Forbidden Love
Feb 17, 2009 Waiting
Happy Valentine’s Day, all. Sorry I’m a little late. Here’s a video edited by photographer/filmmaker/firecracker Anya Garrett to a song from my If We Were EP, Sweet Reprise.
You can get Sweet Reprise on iTunes. If you like what you hear, buy the whole EP!
Tags: animals, anya garrett, sweet reprise, video
Mastering: Defining Your Terms
Sep 1, 2008 Waiting
Never ignore your instincts. That’s the lesson I’ve learned in the past few weeks. Never ignore your instincts. Not because they’re always right about the world, but because they’re always right about you.
The master that I was waiting for turned out not be the one I was hoping for. And, as should have been clear from my last post, I knew very well that it wouldn’t be. I was merely hoping that I was wrong. Hoping that this engineer, who specified up front that he didn’t need me to send him notes on what I wanted, because he would just listen to the mixes and see what they needed, really would know what they needed. That, after all, is the goal of working with other people, is it not? Ideally, you don’t want dumb hands to carry out your wishes; you want bright minds with ideas that are better than yours, and hands to match.
So when my gut tried to take me aside, to tell me as plainly as it could, “This man is probably very good at what he does, but he won’t hear the things you’ve heard in hundreds of listens, after working on it for 2 hours,” I stuffed it with Tofutti Cuties to shut it up, and shoved my fingers in my ears, just to be safe.
A few days and a few hundred dollars later, the master came back. The engineer had done a great job getting the record to a consistent commercial dynamic level using state-of-the-art signal compression techniques. Definitely worth the money I paid.
Well, it would have been if dynamics weren’t such an important part of my music. And not in the sense of strong quiets and strong louds. The moment-to-moment builds and drops are what make my music breathe. Even the slightest bit of compression renders it lifeless.
Of course, being a pro who stands by his work, he offered to do another pass, less loud. But after some discussion, I realized that this idea of loudness was his bread-and-butter. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that, in today’s pop music industry, mastering actually means “making it loud.” Where “loud” is defined not as a point on the road of dynamics, somewhere between “turn it up a little” and “oh jesus!” but as consistent dynamic range. As that overwhelming sameness that has taken over the sound of popular music over the past twenty years.
And I realized that if I wasn’t asking him to do the “mastering” that he was good at, I might as well be doing the “mastering” that I wanted myself. Fixing little EQ problems here and there. Manipulating relative volume levels, track gaps, and fades to make all the songs flow into each other exactly right.
So I did. And I sent it out to be duplicated. And in about two weeks, 15 boxes’ worth of CD’s should show up at my door. And then we’ll have a big show, and a big party, and, instead of the stress, and the confusion, and the frustration, I’ll remember all the good parts: the joy of creation, overcoming challenges, everything I’ve learned throughout this process.
And once that’s all done, and I’m ready to jump back in to the next one, my very first step, before I write any new lyrics, before I fire up the computer, before I set the panels back up in the corner, will be to put up a sign that says “Never, ever, ignore your instincts.”
Tags: EP
32 Days
Aug 14, 2008 Waiting
I’m at home right now, waiting for the doorbell to ring. The master of my EP is out for delivery, and soon it will be in my hands. I have mixed feelings about this.
Let me fill you in, as I’ve been pretty sparse on details recently. Boldface proclamations notwithstanding, I decided to go back to my original plan: mix the record myself, and spend money on a good mastering guy to give it some polish.
Collaboration is tough. When you work with someone else, you want to trust them. Ideally, you want someone who you don’t have to tell what to do, because their own ideas are better than yours.
But how do you build up that trust? For someone as creatively solitary as I, it can be hard. Mastering makes it especially difficult, because, as far as I can tell, there is no way to judge a mastering engineer’s work.
Because of the way records are made - recording in one place, mixing in another, mastering by someone else - you can never really tell how much of the final sound he or she is responsible for.
So I’m left doing something I loathe. Acceptance by reputation. This particular engineer worked on a very high-profile major label record recently, and I’ve been told that this, in and of itself, means he is good, and he’ll do a good job. This makes me cringe, but what else can I do?
So that’s why I’m sitting in bed, biting my nails, and waiting for the Fedex truck. Eep.
Tags: EP
Done
Aug 8, 2008 Waiting
The unthinkable has happened. On Wednesday night, I finished all the mixes for the album. 6 tracks, 24 minutes. If We Were. I sent it out for mastering the following morning. (I can’t believe how much it costs to overnight a package to California!!)
