eq magazine april 2010

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A MUSIC PLAYER PUBLICATION

APRIL 2010

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MASTERING MASTER CLASS

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FEATURES18 ERYKAH BADU

For her fifth album, Erykah Badu discovered new

ways to twist old samples and learned how to over-

come her “demo love.” Badu and some of her studio

crew—Mike Chavarria, Tom Soares, James Poyser,

and Chris Bell—discuss the making of New AmerykahPart Two: Return of the Ankh.

28 DILLINGER ESCAPE PLANWhile many metal bands tune down their guitars

to conjure up a death-throttling, heavy sound,

Dillinger Escape Plan finds alternative methods to

create their mathcore tracks. The guys talk about

the process behind their latest, Option Paralysis.

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CONTENTSAPRIL 10

PUNCH IN8 PAT METHENY10 JÓNSI12 BOMB THE BASS14 MIDLAKE

TECHNIQUES34 GUITAR

The Frampton Method

36 BASSBring on the Funk!

38 KEYBOARDSManaging Gain Stages

40 DRUMSExploring Space

42 VOCALSCrafting the Magic of the Beach Boys

44 MIXING5 Reasons Why Your Mix is Crap

46 TRACKINGFour Ways to Survive a Double Bass Session

GEARHEAD52 PROJECT MASTERING MASTER CLASS Take your

mixes to the next level with expert mastering

techniques—and practical examples for programs

from Steinberg, Sony, BIAS, Cakewalk, Waves,

Har-Bal, Adobe, iZotope, Magix, and more!

62 SOUNDS Sony Continental Drift, Loop Workshop

Various Drum Loop Packages, Ueberschall Pure Fire

POWER APP ALLEY48 WINDOWS XP DRIVER INSTALLATION50 ABLETON LIVE 8

DEPARTMENTS6 TALK BOX The True Power of Music

16 TOOLBOX66 ROOM WITH A VU Mayfield Mastering

Cover photo by Marc Baptiste

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THE LEGENDARY LINE CONTINUES.

THE NEW SM27 AND SM137.

www.shure.com© 2010 Shure Incorporated

Designed to be reliable, tough and true-sounding, take the new SM27 and SM137 from studio to

stage without skipping a beat, or missing a note. Legendary SM microphones are built, known and

expected to come through even under extreme conditions - a true industry standard. For more on

microphones that nail every take go to Shure.com.

SM137 SM27

Talk BoxTTHHEE TTRRUUEE PPOOWWEERR OOFF MMUUSSIICC

Having lived almost directly on the epicenter of a 5.8

earthquake, I have at least a very tiny idea of what hap-

pened in Haiti last January. Fortunately, by being so close

to the epicenter, everything basically went up and down

instead of shearing sideways; I’ll never forget my TEAC

3340 recorder flying up about six inches in the air, then

landing back down on the table where it sat. And the

house, being wood, stretched, flexed, and survived.

But a quake of that magnitude is equivalent to a bit less

than 1 megaton of TNT, while the quake that rocked Haiti

translated to 32 megatons of TNT. The pictures of devasta-

tion, the tales of tragedy and heroism, and the loss of life was

mind-boggling to try and assimilate. And it’s not like Haiti

had the infrastructure, even in the best of times, to cope with

a disaster of that magnitude—few countries could.

Help arrived slowly at first, but picked up momentum.

To tap the American public for assistance, George Clooney

spearheaded a prime time TV special called “Hope for

Haiti.” And what was the main focus of this attempt to get

people involved?

Music.

Yes, music. Sure, actors participated too; but they were

answering phones rather than re-enacting popular bits from

plays or movies. The show was not about famous writers

reading their heartfelt thoughts about the tragedy, religious

leaders talking about the need for charity, and it certainly

wasn’t about politicians making speeches: It was up to musi-

cians to attract the public, hold their attention, and ultimately,

inspire them to lend their support to a most unlucky nation.

When Sting sang “Driven to Tears,” it made perfect

sense. That cut from Zenyatta Mondatta, released 30 years

ago (!), re-surfaced in a context that was chillingly rele-

vant. When the chips were down, it was music that provid-

ed the backdrop for people to donate over $65,000,000

to the cause of Haitian relief.

Once again, music proved itself as a compelling force

that could unite us all in a universal language. Music

has incredible power, and as musicians, we have quite a

history of inspiring, entertaining, and comforting our fel-

low travelers on this small and fragile planet.

If you’re a musician, wear that title proudly—and when-

ever you can, use the power of music to make the world

we share just a little bit better.

EQ APRIL 2010 www.eqmag.com6

wwwwww..eeqqmmaagg..ccoomm VVooll.. 2211 NNoo.. 44,, AApprriill 22001100

Executive Editor Craig Anderton, [email protected] Kylee Swenson, [email protected] Editor Debbie Greenberg, [email protected] Kent Carmical, Stephen Fortner, Ken Micallef, ScottMathews, Bill Murphy, John Payne, Mike Rozkin, Buddy Saleman,Patrick SissonArt Director Patrick Wong, [email protected] Photographers Paul Haggard, [email protected], Craig Anderton, [email protected]

Group Publisher Joe [email protected], 770.343.9978Advertising Director, Northwest, Northeast, Canada, & NewBusiness Dev. Greg [email protected], 925.425.9967Advertising Director, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, & Southeast Jessica [email protected], 661.255.2719Advertising Director, Southwest Albert [email protected], 949.582.2753Specialty Sales Associate, North Reggie [email protected], 650.238.0296Specialty Sales Associate, South Will [email protected], 650.238.0325Production Manager Beatrice Kim

MUSIC PLAYER NETWORKVice President John PledgerEditorial Director Michael MolendaSenior Financial Analyst Bob JenkinsProduction Department Manager Beatrice KimDirector of Sales Operations Lauren GerberWeb Director Max SidmanMotion Graphics Designer Tim TsurudaMarketing Designer Joelle KatcherSystems Engineer John MenesesAssoc. Consumer Marketing Director Christopher Dyson

NEWBAY MEDIA CORPORATEPresident & CEO Steve PalmChief Financial Officer Paul MastronardiVice President Web Development Joe FerrickCirculation Director Denise RobbinsHR Manager Ray VollmerIT Director Greg TopfController Jack Liedke

Please direct all advertising and editorial inquiries to:EQ, 1111 Bayhill Dr., Ste. 125, San Bruno, CA 94066(650) 238-0300; Fax (650) 238-0262; [email protected]

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Back Issues: Back Issues are available for $10 each at 800-289-9919,978-667-0364, [email protected]

EQ (ISSN 1050-7868) is published monthly by NewBay Media, LLC 1111 BayhillDrive, Suite 125, San Bruno, CA 94066. EQ is a trademark of NewBay Media. Allmaterial published in EQ is copyrighted (©) 2010 by NewBay Media. All rightsreserved. Reproduction of material appearing in EQ is prohibited withoutwritten permission. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to EQ., P.O. Box 232,Lowell, MA 01853. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicitedmanuscripts, photos, or artwork. All product information is subject to change;publisher assumes no responsibility for such changes. All listed model num-bers and product names are manufacturers' registered trademarks.

Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. Canada Returns tobe sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.

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FFoollllooww uuss oonn TTwwiitttteerr!!Craig Anderton twitter.com/Craig_AndertonEQ magazine twitter.com/equpdates

FFoollllooww EEQQ oonnlliinnee aatt::

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PUNCHIN


NUMBER 5 IS ALIVEPat Metheny Plays Well WithRobots in the Studio forOrchestrionBY KEN MICALLEF

At a recent demo for Pat Metheny’sOrchestrion project, the multipleGrammy Awards–winning guitaristand jazz icon stood before a smallorchestra of acoustic instruments, butwithout the musicians who would nor-mally accompany them. As Methenyplayed his Ibanez PM120 guitar, theorchestra—drums, cymbals, other gui-tars, percussion, vibraphone,marimba, piano, tuned bottles, and“guitar bots” (guitar-like instrumentsthat resemble rubber bands stretchedover skateboards)—played comple-mentary parts to his flowing melodies.Like magic, these solenoid and pneu-matic driven robots performed com-plex accompaniment created fromMetheny’s love of jazz, cross rhythms,global music, and textural soundpieces. If you closed your eyes youcould see an entire orchestraperforming; open your eyes andpoof!—no one’s there.

The advanced man/machine tech-nology used in Metheny’s Orchestrion[Nonesuch] relies on the work of EricSinger and LEMUR (the League ofElectronic Musical Urban Robots), aswell as Metheny’s mastery of MOTU’sDigital Performer, Digidesign ProTools, Ableton Live, and Sibelius.

“Digital Performer is the champ ofall MIDI platforms,” Metheny statesfrom New York. “DP is the mostmusical and the most locked rhythmi-cally, which is a huge thing for me.This project has very specific techrequirements, which are about theinternal timing of how a platformworks. DP was the first to do sampleaccurate MIDI. That figures heavilyinto this.”

Metheny references earlierattempts at self-playing instruments,such as Yamaha’s Disklavier, then citespioneers like Conlon Nancarrow andGeorge Antheil, who advanced the artof mechanically coupled instrumenta-tion and composition. Metheny brings

their work into the 21st Century. “Triggering MIDI events from a

guitar has been a challenging engi-neering problem for 30 years,”Metheny explains. “The key to that forme is a box made by TerraTec Elec-tronics, the Axon AX 50 USB. It’s thefastest and most accurate guitar-to-MIDI box ever. Yet, there is a certainlatency that happens from the timethe string is plucked to when [youhear the sound]. The Axon could trig-ger samples, but this goes a step fur-ther. It’s triggering an actualinstrument. How the instrumentresponds is another thing.”

“Different inventors do this indifferent ways,” he continues.“Some use solenoids or pneumatics

Pat Metheny.

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www.eqmag.com APRIL 2010 EQ 9

or air-based valves that are given aninstruction to close or open at a veryfast rate. LEMUR’s Eric Singercracked this whole issue of MIDI tocontrol voltage, which allowed thecontrol voltage to respond dynami-cally. That’s a huge thing for me inthis project. Once Eric had dynamicsin the discussion, I knew I could pullthe trigger for Orchestrion.”

Metheny recorded Orchestrion atNew York’s MSR Studios North, StudioB, on a Euphonix System 5-MC con-sole. But as most of the record waswritten and mapped out at Metheny’sapartment (where he squeezed all theinstruments into one room), the ses-sions were more about documentationthan creation.

“It didn’t matter which instrumentwas recorded first,” he says. “I wentinto MSR with the record basicallydone [in Digital Performer]. Essen-tially, we were acoustically treating itin the studio and recording to ProTools. We had to uncover the bestaudio result of what that is. We couldhave recorded guitar first, or bassdrum first, or the whole thing first’cause it didn’t matter.”

If you’re a musician, you have towonder how it feels to play with aband of robots. And if Metheny can doit, can you do it, too?

“It’s almost identical to what itfeels like when you do an overdub,”Metheny explains. “It’s me playingwith something that I’ve already

played. So it’s like live overdubbing.And any kind of overdubbing environ-ment is challenging.

“People ask, ‘Can I do this’?” headds. “Sure they can. It’s just that thistapped into a bunch of real specificskill sets that I’ve spent most of my lifeworking on. I’ve been dealing withknobs and wires from day one, I’velived through the computer music con-nection deeply. And at the same timeI’ve done many records and manyoverdubs. To do this you’d have to beable to do all those things. And youcan. And it will sound different.”

To see Metheny’s robot orchestra in action, watch video atwww.patmetheny.com.


PUNCH IN

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BY KYLEE SWENSON

Although he started writing songs sim-ply—a vocal accompanied by guitar,piano, or harmonium—Sigur Rós front-man Jón “Jónsi” Thor Birgisson andhis collaborators stirred up a storm of

creativity for his gorgeously complexsolo album, Go.

At home in Iceland, Jónsi and hisproducer boyfriend Alex Somers initiallythought Go [XL] would be an acousticrecord. And technically, it is. There’s onlyone electric guitar on the whole album,

and there are no synths at all. Butthings got interesting once New Yorkcomposer Nico Muhly (a Philip Glassprotégé who’s worked with Björkand Antony & the Johnsons), Finnishpercussionist Samuli Kosminen, andConnecticut-based producer Peter Katis

SURPRISE BY DESIGNSigur Rós’ Jónsi Creates a Pure-Sounding AcousticAlbum—With a Twist

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(The National, Interpol) got involved. It started with a demo of the dirge-

like “Koinidur.” Muhly put the track inLogic, routed instrument sounds tovarious channels, and tried out ideason a MIDI controller. “It was super-fun,”Jónsi says. “He’s so hyperactive andspontaneous and such a hard worker,and I’m like that in some ways, so wefit really well together. He wrote fivearrangements in one night.”

