Gear Heads Don't Get It!

Jeremy Cowart is one of the most gifted commercial photographers around. I am not a photographer but I do have many friends who make their living at photography and graphic design. (My wife is a fine photographer/designer as well.) I do enjoy going to Jeremy's site to see who he's shot lately. It will most likely be the artist soaring at the top of the pop charts or the stars from ABC's newest hit show.

While looking through Jeremy's blog I was drawn to a title "GEAR HEADS DON'T GET IT." Automatically I am interested. I mean, I am a gear head after all.

You'll want to take a quick glance at this article as it is a simple explanation as to why creativity comes before gear.

ARTICLE

MY THOUGHTS:

I am still a gear head, though, I feel as though I'd recovering. I can admit that I have a problem and I am facing my addiction head on! I have a decent amount of gear... larger than most home studios and smaller than most commercial studios. I have plenty of gear to make my recordings. Gear is one thing.. A TOOL! If you are an engineer/producer you should know your gear inside and out for 2 reasons: #1 - so you know what each piece of gear is capable of and #2 so that you can use your gear quickly.. so you don't interrupt your creativity.

CREATIVITY! - I noticed something a few years ago. When I would ask another professional to critique my work, I never heard comments about the quality of my recordings. I heard critiques of the song itself or the vocal performance. Things like that. I also noticed that when listening to hit songs, the common denominator was not audio quality. The thing that every song had in common was that it was a great song that had character and life!

To quickly get to the point. I hope that all of you are seeking for hone your craft as a musician before crafting developing your craft as an engineer. Even engineers should consider themselves musicians first. Buy only the gear you HAVE to have and learn to create art within the creative walls of your current setup.

10 things you can do to fuel creativity/musicianship...

#10 - Don't compare your work critically to others

#9 - Create things that have nothing to do with your music

#8 - Take music lessons

#7 - Look at nature, don't move, breathe deep and stay a while

#6 - Create something truly unique... something only you may enjoy.

#5 - When being creative, don't compare your work to others' work.

#4 - Share your work with others... often! Share the bad stuff too!

#3 - Be willing to truly hear the opinions of other. You don't have to agree.

#2 - Don't be afraid to have your own taste and your own opinions.

#1 - Smile at your work!

Birthdays and Music That inspires

Yesterday was my birthday. It was a good birthday. I went up to LA and played in a reading band... it's a big band where musicians come sit in and play through music... jazz, funk, contemporary stuff mostly. It was a lot of fun and a good way to spend the 26th anniversary of my birth! Without going into details, the circumstances surrounding the rehearsal were a little difficult. It involved a union! Now you know how that can be... tense and frustrating. After spending a few hours in my car (without AC!) I was greeted by my wife, we had friends over and it was a great evening.

I mention this story because it illustrates something very powerful about music. That is this: music is much more about tension than it is about perfect harmony. You don't notice blissful moments without some tension to remind you that you are actually in a blissful state. Tension is the reason why I love cluster chords rather than simple triads, the reason why I love distortion, the reason why I love an emotive performance and the reason why perfection is the enemy.

Creating tension can be especially hard in Christian music. I mean, the end result is a Savior who loves us and would do anything for us. We have to look for creative ways to add tension to our music in order that it is something compelling. Christian music is BETTER than it was 20-30 years ago, not just different. Christian musicians, I believe, have become better artists and have found ways to add tension to music. Music in the 90's was GREAT at this. It was raw and edgy and bands like Audio Adrenaline, Jars of Clay and DC Talk were creating great music that included tension.

Here's the problem... digital editing has allowed us the "luxury" of releasing too much tension from our music. We can perfect every hit and tune every note until a very important part of our music is tension free. It is the element of human performance. The answer to this is to use your ears, not your eyes when editing. Musical tension does not happen with your eyes anyway, it happens with your ears. To use your eyes while editing is pretty ridiculous. When you listen, you will listen for actual mistakes and fix those instead of sucking the life out of your music.

