Saturday 31 December 2011

Inside 71 Slice channel review.

Garry Moore The Prophet Cover

Slice has a very long way to go. he hasn’t got an exceptional technique as a guitarist, he is well within the average and will not shine in this region without hard work. As a performer he has got the feel, but needs to work on his expressiveness, musically and theatrically. He has made progress and we are helping him to find the way to his style. But this is a journey that he has to do on his own. As a guide to his personal evolution as a musician. I am going to review some hints in his channel uploads.  

My personal review of Slice’s channel in You Tube and the covers he has uploaded. To this day Slice has uploaded 14 covers since March 2010. As you may say he is not very productive, and you are very right to say so. so lets see what he has shared with us.

Looking at his playlist there is one obvious artist that stands out over the rest, that is Pink Floyd. Slice has done 4 covers of 3 songs or parts, these are the earlier covers and are dated from March 2010 when he opened the channel. This first cover was for the David Gilmore “Comfortably Numb” second solo, as recorded live for the P.U.L.S.E. Album during the tour of the same name. Here Slice is 14 years old, his performance is not the cleanest and he does make a few minor mistakes, but listening to the cover you can hear that he has managed to find some tone and a feel for the solo. The sound is not that good since he recorded it with a small Casio camera and there is far to much ambience noise. One thing to notice is that he took the video so that his face was not visible.

Comfortably Numb cover number one. 9 March 2010

He later repeated this cover in a second video in July the same year only 3 months later, this is a much more mature video. He uses the Sony Handy Cam, this improves the video and audio quality. He performs a much richer solo with much more feel and intensity to it, cleaner in performance and with a more responsive and adequate tone. He also appears full headed so that the viewers can see him from this video on will be the standard.    

Second cover of Comfortably Numb Jun 2010

Following the Pink Floyd Covers are a Money solo cover from the Dark Side of the Moon and a full song cover of Shine on you Crazy Diamond Part One from the Live P.U.L.S.E Album. this is a 13 minute and 25 second cover and was recorded on December 2010. This is a long cover with several parts. This is song has a lot of dynamics, that the player has to keep the right mood and feel through the various stages.  

Shine On You Crazy Diamond Cover

In between these two last covers Slice added a Guns N’ Roses solo from the “Chinese Democracy” Album This I Love song originally played by Dj Asbha. a very emotional piece with lost of bends and vibrato 

Slice has done a few rhythmic covers, where no solos are involved like “Sum 41” With Me full song cover, Green Day American Idiot full song cover, “Disciple” After The World full song cover and “3Doors Down” Here Without You full song cover.

With Me Cover for Sum 41

One exception to the rest of the covers is the “Jimi Hendrix” Little Wing intro cover, this cover is different since Slice plays it there is no backing track. This is a Classic and there are many grate covers in the Tube.

Jimi Hendrix Little Wing Cover

As Slice has been making progress in his performing techniques he has also started refining the video and audio recording quality. Note that as he added more covers he started editing the footage using several frames for different instruments played simultaneously a good exposure of this can be the cover Slice made of “Dire Straits” Sultans Of Swing song from the Dire Straits album. Here Slice uses the same hand picking technique that is so characteristic of Mark Knopfler. this is also one of the videos that has received a high rating since day one. Further progress has been the sound mixing on the early videos Slice would play the original song on his PC though his external speakers and played in to his Roland Cube amplifier and matched the volumes of both. Se other post that can provide further info on how we are doing it now.

Dire Straits Sultans Of Swing Cover

The final step has been the inclusion of Chroma Key video recording and editing to provide a better visual experience. The main goal is however to maintain and centre the attention on Slice’s and his performing and not that much on the videos. However there needs to be an appealing video with motion and character to keep the viewers attention.

Don’t Cry Guns N’ Roses Cover

So far we things have been slow but the new project STW that Slice is working on is a major change in direction and we are working for your enjoyment. 

I will be on vacations for a week so I will skip some posts but will be back the second week of January with new stuff that I hope you enjoy.

Remember to comment and subscribe if you have liked this blog. and please follow Slice’s channel on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/user/inside71slice

Thanks and Happy New Year to everybody. 

Open-mouthed smile

Wednesday 28 December 2011

The Crossroads, a compromise.

