New Panelists and Full Schedule Announced for ASCAP New York Sessions

March 7, 2011 by David Weiss

Psyched on Sonics: Recording a Full TV Commercial Score In One Day — Without a Studio

March 2, 2011 by Matt McCorkle

Every month, Matt McCorkle of EqualSonics.com brings you a day in the life of a New York City recording engineer.

Matt got busy with his mobile setup inside a Brooklyn pad to capture a complete Michael T song.

The Mission: Recording a song for a TV commercial in a Brooklyn apartment

Producer and multi-instrumentalist Michael T contacted me about recording and mixing a song called “Snow Falls in Brooklyn” for a television commercial. Michael T does song commissions for just about anything. Give him a topic, genre, theme, or a melody and he’ll craft a song for your purpose.

With most submissions for television or advertisements, one is given a rough guideline of what the company wants from the song (a particular tempo range, genre, style, feel and instrumentation). An example of a request is as follows: “Beat must be mid-tempo between 100-110BPM with a driving chorus and relaxed verses. Lyrics should be clean, but with high energy and clarity. Lyrics should refer to “having a good time” and “living life to the fullest.” Then a few reference songs are provided in the style of how they would like their finished product.

When Michael T does a TV commission, one thing is of utter importance: turn-around time. We had one day to record, edit and mix this track before submitting it for television play the following week.

Listen to the master mix of “Snow Falls in Brooklyn” to hear where all this is going:

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The Location

The spot at which this production took place was at a mutual friend, Kalen‘s apartment in Brooklyn. She too is a multi-instrumentalist, who just happens to have about every possible instrument in her apartment, how perfect! Bass, keys, guitar, djembe, xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, shakers and various auxiliary percussion.

The apartment is located in a relatively quiet neighborhood of Brooklyn, with little traffic outside in the street. This was a crucial factor in picking a location to do this production. When recording on location most places will not be 100% soundproof — I’ll be lucky to get an apartment that is 50% soundproof.

This particular apartment was secluded in the back of the building on the second floor. That’s great because recording from the back of the building dramatically reduces any noise from cars or people in the street, while being on the second floor reduces any low-end frequencies creeping up from the nearby subway tracks. The location was “sound,” so to speak, in the sense that it was as soundless as possible.

The Arrival

Once at the apartment I laid my gear down and took a brief walk around, moving to and from each room listening for any noise that would be detrimental to a recording. I am particularly interested in listening for AC noise, gas pipes, computer fan noise and birds chirping or dogs barking. Since this is New York City after all, I was listening for the possibility of rats clawing in the wall, fighting neighbors or other musical neighbors. All of these factors could suddenly ruin that “golden take.” It is essential to have a preliminary listen of the rooms to reduce the chances of such a horrible catastrophe.

Michael T and I began to examine the instruments that were so kindly lent to our use. We played different acoustic instruments in different rooms to get a feel of how each interacted with that particular room. After I had mapped out a game plan of where I wanted to record certain instrumentations, I went to start my setup of Equal Sonics Mobile.

The Digital Setup

The setup of Equal Sonics Mobile takes approximately 20 minutes. I start by unpacking and laying all of the equipment out within hand’s reach. This makes it easy to see and grab the equipment as I need it, in addition to augmenting and changing the rig quickly throughout the session, depending on any particular task.

WARNING! This section of the article gets technical. If you are not ready, uninterested, afraid of or become nauseated by reading excessive nerd talk, I recommend that you skip ahead to the “Time Is Ticking – Let’s Begin The Tracking!” section of this article a few paragraphs down.

Optics

Equal Sonics Mobile is based around ADAT (44.1/48 kHz) and S/MUX (88.2/96 kHz) optical protocol. I find ADAT and S/MUX to be a great protocol for this type of setup. The cables are lightweight, easy to break down and store, inexpensive and easy to find at various retail outlets. This system allows for total control over monitoring levels, individual artist cue mixes, and any other mixes that might be necessary, such as a video camera feed.

All of these optical connections are fed to an RME Digiface which inputs ADAT and outputs ADAT in groups of 8 channels at a time, when operating at 44.1 kHz sample rate. The RME Digiface is then fed to an RME HDSPe ExpressCard, fitted into a MacBook Pro ExpressCard slot, which allows for the transfer of these channels in and out of Pro Tools.

I begin by connecting the optical cables from the analog to digital converters optical outputs to the optical input sections of the RME Digiface. These connections are made to input my digitally converted pre-amp signals into Pro Tools. After the inputs are taken care of, I must connect another set of optical cables from the output sections of the RME Digiface to the digital-to-analog (D/A) converters. The D/A converters are for monitoring purposes, so that I’m able to provide myself with a control room and headphone mix, as well as providing personalized mixes for each artist, with a HearBack cue system.

Telling Time

Once I have my optical connections fitted and ready for use, I need something to tell them all exactly at what point they should do their job. I hook up every piece of digital gear to an Apogee Big Ben master clock. This is to keep a consistent sample rate across the entire digital setup and reduce jitter. A good analogy of what a master clock does for a digital system is as follows:

Matt sez: A master clock is like a bunch of well-managed interns: Find out why!

I’m at the studio and have a lot of work that needs to be completed before my client arrives at noon. I have 4 interns available to help with preparations. I need to send each of them out into the streets to get various items needed for today’s session. Each of these interns have 4 different watches, all yielding slightly different times. When I ask them to be back at noon sharp, I can assume that each intern will follow their respective watch. Of course, this will be inaccurate because all of the watches were not synchronized. One will show up at 11:56am, another at 11:58am, another at 12:03pm and yet another at 12:05pm. To their credit, each of these interns’ watches displayed noon as they arrived. However, when my timepiece displayed noon, I was stuck with two early interns and two late interns.

To remedy this situation before I send the interns on their tasks, I act as a master clock and synchronize each intern’s timepiece to my timepiece. Therefore, when my watch displays noon… their watches will display noon! As you can see, they would all be back at noon according to my watch and the session would go off without a hitch.

Now of course 24-hour clocks and digital clocking systems do not keep the same time, but that simple analogy can shed some light on how a master clock commands a digital recording environment, in regards to keeping a consistent sampling rate across the entire system. Sample rates must remain consistent across the entire recording system, otherwise phase-shifts can occur within the timing of samples. This is jitter, and yes, it is an audible problem!

The Analog Setup

After all the digital connections are made, I get to work on the analog side of things, making the connection from the 8 channel Audient microphone preamp to it’s 8 channel analog-to-digital converter counterpart. The API lunchbox, containing pre-amps, gets connected to an analog-to-digital converter as well. With the microphone pre-amps connected now, all that needs to be done is hooking a microphone up to whichever pre-amp we choose to use.

Time Is Ticking – Let’s Begin The Tracking!

With Equal Sonics Mobile up and running, we were ready to start with this production. I let Michael T sift through my personal drum sample library. This library contains samples that I have personally sampled, collected from friends, or received in sample trades with other producers/engineers. He had chosen a kick and snare sample he wanted to lay through the entire track as a skeleton and timing device. I programmed the samples into place and sent a copy of the drum tracks to his individual HearBack cue mixer. I labeled his mixer so he knew exactly where he could set his drum levels. The kick and snare drums were to be the only electronically programmed instrument on this track. Let’s get moving.

Bass

Recording bass meant taking full advantage of the Shadow Hills GAMA mic pre.

With the electronic drums laid down, we moved onto bass guitar. For this I decided to use a Shadow Hills Mono GAMA Pre-amp which has a hi-impedance instrument input. This pre-amp also allows the user to switch between three types of output transformers: Steel, Nickel and Discrete. We liked both the Steel and the Nickel output transformer sound on this particular bass guitar. So, we decided to have a little fun with this unique pre-amp option.