From there, Jónsi and friends movedon to Katis’ Tarquin Studios in Connecti-cut, and the album was built up withceleste, glockenspiel, harp, kalimba,strings, woodwinds, brass, and variousdrum and percussion instruments.

Katis used a pair of Telefunken ELAM 260s regularly throughout the process.For acoustic guitar, he’d use one closeup and in cardioid, and one six to eightfeet away in omni. For the string sextet,Katis used Coles 4038s or RCA 44DXsas close mics, two M 260s at mediumdistance, a Brauner Valvet in one far cor-ner, and an AKG C 414 in another corner.But he ended up not using the closemics. “To me, the sound of strings arestrings in a room,” Katis says.

The strings were recorded in oneday through Gordon preamps, withoutcompression. “It’s not the kind of thingthat we could redo if we had to, somost of the manipulating of the stringscame after the fact,” Katis says.

On opener “Go Do,” Katis ranstrings through a Thermionic CultureCulture Vulture distortion unit for anextreme effect. “There are times defi-nitely where we thought, ‘This songneeds to be a little more interesting,’and we would start hacking thearrangements, distorting them, flippingthem around, and everything that youcan think of just to make the song alittle more dynamic,” he says.

Katis then spent a day recordingwoodwinds, a day for brass, and a dayfor flute, miking each of the instrumentsfrom three to six feet away.

Meanwhile, Kosminen played anever-evolving, unusual drum setup. “Itwasn’t a proper drum kit,” Katis says.“He’d just put different drums on thefloor and percussion pieces, even thingslike his suitcase, which he stomped onto get a really interesting sound.”

“Samuli’s the coolest drummer everin the whole world, easily,” Somerssays. “He just plays on random things,like four bass drums and one floor tom.

And he tapes little objects to drums.He showed up with a huge suitcasewith random noisemakers—little rustytoys like cranks and shakers. The mid-dle of the drum will be one sound, andthen he has the toys going around theperimeter. So he has, like, 50 sounds,whereas most drummers have five.”

For the explosive, trashy-soundingdrumbeat on “Animal Arithmetic,” Katismiked Kosminen’s setup with M 260sset far apart and routed through differ-ent preamps and compressors (includ-ing a Chandler TG Channel and Urei1176). Then a Thermionic CultureRooster—which is “nice for manipulat-ing stuff in a more discreet way, whereyou can overdrive it but not destroy it,”Katis says—was used on both signals.

Jónsi’s main vocal chain was a Neu-mann U 47 (although an AEA R84 rib-bon mic was used on “Koinidur”)through a Universal LA-610 preampand a Chandler TG1 set to Limit mode.“When we bought [the TG1], PeterKatis recommended that we put it onLimit and set the Recovery to 1,”Somers says. “It just sounds way betterthere than anywhere else, like, a 100percent of the time.”

In the two-month break betweenrecording and mixing Go, there wasmore sonic experimentation Jónsi andSomers wanted to do. “I think thisalbum became way poppier than any-one planned because so many peoplewere putting their twist on it,” Somersadmits. “So I think it was really important

to keep it sounding dirty and nevertoo polished.”

Somers re-sampled piano parts,backing vocals, and even whole mixesusing a Neumann CMV 563 or U 47 intoLogic’s ESX24 sampler, but he also usedmore lo-fi means, with an 8-bit YamahaVSS-30 sampler. “It’s such a creative toolbecause it narrows down your focus,” hesays. “The sample time is only a few sec-onds, so you get these little blips. Andwhat you can do with that is so surpris-ing. You can U-Turn it, put some fuzz onit, or turn the attack way up for a nice,slow attack. So you’d never know whatthe sound was [originally].”

Aside from re-sampling and manip-ulating sounds (Somers slowed andpitched down “Hengilis” by two wholesteps, for example), Jónsi and Somersfound other ways to rough up themusic. “It was just playing around withdifferent effects, like Sugar BytesEffectrix,” Jónsi says. “It’s a playfulplug-in, so you can f**k things up badlywith different filters and different grainsizes, but still keep the right timing.”

In the end, Katis liked the balance ofpristine and dirty sounds. “If we hadjust left this record completely un-manipulated and kept it an acousticrecord as it was recorded, it would stillbe pretty awesome,” Katis says. “ButJónsi really wanted to never be boredwith it, and that’s why there was ananything-goes approach. The morecrazy the setup, the crazier it sounded,the more exciting it was.”

Peter Katis (left) with Jónsi. Seebehind-the-scenes video from thesessions at www.jonsi.com.


PUNCH INPUNCH IN

BY KYLEE SWENSON

Dance-music producer Tim Simenonhas been producing music as Bombthe Bass since the late ’80s, but whenthe new millennium arrived, he wasready for a break. After releasing Clearin 1995, Bomb the Bass was mostlydormant until 2008’s Future Chaos.

In between, he remixed and pro-duced other groups, including DavidBowie, Depeche Mode, and U2. Butafter shelving the unfinished FutureChaos for years, he finally decided toget it done. “The fact that FutureChaos was never finished was always adark cloud over my head,” Simenonadmits. “I just needed to clear my headand get a life outside of making musicbecause I’d spent 10 to 12 years justbefore that living in the studio.”

The break did him good. AfterFuture Chaos, his re-inspired musicalstate spilled into creating his latestalbum, Back to Light [!K7], and he flewfrom Amsterdam to São Paulo to workwith techno producer Gui Boratto.

In São Paulo, Boratto played bassguitar (later replacing parts with Moogsynth bass) over Simenon’s samplingcollages. Then they played synths—aRoland MC-202 and SH-09, MoogLittle Phatty, and Arturia MoogModular V and Logic ES1 synth plug-ins—and then they’d remove most ofthe original samples.

A drummer named Cuca recordedlive drums for “some of the more ambi-ent stuff sitting behind the pro-grammed drums,” Simenon says, andto give a dynamic lift to the choruses.Simenon then took the live drum partsfrom Pro Tools, created loops, and

tuned them to the electronic drums inAbleton Live.

Phase two of the album was com-pleted in Amsterdam with co-producerPaul Conboy, who also sang on fourtracks. The other singers—Kelley Polar,Richard Davis, and The Battle of Landand Sea—recorded vocals in their ownstudios. But when Simenon and Conboyreceived their tracks, they realizedthere were more changes to be madeto the music.

“The backing tracks would alwaysneed reworking so that they matchedthe quality of what the singers deliv-ered,” Simenon says. “Normally, whatthey’d send back would sound so goodthat the backing tracks would soundtame compared to what they justadded to it.”

“Blindspot,” for example, wentthrough multiple changes. “The vocalline Paul had in the verses was justkiller, but the backing tracks alwayssounded dodgy,” Simenon says. “Pauland I spent a couple weeks looping theverse parts and playing around withdifferent bass lines until we came upwith something that felt comfortableagainst what he was singing.”

Then they pushed the sounds to thenext level. “When we got to a pointwhere we knew what the essence of atrack was, we’d re-record plug-in MIDIparts using my handmade modularsynth, a Roland MC-202, Moog LittlePhatty, and the Minimoog,” Conboysays. “I hate plug-in synths. They allsound rubbish really—no character andusually a horrible response control-wise. I don’t mind using a few plug-ineffects on stuff, but all the virtualsynths are just toys.”

Conboy built his modular synthusing the Moog Modular format of a 5Upanel. “The process is fairly complicat-ed, but I built it all from scratch,” hesays. “I first built a Synthacon VCF anda Polivoks VCF, then two oscillatorsbased loosely on the Moog, then abunch of VCAs and envelope genera-tors. It’s constantly evolving really andwill one day fill my entire house!”

His vocal-recording process is sim-pler: He sings through an Oktava MK-219, into a Neve-designed Amek PurePath Channel in a Box, and into aDigidesign Mbox. “The Amek is the bestinvestment I ever made—really goodquality EQ, compressor, and preamp.”Later, some vocals would get extremeEQ treatment in Logic, with low-endcuts to thin out the vocals. And backingvocals were often hard-panned.

Phase three of the album was atmixing engineer Fopper’s studio,where they broke down the stems toeight channels and ran them throughan old 1974 Polygram mixing desk.They also got rid of all the reverb plug-ins in Logic and replaced them with anAKG spring reverb.

Finally, Simenon and Fopper bussedthe entire mix through a modified EQthat Fopper had built from a Siemenscinema amp, driving it for a harshsound, and then running it at low vol-ume underneath the regular mix. “Sowe had this really noisy stereo mix ofthe eight tracks just underneath theeight tracks,” Simenon says. “It gave ita nice bit of air around the whole mix.If you muted it, the tracks soundedskeletal, and when you pushed it backin, the whole track just sounded like itjelled really nicely.”

CIRCUITBUILDINGBomb the Bass Evades ClinicalSounds With Hand-Built Synthsand Analog Mods Tim Simenon.

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PUNCH IN

BY PATRICK SISSON

The music of Denton, Texas, bandMidlake sounds labored over in thebest possible way, an artful, sepia-toned style of folk rock exuding thecraftsmanship of a handwritten manu-script. But the band’s airy, languiddelivery masks the precise arrange-ments and extensive effort expendedduring composition and recording.Making The Courage of Others [BellaUnion], the follow-up to the band’s2006 breakthrough The Trials of VanOccupanther, took more than a year

and a half, including a side trip to theSand Hill Farm in Buffalo, Texas, toshake up recording sessions after frus-tration had metastasized.

“The studio was getting quite dark,and there were bad vibes in there fromso many failures every day,” admitsfrontman Tim Smith. “It felt like weneeded to get away.”

The work done on that farm set thestage for final recording at the group’ssmall hometown studio in Denton.British folk music like Pentangle andFairport Convention and the guitartones on American singer-songwriter

Jimmie Spheeris’ debut album Isle ofView, seeped into the new songs,according to Smith. The bulk of thealbum was tracked as the band playedtogether—as opposed to overdub-heavy Van Occupanther—with thedrummer in the main room and othermembers performing in the controland storage rooms. On “Rulers, RulingAll Things,” a subtle bass thump, win-some drums, and guitar and flutemelodies are as intertwined as a Celticknot. But it wasn’t recorded with thekind of acoustic and vintage equip-ment one might expect.

AMERICAN PASTORALDigital Recording Tools Helped Midlake Record AiryFolk Jams

Midlake (left to right)—TimSmith, Paul Alexander, EricPulido, Mckenzie Smith,and Eric Nichelson.

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“You probably would think we usea lot of analog gear, but wedon’t,” Smith says. “We used aRADAR V [digital recording system]and an old Soundcraft board from the’90s.” RADAR’s simple interface anddistraction-free technology impressedSmith, who went so far as to tape thecover of a Peter and the Wolf recordover the monitor screen when theywere tracking Van Occupanther. “I reallyhate looking at a screen of coloredwaves of sound,” he says. “You’reexpecting to hear something becauseyou see the wave coming up and it’svery distracting.”

The band’s digital gear (they useLogic and Cubase for mixing) and theslightly gothic tinge on many of thealbum’s tracks doesn’t mean the musicsounds cold. Midlake utilizes anEmpirical Labs EL7 Fatso, a compres-sor that adds high-end harmonics torecreate tape-like warmth. They’doften run the overhead drum micsand Smith’s vocals through theFatso to slightly amp up the bassduring mixing.

The band normally used a MartinD-16 GT acoustic guitar and found theNeumann U 87 sounded better forrecording picking instead of strum-ming, so they pinned the mic to the12th fret. “We didn’t really use a lot ofcompression,” Smith says. “With theacoustic guitars, we just went directto the board, and those preampssounded fine.”

Meanwhile, the Fender Jazz basswas altered with a little foam ordenim placed by the back bridge tomuffle the sound (as heard in the richthump of “Acts of Man”). “It getsmore of a plucky sound,” Smith says.“We were really inspired by that early’70s bass sound. I always like thatHöfner hollow bass sound, reallywoody-sounding bass.”

Smith also fretted a lot over hisvocals, settling on an AKG C 414 andusually standing back about seven inch-es while singing. Smith feels the 414 flat-tens out his voice and accentuates themid-range. He swapped in a U 87 occa-sionally to get a more canny sound.