As musician's and an artists, ¿what are we willing to trade of for making it? Some would sell their sole’s to the devil like in the movie Crossroads, ¿But is this true? Not quite. The devil doesn’t want your sole he is after your integrity (bad word). Integrity meant in the terms of commercial compromise. Long since, music more than an art is an industry, musician's have soled their soles to record companies in return for the use of there marketing machine. Yet it is the ego of the artist that burns in this trade not the sole. When an artist wants to make it  in the music scene, the first thing he need to realise is that he himself and his art are going no were. This only means that while he may have the talent and the art, he lacks the resources, connections and machinery to put it altogether. Getting anywhere nowadays requires a potent combination of both. The tricky part is that the combinations have to mix ingredients like ego and profit, to often a musicians ego will stand in his way, “I am the artist and nobody tells me how to do my art” well fine, but wrong. there is some one out there spending money making others work for you so that you can use your art, but there is a price to pay. This doesn’t mean that you are a musical prostitutes, it is a give and take compromise and most of times seen afterwards the give is not that much of an ego thing as you tend to make it. What the record company wants is to add some commercial value, Most of the times very subtle changes introduced by experts in the business that know more that you  do of how to make a song hit. I have always thought that it is best to listen and talk to each other and try to se what is the purpose and how it can be achieved, you can be surprised at how close you can come and how easy it sometimes becomes to reach a compromise. 
On the other hand what kind of an artist is oneself, if he cant bring his personality and ways onto everything he does, no mater what. This is one of the flags musician wave all the time. Some will agree with these words “I can play 3 blind mice and you could still tell it was me” and naturally they would be right. Try to imagine Jimi Hendrix, or SRV or Prince or Eddie Van Halen on a guitar, or Steve Wonder or John Lord on the key boards. how about Freddie Mercury, Robert Plant, Sting or Sneer O'Connor on the vocals. They would simply make the tune their own and print their style and signature on it. If you can make your self distinguishable as an artist in any discipline there is no compromise it is a signature, not anything to fuss about. So any musician that can come across as such will find a way to accommodate the commercial requirements without losing his self esteem and originality. Being flexible also gives you the opportunity to be stubborn at real critical things. it is as I said a give and take.
What is my purpose in this post? well really I see Slice and other young musicians very concerned in the bravado mega ego aspect. This is my song, my music, my playing I don’t allow any body to tell me, I am the artist, the creator and I won’t listen to anybody. I thinks that they need to re think this attitude and learn that everybody is on the same side, everybody wants him to succeed because his success is everybody's success. What is worse his failure, is everybody’s failure and failing costs a lot of money, time and resources.  At the same time a musician wants to sell his music as much as the record company does. This binds both interest and differences in the same tie, levelling thing in everyone's stakes.  
To keep it short Ill stop here, Please send you comments I am really interested in all  different perspectives if any one has any.
Please keep track of Slice at his You Tube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/inside71slice
thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed.
Ian.

Saturday 24 December 2011

Slice & STW Mixing

Mixing in music is a procedure where we blend different tracks with audio content to make a musical piece. The general idea is to merge them together and make one resulting peace where everything is balanced. In a way, all instruments create a pleasing result. In this scenario a producer or engineer try's to combine different techniques to obtain a uniform result where all instruments are matched, and they all have their room and place in the mix. There is a hole array of tools that help in this task, being the Mixing Console the most obvious but not the only one. With all recorded instrument or vocals tracks assigned to one channel each on the console, the engineer set’s the input gain and output father so all are combined in the way wanted. This is being simplistic and it is what I want for this post at this point, I will work down the post providing further detail and I will complement with an other post soon.

For now let’s say that the relative volume of all parts have a necessary matching amplitude between each other. This requires attention to all parts. Finding room in the frequency spectrum, the stereo image and the depth picture for every instrument is a planning and exercising task. On top of this the producer needs to provide room to make one or another predominant at different time when they have the lead roll on the track (vocals, guitar, keyboards etc.). He also needs to glue them al together in a way that they are tight in a musical sense.

Mixing the STW project is different in many ways. I mean different not harder or easier. The goal for the STW mix is different and the approach changes, Slice is covering a song and will be predominant over the backing track. The first peculiarity is that we use the original song as a backing track, this source has already been mixed and mastered, there for we have little headroom there to work with. Specially if we want to keep as much as possible of the original as possible. So we already have a mix that has been maxed out in frequency spectrum and layout, Stereo image and Depth. In other words our box is full.

Second we want to put Slice’s performance on top in the most respectful way and at the same time provides sufficient performance data that the listener can distinguish Slice form the original. It is obvious that the first approach will be decrease the level of the original just enough to provide room for Slice.

image

Amplitude Diagram

This however has a flaw to it Slice is not covering the full spectrum range so we need to work in two dimensions amplitude (volume) and tone (frequencies). This leaves us with a moral issue, How? I don’t want to alter the original, so I intend to introduce no effects or mods to the original and EQ would be just that, so ruled off.

image

Frequency Spectrum Diagram

A third dimension is the stereo image, this has an easier approach, the solution here is to widen the stereo image using stereo enhancement on the new performance and play with the stereo gaps of the original. the same as with Depth it seems reasonable to bring the added performances to the front and widen this dimension.

image

Stereo image and Depth Diagram     

Also to be considered is the fact that not al songs on the STW project are in the same style or mood. While not a limiting fact it does need to be brought through on the cover mix not just in the performance done by Slice, but also in the production part. This also requires planning and getting the hole picture in to scope before you even start recording. If you don't get the mood right and this is some times not that easy you may end up with an out of place cover and have affected the mode of the original song.

Some mixes are very busy the same as others have more room and are more disperse, This variation in the amount of instruments fighting to get room in the mix is an additional over head. They can’t be treated in the same way and it is not always the case that less busy mixes are easier since you in theory have more room. Silence is one of the hardest instruments to work with, and some times calm and clean passages can give more work than expected. having a full idea of how you will treat a specific song and how you will use the space or lack of it is key to getting your desired results.

The first cover we have done, putting all this theory together is the Cover to Gun’s ‘N’ Roses ballad Don’t Cry form the Use Your Illusion 1 album. Here Slice only performs 3 different guitars, and only 2 simultaneously at any time. This is a Ballad and mood is very important and predominant in different parts of the song so this had to be accounted for. Also this song builds form a relatively relaxed mix to a busier one during the chorus, the solo, and the finale. so two different approaches where necessary.Finally the original song used as the backing track is a potent one and the Vocals by Axel Rose and the Guitar craft by Slash mesh in a dramatic mix, this made a big difference sin Slice had to com in on that same mood and not lose the effect. Yes we needed to overpower Slash at some part, but still wanted to keep the presence of his mastering sound.      

I have to admit that there are some things that can be done to this mix to improve the result but it was the first attempt and I was also a bit overrun by the video and Chroma key part. Yes this is my excuse, but lest see what comes out with the next covers.

