How To Improve The Sound Of Any Room

My new book The Studio Builder's Handbook (written with Dennis Moody) has just been released and I want to share an important excerpt from it. Most of the time when people are setting up a home studio they tend to throw a computer and some gear into a corner and that's it. The last thing they think about is the room itself, and it make a huge difference in your final product. If you can't hear it, you can't record or mix it.

But contrary to popular believe, it doesn't take a rocket scientist or a lot of money to improve you sound in a big way. All it takes is a way to control the reflections in the listening area. The nice thing about The Studio Builder's Handbook is it shows you how to do that for less than $150. It won't be the Record Plant but it will be far better than you could ever have imagined. There's more to it than what you see below, but here's how to start.

By the way, if it seems like I have a lot of new books out all of a sudden, two different publishers seemed to have released books at a the same time.
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To improve the sound of your room you must first control the reflections in the room. It’s not too difficult to do this in the sweet spot of the playback position, but it starts to get expensive as that position is expanded to include more of the room. Regardless of the amount of money that you spend, many designers feel that you’re never going to widen the sweet spot all that much anyway, but in the world of small spaces and limited budgets, a small but much improved listening area works out fine.

Creating A Reflection Free Zone

The key to improving the sound of just about any room is the Reflection Free Zone, or RFZ (see Figure 6.4). As we outlined in Chapter 3, the RFZ absorbs the first reflections from the speakers so that all you hear is their direct sound.

Chapter 6.4 - The Reflection Free Zone

In order to determine the RFZ, sit in the listening position and have a friend move a mirror along the right wall. Anywhere that you can see the reflection of either speaker requires either wall treatment or a sound panel as we outlined in previous chapters. Do the same for the left wall. It’s advisable to treat a larger area than you can see with the mirror so you’ll have the freedom to move around in a larger area without being outside of the RFZ.

Although the ceiling might be more difficult to spot with a mirror, you can 

either hang panels directly over you just at your listening position, or in approximately the same area as the treatment on your side walls.

The floor of the RFZ can stay reflective with hardwood (which everyone likes because it’s easy to roll your chair around) as long as the ceiling is absorbent. Even if you have rug on the floor, you’re still better off to have the ceiling absorbent in the RFZ to eliminate any chance of early reflections from the speakers reflecting back onto the listening position.

You can read some additional excerpts on the Studio Builder's Handbook page on my website.

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"Born This Way" - Lady Gaga Song Analysis

Whether you love her or hate her, Lady Gaga is #1 this week on the Ultimate Chart with "Born This Way," so let's do a song analysis. As with all analysis, we'll break the song down into four parts - the song itself, the arrangement, the sound and performance.

The Song - "Born This Way" is a straight down the middle pop dance song that follows a familiar form with a 124bpm tempo. The form goes like this:

Spoken intro, music intro, verse, chorus, spoken interlude, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus, spoken outro

About the only thing that's different about the song form itself is the spoken intro, interlude and outro. That said, the song does have a good melody and a strong chorus, once again in the tradition of all great pop songs.

The Arrangement - When you have a song that's built on a traditional form you have to play some tricks to keep the song interesting and "Born This Way" does just that. One thing that always works in any genre of music is dynamics and that's what the song employs to keep the interest high. Listen to the following places:

     The first half of the verse with just the vocal, pad and rhythm.
     The first 4 bars of the 2nd verse with just the vocal and kick drum.
     The first half of the bridge with spoken word, synth bed and sound effects.
     The first half of the first outro chorus with just vocals and kick drum.
     The last outchorus vocal where it breaks down to just the lead and harmony vocals.

The 5 elements of the mix (check out this post for an explanation) look like this:

• The Foundation - Like most songs, it's the bass and drums.

• The Pad - Like most dance songs, it's a synth pad that you can hear predominantly in the first verse, but it's there for the whole song adding the glue to the tracks as well.