I’m not sure how to feel about it. About no longer being driven by this singular creative purpose, this “gotta finish, gotta finish” that has thump thumped in my head every day for so long. I don’t know what to do next. Next week, I’ll be on vacation, and for the first time, I’m not sure what to do. I’ve got a whole ton of Someday/Maybe projects that have been aching for their chance, but I’m not sure how to decide.
There’s still work to be done though. There are still plenty of decisions to be made before the album art goes out next week - what photo to use, what paper stock, which lyrics to cut to fit into the packaging. But I have a great designer working on that stuff; this is no longer my baby.
And ultimately, that’s the hardest and most wonderful part about being done. The loss of control. Now it’s up to the mastering engineer, the designer, the distributors, and ultimately, you listeners. I’ve opened up my grip on this thing. It’s out of my hands. It’s done.
69 Days
Jul 9, 2008 Waiting
Getting closer. I’ve been working on the mix to If We Were. It’s tough because there are so many different lines going on at once. It’s hard to decide what should be in focus, and what should be background. I’m also having trouble striking the balance between sound that’s intense and enveloping and sound that’s not painfully loud. I guess that’s why people use compressors, but I hate them. Dynamic range is the key to everything I do, little expressive subtleties, quiet breaths and crescendos. Without those, it’s too close to the same old shit.
I’m also starting to plan the big release show. I’ve got most of the band in place, and they’re pretty awesome. There are a lot of possibilities floating around in my head. I think it’s going to be leaps and bounds beyond the last one. I’m really looking forward to new arrangements, new ideas, and new songs. Now I need to get the venue a picture, a bio, a blurb, etc. for their own promotion and press. Uggh. I don’t know why I find self-promotion so difficult. I think it’s the idea of having to manufacture an image. I’m happy to give people what I am; I’m happy to share that truth. It’s when I have to stylize that, and shape it into something, that I start to bristle. I need to figure that one out.
All in all, things are good. I plan to finish mixing (finish If We Were and revisit glitches in the other songs) by the end of this month, which puts me right on schedule for the release date. The art looks amazing; I can’t wait for everyone to see it. I’ve been meeting a lot of wonderful people recently, including one who’s beautiful and consistently grin-inducing. I’ve been rehearsing for a gig at a friend’s party, playing soul covers with a great band. Just on keys, and occasional djembe. It feels good to be able to concentrate on one thing at a time. I hope to do more of that when the Geniuses get back on stage.
The juices are flowing. Things are afoot. Life is good.
Compromise
Jun 28, 2008 Waiting
I finally got things sorted out. I was making bad judgments about this whole mixing process, the kind I think we all make. I worked on these mixes for a while, and I enjoyed the process, and I liked what I heard, so I said “These mixes are good.”
Then when my friend suggested I should get a pro to mix the whole thing, the switch immediately flipped. “These mixes are bad!” “I can’t release them like this! They don’t do justice to the music!”
Blah blah fucking blah. Yes, there are parts of each mix that I would like to improve. Yes, the general character of the Far Side mix is duller and less clear than I’d like it to be. BUT. There’s plenty of good in each one. The way that the snares pop out during the second half of each verse in Far Side - I put some thought into that. The balance of the harmonies in the final chorus of La Da Da Dee - I sweated over each .5 dB gradation in each part to get that just right. Sure, I could hand that over to a pro, but he’d have to recreate my creative decisions, or I’d have to live with his.
So here’s the compromise. My mixes are neither globally good, nor globally bad. There are good parts, bad parts, and parts in between. Over the next few weeks (it would be sooner, but I’m relaxing this anti-social lockdown I’ve been under), I’ll aim to eliminate the bad parts, improve the in-between parts, and not fuck up the good ones.
I might still enlist the help of a professional, but I’d like to find someone who can come into my studio, listen to the parts I can’t fix, and then tell me how to fix them. I think that’s much more valuable than having someone do it for me, no?
The Other Side of the Coin
Jun 24, 2008 Waiting
Or not. The dissenters have finally found their voice.
The other day, I linked to an old blog entry. It’s too bad that, at the time, I didn’t actually bother to read it. It was about looseness, the importance of flaws, and, at the root of it, the difference between greatness and perfection. (Hint: strive for the first, the second only leads to crap.)
