Music, Recording, and More...

Real, Raw, and Relevant - Album Insights

2011-12-29T13:00:00.002-05:00

The date is December 29th, 2011 and the first copies of my debut solo album "Free" are beginning to "hit the streets". It's official, my album is now out!

It is with both a sense of pride and humility that I release this project... this has been a labor of love, a lesson in persistance, and an exercise in compromise. At times I was like a person with two personalities at war with myself over how to accomplish this project. I'd like to share with you a few of my feelings about this project, how I approached it, and why.

There is a basic theme and also a basic motto that sum up my approach to this album. This theme and motto have guided me through the long process of bringing this album to pass. My theme - "Guitar Driven Songs About Life" describes the general approach of my songs... guitar-heavy arrangements to songs that speak about real life.

Unlike so much of the shallow and frankly sinful music today, my songs speak about character... Character I have, character I want, and character that I have seen displayed in the actions of good people around me. My songs talk about overcoming bad habits, fears, misfortune, and trials. They speak about staying true to yourself, remembering your roots, and staying humble. They speak about love for family and friends. Topics such as hard, honest work, chasing your dreams, and doing the right thing permeate my lyrics. Making mistakes, falling short, but still giving it your best - thats in there too. Messages of hope line many of my lyrics, and I speak regularly about the wonderful influence music has had on my soul. I may not have the lyrical craft of Paul McCartney or Bob Dylan, but my songs are honest, real, and even the darkest of songs show a ray of hope or inspiration.

My motto (and secondary theme) - "Real, Raw, and Relevant" further describes my songwriting, but even more so, this motto helped guide the production of my songs. I have the necessary tools to create an album where every note is perfectly in time and perfectly in tune. I could have made everything louder, brighter, fuller, prettier... but my motto of REAL, RAW, and RELEVANT prevented me.

When I first started down this path years ago, my album was originally going to be 2 things...first, a collection of my best songs, and second, an awesome display of my skills as a musician able to play multiple instruments, but even more so as a music engineer and producer. I knew I had many limitations, but I still wanted that "perfect" sounding album and was willing to go to great lengths to achieve it.
But, somewhere between the time that I had fleshed out rough demos of over 30 songs and the time that I really started full production in earnest something happened... Life! I had grown up a little more. I became more comfortable with my limitations. Lets face it, I'm one person, not a full band, and for the most part I'm a self taught musician. I wasn't recording this in some elite studio, I was recording it in my garage, my basement, and my bedroom.

I was always (and still am a little) afraid to sing in front of others - I'm very insecure about my voice as I know that I have real limitations in my abilities. But, as I grew up a little more I became more comfortable with this, after all - THIS IS WHO I AM!

So as this album began to come together, some of my best songs were set aside for another day, and I began to focus more on songs that connected with who I was, am, and want to be. Some of these songs have been with me for many years waiting to be recorded, and so some newer, flashier, and probably better material was tabled to make room for a few old favorites who deserved their day in the spotlight after years of lurking in the shadows.

REAL - this is me. yes, there is some studio magic going on, I fully embrace technology, and I made good use of modern technology in making this album. But, what you won't hear is a vocal part that has been autotuned to the point where I sound like a robot. You won't hear guitars and drums where every last note was edited until it was perfectly placed. You won't hear music that sounds artificial, with no dynamics, gobs of synthesizers, and endless effects. If I played these songs live with a band, they'd most likely sound very much like they do on the album. Musically, I cover a lot of styles - rock, blues, jazz, classical, pop, country, and the list goes on. But, I recognize that my roots are really in the areas of rock, blues, and country, and as such - I gravitated to this style for this project, and those songs that worked best in these styles.

RAW - at some point I began to focus a little less on getting the pitch and timing perfect on everything, and just focused on capturing the feel more. This is particularly true with the music. In fact, many of the parts were largely improvised, particularly with guitar leads, bass lines, and keyboard parts. Vocals are particularly raw, running out of time to make a 2011 release, just as I was getting ready to track the vocals I got sick, and I stayed sick, coughing incessantly for several weeks. With my throat still a little raw, and my lungs still a little weak, I tracked the majority of the vocal parts over the course of a couple days. I had originally intended on spending about a month working on vocals in order to really get them right, but in the end, I recognized that with my vocal limitations, spending great amounts of additional time would likely yield only minimal improvements. With that acceptance, and the desire to be able to sing my songs live and sound just like the record, I accepted my parts and moved on. Mastering was another area where I made deliberate decisions to go with the "less is more" approach. Perhaps I should have sent this to another mastering engineer to really polish it up, but then again... this album screamed to be a bit RAW. So if you need a little more bass or treble, adjust your stereo, and if you want the music louder - turn it up. On a somewhat related note, I'll mention that I did spend the time to optimize my mixes for headphone listeners, as the feedback I have gotten is that the large majority of people who will listen to my album will do so on headphones significantly more so than on other systems, and as such I leaned that way slightly in my production style.

RELEVANT - While my songs may not fit in on the "top 40" radio stations, I believe my music and my lyrics are relevant. With a guitar driven sound rooted in blues and rock, heavily influenced by country, and infused with a bit of pop, I believe there is something on this album for just about everyone. Lyrically, my messages may not be popular in some circles, but certainly they are timeless messages that need to be
heard by all generations.

REAL. RAW. RELEVANT...
At times the perfectionist and the studio engineer in me resisted this approach strongly, and in some ways I'm glad - some songs turned out better because I didn't accept what I had, I challenged myself to do better, and I did. I found balance and leanred the art of compromise as I chose what songs to include, how to arrange them, and how to produce them. Overall though - I kept commercialism in check, and allowed my music to be honest, and a little rough around the edges...just like me.

REAL. RAW. RELEVANT. Did my GUITAR DRIVEN SONGS ABOUT LIFE hit the mark? You be the judge. I hope you enjoy what I've done, and I appreciate you letting me share it with you. Yes, there will be plenty of projects in the future that will be full of over-the-top productions, studio magic, and commercial appeal, but until then, I leave you with "Free" - a little piece of my heart and soul.

A Round of Thanks!

2011-12-28T20:18:00.000-05:00

Today, the UPS truck showed up with a big box full of CDs. I'm so happy to have this labor of love finally done.

I really appreciate the support of friends, family, and fans who helped fund the pressing of the CDs through their advance orders of the CD and other generous contributions.

My next couple of posts I'll be taking time to say thanks. Rather than say them all at once, I'm going to spread this out over several posts.

Today, I wish to say my first round of thanks to a group of friends, co-workers, and neighbors who all pre-ordered CDs in order to help me out:

Andy Browning
Annette Reid
John and Kristy Anderson
Sarah and Jordan Glancy
Daniel Ramos
Eric Federspiel
Kelly Miller
Lezlee Monroe
Jesse Vasquez
Richard Marhoover
Connie Esplin
Nathan Foote

THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT! I'll be mailing or delivering your CDs shortly, and I hope you enjoy it.

Soft Release of Album has Begun!

2011-12-13T22:41:00.001-05:00

The kickstarter.com fundraiser was a success, and the album is done. And now, we wait... Soon, a truck will come to the door with boxes full of shiny, shrink-wrapped CDs and download cards. Soon, you'll see my album "Free" listed online at sites like iTunes. While the "official" release will be at the end of this month, I've started a "soft" release. I've already shared the first two tracks with my kickstarter backers and will continue releasing another track every 2-3 days to them. Over the coming weeks, you'll also start seeing new music being posted on my facebook, reverbnation, and blog site (both samples and complete tracks).

I'll also be writing a series of posts to recognize a special group of friends, family, and fans that generously supported my pre-release album sales and fundraising efforts. I can't thank them enough for their support, and helping make this project happen on schedule.

Also stay tuned for a series of posts that will explore some of the songs on my album in detail, the stories behind them, and notes regarding the production of the songs.

Thanks again for all your support, its been a blast making my music and I can't wait to share it with you.

Kickstarter.com Campaign Signals Move to Final Album Phases

2011-10-24T19:53:00.002-04:00

Guitars - Just One Song Left

2011-10-02T19:12:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to report that there is just one song left that requires guitar tracking. This song requires probably 4 parts, 2 acoustic and 2 electric. I hope to be able to track them all about 2 weeks from now. That song already had bass and drums done, so it will go quickly. Just 2 other songs needing drum work.

Progress really is being made!

Album Project Picking Up Steam

2011-09-18T04:30:00.001-04:00

I'm happy to report that I've been getting into the studio a lot over the last while, and I am chipping away at my album project, while still finding time to work on other projects here and there as well. As the album takes shape, its looking more and more like a blues/rock driven album, with a little country and pop flavor sprinkled throughout. As I've been mostly focused on guitar tracks lately, I thought I'd share a few pictures and tidbits on the recording process.


This is the signal path that virtually everything I record goes through. The Vintech preamp sounds fantastic. The FATSO is a very versatile piece, that is used in a variety of ways depending on what I'm doing. All in all, a nice front end for tracking.

My main amp for recording is a 1995 Matchless Chieftain, great sounding clean and a killer distortion as well.


This setup from a recent session has an AT3031 condenser mic off axis on one speaker and a Fathead II ribbon mic on the other speaker. Great definition and clarity on one, warm and round on the other. Blended together it makes for a nice sound. I believe this picture was taken while tracking "Trying to be a Man"


This recent session used a Sennheiser MD421U on one speaker and an Audio Technica ATM650 on the other. These dynamic mics have a classic sound to them, and are currently my "go to" mics when tracking electric guitars. I believe this session was while doing some tracking on "Still the Same".


Tracking yesterday through this set up - one guitar into 2 amps. The Line 6 amp is set to the Fender Blackface model. This setup was used while tracking guitars on "Funk n' Groovin' ", which is a tribute song to everyone who ever had a garage band and a dream. My Line 6 M13 has some stereo effects that sound amazing in a setup like this, but for today, I had nothing on except a tube driver and a tiny bit of compression. The Matchless has a beautiful tube reverb so I almost always track with that on, but the Line 6 amp is usually recorded drv and reverb is added in the mix.

I'm very close to being done with the guitar tracking on this project. I have a few odds and ends left... I also have a couple bass tracks, and a couple songs needing drums finished. After that, its down to the vocals. Even though I've tracked a few vocal parts already, I'll probably retrack everything, as I've been getting a little better practiced both with my singing and with capturing the sound I want.

Studio Upgrades

2011-06-18T23:30:00.000-04:00

After many years of faithful service, my Digi 002R has finally been pulled from the rack. New in my rack is the Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56.   While I hadn't really been planning on replacing my Digi 002R anytime soon, when forced to choose between costly repairs and upgrading to a new unit, going with the new hardware seemed to make good sense.

The Saffire actually improves and expands my capabilities in a number of ways. First off, it's loaded with 8 preamps instead of 4, including 2 of the now infamous "Liquid" preamps. The 6 "stock" preamps seem to be a step up from the Digi002. Despite the fact that the Liquid preamps offer a lot less bells and whistles than the original Liquid Channel (no eq or compression, and only 10 mic models instead of 40+), the sound quality is definitely still on par with the original.

The Saffire also adds word clock for better digital connectivity, on board meters, an array of monitoring improvements, and additional inputs and outputs.   The monitoring improvements in particular are a huge step up from the Digi 002. With 2 headphones out, and dim & mute buttons for the monitors, it's already an improvement, but throw in the monitoring software and you really have some nice improvements. Setting up latency free headphone mixes, multiple headphone mixes, and routing any of the inputs to any of the outputs between the hardware and the Pro Tools software is a breeze and makes it a much more enjoyable experience to track. I'm really just scratching the surface so far on what it will do, but it's clear that this is a great step forward from my previous setup. My only gripe - if you are going to include great monitoring and routing options, I don't know why you wouldn't include some DSP powered effects for use in the headphone mixes. Oh well, perhaps in a future upgrade.

I have also recently added some new microphones to my studio, and now have the capability to mic up a full drum kit using modern methods, as opposed to being limited to the classic 3 & 4 mic methods. I hope to be putting my new mics and preamps to work very soon, tracking some drums for my album project.

Mic Review: Audix i5 vs Audio-Technica ATM650

2011-05-28T09:35:00.001-04:00

My microphone collection has been pretty anemic for years now. With the additions of a nice drum kit and an amazing guitar amp in the last year, the holes in my mic locker have become even more painfully obvious. So, I have recently been in the market for an inexpensive dynamic microphone, suitable for guitar amps, snare drums, and general purpose use as a start to slowly rebuild my collection.

For recreating classic sounds, the Shure SM57 is the accepted standard, and has been for many years. I've used it many times, and respect its sound, versatility, and heritage. But, I also wanted something more...perhaps something that sounds like it came from the same family, but with a sonic fingerprint all it's own.

Skipping over much of the story, I'll get to the meat of it. The Audix i5 is a legend in it's on right, a modern take on the 57, and available usually for a little under $100. The Audio- Technica ATM650 is a less recognized mic, but I've found that AT microphones have consistently proven to offer high quality, reliability, excellent sound, and exceptional value. This microphone is priced essentially identical to the Audix i5. So, with 2 mics and a few hours to kill, the comparison begins....

On Paper: Both mics have a familiar frequency response curve, rolled off high end with a presence peak. The i5 offers extended range on the low end, which might give it a bit more versatility overall. However, that light low end of the ATM650 actually can be very desirable when tracking many instruments, to help keep the low end from filling up with useless junk. All in all, on paper, the i5 might appear to have a slight edge.

Look and Feel: Both mics feel solid and well built. The i5 is slightly more compact, but the ATM650 just has a little extra cosmetic appeal in my opinion. Its a toss up, but I like the ATM650's look and feel.

In use: Both mics were ran through identical signal path, same brand and length of cable, through a Vintech 273 preamp with no EQ, set to 300ohm impedance, with the bulk of the gain on the output section of the preamp. This then running into an Empirical Labs Fatso Jr, with very light compression - set just enough to reach 3db of gain reduction on the peaks, running into an Apogee Rosetta A/D converter, and then into Pro Tools at 24bit, 44.1khz.

Guitar Amp: The amp of choice for this test was a Sampson-Era Matchless Chieftain 2x12 combo amp. The mic was placed 1" off the grillcloth, about 1/3 of the way between the center and the edge of the speaker. Both mics were placed on the same speaker, in identical placements on opposite sides of the speaker. The spots were checked with a single mic first, and it was confirmed that there was no discernible difference between the two placements, it was essentially as if I had 2 mics placed in the same identical spot, recording at the same time. Running through a variety of sounds and styles, i simultaneously recorded both mics. I went from super clean, to low gain distortion, to gritty blues, to heavy metal. On all styles I did both lead and rhythm parts in order to get a variety of sounds. Then...evaluation time. On the super clean rhythm sounds, I felt that the Audix i5 just had a tiny bit better overall sound - very full sounding, crisp, and clean. It edged out the ATM650 which just seemed to lack a bit of the fullness and sparkle in comparison. In every sample, the two retained slightly different character, and I liked both in each case. In about 1/2 of the remaining samples, the ATM650 seemed to edge out the i5, simply offering sound that was not necessarily better, but different in a pleasing way. On the other 1/2 of the samples, they continued to have slightly different sonic signatures but without a clear winner. Frankly, the real magic came when i played both samples at the same time with them panned hard left and right. Wow - some really great sounds by doing that! While the i5 consistently sounded good, the Audio Technica ATM650 came out on top overall.

Snare Drum: In a fashion similar to the last example, I carefully focused both mics on the same spot on a Yamaha birch snare drum, about 1.5" off the top of the head, at a slight angle. I then played a variety of hits - rim shots, flams, rolls, and clean hits, with a good variety of dynamics. Unlike the guitar amp comparison, where many of the recordings sounded fairly close, the snare drum sounded wildly different with the 2 mics. The i5 captured an enormous amount of "ring", and had a nice snap to it. The body of the snare seemed a little weak. The ATM650 by comparison captured minimal ringing. The snap was not as clear and crisp, but still very usable without touching the EQ controls. The body sound of the snare was full and meaty sounding. Overall, the winner on the snare drum was the ATM650 without any question or hesitation. The amount of ringing picked up by the i5 was excessive, and while it had a nice snap to it, the snare simply didn't have as much body and meat to it. The AMT650 sounded fantastic overall - a little ringing, a respectable snap, and great body sound.

In Closing: I felt that both mics did a good job overall, offered a lot of bang for the buck, and were a nice variation on the traditional SM57 sound. As a guitar amp mic, it would probably come down to personal taste and preference as to which one you liked better, and when used together to mic a single amp the combination is magic. On snare drum, the difference was dramatic, and while personal taste still comes into play, I have to believe that in a blind test, an overwhelming majority of people would likely prefer the ATM650 over the i5. I now own the ATM650 and I'm very pleased with it, but the i5 might still have a home in my locker some day as well.

