It's Here - Pro Tools 11

Avid just announced the new Pro Tools 11, and like all new versions, there's a lot of like as well as a bunch of "got ya's." The video below explains everything new in great depth, but here are just a few of the new features.

• It's newly coded from the ground up with a brand new audio engine, which means you'll have to buy all your plugins again.

• It's 64 bit, which means that it'll be able to access much more RAM. That means it will handle many, many more tracks, plugins and virtual instruments with ease so it'll be a lot faster.

• It now has offline bouncing that's up to 150 times faster than the way it does it now. What took them so long? This has been on other DAWs for ages.

• Much improved metering with more precise scaling and ballistics, including peak and average VU and PPM meters.

• The inclusion of the Avid Video Engine so that you can play and edit video directly from within PT.

• Low-latency input buffering, so you can more easily record while using plugins.

It doesn't seem like a lot that's earth-shattering. It's going to cost you though, and in a world of so many other quality DAWs, that could be a deciding factor. The prices are:

Pro Tools 11 Software: $699
Pro Tools 10 to 11 upgrade: $299
Pro Tools 9 to 11 upgrade: $399
Pro Tools HD 10 to 11 upgrade: $599
Pro Tools HD 9 to 11 upgrade: $999

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New Music Gear Monday: The O-Bow

Controllers just don't get enough love. In the hands of an expert, they can really bring a MIDI or virtual instrument to life. A good example is the O-Bow, which is short for optical bow. It's a way to achieve some real life string articulations using a real bow. While is this still a prototype (the 5th one actually), it holds a lot of promise. Below is a very short clip of the latest version, but here's a link to a longer clip of the first prototype that shows a bit more of what it's capable of.

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An Outtake From The Incredible Mr. Starr

Ringo Starr is often overlooked for the great drummer that he really is, since his personality and legacy now seem so large. Here's a great isolated outtake from the outro of "Good Morning" from The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album that not only showcases his style perfectly, but his playing as well.

I'm not sure if he did this with double kick drums or with a double bass pedal (were they even available during the 60's?), but it's solid. He misplays a fill at around :18, but other than that I find this cut very impressive. You don't here drummer like this any more, unfortunately.

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Get Ready For Wide-Band Phone Audio

From almost its beginning, the telephone has suffered from a bandwidth that has been restricted to around 300Hz to 3.4kHz. Some of the band limiting was due to the limited range of the transducers used, but also by intention as well. By limiting the bandwidth to only those frequencies that humans hear well, transmission was more efficient, which was extremely important in the early days of electronics where small tube repeater amplifiers where necessary all along the telephone line for it to work.

Through the years phone audio gradually became a little cleaner, mostly thanks to the digital encoding techniques introduced, but the bandwidth basically remained the same. Of course, you could always order a high-bandwidth ISDN line to do some serious recording via the phone, but this was somewhat expensive and a little tricky to set up (at least when the technology was first introduced). To give you an example, this used to be done with the Capitol Records Studios all the time so people could take advantage of their wonderful reverb chambers without actually mixing in their studios.

That said, the limited phone bandwidth is all about to change as AT&T begins to roll out its HD Voice feature later in the year as part of its 4G LTE network. The company will double the sample rate to around 16k and be able to deliver a much improved 80Hz to nearly 8kHz bandwidth as a result.

This isn't exactly the first time something like this has been done before, as many European carriers have had HD Voice equivalent for years, as does many VOIP networks and online carriers like Skype. That said, US cell phone service pales in comparison to the rest of the world, so we'll gladly take any little improvement whenever we can get it.

For all you geeks, AT&T plans to use the AMR-WB codec, which stands for Adaptive Multi-Rate WideBand in the new system.

One bummer is that you have to be talking to someone on a network that supports HD Voice for you to hear it, but you probably figured that out already.

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The Producer's First Meeting

Almost everyone knows the main phases of an album project (preproduction, tracking, overdubs, mixing, mastering), but the fact of the matter is that there's one more phase that actually begins the process - the meeting.

That's where the producer meets with the artist for the first time and they both decide if they like each other, can work together, and most importantly, be creative together. Of course, there may be other meetings before this decision is finally made, but the first one is critical for both the producer and the artist.

The problem is that any times the artist or band doesn't know exactly what to do or expect (especially one without much experience), so that leaves it up to the producer to guide things. Here are some questions to ask to determine if you’re a good fit with the artist.

• What are some of your favorite records? Why?

• What are your biggest influences? Why?

• What recordings do you like the sound of?

• What kind of sound are you looking for?

• What is it that you like about the projects I’ve done?

• What do you expect from me?

• How much control over the project will I have?

• Will I have control over the budget?

• Is there a studio you want to work in?

• Is there an engineer or musicians that you want to work with?

• How many songs do you have written?

• Do you feel that the songs are ready to record?

• When do you expect to begin recording?

• How long do you have to complete the project?

