audiot

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!

that is something i do all the time, since i wrote my first song – about 18 years ago that is. accidentally i should add.

for some reason, i always write stuff i cannot play or sing – and it sucks. breathing for instance is usually no big deal once you got the basics down. there’s of course – and always will be – songparts that are hard to do, but those are just a few. oddly enough, i managed to write songs, lots of them, that i myself could not breathe at all. how stupid is that?

and although i’m through with this “airless phase”, i still do this with other parts – like drum- or guitarpieces i simply can not play. now, today that shouldn’t be a problem, right? we have computers and such to do this for us. but this is just not how it works, at least for me. even though i do almost everything with the laptop, i still take pride in my music (stop mocking me!) and the things you hear are really played and recorded, not drawn in with some pencil tool. and this is important to give it authenticity, which is one of the most vital things in music – or any art, for that matter. so right now, while working on the second album, i spend a whole lot of time practicing – just to be able to actually play those things i’m making up for myself. it usually is about precision. when i come up with a drumpart, it’s something i am basically able to play – if you can think it, you can play it – so that’s not the problem. same with guitar or bass. the hard part is to play it clean and precisely, to make every hit or stroke count and equally important. to have no fingernoises or rimclicks and so forth. this is the big challenge for me, so it’s writing the stuff and then tracking a really bad version of it, so i can figure it out in detail. and once i know exactly what to play, i practice like crazy to simply not suck too bad on the real track.

and that’s my point. there’s this saying here (no idea if there’s something similar in english…): one grows with his challenges. or as i probably mentioned many times before: practice something you can NOT do, instead of playing something you already own over and over again. so maybe i should feel lucky to have such a freakingly perverted subconscious that throws all those rocks at me during songwriting, because it knows me all too well. but even if this makes me playing better, it still would be nice to come up with something i could do right away every once in a while…

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…

now we’re getting somewhere :-)

i just finished another recording session and am now up to 15 song-construction-sites. and since i’m still in da zone, this will be a really short entry (once again…). sorry for spending so much time making music, but i can’t help it – it’s what i do…

anyhoo, today was all guitars so far and if you’ve ever tried to record electric guitar, here’s the mother of all advice from me to you: less gain! stop mocking me! i know this is no bloody Richard-Friggin’-Feynman-Flash-Of-Genius-Idea but it helped me a lot. set up your sound the way you like it and then turn the gain-knob down by maybe 20% or the sound will suck big time on the recording. i have no idea why, this came out of experience, lots of swings-and-misses and running up and down the street, waving my arms like crazy screaming out “serenity now!” at the top of my lungs. so better take this advice before your neighbors call the lunatic-patrol-guys who will come into your home and kidnap you away from your compu

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

there you go. because of the pauses in between here are the links to the original article as well as the first three parts of what i wrote about it. you may skip the link to part 1, because that was just me presenting the link to you:

• original article
• recording vocals (part 1)
• recording vocals (part 2)
• recording vocals (part 3)

ok, now what’s left are points 5, 6 and 7. and they are more or less about the image people seem to have of singers everywhere. i can’t say i blame them, singers often are a real pain. and that’s what makes things a little hard for the “normal” ones sometimes. on the other hand, sometimes it’s just necessary for a singer to stand his/her ground and demand things others might find weird or wrong. i’m not going to start a philosophical debate here, but let’s just say, the voice is a unique instrument because it’s a part of our body. it’s easily harmed or even destroyed and one needs to take great care of it in order to keep it functional at peak efficiency. now, instrumentalists often just don’t get it. if they have troubles, they can simply change the strings or the heads, a screw or whatever else to fix it. but this isn’t the case with the voice. so singers have to be a bit overprotective, while others need to understand why.

that being said, there is of course no use in singers being bitchy and behaving like little princesses and even i threw out singers myself because of this. by the way, there are guitarists out there, known to be quite bitchy themselves, but let’s not go there…

now, there is certainly nothing wrong with making the vocalist comfortable. so be sure to have some hookers and lots of pizza standing by :-) as for the extra people, don’t ever let someone in who has nothing to do with the recording. i don’t care how good a friend he/she is to you, do you go to work with your friends? sitting on their desk while they’re in their office? i thought so. you’re there to work, easy as that. so throw ‘em out. and this goes for every recording session, not just vocals. bringing extra people just screams out “i’m not taking this seriously at all!”

as a singer, i’m happy if the studio people have water etc. for me, but i always bring my own, because you can just not count on it. it’s the same as with the lyrics. make sure you bring everything you need yourself. if you don’t need it, fine. you can leave it in the car, but you can always get it should the need arise. there’s nothing worse than a cancelled session, or one with less than good results, because of nothing to drink or something similarly stupid. so just be prepared for everything. and to get back to the “be professional” aspect: be able to do your job no matter what the circumstances are. even if there are morons lurking around, you might just not be in the position to do anything about it – if you’re there as a hired gun for instance. so hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

the practice aspect is worth mentioning as well. a singer needs to warm up, for everything. no matter if it’s rehearsals, a live gig or a recording session, warming up is critical. not just to keep the voice healthy and intact but also to make it sound better on the recording. a warmed-up voice sounds different and can be controlled a lot better, so warming up is important. but don’t go over the top with this. it’s a warm up, nothing more. the actual performance is what you need to focus on, so don’t let the warming up eat up your resources. by the way, this is not the time to practice. you should know what you’re doing by now. and, again, be professional. time is of the essence here. depending on the singing-style and the genre of the music you might be able to sing for hours without any problem OR you might have only 15 minutes before the voice sounds less than perfect! so make the best of it, take breaks whenever necessary and drink a lot. you’ll regret it big time if you settle for a crappy take because there was not enough time and you couldn’t do it any better at that very moment.