Full Review of Studio 63 Music Works Custom Guitar

2011-02-23T19:23:00.000-05:00

Now that I've shared with you a little bit about the planning, construction, and components of my new guitar, I'm going to give you a complete review of the instrument now that I've had some time spent with the finished product.

Cosmetics:
The first things you notice when you see this are the paint job and the chrome. In low or indirect lighting, the paint job has what I would describe as a sort of "aged" tobacco burst, almost turning into a root beer type of color around the edges, with a dark back. Once in good lighting, the paint job transforms into a brilliant, fiery burst on the top, and the rich "cherry chocolate" on the back can really be appreciated. The top is a beautiful flame maple with some interesting patterns in the grain, clearly a very high quality piece of wood. The shine of the nickel and chrome hardware fits well with the fiery finish. I've never before owned a guitar that became so alive under the lights as this one. Once the initial "WOW" has passed, the next thing most people will notice is the headstock - with the trademarks of embedded rosewood stripes, pearl accent dot, inlaid logo, and flame maple back, it stands out as very unique, and adds to the custom look of the guitar. Rosewood stripes on the back of the sleek maple neck also add to the overall look and feel. The fretboard has a very clean, organic look to it, with traditional dot inlays only. Mother of pearl tops on the knobs compliment the fret markers and headstock inlay. The shape of the guitar is familiar, yet fresh - a modernized version of a classic design. While the contouring on the body is elegant and well done, it does not have the curved top that you'd find on some of the more popular high end guitars. It has a flat top and back, more like a typical Strat, but with "sexier" overall styling. Unlike many custom guitars, it does not feature an excessive amount of inlay work or graphics, instead keeping a clean and classic look - beautiful, but not overly indulgent. All in all, the guitar looks great and clearly has quality workmanship in every detail.

Feel:
When picking up the guitar, it feels substantial, but not so heavy that it would be uncomfortable. With a hard rock maple neck and top, the mass is more like a good Les Paul than a Strat. The guitar is well balanced, and very comfortable in either a seated or standing position. The body does not have the typical back and "arm rest" contours of a Strat, but is extremely comfortable never-the-less. The placement of knobs and switches is well thought out and comfortable. With my small hands, it's a bit of a reach to do volume swells on the bridge pickup, but it is do-able, and is something I would typically only do on the neck pickup anyway. The knobs and switches feel smooth and sturdy. The neck is an absolute joy. It is thin, smooth, and exceptionally comfortable. From any position, doing chords or scales, it fits well in my hand. The neck/body joint looks and feels very precise, The action is about as low as you can get without starting to run into fret buzz. Slides, bends, taps, hammering, pull-offs, vibrato - all come very comfortably.

The Sound/In Use:
   The first time I played this was through my 2x12 Matchless Chieftain. Those first few notes literally took my breath away. It's absolute magic when a great guitar and a great amp get together, and this is one of those fits. There are too many tonal options available on this guitar to cover them completely in this setting. The Harmonic Designs Vintage Plus Humbuckers are wired up utilizing a variation of the Jimmy Page switching system that also integrates a Bill Dent designed circuit on the neck pickup, called the Vintage Cooler.   How does it sound? Warm but not dark. Full but with definition. The neck pickup in humbucking mode was very full and harmonically rich. Expressive, dynamic playing translates very well. Rock and blues licks come easily, and as I roll the tone back, the sound warms up nicely into some great jazz style tones. Switching the neck to single coil cleans, thins, and brightens the sound up significantly, but without sounding harsh.  Moving to the bridge in humbucking mode, you find all the growl you would expect from any good rock guitar - especially getting dark and meaty when running into a high gain amp style sound, but with still retaining some definition and being able to dial in the bite to compliment the snarl. Switching to the bridge in single coil mode, things once again clean up nicely. While it doesn't quite have the spank of a Tele style guitar, you can still dial in a respectable country clean lead tone.

When utilizing the middle position, you begin to really tap into the vast tonal options this guitar can offer as you blend your choice of neck and bridge, humbucking and/or single coil sounds together.  I spent a lot of time in this area and have found an array of exceptional tones. Throw in the ability to change the phase of the bridge pickup and also run both pickups in series, and you have an impressive array of options. The pickups in series makes for a huge sound that would work equally well for a blistering solo or a massive rhythm track. Switching the phase is more useful than I had anticipated, as I found some very useful tones, and believe it will also be a great tool in the studio to help certain tracks fit into an otherwise crowded mix.

The Vintage Cooler adds a nice twist. It is only utilized on the neck pickup in humbucking mode. I've found it to be very effective at doing what it sets out to do (check out http://www.reactortone.com/) .   It's a great alternative to rolling back the tone, but also opens up other tonal options, giving a more vintage, underwound type of sound. The thinning out of the tone helps the track to sit nicely in a mix with less EQ, and can also be used to dial back the distortion on the amp slightly. The volume pot on the neck has a fairly sharp gain reduction slope, where as the Vintage Cooler makes a more gradual change in volume, with almost no change between 7-4 on the knob. Because of this, if you get into the habit of playing with your neck volume knob backed off just slightly, you can actually use use the Vintage Cooler as a clean boost with minimal change in tone by switching it in for your solo, and it works remarkably well for that.

The Hipshot Hardtail bridge and high quality woods contribute to great sustain. I was also able to create and control deliberate feedback for creative reasons very well. The overall tone of the guitar is warm, with well defined fundamental tones and good harmonic overtones, and the ability to still cut through a mix. It is very versatile, and can easy go from very dark and heavy to light and snappy, and from warm and full to meaty yet edgy. Stylistically, you can cover any style with credibility. There is something interesting about the sound of the guitar that is hard to describe - it has a unique tone that is very pleasing. It has what I can only describe as a bit of a "wood" sound in it, particularly with the cleaner amp settings, lending almost a bit of acoustic tone to some of the clean sounds. The quality woods and pickups on this guitar are clearly a great match and seem to interact extremely well. In recording a raucous blues-rock track with licks and solo's I found that I was actually able to leave everything on the amp set flat and tweak the sound extensively straight from the guitar. Not that I'm going to leave my beautiful Matchless Tube EQ circuits lonely, but it is great to have that much flexibility and control directly from the instrument.

The Wrap-up:
Overall, I'm thrilled. I almost wish I had something bad to say about some detail so that my review would be more credible, but there's nothing I can come up with. It probably won't completely replace my Strat, and someday I'd still desperately like to add a Tele style guitar to my collection, but it does cover an astounding array of tonal possibilities, and it does so with complete comfort, and eye-catching good looks. Hands down, this is the best guitar I have ever owned, and certainly a contender who can go toe to toe with big name custom shop instruments, both sonically and asthetically. One would expect this guitar to have been made by a master luthier with many years of experience. Considering Andy Browning's relatively recent entry into the world of serious guitar building, I can only imagine what amazing instruments he'll produce in the future, and I'm just glad that I am one of the lucky few who has discovered his great talents so far.

"Kelly", as I have named her, is more than just another nice guitar. She will be a part of my guitar collection for many many years to come, and will likely be handed down as a heirloom. There is something better than doing and having great things, and that is doing them and sharing them with your family and friends. Andy Browning isn't just my luthier, he's my friend. Bill Dent, who designed the Vintage Cooler circuit and helped with the electronics, is also a great friend. I am grateful for both of them. I'm also grateful for Andy's patience with my demands as they evolved over time and that we could design this guitar together and that he could bring it to life. Thank you Andy. I'm also thankful to both of our wives, who have cheered us on not only on this project but on countless others. Kelly wouldn't be here were it not for the good women in our lives who let us have our fun. Kelly is hopefully just one of many great things we'll work on together.

I hope to post some sound clips in the not so distant future.

Links:

If you are itching to get a custom guitar or amplifier, check out Andy at http://www.andybrowningband.com/

If you would like to squeeze more tone and versatility out of your existing guitar, I suggest you consider the many Reactor TonePacks created by Bill Dent, which you can see at http://www.reactortone.com/

And if you'd like to hear more of this guitar, well....buy my CD when it comes out!

Custom Guitar - The Body

2011-02-19T19:19:00.001-05:00

As you've already seen, my custom guitar from Studio 63 Music Works used premium woods throughout the entire project. I've also already pointed out how the body is a bit bigger, thicker, and curvier than a traditional strat - possibly somewhere between a strat and a PRS. The "waist" of the guitar was designed slightly asymetrical. This was done for 2 reasons - first, I felt it would possibly help improve the feel and balance when playing the guitar standing up, and second, it helped it to stand out from other strat styled guitars - in particular, I liked the way that the lines would flow when the guitar was held with the neck up at a slight angle, as it usually is when it is played. An unintended (but very pleasant) byproduct of this styling is that the guitar is remarkably comfortable when playing while sitting.

After the top and bottom of the guitar were joined and the basic shape was created, Andy spent many hours carefully working the contours on the body. An interesting story I just recently learned is that there were points on both the body and the neck, where Andy worked sanding by hand in the dark - using his hands as the final judge as he fine-tuned the shaping of the body.

Once the guitar body was complete, it was sent to Pat Wilkins at Wilkins Guitars to be painted. Of course, I didn't want a stock paint job, so I specified exactly what I was looking for to Pat and he was able to deliver very nicely. The finish really changes dramatically depending on the lighting - ranging from a tobacco burst with root beer edges in more ambient lighting, to exploding with fiery colors in direct lighting. The back is finished in what I'd call a dark cherry chocolate - it's not your typical black.

The wood work and paint job on the back are flawless, giving it a mirror like finish - you can see images in the reflection without visible distortion due to how smooth and perfect it is.

While I specified the placement of the knobs and switches, it was Andy who had the great idea to place the switches at an angle instead of moving front to back or top to bottom. Knowing well how I play, he knew that this would be more natural and comfortable - and he was right. The switches are very easily accessed with the angled placement.

Here are a few more photos of the body development:

ready for contouring

freshly painted

the finished project - can you say AMAZING!

This has "custom guitar" written all over it !!!

Like looking in a dark cherry chocolate mirror!

I'll wrap up the guitar with a full review of everything shortly, so stay tuned!

Custom Guitar - Electronics

2011-02-14T20:24:00.003-05:00

Deciding on the electronics for the guitar was a lot of fun. While my ultimate goal was to have the best tone possible, I also wanted to have a guitar that was extremely versatile. I asked myself - If I could only take one guitar to a session, what would I need in order to make sure I could tackle anything? With that in mind, I began to research various options. Having played countless guitars, I already had a good feel for what I wanted, but I set out to explore options fully. My initial thought was to put EVERYTHING I wanted on the table up front, and then trim back the fat until I found the absolute best combination of tone, flexibility, ease of use, and cost. After thoughtfully playing my guitars, I set off to the music store where I played more. Then, I played several guitars that belonged to my friend Bill Dent - he had several modifications on his guitars, and had a Tom Anderson guitar in particular that covered an insane amount of tonal options. (Check out Bill's website at http://www.reactortone.com/). Bill was a lot of help in better understanding the tonal options available, and in helping me really assess what options would be meaningful to me.

Assuming I could find just THE right humbucking pickups, I began to consider the Jimmy Page switching system as the core of my electronics. After researching and testing many of the "usual" pickups and not being convinced, Andy suggested I look into the Harmonic Design pickups. After much research and a very productive and informative conversation with Scott over at Harmonic Design (http://www.harmonicdesign.net/) I locked in an order for a set of Vintage Plus Classic Humbuckers. Satisfied I had a set of pickups that would fit my needs, I settled on the Jimmy Page switching system and also explored some other options - considering for a time a bridge mounted piezo and also a very unique dual output system. I also discussed with Bill Dent a number of ideas to utilize his reactor tone circuits in my system. Ultimately, as the project progressed and we really honed in on what we wanted, the dual output system and bridge piezo were dropped.

Harmonic Design Vintage Plus Classic Humbucker

The Jimmy Page switching system uses push-pull pots to create number of options. Like a traditional Les Paul, I have a switch that selects Neck, Bridge, or both. Pulling the pots allow a variety of options, such as splitting to single coil, running both pickups in series as a single giant humbucker, and putting the pickups out of phase. There are 21 options in all in the "traditional" JP Switching system, although there have been a number of variations on this setup. (I believe I have 27 combinations plus a kill switch in this model). Then, we added in a switchable Vintage Cooler circuit (designed by Bill Dent) on the neck pickup. When switched in, the Vintage Cooler changes the function of the Neck Volume knob - from around 7-4 on the knob, it creates an underwound type of sound, which is incredible for neck rhythm playing. Around 4, the volume knob resumes its normal function and reduces the volume. When the neck pickup is in split coil mode, the VC is automatically disengaged, as it provides little benefit to a single coil pickup. This adds many more total tonal options to an already versatile guitar.

Bill Dent assisted Andy with the wiring schematics and fine tuning of the electronics. Final fine tuning was done by ear to get the best sounding capacitors for the guitar. The neck was changed to 0.22 and the bridge was left at 0.47. The electronics were aggressively shielded and grounded, including some innovative methods developed by Andy.

All in all, the electronics offer a complex array of options, but retain simplicity in using them. I'll comment further on the electronics when I do a complete wrap up and review of the guitar.

Custom Guitar - Neck and Headstock

2011-02-12T11:02:00.001-05:00

   Andy already has a trademark headstock style for his custom made Studio 63 Music Works guitars, so I didn't have to think about what shape I wanted. I did have to determine how the headstock would be finished, and how I wanted a number of items on the neck to be.

   Having smaller hands, I knew I definitely preferred a softer and sleeker neck profile. A good Telecaster style profile on the neck was about as close as we could find in a "stock" guitar, but that wasn't quite right either. After lengthy explanations about what I wanted, and lots of suggestions and questions from Andy, I put complete faith in him on determining the best profile. With that part out of the way, we specified the following additional details:

Scale Length - 25"

Radius - 12"

Nut Width - 43mm (I didn't specify the material, Andy ultimately recommended bone)

Fret Size - Medium Jumbo

Frets - 22

Profile - Ultra sleek custom profile designed by Andy

Here are a few pictures of the neck and headstock during construction:

Maple Neck and Headstock with Rosewood striping

Trademark Headstock design with dot inlay on top.

Beautiful binding on the neck, and fret markers on fretboard and side

Sleek and classy. Those are rosewood stripes running through the maple headstock.

And here is a picture of the finished headstock

Trademark design inlay on finished headstock

The neck on this guitar has recieved RAVE reviews from everyone who has seen the guitar. It is extremely comfortable, fast, and smooth. I'll probably add more about this later, as we have more construction details to discuss! Up next, I think we'll discuss electronics...

Custom Guitar - It Starts With The Wood!

2011-02-09T19:11:00.000-05:00

What kind of wood did we choose for my new, custom Studio 63 Music Works guitar? Only the best!

Both the luthier (Andy Browning) and I appreciate the beauty and value of great woodwork, especially when it comes to guitars!

From the start, Andy insisted that he would hand pick only the best wood, and I just needed to decide what I wanted to do. Deciding on a rosewood fingerboard and a maple neck was an easy decision for me, liking the combination of tone, feel, strength, and stability.

For the body, I had to put a lot more thought and debate into this. There are a number of different "tonewoods" that are known to impart a certain character to the tone of an instrument. Having the right wood can be the difference between a guitar being good, or a guitar being great. Ultimately, I decided on a mahogany body, and not the cheap so-called mahogany found in some guitars, but a good quality mahogany. Why mahogany? It is known to be very rich harmonically, have great sustain, and have a "warm" or slightly "dark" character to it. Treble and Bass frequencies are emphasized slightly, giving it a bit of a natural "scooped" sound in the mids. It sometimes is said to add a little "punch" to the tone, and in every way possible, it nicely compliments a good quality humbucking pickup.

But wait... a mahogany body still needed a little help to get the right tone. A top grade flame maple top was selected to cap the mahogany body. Maple is known for great sustain, a bright sound, and adding a little "bite" to the tone. Combined with the mahogany, a beautiful balance of full, rich, even tone can be obtained - with warmth but without being dull, bright without being harsh. And talk about sustain..........

A few pictures of the wood in the early stages is below. The maple top in particular is quite impressive. Each piece was hand-selected specifically for this project by Andy.

Next installment, we'll showcase the neck and headstock!

