audiot

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…

Image by _ES via Flickr

i’m serious. we have all sorts of things that are supposed to define us, show off or create some kind of aura for us. we have a certain look (wanted or not), made out of clothes, hairdo, fragrance – combined with accessories like business cards, stylish eyeglasses, design-cellphones, briefcases or handbags and so forth… there is even such a thing as image-designers, no kidding – i once knew one. some people actually practice their handshake, overall motions and/or the way they talk to materialize their desired style.

so it’s mostly about seeing.

where do people get the idea to have a certain look or image? my guess would be movies and tv-shows because that’s what usually influences us the most. an example: when the seatbelt was invented, nobody used it. even when every car had them, still no one strapped him/herself in. then politicians (first in the US, then other countries followed) achieved, that in movies and on tv everyone used the seatbelt and – drumroll, please – within a rather short period of time, almost everybody followed this example. we usually don’t notice things like that and make up other reasons to justify, but we are strongly influenced by our surroundings – like it or not. another one: almost every time there’s problems in movies, you see someone pour him/herself a drink. so what do people at home do when things get tough? exactly. and without any real reason by the way. but i’m drifting off once again :-)

so what puzzles me is, why don’t we have themes? it would be the perfect completion to our designed style and, to connect the dots, it’s a common thing for a movie or tv-role to have a theme. but even the most obsessed stylefreaks don’t have one, right?

but why? maybe a reason is that it’s kind of hard to realize. imagine people walking around you or sitting next to you in the bus constantly emitting their theme through their cellphone or mp3-player. one huge mire of sound, what a terrible thou…..wait a minute, that’s exactly where we are today. only it’s not everybody’s specific theme, but even more random stuff. when i was younger (sheesh…) i had a walkman and used it all the time WITH my headphones on. today i see teenagers listening (not really) to music WITHOUT headphones, but through their crappy few-millimeters-almost-exclusively-midrange-cellphone-take-that-neighborhood-speaker, how lame is that? anyway, today an own theme would be easy to realize. lots of people have the possibility to do a simple tune themselves, even my 10 year old cellphone (back then a true masterpiece in design ;-) ) has a function for that and there could be websites to do that. and for the well-heeled people, appropriate services could be offered. new cars should have their own theme that plays when you put the key in. i want the ‘streets of san francisco’-theme in my next car. and garage doors could play something like the 20th-century-fox-fanfare when you open them (imagine how your neighbor would get crazy jealous) and even better, the doors in appartments could be equipped with sensors that recognize the inhabitants and play the tune of each one when she/he enters the room – should be something short though…. sounds ridiculous? think about it, the possibilities are there already – and we are not that far away at all. cellphones allow us to assign specific ringtones to certain persons (imperial march for the boss, jaws-theme for the girlfriend…), ain’t that kind of a theme-thing already? but way too random for my taste.

i say go get your personal theme and include it in your look – it’s about time…