Here’s a trick that you can steal from the masters; changing the key form minor to major. When the song is dark and somber on the verse and there is resolution to the angst in the chorus, shift to the major of the key you’re in and let the melody soar…This is the trick behind many memorable songs.
Whenever you make a demo of your songs, try making multiple versions of the same song. Play is on an acoustic guitar, play it with a full band, do it as a ballad, do it as a rocker. This will help you in your writing efforts, and you never know which version of the sing will catch fire.
Here’s a tip for all aspiring songwriters. Put together a jam band to work on your music. If you have trouble finding musicians who will do this for nothing, try this. Find other songwriters in the same pickle as you, and form a band with them. This will help you with your ideas, as well as providing you with a pool of musicians who already know your material when it’s demo time.
Once you have uncovered who the music director is for a particular project in the film business, it is usually a simple thing to dig up contact information for that person. Once you have a mailing address, send a professionally worded letter from either your attorney or your publishing company. Include a list of film credits, or if you don’t have any (yet!) send a list of other places where your songs have been published and/or well received.
Here’s a tip for you to remember when writing songs for television. When a song that you have written is selected and subsequently licensed for use in a TV show, you will be paid a fee anywhere between $1,000 and $10,000 up front. But, every time the show is broadcast with your song in it, you will be paid the performance royalties. If the show becomes syndicated, this can turn into a cash cow with a long life for the writer.
One common technique in the harder rock of yore, as well as some rock music today, is the pedal technique (no, I’m not talking about some stompbox.) A pedal is a note that’s played as the chords change around it. Usually, but not always, the pedal tone is the dominant or tonic of the key in which the song is played.
Here is a tip in regards to the tuning of your Tom-toms, be they large or small, floor or rack- mount. If you are getting too much “Ring” on your toms and you want to reduce it, try tuning the Resonant head slightly higher than the Batter head.
When your tom-toms are mounted on to your kit, a generally accepted practice (especially on the cheaper kits) is to have an arrangement that sticks down into the bass drum and into the body of the toms. This is OK on a cheap set, but anytime you put an object inside of a drum, you are messing with the sound in a major way. To avoid this, check out non-invasive mounting methods, such as the RIMS system or the Opti-Mount system. A suspended mounting system allows the drum vibrate and ring freely.
The secret to great drumming is in the wrists, not in the arms or shoulders. A properly executed drum- stroke involves holding the bead of the drumstick about three inches of the drumhead, and then snapping it (using your wrist!) down and back up from the drumhead.
Another secret to great drumming is control. What this means to you in terms of your drum- stroke, is that you will control the stroke in both directions, down and up. Never allow the stick to ‘bounce’ back up on under it’s own impetus. This signifies the loss of control, and in drumming, the loss of control is a bad thing.
One of the things to be careful of when first learning to play a drum properly is the natural tendency to raise your stick immediately prior to beginning the downward motion of your stroke. This is an inefficient motion, and when learned can be very difficult to un-learn.
Here’s a tip for those of you interested in playing jazz. When you’re playing a jazz rhythm on the rise cymbal, try making your stoke with your fingers more than the wrist. This will enable you to play lighter and a little faster for those adrenaline-charged Be-bop tunes.
No matter how complicated or advanced the drum exercise or rhythm may be to do, always start slowly. Concentrate on keeping your strokes firm, deliberate and controlled. Don’t work on speed. Speed will come almost without your thinking about it, provided you start slowly and use a metronome.
There are 26 basic rudimental patterns. As you learn and begin to practice them all, here’s a tip on how to proceed. Begin by playing the rudiment slowly. Gradually increase the tempo until you reach the maximum speed at which you can play them. Once you’re at your maximum, play the rudiment at that speed for a couple of repetitions, and gradually begin to slow down until you reach the pace you started at. Do this every day for all the rudiments that you learn and you will develop blazing drum chops in no time.
A good way to begin to learn the rudiments is to start very slowly. Don’t turn on the metronome until you have mastered the pattern and the sticking. Only after you have mastered these two important things should you go to your metronome.