An early photo of the rosewood fingerboard

Mahogany body in progress

Stunning maple top

Custom Designed Studio 63 Music Works Guitar

2011-02-06T00:15:00.000-05:00

My next few posts are going to detail the history, specifications, and stories behind this amazing guitar. I'm going to be providing a breakdown of the woods, electronics, hardware and other specifications. I'm also going to include links to a couple of very important people and products. Ultimately, I'm also going to be including some audio clips of this fine instrument. This project has been a labor of love that has spanned several years due to constraints with time and money, some mishaps (thank you FedEx!) and also our desire never to rush this project - but to let it take whatever time was necessary for it to turn out righ!

In todays installment, I'm going to talk about How It All Began...

I have an amazing friend - Andy Browning. He is a talented musician, singer, songwriter, and also has a knack for making amazing guitars and amps. You can hear his music and see some of his work at

http://www.andybrowningband.com/. A few years back, Andy build himself a Tele style guitar - not from a kit, but from scratch. The result was a fantastic guitar that is his "go to" guitar in the studio. I share many of the same passions as him, and as his guitar came to life I found myself revisiting a familiar dream - having a one of a kind custom guitar built just for me. Andy offered to help me achieve this dream and we began planning.

I thought I knew a lot about guitars, but when I really got down to it I realized there were so many small details that often go unnoticed. Fret size? Scale length? Fretboard radius? What about a compound radius? Wood type? As Andy fired a lengthy list of questions my way, I confess that I had a hard time answering some of these questions. I didn't always know the technical response and would instead have to refer to specific instruments I had played that I really enjoyed. So, with help from Andy and many manufactures websites, and a few trips to the local guitar shops to play on a variety of different guitars, and then lengthy discussions of the pros and cons of various options, we soon settled on a conceptual plan for the instrument.

I then went to work on the body design. I knew exactly what I wanted, and after a morning of sketching, measuring, and more sketching, I had created a full size template of the body shape, complete with a rough layout of the location of controls, and some dotted lines and shading to infer rounding of edges and body contouring. While the body shape appears to simply be a variation on the classic Stratocaster, its a completely original design that's slightly larger, thicker, heavier, and curvier than a Strat. Certainly, my nearly 20 years of playing a Strat style guitar impacted the style, and there is certainly a subtle referenct to PRS styling. As guitars go, this guitar is sexy without being overstated.

In my next installment I show off the raw wood used to build this beauty. Stay tuned!!!

Latest Update on Album Project, Studio, Etc.

2011-01-19T18:24:00.000-05:00

I've been spending more time in the studio. I've narrowed down a list of around 50 potential songs to around 17 or so to focus on finishing for my album. The song choices partly selected by what songs have the most progress on the production, partly selected by their significance to my style/sound/history - particularly looking BACK as opposed to the present or the future (if that makes any sense), selections also involved narrowing down a musical theme that glues the project together - in other words, making a collection of songs as opposed to a bunch of individual songs. Now that the dust is settling, it looks like this album really will stick with an underlying theme of "roots rock" - meaning the bulk of songs are rock songs with heavy blues, country, and folk influences. There will be some songs that will delve more into specific genres such as blues and country, and also a few songs that will present a little more pop/modern influence.

I've also been making upgrades and improvements to my studio - recently updating all of my core studio software to the latest versions to take advantage of new tools and processing power. I've also been working on upgrading my guitar rig - adding a Line 6 M13 to my setup as the core of my pedalboard. With the recent additions of that, my Matchless Chieftain amplifier, and my custom built electric guitar which I will be taking delivery of soon, my guitar sounds are really going to be kicked up several notches!

I've also been practing drums a little bit, trying to take my very basic skills up a notch so that I can do more live drum tracks on my remaining songs for this project (and possibly even retrack a few of the sampled kits I've previously done)

Last but not least, I've been spending a fair amount of time recently brushing up on my mixing skills. I've recently mixed about a half dozen new tracks from other artists in order to dust off my skills and also work on improving them further. I've been more focused on recording and mastering over the last couple of years, so it's good to really get the creative juices flowing again with my mixing skills.

That's about it for now. Just plugging away a little here and there in my spare time when I can!

My Album Update

2010-12-18T19:55:00.001-05:00

I am actively focusing on about 4 songs right now, although I do plug away at some others from time to time.

One of my "signature" tracks, the blues-rock based "Free" is beginning to come together. The blues-rock roots of the song are fused with a hard, modern rock edge that reaches the peak of its intensity during the bridge, which has a HUGE layered, multi-amp guitar sound. The backing guitars are done now, with the exception of one more possible layer during the bridge. At this time, I'm debating how to approach lead guitar...it could be cool to have some raging leads, but this is the type of song that might also work well with a little more "empty space". I'll lay down some dummy vocals next, and see how the project sounds from there.

I'm also actively working on another old tune - "Trying to be a Man". This one is extremely close to being done. I'm debating reworking the guitar solo, and also may add some additional lead guitar licks or other sweetening tracks.

An untitled song is also high on my focus, you can listen to a sample of it on my music player. I may be collaborating on the arrangement and lyrics with a good friend, but we'll see if that works out or not. Long distance collaborations between 2 very busy people are sometimes hard to pull together.

The last song that I'm actively focusing on right now is another one of what I would call my "signature" songs... "Blues Man". I'm ready to work on vocals and then just lay down a couple more lead parts. The bass track may be reworked by a friend of mine, but it's getting very close to moving from the recording phase and into the mixing phase.

I look forward to finishing up these songs and moving my focus to a new group of songs.

"Sneak Peek" Tracks

2010-12-14T20:38:00.002-05:00

At the request of some family, friends, and fans, I've uploaded a few clips of songs in progress. Check them out and let me know what you think!

Music Production and Sound Quality: Electric Guitars!

2010-12-01T18:51:00.000-05:00

Check out my latest article in this series I've been doing for Linescratchers.com !

"Reason With Me" Featured on LDS Music Podcast

2010-10-25T20:55:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to announce that my instrumental track "Reason With Me" has been featured in Show # 90 of the LDS Music Today Podcast.

The link above will take you to the details and the main website. Please support the podcast, thanks!

Music Production and Sound Quality: Keys!

2010-10-25T20:48:00.000-04:00

Hello! Check out my latest installment on www.linescratchers.com!

Music Production and Sound Quality: Keys!

Featured Track: Chunk of Funk

2010-10-08T21:11:00.001-04:00

Another "pre-release" mix of mine has now been posted online. You can check it out on my facebook or reverbnation profiles, or right here on my blog music player.

Chunk of Funk is a short instrumental that is part of a tribute to one of my former bands - Funk n' Groovin'. Of the various bands I've played in, this was by far my favorite. We played both covers and original music, and drew heavily on sounds from the blues and rock - both classic and modern.

The band was born out of the rubble of Backyard Band - which disbanded almost immediately after the completion of their self-titled album (which I recorded, mixed, and co-produced). Drummer Tyler Forsberg and Bassist/Vocalist Nate Maughan parted ways with the band and invited me to join them. I did and we came up with the name Funk n' Groovin'. It was fun, catching, and did a pretty good job of describing our energetic, upbeat, blues and groove influenced brand of rock music. Shortly thereafter, we added Mike Gordon who alternated between keyboard and guitar.

The best thing about this particular band years ago was that we were having FUN. Our focus wasn't on being perfect, we weren't trying to get a record deal, and we really weren't trying to sound like anyone else. We were just a few guys enjoying making music together.

One day, a simple guitar part I was noodling with turned into a funky jam session full of various solos and lots of improvising. We decided to make this into our "signature" song, and I came up with some very simple - but effective - lyrics. The only words were - "Everybody get up, everybody get moving - come on everybody get FUNK N' GROOVIN'!!!". Used as a chorus in the middle of a loosely structured jam session, the song was very effective live - getting the crowd on their feet and having fun. It was a lot of fun. Simple, but fun. Isn't music supposed to be fun?

Chunk of Funk takes that same basic guitar rhythm part that I played years ago and builds upon it a short, funky jam that pays tribute to my old friends and bandmates, and recollects "the good old days" while bringing some freshness to the sound. The percussion part features a rap/hip hop style kick drum and a synth bass instead of more traditional instrumentation. A little lo-fi hum and buzz on the main guitar track keeps the sound a little more organic. The lead guitar part is quite a bit different than my original jams all those years ago, but still has a very live, improvised feel to it. Rather than record countless takes and edit the track to death, I allowed the track to be a little "loose" and let small "mistakes" happen. Just like me, the track is a little rough around the edges.

I used a lot of digital tricks in this production that I don't use that often in my own music. After finding a nice drum loop, I broke the loop up so that each individual hit was a tiny piece of audio. I then played the track constantly in a loop and rearranged the individual hits while it played, until I had something completely fresh sounding. I then added in a traditional style snare drum. The bass was done with a soft synth. Once a basic part was recorded, I edited the track so that the notes ended more abruptly, and then processed it heavily for bass enhancement, auto-panning, and a light "wah" type of effect. To round out the rhythm section, I copied a small piece of muted audio from the main guitar track, again adjusted the timing to create a different rhythm, and then ran it through a multi-tap delay to create a track that is very rhythmic and compliments the song nicely. The main guitar part was recorded through a Line6 Pod Pro direct into Pro Tools. The lead guitar was recorded with a Matchless Chieftain and Fulltone OCD pedal, using an inexpensive strat copy.

I had a ton of fun making this track and I hope that as you listen to it, you'll feel the fun in it and enjoy it. Ultimately, this track will serve as the intro/lead-in to another song of mine called Funk n' Groovin', which is not only a further tribute to my old band, but is a tribute to garage bands and closet musicians everywhere. Production hasn't started yet on this track, but it's on my to-do list so stay tuned!

Featured Track: Reason with Me

2010-10-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

Reason with Me is an original composition of mine - you can hear at it: http://www.reverbnation.com/#/mattmylroie

Most of my songs have a good story behind them, and many of them have spent years in the process of writing, recording, and producing. This song doesn't fit that mold at all - its just a unique, experimental moment captured on tape one short afternoon while living in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I was working in my studio and experimenting with sounds and methods outside of my "normal" process. I assembled a drum kit from carefully selected samples. Once I had done that, I tracked the rest of the song within a period of about 15 minutes. Obviously, I did some heavy processing of some of the sounds, but even so, this arrangement was completely put together in one short afternoon.

I never intended for this to be a finished track, but there is something about this little piece that I really like, in spite of its shortcomings. I've been told many times that I should develop this into a full length song, but I feel that this captured my mood well that day, and in spite of it's obvious flaws, I intend to keep it as is. The finished track will possibly serve as an instrumental lead-in to another track on my album.

Music Production and Sound Quality: Drums

2010-10-01T00:46:00.000-04:00

The following is the 2nd article in my series on music production and sound quality, currently being featured on www.linescratchers.com

Music Production and Sound Quality: Drums

Music Production and Sound Quality: Does it Really Matter?

2010-10-01T00:43:00.000-04:00

The following is an article of mine that was recently published on www.linescratchers.com

Music Production and Sound Quality: Does it Really Matter?

Excuses, excuses!

2010-08-29T12:06:00.001-04:00

The following is an article I wrote that was recently published on www.linescratchers.com. While Linescratchers is a blog devoted to LDS musicians who make secular music, this article applies to anyone who has a passion for music as serious hobby or career. You can check out my original article on the linescratchers site by clicking here: Excuses, excuses!
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I suspect all of us have had big dreams about the role of music in our lives. However, for many of us, those dreams may seem out of reach. Challenges and obstacles can seem abundant and overwhelming. Do any of these sound familiar?

I live in an area with no music scene
I don’t have enough time to develop my talents, play out, record, or promote myself. My job, family, and church callings take all of my time
Music doesn’t pay the bills
I’m too old – my opportunity to “make it” has passed me by
I’m not good enough to be successful
I can’t afford to record and don’t have the equipment I need to do it myself

With 4 kids, a demanding job, and a busy calling at church, I know I personally feel I have plenty of excuses. As “real” as these challenges are – these are all still just excuses that are often used as a cover for our own insecurities, poor time management, and ineffective goal setting.

So, is there no music scene in your area, or are you just not in-tune with it? If there really is little to nothing there, then congrats – you can be a pioneer in your area. Helping create a music scene will elevate you and your music to the forefront of that scene, and will unlock the doors to countless opportunities. Regardless of where you are, you can put the power of the internet to work for you. The days of being confined to your own area unless you tour extensively are long gone, and the internet opens up a worldwide audience for you. You may not become an internet sensation overnight, but with a little thought and care, you are almost certain to begin attracting the attention of future fans, collaborators, and supporters.

People complain about time, but we all have the same amount. Would it be worth going with 1 hour less sleep a day if that is what it took to make your dreams come true? How many hours do you spend watching others pursue their dreams on reality TV, instead of using that time to pursue your own? With access to cheap technology, you can create, collaborate, and promote yourself in your spare time in the comfort of your own home. Find ways to use your talents at home, church, and work. As you do you will strengthen your talents, increase your confidence, and find new doors opened.

True, music may not pay the bills for everyone. You need to determine how you measure your success and if music is a full-time or part-time pursuit for you. Are you only going to be happy when you have a platinum album and a sold out tour under your belt, or are you happy to be able to spend a couple of weekends a month writing, performing, and recording in your spare time? If you want to drop your day job, branch out while you get your start – teaching lessons can be very lucrative, as well as open up opportunities to create new fans, find collaborators, and dig up other opportunities. Start a separate band that does covers to fill in between gigs with your original band. Use your home studio to take on small projects to help make that gear pay for itself and fund your own projects. The key is to make sure you are always busy working on something. Don’t blindly turn down jobs or gigs that don’t pay well – building a network of fans and associates needs to be your goal, and that may mean playing for free, giving your music away, and collaborating on projects with minimal immediate reward. With that said, be cautious about investing too much of your own time and money into something or someone without fully understanding what you are doing and who you are working with – there are a lot of snake oil salesmen waiting to cash in on you, and also a lot of people that may have good intentions but will ultimately be a waste of your time. Maybe music CAN pay the bills, but you might have to slash your budget, tighten your belt, and branch out to make it happen.

Age is no excuse. True, being a teen or 20-something is where we see the most new pop/rock artists, but Country and Christian music markets are very accepting of older ages. If you are a solo artist or the “frontman” you may find age a bigger challenge, but with talent and hard work, you can still be successful. If you are a supporting member of a band and not directly in the spotlight, age is a terrible excuse. Use your age to your advantage – an older person may have a lot more life experience to draw upon when writing and performing than someone younger. These life experiences can translate to more powerful performances and songs that make a deeper connection with the listener. Leverage those life experiences to your benefit.
We beat ourselves up a lot. Perhaps you really don’t have a great voice. What a great excuse to pass up on opportunities so that we can protect ourselves from criticism. Seriously – do you think Bob Dylan has a great voice? That didn’t slow him down at all. He wrote great songs that were within his range and leveraged his songwriting to compensate for his vocal weakness. There are a countless number of artists, both past and current, who aren’t very talented vocally. Go for it. Work within your range, and let the emotion and content of your music pull you through. With that said, it may also be time to have a reality check – not everyone can be a star. These same principles apply no matter the instrument. You may find that you can be more successful by collaborating with others and using your talents in a different way. Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself.

I could write countless articles on how flawed it is to complain that you can’t afford to record in a studio, or that your project studio equipment isn’t good enough. Some people have access to great gear, but don’t know how to use it properly. Others have access to only the cheapest of gear, and are able to create amazing recordings. If you have great gear, you may still need to put aside your ego and focus on being an artist and let someone else be the engineer. If you don’t have gear, invest in a basic computer based setup, or find someone locally who is reasonable. If money is tight, the cost of either could be likely offset by making a few small sacrifices.

Whether you want this to be a career or a serious hobby, if you want to progress you need to make sure you have some business sense to counter your creative and emotional strengths. Write out your goals. Make a plan to work towards those goals and then review and update them as needed. Evaluate the seriousness of each of your excuses and determine how to counter them. Whether you are just now starting down the path, or well on your way, the best thing you can do is put aside the excuses, and just do it – one step at a time.

Matt Mylroie enjoys writing, producing, recording, and performing. You can find him online at http://recordingpro.blogspot.com or http://facebook.com/1recordingpro

Featured Track: Daddy's Boots

2010-02-23T01:00:00.004-05:00

In honor of my father's 75th birthday, on February 23rd 2010, I am officially "releasing" the recording of my song - "Daddy's Boots". This is the story behind the song. Happy Birthday Dad!

Being born smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression, my father learned early the virtues of sacrifice and hard work. The oldest in his family, he practically raised his 6 brothers and sisters, as his mom struggled with health problems for years before ultimately passing away at a young age. My father was already 40 by the time I was born, and had seen more life in those 40 years than many do in 80.