Now, I will say that there are some times when you will say, "I'd like to tighten this up more." The feel is not flawed, but certain genres call for a tighter feel. Electronic and Pop music is pretty rigid these days... on purpose, though it can be very FRESH to infuse live performances unaltered within your electronic or pop songs. That's what many producers have done with R&B and Hip Hop. You'll hear a lot of groove on R&B albums these days. Very cool!

WAYS TO KEEP THINGS TENSE!

• don't over-tune vocals
• don't over-time align vocals
• don't alter your groove too much
• take the time to record GREAT performances
• Never say "I can fix it in the mix"
• Don't over-compress
• DO over-compress sometimes
• release the tension every now and then so you notice it when you've got it
• make music that inspires you to sing along, bob your head and dance!

Check out Tristan Prettyman's song "Hello" for an example of a song that would have been utterly RUINED had it been auto-tuned to death. An amazing vocal performance!

I'm off to over-tune some vocals :)

Michael H. Brauer - Multi-Bus Compression

Ever wonder how some mixes just sound SOOOOOOO BIIIIIIIGGGG!!!?!?!?!?! Well, one way mixes sound big is by using something called the New York Compression Technique (also called Parallel Compression.) NY Compression involves taking an uncompressed audio source, duplicating it and then compressing the snot out of the duplicated track. THEN take the compressed track and tuck it underneath the uncompressed track. What this does is allow the instrument to have the dynamics of an uncompressed sound with the thickness of a compressed sound. Get it? The results can be incredible.

Michael H. Brauer is a stunning mixer. He's mixed for all kinds of artists of all styles and genres. I was rummaging through Michael's site and I noticed a wildly extensive Q&A section. I thought this could be a benefit to you all. Check it out and try grasp the ideas he presents about NY Compression.

Michael H. Brauer - Q&A Page

Mastering Audio: Bob Katz - A MUST READ!!

About a week before Saddleback's Worship Conference I stumbled upon a book called "Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science" by Bob Katz. Just recently I've been interested in how mastering works. I want to understand mastering so I can mix my records in a way that gets the most out of the mastering process.

Let me just say, "Mastering Audio" has changed the way I look at digital audio. Not only am I gaining an understanding of mastering, but I'm getting a better handle of how my DAW and Digital Converters are processing audio. Bob points out that Digital Recording has to be treated very differently than analog recording (I know this in basic principle, but not to this depth). There are things we must do to preserve audio once inside the computer. There are also things we can do to maximize fidelity and make our recordings sound BIG and VIBRANT!

In case you have not noticed, my opinion is that everyone should read this book! If you are serious about getting the most out of your recordings you owe it to yourself. WARNING: This is a very technical book. It is actually a text book. It is not a hard read but it is deep.

BACK UP YOUR SESSIONS!

Tonight I'm up late making stem mixes for Nic Carvers project. My brother, Kyle, is going to lay down a few more guitar tracks to round out the album. Creating stem sessions can be a little time consuming. I make a new session file, bounce all the drums to a stereo mix, all keys to a stereo mix, mono bass, mono lead vocals and I'm giving him all of the guitar tracks that I did with Steve Marcia so he can easily work his stuff into the mix.

After I create all the stems, I copy all files to a new folder so that I can freely delete files without the fear of messing something up. Well it happened, I was not paying attention. I had not opened the newly created session, I started deleting files from the OLD ONE!!!! Pro Tools takes a while to boot up and the entire time I'm opening the new session (to see if the files had been copied) I am getting nervous. Luckily, my fail safe plan was actually fail safe. I messed up and because I took the proper precautions, everything worked out.

BUT.... STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND BACK YOUR CRAP UP!!!

MY FAVORITE COMPRESSORS

I love compression. I love the way it sounds, I love what it does to my mixes, I also love how different every unit sounds. To continue the topic of compressors, I'd like to share a short list of my favorite outboard and plugin compressors...