• The Rhythm - This element utilizes an aggressive synth with a saw-tooth wave shape that you can hear predominantly in the 2nd half of the first verse.

• The Fills - Like most hit pop songs, there's something in almost every space where there's not a vocal. Usually it's some sort of synth but there are lots of sound effects as well.

The Sound - Once again, like most dance-oriented songs, "Born This Way" is compressed pretty hard, but the kick and snare are really squeezed to the point where they don't sound natural at all. Maybe that was the point, but I think they would've sounded better with more dynamics and better sounds.

The Performance - I think my favorite part is the breakdown to the vocals in the outro chorus. There's some nice ad libbing by Gaga, and the vocal harmony twists at the end is something that's small, yet attention grabbing.

As always, feel free to send me your suggestions of songs to analyze. I'll get to them in the first part of the week.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

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Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

The 50 Worst Band Pictures

It's time to laugh a little, unfortunately at the expense of others. Today's post is centered around a something I found called "The 50 worst band pictures." The problems with most of the photos is that the bands just don't know any better. They think a picture is a picture and a photographer is a photographer, but just like a great musician, engineer or producer, you get what you pay for. As the saying goes, a pro is expensive; an amateur costs a fortune. Let's look at a few.


These guys are from Finland, so maybe things are different over there, but:
1) Do these costumes have anything to do with the band, or do they just think they're cool?
2) The post growing out of the head of the 2nd guy from the left is a bit of a distraction, as is the house on top of the head of Thor on the right.
3) Are these guys actors or musicians?
4) Cellphone cameras are nice and all, but it sure would be nice to see some depth of field.
5) There's this really nice grassy knoll in the background. Think they could've used that instead?

Here's a good example of a photo that's just plain bad. Let's count the number of things wrong with this.
1) Band doesn't care enough about the photo to dress for it
2) No matter what anyone tells you, it's never cool to give the finger in a photo.
3) Bad picture of the band that's not very clear
4) Even worse Photoshop job.
5) If the little guy on the left was raised up a bit, they could've used the natural cut toff point at the waist to frame it better.
6) Would you hire this band? Yeah, me neither.

I can't believe that anyone would even consider this as a band photo.
1) Fat and out of shape guys should never take a picture with their shirts off. It's even weird for a guy who's really cut to do it.
2) Once again, "Let's take a really bad picture from your girlfriends iPhone and Photoshop the background out. Yeah, that will do it."
3) "While we're at it, let's Photoshop some lighting bolts in there." That has exactly what to do with shirtless fat guys? Shirtless fat guys have exactly what to do with music?

Here we go again. Just the kind of photo to NOT get you the gig.
1) "Let's rub fake blood all over us to make us look like crazy killers." This has exactly what to do with their music?
2) "Hey buddy, take a picture of our band with this little pocket camera. Make sure the flash is on."
3) Doesn't the fact that the guy on the left is in the dark bother anyone?
4) How does the setting and background relate to crazy killers who think they're a band?

This one's a little better on execution, but does it make you want to hire the band? Does it make you think that they're even a band at all. As the caption on the original website said, "They'll get you a good deal on cell phone accessories."

To see all fifty of these gems, go here.


Here's an excerpt from the Electronic Press Kit chapter of The Musician's Video Handbook that covers band pictures.
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Make sure that the still photos are professionally done. Nothing screams out “amateur” than pictures that are blurry, aren’t framed well, and worst of all, aren’t suitable for use in an article. This is one of your key assets and will be used more than anything else except your bio. They don’t have to be studio portraits - they can be crazy and creative if it fits your image. 

If you don’t have any pictures, avoid the temptation to have a friend take some unless he’s a really good photographer. An amateur-looking photograph is almost as bad as none at all. That being said, almost all the techniques used for lighting and framing video also apply to taking photographs, so you can check those chapters for some help.

