tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63472776513918550732023-06-20T06:55:53.625-07:00Bring Back Card WalkerDerekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-26970624025039475762015-02-07T10:19:00.001-08:002015-02-07T10:19:37.286-08:00Song A Day 2015 - PreparationAs always, I'm trying different approaches to getting drum, guitar, bass and keyboard sounds. Last year, I tried a few things that didn't work out; in fact, they failed.<br />
<br />
Failed ideas from 2015:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Tuning top head of snare about 1.5 steps (a minor third) higher than the bottom. About the worst sound ever. I also swapped out my usual snare strands for a super wide 30-strand version, but it never sat properly on the resonant head.</li>
<li>Bass through Amplitude rather than the usual '70s SVT through a mic. My goal was to save time and effort without sacrificing tone. Wrong move.</li>
<li>I tried a few tracks using Amplitude with electric guitar parts, but the results were less than stellar.</li>
<li>Exclusively monitoring the recording and mixing through headphones. Yes, they say you shouldn't do it, but I did. Needless to say, many of the instrumental recordings are sub-par, for which I blame, at least in part, my inability to hear the truth through the headphones. Lesson learned.</li>
</ul>
<div>
This year, I'm trying out these ideas:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Tune snare resonant head to a B, then the top head nearly an octave down from that, to a C. I tried it out and was pleased with the results. I can raise that pitch however high that I want, but I want to keep it no higher than 1/2 of the tension of the resonant head. That's my ideal snare sound. Maybe I can try adding the 30 strand snare band again - but why spoil a good thing now?</li>
<li>Tightened the batter head on the kick. Immediately liked what this did.</li>
<li>Instead of using the Recorderman technique for the overhead mics on the drums, I'm going full-on Glyn Johns this time. Tested it out today and found it to be superior to Recorderrman.</li>
<li>Time to completely revise my electric guitar tone. I typically play through a cheapo Danelectro graphic EQ stompbox as a boost, and then directly into my '64 Tremolux. Last year I used a really cool stomp box called the Lemon Drop to generate a dry, raspy distortion based on the Vox 4 and 7 series of amps, which had a solid state pre-amp feeding a tube amplifier stage. This year, I purchased a treble booster, which increases gain as the frequency of the input signal increases. I'll use it in place of the Danelectro stomp box. It was delivered last night, so I only had a moment to play with it. But when that thing is feeding the Tremolux with the volume cranked high, it's beautiful sounding. Reminds me a bit of Brian May's tone; very rich harmonics with bell-like overtones.</li>
<li>For keyboard sounds, I bought Garritan Personal Orchestra, a very cheap VST plugin that I can use in Cubase. I'll use it for strings, horns and who knows what else. Haven't tried it yet - I'll install it tonight.</li>
<li>Bass recording: SVT 10" speaker - or maybe the 15" speaker.</li>
<li>Capture the room sound of the drums with the U87 in figure-8 mode. Compress that channel aggressively with fast attack/release and blend it into the drum buss to taste.</li>
<li>Learned through experimentation today that I should probably have a mic on the hi hat. Well, I have the right mic for the job (Shure SM81) and a spare mic stand, but I need another mic pre-amp!!! I'm all out of pre-amps, unless I'm willing to use the ones built into my ancient Mackie mixer. Ugh.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Drum Mic Setup:</div>
<ul>
<li>Using the Bock 521 6" below snare into RNP pre-amp, phase reversed at the console</li>
<li>Sennheiser E906 about 3" above snare, aimed at center into RNP pre-amp</li>
<li>Beyerdynamic M60 pair in Glyn Johns configuration with a distance of 3' from center of snare into Millendia Media HV-3B pre-amp</li>
<li>SM 57 on rack tom into Babyface pre-amp</li>
<li>Sennheiser MD 421 on floor tom into Babyface pre-amp</li>
<li>AKG D112 on kick into GA Pre-73 preamp</li>
<li>Neumann U87 (figure-8 pattern) on room into Focusrite ISA One pre-amp</li>
</ul>
</div>
Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-62859396690867974282015-02-07T10:16:00.000-08:002015-02-07T10:16:26.776-08:00Song A Day 2013 2/17-2/282/17 Bad Art<br />
<br />
I bashed the drums with all of my might, such that at the end of the take I was dripping perspiration and out of breath. The result wasn't particularly good in terms of sound or performance, but it was usable.<br />
<br />
Guitar panned to the left is the Les Paul into Tremolux through the Danelectro graphic eq stomp box, cranked to ear-splitting volume and captured with the Bock and Sennheiser 906 mics in their usual positions. I'm still not capturing what I want with this mic configuration, so on future recordings I'll experiment some more.<br />
<br />
Guitar on the right is the Jay Turner into the Tremolux through the Lemon Drop fuzz. To my surprise, both guitars sounded uncannily alike, which makes little sense considering the vast differences in the instruments and how their distorted tones are being created. This too could be a hint that the mics aren't being used properly.<br />
<br />
For the bass part, I used the Fender Jazz fretless and cranked the SVT until it began to distort, then used the U87 mic aimed at the 15" speaker and the Bock aimed at the 10". I played in an open, non-palm-muted style, striking the strings aggressively to get a raunchy bass tone.<br />
<br />
I added some double-tracked vocals (very quickly) and it was done.<br />
<br />
2/18 Poverty<br />
<br />
I wanted to do this one 'live' into one mic, but gave up after a number of failed takes. It was clear to me that it was too difficult to sing and play at the same time, so I overdubbed the vocals and doubled the acoustic guitar.<br />
<br />
2/19 Wikileaks<br />
<br />
Because of my failure to do a 'live' performance the previous day, I was determined to perform Wikileaks with guitar into one mic. It was difficult to do, but eventually I managed to get a usable performance. It's already a struggle for me to sing in tune when just doing vocal overdubs. It's impossible to do it while I'm also trying to play a guitar.<br />
<br />
2/20 The Minute<br />
<br />
I wrote this one in five minutes or less and performed it live. Ho hum, yet another song about looking forward to the end of Song A Day 2013. I'm exhausted.<br />
<br />
2/21 (no song for this day)<br />
<br />
2/22 Carousel by Daniel Berkman<br />
<br />
It was time to do a cover of somebody else's song, so I chose Daniel Berkman's Carousel instrumental and re-interpreted it with lyrics and a live performance into one mic. The lyrics actually express my first impressions of what the instrumental piece was about. It struck me as being a kind of narrative about some asteroid floating around in deep space, surrounded by other celestial objects whizzing by it. There's a repeating 6 note motif that represents this asteroid. Eventually the pull of the sun's gravitational field begins to disrupt the asteroid and pull it out of orbit among the other space debri. As the other outer-space types of sounds fade away, the asteroid's 6 note theme builds in intensity. It seems to be picking up speed, perhaps heading on a collision course with the planet Earth? Exciting stuff.<br />
<br />
Anyway, I strove for a crazed performance, something different from the usual struggles with singing the right notes and enunciating the words, or playing the right chords. What mattered was achieving the right intensity for the end of the song. I kinda screamed myself hoarse, so by the time I captured a usable take, I had lost my voice. But the intensity I wanted was there.<br />
<br />
2/23 Me and My Thoughts<br />
<br />
I spent some time trying to improve the drum sound and discovered that raising the Bock overhead mic nearly five feet above the drums did the trick. To keep things in phase, I moved the U87 mic away from the floor tom, which also seemed to help. Another surprise was in store! On a whim I tried aiming the Sennheiser 906 at the snare with the flat grill parallel with the batter head rather than the usual angle. This really improves the top snare sound. The new overhead configuration also seems to capture the size of the kick drum.<br />
<br />
For the electric guitar parts (Jay Turner), I simply aimed the Bock (in 'fat' mode) at the guitar cab's treble speaker. At last, a good guitar sound!! So for future recordings, I only need one guitar track per part.<br />
<br />
I hooked up the DI for the bass (Fender Jazz fretless), which was captured along with the Bock mic aimed at the 10" speaker. I didn't use much of the DI track in the final mix; it didn't seem to add much of anything.<br />
<br />
The acoustic guitars were horribly out of tune, and as a result I had to re-tune the other guitar and bass parts to match. I discovered to my shock and dismay that the entire recording was out of tune with my keyboard sounds. I did my best to cover up this problem with lots of mixing tricks, such as adding modulation effects to some instruments and using (for the very first time) Cubase's pitch correction plugin on others. Lesson learned: always check the pitch center of the tracks against some piano samples to make sure they work well together.<br />
<br />
2/24 The Bass Player<br />
<br />
I had intended to perform this one live, but there was NO way I could play the little guitar licks while singing the unusually complicated lyrics. So I overdubbed the vocal and second acoustic guitar. I think is is a neat song that would take to a full blown hard rock treatment with drums and guitars. Oh, and also bass.<br />
<br />
2/25 She Calls My Name<br />
<br />
I grabbed mp3s of number station recordings from the Conet site, arranged them in Cubase, added a simple piano waltz part, sang the simple vocal part, and mixed. This was a fun one to record.<br />
<br />
2/26 If You Should Be Afraid<br />
<br />
This morning I read Seela's blog post about 'feeling afraid' and asking people to suggest songs for listening. I posted a comment with a suggestion that she write such a song and upload it to Song A Day. After that, it struck me as a good idea, so I wrote a song about being afraid.<br />
<br />
This was a 'live' performance into one mic. I tried to focus on singing with some feeling, which I rarely do.<br />
<br />
2/27 Yippee<br />
<br />
Yet another lame throwaway song about looking forward to the end of Song A Day. I must have written about six songs this year with that theme. Had little trouble with the 'live' performance.<br />
<br />
2/28<br />
<br />
<br />Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-36395142750355047662013-02-18T22:49:00.002-08:002013-02-18T22:49:54.140-08:00Song A Day 2013 2/11 -/2/16Gold Standard (2/11)<br />
<br />