OUTBOARD COMPRESSORS

1) Empirical Labs Distressor
2) Universal Audio 1176
3) Universal Audio LA-2A
4) Tube Tech CL-1B
5) DBX 160 (old version6) SSL Master Bus Compressor

PLUGIN COMPRESSORS

1) Bomb Factory 1176
2) Waves SSL Channel Strip Compression
3) Massey CT4 Compressor
4) Drawmer Dynamcis
5) Digidesign SMACK
6) Waves RCompressor

Compressor Wars

Compressors are perhaps the most mysterious of audio processors. You either admit that you don't know how to use them or you are always learning how to use them more efficiently and to every extent that they are capable. I guess what I'm trying to say is that compressors are deep.. WAY deep. There's a lot to learn. Even once you understand their concept there seems to be hundreds of ways to use them.

Different ways to use a compressor (there may be more... I'm still learning too)...

• Control dynamics
• Add "thickness" to an audio source
• make something "punchy"
• make something "pump"
• control sibilance
• control EQ of an audio source
• add "color to an audio source
  

Like I said, there are more ways than this to use a compressor and within these functions there are plently of ways to achieve the same goal.

Honestly, the sound of modern recording is the sound of compression. I'm not just talking about a dynamically squashed sound (although this can be the result of the following) but compressors thicken and add color to anything it's applied too, especially in heavy doses. Rock music often adds compression generously, thus giving the listener the illusion that a mix is louder and thicker. Consoles like the SSL E Series console offer dynamic processing on every channel allowing mixers to use as much compression as was needed. Today, most mixes are performed inside of a DAW (digital audio workstation.) This offers the mixer even more control over dynamics.

I want to talk about the common controls that a compressor utilizes. We'll talk about the different ways to use a compressors and possible settings for different instruments later. For now, the basics.

INPUT - controls the amount of gain that enters the compressor.

THRESHOLD - the point when the compressor kicks in. i.e. If the threshold is set to -10bd then any audio louder that -10db that enters the compressor will be compressed. Anything under the threshold will be left alone (except "soft knee" compression... see below."

ATTACK - I like to rename this "attack speed" because I feel it accurately verbalizes what the attack setting does - Once an audio source rises over the threshold the compressor can kick in at different speeds. A fast attack would turn the compressor on very quickly (keeping harsh peaks at bay) where a slow attack would let the first transients (the first part of the audio source) pass through before the compressor reacts (this setting will let any percussive sounds keep their "punch"

RELEASE (or "release time") - The release setting determine how fast or slow a compressor shuts off after the source has gone below the threshold. The release time may be determined by the speed of the rhythmic-ness of the instrument. A release time that is slower that the next transient peak may sound lifeless and flat.

RATIO - Without a doubt the most complicated part of the compressor. The ratio decides by what ratio is an audio source reduced. You'lll see settings like 3:1, 4:1, 6:1. A 3:1 ratio means that an audio source will be allowed to raise 3db before 1db of compression is applied. This allows there to still be dynamics in audio even when the audio is being compressed. To complete this definition. A source that has risen 6db above the threshold and has a 3:1 ratio will be reduced by 2db. In the same manner, an audio source that has risen 12by above the thresh. and has a 4:1 ratio will be reduced 3db. It is actually very simple.

OUTPUT (or "make-up gain") - It's true, any time you add compression you are lowering the dynamic range of at least some part of the sound. The output knob simply adds gain where the compressor has taken it away. A good way to put it would be if you turned down the volume of your TIVO but turned up the TV to make up the volume loss. OR when your ipod is too loud in playing through your car stereo and it distorts... you turn the ipod down and turn up the car stereo to make up the difference.

SOFT-KNEE COMPRESSION - Soft knee compression basically makes it so the compressor is actually working a bit below the threshold. It gradually begins working harder as source nears the threshold. You might use this setting if you want the source colored in general, not just at the peaks.

HARD -KNEE COMPRESSION - this type of compression is the "normal" way of using a compressor... the compressor begins working only above the threshold. You would use this setting when you desire for only the peaks to be reduced.


That's it... the basics. I'll be touching more of compression soon. There is so much to cover. If I could offer one tip... when you're first starting to use compression, try using a LOT while you're messing around with your gear. Like any gear, take it to the limit. It is at this point where you find out what your compressors can do and what they sound like. When you learn the sound of a compressors extremes you will learn to hear when it is applied in small doses.

INSTRUMENT COMPRESSION SETTINGS COMING SOON!