Happy New Year from Sound Schematic!
Heres a shout out to my friends Bad Bad Meow, whose EP’s I recorded and mixed at Engine Studios back in June. If high energy acoustic punk is your scene, you will definitely dig these guys. The music will be released over the course of the next month. Keep up with them here:
There have been a lot of outstanding music releases this year. What follows are a few of my favorites. In no particular order…
What can I say? Tom Waits is the man. Every song on this release is concise and strong – no filler material here. If you havent heard it yet you must.
Although slower and not as pop-oriented as her previous work, I really like the direction this is heading in. The recordings are pristine, and every song features an eclectic cast of instruments.
A mixture of free jazz, electronic manipulation, and killer musicianship. It is somewhat bizarre, but I cannot stop listening to it. “A modern classic of the future”.
This album hits hard. Although the subject matter is fairly dark throughout, the songs are extremely well produced and recorded. It is much more focused then the groups previous releases.
I am a big Ennio Morricone fan, so this is right up my alley. It’s great to hear spaghetti western stylings made more accessible.
A throw back to your great grandfathers dusty 78 collection, these tunes make me want to drink whiskey and dance the night away.
Happy holidays! Let me know if you agree/disagree with me on these choices.
Seattle natives “Telekinesis” recently came through Chicago on tour. Part of their itinerary included a live in-store performance at Logan Square’s own “Saki Records”. I got the opportunity to help out with the live recording of this set. Cool!
Head on over to Epitonic to check out the set for yourself – Telekinesis Saki Session
For those interested, the set up was real simple. We simply took the stereo feed from the sound board and combined it with a wide stereo pair in the room. Blending the two together gives a convincing live sound: plenty of presence on all the instruments but enough room to put it in perspective.
Check out Saki records here: Saki
SSL Console in the ‘A’ room at Engine Studio
The new Tribe of the Mountain album has been in the planning process for a while now. With an open week at Engine Studio in Chicago, we finally got the go-ahead to begin the recording process. Four days (70 hours of which were spent in the studio), things have gotten off to a great start. Basic tracking is done: we have drums, bass, guitar, and even some vocals for all ten songs. Now begins the overdubbing stage…
This recording session has provided me with a lot of good material to share on this blog. I still need to go through a lot of it, but expect more to come very soon!
A sneak peak into a recording session at the legendary Abbey Road StudioWhen you ask some one outside of the record industry to name a famous recording studio, usually one name comes up right away. That is Abbey Road Studio, the legendary English production house where it seems every famous band of the rock n roll era recorded an album. Perhaps most notable is the Beatles album named after the studio.
Anyway, I found myself stumbling around the internet late one night looking for new music. Specifically, I was doing a youtube search on the group Portico Quartet, a modern jazz group whose first album I found to be quite good. Although I did not know this at the time, the band recorded their latest album at Abbey Road studio.
The first video I found of them was filmed during a live take at the studio. It is quite beautifully shot, and the video not only shows the musicians performing super well, but it also gives an excellent peek inside an Abbey Road session. More interestingly (to me at least), the different microphones used and the placement of each is crystal clear in the video. Although I have no idea what producer John Leckie did during mix down, it is very cool to see just how many mics were used (on the drums and sax specifically) and where they were placed. The link to the photos offers angles not used during in the video.
Hopefully this video gives you some insight into a professional studio set up, and maybe even inspires your decisions for a future session.
Portico Quartet – Line (Take 5) at Abbey Road from York Tillyer on Vimeo.
Produced and Engineered by John Leckie
Still images of the session here
More info on Portico Quartet: http://porticoquartet.com
Pop music has always been driven by a strong rhythmic feel. People gotta dance! However, heavy rhythm does not need to only be associated with pop music – it is indeed prevalent in most forms of music.
In the early days of beat production, sounds were sampled from a plethora of sources. They were cut together on tape to form the rhythm. After this, hardware sequencers with MIDI functionality came into play. Today, a combination of these old school techniques are used, in addition to the latest software.
In fact, it is quiet easy to make beats entirely in the box (using only software). Most of the popular digital audio workstations today – ProTools, Logic, Cubase, Garageband – all have the capability to work with MIDI (a protocol that allows electronic music instruments, computers, samplers, etc to communicate with each other). In addition, there is an abundance of dedicated beat making software available. Some popular names are Reason and Fruity Loops. Through use of virtual instruments, samplers, signal processors, and mixers, there is essentially an unlimited variety of sounds that can be produced with beat making software.
It is interesting to note that in many pop music cases, the artist is not the one coming up with the “beat”. Usually someone else is hired on, or the producer creates the beats. This is a fairly new and unique niche. People who are good at producing these beats make a lot of money. If you are interested in producing music, especially in the hip hop and pop genres, then being able to work with beat making software is vital – this will make you an extreme asset in the studio.
If you are just getting started with this, or if you are looking for some fun, there are many ways to make beats online. Here are just a few options:
(Click images for link to site)
1. ToneMatrix
2. Audiotool
3. Loop Labs
4. Ball Droppings
5. Sheep Beats
Feel free to post any others you know. Hope you enjoy these online goodies!
Over the past couple weeks, I have noticed many music sites posting what they believe to be the best albums of the year, as well as the decade. For some reason, this has got me thinking about the future as well as the past.