“I’ve never been a big fan of my

voice,” he says. “It always takes me along time. I always record alone andthere are punch-ins all over the place. Itmay take me a day for a song. Findingthe right mic is tough. People blame iton the mic, but man, it’s my voice.”

The band was its own harshest critic,constantly re-recording and evaluatingbecause they believed they needed toget the right sound during tracking.And their recording techniquesevolved as they went. They only usedthree mics for the drums on “Acts ofMan,” the first song recorded onCourage of Others, but by the end ofthe sessions, they were using up toseven, including an AKG for the snare,a Beyerdynamic Opus for the bass, anda Soundelux U99 room mic.

“If it’s lacking energy, you can’t waitfor mixing,” Smith says. “It’s going tosound stale. In the future, I want to domore of the live type of recording withless overdubs, more like the old-schoolbands. Go back and listen to recordslike Grateful Dead’s Anthem of the Sun.Music like that sounds so good, so dif-ferent from today.”


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Allen & Heath Zed-10 and Zed-10FXWhat Ultra compact mixersWhy Two innovative ultra-high impedance discrete Class AFET inputs allow an instrument to be plugged directly into themixer, emulating the valve/tube input circuitry commonly found oninstrument combos or amplifiers. There’s also a 26dB gain boost switch,which caters to instruments with very low output pickups.How Manages up to four microphones and two stereo sources with MP3 playercompatibility, and provides separate 2-track record outputs and a stereo playback inputfor 2-track replay or set break music from a CD player. Includes XLR main stereo outputs withinserts, comprehensive monitoring with headphones, and separate monitor speaker outputs; 48Vmicrophone phantom power; and DI level switching for submixing. There’s a USB send and returnfor PC or Mac recording, playback, and effects. Zed-10FX (pictured) has a built-in FX processorwith tap tempo delay settings.Price TBDWeb www.allen-heath.com

All prices are MSRP except as noted.

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Native Instruments Abbey Road 60s DrumsWhat Sample library/instrumentWhy Recorded using exclusive vintage gear, and provides aversatile arsenal of classic drum sounds with tonal authen-ticity, playability, and sonic flexibility.How Features two quintessential drum kits of the ’60s era,a Gretsch and a Ludwig. Classic AKG, Neumann, and STCmicrophones, EMI TG mixing desks, a valve-based Studertape machine, and other authentic outboard gear all con-tributed to this collection.Price $119Web www.native-instruments.com

Focusrite Octopre MkII DynamicWhat Multi-channel mic pre with dynamicsWhy Features eight channels of Focusrite’s mic preamplification, with new, single-dial, VCA-based compressorsderived from the classic Focusrite Red 3 on every channel.How Onboard digital converters, with clocking and jitter-elimination technology, enable you to stream eightchannels of 24-bit/96kHz digital audio to and from an ADAT-equipped computer workstation or hard diskrecorder, as well as accurately match the shape of the Red 3’s knee, to ensure the characteristics of the classicstudio compressor were captured.Price TBDWeb www.focusrite.com

Palmer Audio PDI-CTCWhat Tube DI boxWhy Designed to bring out the subtle tonal charac-teristics of a tube by creating the shortest possiblesignal path from input to output.How Incorporates two vacuum tubes, anECC83/12AX7 and an ECC82/12AU7, for a true tubesound. Four musically voiced wideband filters (low,lo-mid, hi-mid, and high frequencies) offer a widerange of tone control, and an extended dynamicrange so that no limiting occurs below signal levelsof +30dBu at the line output.Price TBDWeb www.tsidistributing.com

TC Electronic Impact TwinWhat Audio interfaceWhy Offers a pristine recording path thanks toits two mic pres that feature TC Electronic’sImpact III technology, 192kHz/24-bit HD conver-sion, plus a set of recording Channel Tools. How The Impact III Mic Amp has been designedto maximize the signal recorded into a DAW andmakes the best of any microphone, from thefinest vintage tube mics to the most demandinglow-budget condensers. Includes essentialrecording Channel Tools that optimize the soundwith onboard EQ, and Compressor and De-esserthat tame and enhance those signals.Price $519Web www.tcelectronic.com


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On a chilly December night in New York City, a gaggle of journalists isbeing crowded into one of the live rooms at Chung King Studios inSoho. Not your typical album preview, everyone from Britpopsoulstress Corinne Bailey Rae to legendary label exec Sylvia Rhone isrumored to be on hand, while in the small reception area on thepenthouse floor, cell phones are being collected, bagged, andnumbered to avoid “Internet leakage” of the night’s proceedings.

An “analog girl in a digital world,” Erykah Baducranks the heat on New Amerykah Part Two:Return of the Ankh—a life-affirming flight ofraw, funky emotionby Bill Murphy

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Some are grumbling about theover-the-top security measures, butwhen Erykah Badu makes herentrance, all is quickly forgiven.Relaxed and regal to the core, sheexplains to her hushed audience thatsome unsavory type has alreadyuploaded a bootlegged track fromthe previous night’s session. Thatsong, “Jump in the Air (Stay There),”with spotlights from Lil Wayne andBilal, has since been leaked officially,and given Ms. Badu’s unwaveringcommitment to creative control ofher music, she can’t be too happyabout it.

Even on this night, she seemsalmost uneasy about drawing backthe curtain on her fifth studio effort—maybe because some of the songs arenot yet in the final stages of mixing.But she needn’t have worried. NewAmerykah Part Two: Return of theAnkh (Universal/Motown, 2010) deliv-ers on multiple levels, one of the mostprominent being a return to form thatrecalls the honey-soaked revelationsof Badu’s groundbreaking “neo-soul”debut Baduizm (Universal/Motown,1997). Deeper still, Part Two is a metic-ulously crafted concept album, both inthe vintage sense of Music of MyMind–era Stevie Wonder and in thealt-underground hip-hop vein reppedby such artists as Madlib, J Dilla, Kar-riem Riggins, Georgia Anne Muldrow,Shafiq Husayn, and 9th Wonder—all ofwhom, it so happens, lend their pro-duction cuts (posthumously for Dilla)to the finished gem.

“I wanted the themes on thisalbum to have a very warm and some-times familiar feeling to them,” Badusays. “Sonically, most of the firstalbum jelled together because of thedigital sound, but this time I wantedto feel it in more of an analog way.Some of the samples we used mightsound very familiar too, but it’s funfor me to revisit things like that andput a melody over it that has neverbeen heard before. That’s really whatthe art of hip-hop is about, and whatmakes it exciting. It doesn’t have tobe something totally new. It can besomething redone or recycled thathas a new twist, or a new feel to it.”

Devout fans will also recognizeshades of the slightly off-kilter, almostpsychedelic jazz overtones and tape-saturated lushness that were the main

ingredient in Badu’s sophomore releaseMama’s Gun (Universal/Motown,2000). Some of the key personnelfrom that outing, who have workedconsistently with Badu over the years,reprise their collaborative roles here—including, in particular, Roots drum-mer Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson andkeyboardist/producer James Poyser.

“We definitely share a similar-mindedness,” Poyser offers. “Erykahcan go from the beatnik thing to thehip-hop hardcore thing to the jazz

thing, but in the end what she reallyloves is music. She has taken in a lotof different styles and influences, andshe’s grabbed them and made herown niche. When you’re working withsomebody like that, it just makeseverything easier.”

THROAT CLEARINGRegardless of the hat she’s wearing—producer, composer, musician, per-former—Badu is constantly exploringthe range of her voice and delights in

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Erykah Badu stays perfectly in tune, performing atMerriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD, onAugust 8, 2009.

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the experimentation that moderntechnology affords her. When a songfirst begins to take shape, she’llrecord a demo vocal straight intoGarageBand, and then manipulate ituntil it begins to line up with thesound she has in her head.

“I just keep turning knobs until Ihear the right match for the song andhow my voice should sound,” sheexplains. “Each song has its ownwoman—its own character. I playfullycall it ‘she’ when we’re mixing ordoing a sub-mix or a rough mix, so Imight say, ‘She needs some more ofthis.’ Chav [Mike Chavarria,engineer/producer] will listen towhat I’ve concocted and try his bestto make it match.”

Chavarria takes the lead vocalfrom “Don’t Be Long,” co-produced byDetroit-bred beatsmith Ta’Raach, asan example; the song immediatelyconjures up Stevie Wonder’s classic“Girl Blue,” where his voice issqueezed through an undulating,kaleidoscopic tape flange. “For herdemo of that song, Erykah used oneof GarageBand’s phasers,” Chavexplains. “It tends to have a harshquality to it, so I used severalinstances of a Waves MetaFlanger toget the sound she wanted. The vocalis feeding itself—really the flanger isfeeding another flanger, and then it’ssent to another flanger as if it were areverb. The way it’s set up on the con-sole ends up being pretty complex,but it was the only thing that was ableto make it move like that and have theright blend of effects.”

Understandably, Badu is a perfec-tionist when it comes to her vocalperformance and how it fits the finalversion of a song, so there’s notelling when she’ll scrap a take, evenduring mixing. “That’s what’s veryunique about working with Erykah,”says Tom Soares, whose tenure withBadu as recording and mixing engi-neer goes back to Mama’s Gun. “I’min mix mode all the time—if I’m not inPro Tools, I’m in the computer on theSSL console. She likes to hear theprogression of how the song is com-ing together, so at any given point inthe process I have to recall therecord that she’s gotten used tohearing. Sometimes I’ll be ready toprint, and all of a sudden she’ll askfor a couple of new vocal tracks, and

it’ll be a brilliant performance. Shehas really good ears and she knowswhat she wants.”

Finding the right microphone toget the job done has been a Grail-likequest over the years, but Badu feelsshe has finally found the right one,thanks to Soares, in the Shure KSM9.“Tom was telling us that James Tayloruses that mic to record with, so I triedit out,” she says. “Now I religiously useit all the time, no matter how muchthey try to force these other mics onme. I even carry it with me in mypurse. [Laughs]. Tom knows howmuch midrange I have in my voice,and how I hate to hear it coming backat me because it sounds too nasally,so this is the one I use now, for my liveshows and in the studio.”

It’s already pretty well knownamong producers, engineers, and geargeeks that Badu rarely, if ever, recordsin a vocal booth, preferring instead tosing in the control room with a livemonitor mix. “As long as she’s facingthe speakers straight on, I can turnthem up significantly and not have aproblem with leakage [into the mic],”Soares explains. “But Erykah is noteasy to record because her voice is sodynamic. She has a heavy range from2.2 to 2.6K, so when she goes up thereand really belts it out, you need a sig-nal path that can take it. Lately I’vebeen using the Little Labs Lmnopre—it’s clear and big sounding, with tonsof headroom. I run that into anAmek 9098 mic pre, but I just use theEQ end of it. I filter a little bit on the

bottom and a little up around the hiess area, around 12 or 13K. Then fromthat, we go into a Summit TLA-100compressor, with 2dB of leveling atthe most. I’m not a big fan of com-pression on vocals, but the tubeshelp, especially when you’re usingPro Tools.”

For that matter, so does recordingto tape. Soares acknowledges thespeed and efficiency in editing thatPro Tools offers, but he remains skep-tical of the digital platform’s ability asa tape machine, especially when itcomes to recording vocals. “All themusic is coming out of Pro Tools,” headmits, “but most of Erykah’s vocalsare coming off of 2-inch tape.” It’s anod to how records used to be made,and really to how Badu continues towork; her vocals for New AmerykahPart One were tracked to tape, andshe’ll likely stick with it in the future.“I’ve even tried to fly a vocal takeback into Pro Tools, but it just soundsdifferent,” Soares continues. “Evenwith a great converter, the differenceis huge, so for us the best way to getaround it is to lock up the 2-inch withPro Tools.”

ANATOMY OF A SONGFrom the start, Return of the Ankhswells with the velvety atmosphericsthat define the best tape-based ana-log recordings from the ’70s: thicklow end, warm limpid mids, andpunchy highs, with close attentionpaid to the stereo spread and pan-ning techniques. It’s really the only

Erykah Badu at the Chung Kinglistening party.


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way to transmit the hypnotic moodof the album, which shifts gearseffortlessly from dreamlike (in theopening echo-drenched sequence of“20 Feet Tall,” co-produced with 9thWonder) to get-down funky (“Don’tBe Long”) to groove-introspective(in the closing epic “Out My MindJust in Time,” with James Poyser andGeorgia Anne Muldrow).

