Mix Comparison: From Rehearsal To Master

Here's a pretty cool video from the DVD that went with my Music Producer's Handbook. It's a look at a project that I did a few years ago with the band SNEW that compares a mix of the same song from rehearsal to basic tracks to rough mix with all the overdubs to final mix to mastered mix.

Sometimes the mix doesn't sound that much different between versions, but there's a big difference between the final mix and the mastered version that shows the value of mastering.

You can read more from The Music Producer's Handbook and my other books on the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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Mix Comparison: From Rehearsal To Master

Have you ever wondered how much of a difference there really is between the finished mix and the mastered version? How about between basics and finished overdubs? Or rehearsal to the final product?

Here's a video from the DVD that comes with The Music Producer's Handbook that provides a comparison of a song at every stage of the process, from rehearsal to basics to overdubs to mix to master. The song is "Feedback and Distortion" from the second SNEW album We Do What We Want that I produced a few years ago (check out their Live From The Snewdio show. I'm on the first episode).

You can read excerpts from The Music Producer's Handbook and my other books on the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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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 and Facebook 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 social media and the new music business.

Mix Comparison: From Rehearsal To Master

Here's a video that came from The Music Producer's Handbook that shows the differences in how the mixes sound from rehearsal, basic tracks, all overdubs, final mix and mastered track. The song is "Feedback And Distortion" which I produced for the second SNEW album called We Do What We Want.

You can hear that the rough mixes are fairly close to the final mix, but the final mastered track (done by the great Eddy Schreyer at Oasis Mastering) is definitely a lot louder.

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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 social media and the new music business.

The Concept Of EQing The Mics

Ken Scott placing U87s on the toms

We've all been taught that in order to get the most natural sounding recording, we should move the mic first if it doesn't sound right, then change the mic if that doesn't work. Most experienced engineers will only resort to EQ (at least more than a touch) as a last resort. But there is another way and it comes from legendary producer/engineer Ken Scott, one of the 5 original Beatles engineers, who's worked with everyone from David Bowie to Elton John to the Rolling Stones to Supertramp, Kansas, Missing Persons, The Tubes and many, many more.

Ken always uses the exact same mics whenever he records, and he always EQs at exactly the same frequencies. After watching him work it occurred to me that he wasn't EQing the instrument at all; he was EQing the mics.

The reason why I came to this conclusion is that he would get his sound, and often the instrument itself would change, but he'd hardly ever have to touch his EQ. Regardless of the instrument, it sounded great when he put the mic on it.

This is illustrated in Ken's memoir Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust in Chapter 22 when discussing the making of Devo's Duty Now For The Future album. He says:

"I think we used three different drum kits on the album because we were after different drum sounds. We set up one kit, got the sounds for the songs on that, tore that down and put another one up. The thing with me is, because I’m such a creature of habit, I hardly had to change anything from kit to kit. I even used basically the same EQ, which I had to change very, very little for each kit. And as I always use the same frequencies it wasn’t quite as much of a headache as one might have expected. I’m a firm believer that the sound comes from the studio, not from what I do."

I can say that I experienced this exact same feat with Ken when we were doing the most recent SNEW album, What's It To Ya, together. There was one song that required a completely different drum sound on the outro of a song from the other half. When the new drum kit was reset, Ken put the mics up, didn't change a thing, and it sounded wonderful.

Now obviously this method can only be effective if you always use the same mics and are very, very familiar with how they sound. That being said, I've seen it work first-hand, and it's certainly a totally different concept around using the EQ. Dare I say, one that only a master can use.

To read additional excerpts from Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust and other books, go to bobbyowsinski.com.

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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 social media and the new music business.

Ken Scott On Drum Recording

I had an opportunity to work with legendary producer/engineer Ken Scott recently on the latest SNEW record (What's It To Ya) and it was truly a treat. He got the best sounds almost effortlessly, thanks to great fundamental technique (something we forget the importance of sometimes). Here's a video of Ken miking up former Dixie Dregs drummer Rod Morgenstein at Abbey Road Studios while he was recording his EpiK Drums loop and sample library.

You can find out more about Ken's various recording and production techniques in his memoir Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust, a book I was fortunate and pleased to be a part of.

