I am a hit or miss type of person. The "miss" is that I have had thoughts of not continuing to write blog entries (for this blog) any more. However, I have noticed that a small (but solid) group of people continue to check in and read its’ contents from time to time. That is the "hit" part of my bad joke. I feel as if I owe them, as well as you all. something. But what do I owe you all? More “Hit Maker” blog entries, dude!
For this, the first blog entry in such a long, long time, I would like to slide away from the usual topics of the music biz, and get personal with you. I would like to share some thoughts on how we sometimes seem to conduct ourselves as musicians.
This is one of the few businesses where it is common to be (or to get) intoxicated while at work. In the world of entertainment, drugs and alcohol seem to fit right in nicely. In fact it seems to dominate the industry. Most often people want to share their wares with you in exchange for a little bit of your time and maybe even some of your attention. We don’t need rock star status for this very thing to occur either, just step into your local pub and see how the house band gets on. This stuff is real, and it is all too comon. I do not feel a need to even try to tell you what you should do with your life. However, I will tell you what “it” will do for you in this world of music.
Your voice might be your most valuable asset; both on and off of the stage. Smoking has been proven to hinder (if not destroy) the ability to sing well. Hey, let’s not even get into the ability to belt out a long high note while being a smoker.
I know what you are thinking right now! ..…..I know, I know, I know....... Mr. Edward VanHalen built his musical empire with a cig stuck in the tuning pegs of his famous Kramer guitar. That is true enough, but you might also be familiar with his bout with cancer. I, myself, smoke and I dont mind sharing with you that quitting smoking is the hardest thing I have ever tried to do (besides trying to learn how to play an Edward VanHalen guitar solo). If you smoke, why not at least try to quit. If you do not smoke, don’t start! That is all I will type on that topic.
As I ponder how to write down my thoughts about what drinking and drugging will do for your career in music, the sounds and the lyrics of Pink Floyds’ “Don’t leave me now” are playing in my head. What happened to Syd Barrett anyway? Oh yea, I forgot. Let’s face it, if you want to mess up a great performance, get high first. You might sound awesome in your own head, but your ears will be the only ones hearing that particular version.
Experience has given me a few different takes on the many particular substances that will ruin a night’s performance. Any one of them is just as good as the next, well, as far as ruining a show that is. The bottom line here is that substance use will break up your band and deem you undesirable as a musician in any music circuit.
For those of you that still don’t think I know my stuff, here is a little test….. Think of a few of your greatest musical heroes that are forever etched into musical history for both their incredible music and their incredible substance use. Next, think of where they are right now. Most likely they are in Heaven trying out for Shannon Hoons’ new band. By the way, that band features Jimi Hendrix on the guitar.
Remember the last time your band played a gig when you were all wasted? Ever heard that nights bootleg? Not one song from that nights show will make it on to your greatest hits album, I can assure you.
So who the heck am I to try to stop you from “reaping the bennies” of a rock and roll lifestyle? Well, I talk the talk ‘cause I have walked the walk. I, too, said “it will never happen to me”, but it did. I remember the very day that I sold my favorite guitar for just enough money to purchase some substances. I remember being homeless, and out on the streets wishing that I had it back so that I could play it, if only for that one last time.
Well, I am one of the lucky ones. I got out of my rut “with a little help from my friends”. Pardon the joke as I just couldn’t help myself. I will not tell you that I can now sing any better, or play the guitar as good as I always wanted to, because I am clean, but now I can play my guitar in my own home. I have fellow musicians that enjoy playing with me and being around me; and only because I stopped using.
Listen, the music business is still business and you cant "do business" while all messed up. Your dreams will simply never come to be if you are using any of the many different substances. No one will want to hear what you have to say with your music if you are all jammed up. Get help if you need it. Help someone if they need it. Your dreams will still be there waiting for you. Shannon and Jimis’ Heavenly band will just have to wait for now. Get better, and then get good!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Why buy?
Welcome to yet another great entry!
Things have been slow lately, so I am anxious to get back to my favorite thing to do. That is recording music of course. I was wondering how to approach my next venture, and I thought that I would do something that I have not yet done. Rent some gear.
Why rent gear? Simple, I can get the best possible recording using the best pro gear.
My project is to record a female vocalist singing some songs that I have written and recorded. I have some great ideas, but not in the lyrical realm. She has met me half way, and has written some great stuff for the new music. I want to be as professional as possible, both with my technique, and with the recording of her sweet and soft vocal. However, when it comes to good vocal mics, my mic collection is not the greatest. I want to record her with a nice mic.
Almost any music gear shop rents equipment these days, and it is reasonable in cost. I have been quoted about 20 dollars for a nice mic, and the same for a nice vocal/line pre amp. So, for forty dollars, I can now reach the goal of a professional recording of a professional singer. I do not yet have a need to own this gear, so this works out great for us both.
