Tarzan tracking session

Here’s some bits from recent projects. Each project had it’s own set of challenges and each was uniquely gratifying.

Miking the bass section

Once again, fall has proven to be a very busy time here at DRR&P. Since the first week of October I have produced 2 shows for Disney Theatrical, a junior version of Peter Pan and a definitive recording of Tarzan (great music by Phil Collins), SeaWorld Orlando’s new Christmas spectacular, “O Wondrous Night”, recorded and mixed an album for vocal trio, The Marshalls, and tracked an album for up and coming Ecudoran singer, James Febris. All tracking was done at The Tracking Room, Nashville and at my studio, My Space Recording.

We’ve had a virtual “who’s who” of modern Broadway production working with us on several of these projects. Peter Pan Jr was arranged and orchestrated by young composer Eric Svejcar. For our Tarzan production, we chose to have a good size live string section and use all live brass and authentic African percussion as well. My co-producer Jim Abbott, who has worked on every version of Tarzan since the animated film, did the re-orchestration for the recording (Jim is also well known for his work on Wicked and many other shows.) Singers were cast and contracted by Lori Casteel and both the musicians and cast did an amazing job on this really fun project.

The SeaWorld show, massive in scope, was produced in-house by Michael Fletcher, SeaWorld’s VP of entertainment. Director B.T. McNicholl (Cabaret), Vocal Arranger AnnMarie Milazzo (Spring Awakening) and Music Director Ben Cohn (Wicked) all came to Nashville during audio production. Also in form NYC was drummer Sean McDaniel (Book of Mormon.) The show features around 40 classic Christmas songs in “Glee-ful” pop arrangements and opened on 11/25 to rave reviews.

The Marshalls are a gospel vocal trio form Iowa. Produced and arranged by Chris McDonald, their album featured some wonderful film and theater classics from the 40′s and 50′s.

Miami based producer Rodolfo Castillo brought 19 year-old singer James Febris (son of Venezuelan soap-opera star Jaime Araque) all the way from Ecuador to track his album. James admits that country music is where his heart is and while all of his friends back in Ecuador are listening to Reggaeton, he wears out his Taylor Swift cd’s. With Chris McDonald contracting and charting the arrangements, we brought in an all-star rhythm section featuring Shannon Forrest on drums, Tim Marks on bass, Tom Bukovac and Ilya Toshinsky on guitars and Tony Harrell playing keys. A good time was had by all.

I have been or will be the mix engineer for all the projects as well.

Here are some pics from the sessions

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Licensing explained for Indie artists and labels

I spend most of my professional life helping artists, bands and other clients through the process of music production. Like most of the people I work with, my love of making music is why I do what I do but it’s foolish to forget that we have business to take care of as well, so here are some thoughts and tools for rounding out your plan for Indie (or even Label) domination.

7 Steps To A Glorious Future

Yes, there is more to making a record than just production. This is why, for decades, people gladly signed over most of their profits (and most of their rights) to Record Labels, because they handled all the dirty work (leaving rock stars free to be rock stars). Let’s look at a rough sketch of the steps involved in making a successful master recording.

1. Planning (budgeting, financing, mechanical licensing for cover songs)
2. Production (writing, arranging, rehearsing, recording, mixing)
3. Mastering (ISRC and UPC)
4. Manufacturing (cover art, credits, physical copies, notifying PRO’s)
5. Distribution (iTunes, CDBaby, show sales)
6. Promotion (touring, social media, sync licensing)
7. Reporting/Accounting (payments to partners, publishers, investors)

Today, let’s zoom in on an area that most musicians seem to know the least about, licensing.

Mechanical License

You need a license and have to pay money to record a cover song…. the good news is that others have to have your permission and pay you to cover your songs!

