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.

Recording Presentation Week 2 Notes

Sound Reinforcement (Live)

Electricity and sound physics: volts, electromotive force; Ohms, resistance in DC; current flow, AC/DC ground; direct current, electrons go one way (sound cables); alternating current, electrons (both ways). Articulation loss happens when 15% of consonants are lost, poor speech is heard. Make sure proper gain structure is kept. Different types of mics used: Piezo mics, wireless systems, lapels (lavalieres), boundary mics (PZM's), Shotgun mics. When mixing for live mix, take into consideration of frequency response curve, proximity effect, unbalanced mic cables, distortion and dynamic compression (clipping). You can use limiters on all speaker s to make sure feedback level isn't reached. Noise Gates are useful if mic isn't always being used. Loudspeakers never have flat frequency responses so use an EQ to carve out resonate frequencies. Crossovers are used to send certain frequencies to certain speakers. Horn speakers are used for high frequencies (tweeters). Passive Crossovers send signal to all speakers while active crossovers choose what frequencies are sent where. Large speakers sometimes use tweeters in the back to compensate for high frequency loss. It is important to have mixing board off-center in venue so that every position can be taken into account when mixing.

California Studios

Gadgetbox Studio - Andy Zenczak - Started out with 4 track, plays drums and piano, inspired by John Mcentire from Tortoise. His studio has 5 inches of space between walls and floors. Also used bamboo for some baffling.

M.A.R.S. Studio - Ken Capitanich - One room for live tracking and mixing. Started out recording live shows. Likes Digital Performer and loves using tube equipment.

Indigital Studio - Brody Bergholz - started out in a band and has learned through school and master classes.

Suspect Studios - David Gakle - Large live room in studio. Also a drummer.

7 South - Steve Powell - Invested in studio with some friends. Established in the 80's in Santa Barbara.

Conway Studios - Buddy Brundo - Uses an SSL XL console.

Common Factors of Studios: tube mics and analog gear, comfort in appreciated, most owners teach, freelancing is important, started by buying a building and starting to record, know a lot about the technical side of things.

Microphones

Basically a transducer that turns air pressure to an electrical signal. Alex Bell widespread the use through the invention of the telephone. Though the telephone mics used used carbon diaphragms which have a narrow frequency range. Dynamic mics use a voice coil to achieve electromagnetic induction. Requires a large physical movement, which is why it is best for drums, transients become softer. Ribbon mics use an aluminum 2-3 micron thick ribbon. Condenser mics are based on the electrostatic principal. Created by a circuit between 2 plates (1 which is moveable). Speakers can be used as microphones, though a limited frequency response is represented. XLR cable sends signal via Pin 2 (positive) and pin 3 (negative) and pin 1 is ground.

Phil Spector

Phil was born a Russian Jew and possibly inbred by cousin as parents. His mom was very overprotective and demanding. He became a natural at the guitar and started taking lessons with Barny Kessel. After high school he worked as a court room scribe. Began writing songs and went to Fold Star Studios to record the song, 'To Know Him was To Love HIm,' which reached 88 on the billboard charts. Phil is introduced to Brill Building and Phil's first production 'Corrian for Hill and Range' went to #9 on the billboard charts. Started using Gold Start as main studio and produced 'I Love How You Love Me.' Ronnettes 'Be My Baby' charted at #1 and is claimed to be Phil's best interpretation of the wall of sound. Often times he started the recording process by using a guitar track. He was know to mess with drums a lot and was very particular in how they sounded. All of his sessions costed tons of money because of how long it would take to record and get everything right. His dad committed suicide when he was young and it affected him greatly though out his career. Hired karate instructors to become his bodyguards. The song 'Mountain High, River Deep,' by Tina Turner was the beginning of the end for his wall of sound sound. The general public started to follow artist who they could follow as they developed there sound such as Dylan and The Beatles. When working with the Ramones, Phil forced them to record with strings and session musicians instead of the actual band members.

Chess Records

Chess was a record company founded by Leonard and Phil Chess which primarily focused on monopolizing and popularizing blues music. Notable artists included: Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Eddie Boyd. A lot of songs that were written by Chess artists were taken by popular white artist of the time and turned into big hits (Bob Dylan, Elvis, The Doors, Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin). Many female artists were made popular by the label: Jackie Ross, Koko Taylor and many others. In the late 50's, Chuck Berry joined the label and was a big part of getting the word out about Chess.