“Window Seat,” the album’s firstsingle, is a prime vehicle for Badu tochannel all her creative strengths, aswell as her penchant for analog warmth.The song has its origins in an informal

session at her Dallas home with Poyser.“Erykah has this old lime-green, ridicu-lously out-of-tune piano,” he quips.“She refuses to get it tuned because ithas character—it’s a sight to see andhear. We were just sitting there playingsome things, and she started singingand that’s how the idea came about.”

Badu had a vocal melody, but nowords. Like most of the songs shewrites, she follows the path perfectedby Marvin Gaye, allowing the lyrics toemerge from the rhythm of the melody.“I write on beat, very much like an MC,”she says. “I’ll keep listening back to it,

and once the rhythm starts to soundlike syllables of words, I just say what-ever word fits. Sometimes that becomeswhat the song will be, then I fine-tuneit so it makes sense, or sometimes Ijust leave it as is.”

Using her own home 4-track, shelaid down a drum pattern from herKorg Triton, and the demo began totake shape. From there, recordingengineer Chris Bell, who first joined theBadu camp with Mama’s Gun, went into prep Luminous Sound in Dallas—Badu’s de facto home away from homewhen she’s working on an album—totrack a session with Poyser on FenderRhodes and ?uestlove on drums.

“When they came in to work, I wasinstantly ready to pull up a 2-inchmachine,” Bell says, recalling howMama’s Gun was recorded entirely totape. “I had a vintage drum kit deliv-ered because I thought Ahmir wouldwant that old-school sound. He’s veryparticular about what mics he wants onthe kit—no [Shure] SM57s allowed—soI used Royer R-121 and R-122 ribbonson him, along with some Coles 4038s.It’s a real smooth sound. We basicallycame in and knocked it out in an after-noon, but Ahmir wanted to add somepercussion parts, and pretty soonworking with the 2-inch was gettingcumbersome, so we dumped it intothe computer.”


Tom Soares (left) and Chris Bell.

Left to right—Badu, Tom Soares,and Mike “Chav” Chavarria.

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What emerged was a fat, lopinggroove with a minimalist arrangementof claps and conga hits, all puncuatedwith ?uestlove’s signature snap on thesnare drum. “Initially, I played thebass parts on the Rhodes,” Poysersays, “and I overdubbed a bass soundout of Logic. I had it controlled by aMotif [Yamaha MIDI controller key-board], and I’m sure it was a soundfrom [Spectrasonics] Trilogy. Thebass sound from that just marriedwell with the track. Usually I scrollthrough and try playing a few things,and whatever marries well with thetrack is what I use.”

Badu lived with that version of the“Window Seat” demo for monthsafterward, working diligently untilshe had two verses and a bridgerecorded. “One of the things I’maccused of is demo love,” she jokes. “Iwant it to sound just like that, forever.We hadn’t put a real bass on it—James was playing that on keyboards,and it was just perfect. There wasnothing more to be done to it . . . untilThundercat came in.”

As bassist with Sa-Ra CreativePartners and Bilal, Stephen “Thunder-cat” Bruner is a known entity on thehip-hop underground. “He put afunky-ass bass line on it—very simple,just three or four notes—and that wasall it needed,” Badu recalls. “I guessyou could say that songs are craftedthe way Subway sandwiches aremade. You start with the bread, then alittle bit of lettuce, then we point tothe pickles and so on, and the bassline was the oil and vinegar. That’show it happens.”

In the mix, Soares called on somekey pieces of outboard gear to thickenthe bass sound even further. “I’ve gota Moog 3-Band Parametric Equalizerthat works really well on bass,” hesays, “and I’ll also use the Drawmer1969 [Mercenary Edition] tube com-pressor, usually across the mix bus.There’s a little switch in the stereo linksection, and when you move it to the‘BIG’ position, all the bass comesthrough so it only compresses themidrange and treble.” The effectmakes Poyser’s Rhodes sound almostbass-like, and Bruner’s bass soundalmost synth-like.

When mixing vocals, Soares looksto a pair of Urei LA-22 compressors sohe can fine-tune specific frequencies.

“When Erykah tells me that she’sreally enjoying ‘Window Seat,’ thatmeans I’ve done my job,” Soares says.“Whatever she’s hearing in her head,I’m getting it to come out of thespeakers. Sometimes she gives me apiece of music with crazy low end,and I have to find a way to make it fitin the speaker but still sound and feelthe way she wants it. She wants

someone to feel an emotion about thesong. It could be a love song to oneperson, and something totally differ-ent to another person, but it makesthem feel something, so that it’s spe-cial only to them.”

SAMPLE ME THISLike the first installment of NewAmerykah, Return of the Ankh swells

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with the contributions of some keyfigures in experimental hip-hop.Drummer and producer Karriem Rig-gins is one of them, having workedclosely with J Dilla on what would turnout to be his last solo project (2006’sThe Shining); his musical connectionwith Badu goes back to 1998, whenshe joined Dilla at his studio in Detroitfor sessions that led to the Grammy-nominated “Didn’t Cha Know?” fromMama’s Gun.

“Erykah had a batch of songs thatwere inspiring to her, and she burneda CD for me and James [Poyser] tolisten to,” Riggins begins, referring tothe events that led to the making of“Get Money”—a smoldering soulgroove based on the Sylvia Striplinclassic “Can’t Turn Me Away,” and oneof several standouts on Return of theAnkh. “She didn’t actually say shewanted to remake these songs—it wasmore to spark some creativity. Sowhen we finally booked the studiotime [at Chick Corea’s Mad Hatter Stu-dios in L.A.], we started to recreatethat break.”

Riggins soon came acrossanother inspirational break during asession at Sa-Ra’s studio. “I broughtmy [Akai] MPC3000 in, and I think Ihad about 50 records with me, and Istumbled on this Eddie Kendricksloop [‘Intimate Friends’]. I knew thata lot of people had used it, so Ithought about how I could do

something differ-ent. I juststretched it outinto a long form onthe 3000, and thenadded someclavinet andRhodes when wedropped everythingto Pro Tools.Erykah was incred-ible. She let thebeat roll for atleast half an hourand basicallyrecorded afreestyle reference; then she pulledideas from that.”

The song became “Fall in Love,”which pays tribute to the stutter-steprhythmic explorations of Dilla butalso serves as a test case to the chal-lenges Soares had to meet in themixing phase. He points to the song“Umm Hmm,” a sample-stackedworkout co-produced by Madlib, asanother example. “We got Madlib’smusic in the form of a stereo MP3,”he explains, “and I’ve developed amethod of working with that formatso it fits with the overall soundErykah wants.

“Basically I duplicate the trackabout six or seven times, and then Igo in with some heavy-duty EQplug-ins and literally destroy thetwo-track and then rebuild it. I use

the Massenburg EQ plug-in a lot forthis. It allows you to separate thebandwidths, so it plays only thebandwidth that you’re highlighting.I’ll usually start with the kick drum; ifit’s slightly out of phase, I’ll fix thatand then pan it up in the middle.Then I’ll just keep isolating differentparts of the two-track, each timepanning it out a little bit more, untilI’ve recreated a stereo image from awhole bunch of small snippets. Howit works depends on the density ofthe two-track. You’re gonna getphasing, so you have to keep adjust-ing until it makes sense, but at thispoint it’s almost like I can go in thereand [pull out individual] instruments.”

With yet another album alreadynearly in the can—Lowdown LorettaBrown, named after one of her manyaliases and described as a character“from the ’50s who acts like she’sfrom the ’40s . . . the 2040s.” —Erykah Badu continues to push souland hip-hop music into entirelyuncharted waters.

“Georgia [Anne Muldrow] and Ihave very similar world views, andwe’re very serious about the vitalityof our families,” she says. “Makingthat song with her—and in fact mak-ing this album—has been a liberatingtime for me because we’re definingourselves through our relationshipsas women. It woke me up to reallyacknowledging my part in my ownheartache, and what I’m doingwrong. I wasn’t in any particular situ-ation at the time, but the music hasso many elements of liberation in it,and that’s all I could think of to talkabout. It’s a diary entry of what’sinside of my mind, and a way for thewhole deal to come out.”Racks of outboard gear at Luminous Sound in Dallas.

The track sheet for Badu’s firstsingle, “Window Seat.”


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Looking for some mellow, smoothsounds to kick back to on a Fridaynight, with soft lights and a glass ofwine? Well, you’d best leave the newDillinger Escape Plan album outtayour plans. Dillinger’s purposefullyagitating punk-metal typhoons arecustom-crafted to hurl you off of thatcouch and make you punch holes inthe walls.

Recorded and engineered by theband’s longtime producer SteveEvetts at his Omen Room Studios inGarden Grove, California, Dillinger’snew album Option Paralysis [Seasonof Mist] is another trademarkedDillinger blitzkrieg of blamblamblam.What has become increasinglyprovocative about the band’s sound,however, is the ingenious waysDillinger manages to blend the harshwith the harmonious.

“Our music definitely presents achallenge in that way,” says guitarist/chieftheoretician Ben Weinman, “because inone sense it’s supposed to be aggres-sive and it’s supposed to be obnoxious.It’s written that way—we use a lot ofdissonant chords, a lot of high frequen-cies, and we’re also tuning to normalstandard E, which is not as low as manyheavy bands. But it’s important to bal-ance the annoyance with things thatare the antithesis of that. It’s thedynamics that are important to us atthe end of the day.”

SOUNDS OF THRASHINGA veteran soundman who’s producedand engineered albums by Hatebreed,Saves the Day, Sepultura, Glassjaw,and Every Time I Die, Evetts has beenwith Dillinger since the beginning ofthe band’s career. The current lineup—

which includes Weinman, singer GregPuciato, guitarist Jeff Tuttle, drummerBilly Rymer, and bassist Liam Wilson—convened at Evetts’ studio after Wein-man had worked out pre-productiondemos in Steinberg Cubase.

The Omen studio includes tworooms, and when Evetts tracks drums,he leases the A room from the build-ing’s other occupant; the rooms areconnected, so he uses his gear in thelive room and in the hallway, which heexploits as a recording area as well.“The hallway is a tiled room that’swired up and meant to use as achamber,” he says, “so we keep thedoor to the A room cracked open andhave a stereo pair of mics at the endof the hallway. We get the best ofboth worlds.”

For miking drums, Evetts usedShure SM57s, as well as SennheiserMD 421s on the toms and AKG C 414sor Violet Design The Amethyst on the

overheads. Room miking is mostlydone with 414s, and in the drum hallway,Evetts depends on the Royer R-121s,plus a couple of inexpensive LangevinCR-2001 mics. Then there’s the kickdrum: “I love the Electro-Voice RE20on the kick,” he says. “A lot of peopleuse the AKG D 112, but I usually usethe D 112 on the outside to give agreat low-end bump.”

For Puciato’s vocals, Evettskeeps going back to the AKG C 414“because it always just works withhim,” he says. “Greg feels morecomfortable with the way it soundsin his headphones, and if he feelsmore comfortable, I don’t care whatwe use.”

Recorded, mixed, and edited in ProTools|HD, Option Paralysis was essen-tially a digital project, though theprocess involved a blend of analogand digital methodologies. “I usedsome analog processing in the mix,”Evetts says. “I’m mixing in the box butin a hybrid system, with some outsidesumming and then a lot of analog out-board gear in the mix. [And duringtracking,] we used a Roland SpaceEcho, running through tape just to getthat analog sound.”

DILLINGER GUITAR PLANWhile Evetts and Weinman did utilizedirect-inject recording of the guitarsfrom time to time, they did so in asparing way; their tidal waves ofchopping-knife guitars derive primarilyfrom rudimentary means: using theright pick on the right guitar throughthe right amplifier.

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Dillinger Escape Plan in Omen Room Studios duringthe recording of Option Paralysis.

Ben Weinman at Omen Room.

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jagged little accents on guitar, so I’ll runa line from an amp,” Evetts says. “I’mrunning a cleanish sound, low-wattageat 5 or 10 watts, to get that small-ampkind of thing, and then on the otherside I’ll record with a direct box andreally jack the high end up super-highand compress it hard. It gives a verymetallic kind of tiny sound.”

In the studio, Weinman uses a widearray of guitars old and new, priceyand not so, depending on the desiredeffect. “I’m using a couple of cheaperESP guitars, and then I also threw on aLes Paul in a few spots for morebody,” he says.

Because of the density and speedof the Dillinger attack, Weinman feelsthat he needs as much control overthe sound as possible. “There’s somuch going on so quickly,” he says,“so a lot of what’s important for us isthings like deadening the strings inspots where they’re making noises,stuffing body cavities with tissue andcotton, etc.”

