audiotthoughts on music

after browsing a little longer through reverbnationland i really have found something that i’d like to recommend as an out of the ordinary listening experience. check out “Veronique Chevalier”, i have only listened to 2-3 songs yet but it’s really worth checking out – love it! there’s a few more recommendations on my profile page over there, but this freaky polka stuff just rocks!

and speaking of which – try to find a band called “The Mollies” (maybe “The Mollys“), i couldn’t find their site or anything related to them right now – found them years ago through CD Baby, but the site is down for maintenance. i’ll provide you with some link as soon as i have something. back then, i bought their album “Moon Over The Interstate” and it’s unreal! although i have no idea why i like it….and it kinda scares the hell outta me….

p.s. just added their last.fm link…

now here is a little more detail and insight from the singer’s point of view. the following thoughts were triggered by this article i linked to 2 days ago.

first, i’d like to say that i fully agree with those 8 points and think that they’re a good help in preparing for a vocal recording session. however, there are a few things that need to be added. memorizing lyrics is absolutely crucial, at least in my book. there’s nothing more lame than a singer who doesn’t know her/his words inside and out. i never went to a recording session without being perfectly prepared. and that’s simply because i believe one of the most important things about recording is being as professional as possible. that alone could be an entry in itself and i believe i already wrote a little about this every now and then. let’s just mention two things here: 1. you’re not alone in this world. so being professional is showing respect to the people who work with you (and not only because you want them to hire you again…). and 2. not being professional means a waste of the currency time and this will result in less motivation and higher costs. that being said, this depends of course on the fact that you need the lyrics and the song itself in advance with enough time to prepare yourself. but, as harsh as this may sound, being a singer not only means hookers & booze but also being able to get into a song really fast, being able to memorize lyrics really fast and being able to come up with some melody really fast. that doesn’t necessarily apply if you’re just some kind of a backyard screamer – but even then i would expect a certain amount of professionalism from you. if you don’t take yourself seriously – why should i? now, it still is important to have the lyrics printed out and there (plus an adequate stand to hold them in place where the singer can see them without turning around. i always go the extra mile and set this up, even if i do not look at it once. it’s just part of the deal and who knows, maybe you’re giving the performance of a lifetime and then being carried away so far that you lost the first word of the 3rd verse… so just have the lyrics there, will ya? and do not count on others to bring them for you. take care of everything that involves you yourself – well, at least of the things you’re able to take care of. by the way, if you like to make notes on your lyrics or wherever, bring a pen and some paper yourself. they should have it there, but bring it anyway – it’s not that much to ask, now is it?

now, the second point in the article is about setting the microphone up (including the rest of you signal chain) and have it all ready and working before the actual session starts. there’s not that much more to say about this except how important this is! remember the part about being professional? as much as i ask this from myself, i ask this from others as well. it sucks big time to show up on time and then sitting around for an hour or so waiting until everything’s ready. huge motivation-killer. and although i believe in being able to give a good performance anytime, the vibes just suffer from something like this. if i’m recording myself i usually set everything up the evening before, tweak all the knobs and run a quick test or two. then i go home and have a good night sleep, knowing that there won’t be any technical issues spoiling the performance to come. of course, there is another quick test necessary right before the actual recording, but it’s just a great feeling to go there, knowing everything’s ready to go. if you’re recording somewhere else, but with your gear, be sure to plan enough time for the setting up and a short break. i don’t need to mention that you should be able to set up your own equipment even in your sleep, do i? now, if you have nothing to do with the setting up, it’s really not up to you. so the only thing you can do here is being prepared to wait. or better: count on it and then be surprised positively if it’s not necessary…

wow, it seems this makes for at least one more part – so check back tomorrow…

ok, i gotta run – so here’s just a quick update on how the work on the new album is coming along. there are no lyrics whatsoever yet. but the intro is finished – i’m thinking about turning the intro into a whole song, though…

the music for one song is finished, except for the solo which i will track after i’ve done the vocals. and the music for 4 more songs is written. this takes that much longer than expected, but this whole internet stuff is stealing away lots of time (not talking about writing entries for this place…).

on the other hand, i’ve got one song almost finished (again except vocals) but it won’t be on “traitor” because it’s a completely different style, more bankjob-like. i tried to combine it with already existing traitor-stuff but it sounded…..cough, cough…..not that great. we’ll see where that goes…

babysteps once again – but at least steps. and they’re in the right direction…

yay, here it is! the legendary meatbucket-song! listen to it here.

this was not only the first song i did for the album and the one that took most of the time but also the song that i had the most fun with – and the worst croakiness… well, it is of course inspired by Tom Waits but you already heard that, right? it honors me that some people said my song would sound like one of his – some even said it would sound worse…and that’s an even bigger honor. thank you!

