The Myth Of Ziggy Stardust

It's now less than a month away from the release of Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust, the memoir of the amazing life of the legendary producer/engineer Ken Scott published by Alfred Music Publishing that I was lucky enough to co-write.

The book will come out on June 6th, which happens to be the 40th anniversary of the release of David Bowie's seminal album Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. In Ken's book, he dispels a number of myths surrounding some of the biggest acts he worked with, from The Beatles to Bowie to Elton John to Duran Duran (and many many more). In this excerpt, Ken speaks to the myth that Ziggy Stardust was a preconceived concept album.
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"There’s always been this whole thing about Ziggy being a concept album, but it really wasn’t. There are only two rock albums that I would 100% consider concept albums; Tommy and Quadrophenia by The Who, and that’s because they were written as a complete piece, whereas Ziggy was just a patchwork of songs. Yes, they fit together very well and one can weave a story from some of them, but when you consider that “Round and Round” was originally there in place of “Starman,” it doesn’t make much sense as a concept. How does “Round and Round” ever fit into the Ziggy story? It’s a classic Chuck Berry song. How does “It Ain’t Easy” fit in with the Ziggy concept? That was taken from the Hunky Dory sessions. All this about Ziggy being Starman is bullshit. It was a song that was just put in as a single at the last minute at the record label’s insistence. So while it’s true that there were a few songs that fitted the ”concept”, the rest were just songs that all worked well together as they would in any good album.

Even David didn’t take the Ziggy concept too seriously at first (that would come later). He has told various stories of how the character came into existence. Supposedly, in one tale, the name Ziggy came from a London tailor shop (“Ziggy’s") that David had seen from the train, and in a later version he told Rolling Stone that Ziggy “was one of the few Christian names I could find beginning with the letter Z.” David has also been quoted in many interviews stating that the character Ziggy Stardust was based upon the Elvis impersonator Vince Taylor, an eccentric leather-clad Brit who achieved a level of stardom in England in the late 50’s before having a very public mental breakdown and winding up in a psychiatric institution. And just as an aside, many, like the Clash’s illustrious Joe Strummer, even considered the bizarre Mr. Taylor to be the beginning of British rock and roll. 

"I met (Vince Taylor) a few times in the mid-Sixties and I went to a few parties with him. He was out of his gourd. Totally flipped. The guy was not playing with a full deck at all. He used to carry maps of Europe around with him, and I remember him opening a map outside Charing Cross tube station, putting it on the pavement and kneeling down with a magnifying glass. He pointed out all the sites where UFOs were going to land."

Bowie, from Golden Years; the David Bowie Story on BBC Radio 2, 18 March 2000

But as David and the band hit the stage after the album was complete, David began to become the Ziggy character and the the public ate it up."

You can find out more about the book and even preorder it at abbeytoziggy.com.

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How to Write A Real Tear Jerker

I once had a movie director tell me, "If you can get the viewer to laugh just once and cry just once in a movie, you'll have a hit." It seems like there's an analog to that in the music business as well, as indicated 20 years ago by British psychologist John Sloboda and verified in 2007 by John Guhn of the University of British Columbia.

Sloboda conducted an experiment where he asked listeners to identify passages in a song that register a strong emotion like tears or goose bumps. The listeners found 20 such passages which Sloboda then analyzed and found that 18 contained a writing device known as "appoggiatura."

An appoggiatura can be a passing note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a temporary dissonance, an entrance of a new voice, or song dynamics, all of which creates tension for the listener. As I mention on this blog and in all of my books, all art is based around tension and release. In art, it's black against white. In photography, its light against the shadows. In music, it's dissonance against harmony or quiet to loud. Tension and release makes things interesting. You can't have any kind of art without it.

When several appoggiaturas happen close to one another in a melody, it develops a constant state of tension and release, which makes the melody of a song more powerful and provokes an even stronger reaction from the listener.

One of the reasons why psychologists think that Adele was so successful with her album 21, was because of the strong use of appoggiaturas in songs like "Rolling In The Deep" and "Someone Like You." In "Someone Like You," the song starts with a soft repetitive pattern, then jumps an octave to a loud chorus (listen to the examples below, which came from a Wall Street Journal article on the subject).