What else is their to renting? Well, if my expensive mic craps out on me, I would probably throw in the towel. If a rented mic (with insurance) craps out, oh well. I simply take it back and exchange it for a working one. No sweat there. Plus, if I need a particular sounding guitar or amp on a song, I would rather rent the gear and use it, that save up and buy it for only that one time. Think about renting other stuff, too, like effects pedals, Fender Strats/Teles, and what ever else I failed to imagine. Some shops have an incredible selection of gear to rent, offering a wide range of sound possibilities.
I plan on recording the music over the next few weeks, and I will post the new songs online as they are finished, so "stay tuned"!
Things have been slow lately, so I am anxious to get back to my favorite thing to do. That is recording music of course. I was wondering how to approach my next venture, and I thought that I would do something that I have not yet done. Rent some gear.
Why rent gear? Simple, I can get the best possible recording using the best pro gear.
My project is to record a female vocalist singing some songs that I have written and recorded. I have some great ideas, but not in the lyrical realm. She has met me half way, and has written some great stuff for the new music. I want to be as professional as possible, both with my technique, and with the recording of her sweet and soft vocal. However, when it comes to good vocal mics, my mic collection is not the greatest. I want to record her with a nice mic.
Almost any music gear shop rents equipment these days, and it is reasonable in cost. I have been quoted about 20 dollars for a nice mic, and the same for a nice vocal/line pre amp. So, for forty dollars, I can now reach the goal of a professional recording of a professional singer. I do not yet have a need to own this gear, so this works out great for us both.
What else is their to renting? Well, if my expensive mic craps out on me, I would probably throw in the towel. If a rented mic (with insurance) craps out, oh well. I simply take it back and exchange it for a working one. No sweat there. Plus, if I need a particular sounding guitar or amp on a song, I would rather rent the gear and use it, that save up and buy it for only that one time. Think about renting other stuff, too, like effects pedals, Fender Strats/Teles, and what ever else I failed to imagine. Some shops have an incredible selection of gear to rent, offering a wide range of sound possibilities.
I plan on recording the music over the next few weeks, and I will post the new songs online as they are finished, so "stay tuned"!
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Some more great links
I'm back!
I was thinking about a new post idea, when it came to me, out of bordom. I started to "surf" the web and I came across some killer sites!
You tube has only begun its journey of creating some rather unbelievable history with its "urban" style of news repoting and of course the videos of people doing incredible things. If you think about what is to come next on You Tube, than youre too late. Fate and timing seem to govern the greatness that is the rapid news-worthy video.
On the other end of the spectrum are all of the incredible how to videos. People use their time and talent filming themselves in the name of sharing. Check out Justin Guitar, HERE, he is my main man. His web site is HERE. This cat is cool and can play!
There are a ton of these sites out there and best of all they are all free!
Of course, if you are starting out anew, on your own adventure into guitar playing-land, than I wouls suggest Same Day Guitar. Mostly because it works, and partly because I wrote it. It is a series of text lessons, with tab, and with videos. Again, it is a great tool for beginers. Email me at Steve@itmaine.com for your own Same Day Guitar Ebook kit today!
Next on my "must go to" list, would be the song publishing tips. Do not stop short, as their are a ton of helpful sites for this great idea. Google "song publishing" and you will hit pay dirt! I do love to post my stuff online, and you can catch one or two here. I do hope you enjoy them, they are fairly new.
So go off and learn the five positions of the A minor pentatonic at Justin Guitar, and look out for the up and coming blog that should be a dooosieee!
Thanks,
Kern
I was thinking about a new post idea, when it came to me, out of bordom. I started to "surf" the web and I came across some killer sites!
You tube has only begun its journey of creating some rather unbelievable history with its "urban" style of news repoting and of course the videos of people doing incredible things. If you think about what is to come next on You Tube, than youre too late. Fate and timing seem to govern the greatness that is the rapid news-worthy video.
On the other end of the spectrum are all of the incredible how to videos. People use their time and talent filming themselves in the name of sharing. Check out Justin Guitar, HERE, he is my main man. His web site is HERE. This cat is cool and can play!
There are a ton of these sites out there and best of all they are all free!
Of course, if you are starting out anew, on your own adventure into guitar playing-land, than I wouls suggest Same Day Guitar. Mostly because it works, and partly because I wrote it. It is a series of text lessons, with tab, and with videos. Again, it is a great tool for beginers. Email me at Steve@itmaine.com for your own Same Day Guitar Ebook kit today!
Next on my "must go to" list, would be the song publishing tips. Do not stop short, as their are a ton of helpful sites for this great idea. Google "song publishing" and you will hit pay dirt! I do love to post my stuff online, and you can catch one or two here. I do hope you enjoy them, they are fairly new.
