Bobby Owsinski's Big Picture Music Production Blog

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Scratching The Blackboard Sound

There are certain sounds in life that are pretty much universally hated. Chalk on slate, styrofoam squeaks, a plate being scraped by a fork, and the good old fingernails on blackboard all cause a small amount of personal agony, regardless of culture or location on the planet. Not surprisingly, this reaction can be measured with increased heart rate, blood pressure and electrical conductivity of the skin.

Believe it or not, a lot of time over the last century has actually been spent trying to determine why this happens. Now a new study conducted by musicologists at the Macromedia University for Media and Communication in Cologne, Germany, and the University of Vienna seems to have found the answer.

What they found is that the frequencies involved with unpleasant sounds also lie firmly within the range of human speech — between 2,000 and 4,000 Hz. Removing those frequencies from the sound made them much easier to listen to, but interestingly, removing the noisy, scraping part of the sound made little difference.

This meant that there is actually a powerful psychological component at work as well. If the listeners knew that the sound was fingernails on the chalkboard, they rated it more unpleasant than if they were told it was from a musical composition. Even when they thought it was from music, however, their skin conductivity still changed consistently, suggesting that the physical part of the response remained.

Still, the real question is, why do we have such a reaction to the noise? It turns out that the physical response is likely generated by the shape of the human ear canal, which amplifies frequencies in the range of 2,000 to 4,000 Hz. The researchers determined that when a screech on a chalkboard is generated, the structure of our ear takes that narrow band of frequencies that are already loud and amplifies them even further, making us want to jump out of our chair. Seems so simple now, doesn't it?

So while that mystery seems to have to unveiled, there are a still lot more unpleasant sounds to be explored. Why bother, you might ask? Because the eventual goal is to try to mask those frequencies within factory machinery, vacuum cleaners or construction equipment to minimize any hearing damage. For the time being, though, it’s probably best to steer clear of blackboards, and be careful when you boost at 2k to 4k!

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Saturday, November 19, 2011

The Audio Mixing Bootcamp Training Video

Recently I completed a video training course for Lynda.com called "The Audio Mixing Bootcamp" which outlines some basic mixing techniques. The course covers everything from from optimizing your monitors to balance to compression, EQ and effects.

Lynda.com is one of the leaders in online video training and I'm very honored and proud to be a part of their organization.

You can see an example of a movie from the first chapter on the Lynda blog. The movie is called "Determining Your Listening Position" and it deals with find the best location for you and your monitors in your room.

The video course is an adjunct to a new book coming out soon called "The Audio Mixing Bootcamp," which takes a different approach to teaching mixing. Instead of describing the various mixing techniques, it's a series of exercise that will take you in different directions, some good and some bad, to give you a good idea of what works and what doesn't. The book should be out in January at NAMM and is published by Alfred Music Publishing.

There will also be a recording version of both the book and the video training coming soon as well.

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

MuteMath "Blood Pressure" Song Analysis

Reader Joel Wiens requested a song analysis of "Blood Pressure" by MuteMath, a band that's quickly becoming one of my favorites. The song is off of their latest album called Odd Soul.

The official video for this song is one of the best music videos I've seen in a long time, but it's not embedded here because I don't want you to have to sit through a commercial first, and I'm also not too sure that their label will allow it to be played from any site but YouTube. That said, here's the link. Be sure to watch it because it sure is both catchy and innovative.

As with all song analysis, we'll look at the song form, the arrangement, the sound and the production.

The Song
"Blood Pressure" uses a fairly standard song form with some subtle tricks. The form looks like this:

Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus, End

What's interesting is that the chord changes are a little different on the second verse and on the outchorus, which keeps the song interesting. And the song has an ending!

The Arrangement
The best part about "Blood Pressure" is that it seems like very simple rock, but there's a lot additional parts that you only hear if you listen hard. Listen closely for all of the synth noises, extra guitar parts, and vocals that fill in the spaces, which once again to keep things interesting. As the song progresses, so do the extra fill parts (they're mostly on the right channel).

The arrangement elements are:

* The Foundation: Bass and drums

* The Rhythm: The repeating guitar line

* The Pad: No true pad in this song although you might classify the vocal harmonies at the end of the verses as a pad.