If you decide to use a pro photographer, stay away from one that does family-style portraits because you’ll get one that makes you look like a family. They don’t do music and most don’t have that kind of mindset. If there’s a local modeling agency, ask them for some suggestions. That way you’ll get someone who’s a lot more inventive and that will result in some photos that are more interesting. If you go this route, make sure that you get an agreement up front that you own the copyrights on the photos, if you can.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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6 Mic Placement Tips For Electric Guitars

Time for another excerpt from The Ultimate Guitar Tone Handbook, this time regarding 6 mic placement tips for electric guitars. Actually, most of these tips can be used for any instrument, not just guitar amps.

You can read some other excerpts from the book on the Ultimate Guitar Tone Handbook page on my website.
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A common recording process has an engineer EQing, compressing, and adding multiple mics in trying to capture a sound, yet never taking into account what the sound in the room at the source is like. That’s why it’s imperative that every engineer use the following steps in any serious microphone placement:

1. Go out into the room, stand in front of the amp or acoustic guitar player, and listen to them play the part from the song you’re about to record. Playing the song is important because you might be deceived if it’s another song or just random playing. Listen for the tonal balance from the amp or instrument as well as the way the room responds. Listening to the amp or acoustic guitar in the room will give you a reference point to the way it really sounds so you have a better idea of what you’re trying to capture. 

2. Find the sweet spot. There are several ways to find the sweet spot.

• To place an omnidirectional mic, cover one ear and listen with the other. Move around the mic or player until you find the spot that sounds best. That’s where to place the mic to begin.

• To place a cardioid mic, cup your hand behind your ear (instead of covering it) and move around the player or amp until you find the place that sounds best.

• To place a stereo mic or stereo pair, cup both ears and move around the player or amp until you find the place that sounds best.

• As an alternate method, crank the amp until it’s noisy, then put on headphones and listen to the mic as you move it around until the noise has the best combination of highs and lows.

3. You can’t place the mic by sight. The best mic position must always be found, not predicted. It’s okay to have a starting place, but it’s usually never what ends up being the best spot.

4. Change the mic position instead of reaching for the EQ. Chances are that you can adjust the quality of the sound enough by simply moving the mic in order to avoid using any equalization. The EQ will add a least a small amount of phase shift at some frequency and can’t be undone later. Moving the mic (which amounts to an acoustic EQ) will usually sound smoother and more pleasing to the ear.

5. Give the mic some distance. Remember, distance creates depth. The guitar and amp will sound a lot more natural than using artificial ambience. If possible, leave just enough distance between the mic and the source to get a bit of room reflection to it.

6. Be careful miking multi-speaker cabinets. 4x12 cabinets like the typical Marshall 1960 pose a special challenge in that at a certain distance you have phase anomalies from the multiple speakers that you really don’t want to capture. The cabinet will sound fine when close miked from right against the grill cloth to approximately three inches away from the best sounding speaker in the cabinet, but until you get to a distance of 18 inches where the sound of all the speakers converge, you may be capturing some speaker interaction that’s not all that pleasant sounding. That distance varies with the make and model of speaker cabinet.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

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"Everybody Loves A Happy Ending" - Tears For Fears Song Analysis

Our friend David Das asked for an analysis of Tears For Fears "Everybody Loves A Happy Ending" so here it is. This is the title song from the 2000 reunion album of the band, which features Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.


TFF is known for their Beatlesqe songs and images and this song is no exception. As with all analysis, we'll break the song down into four parts - the song itself, the arrangement, the sound and performance.

The Song - The song is very interesting in that it doesn't really follow the standard pop format of verse, chorus, repeat, add bridge, etc. It goes like this:

Intro, intro with additional instruments and vocals, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, outro

The outro is not a verse and it's not quite a chorus, it's another section entirely, and that's what makes the song unique. It ends essentially with a bridge and a D section.

