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The Jurassic Park Theory
Hello world! It's been a really long time since I've been in the blogging seat, but I'm back and ready for action. Since I last wrote there have been a lot of changes in my life. My wife and I had a baby boy on February 12, 2011. He was 11 weeks early and went through some very serious illness within his first few weeks of life. But, thank God, he's doing really well now and we expect to take him home from the hospital in the next few weeks. Things have been really busy with family stuff to say the least!
Also during this time, I've been pretty swamped with work. My son, Nathan, being born early required me to take some time off, which really set me back on a few deadlines. I'm pretty much all caught up now, but for a while there I was doing nothing but working, eating, sleeping, and making hospital visits.
This leads me to what I want to talk about today. All that time spent in the studio mixing and editing got me to thinking about the way we get our sounds. Always trying to take it to the "next level", I used some time during mixing marathons to experiment. Finding ways to do things more efficiently with the same result, or maybe sacrifice a little bit of efficiency to achieve a better result. It got me to thinking about my education and the folks that taught me what I know about engineering and producing.
My first thought on this matter is one of gratefulness. I consider it a privilege to do what I do every day and I recognize that without those teachers and mentors, I wouldn't be able to. I also recognize that they wouldn't be able to teach anything about recording or producing were not for years of analysis on how the pro's of any generation were getting their sounds. But I also realized something else. I realized that those foundations of recording principles need to be built on. Like any good art, you first need to learn and understand the "rules" (in quotes because the term should be taken lightly when applied to art), and then you need to go about breaking them.
This brings me to my Jurassic Park Theory. Remember that scene in the movie when Jeff Goldblum's character challenges Dr. Grant by saying that his scientists "were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."? What I'm saying here is, let's go ahead and take this quote as it applies to music, producing, and recording, and reverse it. Sometimes I think we waste a lot of time in the studio trying to do something the way we think it "should" be done. The reality of our situation is, our audience is never going to hear anything but the final two channel mix. Left and right, that's all they get. The important part for us, is the process by which they get it. The principles of recording are a firm foundation and an excellent jumping off point for innovation. But imposing too many rules will squash that innovation. Now here's the kicker. Many of us understand this when it comes to our own work, but are we willing to let another person work out of our studio on this same principle?
We producers and engineers cling to experience as one of the most highly valued assets in our industry. If you've done it before you can do it again. So naturally when we are working with someone who might have less experience (especially if our studio's name is going on it) we might want to look over their shoulder a little bit, and give them a hand and some constructive feedback when they're getting good, but not great, results. Also, innovation is simply a bad business plan. It usually means that a project will take twice as long to complete when you're sailing in uncharted territory. And heaven forbid it doesn't work out the way you'd hoped. Then you've got to start over again. But we must try to resist the urge to preach our experience as gospel truth, and we must plan in some time to experiment an innovate as much as we can with each new project. The future of sound, recording, and producing is informed by and supported by past experiences, and there are some principles which cannot be ignored and will only help a learning engineer grow and achieve better recordings and mixes. But imposing too many rules on some of the finer points of the process will only crush their creativity, their innovation, and stop our industry in its tracks (get it? Its a pun!)
Let's try to keep the final goal in mind, shall we? Let's try to remember that we are making music here, and that that music needs to communicate with people. Isn't that the point? Who cares if you printed your EQ settings to your audio files and then used them in the final mix? Who cares if you crushed the drums a little too much with your bus compressor? As long as it supports the message of the song and helps people relate to the song, then WHO CARES?
Let's start thinking about the possibilities. Let's stop being so preoccupied with what we should do, and start thinking about what we could do.
New Track coming up!
Here is a short clip of a session I had at Northgate a couple of months ago. John Rensink is in the booth laying down some vocal tracks for his new song "Games". I think this clip highlights a very important part of getting emotionally charged vocals: letting go and having fun. One thing that always works for John is playing a little air guitar on a mic stand as he sings. In some instances, little things like that mean the difference between keeper takes and throw-aways. That all being said, this is really just a goofy video that I thought was funny. I will be posting the new track in the next few weeks.Tis the Season!