This was a quick toss-off of a song, but I like how it came out. The guitars are extremely close miked with the U87. I think the vocal was pretty good sounding, and it was pretty much first or second takes on everything.<br />
<br />
What's it about, anyway? I had been listening to Goldfrapp's Seventh Tree album in the afternoon and imagining what it would be like to record Alison Goldfrapp's voice. I wondered how they engineer those vocals. Which mics? What's the signal chain? One thing I'm pretty sure of, which is the absence of AutoTune being used on any of the tracks. She's just a fantastic singer and would probably sound great through a ratty old SM57 through a Mackie mixer preamp and captured in Garage Band through a 16-bit converter.<br />
<br />
So the song is about being that recording engineer, but unfortunately he does something really stupid during the session and will probably get booted out of the control room once Alison realizes what he's done.<br />
<br />
Goodbye (2/13)<br />
<br />
I took the previous day off from Song A Day, so when Thursday 2/13 rolled around, I was dreading having to come up with a song. This song came to me while driving home from the BART station and was mostly finished by the time I settled down to make a new recording. Lyrically, I'm expressing my frustration with the songs I'm writing this year. Next year, if I participate in Song A Day 2014, I have to find an entirely new musical direction, because I'm tired of writing pop songs.<br />
<br />
This song turned out to have a lot of chords, making the acoustic guitar track difficult to complete. I'm completely incompetent on piano, so I probably spent over an hour rehearsing the parts before recording any takes. The vocal track was good - no complaints.<br />
<br />
Rehearsal for a Musical (2/15)<br />
<br />
I struggled with the simple piano part. Darin could have played this with his feet. I Set up two mics in a stereo configuration and performed the director's part walking back and forth across the room, talking and waving my arms around. The way that Hal the pianist sings Paula's part is pretty much what my voice sounds like when I'm singing alone in the car or in the shower.<br />
<br />
If I had time to work on it some more, I would have re-recorded Hal's vocal using the same mic configuration that was used for the director's track. I also should have collapsed the piano's stereo spread to create the illusion that it's being miked from a distance. I was somewhat reluctant to upload this one to Song A Day because it's mostly spoken dialog with a song in the middle.<br />
<br />
Personality Shop (2/16)<br />
<br />
Hurrah for Saturday! I worked all day on this one. The biggest decision to make was choosing a key. I ended up using a capo on the second fret of the acoustic guitar, which put the chorus section slightly out of reach for my voice. Singing it was extremely challenging, but I kept at it until I had some usable takes.<br />
<br />
I wanted a dry drum sound, so I moved the top mic as far down to the rack tom as possible and used 3 MoonGel pads on the snare. I disengaged the 'fat' mode on the Bock mic (for the overhead) just to see how that worked out. This thinned out the drum sound considerably, so I will stick to 'fat' mode on most future recordings. I left it disengaged for this recording, however.<br />
<br />
I increased the tuning pitch of the kick beater head and was pleased to discover that it resulted in a fatter kick sound. Also, I've abandoned the beater head muffler ring, probably for good. The kick sounds way better without it. I think this is the first time in 6 years that I've achieved a decent kick sound.<br />
<br />
The snare didn't fare as well this time around, and I had to do a lot of EQing and messing with compression settings to make it usable.<br />
<br />
I used the new standard bass recording setup: Fender Jazz with bridge pickup full on into the Boss graphic EQ stomp box, then into the SVT (bright channel, bright switch engaged, midrange frequency set to 200hz, bass and midrange at 3 o'clock, treble at 2 ). 10" speaker captured by the Bock with fat switch disengaged and pad engaged. The U87 is aimed at the 15" speaker from 3 feet away.<br />
<br />
I ended up with an anemic bass tone this time. It just lacked low end. Disappointing, but I'll be sure to get a fatter low end on the next recording.<br />
<br />
The piano and organ parts were fun to record, though I went through the usual long period of rehearsal for both of them, especially the piano.<br />
<br />
Bad Art (2/17)<br />
<br />
I wrote this simple 3-chord rocker as an excuse to work on some weak aspects of my recent recordings.<br />
<br />
After much experimentation, I discovered that the Bock mic works well as a drum overhead when positioned very high above the kit with the 'fat' mode engaged. I'm beginning to understand that even if a mic has high headroom, the diaphragm can still be deformed to the point where it compresses the low and midrange bands. Also, when positioned very far from the kit, it captures a bigger sound. I moved the U87 away from the floor tom as well.<br />
<br />
I only recorded one drum take, just to see how it sounded upon playback. The performance was terrible, but I decided to stick with it and move on with the guitar parts.<br />
<br />
The rhythm guitar was Les Paul into Tremolux through the Danelectro graphic eq stomp box. I kept the 'fat' switch engaged on the Bock mic, aimed as usual at the bass speaker in the cab. The biggest change from previous recordings is the removal of the THD Hotplate. I think it improved the sound. The individual tracks (Sennheiser 906 and Bock) each sound kinda bad when isolated, but together they create a fairly realistic approximation of what I heard in the room while playing the parts. During mixdown I'll have to add some upper mids to brighten up the guitars, even though the Tremolux was set to full treble while recording. Maybe I need to move the mics back from the speaker a few inches to reduce diaphragm distortion? I'll try that on the next guitar recording.<br />
<br />
The lead guitar was the Jay Turner, this time using the Lemon Drop stompbox for the fuzz tone. Oddly, both guitar tracks sound quite similar. I don't know what to make of it.<br />
<br />
I used the new standard bass recording setup, but left the 'fat' switch engaged on the Bock. I also changed the midrange setting to '800' to get more of a rock-n-roll tone and cranked the volume to add some distortion. It's a decent rock bass tone, somewhat different from the kinds of bass sounds I've achieved in the past.<br />
<br />
The vocals were pretty much one take each. I had planned on wiping them out and re-doing them later, but ran out of time. Instead, I added distortion to them via a Cubase plugin and that sounded pretty good.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-46859459095195238232013-02-11T01:14:00.002-08:002013-02-11T01:14:28.376-08:00Song A Day 2013 2/6 - 2/10Let Go (2/6)<br />
<br />
Another live performance into one mic. It's really, really hard to sing and play an unfamiliar song at the same time, but it's good for me to do this<br />
<br />
I didn't do anything on 2/7. Just wasn't feeling inspired.<br />
<br />
Trouble (2/8)<br />
<br />
Yet another live performance. Again, it was a struggle to get a usable take.<br />
<br />
Remember the Monks (2/9)<br />
<br />
Wrote this simple rock song just to test out the Bock mic on guitars. After laying down a scratch track on acoustic with voice, I worked on the drum track. I tried lowering the pitch of the kick resonant head a quarter turn on each lug, but ultimately it resulted in a flabby sound, which I used anyway. Spend time experimenting with tying tea towels to the drums and ended up with half of the floor tom covered. For the snare, I removed all Moongels and let it ring. I pounded the drums with all of my might and ended up sweaty and exhausted.<br />
<br />
The rhythm guitars were Les Paul into the Tremolux with the Danelectro graphic EQ as a boost pedal. I aimed the Sennheiser 906 at the treble speaker and the Bock mic at the bass speaker, cranked it up and played. When I listened back, I was mortified at how dull the guitars sounded. It came out kinda mushy and dumpy. Lacking time to re-record those parts, I just applied a lot of EQ and compression to make it usable, but it's pretty bad sounding. What went wrong? I'm suspicious of the THD Hotplate, which attenuates the signal fed into the speaker cabinet so I can get power amp distortion without having to deal with ear-splitting volume. I think it makes the sound soft and dumpy. Also, perhaps I should pull the mics back from the speakers a bit to avoid distorting the diaphragms, which can also dull the sound.<br />
<br />
The lead guitar parts were played on the Jay Turner guitar with a weird sounding filter engaged. I applied a touch of Lemon Drop fuzz to the signal and got a really nice sound.<br />
<br />
Bass was extremely problematic. After countless takes of muddy, indistinct bass recordings, I removed the internal mutes and plucked with a pick. I also disengaged the 'fat' mode on the Bock mic, thinking that it was adding mud to the sound and used the bridge pickup to get some brightness. Overall, I didn't get much of a bass tone out of this recording. Maybe I should use another bass?<br />
<br />
After all of the struggles with the backing tracks, I discovered to my horror that I cannot sing the sing at all. The mixing went poorly on top of everything else, and now this piece of garbage is uploaded to Song A Day. On the positive side, the song has good lyrics.<br />
<br />
Live Brains (2/10)<br />
<br />
After the disheartening experiences for the previous day, I was determined to make a decent-sounding recording by concentrating on the sound of each instrument. I worked on the composition for some time to make sure it was singable. Lo and behold, when I recorded the guide track with live acoustic guitar and voice, it sounded good on playback. I think that's most of the battle right there.<br />
<br />
I liked how the acoustic sounded with the mic positioned 3 feet away and pointing down, so I recorded that first. Then, just out of curiosity, I doubled the acoustic using close miking. Both guitars recorded nicely, so I was feeling confident about this track.<br />
<br />
I tuned the kick drum up slightly on the resonant head. It's still not great sounding, but I went with it. I learned that the Bock overhead (in fat mode) works best if positioned fairly low above the kit and phase aligned with the U87 that is aimed across the floor tom at the hi hat (classic Glynn Johns mic setup for drums). No need to visually align the tracks in Cubase anymore! I simply invert the phase of the mic below the snare and everything sounds right. I left the tea towel half covering the floor tom because it reduces ring and sustain which interferes with everything else. For the snare I used two Moongels and increased the pitch of the top head slightly. I also brought the under-snare mic closer to the drum, being careful not to overload it to the point of distortion.<br />