The Arrangement - Like most great music productions, this song has a lot of development and tension and release. As far as development is concerned, listen to how each section that repeats (like the intro and the verses) changes thanks to new sonic textures, and even mix elements, being introduced. In terms of tension and release, Happy Ending is opposite of most songs, since the verse is very large and tense sounding, and the release comes from the sparser chorus with a different rhythmic feel. The bridge then breaks down to just a guitar, drums played with brushes, and vocal that gets augmented with vocal harmonies as it repeats. Then the outro gets loud and mean and becomes the peak of the song until the tension is released at the very end with a very John Lennon-esqe vocal part.

Since the song has so many completely different sections, lets just look at the intro as an example of the mix elements.

The 5 elements of the mix (check out this post for an explanation) look like this:

• The Foundation - As is the norm, the Foundation element is the intro is held down by the bass and drums.

• The Pad - There's a synth/organ that's framing the chord changes by just playing footballs (whole note chords).

• The Rhythm - There really isn't a rhythm element in this case, but there doesn't have to be either. As long as there's no more than 5 elements, the listener will not be overloaded with information.

• The Lead - A synth plays the line, then is augmented with both a clean baritone guitar and a sitar (a TFF trademark) at the very end of the intro.

• The Fills - The second pass of the intro has a high distorted guitar line enter playing counterpoint to the lead. The vocals also sing an answer line in the spaces that become a fill.

The Sound - A mix that's this dense in places sometimes has instruments that are buried, but more often than not in this song, they're intended to blend into on another to create a new sonic element. That's what happens throughout the song. For the most part, everything is pretty in your face, with short ambiences, or double-tracks to add a sense of space and environment. The exceptions is the high guitar line in the second half of the intro with the repeated eighth note delay that's intentionally pushed back in the mix.

The Performance - Happy Ending is extremely well made and performed, but there are flashes a greatness in sections of the song. I love the fast bass fill that appears at 1;10 and the harmony vocals on the second verse and the bridge. The sparseness of the  bridge is also a nice change.

It would take a lot more to cover everything in this song, so just enjoy the great production as you listen.

Also, feel free to send me your suggestions of songs to analyze.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

The Ins And Outs Of Road Cases

Today is the last day to enter to win a copy of The Touring Musician's Handbook, so click here to enter if you're interested. I thought that now would be a good for an excerpt from the book, so here's a bit from Chapter 7 all about a highly misunderstood piece of a touring player's arsenal - their road cases.
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For many musicians, buying road cases for their gear is sort of a right of passage. As soon as you stencil your name on the cases, it suddenly means that your stock as a musician has risen and you’ve made the jump to becoming your own brand.

While some players choose not to case up their gear in order to save money in the beginning of their touring career, they soon see the shortsightedness the first time a favorite instrument is damaged from a fall off of a ramp or loading dock. Road cases are not only worth it, but almost mandatory in that your gear always has to work, and the only way to assure that happens is to keep it protected from the frequent and many knocks of the road.

The ATA Standard

Although many cases may look similar, the sturdiest (and consequently most expensive) ones are what’s known as ATA cases. This is a design based on an airplane parts packaging specification (known as ATA 300 Category 1), developed by airline packaging engineers and certified by the Airline Transport Association. ATA 300 compliant cases are designed to withstand the rigors of being shipped a minimum of 100 times, and specifies that the case will have recessed handles that will not break during transit. The standard also details the level of quality of every piece of construction material that goes into the case, including locks, hinges, and fastening systems, and also states that all rivets and screws must be non-corrosive and all edges must be rounded and have certain level of construction quality. Because of this ATA standard, the typical road case has also come to be known by the name “flight case,” since it’s made principally to survive multiple flights.

Tip: If the road case is too heavy for a single person to carry it, it needs casters.

Types Of Road Cases

Road cases come in a lot of different styles and a lot of different materials. As a result, all road cases are not created equal. Some are great for keeping the weather off your gear, while others are built to withstand the constant battle of the road. Let’s take a look at the different types.

