Jimi Hendrix "The Wind Cries Mary" Behind The Scenes

If any of you caught the recent American Masters show about Jimi Hendrix on PBS you know that there was some great seldom-seen interviews that made that documentary one of the best. It seems like there was a lot of footage that didn't make the program, and here's some of it, describing the making of "The Wind Cries Mary" from Jimi and The Experience's first album Are You Experienced.

In the video you'll hear Jimi's late manager and producer Chas Chandler (once the bass player with the original Animals) describing how the song was cut in 20 minutes including 5 guitar overdubs (obviously everything was first take). Then you'll hear my buddy the great Eddy Kramer (you can read part of his interview from The Recording Engineer's Handbook here) isolate some of the guitar tracks from the song.

Sorry, but you'll have to sit through a 15 second commercial first, but it's worth it.

----------------------------------

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.

10 Must-See Studios Before You Die

The garden surrounding Conway Recording

I was talking to a friend about the studio business in Los Angeles the other day when the conversation drifted to a very famous studio that was slowly being phased out (guess which one below). That got me thinking about some of the great studios that I've worked in over my career as well as some others that are on my bucket list. I decided to make a list of the 10 studios that I believe everyone connected with recording should visit at least once.

Actually there were many more than 10, but these are what I consider the top 10 that come to mind.

1. Abbey Road (London) - The center of the recording universe for decades, the studio that everyone most wants to visit, and what many feel has always represented the epitome of recording excellence.

2. Capitol Records (Los Angeles) - All you have to do is walk down the hallway and see the huge pictures of Frank and Dean and the realization of the studio's history hits you. Great sounding rooms, not to mention the famous echo chambers. Major construction in the area might seriously affect the studio in the near future.

3. Sunset Sound (Los Angeles) - One of the first independent studios anywhere, it's been the home to hit makers since the early 60s. I went to the 25th anniversary party a number of years ago and they played the hits that were made there in the background for four hours and never repeated one.

4. East West (Los Angeles) - Once part of Bill Putnam's United Western (also one of the first indie studios), the studios have remained basically the same since Bill designed them.

5. Oceanway (Los Angeles) - The other part of United Western and until recently, owned by Allan Sides, the studio is now owned by Gower film studios and its future is in doubt. See it while you can.

6. Electric Lady (New York) - Jimi Hendrix's personal studio. His vibe is still there. Enough said.

7. The Record Plant (Los Angeles) - It's not at the original location anymore, but it's still a legend just for the who's-who list of clients.

8. Henson (Los Angeles) - The former A&M Studios located on the old Charlie Chaplin film lot, Henson is one of the few large facilities left. Once again, the home of legends.

9. Conway (Los Angeles) - Mostly under the radar, Conway has been the home to music celebs for decades. You can't beat the beauty of the tropically themed grounds around the studio, which makes it one of a kind.

10. Avatar (New York) - Formerly the Power Station, Avatar has been the home to East Coast hit makers for decades, as well as the place where many of today's most influential engineers got their start.

That was an easy 10, and we didn't even get to Nashville, Memphis and the rest of London, as well as some of the famous studios that are now museums like Motown, Sun and RCA Studio B. Plus it was very LA-centric. Forgive me, my studio friends, if I left your favorite off the list. If you guys like this one, I'll post a second one soon.

----------------------------------

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 Secret To Finding The Pocket

I came across the video at the bottom of this post about find the "pocket" of the groove and it reminded me of something that I wrote in How To Make Your Band Sound Great. Here's that excerpt as well as the video (which takes a little while to get to the point).

"The phrase "in the pocket" is used to describe something or someone playing in such a way that the groove is very solid and has a great feel. When a drummer keeps good time, makes the groove feel really good, and keeps it up for an extended period of time while never wavering, this is often referred to as a “deep pocket”.  It should be noted that it’s impossible to have a pocket without also having a groove.

Historically speaking, the term "pocket" originated in the middle of the last century when a strong backbeat (the snare drum striking on beats 2 and 4) came to the forefront of popular music.  When the backbeat is slightly delayed creating a "laid back" or "relaxed feel", the drummer is playing in the pocket.

