audiot

yeah, finally a real entry again :-)

before i’m starting with this, remember that i’m not a professional sound engineer, technician, producing great or anything related. so the following ain’t written in stone, it’s just what i found out during my creative journey so far. your experience may differ, maybe some of this is plain wrong. so just think of it as ideas or theories and we’ll be fine.

i would like to divide this “cleaning up”-topic into 4 parts. and this entry is, oddly enough, about part 1 :-)

this first one is kind of a no-brainer, at least it should be – so i’ll make it brief. because it really is about cleaning up. cleaning up your studio aka workspace that is. simple as that. you might think ‘what the hell is he talking about?’ but there’s a reason why there’s a huge industry dedicated only to the task of organizing workspaces. there’s a reason for pocket-calendars and filofaxes, flipcharts and magnetic boards, post-it-thingies and different colored markers, lots and lots of software applications helping to keep track of it all.

well, i’m not that much into all those little helpers – i prefer to rely on my brain, even if this sometimes is quite a challenge depending on the number of things to remember and the current state of mind i’m in, but let’s not go there… did you ever see someone freak out in wild panic because he/she lost his ___________________ (fill in name of little helper)?

anyway, this here is just about keeping your studio clean and tidy. and don’t you ever underestimate the importance of this! i’m not writing this for those guys who think they need their creative chaos with pizza-slices (already green and shiny on top) lying around, piles of all sorts of cables on the floor – some working, some not – and so forth. those people might as well make their music on a dump. it doesn’t have to look pretty, it needs to be well-organized and working for you. so take the time to once and for all sort out the cables that don’t work etc. – get a bunch of boxes, draws, whatever to put spareparts, screws, tools, plugs, adapters and so forth in. find a way to organize cables, hang them on the wall for instance. i guess you can see what i’m getting at. you should also wire up the pieces of equipment you use regularly and keep it that way.

for example, i have two modeling devices to record guitar with. so they’re both connected to an audio-interface with the usb/firewire-cable already standing by as well as the guitar cable. and they’re both connected to a midi-interface for faster and easier sound-programming through the computer and this doesn’t change. when i want to track guitar or bass, all i have to do is plug in the instrument and the laptop and that’s it. as soon as the new studio is finished (which might be a while…), the audio interface will be wired at all times to the desktop mac as well. and to continue the guitar-example, the picks, slides, string cleaner, spare strings are at arm’s length as well as the guitar stand with the instrument i use the most. so it’s all right there where i need it, when i need it. including the sounds. i once took the time to program a whole bunch of guitar and bass sounds that i now use almost exclusively. they’re all versatile and can be shaped after the tracking with dynamic effects etc. there’s also a di-box standing by in case i want to do some tracks that can be reamped later. this all might sound a bit complicated, but that’s only my crappy english. in fact, i set this up once and now i’m always ready to record guitar and bass whenever i freaking want to. so you see, this goes hand in hand with the workflow ideas i wrote about in this earlier entry. but it’s not the same. this one here really is about a clean and tidy workspace. so take the vacuum cleaner every once in a while ;-) and get some dustcovers for your equipment. it’s a lot more fun to work on gear that’s clean and looks as if it’s brandnew.

another aspect of this is the way you organize your stuff inside your computer. i strongly recommend you create a template that you can use for any song or projet you’re working on. this takes a few minutes once and will save you hours later. just create a folder that you can name after the song later. inside of it, create other folders for audio samples, instrument tracks, effect patches, backup songfiles….. whatever you need and always save the single files in the right place. you might want to invent your own system of naming files, so you can see at once if a file is really used or just standing by as a donor of pieces if necessary. and of course, have a working system to backup your stuff up and running that you use at all times. after each and every session i save everything at least three times to different locations, so each location has the same status – always.

this part of the work is kind of boring and not as much fun as the actual writing or playing of course. but having a working system that keeps everything cleaned up, organized and perfectly accessible at any time makes this as efficient as it gets and gives you more time for the music.

to be continued…

working on “traitor”, my 2nd album (listen to the 1st one “corner” in the blue player to your right) provoked some thoughts about the future, actually the present as well, of the album as such.

looking at websites or profile pages of independent artists creates the feeling that’s it’s just about single songs instead of albums. songs are uploaded as soon as they’re finished and more often than not, they don’t even seem to be related to some kind of album anymore. now, is this so?

it would make sense, because people listen to music on their mp3-players, create their own playlists and pick single tunes from download-sites. so is this the switch from rug to patchwork-quilt? and if yes, would it be wise for an artist to jump on that train? there’s another point to this, it would be more web2.0-ish if an artist would release each song as soon as it’s done because that would mean more frequent updates to his/her page or profile. one more advantage might be that each song would be noticed and listened to equally (at least at first). with the release of a whole album there’s always songs that draw more attention than others.