During the verses, we opted to use the Nickel setting as it was slightly more gentle in the low-mid frequencies and allowed the bass to breathe in the 1-2khz range. However, once the hooks hit we swapped Nickel for Steel, which gave us a heavier, more driving bass sound that was perfect for our goal of having the hooks drive and feel heavier than the verses.

With three passes — one pass for the verses, one pass for the hooks, and one pass for the bridge — we were finished tracking bass and time was ticking. Onto acoustic guitar!

Acoustic Guitar

We ended up picking the back bedroom for this acoustic guitar tracking. It was quiet, comfy, and the wooden floors provided a pleasant, warm texture for this particular acoustic guitar. I had Michael T play in various spots around the room listening for the best placement for him to track. We ended up placing him with his back towards the closet pointed to the center of the room.

Once he was situated in a playing position, I began my microphone placement. Since the guitar is going to be the main instrumentation on this track, I wanted to create a large stereo image of the acoustic guitar. I placed one AKG 414 pointed between the guitars sound hole and where the fret-board connects to the body of the guitar. I placed a second AKG 414 at the neck of the guitar around the 3rd and 4th frets. This setup was meant to pick up fret nuances and create a large and sonically pleasing stereo image.

I shut the bedroom door and went to the other room where I monitored on a set of active monitors. Panning both microphones 100% opposite of one another in their respective Pro Tools tracks, I listened for phase discrepancies. I loaded a Vectorscope plugin on the master fader of Pro Tools to have a visual display of the two channels phase relationship. I didn’t hear anything un-natural and the Vectorscope meters read in the +1 range, meaning the channels were not canceling frequencies with one another. Pleased with the placement, I turned off my monitors and put on my headphones for tracking, in order to ensure that the active monitors would not be picked up by the microphones in the other room.

We put down a few different sections of acoustic guitar. Once the main sections were established, we started adding doubles of the acoustic guitar onto of each section to make the sound thicker. After the thickening was complete we laid down some overdubs, which were essentially varying motifs to make each section unique (in order to hold the listeners interest).

I turned the active monitors back on while Michael T and myself had a listen to what we tracked. We were both pleased with the performance and the sound, but the song was far from complete…

Padding

Now that the drums, bass and acoustic guitars were laid down, we wanted to add a bit more ambient texture to certain parts of the song. Fortunately, this apartment came equipped with a Nord Electro synthesizer. We patched it into a stereo line-amp that was directly patched into Apogee analog-to-digital converters, which in turn, allowed us to monitor these synthesizers in Pro Tools.

Switching between various patches on this synth, we came across a nice Rhodes sound. Tracking the Nord Electro throughout the hooks gave them a bit more padding and feel. After laying the synth down, I added a slight ambient reverb and a slight delay set at 1/2 notes with minimal feedback. The effects were added for additional sonic padding and to create an ambient, spacious texture.

Step Back

We were feeling good about the progress of the track thus far. The drums and bass were filling out the rhythm well, the acoustic guitar was doing rhythm and lead parts, and the Nord Electro was assisting the hooks by filling them out sonically.

There were a few more things left to do before we could edit, mix and submit this track. We needed to add what Michael T likes to call “garnish.”

Garnish With A Side Of Ear Candy

Djembe

You KNEW the AKG D112 was gonna get busted out!

We grabbed a djembe with the intent to add some nice sub bass tones to the kick drum in the verses. The djembe at the apartment had an incredibly rich, deep tone. We wanted to sample the djembe and mix it nicely underneath the kick drum hits. We decided to track this instrument in the bedroom with the wooden floors. I was only concerned with the bass tone of this instrument, so I placed an AKG D112 under the djembe.

Michael T played a few deep notes on the djembe of various intensities to capture different note sustains. This was not done while listening to the track, but thankfully the drum happened to be tuned to the key of the song. Lucky! Had it not been, we would have had to have gotten crafty with slight pitch shifting. We ended up using a sample that was almost a 1/2 note long, at our session tempo, and placed them with the kick hits in the verses. Later, I will mix them underneath the kick drum by slicing the high frequencies off and taking some muddiness out of the drum around 300 Hz to get a nice sub-drone sound.

Glockenspiel
The purpose of the glockenspiel was to add a variable attack to the Nord Electro’s Rhodes patch. Michael T played the glockenspiel at the beginning of each Rhodes note. We could now control the intensity of this newly added Rhodes’ attack by varying the volume of the glockenspiel track!

I miked the instrument with two AKG 414′s- one positioned on the low keys and another on the higher keys. Once more, after miking, I went to check my Vectorscope to make sure that there was no phase discrepancies. I sent both the 414′s to a stereo track so that I would be able to control the volume with one fader.

Shaker
The last garnish we added was two different shakers. One of them was a lightweight, smooth-sounding shaker, which we had planned to put in the verse. The other was a larger, heavier and more jagged- sounding shaker that we used to cut through the hooks.

I planted Michael T in the bedroom once again, and got his shaker station ready. I used an AKG 414 with a slight LF rolloff @ 80 Hz to eliminate sub frequencies. In addition, I placed the AKG 414 in a narrow cardioid pattern, as Michael T was literally right in front of the microphone.

Singing In The Shower?

The instrumentation was complete! The sun was starting to set, and it was time to lay down the vocals. We went from room to room, seeking the best possible place to record vocals. The bedroom was too lively, the living room would be difficult with all the recording equipment, and the kitchen was too reflective. I had the notion that perhaps the bathroom would be just right. It was small, but not too small and had towels lining one side to capture reflections.

Insert your own caption about recording, fun, showers and pants on/off here!

The bathroom turned out to be too dark, but I did not give up on it! I had Michael T sing from inside the shower pointing out, towards the wall of towels. Perfection! This angle provided a nice lively feel without any ugly reflections. We fixed an AKG 414, the workhouse microphone of this session, to the shower curtain bar and fitted it with a pop filter. I went back to my setup and had him take a pass through the track to get a feel of how these vocals would sound.

The vocals were sounding nice. I added a bit of reverb timed to the tempo of the track to provide a spacious texture around his vocals, and then we went through the various parts of the song starting with the first verse, layering each section with doubles and harmonies to thicken each section of the track. Once the main vocals were done, with their respective doubles and harmonies, we went on to add vocal ear candies throughout the track. These consisted of “Ooh’s” and “Aah’s” to provide a nice padding to the main vocals (a similar scenario to the Rhodes patch we used to thicken up the hooks).

The Mix!

Rhythm
Instrumentation was complete. Vocals were complete. It was time to mix this track and send it on its way! The sun was almost completely set and the apartment’s inhabitants surely on their way home, so we dove into the mixing process. I switched on the active monitors, hooked the system up to the apartment’s stereo and gave us both a pair of headphones. This provided three different methods of monitoring our progress. I then hooked up an Euphonix MC Control via ethernet to Pro Tools to make this process quick and efficient.

We started with the rhythm section, leveling out the drum samples, dejembe, bass, and acoustic guitar. Adding some compression and EQ, as needed, to each of the tracks. Moving on in haste, I created an ambient reverb, timed to the track’s tempo. We sent some of the rhythm acoustic guitar to this reverb, as well as the djembe. Once we were satisfied with the rhythm section, we moved on to the Rhodes, lead acoustic guitar, and vocals.

Lead

Leveling out the Rhodes, acoustic guitar, and vocals with one another, I began to add some compression and EQ to these tracks where I felt it was needed. I created a reverb to put my acoustic guitar in, and another for my vocals. The acoustic and vocal reverb were both timed to the tempo of the track, with exactly ½th note of time difference between the two of them to create slight separation.

Next, I created a delay for the vocals, and ended up using an 1/8th note delay with slight feedback. I wrote fader movements with the Euphonix MC Control via EuCon protocol into my Pro Tools tracks. The integration between these two is simply amazing! Riding the Rhodes in and out of the hooks crafted a very dynamic performance.