Today, the term "in the pocket" has broadened a bit, suggesting that if two musicians (usually the bass player and the drummer) are feeling the downbeats together and placing beat one (the downbeat) at the exact same time, they are said to be "in the pocket." Whether you are playing ahead (in front) of the beat, or behind (on the back) of the beat, or right on top (middle) of the beat, as long as two musicians (i.e. bassist and drummer) feel the downbeat at the same time, they'll be in the pocket.  

In terms of bass and drums locking to create a cohesive part, there are three areas of focus for me. You have to know where your drummer is most comfortable in terms of the beat. Is your drummer very "straight," playing right on top of the beat (which can sound like Disco music or a machine)? Is he or she laid back, sitting in that area way on the back back of the beat (like Phil Rudd does on AC/DC’s Back In Black, anything by Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, or Clyde Stubblefield on James Brown’s Cold Sweat or Funky Drummer)? Does your drummer's playing have that urgency of a musician who plays on top of the beat (like Stewart Copeland of The Police)? This is crucial to know because the bass and drums have to function as a unit. You don't have to play everything the same, but you have to know and understand the way the other thinks and feels.

Getting the rhythm section to groove with the rest of the band is much more difficult than you might think since guitarists don't always listen to the drummer, a keyboardist may have metronomic time yet have a difficult time coordinating his/her left hand with the bass player, and vocalists will often forget that there's a band playing behind them altogether.  The key is for everyone in the band to listen to one another!

Many people feel that the question is not so much what the pocket is as much as how you know when you've achieved it, yet I guarantee that you’ll know it when you feel it because the music feels like it’s playing itself.  It feels as if everything has merged together with all the rhythmic parts being played by one instrument.  Whichever definition you choose to go with or use, having a pocket is always good thing!"

You can read additional excerpts from How To Make Your Band Sound Great and other books on the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com.

----------------------------------

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.

How Tape Delay Works

Many delay plugins today are either trying to directly emulate tape delay or have a tape delay setting. Setting up a tape delay used to be one of the first things you learned how to do when you started in the studio back in the day, since there was no other way to accomplish the task (this was before outboard digital delays came into widespread use).

Today very few studios have a tape machine, so most engineers, producers and musicians don't really know how the real things works. Here's a short excerpt and diagram from The Mixing Engineer's Handbook 3rd edition that describes tape echo.


"In the analog days delay was accomplished by using an outboard tape machine. The delay occurred because the playback head was located after the record head, which created a time delay (see the figure on the left). As the speed of the tape machine was changed, so would the delay.

For example, a 15 IPS (inches per second) tape speed would result in a delay somewhere in the 125 to 175 milliseconds range (it would be different with different models of tape machines because the gap between the heads was different for each), while it would be double that, or around 250 to 350 milliseconds at 7 1/2 IPS. 

Because of the analog nature of magnetic tape, it has the characteristics of wow and flutter of the tape path, plus a rolled-off high frequency response and increased distortion with each repeat, which most tape delay plugins try to emulate."

You can read additional excerpts from The Mixing Engineer's Handbook 3rd edition on the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

If you've read this book and enjoyed it, please leave a comment on Amazon. Thanks!

----------------------------------

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.

New Music Gear Monday: Neumann TLM 107

To many, Neumann mics have always been the gold standard for recording, and you can never go wrong with any of the old classics. Neumann's newer offerings haven't quite been accepted in the same manner, but that could change with the new TLM 107.

The 107 has a totally new capsule that's designed to reduce the affect of moisture and humidity, but the cool thing is that it sports a new "navigation" switch that allows you to change the pickup pattern, attenuation, and rolloff. It's also a multi-pattern mic with omni, sub-omni, cardioid, hypercardioid and figure 8 available. The frequency pattern looks to be really flat with a high-end bump, but some engineers who prefer their mics with more color won't find that attractive.

The price is pretty good though, coming in at "under $2,000" according to Neumann. The TLM 107 is available at the end of November.

----------------------------------

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.