In this forum we’re not going to approach the rudiments of Drumming in any particular order, as they are all of equal importance for you to know. That being said, the first rudiment is the Long Roll. The Long Roll is simply a Buzz Roll of indeterminate length. The musical notation calling for a Long Roll may indicate double right/ double left sticking, but in reality you can play this roll as you would any other Buzz Roll, utilizing a multiple-bounce press.
The second rudiment is the Five-Stroke Roll. This is probably the simplest and most common rudiment, consisting of 5 strokes on the drumhead, played RRLLR or LLRRL. (L being Left hand and R being Right hand.) Typically the notes in this roll are 32nd notes.
The Seven-Stroke Roll is the third rudiment. While many instructors will teach this Roll as a doted eighth-note Roll, there is a variation of the Seven Stroke Roll that forces all seven strokes into the same space as the Five-Stroke Roll. To make this happen, you will need to begin the roll on the ‘And’ after the beat and play it with a triplet feel.
The fourth rudiment is the Flam. The Flam gets its name from the sound that it produces, a sort of fast “Fa-lam!” A Flam consists of two strokes on the same drumhead occurring almost simultaneously, with one stroke occurring just prior to the second, main stroke. A good way to practice the Flam is to play two strokes spaced wide apart. Then gradually decrease the space between the notes until you start to hear the “Flam!” sound.
The fifth rudiment is the Flam Accent. Simply put, a Flam Accent takes a Flam and adds two more beats, so you end up playing a pattern of three primary notes. You will typically find Flam Accents when playing in _ or 6/8 time (or any other music grouped in threes), you will sometimes see a Flam Accent applied to a group of straight 8th notes in 4/4/ time. This gives the beat a very syncopated sound.
The sixth rudiment is the Paradiddle. A Paradiddle is very simple in theory (a group of four equal notes played RLRR, producing a sound not unlike Pa-Ra-Di-Dle), but somewhat difficult in practice. Like everything else, begin super-slowly and work with a metronome until you have internalized the sticking. The speed will follow.
The seventh rudiment is the Flam Paradiddle sometimes referred to as a Flamadiddle. This is played exactly the same as a Paradiddle except the first note you play is a Flam (Flam-A-Di-Dle, etc.).
The eighth rudiment is the Ruff. There is no reason that I can think of for the name ‘Ruff’, as it’s pretty simple to play. To play a Ruff, think of a Flam with two grace notes before the primary note is struck. Bounce the grace notes lightly, either RRL or LLR and accent the primary.
The ninth rudiment is the Flamacue. This rudiment is similar to the Flamadiddle with a few notable exceptions. First: there is no double sticking. Second: the accent will fall on the second 16th note to get a syncopated effect. Third: there is a final Flam at the end of the pattern that really puts the period on the end of this sentence.
The tenth rudimentis the Single Drag. The Single Drag puts together a Ruff with a second note. The accent falls on the second note. A drag can be played over any two notes of equal duration, with two small grace notes preceding the first note. Sticking is LLRL LLRL or LLRL RRLR.
The eleventh rudimentis Double Drag. A Double Drag is quite simply the combinations of two Ruffs and a third Primary note. This pattern is used primarily in music that is grouped is threes, however it can add some interesting spice to a 4/4 time signature when played with a syncopated triplet feel.
The twelfth rudimentis the Double Paradiddle. This is also called the Paradiddle-diddle (No joke!) This is nothing more than taking a regular Paradiddle and tacking two more strokes to the end of the pattern, so the sticking would be RLRLRR LRLRLL.
The thirteenth rudimentis the Single Ratamacue. Put a Ruff in front of a triplet, and you've got a Ratamacue (this is another rudiment that sounds like its name).
the fourteenth Rudiment is the Triple Ratamacue. It's important to note here that this doesn't mean that you just play three Ratamacues in a row and you're done. Rather, it's a Ratamacue with 2 ruffs attached to the front of it. (This means that its going to sound just like the names of the parts that make it "Ruff, Ruff, Ra-Ta-Ma-CUE.")
