ChurchHouse Productions Blog

It’s Your Choice

Some people may have grown up in the digital age and not be aware of the specific differences between analog and digital recording. I’ve attached an article titled ‘The Case Against Digital Recording’ although my point is not so much which is ‘better’ or ‘worse’ as much as opening a discussion about the differences. Besides the tech differences, this article also discusses different styles of recording music in general. I actually find that part of the article more interesting.
For full disclosure, ChurchHouse Studios is a digital based studio. Digital recording has made the editing and storing of music much easier. We do, however, create most of our songs using a more ‘old fashion’ process. I favor recording song tracks straight through rather than cut and paste. I also tend to enjoy the subtle differences (some people may say ‘mistakes’) it creates from verse to verse and chorus to chorus. For me it breathes life in to a song and makes that particular recording unique, moments that can’t be recreated. One of my favorite examples is in the Rolling Stones ‘Gimme Shelter’. At about the 2:59 point of the song during the female vocalist’s solo your hear her voice crack from pushing the note so hard and Jagger giving a little shout in the background. For me that moment is chill inducing and priceless. Would that be edited out in today’s world?
I don’t think either digital or analog recording is ‘better’. They both have their place and music, like all art, is subjective and will always remain that way. It’s your choice.

Here’s the article:

http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2013/03/08/the_case_against_digital_music_recording.html

This discussion also allows me to throw in a plug for one of our favorite artists, Jack White. His Third Man Records studio is analog and he’s quite a proponent of analog recording.

http://thirdmanrecords.com/about/

OK – You’ve twisted my arm – I’ll also throw in a video of Jack White live on Austin City Limits.

Sound And Vision Leaves Your Head Spinning

Music tech advances as fast as you can blink. Check out this video from Beck covering David Bowie’s ‘Sound And Vision’. The interpretation is cool enough, but the tech behind it is remarkable. It’s the recreation of a 360 degree immersive environment using state of the art recording and an old but not that well known recording technique called binaural recording. Binaural is very different from stereo recording because it takes in to consideration the natural way a human head hears sound. The Sound and Vision project takes your ears in to that natural recording space as well as letting you travel through the video visually. You can now be in the concert space without leaving your home. It won’t be able to replace the full body experience of live music, but boy are they getting close.

Here’s the video:

http://youtu.be/QnOmrDzRrGQ

I’ve also included an article discussing the tech involved:

http://evolver.fm/2013/02/21/exclusive-interview-becks-360-degree-sound-and-vision/

Can You Hear Me Now?

I wanted to pass along an interesting article I read concerning some of the pitfalls you can encounter running a small studio. One of the major problems concerns the fact that a small project studio often does not have multiple people handling the work that comes in. As a result, one person may do the recording, mixing and mastering as well as filling the role of the producer. There are positives to this: less long discussions or arguments over how to proceed as well as a consistent vision for the project. But the downside is the tunnel vision you may incur working by yourself and the project burnout you can encounter as you progress through all the steps.
This article speaks specifically to ‘ear burnout’ and steps you can take to avoid it. One thing the article doesn’t discuss is the positives you have when more than one person works on a project. At ChurchHouse Studios we have taken this to heart and try to have several people working on different parts of the project, especially mixing and mastering. It has produced very positive results for us. Another tip I would give is being aware of who is mixing your music. I’ve found out the hard way that mixing engineers who were in very loud bands and never used ear protection may have lost much of the top end of the hearing and will mix accordingly (also a tip to use ear protection if you’re still playing and don’t have the headphones too loud in the studio).

Ear fatigue and mixing music – know the signs, avoid mistakes

Something familiar

…but not too familiar – that is the way I would describe these guys and their sound. It has a vibe that reminds me of music from the days of my youth, but it pulls from several different genres. Their energy is good as is their playing – the song is great. I found this band while going through the promotion list tonight and had to throw this band up here because I just thought the sound was great and the blog was too. I guess one could say that you have to give a little of what you want to receive? Then again, it is getting late and I have at least three more blogs to visit tonight.

Jane’s Party – ‘Til You Got Yours
Referred by – The Broken Speaker

Increase Your Options

I want to share a recording technique that I read about when I started studio work and have used during sessions over the last several years. The idea is to track one guitar performance and end up with multiple tracks with different sound qualities.
To do this we have the guitar running in to two separate amplifiers – to get the best variety use amps with different sound qualities. For the example in the photo we’re using a Peavey amp on one side and a Mesa on the other side. Make sure the amps are separated so there is no bleed over between them. Each amp’s sound will be captured by three microphones. In our example we are using two dynamic mics close to the amp and one condenser mic slightly farther away on each side.

Each mic will go to a separate track in the recording software as seen in the photo below. You now have six unique guitar sounds you can use throughout the song. In our example we split the guitar signal going to the amps with a stereo chorus effect to allow for a greater stereo field when panning tracks left and right.

In the final photo below you can see how we used the diverse sounds throughout the song, bringing in different mics during verses, choruses and breaks. You can now accent different parts of the song with unique sonic signatures while maintaining a consistent guitar performance.

If you have enough tracks on your mixing console you can enhance these changes further using different settings of EQ, dynamics and effects on each track. This simple set up will provide you with multiple guitar sounds to make your track sonically interesting.