Listening
After all of these elements were put in their place, I started to make some final adjustments with effects, fader movements, panning and compression/EQ settings. Monitoring on all three systems (headphones, active monitors, apartment speakers) we felt that the mix was near completion. We walked around the room listening to the mix from various positions. I also left the room and listened to the mix from another room, after all, who watches TV with both speakers of equal distance from each ear forming a triangle (the correct position for mixing). Realistically, very few would take the time to set up such an intricate arrangement to watch a television show.

Concluding our critical listening, we were both satisfied with the final product. I printed a main pass of the song, an instrumental pass of the song, and just the hook of the song. This was so the end client could have multiple variations of the song, and use as they saw appropriate.

Time Was Up
It was a successful day of production. We submitted the track by 7pm, the deadline. Thanks to Kalen, we were able to have a place to record that was stocked up with plenty of instruments!

It is always fun and exciting for me to record in some difficult and challenging places. Making the location you’re provided with work — by listening to various rooms to figure out which will provide the best recording, escape from outside noises, and achieve the best finished product — certainly adds a unique and exciting element to the production process.

As the owner and operator of his own mobile recording studio, Matt McCorkle of EqualSonics.com is capable of bringing professional audio to anyone, anywhere, anytime. His specialties involves acoustic instrumental recordings, vocal productions, live tracking sessions, electronic music production and mixing. Whether in the studio or out in the field, Matt’s goal is simple: To create new music and sounds with passionate artists. To contact Matt please visit EqualSonics.com.

Tags: ADAT, AKG 414, AKG D112, API Lunchbox, Apogee Big Ben, arranging for TV, Bass, Brooklyn, commercial scoring, creative brief, DIY, djembe, Equal Sonics, Equal Sonics Mobile, EqualSonics.com, EuCon, Euphonix MC Control, ExpressCard, glockenspiel, guerrilla recording, guitar, HearBack, how to arrange a song, how to compose a song, how to record acoustic guitar, how to record bass, how to record guitar, how to record keyboards, how to record vocals, Kalen, keyboards, location recording, MacBook Pro, marimba, master clock, master clock explanation, Matt McCorkle, Michael T, mixing, New York City, Nord Electro, NYC, percussion, Pro Tools, Psyched on Sonics, recording, recording fast, recording for TV, recording in an NYC apartment, recording in the shower, recording vocals in the shower, recording without a studio, remote recording, Rhodes, RME Digiface, RME HDSPe ExpressCard, Shadow Hills GAMA pre-amp, shakers, SMUX, Snow Falls in Brooklyn, TV scoring, Vectorscope, what a master clock does, xylophone

Event Alert: Digital Music NY “Music Goes Social and Prepping for SXSW” Tuesday, March 8

February 26, 2011 by David Weiss

“Mixology” with George Walker Petit: On Kitchens and Compression

February 22, 2011 by David Weiss

9 Comments

“…Yeah…I guess I first tried it, I don’t know, maybe back in high school. I don’t remember who gave my first taste…I was playing bass in an Allman Brothers cover band and all the really cool guys in the group were into it, so I was curious I guess. The first time I tried it I knew there was no way I would ever kick it…over the years, my habit got a lot worse…I’d spend every penny I had buying more ‘stuff’. I’ve just never been able to get completely off it. I have to say, I’m still an addict…I faced that a long time ago.

…Hi, my name is George, and I’m a Mixaholic.”

Familiar story? I Figured. If you’re one of “us”, you totally get this intro, and I hope you’ll be checking in with me on a monthly basis to try to talk through our mutual “habit” and related issues. Call it a 12-step program.

George Walker Petit is always practicing Mixology.

I’ve been asked to write a “monthly” on the subject of “Mixing”. I am really honored and pleased to do this. I’ll be conversational in my tone and will try to hit on different philosophies and approaches to mixing and upon occasion, tools of the trade, recognizing that we all do our jobs differently.

But mostly, it’ll be MY anecdotes, thoughts and observations – intended to elicit thought, invite debate, self-define – or perhaps just share a laugh and an “Amen”. I hope you enjoy the trip. Feel free to educate me to your read on all this stuff…I am also here to learn. Aren’t we all to a greater or lesser degree? Personally, the day I stop learning or being psyched to learn more about what I love will be the day I do my last mix.

What are you mixing for dinner?

In our house, I’m the chef…for a lot of reasons. First, my lovely wife is English…that’s a giveaway right there. The Island Nation has never been known for its culinary leadership, its “bevy of delicacies”. You won’t likely hear a Cordon Bleu chef exclaiming: “Sacré Bleu, but zees ‘Bangairs and Mash’ ees…Formeeeedabluh!!!!” And, unless you’re a Brit, you probably won’t experience the profound ecstasy derived from a good plate of Beans on Toast, some Bubble and Squeak or a good Toad In The Hole.

Ok, ok, there are a number of great English chefs with cooking shows – Jamie’s great…whatever. Bottom line is, cuisine is not really their bag, so I do the cooking around here and I really enjoy it. I love to cook. I like planning a meal, shopping for ingredients, prepping, cooking and finally, happily, eating what I’ve cooked. It’s creative, focusing, requires some degree of skill, experimentation, timing, flow and effort…and is very, very “full-filling”. Sorry.

You know where I am going with this, right? I figured, again.

Over the years I have noticed that there are a great number of mixers that love to cook. Granted, there are also a great number of musicians that are “into” wine or food…but the business, the “doing” of the cooking, that is, for people that mix music — for hobby or for a living — the vast majority of us, we cook. We “mix” meals.

Look at the analogies, the parallels. Tonight I am going to make what I hope will be a great meal for my wife, myself and a couple of good friends. The menu is not important at the moment — you can email me for that. I don’t know for certain that it will be all that I hope for, but I am confident that it will be very tasty, well-presented and well-received. My intentions are admirable, that’s my start. Let’s see how I do.

I have ingredients to buy! And the better, fresher and tastier the ingredients, the better the meal is likely to be, right? But before even that, I have to have had a concept for the meal…what type of food? How much food? How rich, how spicy, how subtle, how will the meal “flow”? As soon as I have decided on this concept for my dinner, I have basically already envisioned how the meal will unfold, imagined how it should taste and hopefully, how my guests will experience and enjoy not only the food itself, but the entire “meal”.

George's inner Niles is loose!

Do I sound like Niles Crane? Perhaps…but please read on…(someone pour me a sherry…not too dry.)

So – I choose the menu, I buy the best ingredients I can find – usually from a few shops that specialize — a real bakery, fresh fish monger, local cheese shop and wine store – all carefully chosen for quality. I actually care about this and make efforts to get the best. It’s a personal pride thing.

Next, I’ll prepare – I’ll wash veggies, clean the fish, uncork the wine (pouring a large glass for the chef), organize my ingredients, my spices, olive oil, butter, it’ll all be laid out in front of me for quick access.

My cooking tools – my saucepans, double-boilers, knives and blenders, utensils and mixing bowls are all right there in front of me, all clean and all of quality – hell, I’d rather work with one sharp Sabatier knife than a dozen dull or un-wieldy blades. Quality is the key here. I get a certain degree of pleasure knowing that I am working with great quality tools.

How much pepper? How much fresh dill or shallot? Cream sauce with white wine or clarified butter…poached or sautéed? What will bring out the flavors I want to highlight in this meal? Too much cream sauce and garlic, and my fish might as well be tofu. Cook the veggies too long and the nutrients are gone. Experience helps here. If I can’t identify why something tastes “off”, I can’t fix it.

(Aside: I once heard an hilarious description of a wine on some comedy show like SNL: “The red is… vigorous, yet…unbarred…flaccid, yet…turgid…” Cracked me up.)

…and the meal has to evolve. A good meal is a journey, an experience, a passing of time. I don’t cook one-plate meals. I prepare three courses – minimum. The meal has a beginning, a middle and an end. And the end has to leave the diner wanting more, at the same time satisfied, replete…having enjoyed the experience, wanting to repeat it. It’s all got to work together: balanced, well presented.

