Friday, February 26, 2010

Techniques of 408 2

This week, we were taught how to use delay plug-ins to their full potential.
  • Vibrato - Is used to create a rapid to subtle variation in pitch. This is most commonly used when dealing with a 'pitchy' vocalist, and is also almost always relevant with bowed sting instruments. To achieve this effect insert a short delay plug in directly into the channel you want. Set the mix fader to 100% and the delay between 3-8 milliseconds. Put the modulation depth to approximately 25%, more or less depending on the effect you are going for. Adjust the rate to taste and set the feedback to 0%.
  • Automatic Double Tracking (ADT) - Was founded at Abby Road Studios when John Lennon was searching for an effect that sounded as if the vocals had been tracked twice. To utilize this effect, insert a medium delay plugin onto an stereo aux track that has the instrument that you want double tracked, being bussed to it. Set the mix to 100%, with a delay between 2o-50 milliseconds. Set the modulation depth to approximately 40% and the rate somewhere between .1-1 hrz. The feedback should be set to 0%.
  • Chorusing - Is used to create a 'Chorus' effect of a desired instrument. Place a medium delay on the actual track with a mix between 20-70%. The higher the mix, the more chorus effect you will hear. Set the delay time anywhere from 20 to 80 milliseconds. The mod depth should be around 10%. Rate anywhere from .1 to 10 hrz. In addition to just chorusing a single track, you can also bus tracks to a stereo aux track that has a the chorus set up on it to hear multiple instruments chorused.
  • Flanging - Common effect that can be described as being a sweeping sound. On a mono aux track, place a short delay. Buss the instruments you want to be flanged to the aux track. Set the mix to 50% and the delay time between 1 and 20 milliseconds. Set the depth somewhere greater than 25%. Set the rate to the grove of the song so the flange isn't random sounding. Adjust the feedback fader to taste...how much do you want to hear the flange?!
Another useful mixing tip that we learned was how to multiply signals using the board's patch bay. From the Pro Tools output on the patch bay take a TT cable and place it into one of the mult TT inputs. From here take another TT cable out of one of the other two or three available slots on the mult section. Now you can place the TT into a channel on the board to mix. You can use this routing scheme in order to have a signal that can be mixed many different ways. For example, you can have two snare sounds that are being mixed slightly differently. One might have a slower attack of compression applied for a snappier sound, while the other track has faster compression for a softer sound. The two tracks can then be adjusted to taste during the mix.

On Wednesday the class learned about generalized equalization guidelines. I learned that boominess usually occurs in the harmonics of an instrument. Also, if you take out bass frequencies, you can create the illusion that something is further away.
  • 50 hrz - Boost this frequency to add fullness to a kick drum. Cut at this frequency to take 'boominess' of electric bass.
  • 100 hrz - Boost at this frequency to achieve a 'harder' kick drum, electric bass, or piano. Boost to add body to snare. Cut to take away 'boominess' on piano.
  • 200 hrz - Boost to add fullness to vocals (depending on singer/key of song). Boost to add body and fullness to snare (snare and crack can get lost during a boost at this frequency). Cut to take out 'gong' sound of cymbals. Cut at this frequency to take out muddiness of vocals (if overpowering the rest of the mix.
  • 400 hrz - Boost at this frequency to add clarity to electric bass (can add a growl and create an aggressive sound). Cut at this frequency to take away ambiance of cymbals (cymbal wash, can create stick sound definition).
  • 800 hrz - Boost at this frequency to add attack to bass (string noise can be increased).
  • 1.5 k - Boost at this frequency to add even more attack to electric bass. Cut at this frequency to out 'cheapness' sound of electric guitars.
More frequencies to come...!