<br />
When I listened back to the drums and acoustic, I was satisfied. I figured it was time to tackle the bass, so I first tried to set up a DI in addition to the mic, but couldn't get enough signal out of it to be usable, so I discarded that idea. I couldn't get the right tone out of the Rickenbacker, with or without the mutes. After some deliberation, I hauled out the Fender Jazz fretless and plugged it in. Yes! That's the sound I want!<br />
<br />
I reduced the volume of the Ampeg to avoid overloading the Bock mic and disengaged the 'fat' mode, which I suspect doesn't always work well with bass recordings, especially since the signal is heavy in the low end to begin with. As an experiment, I aimed the U87 (without using the pad!) at the 15" speaker from 4 feet away, above and aiming down. When combining the two mic signals, I get a pretty good bass tone that I can tweak during the mix simply by changing the relative levels. The U87 gets a surprisingly clear low end and depth while the Bock captures most of the treble and midrange.<br />
<br />
I added Les Paul through the Lemon Drop at very low volume for the ending section, just strumming the vocal harmony part. I removed the Hot Plate from the speaker too. Got a decent result.<br />
<br />
It wasn't too difficult to sing this one. I added some piano and brass parts, mixed it very quickly and uploaded it. I'm happy with this recording.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-16587175826406231932013-02-06T00:55:00.001-08:002013-02-06T00:55:32.998-08:00Song A Day 2013 2/4 - 2/5One Day After Another<br />
<br />
Two acoustic guitars and a vocal track - nothing fancy. I used a capo on the higher pitched guitar part and recorded everything with the U87. I aimed the mic slightly lower to see if it picked up chest resonances, but I didn't hear much of a difference. Didn't bother with a click track for the guitar recordings, which turned out to be problematic when adding the second guitar part. D'oh!<br />
<br />
Paul Williams<br />
<br />
This was a live performance into the U87 from a a distance of 3 feet. It was very difficult to sing and play at the same time, but it allowed me to change tempo between verse and chorus at will. I wish I could sing in tune. Why can't I sing in tune? And why the hell am I singing about Paul Williams?Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-37465096117198424832013-02-04T00:18:00.001-08:002013-02-04T01:10:12.729-08:00Song A Day 2013 (2/3)<b>He Goes to Disneyland</b><br />
<br />
Having learned some lessons from yesterday's problematic session, I wrote a song that actually works when sung live while strumming a guitar. That made the entire recording go a lot smoother.<br />
<br />
First, I laid down some acoustic guitars. As an experiment, I set the high pass filter on the U87 while recording one of them. It's too thin sounding, so I won't be doing that again. The second guitar was recorded with the mic set flat, but I did learn that the mic responds well when positioned close to the 12th fret, even when strumming loudly. For some counter-intuitive reason, this attenuates some of the boomy low mids that often plague strummed guitar parts.<br />
<br />
Singing the one and only vocal track went fairly smoothly, though I had to experiment with different vocal techniques until I found one that worked. I dread vocal tracking for this very reason. Why can't I just open my mouth and produce a sound that I like? On the positive side, I verified that the U87 is the right mic for my vocals. It has a smooth high end and full midrange that the Bock mic lacks.<br />
<br />
I used the beater head foam ring on the kick drum and tightened up the snare and rack tom. I also added two Moongel pads to the snare and increased the snare band tension to get a dryer sound. Finally, I tried to hit the snare in the center without the usual rimshot technique that I tend to use, just to see how that would work. The top mic (Bock in fat mode) was positioned midway between the front edge of the rack tom and the snare, which improved the balance of rack tom and hi hat levels. This resulted in a better drum recording than what I achieved with Rabbit in the Ear yesterday.<br />
<br />
For the electric guitar parts, I used the Jay Turner guitar with the Vintage Vibe P90s into the Lemon Drop stomp box, then into a cheapo graphic EQ and finally into the Tremolux. For all parts other than the lead guitar, I applied a touch of Lemon Drop distortion. The treble speaker was miked as usual with the Sennheiser 906 and the bass speaker was miked with the Bock. Since the idea was to get thin, midrangy sounding guitar tones, I ended up muting the Bock tracks in the mix. For the lead guitar, I cranked the distortion setting to get a fuzz tone and used both mics in the mix. Overall, pretty good sounding.<br />
<br />
I wanted to improve the bass recording, so I spent a little time experimenting. First, I flattened the Boss graphic EQ controls and added some midrange. I also backed off the Ampeg SVT bass control slightly and used the bridge pickup on the Rickenbacker bass. This produced a usable tone that didn't require much in the way of post-processing during mixing. I'd like to use the neck pickup in a future song, but it will take some more experimentation with the amp tone controls to achieve clarity without mud.<br />
<br />
The mix was pretty easy this time. Spending a little more time getting usable sounds - and having a simple song to mix - makes a big difference. I'm relatively satisfied with the outcome.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-81697935457775869252013-02-03T23:52:00.000-08:002013-02-04T01:15:31.676-08:00Song A Day 2013 (2/1 - 2/2)<b>Song A Day 2013 Preamble</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
This was a simple acoustic guitar and voice piece, recorded late at night. Used the new Bock Audio 195 mic for vocals and discovered that it isn't quite right for my voice. It has a lot of low end (in fat mode) which I have to filter out, and the high end is kinda grainy and harsh. Also, the midrange response is lacking. To give it a fair trial, I'll use it again on the next song and see if I like it any better. Recorded acoustic guitars with the U87 because I already knew from mic tests conducted earlier that the Bock doesn't work that well with acoustic guitars.<br />
<br />
<b>Rabbit in the Ear</b><br />
<br />
For my first full production piece for Song A Day 2013, I wanted to test the Bock mic on a variety of sources. I had one full Saturday to write and record the song, so I decided to stick with whatever results I got for each track. I know that doing this results in bad sounding mixes, but that's the nature of Song A Day recordings.<br />
<br />
While recording the piano track, the mic stand with the heavy SE Reflection Filter Pro rig and Bock 195 mic toppled over onto my back and knocked me off the stool. I landed with a thud, tangled up in the mic cord and suffering a cut and bruise on my back. It took some time to disassemble the Reflection filter to see what had happened. Turns out that there's a spring-loaded hex screw that wasn't tightened properly, so the rotating arm that holds the filter and mic had popped off the rig and triggered the collapse.<br />
<br />
After laying down the piano track, I spent hours recording the vocal parts. There must have been a dozen or more tracks to complete and all of them were beyond my technical ability to sing. This is a recurring problem I have with full production pieces. It stems from the way I arrange parts, which is entirely in my head. The sounds coming out of my mouth never live up to my imagined arrangements.<br />
<br />
This reinforces something that Seth Freemen has told me on at least two occasions: you should be able to strum a guitar or piano and sing your song along with it. That's how you know that you've written a <i>song</i> rather than an arrangement. To this end, I actually recorded a guide track of Rabbit in the Ear with guitar and vocal as a live performance. When I listened back, I was really disappointed. However, this being Song A Day, I had little choice but to press on and complete the recording.<br />
<br />
This was a full test of the Bock mic on my voice.... and it failed spectacularly. So much for that; I'll use the U87 for most - if not all - future vocal tracks.<br />
<br />
Following Chris Greacen's advice, I removed the foam ring pad from the kick drum beater head and tuned both heads up a semi-tone. The results were overall pretty good, but the low-mid tones in the resonances are muddying up the overheads. It does sound good in the room, however.<br />
<br />
I used the Glynn Johns mic configuration, but the result was underwhelming. Part of the problem is the snare tuning, which should be higher. The rack tom also would benefit from tightening the resonant head. I removed all Moongel pads from the snare and kept the snare bands loose. I liked the snare sustain this produced, but my personal preference is for a tighter, dryer tone.<br />
<br />
While playing the drum track, the heavy cymbal stand crashed to the floor with an awful racket. I put it back together and tightened everything up. At this point, I was worried that all of the gear was falling apart on me. Recording is not only difficult, it can also be dangerous.<br />
<br />
The drum performance was marginal at best. That's what happens when I only play drums for part of one month out of each year; I forget how to play! Same thing is true for keyboards, guitar and vocals.<br />
<br />
I bashed out the acoustic guitar track quickly and instantly regretted not having spent a little time trying to get a decent sound or performance, but it was getting late and Amy was losing her mind listening to my studio work all day.<br />
<br />
I stuck the Bock mic in front of the 4x10 Ampeg cabinet and completed the recording in a couple of takes using the Rickenbacker 4003. The sound seemed kinda dumpy, with no clarity or deep bass, even after switching to the bridge pickup. I had completely run out of time by this point, so I would have to fix it in the mix. Famous last words.<br />
<br />
The mixing process was frustrating. Bad sounds, bad performances, overly complex arrangements, etc. Hopefully, I'll learn from my mistakes.<br />
<b><br /></b>Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-28285623253377681482013-01-26T11:57:00.001-08:002013-01-26T12:00:46.855-08:00preparation for Song A Day 2013I've never been satisfied with the sound of my SAD (Song A Day) recordings from 2008 through 2011, so I decided to spend some time improving the drum, vocal, bass and guitar sounds.<br/><br/>