• Who's paying for the project? 

These aren't the only questions, but they're some of the most important, as they can help you gauge the musical taste of the artist, how much guidance they're looking for, and the amount of time that the project may require. If this first meeting goes well, you can determine the details later. 

For additional production tips, check out The Music Producer's Handbook. You can read excerpts at bobbyowsinski.com.

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A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words

As the title says, sometimes only a picture can tell the true story of what's going on. Here are some that are pretty interesting.






If you take notice, all of the cones on the speakers, including the driver on the horn, are blown out. Not from high volume or a blown amp, but because a roadie placed a concussion pod too close to the speaker.















I always felt that someone who drives a monster truck on the street was compensating for some small reproductive equipment (if you know what I mean). Could this be the same? After all, no human could possible get to these during a song.









This one was discovered by Nashville engineer Lynn Fuston and goes to show that a little education goes a long way. The "awesome mixer" has over 4 months experience and will finish his first class in May. Plus, he can bring his laptop and his headphones to do your mix for only $20. But wait, it looks like he'll pay you to mix your songs. If that's the case, I have about a hundred here he can work on.










Anyone that's played in clubs knows that at least once a night you get the "Can I jam with your band" guy that won't give up. Here's the perfect solution.















And for the guitar player that really needs a cold one handy on stage but still wants to maintain an image, the MarshallFridge is only $399.

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Phil Ramone: A Different Perspective

Phil Ramone At A&R With His New 8 Track

By now you've all heard that the legendary producer Phil Ramone has passed. If you read any of the obituaries, you'll notice that they all quote his many Grammys and the superstars he worked with, which indeed placed him above the majority of his contemporaries. Phil was more than that though. He was a behind-the-scenes mover and shaker on the technical side as well, always eager to embrace new technology.

Phil started as a musician (piano and violin), but before long became interested in the technical aspects of making music, and became a Grammy-winning engineer (with the groundbreaking bossa nova record Getz/Gilberto in 1964). He soon opened up A&R Studios in New York, which for years was one of the premier indie facilities on the East Coast and a place where a host of engineering legends got their start (Elliot Scheiner, Shelly Yakus, Don Hahn, Roy Cicala, to name a few). Just to show how into the tech side of things Phil was, he personally tuned his plate reverbs, and they became part of the signature sound of the studio and a big reason why people wanted to work there.

In 1966 Phil made the decision to install the first solid-state console in a mainline studio, then he was always the first to use any version of Dolby that they released. He was the first to use an early version of what today is an ISBN (typo) ISDN line to record an artist from a different location, and one of the first to eagerly switch to digital tape machines when they became available.

As if that wasn't enough, he was the first producer to embrace the CD, with Billy Joel's 52nd Street (named after the location of A&R) becoming the first commercially available release in that format.

Phil was an engineer with big technical chops, and he never was afraid to get down in the dirt of engineering if he had to, despite being one of the most successful producers ever. And he was never afraid to try something new if he thought that it might help the final product in any way.

I never worked with Phil, but I did get a chance to spend a full week with him on a Caribbean "Home Theater" cruise in 2003 where we were both speaking on the same panel. The entire week was nothing but great stories from him and Al Schmitt day and night. One of the best was about Howard Stern's father, who was actually the maintenance engineer at A&R for a time. For as loud and boisterous as Howard is, apparently his father was as quiet as a church mouse, mostly seen and never heard. Of course, the stories about the music mafia were priceless (probably best left unprinted).

Perhaps the best of my memories with him is of just he and I watching a Monday Night Football game together in the lounge one night as we sailed just off the coast of Cuba. He was a regular guy, and as into sports as any Joe Sixpack.

I had always hoped I'd get the chance to hang with Phil more and really felt that it would happen someday, but alas, that's not to be, at least in this lifetime. Pleasant journeys, my friend. You were a giant in the music business in so many ways.

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Chicago "25 Or 6 To 4" Isolated Vocals

Here's the last isolated vocal entry for the week, and this time it's "25 Or 6 To 4" by Chicago from the bands second album, also entitled Chicago. Chicago is always overlooked as one of the great American bands, and they're still going strong and sounding better than ever after 40 years. This track shows just how good they were even back then in 1970, because it's the little things that they do well that their contemporaries didn't at the time.

The track below consists of the piano, horns, sometimes a rhythm guitar and all the vocals. Be sure to listen for:

1. Bassist Peter Cetera's lead vocal is terrific. There's not a single bad note to be found.

2. The background vocals are equally good. Listen to how tight they are, especially the releases.

3. The vocals feature a long delayed and bright plate reverb that actually sounds much better on the horns than on the vocals. Of course, they usually only had one reverb to work with that had to work on everything back then, which wasn't actually as limiting as you might think.

4. The lead vocal is ever so slightly sibilant thanks to the compression, but you can't really hear the compressor working other than that.