My father has always been a hard worker. He still works full time, doing manual labor, just like he has his whole life. For most of my formative years he worked in a steel mill, and before that he worked in a coal mine. While some mining and mill jobs pay very well, the positions my dad held rarely paid more than a modest wage. With my mother at home tending to the family and my dad earning only a modest wage, money was often pretty tight.

My family had the classic "one man farm" where we raised a variety of animals and had large gardens. During the summer and fall, most of the vegetables we ate came from our own garden, and during the cold months we often ate what we had canned and stored. Meat, milk, cheese and eggs also often came from our little farm. For us, going to the grocery store was often viewed as a supplement to our food supply, rather than the source of it.

Because of our way of life when I was young, there were always many chores to do. My father would arise early to feed, water, and milk the animals. It was always a lot of work, but even more so during the cold, harsh Utah winters. He would then head off to work - often for a 12 hour shift - and then arrive home only to repeat the chores again. We all pitched in and did our part, but it was always dad who did the bulk of it.

With what "spare" time my dad had, he was usually volunteering his time with the local scout group, serving in his church duties, or making some repair to the barn, the house or the car. My dad has spent his life serving others.

I always knew that my father worked hard, and sacrificed much for me. But, even so, I guess the full awareness of these types of things doesn't set in until you begin to grow older and go through many of the same things. Looking back now, he did so much more for me than I ever realized. There is one example in particular that nicely symbolizes who my father is, and what he did for his family....the story about his boots.

As a kid, I remember occasionally complaining about the second-hand shoes my parents would buy for me. They were too tight, or too big, or just too ugly. I remember selfishly thinking about how unfair it was that I had to have someones smelly old used shoes. On the rare occasion that I did get new shoes, I was so excited to get them that I really didn't mind that they were usually some cheap brand that no one had ever heard of. I never thought about my dad's shoes...

My dad would get a pair of steel toed cowboy style work boots from the steel mill, and he would wear them at work, outside doing chores, to scouts, and everywhere else. Every Sunday morning he would lay out an old newspaper on the floor, set his boots on the paper, and begin polishing them up the best he could so that they'd look good for church. This was his routine for probably 10 years. 10 years of quietly making little sacrifices so that the rest of us could have what we need. I love my dad for the sacrifices he has made for me and my family.

Dad, this song is for you. Happy Birthday!

Daddy's boots can be heard on my facebook page, http://facebook.com/1recordingpro

This song was written, recorded, and produced by me. I had to rush a bit to get through vocals, mixing, and mastering in order to finish the job on time, but was glad to have a deadline... having the deadline helped push me to actually finish it rather than re-record and tweak it endlessly.

Keeping the fun in music by sharing...

2009-11-01T18:59:00.004-05:00

Last month, I had the opportunity to share my passion for music and music recording technology with a group of young men from my church group. For a couple of hours I gave them some background on the music industry, demonstrated cool recording tricks, gave them the opportunity to use loops and samples to create their own music, and guided them through writing and recording an original song completely impromtu... While only some of them were musically inclined, all of them had a lot of fun. Next time, I'd like to leave us more time to do some actual recording, as we really cut this one short.

You can hear the original song by clicking HERE.

Sharing the gift of music with others can always recharge your own talents and excitement to use them. I look forward to another activity where we can do something similar again.

Doing Drums (for a non-drummer!)

2009-05-24T13:09:00.004-04:00

I'm not a drummer. Sure, I can bang out a fairly simple beat on a drum kit, but I've never owned a kit, never had lessons, and am not by any means a drummer. Back in Utah, I would sometimes have clients or bandmates leave their kit at my studio between sessions or practices, and I picked up a few basics by messing around after hours. I'm a habitual dashboard drummer, and pretty much 24/7 my hands and/or legs are shaking, tapping, or thumping on something. The first recording engineer I worked with was a drummer, so I developed an appreciation very early on for well recorded drums that have a nice groove and anchor a mix. Because of this, my standards for drums have always been high. This is great when I'm working with a drummer, but what about when I want to do drum tracks myself?

I use a variety of methods to get drum parts for my songs. Drum machines are great scratchpads but I can rarely find the perfect combination of sound quality, basic pattern, and fills I want. Real drummers can be even more difficult than machines - out of time, interpretting things differently then you want, not having a good sounding kit, or just not being available in the middle of the night when I get the itch to work on a project. Loops can sometimes be problematic also, and for me they are the least satisfying to work with, in spite of the fact that they can help inspire new ideas and grooves.

My problem is I'm picky - especially about the snare drum. I'll search through an endless list of samples to find the right sound. And, a single sample isn't good enough - the average snare track that I work with has 4 samples of snare hits at different velocities, and additional samples for off-center hits, rim shots, etc. Then, of those variations I'll make more variatons - slight changes in volume, sometimes slight changes in EQ. As I assemble a track from the many various samples, I will sometimes find that I need to layer 2 snare sounds together in order to get the sound I'm after. Of course, that can take a while also.

Laying out a drum track manually can be pretty simple and fast using a "snap to grid" function in your software. However, to make the track really groove can take a lot more time to get the "human" feel nailed just right.

I've been in a groove lately on drum tracks - I've knocked out 4-5 songs in the last week or two. I've found the hi-hat tracks to be very involved to get the subtle nuances that I want to capture in a performance. I currently only have 2 tracks on my album that were done with an actual drummer - the rest have used a variety of methods. Even when using a loop or drum machine, I find I'm layering or replacing the snare almost every time. It's time intensive, but I hope that in the end it shows through.

Doing drums can be a lot of fun, but tedious. Getting a fill to sound real can be quite the challenge. It's well worth looking into hiring a good drummer to tackle your songs, but there is also a great deal of satisfaction that comes from creating a part from scratch and building it one hit at a time.

A little more progress in tracking...

2009-04-18T21:00:00.000-04:00

I have added a bass track now to my track "Free". Using a Hartke 4 string bass with active pickups, I used the DI part of my Vintech 273 Preamp, passed through the Empirical Labs FATSO for some mild to moderate compression, and then into Pro Tools through my apogee converters. I had originally planned to track through an amp, but this signal path resulted in the right amount of tone and warmth to (1)Be consistent with the guitar track and (2)Fit the vibe of the song. After tuning and a couple of passes through to warm up, I recorded the bass part in a single take, improvising a good portion of the track. I admit to using cut, copy, and paste in a couple of spots, but overall it was a pretty simple track and required little work.

I have not yet recorded the second guitar part for this track. I opted to wait until I had bass and a scratch vocal track done first. This is because the ideas I have for the second guitar part have a lot of lower notes and some "busy" riffs in places, and it is important that the track doesn't conflict with the bass and vocals. So, my next task on this is to do the dummy vocal track, and then move on to the second guitar.

I have also been working on getting a couple of other songs ready for tracking.

This week, I will be in Mastering Mode, working on a project for a good friend. Between that, and a busy schedule with work, family, and church, I won't likely tackle any more tracking on my own project for another week or two.

Tracking Again! (Or should I say FINALLY?!)

2009-04-01T19:59:00.002-04:00

In the last 2 weeks I've FINALLY actually started working on my album project in earnest. (I use that term lightly - after all, spending a few hours in the studio here and there isn't exactly "earnest"...)

After a couple of short sessions doing a little clean up and light rearranging of some drum tracks, I have recorded my first audio tracks since moving into my new place. The song, "Free", is one of my "heaviest" songs - mixing dirty blues with a hard, modern rock edge.

The drums were originally recorded in my garage 10 years ago on a crappy kit with cheap mics in what was little more than an attempt to just capture an idea. Several times over the years I have tried to rescue the drum part, and turn it into a workable part, but I have always been dissappointed with the results... I wanted a live, somewhat "raw" sound, but it was just beyond anything reasonable. Last fall, I finally convinced a friend to redothe part for me - staying true to the feel of the original, while making corrections to the tempo and updating the overall sound. Because my friend was literally in the process of tearing down his studio to move cross-country, once again, the drums were hastily recorded. This time however, I was able to get several good takes, just in time before his move, and my own move.

The drums and the main guitar are the anchor tracks of this song. I replaced my scratch guitar track with a great sounding, dual layer main part. I was able to get a great sound by blending two different signal paths. The first path coming from my amp goes through a Vintech 273 preamp. There is just a tiny bit of bass roll off and the unit is set to saturate the track pretty heavily with it's trademark transformer sound. The other signal path goes through the other channel of the same unit but with some slight EQ and a different impedence setting - which changes the overall sound of the track and how the transients react. This second path then runs through my Empirical Labs FATSO Jr, where it is moderately compressed, limited, and saturated further. Both paths then go into my pro tools software via Apogee converters. When blending the two just right and getting the stereo spacing right, the two tracks sound like a single, fat, vintage - vibe track with a bit of modern edge to it, and good dynamics. I'm very pleased with the sound of the track.

Anxious to feel like I'm actually making some progress, I'll next move on to the second guitar part for this song - hopefully tracking some ideas this weekend and hopefully finding some ideas that stick. I've never fully developed the second guitar part because, welll... I can only play one guitar at a time.

Don't expect to hear a final song anytime soon, but I will definitely post some samples here at a later date.

A New Start

2009-02-07T11:58:00.002-05:00

6 weeks after our move, I'm finally getting around to getting the music gear set up again. It's been sitting way too long and I'm getting stir-crazy. I've played my acoustic guitar a bit but haven't fired up the electric guitars, assembled my recording desk, or powered up any of the recording gear. That is, until today. The desk is being put back together and I'm finally starting to get this part of my life rolling again.

Starting over in a new town and a new space has its challenges. My last room was extremely well tuned, comfortably large, and offered me multiple rooms to work with in peace and privacy. It was a dedicated area specifically designed from the ground up for my musical enjoyment. Now, I'm back to working in a less than perfect, shared space. On top of that, I sold a large amount of my equipment before moving. Effects processors, a keyboard, microphone preamps, converters, etc... I am now working with a huge desk with just a few pieces of gear in it. (I will have to work on filling all that empty rack space!) Of course, the gear I have kept is the gear that is the highest quality, and the core of my studio - my vintech pres, apogee converters, FATSO, Liquid Channel, etc. So, while I won't be recording any big bands anytime soon, I still can record myself and small projects easily with excellent quality gear.

I'm actually excited to be working in a less than perfect space and with more limited gear now. Why? Lots of reasons... First and foremost, it will just be fun. No pressure, no big projects, just enjoying my talents and hobbies and helping out friends. Secondly, it will be a challenge in some ways so it will force me to sharpen my skills with mic placement, mixing, and virtually all other aspects of recording and producing a project. Third, it will allow me to be creative. I have a huge bathroom that I'm looking forward to experimenting with to get great room reverbs. It has a lot of variety in the surfaces - drywall, wood, glass, tile, etc, and will have a lot of flexibility depending on where and how I set up the sound source and the mics. I can change the sound of the room by opening the door to the linen closet and creating an area with absorption properties. I can open or close the various doors on the shower, the cupboards etc to create different reflections. It will be fun. I have a nice big walk in closet that will make a great dry sounding space to mic up a loud guitar amp or a quiet vocal. I have a 2 story ceiling in my family room, and I can imagine a great room sound by recording on the stairs to capture the volume of ambiance in the family room, while catching all the interesting reflections made by the staircase and walls.

Yes, I will miss my old digs. What a great room with such a great sound and vibe. But, I'm looking forward to a new chapter as well. I can have fun and create masterpieces in my own home, and sharpen my skills while doing it.

Home (with Studio Room) For Sale

2008-11-24T18:40:00.003-05:00

In the last couple of weeks, there has been a big development in my personal life. I have been offered a fantastic opportunity out of state, and will be relocating my family in the very near future.

This means my home (complete with the studio featured in the recent construction thread) is for sale. If you are looking for a comfortable home in a quiet neighborhood with a great yard (almost 1 acre including woods and access to a small lake) and would like a modest but great sounding studio room in your home - this could be the place for you. I am located in the Atlanta/West Georgia area.

As Imentioned in the construction thread - there is some trim and moulding work yet to be done, hang doors, do some soldering, and put the light switch/outlet covers on. Otherwise, it's a great sounding acoustic space and will be sold with acoustic treatments left in the room, as they really are part of the room.

sorry though - the desk is not being left with the house!

Building My Studio: Part 9 (Finishing Up)

2008-11-21T06:00:00.002-05:00

Did I mention I really wanted a room with a vibe?

The front section of my wall - which is recessed and then angled at the top - was finished from top to bottom with 1/4" cedar planking.

The cedar planking looks, sounds, and smells great. It adds a lot of character to the room.

With the planking done, I finished the front wall by adding a low-profile skyline diffusor.

Lighting was installed, and ceiling tiles were mounted. I used a combination of absorbing and diffusing tiles, all mounted with foam safe adhesives.

The cloud over the monitoring area was created using 2 GIK 2" acoustic panels. Typically, these panels would have been hung 2" down from the ceiling, but by hanging them down an extra inch, I was able to obtain an improved performance in bass absorption.

Next, I turned my attention to the floors. While I would have really liked to have put down a hardwood floor, I ended up going with laminate. The type I used had a 2mm backing pad already attached to the flooring, and this particular type of flooring was specifically designed to have the look and feel of hardwood, but with a little more control on foot and impact noise.

The floors were a little harder to install than I thought. I don't know if it was because the quality of the laminate I was using or if it was me... or maybe a bit of both?

Next... hanging acoustic treatments on the walls. I used 4" GIK panels on the front and rear walls, and 2" GIK panels on the side walls. The placement of these was carefully pre-determined in order to maximize the acoustic performance of the room.

This is the right side wall of the main studio room. You can see in the front right the opening to the iso booth, where you can see 1 wall in there was also done with cedar planking.

The rear wall, shown here with (2) 4" GIK acoustic panels, framing a diffusor array made of (4) RPG Skyline LP (low profile) diffusors.

After a few months of testing and trying my studio, I ended up making a small change to the back wall. Both cosmetically and acoustically, it seems to work a little better with the room.

My iso booth had acoustic ceiling tile added over the drywall. The door in the back goes to my machine room/closet, and has 2 custom sized GIK 2" acoustic panels on it. The walls have auralex sound treatments on them.

Of course, after installing my acoustic treatments, I re-tested my room - Frequency response (once again with special attention to the bass) and RT60. The RT60 came out slightly better than I had expected, but still within the targeted range I had been hoping for. Frequency response was good. Remember the slight boost I had at 34hz prior to finishing the room? After installing my room treatment, the small bump at 34hz was still there, but reduced by almost half - reducing it to a nearly non-existent bump.

Building My Studio: Part 8 (Painting)

2008-11-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

From here on out, I don't have as many pictures of individual steps... It's pretty easy to set down the screwdriver and pick up the camera, but not quite so easy when you have paint all over.

For my main room and iso booth, I chose to do a venetian plaster finish. It adds a great deal of character to the room, and it's hard to really mess up. It was a lot of work though. The entire room was coated with a thin layer of a Tuscan-style orange, applied with a 4" puddy knife.

From day one, having a "vibe" in the room had been important, and the warm and bold color, combined with the beauty of a venetian plaster finish, seemed like a great way to create the vibe I wanted.

After the first coat had dried, a second coat was applied. Again, a puddy knife was used, but this time, a sharper angle was held on the blade in order to create a slightly different effect as the plaster went on. This adds depth and variety to the finish. It's hard to really tell from this photo though...

I could have considered this a complete finish at this point, but I still had a couple of tricks up my sleeve. To take this traditional, warm looking finish stand out and have a bit more modern feel to it, I applied a 3rd coat....this time, I used a metallic copper glaze. Then, I lightly burnished the finish by hand rubbing the entire wall with a smooth piece of metal. When done well, this can polish the finish to a glass or marble like quality. I opted for only a light burnish, which added some sheen to the walls without getting too crazy.

The result - a finish that has a lot of depth, and changes dramatically depending on how the light hits it and what angle you look at it.

It's hard to photograph, but here is a shot of one section of the wall. You just have to see this to really appreciate it. It's very very cool!

Building My Studio: Part 7 (Baseline Acoustic Testing)

2008-11-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

Prior to moving on with the finish work, I performed some basic "baseline" acoustic tests in my studio.

In this photo, you can see I have a measurement microphone, speakers, and a laptop set up. I measured overall frequency response in the room by using various broadband signals at different volumes, as well as using sine wave sweeps. I also measured an estimated RT60 time (the reverb in the room).