This week we'll be chatting about one of the most festive genres of our musical culture and heritage. That's right, it's all about Christmas Music! Christmas is, hands down, my favorite holiday and there's nothing like some good carols and festive Christmas tunes to lighten the mood. Some folks hate it when the Christmas decorations start going up in November, but I say bring it on!
So far I've made this sound like we're going to dive deep into the history of the music that has traditionally surrounded this holiday, but that would be boring. Also, I'm not sure I'm savvy enough in my music history to be qualified for that sort of blog. No, I'm actually here to talk about a pet peeve that surrounds my love of Christmas songs. They're the songs that sneak on to Christmas playlists and albums everywhere just because they mention the word "Christmas", or have sleigh bells in the chorus. Today, I'm here to expose the fake Christmas songs.
It's not as hard as you think to spot a fake. It all has to do with the subject matter of the song. However, in order know what is NOT a Christmas song, we have to decide what IS a Christmas song.
Now to some folks (like me) Christmas is ALL about the birth of Jesus. But I realize that Christmas has also developed a deep cultural element that extends beyond personal religious beliefs. That being said, I think think that most Christmas celebraters can agree that the theme of the season can be summed up by Linus (you know, the kid with the blanket from Charlie Brown?) At the end of the Charlie Brown Christmas special, Linus breaks down the meaning of Christmas by reading a bible passage that ends with:
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, and good will towards man."
From this passage we can get three themes.
1) Glory to God in the highest: Therefore, any song about the birth of Jesus can be considered a Christmas song.
2) And on Earth, peace: Songs that clearly have a winter holiday theme and are about peace on earth can be considered Christmas songs.
3) And good will towards man (that is to say human kind): This is the most all encompassing theme. I take this to extend to songs about helping a neighbor, throwing a party, being together with family and friends and celebrating the holiday season.
Aside from the Charlie Brown themes, there is one more way to spot a christmas song.
4) Christmas Lore: Any song that deals with Christmas characters can be considered a christmas song. Rudolph, Frosty, Santa, Dominic the Donkey, bring them all to the party I say! A big part of Christmas is feeling like a little kid again.
End themes for Christmas songs.
Notice I did NOT include a category for "Christmas Breakup song" or "I want you as my Christmas Present song". You know the songs I'm talking about. The ones where the main character can only think about that "one thing" at Christmas! I don't want to hear about how he/she dumped you last Christmas. Or how the "logs on the fire fill you with desire" (from "Merry Christmas Darling"). Heck, I don't even want to hear about your happy one-on-one relationship at Christmas. As far as I'm concerned, these songs are just using Christmas as an edge to make them unique. They piggyback the holiday season to get them some radio play, when at their core they've got a message that couldn't be farther from a Christmas theme.
Don't get me wrong, I understand that life doesn't stop for Christmas. Our relationships and heartaches carry on through all of the seasons. BUT WE SING ABOUT THEM ALL YEAR LONG! Can't we at least try to forget about them for a brief moment and celebrate something bigger than ourselves? Take a month to celebrate community and friendship or helping a neighbor?
Ok, I know this has gone on a little long, but I just want to take this opportunity to call out (by name) some of the worst offenders in my opinion. Oh, and don't get all bent out of shape if any of these songs are on your playlists. You're welcome to listen to whatever you choose. This is just one man's opinion.
-Last Christmas by WHAM! - As far as I'm concerned this is a supremely annoying song. Now, I've had a bit of a history with this song, but I'm not going to go there for the purposes of this blog post. Beyond that, how does this make even the Christmas playlists? Poorly set, shallow lyrics and a chorus which is far less satisfying than eating just one Lays potato chip. Everything about this song leaves something do be desired. As far as I'm concerned, it's a textbook Christmas Piggy-backer.
-All I Want for Christmas is You - I'm gonna get myself in trouble with this one. I'm sorry, but this just doesn't cut it as far as Christmas songs go. It is definitely a better song than WHAM! It totally deserves to be a hit, but a "Christmas Song?" I don't think so. Sure it's riddled with christmas themes and sounds, but at it's core, I just don't think it has that Christmas spirit to it. Which is exactly it's problem. It was clearly produced to sound like a christmas song. Meant to sell millions of copies by feeding off of people's need for a significant other. The Christmas part of this song is an afterthought.