“What a lovely meal”, my guests will hopefully say, or “Great burger!” That kind of reaction, and sharing in the tastes, the conversation, the joy of the meal. That’s my reward.

Draw your parallels. The ingredients; preparation; combination of elements; flow; presentation.

Why make such efforts, take so much time? Because my “guests” deserve it, and my mix clients are paying for it. I don’t like getting the least for my money when I shop. I like getting the most. So do they.

Sweet words o' wisdom.

Are mixers not chefs? Surely, poorly recorded tracks ruin a good “stew”. Sloppy edits noise-up a salad. Too much cayenne pepper masks a perfectly good percussion track. A filthy mix room turns your diners away.

What are you trying to accomplish both in the short and the long term? Consider how you work, why you work, your presentation and level of pride in your work. Pride in our industry. What are you trying to accomplish both in the short and the long term?

If you maintain that it is only about the music, only about feeling full after the meal, I am going to differ with you – that’s not my experience anyway.

I make the best meal I can. My guests are my “clients”. The entire experience has to be great – in fact memorable would be my goal. Sometimes I hit it, sometimes I don’t, but that’s my objective. Make a great meal, make a great mix. Have pride in my work, and enjoy the process.

My wife does the dishes.

Bon ap-Petit…

Next time: Mixing in Ear Goggles

George Walker Petit thinks a lot about mixing and many other musical things. An award-winning producer and mixer, he is based in New York City. Visit George at his Website, and keep up with him and the Drew Zingg Debut Album Project here.

Tags: 12-step program, Allman Brothers, bubble and squeak, Cheers, cooking and music, Cordon Bleu, DIY, England, food and music, George Walker Petit, how to mix, how to mix music, Jamie Oliver, Mixaholic, mixing and cooking, Mixology, music and cooking, music and food, New York City, Niles Crane, NYC, parallels between mixing and cooking, Sabatier knife, Saturday Night Live, sherry, Toad in the Hole

Legal Notes: Napster’s Muscle Falls to Indie Label Rounder Records in NY Federal Court Battle

February 20, 2011 by Shamita Carriman

3 Comments

FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT, SOUTHERN DISTRICT, MANHATTAN: Picture it, the Internet, 1999. Napster launches out of a college dorm room in Massachusetts, and becomes one of the biggest forces in the music industry to reckon with. Its mechanism of peer-to-peer music file-sharing causes nothing short of a music-technology revolution, and major record labels are forced to grapple with learning how to co-exist with, if not under, Napster.

Napster vs. Rounder Records started when Napster claimed that Rounder Records didn't posess the proper mechanical licenses.

Flash forward to life twelve years later in 2011 and we are faced with many new remarkable realities. For one, as aptly alluded to by Napster Co-Founder Sean Parker’s character in the blockbuster hit movie The Social Network, the creation of Napster led to the demise of CD sales and practically the elimination of most major record stores because of the ease in (unfortunately) acquiring illegal music downloads on the Internet.

Another new remarkable reality is that while Napster has had such a profound effect on the recent history of music, the muscle it once had in the music industry has largely diminished, leaving behind a memory of the giant music industry influence it once was. The recent court decision of Napster v. Rounder Records in a Manhattan Federal District court echoed this reality when a federal judge gave a huge score to indie record label Rounder Records, while simultaneously providing a bit of a blow to the ego of Napster.

Napster, which had adjusted their business model to provide a service where users can legally stream and download music, had privately settled a claim brought against them by music publisher MCS America for failing to possess mechanical licenses (permissions to create copies of music under the copyright law) for their music. While the amount that Napster and MCS settled for is unknown, Napster made a bold move by subsequently bringing a $1.3 million law suit against Rounder, one of the many Indie record labels it entered into a deal with under their legal download/legal streaming operations, for failing to possess mechanical licenses for the music they provided to Napster. Rounder licensed some of its music from MCS and many people viewed Napster’s suit against Rounder as a means of unfairly attempting to obtain reimbursement for the settlement Napster paid to MCS.

While going up against Napster in a court battle is no small feat for Rounder Records or any Indie Label to handle, their lawyer, David Baum, a partner with the law firm of SNR Denton based out of their NYC Office in downtown Manhattan, was able to pull a huge victory for Rounder by getting the case not only dismissed, but additionally sanctioned in Federal Court.

David Baum of SNR Denton took on Napster for Rounder Records in Manhattan's Federal District Court.

“Rounder is a very special record company to me and I think to a lot of people, both artists and fans alike,” Baum commented. “When I got this lawsuit or at least the claim of the case before it was filed that Napster was going to go after a company like Rounder on such a claim that I thought was frivilous, I was offended for Rounder…I told Napster at the outset of the case before they filed the case that if they filed it we would fight it and get it dismissed, and in the process we would seek to get it sanctioned.”

Napster may have had somewhat of a viable argument that a 2001 agreement they made with Rounder contained language which rendered Rounder responsible for securing mechanical licenses for the music they provided in addition to an indeminification clause (legalise for a clause that allowed Napster to sue Rounder for any third party claims brought about by Rounder’s conduct). However, a subsequent agreement that the parties signed in 2006 alleviated the mechanical license responsibility from Rounder, leaving it fully on Napster’s lap; and most importantly, contained a clause which noted that it “terminated and superceeded” the terms of the 2001 agreement, including the indemnification clause.

“The Court threw the case out on a total of three grounds” Baum said. “The first one being that the 2001 agreement did not apply to the parties relationship anymore, and that under the 2006 agreement, ‘A,’ it was Napster’s responsibility to get the licenses for the compositions and not Rounder’s, and ‘B,’ in any event there was an indemnification provision, but in order for Napster to have relied on that indemnification provision, they needed to get a certain kind of consent.”

For indie labels entering music-technology deals to have their music streamed or downloaded online, Baum offers very simple advice: “Pay attention to your contracts and be very precise with the language because language matters.” He further adds: “If you are out there and making successive agreements with the same party, its very important for you to be careful about how you are characterizing these agreements – are they all supposed to exist at the same time, or is one supposed to replace the other? And if one replaces the other, you better have it say so.”

Words by Shamita Carriman – Entertainment lawyer, founder/ managing partner of Carriman Law Group PLLC, Board of Director of Women In Music, and music tech enthusiast. She can be contacted at info@carrimanlawgroup.com

Tags: David Baum, DIY, entertainment law, Federal Distict Court, file sharing, Internet law, legal advice, legal advice for artists, legal advice for bands, Legal Notes, major record labels, Manhattan, Massachusetts, MCS America, mechanical license, mechanical licenses, mechanical licensing, music law, music law analysis, music publisher, music publishing, music streaming legal advice, Napster, Napster v. Rounder Records, New York City, NYC, of Carriman Law Group, of Carriman Law Group PLLC, peer-to-peer, Rounder Records, Sean Parker, Shamita Carriman, SNR Denton, Southern District, The Social Network, Women in Music

The Spirit of NYC Mastering: Get Inside the Ears of James Cruz and Zeitgeist Sound Studios

February 14, 2011 by David Weiss

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LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS: Scratch below the surface of any of today’s independent masring engineers, and most likely you’ll find a team player there. There are a lot of one-person shops dotting the NYC landscape, but these individual practitioners weren’t always flying solo.

James Cruz hears here: Zeitgeist Sound Studios.

Case in point: James Cruz, founder and sole proprietor of Zeitgiest Sound Studios in Long Island City. In another dimension – circa 2004 – Cruz was a young addition to a mastering dream team operating within the dearly departed Sony Studios. His collaborators there were some of the heaviest hitters – then and now – in the industry: Vic Anesini, Vlado Meller, Joseph M. Palmaccio, Darcy Proper, and Mark Wilder. The late, great technical genius Dave Smith, VP of Sony Music Engineering, oversaw it all.