Weinman and second guitarist JeffTuttle employ a zillion different analogpedals in the studio and onstage, but

Weinman insists that for his maintones he relies mostly on his guitars,his amps, and his fingers, though he’sdeveloped a fondness for the Japan-ese Guyatone pedals.

“They’re really little, for one—you canput about 40 of them on a pedalboard,but they’re really huge-sounding. AndI also use their reverb pedals, a Guya-tone that has a tube in it, a tremelopedal, and the digital delay. There’s a

shaper pedal, which you can carve outa lot of different frequencies andtones with, and then there’s a boosterpedal that’s similar to a [BBE] Maxi-mizer. Sounds really good.”

The band’s selection of amplifiers iscrucial as well. “In the past I’d throw in a[Peavey] 5150 for certain things thatwere really bright and aggressive, andthen for clean things I’d change amps,”Weinman says. “But on this record

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Dillinger Escape Plan (left to right)—BillyRymer (top left), Greg Puciato, Ben

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probably 80 percent was the Mark V,definitely the best amp Mesa/Boogie hasever made. It’s diverse; the distortion isextremely tight. The pedalboard thatcomes with it has some interesting fea-tures, too, like looping and a greatreverb; the clean sounds great, but thenthe variations in distortion rival any$4,000 amp.”

PLUG-IN LOVEWhile this very electronicized band’ssonic attack can give the impression ofbeing heavily effected, the real meat ofthe music is reliant on just a handful ofplug-ins and hardware effects. Evett’stwo main tools for EQ are the URSplug-ins made for the Neve, along withthe Massenburg DesignWorksParametric EQ for more “carving out”of the sound. “The Massenburg EQ,” hesays, “is less obtrusive than the otherPro Tools EQs; the URS EQ has more ofa color of a sound, but it’s very pleas-ing to the ear.”

For reverb and delay effects, it’sback to basics for Evetts. “The funnything is, for the main snare reverb Ijust use a Yamaha SPX90. I haveother plug-ins, like the [Peavey]UltraVerb, but the DX just soundsgreat—it does one thing pretty much,but it does it well.”

Evetts is not a big fan of plug-incompressors, but he’s found a few thatdo the job well. “For some reason, a lotof software compressors flatten outthe sound, and not in a pleasing way—it kills the bottom end,” he says. “Butthe three main compressors I use aresoftware, and they all seem to not dothat—the URS doesn’t do it, the Masseyand the Chandler EMI don’t either.”

Evetts is referring to the ChandlerEMI TG12413 Limiter plug-in, which heuses for drum compression, the URSNeve plug-in for bass, and the MasseyCT4, which he hits up when the moodstrikes. For the main vocals, he turns tohardware, such as the UniversalAudio 1176.

DILLINGENTLY DRAINEDBlurring lines between metal and hardrock, the members of Dillinger EscapePlan push a distinctly aggressiveagenda with their sound—they just doit their own way.

“We usually don’t try to have ametal-sounding record, even though alot of stuff we’re playing is really fast

and heavy and distorted,” Weinmansays. “Typically metal bands use a lotof frequencies that wouldn’t necessar-ily work with a rock album, and vice-versa. We’re trying to make a recordthat’s blast-you-in-the-face, but we’renot using a lot of the tricks that a lot ofother bands are doing, so we do incor-porate a lot of electronics.”

The question is, with all the fero-cious speed and complexity built intoa typical Dillinger Escape Plan song,how in the hell do these guys process

it all without losing their heads? “Dillinger records usually take a lot

more effort than most,” Evetts says.“It’s a lot to take in, and it’s anintense listen. When you’re hearingall this stuff going on at a millionmiles an hour, and sometimes inmultiple time signatures, all that ismentally exhausting. Dillinger’s thetoughest job I ever loved. It takes somuch out of you, but I always lovethe end result, and it’s very satisfyingas a creative entity.”


by Michael Molenda

Peter Frampton has recorded a coupleof bitchin’ guitar albums in his career,including a little ditty called FramptonComes Alive, and 2006’s Grammy-winning Fingerprints. He’s also an avidhome recordist—albeit with a muchhipper and more gear-lush personalstudio than the average musician. Asthe follow up to Fingerprints, ThankYou Mr. Churchill [A&M/NewDoor/Ume] gets ready to drop thisApril, we thought a few words of stu-dio wisdom from one of the world’sgreatest rock guitarists might help youwith one of your projects.

Start Here“There are no rules—just go for what-ever sounds good,” says Frampton.“But knowing the sound you want atthe start—before you even touch amicrophone—is a good idea. It’s alldown to what you can get out of eachamp and guitar—what’s the bestmatch for what you’re trying toachieve? Someone once said to me,‘You’re like molasses [in the studio],’because I’m so methodical. I take mytime, and I don’t rush. When you’re inthe studio, the microscope is on, andin order for me to play my heart out, Ihave to be turned on by the sound.It’s like the sound is so wonderful thatI can’t stop playing because I love it somuch. To get there, I might take a dayto choose an amp, choose a guitar,select the mics, and then position themics. Sometimes, I’m so exhausted bythe setup that I won’t actually cut thetrack until the next day. And, to me,that’s okay. Some sounds come in aminute, and some sounds take threedays. You never know how it will go,but you have to take the time to getthere, because if you’re not inspired

by the sound, you may not rise to theoccasion and play something great. Imean, you can have all the bestequipment in the world, but if the per-formance isn’t stunning, your trackain’t going nowhere.”

Miking Electrics“It’s all down to trial and error. Basi-cally, I work two different ways as faras electric sounds go. One is posi-tioning a Shure SM57 close to thespeaker. But I don’t like pointing themic at the speaker cone—that’s alittle too honky for me. I like to anglethe mic at sort of a 90-degree angle,pointing a bit off to the paper [of thespeaker]. The second part is settingup room mics. I position a pair ofNeumann mics—I have a couple ofvintage U67s and a U47—about tento 12 feet away in a wide-stereo con-figuration. Then, a little closer—I callthem the ‘mid-room mics’—I’ll useeither a stereo Royer or two monoRoyer mics in an X-Y pattern. So I’mactually recording five tracks of oneguitar sound. Then, I can choose thesound—or combination of sounds—Ilike later on.

“You know, when I first startedrecording with Glyn Johns in the olddays with Humble Pie, he would putNeumann U67s on just about every-thing. I don’t remember seeing anSM57 on anything in those days. Andthen Neumann brought out the U87—which was the transistor version ofthe 67—and everybody seemed toswitch to 57s. And I know why now,because after getting my hands on acouple of beautiful old U67s, I realizethat you can put them close on theamp, and they sound virtually thesame as what you’re hearing in theroom—as long as you don’t put themtoo close. So, one of my alternate

options to the SM57 close-mic is toswap it for one of the U67spositioned about 18 inches or twofeet from the speaker.”

Miking Acoustics“Neumann KM184s are definitely astandard for me— I know I’m going toget a great sound with them. Theydon’t capture a lot of bass, so theysound pretty good flat—you don’thave to do too much of a roll off. TheU47 is nice, too, but it’s not a goodchoice if you’re strumming awaybecause it will pick up too much lowend and muddy things up. I typicallydo the conventional thing of position-ing one mic by the soundhole, andanother mic higher up on the fret-board, pointed down towards the12th fret or so.”

The Recording Environment“My studio has a wood floor withfabric-covered walls—except where Iset up the amps, which is a completewood of stone. The reflection off thewood floor is nice and even, whereasthe stones on the wall are all angular,and the echo is a bit harsher in agood way. And then the fabric damp-ens the reflections a bit. Obviously,not everyone is going to have thesame construction in their recordingspace, but I’ve found that the bestspaces give you a nice bit of ambi-ence that’s not too bombastic. Youdon’t want the reverb swamping theroom and all your guitar sounds. Youalso have to be careful not to crankup the guitars too loud if you wantsome natural room sound on yourtracks. There’s definitely a thresholdwhere the volume overpowers theroom, and the ambience just kind ofgoes away.”


GUITAR For More Go To www.eqmag.com

THE FRAMPTONMETHOD

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Hear what the pros have to say. Then hear for yourself.

To learn more about Sony’s award winning handheld digital recorder:

click: sony.com/pcmm10

Brooke Rudnick Specialty Event & Music Videography“Sony’s PCM-M10 puts high-definition sound in

your pocket. This small handheld record-er’s amazing battery life enables you to record pristine audio all day. Built-in microphones mean no extra cables or adapters, and backlit controls make it easy to see levels and functions in dim light environments. For great audio in almost every shooting situation, the PCM-M10 recorder is a sound investment.”

Dave Sperling DP, Music Documentaries & Videos“The M10 adds a huge

amount of functionality in a small and ex-tremely affordable package. The design is exceptionally well thought out. All the controls are in just the right places when I hold it in my hand. The ease of adding (and synchronizing) a stereo track to my video from a different perspective makes the M10 a must-bring for any concert or live event. Every guitar and camera case should have one living in it!”

By Jon Chappel“The PCM-M10 is a solid, roadworthy pro-fessional recorder with excellent sound and loads of features. With its excellent onboard mic sound, and the sleek and compact design, serious audio pros who want superb sound quality in a feature-packed package will find that the Sony PCM-M10 more than fits the bill.”

By Jack Kontney“The Sony PCM-M10 handheld digital re-corder is everything a musician or sound engineer might want as a tool for docu-menting rehearsals and shows, including long battery life, tripod mount, ergonomic design, inconspicuous size and capa-cious memory. But it’s much more…”

By Mike Rivers“At $300, the PCM-M10 is well priced considering its sound quality, feature set, and ease of use. It is well suited for casual and professional recording applications, and, in between, serves as a handy music player. I think it’s a winner, and so does the Everything Audio Network, which has tagged the M10 with its Stellar Sound designation.”

Everything Audio Network

Robin D. Berg President, BEI inc. HDTV & Digital Film Production“So I just voiced an epi-

sode of Speargun Hunter using only the M-10 and the on-board stereo mics. I put it on a stand, used pop filters and studio monitor headphones and the results are absolutely startling, there is zero detect-able noise to my ears and the quality is superb. This is what I will use to VO all of my shows, it is too darn good and easy. Someone would have to fight me to take it away from me now.”

© 2010 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Sony, make.believe and their respective logos are trademarks of Sony.

by Buddy Saleman

To create the perfect funk bass tone,you must have all of the necessaryelements at hand—a funk playingstyle, good bass-miking technique, anda fat and funky approach to the mix.These elements all cascade togetherinto one warm, mammoth funkosaurusbass sound that will bump speakersoff their stands. Here’s how to getdown with the low down. . . .

StyleThis is crucial. Funk bass playing isits own beast, and it a has very play-ful, syncopated relationship to thekick drum. This is not to say that thebass and kick don’t hit together, butit’s a bit of a dance—sometimes on,sometimes off—but always interact-ing in a way that pushes the grooveforward while remaining in thepocket. A sensitive producer willcritically assess the player’s style todetermine if the groove is working,rather than immediately ask that heor she play “tighter.”

PocketAsk five funk musicians to define“pocket,” and you may get five differ-ent answers. But ask the same fivemusicians to play in the pocket, andyou’ll get a groove so fat that you’llput on ten pounds listening to it. Idefine the pocket as the space anddistance between the kick hit and the

snare hit within the same bar. Thesespaces are obviously governed bymeter and tempo, but there is flexibil-ity in there that a savvy player canpush, delay, and otherwise funk-ify.Again, getting obsessed withmetronome-like precision maydestroy the funk. Let the groovebreathe and flourish, and soon you’llbe in the house that Bootsy built.

TrackingFor me, the optimum funk bass has ahuge quantity of bottom (around50Hz–200Hz) and top (between6kHz and 9kHz) in order to allow thebass to bump up against your chestwhile still cutting through the mix. Toget such a tone, I like to record adirect signal and a miked-amp signalsimultaneously in a relatively deadspace (no hardwood floors, big win-dows, or other bright, reflective sur-faces). Remembering that bassfrequencies take more physical spaceto roll out, I typically mic the ampwith a large-diaphragm dynamic(such as an Electro-Voice RE20)positioned two or three feet from thespeaker, and turned slightly off-axis. Ialso place a large-diaphragmcondenser (such as an AKG C414)about seven feet away from thespeaker cabinet at a height of two tofour feet. This technique allows muchof the bass waveform to interact withthe room and develop maximum res-onance as it’s captured by the mics.