Here’s the skinny on some of the common waveforms. The fourth waveform we’ll examine is the Pulse Wave, also known as Rectangle wave. Its sound depends on how far the Pulse Width deviates from the Square wave. The Pulse Width (period when the wave us “up”) is usually expressed as a percentage (of the full wave cycle), so a Square wave is a 50% Pulse. A 10% Pulse and a 90% Pulse sound the same (to all intents and purposes). As the Pulse Width deviates from 50%, it sounds increasingly brighter and richer; but as the Pulse Width becomes very narrow, it becomes more thin and nasal. Generally, it is made up of all harmonics: F, 2F, 3F, 4F, 5F etc. The amplitudes of harmonic series decreases but the odd and even numbered harmonics have different amplitudes depending on the Pulse Width.
Here’s another tip to help further your understanding of Filters in Synthesis. Resonance is another parameter available in a Low-Pass Filter. Resonance is where the frequencies at the Cut-Off position are boosted (made louder). When a little resonance is introduced, the frequencies around the Cut-Off are boosted a little. With a lot of resonance, the frequencies around the Cut-Off are boosted a lot while the lower frequencies will start to diminish a little. When too much resonance is applied, the frequencies around the Cut-Off are so pronounced that the filter will itself start to oscillate and “howl” (like feedback, but in a tuned way).
The first electric piano ever made was called the SuperPiano in 1927. The SuperPiano made its first appearance in 1927. It produced it’s sound when a key on the keyboard moved a lever which caused a hammer to strike a metal bar, causing a vibration. This vibration then was then amplified and sent through speakers. The sound it made was more like chimes then that of a piano. Couple this with the fact that most households had no electricity and you will understand that these SuperPianos weren’t very popular.
Rock n Roll history is full of rags-to-riches stories, budget recordings done under horrific conditions that end up going multi-platinum. From Buddy Holly’s barn (complete with the infamous cricket that wouldn’t stop chirping) to Deep Purple’s Machine Head album (the lyrics to Smoke on the Water spell out the story of how they made the record) rock music is proof that all that you need to succeed is sweat, commitment and a dream.
When you record songs by artists other than yourself, you need to get a special license known as a Mechanical License. This is to guarantee payments of royalties to the owner of the songs copyright, sometimes the writer, sometimes a record or publishing company. These licenses aren’t difficult to obtain, as it is in the best interests of the owner of the copyright to get as many people to by the song as possible. In most cases, these licenses can be obtained from the Harry Fox Agency in New York City., with mechanical royalty payments being made to the Harry Fox Agency, who in turn distributes payments to the owner of the copyright. If the owner of the copyright isn’t a Harry Fox affiliate, you’ll be paying the owner directly.
Mechanical licenses carry with them an important caveat. Mechanical royalties are charged based on the number of records that are distributed, not on the amount of records that you sell. Therefore it is possible that you could print 10,000 copies of your latest CD with a song on it that you didn’t write, put them in stores (or on the Internet) and be charged a mechanical royalty — even if you don’t sell a single record (perish the thought!)
Finding someone who is willing to distribute the product is the most significant hurdle that people who written, recorded, and produced their own work. You must be ready, able and willing to convince store managers, distributors, and wholesalers of the commercial viability of your product. In other words, can someone else make money selling your work? You must have a plan and be prepared to show them how this is feasible.
Here’s a quick checklist for you to use prior to recording your first CD. 1) Obtain a Fictitious Name Certificate from your local County Clerk’s Office: 2) Obtain a Universal Product Code from the Uniform Code Council (which you will use on all of your products); 3) Obtain a Seller’s Permit (resale license) from your State Board of Equalization (if the State that you’re doing business in has a Sales Tax), and 4) Register your business name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
OK, you’re brilliant, you just recorded the best sounding CD ever, It looks great, it sounds terrific — now what? Unless you have more friends than the Pope, you’re stuck, you need to figure out how to take it to the next level. The secret here is gaining an understanding of distribution, and how it works. You have a choice here: you can either meet with the distributors and wholesalers (who will take a significant chunk of your profits) or you can distribute your product yourself via the Internet. In a way, this is what’s known as vertical integration, where the creator of the product is the person who sells it directly to the end user.