* The Lead: Lead vocal

* The Fills: Various synths, vocals, guitars and noises

The Sound
Whoever mixed this song did a great job of effects layering. The drums and main guitar riff are fairly dry and in your face (there might be a very short room effect on both), while the lead vocal octaves have a bit of a short hall or plate, and the background harmonies have a very long and deep hall reverb. As a result, there's a lot of front to back action that puts all the instruments on a aural soundstage where you can almost see in your mind where they're standing .

The panning is also very cool as you'll find the main guitar riff on the left channel and the fills on the right for balance, as well as a very wide drum track.

All of the tracks are fairly clean and distinct, while nothing seems over-compressed, a sign of good engineering.

The Production
There's a lot to like about this production. First of all the drums are very active in a Keith Moon sort of way, only a lot more controlled. The doubled lead vocals in octaves makes the song memorable, as does as the vocal harmony cluster at the end of each verse. The guitar chords are doubled in the chorus to make it seem bigger, a standard trick that works particularly well here.

I especially liked a couple of things. First of all the substantial differences between the two verses in terms of structure. They start the same but begin to deviate from one another after 8 bars. The outchorus is also different from the previous choruses in that it's bigger, but also the riff keeps repeating, rather than stopping on the beat 2 of the second bar.

The other thing I like is all the little noises and fills that are used as the song goes along. I especially liked the wah-wah keyboard in the second verse on the right channel.

Be sure to check out the official video, but you'll have to wade through a commercial first.

Send me your suggestions for song analysis.

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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The "Too Much Gear" Flowchart

If you've been a musician or engineer for a while you most likely have it - G.A.S., or Gear Acquisition Syndrome. It's as bad as any addiction known to man. You get that craving for a new guitar, microphone, amplifier, preamp or anything related to music and you just have to buy it, regardless if you can afford it or not.

I've seen people stay poor and living in the equivalent of a shack just so they can own a vintage Les Paul or U47, sometimes several. I've seen marriages break up over just that "one more purchase" instead of buying their honey a birthday present (or paying the rent, for that matter).

So how do you know if you really need to make that next purchase? Here's a handy flowchart that will guide you. It's based on guitars, but you can substitute any musical or audio gear instead.

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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The Studio In Your iPhone

Who says that the iPhone isn't a recording tool? Here's a pretty cool example of what can be done with a few apps and a good song, as One Like Son shows how they did it. Among the iPhone apps and accessories that I spotted were:

A Sonoma Wire Works Guitarjack audio interface
Apps
The Pocket Organ
AmpKit+
Multitrack DAW (which looks very cool for 10 bucks)
AC Core Mini
ThumbJam

I'd like to find out how the drums were done since it sure sounds like a real drummer. Regardless if they're real or programmed, this song just goes to show what's possible with your phone these days.

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Monday, November 14, 2011

The 10 Most Valuable Record Covers

The Beatles "Butcher" cover

I know some of you reading this will find it hard to believe, but once upon a time the cover of a vinyl record was a major selling point to the album. Sometimes people actually took a chance on a record because the cover was so cool, never happens today.

So many covers were works of art, and so many were just plain provocative, like The Beatles "butcher" album cover that was never released in the States because it was just too controversial at the time, or King Crimson's "In The Court Of The Crimson King" (both shown on the left).

Now a UK record collector magazine called Rare Record Price Guide 2012 has named the top ten most valuable album covers. According to editor Ian Shirley, "While pristine records and inserts are vital to securing a top price, the numbered sleeve is the main attraction. The hunger to collect low numbers remains undiminished amongst Beatles fans."

So here they are, complete with the prices they'd expect to fetch:

1. The Beatles - "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" [limited edition Capitol version] (1967) $112,000.