I think that the heart of my desire to get this EP mixed by someone else is a desire to make it sound “professional.” To be able to put my album up next to other albums, and declare that it fits among them. To put out something that, ooh maybe, please please, fingers crossed, might get played on the radio, or, do I dare to dream, on the television.
And goddammit, that’s a bunch of bullshit. This is not some sonically pure, big studio effort. I didn’t go to some fancy engineer who knows about the best mic placement to avoid phase problems. I didn’t record in a well-treated room with bass traps in every corner. You can hear me take breaths because I left them in. You can hear the hi-hat bleed from the headphones on some of the vocal tracks, because I left it in.
Back before I was part of FLS, I remember going to a bar with some of the boys and their college friends. We were all just hanging out, and of course, someone suggested that they start freestyling. So we all crowded around, I banged out a beat on the table, and they went at it. The rest of the bar was still talking; I think there was even music playing from the speakers. But it was awesome. Because it was real. No tricks, no smoke, no mirrors, just crazy talented kids doing what they do in the middle of a bar for shits and giggles.
Why should I blow my savings on some hotshot to make this record sound like chocolate pudding with fresh organic strawberries in a golden bowl? I want it to sound like your stupid friends banging on the table and singing on a Saturday night, with the fan blowing, and people talking, and cars passing in the street. But they’re really, really good.
Because that’s what I do. I make real music. It’s not shiny. It’s not professional. It’s not perfect. But it’s fucking great. And I need to respect that.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t lead me to a decision. But it’s a start. More as it develops.
Doin’ It
Jun 22, 2008 Waiting
Thanks for all your advice, everyone. At final count, I had 7 votes yes and 0 votes no. So I spent Saturday figuring out how to export tracks for La Da Da Dee so that they still have all my little tweaks, and they don’t take up too much room.
5 hours, and 1.5 GB later, I realize I shouldn’t have used a song with 30 vocal tracks. Oy. So back to the drawing board; I’ll probably put Far Side up there later today. Well, all the individual instrumental/vocal tracks, and then just a snippet of the full song. I don’t want to leak my own stuff!!
In other news, I know I haven’t been adhering to my usual standards of blogging excellence recently. Not enough of the slightly self-indulgent deep digging I’d become so fond of. Hopefully, things will return to normal soon. In the meantime, thanks for reading!
The Contest - ?!?!?!?
Jun 21, 2008 Waiting
I have been mixing this record for quite some time. A couple months actually, because it’s so hard to put enough time in every day. I’ve been neglecting my friends and family, working alone in my lair to revise and recolor something that I put together myself in the first place. Going a little stir-crazy. Nonetheless, I thought it had been going pretty well.
Until I got home last night from a great meeting with Mec, who runs Rock Slinger Incorporated, and Rick, who is designing the art for If We Were, and found a CD waiting for me in the mail. I’d sent my final mix of Far Side out for a “ballpark master” from the mastering engineer I’d been planning to use, to make sure I wanted to go with him.
I popped in the CD. I put it up next to my final mix. I listened; I compared. I was not happy.
Right at that moment, as if I’d summoned him with my mind, my friend the record producer popped onto Facebook chat to tell me he liked our Radiohead cover, and I sent him the two versions. He reminded me of something I’d forgotten:
No amount of mastering can save a bad mix.
There’s a relevant idiom I can’t quite remember, something like: You can put makeup on a horse, but it won’t make him pretty. (Isn’t there something like that? If not, well, you’re welcome.)
So record producer friend tells me he is going to change my life, and he makes a suggestion:
Take one song, put all the individual vocal/instrumental tracks in a zip file together, and post it on renowned sound engineer forum gearslutz.com as a contest. Throw it up on Craigslist NY and LA as well, and anywhere else I can think of. Whoever gives me the best mix of that song within a limited time frame gets to mix the whole EP with the money I was going to pay for mastering, plus some extra. But they have to turn it around in a week, so I can still make my deadline.
He thinks the promise of a nice wad of cash with a quick turnaround, given the current state of the big studio system, will entice much better engineers than I would expect. They will certainly be better than I. And a well-mixed song with passable mastering will sound MUCH better than a passable mix that’s well-mastered.
I like the idea, but I’m not sure. The idea of relinquishing any measure of creative control, even to a pro who I’ll choose because I like his/her work, and who I’ll constantly be giving commentary to, is scary. But it seems to make so much sense!
This is where you folks come in. What do you think? Should I do this?!?!?!