wow, here’s my favorite: never give negative feedback to the singer. that’s bullsh!t, at least in my book. if your singer can’t handle feedback (that includes both positive and negative), get rid of him/her. that same thing goes for any other musician you’re dealing with. now, i know it’s not that easy, although it should be. chances are you’re stuck with li’l princess, so well, be diplomatic if you have to. you should know who you’re dealing with before the session – know your enemy :-) so be aware if this person can handle feedback or not. everyone involved in the recording process should be on the same side, so if the performance was not good, the performer should be able to hear about it, because it’s for the greater good (now you have to mumble “the greater good” – anyone seen “Hot Fuzz”?). can you imagine a bad sounding recording because noone told the singer he/she was off? there’s too much at stake here. so this goes out to all singers: be able to handle feedback, if it’s constructive of course. if you’re off, deal with it! know your limits, accept your mistakes and do it better next time. closing your eyes and ears won’t do anyone any good, especially yourself. but for the non-singers who are stuck with such an idiot: do what you have to, to get through this. but now might be a good time to start secretly plotting against your singer, so you can have a real one by the time the next session is at hand…

good luck

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• Background Vocals – Session Tips (datamusicata.com)
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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…

well, actually i wanted to name this “never underestimate the importance of the workflow” because it’s more like a tip and not a complete guide of how to organize a complete music production from a to z. maybe this would be a great idea as well, but i’d definitely be the wrong guy to write that one, for i have not the slightest idea about it. my approach to recording is more of an Eastwood-nature: i’m riding into a town and the rest just happens.

but that doesn’t mean i don’t follow a few basic principles. and one of them is to be aware of the workflow. i started to think about this a little when i watched a few tutorials on Propellerheads new software Record which will be released in september i believe. anyway, they have a bunch of short tutorials about it on their site and it looks ridiculously simple. so my first thought was “hey, that’s exactly what i need!” – but then again, i do not really need it, because i’m already able to do what it does best. and that’s recording on the spot without having to set up or do anything except hitting the red button. i might buy it anyway because i’m doing almost everything with Reason anyway and Record will be the perfect mate for it with seamless integration of everything – which would mean to get rid of the middleman. so it might still be a good idea to get it but it’s not absolutely necessary.

now, my recommendation to you – and i’m sure you already are aware of it, but maybe forget about this on a regular basis, as i do as well – make recording as simply as possible. have an empty an ready-to-go project set up at all times, so all you need to do once inspiration strikes is turn on the computer, open the project and hit red. as for me there’s one more step in between, depending on what instrument i want to track. i have a guitar-modeling-device wired into both an audio and a midi interface with the guitar cable already plugged in. i have one bank of the modeler filled with the different sounds i use in most cases. and for all other instruments, i have a midi-controller keyboard standing by. so the extra step mentioned above is simply plugging the audio interface and/or the midi-controller into the laptop. if i would use a desktop computer, this would already be wired up at all times. now, if i want to record guitar, i simply plug in the audio interface, turn on the modeling-device and the laptop, open the empty cubase-project, plug in the guitar and hit record. ok, that’s six steps, but except for the first one, all of them have to be made in any situation. if it’s not guitar i want to track, then it’s plugging in the controller, switching on the laptop open an empty Reason-rack, selecting an instrument and hit record. it doesn’t get any more streamlined than this. the midi-interface is simply there to program/change sounds on the computer screen instead of going through endless menus on the modelers two-digit-display. but since i have my five favourite guitar sounds already at my fingertips, i just need to tweak them a little bit by assigning another cabinet or changing the gain slightly. oh, and when i talk about ‘empty’ projects, i do mean my default starting point. so it’s not really empty, it’s what i defined would be the most efficient and comfortable place to start. and you should do this as well. take those few minutes once to set up what you would like to see as soon as you click on “new” and never again bother with making those same changes over and over and over again as i did for years because i was to lazy to define my preferences (…).

the important thing is to always be ready. if you need to go through a 2-hour-setup-session to catch even the tiniest idea, you won’t get very far. that’s exactly what happened when i first started recording my own stuff. i had every piece of gear i needed, the software etc. but everytime i wanted to record something it took hours to get ready for it. and as a result, i didn’t record very much at all. so once inspiration struck i thought, “cool, let’s track this down”, then i started setting up and halfway through thought “hmm, it’s not that great after all – not worth the effort…” and the idea got thrown into the bin.

today, for me everything is worth the effort, simply because there’s no more effort involved. and with the ability to change sound, tempo etc. after the actual recording process, i can just let inspiration get the better of me and work on it later.

by the way, i found it very important to pick one piece of software and learn to really use it, including keyboard shortcuts and different advanced techniques. i used lots of different programs before and knew all of them just a little, but this winds you up in endless im- and export-battles and so forth. so now i only use two, and one of them only for the raw tracking process. anything else is done inside of just one program which i know pretty well by now – makes things very easy, especially for someone as lazy as me…

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…