The Beatles

The Beatles formed in 1960 and had their first EMI session on June 6th, 1962. Their first proper session happened on September 4th, 1962 when Ringo was part of the session. For the song 'Love Me Do,' a session player was brought in to play drums. Please Please Me was released in 1963 and was recorded in a single day. It was engineered by Norman Smith, who encouraged instrument leakage for a live feel. It was recorded with a BTR-3 twin track machine. The record went to #1 of UK charts for 30 weeks. Mics for the record included: drums (2 mics) STC 4038 ribbon mic for OH 4033 - A dynamic and ribbon for kick. Vox AC 30 amps for guitar, miced with U47 or U48 set to cardioid. The U48 set to figure 8 was used for vocals. By January 1964, The Beatles used a 4 track, overdubs were done without headphones. A standard mix consisted of track 1, panned hard left, track 2 and 3 in the middle, and track 4, panned hard right. Half speed overdubbing was done on 'In My Life' with the piano solo. Ken Townsend developed Automatic Double Tracking, which was used quite often.

San Francisco Recording Studio's In the 1960's

Original Coast Reocrders was purchased by Bill Putnam, who was the first to use artificial verb, multiband EQ and stereo recordings. Commercial Recorders was a studio that did mainly voice over and worked a lot with SF Giants commercials. Columbus recorders was part of the sentinel building and worked with artist such as The Grateful Dead and Credence Clearwater Revival. The dead session were very disorganized and one engineer mentioned that it was like 'trying to organize a school of fish.' Golden Gate Records did a wide range of projects, from big bands to orchestras. The Great Society recorded there and 'Somebody to love' was done there. Roy Chen Recording featured recording on a budget and was located in China Town. This recording studio used a bunch of high end gear and eventually went out of business due to the low amount of income they were making. Pacific High Recording featured an indie, experimental, and a laid back atmosphere.

Gates, Compression, Expanders, Limiters

Gates were originally used as noise gates for analog recordings. Gated Verb was discoverd during a Peter Gabrial session using a SSL 4000 board while Phil Collins was playing drums and heard the sound of the drums through the talk back. The source snare was sent into a reverb unit and then to a gate. Limiters are used to prevent over modulation. Analogy for compression: ratio=gravity. The greater the radio, the greater the amount of gravity, where the signal can jump up as high. A limiter is also used as a maximizer. The Fairchild is considered the holy grail of limiters and compressors. Famous compressors include, Urei 1176, Teletronix LA2A, Anamod 670 and ADL 670 (fairchild clones), and a Dramwer DSS201. An expander is used to make loud parts louder and quieter parts softer.

Beginning of Trident Studios

Trident studios opened in 1967. Hey Jude was recorded there with an 8 track recorder. The studio was once home to a very famous Bechstein Grand Piano which was lost sometime later. Malcom Toft started making consoles because he couldn't find a console which he thought had the right requirements for what he needed. When making the first board, he took into account the S/N ratio and Equivalent Input Noise (signal level gain). Started his own console company in 1971 where business was made by word of mouth.

Abby Road Studios

Abby Road Studios is located in London at what used to be a 9 bedroom town home. Now it is broken into 3 different studios. Studio 1 is used for orchestra recordings. Land of Hope and Glory was its first recording in 1931. During the 1940's it was used to create propaganda for the BBC and the war. 'Oh Mein Papa' was the first song recorded at Abby Road to reach #1. The Beatles used it as main studio and perfected controlled feedback to use for recordings. Flanging was also a new technique to be used at Abby Road. Many films and famous albums have been recorded there including: Return of the Jedi being mixed at Abby Road and Radiohead recording The Bends and OK Computer there.

Recording Presentation Week 1

The two presentations that were given this week featured two widely know producers: Butch Vig and George Martin. Early in his career, Butch is know for his work with bands such as Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins. He was able to create the heavily grunge rock sound that created a new direction in popular music in the early 90's. He was able to trick Kurt Cobain into double tracking all the guitar parts twice by telling him, "John Lennon double tracks." This lead Butch to be able to sculpt the heavy and raw sound that was heard on the early grunge records. Another interesting fact is that Butch made Billy Corgan play almost all the instruments on the Smashing Pumpkin debut, Gish. On that record, the drum mic set up is identical to the go to set up that we have at the school studio. A d112 and RE20 on the kick, a 57 on the top side snare, 414's as OH's and 421's on the toms.