Prior to even doing the construction of the room, I had used various online calculators to help me estimate what room modes/nodes I might have, as well as what my RT60 calculation might likely be. While I know that my baseline acoustic testing was not perfect, I was thrilled to find out that my room was performing at or better than my predictions on everything. I was particularly excited that my bass-fighting strategy of insulating the floor, the corners in the room, and particularly the front wall and built in bass trap seemed to be extremely effective. My initial testing, prior to even "treating" the room with surface treatments revealed a bass response that was essentially flat from 300hz down, with only a slight bump at 34hz. My hard work and planning seemed to be paying off.

Another, very unscientific test I did was to move the subwoofer around to several spots and play low frequency material through it at loud levels. This was done to see if there where any rattles anywhere in the room, or if the floor or walls were reasonating. Everything seemed solid, and I was able to move forward to the next steps with confidence that I was on the right track.

Building My Studio: Part 6 (The Walls)

2008-11-13T06:00:00.001-05:00

One of the first things I did with my walls was to add "sleepers", also known as braces to the walls. This makes the wall more rigid, and strong. The last thing you want in your studio walls is for the studs to be able to wobble around easily. If the studs can be moved fairly easily, your wall is not rigid enough and sleepers should be added.

There are a couple of interesting things about my walls. First, the builder used 2x6 studs, instead of 2x4 studs. I was thrilled about this as this makes for a strong, and thick wall. Second, I had some irregular spacing, which is (in my opinion) great. Traditional studs are usually placed 16" off center. When building a studio, I personally think that by having some irregular stud spacing, you can reduce sympethetic reasonance in the walls. I had some irregular spacing already, which was part of the design to support beams, conduit, piping, etc. so some spacings were less than 16", which also lends itself to a good strong wall.

At this point, I hired a professional to come in and put in my outlets. I made sure that I had thought through the layout of my studio in great detail so that I would have outlets where I needed them. I also made sure that the contractor knew how I was constructing my walls so he could properly space the outlet boxes. This is also a good time to install other boxes that will be used to carry audio signal from one location to another.

I had determined that my side walls would use resiliant channel to hang the drywall from, but that the front and rear wall would not. I did this for many reasons - tweaking the dimensions of the room, trying to create different reasonant properties in the walls, and of course taking into consideration the location of those walls. For example this photo is along the wall that separates the main studio from the future multipurpose room - considering I might have drums in there, these walls will help provide an few extra decibals of noise reduction. You can see some of the irregular stud spacing in this wall. This wall was quite strong, but I did eventually add some extra "sleeper" braces from the back side before finishing the wall.

The sidewall facing outside was already insulated with R13, which I felt was mostly sufficient considering the location of that wall - facing into my large, quiet backyard. I did strategically place some additional mineral fiber insulation into the wall in order to help with the overall acoustic performance, but this was minimal.

The front wall was given special treatment. The top left corner has over 8" of mineral fiber in it. The entire corner was treated with 4" or so, and the rest of the wall was treated with 2-3"... all on top of the existing R13. As with other parts of the studio, this was not done so much to keep the room quiet as it was to help the acoustic performance of the sound inside the room, providing broadband absorption that would due particularly well on the bass frequencies. This same basic process was repeated on the right side of the front room as well.

Once everything was done to my satisfaction, and some cables were ran where needed within the walls, I moved to hanging drywall. The first layer of drywall was 1/2" thick, and was hung vertically. The front, center portion of the wall recieved a second layer of 5/8" drywall, but only because I had some leftovers from the ceiling. You can see that I have a squared opening roughed out in the wall for future use which will make sense later.

As with everything else, the drywall was hung with screws - no nails. I did all of this by myself, and it was a breeze compared to the ceiling, but I still recommend that it's better to have a friend help you. Mounting drywall on the resiliant channel requires special attention. If even just a couple of screws go into the studs, you completely lose the advantage gained by using the resiliant channel in the first place. I carefully measured and marked the drywall prior to securing it to make sure this was done right.

Before hanging the second layer of drywall, I did caulk and/or mud over all screws and all seams in the wall. Then, the second layer of drywall was hung. As before, I used 1/2" drywall, but the drywall was hung horizontally this time. I felt that this would make a stronger wall, with less reasonance. As before, I took careful steps to make sure I was securing them into the resiliant channel, and not hitting screws from the previous layer.

Between the layers of drywall, I used a product called Quiet Glue. This product was "sandwiched" between the layers of drywall. You can visit their website for full details, but essentially, it improves the damping of the wall, which leads to a better performing acoustic wall. There is a similar, more famous product, called Green Glue, which is reported to have better performance. After researching both, I opted to use the quiet glue though as it seemed a good fit for my personal use. In this last photo, the room is done with the exception of the final piece of the second layer, and you can see that I've already caulked or mudded over all of the screws on the second layer.

My isolation booth was done in a slightly different manner. The main drain pipe for the house runs down the wall in the back part of my iso booth. So, I built out the wall by the drain pipe, and then put in extra insulation around it and covered that one section with 1 1/2" of drywall. The rest of the walls recieved just a single layer of 5/8" drywall, due to trying to preserve as much space in my small booth as possible. The outside wall was stuffed with a ridiculous amount of mineral fiber and R13 insulation. As with the rest of the walls, I used caulk and/or mud to cover every screw and seam.

Building My Studio: Part 5 (The Ceiling)

2008-11-11T06:00:00.001-05:00

I went back and forth on this part of the process... Some builders told me to do the walls first, and others told me to do the ceilings. Finally, I decided to do the ceilings first. Word of warning... this is one part of the job that could benefit from just hiring a pro to do it, or at least have some friends over to help. I hung my ceiling completely by myself, without a drywall jack, because I was too stubborn and proud to ask for help and too cheap to hire someone. Well, I got it done but it took a long time and was exhausting. 5/8" firecode drywall is HEAVY! Now, try lifting it over your head while standing on a ladder, holding it in place with one hand and putting in screws with another....

I opted not to use a suspension system to isolate the ceiling from impact noise from above. While this would have been nice, once again, I felt that it came at too great a cost both in ceiling hieght and financially, without enough reward for it to make sense. So, I opted for a traditional method of hanging the drywall directly to the joists.

Before I hung drywall, I installed a second light in my room. Ahhh... much easier to see now.

As you can see, I have a very thick R19 insulation stuffed in the ceiling. This particular type of R19 is specially meant to not just provide insulation but for sound control as well, and it works great. Much better than "the pink stuff".

I do have a 4" drain pipe that runs through one side of the ceiling, and I spent some extra time putting extra insulation and mineral fiber around the pipe to mute the sound a little more.

Then I hung the drywall - again, using screws instead of nails. This was a long an laborious process working by myself.

Bass frequencies build up in corners - along the wall/ceiling joints, and especially in corners like this where two walls and a ceiling all come together.

Before closing up the ceiling all the way, all of the corners were given a little extra insulation with mineral fiber, in hopes of getting the best bass response possible from my room.

The ceiling in my iso-booth recieved a little more attention. I started by giving pipes running through or by the cieling a little extra insulation and mineral fiber to surround them.

In this photo, you can see that I placed a complete layer of compressed mineral fiber in the ceiling. This is in addition to the good quality R19. The intent of this was of course to help keep the iso-booth quiet, but also to once again - combat the build of up bass frequencies, which are typically worse the smaller the room becomes.

In this room, I also used the foam taping to help reduce the transmission of vibrations from the ceiling to the drywall. Even though the impact of this is most likely very minimal, every little bit helps, and this was just using up leftovers so that they wouldn't go to waste.

Once the drywall was installed, there wasn't much more to do on the ceiling at this point. There was no need to do a traditional finish on the ceiling, as I had already planned to use acoustic treatments on the entire ceiling surface. So, I merely spread caulk over screw holes, edges, and seams and moved on to the next step.

In my next installment, I'll show you the walls...

Building My Studio: Part 4 (Built in Bass Trap)

2008-11-08T06:00:00.002-05:00

One of my major goals with my room design and construction was to have a room with good frequency response, even before I did any "surface" acoustic treatments. Bass frequencies in particular can be difficult to control, so I was particularly focused on the bass frequencies.

My plan was to build my studio in such a way that a great deal of "bass -trapping" was built right into the walls. The central part of this plan was to build a large bass trap in the front of the room. I wanted to build this in such a way that I could also add additional angles to the room, which would further aid in fighting room modes and nodes, and add character to the room as well.

I started by framing the recessed section of the front wall with bracing to create an angled wall near the top. It isn't very pretty at this point, but it is functional!

Once the bracing was in place, 4"thick "slabs" of compacted mineral fiber were mounted inside the frame. As you can see, I used the 1/16" foam taping on top of the studs as well. The foam taping also covers the edges of the mineral fiber, helping keep it in place.

At this point, 5/8" drywall was secured to the recessed section and the newly created angled bracing. As with the floor, screws were used. no nails!

I now have a fairly large cavity behind the angle portion of the wall...

...which I line with slabs of mineral fiber, and then stuff the cavity full with more mineral fiber and a few R19 scraps.

At this point, there is no real good way to test the effectiveness of this, but in theory, it should absorb a great deal of bass frequencies, and the angled wall should contribute to a good overall sound within the room. I just have to trust at this point that I'm on the right track...

Next, we turn our attention to the rest of the walls....

Building My Studio: Part 3 (The Subfloor)

2008-11-06T06:00:00.001-05:00

The last article left off with the floor covered with a plastic sheeting, to prevent moisture from seeping in through the foundation. Additionally, the outside of the room had been framed with horizontal 2x4 studs, which not only held the plastic sheeting in place, but provided the foundation for building the subfloor.

Many studios use 2x4 studs as the basis of their subfloor, essentially elevating their floor by approximately 3 1/2 inches. This provides for an easy way for cabling to be ran under the floors, but also is a step that could lead to better isolation from the rest of the building and improved acoustics in the room.

In my studio, I chose to use 2x4 studs, but instead of standing them "tall", they were laid on the "short" side of the stud. With my limited ceiling space, this essentially gave me 2 more inches of height in the room by laying the studs on the short side. At the same time, this still allowed me to obtain some improved isolation and acoustic properties in my room.

"Uboats" are a popular way of floating the floor, and in areas where isolation is critical, are a valuable item to consider in your floor construction. I am on the lowest level of our home and well removed from train tracks, highways, and other low-level noise that comes through the floor, so did not feel that my money was best spent on this type of isolation. Additionally, using the uboats would chip away at my ceiling height - something I had determined from day one was a top priority.

My floor was secured directly to the concrete. Caulking was used to help keep the integrity of the seal created by the plastic.

Before laying my floor, I carefully considered my initial and future cabling needs, and planned channels into the floor to allow cabling to easily be routed.

The floor was assembled like a spine and ribs. The "spine" running down the middle was a main channel to connect the front and back of the room, and the ribs allowed channels of cabling to the sides of the room. This structure also helped create what I feel to be a more rigid floor, by using shorter lengths of wood. The 2x4 studs were carefully hand selected to make sure the floor was level and strong. In this photo you can see that I have about 1/2 of the main room done.

No pneumatic driver used, I pounded all those nails into the concrete by hand....

While building the framing of the subfloor, I also built in an audio access box - leaving plenty of room for future expansion. Originally, I built 1 in the front and 1 in the back, with the assumption that I might have my main desk in the front, and a rack of gear behind me as well. Ultimately, I opted for a better designed desk so that I could eliminate the rack, and I removed the back access box. This was the one item in my studio that I changed plans on partway through. Luckily, it wasn't hard to fix, but I did learn a lesson!

Once the "ribs" were all done and the subfloor was completely framed, I ran high-quality cable to all the necessary locations.

Next - I put a special 1/16" thick foam tape on top of the studs. After much research, I felt that this would give me a great deal of bang for the buck - helping to decouple the floor top from the frame, without costing a fortune or eating up my ceiling height.

The floor was then insulated with 2" thick Mineral Fiber (which would compress to 1 1/2" once the top of the floor was on.) The Mineral Fiber has excellent insulation and acoustic properties. Filling the floor prevents the cavities from becoming reasonating chambers, helps control the bass response in the room, and can aid in isolating the studio.

Once this was all completed, it was time to lay down the actual subfloor. Some studios will do multiple layers, using multiple materials. Again - considering my location, my budget, my desire to preserve ceiling height, etc - this was not the best option for me. I chose to use good quality plywood. I am not 100% positive, but I believe I used the 5/8" thick variety. Don't use less than 1/2" thick plywood, and if you use 1/2" ply, keep your bracing close together in order to make a strong floor.

Before securing any pieces to the floor, I fit them all together like a puzzle. Once I was satisfied everything was where it needed to be, I secured the floor using screws...LOTS of them. Using screws makes for stronger construction, and ensures a rigid floor that won't be squeaky.

Rough spots were sanded, the floor was checked to make sure it was level, and seams were given a light rubbing with caulk.

Up next - Altering the room acoustics with a built in bass trap and creating more angled surfaces in the studio to help keep those pesky room modes and nodes under control...

Building My Studio: Part 2 (Getting Started)

2008-11-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

In my last entry, I discussed the thought process one should go through in planning their studio, and explained what my thoughts and priorities were. Once you have all the general ideas and plans, it's time to get serious about what you need to do to convert those ideas to a useable workspace.

Layout and ergonomics are extremely important. Acoustically, it is best if your monitoring position is approximately 38% back from the front wall, and that your speakers point down the longest part of your room. Before you drive a single nail, you should know what type of desk you'll use, where it will go in the room, where your monitors will go, where your instruments will go, where your friends and clients will sit, and so forth. Make sure that you think through everything you need to do in your workspace, and that your rough plan and ideas take these issues into consideration. check out GIK Acoustics, Realtraps, Auralex, and John Sayers Site for mountains of information that will help you with this.

Once you are confident that your rough plan and ideas are "on track", it's time to get down to details. Room shape, dimensions, and overall volume are very important factors that can make or break the acoustics in your studio. If your room dimensions are all divisible by the same number, you are going to have problems with room modes and nodes. In laymans terms, what this means is that you can have an unusually large build up or lack of certain frequencies in your room at different areas. For example, a room with 12x10x8 dimensions is not ideal because all of the dimensions are divisable by the same number (2).

My room dimensions were pretty good, but the front of my room was not symetrical, and for accurate monitoring, it needed to be.

My room was not the same length running the entire width of the room. A little over 2/3 of the room was about 8" longer than the rest. My solution to this was to modify the left front wall, by building a second wall over it. But, instead of evening the entire wall, I only did approximately 1/3 of the wall. This resulted in a wall that was symetrical, but was about 8" longer in the center of my room. I felt that this would help with the bass response in the room as well as help combat room modes and nodes by having different dimensions in different parts of the room. On top of that, it added a little more character to the room. In this photo, you can see the wall, which was the first physical step in the construction of my studio.

After turning one doorway into a wall, and one wall into a doorway, the walls were all correctly framed and I turned my attention to the floor.

I laid contractor grade plastic on the floor to help keep any moisture from creeping in. Around the edges, studs were laid on the floor to "frame" the floor of the room and also secure the plastic sheeting firmly in place. With all this done, I was now ready to begin serious construction.

I'll go into detail on some popular floor construction methods, and how I did MY floor in the next installment of this series. Stay tuned!

Building My Studio: Part 1 (Planning)

2008-11-01T07:54:00.001-04:00

This is the first of several installments on the process of designing and building my new home recording studio. I am not an acoustics or construction expert, but after years of reading and studying related topics both in print and in person, (and learning many lessons the hard way!) I've certainly come to a point where I am comfortable tackling projects of this size and scope. I have had numerous questions about my studio - how I did certain things, why I did certain things, and so forth. While I won't cover every last detail, I will hit all the major highlights. Feel free to email me in person if you have further questions. This is not just meant to be a recap of my own experience, but a guide to help you with yours. At times, I'll write directly about my own experience and at other times I'll write this in the form of advice/instruction to the reader.

When building a home studio, there are a lot of things that need to be taken into consideration from day one. Some of the top things you need to consider are:

(1) What are the physical limitations of your available space? For many it is a basement, an empty bedroom, a garage, or an attic. All have challenges and benefits.

(2) What is the PRIMARY purpose of the studio? (Is it a mixing room? A Mastering room? An "all in one" room?) Different uses should drive the design and construction in slightly different ways. In addition to primary uses, are there secondary uses? (ie: will you teach guitar lessons in there? Use your mixing room also for a little bit of overdub work? etc.)

(3) Are you going to build a multi or single room studio? With limited space, you really need to think this out carefully. It's easy to think that you can subdivide a room to put in a small control room or iso booth, but more times than not you'll find yourself squeezed into a tight space that is uncomfortable to work in. Use tape on the floor to help you visualize the space before you commit to any subdividing.