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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 social media and the new music business.

Pandora And The CD

I rarely cross-post from my Music 3.0 blog, but I think this topic is important enough to make an exception.

Regardless of the trends towards online digital music, CDs are still important. Sure, you may sell a few, but it's the hidden advantages of the format that everyone overlooks.

Take Pandora for example. I came across the following section on their submission FAQ.

To submit music to Pandora, you'll need these items:

1) a CD of your music

2) a unique UPC code for that CD*

3) this CD to be available through Amazon as a physical CD (and not just as MP3s)**

4) the legal rights to your music

5) a standard free Pandora account, based on a valid email address, that will be associated with this submission

6) MP3 files for two of the songs from your CD

Once you have all of these items ready to go, you can submit your music to Pandora for consideration here: http://submitmusic.pandora.com/.

Take notice that the only way to get on their playlist is to have a physical CD for sale.

It's the same thing if you want your music reviewed. It doesn't matter if it's on a blog or traditional media, you're not legit until you have a physical product that you can send to the reviewer. I saw this exact situation for myself a couple of years ago when I was producing the first SNEW album. I was all for releasing it digitally but the band insisted on a CD and they were right. Even though the music was released online months before the CD was available, they couldn't get a single reviewer interested until the physical CD was released. As soon as that shiny plastic disc was available, they were perceived as a viable entity and received more than 100 reviews (almost all of them great, by the way). For their recently released CD, "We Do What We Want," there was no question that it would be available on as many formats as possible, and once again we've been rewarded with at least as many reviews, band interviews, and a ton of airplay. I'm convinced that it wouldn't have had nearly the success without the physical product.

It used to be that pressing CDs was a pain since you had to not only pay for them up front, but keep them in inventory and distribute them as well, but even this isn't much of a problem these days. Services like Kunaki not only allow you to press CDs on demand, but they'll drop ship them as well. They look like a million bucks (as long as your artwork looks that way) so that old worry at the "CD-R look" doesn't apply.

So while there's no doubt that the music world is more digital than ever, the CD is still a useful distribution tool. Ignore it at your own peril.

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

6 Questions For Snew Frontman Curtis DonVito

Lead singer and principle lyricist for the hard rock band SNEW, Curtis DonVito is also an extremely talented graphic artist and well-versed in social media. SNEW's excellent new album, "We Do What We Want," was just released last week and has already been a major add on terrestrial and online radio stations around the world. Check out the video for their first single "Feedback And Distortion," and visit their website at snewyou.com.


1) How did you break into the business?
When I was about 18, I knew a guy who was managing his brother's band and they were looking for a new singer. I said "let me try out for 'em." I had never sung a note outside of singing along to the radio before in my life but had always fantasized about it. He said "OK."

Needless to say, I didn't get the gig. BUT unbeknownst to me he put an ad in the Recycler "vocalist available". When I started getting calls I was wondering how the hell they knew about me. I called my friend up and he told he ran the ad. He said "You got a long way to go but I think you should stick with it, you got something." After a few more auditions, I was hired by a cover band, but after about three weeks the guitarist pulled me aside to let me know I was out. Their bass player said it was "Either him or me," because I was an amateur, but he told me to stick with it because "I had something."

I auditioned for a bunch of bands until I landed another one. At that time, I was only thinking about being in a cover band. I thought it would be great to actually be in a band and sing songs by all my favorite bands. So when I auditioned for this band, we did a few covers and then they played me one I had never heard before. It was really cool but I had to ask what song that was. They told me it was one of their own. I was blown away. A band that writes their own music? WOW. Then they played me another with no lyrics and said, "We want you to write the lyrics". WOW! A lightening bolt went off in my head. I can write my own music! I knew immediately I was going to do this for the rest of my life.

2) What makes you unique?
Years of practice.

3) Who was your biggest influence?
My parents. They are both musicians. When my mom was young she was part of a duet that appeared on American Bandstand. My dad played guitar and was in different bands. When they met they formed a group called the D'Lighters. They toured all over the country opening for Tony Bennett, Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima and the like. They quit for many years after starting a family.

