408 Production Synopsis 9

This week our group spent most of our lab time setting up the tracks for the mixing process. This was done by creating group sums for each prominent section of the songs (drums, vocals, bass, rhythm and sometimes others.) We spent some time tracking gang vocals for one song in room 100 using a 414 in cardioid. We decided to not use baffling so that the sound would be more spacious sounding and not dead. We had a piano part that we recorded last week and used it as the vocoding instrument for a vocal line. It took us around an hour for us to tweak the vocoder to sound like what we were envisioning, but we are really happy with the sound now. Earlier today we spent most of our time doing drum replacement and vocal comping. We have the kick and snare sounds dialed for about half of our songs now and we are all getting really fast at the replacement process. We also did a few background vocal takes for Neon Cannonball and Chad feels that everything is completely tracked for the song. We are planning on meeting up in the next couple of days outside of class to complete the rest of the drum replacements.

408 Production Synopsis 8

This week all the main lead vocal parts were finished for the album. We used the same set up and settings as we have been using for the previous weeks: CM7, Neve, Distressor. Everything has been going fairly smoothly with the exception of myself getting a little frustrating with my singing takes...I just need to practice and get better. We met twice outside of our scheduled lab time this week in order to rough in mixes so that we will be one step closer once mixing OTB time comes around. The first step that we are trying to accomplish is to use replacement on a lot of the snare hits. We also have been messing and playing with guitar tones as we tracked almost all the guitar parts dry and have been figuring out what tones we want coming out of the sansamp plugin. There are so many choices! On top of that, now that we know how to use elastic audio, it seems like we will never be able to work on the mixes enough to how we could ideally make them sound. Other than the snare replacement, we are working on cleaning up the drum sections, making the bass fit in the middle with the kick and snare, as well as getting the vocals to sit appropriately. We plan on finishing up all recording with a few auxiliary sounds such as wood block, tambourine, piano, vocoder, backing vocals and gang vocals.

408 Production Synopsis 7

During the last few weeks of tracking, finishing vocals has been the main objective. We have been using the Wunder CM7 in the midilab with the vocal booth walls as baffling. The main signal path has been CM7-Neve Pre-Distressor-PTs. The purpose of the Distressor has been to slightly even out vocals so that they are a little closer to being ready for final mixing down. Depending on the material, the parameters for the Distressor have been as follows: ratio either 3:1 or 6:1, input 5, attack 5, release 4, output 4, high pass engaged. We have finished vocals for 4 songs and are well on our way to being done with tracking. Other than vocals, we have been utilizing our time to complete a ton of auxiliary sounds. For the first song on the album, Caught Up, we have a military march sound happening. A marching snare was double tracked with a 57 in room 100 with a small amount of baffling. Marching bass was also recorded, though we have already talked about it not being necessary. Many tracks of stomping on the wood floor has been recorded, as well as chanting. Toms were also recorded with a single 414 in omni, they sound super open and huge. Toms and claps were also recorded for Neon Cannonball. A kaos pad was used on Neon Cannonball as well.

One of the coolest effects that we have recorded thus far has been achieved by using the roland vocoder. It took a lot of getting used to, as the signal path was quite confusing, but we were able to get the hang of it. We created an auxiliary track in PT for the guitar track that we wanted to use as the vocoder music input. Sends were created from the guitar tracks to the new aux and sent out to the patch bay. From here, a TT to TS was used to send the signal into the vocoder's line level at 0dB. We used a 57 and plugged it into the microphone input on the vocoder to act as the vocoders 'voice trigger.' The microphone level was set to approximately 10 o'clock. The wet/dry mix was set to fully wet to ensure only the vocoder's sound was being heard and not what I was speaking. The volume was set to approximately 3 o'clock. The frequency adjustment had the biggest boost in the mid range, or between the 6 and 7 knobs. The lows were almost nonexistent and tapered off below the 6 knob. Above 7, 8-9-10 were around 0dB, while the knob 11 was fully 'off.' We used the 'Vocal Amp' output with the level selector at high. A quarter inch was taken from the vocal amp and into the millennia; from here the signal was routed through the patch bay and back into PT. A new 'voco' audio track was then made in PT to record what we were hearing from the vocoder.

It took quite a while to get used to tracking with the vocoder, as the guitar part that we were recording with was very syncopated, which isn't an ideal sound. In the end we used a couple of short phrases that went along with the lyrics of the song for a powerful birdge section.