That's about all for now on this. I will get some more stuff coming soon.

Pease comment Winking smile and thanks for taking the time in reading.

Follow Slice in his YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/inside71slice

Ian Burt

Wednesday 21 December 2011

Audio setup & Inventory (Part 4)

 

Effects are the last part of this brief series of 4 posts, effects are a world on their own and there is too much to say on this subject. I am only going to explain what we have used, where, how and why. This is not a tutorial or a guide of any sort. I am convinced that better use of effects is certainly possible and this is an area that I am learning and always will be.

One thing that is common knowledge is that effects serve different purposes. The most obvious is that they enhance the audio that they are applied to. They also solve problems with the original audio, they provide spacing queue info, depth and contour to the audio in a way that we can thin or thicken a sound, There is the artistic use on top of all these resources that can be provided by effects. Normally when it comes to effects there are two distinct groups, Sound processors that modify the original sound and produce a new one and Time based effect that don't modify the signal as such but manipulate it’s timing. The former are more common use in the instrument scenario and the second are common in both mixing and instrument signal treatment. that however doesn’t mean that they are limited to these worlds, moreover there are certain cases where we can find them in several stages of the signal chain and mix providing different solutions to different situations. I am not going to review effects in this way since it is a huge topic.

In the STW project and starting with guitars, base and piano, Slice play’s into a Digitech GNX4 sound processor and modelling emulator, we use this “Pedal ” as a processor to get the sound we are after and also to drive the Stereo outputs to the 2 amps and the 2 line balanced outputs to the console. The pedal is in front of the amp rather than in the effect loop.

This is an fairly old multi-effect pedal but it does it job and it does it fairly nicely. the Pedal has an effect bank of over 100 pre-sets that can be customized, directly on the pedal or via a midi software called xEdit32. 

The Pedal comes with 6 different effects banks, models 2 different amp and 2 different cabinets for each pre-set, it also emulates a conversion from HB to SC and vice versa. while playing you can recall a specific patch with the tip of your foot or you can toggle between A or B amps and cabinet digital emulation or a Wrap of both that you have predefined. Turning it in to a AYB selector on top of the effects. The next picture shows the UI for the amp and cabinet selection and tuning, as does the wrap positioning of the mix of both.   

  

Once we have the amp and cab settings we move on to page 2 effects, In this part of xEdit we configure the stomp box effects. In this section they are lied out in the natural order you would arrange them in a regular pedal board loop.  from top left moving across and down the first option is a pickup selector HB/SC I don’t like this option and regularly I disable it. the first effect is the Wha, for every effect there is a choice of a number of digitally modelled and emulated well known stomp boxes. Second are the modulation effects Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, etc. Next the compressor, forth the distortion, followed delay and reverb. you can combine and adjust any combination of these. these Stomp Box effects can be toggled on/off form the pedal during performance, for maximum flexibility.

There is also the possibility to assign different functions to the expression pedal. where it can be assigned to the Wah, the volume or any other parameter that you may like to manipulate on a given patch.

MarshallFront

Ok from here we travel to the amp, we try to keep things easy on the amp and use the clean channel maybe with a little boost on the gain to beef up the tone. We also twitch the EQ if necessary to get a balanced signal from the cab, but try to remain as close as possible to 12 o’clock on all bands. This is where we finish what I call stage 1 (recording) if I have the sound I am looking for I have completed a great step forward. 

Stage 2 is the Mix-down here it is common for me to use reverb and delay to arrange position of the tracks in the spatial context. Stereo image and depth. I also use these to try and clean any masking or un noticed problems during the recording. also the compressor and shelf compressor to bring some parts to the front and make them more present.  You have to think that I am using the original track recording for the cover and this has already been mixed by a pro, so it is very lightly going to be a busy mix. this leaves me with less head room and with the added difficulty that I may end up masking the original and losing definition in the overall mix. In Stage 2 it is a lot about experimentation and failure, you need to test different things or use you own bag of tricks. One thing I have learnt is, that if it can’t see the clear need for any effect the best choice is to leave it as is. Don’t use effects just because you have them, the clearer the track the better the result.

OtherEffects

Mostly the effects added at this point are inserts in to the effect bay via plugin or on aux buses, depending on the need.

EffectBin

The last stage or Stage 3 is the Mastering. I have said this before and I can’t express how much I would love to master this stage but it is beyond my competence.  So as sad as it may seem I use the Vintage Channel VC64 plugin using the pre-set Master Mix and play with some parameters but the less the better. It dose give the mix an extra shine and I am sure that there are many ways to improve it but at this time is what I use. I have been following some grate tutorials on this subject but not quite there yet.

 VC64

Remember to follow Slice on You Tube at http://youtube.com/user/inside71slice

Thanks for reading and leave any comment you may have. Open-mouthed smile

Ian Burt.

Saturday 17 December 2011

The right or wrong to cover.

 

Getting permission to use copyright material is a tricky subject. On the stuff that Slice normally covers he uses the original song recording for the backing track. This use of the original without consent of the copyright owner is not right. We are very aware of this. So let me set this as the starting point of this post. nobody has the right to take the creation and work, form another artist and make it part of his own, this has a name “stealing”. However drastically this may seem there are considerations to the hole subject and this is going to be my desertion and opinion on this matter. Please disagree with me publicly or in private because I have grate interest in knowing the widest possible range of opinions.

Ok well stealing is a big word but I personally feel there are many considerations that change the term. Not that they justify anything or stand up as en excuse. But they do open the door to different scenarios where we need to consider things in a different manner. Allow me to elaborate on these scenarios or considerations as I see them.