Van Halen "Running With The Devil" Isolated Guitar

When Eddie Van Halen came on the scene in the late 70s, the guitar world was literally rocked with a new sound and new style of playing. EVH had a skill level and dexterity that hadn't been seen before, but the songs were good too, which soon put the band at superstar level. Here's the isolated guitar track to "Running With The Devil," the first song from their first self-titled album. The song still gets lots of airplay, and the album has gone on to sell over 10 million copies. Check out:

1. The lone guitar element in the song. There's only one guitar at any time during the song, mostly because the band was so used to playing it this way, as it was a staple of their shows before they received a record deal.

2. The guitar sound. It's a trademark of early Van Halen records where the rhythm guitar is panned on the left and a big delayed reverb to the right.

3. The guitar solo is dryer and panned to the right.

The song begins at 30 seconds in.

----------------------------------

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.

The Secret To Great Drum Recordings

The drum kit usually gets the most attention in most sessions because just about all modern music is rhythm oriented and highly dependent upon the drums for song’s pulse. In fact, in most rock, pop, r&b and country music, a wimpy sounding drum kit equates to a wimpy track, and that’s why we’re dedicating an entire chapter just to recording drums. Here's an excerpt from the newly released 3rd edition of The Recording Engineer's Handbook that unveils how to obtain a reference point of how the drums sound in the room, along with some general drum miking considerations.

"As a general starting point before you even begin any complex drum miking, it’s important that you get a good picture of what the drum kit sounds like. To do this, try the following:

1. Go out into the room with the drums and have the drummer play the song that you’re about to record. Note the tone of the drums.

2. Place a single mic eight to ten feet in front of the kit at about the same height as drummer’s head. A large diaphragm condenser will work nicely for this. 

3. Record the kit for a minute or two.

4. Listen to the playback. Is the set balanced or do one or two drums or cymbals stand out? 

This will give you an idea of what the drum kit sounds like and what the issues may be when you begin recording, which now allows you to compensate by drum tuning, mic selection, or placement.

General Considerations

Here are number of things to consider that generally apply to just about any drum miking setup. 

• Microphones aimed at the center of the drum will provide the most attack. For more body or ring, aim it more towards the rim.

• The best way to hear exactly what the drum sounds like when doing a mic check is to have the drummer hit the drum about once per second so there’s enough time between hits to hear how long the ring is.

• Try to keep any mics underneath the drums at a 90 degree angle to the mic on top to keep the acoustic phase shift to a minimum.

• Most mics placed underneath the drums will be out of phase with the tops mics.  Switch the polarity on your preamp, console or DAW and choose the position that has the most bottom end.

• Try to keep all mics as parallel as possible to keep the acoustic phase shift to a minimum.

• The main thing about mic placement on the drums is to place the mics in such a way where the drummer never has to be concerned about hitting them.

• The ambient sound of the room is a big part of the drum sound. Don’t overlook using room mics where possible."

To read additional excerpts from The Recording Engineer's Handbook and other books, go to the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com. For a more detailed video version of the book, check out the Audio Recording Techniques course on Lynda.com.  Get 7 days free of unlimited access to lynda.com

----------------------------------

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.

The Beginning Of The End Of The Loudness Wars

One of the cooler aspects of iTunes Radio is that it very well may be the beginning of the end to the loudness wars. For those of you too young to remember, the loudness wars started back in the 60s when producers began to perceive that if a song played on a radio was louder than the one before or after it, it seemed to sound better and people responded more. As a result, they kept on asking the mastering engineer to make their records as loud as possible (check out this post on hypercompression).

In the vinyl world, there was a physical limitation on how loud a record could be cut. Cut it too loud and the stylus would jump out of the record groove and the customer would return it. That all changed with music's entry into digital and the then-new look ahead digital limiters, which were capable of loudness levels that were unheard of just a few years before.

Now we've gotten to the point were some clients don't even care if there are overloads and distortion on the mastered track, as long as it's as loud as possible. Mastering engineers and mix engineers hate this, of course, but producers and record labels demand it, so the search for more perceived level has continued unabated. Until now.

iTunes Radio now includes a new Sound Check algorithm, which limits the volume level of all tracks. In other words, it lifts the level of the quiet tracks and lowers the level of louder ones so they're all the same. What makes this a threat to hypercompression is the fact that Sound Check can't be defeated by the listener, the mastering engineer, the producer or the record label. What's more, if a song is dynamically crushed, Sound Check might turn in down in a not exactly pleasing way, causing all parties involved to possibly rethink about going for so much level in the first place.