but on the other hand, i do like the concept of albums. to me it’s a lot less confusing, especially if someone covers a wide variety of styles with his/her music. so the albums would be like folders on your desktop that keep the songs together that belong together and give you a better view at what the artist did so far, because you see the different phases of his/her work. and the artist has the possibility to group songs together, so the album is more than just the sum of its tunes.

that leads to another thought. is this just triggered by the market? do artists simply react to the new era of consuming music? or do they welcome this and like the idea of thinking in smaller units? as for me, i’m not sure. right now, i’m in the middle of creating what i thought of as my 2nd album. but as a matter of fact, it’s more like 2. one of them very much related to the first one, stylewise. and the other one a straight hardrock record (about 8 songs each at the moment). now, there’s a decision to be made – should i do 2 albums, write more material for both and release 2 full records when they’re done? or should i just mix it together and do one album with those 16 tunes, even if they don’t really fit together? or, should i just go ahead and release every single song once it’s finished and don’t care about albums at all? or do the latter and then group the songs together once all of them are out? but who would be interested in an album if all the songs were already released? or, release some of the songs, so people already know half of the records, but have to wait for the records themselves to hear the other half?

i guess the main question here is: does the rug really tie the room together?

at this point, i have no idea. and instead of helping me to get closer to a decision, writing this confused me even more. damn!

so, now he has completely lost his mind, right?

well, of course i have….to a certain degree – why else would i prefer music to a 9 to 5 job? but this idea really makes sense, apart from many others i come up with on a minutely basis. however, i can’t take any credit for this one, it’s out of a book (this one to be precise). although i can’t recommend this book, because i haven’t read it, the idea behind this is really cool. i was told about this and the person who told me had this idea from the book – that’s my story and i’m sticking to it.

now, what’s it about? in a nutshell, it’s about idea-pregnancies. meaning, once you have an idea, you need to let it rest inside of you, it needs to ripen like a fruit until it’s ready to be picked (if those are the correct terms in english…). your subconscious works on it, even if you’re not aware of that, and – as soon as it has something of value to offer – it’ll bubble into your thoughts, seemingly out of thin air. did you ever forget someone’s name and just couldn’t remember it, no matter how hard you tried? but as soon as you thought of something else for a few moments, it suddenly popped up? that’s what this is about…

so once you’re stuck with something, like me right now for instance, just do something else and try not to think about it at all. believe it or not, this will work! as i said, i haven’t read the book, so it might be about becoming rich and famous without doing anything – and that would be bogus of course. but nevertheless, we can use this basic principle to our advantage and become way more creative, productive etc. by just adding pauses. and for a musician, such a pause can be to work on another song for example. it’s like i mentioned before, when i’m stuck with one song, i start another one. but since i’m already up to 15 songs for “traitor”, it’s about time to finish some of them. so i’m taking the rest of the day off, since it’s sunday and sunny outside, and go for a walk. i’m coming out of the closet with this and i don’t care how boring it sounds – i just love to walk. i’m thinking about a 5 hour march through the beautiful hills around here, maybe about 25 kilometers – it’s not about speed, it’s about being pregnant, remember?

anyway, this should take care of beingstuckness and get me home again before sunset. i just hope my back can take this – some of those wombsongs are pretty heavy…

maybe i should post an update of what’s happening right now.

actually it’s lots of recording. in the last few days i have been working on “traitor” (the working title for my second album) and am now up to 11 songs – or should i say construction sites… well, a few of them are done so far, awaiting the vocals. the others are kind of idea-keepers. whenever i work on something and it’s not going too well – lack of ideas to continue on that song for instance – i start a new one. oddly enough, i can always come up with something new. the problems usually start when i’m about halfway through a song. maybe i should put out an album with just songparts on it, there’s hundreds…

so that’s where my time goes at the moment, all of it, and that’s what’s keeping my from writing more or even eating on a regular basis. i lost weight since i started this album, no kidding. hopefully there’ll be a few pounds left of me when it’s finished…

wooooooo, check out this guy

a little later than expected, but here it is. the next point mentioned in the article i’m referring to is about reverb. as for me, i don’t need any effects during recording. as i mentioned before, i try to be as easy to work with as possible and that includes being able to give a good performance under whatever circumstances you’re facing. so i made it a priority from my early days on to not be spoiled by anything, which means i can sing a good gig without even having monitors and i’m able to record in virtually every situation that might come up. this is in fact no big deal, just a matter of getting used to it. and it pays off – big time. do you know a singer that complained about anything? i do. i know legions of them and i dislike them as much as their bandmates do (or the guys that record them). don’t get me wrong, there are things that i’m expecting and i’m quite prepared to get them, believe me. but complaining about not having that second olive in my martini or that special silver plate to hold my chewing gum while i’m working my magic isn’t one of them. i’ll get to that later… so if having reverb in your headphones makes you more comfortable, so be it – i’m just saying you should be able to give a good performance without it, just in case… and whatever effects you’re using, make sure they’re set up properly and work the way they should before the actual session. how to set up the reverb right is explained in all detail in the article – just don’t forget, it’s not going to be on the recording, it’s just for your pleasure.