The first consideration is how is the material going to be treated. I call it material because I don’t want to limit it to music, I think this applies for all different forms of art and intellectual property. So for the sake of generalizing I will use the term material. The treatment referring to how a specific material is integrated in to the new project. how it is manipulated (not destroyed that is a different subject all together) manipulation means that someone uses this material and add it to some other material normally of his own. there are several ways it can be manipulated.

  1. Taking an exact replica and using it in another discipline (music used as background to a video edit or a film scene used to animate some music piece) in this case there is no creative or expressive action done on the original source and it appears un change. The intention behind this is normally to enhance the creative material in the new discipline.
  2. Morphing in any way the original in its own discipline (I use discipline as to refer to the form of art, Music, Video, Painting, Theatre etc.), here the new material will appear modified in diverse severities depending on the work done with it. A DJ a Cover of any kind, an edit.

In any of these scenarios the well doing or not is irrelevant. What I mean is that regardless if you keep the original as it was, or if you morph it. Doesn’t affect the fact that you may or may not be entitle of using the material.           

Another conditional factor is how is it going to be used, must I say published or distributed. There is a big difference here. If it is Private, meaning that the use will be within the domain of your private life, Home etc.. I see no legal issue unless your distribution is intended to have third parties have access to a material without a legal purchase. Using music for background to home made video of you recent holidays I think is not the case of a copyright violation. making copies of a movie and passing them around is. If the content of the new material where to be made public. the story changes. Providing public access to private content without a consent is what we are talking about here. Regardless if it is free or for a charge.

In such a case of making it public, we need to consider how is this done. Is it for economical profit reasons. In witch case there is no question. The usurpation is fragrant and completely illegal. Specially if the new material is enhanced by the original. However I can see several types of non profit approaches that have a wider view.

  1. The new material is in a different discipline, and the original is for covering a discipline that the new author doesn’t cover. Here it will depend to my view in how much the use or abuse is made of this material. In this situation the author uses the original to provide a desired effect on the new material.
  2. If the new material is in the same discipline, we really need to look at what the new material is intended for. knowing that it is not for profit sakes we have to think that there are 2 possible reasons. First being a way of expression of a partial part of the original material, someone singing or playing the guitar (not all the discipline is covered). The reasons here have to be intended to my view, as to expose the new artist work without detriment to the original. Secondly as a tribute to the original, a public announcement of respect for the author. People emulate there heroes or artist to witch they look up to. Most times I feel it is a mix of both that has no compromise on either, just honest love to the art and artist.

It is clear that the new material is intended to tell us that this is my view and my way of worshiping this piece.

Amateur vs.Professional, I personally think that there is a great difference here. The after is a person that lives form his discipline regardless if it is the same as the original materials, even if done on a non profit basis. The promotional consequences are evident, and must be taken as an indirect benefit. The former may be seeking visibility but is in no way a direct promotional tool and has a lesser impact. also there will be no competing in the first case, while in the second it is at most unclear.  

Finally the scholar world. It is not strange for teachers of one or another discipline use original material in their classes I think that this is a fair use as long as they are not online or recorded classes. If a teacher give a class with the help of an original piece to help explain a specific technique I can’t see the problem here.

I think that we must seek to obtain the permission under any circumstance, and that there is a gap where people want to prove their love to an art or artist and express them self without harming any one. And there is the right of an artist to protect his work and creation in the way he deems necessary. I honestly don’t think that these interests conflict in any way.  And looking at the YouTube I see may covers made with passion and respect. They seek expose the original artist and provide a vehicle to expression of the covering artist. I am pretty sure that many of the covered artists are happy and proud of most of these covers. It can’t hurt an ego if there are 300 covers of your song.

One thing to take in account is that getting the permission is a long and difficult task and that is why most YouTube materials don’t have them, including Slice. If you want your channel to have traffic, you need to be regular at getting new content up. Having every body clear the IP issue with the appropriate owners can become a major problem for the IP holder since I guess that they could get drowned in requests real fast.  

Slice is requesting the appropriate IP permissions for the STW project, and we will be reviewing the rest of covers he has put up. he is a non profit amateur that does this because he like music and hopes hit covers demonstrate his respect to the original author and artist. We hope not to have to remove any of the covers he has on his channel, and he will publish more, requesting afterwards the © permissions. 

Follow Slice on YouTube at http://youtube.com/user/inside71slice

Please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading.

Ian

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Music & Slice: Audio setup & inventory (Part 3)

Music & Slice: Audio setup & inventory (Part 3): In Part 3 of this 4 part post I will cover the fifth category as listed in part 1 , the software. I have chosen to skip the effects until...

Audio setup & inventory (Part 3)

 

In Part 3 of this 4 part post I will cover the fifth category as listed in part 1, the software. I have chosen to skip the effects until after this post since they complement parts 1, 2 and 3. also it is a slightly smaller chapter in it’s self.

When we talk about software, there is a huge world at the tip of the finger, again most of it is budget dependent, but there are free options that can get the job done. I have little experience with most of the commercial packages except for Sonar from Cakewalk witch is the one I currently use. I have also used Audacity, Audacity is a freeware audio management system downloadable from the internet. Audio Management software's are generally called DAW. DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation, the most popular are Cubase, Pro Tools, Sound Track Pro from a list that has many other options and entry price levels. look DAW in Wikipedia for further titles.