So go off and learn the five positions of the A minor pentatonic at Justin Guitar, and look out for the up and coming blog that should be a dooosieee!
Thanks,
Kern
Thursday, July 24, 2008
File formats
Welcome back to the hit maker!
I would love to talk about our file formats for a second here. I know, "Yawn", but I feel the need!
Have you ever tried to upload a song to a website and had it refused because it wasn't an MP3 format? Well, lets see what we can do here....
Pro Tools saves most songs as wav files. This format works well with a lot of websites, but not all. Plus, these files can be rather massive too. MP3 files are a lot smaller in size, and used by every digital "MP3" player on the market.
Audacity is free. It is a music editing application. You can use it to burn almost any sound from any source, and then merge it into your music files. The beauty with Audacity is that you can load a wav file, and then export it out as an MP3 file! That's right, magically turn your wav file into an MP3 file, and save them both to your machine!
After you have downloaded Audacity you will then need to download the LAME MP3 conversion tool. You only need to do this one time, and it will work forever! You need to follow the online instructions on the "Lame project" website. Don't stress out, it is very simple!
After all of that is done you can open Audacity, open a song that is a wav file, and convert it to an MP3 file in seconds flat! Be sure to open a "tester" song file, or a "copy" song file, and then try out all of the tools in Audacity. You might just get some awesome ideas of your own by playing around with this stuff! I like to merge in sound effects into some of my songs. I get them from CD's and DVD's that I get from the public library, and then burn them into Pro Tools via a CD/DVD player, and then open them up in Audacity, along with the song! Insert (or merge) to taste, serve chilled.
Be sure to put a shortcut to Audacity on your desktop as you will use it allot!
A second reason for using Audacity is to trim your songs. If your Wav file has an "intro" or an "outro" that consists of digital noise, or tape hiss, than get rid of it! Use the trim tool in Audacity and get rid of that annoyance for the last time! Sometimes we leave a four count intro on our recorded music, and edit them out when we are finished. This leaves a long silent spot at the beginning of all of our original songs. Audacity makes short work at getting rid of these intros. Highlight them and then delete them, and then your done!
Want a third reason to use Audacity? What about a sampler of your greatest hits in one short playing MP3 or wav file format? When selling a song on a website, sometimes the Savoy can steal it. Why put a song up on the web in its entirety, anyway? Putting a song "snippet", or a one-verse and one-chorus song preview, might make more sense. The purchaser can listen to the short snippet of your song (that you made in Audacity) and get the idea and the feel of the entire song. Then the consumer can purchase the large, complete song file. Same sales figures for you, without any chance of theft!
What about getting the song-buying-listeners to hear all of your songs in one quick moment? Getting a purchaser to hear all of your songs in a "snippet-collection" makes sense in many ways. They can quickly get a feel for the type of music that you make, and the feel for the album in its entirety, with one quick MP3 snippet.
Again, using Audacity, merge together your newly made song snippets into one longer MP3. This, when played, will be a song that fades in and out of your songs.
Now that you have a new "greatest hits" snippet MP3, give it away! Use it as your sales pitch. Embed it onto your websites and your "My space" pages for a great sales approach!
Until next time,
I am KERN. Please Subscribe
I would love to talk about our file formats for a second here. I know, "Yawn", but I feel the need!
Have you ever tried to upload a song to a website and had it refused because it wasn't an MP3 format? Well, lets see what we can do here....
Pro Tools saves most songs as wav files. This format works well with a lot of websites, but not all. Plus, these files can be rather massive too. MP3 files are a lot smaller in size, and used by every digital "MP3" player on the market.
Audacity is free. It is a music editing application. You can use it to burn almost any sound from any source, and then merge it into your music files. The beauty with Audacity is that you can load a wav file, and then export it out as an MP3 file! That's right, magically turn your wav file into an MP3 file, and save them both to your machine!
After you have downloaded Audacity you will then need to download the LAME MP3 conversion tool. You only need to do this one time, and it will work forever! You need to follow the online instructions on the "Lame project" website. Don't stress out, it is very simple!
After all of that is done you can open Audacity, open a song that is a wav file, and convert it to an MP3 file in seconds flat! Be sure to open a "tester" song file, or a "copy" song file, and then try out all of the tools in Audacity. You might just get some awesome ideas of your own by playing around with this stuff! I like to merge in sound effects into some of my songs. I get them from CD's and DVD's that I get from the public library, and then burn them into Pro Tools via a CD/DVD player, and then open them up in Audacity, along with the song! Insert (or merge) to taste, serve chilled.
Be sure to put a shortcut to Audacity on your desktop as you will use it allot!