The direct signal provides clean,sharp, and present tones. Both thedirect and mic signals are lightlycompressed (a 2:1 ratio with a –10dBthreshold) to deliver more punch.

MixingTo bring it all home during the mix, Iblend the three separate bass trackstogether. The dynamic-mic track isoften the main sound, as it deliverswarmth, bottom, and booty. A subtleboost at 100Hz can make the partyeven bigger. The direct track is mixedin for clarity, and I often help thesnap a bit by boosting 4kHz to taste.Finally, the condenser, room-mictrack is employed just to round outthe bass tone and impart a sense ofdepth and hugeness. I assign all threetracks to a subgroup and compressthem as a unit—usually at a 4:1 ratiowith a –15dB threshold. The bass isnow ready for the mother ship!

Extra CreditHere are two other mix tricks I’veseen great funk players use:• Add a light chorus effect to help

the bass pop out of a busy mix. Italso sounds kind of techno.

• Add a slapback delay set toeighth-notes, and mix it justbelow the dry bass sound. If youtake care not to collapse thepocket, the subtle slap can adddimension and sonic interest to thebass line. Freaky!


BASS More on www.eqmag.com

BRING ON THE FUNK!

EQ tweaks are cool,but it’s all about thepocket if you wantyour tracks to be asfunky as Bootsy’s.

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by Ste p h e n Fo r t n e r

Anyone with a cable TV box has jug-gled two volume controls. Set thecable too low, crank the TV, and you’llhear too much background noise.With the cable too high, you can getdistortion or a honky sound even withthe TV volume low. Even a basicrecording setup makes you managemultiple volumes, too. Here’s aGolden Mean approach for settingthem.

Your Keyboard’s Volume Control An old rule says to leave it at maxi-mum, then set levels for recording onyour mixer or audio interface. That’s agood place to start, but on some key-boards, full throttle might make hissaudible while almost-full volumesounds clean. Call up the sound you’llrecord with, but don’t play. Move thevolume knob or slider slowly fromlow to high, and listen carefully forbackground noise. If an increase hap-pens, most likely towards the top ofthe range, back off until it goes away.Chances are, any making up you’ll dousing the gain control of the gearthat’s listening won’t add as muchnoise; if it does, the process is easyenough to undo.

Don’t forget MIDI volume. Makesure a pedal, other controller, oreven the sound program itself isn’tkeeping it below maximum (127) with-out you knowing. Also, the edit menus

of some synths have an output para-meter that works in the digitaldomain—another option if you needhotter levels without added noise.

Faders and Gain Knobs Next come the inputs of your audiointerface, compact mixer, or stand-alone recorder. Either you’re in achannel (or two) with an input gainknob—also called trim or sensitivity,which are not the same as faders onthe device or in your DAW’s mixerwindow — or you’re not.

In the first case, leave the channelfader at “unity,” usually indicated by azero located most of the way up thefader’s travel range, and start withthe trim all the way down. Play asloud as you mean to and adjust thegain until your loudest peaks hit the“yellow” zone on your physical oronscreen mixer’s meter, but not thered. With most keyboards, you’ll turnup the trim very little, or not at all,unless something else in the chain isquieting the signal first.

This is why many audio interfacesand compact mixers have trim knobsonly on their mic inputs: Line-level insare pre-optimized for things such askeyboards. If your keys are too quietno matter what, you may wish to gofor the extra gain of a mic channel.Otherwise, it’s one less volume con-trol to worry about. Depending onhow your mixer works, the channelfader may or may not have any effecton the level that’ll get recorded, and

it may not have any visible effect onthe meter, depending on your setup.If not, don’t be afraid to lower yourkeyboard’s volume a bit more if it’sstill too hot.

What sounds too loud or too softthrough your listening system maybe the perfect level for the A-D con-verters of the audio interface orrecorder itself, so use only yourheadphone, “monitor out,” or “con-trol room” volume to get a comfort-able listening level.

Soft Synth Secrets Many soft synths have their own vol-ume control in the plug-in window,and the rules are different for softsynths. Push the soft synth’s volumetoo high, and often, you’ll overload itsmixer channel in the host program,distorting the sound. Try this advicefrom recording engineer OrlandoRashid (Jamie Foxx, Ludacris, SnoopDogg): “Insert a compressor plug-inon the audio or instrument channelwhere the soft synth lives. Set it soit’s not really compressing, or justbarely hitting. Keep the soft synth’svolume on the low side, and use thecompressor’s output or make-up gainto make it louder.” Some DAWs alsohave simple “trim” plug-ins, useful foradjusting software instruments thatdon’t have their own volume.

This article was originally pub-lished in Keyboard magazine’s mam-moth June 2006 “Record YourBoards” issue.


KEYBOARDS For More Go To www.eqmag.com

MANAGING GAIN STAGES

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by M i c h a e l M o l e n d a

Recording aggro, bombastic drumsisn’t just about fabulous sourcesounds captured by mics positionedvery close to cymbals, toms, a kickdrum, and a snare. That’s a start—avery good start, in fact—but the awe-someness also comes from how thedrums interact with a specific record-ing environment.

Sadly, the “room sound” chal-lenge is where many home-studiomusicians start reaching for drum-sample collections, because the typi-cal personal studio is not the hippestplace to set up mics, and track a glo-rious combination of percussiveimpact and environmental ambience.Or is it? If you can record drums at atime when all the banging won’tdrive your house mates or neighborsinsane, then any apartment or homemight surprise you with the numberof cool reflections, echoes, andreverbs hiding within. And whilethere are tons of absolutely mar-velous drum samples available today,it’s also a thrill to be able to craftbig-ass drum sounds to your ownpreferences, or to the specific needsof the song at hand. So if you’re oneof those hardy explorer types whoadore drums that sound as expan-sive as the Alaskan wilderness, hereare a few suggestions for mammothDIY drum sounds.

Steve Lillywhite’s Big BangIn 1980, U2’s “I Will Follow”exploded from radios everywhere.But the propulsive energy wasn’tjust due to the youthful angst oftalented and visionary teens—a fairshare was due to producer SteveLillywhite’s massively ambientdrum sound on the song’s intro.Let’s use that classic and tremen-dous sound as the benchmark forpulling big booms out of your per-sonal studio space.

Get HardIf you’re not recording drum tracks ina warehouse—or in a big studio with30-foot ceilings from which to hangmicrophones—ambient success restsin your ability to get some sexy reflec-tions out of your home. And thatmeans it’s all about hard surfaces.

Remove as many soft surfacesfrom the room as you can. That cushycouch and all those easy chairs areoh-so-comfy for watching TV, butthey’ll suck the life out of the reflec-tions you’re trying to capture, so get’em outta there!

Now, set up the drum kit a few feetin front of a large picture window, andatop a hardwood floor. If the room iscarpeted, borrow or buy a sheet ofplywood large enough for the entirekit to be placed upon it, and then tosssome more sheets around to break upthe reverb-killing effect of the rest ofthe carpet. If there’s no huge frontwindow, then find a suitable house, orMcGuyver a few plywood sheets tostand upright around the back of thedrum kit. If you go crazy at HomeDepot, putting an extra couple of ply-wood sheets at the left and right ofthe kit will help intensify the reflectionaction. If you’ve done a good job,when you clap your hands, you’ll hearsome very cool echoes.

Miking for MassiveThe first step is to close-mic the kit asyou usually would, because thesetracks will still provide the impact andpunch of the overall drum sound.Then, as the drummer plays, walkaround the room and listen for areaswhere the reflections are mostintense. Don’t miss the reverberantmajesty of putting mics down hall-ways, or inside nearby closets (withthe door open, of course), facing win-dows, or raised up and pointing at thecorners of the ceiling. Seek out anyand every place where reflections arehaving a party, and get mics in thearea. Yes, you will probably need to

borrow mics from buddies in order todocument all the potential ambientpoints in your home, so don’t be shy.Large-diaphragm condensers are pre-ferred, as they’re typically sensitiveenough to “hear” the detail of mostexcellent reverb tails, stutter echoes,and other such reflections. However,I’ve also captured some pretty coolambient sounds with small-diaphragmcondensers, affordable ribbon mics,dynamic mics, and even cheap RadioShack mics. As always, experimenta-tion is often as critical as the gear, souse those ears and your imagination.

Squash ItBecause you’re not in a warehouse orhuge, beautiful pro-studio space,some of the miked ambience may berather low in level. The in-the-closetmic, for example, can sound cool ashell, but it might be a bit limp on theimpact factor. This is where compres-sion can save your butt. You cancompress every track to bring up thelow-level ambient sounds if you havea rockin’ DAW, or, if you’re limited oncompressors, you can assign all themics to a stereo submix, and com-press the crap out of the sub. I tendto go pretty aggressive with a 10:1ratio at a –10dB threshold.

Mix ItNow that you have a hopefully enor-mous and totally compressed stereosubmix (or individually compressedmic tracks) of ambient drum sounds—so ambient, in fact, that they seemabsolutely drenched in reverberation—the trick is to blend the ambient drumtracks with the close-miked drumtracks to craft a killer combo of articu-late percussive attacks and vibeyroom sound. You can go more “dry” ifyou’re a sissy, or do the Lillywhitemove and crank up the “wet” tracks.Real adventurous souls can bring inthe wet tracks more intensely at cer-tain parts to pump up specific energypoints in the song. Go Big!

DRUMS

EXPLORING SPACE

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by S co t t M a t h ews

I’ve been lucky to be included in theBeach Boys’ inner circle since the late’70s—and I’ve worked on many oftheir records—but nothing quite pre-pared me for being given carteblanche to arrange, record, and pro-duce background vocals for a found-ing member of one of the greatestvocal bands of all time. Thelegendary Al Jardine asked me tohelp complete a song he had beenworking on sporadically for 15 years,and when the audio files to “Don’tFight the Sea” were opened at myMill Valley, California, studio TikiTown, the glorious voices of BrianWilson, Carl Wilson, and, of course,the forever underrated Al Jardinegave me chicken skin. I’ve come tounderstand that there is only oneway to get that Beach Boys sound—the blend always has to include Al’svoice. He had the glue that broughtall the individual voices into oneinstantly recognizable and magnifi-cent vocal sound.

A Few Small RepairsMy first priority was to listen and fig-ure out if any parts needed to befixed, added, or deleted. I instantlyrecognized the greatness of thetracks, but there were some spotsthat needed work—the most obviousbeing a rough outro section. Ireplaced an out-of-tune and out-of-time vocal with my own voice, usinga lovely, early ’50s Neumann U48tube mic. The main reason I chosethe U48 is that it was often used onclassic Beach Boys tracks, and Iwanted to go after the same sound.Once I had the first part down, I dou-bled it in unison for a full and richsound that was so good I decided to

triple it. Each time I sang the part, Imoved slightly off the mic to emulatea more natural “group vocal” sound,as well as to introduce just the rightamount of ambience to the tracks.That hit the spot, and it was the endof the “fixes.”

Singing With AngelsWhat came next was about as fun asrecording gets—arranging new vocalparts to go with some of my favoritesingers ever. I had purposely not pre-pared any parts in advance of thesession to ensure that the spirit ofthe moment would inspire me to thefullest. I asked my chief engineer TomLuekens to roll to a section of thesong that sounded a little empty, andI began signing a series of “ahhs.” Ittook about three takes until I hit onone that was perfect for building on. Itripled this part, and then sang ahigher harmony part, and tripled it,as well. I thought about trying aneven higher harmony, but I quicklyrealized that Brian and Carl Wilson’svoices sounded so fine up there thatit was best leaving that frequencyrange to them. I went with a lowerharmony, tripled it, and was quitepleased with the results.

Happy as I was, I decided to try afourth part that was very low. Cautiousnot to end up with any fat tones thatcould clutter the bottom end, weseverely EQ’d the part after it wasrecorded by applying a –12dB shelf at188Hz with a gentle slope beginning ataround 400Hz. I sang a throaty basspart three times in unison, thinkingthat it likely wouldn’t work, and we’dget rid of it. To my surprise, it was trueto the school, so to speak. Lesson: Youdon’t really know if something worksor not until you lay it down, so don’tbe timid to try things. At worst, you’ll

just erase the part, and no one willknow it ever existed.