It turns out that there actually is a formula for appoggiatura that's comprised of 4 elements:

• Passages that go from quiet to loud
• An entrance of a new instrument or harmony
• A melody that suddenly expands its range
• Unexpected deviations of melody or harmony.

All of these are great arrangement devices which we talk about here often, especially in song analysis, so none are new to us. The fact that there have actually been studies that verify what we've already known for ages is, however. One fact remains - surprises in volume level, melody, and harmony are what makes a listener's spine tingle. Remember to use them. 

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The Making Of An Audiophile

Here's a great movie about the lives of audiophiles. Once upon a time we'd make fun of their obsession, but now I wish that more of them were around.

There was a time during the 70's when having a good audio playback system was just as important as having a smart phone is today. It was not only a status symbol, but something cherished and valued as well. We spent a lot of time listening back in those days (usually to a full album at a time), so you wanted the experience to be sonically as great as possible. The average college student had a better sound system in his or her dorm room than you'll find today even in so-called "home theaters" as a result.

We spend at least as much time listening today, but thanks to the world of MP3s and digital streaming, and especially thanks to listening to music through earbuds, the sonics of music isn't as important. That said, there are those that care deeply about the sound they listen to, and are willing to go to great lengths and sacrifices to achieve greatness. I'm not sure that their methods are always the best, but at least they try.

This movie shows what it's like to be an obsessed European audiophile. Here's also a list of some past posts on audiophiles that you might enjoy (although you may not if you consider yourself one).

The Sound Of Monster Cable Vs. Coathangers
The $8,450 Speaker Cable
The 10 Most Expensive Speaker Systems
The Million Dollar Speaker System

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Timing Your Effects To The Song

Last week I posted about the 6 rules for adding effects to a mix, and 3 of the rules entailed timing your effects to the track. One of the comments I received asked about more information on just how to do that, so here it is.

Timing the effects to the track means that all of the delays and reverb paramaters are timed so that they match the tempo of the song so they pulse with it. As a result, the effect isn't noticed as much (sometimes not at all), but make the track sound bigger with a bit of an ambient sheen that doesn't push the track too far back in the mix.

First of all, the absolute easiest way determine the timing is with my Delay Genie iPhone app (that's its icon on the left) which will easily determine the tempo of the song if you don't know it, and give you all of the possible combinations that you need. If you don't have an iPhone or just want a bit more in-depth explanation, here's some info taken from The Mixing Engineer's Handbook and the upcoming Audio Mixing Bootcamp.

Delays are measured tempo-wise using musical notes in relation to the tempo of the track. In other words, if the song has a tempo of 120 beats per minute (bpm), then the length of time it takes a quarter note to play would be 1/2 second (60 seconds ÷ 120 bpm = .5 seconds). Therefore a quarter note delay should be .5 seconds or 500 milliseconds (.5 X 1000 ms per second) which is how almost all delay devices are calibrated.

But 500 ms might be too long and just sound confusing in the mix. 


Divide that in half for an 1/8^th note delay (500 ms ÷ 2 = 250 ms). Divide in half again for a 1/16^th note delay (250 ms ÷ 2 = 125 ms). 


Divide again for a 1/32nd note delay (125 ÷ 2 = 62.5 ms or rounded down to 62 to keep it even). 


That still might not be short enough for you so divide again for 1/64th note (62 ÷ 2 = 31). Again this might not be short enough, so divide again for a 1/128th note (31 ms ÷ 2 = 15.625 rounded up to 16 ms). 


And yet this still might not be short enough so divide again for a 1/256th note if there is such a thing (16 ms ÷ 2 = 8 ms).

Now such small increments like 8 and 16 ms might not seem like much, but they’re used all the time to make a sound bigger and wider. It’s something that you might not exactly hear, but you can perceive it since it acts as the critical “first reflection”, which is the loudest and most important echo of a sound in any environment. Even a short delay like this will fit much more smoothly into the track if it’s timed.

Another way to determine the delay time is to use the following formula: 

60,000 (the number of milliseconds in a minute) ÷ Song Tempo in bpm = 

Quarter Note Delay In Milliseconds.

Example 60,000 ÷ 128bpm = 468.75 milliseconds (rounded down to 468 to keep it an even number).