A second reason for using Audacity is to trim your songs. If your Wav file has an "intro" or an "outro" that consists of digital noise, or tape hiss, than get rid of it! Use the trim tool in Audacity and get rid of that annoyance for the last time! Sometimes we leave a four count intro on our recorded music, and edit them out when we are finished. This leaves a long silent spot at the beginning of all of our original songs. Audacity makes short work at getting rid of these intros. Highlight them and then delete them, and then your done!
Want a third reason to use Audacity? What about a sampler of your greatest hits in one short playing MP3 or wav file format? When selling a song on a website, sometimes the Savoy can steal it. Why put a song up on the web in its entirety, anyway? Putting a song "snippet", or a one-verse and one-chorus song preview, might make more sense. The purchaser can listen to the short snippet of your song (that you made in Audacity) and get the idea and the feel of the entire song. Then the consumer can purchase the large, complete song file. Same sales figures for you, without any chance of theft!
What about getting the song-buying-listeners to hear all of your songs in one quick moment? Getting a purchaser to hear all of your songs in a "snippet-collection" makes sense in many ways. They can quickly get a feel for the type of music that you make, and the feel for the album in its entirety, with one quick MP3 snippet.
Again, using Audacity, merge together your newly made song snippets into one longer MP3. This, when played, will be a song that fades in and out of your songs.
Now that you have a new "greatest hits" snippet MP3, give it away! Use it as your sales pitch. Embed it onto your websites and your "My space" pages for a great sales approach!
Until next time,
I am KERN. Please Subscribe
Friday, July 11, 2008
links that will make you famous, and smart!
Welcome back to the Hit Maker. It is my aim to help with your home recording questions.
I will be teaching a class for the next week, so I thought that I would post in advance.
I would like to point you into the direction of a few cool links. Here are some that might just make you famous and/or rich!
This is "How audio", an online school of sorts, with an amazing price. Here you can learn, along with the videos, how to get in and get your song out! Check out the free stuff on this site!
http://www.howaudio.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Here is a place to "show your stuff", and meet other prodcers and music writers. Best of all, it is free!
http://www.worldsbestproducers.com/
Speaking of free, how about some cool places to post your stuff, and also hear others' cool stuff? Plus you can chat along with the ones that peak your interest.
here is "fuzz", http://www.fuzz.com/
and "forte", http://www.musicforte.com/
If you do not listen to others, then you are missing the point of getting better through others works. Go to "Recording Mag., and listen to "readers tapes", it is a must listen. Here is the link:
http://www.recordingmag.com/index.html follow the links...
Same Day Guitar is my baby, and it can be seen here, leave me an email if you want one.
www.SameDayGuitar.com
Last but not least, one way to get that fame is by entering (and winning) a song contest. Here are some that I feel are the most honest, with the better "pay offs" for the winners.
http://www.songcontestny.com/Home.html
http://www.wearelistening.org/contests.php
http://paramountsong.com/
Please keep in mind that I do not endorse any of the contests as I have never entered them myself. Thanks, and keep on rocking the mixes!!!
Kern
I will be teaching a class for the next week, so I thought that I would post in advance.
I would like to point you into the direction of a few cool links. Here are some that might just make you famous and/or rich!
This is "How audio", an online school of sorts, with an amazing price. Here you can learn, along with the videos, how to get in and get your song out! Check out the free stuff on this site!
http://www.howaudio.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Here is a place to "show your stuff", and meet other prodcers and music writers. Best of all, it is free!
http://www.worldsbestproducers.com/
Speaking of free, how about some cool places to post your stuff, and also hear others' cool stuff? Plus you can chat along with the ones that peak your interest.
here is "fuzz", http://www.fuzz.com/
and "forte", http://www.musicforte.com/
If you do not listen to others, then you are missing the point of getting better through others works. Go to "Recording Mag., and listen to "readers tapes", it is a must listen. Here is the link:
http://www.recordingmag.com/index.html follow the links...
Same Day Guitar is my baby, and it can be seen here, leave me an email if you want one.
www.SameDayGuitar.com
Last but not least, one way to get that fame is by entering (and winning) a song contest. Here are some that I feel are the most honest, with the better "pay offs" for the winners.
http://www.songcontestny.com/Home.html
http://www.wearelistening.org/contests.php
http://paramountsong.com/
Please keep in mind that I do not endorse any of the contests as I have never entered them myself. Thanks, and keep on rocking the mixes!!!
Kern
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Electric guitar tone,You are not alone
Hello, and welcome back! Today I would love to go over one of the trickiest topics, and also one of the most important ones, as far as rock and roll recording goes anyway.
Tone.
Electric guitar tone to be exact!
First of all, the recorder that you use is not important. For sake of today's topic lets say it does not matter. What I mean is that if you use a DAW, or even an older four track tape machine to record your music this will be of little importance. This blog is all about "before", or before it gets to the recorder.