George Martin is sometimes referred to as the fifth Beatle. He was born on January 3rd, 1927 and began playing piano and eventually realized that we had perfect pitch. He found his way into working at Parlaphone (a division of EMI) records as a lead engineer. It was the littlest branch of EMI and he didn't always get to work with the biggest acts. He was always looking for band that had a unique sound that he could put his 2 cents on. At the age of 29, George took over Parlaphone and was in search of an artist that could be featured to create hit songs. Brian Epstien, the manager of the Beatles, met with George and agreed to listen in on a practice session. George was really excited with what he heard, other than the fact that drummer Pete Best, wasn't really the best... At the consent of George, Pete was replaced by a guy named Ringo Star and the rest is history. The first Beatles album was made in 12 hours at Abby Road Studio 2. The Beatles and George always were looking for ways to push the musical evolutionary envelope, which is heard in all of the Beatles material, especially the during the latter years. Automatic Double Tracking was created with the help of Ken Townsend during an experimenting session where the idea came up to barry the top of the playback head speed on the tape machine. In songs such as 'All You Need Is Love,' a mixture of Bach's Greensleeves and 'In the Mood' can be heard among other Beatles tunes. George went on to help the Beatles reach the top and keep them there by continuing to pursue the greatest sounds and performances that were possible, and of course composing all the background orchestrations and ideas.

408 Production Synopsis 5

This week Group C was able to finish guitar track for two and half songs. All we have left is one and a half songs for guitar! For Tuesday's session Chad's second song was tracked using the Fender 212R guitar amp in room 100. Baffling was again placed in a V formation around the amp. A Royer R122 was place about 4 feet away in the little section of the V. Also, a Josephson e22 was used as a close mic on the cab. I also tracked a few lead parts on this song as well as a lead part on the other song that Chad wrote, 'Lover's Tree.' Earlier today, I arrive at 10am to get in a few extra hours of guitar tracking. Because Wineglass was having his class in room 100, the amp was set up with close baffling in the midilab. A sm57 and a R122 was used, both as close mics on either side of the two speaker cones. I was only able to get through a song and half. I was proud of my performance, though I do wish I would have gotten a little more accomplished. The song that I did finish, is around six minutes long and has around four separate guitar parts as well as many embellishments. Over break I am planning on doing all the bass guitar and electric guitar 'comp-ing.' That way we can quickly finish up guitar parts and continue onto vocals.

408 Production Synopsis 5

This week group C ventured into recording guitars. On Tuesday's night session, both guitar tracks were recorded for Joe's songs. For setup we positioned Joe's small fender 60 watt, 1 cone guitar amp on top of some foam to decouple it from the ground in the middle of the stage area of room 100. Two walls from the whisper room were positioned in a 'V' format enclosing the area around the amp. As a close mic on the amp, we used a 421 pointed slightly off axis, about an inch away. A few feet further back, and nestled into the smallest part of the 'V,' we placed a 122. The wall baffling provided a lot of sound rejection for the back of the Royer. We decided to place the 122 a few feet back in order to give the amp's signal a little space to mature and allow a little room ambiance and character. Both mics were put through the Neve pres to give a very clean and present sound. When tracking, things went rather smoothly, though it was hard to get a great high gain distortion coming from the amp. We were able to get an acceptable and useable sound, but we wanted to get a little more out of it. To insure we would be able to recreate the sound that we were imagining in our heads, we double track all the distorted parts in Joe's song twice as well as recording a clean take. The clean take will serve as a 'back up' recording in case the distortion won't mix right with the song. We played around with the re-amping plugin in pro tools and we were able to get a respectable sound. A lot more full and punchy compared to what we were hearing from the amp.

Earlier today guitar was recorded for one of Chad's song. It took longer than we expected because the song has a prevalent finger picking part as well as a strumming part. The set up was the same as before, though we changed out the 421 in favor of the e22 as a close mic and the everything was done in the midilab. We recorded the finger picking and strumming to different tracks because the volumes of each were very dynamic. So were had to adjust the pre amp levels for each section depending on the part that was being performed. Next week we plan to finish the rest of rhythm guitar tracking.