If you haven’t already printed T-shirts and bumper stickers, well, waddya waitin’ for? Merchandising is as lucrative — and should you ever really hit the Big big time you will find that it’s even more lucrative — than income from record sales. If you haven’t already done so, do it now. Start tomorrow. And — while you’re at it, it never hurts to put an insert/order form with all of your CDs.
Do your best to make certain that the Press Kit you send to Radio Stations presents a convincing picture of your band’s potential for success. Detail the previous success of the band, and include all sales data of the current release. What retail outlets are carrying it? How well is it selling? How many units have you shipped? Where are you currently gigging? What are your future touring plans? All of this information will help to paint a picture of a safe bet for the Radio Station.
Following through in your efforts to promote your artists or product to College Radio is as important as it is anywhere else in your marketing efforts — possibly even more so. This is because of the “Nature of the Beast” at College Radio, where DJs can play any track they wish from any artist they want at any given point in time. Add to this the fact that the Program Director at most College Radio stations receive on the order of 200-500 CDs a week, from both the Major labels and Independents such as you. In order to prevent your brand new release from being used as a coffee cup coaster in the foyer of the station, follow through with phone calls and meetings.
Since setting up a real professional distribution channel (without already having a history of selling previous records) takes a great deal of time, effort, salesmanship and — most of all — money, what can you do? The answer is to start locally and do it yourself. Go to all the local record retailers and ask if they would carry your CDs on a contingency basis. A contingency basis means that they give you money for your CD only if and when they sell it.
Like any professional sales rep, you will need to be prepared for each meeting. You should have a one page information sheet about the band (or yourself). The information sheet should include the name of the record: the name of the artist, the formats that the product is available in (e.g., CDs, Cassettes, etc.), the product catalogue numbers and the UPC codes. It should also include the name address and phone number of the record label, a brief bio of the artist, a list of past and upcoming performances in the area, and a summary of any radio airplay.
Telephone, the Internet, or snail-mail easily reaches the Uniform Code Council. The phone number is 937- 435-3870. The URL is www.uc-council.org. The Snail-Mail address is 8163 Old Yankee Street, Suite J, Dayton, Ohio 45458-1839. There are special procedures in place for manufacturers of Audio and Visual products. Don’t be surprised, ’cause that’s you!
Before you begin your do-it-yourself marketing, organize, organize, organize. Plan the work, then work the plan. Make a list of all the local record retailers. Gather the phone numbers of all the stores on your list. Call them all and get the names of the persons who handle the ordering for the store. Get your package together (the Information Sheet, a sample CD, etc.) Divvy up the work. Then, when all is ready, visit the stores in person! There is no substitute for personal contact.
When you are finally face to face with a buyer for a record store, there are some things that you should do, and several things that you should never do. You should always ask for the deal, or “Close” the sale. You should never interrupt the buyer when he or she is talking or wants to speak. You should always respect the intelligence of the buyer. You should never roll your eyes, sigh, or otherwise indicate that the buyer is foolish (even when they are - and they will be, occasionally.) You should always maintain eye contact when listening. You should never look at the floor when speaking - especially when speaking about your product. Remember this above all things: in sales “No” does not mean “Never.” It means “No for right now.” Don’t be afraid to return later to try again, especially if you can present new news or arguments to bolster your argument.
Always get the consignment deal in writing. This means that among your other pre-meeting tasks, you will need to come up with a sales agreement document. You do not need to consult with an attorney to create this. Simply create and print a document that spells out clearly - and above all - succinctly what the terms of the agreement are. Things you need to concern yourself with are: the date that unsold merchandise must be returned, the condition that the merchandise must be in when it is returned, the selling price, and the split of the proceeds (usually 50/50, but sometimes open for negotiation.) Be sure to leave space at the bottom of the document for both parties to sign.