Fiber Cases - Fiber cases are the typical drum cases that most drummers have used some time during their life (see Figure 7.2). They’re made out of fiberglass reinforced polyester and are very strong and rugged. While they work great for the club musician or weekend warrior because they keep the scuffs and incidental scratches off of the instrument, they’re deficient for road work in several ways; there’s little or no shock mounting for the instrument, the case is closed with a nylon strap that can be cut or lost, and their irregular shape make them difficult to pack efficiently. This means they usually get tossed on the top of the evenly packed square cases in the truck where they bounce around a lot as a result. Guess what that does for the instrument? They’re also prone to caving should something very heavy be placed upon them.

Aluminum - Aluminum cases have a major advantage in being extremely light weight, and usually have a fair amount of shock absorption (see Figure 7.3) inside. That being said, they’re very easy to pierce, and should generally not be used for shipping purposes as a result. It’s possible to have an ATA standard aluminum case, but you have to use so much aluminum that you lose the weight advantage that aluminum has over other types of cases.

Carpet Cases - These are simple plywood cases with an outer fuzzy carpet material (see Figure 7.4). This type of construction once again offers little in the way of impact relief and protection. They’re heavy because the internal frame may be constructed of steel, and even though the carpet finish makes them very tough, there’s not much in the way of shock mounting. Carpet cases are great for things like cables and mic stands, but not for anything expensive that must be protected.

Molded Plastic - Some cases are made out of molded plastic (see Figure 7.5) which might be good for keeping the rain off an instrument but not much help under the repeated impacts of being loaded onto a truck. Their weakness frequently is in the latches, which can break or come loose over time, and you don’t see plastic cases in very large sizes. Once again, molded plastic cases may come in an odd enough shape that it won’t easily pack in the truck. There are ATA molded cases made, which are also mil spec for military electronic gear, but they’re really expensive and generally custom made.

Sandwiched Material - The strongest and most common road cases are the ones with sandwiched material and reinforced edges and corners (see Figure 7.6), and these can be made of different materials for different types of transit. Most sandwich-type road cases are constructed in three main layers:

• an outer layer of a plastic-based laminate called ABS
• a middle layer of 3/16 to ½ inch cabinet-grade plywood such as birch, poplar or maple
• an internal shock-absorbing foam layer that corresponds to the exact shape of the instrument or piece of gear.
• The edges of the case are reinforced with aluminum extrusion, and have steel or zinc corner pieces and recessed handles and fasteners. 

The good thing about ATA type road cases is that they can be repaired. Just about anything can be replaced and the case will come back as good as new. In fact, there are companies that specialize in repairing road cases like Mobil Flight Case Repair, although just about any road case manufacturer can do it.

You can read more excerpts from The Touring Musician's Handbook on my website.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

"Grenade" - Bruno Mars Song Analysis

Today we're going to analyze the #5 song from this week's Ultimate Chart - Bruno Mars' "Grenade." It's the second single from his hit album "Do-Wops & Hooligans."

Let's get down to it. As with all analysis, we'll break the song down into four parts - the song itself, the arrangement, the sound and performance.

The Song - If you were going to write a straight down the middle pop song, this is the way to do it. The song is unusual in that it begins right with the verse with no intro, but other than it it's formula all the way, not that there's anything wrong with that if it works (it does here). Basically the song looks like this:

      Verse, Chorus, 2 bar interlude, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, 2 bar interlude, verse as the outro.

The good thing about "Grenade" is that it has a great melody, something that's sorely lacking in much of today's popular music.

The Arrangement - Just as the form of the song follows a formula, so does the arrangement. It develops from the sparse first verse to the big chorus, developing in a less sparse second verse, and finally peaking at the bridge. The tension is released by the stripped-down last outro verse, which is very unusual since most outros retain the tension to the end.

The 5 elements of the mix (check out this post for an explanation) look like this:

• The Foundation - As is the norm, the Foundation element is this song is held down by the bass and drums.

• The Pad - There's an organ that plays just underneath everything that acts as the Pad and glues the track together. Once again, pretty standard. You can never go wrong with an organ for this element.

