What's going on in 2009?

So, as I mentioned a while ago, I am now focusing on writing and working on shorter mixing gigs and taking the occasional other project (scoring, sound design, etc.).  A lot of my time has been going to the commercial A/V work I have been doing for about a year now.  Its a great gig.  

I am currently working on developing a recording "co-op" model that could be used for sharing resources, space, etc. with a number of people who don't have access to gear but can combine resources to makes albums, write, jam, and generally just collaborate.  It's very early, but there may be some good opportunities there.

later

What's up at the end of 2008

Wrapping up 2008 and as usual, Colabs keeps evolving as growing. A few notable changes for me and Colabs this year:

• Moved to the west coast and got plugged into the music scene here.
• Moved the studio from one decent studio space to a much preferable one, my house!
• Had a baby, a beautiful son!
  
• Have started scaling back whole album mixes in favor of singles and EPs
• Starting to take my own writing and music creation more seriously
  

2009 will be an exciting year for me personally as I dive into fatherhood and a new creative season with Colabs.

Thanks to everyone who has worked with me in the last year!

The heartless task of arranging your music

Often when mixing an album I will be faced with a dilemma: with all the tracks roughly balanced at a level where you can hear everything, there is no way for all the tracks to live together in the same song - there is too much going on.

So, I am forced to make a tough call, a musical "Sophie's Choice", if you will. Someone has got to go. I need to cut some tracks.

I will often consult the artist or producer before doing this. No one really likes this at the mixing stage because it involves a compromise. There are often a lot of good ideas in there and you know that by choosing one direction, you are shutting down another one.

In the end the music sounds better. The song and the melody will likely be more memorable or maybe the music just grooves better. But there is a better way: the heartless task of arranging you music.

1. Write your song.
2. Establish an arrangement that supports all the best elements of the song.
3. Record your song in the most fun and natural way you can.
4. During the overdub stage, feel free to get all your crazy ideas out there but keep the overall song and the melody in plain view all the while.
   
5. Before you mix the song, ruthlessly cut every part that doesn't add to the original vibe and magic of the song. Cool sounding or not, if it doesn't support the song and jives with all the other elements, cut it.

If you make smart creative choices early on and trust that the song will speak for itself, a mix engineer will be able to do her job and take the song to a whole new level.

Rhyme and Melody Podcast

A local (Vancouver area) producer has launched a new podcast that covers (loosely) hip-hop, beat boxing, freestyle, and general urban music creation in a collaborative studio context. They are doing some fun stuff with creating some musical ideas though improvisation in the studio and then polishing between shows. I may be doing some collaboration so check it out and support the local music scene.

You can find the podcast here.

Later.

Jeremy Melodic Makes Fox SEEDS top 20

Jeremy Melodic recently had there three song demo mixed at Colabs in preparation for submitting their band to the Fox SEEDS '08 contest. Jeremy Melodic has made the initial top 20 pick, so congrats to them on that!

Sign up and vote for Jeremy Melodic.

Making records should be fun.

I had a fun jam and recording session with a good friend the other night. As we collaborated and threw different musical ideas around my friend made a comment that stuck out to me:

"...this is so different from when we made our album. It wasn't fun."

He was referring to a record that he had made with his band recently. It was a fairly big budget project and most of the time was spent in bigger studios working with a producer. The formula for a great album was all there and the finished product actually sounds pretty good.

So why would he say that he preferred the recording process of a couple of guys in a small studio throwing ideas around and not really being all that finicky about sounds, perfect playing, etc.?

1. You need to have a good working relationship with your producer. sound's like my friend had a producer who, despite getting the sounds he wanted in the end, was not really easy to work with. Sometimes this is ok and necessary to keep a project moving forward, but it can also stifle creativity. My friend and I get along great and can take creative risks with each other while still being able to say when something is stupid. A good producer can hold those two elements in balance to keep a session creative and on track.

2. Big budgets can create big pressure. A good product cost money, but the decision to work entirely in large studios and by expensive hourly rates can be a massive wet blanket on the creativity and enjoyment of making music, especially for a struggling artist or band.

Making music, no matter the style or your goals in recording, should be fun. Creativity is often about taking risks. Record in an environment where you feel the most creatively free and with people who can both welcome your crazy ideas and call out the bad ones.

New Gear

I've been looking at getting a couple new pieces of gear into the studio. Here is a short list of some of the really cool things I have been looking at and considering.

Rolls Music Folcrom - Analog audio summing has become pretty big over the past four or five years with the 'mixing in the box' crowd. Basically, the argument goes, that a big part of why analog consoles make mixes sound so good is in the summing amp (a device that takes all your channels and 'sums' them into a stereo signal). The rolls is cool because it is totally passive and you need a preamp to make up the gain of your stereo signal. This means that your sound is totally determined by what mic preamps you use for make up gain. Cool!

Waves Studio Classics Plug in Bundle - Really good sounding emulations of SSL, Neve, and API gear. Most people are stoked about the SSL stuff but It all sounds pretty cool.

Celemony Melodyne Studio - The new version of this program can tune notes within chords of recorded audio. I have absolutely no idea how they figured out how to do this, but I would guess someone at Celemony sold their soul to the devil or something similarly dubious. Tune your guitar after you get a good take!

BFD 2 - Actually I already ordered this. Really good sounding, really usable multi sampled acoustic drum machine that I can also trigger with Drumagog. More of a songwriting tool or a convincing back up when you can't get a real drummer with a good kit in a great sounding studio. I like that I can use drumagog to trigger new drum sounds with their corresponding room and overhead mics that I can mix in afterward. Sweet!

Ok enough nerd gear talk.

Later.