One of the things you can try to obtain is to get the record store’s buyer’s help in promoting the record. Ask for permission to put up your own marketing material. Have a "Rack Divider" already made, and show it to them in your first meeting. Best case scenario, you will get a deposit from the merchandiser on your product. He or she will then recoup their deposit from sales of your product. Should you obtain this, you have given the marketer of your wares a real incentive to "push" your records.
When setting out on your self-marketing efforts, don’t limit yourself to the record stores. There are many other venues where music is purchased. Local convenience stores, coffeehouses — even some gas stations sell CDs. In the beginning of your sales efforts, these smaller venues are where you will find your all-important first successes.
When the grind of the door-to-door begins to get you down (trust me, it will) you can look at it this way: You are laying a foundation - building a positive sales record - for the eventual presentation to a major distributor. The biz today is filled with major artists who began exactly the way that you are, making a good record, selling it to local record stores, selling through the limited first run (2,000 units or so), ordering more, selling through those, and eventually attracting the interest of a major label. Horatio Alger lives on in the music industry!
Being able to tell someone (hopefully a major record label person or a major distributor) that you moved 5,000 units in 3 months time at X percent profit margin will help you immensely in taking your marketing to the next level. You can reach this goal with careful planning, hard work - and most importantly - you can do it on a limited budget.
One great way to get a mailing list you can be positive will contain gold is to write to a magazine that identifies itself with a specific movement. Start with identifying the movement into which you music falls, e.g. Rap, Heavy Metal, etc. Write the magazine(s) you have identified and request a media kit. This will verify the age, income, and spending habits of the magazine’s subscribers. Ask the magazine if they will sell the mailing list (most will for about $75 per 1,000 names.) If you have planned correctly, you just got the mailing addresses of people who have bought music like yours - and more importantly - are likely to buy more.
Another item you should include in your Promo Kit is letters of recommendation. Always ask for letters of recommendation from all of the gigs that you play that go well. You will be amazed at the positive responses that you’ll get when they write the letter. Don’t expect all of your clients to actually write a letter: some will say they will and you’ll receive it the next day. Some will say they will and you’ll receive it next year. Some will say they will and you’ll never receive it. When this occurs (and it will as people are people) don’t become a whining pest, calling every day to see of your letter is done. Forget about it and move on. Other less busy clients will be happy to assist you.
Here’s a serious workout exercise for the left hand. While this is designed for beginning Bass students, it will work for the more experienced players as well. Fret the third fret of the low E string with your third finger. Then fret the fourth fret of the same string with your fourth finger. Now move to the third fret of the A with your third finger, followed by the fourth fret with the fourth finger. Keep going across the strings until you reach the top string. Once there, reverse the order of the drill and do it backwards. This is a very good exercise for strengthening the two weakest fingers on your left hand, the third and fourth.
If you are a country player or just want to experiment with country, you can get that “chicken- pickin’” sound out of whatever guitar you happen to own through the use of a compressor and an EQ. (That’s right, you don’t need to own a Telecaster to play Country — but it sure does help!) Set your guitar on the bridge pick-up. If you have single coils, you’re all set. If you have Humbuckers, turn off one of the coils. If you don’t have a coil tap, it’s OK, this setting will still work for you. Set your compressor so that it sustains, but is the attack time doesn’t kill every note. Boost the hell out of the highs on your EQ. Commence to pickin’. Danny Gatton, look out!
Stage fright is very real and for some artists can be crippling. All of us get it, to some degree. It becomes more of a question of what to do with it once you get it. Do you allow your nervousness to freeze you up, or do you figure out a way to channel the energy into your performance? Many great players espouse moving the body and getting blood flowing before you take the stage. Jump up and down, move your arms around, and be secure in the knowledge that all nervousness will disappear once the first note is played.
When you practice your scales, try this. Say the name of the note that you are starting on out loud. This note is the same name as the key that the scale is in. Play the scale all the way up and all the way down. Move the fingering that you are playing up one fret and again, say the name of the note out loud. Again, the name of the note is the same as the name of the new key you are in. Saying the names of the notes out loud will greatly help to increase your fluency with the fingerboard.