Change being the constant that it is, in 2007, Sony Studios closed to make way for something else deemed more useful. The All Stars are now scattered across the planet, but Cruz, a longtime resident of Astoria, made it just across the river to Long Island City to found scenic Zeitgeist. Since settling in, his credits have included the last three Calle 13 albums (winners of a total of seven Latin GRAMMYS and two GRAMMYS), Mary Mary, Cee Lo, Three-6 Mafia, Natasha Bedingfield, and more.

Here, Cruz cues us in on many things mastering – why he stays in the box, how artists can make the most of their session, and the beauty of being your own boss.

Tell us about the “signal path” that got you into mastering.
Ha! If you want me to start at the top…Just about out of college I sent resumes all over town — I wanted to be a record or mix engineer. Troy Germano at the Hit Factory called me for an interview and hired me as a GA (General Assistant) in the mastering department. At the time I had never heard of mastering and knew nothing about it, but he said to give it a try and eventually I can move over to “the other side.”

This was at the time The Hit Factory was at its peak: The engineering staff consisted of Herb Powers, Tom Coyne, Chris Gehringer and Roger Talkov. At the time Roger was one of the few people in New York with a new workstation called Sonic Solutions, and he was betting on it being “the future of the business.” Roger needed to move on, I decided that I would learn the system, and I was literally learning trial-by-fire style doing sessions for Celine Dion and Jim Steinman two days later.

Soon after that Tom went over to Sterling Sound so I picked up the computer, put it in his room and said “mine.” I was doing Toni Braxton sessions with LA Reid the next week. All while still making coffee and running the library. Then I learned how to cut records from Herbie – one of the best vinyl cutters ever and learned my EQ chops from Gehringer. It was a pretty special time. I liked it so much that here I am 20 years later. I never went to “the other side.”

That sounds a little like how I got started writing about pro audio! Your mastering career led you to a nice distinction – one of the final group that made up Sony Mastering: What do you feel was special about the people that were there? And the facility, for that matter, at the time that it got shut down in 2007?
Sony was amazing. The Hit Factory was great for many reasons but Sony was amazing. It was one of the most underappreciated and under-used facilities ever. Never again will there be a place like it: You could walk in with nothing, book a production room, record, mix, master and duplicate your album. Then you could go down the hall and shoot and edit your video and do artwork, and even do a live broadcast from the soundstage.

Another thing about it was the technical staff. By far the best in the business. I could ask them for the most bizarre setups you could think of and it would be done in 30 minutes, without ever having to rent gear. The mic locker was epic.

Then there were the engineers. Of course everyone knows the juggernaut that is Vlado Meller, but on top of that was Mark Wilder, a pair of golden ears if there ever was one, and Vic Anesini who did fantastic work. It was a place where we all worked on making each other better and it was always great to have these guys to give an opinion on an EQ or compressor setting. I feel like The Hit Factory was a long training session and Sony is really where I came into myself as an engineer.

I always wondered why it was so quiet every time I was at Sony. After that, why did you decide to go solo and set up Zeitgeist, rather than joining another mastering facility?
Honestly, Sony shut down and I had no interest in working for someone else anymore. I couldn’t really see myself at Sterling or Masterdisk so I didn’t even pursue it. I figured I had already worked in two of the best spots ever and now it was time to do my own thing. I also like the idea of being completely responsible for myself and not having to answer to anyone.

So how would you describe what you’ve created in Zeitgeist – what were your objectives for the room? How did you set it up?

Attend THIS. Zeitgeist's accomodating accomodations.

The most important thing for me was the vibe. Even though I’ve worked in these amazing studios, all the rooms always felt very cold and sterile – there’s really only so much you can do with a black couch and lava lamps. So first and foremost I wanted sunlight.

I also went in the complete opposite direction of the “modern mastering room” and went back to what it was originally intended to be, and that’s the best-sounding living room stereo in the world. So I did just that: I built a giant living room with tons of comfort and a front window that’s 20’ long by 8 ½’ high — I barely even need to use electric lighting anymore.

Zeitgeist is the Comfort Zone. You also mentioned to me that you master virtually 100% in the box. Why is it that?
Pristine signal flow — mastering rule Number One. When I started everything was on tape. It came in on ½” (sometimes DAT) and ended up on lacquer and/or UMatic. There was always a physical medium so there was always multiple pieces of gear, a bunch of feet of wire, patch bays etc…

Even though everything was as high quality as possible, it always imparted a sound. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was bad. Along the way I noticed everything started to go all-digital — started with DAT then recordable CD. So I started to back off on the analog gear. I didn’t want to convert to analog, go through a bunch of stuff, then have to go back to digital. Eventually it went to all WAV files so I found no reason to ever leave the box.

I’m using very high quality mastering grade plug-ins and my signal flow is as short as possible. Do I miss analog stuff? Yes. Very much. I would much prefer to turn a knob then adjust a trackball! There are definitely some advantages to doing it this way, though, besides the signal flow. It allows me to work much faster, which benefits the client in the end. I also have a lot more flexibility than I ever had with analog stuff.

There’s always a tradeoff, in either direction. How is your workstation configured?
My workstation is the Sequoia by Magix and my main EQ is the Orange Linear Phase by Algorithmix. I can’t live without them. It runs on Windows XP and the computer was custom built by Sony’s computer genius Jim Yates.

It’s a powerhouse of a system and extremely stable. It’s so over-engineered I have seen no reason to update it yet, to be very honest. My next batch of plug-ins will probably be the Sonnox Oxford stuff – it’s not new but it is some great-sounding stuff. Universal Audio is also doing some very cool stuff with all their emulations.

Turning around to what’s coming into your system, what would you say are the trends you’re seeing in terms of the recording techniques and audio quality of the music you’re getting? How are projects evolving, and how is that affecting the way you approach your job?
Let me start here, and this is as diplomatic as possible: owning Pro Tools doesn’t make you a recording engineer, in the same way that owning a frying pan doesn’t make you a chef. That being said there are more and more projects being done in smaller project studios and fewer people are actually involved in the process. There is actually a very good article in a current magazine about the engineer becoming a loner, where in the days of the larger studios there were always other people around to give opinions and push you to be better.

It's a digitally delicious view.

That’s a major change that’s affecting the way things are done. As far as audio quality, it’s always been hit or miss. There have always been bad engineers and great engineers. As technology gets cheaper there do seem to be more and more engineers though.

On that topic, you said that client education is something you’re a big proponent of. What’s an example of a correctable mistake you often hear on the projects you get – something that people could easily fix so that you can deliver a better master?
I love for new clients to call me before the session and ask as many questions as they want. I am a big believer in one-on-one communication with the client. It benefits everybody.

The biggest mistakes I get are too much compression/limiting – see “level wars” discussions in every audio publication and message board written in the last 10 years — and the tops and tails of the tracks not being right. If your mix engineer is adding a limiter on the two-mix just to make it loud, tell him to remove it before sending it to mastering. Your mastering engineer should be able to make your track loud without wrecking all the wonderful dynamic range that makes music connect on an emotional level.

It’s also helpful to leave a second or two of air before your song. Don’t start your WAV right on the music, let it breathe a bit. Your mastering person can trim it for you. And lastly, that applies to the end of the track too: Leave some air at the end so your mastering engineer has some room to work, especially when sequencing an album. The worst, and costly, mistake is not being prepared. Call your engineer before the session and get in detail the way that things should be done, if you have any questions.

That’s some super-solid advice! Things are pretty competitive here in the NYC mastering scene, right? How are things evolving for you and your competition?
I think the smaller guys are making a pretty serious play. To be very honest, and I mean this with the utmost of respect, I don’t really see how the giant muti-room places can survive with that business model much longer. The overhead is just too high. As budgets continue to shrink and the web continues to shut down labels it’s going to be the boutique studios that will be able to keep up.