408 Production Synopsis 3

Session Update

This week group C was able to finally finish up the drum takes for all 7 songs. The last song was Joe's song and Lucas was able to play it cleanly in a few takes. We had a lot of fun deciding what Lucas was going to play for the bridge section, which has a Latin feel. He played a groovy quarter note pattern on the ride while playing triplets on his bell. Lucas also added some flare to the last chorus of the song when he played a polyrhythm 3 over the 4. When we finished the session on Tuesday we were all relieved to move on to the next part of tracking: bass.
Earlier today Joe finished bass for the 2 songs that he wrote. Both songs were tracked rather smoothly. The most important part that we focused on was getting a great tone from the amp and the millennia, which we were using. Joe started out tracking the first song using a pick and playing the syncopated rhythm. We quickly decided that this rhythm wasn't appropriate and he started to play straight eighth notes while using his fingers. Something still wasn't gelling right, so eventually we convinced him to use a pick, which easily sounded the best of the three approaches we tried. The signal routing that we used for the bass was somewhat confusing. Coming out from the bass was a quarter inch splitter. One end when into the Millennia and then into Pro Tools. The other line went into the GK head that Joe owns. From the head the signal went into the midilab where the cabinet was set up on the floor of the whisper room with baffling around it. On the Cabinet was a 421 that served as the main mic for the speaker signal. As well as the cabinet signal, a pre eq signal was taken from the head and into a DI and finally into the patch bay in the midilab. In total we tracked 3 bass signal. All 3 sounds had a distinctive personality. The 421 on the cab was the most 'boomy' and 'farty' sounding. The Millennia signal carried more string noise and a super clean characteristic. I felt the Direct Amp signal was the most pleasant as it had a round, full sound, and also didn't have as much string noise compared to the Millennia. Next week, both sessions are reserved for finishing up tracking bass parts.

Friday, February 19, 2010

408 Production Synopsis 2


Session Updates 2/19/2010


This week on the agenda, our plan was to finish our drum recordings. On Tuesday night, with a little extra time available, we were able to get three songs finished up. The first song to be complete was a song that I wrote called 'Brainwashed.' It was great to see Lucas put his skills to use and create wonderful drum fills over sections of odd metered phrasing. We completed Lucas's own song next, which was very different from any song we've ever recorded as a group. His song consists strictly of 'blastbeating,' though there is a very small 'pop rock' section and blues vamp also present. We finished up Joe's first song in a few takes and we left the studio feeling very content with what we had accomplished.

Before we left on Tuesday, we went through and planned what we wanted to finish on Friday. We came to the conclusion that it might be best to re-look at my first song as Lucas had some problems performing the parts correctly during the first session of tracking. We decided to only look at my song once Joe's second song was finished. If time allowed, we'd try and re-track my first song.

For Friday's session we came prepared to finish up the last drum part for Joe's song. We set up the session and loaded up Joe's scratch track for his last song. Lucas played though the song a few times and realized that the rhythms weren't in sync with the click and the phrasing wasn't quite correct. We spent some time trying to figure out what was going on, but in the end we just sent Joe to re-track the song while paying strict attention to the click and the phrasing. While Joe was creating a new scratch track, Lucas was able to redo parts of my first song and complete the drums in a fashion that everyone was happy with. Unfortunately, by the time we completed my song, there was no time for us to go back and finish up Joe's song. We still have one drum track to record for our next lab on Tuesday.


Brief Album Concept Update


While group D was utilizing the studio after our lab on Friday, we were able to brainstorm and come up with a 'close to complete' album concept. The name we have chosen for the band is 'The Brushfire War.' The tentative name for the album is 'The Treaty Del Amor.' The story concept takes place in the future, in a world where only 1 tree is left and is the only plant sustaining and keeping the world population alive. Two opposing 'mega-cities' will be fighting for the tree so they can clone it and use it for genetic engineering. One of the city names that we have so far will be 'Valoria' which represents the word 'Valor.' The other city will have a similar meaning...we want the cities and the opposing sides to be ambiguous in that neither will be stated as being good or bad. The Album will start off with the song 'Caught Up,' which will introduce the listener to the war torn plot where two cities are fighting. Joe's first song is next on the track list and will include an description of the characters involved and more plot details. The third song is entitled, 'Neon Cannonball.' The title of the song is going to reflect the name of a ship being used in the war (tentatively). It will also serve as the 'chase' part in the timeline, where one of the main characters will chase the other and finally meet at the last remaining tree. Hence the name of the next song, 'Lover's Tree.' Lucas's song is next and will be the turmoil, or the 'golden mean' part of the plot. The lovers find out that they are enemy and are supposed to be killing one another. Instead of falling for each other, they leave one another in fear of being killed for their love. They are driven to hate the world they live in. Instead of fighting for peace, they are consumed in the war and keep telling themselves that they are fight for the just side. The next song is called 'Brainwash' and has to deal with the fact that the characters are convincing themselves that they are hopeless towards the situation of loving someone from the other side. The last song concludes the story with the tree dying, taking along humanity with it. Somehow a fire starts and the tree is left to burn. This can tie into the name of our group as well. We want to have the ending somewhat ambiguous, but we are working on tying things up a little nicer. We have also considered having the lovers be military scientist who are trying to save the tree, but end up killing it in the end when a wrong chemical creates a spark.


Friday, February 12, 2010

Techniques of 408 1

What I have learned in 408 so far....