Beginning with acoustic guitar, I realized that the biggest problem was that the guitar wasn't set up properly, which made it practically unplayable. I took my Martin M3SC to 5th String in Berkeley, CA, where I originally purchased it. A guitar tech adjusted the truss rod to flatten out the fingerboard and filed down the bridge slightly. The result was a playable instrument with good intonation. He recommended that I switch from Martin brand strings to D'Addario medium bronze, which sound fine to me.<br/><br/>
I spent considerable time working on the Rickenbacker 4003 bass. There were a number of problems to address:<br/><br/>
1. Weak, wimpy tone.<br/>
2. Can't get a proper 'thump' out of the strings when plucking<br/><br/>
After creating a series of recordings intended to bring the problems to light, I realized that the A string wasn't resonating properly and the overall tone was lacking low-mid punch. After researching the A string problem online, I learned that adjusting the dual truss rods slightly to change the neck resonance characteristics can often solve this well-documented problem. But this wasn't enough to improve the tone, so I invested in a set of Pyramid Gold Flatwounds ( 040, 055, 075, 105) to replace the Thomastik-Ifeld Jazz Bass Flatwounds (043, 056, 070, 100) that were currently installed. That made a HUGE difference! After adjusting the truss rod and fine-tuning the intonation and mute settings, I was on my way to getting a decent sound.<br/><br/>
I also worked on my playing technique. To get a thumpy attack, I used down strokes with a guitar pick (rather than a heavy bass pick, striking the strings between the neck and the rhythm pickup. I experimented with strips of foam padding and cloth to mute the strings, but ended up just using the built in mute mechanism. It turns out that I have to carefully adjust the string height and mute settings to work together properly, then apply just the right amount of pressure when striking the strings with the pick in order to get a 60's sounding bass tone.<br/><br/>
A series of experimental recordings showed that the 10" Ampeg speakers produce the best sound over all, as the 15" speaker has a dark, midrange heavy tone that doesn't sit well in a track. The only remaining weak link in the recording chain was the mic setup. The old 414C finally died (diaphragm tension issues or dried out capacitors? ), along with the GrooveTubes mic pre (bad tubes? dried out caps?). The U87 can't cut it as a bass mic, lacking both the headroom and the ability to capture sufficient low end to do a proper job of it. I need another mic.<br/><br/>
For the electric guitar, I decided that the U87 was too prone to clipping and distortion, even at relatively low volumes. Clearly, I had to purchase another mic that can handle loud sound sources. Nevertheless, I bought a LemonDrop fuzz box, whose circuit emulates the solid state preamp and tube power stage combo of the Vox 4&7 series amplifiers. These amps were used heavily on the Led Zeppelin 2 album as well as late '60's Beatles recordings. They have a pronounced midrange bump and a grainy, punchy fuzz tone. This stompbox doesn't really succeed in replicating either, but it sounds great all the same.<br/><br/>
Most of the vocal recordings I've created are weak in the lower mids and have an aggressive, nasally midrange peak. This is of course due to the fact that the U87 doesn't flatter voices very much - what you hear is what that voice sounded like in the room. I would have to use a different mic to get a different kind of sound. Oh, and doing a better job singing would help a bit too.<br/><br/>
After recording my voice using all of my preamps in hopes of finding one that would be best for the U87, I settled on the Millenia Media HV-3B. No other pre-amp could beat it, though the RME Babyface preamps came in a close second in the shootout. However, the recordings revealed a lot of room ambiance, tone and reflections being captured along with my voice. When compression was applied to the recordings, the room sounds were degrading the overall fidelity. Cleaning up the mic signal would certainly help improve the vocal recordings.<br/><br/>
I purchased a Bock Audio 195, an FET large diaphragm condenser mic that can handle loud sources. It also has a 'fat' switch that boosts low and low-mid frequencies while attenuating the high mids, resulting in a 'vintage' kind of sound. This will be used for drums, guitar, bass and some (if not all) vocal recordings.<br/><br/>
To solve the issues with the room acoustics, I bought an SE Reflection Filter Pro, a large, heavy curved screen that surrounds the mic and reduces room reflections. I tested it out and it really works.<br/><br/>
Some quick tests with the Bock 195 showed that it excels as a bass amp mic and as a drum overhead. The fat mode is really great! It seems to work well with my voice too, though the U87 has smoother highs and an aggression in the upper mids that can help the voice cut through a busy mix. I'll have two mics to choose from when recording voices, each with different characteristics that will suite some songs more so than others.<br/><br/>
I turned my attention to the drum sound and settled on a classic Glynn Johns mic arrangement. The Bock 195, in fat mode and with the pad engaged, is positioned roughly 3-4 feet above the kick drum. The U87, with pad engaged, is adjacent to the floor tom and facing the hi hats across the snare. Both mics, which are run through the Millennia HV-3B preamp, are equidistant from the snare and the tracks are panned left/right.<br/><br/>
The AKG D112 is aimed at the hole in the kick's front head about 1 inch from the hole and the signal is sent to the GA Pre-73 preamp. The Sennheiser e906 in 'flat' mode captures the top of the snare and is sent through the RNP preamp. I'm using the Shure SM81 (with pad engaged) under the snare (roughly 8-10 inches) and sent through the RME Babyface's preamp. That's it! No other mics seem necessary.<br/><br/>
I replaced the somewhat dead-sounding Evans Genera HD Dry snare head with the much livelier sounding Remo Ambassador head, which is better for this kind of micing arrangement. The kick sound improved when I removed the padding and let it 'breathe', though I'm using the Evans EQ pad and the resonant and beater foam rings that come with the Evans kick drum heads to control sustain. Some fine tuning of the resonant head resulted in a respectable kick sound, both in the room and captured by the mic.<br/><br/>
I'm ready for Song A Day 2013.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-62880849512595637252012-02-18T01:24:00.000-08:002012-02-18T01:24:26.301-08:00song a day 2012 comments #1We're at the halfway point and I'm out of song ideas.<br />
<br />
Some random comments about recordings up to this point.<br />
<br />
Monsanto<br />
<br />
Recorded it with Adam Gates and Geoff Marx at Adam's home studio. Along with the various Reason sounds, I played a Rogue sitar guitar and an Epiphone big body acoustic during the middle section. Nothing was subject to quantization.<br />
<br />
Stick Around<br />
<br />
Quick and easy to write and record. Why not write a love song about candy? Emma gave me a box of Whitman's chocolates for Valentine's, which inspired this.<br />
<br />
I now understand how to use the U87. Basically, don't get too close to the mike. Even when whispering, 8-12 inches away is better than anything closer. There's no way to dial out boomy mid-bass caused by proximity effect, even with careful adjustment of a multi-band compressor. With just a high pass shelf on the vocal track to cut rumble, it sounds clear and has some presence. The low end is surprisingly good, and low mids are just right. Add a bit of treble eq with perhaps a touch of high mids, and it sounds good in a mix on any speakers.<br />
<br />
Used the Harmony Rocket again via DI. I'm beginning to love that guitar!<br />
<br />
Goofus and Gallant<br />
<br />
Live, one-take piano recording, un-quantized as usual. Sloppy and bad, but it works with the song. I'm proud of the lyrics. Vocal performance was interesting, as I'm using a very different way of singing. It's more character-based than lyrical-content-based.<br />
<br />
Harrowing<br />
<br />
Find a shape on a guitar, move hand up and down while finger-picking, add lyrics, you're done.<br />
<br />
Come Shopping with Me<br />
<br />
This is a bone-headed song all around. The true purpose of the song was to create an opportunity to put the new fret-less Jazz bass through it's paces. That's why it's a weak song.<br />
<br />
Anyway, it got the full studio production treatment. I had endless problems with drums, vocals and bass recordings in particular. Just about every track suffered from an error in recording technique. I recorded things in a hurry without listening for sound quality issues.<br />
<br />
Drums got the usual treatment. No padding at all on the kick. 414 at snare drum level, pointed mid-way between kick and snare, about 6 feet away. As I move the 414 in closer, it gets more snare, but also more of the piercingly bright hi-hats. U87 overhead, pulled back a bit from the snare so it gets more of the cymbals, about 3-4 feet above the snare. Both tomtoms top-miked. Snare with e906 aimed at the top and SM81 at bottom. The top mike was about 3 inches above the drum head, which turned out to be too much distance. The result was too much bleed from the hi-hats. I tried hitting the snare without using rim shots for impact. Ultimately, it's better to use rim shots, mostly because the impact helps make the snare jump out in the mix.<br />
<br />
Bass was the fretless Jazz again, 414 aimed at center of speaker about 2.5 feet away. The results sounded tinny and muddy. I spent considerable time crafting a usable bass tone with compressors (including a multi-band) and eq. I think the recorded tone should have more in the 500k range - will try on the next recording<br />
<br />
Acoustic guitars were a disaster. Muddy and dull. What was I thinking? Am I miking too close or too far away?<br />
<br />
Vocal sound was terrible, all muddy boom. I sang way too close to the mic. Multi-band compressor and other devices salvaged something out of it, but it's the worst vocal recording I've ever made.<br />
<br />
Electric guitars sounded good. U87 on bottom speaker, e906 on top speaker, both about a foot away. I should probably try to phase-align these tracks in Cubase, as I'm violating the 3:1 rule for multi-mic phase coherence. There's probably some comb filtering going on there, but I don't hear it when I move the two faders up and down.<br />
<br />
Used Peter's PRS with P90s for the country guitar licks. The solo at the end is the Les Paul. This time, I used the DriveOMatic direct into the Tremolux for the solo. Sounds good!<br />
<br />
Keyboard was some random patch from the old Alesis QS6.1.<br />
<br />
My Angel<br />
<br />
Written on the spot. It's good to have something to write about that matters. Got some honest emotion in the vocal performance. I think this song is too melodramatic for my tastes, but the point of Song A Day is to try different things and to venture out of your comfort zone.<br />
<br />
Thanks Walt<br />
<br />