IcingSome solo-vocal lines appeared threetimes during the song. The first oneworked perfectly, but I added a vocalto the second occurrence (single-tracked) that brought somethingnew to the part, and then added asecond and third vocal when the partappeared for the third and last time.All told, I stacked 17 vocal parts.Nothing was too busy, or got in theway of other mix elements, and allthe vocal tones were crafted to fitwith the original Beach Boys voices.After laying down a couple ofacoustic 12-string parts to introducethe choruses—parts that Al dubbed“the Tarantino Touch”—I was done.

Afterwards, I realized that I haddone lots of singing with the BeachBoys in my car, in the studio, and onstage, so I had a good intuition as towhich types of vocal parts,harmonies, and timbres wouldenhance Al’s track. That experiencenot only kept me from being nervousabout tackling the job, it also guidedme to craft appropriate parts thatwould help complete “Don’t Fight theSea” without moving it too far fromthe Beach Boys sound.

VOCALS

CRAFTING THE MAGIC OF THE BEACH BOYS

More on www.eqmag.com

Scott Mathews (right) and Al Jardineduring a Brian Wilson soundcheckat the Mountain Winery, Saratoga,California.

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b y M i c h a e l M o l e n d a

Oops. Sorry. Tough love, there. Buthere’s the deal: Your musical fate istotally decided by what a listenerhears “in the grooves”—whether thatperson is a label rep, a potential fan, oryour mom. Unfortunately, you don’tcome along with your mix. You’re notthere to explain all your angst, or makeexcuses for the crap gear you cobbledtogether to record your sonic opus, orinform everyone they should really digthe songs because they’re based onthe life of burlesque comic Pinky Lee,and you used a DADGAD tuning toperform all the guitar tracks. Trustme—no one cares.

When you’re already famous, Bar-bara Walters might marvel at yourobsession with Pinky, but when you’rea nobody all that so-called “interestingbackground material” is just meaning-less pap that doesn’t make up for aless-than-inspired audio production.

Of course, if people love you no mat-ter what you do—even if what you dosucks—then you will be a famous andbeloved musician whether you produceappallingly awful mixes or not. The restof us should probably try to avoid thefive deadly sins that follow. . . .

You’ve Drowned theSucker in ReverbReverb is like super crack for unsophis-ticated audio nerds who can’t helpthemselves from drenching everythingin cathedral-type ambience with epicdecays. Pretty soon, every element ofthe mix sounds like it’s underwater,and clarity, impact, and dimension arelost. And remember, every element ina stereo mix can affect its neighbor,so don’t try the excuse that “I only puta big reverb on the vocal,” becausethat vocal reverb can still mess withthe perception of the backing tracks,or worse yet, seem totally out of placeagainst a much drier rhythm section.

Sonic Life Preserver: Try mixingeverything completely dry, and when

you like how everything sounds, tryadding in just a bit of reverb until athree-dimensional quality becomesevident.

Man, This is a MessyRoom . . .The Beatles recorded Sgt. Pepperon two synced 4-tracks, but nowDAWs offer up something like10,000 individual tracks. But thatdoesn’t mean you have to actuallyuse all of those tracks. I’m surethat your multiple percussiontracks, and quadrupled guitar-har-mony lines are fabulous, but dothey move the song forward, or addto the vibe, or are they just one oftoo many things for the listener tofocus on? Cluttered mixes with tonsof textures and layers can be frustrat-ing to hear, because the heart of thesong is often lost in the crowdedsonic spectrum.

Sonic Life Preserver: Choose justa few mix elements to highlight. Oneelement will likely be the lead vocal—which is the thing most people listento, anyway. Or are you certain thateveryone would go nuts over yoursoft, bell-like harmonics that happenjust once in verse three for sixseconds? Discipline yourself to spot-light one main element per song sec-tion in order to keep interest pumpingalong as the work chugs along. If youmix a ton of things the same volumebecause you love them all, you’re notreally allowing the listener to hear acompelling story unfold in your music.

Vocal Ping PongSome people like vocals loud, and somelike them soft, but nobody likes themtoo loud or too soft. Sounds confusing,huh? Well, if someone has to strain tocomfortably hear the vocal, you’ve lostthem. If the vocal is mixed so low thatthe snare, guitars, cymbals, or anythingelse interfere with the voice, its words,or its tone, you’re done. Bad things alsohappen if the vocal is mixed so loud

that it seems as if the singer is scream-ing over a boom box.

Sonic Life Preserver: There are anumber of good “tests” for vocal lev-els. One of my favorites is to turndown the mix until it’s barely audible.If I can still hear every word of thevocal, but I can also hear the drumsand main harmonic instrument (gui-tar, keyboard, etc.), then all is well.

Gnarly Sonic SpectrumMuddy mixes are the aural equivalentof wolfing down too much turkey,stuffing, and potatoes on Thanksgiv-ing. The indistinct bass and dull midsmake for a sluggish listening experi-ence that will likely thrill no one. Onthe other hand, trying to be all mod-ern and punchy with a mix thatshoots out searing mids and sizzlinghighs like ninja shuriken blades mightjust behead your audience.

Sonic Life Preserver: To ensurethat your sonic spectrum isn’t out ofwhack, reference your mix to aselected “professional” mix from oneof your favorite CDs. This is the bestway I’ve found to assess whether I’mpumping too much bass (ascompared to the reference mix), orbeing too heavy handed on the midsor highs. When you switch back andforth between your mix and the promix, it will be very clear where yoursstands sonically. Correct accordingly.

Crushed to DeathCompression can make your mixesappear to sound louder, and exploderight out of a playback system. Toomuch compression can destroy everyshred of dynamic interest, and incorpo-rate bizarre pumping and breathingartifacts into the mix. Learn from thesad tale of Metallica’s Death MagneticCD that was so compressed fansstarted listening to the less-compressedtracks on the Guitar Hero game.

Sonic Life Preserver: Leave thecompression to a good masteringengineer.


MIXING

5 REASONS WHY YOURMIX IS CRAP

For More Go To www.eqmag.com

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b y K e n t C a r m i c a l

Many home engineers might cringe infear at the thought of a double-bassplayer walking in to record a jazz ses-sion. The instrument itself is large, hasstrings made from sheep’s intestines,and isn’t likely to show up in your usualrock and roll scene. Not to mentionthat jazz players ain’t impressed withhammer-ons, sweep picking, or bitchin’tats, and they play in keys most rockmusicians have never even considered.Jazz is its own world with its own prior-ities, Daddy-o, and while this bit won’thave you digging Kerouac or Coltrane,it may keep you from looking like asquare when the cats come to yourstudio to really blow.

Find the Sweet SpotAcoustic instruments rely on the envi-ronment they are recorded in for agood deal of their sound, so take thetime to find the sweet spot in theroom—that is, the location where thebass sounds best. It’s also no sin totrust the bassist’s choice of the spotwhere the instrument produces itsfinest tones. Jazz bassists have sacri-ficed most of life’s wonders to learntheir instrument from the headstockscroll to the pointy thing that sticksout of the bottom, so don’t secondguess them just to massage your ego.

Use Two MicsFor all its size and intimidation factor,the double bass would have to workpretty hard to overcome a ukulelewhen it comes to volume. So unless

you have access to some very sensi-tive dynamic mics, condensers areusually the way to go. A good start isto use a large-diaphragm condenserto capture the low-end thump, and asmall-diaphragm condenser to pickup the woody midrange of the body.

While you might think the bestposition to start miking a double basswould be around the f-holes, the rushof air shooting from each hole spacecan produce boomy, indistinctsounds. Instead, place the large-diaphragm condenser roughly sixinches from the body of the bass, andpointed at a spot between the bridgeand the f-hole. Now, position thesmall-diaphragm condenser about afoot from the bottom of the finger-board, tilted up at a 90-degree angle.If the large-diaphragm mic is pickingup too much low end (or wind fromthe f-hole), point it closer to thebridge, keeping the same distancefrom the bass itself. If a more articu-late sound is the action you crave, tryraising the small-diaphragm mic untilit’s closer to where the bassist isplucking the strings.

Jetison CompressionFrank Zappa once referred to jazz as“the music of unemployment.” WhileI’m in no position to argue with one ofthe greats, I can tell you that when itcomes to recording, jazz is the musicof no compression. Dynamics areimportant to jazz music, so whywould you want to stomp all overthem? If you are having problems withtoo much dynamic range—say, if the

bassist uses a combination of softplucks and violent slaps to play a pas-sage—then man up and ride the faderlike a real engineer. (Which means youactually learn the song, dipping thefader during the slap phrases, andboosting it when the bassist’s touchgets light.) However, if you are com-pelled to use compression, use itlightly—no more than a 2:1 ratio, with afast attack and a medium release.

Dial Out Bad ThingsWith EQEqualization however, is a differentmatter. Most double basses producecopious amounts of sonic blubberbetween 80Hz and 120Hz. You canhelp alleviate any muddy or woofylow end with a notch filter. Start bynotching out 5dB to 10dB at 100Hz,realizing that every bass has its ownsonic character, and you will mostlikely have to play with different fre-quencies and cut/boost levels tobring out the instrument’s hippesttone. For punch and clarity, experi-ment with boosting somewherearound 800Hz to 2.5KHz by2dB–3dB. It is important to do EQadjustments with the bass in the mix, ratherthan soloed, to ensure your tweaksdon’t adversely affect the other ele-ments of the track. A big low end onthe double bass, for example, mightoverwhelm the sound of the kickdrum. Critical listening should pointyou to any tonal problems or chal-lenges, and appropriate EQ adjust-ments can save you from having tore-mic and re-record. Dig?


TRACKING

4 WAYS TO SURVIVE A JAZZ DOUBLE BASS SESSION

For More Go To www.eqmag.com

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OBJECTIVE: Install USB and Firewire hardware devices, like audio interfaces and control surfaces, without any problems.BACKGROUND: Hardware driver installation for Windows has become simpler, but sometimes there are still issues. This PowerApp Alley covers the steps you need to take for a (hopefully!) flawless installation, using USB as an example.

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WINDOWS XP DRIVER INSTALLBY C RA I G A N D E R TO N

STEPS

POWER APP ALLEY

■ Step 3: You may be able to uninstall drivers by going Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs, selecting the driver, and clicking on Remove; or, by going Start > (name of program)and selecting an uninstall routine. If you’re downloading drivers, look for any instructions (e.g., PDF docs) and read them.

■ Step 5: Most, but not all, XP hardware installations require leavingthe hardware unconnected until after driver software installation.

■ Step 6: With Line 6 hardware, a re-start is generally not required.■ Step 7: If a warning says the driver hasn’t passed Windows

testing, click on “Continue Anyway.”

TIPS

1. Create a System Restore point (go Start >Programs > Accessories > System Tools >System Restore) in case there’s a problemand you need to try again.

2. Physically unplug all unneeded USBdevices (e.g., everything, includingdongles, except keyboard and mouse).

3. If an older driver is installed, go Start >Control Panel and double-click on System.Click on Device Manager, locate the driver,right-click on it, and select Uninstall.Optional: Restarting the computer (seeStep 6) after this step may solveinstallation problems.

4. Right-click on the Taskbar, and selectTask Manager. Turn off all unneededprograms, especially anti-virus programsand Windows Defender, by right-clickingon the entry and selecting End Process.

5. Start driver installation, usually bydouble-clicking on an EXE or MSI file.Follow any instructions, particularly if you’readvised not to have hardware connected.

6. After driver installation, unless instructedotherwise, go Start > Turn off Computerand select Restart to re-boot the computer.

7. Plug in the hardware. Wait for the “FoundNew Hardware” balloon to appear, and whenthe “Found New Hardware Wizard” appears,select “Install the software automatically”and follow instructions. When driverinstallation is finished, enjoy your hardware!

EQ APRIL 2010 www.eqmag.com

Practice “safe install” for Windows XP

from denisbul

“Lennon” and “John Lennon” are trademarks of Yoko Ono Lennon. All artwork © Yoko Ono Lennon. Licensed exclusively through Bag One Arts, Inc. Design: Baree Fehrenbach

©

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OBJECTIVE: Change the character of loops by taking advantage of Live’s groove-oriented functions.BACKGROUND: You can overlay “grooves” on the timing of audio and MIDI clips to change the clip’s timing and velocity, thuscreating different “feels.” Live’s Library includes a bunch of preset Grooves, but note that you can also extract groove timingdata from MIDI and audio clips to create custom grooves.

50

ABLETON LIVE 8BY C RA I G A N D E R TO N

STEPS

POWER APP ALLEY

■ In Step 4, you can use the up/down arrow keys to step through groove presets, then click on the Hot Swap button to audition the preset.