All the other values can be determined from this by either:

• dividing by 2 for lower denominations (i.e 468 ÷ 2 = 234 ms for 8^th note delay, 234ms ÷ 2 = 117 16^th note delay, 58.5 32^nd note delay, 29ms 64^th note delay)
• multiplying any of the above by 1.5 for dotted values (i.e. 234 ms x 1.5 = 351ms for dotted 8^th note)
• multiplying any of the above by .667 for triplet values. (i.e. 234ms x .667 = 156ms 8^th note triplet)

Dotted and triplet values are very effective delay settings and many times take precedence over straight note delays since they have an interesting feel, providing movement to the part in a subtle way. Plus they fall in between the “can be heard” and “can’t be heard” crack. In other words, they’re noticeable without sticking out like an untimed delay.

It’s also an interesting effect to sometimes use a stereo delay with a straight delay of a ¼, 1/8^th, or 1/16^th note on one side and a dotted note or triplet on the other. If the delays are under 100 ms or so, it simulates the sound of a room. During the early 80’s and 90’s, a delay of around 25 ms on one side and around 50 ms on the other was used to enhance the sound of a clean electric guitar, for instance.

While we're mostly talking about delays, timing also applies to things like predelay and decay time on reverbs. Use the above formulas for the predelay, but to time the decay time, use the snare drum to set off the reverb, then set the decay so it lasts just until the next snare drum hit or the one after that. 

Remember that you don't always want an effect timed to the track. Sometimes a delay that's not timed will stick out, but it might be appropriate for the song. As in all cases with mixing, the right effect or effect parameter is what works for the song.

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A Look Inside The Beatles "Rain"

Here's a great look inside the making of The Beatles 1966 hit "Rain." The song is often mentioned as a favorite of the various Beatles, since it was done all together as a band and might even represent their peak performance together. "Rain" was the B side to "Paperback Writer," but there was actually a lot going on that warrants a mention.

• On the first take you'll hear at 0:00 (which was actually take 5), the backing track is at a higher pitch than the rest of the subsequent takes. That's because they recorded the song faster than normal on a sped-up tape machine so when they slowed it back down to normal speed it would sound bigger.

• At 2:47 you hear a take with just John Lennon's lead vocal. Again, it's slowed down so it sounds a little slurred as a result.

• At 5:20 you hear just the bass amp and tambourine track. This was a grand experiment looking for a different bass sound where engineer Geoff Emerick used a speaker cabinet as a microphone for the bass amp, a variation we do all the time these days with a "sub-kick" mic.

• At 8:23 you can hear John doubling his lead vocal on the chorus. The vocals are split left and right so you can hear it well.

• At 10:53 you can hear the boys adding the background harmony vocals.

It's pretty interesting to hear that the drums and background vocals are sometimes a little shaky, but work well in the track. Still, we probably wouldn't let those things go by today.

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6 Tips For Balancing The Bass And Drum Mix

Perhaps the most difficult task of a mixing engineer is balancing the bass and drums (especially the bass and kick). Nothing can make or break a mix faster than the way these instruments work together. It’s not uncommon for a mixer to spend hours on this balance (both level and frequency) because if the relationship isn’t correct, then the song will just never sound big and punchy.

So how do you get this mysterious balance?

In order to have the impact and punch that most modern mixes exhibit, you have to make a space in your mix for both of these instruments so they won't fight each other and turn into a muddy mess. While simply EQing your bass high and your kick low (or the other way around), might work at it’s simplest, it’s best to have a more in-depth strategy, so consider the following:

1) EQ the kick drum between 60 to120Hz as this will allow it to be heard on smaller speakers. For more attack and beater click add between 1k to 4kHz. You may also want to dip some of the boxiness between 200-500Hz. EQing in the 30-60Hz range will produce a kick that you can feel, but it may also sound thin on smaller speakers and probably won’t translate well to a variety of speaker systems. Most 22" kick drums are centered somewhere around 80Hz anyway.

2) Bring up the bass with the kick. The kick and bass should occupy slightly different frequency spaces. The kick will usually be in the 60 to 80Hz range whereas the bass will emphasize higher frequencies anywhere from 80 to 250Hz (although sometimes the two are reversed depending upon the song). Shelve out any unnecessary bass frequencies (below 30Hz on kick and below 50Hz on the bass, although the frequency for both may be as high as 60Hz according to style of the song and your taste) so they're not boomy or muddy. There should be a driving, foundational quality to the combination of these two together.  