On another tip, who are some music innovators that have inspired you – be they engineers, artists, business people, chefs…?
Wow. Good one — there are so many. In no particular order: Jimmy Page, Pink Floyd, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Pete Townsend, Geoff Emerick, George Martin, Brendan O’ Brien, Jim Thirwell, Jon Brion, Joe Strummer, The Talking Heads and XTC. Just to name a few.

That’s a heady mix! Finally, when you sit down to master a record – whether it’s an indie artist or major label hit – what’s the big payoff?
I love doing an attended session and playing the before-and-after for a client and seeing their face light up. That’s a lot of fun for me. When everything is complete, the client sits down and listens to the complete product, and says “YES!” that makes me very happy.

File under “What a Feeeeeeeling!” Anything else to add?
I need a vacation. It’s been way too long.

Amen!

Tags: Algorithmix, all digital mastering, Astoria, Brendan O’ Brien, Brian Eno, Calle 13, Cee Lo, Celine Dion, Chris Gehringer, compression, Daniel Lanois, Darcy Proper, digital mastering, DIY, Geoff Emerick, George Martin, Grammy, Herb Powers, Hit Factory, how to master in the box, how to prepare your tracks for mastering, James Cruz, Jim Steinman, Jim Thirwell, Jim Yates, Jimmy Page, Joe Strummer, Jon Brion, Joseph M. Palmaccio, LA Reid, Latin GRAMMY, level wars, limiting, Long Island City, Magix, Mark Wilder, Mary Mary, Masterdisk, mastering, mastering inside the box, mastering tips, Natasha Bedingfield, New York City, NYC, NYC mastering, Orange Linear Phase, Oxford, Pete Townsend, Pink Floyd, Plug-ins, preparing your tracks for mastering, Pro Tools, Queens, Roger Talkov, Sequoia, Sonic Solutions, Sonnox, Sony Mastering, Sony Studios, Sterling Sound, The Talking Heads, Three-6 Mafia, Tom Coyne, Toni Braxton, Troy Germano, Vic Anesini, Vlado Meller, Windows XP, workstation, XTC, Zeitgeist, Zeitgeist Sound Studios

IRIS Distribution: The Evolving Digital Music Distribution Market Explained

February 7, 2011 by David Weiss

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Matt Laszuk, President of IRIS Distribution, gets the digital music distribution game.

DUMBO, BROOKLYN: We are programmed to receive – and do it digitally. But before we can get all receptive, understanding digital music distribution is a must for pros of every stripe.

Originally founded in San Francisco in 2003 by Matt Laszuk and Bryn Boughton before the pair relocated to NYC in 2006, IRIS Distribution has a grasp on hitting the gap. Launching at roughly the same time as the Apple iTunes Store, IRIS was in the right place at the right time. Today, IRIS distributes to around 400 storefronts that operate online (iTunes, Amazon MP3, Emusic, Spotify) or via mobile (Verizon, Orange, Telus), servicing these retailers with about 250,000 songs worldwide to these retailers.

That’s good, because today digital distribution of music covers every internet-connected country in the world, either by web, mobile, or both. IRIS’ slice is part of a global digital music market worth $4.6 billion dollars in 2010, drawn from a pool of over 13 million songs.

A DJ, Brown University-certified mathematician, and constant combinator of music and technology, Laszuk’s big ideas for distribution came together while he was at Encirq, then a start-up company focused on bringing demographically targeted advertising to web applications. He met Boughton during a stint as a label manager, and IRIS was born. The rest, as they say, is mystery, but Laszuk, President of IRIS, does his best here to demystify the crucial world of digital music distribution.

Why is it important for today’s artists/producers/engineers/music pros to understand the digital distribution end of the business? What do you think are the common misperceptions they have about it, and how could they help their careers by understanding it better?
Music is hard work, and most of what an artist, producer, or engineer does is hands-on. Selling music, however, can happen 24/7 without constant attention. Once your marketing, publicity, and tour strategy is in place and the music is in distribution you can begin pulling income even when you’re not in the studio.

Good point. So how did you first get interested in digital music distribution?
I was swept up with the techno/rave movement on the East Coast in the early ’90s when I first started college. I loved the music and the spectacle, but also was taken by the DIY attitude and the feeling that I was witnessing the genesis of a new music scene.

I spent free time at college DJing and promoting techno around New England. After college I started my career in software development, working on web application projects moving data from point A to point B and then back again.

Once dotcom 1.0 popped I took a long look at the recording industry and saw that much of what I’d learned from software on the web wasn’t present in music retail or distribution. After that it was just a matter of applying that DIY ethic to digital music distribution to help create a forward-looking music market that independent labels could participate in.

You make it sound so easy. What would you say the digital music distribution landscape was like in 2003 when you and Bryn Boughton founded IRIS?
Prior to 2003 there was a handful of digital retailers, and for various reasons none was compelling enough to be a real market-maker. iPod was still very new, bandwidth was slow, and the biggest news in music was how important big box retailers had become to music sales.

Then, in April 2003 the iTunes Music Store launched, and for the first time everyone cared about the digital music market.

Yes, that qualified as mega! Now, in 2011, what core components of that landscape remain in place? Just as importantly, how has that landscape changed/shfted/evolved?
Distribution is more important than ever. There are more than 400 digital music retailers worldwide, and even more “storefronts” that consumers see online and through mobile and other devices. It’s still very much an ecosystem of artist, label, distributor, retailer, and consumer, in that order. But we’re seeing momentum behind artists who want to disconnect from labels to manage their careers and everything around themselves differently, including distribution.

Can you explain the “signal path” whereby a digital distributor moves its product? Where do you get your content, and from there how do you move it on physically/digitally to retailers?

IRIS is one part of 2010's $4.6 billion digital music market.

90% of our deals are with record labels, with about 10% direct with artists. Once we’re setup with the label or artist we bring in their audio, artwork, and metadata, load it into our systems, process to the different retail specifications, and then push out via the Internet or hard disk. Once it’s been pushed we start sending emails and pick up the phone to let the music editors at each retailer know what’s coming and why it’s important.

In addition to music we also have a growing catalog of spoken word content, audio books, comedy, and sound effects. That stuff is fun to work with because it’s merchandised and marketed in a very different way than music; and in many cases the copyright issues are much smaller, allowing us to be more flexible with how we sell content.

On the biz tip, can you briefly explain how a distributor like IRIS earns revenue? Are there many different various revenue streams for a digital distributor, and how do you actually get paid for moving inventory?
Our distribution business works on a percentage of gross revenue earned from retail – when the music we’re distributing sells, everyone makes money.

Four years ago we launched BlinkerActive, our marketing and special projects business, to allow ourselves to work with technology that was too young or too different to funnel into the distribution business. Podcasts are a perfect example of a technology that has a lot of consumer and label interest but doesn’t necessarily have a central system or monetizable transaction like traditional retail. BlinkerActive can extract the value of the medium by using podcasts to market an artist or album outside the digital retail network.

That sounds like a good tool to have at your disposal. Of everything we just talked about, what have been the biggest areas of growth, and in contrast which seem to be on the decline?
Our distribution business is still the core of the company — it’s the infrastructure that so many labels and artists depend on for their digital sales income. Last year we saw around 20% growth in our distribution business.

That said, the digital distribution market looks to be plateauing in the US. That concerns us because it’s still a relatively small market, and, most importantly, digital revenue is not replacing the lost revenue from the global decline in CD sales.

Technology got us here, and I fully expect technology will provide the opportunity to grow the music industry another order of magnitude. It’s very likely, though, that we’ll see a permanent fragmentation of revenue sources and business models that make up that future music market.

You have competition, so what separates one digital distributor from another? How does IRIS gain an advantage in the marketplace?
A lot of distribution is commoditized: The retail contracts, the distribution technology, and the retail reporting are all necessary components for any digital distributor. What we’ve been good at doing over the last eight years has been marketing the hell out of the music we distribute. We’ve got a team of creative and dynamic thinkers who understand music and technology and aren’t afraid to blend the two in new ways to make music pop.