How will things look at the end of the next decade? Music, fashion, trends – all these things will undoubtedly be different. In addition, the way we consume media will be different as well.
I was listening to an NPR report in the car the other day, and they were discussing technologies that came out at the beginning of this decade. Some popular three letter abbreviations include Y2K, PDA, MP3, and AOL. Along with the turn of the century came Napster, the first truly popular peer to peer file sharing software. I think that this is where digital music files were realized as the definitive form of consumer music.
In many ways the end of this decade could mark the end of tangible media in general. To clarify, by tangible media I mean physical media – anything that is not digital. With services such as Netflix instant stream, actual DVDs are no longer necessary. The Kindle has brought reading to a new level, where heavy and bulky books are not part of the equation. Ever since Napster, music has been consumed in a much more digital realm. It is weird to think about, but I cannot even remember the last time I purchased a CD at a brick and mortar retailer.
So does this actually mean there will be no more CDs in ten years? Who knows. Perhaps CDs will experience a resurgence in popularity similar to the vinyl revolution that is currently happening. What I do know is that the only CDs I have actually purchased in the past few years have been from local or touring acts. The first thing that I do with these discs is rip them onto my hard drive and put them on my iPod.
Only time will tell how people consume music and other media products at the end of the next decade, but I am betting the trend of digital and intangible files will continue.
Original Artwork by Nick Gentry; http://www.nickgentry.co.uk/index.html
As technologies change and evolve, so does the human reaction to them. For example, when the first computers were built, they took up entire rooms. At the time, people thought the larger the computer the better. Today, our cell phones are much more powerful than these early computers, and smaller is preferred in most cases.
Early recording technology involved wax cylinders, and then shellac records. With the introduction of the gramophone/phonograph, people could gather around and listen to three minutes of an orchestra or jazz band recording. This was revolutionary at the time, and sometimes even perceived as magic. How could an entire band fit into such a little box?
As recording technology progressed, people became more familiar with the idea of captured sound and were no longer as surprised. After the discovery of magnetic tape, record sound quality increased dramatically, and LP records allowed listeners to enjoy an entire album of material. The communal listening experience was popular in the heyday of LP records; friends would simply sit and enjoy music together.
Similar to computers, the trend of music playback technology has been smaller and better. With cassettes and CDs, music became portable. It was easy to take a CD with you and play it in your car, or listen to it with a portable CD player. I remember how great I thought it was to have 35 CDs in a binder that I could take with me – how portable and convenient!
With the onset of digital recording, things have changed once again. Mp3 players are the preferred playback hardware, while their file counterpart have taken over the internet. The format has changed from heavy vinyl records to intangible 1s and 0s. Listening habits have taken a much more personal form, as opposed to the community listening approach that was popular back in the day. It seems everyone walking down the street has earbuds on. I find it interesting (and kind of sad) that people used to listen to albums all the way through together, and now many people I know have a hard time sitting through a single song.
Digital music has also led to what I guess could be called “subconscious listening”. In todays world, we are constantly being surrounded by music and other recorded sounds, even if we don’t realize it. Upon entering most restaurants and businesses, we are greeted by music. When calling a friend, many times they have “ringback” tones, which play a selected song while you wait for them to answer (this is especially true for customer support lines). Watching TV, listening to the radio, going to work, surfing the web, even walking down the street, you are always listening to music – even if you don’t want to be or aren’t aware it. And to think, someone had to record all of this music.
It is easy to take music for granted these days. There is so much of it, such a great variety, that it can be overwhelming. Never has it been this readily available to us, and we don’t even need to leave the house to access it. I know that when I am listening to music, I never really think of why I am doing it. This is just something that seems natural, very “human“.
Thinking back to the music classes I took in college, this feeling is reaffirmed. Here is what we were taught:
Music has been found in every known culture. Historically, this means that all people on earth, even the most distant and remote groups of settlers, have a form of music they call their own. If music has been there from the beginning of modern humanity, we could conclude that it has become a fundamental aspect of human life. Over the course of time and from region to region musical expression, instrumentation, and the situations in which music is performed have all changed. The music we choose to listen to identifies us as a part of a culture. We relate to the common ideas and themes, as well as social and economical classifications that go with it.
So according to this, listening to music is in fact a very “human” thing to do, considering we have been doing it for a long time. However, I believe modern humans do not listen for the same reasons ancient humans did. I think in todays environment, people choose their music based on a strong emotional and personal reaction. In my own experience, I am initially much more drawn to the primal elements of music: beat, rhythm, and harmony. The message any song is trying to communicate often takes a back seat.
The reason people listen to music is very personal. It has the power to express any type of emotion. It calms, it relaxes, it enrages, it excites, and it is natural (note: this is by no means a complete list of human emotions). Music’s long lasting relationship with the human race has clearly withstood the test of time.
How does this relate to music production? Perhaps not directly. I feel that if you understand why humans listen to music, you can understand why we record it. Or at least part of the reason why we record it. If someone is extremely passionate about the tracks they are laying down, then this emotion will be shared with the listener (maybe this passion is why an audience will choose to listen to this particular recording). Of course, there are many other reasons to record music. The process can be fun, there is a strong sense of accomplishment, and for many people there is the desire to make money or get famous. But aren’t these all just emotional reactions as well?