Followed Peter's suggestion for writing a song: use a capo on a guitar with a dropped D tuning. So I just let my fingers wander a while and this song came out. I like the guitar and vocal performances. No complaints.<br />
<br />
Elvis Sandwich<br />
<br />
Drums were recorded with just the U87 hanging a mile over the snare and the D112 aimed at the outside of the skin, with the beater switched to the felt-type. Wonders of wonders, it's a fantastic sounding recording. The kick is not so great, but the overhead picked up the sound of brushes hitting the snare perfectly. It rocks. Usually, the further away the U87 is from the kit, the worse the sound. I don't understand why it worked so well this time.<br />
<br />
Bass was fretless Jazz via DI. Not much tone there, but it gets the job done.<br />
<br />
Guitar was the Harmony Rocket with ancient, rusty strings, both miked with the U87 and DI. Sounds good! I like that guitar.<br />
<br />
I kinda did an Elvis-inspired vocal. Kinda.<br />
<br />
Naked and Scared<br />
<br />
Based on a comment Seela made on the site about hiding behind simplicity rather than complexity. I figured that the former is easier and faster, so go with that. Simple-minded melody and words, sung in the style of Kermit the Frog. I wasn't too keen on uploading it, but did it. Got a lot of positive feedback on it.<br />
<br />
Nothing Went Wrong<br />
<br />
Inaccurately named 'epic' song. Of course, everything went wrong with the recording.<br />
<br />
I probably sang too close to the mic, resulting in a battle to compress the low mids without thinning out the sound too much. There's a ton of eq/compression on the vocals and they sound awful.<br />
<br />
The bass sound is meh, and it took a lot of effects to get it up to that point. I have a long way to go before I can figure out how to get a decent bass sound on a track without effects.<br />
<br />
Drums weren't any good either.<br />
<br />
Code Zombie<br />
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This came out great! I love everything about this song and the recording. Used the Les Paul and Peter's green PRS with P90s into the Tremolux through the Danelectro graphic EQ. <br />
<br />
Bass: I 'think' I used the fretless Jazz for this one, but I'm not sure.<br />
<br />
It took me some time to learn how to play the guitar parts on this one. The solo melody is tricky to play.<br />
<br />
Here I Am<br />
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Some melodrama for ya. I actually had fun singing this one, and it shows.<br />
<br />
A Quick Fix<br />
<br />
Simple 3-chord folk song with one-world lyrics. I like it.<br />
<br />
The climbing arpeggios are plucked harmonics on the fretless bass! I discovered that by accident while messing around on the bass.<br />
<br />
Welcome to Song A Day 2012<br />
<br />
Fun song to kick off the season. The 414 is further away from the snare, near the doorway at the entrance to the house. Gets a deep thud for the kick and not much else, but the kick low-end sounds good when judiciously blended into the mix.<br />
<br />
Recorded two bass tracks. First, fretless Jazz into Tremolux with bass rolled off into 414 aimed at the top 12" guitar speaker. Second, Rickenbacker into SVT with 15" speaker, again recorded by the 414 at 4-5 feet distance. Got some good upper midrange crunch by combining them, but not a very good bass tone overall. It was fun to try - and my first recording with the Jazz bass.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-49421575879858486952011-06-07T16:08:00.000-07:002011-06-07T16:33:13.609-07:00Tips for Setting up OSX bash filesIf you have just installed or upgraded OSX and are interested in setting up your bash environment, here's some quick tips that will enable you to load all of your setup configuration customizations into a login shell or an interactive shell from a single bash startup file.<br />
<br />
When a login shell is created (via logging into the console, opening iTerm/xterm or opening a new iTerm tab), bash reads these startup files in this order:<br />
<br />
1. /etc/profile<br />
2. /etc/bashrc<br />
3. ~/.bash_profile<br />
<br />
HOWEVER, in step #3, bash actually looks for and reads only ONE of the following files - if found - in the following order:<br />
<br />
1. ~/.bash_profile <br />
2. ~/.bash_login <br />
3. ~/.profile<br />
<br />
If you 'ls' your home directory and find '.profile', it's okay to rename it as '.bash_profile'. I suggest going with '.bash_profile', for no other reason than the fact that .bash_profile is the first file that bash looks for in your home directory.<br />
<br />
If you ever create an interactive shell (typically by calling 'bash' from within a login shell), the following files are read in this order:<br />
<br />
1. /etc/bashrc<br />
2. ~/.bashrc<br />
<br />
So here's the deal. I want to put all of my bash environment customizations in a single file that will be executed whenever a login shell is created <b>or</b> when an interactive shell is created. I <i>could</i> put all that in /etc/bashrc, which executes for all users (not just for the current logged-in user) in both scenarios, but it's better store all bash customizations in my personal home directory. What to do?<br />
<br />
The solution is to create ~/.bashrc and load it with your environment customizations. Then, invoke it from within the one user-specific bash file that you know will always be executed when a login shell is created: either ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile (depending on which one you prefer).<br />
<br />
Somewhere in your .bash_profile (or .profile) file - preferably at the bottom (after the paths are exported) - add this line:<br />
<br />
source ~/.bashrc<br />
<br />
This command invokes ~/.bashrc within the current login shell. Because ~/.bash_profile (or ~/.profile) is always executed when a new login shell is created, your .bashrc customizations will always be loaded into the shell.<br />
<br />
And, remember that when you start an interactive shell within a login shell, bash will invoke ~/.bashrc automatically.<br />
<br />
For more details and cool customization tips for .bashrc, see http://blog.toddwerth.com/entries/4Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-91047477231899584932011-03-05T01:43:00.000-08:002011-03-05T01:57:42.501-08:00Song A Day 2011 Recording Diary2/24/2011: Mr. Hanley<br />
<br />
Not much to say about this one except that the song is weak and the recording is awful. I recorded this one the weekend before Song A Day started as an emergency filler - just something to post in case I ran out of time or ideas. Probably should have left it on the shelf.<br />
<br />
On the positive side of things, it's so bad sounding, it makes the recordings created afterward sound better.<br />
<br />
I did record one new song, which is Elvis Costello. It's my response to one of Chris' songs for which the notes in the lyrics describe it as 'me doing Derek doing Elvis Costello. Later, Jonathan did a song about himself doing Derek doing Chris doing Derek doing Elvis Costello.<br />
<br />
2/25/2011 <br />
<br />
No recording this day. Too wiped out. I wrote Byron Park, spending considerable time on the lyrics.<br />
<br />
2/26/2011 Byron Park<br />
<br />
Devoted most of the weekend to recording this ambitious number. <br />
<br />
Frustrated with the weak sounding bass guitar, I moved the U87 back so that it was 2 1/2 feet from the speaker cone and set it to a figure-8 pattern. This got me closer to the sound I wanted. I switched the amp's midrange frequency center from 200hz to 800hz, but in retrospect I'm not sure that was a good move.<br />
<br />
I played bass with my fingers to get a thicker sound and rolled off the volume knob a bit to reduce some unpleasant distortion picked up by the mic. Can't tell if the graphic EQ stompbox is causing that.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, got a horrible 60hz buzz on the bass track that I couldn't filter out. Oh well.<br />
<br />
Used the Les Paul for the lead guitar part. Again, the graphic EQ was the only effect used. Nice guitar tone!<br />
<br />
Hunted around for the right Reason strings for the ending section and settled on the regular orchestra strings.<br />
<br />
2/27/2011 Caught in a Crowd<br />
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A pretty ballad, but sung badly. I should have spent more time working on the vocal, but I was just too wiped out after the marathon sesions for Byron Park.<br />
<br />
2/28/2011 Goodbye to Song A Day<br />
<br />
Also worked on this during the weekend. The recording went pretty quickly. The usual drum setup wasn't working for me, so I substituted the U87 as an overhead for the SM81 to get more body out of the kit. That worked.<br />
<br />
Like an idiot, I accidently deleted the floor tom track while mixing. Thankfully, the drums don't rely on it heavily. But still, pretty dumb move.<br />
<br />
Used the same bass setup as for Byron Park, but played with a pick. I regret switching the amp midrange frequency center from 200 to 800 hz, as it sounds better when the track is soloed than when blended in with the other tracks. It's not a bad sound per se, it's just not the frequency center that I gravitate towards. It brings out the characteristic Rickenbacher tone.<br />
<br />
The horrible 60 hz hum plagued the bass recording again.<br />
<br />
For the rhythm guitar parts, I wanted to get a Chris Greacen wall-of-sound type of production, so I spent time experimenting. The key discovery here was swapping the U87 and Sennheiser 906 mics such that the U87 was aimed at the top speaker. This gave me the proper frequency balance and at long last - after four years of experimentation - I finally achieved the Chris Greacen effect. It's just Les Paul into graphic EQ and into Tremolux, but it sounds big.<br />
<br />
Oh, another critical change came about after experimenting with the graphic EQ settings. I lowered the 3kz slider and beefed up 200 and 100hz. I also increased the amp's bass setting to 6.<br />
<br />
As a side note, I tried using an overdrive box to see if it could add more harmonic complexity, but all it did was soften the sound and make it mushy.<br />
<br />
Used the unplayable Jay Turner guitar for the dueling lead guitars at the end. I love the tone of that guitar, but it would have been easier to have played the solo on a banjo. Any attempt to bend strings above the 12th fret result in a complete fretting-out and subsequent muting of the sound. <br />
<br />
And thus endeth Song A Day 2011. I'll post my post mortem soon.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-43009874012652771642011-02-24T15:43:00.000-08:002011-03-05T02:18:30.479-08:00Song A Day 2011: 2/24/2011We're in the home stretch! I'm wiped out. Here are some more notes on the latest recordings.<br />
<br />
Halfway Through Song A Day: 2/16/2011<br />
<br />