With the capturing the tone of your electric guitar comes many questions. Should one use a DI box in? "D.I. box" is direct in box, which acts like a load that a Chanel strip or an amp might add to a sound. We use these when we do not want to use an amp and speaker cabinet combo, with a microphone. One plus of using a D.I. box when recording guitar is that you can do this anywhere. A lap top and your guitar plugged into a D.I. box can be done on the bus, to take the idea to an extreme. Some D.I. boxes give a great tube sound to a guitar on a recorded track. This is done allot even in expensive recording studios since it is all about tone, right?
A different technique is to place a small condenser mic in front of your guitar amp, and play away. If your band has a particular sound, and you want to capture that sound, then this is for you! Whatever gear you have in your signal chain gets set up in the studio, and then mics do the rest! A Shure SM57 will do you proud, in front of any speaker, as this is the most used mic for electric guitars.
Placing a mic in front of your amps speaker is the time tested classic approach. A different sound comes from simply pointing the mic off axis, or to one side by turning it ever so slightly at an angle. This removes just a touch of the higher frequencies, and gives the amp a smoother vibe.
Placing a second and a third mic into the picture can breathe life to a guitar mix! Using multiple mics to recording all at once is the ideal practice, verses recording separate tracks with the same mic, by the way. Where you put the mics is what makes all of the difference. Most studio engineers like to place a second mic behind the speaker (or amp) itself. A stereo feel happens when one does this. A mello sound is captured with a mic behind the amp or the speaker cab, as the lows and the lower mids are prominent here. This mic mixed in with the main mic track can make musical magic!
On the topic of magic, lets make some more, with adding yet another mic in the room. A room mic, correctly placed, will add a great roominess much like a reverb that you cant find anywhere else. This mic is most often placed a short distance (perhaps at least ten feet) in order to grab both the guitar speaker and the rooms' feel as well. This can also give the recording a live feel too. Try putting the drums in the same room and then you will have a live take that feels or sounds as if it was recorded at your last concert!
Recording electric guitars is limited to your imagination. There are no right ways and no wrong ways. The idea is to try things until you match the sound that you have in your head. Take an hour, and a friend to move mics for you (as you listen with headphones) and listen for yourself how much difference mic placement can be. A foot of distance can add a delay or a reverb, that will make or break the recording.
Mic choice is as important as mic placement. Often times an amp sounds best when it is cranked. This is not a myth. Be sure to place mics that are capable of handling the higher SPL's of your cranked amps. SPL's are Sound Pressure Levels, which is volume in plain English. Mics will distort if they cant take the powerful levels of sound that you put into them with your Marshall stack and Les Paul combo. You will find that most studios choose a small diaphragm condenser mic for in front of the cabs. The room mic most often is a large diaphragm condenser mic.
You do not have to spend tons of cash to get a great sound. Shure Sm57's have recorded the loudest amps for years, and they can be found for under 100 bucks. Two of these babies sent into a four input mixer , then mixed together into a stereo out, or a mono out into your recorder is all you will ever need. Less can be more.
One more note about your tone... My last blog entry dealt with compression. First of all, put one in your signal chain, before the tape machine. If you are in pro tools, put one at the insert stage. This will eliminate all of the unwanted hums and pops, and it will control the wild, out of character notes. Taming the loudness, or the dynamics of the guitar itself is the point, not removing any tone or guitar sound.
The bottom line here is that a few well picked out mics, placed in the best location will give you that perfect tone for all of your electric guitars, for all of your albums for decades to come!
Now GO! Play with this stuff, and get that tone that the pros have, for pennies on the dollar. One song that has a good tone is "Best friends girl" at http://kern.fuzz.com/ . The song is not the best in the world, but it is all about the tone. One Sure SM57, placed in front of the amps' grill, at a slight angle, did it all. Enjoy, and thanks for listening!
Peace, out.
Kern
Tone.
Electric guitar tone to be exact!
First of all, the recorder that you use is not important. For sake of today's topic lets say it does not matter. What I mean is that if you use a DAW, or even an older four track tape machine to record your music this will be of little importance. This blog is all about "before", or before it gets to the recorder.
With the capturing the tone of your electric guitar comes many questions. Should one use a DI box in? "D.I. box" is direct in box, which acts like a load that a Chanel strip or an amp might add to a sound. We use these when we do not want to use an amp and speaker cabinet combo, with a microphone. One plus of using a D.I. box when recording guitar is that you can do this anywhere. A lap top and your guitar plugged into a D.I. box can be done on the bus, to take the idea to an extreme. Some D.I. boxes give a great tube sound to a guitar on a recorded track. This is done allot even in expensive recording studios since it is all about tone, right?