When considering the order of the effects in your array, always try to place your Modulation and Spatial devices in the effects loop on your amp, or between the pre-amp and the power amp, if you will. These devices include your Reverbs, Delays, Pitch Shifters, etc. As the ‘In’ on the effects loop occurs after the pre-amp as well as EQ stages of your amp, more of your natural tone is preserved before being affected.
Here’s a tip for all bass players. In the section of your practice time that you devote to ear training, practice combing writing and transcribing at the same time. This sounds hard, but it really can be a simple as learning a part by ear from one of your CDs, memorizing it, and then asking yourself what you would have come up with were you the bassist in that particular session. Write it down, record it, memorize it, what ever way is comfortable for you not to forget it. This will help you greatly over the long run in terms of understanding the role that your instrument plays.
Something to think about when you create your pedalboard. Many of today’s devices for guitar — especially stompboxes — can be run off of the same power supply at the same time. The trick is finding the ‘power harness’ (for lack of a better term) that will allow you to hook up your entire chain to one Power Supply Transformer. Radio Shack, perchance?
To find the best position for you to play the bass without causing health problems in the future, do this. Stand with your head up and shoulders square, but relaxed, arms at your sides. Extend your right hand out in front of you, a little below shoulder height, hand hanging down, relaxed. Bend your left elbow so that the left hand comes up into playing position. Now bring your right elbow in towards your body, keeping the right hand relaxed and hanging down as you do so. This is the most tension free position, so adjust your strap so that the Bass hangs at this height.
You can add more expressiveness to your Solos (and playing in general, for that matter) by imitating singers — especially female jazz singers. Why females? Because the female voice is the closest a human voice can get to the natural range of the guitar. Why Jazz? Because jazz is the only other America musical art form that relies on improvisation. Listen to the “scat-singing” solo of Ella Fitzgerald and you will discover a whole new approach to melodic and stylistic improvisation. You will find techniques (such as playing a note straight, holding it, then adding vibrato. Then closing with a descending slide down the fretboard) that translate well to just about any musical style — especially Rock.
Here’s a tip that will sound a bit strange, but it’s valid for the bassist just starting out to the crafty veteran of countless gigs. Learn from yourself. Look at it this way: while it’s good — even vital to have another person to show you the way, nothing gets learned until you have brought it inside yourself, internalized it, passed it through your own aet of filters, as it were. What I’m saying here is this; don’t stop with what you’ve been shown. Mess with it. Play with it. Keep what’s good and discard what’s not. Essentially, that’s what music is all about.
Sometimes when you’re stuck and despite your best efforts you feel that you’re not getting any better, stop. Give yourself a break. Take a day or two off from practicing and even playing music and just listen. When you come back to your axe, you’ll find that you’re playing it even better than before.
Here’s a tip for all aspiring bass players. Go to your local bookstore/music store and but a book on Solfege. Solfege is an old technique based on classical Indian music. It arose as a means of teaching young tabla players how to internalize their own internal “clock,” as it were. Solfege is a technique using syllables that are spoken to help a student learn to internalize rhythms. The syllables ba-ch-da- ba-ch-da-ba-ch-da-ba-ch-da are an example of one bar of 16th note triplets.
Here’s a tip for all you rock bass players out there. When asked to write or come up with a bass part to go under the guitarist’s crashing power chords, play a minor scale - even when the chords are major. The notes you should always avoid playing are the major third and major seventh scale tones. They are just too sweet for Rock ’n Roll…
The green plastic material used for scouring pots makes a great string cleaner. Take a piece of this stuff and cut it into one inch squares. Take a square and fold it around the string. Rub vigorously from saddle to nut. Do this on each string. Your strings will sound like a new set.
Here’s a hard and fast rule for playing country bass guitar. Keep it Simple. If you are the bass player in a country band, or if you want to start or get into a country band, remember this old country bass player’s maxim “think of the simplest part you can play. Then play half of that.”
