Can’t Get There From Here

A song recording project is actually a series of very distinct steps. Writing the song, pre-production, recording, editing, mixing, mastering. General wisdom has always said you can’t fix a problem with one of the steps in the next step. Also known as ‘you can’t polish a turd’ (well, i guess you could but……..).  The following article gives some great tips on how to get your final mix ready for the mastering step. It could be the difference between a great sounding final product and a ‘polished turd’. Your mastering engineer will be grateful, and studio bloodshed will be reduced.

http://www.uaudio.com/blog/studio-basics-mastering-mistakes/

 

Lera Lynn – Ring of Fire

Well, found this after watching Walk the Line last night, perusing the web for images of Johhny and June. I have always had a deep respect for what I call “the early rebels” of music. When I stumbled across Twang Nations’s post >>>here<< I read the interview with Twang Nation and Ms. Lynn.  Indeed, Ms. Lynn makes the song her own by portraying the darkness and pain that are conveyed in the lyrics.  Needless to say, I loved it and it spoke to me in a totally different, but awesome way.

Here is the >>song<<< , give it a listen. Caution tho’ – it might just break your heart.

The Drive

In a perfect world there would be no ‘work’. OK – how about no work that sucks. On many days the only thing that keeps my grey matter from exploding after work is the ‘drive home music’. Today was no exception. I dare you to be depressed if you’re riding in the car with The Bamboos playing at high volume. How can you not like a funk band from Australia? This song saved my mind on the way home.

The Bamboos – ‘Step It Up’

Catching The Sonic Monster

How you print sound to tracks is the one of the first stages of the actual ‘recording’ process. There are millions of ways to go about doing this. This part of the recording process can be broken down to two overall categories to start with: do you record the sounds ‘clean’ to the tracks and do the sonic production on the tracks during mixing or or do you print EQ, dynamics and effects to the tracks during the recording process?

As always, there is no right or wrong answers. When I began my recording journey I took note of what happened in studios where I was recording and spent a lot of time reading articles (today you can include watching videos) by people considered the masters of engineering and mixing.

I’ve always loved the work of Eddie Kramer, considering the roll call of famous musicians he worked with and the fact that he is still active and working on new techniques today. He was a ‘print to track’ engineer (compression, EQ, FX printed to the track) and a lot of what I do follows that format. I do add to tracks while mixing, but I try to get the essence of the sound while I’m tracking. One quote from him about sonics when tracking:
“To start with I’m a great believer in getting the sound right then and there, put it on tape and don’t think about it anymore. I’ll print with effects, I’ll print with dynamics processing. The bottom line is if I hear a sound in my head, I’m going to go for it – I’m going to print it to tape”.

Every session will have different requirements, so experiment whenever possible. But if you haven’t tried ‘print to tape’ give it a go.

Here’s a little Eddie Kramer clip you might enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-JWsrnU6RA

Heavy Bells – J. Roddy Walston & The Business

Thanks to indiemusicfilter.com for this one – I may have to go purchase some of their tunes. Really like their sound, the grit, the intensity – the angst. Can’t have enough angst.

http://soundcloud.com/j-roddy-walston/j-roddy-walston-the-business