5. The piano is playing a very disciplined simple patter. Robert Lamm is capable of playing more notes, but he stays in the pocket and does what's best for the song.

6. Terry Kath's rhythm guitar playing is outstanding. It's solid as a rock and used almost as percussion instrument, pushing the solo along to a peak. What a fabulous guitar player. He died far too young.

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Deep Purple "Smoke On The Water" Isolated Vocals

In keeping with our isolated vocal theme for the week, here's another golden oldie. It's Deep Purple's seminal "Smoke On The Water" from their breakthrough album Machine Head. The song recounts the fire at the Montreux Casino in Montreux Switzerland during a Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention concert. Purple was due to begin recording there the next day using The Rolling Stones mobile studio, but instead used the city's Grand Hotel, all mentioned in the song. I was lucky enough to stay in the same hotel during a stay there in the 80's, where I watched NATO fighter pilots race across the wavetops of Lake Geneva then pull into a 90 degree accent as they reach the French Alps. Very loud and very exciting.

In this clip you'll hear not only Ian Gillan's vocal, but Jon Lord's Hammond organ and a little bit of Ritchie Blackmore's rhythm guitar as well. The vocal begins at :35.

While listening, take notice to:

1. the mid-range reverb on Gillan's voice. It's not a particularly good sounding reverb, but you don't notice it in the track.

2. the way he's flat at end of phrases. Gillan has great tone and normally great pitch, and the only time he gets pitchy is at the end of phrases if the notes descend, which is not that uncommon with vocalists.

3. the rhythm guitar pattern during the guitar solo in the middle of the song. It's very disciplined, almost unusually so for a song during this era.

4. the sound of the organ. It's very distorted, mostly because Lord was running it through a Marshall amp instead of the normal Leslie speaker. This had the effect of sounding very much like another guitar frequency-wise. Also note his left hand, which he uses to punch up the low end during the chorus "Smoke on the water" spots.

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Yes "Roundabout" Isolated Vocals

Keeping on with our isolated vocal week, here's the isolated vocal track from Yes' breakthrough hit "Roundabout" from their Fragile album. One of the nice asides on the track is hearing bits and pieces of Rick Wakeman's keyboards isolated as well.

Skip to 1:03 to where the vocal starts, but while listening, keep an ear out for:

1. The double on the lead vocal. It's both a little pitchy and not that tight, as the releases are usually off against the original vocal.

2. At around 2:19, the vocals and the organ clash as one is on a major while the other is on a minor chord.

3. The loose harmony vocals on the choruses. The background vocals seem like they want to sing in stacked thirds all the way through, but they often drift to unison and octaves.

4. At 7:15 on the last verse, new voices join in the harmony (it's been Jon Anderson by himself up until this point).

5. The short reverb on the vocals at the outro at 8:00.

Also listen for keyboard mistakes at 3:03, 5:35, 7:53, which I guarantee no one has ever heard when the record played. Listen also to the B3 solo at 6:05. Even by itself it smokes.

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Queen "Somebody To Love" Isolated Vocals

Here's an interesting piece of history. It's the isolated vocal tracks from Queen's "Somebody To Love" off of their A Day At The Races album. You'll hear bits and pieces of the stacked background vocals as well as the complete lead vocal track of Freddie Mercury.

Take note of a few things while you're listening:

1. The distortion on the vocals. It's fairly distorted all the way through, although that personally never changed the enjoyment of the song for me and millions of others.

2. The compression. While the track is pretty compressed, especially on the louder sections, it's expertly done (I think by engineer/producer Mack). You hardly hear any compression artifacts, it's just one level throughout.

3. The reverb at the end. The lead vocal is dry until 2:41, when a nice long delayed plate is added.

4. Freddie's pitch. Unlike many hit songs of the period where vocal pitch problems were allowed to slide, this one is spot on for almost the entire vocal (he's just a hair flat at 3:50, which was after the fade on the record).

You also get to hear some ad libs at the end not heard on the original record.

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New Music Gear Monday: Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Series

Today's post is probably only for a limited number of guitar aficionados who are Eric Clapton fans and have deep pockets. In conjunction with Guitar Center, Fender, Gibson and Martin, Clapton has authorized a limited number of "Crossroads Series" guitars modeled after some of his most famous instruments.

One that may have particular interest is a replica of "Brownie," EC's sunburst Fender Strat with the worn maple neck made famous during his Derek and the Dominos and Layla days. There's also a model of "Lucy," the refinished Les Paul Gold Top that he gave to George Harrison that was used on The White Album and Abbey Road, as well as a number of Martin 000's that he used as well.

These don't come cheap, with Brownie and Lucy coming in at $15k each and the Martins at $5k, but they are limited editions, so they'll probably hold their values. Each guitar comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by Eric, a DVD of Eric discussing the guitar, and a CD box set of the songs it was used on. Here's a great video of Clapton trying out the new Brownie and doing some reminiscing.

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