Ritchie Blackmore is renowned for his pyrotechnical stage shows and furious guitar playing. Since his days with Deep Purple he has gained an almost legendary status as one of the progenitors of the Heavy Metal sound. Here's a bit about his rig. While he is now primarily a Strat player, he wasn't always. Originally he used a Gibson ES-335 until the third Deep Purple album was made. He was given his first Stratocaster by Eric Clapton and never looked back. Apparently the guitar was barely playable, but Ritchie thought it was an "interesting guitar". He runs his guitar through his trademark Marshall Stacks, but he uses the older 200 watt Marshall heads. He modifies the heads with an Ôextra output stage' that cranks the power rating up to 240-250 watts. He also runs his guitar through a sixties Aiwa tape deck between guitar an amp. This gives him a bit of compression and a touch of echo as well as behaving as a pre-amp.
Before you go shopping for a mic for your Home Studio ask yourself this question: What Mic is right for you? The answer lies in what type of music you are going to record. If you are going to record acoustic instruments or a string quartet, a good pair of matched, small diaphragm condenser mics is in order. If you are going to record a jazz combo, a large diaphragm condenser Mic will make the light percussion and stand up bass positively shimmer. If you are a dyed-in-the-wool rocker, the distorted guitars and screaming vocals beg to be recorded with dynamic mics.
When people talk about that “Vintage Sound” or speak with yearning for the days when Analog ruled, what they’re actually referring to is distortion. Yep, good old, saturated tube type distortion. You see, one of the drawbacks to early Hi-Fi was what purists thought was distortion getting in the way of the pure sounds of the instruments. In some ways, they were right, analog gear does color the sounds — but the coloring is nice, and it comes from the distortion. With the advent of digital technology, the same ones who had been screaming about the unnecessary distortion now found themselves clamoring for that old sound back.
One way to get that vintage analog sound on your recordings is to use actual analog when you mix your recording down to two tracks. Either dust off your old ½ inch reel-to-reel tape machine, or beg, borrow or steal one (oh for Pete’s sake! Don’t steal anything! It’s just a turn of phrase!) and insert this into your process. Here’s how is works: instead of mixing down to computer file, mix down to the tape. Then, send the stereo tape tracks into the DAT machine, computer, or however you your data. Now, when you burn your CDs, Presto! You’ve got that analog sound.
Here’s the skinny on why we love the analog sound. In a word (well actually two words), Tape Saturation. What tape saturation refers to is what happens to the sound when it is recorder at a high enough level on a tape recorder that the tape becomes saturated (hence the term tape saturation) and certain aspect of the sound change. For example, the Even Harmonics are brought t the forefront. These are harmonics that are present in the sound regardless, but the tape saturation brings them out even more. Tape saturation also tends to even out the high frequencies by smearing them together a bit. We find both of these effects pleasing to the ear, and without them present, will call recordings “Harsh”, “Brittle”, or “Cold.”
Here’s the general caveat regarding the plethora of tube gear available today. While some of it is truly spectacular, many of the devices do nothing more than add unwanted noise and “mud” to your mix. In fact, some are even designed so that while you can see the tube glowing, it’s not even wired into the circuit. It sucks, but it’s true. Let your ears be the judge, and as always, caveat emptor.
For those of you who are firmly imbedded in the digital world, you don’t need to start running to garage sales and the like to find an old Tascam Half-Track. There are devices on the market today called Tape Saturation Emulators. These are available as both stand-alone hardware units, or as plug-ins for your computer. These can be pricey, but many pros swear by them.
The burning question for home recordists: Do truly need some tube or analog gear to make some really great recordings? The answer is…No, not really. You can make some terrific sounding recordings with a straight digital set-up. People do it every day. It really depends on your skill as an engineer and the strength of the songs, more than anything else. But still, at the same time, oh that analog icing…
If you end up using a good amount of off-board gear (and the reality is that eventually all of us do) you will quickly find that a good Patch-Bay is a truly indispensable item. A Patch Bay allows you to connect or disconnect all of your gear in most cases without even having to stand up, never mind reach around and fumble at the back of your mixer. Simply put, you take an afternoon and hardwire all of the outputs of your gear to the output side of the Patch Bay you have designated. Do the same with the input side. Now, to use your gear, all you need is a 1 foot insert cable toget it into line and running. It’s that simple.