I am really excited with all the new techniques and tricks that we have been learning in 408! I know that I will be able to achieve a much fuller and professional sounding mix by putting these lessons to use. Here are examples of some of these new approaches I have learned and how they are created:

  • Natural Reverb - To understand this concept we set up a 57 in the foyer of the music hall while close micing the rest of the kit. We recorded the drums just enough to get a sample. We made sure to line up the transients of the 57 to that of the close mics. This is because of the slight time delay that it takes to reach the 57 in the foyer. We then created a new audio track and duplicated the original snare onto the new track. To 'strip silence' the rest of the kit in between the snare hits we used the apple 'u' on the keypad to get the job done. We also used apple 'n' to create fades for the newly cropped audio. On the new edited snare track we made a send to the foyer 57 track. We placed a compressor on the foyer 57 track as well to mask discrepancies in the volume level. A eq can also be placed on this track to get rid of some of the unwanted bass build up. On the foyer track now add a gate plug in. Make the key input of the plug in set to the send number of the edited snare track. Also, engage the 'side chain blue key' on the gate plug in. Once all these principals are in place, the gate will be opened when ever the snare is hit and result in the natural reverb from the foyer. Adjust to taste!
  • Fake Reverb - After you understand how to use gates and the side chain function, many other possibly arise for other creative ideas. You can add 'fake' reverb to a snare track in the same manner as the natural verb, but instead of the send going to the foyer 57 track, you create an aux track with the appropriate reverb plug in in place. The rest of the gain structure and signal chain is the same in regards to how the gate is opened and reverb is heard.
  • Reverse Reverb - This technique can be achieved by duplicating a track (in class we used a piano to demonstrate) and reversing the newly created track. You then can add a reverb plug in to the reversed track and adjust to taste. When the reverb is flattering the reversed sound, add a buss to the track and send it to an empty recordable audio track. Then play back the reverb while recording it to the new track. After this is complete, line up the transients of the reverb track with the initial dry track. This will create an other worldly effect and give a strange, but welcomed presence to anything that is slow moving.
  • Trigger and Tone Generation Using Drums - This is a neat effect when you want to add rhythmic pitches to a tune, reinforce a drum beat, or create modulation of tracks in respect to the tempo and movement of the song. Set up sends to an aux track to start (from the drum tracks that you want the triggers to react from...usually the kick and snare.) Create a tone using the tone generator in protools (usually 42 hz or 55 hz to reinforce the kick, around 5khz to reinforce the snare). Now make sure gates are set up on the track you want to tone to come from. The gate will 'hold back' the tone until the drum is hit. This will then release the gate using the side chain function and create a tone that will help fatten up what could be an otherwise dull sound. You can also use this same approach when trying to manipulate an instrument and create a delay or tremolo that is perfectly in time and rhythm of a drum grove. In class we used a guitar and piano to demonstrate. When a gate was placed on the guitar or piano track, it would open up with the grove of the song and create a pulse feel similar to a delay or tremolo. From here you can add more effects like delay after the gate so that the feel is natural and the gate decays in a musical manner.
I hope to use every one of these techniques on the album; my group has already talked over how we can apply them to parts of our songs to add space, extra dimension and tension between our pieces. Yay!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

408 Production Synopsis 1


Production Schedule


I came into the semester having completed two songs over winter break. I spent many hours in my garage and bedroom recording drums, guitars, and vocals to make a rough demo to have prepared for class. I used this free time over break to explore a few of the cheap preamps and compressors that I own to understand how to properly utilize and route outboard gear. Once I felt that I had messed around enough with the mixes, I sent mp3’s to the rest of my group so that they could relate to where I was coming from. In the fall semester we had talked a little bit about the kind of album that we wanted to create in respect to each other’s favorite genre or popular band. To meet at the ‘middle ground,’ we figured we would have to produce an experimental hard rock album. Of course we would all bring unique sounding tunes to the table, but we really wanted to make everything sound as cohesive as possible.

After the first class time, I quickly charted my songs along with the rest of the group. We met at our scheduled lab times as well as many other times during the first couple of weeks to get the songs up to recordable standards to start drum tracking. When we got together during these rehearsal times, it was apparent that though are songs were all original by themselves them seemed to all be dramatic enough to create a complete flow for an album. We discussed what kind of concept we wanted to create for the album and we all agreed that it would be about a relationship gone wrong. Because most of the lyrics we had already written were about the topic it was a very obvious choice. Each one of the songs plays an important part when looking at the album as a whole.