(4) What is your budget? Can you afford to go "all out" or do you need to stretch the buying power of your dollar as much as possible?

(5) Finally, in the large majority of home studios, one must often make some compromise between ISOLATION (ie: keeping the room quiet) and ACOUSTICS (ie: keeping the room sounding good). Which is most important to you?

For me, my studio was to be in my basement. It is a walk-out basement with good light, and a fair amount of space. Ceiling height was acceptable, but not ideal. Some framework had already been done when the home was first built, and due to the fact that some of the walls were load-bearing, I opted to work my design around the existing framing.

The primary purpose planned for my studio was.... well, everything! I do a fair amount of mastering, so that was a key issue, but I also do tracking, mixing, writing, and just practicing. I do most of my work on my own or with a small number of friends, but I also needed to be able to record a full band. So, I needed something that would handle all of these well.

I wanted a multi room studio, but also wanted to use my space wisely - most of the time it will just be me and up to a couple of other people in my studio, so I'm not going to be using the other rooms all the time. So, here is what I came up with:

- My "main" studio room would be a spacious control room with acoustics suitable for mixing, mastering, tracking, and rehearsing. 90% of the action in my studio would be in this room so it was important to have a comfortable space with acoustic properties that could handle a wide variety of tasks

- I wanted a machine room to keep my computer and hard drive from making too much noise pollution in my main room. This was mostly to ensure that when mastering, I can have no background noise clouding my hearing of the music, and also to help keep it quiet during tracking. So, I planned out a small room with ventilation that could not only house my computer and external drives, but that could also serve as a closet to store mic stands, cables, and other gear.

- Even though I planned on doing a lot of my tracking in my main room, I wanted a small iso booth that could be used to mic up loud tube amps, or provide a quiet space for a singer or acoustic guitarist to record when needed. Space was limited, so I made the booth just large enough for a guitarist to sit comfortably.

- Finally, I wanted a versatile space that could be used for the occassional large session, to hold a drummer, or put some extra amps. Knowing that I might not use this space nearly as often as the other spaces, I designed this room to double as a home theater for my family. I designed it to have a number of connection options to the main studio so that I could use it as a tracking room, a lounge with playback abilities, or even a second control room that could be used for surround mixing. When not in use, my family would have a great sounding room for watching movies in, thereby making the most of my space.

My budget was limited. I knew I would need to do as much of it myself as possible, and would also need to shop for good deals. I had a small nest egg to get me started, and expected that I could add a little extra to my studio fund from time to time as I went. I knew that if I spent the nest egg too quickly, I'd end up stalling the project near the end though, so I really needed to budget and plan wisely.

Isolation and Acoustics were both important considerations to me, but I made the decision early on that if design or budget limitations forced me to compromise or choose between the two, I was more willing to give up some isolation in order to maintain good acoustics. This was an easy decision for me... My house has a large yard so my neighbors are not terribly close, and the rooms directly above my studio are not the ones most often used in our home. On top of that, I just wanted to get the best possible acoustics out of my available space and budget.

One final design consideration I made up front was regarding the overall look or "vibe" of the room. You will hopefully spend a lot of time in your studio, so make sure it has a comfortable feeling and decor that lends itself to a creative environment. If you expect to advertise and work on projects for others, good looks can help bring in customers and enjoy the experience. I determined that it was worth spending a little extra money on cosmetics if needed, to make sure I had a comfortable, appealing, creative environment to work in.

After making all of these decisions and doing a little more research, I was ready to dive in. My next installment will show photos of my initial space and start walking through the early phases of construction.

Feedback on my work:

2008-10-06T17:34:00.007-04:00

We live and die by our reputation, with that in mind, I wanted to share some of the positive feedback I've received from projects I have worked on over the years. I have the luxury of being able to choose who I work with, and I tend to be picky as I want to enjoy the experience, who I work with, and what I work on. I assume most people are the same way, and hope that this client feedback will be helpful to you.

"...He mixed my drums better than anyone ever has. I was really happy with the sound - it was great." - T. Forsberg (Backyard Band - Blues/Rock)

"...Your sound is every bit as good as the big studio we were going to, and is half the price - I can't imagine why we'd go back there...." - L. Riggs (Katie Riggs - Country Vocalist)

"...The sound is so amazing. I really love the vocal sound, and I love working with you!" - L. Elliot (Vocalist - Contemporary/Christian/LDS)

"...Recording 'Sherman's Peak' was such a great, spiritual experience. I really like the stereo sound of the background vocals, and I love what you've done with the song, especially with the electric guitar you added to the arrangement. The vocal sound is wonderful." - L. Hales (Vocalist - New Age/Contemporary)

"...We have been working with Matt on our live CD project. We gave Matt our raw tracks and he transformed them into a finished project. We want to thank Matt for the terrific job that he did. We are looking forward to working with him again in the very near future on a studio project. His professionalism and talent are needed in the industry." - Jeff Castello (Banded Together - Contemporary Christian)

“...just wanted to let you know that I think you really hit a homerun with this record!! The songs really sound great. I thought you totally captured the sound the band was looking for. I am more than happy and really appreciate your hard work on this.” - Josh Armour (Producer/Engineer - Christian Rock Project)

"...The new rates are great. The pro package has really made a lot of clients look seriously at having their projects mastered. The new rates are going to bring about a lot more business for you out of my studio. Thanks again for all of the great work!”

"...it sounds phenomenal! This one turned out way better than I could have ever hoped for...Thanks for the great work and the great prices my clients appreciate the fact they can get quality mastering at a price that doesnt require them to take a second mortgage on their house to pay for it!"

“…loved the round tight bottom end you were able to add as well as making the mix jump out of the speakers”

- Previous 3 comments by Matt Zilm (Engineer/Jarico Studios - Various Projects)

Studio Update: Custom Designed Desk Installed

2008-09-25T22:30:00.005-04:00

I am thrilled to announce that after months of planning and work, a new desk has been installed into my new control room. The desk was designed by myself and master craftsman David Howell, to meet my exacting specifications. The desk was built with meticulous attention to detail by David, a talented craftsman who is also a musician, and was able to combine his understanding of both worlds to create a beautiful and functional masterpiece.

As I began searching for the right desk for my new studio, I found Argosy, Sterling, OmniRaxx, and others all had many creative designs, but either the designs were not quite what I wanted, the quality of workmanship or materials was not sufficient, or a combination of both. I chose David to create my desk because of his love for quality design and construction, his appreciation for the beauty of natural woods, and his desire to make a desk with a "vibe" and not just a piece of furniture. The end result is that he has created more than just a desk, he has created an instrument that plays a vital role in the creation and development of music in my studio. Additionally, David has become a great friend during this process.

The desk was crafted using a variety of fine woods and careful attention to detail. Beautiful natural cherry trim ties the desk to the natural cherry floor of the studio and accents the classic "studio black" finish nicely. For the side panels a special finish was added - in low light and at certain angles they appear to be painted black as well, but in the right light you can see that they are actually an ebonized finish that lets some of the beautiful wood grain show through and creates an additional warmth and "vibe".

The desk provided an interesting challenge in both design and construction - there are almost no 90 degree angles on the desk, and of the many angles of various parts, none of them are the same. Ergonomics, ventilation, and the acoustic footprint of the desk were all extremely important considerations in the design as well.

This weekend, the desk will be positioned into it's permanent position, and I'll begin installing equipment into the racks, and then do final acoustic measurements to ensure that the addition of the desk is within my targeted acoustic predictions and tolerances.

I'll post more photos of the desk later, with and without gear, but here are a few quick shapshots after finishing the final assembly and installation tonight.

If you would be interested in having a replica of this desk, or a custom designed desk for your own studio, please contact me and I'll put you in touch with the craftsman who built this.

Adding "Warmth" to Mixes

2008-09-20T15:49:00.007-04:00

"Can you turn up the Warmth?"

It seems like every piece of studio equipment these days is promising to add "warmth" or to "fatten" your tracks. Log on to any online recording forum and you'll quickly realize that this is a hot topic - particulary with manufacturers trying to sell new gear and less experienced engineers trying to improve the sound of their tracks. The more experienced engineers seem to find either frustration or humor (or both) in this never-ending quest for warmth by the masses... The word has become so overused that it has almost become meaningless.

Don't fall for marketing hype!

If you believe that there is a magic box of some kind that will suddenly make everything you touch turn to warm and full sounding gold records, you are being foolish. If you actually believe that something will sound full, fat, and warm just because it has a tube in it, you are being naive. Some manufacturers have realized just how naive and technically clueless many people are and if they tell you it is warm because it has tubes in it, the masses will blindly believe them. NEWS FLASH - wiring a tube up so that it glows a little and putting it in a piece of gear doesn't mean anything. Unless it is done right, you might as well just have a plain old fashioned light bulb instead, as sometimes, the tube does nothing more than look cool and give them something to talk about in their marketing literature.

So, when someone talks about warmth, what are they really talking about. This must mean using tube mics, preamps loaded with tubes and transformers, using the best converters, and using analog gear during mixing instead of working in the box. Ideally, you'll have a 2" tape machine of course. Right? Not necessarily. Before you start maxing out your credit cards...

Let me tell a little story to make a point...

I recently worked on a project for a band called "Barry Betts and The Cheaters". The album was tracked and mixed at Jarico Studios in Rockford, IL., and referred to me for mastering. I know these guys well. I know their recording system in detail, know how they like to work, what they normally work on, and what their "sound" is. I know that they consistently turn out one great sounding mix after another. Even so, I was a bit surprised when I listened to the tracks from their latest project. It sounded "classic" and "modern" at the same time; clean, warm, and full, with great clarity, no noise, and great dynamics. Honestly, it sounded like an album tracked in a vintage studio, but with better clarity and no noise. While everything Jarico Studios does seems to turn out great, this project in particular had a nice tone and warmth with it that was beyond what I was used to hearing on most "modern" projects.

I questioned Head Engineer, Matt Zilm, on his approach to this project. He acknowledged that a significant factor was the musicians themselves: "These guys have a ton of studio experience and they really knew what they wanted the individual tracks to sound like, so the "vintage" sound happened very naturally." He also noted that their instruments and amps "lent themselves very well to getting that vintage sound.". When recording the band, Matt spent a great deal of time selecting the proper microphones and getting the right mic placement in order to get the sound that they were after right from the start. When it came time to mix, there was very little EQ needed on the tracks, and what EQ was done, was mostly subtractive. The results of this careful attention to detail up front, and conservative mixing are obvious.

Now, you might be assuming that Jarico Studios tracked this project through an impressive array of tube mics, running through racks of vintage preamps, and through the best quality converters available. You might also assume that the project was mixed, or at least processed, in the analog realm with tube compressors and EQ. You might even assume that they tracked, or at least mixed, to a nice analog tape machine. But, none of these things are true. This album was tracked through "stock" preamps, with "stock" converters. Not a single tube mic or preamp was used, and the album was mixed "in-the-box". Sure, the equipment they used was good quality professional equipment, but the "warmth" came from talented musicians and engineers, good arrangements, and good decision making.

"Sources" of Warmth

While I've indirectly hit on a number of key ways to get warmth, I want to list some of them here, with brief comments for easy reference.

Start at the source: If your instruments and amps sound thin, harsh, and weak to begin with, can you realistically expect them to sound full and warm later?

Room Acoustics: If your tracking room has a "cold" sound or a nasty flutter echo, this will make it more difficult to achieve warmth. A good mix of broadband absorption and diffusion will help you get a better sound to start with.

Mic Selection: Tube, FET, and Ribbon mics have a great reputation for adding warmth, darkness or other pleasing colorations. However, don't overlook your "normal" condensor and dynamic mics. Matching the right mic to the task is key. Keep in mind that sometimes a dynamic mic, with their slower transient response than condensors, can also contribute a degree of extra warmth.

Mic Placement: An inch can make a big difference - don't just put up a mic, take some time to move it around to find the most pleasing spot. On acoustic instruments, you can sometimes get a warmer tone by backing off the mic to get more of the "wood" sound. On vocals you can sometimes get a warmer and "bigger" sound by moving closer to maximize the proximity effect. Of course, this all depends on the source, the mic, and the room. Experiment and let your ears be the judge.

Tubes: No list would be complete without tubes. A properly designed tube circuit adds warmth in the form of added harmonic content. Mics, preamps, compressors, EQs, and direct boxes are all great ways to add warmth. Try upgrading your guitar amp to a tube amp.

Transformers: Oh I love the sound of a good transformer. There are many types of transformer circuits that lend themselves to different sounds, but all of the quality designs have a pleasing impact. If you are looking for a warm, "vintage" sound, try using a quality mic preamp based on any of the great designs of the 70's.

Converters: In the digital world, your sound is only as good as your converters. A poor set of converters is often described as being cold and harsh. A good set of converters will overcome this. Additionally, some converters have features that allow you to mimic the sound of tape compression.

Digital Levels: Recording with conservative levels - leaving plenty of headroom for transients - can lead to a better sounding mix. The same goes for when mixing... make sure you aren't clipping anywhere in the signal path, including busses, aux sends, and plugins. Keeping your signal clean from start to finish will prevent a build up of unpleasant and harsh sounding digital distortion.

Tape: This one is obvious right? Properly maintaining, calibrating, and using a tape machine is not for everyone, and the expense of tape is a concern also, but if you have the cash and some motivation, you can utilize tape in your system. No need to throw out your DAW - just run your mix from your DAW to the tape machine during mixdown.

EQ: Warmth can come from gently rolling off the high end of a track, boosting the low mids/lows, or a bit of both. Use with caution though - there is sometimes a fine line between warm and full sounding vs dull and muddy!

Compression: While I may get some disagreements, I personally feel that compression and limiting can add warmth to a track. Harsh spikes are reduced and the track can gain a little more "body". This includes compression done in-the-box with plug-ins. Don't overdo it though - good dynamics are critical for a sucessful mix.

Reverb/Effects: Choosing the right reverb (or other effect) can make a big difference. Experiment and try different settings. If you are a relative novice, I suggest you refer to a preset of a "Warm Room" or a "Dark Plate" as a starting point to help you in learning how to change the settings of reverb to create the sound you are after. Don't forget - a classic trick is to process the reverb with compression or EQ to further alter (and possibly warm up) the sound. The same principals apply to other effects as well.

"Warming" Processors: There are a variety of plugins and hardware units that are specifically designed to bring warmth to your mix. Be careful about thinking of these as a magic box that will solve all of your problems, but with a little experimenting, you'll find they can be very effective. A good example of a hardware unit is the Empirical Labs Fatso Jr. In the software domain, there are a number of good tape saturation emulation plugins. Most of these, when used properly and when employing good techniques, can lead to warmer, more rich sounding mixes.

Consistency: I believe that using some common processing between tracks can (in many cases) help "glue" the tracks together and create a warmth and tone that can not be easily captured otherwise. One popular technique is using the same or similar preamps for the majority of your "core" tracks, while feeling free to use something "special" on the key tracks. For example, using your primary preamps for most of the band, but running the lead guitar through something else, MAY help "gel" the sound of the band, while letting the lead guitar cut through and stand out a bit more in the mix. When working with limited hardware resources, some people find it very effective to take a plugin that has a definite impact on color or warmth, and implementing it on every track in the mix. This could be a compressor, EQ, or some other plugin. I have had mixed results with this depending on the source material and the plug-ins used, but I do know that this can be an effective technique for creating your own "virtual vintage console", which can add warmth and fullness to your mix.

In Summary

I could continue to list more ways to create "warmth" in your mixes, but the ideas and suggestions mentioned so far should be sufficient to take even the most novice of engineers to the next level in creating mixes that have a more richness and warmth to them. Pick a couple of these items, experiment, adapt them to your own style, and master them and you too will find that you can improve your mixes - and while more gear may help, the most important thing is how you use it!

Review: Reactor Tone Packs for Electric Guitar

2008-08-27T21:47:00.000-04:00

Reactor Tone Packs are small, passive circuits that promise more versatile and pleasing tone from your electric guitar. They are easily installed, and as they utilize your existing tone and volume pots, they don't require the removal of your existing circuits. Best of all, they are extremely inexpensive - less than $30 each with discounts available if you make multiple purchases.

I would be skeptical were it not for the fact that the developer of the Tone Packs is a good friend, who I know to have an extensive electronics background, and who is also one of the most talented guitarists I know.

