Somebody’s Got It All Wrong

February 6, 2012

By admin in Music, Music Buisness, Uncategorized

I was killing time today on facebook waiting for a mix to render when I saw a link for a local artist that was starting to receive some national exposure. I had heard this name come up once or twice and I thought why not delve a little deeper and see what the fuss was all about. I clicked the link which took me to his facebook page which had a link to one of his tunes. Cool, right? Well, when I clicked on the link it brought up a pop up that said You must like this and then you can stream the song. Whaaaaaaat?????? I have to “like it” before I’ve even heard it. This is one of the reasons things are so crazy now a days. This guy hasn’t earned the right for me to like him. Not because I’m so great but because he isn’t great….. yet. Show me something to like. Let me have a sample of what you do. This isn’t 1950 where it is hard to come by entertainment. I have a CD collection of over 1000 discs, I mean physical discs. A shelf of LP’s, A Spotify account, a Zune account. An Itunes library and a Windows media library. I have a Netflix account, a Vudu account, I know where to find hulu.com and youtube.com and vimeo.com. I am not desperate for things to do or listen to. And a no name local artist from nearby want’s me to like him before I’ve even heard him sing a note? And don’t tell me it’s about stealing his music or illegally downloading his tunes. He hasn’t even earned the right for me to steal from him. All I wanted to hear was one song.

Well as you can imagine I didn’t like him and I didn’t listen to his song and as a result I couldn’t tell you if he’s worth your time to look him up. This is an amazing time for musicians and artists to have access to way more than labels could offer them in the Glory days of record contracts. The possibilities are endless. But at least respect your potential fans. Just something to think about.

The Forgotten Bee

January 31, 2012

By admin in Craft, God's Creation, Recording

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Recently my family and I watched a Documentary called Vanishing of the Bees. The main story of this Doc. is how the bees are mysteriously vanishing across America. The reason this is a problem is that Bees pollinate plants and fruits. If there are no more bees to pollinate, then fruit crops will not survive unless they are artificially pollinated or imported in from other countries. I personally have a problem with artificially doing things that God has designed nature to accomplish and feel that on a large part that is what has gotten us into this mess. The fascinating part of the vanishing is that the bees just disappeared by the thousands. They would have bee hives that would be fully populated one day and the next day thousands of bees would be gone. There were no dead bodies left behind just empty bee hives. One of the theories to why the bees are disappearing is due to all the pesticides that they are spraying on everything that grows. These pesticides were developed by the some of the same companies that developed chemical warfare back during the world wars. They took the same chemicals they were using to kill people and tweaked them to kill insects and weeds and such. In the shortsightedness of our Government these products were never fully tested. If you follow the EPA and how they work you will know that they do not test products themselves they regulate products. The companies that develop these products are responsible to provide testing for them so you have a situation where the very companies who stand to benefit the most from the success of the product are responsible to validate there safety. That is like a teacher telling her class that they are responsible for grading there final exams. No one would ever fail. So now we are in a situation that years later we are seeing negative repercussions to products that we have been assured were safe. Of course no one on the political end of things want to dig too deeply into these issues because the huge corporations that developed these toxic products are pouring millions of dollars in lobbying to our stumbling government. Oh yea and the people running these Government protection agencies were all formal employees of the offending companies. It sounds like the plot to a conspiracy movie only it is all true. The bees are not the only ones that fall prey to it. It is the same for the organic food movement. Look up Monsanto and what they are doing to our farmers in the name of justice. It is actually sad and scary at the same time.

So the bees are basically drunk on all the chemicals that we spray everywhere and eventually they just run away or fly away if you will. Of course when you approach the companies that make millions of dollars off of selling these chemicals they tell you you are being ridiculous and fanatical. And of course their lawyers have a lot more at stake then yours.