because this was the first tune for this album i made a mistake with it. the album was supposed to be done in 28 days and i spent about a week on this one song before i noticed, that i never could finish in time if i went on this way. the song is not at all complicated and even the single parts were tracked in no time but i ‘wasted’ lots and lots of time with creating the right instruments and with the automation of the volume- and panorama-levels. take the handclaps for instance: there’s a lot of work in them. i took a handclap sample that sounded real to me, but it was only about two or three pairs of hands clapping – not enough for what i had in mind. just doubling the same sample a few times didn’t sound real anymore, so i created a whole new sample out of dozens of the original one but with as many variations in pitch and pan-position as possible. this is not as easy as it sounds because some pitches just didn’t work – i couldn’t find a logical pattern in this so it was mostly trial-and-error-strategy and took a long time because i really cared about each one of the sample-parts. and the coolest thing was to put a variation to the time the different claps occur. if you listen closely you can hear that all the claps sound more or less unique. sometimes all of them are simultaneously sometimes there are a few too early or too late ones, exactly as it would be in reality – when some morons are not able to stay in time but clap anyway. i love those claps but wonder if i spent too much time on them. i guess nobody notices this detail anyway – it’s just handclaps for god’s sake! hopefully they at least create the vibes i wanted them to. see? i even spend way too much time writing about them!

the next thing i think turned out really interesting, although you probably haven’t noticed as well, is the bassdrum which is the first sound of the song and the last one as well. what happens with this one is that it gets louder, stronger and more intense throughout the whole 8 minutes of the song. but you can only really hear it if you compare the beginning and the end of the tune. in between it just draws no attention to itself. again, hopefully this also creates great vibes.

then there’s a bunch of other instruments that play the same licks over and over again. the bass, that kind of holds it all together, a kalimba-sound, a harp. later there’s some celli and some tremolo-strings to create a little tension when the wife comes down the stairs… i automated the volume levels of all of them so they rise from nothing to a certain degree and then fall down again but all of them in different ways, so it doesn’t sound like some computer did this. sometimes the bass is loudest, sometimes the kalimba etc. – pretty random. and i didn’t play the lick for each instrument just once and then copy-and-pasted it again and again, i played them all for about 5 minutes because that was the duration of the song in the first place. it got longer with the lyrics and the whole automation stuff, so i took a variety of licks (i picked each one of them – not just a sequence!) and pasted them to have the increased length covered. i learned that those details are very important to make it sound real…

that’s about it. oops, how could i forget the vocals :-) hmmm, there’s not much to tell about them. i just tried to sound dirty and went a little over the top with it. dig the breathing and slurping noises…

by the way, the reason why my voice sounds broken and strange on “taking the blame” is that i recorded it directly after the meatbucket. there was just no way to really sing after what i did to my voice before. note to myself: change the order of songs appropriately in the future…

alright, in part one i told you about some basics, things to go for and things to avoid…

so what is the actual workout?

it’s as easy as singing the album and concentrate on one thing at a time. for example: always a good topic to focus on is precision. sing the album and concentrate on singing every single note, every single syllable as precise as you can. i do that at least 2-3 times a week to stay on top of things but if you need to build up precision first, it should be more like once a day. another thing is breathing. again, do the whole album and this time fully concentrate on breathing. do you breathe in the right spots? do you breathe in too much air? or too little? is all air gone before you breathe in again? is there a breathing-rhythm?

power, stamina, height are things that should be practiced very carefully! don’t ever overdo it with those! this could cause damage to your voice! that being said, it’s ok to push yourself a little – but concentrate on how it’s feeling. your body knows when it’s too much. and if your throat hurts, you’ve gone too far. power is not loudness (but you knew that already, right?). it comes from precision, efficiency and clearness. and there’s a slogan (i think it’s from some car-tires-ad…): “power is nothing without control” and that is it! you might get carried away, that’s fine – and one reason why you should do whole albums. if you get carried away too much, you’ll notice by not being able to do more than a few songs in a row. when that’s the case, practice on controlling the outburst as much as necessary. usually this is about volume, you got too loud – but loudness is not power, always keep that in mind. for all three (power, stamina, height) you should use a record that’s a tiny bit too high or too tiring for you, so you can stay motivated. but again: don’t overdo it. if it’s getting too hard, take a break. it will come, don’t worry.

then there’s two kinds of speed you could practice: i’d like to call the first one ‘attack’ because it’s similar to the attack we have with instruments (ask your local guitarist). this concerns the beginnings of notes/words. be there on the spot as fast as you can. i’m not talking about pitch here, although this is another thing you can work on (whole album, try hitting the notes – what a surprise…). be quick at starting notes – fast attack. and be quick at changing notes, when it comes to multiple notes in a row: think stairs, not ramp. this is an important skill to work on. the second kind of speed is the more obvious: be able to talk and sing fast in case this ever comes up. for this, sing the album without playback (just your voice) and speed it up, as fast as you can and even faster – this can be quite funny. choose lyrics with lots of words and off you go.

and then there’s whatever you think you’d need to work on….

the order of above things is not coincidence. as you might have noticed, precision does not only stand for itself, it’s also a factor for all others. without precision, you’ll always sound like….well, just bad. by the way this goes for any instrument – ask any pro. and breathing is everything anyway. so those two are the important ones, the priorities. once you got them down (hint: you’ll never really have ;-) ), the others are the topping. but work on them all to prevent boredom. if something is boring, do something else – that goes not only for music :-)

that’s it for now, the next part will be an inside look at my own workout. wooooooooooooooo…..