I use Sonar 6 Editors Edition and may be upgrading to the latest version, since my version is 4 years old. I must admit that I can’t compare it with others, because my experience once I came back to the sound world has been limited to this one option and I was more accustomed to analogic systems. So comparing would not be fare.

Well enough nonsenses for now. Let’s get down to the task, I use the DAW for 3 different things. First I use it to record all the audio, Second I do the Mixing and editing, Finally I Master the finished result. All 3 phases are very different and need a very different approach. In the same way all 3 of them are related and very dependant on the other. Lets go over the recording process first since that is the order they come in.

For recording I use a Toshiba R400 tablet / laptop with 4Gb Ram and an external 500Gb HD. This PC is connected via USB to the Behringer mixing console where I have arranged the recording mix as explained in Part 2 the audio is recorded on to 1 stereo track. Recording levels must be adjusted on the DAW, for the may be a mismatch between the console output and the audio driver you use on the PC.

image_thumb5

During a recording session I play all the backing and monitor material using an Mp3 player in to a secondary console mixed with the live performance. I only use SONAR for the recording, this way I don't need to handle any possible latency in the recording versus the playback. For safety I mute all other used channels and only record on the track at hand. since we sometimes have very long recording session I use one track per take deleting all unusable tracks. I usually open a 24 track session for the morning and another one for the evening if we need to extend. All session are numbered. I also make an index card that I call the recording card, with every track that was recorded. This card includes start time, end time, song name, instrument, and any comments that I may want to remember later when mixing. Also the track on the DAW receives the same name as the card. this is a way to keep track of what we have done and where it is. on a large project you can easily lose track of where your take and audio are if you need to re fish them.

Once a Track is recorded I Mute it and go on to the next track, I am sure that some if not most professionals have many things to say about my method and they will all be right, but this is working for me and it is what I know.

Neither on the console or the DAW do I correct any EQ or other parameters except for gain level adjustment to prevent clipping. There is one exception with guitars I do Apply a Hi Pass Filter at around 80Hz to eliminate any lo level hum or noise, knowing that it is safe above the 82Hz of the low E on the guitar. Unless it is in a dropped tuning. Winking smile

In all cases I leave the tone to the musicians scope of the guitar, amp & effects. where I try to suggest that the more neutral the amp EQ the more dynamics we will have to fine tune the instrument later and avoid masking during mixing. If we have tone issues in the origin they are bound to get worst up the signal path.

DSC01724

Once the recording has been finished I take the raw audio from the HD and back a copy up under the session number and take the HD upstairs where my working studio is (the basement is too could). I download a copy on to my workstation computer an HP Pavilion HDX. I use a pair of Sony SRS-77G for close range monitors, and yes I know they are not designed to be monitors but I have been listening to music though them for so long that they are more Fidel and will include less bias than any other set of monitors. when it comes to monitors it is a question of comparing and getting a good sonic image.

DSC01723

In stage 2 I open a new project and import the audio clips and start working with them. How I go about this; is I first cut out and arrange al the parts of the song. I usually set in the tempo and audio snap to trim thing to the right beat during this phase since it helps find the correct timing queues to cut and paste things in. Once I have this task finished I order the tracks out sometime splitting them down or doubling then in to two channels or separating different parts of the same recording in different tracks, if I intend to treat them differently. While doing this process I start assigning the groups and subgroup buses for each track. At this stage I still have not touched any fader or setting in any of the channels and before doing so I work out an initial stereo image of what I want, doing a rough pan setting. Now and only now do I really start to listen to the mix as a mix. After a few passes I try to get a first level breakdown. Working with faders and levels if anything is of or too high or low.

At this point I have a very basic draft of what I am looking for in the mix. It still need a lot of refining and polish but I am first looking for coherence. I then usually stop on that mix for the day and go on with something else. This way when I come back I can hear and feel things that at first pass couldn't, so I go and do a first refinement based on this fresh viewpoint. It also happens to me that while I am away my mind drifts back on details that I hadn't noticed and I have a complete array of things to do before getting back to work.

Once I have stabilized the draft I take my time to listen to the mix in different ways, normally soloing the subgroups I have created. or maybe 2 or 3 tracks that may conflict. I usually toggle the backing track on and off to get a full sense of how we are in regards to the mix. I try to get my notes on all the different volume issues. At the same time I normally start with the EQ, if the recording went well this should be much easier since we will not need to correct mishaps picked up and clean the sound. All we need to define is the place in the spectrum for each instrument and tweak our way around. If no fixing is needed I always us subtractive EQ attenuating to open room up for other instruments instead of boosting. I normally do my homework on the mesh I want although most of the time I have my own rules and notes of where in the spectrum each part is predominant and witch not. It is now time for any compression if required or reverb if necessary. Every time I go through the mix a fine tune the levels and pan’s, I normally stay alert for levels climbing across the console, so I try to hold things in place working with the subgroup buses rather than individual controls, however if it is temporary level adjusting I wright it down for when I do the automations. By this point I have a fairly stable mix and a full view of how it is coming out. Also it is about at this point when I understand what effects if any are needed and how and where they should be applied. I take another break at this point leaving it for the next day, so I can get a fresh start and review how the overall is coming out. It is surprising how many things change under a fresh view. I normally save a copy of the project before I start with the third and final session of mixing, I sometimes compare and go back to the original, however most of the time the newer version is the one of my choice.

Eq Sample

On day three I include the effects and revisit the stereo image, while confirming that there is no unwanted masking of muddle. Finally I do the Automations, starting with the volume and possible mutes moving up to the effects. once I am happy I play it over a few more times and refrain from doing any tweaking forcing myself to give it a chance. I repeat this 2 or 3 times to make sure that anything I think off is mature and consistent over the different passes, it is easy to get into a vicious circle. Finally before going for the mastering I usually listen to it form different places in my work studio and with different earplugs and head sets to se the out come form different views and sound sources.