They have always been my biggest supporters. They come to my shows and give me great advice and insights. Even though their music and mine are worlds apart, show business is show business and they know exactly what's going on. I've learned the most from them, especially when it comes to live performance. I'm even responsible for inspiring them to get back to playing and recording. They've been back on the live circuit for years now and have released three albums. Now I go to their shows and give advice.

4) What's the best thing about your job?
Making music and performing live are like water and air to me. I can't live without either. I'm truly alive when I'm on stage and writing and recording feed my soul. I wouldn't call it a job. It's LIFE.

5) When and where were you the happiest?
Every time I'm on stage.

6) What's the best piece of advice you ever received?
My uncle Don always used to say "Just do it, even if it's wrong... just DO IT." It's my mantra. In one form or another almost all of the songs I write contain that message.

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

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Feedback And Distortion

Here's a video for the first single off the new SNEW album that I recently produced entitled "Feedback And Distortion" (the name of the album is "We Do What We Want"). It's a pretty fun piece with a lot of people playing air guitar (including your truly and a lot of readers), but it has serious side to it that you can easily overlook.

Curtis DonVito is a great rock lyricist, almost along the lines of Bruce Springsteen in that every word has a purpose and a meaning that goes beyond the obvious. In this case, it's a reaction to the Guitar Hero craze that's thankfully dying down a bit. For a while, gamers thought they were musicians just because they could play the game well, a thought that generally draws the ire of real musicians (especially guitar players).

The good thing about the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games is that they enticed kids into playing a real instrument as evidenced by the entry level guitar package sales that have soared. It's also introduced an entire generation to some of the best classic rock, causing a rebirth of sorts of guitar bands like Aerosmith, The Stones and The Who.

Enjoy the video!

A Mastering Master

On Friday I finished up the new SNEW record that I've been producing with a mastering session with Eddy Schreyer at Oasis Mastering in Burbank. Eddy's been my good friend of many years, but he's also long been the mastering engineer of choice for stars like Prince, Van Halen, Eric Clapton, Kenye West, Christina Aguilera, Black Eyed Peas, Bob Dylan and many many more. Since I only do a music project every year or so these days, it's easy to forget just how great he is at what he does.

I've learned a lot about mastering from Eddy over the years, and much of it has made it into "The Audio Mastering Handbook," but as I've always said, just knowing how to do something doesn't make up for the ears and experience of an elite mastering engineer. All it takes is a session like I just had to realize how important a mastering master like Eddy really is to a project. Mastering tools today are very powerful and in the wrong hands can destroy a project instead of making it better. In the hands of one of the elite mastering engineers like Eddy (there are only 5 or 6 of them), the project will end up sounding better than you ever thought it.

One of the cool things about Eddy is that his method of working is still evolving along with the equipment he uses. It's pretty easy for anyone to fall into a pattern that works and just stay with it, but Eddy's getting better and better and I think he's doing some of the best work of his career. Here's an example of his evolution:

1) He now uses an all digital signal path. Part of both the mystique and ability of the professional mastering engineer used to be the high quality analog and digital outboard gear they had available. Even if a project originally resided in the digital domain, the expensive outboard gear was a key ingredient in the final result, since you couldn't get the same quality any other way. Oasis still has a wide variety of high-quality outboard gear, but it's rarely used these days. Eddy's entire signal path now lies in the DAW, with the excellent UAD plug-ins the ones most used.

2) It's always been pretty normal for a brickwall limiter to sit last in the signal chain to protect from any digital overs, but Eddy has eliminated it completely from his signal path while still getting as much level as ever by using multiple compressors. This results in a competitively loud record that still breathes dynamically and doesn't feel squashed. Getting this much level without the help of a limiter is a feat that only a rare few mastering engineers can accomplish.

3) It sounds so analog. Another reason that the pros used their analog gear whenever they could is because digital just didn't sound that good, but Eddy manages to make it sound so analog even with a signal path that's all "in-the-box."