which brings us to the next point, although this is the same thing as mentioned a few times already. everything should be ready to go before the session starts. that includes the whole signal chain as well as the recording device of course. your cubase (or whatever else you’re using) project should be set up and saved with the correct parameters in the correct location. the playback should be prepared and playing without any problems. there should be enough free space to record plenty of takes – and enough processor power of course. you might want to create enough empty tracks with the correct settings (input, mono, bitrate etc.). if you’re not recording on a daw (digital audio workstation aka computer) but something else, it’s basically the same. you just have to check more cables, plugs, buttons etc. instead of windows on your screen. if you encounter noise, humming or anything like that, you’re in trouble. this may take a lot of time to fix it, so again: make absolutely sure everything works perfectly fine before the session begins! i guess one cannot mention this enough…

now i’ll skip points 5-7 because they’ll make part 4 of this little series.

no.8 is no big deal, it’s the same with the equipment. have the songs ready before the recording session – this is quite a no-brainer, right?

that’s it for now…

please forgive me for posting a video – again, but this is an important message to all you musicians out there (especially the drummers). the video is a kind of a preview/making of clip from Benny Greb’s new dvd. although i don’t have it yet, i’m virtually certain that this is one awesome movie! so go ahead, just buy it – he’s a really nice guy who deserves to be supported! and the message is: you are not alone !!!

i’m dead serious!

no matter if you’re just a player or writing, recording, arranging your own music – even if you don’t have anything to do with music, this is for you. we’re always trying to reinvent the wheel although this is just plain wrong. i thought about this a lot during the last few days, while working on “traitor”, my 2nd album (still having link-troubles, you can find its category in the sidebar to the right). it looked like this would become a pretty straight, down and dirty rock-album but i’m not that sure anymore because there’s an important choice to make. i could either stick to the plan and do a rock-album that’s already been made thousands of times, but not by me. so it would be different as well as the same. now that might not seem very innovative and you’re damn right: it’s not! but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a great album. in my opinion, some of the greatest records of all time lack innovation – so it’s not a necessary ingredient. and if i choose to create a plain and simple rock-album, it would be a bad idea to try and reinvent rock. you know, if the cat happens to be on that very tree, it would be quite stupid to bark up another one (or even plant your own…) – no matter how many dogs are already there. the right thing to do would be trying to perfect the wheel, make it rounder, turn it into a ball – make it mo’ better.

on the other hand, you could always leave the cat alone and do something different, get a bone for instance. in my specific case this would perhaps mean to take those rocksongs but turn them into something else, maybe by using some of the sounds and vibes i used for “corner” (blue player, sidebar, ’nuff said) and doing some combination of the two. not that this was never done before but i’d have no idea how it would turn out. so instead of trying to make a great rock-album by sticking to the tradition it would be more like just going ahead, being creative and see where it goes from there. And again, this wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel. it would be inventing something alright, but not the wheel.

this might sound a little confusing, i guess my point is to not try and REinvent at all. either stick to something that’s already good (there’s nothing wrong with that!) or invent something new.

by the way, there’s two interesting things about this i should mention. first, creating something is NOT letting something completely new appear out of thin air, it’s taking things already there and combining them in a new way. and second: i once read in a book about bionics that we think we’re smarter than nature because we managed to invent the wheel. but the fact is, a wheel is quite useless in nature – that’s why nature invented the leg, which is far superior to the wheel if you really think about it. and do you really believe, if the wheel was such a great and important thing, nature wouldn’t have come up with it aeons ago?

yesterday, a friend gave me a link to something really cool i haven’t seen before – not in a browser anyway. they call it the audiotool and it’s really fun to mess around with this. it’s flash-based, so you need to have some flash-whatever-thingy to use this. the site providing this audiotool is Hobnox (i’m not really sure, what it’s about…) and HERE’S THE AUDIOTOOL. i’m still having trouble including links, so they won’t open a new window this time – but at least they’re there :-)

yay! one small step for me and absolutely no step for anyone else. you decide if it’s a step for art…..and if yes, in which direction :-)

while the work on this site or better: the collecting of information regarding those little troubles i talked about still eats up my time, i got the news that “bankjob” is now no. 15 of the german reverbnation rock charts. by the way, it’s #14.188 in rock globally and #62.939 across all genres globally. although i have no idea why, this ROCKS !!! so a huge thank you to you guys and don’t stop now (with whatever it is you’re doing…), there’s only 62.938 steps to go! YOU CAN DO IT!

by the way, i have the feeling this site might be too much about me. if that’s the case, i apologize. i’ll try to include more other things – it was supposed to be a site about thoughts on music in general in the first place. on the other hand, it’s my site and i guess i should keep you informed about what’s happening – and the statistics are going through the roof this month, so maybe it’s just me feeling weird about being on display…