The mastering is a ground where I have little or no expertise and blogging anything about mastering would be a big error on my part and surely misleading and counter productive in any way you may look at it. I will be attempting my on mastering because I can’t afford anything different and I will most lightly us a plugin that provides a standard mastering pre-set. it is the easy way and I will play safe on this one.

anyway since the audio will be for internet YouTube video and the average user das a regular sound system on his PC the mastering results will no be very visible if visible at all.

Again Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed the post.

Please leave a comment Open-mouthed smile

Remember to visit Slice’s channel at http://youtube.com/user/inside71slice.

Ian..

Saturday 10 December 2011

Slice STW vs. K2 challenge.

 

One thing that has been bothering me since I started the STW project for Slice, is how are we going to engage the viewers and have them sit in front of YouTube for as much as a regular football match that is over 90 minutes. It seemed obvious straight away, that it will be a hard task. I am not even sure that I would sit there and watch for that span or close myself. A full one and a half hours of music is one thing but if it is a cover 10 minutes is an optimistic expected time of attention from anyone. Sure Slice will do several instruments (guitars, base, pianos, etc.) but to keep the viewers attention will require a little more than a good performance. so how to go about this.

Well we don’t intend to make a movie, we want the focus to stay on Slice and on the music as much as possible, but we will need a full range of visual resources to keep the viewer engaged. We first of all need to work on Slice’s shyness, he hates cameras and he struggles posing, or acting in front of one. We will need a much more communicative attitude from him, than what he has used so far. We will be working on this on the next videos he records and uploads.  He needs to work on his body language, it is ok to move but we need to get a message a declaration out of every move. he needs to improve his face to face expressiveness being able to look into the camera and establish contact with the viewers on the other side, he need to transmit to them in a one to one basis. He needs to do all this, at the same time he is bringing out his performance and delivering to everybody via the camera, and the music.

But that alone won’t be enough and we are very conscious about that, we need to bring in some resources, footage that we can use to keep the candle lit. Needles to say that we can’t use others intellectual property without their permission, and we have still to clear that issue with the covered artist in the musical side, so getting in to further trouble with video copyrights is not our intention. This simply means that we will be recording footage with Slice out side the studio and elaborating a side story for the different songs. Also via YouTube we have found some amateur users that we are contacting and asking for their help in any way possible. There will be an extensive credits section for all that help in any way. We seek any kind of help except for financing, this is not an economical venture, never has been never will be. It is about music and respect, with a little side effect on promotion for Slice and all contributors. 

Also there is going to be a huge effort put in to graphics and backgrounds, musical performance will be recorded indoors and we will use Chroma Key to get the performance in to the different contexts that may arise. We also count on using some special effects to the extent of our own limitations. these resources are a key part since we hope to keep the interest level high without diverting the centre piece.

Additional difficulty is that the original is a very well known piece of art and has sufficient entity of its own and we do not want to transform or adulterate the original master piece in any way. This is an exercise of respect and admiration. We need to be very careful to not trod on anybody's toes as best of our capabilities and keep the source and spirit of the original as intact as possible.

Getting everything right and and producing a mix of all components, while making it enjoyable and and entertaining. Is at this point a huge task to look up to, and I am not sure I have everything I need to get it right. I am very determined and I have the picture of it all arranged in my mind but brining all this out and on to a video is going to be a challenge I would never refuse.

The idea of publishing the full recording in one large video is a compromise so we have also came up with the idea that we will do individual tracks for each song independently in a more digestive presentation.  

We can’t disclose the artist or the master pieces name yet until we get all the legal issues worked out, but a bit of mystery will not do any harm. On a personal account if any one want’s to help out in anything possible, please contact me at ian.a.burt@gmail .com and I will be happy to provide more information.

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Audio setup & inventory (Part 2)

 

In this second part, I will go over the studio gear, not that this is a long list because it isn’t but I can get a bit deeper with some of the gear here specially in the setup part. In this post I will cover the third category, that's where we start to enter my domain. When I say studio please don’t get me wrong this is not a studio it is not even a bedroom studio it is a basement rig that does the functions for all the recording, in the closest to decent way we can afford and manage.

One of the most important things in a studio is the layout and recording rooms and we have one that is definitely in the book of how it should not be done. I don’t think that describing the basement is of any bodies interest but as an indicator it is made of tile floor, cement walls and celling, it is a long and wide open space full of ambience reverb and resonance. This is very bad because it bleeds into the mic’s and there for to the recordings. So we have the room against us in every way possible. Later on this post I will explain how we have tried to address this problem.

Next is the fact that the basement is not this use exclusively and at this time I have a rack with 3 servers running 24/7 an these machines have big fans an are tremendously loud. This forces us to find solutions in order to isolate the sound, good enough the servers run hum in a narrow range of frequencies, so they can be removed or cleaned out with a Noise Gate and EQ in the mix down.    

Third handy cap is the equipment it’s self. We have a XENYX X1222USB Behringer mixer, not that this is a bad piece of gear but it was not designed for recording it is more appropriate for PA mixing  http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/X1222USB.aspx. It is a very versatile console and we are getting the best out of it. It does provide a nice USB interface with the PC where we do the recordings. But we are limited to a stereo mix output for recording. This is limiting in the sense that we record as many as 4 mic’s simultaneously and a stereo DI coming from the preamp. This adds up to a total of up to 6 channels, that have to be mixed before recording and allow no room for may changes once recorded. It would be nice to be able to record all 6 channels on different tracks and edit them during mix down.