A mechanical license is an agreement with the publisher of a composition that allows artists to record and distribute a composition they don’t own. US Copyright Law requires artists (and labels) to obtain a mechanical license from the publisher of that work before distributing a recording containing any composition they didn’t write. The same law guarantees that you can secure a mechanical license of any song, as long as that song has been previously recorded and released by another artist. There are standard rates for mechanical licenses, generally calculated on a per unit sale/ per song basis.

For physical media and digital download sales
1. Recordings under 5 minutes in length: $0.091 per unit (9.1 cents).
2. Recordings 5 minutes in length or longer: $0.0175 per minute or fraction thereof per unit.
3. Ringtones $0.24 per ringtone (regardless of length)

There are exceptions, circumstances when you don’t need a mechanical license. These include Public Domain (PD) compositions and Fair Use.

Public domain (PD) works are compositions for which
1. copyright protection was never available;
2. copyright protection was never properly secured; or
3. copyright protection, though may have existed, has expired or otherwise has been lost.

Sometimes you can record a protected work without a mechanical license. Fair Uses include criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, parody, and research. There are four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

If you’re not sure whether your use is considered fair, ask an expert.

How do I get a Mechanical License?

You need to know who controls the copyrights to the song you want to record. This could be the songwriter (or their family), their publisher or even their record label. To find this, you can call or visit the Harry Fox Agency website (Harry Fox has been a publisher license agency since 1927 and has the largest catalog of songs in the world). You can arrange a license through them.

RightsFlow has a great new website called LimeLight, which makes licensing a song very easy with flat rates and a simple to use website. This is one of the best Indie tools around.

Synchronization (Sync) Licensing: Where the money is

Another important license to know about is the Sync license. If you want to use someone’s music (or if someone wan’s to use your music) with a visual, including Film, TV shows or commercials, YouTube, video games, slide shows, etc, special permission called a Sync license is needed. There are no set rates for Sync licenses, and generally the more popular a song or artist is, the more expensive the license. To secure a Sync license you generally need to contact the publisher directly. Again, Harry Fox can be helpful in finding the contact info for almost any song.

There’s Gold In Them There Hills!

So if people have to pay money to use a song with a visual, how do I get people to use my song and pay me? Sometimes a film or TV director is a music fan and will use music they love in their productions (like Quentin Tarantino, for instance). But there are people called Music Supervisors who make a living recommending music for use with visuals and these are good people to reach out to.

There are currently more than a dozen online services for making your music available for sync. While these sites claim to make things easy for you, using one may also limit amount of money you’ll receive for the use of your song, so read the fine print carefully and choose wisely. Here’s a list of a few sites

LicenseQuote
Musync
Runblefish Music Licensing Store
Matchless Music
Beatpick
AttackTrax
Ricall Music Licensing
CrucialMusic
Pump Audio
Ricall Music Licensing

Things to keep in mind

Looking Back and Moving Forward

Understanding Mechanical Licenses can greatly help you with planning your project and avoid big surprise costs, while understanding Sync Licenses can help you maximize your marketing and promotion (and hopefully your income). Use these resources to discover more

US Copyright Office

Songwriter 101

On site final mix in Shamu's theater, SeaWorld of Texas

After finishing recoding and mixing this latest production for SeaWorld of Texas here at my studio, I then took the multi-channel stems and a portable Protools 9 rig to the venue to tweak the mix on site and make sure it was all it needed to be. And it’s a good thing I did. Shamu’s stadium is a dome covered, open air theater in the round. While Sea World spared no expense on acoustic treatment of the dome and a killer JBL surround playback system, there remained some unavoidable issues effecting the curve of the playback system and it was much more efficient to deal with it on the stem level of the show rather than on a final mix.

The Orca arena

To speed the process along, I brought my handy Audio Tool Box and used the RTA to analyze the playback system. The dome caused a big bump in several low frequencies, the pool of water sent varied reflections back up toward the speakers, and the monitors on the far side of the stadium sent a beautiful (but inconvenient) slap to the audience across the pool. But once I knew what I was fighting against, it was a simple matter to adjust the problem areas in the stems and, voila, the mix rocked the venue pretty well. It was also VERY important that the animals could still hear the commands given by the trainers during the show, so playback level and certain frequencies had to be considered and set carefully. In the end, both the whales and their trainers showed their satisfaction by dancing along to the final playback.