One of the problems that we all face when we start to set up our home studios is the amount of sound that we are going to generate. Never mind the fact that many of us live in urban environments, what with neighbors and, but we also have to concern ourselves with sound getting into the room as well as escaping out of it. One of the things that you may want to try is to choose an interior room, a room where the windows do not open to the outside. If you have the budget and some tools, you can build a ‘room within a room’ by staggering a second set of studs and adding a second layer of drywall.
Remember this when you are trying to isolate your studio: Dead air and mass are your best friends. Both will work well I terms of keeping outside noise where is belongs, outside. Anything that traps air, a suspended ceiling, large stuffed furniture, rugs, wall hangings will help you create dead air (air that doesn’t move.) Double layers of drywall will help you add more mass to your walls.
Here’s a tip for you that will probably be a good deal less expensive that building out your room. Try isolating the instrument itself instead of the room. You can use an adjacent closet or bedroom for your own ’isolation room’. If you use a closet, put some insulation on the inside of the door. If you use a bedroom, be sure to use a Balanced cable for distances greater tan 40 or 50 feet.
One of the best ways for all of us Home Recordists to get a handle on what exactly it is that we’re listening to is to tame all of the reflected sound, thus nullifying the evil Axials, Tangentials, and Obliques. One way to do this is to place your near-field monitors close enough to you that you will be able to hear the primary source much louder than the reflected source. You will still hear the reflections, but they will be for the most part drowned out by the primary, so they won’t matter as much. Another thing that you can do when mixing is to turn the overall levels down…Nah. Just kidding. That’d be no fun…
When setting up your recording space, isolation from other sounds is critical. One classic technique for isolating your recording space from outside sounds is to build a ¬room within a room.¬ The floor is elevated from the normal floor, often on grommets or other devices to minimize sound transmission, and a closed box constructed. This technique helps isolate the studio and allow it to be designed for optimal recording sound techniques.
If you create a room within a room for your recording (in a garage or basement space, for example), be careful to truly isolate the room. If you connect it with hard connections to the wall or floor of the existing space, sound will simply travel through the materials. In an ideal construction, it is suspended; if that is not possible, use sound deadening materials such as rubber or closed cell foam between the room within a room and the outer space.
If you design a room within a room, pay special attention to the door. Most commercial doors allow sound to pass through with no more interference than a sheet of paper. A double pane glass door with a vacuum between the panes (thermopane) can minimize sound transmission (although you will need to coat it with foam on the inside to reduce the sound reflection characteristics).
Here are the steps in sequence for mixing between two songs. 1) Set channel A so the first song is playing. 2) Set the gain of channel B to 0. 3) Press the PFL button of channel B (make sure that the PFL of channel A is off). 4) Make sure that the volume fader of channel B is set to 0 (if you don’t, the audience will hear what you are cueing). 5) Set the EQ of channel B (if necessary). 6) After you change the EQ, reset the gain. 7) Find a good point for the cross fade, and do it slowly.
When going through mixing between two songs, it will be very important for you to make sure that the gain is set correctly, especially after changing the EQ. After you do this you will need to maximize the Gain again. Otherwise, you will end up with the it’s-not-loud-enough- let’s-push-up-the-volume-a- bit-more-OOPS-I’m-at-the-max nightmare.
As in most things, start with the end in mind. What this means in the case of DJ-ing at a gig is choose your end music before you even start the gig. If your mission is to keep people at the party after it has ended (although I can’t imagine a scenario like that) keep the music pumping until you drop. However, the most likely scenario is the club staff will start looking daggers at you as 4:00 approaches, When this happens, announce the last song and then a) play a “killer song” (a song that kills the buzz) b) play a ballad, or c) play a patriotic song. Any one of those three tactics will clear the room in short order.