• The Rhythm - This is interesting in that the arppegiated electric piano line in the verse act as the Rhythm element, but during the chorus it switches to the double time feel of the drums.

• The Lead - As almost always, it's the lead vocal.

• The Fills - The Fills are handled by the background vocals and the occasional percussion sound effect.

The Sound - This is a very well made record in that it's not too compressed and the ambience is layered in a pleasing, ear-candy kind of way. The vocal has a medium-long reverb decay on it in the beginning, but then a timed and repeated quarter note delay is added during the second verse. The other instruments have their own short ambiences that make them seem more in-your-face, except for the percussion effect that has a long reverb with a very long, timed pre-delay.

The Performance - Make no mistake about it, Bruno Mars is a star. He's got the chops and his vocal shows considerable passion that effectively sells the song. The background vocals are also well-executed and add to both the motion and the tension of the song as well.

Unfortunately, Elektra Records is restricting the video to YouTube only, so you'll have to go over there for a listen.

Feel free to send me your suggestions for songs to analyze, but make sure there's a YouTube video available.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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Where The Music Business Is Located

So you think you know where the music business is centered? Well, think again.

When one thinks of the music business, usually Los Angeles or New York City immediately spring to mind, but the chart below is a giant surprise. In a paper entitled The Economic Geography in the US, Richard Florida, Charlotta Mellander and Kevin Stolarick looked at numerous cities throughout the US and Canada and came up with some surprising results.

Yes, Nashville, although always a major music hub, far and away has the highest concentration of the music industry.

While everyone thinks of Nashville as the home of country music, it's a lot larger and more diverse than that. According to the report:

"Over the past several decades, Nashville transformed itself from a rather narrow country music outpost in the 1960s and 1970s into a major center for commercial music. In 1970, Nashville wasn't even one of the top five regions by this measure. By 2004, it was the national leader, with nearly four times the U.S. average. Today, it  is home to over 180 recording studios, 130 music publishers, 100 live music clubs, and 80 record labels."

But the big surprise is the 3 major Canadian cities ranking before New York, and some of the other cities that usually don't register when thinking about the music business.

The chart is a perfect example of the democratization of the music business in Music 3.0. You can be anywhere and not only register on the industry's radar, but be a major player as well.

For more on the study, check out this article in The Atlantic.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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The Most Annoying People At Gigs

There's a great article by Brian Frank over at miccontrol.com called The Top 10 Most Annoying People At Gigs that I thought was both funny and spot on. I haven't gigged in bars for a long, long time, so it's interesting to see that some things never change, and probably never will. I only included numbers 1 through 5, but you can read the rest of the article here.
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Now I will note that alcohol is a major player here in how people become annoying and at times more annoying at a gig.  In the words of Homer J. Simpson alcohol is, "the cause of and solution to all of life's problems."  With that said, let's get into the list.  For those of you non-musicians who happen to read this, I hope to God you're not one of these types and if you are, well....you know who you are.

1. Freebird!!!

I have to say this falls as numero uno for me and from what I can tell other musicians.  I would venture to say at three quarters of my shows someone yells "Freebird!!!"  And once one person yells it, other people start yelling it too.  It is an awesome song,  but it's gotten tarnished because of the people that start yelling it out.  The thing about people who yell out this Skynard song is that they always think it's so funny.  Well, I'm sorry it's not an original thing to say and last time I checked the lyrics, it was not a funny, haha, kind of song.  The thing is, because this is done so often, I don't play the damn song.  And if you get on a musicians bad side we just might give you a freebird--yes, saluting you with the middle finger.

2. "I'm a professional/I can sing" so "let me play/sing"--followed by childish begging

I've run into many folks who want to come up on the stage and entertain.  In fact, often times they make a couple claims to try and accomplish this.  Some people say, "Oh, well I'm a professional musician, it's all good."  Others say, "I can sing, I'm really good."  Let me cut to the chase on why this usually ends badly and is annoying--nine times out of ten they're not a professional and cannot sing.  And if they do come on stage, it can ruin the energy of the show.