That said, iTunes Radio hasn't taken over the streaming world yet, and there are dozens of other services that don't use a similar level regulating algorithm. In many ways, it's still business as usual for mastering engineers everywhere, but at least we're seeing progress on this front for the first time. Here's to non-crushed, better sounding dynamic masters everywhere!

----------------------------------

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.

How Supercapacitors Could Change Audio

My buddy Nick Batzdorf (a name that should ring a bell with those of you who read recording magazines) wrote a great piece about the new supercapacitors over at marketplace.org. The gist of the article is that the new devices are rapidly revolutionizing energy storage, replacing the traditional chemical battery, which will make a difference in many of the items in our everyday lives, from phones to electric cars.

Supercapacitors beat batteries in every aspect in that they have a greater energy density than batteries or normal capacitors, never wear out, charge up hundreds of times faster than a battery, and are impervious to temperature. That's because they use thin sheets of 1 atom thick graphene to store static electricity instead of relying on the chemical reaction that is the basis of battery operation.

So how could that be a boon to audio? Let me count the ways.

How about high-wattage power amps class-A power amps that are smaller and better sounding because of the smaller and more efficient caps?

How about wireless mics that don't need their batteries replaced after every show because they no longer use batteries and they remain charged for weeks?

How about guitar pedals that don't need batteries anymore and only need to be recharged for a short time every few months or so?

How about improved audio quality on boutique audio gear because of the more efficient caps used in the power supplies and the signal path? 

How about a new evolution of the condenser microphone that has a transient response that we can only dream about today?

I'm sure you can think of tons of other applications, but suffice it to say that supercapacitors can truly mean a breakthrough in both how we power some of our devices as well as audio quality. Of course the big thing in the way at the moment is price (they're 20 to 40 times more expensive) and the fact that they only work at relatively low voltages, since it's such a relatively new technology. This means that most of the above won't be available tomorrow, but what's pricey today has a way of being inexpensive and improved tomorrow. Gear design is about to enter an exciting new era.

----------------------------------

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.

New Music Gear Monday: littleBits Synth Kit

There was a time when many of us learned all about electronics by building our own gear from a kit. Doing this helped you learn about electronic components, the art of soldering, signal flow and troubleshooting, all of which became invaluable later on when you hit the stage or studio.

Unfortunately, the days of electronic gear kits is mostly over because of liability laws that have potential manufacturers shaking in their boots. But there is one new kit coming on the market that looks to be a very cool (and safe) learning tool - the littleBits analog synthesizer kit, a collaboration with Korg.

This is a modular kit that contains 13 tiny analog modules based around the beloved Korg MS-20 consisting of a power module, 2 oscillators, a keyboard, a sequencer, an envelope, a filter, a delay, a mixer, a splitter and a randomizer. Everything you need to do multiple synth projects are in the box. You won't mistake it for a larger more powerful commercial synth, but it is surprisingly versatile.

If you've been using synths for a while but really don't understand how they work, then this kit is for you, as you'll learn the basics in no time. Want a present for your musically inclined kid? This is it. The kit costs $159. There's also a deluxe kit available with more modules for $199.

----------------------------------

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.

Aerosmith "Same Old Song And Dance" Isolated Rhythm Guitar

When some people think of a basic rock band that has two guitars, bass and drums, many times the first impression is that the track elements are pretty simple since there are only 4 instruments. Live that may be true, but that's not the way records are made.

A really good example of how sophisticated a simple rhythm guitar part can become is Aerosmith's "Same Old Song And Dance" from their Get Your Wings album. It highlights the really excellent production skills of Jack Douglas.

Here's the isolated tracks of Brad Whitford's rhythm guitar. Listen for:

1. The simplicity of the parts. Everything is played as solidly and simply as possible, with no embellishments or ghost notes.

2. The change in guitar sounds. The sound changes considerably from the intro to the verse to the chorus to the bridge. This gives the song more interest.

3. The change in panning. As the sound changes, so does the panning, again heightening the interest.

4. The doubling of parts of the solo and last chorus to bring the song to its peak.

----------------------------------

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

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.

----------------------------------

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.