Even so, when I first heard about the prototypes for the Reactor Tonepacks, I was expecting the sonic improvement to be very subtle, but when I actually heard them - I was blown away. I couldn’t believe how obvious the difference was between them and traditional circuits. I was fortunate enough to have some small involvement in the development of the Tonepacks; My Les Paul was one of several guitars used as a testing ground, and my ears and opinions were used as a sounding board during the later stages of the development process. My Les Paul bridge tone circuit became the happy home of the circuit that is now known as the Viper. It’s been about 20 years since I first starting playing guitar, and for as long as I’ve been playing, I have been complaining about the brittle, thin, edgy, and harsh sound of many bridge pickups. I just haven't found them that flattering for much of the music I play. I’ve also complained about how most guitar tone circuits are designed – it seems too often you have dull and muddy on one end of the circuit and harsh and thin on the other – often without a real good compromise in between. Well, after 20 years, I’m finally starting to find myself playing a lot more on the bridge pickup. I’m amazed at the excellent range of tones I’m able to get that I just couldn’t get before. While the Viper was really designed to excel on distorted tones, I also find it extremely useful on clean tones as well, and am getting great new sounds out of my old Les Paul.

So, what exactly are the Reactor Tone Packs, and how do they tap into the hidden tonal possibilities of your guitar without changing pickups or performing other expensive modifications?

The REACTOR Tone Packs are specialized mid-range filters that also interact with the resonant response of your pickup, something that can only be accomplished with a passive circuit. Best of all, they utilize your existing controls.

Extensive time and care has gone into developing a system that is simple in function, intuitive to use with high tonal quality, and easy to install with minimal invasion of existing electronics.

Emphasis has been placed on performance while keeping cost, size and quality of components high priorities.The REACTORS come in two main varieties: Those for series humbuckers and those for single coils.

Here is an overview of the REACTOR Tone Pack product line:

HUMBUCKER MODELS:

VIPER: Provides an emphasized, very tight bass response with excellent presence. This is optimized for fat, overdriven tones.

VIPER DT: The Viper "Deep Throat" - similar to the Viper but with a little wider bottom end and more snarl.

COBRA: Low end emphasis with a little looser, meaty sound. More "vintage" in character, this performs wonderfully for scorching blues sounds.

COBRA DT: The Cobra "Deep Throat" - similar to Cobra but with a much more dramatic growl.

*The Cobras and Vipers are voiced more for overdriven sounds but also give nice emphasis for clean tones when used between 5 and 10 on your tone dial.*

ACOUSTIC CHROME: This pack is voiced for clean tones. When rolled off it imparts a shimmery, scooped clean sound that takes the heat out of your pickup and is optimized for rhythm playing that sits more like an acoustic guitar. You won't believe it's a humbucking bridge pickup!

VINTAGE COOLER: A unique model and concept, this pack attaches to the volume control of your neck pickup (although the bridge will work too if that's the sound you're looking for). When turned down to the "7" range it re-voices your pickup to a more vintage, "non-overwound" sound. Down to "5" you get a more "underwound" tone, incredible for neck rhythm playing. Once below about "4", the control resumes it's normal volume function until reaching zero.

SINGLE COIL MODELS:

PIEZO ACOUSTIC: As the name states, this pack causes your pickup to sound like a "piezo", with a very wide, sparkley sound. It complements any pickup position. On a traditional bridge pickup it sounds very much like a bridge mounted piezo system, but much less expensive and invasive!

COUNTRY CLEAN: This pack imparts a tonal quality similar to the Piezo Acoustic model but retains more of the mid-range tones. When rolled off lightly (between 6 and 8) it imparts a "Tele'" quality to the bridge pickup and is great for country style rhythm playing and licks.

BLUE SCOOP: A more resonant filter that lends itself to "blues" tonality, either clean or overdriven. The clean tones are optimized at settings of "5" or higher on the tone dial. Below "5" and saturation starts to appear. Play it hard!

If you are serious about your tone, and would like to learn more about the REACTOR Tone Packs, including hearing audio samples - visit http://www.reactortone.com/ today.

As a guitarist with 20 years of experience, I can assure you that these are well designed, well thought out, and well worth the very small price tag associated with them.

The 12-Step Program For Mastering Preparation

2008-06-24T06:45:00.001-04:00

Your mixing sessions are winding down, and it’s time to begin shifting your focus towards the mastering phase. How do you ensure the best possible results during mastering? I’m going to propose a list of suggestions, broken down to cover creative aspects, technical issues, organization, and of course, your due diligence in selecting the right mastering engineer.

(1) Start with good sounds! Let’s back up for a minute. Preparation for mastering starts before you even start recording. Hopefully, you already thought of this! Make sure guitars have had the action and intonation properly set up. Tune and re-tune all instruments, including your drum heads! Make sure amps, keyboards, and other electronics are well maintained and free of excess noise. Eliminate ground loops, replace noisy cables, and clean pots & switches. With your equipment sounding it’s best, and using good recording techniques, you’ll be well on your way to a great sounding master.

(2) Set expectations and goals appropriately. Remember the old saying “garbage in, garbage out”? Don’t forget that this rule applies. Don’t expect miracles from the mastering process. The better the mix is, the better the master will be. Yes, mastering engineers can improve many of the weaknesses in your mix, but there are limitations to what can be done at this point in the process without a remix, so be realistic.

(3) Make sure your mix style is appropriate. Unless you are striving for a niche sound that is unique, creative, and artistic, remember that your music will most likely need to be accepted by a mainstream audience. In Hip Hop, the beat should be hitting hard. Vocals are king in Country music, so make sure they sit nicely on top of the mix. Reverb should generally be used sparingly for in-your-face modern Rock music. Whatever your style, make sure the key elements are receiving the attention they need in the mix.

(4) Check your mixes for consistency. While different songs will require different techniques, in general, key elements – such as vocals – should have a fairly consistent volume from track to track. Compare your songs and make sure there are no songs that have key elements dramatically hotter or weaker than the rest.

(5) Keep the compressor off the mix buss! Unless you really know what you are doing, leave the compressor and limiter off of the mix buss completely. The mastering engineer probably has better gear, better ears, and a better sense of what is actually needed. If you absolutely must, keep the gain reduction to 3db or less and consider providing a non-compressed copy to the mastering engineer as well.

(6) Leave some headroom. Keep your peak levels comfortably beneath the 0 mark. Many mastering engineers suggest allowing at least 2 to 3 db of headroom, as this will give them a little more room to work.

(7) Consider doing stems or “up/down” mixes. If you have struggled to get just the right balance between parts, providing “stems” or “up/down” mixes to the mastering engineer will allow them some additional flexibility. Up/Down mixes are mixes that have a key element mixed at a different volume, so that you can decide later which is the best mix to use. These differences are usually very minor…1db or less. While vocals are the most common tracks to receive the “up/down” treatment, any part that is the subject of debate or concern amongst the band members or producer can benefit from this. Just don’t get carried away, and remember that changes of more than 1db may throw off other areas of the mix as well, so keep the changes small. Stems are essentially sub-mixes. A typical rock band might be broken out into stereo submixes of: Bass and Drums, Keys and Guitars, backing vocals, and lead vocal. This allows the mastering engineer the ability to “tweak” the tracks a little more than normal, while still keeping the basic integrity of the original mix.

(8) Preview your mix with the mastering engineer. Before you move into the final polishing of your mix, consider checking with your mastering engineer to see if they will preview a copy of your rough mixes. Most mastering engineers are willing to provide advice and direction to help you get the mix sounding the best it can before it comes to them, although some may charge a small fee for the service. Doing this may help you keep your project on schedule, and sounding its very best. This is also a good time to discuss other issues.. Be sure the mastering engineer knows who the target audience is – for example, if a track is to be played in a nightclub or on television, you may need to do separate masters for those uses vs. the traditional CD/Radio play. Discuss turnaround time with the mastering engineer and be sure you are comfortable with their processes. Listen to samples of their work – especially “before and after” samples if they have them. Finally, make sure you understand the costs, including any “extra” fees.

(9) Use a reference CD. While most mastering engineers are going to have a very good idea of what a project needs, it’s still helpful to provide a reference track of a song, album, or artist that exemplifies the overall sound you are going for. You may also find it helpful to import a reference song into your mixing session so that you can quickly A/B your mix in progress to a finished piece that has a similar arrangement and vibe. If you do this, lower the volume of the reference CD to match your mix volume! Otherwise, your comparison will be very inaccurate. Also – don’t forget that the reference track has already gone through mastering – don’t expect your mix to have the same polished feel. The reference track is just that – something to refer to, to make sure you are moving in the right direction. Don’t try to duplicate it exactly!

(10) Know what file formats to use! Make sure you know what file format or delivery method your mastering engineer prefers. Generally, these are going to be 24 bit audio files of some type. If your mastering engineer doesn’t specify, ask them if they have a preference. If you are planning to send your tracks in via DAT, Analog Tape, or some other physical medium, make sure you check with your mastering engineer for compatibility first. Also, make sure you understand how the masters will be delivered to you. Will it be on CDR? Internet Download? Other?

(11) Be ORGANIZED! Make sure files are named in a clear, easy to understand manner. Alternative mixes, stems, etc should all be very well organized so that even a complete beginner unfamiliar with the project can understand what goes where no matter how large the project is. If you have specific requirements for track spacing, CD Text, or other data, be sure to have it all neatly typed out, including exact start, end, and fade out points as applicable. Song order should be clearly noted. If you want the mastering engineer to determine the sequencing, make sure you have discussed this with them in advance as they are most likely going to charge an additional fee for this service. Label everything clearly and keep a backup copy of everything you send the mastering engineer.

(12) Try before you buy. Choose your mastering engineer carefully – they will be the last person to touch your masterpiece before it is completed. Most mastering engineers will allow a free sample of their mastering before you purchase, or will defer the bulk of the payment until after you have confirmed your satisfaction with the final product. If you aren’t familiar with your mastering engineer and their work, and they can’t offer one of the above options, don’t use them. Don’t get caught up in what gear they use or how long they’ve been in business. What matters is their ears, their judgments, good acoustics in their room, and that you like their style. Listen to some of their previous work, especially from artists who have a similar sound as your own. When in doubt, ask other musicians and studios you trust for a referral.

If you are thinking about mastering your tracks yourself, I urge you to keep in mind that mastering isn’t about just adding some additional processing – it’s also about getting a fresh perspective from a trusted set of ears in a well tuned room. If you do proceed with your own mastering, don’t forget that most of the above steps still apply.

Follow these steps and you should find the mastering process to go smoothly.

If you are interested in my mastering services, please feel free to contact me directly!

M/S Recording: Creating Options at Mixdown

2008-06-07T15:40:00.012-04:00

Recently, I posted an article covering a number of the most popular methods of recording stereo material. Today, I want to build on that original conversation by giving you a taste of the power and flexibility of one of my favorite stereo recording methods – the M/S (Mid-Side) technique. If you haven’t read the original post, click HERE to do so.

As you’ll recall, once the M/S system is decoded, you will have three separate tracks in your DAW…the “Mid” (center) microphone, and left and right tracks created by the “Side” microphone. By adjusting the volume and panning, and by muting selected tracks, a whole new world of options will be available during mixing, that will help you fit your tracks into even the most troublesome of mixes.

For some examples, I’ll be using a single clip of a recording I made of a Tacoma acoustic guitar using an M/S technique. The “M” mic was a small diaphragm cardiod condenser and the “S” mic was a large diaphragm in a figure 8 pattern. The guitar was mic’d fairly close – about 9 inches out. There is no compression, eq, reverb, or other processing of any kind – these are raw tracks with the exception of the last track, where I demonstrate a creative use of M/S. Click on each example to hear the related audio clip.

Example #1 is a pure, traditional M/S recording. The volume on all tracks is the same, the M is in the center, and the S tracks are panned hard left and hard right. This results in a fairly “big” sound, with an image that is wide but also focused. This would be great in a mix where the guitar has plenty of room to breathe, or is one of the focal points of the mix.

Example #2 is a clip that shows the effect of lowering or raising the volume of the center track – starting with the center track very low and then raising it to full volume. In addition to the obvious changes in overall volume, you will hear a dramatic change in the tonal qualities. Additionally, you will hear that you can affect the perceived width of the track by adjusting the volume up and down. Adjusting the center track can help squeeze the track into a busier mix, or simply provide more creative options.

Example #3 is created by muting the left and right tracks, and using only the center mic. This method may prove very useful when a mix becomes crowded and there is simply not room for a stereo method.

Example #4 is created by muting the center track and using only the left and right tracks. In this example, they are panned 100%. Not featured in this recording, but still very useful tricks, are to try panning them in more to create a different image. Another effective trick is to blend the gain, so that one side is louder than the other. This can be used to reduce string squeaks on an acoustic guitar, or tame a piano player who might be be over or under aggressive on one of their hands.

Example #5 is a trick I call “Synthetic X/Y”. I do this by muting either the left or right track, and then hard panning the center track to fill the position of the now muted side track. This effectively recreates the image of an X/Y technique – while not a precise recreation, it is very similar.

Example # 6 is the same as #5 but with the panning positions reversed. Depending on the mic placement and the source being recorded, there can often be a fairly dramatic difference.

Example #7 is the same as number 5, but with the panning brought in so that it is a narrower, more focused image.

Example #8 is the only example that features any processing. In this example, the tracks are set up in the traditional method (see example 1) but the center channel has been processed. In this case, the track has been ran through a guitar amp simulator that has added distortion, EQ, Compression, Chorus, and Reverb. This might seem a little extreme, but serves as a good example, as this creates an interesting sound that now sounds more like a part that has been triple tracked – twice with acoustic guitar and once with an electric. As always, you can vary the panning, the volume blending, and of course – the processing – to fit your specific wants. Using this example as inspiration, you can see that you could experiment with separate eq, compression, or other processing on any of these methods, to have an unlimited palette of options.

One very powerful use of M/S that I should mention, but unfortunately don’t have an audio example of, is to help battle the effects of a performer who moves around while you are recording. Guitarists are big culprits here… A guitar player may move the neck forward and back a little during the performance, shift their weight, lean back, lean forward, or otherwise adjust their position while tracking. Sometimes, these changes can be distracting in the mix, particularly when using close mic’ing techniques. Intelligent use of compression may help but isn't always the best method. Using an M/S recording technique allows you to make small adjustments between the 3 tracks to compensate – for example, lowering the volume on the left side slightly and raising it on the right to offset for the guitarist pushing the neck slightly forward as they play. With a little automation, you can follow the movements of a performer to keep the track sounding more consistent, if that is what is appropriate for the song.

As you can see, using M/S has many benefits beyond simply capturing a good stereo sound. With a little practice, it can open up a whole new world of possibilities. Try these methods out on acoustic guitar, piano, drum kits, or anything else you can get your hands on, and learn how to use this powerful technique to improve your recordings AND your mixes.

Competition or Cooperation?

2008-05-29T07:34:00.005-04:00

How professionals and amateurs can work together to benefit all.

It’s no secret that over the last 10+ years, digital technology has become more and more affordable and widespread – putting powerful technology into the hands of more and more hobbyists and untrained users. More music is being heard now than ever, thanks to the ability to produce a single or even a full album on a small budget, and electronically distribute the final product through the internet. Of course, being able to create and distribute something cheaply and conveniently doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to sound “professional” – in fact, some mastering engineers comment that they are receiving the worst sounding mixes that they have ever heard in their long careers.

While this boom of affordable technology has generally been great for the industry as a whole - especially the home studio market – it has also helped create new challenges for many professionals. A number of established studios around the country have closed down, and many others have had to diversify or make other changes in order to stay competitive. Some engineers who used to make a very comfortable living now find themselves working more hours and earning less money, and often competing with people who have far less experience, and inferior equipment.

With all these changes, it may seem natural for the seasoned professionals and the more inexperienced enthusiasts to be at odds with each other - but this kind of an attitude is exactly what limits many home and project studios to producing lower quality recordings, and contributes to many experienced studios and engineers losing valuable business opportunities.

There is a simple answer that is good for all involved: Compliment and cooperate, instead of compete. Work with each other, rather than against each other. Doing so benefits both sides, and also benefits the artists, and the people who will ultimately listen to them.

To the experienced professionals – don’t just do the work, mentor your less experienced counterparts and you’ll find friends who will want to continue to work with you and who will refer jobs to you that are bigger than what they are able to handle. You may be able to sell your services to them for the purpose of helping them improve their skills in the studio. As they get better, you may even find them wanting to rent out your studio so that they can tackle bigger jobs, and if you need an assistant engineer to help on a big job, they might provide a ready and willing pool of talent. Additionally, rather than just declining jobs you don’t want to take for whatever reason, you can refer your unwanted jobs out.