A different technique is to place a small condenser mic in front of your guitar amp, and play away. If your band has a particular sound, and you want to capture that sound, then this is for you! Whatever gear you have in your signal chain gets set up in the studio, and then mics do the rest! A Shure SM57 will do you proud, in front of any speaker, as this is the most used mic for electric guitars.
Placing a mic in front of your amps speaker is the time tested classic approach. A different sound comes from simply pointing the mic off axis, or to one side by turning it ever so slightly at an angle. This removes just a touch of the higher frequencies, and gives the amp a smoother vibe.
Placing a second and a third mic into the picture can breathe life to a guitar mix! Using multiple mics to recording all at once is the ideal practice, verses recording separate tracks with the same mic, by the way. Where you put the mics is what makes all of the difference. Most studio engineers like to place a second mic behind the speaker (or amp) itself. A stereo feel happens when one does this. A mello sound is captured with a mic behind the amp or the speaker cab, as the lows and the lower mids are prominent here. This mic mixed in with the main mic track can make musical magic!
On the topic of magic, lets make some more, with adding yet another mic in the room. A room mic, correctly placed, will add a great roominess much like a reverb that you cant find anywhere else. This mic is most often placed a short distance (perhaps at least ten feet) in order to grab both the guitar speaker and the rooms' feel as well. This can also give the recording a live feel too. Try putting the drums in the same room and then you will have a live take that feels or sounds as if it was recorded at your last concert!
Recording electric guitars is limited to your imagination. There are no right ways and no wrong ways. The idea is to try things until you match the sound that you have in your head. Take an hour, and a friend to move mics for you (as you listen with headphones) and listen for yourself how much difference mic placement can be. A foot of distance can add a delay or a reverb, that will make or break the recording.
Mic choice is as important as mic placement. Often times an amp sounds best when it is cranked. This is not a myth. Be sure to place mics that are capable of handling the higher SPL's of your cranked amps. SPL's are Sound Pressure Levels, which is volume in plain English. Mics will distort if they cant take the powerful levels of sound that you put into them with your Marshall stack and Les Paul combo. You will find that most studios choose a small diaphragm condenser mic for in front of the cabs. The room mic most often is a large diaphragm condenser mic.
You do not have to spend tons of cash to get a great sound. Shure Sm57's have recorded the loudest amps for years, and they can be found for under 100 bucks. Two of these babies sent into a four input mixer , then mixed together into a stereo out, or a mono out into your recorder is all you will ever need. Less can be more.
One more note about your tone... My last blog entry dealt with compression. First of all, put one in your signal chain, before the tape machine. If you are in pro tools, put one at the insert stage. This will eliminate all of the unwanted hums and pops, and it will control the wild, out of character notes. Taming the loudness, or the dynamics of the guitar itself is the point, not removing any tone or guitar sound.
The bottom line here is that a few well picked out mics, placed in the best location will give you that perfect tone for all of your electric guitars, for all of your albums for decades to come!
Now GO! Play with this stuff, and get that tone that the pros have, for pennies on the dollar. One song that has a good tone is "Best friends girl" at http://kern.fuzz.com/ . The song is not the best in the world, but it is all about the tone. One Sure SM57, placed in front of the amps' grill, at a slight angle, did it all. Enjoy, and thanks for listening!
Peace, out.
Kern
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Compression Depression
Do you suffer from compression depression?
Here are the symptoms, as they were explained to me.
First of all the sufferer shows a blatant disregard for the understanding of the sliders, knobs, and titles of the many different parameters that make up most compression effect units. We, myself included, never looked into what any of the endless parameters found on compressors did. Words like ratio, release, attack only boggled my mind, and I found myself tweaking them endlessly. It is a common trait of the depressed, and compressed deficient, to play with the many knobs and sliders just to watch the multi-colored lights light up, until hopefully the music sounded "cool" to our ears.
I was a long time sufferer, and one day I reached "my bottom". I reached out for help, and I got just what I asked for! I no longer suffer, and my music is now tighter, louder, and punchier because I asked for the help that I needed so badly.
First of all, let me explain what compression is, what it does, and then what the parameters actually do to music that we push into them.
Music consists of all types of sounds and notes. Sometimes the louder hits like drum snares and picked bass notes get recorded, which is all too common. These loud notes can stick out, and get in our way. We can't raise the volume level of these tracks because they will distort, and peg the output volume level meter bridge. We need to find a way to lower the louder hits without loosing anything else!
Compression is used in music to lower or remove the louder volume hits and/or notes in a song. This then brings the overall volume ride along a certain chosen level rather than having loud peaks and deep quiet valleys. When we do this it smooths out the volume, and it can actually make the music feel louder and tighter.