Nothing much to say about this straightforward recording of acoustic guitar and voice. The lyrics worked out to two lines of mention for each of the nine participants. If we had just one more participant - or one less - it wouldn't have worked. Got lucky on that one.<br />
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C1: 2/17/2011<br />
<br />
My venture into pure Electronica. I did the bulk of sequencing in Reason and added some more tracks in Cubase, with all Reason sounds being merged into Cubase via ReWire.<br />
<br />
At this point of the month, I was feeling burned out on writing pop songs and struggling to sing them. This track helped to recharge my batteries.<br />
<br />
Could It Be Meat?; 2/18/2011<br />
<br />
Another simple, one-off acoustic + vox recording. I wrote this one while sitting in Taco Bell.<br />
<br />
2/19/2011<br />
<br />
I took a break this day. Just too worn out to even think about recording<br />
<br />
Long Way to Anaheim: 2/20/2011<br />
<br />
I came back full force with this one. Used a nice blend of Miroslov low legato strings and mellotron strings. Still struggling with getting a good bass sound. There's no easy answer to it. I just have to try different things - play with amp settings, graphic EQ stompbox settings, moving mic around (aimed at center of cone or off to the side? closer or further way?) and mixdown effects such as 1176 compression and multi-band compressor, plus EQ.<br />
<br />
Here Come the Vegans: 2/21/2011<br />
<br />
I absolutely LOVE this song. Just two guitars (Jay Turner and Les Paul into Tremolux through graphic EQ - nothing else) with the usual two mic setup (U87 on bottom speaker and Senheiser 906 on top speaker). Had lots of problems with tuning the Jay Turner. It just cannot be tuned. I noticed that the 906 gets a thin, strident sound and the U87 picks up some muddy, woolly signals. When combined through the multi-band compressor, it usually results in a decent recording. But I'm not satisfied with this approach. Next time, I'll swap mics and see what happens.<br />
<br />
For the life of me, I couldn't get a good bass sound. I worked on it for hours, but never achieved what I heard in my head. Used tons of EQ/compression/multi-band, etc to forge a usable sound out of it. Blech.<br />
<br />
Had fun singing this one. Finally got a decent vocal performance. I was hoarse the next day after singing the high-pitched la-las at the end.<br />
<br />
For the drums, I used the U87 in place of the SM81 for the overhead, simply because I couldn't get enough beef out of the SM81 for this tune. I think it worked ok. The U87 doesn't pick up cymbals as nicely as the SM81, but it captures more of the body of the drum kit. There are some insane drum fills on this one, particularly near the end. I'm proud of the drum performance overall.<br />
<br />
2/22/2011<br />
<br />
Took a break from recording and just worked on remixing Here Come the Vegans. Spent 2+ hours on the remix, but not satisfied with the results.<br />
<br />
What Do Ghosts Like to Do? 2/23/2011<br />
<br />
I close mic'd the Martin guitar and played fingerstyle. Also sang VERY close into the mic and used a lot of compression. Threw on a spooky organ from Reason and that was it. This one came out very nice and spacious.<br />
<br />
Afterward, finalized the mix for Here Come the Vegans and uploaded it. I think it's better than previous efforts.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-52130758815639708812011-02-16T01:21:00.000-08:002011-03-05T01:00:30.363-08:00Song A Day 2011 Recording DiaryWe're at the end of week number two of Song A Day. I'm already feeling burned out. There has to be an easier way to record my songs.<br />
<br />
2/14/2011 Animatronics<br />
<br />
Another all-day recording, though a substantial proportion of that was spent writing the song.<br />
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While recording the bass, I discovered to my horror that the intonation was completely off on all four strings. Removing the felt strips under the bridge saddles had thrown everything off! So I adjusted the intonation until it was in tune with itself. Nevertheless, when I listen to the final track, it's obvious that the A and D strings aren't in tune with the other instruments. <br />
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Boosting 200 hz on the amp and the graphic EQ box helped fill out the sound some more, but it's still not where I want it. The mic picks up a different signal than what the ears hear in the room, and I must adjust the sound in the room to please the mic rather than myself.<br />
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I'm fed up with recording bass guitar. Maybe it's time to switch over to using a keyboard for that.<br />
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Had problems with the drum recording. There's too much hi hat leakage into the snare mics and the tom mics. What am I doing wrong? The mics are about 4 inches away from each drum. Should they be closer?<br />
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The high guitar parts are just me plucking the strings on the acoustic an octave up from the main rhythm part. The result is almost mandolin-like.<br />
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2/15/2011 Wind Up<br />
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Another full day spent recording - and probably the last one for this year's Song A Day. I was determined to tackle the issues with the drum sounds.<br />
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I recorded some takes with the usual mic setup and listened to each track individually. Here's what I heard:<br />
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The under snare mic sounds okay, but has too much sloppy rattle in the sound. Leakage from other drums is barely acceptable.<br />
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The over snare mic sounds like garbage. There's as much hi hat bleeding into the EV 906 mic as there is snare drum sound, which has a boxy, wimpy sound. That's a problem.<br />
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The overhead mic is even worse. It's picking up.... nothing much at all. Just some faint cymbal sounds, the ugliest frequencies from the hi hat, and boxy-sounding, feeble taps on the other drums. I don't get it! I'm hitting the drums good and hard. Why does it sound like I'm playing with my fingertips?<br />
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The kick is muddy, dumpy and lacking definition. I've tried moving the mic around - inside the hole and out, but nothing ever seems to make it sound great.<br />
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Both tom tracks have way too much cymbal and hi hat bleed to be useful. For some recordings I've resorted to manually cutting up the track to remove everything in the recording when the drums aren't being played.<br />
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So now that I had a handle on the problems, I busied myself moving the mics in closer. <br />
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The overhead is now a mere 18 inches above the cymbals and aimed between the snare and the kick. This resulted in an immense improvement!<br />
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I moved the tom mics to within 1.5 inches of the drums. Likewise, this reduced the ambient bleed and strengthened the tom sound.<br />
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The top snare mic was also positioned within an inch of the top head, aimed at the center. This helped the sound a lot, but it's not capturing anything magical either. Still, it's good enough to be EQed (dip around 300hz to remove boxiness, boost at 250 for body, boost at 1k for tone, boost at 3k for clarity).<br />
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The under snare mic, on the other hand, did not fare well with the new position. I moved it back down a few inches so that it's about 9 inches from the bottom head.<br />
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For the bass recording, I switched to using a heavy pick instead of the softer guitar pick that I had used for the last two weeks. I figured that I need to transfer more energy into the strings with each pluck to give the mic a good signal. I also boosted 200 hz and the treble EQ on the amp some more while backing off on the amp's bass EQ slightly. This yielded the best bass sound I've ever achieved on a Song A Day recording! It's very similar to the Fender Jazz Bass sound on Golden Slumbers by the Beatles on Abby Road. I still had to use a multiband compressor and other plugins to give it the right polish during mixdown, but I'm pleased with it.<br />
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I also experimented with adding midrange boost to the vocal tracks, since my vocal recordings tend to sound thin and bright.<br />
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This is one of my favorite all-time songs and recordings out of everything I've ever done for Song A Day.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-24954027710557252462011-02-15T13:25:00.000-08:002011-02-16T01:43:57.437-08:00Song A Day 2011 Recording DiaryValhalla 2/6/2011<br />
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I've decided to use Reason for most piano parts recorded for this year's Song A Day instead of using the awful Alesis QS6.1. There's more effort involved up front, but the sounds are definitely better.<br />
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The main riff is supposed to evoke images of Vikings stomping around. I have no idea why I wrote a song about Norse mythology.<br />
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A Knock on the Door 2/7/2011<br />
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Slightly creepy ballad with 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' lyrics. I went for maximum dynamics between verses and choruses.<br />
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I'm less happy about the bass sound. Looks like I need to work on the recording setup some more.<br />
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Autistic 2/8/2011<br />
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Simple folk song with an Irish jig feel. It's just one vocal, but I used a doubler effect to make it sound like two. It covers up some of the out-of-tune singing.<br />
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Goodbye and Goodnight 2/9/2011<br />
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I took the day off work to record this one. It's one of the most elaborate arrangements I've ever attempted, with 10 or more vocal tracks. The guitar solo is a 3-way poly-rhythm, which took considerable time to work out. I really like this one!<br />
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Had more problems with the bass sound. Notes aren't playing out clearly - there's a buzzy sound that required a lot of EQ to reduce. I'll spend some time trying to debug when I record another bass track.<br />