So what’s a recording engineer and musician have to do with this? Well here it is. I got to thinking about how we look at music and production these days it seems that our tendency is to want everything faster cheaper and more disposable then it was yesterday. I’m not going that way anymore. It takes some time to make art that will be timeless and relevant and I am going to do my best to invest time in honing my craft so I can best serve my clients and musical allies. You can not make the same kind of records in your basement that you could make in my studio. I realize this is a bold statement but it is true. I have over 20 years of experience in getting good sounds and solving problems that come up. I also have the space to create where you are not waiting for the neighbors or your mom to tell you to turn it down. Now understand I am not saying that if you spent more time and money on your project that it will always be better. There is much art and science and even more mystery in creating music that will endure. Don’t sell yourself short on what could be just because you want to save money.

So you might just see more of the bee here at Forgotten Genre Productions it’s a symbol that helps me remember.

Proof Positive of Lancaster Recording Studio FGP

January 18, 2012

By admin in Gear, Lancaster City, Recording, Technical bitys

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Doug Plank took some brief time out the other night to record a short clip while we were mixing for the Crossway Collective. Here is our proof that things are getting done in the Forgotten Genre studios.

Mixing for the Crossway Collective coming along.

January 17, 2012

By admin in Craft, Gear, Music, Recording, Technical bitys

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FGP Studios

We have been motoring along on the Crossway Collective project. Last night we finished a mix of Broken and Poured out. This is a beautiful song that Doug Plank wrote about the sacrament of Communion. We have spent quite a bit of time on it because I was hearing a reflective extended outro on this song and we spent a couple of weeks running down bunny trails playing with it. We eventually decided to finish the core of the song and go back to the outro later. Some times the time constraints limit you. I was really happy with the way the song turned out and I got to use some favorite tools like my Strymon El Capistan and my new JDK Compressor. The Strymon is one of my favorite delays right now. It really takes the sonics to a different level. One of the techniques I have been developing is to raise the repeats or feedback fairly high and with the send, “throw” a certain sound to the delay to let it cascade. I will give you sample so you can get a feel for it.

StrymonThrow by forgotteng

This throw was done with the 12 string as the throw source. You will notice the bloom come in and out and fill the stereo field. Also note the slide bass that Cliff b Lewis played. cool tones.

StrymonThrow2 by forgotteng

Here is the end of the song with the piano as the source. Notice the graininess when the tones feedback on each other. Lush

xmas movie soundtrack Brings Nostalgia

December 8, 2011

By admin in Albums, Craft, Music, Namedrop, Recording

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My friend Cliff b Lewis has just released his Christmas EP and it is well worth checking out. I always enjoy Cliffs take on music and commentary on life, mundane and spiritual. Cliff has been planning this project for a while and the thing I am most proud about is that he completed it himself despite not having anyone to push him or set deadlines etc. I was going to help him track some things but the best I could do was let him use the studio to get a few things down. The majority of it was completed at home where Cliff wrote and re-wrote and edited and re- edited and recorded and re-recorded. The final project is fun. I got to Master the final tracks and it was fun to aim for a modern take on a sound that was very nostalgic and dated and yet modern and relevant.

Of course I am an engineer and not a writer like Cliff so I won’t ramble on. I will let you check out xmas movie soundtrack for yourself

Also this Saturday and Sunday Cliff will be giving away 200 digital downloads. Please be one of the few to benefit from this and support thoughtful music. For more inf go here.

New Cool Tool to Help You Listen Better

December 8, 2011

By admin in Craft, Recording, Technical bitys

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I just came across this cool tool to help you hear frequencies. This is a fun application that lets you hear different frequencies while visualizing a graphic EQ. There is a learn mode where you can select on the eq what frequency and it will play the sound or you can switch to test mode and they will play a tone and have you select which frequency it is. The first time I took the test I did embarrassingly bad. It made me want to spend some time with it everyday. I think 1ten minute test a day would be amazingly helpful.