Now that mix is complete, Sea World staff engineer KC Baetz will program the show control system so that sections of the music will loop seamlessly (if an animal behavior is late happening) before moving on to the next transition. Because show producer Brian Knowlton anticipated this need, we built loopable sections and transitions in to the recording sessions with zero extra hassle (as mentioned in a previous post).

“Shamu’s Rockin’ Creepshow” is not my first production for SeaWorld, and while I was there I had a real “fan-boy” opportunity to meet the animal stars of some of the other shows I’ve worked on. Elrod, the Sea Lion was the most fun, and feeding the Beluga Whales and Pacific White-sided Dolphins was a real treat. But getting to spend a couple of days watching the Orcas and their trainers was incredible. Now I know what I want to do when I grow up!

SeaWorld's dream team: KC Baetz, Sharon Aguillen, Brian Knowlton and doug Minerd

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Recording the Equinox Jazz Orchestra with members of the Nashville Jazz Orchestra

Last week, I recorded two very different, very exciting projects. First, Equinox Jazz Orchestra leader Jeremy Davis came to town with conductor Tommy Brinson, arranger/co-producer Bach Norwood, and singers Clay Johnson and Adam Jones. Recording for their new CD took place at Sound Emporium Studio A with members of the Nashville Jazz Orchestra filling the chairs. Equinox is a 18 piece, “Rat Pack” style big band that performs songs in the true Rat Pack tradition. We recorded classics like “Old Devil Moon”, “Lady Is a Tramp, and Billy May’s Frank Sinatra arrangement of “Luck Be A Lady”(an all-time favorite of mine). The band swung hard and the singers were great, nailing master vocals live with the band.

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Next, show producer Brian Knowlton came up from Sea World San Antonio and we recorded tracks for Shamu’s Rockin’ Creepshow, a Halloween show featuring that most famous of Orcas, Shamu. Very fast and very fun, the show features cover songs by artists ranging from Metallica, Ozzy, AC/DC to Stevie Wonder and Kool and The Gang. We assembled an amazing band for the tracks (which were recorded here at My Space Recording), the incredible Tony Morra on drums, Craig Nelson playing bass, John Deaderick on keys (he kills on the B-3) and Paul Brannon and Gary Burnette on guitars. Dann Shafer and Jason Eskridge added vocals and arranger Chris McDonald wrote horn charts for brass overdubs by trumpeter Steve Patrick, sax player Mark Douthit and Chris on trombone. The tracks are just killer (if I say so myself) and good time was had by all.

I’m mixing the project in 5.1 specifically for the venue, and some unique playback techniques for the show were accommodated during both tracking and mix. Because the show features animal performers who don’t do everything with the same timing show after show, an interactive playback system is being implemented now. Sections of each musical number were extended during tracking so that musical elements can be looped, added and cued in response to the animal’s own timing. Though it requires a little extra planning during music production, I think this will be the way all of these shows run in the future. It’s easier on the animals and will feel more natural to the audience. Exciting stuff!

Making accurate, readable score parts from DAW midi tracks takes a bit more know-how, elbow grease and time than most people are willing to devote. Among the biggest challenges from session to page are the optimum stemming of notes (the grouping of sub-divided beats to be most easily readable), dynamic markings and articulations. And when working with a copyist, any vagaries in your midi file can add up to extra charges while the copyist verifies all instrument, mute and articulation changes.

Enter Audio Impressions’ Notation Switchblade. The company claims that Switchblade can save you time by interpreting your midi data and simplifying some of these chores for you. Switchblade reads standard midi files (.smf) and outputs Music XML (MXML) for importing into score preparation apps like Finale and Sibelius.