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Bring on the Dancing Girls 2/10/2011<br />
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There's this guy who sings Johnny Cash songs in the tube leading to the Montgomery Street Bart station with a spot-on vocal imitation of Mr. Cash. I wrote this song on the BART ride home and recorded it very quickly. The vocal performance was a single, unedited take. I was surprised that I could even approximate a Johnny Cash type of vocal, but it turned out to be very easy to do. The lyrics are, of course, demented.<br />
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I used my ancient Yamaha acoustic for this one. It doesn't sound as nice as the Martin, but it worked for this song.<br />
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What Did I Do? 2/11/2011<br />
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A quick knock off recording with horrible singing and playing. They can't all be gems.<br />
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Maker Faire (Glorious) 2/12/2011<br />
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One of the most commercial songs I've ever written. I spent an entire day on this one, polishing the arrangement until it was good enough for Song A Day. The tune and lyrics are a musical pun on Scarborough Faire, with the meaning twisted around to reference the annual nerd-fest known as The Maker Faire. I hope people will look up the word 'Arduino' to see what I'm describing.<br />
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The main guitar riff at the beginning is the cheapo, unplayable Jay Turner guitar, straight into the graphic EQ and the Tremolux. I'm convinced that using two mics (U87 and the EV 906) is the ticket to getting a decent recording of electric guitar.<br />
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The solo was performed on the Les Paul into a Stamps Drive-O-Matic. I'm happy with how it turned out.<br />
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Of all the parts, the arpeggiated guitars (Les Paul into Tremolux) at the end of the song were the most technically challenging to play. It didn't come out as nicely as I heard it in my head before attempting to play it, but I can live with it.<br />
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Figured out what was wrong with the bass sounds and learned a lot in the process. I had stuck strips of felt under the bridge saddles to mute the strings slightly. Turns out that was a bad idea, so I removed them. <br />
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After a lot of playing and listening to the bass amp, I realized that plucking near the neck was further choking the sound, so I've changed my playing technique to use palm muting behind the bridge, which is rather awkward on a Rickenbacker bass.<br />
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The microphone (U87) 'hears' a feeble, tinny, metalic sound that is pretty useless, so I worked a lot on adjusting the amp (SVT) EQ settings and the Danelectro graphic EQ. I ended up switching the amp's midrange frequency from 800 hz to 200 hz. This provides a bit more of the mid-bass thump that is missing from the bass recordings.<br />
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Five Percent 2/13/2011<br />
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This is an amalgam of early Rick Derringer, Grand Funk Railroad, Cream, Edgar Winter, and others from the golden age of hard rock. I pulled out my ancient Cry Baby wah wah pedal for the lead guitar part. Unfortunately, the capacitors seem to have dried out, so the tone on it is no longer very musical. I'll probably have to replace it.<br />
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All guitars were Les Paul into graphic EQ and Tremolux. For the solo, I used the Drive-O-Matic for some extra fuzz. To get some more beef out of the guitars, I aimed the U87 and EV906 at different speakers, but at the same distance to the cones. Each speaker has different frequency response (one is designed to emphasize low mids, the other is more trebly), so this gave me more control of the sound during mixdown.<br />
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I struggled with the guitar solo, which came out pretty lousy considering that this song should feature 'hot' lead playing. I just ran out of time to get a decent take. The drum performance was also bad. So's the singing. Despite all that, the overall effect is okay. I'm not proud of how it came out.<br />
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I'm now interested in improving the drum sound on future recordings.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-18638515292509267762011-02-06T00:01:00.000-08:002011-02-06T01:00:58.731-08:00Song A Day 2011 - Recording DiaryIt's time again for Song A Day. This year I intend to improve a lot of deficiencies in my past recordings. There's still the limitation of having only one day to record each number, so I have to live with first takes and sloppy playing. If I can improve the guitar, drum, bass and vocal sounds, that's good enough for me.<br /><br /><strong>2/1/2011: Welcome to Song A Day</strong><br /><br />This is a typical kick off song, but I tried to write a good one this time. Past attempts have been pretty weak.<br /><br />The drum recording setup is similar to that of 2010, with one major improvement. I bought a new preamp, a GA Pre-73, dedicated to the kick drum. Because it has a separate output attenuation control, I can now record the kick without having to deal with the distortion and clipping that I experienced with the GrooveTubes Brick. The new setup is as follows:<br /><br />Overhead: Shure SM81 into Millenia HV-3B<br />Under Snare: AKG 414C (the old gray model with a C12 capsule) into Millenia HV-3B<br />Over Snare: new Sennheiser e906 (highend boost enabled) into FRM RNP<br />Kick: AKG D112 into GA Pre-73<br />Rack Tom: Shure SM-57 into FRM RNP<br />Floor Tom: Sennheiser 421 into GrooveTubes Brick<br /><br />Having an additional preamp allows me to use a full compliment of mics on the drums. I'm still going for mono (though on occasion I'll pan the toms around a bit), cause I don't have enough mics/stands/preamps for a stereo OH pair. That's okay by me.<br /><br />Unlike previous Song A Day recordings, I attached the front skin on the kick drum. I also changed out the snare top/botom heads to Evans Hazy 300 on the bottom (was previously a Evans Hazy 200) and Evans Genera HD Dry on the top (was previously a Remo Coated Controlled Sound Reverse Dot). I think it sounds pretty good, but not sure if it's dramatically different from before. We'll see how the mics respond to the changes.<br /><br />The drum recording for this song came out ok - nothing special. I'm playing a very busy pattern on the toms for this one.<br /><br />For guitars, I tried using a combo of U87 into HV-3B and the new Sennheiser e906 (in flat mode), with the e906 close to the cab and the U87 farther away. The results were murky and unimpressive, so that experiment didn't work out. I'm still playing the '79 Les Paul Custom into a Tremolux through a Danelectro Fish and Chips graphic EQ for a bit of boost.<br /><br />I recorded the bass in the usual manner: Rickenbacker into a 70's SVT, using a combo of DI through the GrooveTubes Brick and U87 (aimed at the 10" speaker cab) through the HV-3B. I had spent considerable time placing felt mutes into the bridge saddle pieces and trying to play with a heavy pick near the neck, but the result was as bad as always: indistinct, toneless and wimpy. Got to improve on this in future recordings.<br /><br /><strong>2/2/2011: Charlie Trotter</strong><br /><br />Simple acoustic ballad. I'm satisfied with the guitar sound, captured via U87 into HV-3B, aimed at the 12th fret from a foot or so away. The small-bodied Martin M3SC is pretty easy to record.<br /><br />I experimented with singing very close into the mic (all vocals are captured with the U87) and got decent results. Adding a healthy high-end boost during mixdown gives the vocal a nice polish.<br /><br /><strong>2/3/2011: Deadly Virus</strong><br /><br />Another acoustic ballad, recorded using an identical setup to Charlie Trotter.<br /><br /><strong>2/4/2011: If I Had a Mac</strong><br /><br />Yet another acoustic ballad, necessary because I'm recording late at night with Amy and Emma fast asleep in their rooms. However, this time I decided to break with tradition and record a live performance; one mic aimed at guitar and voice - captured in the first take. I didn't bother to try another take, as the first one was good enough. I had fun adding wacky effects to this single track recording during mixdown.<br /><br /><strong>2/5/2011: I Lost It</strong><br /><br />It's Saturday, so I can record something loud and obnoxious. After recording a scratch piano track, I produced the vocal tracks first, including background vox. <br /><br />Next, I used the U87 and e906 combo on the guitar cab, but this time the two mics were positioned equadistant from the center of the speaker cone, aimed slightly inward. I recorded a rhythm track with the Les Paul and a lead track with the Jay Turner guitar, both into the same Tremolux amp and 2x12 Scumback speaker cab. The results were somewhat better than my attempts on Welcome to Song A Day, but in the end I had to use a multi-band compressor on the stereo guitar bus during mixdown to give them some life. Both guitars need new strings. What else can I do to improve the recorded sounds of distorted, loud rock guitars?<br /><br />For the drums, I moved the 414C further away from the bottom of the snare to ensure that no capsule overloading or clipping occurs - I think it helped. I moved the kick mic out of the drum shell and aimed it at the mic hole to get more depth in the thump. It definitely helped. The only other change was I used rim shots on all snare hits. Turned out great! <br /><br />I knew that I had done something right with the drums when I realized that all of the transients were coming through the bus compression, and minimal EQ was used. Usually, I have to create a separate bus just to blend in uncompressed drums (to get transients lost in the main bus compression) and use lots of EQ on individual tracks. This is a first for me.<br /><br />When it came time to record the bass track, I was determined to get a decent sound - for once! I switched over to the 1x15 cabinet and aimed the U87 at the center cone about 2 feet away. Rather than trying to pick near the neck (which was creating a toneless, blinky sound), I palm muted (difficult on a Rickenbacker) and switched to a softer nylon guitar pick instead of the usual heavy bass pick. Finally, I changed the midrange filter on the SVT head from 3K to 800hz and, for the first time ever, used the Danelectro graphic EQ to dial in the desired tone. I spent considerable time experimenting with different EQ settings on both the stompbox and the amp, but eventually eliminated the nasty plinky sound and achieved both a solid low-end thump and an interesting, bright midrange.