2. The Beatles - "The Beatles" (1968). Numbers 1-10
$11,200.

3. Madrigals - "Magic Key To Spanish Volumes 1 and 2" (1953)
$5,600;
"The Nation's Nightmare" (1951),
$4,800.

"IN The Court Of The Crimson King"

4. The Beatles - "Introducing The Beatles" (1964)
$4,800.

5. The Beatles/Frank Ifield - "England's Greatest Recording Stars: The Beatles & Frank Ifield On Stage" (1964)
$4,800.

6. Tinkerbell's Fairydust - "Tinkerbell's Fairydust" (1969)
$4,800.

7. AC/DC - "12 Of The Best" (1978)
$4,800.

8. The Beatles - "Yesterday And Today" (1966)
$3,200.

9. Dark - "Dark Round The Edges" (1972)
$3,200.

10. Hank Mobley - "Hank Mobley" (1957)
$3,200.

If that isn't a reason to search through yard sales, I don't know what is.

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Sunday, November 13, 2011

Pensado's Place #44

I had the pleasure to be on mixer extraordinaire Dave Pensado's great webcast, Pensado's Place, the other day. On the show we talked about everything from 5.1 mixing tips to the state of the music business to some social media for musicians and engineers. Check it out. And thanks again, Dave!

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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Alanis Morrissette "Ironic" Song Analysis

Reader Emiliano Caballero Fraccaroli requested a song analysis of an Alanis Morissette song called "Ironic," the 4th hit single from her huge Jagged Little Pill album in 1995. The album went on to sell 16 million in the US and 33 million world-wide. As with all song analysis, we'll look at the song form, the arrangement, the sound and the production.

The Song
"Ironic" is a pretty standard song form with a minor twist; a form of the bridge repeats as the outro. The form looks like this:

Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Verse, Chorus, Bridge

Take notice that none of the choruses ever repeat, as is the case in normal pop songs.

The Arrangement
What really makes "Ironic" special is its arrangement and its dynamics. The intensity of the song breathes from section to section and that's what helps to keep it interesting. The fact that much of it is acoustic in nature until you get to these huge choruses makes it a lot more powerful than if it were either entirely big or entirely small. That's called tension and release, and is the basis of the emotion in any kind of art.

The arrangement elements look like this:

* The Foundation: Bass and drums

* The Pad: Organ, Synth and electric piano

* The Rhythm: Rhythm guitar, shaker, bongos

* The Lead: Vocal

* The Fills: Electric guitar, organ, acoustic guitar

The Sound
"Ironic" is almost like two different songs sonically. The acoustic sections are very open, with a room reverb that's with a rolled off high-end and almost no decay tail. The choruses sound completely different though, with so much going on that most of the instruments are relatively small so they can fit into the sonic picture (even the drums). It's also a lot more compressed sounding. Even the vocal sounds different. That difference is what makes up the tension and release between sections though and what really makes the song exciting.

The Production
Glen Ballard did a great production job on this record (obviously so since it sold so much world-wide), and even though the sonic differences between sections are cool, sometimes it's the little things that really make it (at least for me). Take for instance the intro with just vocal and acoustic guitar. They're panned a little left and right. This makes everything seem wider and more interesting.

Feel free to send me your requests for song analysis.

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

The Radial Firefly Tube DI

I love tube direct boxes, especially on bass. From the old Simon System (very rare these days) to the Evil Twin (also rare), tube DIs can just make a bass roar like nothing else. Now Radial Engineering, who make what might be the industry standard passive DIs in the excellent sounding JDI, has introduced their Firefly tube DI, which offers a number of unique features (like variable pickup loading).

Here's a video that Sound on Sound magazine shot at AES that gives you a pretty good idea of what the Firefly is all about. I'm really anxious to try it out myself. Beware that you have to sit through 30 seconds of a Focusrite commercial before it gets down to business.

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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

3 Steps To Adding A Subwoofer

It's not unusual for musicians and engineers that are doing a lot of work in their home studio on bookshelf-sized speakers to crave more bottom end. As a result, the first thing they think about is adding a subwoofer to their monitor system. That's all well and good, but there are a few steps that you can follow that might help your venture into low frequency territory a lot easier.

1. Do you really need a subwoofer? Before you make that purchase, it's a good idea to be sure that a sub is actually necessary. Here are a couple of things to check out first:

A) Are you monitoring at a loud enough level? This is a trap that people with home studios fall into; they don't listen loud enough, at least for a short period of time. I know from personal experience as I did that for years and found that everything changed for the better when I turned it up for a little while when working.