A common mistake is to emphasize the kick with either too much level or EQ, while not featuring enough of the bass guitar (see the graphic on the left for a good visual of what it sounds like). This gives you the illusion that your mix is bottom light, because what you’re doing is shortening the duration of the low frequency envelope in your mix. Since the kick tends to be more transient than the bass guitar, this gives you the idea that the low frequency content of your mix is inconsistent. For Pop music, it is best to have the kick provide the percussive nature of the bottom while the bass fills out the sustain and musical parts. 

3) Make sure that the snare is strong, otherwise the song will lose its drive when the other instruments are added in. This usually calls for at least some compression, especially if the snare hits are inconsistent throughout the song. You may need a small EQ boost at 1kHz for attack, 120 to 240Hz for fullness, and 10k for snap. As you bring in the other drums and cymbals, you might want to dip a little of 1kHz on these to make room for the snare. Also make sure that the toms aren't too boomy (if so, shelve out the frequencies below 60 Hz). 

4) If you’re having trouble with the mix because it's sounding cloudy and muddy on the bottom end, mute both the kick drum and bass to determine what else might be in the way in the low end. You might not realize that there are some frequencies in the mix that aren't really musically necessary. With piano or guitar, you're mainly looking for the mids and top end to cut through, while the low-end is just getting in the way, so it’s best to clear some of that out with a hi-pass filter. When soloed, the instrument might sound too thin, but with the rest of the mix the low-end will now sound so much better and you won’t be missing that low end from the other instruments. Now the mix sounds louder, clearer, and fuller. Be careful not to cut too much from the other instruments, as you might loose the warmth of the mix.

5) For Dance music, be aware of kick drum to bass melody dissonance. The bass line over the huge sound systems in today's clubs is very important and needs to work very well with the kick drum. But if your kick is centered around an A note and the bass line is tuned to A#, it's going to clash. Tune your kick samples to the bass lines (or vice versa) where needed.

6) If you feel that you don't have enough bass or kick, boost the level, not the EQ. This is a mistake that everyone makes when their first getting their mixing chops together. Most bass drums and bass guitars have plenty of low end and don't need much more, so be sure that their level together and with the rest of the mix is correct before you go adding EQ. Even then, a little goes a long way.

While these aren't the only mix tips that can help with the bass and drum relationship during your mix (you can check out either The Audio Mixing Bootcamp or The Mixing Engineer's Handbook for more), they're a great place to start. Remember, go easy on the EQ, as a little goes a long way.

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Brian May On Vox AC-30 Amplifiers

Like most guitar players, I'm pretty much a tone freak. It was a long and sometimes painful journey to figure out how to get the sounds that I heard on so many of the records that I loved, one that I've outlined in The Ultimate Guitar Tone Handbook.

One of the things that I discovered is that you can sometimes get the best tone just by going back to basics with a good sounding guitar plugged directly into a good sounding amp with no pedals in between. With the amp cranked to a level where it breaks into a nice creamy distortion, if you turn the volume on the guitar down, you get a great clean sound. Want more distortion or any amount in between, turn up the guitar volume. No pedals required.

In this short video, Queen's Brian May shows you that's the way he does it as well, using his trusty Vox AC-30 amps. You can't argue with the great sound.

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The Making Of Gotye's "Making Mirrors"

There was a big response from the song analysis of Gotye "Somebody That I Used To Know" last week, so I thought this might be a good followup. It's the "making" of his album Making Mirrors. This guy is a real talent, as you'll see.

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Inside Bernie Grundman Mastering

Bernie Grundman is one of the legends of mastering and he was kind enough to participate in an interview for The Audio Mastering Handbook. Here's an inside look at Grundman Mastering conducted by his son, Paul. Before you watch, be assured that their gear is not used for terrorist activities (you'll understand when you watch the movie).

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The 6 Rules For Adding Effects To A Mix

Having trouble figuring how to use your effects during mixing? Here are a set of rules that can help you choose the best effects for each track more efficiently, courtesy of The Mixing Engineer's Handbook.

Rule 1 - As A General Rule Of Thumb, Try To Picture The Performer In An Acoustic Space And Then Realistically Recreate That Space Around Them.

This method usually saves some time over simply experimenting with different effects presets until something excites you (although that method can work too). Also, the created acoustic space needn’t be a natural one. In fact, as long as it fits the music, the more creative the better.  