You said to me in an earlier conversation that with distribution, and digital retail in general, the biggest issue is “what’s next”. Can you expand on what you mean by that?
That sounds dire, and I didn’t mean it that way. By “what’s next” I mean we’re all anxiously waiting for another opportunity to get music in front of a music lover. Activity in the mobile space, from new mobile music retailers and from mobile music applications, has been an exciting development for the industry. Home networks and the various devices in the home like Internet-connected TVs and Internet-connected gaming systems are another opportunity for the music industry. And on top of all the new technology is a number of yet-to-be seen business models and consumption models. It’s all very exciting stuff!

Show us how this all comes together — what’s a specific project IRIS has worked on lately that shows the challenges and rewards of what a distributor can accomplish?

Show 'em what you can do, hey! IRIS rocked the Arab Strap reissues.

A good example of a typical record release with IRIS is the reissue of Arab Strap’s first two albums. We created buzz around the reissues by promoting custom podcasts and videos on social networks and in online communities ahead of the releases at digital retail.

I guess it sounds really simple, and maybe it is. Like so many great things it’s about distilling an idea down to the basic components and then running with it.

Some shining day I’ll be able to do just that. Are there other music business innovators that are providing you with inspiration right now?
I’m still the boy who likes to take the thing apart to see how it works. I’m a technologist and love to play with things, regardless of whether or not I’ll be able to put them back together! Music is similar – I love experimentation and wonkiness. But then I like rhythm on top of that, and, if I’m lucky, I’ll get a good bit of bass too.

As for innovators, there are so many, but the truth is that most of the innovation in music business is coming from outside music these days. It’s really a testament to the power of music itself – people who aren’t musicians keep trying to work in music because they’ve always wanted to be part of the sound, the scene, and give back to those who make the music they love. I’m exactly that way. I guess the underlying theme is experimentation?

The HQ of this company is a California-to-NYC transplant. Why work out of Gotham when you could have stayed in the sunshine?
We started the business in San Francisco at a time that it could really only be started in that part of the world. From San Francisco to San Jose you have an unparalleled market of inventors — with dotcom 1.0 and everything surrounding it it’s no surprise that the digital music market was made there. But the Bay Area isn’t known for its media dominance. If you want that you go to New York.

For us that media is no longer just music. Its advertising, blogging, social networking, magazines, web sites, online video, and every other media that can be or will be digital. 10 years ago New York wasn’t the center of technological invention, but it’s always been the center of media exploitation. It’s no surprise either. Media is about reaching people with information, and New York has a long history as the biggest market. It’s scrappy and you can bet there’s a person here who knows how to turn just about anything into a living.

In 2011 you have a very different technology scene in New York. Many of the people who cut their teeth in the Bay Area last decade moved away from the Bay, and New York always attracts driven people. So today the technology scene here is significant, the funding is here, and New York is innovating on the edge.

– David Weiss

Tags: Amazon MP3, Apple, Arab Strap, artist, audio books, BlinkerActive, Brooklyn, Brown University, Bryn Boughton, comedy, digital distribution, digital music distribution, digital music distribution 101, digital music distribution explained, digital music retail, distribution, DIY, DJ, dotcom 1.0, DUMBO, eMusic, Encirq, how to monetize music, IFPI, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, IRIS, IRIS Distribution, iTunes, iTunes Store, label, mathematician, Matt Laszuk, media, mobile applications, mobile apps, mobile music applications, mobile music apps, monetizing music, music, music marketing, music retail, New York, NYC, podcasts, retailer, San Francisco, social networking, social networks, sound effects, spoken word content, Spotify, start-up, technology, understanding digital music distribution, video, Wave Distribution

“ASCAP New York Sessions” Career Boosting Event Announced for March 31

February 4, 2011 by David Weiss

Video Exclusive: “Suite Songs: NYC” Featuring Stacie Rose Debuts on SonicScoop

January 23, 2011 by David Weiss

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The new video series “Suite Songs: NYC” featuring the artist Stacie Rose and presented by Enchanted Records, is debuting globally on SonicScoop.

Stacie Rose checks into SonicScoop with the world premiere of "Suite Songs".

Rose is a rising NJ/NYC songwriter who released the well-received Alter Ego EPs in 2010, and whose songs have been frequently licensed by the likes of MTV’s “The Hills”, VH1’s “Tough Love”, Paste Magazine’s “SONGS FOR HAITI” compilation, amc, FX, ABC, Escada fragrance campaign, American Airlines Radio, and FUSE TV.

Shot in HD by award-winning film/TV director Patricia Chica, “Suite Songs” is an intimate series about the personal and collaborative process of song making.

The first edition, “Episode 1: Sucking Up to the Saints”, features special guest appearances by vocalist Mike Harvey and guitarist David Patterson. Each episode features Stacie Rose as the creator and MC, with a myriad of guest musicians she invites to a New York City hotel suite for some impromptu music making. Personas are revealed, and lyrics/melody come to life, as viewers enter a secret world of creating songs from the ground up.

“’Suite Songs’ is a lively hang, a poetic journey that defies the myth that cities are impersonal, while illustrating the cozy, breeding ground a hotel suite can be, for intimate, soulful, collaborations,” Rose says of the inspiration to produce “Suite Songs”. “Each city has its pulse; each hotel suite has its vibe, and every group of musicians bring a unique spirit and sensibility to the process of song making. The party begins in NYC and is destined for other cities.”

Check out “Suite Songs” NOW!

CREDITS for SUITE SONGS:

Filmed and directed by Patricia Chica

Produced by Stacie Rose

Edited by Carol Butrico

Mixed by Robert L. Smith at Defy Recordings NYC

Title animation by Paul Gardener

Words & music for Alter-Ego, and Sucking up to the Saints

by Stacie Rose ASCAP 2010 © (P)

Enchanted Records/ BIGPICNIC Publishing

Alter-Ego (DJ Reverend Soul mix) and Standby (Caffeinated-Procrastination mix) produced by Thomas Hutchings & Stacie Rose

Special guest appearances by:

David Patterson

and

Mike Harvey

Field Technician David Deïas

Hair by Monet Moon

Makeup by Alyne Halvajian

Additional makeup and styling by Christine Karantais

Photos by www.angelshots.com

Thanks to Zoom and Michael Joly/OktavaMod

Rob McKeever

Ashley Martorana

Tags: ABC, Alter Ego EP, Alyne Halvajian, amc, American Airlines, American Airlines Radio, Ashley Martorana, behind the scenes, BIGPICNIC Publishing, Carol Butrico, Christine Karantais, David Deïas, David Patterson, debut, Defy Recordings NYC, director, DIY, Enchanted Records, Escada, Escada Fragarance, film, FUSE TV, FX, HD, hotel, hotel suite, how to be a songwriter, how to write a song, location recording, Michael Joly, Mike Harvey, Monet Moon, MTV, New Jersey, New York, NYC, OktavaMod, Paste Magazine, Patricia Chica, Paul Gardener, Rob McKeever, Robert L. Smith, Songs for Haiti, songwriting, Stacie Rose, Sucking up to the Saints, Suite Songs: NYC, The Hills, Thomas Hutchings, Tough Love, TV, VH1, video, video exclusive, www.angelshots.com, Zoom

Behind the Making of “Brooklyn Heat”: Recording Six of BKYLN’s Finest in Six Days

January 17, 2011 by David Weiss

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GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN: When it’s this cold outside, huddling up together makes perfect sense. With this week’s release of Brooklyn Heat – a collection of singles recorded by six BKLYN indie bands in six days last summer – we can all hope to feel the searing goodness of NYC rock and roll come shooting through our speakers.

Brooklyn Heat was a recording adventure for six bands from the borough.

Interestingly, Brooklyn Heat’s helmsman, Producer/Engineer Shane O’Connor, had to warm up to the idea of making a compilation. But the offer of free studio time from Monsterland Recording Studio (now RIP) proved impossible for this hard-core recordist to refuse, and that’s a good thing.