-Merry Christmas Darling - This is another one we can chalk up to being a success only due to it's christmas imagery. Take a look at the lyrics some time. The cliches never end with this tune, let alone the fact that you're like a year older by the time it finally ends.
I'm sure there are more, but this post has gone on way too long already. It should be mentioned, however, that the validity of certain long accepted christmas songs, like "Winter Wonderland", or "Let it Snow", could be called into question based on my assessment of proper christmas themes. But if we look closely at these songs we see that the winter celebration theme clearly comes first. In fact, I'll bet that some of you didn't even really know that these songs were about one on one relationships. That's the key. How can song be labeled a "Christmas Song", if the "Christmas" part is the afterthought? This man's answer to that question is: It can't.
Northgate Vocals on Kipsta Commercial
Here's some exciting news. One of my friends who works for Human Worldwide recently had me record some of my vocals for a commercial for Kipsta, a sporting goods company. Kipsta decided to use my friend's music for the spot. The commercial will be airing all over Spain in the next few months (I think). Here's the link. Check it out!
Drivin The Bus-part 2
In my last post we talked about emotional intent, and how it's difficult to find in most session musicians. While I find energy and character to be the most important thing in a good drum track (that's why I wrote about it first), all the energy in the world won't mean a thing if you just don't have the chops! So today's blog is all about tempo, tempo, tempo!
If you're a drummer in today's studio world, you have to be able to play to a click track. This is partially because of the aural microscope that the studio creates. It's a lot easier to hear rhythmic inconsistencies on a studio track (where one will listen over and over again to the same performance) than at a live show. The other part of it, however, has to do with the way the studio has changed in the past decade or so. Technology has become more compact, more powerful, and more affordable. On top of all that, if you choose your gear wisely, and use it correctly you can get great sound out of a very lean and mean recording setup. The recording world has entered the era of the Project Studio. Folks like me, who've set up shop in their home. They've got a very professional signal chain, and they might even have an isolation booth, but they don't necessarily have the square footage you might find in traditional recording studios. How does this relate to playing to a click? Overdubs of course! Many of these studio situations will require band members to enter their tracks as overdubs because they just couldn't fit the whole band in at the same time. Obviously it's preferable to get as many instruments recorded simultaneously as possible, but even if you can fit the whole band in, there will probably be a few mistakes that players want to fix, and of course, auxiliary parts that make the song sound really cool.
Let's go with that for a moment. Let's say that your guitar player is adding a part to the chorus of one of your band's tunes. It's a really cool part and the band would like to have that same part come in on every chorus. To save some time (and money), the engineer offers to copy and paste that part from one chorus to the next. But, uh-oh, we didn't play to a click! The second chorus is at a slightly different tempo from the first! Simply copying and pasting that part is no longer an option. The engineer could edit the track to fit with the groove of each chorus, or the guitar player could get it just right two more times. This is just one of many scenarios where the click would have saved time.
Now the above scenario may or may not seem so bad depending on your experience. But there have been many projects I've worked on where simply recording to a click would have avoided a whole host of nightmarish problems. Recording to click is invaluable to post-production. Period. It will save the engineer time and the client money, and everyone likes that.
So how do you handle the click track? My philosophy is: Treat it like any other band member. Think about it. You play in sync with your band mates all the time and you still make it to the end of the song. As a drummer your job is to set the tempo and groove of the track. You need to groove with the other parts of your band, why not the click as well? Don't think of the click as this scary, robotic, perfectly in time thing that's only there to hold you back. It's just another, slightly more stubborn, member of the band and you need to groove with him/her just as much as any of the other players.
And the best part about this member of the band is that it has no personal schedule. It can practice whenever you're available. So practice making music with the click often! Don't just get yourself to the point where you don't lose the beat, get yourself to the point where the click sounds like a part that's been integrated into your groove. Session players that can do that are few and far between.