Rule 2 - Smaller Reverbs Or Short Delays Make Things Sound Bigger.

Reverbs with decays under a second (and usually much shorter than that) and delays under 100 milliseconds (again usually a lot shorter than that) tend to make the track sound bigger rather than push it back in the mix, especially if the reverb or delay is stereo.

Rule 3 - Long Delays, Reverb Predelays, Or Reverb Decay Push A Sound Farther Away If The Level Of The Effect Is Loud Enough.

As stated before, delays and predelays (see below) longer than 100 ms (although 250 is where it really kicks in) are distinctly heard and begin to push the sound away from the listener. The trick between something sounding big or just distant is the level of the effect. When the decay or delay is short and the level loud, the track sounds big. When the decay or delay is long and loud, the track just sounds far away. 

Rule 4 -  If Delays Are Timed To The Tempo Of The Track, They Add Depth Without Being Noticeable.

Most engineers set the delay time to the tempo of the track (see below on how to do this). This makes the delay pulse with the music and adds a reverb type of environment to the sound. It also makes the delay seem to disappear as a discrete repeat but still adds a smoothing quality to the element.

If you want to easily find the right delay time to the track and you have an iPhone, grab my "Delay Genie" app from the iTunes App Store. It's free and will making timing your effects to the track incredibly easy.

Rule 5 - If Delays Are Not Timed To The Tempo Of The Track, They Stick Out.

Sometimes you want to distinctly hear a delay and the best way to do that is to make sure that the delay is NOT exactly timed to the track. Start by first putting the delay in time with the track, then slowly alter the timing until the desired effect is achieved.

Rule 6 - Reverbs Sound Smoother When Timed To The Tempo Of The Track.

Reverbs are timed to the track by triggering them off of a snare hit and adjusting the decay parameter so that the decay just dies by the next snare hit. The idea is to make the decay “breathe” with the track. The best way to achieve this is to make everything as big as possible at the shortest setting first, then gradually get longer until it’s in time with the track.

Of course, the biggest part of adding effects to a mix is experience, but following these rules will provide a perfect place to start.

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The Making Of "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Here's a great video where Queen guitarist Brian May takes us through the making of the bands seminal "Bohemian Rhapsody." It's really interesting to hear it all built up, especially the basic track with only Freddie Mercury's piano, John Deacon's bass and Roger Taylor's drums, which wasn't to a click but sounds incredibly in time. They're completely locked in together.

One of the interesting bits that came from this video is the way engineer/producer Roy Thomas Baker recorded the bass, using 3 tracks; direct from the bass, direct from the amp, and the miked amp, then playing with the phase switches on the desk to get the right sound.

One of the things that I talk about in The Music Producer's Handbook and The Ultimate Guitar Tone Handbook is about layering different guitar sounds using different guitars, pickup settings and amplifiers. Brian explains how he does just that in the song.

Then listen to how they stacked the vocals, with Freddie, Brian and Roger singing each line then tripling it. Finally, listen to the overdubbed percussion that everyone seems to miss when listening to the song, then how they miked the drum kit.

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"You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" Backing Track

Here's a great piece of pop and audio history. It's take #38 of the backing track of the Righteous Brother's hit "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling." It's the most played song of the 20th century, according to BMI, and had a lot of interesting quarks. The label (which you'll see in the video) set the length at 3:05, but it was really 3:45 (which was way too long to get radio airplay back in 1964) in an effort to fool the disc jockeys. Producer and cowriter Phil Spector also added a couple of false endings for the same reason.

The audio on this video shows the brilliance of Spector and his "wall of sound," which you don't hear on the final recording because the song is muddied up by tape transfers and extra reverb. This is a very clean version that allows you to really hear all the instruments. Here are a couple of things to listen for:

1) Take notice that there's a tuning note that the piano plays just before the song begins. Remember that it starts with the vocal (which would be overdubbed later), and singer Bill Medley needed a pitch center.

2) There are a lot horns parts that aren't apparent in the final version, like the horn line in the B section, the chorus and later in the bridge.

3) Take notice of the instrumental figure that's being played in the chorus. I never really heard it before listening to this take.

4) In the bridge, listen for the 12 string guitar doubling the piano and bass, then the entrance of the bongos, and the gradual entry of the other instruments building to a crescendo before the first outchorus.

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