BEHRINGER XENYX X1222USB

Also the recording PC is a Toshiba Protrege R400 laptop with 4Gb Ram but only 2 USB ports. So it is also far from best.

We are using 2 different mic’s in the recording 3 of witch are Behringer XM 1800S this is not the all-time preferred SM57 Sure but it is clean tight and once you get to know it, you can capture grate sound with it. I also use a Sennheiser e815S that is also a dynamic Cardioid type but this mike is a bit darker than the Behringer But also very flexible   

BEHRINGER ULTRAVOICE XM1800S      

During recording we run the monitor and line back to Slice from an other console this is a Acoustic Control DJ-1500 it is a really old analogue DJ desk that we only use to mix the raw audio and the original track for Slice to have the reference. Not a great piece of HW but it is more than what we need we could be using the main consoles monitor or aux to provide the monitor source.  

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Slice uses the Panasonic RP HTF 600 headphones for monitoring they provide a good range and have a decent noise reduction padding. these are not professional but are budget safe.

RP-HTF600

If you are still asking your self how we have gotten around the issues of the server ambient, and the room conditions well here is a little explanation. We built a booth around the amps & mic’s to isolate as much of the problem as possible. Using special isolation foam we built a 4 piece housing that contains the gear that is producing and receiving the sound that is being recorded it is not a perfect Isolation or not even near to an anemometric chamber, but it provides more than 30db attenuation form the outside. eliminating most of the reverb and resonance of the room, and shielding most of the server hum. This brings the noise level down bellow minimums & makes it easier to process later with a noise gate and remove the undesired sound. It is a home made booth but we get a dry & clean sound that can be later treated to provide ambience and all the rest of enhancements it may need.      

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This is the opposite of elegant but it does the trick and turns a horrible recording location in to something workable.

Ok lets talk about the setup. it is very straight forward and simple, From the Preamp & Effect rig we come out Stereo with two lines directly in to the amplifiers. Also 2 Balanced lines in stereo leave the preamp and are directed as DI straight into the main mixing console.

From each of the two amps we have set up a pair of mics each one is positions closer to the cone outer rim to get a darker and thicker body. The other is set to be closer to the dust cap but not exactly centred, to get a more crystal response and more sparkle. Both amps are using the clean channel and we use very little reverb at this stage, it would be very hard to fix later if our choice where wrong. We do set some gain on the different amps to get a bit of the bite and feel of each one to bring in a better stereo image and also a richer sound spectrum. the mic’s go straight in to the console where we match all the gain structures and add some inline compression at 3:1 ratio with a fairly high threshold.  We also apply a High Pass Filter to remove all the possible rumble and some of the hum from the servers. the two mic’s from the Marshall are panned full right while the to mic’s from the Orange are panned full left. the two direct lines are spaced out 75% left and right according to the amp settings.

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On the console we adjust the levels of the mix depending on the song and the sound we need we may even have to rearrange mic’s and amp settings and EQ but we try to keep the EQ as neutral as possible, therefor on the console we do not adjust anything so we have more headroom during mix down. every thing is checked for phase issues and when we are ready we send the mix to the Laptop via the USB interface and record it there using a DAW that I will cover in the next post.

Finally, the monitoring is done by an external console that receives the mix form slice’s performance using the monitor aux send and mixing it with the original track that he is covering played back on an Mp3 player. received by slice in his earphone. I can also use this system with an other mic as a talkback channel.

See part 1 to view the amps and instrument equipment.

Once again thanks for reading my blog and I really hope that you enjoyed it.

Ian.

Follow Slice @ http://youtube.com/user/inside71slice 

Or on Facebook @  http://www.facebook.com/pages/inside71slice/177390532352541

Saturday 3 December 2011

Slice & Strings

It some times fascinates me, how from the seed of inspiration, just an spark of an Idea, we can start adding layers and layers of ideas and content to produce a piece of work. I’m not only talking about a piece of art in the form of music, it could be any simple result. Making this result come true, is creative, but not necessarily artistic. The result may be so, but the process may be just that, a process. More inspirational in some cases or more rational in others. Either way there is a dire need to exploring a method and refining it over time.

It doesn’t really matter how you do it, if it works for you. But be sure that it always take determination, effort and time, there is no silver bullet or shortcuts. I have been doing music for over 40 years now, I used to be an instrument player and a musician. I need to clarify this point, because you may play an instrument and not be a musician less lightly, and you can be a musician without playing any instrument quite common, though the most common is that you do both. As an instrument player I played guitar, not close to decently. As a musician I have done things in and out, but never 100% as a professional. All my work was and is mediocre, not because anyone else has said so but because I say so myself.

Why am I telling you this. Well first, because I now have the opportunity to understand my own process of getting things done much better, also because I have more that just inspiration I have technical abilities that help bring the inspiration to the right port, I even have a conductor that will be the the catalyst to the final result. I have however the need to be fair, Slice is a much more talented musician than I never was, he has the feel & the touch to make musical magic. As Salieri would say about Mozart “He has the gift, I do not”. So my job is to channel this talent and use my experience in trying to make the spot light shine on him & not on me. I am privileged in being part of his try for success, and putting all my energy in the job of doing so.

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But Slice’s talent is not only with the guitar, he also is good with piano, and drums. ok I know I am his Father, but make you own opinion and leave it in the comment see his videos, the early ones when he was 14 and 15. I try to be objective as much as I can. We all see that he still is in the learning road, in music you always are.