Tom Dowd and the Language of Music Summery and Reflection

Tom Dowd stepped into a New York studio for the first time in 1947 when recording techniques were quite different compared to todays standards. Records were made by tracking and mixing straight to a vinyl disk which could only have between 2 to 3 minutes of audio sketched into it. The longer the song (those days, 3 minute was pushing it) the lower the audio quality would be because smaller groves presented the potential for skips. Also, stereo recording weren't invented yet.

Tom created a personal and inventive microphone technique by using his ear to hear and place mics in positions where quieter instruments were featured (acoustic bass) and louder instruments (drums) were more in the background. This gave Tom the ability to use the natural bleed from the mics on quieter instruments and pick up the drums in an already mixed manner. This was particularly important when you only have a few mics at your disposal to begin with and everything was tracked in a live environment. In this period, it was usual to record 4 songs in 3 hours and have a whole album completed in 9 hours.

After building a reputation for producing hit songs, Tom was picked up by Atlantic Records to improve on the innovative sounds that the record label was striving for. Working alongside his partner at Atlantic, Al Schmidt, Tom was able to use his skill to produce a wide range of popular artists. These

famous artists of the period included Ray Charles, The Drifters, The Coasters, Ruth Brown

and Bobby Darin. He also produced jazz acts, such as John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker.

It was during this time at Atlantic that Tom started to discover tape recording. Tape was introduced sometime in 1948/49, but it wasn't for a few years later that Tom started to use tape and begin to use 2, 4, and 8 track tape machines. Tom started recording to stereo and invented stereo micing techniques before stereo records were even available. Another contribution to popular recording that we still use today is linear channel faders. At the time, these 'faders' were just actual knobs that you would turn and they wouldn't fit snug under your fingertips like faders do today.

During the early years, while Tom was venturing into recording, he was also a student and in the military, where he was part of the task force that created the atomic bomb. I am sure that this placed a vital part of Tom's approach to recording. Tom was always playing an inventive part in pushing the limits of engineering forward and taking this approach to his artists in the studio. Tom mentioned in the movie that if he hadn't fell in love with music, he was well on his way to becoming a nuclear physicist. He was also very musically gifted. Tom's main instrument were the piano, tuba, violin and bass. Because he was so musically involved in his personal life, it gave a relaxed sense of reassurance to his artists that he was a respectable musician and someone that they could trust.

One of Toms most personnel relationships was with Ray charles. Tom was called in to record Ray and Tom brought along his 8 track. Ray had never heard an 8 track before and when the audio was played back, Ray was shocked when he heard the ability to change the level of individual instruments. Ray said in the movie that 'you need to hear in order to hear what you want the song to sound like.' I think what he meant by this, is that it is important to only focus on what you are hearing and all the nuances and not concentrate on what you see. This is an obvious realization for Ray as he is blind, but I do not think most engineers record with this thought, especially with all the visually appealing software that we record with today. Tom went on to build Ray first multitrack tape machine.

Some of the artists that Tom worked with were interviewed in the movies and shared their thoughts on what made Tom so great to be around and record with. Tom would always put the musicians at ease and had a great sense of musical direction. This also gave Tom the ability to hear when something wasn't quite right. When working with Aretha Franklin, Tom payed attention to her strengths and was able to create a personal micing approach to fully capture the nuances of Aretha's vocals. One of the artists also talked about how you have to 'become a couch' when working with a group. This happens over time and only after great trust and respect between the artist and producer is made. Another unusual thing that Tom would do was to go around the room and listen to each member practicing though a song in order to understand how the instrument reacted in the environment and also to the rest of the instruments in the group. He would then go into the control room and aim to make it sound exactly like it did when he was listening in the live room. Tom stated that microphones are there to capture and not to interfere. An artist mentioned that Tom was able to bring a quality out of the performer that the performer didn't even know they had to begin with. When commenting on how to mix or approach an instrument Tom said that 'touch' is what mattered and not the volume or the knobs involved.

It was really inspiring to hear the story of such an inventive producer and how he got involved early on in his life and was able to establish himself enough in order to continue to do what he loved. I think the biggest reason for his successes was how open minded and optimistic about life he was in general. People enjoyed being around him, and more importantly, valued his opinion when it came to recording. I hope to follow in Dowd's footsteps and learn from his experiences so that I can help the artists that I work with to realize there full potential, and bring this concept to life though recordings.

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.