<br /><br />Success! The combination of these changes, plus the fact that I'd recently changed the bass strings to use a much heavier gauge, finally yielded a good sound on 'tape' that needed minimal processing to be loud and clear in the mix.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-61959441247142776402010-02-10T01:27:00.000-08:002010-02-14T01:31:22.329-08:00Song A Day 2010: Almost ViralThis is a keyboard improv with a few overdubs.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-30669026359264561892010-02-09T01:23:00.000-08:002010-02-14T01:27:16.465-08:00Song A Day 2010: Awake In The DarkWrote this one on the spot. The acoustic guitars are insanely squeaky. Oh well. I like the sound of the keyboard bass part. My next recording will be all-keyboards.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-28612163082587510252010-02-08T01:08:00.000-08:002010-02-14T01:23:02.409-08:00Song A Day 2010: Superbowl Weekend Part IIFinished two songs: I Am Serious and Where Is My Cool<br /><br />Used the Shure SM81 as overhead on the drums, with a 414 aimed below below the snare, an AKG D112 on the kick and a Sennheiser MD421 on the floor tom.<br /><br />For the bass tracks, I plugged the Rickenbacker 4003 into a '64 Fender Bassman. I used a guitar cab for I Am Serious, which sounded interesting. I tried it again for Where Is My Cool, but it developed a rattle mid-way through recording, so I switched to the Ampeg 4x10 cab. Used DI + 414 for both recordings.<br /><br />Guitars were through a Dan Electro stomp box EQ to add some midrange and into the Fender Bassman, again recorded using the 414.<br /><br />I had problems with the vocal sounds on Where Is My Cool. For some reason, they came out muddy and midrange-heavy, almsost as if I had sung through a cardboard tube. I didn't see too close to the mic, so it's puzzling. Attempts to repair using EQ proved fruitless. Maybe I shouldn't sing from the desktop chair. Bad resonances in that area perhaps?Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-50171083676101053572010-02-07T02:34:00.000-08:002010-02-07T02:59:25.934-08:00Song A Day 2010: Superbowl WeekendOn Friday I had to work from home until midnight, so I didn't have a chance to write and record anything. Went to bed feeling bitter.<br /><br />On Saturday, wrote and recorded tracks for two songs, but neither is completed. I figured that I might as well go for some production on these songs.<br /><br />I Am Serious:<br /><br />Wrote the tune on BART the previous day and wrote the lyrics today. It's a snappy-paced pop song.<br /><br />REcorded two acoustic guitars, a bunch of vocals and bass. The bass recording was cool. I didn't have time to set up the SVT and struggle with getting a usable sound, so I just plugged the bass into a 1964 Fender Bassman and a 2x12 guitar cab loaded with Scumbacks. After a bit of experimentation, I came up with this setup:<br /><br />Used the bridge pickup on the Rickenbacher and used my palm to mute. The real surprise was how quickly I could dial in a good bass sound in the room:<br /><br />Used the guitar channel (it's brighter than the bass channel) with the bright switch on, treble maxed out on 10, and the bass rolled almost completely off. Hard to believe, but coupled with the bass DI signal, it gives a cool plinky sound with good low end. If I dialed in a touch more of bass on the amp, I could probably get a nice, fat tone as well. Mic'd with the 414 about 2 ft away, aimed at the center cone of the top speaker.<br /><br />Where is My Cool:<br /><br />The melody has been floating around in my head since Song A Day 2008, but I never took the time to develop into a complete song. I cranked out the lyrics in a stream-of-consciousness manner and dived into the recording. The ending section sounds jarring to me. Given time, I'd re-write it. But this is Song A Day, where it's all about capturing the first ideas for a song. The rest of the year can be devoted to refining the rough sketches.<br /><br />Recorded 2 acoustic guitars, piano and a lot of vocals. There's a lot more work to do on this one, but I'm happy with the way it's turning out.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-57927214859148525522010-02-05T02:22:00.000-08:002010-02-07T02:33:37.353-08:00Song A Day 2010: Michelin StarAs was trying to find a subject matter of my next song, I came up with the idea of a restaurant critic writing a bad review of a once-great establishment. While googling the correct spelling of 'Michelin', I stumbled across a news item announcing that one of Gordon Ramsey's award winning restaurants had just lost a Michelin Star.<br /><br />Too much of a coincidence.<br /><br />I performed the guitar and vocal in one live take, using only the U87 positioned several feet away. I added a bit of extra vocal on another track and the song was done.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-35499332253820305062010-02-04T15:13:00.000-08:002010-02-04T15:20:42.408-08:00Song A Day 2010: Nothing Part OnePart one of what is bound to be a series of songs with no lyrical content. Sometimes I just can't think of anything to say, so that becomes the subject of the lyrics.<br /><br />I was interested in writing a simple folk song with a contrapuntal bass part, and this is the result. I'm learning how to mix on headphones; this one came out sounding okay. <br /><br />I've have a fairly reliable setup for getting hi-fi vox and acoustic guitar. As long as the U87 is aiming down at the sound source and a good 8" - 12" away, I get a balanced sound. I add a bit of EQ (hi pass rolloff plus 2db of 10k and a touch of hi mid boost), followed by compression. Less compression yields a bigger, clearer sound.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-72835778880478435992010-02-03T01:39:00.000-08:002010-02-04T15:13:14.095-08:00Song a Day 2010: Stuck on a Ferris WheelAnother song written and recorded in a couple of hours. I forced myself to stick with experimental first takes, with minimal or no punch ins on any of the tracks. And it shows.<br /><br />I used keyboards for all of the instrumentation this time around. Mixed using headphones, which is probably a bad idea - but I'm really worried about waking up the family.<br /><br />The idea behind this song was to write a song in a style that I've never tried before. I imagined Jack White pounding on a piano and singing at the top of his range. That's not how it turned out at all.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-12344959427766261562010-02-02T02:07:00.000-08:002010-02-04T15:12:35.956-08:00Song A Day 2010: I Would Really Like to RockSong A Day<br /><br />Wrote and recorded 'I Would Really Like to Rock' in a couple of hours. While singing the high harmony, Emma woke up and wandered into the living room. I escorted her back to bed, waited about 20 minutes for her to fall back asleep, then continued working. <br /><br />The arrangement is about the same as the previous song ("Good Luck"), but with a DI bass part and some background vocals added.<br /><br />I'm realizing how hard it is to sing in tune when I don't know the song. It would also be easier to belt out the vocals a bit more, but as the lyrics explain, the rest of the family was in bed, so I had to sing very quietly. At least the other instruments are horribly out of tune as well, so it all kinda averages out in the end.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-80464142531700830132010-01-31T21:47:00.000-08:002010-01-31T22:53:22.173-08:00Song a Day begins again: 2010It's time again for Song A Day. I spent the weekend writing up some notes with ideas for songs, but this time around there is a distinct lack of material from which to forge new songs.<br /><br />As I've done 2 years running, I wrote a kickoff song about Song A Day itself. The song itself is pretty ho-hum, but a few of the lyrics are funny. I recorded everything (piano, acoustic guitar, vocals) in about 70 minutes and spent no more than 10 minutes on the mix. The main vocal was done in a single take, with a single punch-in on one line. Guitar and piano were also recorded quickly, with all mistakes left in the final mix. Song A Day is all about immediacy. There's no room for craft. <br /><br />Vox and guitar was recorded with the U87 into the Millenia Media HV3B as usual. I fed the vocal signal into an 88RS (hi pass filter @ 240hz + 1-2db of 10k and 5k), and finally into a Fairchild 660 at the fastest release setting. As long as the mic diaphram is pointing down at my nose - about 10" to 14" away - the sound is pretty accurate.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6347277651391855073.post-82403104618562574492009-03-05T18:36:00.001-08:002009-09-18T17:52:30.531-07:00Song A Day 3/05/09<span style="font-weight:bold;">2/27/2009 Contest Winner</span><br /><br />The crowd noises were taken from Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band (the title track). You can hear bleed-through of Paul's bass during the fadeout.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">2/27/2009 Nothing Is Impossible</span><br /><br />The lyrics are either expressing wide-eyed optimism or vicious cynicism, take your pick. It's not a particularly good recording. Drums were recorded using a modified Glynn Johns mic setup, but with a 414 as the main overhead. As a (failed) experiment, I recorded the bass using a close mic (U87) plus a distant mic (414 - about 6 feet away from the speaker cab). Both mics picked up a muddy, indistinct bass sound. On the other hand, the electric guitar (Jay Turner through Tremolux, no effects) came out nice.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">2/28/2009 Lincoln Ought to Be</span><br /><br />I wanted to end song-a-day 2009 with a hard rock song, and here it is. The meter changes from 7/4 to 4/4 and back again, which adds a bit of variety to what is otherwise a straightforward tune.<br /><br />The guitar tracks were Les Paul and Jay Turner into a VVT Earthquake 5.1, a frighteningly loud and powerful hand-wired, all-tube monstrosity that was custom built to Peter Johnson's exacting requirements. Thanks for letting me borrow this amp, Peter! It's got 3 separately controlled gain stages in 'lead' mode, so I spent a lot of time tweaking the knobs until I found the kind of tone that was right for the song. Note that I used the middle position on the pickup selector for the solo to get a smoother, less strident kind of 70's guitar sound.<br /><br />Drums were recorded using the Glynn Johns mic setup, with a 57 as the main overhead. Bass was a combination of tube DI and U87 miked 4x10 cab through the SVT. As an experiment, I tried to get a low-mid kind of bass tone through the amp. After mixing everything, I think it's usually better to get more of an upper-mid, thinner kind of miked sound.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984087166928634554noreply@blogger.com0