Installation

Installation on Mac OS was a snap, just open the .dmg and drag the Notation Switchblade folder to your Applications folder. But be aware that you should keep your own config files stored elsewhere on you computer, as you risk overwriting them with updates in the future if you use the config folder in the Notation Switchblade folder itself.

Midi file prep

Before importing a midi file into Switchblade, the manual suggests that all midi information be quantized in the DAW session prior to export as an .smf. This often means going through each track in your session that you want in the score and quantizing sections individually as often no one setting (i.e. 16th’s) will cover all the phrasing and can possibly even mess up any tuplets used in the track. Quantization like this must be done for direct import in Finale and Sibelius as well. Switchblade does have a quantization option that ignores any tuplet that matches one set in the Tuplet Settings page. It has a basic quantize threshold control, similar to the one in Finale’s import option, but quantizing before the file hits Switchblade still yielded better results.

Set up

Switchblade has many set-up options which must be configured before converting an .smf to an MXML file, and all must be set manually. Though data like track name or file PPQ (pulse per quarter note, the basic resolution of the midi file) are easily readable in any .smf (both Finale and Sibelius do this automatically with ease, as do all DAW’s), Switchblade surprisingly requires both to be set manually. Track names must be entered in the same order they occur in the midi file. This requires access to the original session or midi file (I ended up taking screenshots of my sessions for the purpose) so that the user can copy the info into Switchblade. For files with many tracks, this can take quite a bit of time and is an extra step not necessary for direct import into other applications.

Setting the correct PPQ requires a knowledge of the host DAW that many users might not have, as often the .smf output PPQ is different than the native PPQ of the program, leaving the user to guess the correct Switchblade setting. In our tests, a mismatched PPQ setting caused the program to crash. Switchblade ships with config files for 480 and 9600 PPQ.

Of course, you can save all of your settings (including track names, etc.) as a Switchblade config .xml file, so you can match your DAW composition template and make this process much quicker in the future.

Notation Switchblade’s Track Settings window

In addition to manual track naming, Switchblade also requires that you manually set the clef for each track, including the staff line that that track’s clef is centered on. The centering always defaults to line 2, making a manual change for bass clef to line 4 necessary. Strangely, there is no provision for grand staff (a grouped treble and bass clef), so piano and harp would need to be split into two tracks in the DAW session.

One of the most attractive and powerful features of Switchblade are the Patch Settings, facilities to make intelligent articulation markings in score parts based on key switches, controller info and other devices used for expression and articulation control in various libraries (EWSO, Vienna Ensemble, etc). However, aside from Audio Impressions’ own 70 DVZ Strings library, there are no pre-programmed Patch Settings that ship with Switchblade, leaving the user the odious chore of configuring their own. Once completed, these settings can be saved and imported for re-use, but you have to really want to spend the time to configure settings for all the libraries you use. I’d like to see Audio Impressions ship standard set-ups for the most popular libraries along with a user’s group to share further modifications to these.

Notation Switchblade’s Patch Settings window lets you configure custom settings for your VI libraries

Performance

For our tests, we used one midi file with a single track of violin parts with divisi (file 1) and another multitrack file with violin, viola, celli, basses and harp (file 2). We took the .smf’s and imported them straight into Finale 2010 and Sibelius. We then ran the files through Switchblade and imported the resultant MXML files into each program again.

 Above is an excerpt from the final copy work done from test midi file 1. Please note that the following examples have two count-off measures so the bar number differ from the final. The project copyist used Sibelius for this job.


Ex. 1 Direct import of file 1 into Sibelius. Many quarter notes have incorrectly been interpreted as eighths with rests. Note the 3 part divisi in measures 18 and 19 where the top F and then B natural sustain over the sixteenth notes that continue. This is incorrectly beamed. Also, some stems on top divisi are up instead of down and look at the interpretation of the short eighth notes in m. 32. This part isn’t bad but needs some tweaking.