Here's why it's annoying though.  First the "professional musician" plea.  If you are a true professional, you don't ask the musician who's show it is to get up and play at their gig.  It's not your gig--time and energy are going into it and you're name is not on the bill.  It is different if the musician playing does happen to know you are a professional musician because there's a respect.  But I have asked people where they've played and they end up revealing they don't play out at all.

For the "I can sing really good" plea, it's a bit different.  If my gig was a karaoke gig, then sure anyone could come on stage and sing while I played.  But I'm not a karaoke host or musician and neither is my gig.  The times I've allowed someone to sing they don't really know the song or we can't agree on a song to play or (most often) they do not sing well (and many people fumble trying to use a microphone).  This situation reminds me of the initial rounds of American Idol--you know those people who think highly of their singing but actually suck.

I have learned to not say "no" to both these folks, but tell them to speak to the management at the venue.  Usually the venue doesn't want people on the stage anyway for liability reasons.  Many times though I've gotten into an argument with someone who starts to beg and whine and not believe they should ask the management.  If the manager allows it, then I'm cool--it's not on me then if suckage appears on the stage.

3. I'll just jump on stage anyway

Even after the management said they can't come on the stage, people do anyway.  Some venues I play have a security person to stop them, but those that don't I'm left on my own to handle it.  I try to just go with the flow, make it quick and get them off the stage.  It can be quite ridiculous at times if they're drunk and not in control--and I end up having a big old mess standing next to me.  Also, doing this worries me because I've had people step on my equipment or come close to spilling their drink all over or knocked into my guitar.  Musicians worst nightmare.

4. Let me make a request/give you a drink/talk to you/let's do a shot while you're in the middle of a song.

This bugs the hell out of me.  I'm playing a song and someone comes to the stage and starts talking to me.  Well, I'll be brutally honest--I can't have a conversation back while I'm in the middle of the verse.  I can't put my hand up to say, wait a sec, since it breaks up the chords of song.  But these folks are just impatient or maybe just clueless as to what is going on.  The best thing I have thought of doing is when there's a break in the song, I just keep strumming a chord over and over or the progression (I can sometimes talk and play at the same time) to see what they hell they want.  Usually I try and say, can you just wait til I finish the song--that has failed though.

I also can't take a drink or a shot in my hand while I'm strumming and I can't swallow liquid while I'm singing either--both are physically impossible.  Some people just can't wait though.

5. "You don't know any of the songs I am requesting.  You suck!"

I know just over 300 cover songs, but I don't know everything.  I admit I feel bad when someone keeps coming up to make a song request and I don't know how to sing or play what they want.  Most people will move on or eventually we'll find something they want to hear.  But other times I've had people give me a look of being annoyed with me and I have had a handful say to my face that "I suck" because I don't know "anything".  Hey, I know what I know--don't get your panties in a bunch.

Read the rest of the article here.

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"Power" - Kanye West Song Analysis

Today's song was requested by our friend from Romania, Emanual Alexandru, and it's Kanye West's "Power." This is the first single from his fifth album, My Beautiful, Dark Twisted Fantasy, produced by Kanye and Symbolyc One, and features a sample from one of my all-time favorite songs, "Twenty-First Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson.

As with all analysis, we'll break the song down into four parts - the song itself, the arrangement, the sound and performance.

The Song - Like most rap songs, the form is fairly simple, with the same verse repeating and an interlude (The "21st Century Schizoid Man" sample) thrown in. That is, until the outro, when the song changes and basically turns into a bridge. Highly unusual but very cool. So the form looks something like this:

Intro, 2 verses, interlude,

4 verse (the lyrics could make the last one a chorus although nothing else changes), interlude,

4 verses (the last one could be a chorus), interlude

verse, verse, verse, bridge, outro

The Arrangement - This is a perfect example where the arrangement can make a song, since there's always something different happening in every verse. Instruments (including the drums) drop in and out, creating song dynamics and keeping the interest high. If we look at the musical elements, this is what we have (look here for explanations of the elements of a song):

• The Foundation - This one's easy, since it's the pretty standard bass and drums.