It’s called Sound Chef Pro You can use it with PC And Mac and it is affordable. In Demo Mode you can only test in 10 band mode. Check it out and amaze your friends and acquaintances with your ability to call out frequencies and say things like “wow that 2k is killing me.” and mean it.

www.soundchefpro.com

Sshhh, Don’t tell anyone about my Furman SG10 EQ

November 7, 2011

By admin in Craft, Gear, Recording, Technical bitys

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Recently I picked up an Eq for mixing purposes. As usual I was on a limited budget and as I was trolling for cool used gear I came across this Furman Eq. Of course I have a list of Eq’s I would like to own if my budget was unlimited but I really just needed a fun tool. I also have many great sounding Eq’s in plug in format. Some of my favorites are the Puigtec waves plug, the waves Kramer HLS which is a recreation of the Helios Eq, then there is the UAD Neve 1081, and the waves API 550B. All these have different uses and I have favorite applications for each but since I have been mixing with a console and doing more work out of the box I have been looking for different tools.

As I was researching this furman I found that there was almost no information on this Eq. I posted to some of my favorite forums and got no replies, 0, goose egg, nada. Not even some pompous gear hound to poo poo it and tell me how I should save my money for ___ Eq. I started to worry. Did I make a mistake? Did I luck out and find a hidden Gem? I waited less than patiently until my new Eq arrived. Finally It arrived and I loaded it in the rack and got to work. This Eq can be run as a 5 band stereo Eq or a 10 band mono Eq. The Bands are selectable with a rotary pot then the gain is controlled with a slider. One of the benefits to having an outboard Eq is you have something other than a mouse to grab onto and adjust. There are times that the joy that this brings out weighs the downside of fidelity and perfection. I am the kind of guy that weighs heavily on vibe and feel over perfection. Everybody has their own preferences, this is mine. I have been developing a style of mixing based off of Michael Brauers Braurerizing method of using the console and using the busses to enhance your options and thicken the sound. This means I have 8 extra options for colors. So Buss 1 and 2 are my Eq left and right 3 and four are a DBX 905 Eq into a DBX 903 Comp, 5 is open 6 runs to my Square State Solid State Model one b EQ and 7 and 8 go to my Aphex 9721′s that are usually my Drum Buss. This means that as I am mixing I can quickly choose to send something to any of these busses and quickly go back and forth between the stereo LR buss or one of my color options. Grabing a know and tweaking to find something that interests me. Sometimes I don’t like it and I go back to the stereo buss. I am not looking for something surgical here but more for color and vibe. The Furman has somewhat of a sloppy mid range that I find works well on getting Guitars to cut through the mix etc. I used it on a song with Violins that I was mixing and I got really great results in sculpting things so the Violins sat better in the mix.

As I reflected on my find and methods I realized that sometimes you need to trust your ears and have fun. If you weigh too heavy in on what peoples opinions on a piece of equipment is you tend to “dumb” down your ability to listen and make decisions on your own. Kind of like having someone at a radio station force feed you Rhiannon tracks telling you it is “good” music. Often as I research gear I find people asking what they should use a particular piece of gear on. Is this a vocal comp or a drum comp or a kazoo comp etc. They would do better to do the hard work of trying it themselves and making a decision based on what they hear instead of someones opinion. Now, that being said sometimes it is very helpful to get the pro’s opinions on what works most pros are pros for a reason. After really working with a piece of gear and learning all it’s idiosyncrocies it makes you appreciate that new $2000 eq you pick up. Some day I will replace my SG10 with a better sounding more acceptable Eq but for now……

Remember When We Used To Listen To Music?