408 Production Synopsis 6

This week group C was able to finish up electric guitar parts with our usual set up and continue on to vocals and a few auxiliary sounds. We tracked stand up bass sections for 2 songs in room 100 using a 414 a few inches away from the f hole, as well as 122 about 3 feet back for some added depth. Additional lead lines were done in one of Chad's song with a whammy pedal to give a unique feel. We did some textural experimentation with 3 delay pedals to give some background excitement and drive. The delays were all on different setting and once we had a good sample we just started turning knobs to the rhythm of the songs and it turned out super cool and spacey. Acoustic guitar was tracked for 2 songs in the midilab with a bunch of baffling set up. A 414 was used about a foot away from the neck joint. A shaker and clave part was recorded for a latin section that we have in one song. We used a 57 in the center of room 100 to give a bigger sound, considering the depth that we were able to capture in the big, open room. Vocals were tracked for one song so far using a a 421 and the CM7 in the midilab with heavy baffling. We ran the two mics through the neve pres and into the distressors in opto mode before protools. When listening back to the vocals, its obvious that we need to pay more attention to the compressor settings. All the vocals are definitely useable, but some of the phrases sounded a little lopsided because of the effect that the compressor had on them. Luckily, I was happy with the performance I gave, which rarely happens, and I think it will be easy to salvage the takes. One thing that we need to remember is to engage the high pass filter on the distressors because I think it pulled down the level awkwardly at some points.

Techniques of 408 4

This week during class, time was spent by each group getting some practice in the studio for mid terms. While this was happening, I was able to start diving into the world on Digital Audio, which is the topic of my mid term presentation. I have a long list of available sources and a rough outline of the topics that I will be covering. The area's of concentration that I will be focusing on are: The History of Digital Audio, Analog-to-Digital and Digital-to-Audio Conversion, Sample Rates, Bit Depth and Resolution, Digital's Subjective sound quality, Word Clock and Jitter, Storage Formats, and Digital Consoles.

Since most of the time in class was spent reviewing this week, I feel it's necessary to touch on a few key points of the presentation given by Alan Silvestri earlier today. When listening to Alan speak, it is clear that Alan loves what he does and he is very grateful to have 'fell' into the practice of creating movie scores. Because I don't necessarily want to write music for movies, when he was giving advice on how to approach working with movie directors I tried to apply his theories instead to audio production skills.

One thing he mentioned was 'when a scene can carry itself, you have a world of possibilities, you can go in any experimental direction (or theme) that you might highlight a feeling and be most appropriate.' I thought this statement to be really interesting. If a song is great, maybe the production possibilities are greater. You might considering adding more instrumentation, or adding a lot of auxiliary noises that compliment the song.

Alan said that 'if you are asked to do it, you are ready.' I think this is great a way to look at opportunity. It can also let an individual know if they are doing a good enough time putting there name out into the community and striving for something that can be recognized.

Alan was asked, 'what creates and how do you find a creative flow in a partnership?' It is important to be able to communicate clearly and effectively. He mentioned how sometimes it is not so important to talk technically as it is important to talk conceptually. An example would be; this part needs to be bigger and have more impact, rather than saying, have strings come in at this point and have a percussion break there.

A few times Alan has worked on a movie where the director has said, 'I need you to make a big sounding score because I don't have any big shots.' I think this can apply to music where a songwriter has songs, but nothing more. A producer's job should be to know how a song can grow and formulate from a rather small seed to a gigantic tree.

Someone asked Alan how he approached movie scores of sequels. Alan said that he approaches them similarly as any movie, but that he also takes into consideration the previous musical ideas. I think this can apply to recording a group that has already put out an album and is looking to improve upon there sound with a second record. Alan said that he feels its important to revisit what was good about the music of a previous project and how it can be either reinvented or completely redone to better a specific purpose. Expand on the good and continue to create your own vision of what it can be.

408 Production Synopsis 4

Session Update

This week during recording lab, Group C was able to complete all electric bass tracks that we plan on having on the album. There are a few auxiliary bass sounds that we plan on recording later (possibly ebow and stand up bass parts), but all primary parts are fully complete. Joe did a wonderful job executing all the tunes, especially when working on the song, 'Lover's Tree,' which I though would be quite difficult considering there is no click on the track and many retards. We chose to record this particular song without the click to give a very organic sound and it definitely creates 'fresh air' when compared to the rest of the album. It just feels like its live and spacious. We used the same set up as the previous week for DI's and microphone choices, however, on the last few songs we just recorded the bass directly into Millennia DI. It just allowed us to save on set up time so we could get right to recording great bass takes.

For next week, the plan is to try and finish all rhythm guitar tracks. We have talked about recording all the guitars with the same amp, but we've agreed to try out both Joe's and my personal amp to try and find the best amp/guitar arrangement. We had a surprising find today when tracking some scratch/trail guitar parts because we found that Chad's guitar has a intonation issue. The high e string on his guitar either needs to be intonated or a tuner adjustment. We would get the guitar into tune with itself, and after a take it sounded as if it were out of tune once again. Chad is going to try and fiddle with the bridge and try and get it sounding better, and if that doesn't work he's going to take it into a repair shop.

The recording process is going rather smoothly and we feel that we are right on schedule to complete tracking in a timely manner.

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.

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.