Ex. 2 Direct import of file 1 into Finale. Finale ignored the divisi in m.18 and m.19, but handled all the stems in a much more readable style. Also, m.32 is correctly written as eighths, though staccato markings will need to be added. This part is very usable though it needs the missing notes added in m.18-20.

Ex. 3 Import of Switchblade MXML into Finale. Aside from the fact that Switchblade output the wrong pitches (a problem we never were able to correct with file 1), using the Switchblade file was not an improvement over direct import. The Switchblade file split the divisi beams (as did Sibelius) and spacing and placement of rests has been upset. Switchblade did, however, correctly beam the top divisi note in m.18 and m.19. It is worth mentioning that Switchblade’s file is the only one that automatically added any dynamic markings, and though we never did really tweak the ranges to get the best results, a simple velocity based scale seemed to work.

Our results from midi file 2, the multi-track file, were similar, and there were no problems with the pitches in the Switchblade MXML file this time. We could only get the harp part written on a grand staff with direct import into Finale and Sibelius, not via Switchblade. The MXML output from Switchblade offered us no improvement over direct import into Finale and Sibelius.

The Pros

Audio Impressions seems committed to filling a real need for composers. Notation Switchblade touches on automating many of the tedious tasks required when making good score parts from DAW sessions. The support response from the company was fast, courteous and thoughtful.

The Cons

No preset patch settings except for 70 DVZ
Odious manual settings of clefs, track names, tuplet settings etc.
Access to original file necessary, often difficult for copyists
No Grand Staff

In my opinion, Notation Switchblade has a long way to go to be a truly helpful translation tool. Aside from the bizarre pitch shifting we experienced (which the company assured us they are looking into), automation of a far deeper level is necessary before there is any advantage over direct import into one of today’s notation applications.

Perhaps better results are possible with a more thorough mastery of Switchblade itself, as the companies promo video illustrates. But for now, though the promise is there, a bit more work must still be done before Switchblade can fulfill it.

Reviewed for G.A.N.G., the Game Audio Network Guild. Special thanks to Mike Casteel, Casteel Music Services, for his help.

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How to make useful tempo maps for recording sessions, Part 2

Click tracks are often used in music recording, keeping ensembles playing tightly together and helping ensure that specific musical events happen exactly when they need to, as when scoring to picture. As discussed in part 1, a good tempo map will generate an audio click track that leads musicians easily and musically through performing a piece of music.

Your DAW session midi might STILL not be good enough

Recently, I was recording and mixing a project that was scored to picture. The composer did a wonderful mock-up in Logic, but as it was a tango we decided to replace all the programmed instruments with live players.

The composer (who really did a killer job on the piece) made some quick adjustments to the tempo map in Logic to create printed parts for guitar, violin and cello, saving him the time of transcribing what he had played. Unfortunately, this resulted in a click track that reacted to, rather than predicted, all the tempo changes and a printed score with phrases broken up unmusically across measures of frequent meter change. This rendered the click and the printed score unusable as it put the player’s focus on counting through tricky measures rather than playing the written lines as musically as possible.

Ex 1. This rubato guitar part was performed to picture into Logic with no click. Later, when it was decided to replace the sample with a live player, the composer tried to meter the existing part in Logic and print out the score. You can hear the resultant click in Ex 1a.

You can imagine how hard it would be to come up with a guitar performance like the mock-up if all you had was this click track.

Better, Stronger, Faster (and sometimes Slower)
To solve this problem I loaded the composer’s audio files and tempo map into a new Protools session and had a listen to it. I made a sketch of the piece (starting with the main instrument, guitar) in what I felt was the most constant meter, 4/4. Once I had a road map it was then easy to create a new tempo map in Protools that the guitar player could listen to and re-create the midi part.