First of all, if you monitor too quietly, your ears begin to emphasize the mid-frequencies. This is great for balance but bad for judging the low end of things. Crank up your monitors to a moderately loud level, at least when you're working on the low frequency end of the spectrum. If you still don't have enough low end, go on to B.

B) You have an acoustic problem in your room. Chances are that either your monitors are too close to the wall, or they're placed at a point of the room length where standing waves causes some of the low end to cancel out. This is more likely to be the cause of just one area of the low frequency spectrum rather than the entire low end though.

Just to be safe, move your speakers a foot or so backwards and forwards and see if you get some of the low end back. If not, move to #2.

2. Purchase a subwoofer from the same manufacturer as your main monitors. The easiest way to get a smooth sounding low end that doesn't cause you more grief that it's worth is to buy a sub from the same manufacturer as the monitors you use most of the time. That means, if you're using JBL's, choose a JBL sub that's made specifically for that system; if you're using Genelecs, do the same, KRK's, the same, etc. This will make a huge difference, especially at the crossover frequency point from the mains to the sub. It's usually impossible to get that area to sound natural if you mix brands.

3. Calibrate your sub correctly. Most musicians and engineers that choose to use a sub just randomly dial in the level. You might get lucky and get it right, but it's more than likely that your level will be off, causing a number of funny sounding mixes until you finally figure it out. Here's how to calibrate the sub to your system:

A) Without the sub connected, send pink noise to your main monitors. At the listening position and while listening to one monitor only, use an SPL meter (just about any will do to get you in the ballpark, even an iPhone app) and adjust the level of monitor until it reads 85dB. The SPL meter should be set on C Weight and Slow. Repeat on the other channel and set that so it also reads 85dB.

B) Turn the main monitors off. Send pink noise just to the subwoofer. Set the level of the SPL meter so it reads 79dB. 79 works because there are fewer bands of low frequencies than high (3 for the low and 8 for the high), so this number takes that into account. You might have to tweak the level up or down a dB, but this will get you into the ballpark.

C) If there's a polarity switch on the sub, try both positions and see which one has the most bass or sounds the smoothest in the crossover area. That's the one to select.

If you follow these steps, you'll find that integrating a subwoofer into your system (if you decide you need one) will be as painless as possible. And by the way, don't you just love the picture on the left?

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Monday, November 7, 2011

The Beatles On Record Part 1

As some of you know, I'm just about finished co-writing a book with Ken Scott that covers his career in the music business. Ken was one of the 5 engineers for The Beatles as well as producer of David Bowie, Supertramp, Devo, Kansas, Missing Persons and many others.

The book will be called "From Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust" and will be available in April, and will cover all of Ken's time with the Fab Four. In the meantime, enjoy this video where you hear about their early recording process from The Beatles and producer George Martin themselves. There's some great vintage video to look at as well.

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Sunday, November 6, 2011

Tips From Dr. Luke

Dr. Luke is one of the hottest producers around today, with hits under his belt from such big-sellers as Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Ke$ha ("Tik Tok" was the longest running #1 by a female artist since 1977), Kelly Clarkson, Pink and Flo Rida. You may think that some of the music he makes is very pop and commercial, but he's great at what he does and his work is very well crafted.

Dr. Luke's is insight is definitely worth checking out. Here he shows how he layers sounds to come up with a kick sound right for the track, and how he places it on the grid of the song.

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Sunday, November 20, 2011

Scratching The Blackboard Sound

Saturday, November 19, 2011

The Audio Mixing Bootcamp Training Video

Thursday, November 17, 2011

MuteMath "Blood Pressure" Song Analysis

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The "Too Much Gear" Flowchart

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The Studio In Your iPhone

Monday, November 14, 2011

The 10 Most Valuable Record Covers

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Pensado's Place #44

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Alanis Morrissette "Ironic" Song Analysis

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

The Radial Firefly Tube DI

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

3 Steps To Adding A Subwoofer

Monday, November 7, 2011

The Beatles On Record Part 1

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Tips From Dr. Luke

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