If you have a piece of music that contains some very loud snare hits, you can only set the volume to a certain level before it distorts. If you turn up the master volume level so that you can hear the rest of the music, the snare hits will distort, and if left in our song it will result in blown out speakers in our cars. Lowering these "transient" snare hits will allow us to raise the master volume level of that track as we master it, which increases the overall volume level of that track. The snare hits will now sit nice in the track, and the rest of the music recorded on that track will be louder, or more present.
This is a crude example of what a compressor can do for us, but it is a good one! The same is true for a bass track. A compressor on a bass track can tighten up the sound, and allow it to sit in the track all the better. By lowering, or compressing, the spikes caused by pics or hammer-ons, we can raise the overall level without distorting.
Using a compressor on a master stereo output track can make magic! A master track, in this example, is the last chance to control spikes in volume in the stereo output . All of our recorded tracks go through this master stereo track and this is where we can add effects like reverb, compression, and other major stereo effects before the output leaves the recorder. This is the final master mix stereo track. The perfect amount of compression at this point will iron out all of the unruly peaks, and supply us with a more powerful, louder master mix down.
What are these perfect amounts of compression? What do the titles of the parameters that have knobs and sliders mean? Let's dive in and find out!
As any type of effect unit there is usually an input level, as well as an output level. These are a "no-brainer", which needs little to no explanation. One thing that I might need to tell is that most often we put compressors in series with our tracks and not in parallel. In other words, we run our music (or our tracks) straight into a compressor, and then the output is not "mixed" with the original music (or tracks). We want to alter the input sound with our compression, not add to or take away from a portion of what is recorded. We do need to find a smooth amount of input and output without pegging the meters, and that will come with an explanation of how the compressor works, and with practice.
The next parameter of the compressor that we should try to dial in is the threshold. Threshold is the volume level, which we choose, at which reduction (compression) happens. So, as the laymen would say, after we set the input and output levels we then tell the compressor at what level of volume we want it to start working. To explain that in my terms, when the snare hit gets too loud, then wham, start working! As the music "crosses the threshold" the compressor starts working. The music that remains below the threshold level is not compressed, or altered.
Ratio is the next parameter that you will need to understand in order to properly use your compressor. The ratio is simply the amount of compression that is applied to the volume spikes(music) that crosses the threshold level that you just set.
The snare hit example that we continue to use will once again come in handy in explaining how ratio works. We just set the threshold to a point that fails to alter any of our music, except for the loud snare hits. Next, we set the ratio, which tells the compressor how much of the snare hit to take away. The ratio has settings like 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, and so on. This is read as "one to one, two to one, and three to one".
Attack is the next parameter on the hit list of explanation. Attack is a groovy term that defines how fast the compressor starts working on the sound, as it crosses the point of the threshold. A fast attack lets very little time pass, if any, before the compressor take away from the volume spike.
In terms of an opposite force, release is the term for the "letting go", or the stopping of the compressing itself. When the effected signal (snare hit) sinks below the point of the threshold that you set, how soon the compression stops doing its' thing is what is called the release. Attack is how fast the compression starts working on a signal after it crosses the threshold, and release is how long it keeps effecting the signal after if falls below the threshold.
Compression can raise the overall volume level of a track by removing the volume spikes. The spikes are what triggered the red "peak indicators" in out output volume meter. The red lights on top of the output volume meter means distortion to you and I. Removing the volume spikes, or the red peak indicators, means that the distortion is also removed. This means that you can now turn up the tracks' volume without adding any distortion! The beauty of compression!!!
To wrap up the topic at hand, I should add that a little compression goes a long way. Over compressing a track is easy to do. Over compressing sounds like pulses to a good ear, and it can ruin a song. Under compressing will result in a song full of instrument volume spikes which results in an overall quieter song. The spikes take up the available room that should be occupied by instruments and vocals. Use a compressor with caution, but try to use them. They add balls to bass tracks, and magically tighten up lame songs. Compressors can be a magical tool but they can also be so addictive that you can easily overuse them, resulting in a flat, mono level song full of irritating pulses.
Whatever you do, keep playing! Tweaking the compressors can only lead to perfection. In no time at all you will be setting the parameters by memory, and for each instrument!
Here are the symptoms, as they were explained to me.
First of all the sufferer shows a blatant disregard for the understanding of the sliders, knobs, and titles of the many different parameters that make up most compression effect units. We, myself included, never looked into what any of the endless parameters found on compressors did. Words like ratio, release, attack only boggled my mind, and I found myself tweaking them endlessly. It is a common trait of the depressed, and compressed deficient, to play with the many knobs and sliders just to watch the multi-colored lights light up, until hopefully the music sounded "cool" to our ears.
I was a long time sufferer, and one day I reached "my bottom". I reached out for help, and I got just what I asked for! I no longer suffer, and my music is now tighter, louder, and punchier because I asked for the help that I needed so badly.
First of all, let me explain what compression is, what it does, and then what the parameters actually do to music that we push into them.
