pace with the latest in environmental tech. As a result, I can see how this could catch on in a big way. Hospitals are some of the most stress-filled places in modern day society. Anything to relieve that stress only a little should be welcomed.

The Montifiore compositions are custom one-offs only for the hospital, and will not be released to the public.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

New Music Gear Monday: The Vo-96 Acoustic Synthesizer

2013-04-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

Every now and then a new piece of gear comes along that's truly revolutionary in that it provides us with either a completely new way of doing something, or rarely, creates a new sound. The Vo-96 Acoustic Synthesizer clearly falls into both categories, transforming the sound of the acoustic guitar into something completely new, which then changes the approach to playing it.

Creator Paul Vo was the inventor of the infinite sustain technology inside the Moog guitar, and now he brings a similar technology to the acoustic guitar that changes it into an entirely new instrument. The following video is from the Kickstarter campaign for the Vo-96, which has already passed its goal of $50k with two weeks to go.

Have a listen as the acoustic guitar creates new sounds you never thought a wooden box was capable of.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

The 9 Factors In Pickup Sound

2013-04-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

Seymour Duncan's vintage pickup winder from the Gibson Factory

As any electric string instrument player knows, there are a number of different types of pickups, and within each category there's a tremendous variation in possible tone. This excerpt from The Ultimate Guitar Tone Handbook explains the 9 factors that affect how a pickup sounds. The next time you're in the market for one, keep these in mind so you can better tailor the pickup to your needs.

"Just like most things in life, something that seems so simple on the outside is very intricate on the inside and a pickup is no exception. Here are the numerous factors that contribute to a pickup’s sound.

The number of turns or winding. This is the number of turns of wire around the bobbin of the pickup. The more turns, the louder the pickup, but the worse the high-frequency response becomes. The number of turns is measured by the electronic resistance of the wire, which is measured in ohms. The higher the ohms value, the hotter the pickup but the less high-frequency response you’ll have. Humbucking pickups have more resistance than a single coil because there are more turns of wire, which is why they’re hotter and have less high end.

Type of wire used. The diameter and insulation determines the number of windings that can fit on a bobbin, which will determine the resistance, which determines the output, etc.

Type of winding method used. We’ll look at this a bit closer in a bit, but many of the pickups in the early days of the electric guitar were wound by hand, which meant that there were more or less than the required number of windings on the bobbin, and an uneven wind would also affect the capacitance of the pickup, which can cause a peak in the frequency response. This problem was virtually eliminated when manufacturers switched to machine winding (see above), but while every pickup was now the same, some of the magic that occasionally came from a hand-wound pickup also disappeared.

The type of magnets used. Although Alnico (a blend of aluminum, nickel and cobalt) is the alloy of choice for most pickups, occasionally you’ll find pickups made of other materials such as ceramic or neodymium. This will affect the strength of the magnetic field which we’ll cover next.

The strength of the magnets used. Magnets used for pickups are categorized by strength on a scale of two to five with five being the strongest. A stronger magnet will produce a louder and brighter sound while a weaker one will produce one that’s warmer.

The magnet height. How close the individual magnets are to the strings will determine how loud that string is. On pickups that have adjustable pole pieces that’s not so much of a problem, but on pickups with fixed pole pieces (like a Fender Strat or Tele) that could cause a slight imbalance in the string output. As an example, prior to the late 60’s, most guitarists used a wound G string, so the fixed height of the magnets on a Strat were different to compensate.

Pickup Cover. Metal covers on humbuckers can cause a resonance that results in feedback problems at high volumes. That’s why many of the early rockers removed their pickup covers, and why many guitars and pickups are sold that way today.

Pickup potting. Many pickups are sealed in wax to eliminate vibration induced signals that make a pickup microphonic. The heat from the hot wax can weaken the magnet though, thereby changing the pickup’s sound.

Potentiometers. Although not exactly a part of the pickup itself, the volume and tone pots are part of the electronic circuit along with the pickup and can affect the sound. The higher the resistance of the pot, the more high end will pass. Fenders use 250k ohm pots, Gibson uses 500k, and many other manufacturers use 1 Meg pots.

There are other factors such as winding direction, magnetic polarity, and the type of bobbins used, but their contribution to the final sound is subtle at best."

You can read additional book excerpts at bobbyowsinski.com.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Checking The Drum Phase

2013-04-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

As I've stated in many previous posts on recording, phase problems are one of the major sound destroyers, causing frequencies to cancel out in a way that they can never be recovered regardless of how much EQ you add later. That's why I've featured a section on checking and correcting phase in a number of books like The Audio Mixing Bootcamp, Recording Engineer's Handbook, Audio Recording Basic Training, and Drum Recording Handbook. Get this right, and you're way ahead of the game when it comes to making things sound good, especially the drums.

In this video from the Audio Recording Techniques course from Lynda.com, you'll see and hear one of the ways to correct phase problems on the drum kit either during recording or mixing. The examples are pretty apparent, and once you hear it once, you'll be aware of what to do and how to fix it forever.

You might like to see more of this or other Lynda courses, and you can click here for a free 7 day trial.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

The Greatest Craigslist Musician Ad

2013-04-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

Those bass players. They secretly control the music world. There's never enough of them, and you can never find one when you need one, since what few of them that exist are always working.

That's the untold secret of the music business - if you want to be a working musician, become a bass player. You may not get enough respect, but sometimes you can name your price.

To illustrate the point, here's an ad that appeared in the Nashville Craiglist listings from a bass player looking for work. He has plenty of demands, and he'll probably get them, as laughable as they are.

Bass Player Available NOW (Nashville (only))Bass player available for PAYING GIGS ONLY. I play G, C, D. If your
songs are not in G, please transpose them into G. If your song has an
Em or Bm or anything off the wall I will probably sit out that chord.

Or I could learn those notes for $30 each. If you want me to do fancy
stuff like go back and forth between G and D while you hold a G chord,
forget it because I’m a “pocket” player.

Minimum $100 per gig within a 5 mile radius of 37204. $5 per mile travel
charge for other areas out of town.

Please make sure your gigs are on a Metro Nashville bus route, or you can
pick me up at my place. Must be home by 11 pm due to previous legal hassles.
No gigs within 500 yards of schools, parks, or playgrounds.

So remember, if any of your kids want to be a musician when they grow up, encourage them to be a bass player. At least you'll know that they'll always work.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Katy Perry "Firework" Isolated Vocal

2013-04-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

Here's the isolated vocal from Katy Perry's big hit "Firework," from her even bigger hit album Teenage Dream. First of all I should say that I'm a fan, as unpopular as that may be. She writes some really catchy songs, isn't afraid to take chances live on stage, and does have a pretty good voice. Any time someone can rack up the number of big hits that she has, there has to be some real talent behind it.

That said, this song is in some ways the best and worst display of her talents. Listen for:

1) Uggg, the autotune. It really makes the vocal sound terrible. The problem I have is I'm sure she could've sang this song perfectly well without it with a few more takes and some comping.

2) The compression. The vocal is absolutely crushed during the b-section and chorus.

3) The sound. Wow, the vocal really sounds strident during the chorus. Cuts through the song though.

4) The nice short ping pong echo on the vocal to give it some space. This technique of two different timed delays left and right is being used more and more in pop music.

While it sounds like I'm ragging on the song, it really does have a great melody, hook and arrangement. It just goes to show that something doesn't have to sound great by itself to sound good in the song!

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.