When the collection officially launches this Thursday night (1/20) with a party at Greenpoint’s COCO 66, people are bound to hook onto what they hear. Each Brooklyn Heat band – Quiet Loudly, Gunfight!, Shark?, Quilty, Little Racer, and Magnetic Island – make their own urgently artful contribution to the comp. The rock here is as compelling, raw and real as it is well-recorded.

For music producers, engineers and artists who are as interested in how to capture a concept as they are in overdubbing a Clavinet, the machinations behind Brooklyn Heat are worth knowing.

How did the idea for Brooklyn Heat come together?
I was approached by Bones Howell (his stage name, he specifically asked me to not use his given name), the owner of Monsterland Recording Studio about working out of his studio in the winter of 2010. I did a few projects out of his studio but I had other studios around NYC and Boston that I was working at as well. His studio was more of an overgrown — and built out — project studio with great gear.

Monsterland existed for about six years in various forms and he was tired of running the studio as a commercial venture — I owned a studio for three years in Boston and I can completely understand why owning a commercial facility can be frustrating.

Bones asked me if I would be interested in some free studio time to work on a project outside of the typical confines of a commercial recording. He suggested a compilation project, but my reaction was lukewarm at best: To me, a compilation was something that ska bands from 1997 put together. It was rarely, if ever, seen as a comprehensive work and was usually meant for the purpose of selling a larger product like an album or a touring bill.

I thought about the proposition more, and I decided that a compilation in the year 2010 didn’t need to be for the purpose of commerce at all if I didn’t want it to be. With this opportunity of free studio time from Monsterland, I could create a meaningful body of work outside of commerce that was purely for the promotion and proliferation of the artist. With this goal in mind, Brooklyn Heat was born.

That’s an organic genesis – the best kind. How did you select which bands would be involved? And with the sometimes questionable nature of compilations, why do you think this was something they wanted to be a part of?

Shane O'Connor had to warm up to the idea of Brooklyn Heat at first.

The primary factor in choosing artists for Brooklyn Heat was my personal interest in their work. I had to really dig what they were doing, and their potential in the future for selection in this project. I also wanted the artists to know each other. There are a multitude of micro scenes in Brooklyn and I wanted to highlight a moment of “rock” in the summer of 2010.

Through the filter of my personal interest and selecting artists from the same social circle, there’s a cohesive sound to Brooklyn Heat that I was not initially intending, but I think its the most significant part of the project.

The project’s sound happens to be fast, somewhat punky, and largely stripped down. For the bands that I picked, there was an effort to stay away from things that are often indulged in with home recordings such as wild effects and endless layers of keyboards. The record is more about capturing bands in a moment that an inserted production aesthetic.

You definitely get that. The bands each have their own sound, but there’s a clear common thread between all of them as well. So how did Monsterland work out as the studio for the project?
Unfortunately that studio is now closed, but I hope to do similar projects in the future. I’m not sure where yet, but I’m sure someone I know will throw me some studio time for another venture like this! But Monsterland happened to be well equipped to record a rock band in a live setting, which is how most of this project was recorded.

The Brooklyn Heat Website says that you recorded six bands in six days. Was it tough to work this way? On the other hand, what are the benefits of recording a band-a-day?
The press releases all say “six bands in six days” which is partially true but also a lie. There were some mix revisions that happened outside of that time constraint, but not far beyond 10 hours per song. The time constraint was actually created by me, not by the studio owner. Monsterland’s owner would have been fine if each song took a month, but that wasn’t what I was trying to create. I think a day to record a rock song is a perfectly acceptable amount of time.

I tend to push for live recordings as opposed to an overdub method. I was trained as an engineer by very traditional producers and engineers who tried to keep recording styles of the ’60’s and ’70’s alive, and I think the time constraint adds to that aesthetic as well. I like schedules. It keeps people honest about what’s important in a recording.

Gunfight was on hand in Monsterland.

The workflow was very casual since there wasn’t a dollar sign attached to the clock. Each band cut basics before lunch and then we would cut any overdubs and vocals that were left in the afternoon. Most of the mixes were done in two hours. It’s easy when the song is good and everyone is relaxed.

For recording equipment, most of our tools were rather standard: We had a Pro Tools HD1 rig with a Lynx Aurora 16 box, and I mixed mainly in the box with a Dangerous Summing Buss on the back end, and I had some nice compressors on crucial elements such as kick, snare, vocals, bass — I had an LA-2A, two 1176’s, and a Distressor. Those all helped, but because the dynamics of the performances were on I opted for a lot of group compression with plugins. I like those Stillwell Audio plugins a lot.

Throughout the entire record I was testing the ADK S-7 and A-6 microphones for a review. I usually don’t test gear in actual recording sessions, but for this project I felt it was appropriate. They are nice mics.

Sounds like an uncomplicated workflow, which is totally appropriate for the project. Was there a song from the bunch that you really enjoyed capturing?
The Gunfight! cut (“I Would Be Your Man”) was probably my favorite song to record for this project. On this song, members of Quiet Loudly lent a hand with some guitar solos, and backing vocals. Both bands share the same bass players so there was this weird incestuous quality about the creation of that song that felt like I was really capturing something special. Gunfight! and Quiet Loudly were on tour together all summer so they had all kinds of unspoken chemistry that I had to tap into very quickly.

On a usual record I may have a month or more to develop relationships within a band so that once we’re in a studio, I understand who’s the boss, who’s the diva, and who’s the “recording guy”. With Brooklyn Heat I had to discover individual roles in ten minutes.

Even though you had your own doubts before getting started, I’d say overall that producers, engineers, studios and artists seem increasingly interested in creating compilations like this, where there’s a common thread to how the record is produced/created/etc… What’s the attraction of doing a focused project like Brooklyn Heat — what makes it good for everyone involved?

Quilty's "In the Guts" subtly swarms you.

It’s great for the artist — specifically with this project — in that they’re given a platform to create without the financial constraints that the “recording industry” typically puts in place.

For me, it was a way to do what I love without a lot of the downsides put into place by the financial reality of recording. I can only hope that it shines a positive light on the artists I am showcasing. An added benefit would be recognition of my engineering work, but that is not really the intention of the project.

Hopefully, for our intended audience it’s a document of a time in Brooklyn rock.

Those are admirably modest — yet somehow lofty — goals. For you, what’s the particular draw of documenting, and being a part of, the NYC audio scene right now?
I lived in Boston working as a producer and an engineer for six years, and the scene is great there. NYC in comparison has a commitment to create something special. People move here from all over the world to create a new thing — from that perspective I think it is an ideal place to live and work in music.

The flip side is that it’s expensive, dirty, and competitive. Most cities are. I would rather record some awesome bands in NYC and spend less money than record more less-inspired bands in Rochester or something. I’m not saying that one has to live in NYC or Nashville to “make it” — but it is certainly easier.

Here here. You definitely seem to have some righteous influences going. Who’s inspired you to approach producing and engineering the way that you do?
Although I don’t make records like his, Phil Elvrum (Mount Eerie, The Microphones) has always interested me. People put a “producer” cap on him, but I think of him as more of a songwriter put into a recordists chair out of necessity. He was given solid tools to work with well before the home recording thing got big, and he made the most out of what he had.

Fast forward ten years, most 14-year-old kids with a laptop have access to what he had, and yet you don’t see those 14-year-old kids with the Dr. Dre laptop/headphone bundle creating lush atmospheric and dramatic productions like Elvrum. I think he’s a testament to creativity over gear.

Catch the Brooklyn Heat Project Launch LIVE! The show is January 20th, 8pm at COCO 66 (66 Greenpoint Ave) in – you guessed it – Brooklyn, NYC. All of the bands on the bill are on the compilation, including Quietloudly/ Gunfight (collaborative performance), Shark?, Quilty, Little Racer, and Magnetic Island.

– David Weiss

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