Music consists of all types of sounds and notes. Sometimes the louder hits like drum snares and picked bass notes get recorded, which is all too common. These loud notes can stick out, and get in our way. We can't raise the volume level of these tracks because they will distort, and peg the output volume level meter bridge. We need to find a way to lower the louder hits without loosing anything else!
Compression is used in music to lower or remove the louder volume hits and/or notes in a song. This then brings the overall volume ride along a certain chosen level rather than having loud peaks and deep quiet valleys. When we do this it smooths out the volume, and it can actually make the music feel louder and tighter.
If you have a piece of music that contains some very loud snare hits, you can only set the volume to a certain level before it distorts. If you turn up the master volume level so that you can hear the rest of the music, the snare hits will distort, and if left in our song it will result in blown out speakers in our cars. Lowering these "transient" snare hits will allow us to raise the master volume level of that track as we master it, which increases the overall volume level of that track. The snare hits will now sit nice in the track, and the rest of the music recorded on that track will be louder, or more present.
This is a crude example of what a compressor can do for us, but it is a good one! The same is true for a bass track. A compressor on a bass track can tighten up the sound, and allow it to sit in the track all the better. By lowering, or compressing, the spikes caused by pics or hammer-ons, we can raise the overall level without distorting.
Using a compressor on a master stereo output track can make magic! A master track, in this example, is the last chance to control spikes in volume in the stereo output . All of our recorded tracks go through this master stereo track and this is where we can add effects like reverb, compression, and other major stereo effects before the output leaves the recorder. This is the final master mix stereo track. The perfect amount of compression at this point will iron out all of the unruly peaks, and supply us with a more powerful, louder master mix down.
What are these perfect amounts of compression? What do the titles of the parameters that have knobs and sliders mean? Let's dive in and find out!
As any type of effect unit there is usually an input level, as well as an output level. These are a "no-brainer", which needs little to no explanation. One thing that I might need to tell is that most often we put compressors in series with our tracks and not in parallel. In other words, we run our music (or our tracks) straight into a compressor, and then the output is not "mixed" with the original music (or tracks). We want to alter the input sound with our compression, not add to or take away from a portion of what is recorded. We do need to find a smooth amount of input and output without pegging the meters, and that will come with an explanation of how the compressor works, and with practice.
The next parameter of the compressor that we should try to dial in is the threshold. Threshold is the volume level, which we choose, at which reduction (compression) happens. So, as the laymen would say, after we set the input and output levels we then tell the compressor at what level of volume we want it to start working. To explain that in my terms, when the snare hit gets too loud, then wham, start working! As the music "crosses the threshold" the compressor starts working. The music that remains below the threshold level is not compressed, or altered.
Ratio is the next parameter that you will need to understand in order to properly use your compressor. The ratio is simply the amount of compression that is applied to the volume spikes(music) that crosses the threshold level that you just set.
The snare hit example that we continue to use will once again come in handy in explaining how ratio works. We just set the threshold to a point that fails to alter any of our music, except for the loud snare hits. Next, we set the ratio, which tells the compressor how much of the snare hit to take away. The ratio has settings like 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, and so on. This is read as "one to one, two to one, and three to one".
Attack is the next parameter on the hit list of explanation. Attack is a groovy term that defines how fast the compressor starts working on the sound, as it crosses the point of the threshold. A fast attack lets very little time pass, if any, before the compressor take away from the volume spike.
In terms of an opposite force, release is the term for the "letting go", or the stopping of the compressing itself. When the effected signal (snare hit) sinks below the point of the threshold that you set, how soon the compression stops doing its' thing is what is called the release. Attack is how fast the compression starts working on a signal after it crosses the threshold, and release is how long it keeps effecting the signal after if falls below the threshold.
Compression can raise the overall volume level of a track by removing the volume spikes. The spikes are what triggered the red "peak indicators" in out output volume meter. The red lights on top of the output volume meter means distortion to you and I. Removing the volume spikes, or the red peak indicators, means that the distortion is also removed. This means that you can now turn up the tracks' volume without adding any distortion! The beauty of compression!!!
To wrap up the topic at hand, I should add that a little compression goes a long way. Over compressing a track is easy to do. Over compressing sounds like pulses to a good ear, and it can ruin a song. Under compressing will result in a song full of instrument volume spikes which results in an overall quieter song. The spikes take up the available room that should be occupied by instruments and vocals. Use a compressor with caution, but try to use them. They add balls to bass tracks, and magically tighten up lame songs. Compressors can be a magical tool but they can also be so addictive that you can easily overuse them, resulting in a flat, mono level song full of irritating pulses.
Whatever you do, keep playing! Tweaking the compressors can only lead to perfection. In no time at all you will be setting the parameters by memory, and for each instrument!
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