4) This point isn't so much about evolution as much as an observation on how a "mastering master" works. As said before, the variety of ever-so-powerful tools on the market make it pretty easy for someone without the skill and experience to really mangle a song in the worst possible way. A pro like Eddy makes a lot of relatively small moves that make a huge difference in the end. It's amazing how .5 or 1dB here or there and a dB of compression here and there can make such a difference. In the case of the SNEW record, suddenly parts that were buried were now defined, vocals and guitar solos that seemed just a bit low came to the front, the low end between the kick and bass guitar evened out, and everything got punchier. These mixes were great before (thank you Ed Cherney) but Eddy just took them to another level.

I'm sure that you want to hear examples, and if it wasn't for an embargo, I'd play you some before and after. That being said, there'll be some examples when the record is released, as well as an interview with Eddy and Gene Grimaldi (he just mastered the Lady GaGa hits) in some future posts. And if you like hard rock, I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot of the SNEW record very soon. It's a killer.

An Interview With Engineer Ed Cherney

I'm just finishing up producing a record for the band SNEW were we were lucky enough to get multi-Granny winning engineer Ed Cherney to record the basics and then mix (which is still in progress).

While recording basics at Village Recorder, I asked Ed if he would add a few comments for a DVD that would accompany a book that I just finished called The Music Producer's Handbook. If you know Ed, you know that he's a fun guy to be around, but he waxes pretty philosophic in this interview.

Just like his studio work, it's pure gold.

When Things Just Don't Sound Right

I'm currently in the studio producing the band Snew. Here's a picture on the left of the nice old Neve found in Village Recorders studio A where we're holed up with the great Ed Cherney engineering.

Everything has sounded great right from the start on the this project, but there are times when you're recording when that's not the case at all. It's not uncommon to find that a part doesn't fit well in a track, or fits too well where it can't be distinguished. Here's a list of things to try in order of importance the next time you run in to either situation.

Change the source (the instrument you are miking)

Change the mic placement

Change the placement in the room

Change the mic

Change the mic preamplifier

Change the mount of compression and/or limiting (from none to a lot)

Change the room (the actual room you are recording in)

Change the musician

Come back and try it another day

Album Preproduction

I'm currently in preproduction for a new album with the band Snew. If you've not heard them yet, they're a hard rock band reminiscent of AC/DC or Iron Maiden with some really great songs. I produced their first record last year and it met with a great deal of acclaim and success, so it's important that this one meets the high expectations of their many fans around the world, and that's why preproduction is really important.

Since it’s the little things, the nuances, that make a song sound great, I thought it would be a good time to list those things that a band has to have down before they hit the studio. They are:

• Everyone must know their parts inside out

• The starts and stops in the song are all played together.

• Everyone must play the same part the same way every time (except if it’s jazz or blues)

• Everyone has to know the dynamics of the song.

• All rhythms are in the pocket and the songs groove

• The turnaround between each song section must be defined.

• Attacks and releases for each part must be executed together.

• The sounds of each instrument must be layered so nothing clashes frequency-wise.

• The tempo must be right for the song.

• The band must be in tune (especially the bass, which is sometimes just tuned by ear).

• All vocals must be in the best range for the singers

• Background vocals must be defined and tight

These are all the things that you should be concentrating on during preproduction rehearsals in order to make sure that  your recording session not only runs smoothly and efficiently, but sounds great as well.

Snew Hits #1!

A band I produced last year, Snew, has hit #1 on the album charts of the on-line radio station Ilike2rock net radio. The band is commonly described as a cross between AC/DC and Aerosmith along with a bit of Jackl (though I don't here it) for good measure.

This is their 3rd trip to #1, with previous stints on High Octane Radio's Dirty Thirty, and Cyco.com. The band's Snew You album also made a number of "Best of 2008" lists from around the world as well.

Snew's worldly songs are observations about life and the human condition, rather than the typical love-hate relationship songs that most bands and artists resort to when they not accomplished songwriters. Combine that with some really classic rock riffs and you have something that you can't stop listening too. I must admit that I'm biased, but they've had so many really good reviews that I feel somewhat vindicated in feeling that way. You can see and hear them on their website at Snewyou.com.

I had a great time working with Snew, and it's great to see them have success around the world. We also just cut a version of Deep Purple's Highway Star with guitar god Allan Holdsworth playing the solos that are as unusual as they are great (yes, it's Allan playing a guitar and not an organ for the second solo). You can download it for free on their website.