Ex 2. After re-mapping, the piece is easily felt and written in 4/4 with only a couple of 3/4 measures. And, except for the small accel in m.2, is mostly played against a steady tempo. The new click and performance are heard in Ex 2a. (Note: multiple chord names are because we changed the key of the piece, and please forgive the other inaccuracies, this is just a sketch)

Lock and re-load

The mechanics of creating and adjusting tempo maps are specific to each DAW system, but there are important things to know before you begin on any platform.

When you make changes to your tempo map or conductor track, it will make changes to any tempo or tick based (unlocked) midi tracks in that session. So always make safety copies of your session before making any tempo edits (of course, you do that already.)

The simplest way to remap a piece without worry is to work from audio rather than midi files. This way your composition is locked in and changes to the tempo map will have no effect on what you are mapping to, keeping you from chasing your tail! If you need to maintain your current tempo map (as you might if you are still choosing sounds or still editing your composition), you can always make audio files of your composition and open them in a new session that you can then use for re-mapping and record your live instruments in. Later you can move your newly recorded audio back into the original session if need be.

Of course, these methods do not help if you are planning to generate a printed score part from the DAW. To do this you’ll be re-mapping a session with midi information in it, so you’ll need to freeze or lock all midi tracks before you re-map. If you don’t, any changes to the tempo map will effect the timing of your midi, changing playback.

Check the user manual for your DAW for the specifics on locking or freezing midi (freezing midi as midi information is different than freezing it as audio, be sure to do the former.) In Protools this can be done by changing each midi track to sample based rather than tick based timing. If you want midi events in Logic to keep their positions regardless of tempo, you can lock them to SMPTE time.

Now you can manipulate the tempo map manually or using tap tempo (tapping along with your piece is often a quick way to get a smooth, musical map). When mapping manually, going measure by measure can result in an unsteady, jumpy click so try to go the longest amounts of time you can before making subtle adjustments to tempo, and then use significant beats to adjust to. Be sure to have a click to listen to while making all tempo map adjustments. If the click sounds annoying or hard to follow you’ll want to change it. NOTE: for the purpose of this article, I am ignoring beat detection, auto beat mapping, etc, but most of these tools do work with a bit of tweaking.

Make your print music match your map

Though vastly improved these days, printing a playable score from a DAW is still tricky and does depend greatly on a carefully crafted tempo and meter map. Often it is simpler to export your midi to a notation program (like Finale or Sibelius) or even to write parts out by hand (many times, hiring a skilled copyist can be the most effective solution). Regardless of how you create your playable score, you’ll need to be sure that it matches your click track in meter, number of measures and tempo events.

If your music is one solid tempo, simply note the tempo, click subdivision and meter at the top of your chart and off you go. If, however, you have varying tempi and meter you’ll need to go through and mark all accels, rits, ralls, etc.

Tempo changes should be marked over the staff and specifically over the section of the measure where the change begins. If a rit. begins on beat 3 of a measure, try to place the making over the middle of the bar if possible.

Subdividing the click further during big tempo changes can be helpful, but be sure to mark any changes to click subdivision where they occur.

Coda

The more useful information you include in your printed music, the better your chances of running a pleasant, professional and cost effective recording session.

Tracking San Luis at Myspace Recording, Nashville

Recently, Producer Iker Gastaminza came in from Miami with two of the founding members of Venezuelan pop sensation Voz Vies. Santiago and Luis Castillo are finishing production of their first release under the new group name San Luis. Part of the new sound they were looking for was the synergy of great musicians tracking live, something done less and less often in latin pop music. Toward this end Iker suggested coming to Nashville to work with myself and arranger Chris McDonald.

Chris and I assembled an amazing group pf players for the gig: John Hobbs, piano, Tony Morra, drums, Jerry McPherson, guitar, Mark Hill, bass and Mike Daly on pedal steel.

Later that day we overdubs brass on a song and then a 15 piece string section on two other cuts. All in all, a fun and musical day.

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RCL’s preview video