We considered ‘the golden mean’ approached and approximately 66.6 of the way through the album is the climax which will be a ‘fight’ between the man and woman we are discussing. We have talked about having the album title be ‘she verse me.’ The album concept will deal with topics that most everyone can relate to when having a relationship, but will also have a unique identify when considered song by song. We have lyrics for 4 songs complete and the rest of the lyrics will be written around these 4. The first song for the album is about making choices for what you believe in and not getting lost in the crowd. Another song touches on the topic of infidelity in a relationship and how it can hurt the other person involved. A third song is about falling into a dark place in your life after a breakup has occurred and how to find yourself so that you can regain confidence in a world that has treated you cruelly. The last song on the album is about reaching a point where you don’t really understand what you ever saw in the other person you once where so attracted to. We hope to create a protagonist character to help identify with the many situations that the songs describe. We have some names written down that we are looking over, but nothing is finalized yet. ‘The golden mean’ song is one that Lucas brought to the table. It is the most violent song that we wrote and it features Lucas playing ‘blastbeats’ on the drums. We have talked about having the lyrics be yelled/screamed as this will be right after the character has found out that his partner cheated on him. Another thought that we have is to include an into to the record that introduces important lyrics, a certain feel, or phrases that are essential to understanding the story line. In my mind I hope to make it similar to the ‘Dark Side of Moon’ album where the heart beat starts and random noises are introduced that are heard throughout the rest of the album.

We have a song order made up that is pretty close to being finalized, but we are going to look at the songs once more after all the lyrics are finished and keys signatures are figured out so the order is binding and the motion is fully considered.


Interpersonal Issues


I have had very little issues with my other group members. Rehearsals, writing, engineering, and the production processes has gone very smoothly so far. One thing we ran into was that Joe wasn’t happy with the second song that he wrote. We have all worked really hard to push ourselves to write really technically challenging songs without disregarding the emotional aspect that is equally as important...this album is very ambitious on everyone’s part. Joe has since rewritten the song; which if I do say so myself, was very well written to start with. We have been working as a team that is very much understanding of each others situation. Since we have the same group members as last semester we are able to know what to get to work on without even talking to each other...we just do it. Our sound is a lot more refined and each song has been written while closely considering the feel of the rest of the album.


Rehearsal Issues


The one issues that is obvious when considering rehearsal is the lack of space and time available for practicing. The music hall has been overbooked and with the addition of mpa 307 this semester, it has been really hard to work in any extra hours. My group has been fortunate enough to squeeze in all the extra hours our busy schedules permit. Usually we have been meeting during our lab times for practice, and end up staying for an extra hour or so chiseling what we have to work with. Sending files by email has also helped to better comprehend what we have in mind for our songs.


Technical Issues


There have been a few technical problems that we have faced already this semester. For some reason the computer seems to have slowed down immensely when trying to transfer data after a session. We had to leave an external drive in over night after one session because 2 gigs were estimated at taking over an hour to transfer. To solve this problem I have been bringing in my laptop computer for every session so that we can plug the mothership directly into my computer to copy the data. Unfortunately no one in my group owns a firewire drive so we can’t record audio directly to a device that we own...the computer idea works pretty fast though.

Another problem we where forced to deal with was considering which overhead mics to use. The 414’s have been absent for the last couple of weeks and when thinking over which of the other mics to use, we ended up using the 122’s. The only other option was using the 4050’s as a spaced pair, but I think they are a rather bright mic, so we opted against the idea.


Technical Choices


The only instrument that we have tracked so far has been drums. We have written out what we plan on using for the rest of the album, but haven’t really focused on it since we haven’t gotten that far yet.

For drums we used the 122’s as overhead in spaced pair (we used the 414’s for the most recent session.) The d112 was used as kick in placed between the shell and batter skin. The Re20 was used as kick out and placed slightly off center a foot away from the port in the kick. The rack and floor tom had a 421 placed on it. The e22’s were used on the top and bottom of the snare. For the first session we used the 4050 as a hi-hat mic, and the most recent session we used the gold 414. We placed a m160 out 10 feet and 10 high as a relatively close room mic to capture some ambience. We placed a 57 in one of the alcoves for the first session, facing the bare plywood. We hoped this would create some strange reverb that might fit nicely in the track. It ended up sounding rather warm when compared to what I remember of the foyer 57 we tried. For the second session we included a second alcove 57 mic on the opposite side as well as a foyer 57 for kicks. We ran a problem with using so many room mics so I know we already had to scratch one of them during tracking...but I don’t remember which one. We plan on using the 414’s as overhead for the remainder of the drum tracking. Most of the other set up with stay the same for the rest of drum tracking.