October 12, 2011

By admin in Albums, History, Music, Personal

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I was just reflecting the other day that I rarely listen to music like I used to. I am wondering if any of you are the same. When I was in high school I had a boom box or jambox whatever you were calling them in the eighties. Most of the time I was listening to tapes. At this point in my life I was living in Papua New Guinea and there was no radio. We survived on cassettes, some were pirated copies that we got in the trade stores in town. Other times it was a cassette copy that we dubbed from a friends collection or maybe we would have a friend fresh back from furlough that would have an original that we could copy. On the weekends we would spend time walking around at night or at one of the tennis courts where someone would bring a box and we would hang out or have an impromptu dance. I have fond memories of discovering everything from Simple Minds to the Scorpions, Van Halen to Ice House, Inxs, Midnight Oil, Noiseworks, Def Leopard, White Snake, Acdc, Duran Duran, Alphaville and many others. As I moved back to the states in 1989 I finally got a car and this was a whole new era in bliss. I had a chevy corsica with a pioneer cassette deck in it. I would jump at the chance to run any errand. Were out of milk? I’ll go get some. We need butter? ooh ooh me let me go get some. On the weekends my friends and I would go for a drive just to listen to music. Gas was cheap and my parents still paid for it. At time I would go for a drive on my own just to listen to an album. I would turn it up and be surrounded by the music singing all the while. I would also fall asleep to music. As I got older and lived on my own, music would keep me company. I would put a cd on at night to fall asleep and when I awoke in the middle of the night for a bathroom break I would switch the cd spending the time to select the right disc for the moment. If I could I would have music going 24 hours a day. When I was touring music was always important. Just to keep up with what all my friends in the industry were doing and as we traveled if I wasn’t in a bus I was typically driving so I needed music to keep me awake and keep me company for 100′s of 1000′s of miles. I had albums that were special friends that I listened to over and over again. Sister Sweetly by Big Head Todd and the Monsters. The Eagles Greatest Hits albums, Lucinda Williams Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Allman Brothers band, Whiskeytown Strangers Almanac, and many others.

Eventually I got married to my amazing wife and listening to music 24 hours a day became less of a priority. I still maintained my stereo system and I would have these Sunday after church listening parties in my man cave. Eventually as I became busier and busier this occurred less and less. Soon I moved my studio out of the house so my gear and music time was out of the house. My travel time became less and less so for a good period of time I didn’t even have cd’s in the car. before I knew it most of my listening was taking place on a laptop with headphones at night before I fell asleep.

As much as we lament the fall of quality popular music and it’s access to the average person there is more great music being made now as ever before it is just harder to find. Another thing I have discovered is the sheer volume of music out there. In my younger days my budget was limited There was no internet, spotify, grooveshark, itunes etc. I had a couple of cassettes that I listened to over and over again I knew every twist and turn of every album. Now I might download 5-6 albums a month and forget I even have them. I consume about 10 times the music I did back then but I spend about 75% less time enjoying it. I very rarely listen to an album all the way through and almost never listen to an album on it’s own with out multi tasking. I very rarely get to listen to music on a quality system. I at different times force myself to listen to music on headphones or in the studio on a good pair of monitors as a discipline in listening. Lately due to sickness I have had to slow down and have got a chance to listen more carefully and more leisurely. It is a joy.

I’m curious. How to you consume music?

Eric Valentines UTA console and EQ

October 5, 2011

By admin in Craft, Gear, Recording, Technical bitys, Uncategorized

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I came across Eric from my perusing on Pensado’s Place. Dave did an amazing interview with Eric and Eric did a tour of his studio. This kind of stuff is candy for me. I love seeing other peoples studio’s and how they work. Eric at one point switched consoles and was not happy with the console he had so he decided to build his own console based on his needs. His quest led him to start a company call UTA or UnderTone Audio. The consoles that he builds are over 50 grand so it doesn’t seem like I will ever have one but his attention to detail in designing this is phenomenal. One of things that set’s these consoles apart is the EQ that Eric designed. Below is a fascinating overview of his EQ the high pass and low pass filters are amazing and even if you never use the board you can still learn a lot about using high pass and low pass filters. At some point UTA will release the EQ in a single rack space format which I will desire so anyone looking for Christmas gift ideas for me look no further. For now enjoy the video.

UTA Demo Vid #1: Eq Basics from Undertone Audio on Vimeo.

New Katie Herzig Album

September 22, 2011

By admin in Albums, Craft, Music, Namedrop, Recording

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Just caught this video of the making of Katie Herzig’s new Album The Waking Sleep. The cool thing is seeing my old buddy Cason Cooley who I worked with on the Waterdeep/Normals tour. Cason was acting as FOH engineer for the Normals and then went on to play piano and the keys in the band. Cason then went on to play with Mat Kearney and many others. I love the way Katie and Cason approached creating the album. alot of original sounds and found sounds etc. Check the album out and support people working hard to create something original in a non assuming way.