To the less experienced (and particularly to engineers who are also artists) – don’t let your passion, ambition, and pride get in the way of getting the best results possible. Working with an experienced engineer can expedite your own growth and progress. I’m going to provide (3) very specific examples of how you can benefit greatly by partnering with a more experienced professional. Keep in mind, that there are countless other ways that I’m not mentioning.

Record your album yourself, and let a professional mix it.
There are a number of reasons why you might want to do this, but the most important is probably this: If your band, or any member of your band, is not well rehearsed, gets nervous easily, or just doesn’t perform well under pressure, you might want to consider doing the recording yourself, or at another home or project studio, where you can focus on getting the tracks right, without worrying about what it’s costing you. This is one of the single biggest advantages. Additionally, if you find that your raw tracks all sound great individually, but you struggle to get a rocking mix, you should get help from a professional who can do it better and faster. In addition to more experience, a seasoned pro will likely have a better mixing environment, better processors, more processors to choose from, and a more powerful overall system. Why settle for a good mix, when you could have a great mix? Once your tracks are mixed, you can also learn to develop your mixing skills by taking your original tracks and trying to recreate the professional mix on your system, which is a great learning experience.

Record your album with a professional, and mix it yourself.
Do you have a great selection of microphones and preamps? Do you have a great sounding room? Are you able to be both the artist and the engineer at the same time? Do you understand how to best mic a variety of instruments? If you can’t answer yes to at least half of these questions, you should seriously consider getting an experienced recording engineer to track the bulk of your project. If you have good engineering skills but lack the good gear and room acoustics – just consider renting a professional studio. If you are an artist, keep in mind that worrying about mic placement and gain staging while trying to be creative can be very difficult, and having a dedicated engineer can allow you to focus on creating the best music possible while they focus on capturing your performance in the best way possible. If you are pinching pennies, you can certainly record all of your “core” tracks this way, and then do a few overdubs in your home or project studio to save money.

It is usually a joy to mix an album that was well recorded in a great room, with great gear, with good attention to levels. Usually, in these circumstances, much less processing is needed to get a great balance and great sound in your mix, and the mix will come together much more quickly. This is a completely different experience from mixing a track with poor mic placement, bad room acoustics, inferior equipment, or other problems. In these situations, an inexperienced engineer is quickly going to become overwhelmed and often will go to such extremes to try to get the sound that they may end up making the problems even worse. Do yourself a favor – hire a professional engineer, or rent a quality studio, so that your tracks will sound great before you even start mixing.

Record key tracks with a professional, and do everything else yourself.
This method is very popular. The 2 most common examples are drums and vocals. Getting a great drum sound can be challenging, and when working with poor room acoustics, an inferior drum kit, or limited gear, those challenges can be greatly magnified. Recording at a studio with good acoustics and good gear can make a HUGE difference in how good the drums sound, and as noted before, can make mixing much easier. If you have the right skills – rent a studio and do the engineering yourself. If you don’t have the skills, have the studio provide the engineer – It will save you time and money and give you better results.

With most popular music, and especially with country music, the vocals are the focal point of the song. Doing your vocal overdubs with a professional studio might make a world of difference in how they sound, and the experience of working with a seasoned engineer will help you learn how to cut better vocal tracks in your own studio as well.

In summary – the pro’s need not fear the amateurs, and the amateurs should not hesitate to lean on the experience of a professional engineer, or rent a professional studio. When you consider the amount of money you’ve spent on your instruments, lessons, your studio equipment, and other things related to your studio or your band, the small cost of hiring a professional to compliment your work is minimal, and it would be short-sighted to limit the potential of your work by trying to do everything yourself. You want great sounding material coming out of your studio – don’t be afraid to share the spotlight to make that happen. The artist wants to sound good, so help them by doing the right thing. The fans want to listen to a great recording, so deliver it to them. Don't let your pride hold you or your clients back.

If you are interested in having professional mixing, mastering, editing, or recording done for some or all of your next project, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Stereo Recording Techniques

2008-05-20T18:12:00.001-04:00

Utilizing stereo recording techniques can add space, excitement, and realism to your recordings. Learning when to use these techniques is as important as learning how to use them. Don’t forget that in a busy mix, sometimes the best technique may still be just a single mono microphone. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s dive right in to the various methods.

Spaced Pair

The Spaced Pair is one of the most common, and deceptively simple methods. With little effort you can get a great recording, but you can also easily create a muddy recording with a vague image. Spaced pairs in general are considered to be less accurate than other methods, but can yield a very wide and spacious sound. This tendency to create a spacious sound makes them popular for recording ambiance and “room sound”, and for recording choirs and orchestras. Omni-directional mics are often used, but cardiod patterns can also be used with excellent results. Generally, as with most stereo recording methods, you will want to use an identical pair of microphones.

To basic rule for microphone placement on a spaced pair is to follow the “3 to 1” rule. This rule states that the distance between the left and right microphones should be 3 times the distance between the microphones and the object being recorded. For example, if the microphones are placed back 5 feet, they should (in theory) be 15 feet from each other. This is NOT a hard and fast rule, but is a general starting point.

When recording a choir or orchestra, a spaced pair is typically going to be placed back 5 to 10 feet. Going farther back is possible, but the farther back they are placed, the more reverberant and less well defined the sound will be. When using a spaced pair in this manner, be aware that the center of the image may be less distinct than the sides. This is important to know, for if there is to be a soloist in a section of the performance, the recording may produce better results if the soloist is to the side, not the center. Combining the spaced pair technique with other methods can also resolve this, but will add additional challenges, so experiment with care. The distance between the microphones will often end up being approximately ½ to 1/3 the width of the stage. There are no hard and fast rules, so feel free to experiment using this, and the 3:1 rule as your starting points.

The height of the microphones can vary, but a typical starting point would be to have them at the same level as the object being recorded. Raising them higher will generally add more ambiance, and depending on what you are recording, may allow you to capture more high frequencies. Violins and other similar instruments do radiate higher frequencies into the air above them.

The spaced pair doesn’t always need to be a room mic though, it can be used successfully in close situations as well. I personally tend to favor a cardiod pattern more for close situations and an omni more for more distant situations. Additionally, in some close situations such as a piano or guitar, I have had great success not using a matched pair, but instead using a small diaphragm mic in combination with a similarly voiced large diaphragm mic. There are no rules and you should use your ears, and some common sense, to determine what is best. An acoustic guitar is an example of a situation where one might want to create a “bigger” sound by using a stereo recording method. In this situation, the spaced pair could be as close as 6” from the guitar, roughly focused on the area around where the neck and body meet on the one side, and around the bridge or the wood just behind the bridge on the other side. When recording for popular commercial music, keeping the spaced pair within 9” to 3’ will likely deliver a more focused sound that is appropriate for these styles of music, while classical guitar typically would be better served by moving the microphones farther back to get a more natural "room" sound.

In addition to the fact that more distant uses of the spaced pair may result in a less focused center image, the spaced pair is susceptible to issues created by the same sound arriving at the microphones at different times, hence the reason that placement should be planned carefully. Introducing “spot” microphones into the mix will add another degree of difficulty. Compatibility with mono playback can be a concern, so while some phasing may actually sound pleasing, use the basic rules to get you started, and then use your ears to do the fine tuning, being sure to reference the signal in mono if possible before beginning recording.

Decca Tree

While the average home or project studio might never use this method, it is still worth taking the time to understand it. The Decca Tree method was developed by engineers at Decca Records in the UK sometime in the 1950’s, and today remains one of the most popular ways for recording film scores and other “high end” orchestral recordings. The Decca Tree method creates a very spacious and detailed stereo image, and is highly compatible with the various surround sound formats. Unlike the spaced pair, it has no problem creating a highly detailed center image.

Over the years, engineers have developed many variations to the original Decca Tree. The original method involved a “T” shaped bar with the “top” of the T being approximately 2 meters across, and the other part of the T being approximately 1.5 meters. Matching omni-directional microphones are mounted on each of the 3 ends of the T. The T structure is usually raised around 10 feet into the air, with the center microphone usually just behind the conductor. All of the microphones are angled down and the side mics would also typically be turned slightly to capture the entire width of the orchestra. Quite often, another set of microphones (such as a spaced pair) is placed farther back in the hall to capture more of the room ambiance to blend in with the main recording.

X-Y Method

The X-Y method is extremely popular in home, project, and professional studios. It is probably the single most popular stereo method for overhead drum kit recording, and is extremely popular for guitar and piano as well. It lends itself to a very good stereo image, free from the phase issues that sometimes affect spaced pairs, and also provides good rejection of sounds coming from behind the microphones. It offers good localization without being overly spacious, making it very appropriate for use in popular modern music. In some cases, it may tend to be a little brighter sounding than other methods - use this to your advantage on drum overheads. Many manufacturers sell stereo microphones that utilize the X-Y method in a single microphone body. These microphones make it easy for even the most inexperienced engineers to capture stereo recordings with amazing detail and simplicity, with excellent mono compatibility. In spite of this, the more traditional method of using two separate mics will allow for more flexibility.

In the X-Y method, two identical microphones with a cardiod pattern are placed with the capsules as close together as they can be placed, with the capsules at a right angle (90 degrees) to each other. The angle can be adjusted by around 30% greater or smaller and still yield excellent results while allowing you to control the perceived size of the stereo image. Placement of the X-Y setup should be determined by a number of factors, such as what you are recording, how loud it is, and how much room sound you wish to capture vs. direct sound. As always, use your ears and common sense.

ORTF Method

The ORTF method was developed by a French agency and it stands for “Office de Radio Television Francaise”. It is very similar to another method called the NOS technique, which we won't discuss in detail today. The whole point of the ORTF method is to emulate the placement of the ears on the head of an average adult, thereby attempting to create a stereo image that feels very natural to the listener. The resulting recordings usually have a wide image with excellent depth, with acceptable mono compatibility. ORTF recordings are typically associated with having a fairly tight low end, with open mids and a nice amount of “air” in the high end.

Using two identical microphones, the capsules are placed 6 to 7 inches apart, pointing away from each other at approximately a 110 degree angle. Distance from the object being recorded should again be driven by what you are recording, and what your objective is.

Blumlein Method

The Blumlein method is named after Alan Blumlein, who developed the technique. While it can yield fantastic results in the right hands, it’s not usually something I would recommend to home and project studios. Essentially, this method is the same as the X-Y method, with the exception that you would use microphones that have a Figure 8 pattern instead of a cardiod pattern. Obviously, this will pick up much more room ambiance and noise from behind the microphones. Mono compatibility with this method is poor, and the way the mics capture room ambiance behind them can lead to poor localization of the sound source, and phasing issues that may lead to hollow or resonant sounding tracks. In a situation where you have an excellent room and perfect mic placement, the results can be absolutely fantastic, with a wide image and natural frequency response. However, it is generally more feasible for other methods to be used.

M-S Method

The X-Y and M-S methods are definitely my personal favorites for non-orchestral, non-choir situations involving most modern music styles, and the M-S method in particular gives me so much flexibility that I find myself using it often. M-S stands for Mid-Side, and this method was also developed by Alan Blumlein, in the 1930's. The M-S method results in a very accurate representation of a stereo image, with good rejection of noise behind the microphones. It offers good localization without being overly spacious, making it very appropriate for use in popular modern music. This method also offers excellent mono compatibility with most material. Be careful in using this method for any sound source that is extremely "wide" as those types of material will typically not translate to mono well, and another method should be used in those cases. M/S provides a plethora of options at mixdown time. At a later date, I’ll write a separate article that fully explores the awesome power and flexibility that this technique offers at mixing time, but for now, we’ll explore only the basics.

While an identical pair of microphones is not needed for this method, it is still suggested that the two microphones have similar character. In this method, a cardiod microphone is positioned directly facing the object being recorded. A microphone with a figure 8 pattern is then positioned directly above or below this, so that the capsules are as close together as possible. The front and back of the figure 8 microphone will face to the left and the right. If you do have a fantastic sounding room, or have an audience behind the microphones and wish to capture more of that you can substitute an omni-directional microphone in place of the cardiod microphone and still have excellent results.

M-S is unique in that it requires “decoding” in order for it to become a true stereo signal that you can utilize in your recording system. Some microphone preamps will have an M-S encoding system built in. If you do not have one of these, don’t worry – there is an easy trick you can do in your recording software. Record your two original tracks (the "M" and "S" tracks) into your digital audio workstation. Make a copy of the “S” microphone, which will be the figure 8. Paste the copy into a new track and invert the phase of this track (many plug-ins will have a phase invert button) and then hard pan these two tracks right and left. You now have 3 tracks that combine to make 1 stereo image. By raising and lowering the volume of the “M” track (the cardiod mic) you can effectively change the stereo width.

In Closing…

This has just been a “primer” for stereo recording, there is much more to learn. We haven’t discussed the NOS method, but it is very similar in concept to ORTF. Additionally, we haven’t discussed the Jecklin disc and Binaural methods. I may cover the Jecklin disc method in an article of it’s own at a later date. Now that you know the basics, spend some time experimenting with them. Start by following “the rules” and then experiment with small variations so that you can learn how to get the most from each method. Mastering these methods – knowing how to use them, which one to use, and when not to use any of them can take your recordings to new levels of realistic depth and width, and add excitement and energy to your tracks.

Eventually, I will post photos and/or diagrams of each of these techniques, but until then, I'm including a couple of links to websites where you can learn more about these various techniques including viewing pictures/diagrams:

http://www.schoeps.de/PDFs/stereo-recording-techniques-e.pdf

http://www.uaudio.com/webzine/2005/december/text/content4.html

http://www.shure.com/stellent/groups/public/@gms_gmi_web_ug/documents/web_resource/us_pro_a27m_ug.pdf

Best of Luck!

SPOTLIGHT ON: Crossfade Recording

2008-05-15T07:30:00.003-04:00

After years of pursuing home recording as a serious hobby, and after having completed a recording engineer training program where I interned with an award winning engineer, I started my first “real” studio in 1996. The engineer I trained with had actually offered me an opportunity to work in partnership with him, but I had a different vision, and pursued my own path.

Initially, my studio was a single large room, the size of a 2 car garage. Actually, it WAS a garage! The garage doors had been removed and replaced with a wall and windows, paneling had been put up on the walls, and carpet had been placed on the floor. Over time, I built a small iso booth and modest control room. Those early days were actually quite exciting – a young band, full of energy and enthusiasm, performing in the very same room that I was recording in. It wasn’t the best of working conditions, but it created excitement and energy, and forced me to develop my skills quickly. Later, as I added the iso booth and control room, the quality of my recordings improved noticeably. We had no air conditioning in the studio. I remember a 3 day stretch of 100 degree temperatures, which just happened to be the 3 days that a band had booked with me. We had several fans around the room, and a cooler was filled with ice and placed in front of one of the fans to help try to cool the room down. Between takes we’d fire up the fans and try to keep the place at a bearable temperature. We scheduled long breaks when possible during the heat of the day, getting most of our work done in the cool of the morning and evening. We actually had a great time, and tracked some great songs those days.

My studio was based around a Mackie 8 Buss 24 Channel console, and Alesis ADAT recorders. Additionally, a computer running Cubase and Logic was integrated into my system to handle MIDI work, sync up for larger projects, and used for occasional editing and processing of tracks. I used Wavelab for fine editing and mastering.

A key part of my business plan was to find one of the hottest local bands in the area and convince them to let me record them within my first few days of being open. I did just that with a blues-rock band by the name of “Juice”. In one day we tracked, mixed, and mastered a 4 song demo with them, and the rest is history. My plan worked – with minimal advertising, the good feedback from Juice had gotten around and I began working on a steady stream of local band projects. I even had several artists who traveled close to 100 miles each way to record with me, as I had gained a good reputation for my work with female vocalists, and for my work with rock and blues-rock bands.

After only a couple of years, I relocated my family from the West to the Midwest and retired the name of Crossfade Recording. A lot has changed since then – my equipment, my skills, and my knowledge are all significantly better now, but I still find myself occasionally reflecting on “the good old days”. Looking forward helps me prepare for a bright future, but looking back brings fond memories, a reminder of how far I’ve come, and a reminder to sometimes forget all the “rules”, and to just dive into every project with creativity, energy, and enthusiasm.

Welcome to my blog

2008-05-12T17:31:00.005-04:00

Welcome to my blog. This is a place for me to share my music, and provide updates on projects I'm working on including personal solo and band projects, and projects I'm working on for or with other artists or companies.

This is also a place where I can share tips and advice for others who are interested in music and recording, network with like-minded people, and obtain your feedback on my music.