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I listen to him practice almost every day and you here that he picks up a song and works his way through it as I never was able to. he hears something in the radio and hums it out twice the he picks up his guitar and it is as if he had been playing it for weeks.

We have several things going at the time right now but the main project is what we call STW. it is not original material form Slice but we all think it is a very innovative idea and the development of this is a major task and Slice and I hope to spend most of 2012 on this project before it see’s the light.

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Please follow Slice on his channel http://youtube.com/user/inside71slice leave comments and subscribe to help promote his work. we will keep the videos coming at as a regular rate as possible. 

 SliceFirma2

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.

Please leave a comment.

Ian.

Friday 2 December 2011

Audio setup & inventory (Part 1)

I am going to list and give a little info on the inventory we have and are using to record the “Slice” project. this inventory is provisional I hope to add some new and necessary gear to our armoury, but it is more a question of budget than anything else. I must confess that it has been a long road putting all of this together and that some of the choices could have been different with extra cash at that precise moment. But that is no regret just a circumstance.

I’ll brake the inventory in 5 different categories that bundle the different domains:

  1. Instruments.
  2. Amplifiers.
  3. Studio Equipment.
  4. Effects.
  5. Software.

In Part 1 we are going to look at categories 1 and 2, these relate to the gear that Slice uses in his performances. It is not an impressive set of gear but it get’s the job done and that is a starting point. When working on music you need to approach things from the outside inwards. Form the Musician to the mix. The first slab in the chain is the player, his hands, his emotions & his sensations when playing. from there we step down into the instrument and its tonal and music properties, there further down to the Amps. I  know that we normally pass through the effect loop before entering the amp, but in our review I prefer to dedicate a section to this, since effect are added to the signal chain in various different points and not only between the instrument and the Amp.  

In Category 1 Instruments. The main type of instrument that Slice is using, is the guitar. He has 4 of his own and will be using all of them and some borrowed from close friends, for specific tone.

Slice’s main guitar is his Fender Stratocaster Highway One made USA in 2003 with a rosewood fingerboard, and 57, 62 pickups, Alder body with satin see through red lacquer finish and maple neck. 22 medium jumbo frets, chrome cast sealed tuners and tremolo. He bought this guitar in 2004 and there are no special mods done to the instrument, mainly setup modification and a replace nut.

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This is not a vintage guitar but has a nice warm sound to it with a very wide tonal choice since it is using 57, 62 pickups that do provide a deeper sound. the guitar doesn't, have a very high attack, and this makes it a rich sounding axe.

Slice Uses Ernie Ball 10-46 gauge strings on this guitar.  

The second guitar is a Vester Manic II this is a Korean guitar that has a very characteristic tonal quality to it. There is not much info about the guitar, only that the pickups have been replaced by Seymour Duncan, it has a locking Floyd Rose tremolo system and is 24 fret. This guitar was originally purchased by me back in 1985 and it has taken a large amount of battering since. it is a very robust instrument and has an incredible tone, the pickup replacement makes it a very hot guitar with a 5 way selector over humbuker’s. This guitar has tons of sustain, and has an incredible medium neck and sweet and smooth fret board in rosewood, the pain is a kind of fire burst.   

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Other electric guitars, where borrowed for specific recordings and include:

  • Fender Telecaster Mexico Red.
  • Squire Telecaster USA Cream.
  • Epiphone Custom Les Paul Honey Burst

Slice is also using  2 acoustic guitars in this project a devotion electro acoustic and a Ibanez also electro acoustic, both guitars have been recorded with the internal pickup via a DI box and by external miking.

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The second instrument that Slice performs is the Piano. He has limited tracks where he covers this instrument and only covers piano, not any organ or synthesizers or alternative type of keyboards. All his piano is recorded with a Korg SP170 in to a Preamp and then to an amp that has been miked and also direct to the console for blending the sound quality.

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Finally Slice is  playing Bass in some songs, He has borrowed a bass since we currently have none form a friend (I have listed the friends at the end of the post to thank their support in the project). The Bass he has used is a Squire PB and Slice marvelled with the playability of the instrument.

In Category 2 we find Amps or Amplifiers, resentfully we do not have any Valve amplifiers all our amps are Solid State. It is a shame for the valve amps add a great amount of warmth and body to the tone.

During most of the recording we have used a two amp configuration, trying to get the best mix of sound and tone from the options we have.

There is no main amp, but the Marshall MG 100DFX is the most powerful amp in our arsenal. This is a 2 channel 100W amp with a 1x12” Speaker separate EQ per Channel and digital modelling effects. This is a versatile amp but it is used to get a more aggressive tone and bring the high’s up also very handy with higher gain parts.

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The second amp we use is a Orange Crunch 20, this amp has a very characteristic sound to it it runs great in clean mellow tones and the EQ provides a very interesting and unique frequency breakdown, it responds very well to low and meds and helps bring the overall body thickness to the tone we use. A 20W amp with 1x10” Speaker one channel with 3 band EQ.

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A third amp is a Park 10W this is a vintage amp that is a second brand of Marshall this is a very small amp with one channel only but a terrific tone, it jus love to scream and cry

Finally but no for this sake less that the rests is the Roland Cube 15W amp modelling styles (OVERDRIVE, DISTORTION, METAL, METAL STACK), 3 band EQ and 1x8”, this tiny box delivers a very wide range of sounds and although Slice uses it mainly for rehearsal and practice it is a brilliant piece of HW.

Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed.

Ian.