• The Rhythm - The rhythm element is an instrument that pushes the track along, usually double time or a complimentary rhythm to the foundation. Unusually, this element does not exist in this song.

• The Pad - This is highly unusual in that it's a sampled background vocal track that's repeated from the intro through most of the song.

• Fills - There are a lot of musical fills or contrary lines in this song, and there's not much room for them to stand by themselves. That's OK, because the mix is skillful enough to make them work.

The Sound - I'd love to see the track sheet on this song because I'm sure the number of tracks is pretty high. "Power" is a great example of modern layered ambience and accomplished exclusively with reverbs with short (1 second or less) decay times or short delays. You hear big sounding drums (rap records seem to love John Bonham these days), a separate short room on the background vocals, and most other instruments are either dry and in your face (like the vocal), or have their own short ambience.

Speaking of the repeated background vocal sample. it's a little squashed, but most of the rest of track is not.

The Performance - Kanye's vocal delivers on this tune but for me, it's the harmony background vocals way at the end of the song on the outro that really got me.

Don't forget to send in your requests for songs to analyze, but be sure to include a YouTube link.

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Bruce Swedien's Vocal Recording Tips

For anyone who doesn't know already, Bruce Swedien is truly the Godfather of modern day recording. Having been part of the team the produced Michael Jackson's greatest hits is only one of the things he's done over his long and illustrious career. He's also recorded so many of the jazz greats, from Count Basie to Dizzy Gillespie, and pop giants like Barbra Streisand as well.

There's a great article on ProSound Web (which also runs a few of my articles too) that's an excerpt from his great book, "Make Mine Music." Bruce also was kind enough to contribute an interview in one of my books as well - The Mixing Engineer's Handbook.

Below is an excerpt from the article over on Prosoundweb.com, from which I took some of his points about vocal recording.

• "First off, the type of music to be recorded is most important. Pop, jazz, rhythm and blues, country, and classical all require a different approach. The biggest single difference in studio mike technique for vocal recording comes from recording of vocal sound sources in classical music, contrasted with pop vocal sound sources. The first and most important consideration is that I would never mike the vocalist in a classical recording as closely as I would a vocalist in a pop music recording.

• Good choral recorded sound is best achieved by using as few microphones as possible, with the singers placed well back from the microphones. This technique places most of the sound mixing responsibility on the room acoustics and the vocalists. Obviously, this approach requires an excellent studio or a room with extremely good acoustics.

• Extreme equalization is most definitely not the way to achieve a superb vocal recording, though a small amount of EQ may be beneficial. If you find yourself having to apply a great deal of EQ to the mike channel to achieve an acceptable vocal sound, it’s time to try another microphone.

• Your choice of vocal microphone should be made on the basis of the artist’s vocal quality and the sonic personality you want to project – nothing else.

• Stacking, or “doubling,” a lead vocal is helpful. I frequently change the tape speed of the master recorder slightly during the recording of the “double,” or “stack” (or pitch down the cue mix coming from the digital audio workstation) and play that to the vocalists while recording the “double.” During this process, the amount of pitch change used should be very small. The amount of pitching down that I do is usually only 3 or 4 cents in pitch.

• When recording vocal duets, I frequently look for microphones for the vocalists that have an obviously different sonic character. This difference in microphone character adds to the already different timbre of the two voices and makes the resulting sonic picture more fascinating. 

• When mixing a “stack,” or “double,” of a lead vocal track, I frequently keep the “double” at a slightly lower level in the mix than the basic lead vocal track. This serves to add support to the vocal without making it appear to be an obvious trick."

Read the entire article here.

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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.