■ In Step 5, note the Amount control at the top. This is a “master” control that varies the amount of Timing, Randomness, and Velocity simultaneously and proportionately.

■ In Step 6, if in Hot Swap mode, double-clicking on a browser groove replaces the currently selected groove in the Groove Pool.

TIPS

1. With an audio clip loaded, click on theClip Overview to reveal clip parameters.

2. Locate the Grooves folder in the Library,then click on the Groove Pool button toopen the Groove Pool. This will show allavailable grooves for the Live set.

3. For quick groove auditioning, click onthe Clip’s Hot Swap button.

4. The Groove Browser goes into Hot Swapmode. Click on a groove to select it, thenclick on the groove’s Hot Swap button toaudition it. This groove will appear as anentry in the Groove Pool.

5. When you find a groove you like, you cantweak the various parameters (Timing,Randomness, and Velocity, as well as Quan-tization) for that groove in the GroovePool. Note that tweaking automaticallyexits Hot Swap mode.

6. When not in Hot Swap mode, you canadd more grooves to the Groove Pool bydouble-clicking on groove presets inthe browser.

7. All currently available grooves in thepool appear in a drop-down menu in clipview; selecting a groove applies it non-destructively to the clip. To write thegroove to the selected audio clip, click onthe Commit button just below the drop-down menu.

EQ APRIL 2010 www.eqmag.com

Apply and edit “grooves” for audio clips

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ROUNDUP: PROJECTMASTERINGMASTER CLASS


GEAR HEAD

by C ra i g A n d e r to n

Without blowing our horn like, y’know,too much, we really have been on topof the “project mastering” trend forsome time. So for this roundup, we’llassume you have the basics figuredout (you can master at home, but youbetter know what you’re doing), andconcentrate on specific techniquesthat relate to mastering. Some of theserelate to tracking and mixing, too. Also,rather than having our usual reviewformat, we’ll instead pick some coolfeatures from various digital audio

editing programs, and show how toapply them to real-world situations.

As to which digital audio editor isbest, they all do the job—but they alldo the job differently. Also, some haveunique features that are essential tosome people, but irrelevant to others.I’m very fortunate, because I get toevaluate all these programs whiledoing reviews, then use whatever Iwant with music projects. And frankly, Iuse everything. I’ll often go throughthree or more programs to get the finalresult—even crossing back and forthbetween Windows and Mac.

Of course, having multiple productsadds up price-wise, but the price of allthese programs adds up to about thesame as the reel-to-reel two-trackmachine I used back in the day. We’vedefinitely come a long way.

SO WHAT’S THE DEALWITH “GOLDEN EARS”?But first . . . for years, people havetalked about the need to use profes-sional mastering engineers, with theusual reasons being “well, they’vedone hit records and have goldenears.” But what are the characteristics

Why settle for tracks that sound “good”when they can sound “great”?

from denisbul


of “golden ears” for mastering?Simple: The ability to detect

extremely subtle changes. This is cru-cial for two reasons. First, applying aprocessor to a mixed stereo trackaffects everything—if you boost a par-ticular frequency, you’re boosting thatfrequency for drums, voice, bass, etc.This is very different from processingan individual track, where it’s oftendesirable to paint in broad strokes.

Second, mastering typicallyinvolves lots of little edits, but theseadd up to a not-so-little result. Everyaction does have an equal and oppo-site reaction; alter the dynamics, andyou alter the mix. Boost or cut at acertain frequency, and it will makeother frequencies seem softer orlouder in comparison.

This is where many wannabe mas-tering engineers fall short, becausethey apply “recording thinking” to

“mastering thinking.” Mastering is theart of subtlety, and you have to under-stand which small changes you need tomake for a big result.

THE EQUALIZATIONTWO-STEPIf I could only have one processor formastering, it would be EQ. I actuallyuse two independent EQ processes.The first fixes problems, while thesecond adds subjective tonalimprovements. For fixing, I call up thefile in Har-Bal to see what’s going onin the overall audio spectrum (Figure1). The heart of the program is an8,192 stage FIR equalizer, but it alsodisplays an average of the energy dis-tribution across the audio spectrum in1/6 octave bands (you can changethis, but 1/6 octave is my preferredsetting). Looking at the display canprovide an “early warning system” for

any frequency response anomalies,although of course you can’t makeany final determinations without usingyour ears (and brain). Common prob-lems are:

· Bass doesn’t roll off at subsonicfrequencies. Cutting everything below 20–30Hz can clean up the sound and open up a bit more headroom (also see the section “Remove the Subsonics”).

· Bass range peaks and dips. This isusually due to room issues where therecording was made, but be carefulin your analysis—there may be amajor kick drum that causes anintended peak. However, this tendsto be a single blob of energy,whereas room issues cause a curvethat looks more like “ripples” due tomultiple resonances.

· Too many highs. What with distorted

Fig. 1. The upper window shows the response prior tocompensating for inconsistencies in the bass range anda wicked peak at about 700Hz; the lower windowshows the response for the fixed version. Fig. 2. SoundSoap Pro 2 is a general-purpose noise

reduction plug-in that’s suitable for use with digitalaudio editors and multitrack DAWs.


GEAR HEAD

guitars, aliasing that generates weirdharmonics, digital clipping, and thelike, today’s recordings sometimesseem harsh. A little high-frequency rolloff can tame harsh-ness without reducing theperceived high frequencyresponse.

· Midrange issues. Unexpectedmidrange peaks, attributable to a variety of factors, can sometimes give a “honking” effect. Thesemay be subtle, but you’ll still noticethe sound is smoother when youcorrect them.

Of course, you don’t need Har-Balto do these kinds of fixes; you can usea parametric EQ to reduce nastypeaks. The trick here is to narrow thepeak and boost to an absurd degree,then sweep the frequency to hearwhich frequencies slam the level intodistortion. You can then cut theresponse of that frequency to reducethe peak, and smooth out the sound.

For the second EQ process, I’ll tendto use a parametric or a “broad” EQ(I’ve always liked Pultec units for this,and the Universal Audio emulation isvery good). For example, I might add ageneral upper midrange lift to givevocals and guitars more definition, or

boost the bass a bit to give the kickmore authority.

BANISH THE NOISEIf you’re lucky, a cut to be masteredwill have a few seconds of “air” at thebeginning, rather than be croppedright up to the start. System hiss andnoise will be present in this “silent”part. Granted, this might seem verylow-level, but removing low-level noiseis like blowing the dust off a painting—everything looks the same, it’s justmore defined.

I generally use Sony Sound Forge’snoise reduction, and choose the mostnatural algorithms and minimal reduc-tion (the less reduction you need to do,the better). If a file already has rela-tively low noise to begin with, noisereduction can make it sound perfectwithout creating audible artifacts.

This type of noise reduction(Adobe Audition incorporates a similarnoise reduction module) requiresdefining a region of pure hiss, called a“noiseprint.” This is analyzed, andextremely sharp/precise filteringremoves these specific frequencies.You can edit the strength of the noisereduction, and even edit the noiseprintmanually. Also, Sound Forge lets youinclude noise reduction in effects

chains, which is helpful: You can applytwo subtle processes instead of a sin-gle, more drastic one.

On the Mac, and also with WindowsDAWs, my plug-in of choice is BIAS’sSoundSoap Pro 2 (Figure 2). But I alsouse it with digital audio editors,because while it can do the “isolate apiece of noise and eliminate it” trick,the latest version does Adaptive NoiseReduction where the program decideswhat’s noise and what isn’t by itself,and can even change that definitionover the course of a file. For an exam-ple of why this is useful, consider anoisy file that’s been compressed, sothe noise changes over time—Sound-Soap Pro 2 can adapt to the changesin hiss levels. It also includes otherrestoration tools (click/pop removaland hum).

However, note that most digitalaudio editors include some kind ofnoise reduction; Audition offers severaldifferent types, and Steinberg Wave-lab’s DeNoise even offers adaptivenoise reduction.

THE RIGHT FADEI request that people submit files to mewith no fades, and instead specifywhere they want the fade to begin andend. The main reason is so I can create

Fig. 3. Sound Forgehas a great fade fea-ture that uses abreakpoint envelope,where you can add asmany points as youwant to create anyarbitrary curve. It’salso possible to pre-view the fade beforecommitting to it.

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the perfect curve—a lot of the files Iget have linear fades, which don’tsound all that great. But the other rea-son is so there’s material just in casethe fade needs to be extended.

This situation happened recentlywhile mastering a cut by Norwegianmusician Ronni Larssen. He expectedthe fade to occur over an instrumentalfigure at the end, but it seemed likenot quite enough time for a fade, andbesides, I liked the figure. So, I copiedthe last figure, and pasted it in twice(using automatic crossfading) so thefigure repeated three times at the end.

Next was taking advantage ofSound Forge’s fade feature, which candefine pretty much any fade curve youwant (Figure 3), as well as preview it. Iwent for a fairly quick fade, then drewa logarithmic fade to the end.

MASTERING WITHINMASTERINGWith a recent mastering job, one sectionbothered me: a drum fill lead-in to achorus just didn’t “pop” enough. Insteadof kicking the energy up a notch, the

quiet fill brought down the song.No problem: I defined that fill as a

region, and increased the gain by 3dB.With Wavelab 6, it’s important to haveregions begin and end on precise zero-crossings, as increasing or decreasinglevel where there’s level can cause aclick due to the abrupt level change.Unfortunately, zero crossings don’talways occur in the same place on dif-ferent channels.

BIAS Peak, Adobe Audition, SoundForge, and others get around this byintroducing a small crossfade betweenthe altered and non-altered sections(Figure 4). The screen shot showsSound Forge because its graphical rep-resentation clearly shows what’s goingon, but I first became aware of thevalue of this approach with BIAS PeakPro, when I needed to change levels ortonalities of individual notes with clas-sical harpsichord and guitar projects.

PULL THE BASS TO CENTERBass belongs in the center. With vinyl,that’s a requirement so that the stylus

doesn’t jump out of its groove; thesedays you can put bass wherever youwant from a technical standpoint, butfor my taste, it still works best in thecenter. Bass is non-directional comparedto highs, so having it emanate equallyfrom stereo loudspeakers on playbackmakes sense.

One of my “secret weapon” tech-niques for giving rock/pop tunes morepower is the Multiband Stereo Imagingprocessor in iZotope’s Ozone 4 (Figure5). Although these types of processorsgenerally widen the stereo image, withOzone 4 you can narrow the stereoimage by choosing a negative “widen-ing” value. Because it’s a multibandprocessor, you can apply this to thebass range only, and “anchor” thesong’s low end.

REMOVE THE SUBSONICSPeople aren’t going to hear what’sbelow 20Hz, so you might as well nukeany energy down there. If there are anysubsonic signals—which is increasinglylikely in a digital world, where sounds

Fig. 4. When you need toraise or lower the gain orotherwise process individualsections, the ability of sev-eral programs to add anautomatic crossfade elimi-nates clicks due to abruptlevel changes.

Fig. 5. The multiband stereoimage widener in iZotope’sOzone 4 can also narrow theimage. In this case, lower bassfrequencies are being pulledto the center.


GEAR HEAD

can be transposed into the subsonicrange—they’ll take away from availablebandwidth, and in some cases, muddythe sound.

Although this roundup isn’t reallyabout plug-ins, for low-cut filtering I useWaves’ LinEQ Lowband Stereo (Figure6), because there have been times whenI haven’t heard any difference with itinserted, but the meters indicated I’dgained back headroom. It’s your basiclinear phase surgical EQ tool, and isideal for this type of application.

WHY SPECTRAL VIEW ROCKSWavelab and Adobe Audition includethe option of spectral view editing(Sound Forge has a spectral display,but you can’t do any actual editing).The 1/10 issue includes a techniquesarticle on using spectral editing toremove noises, scrapes, and the likefrom nylon string guitar.

Spectral view presents audio not asa waveform, but how energy is distrib-uted in the spectrum. For example, inFigure 7 the bass notes are yellow,with brighter yellow meaning that thenote is louder. It’s possible to identify,isolate, and edit specific events, like akick drum, cough, finger scrape, andthe like. With Audition, after selectingthe region you want to edit, you can

change level (e.g., attenuate it so it’snot as prominent, or boost it) with thelevel control that appears automatically,or do any other processing—compressjust a single kick note, for example.

I don’t use spectral view for generalmastering, but only if problems needto be solved—it’s more of a technicalprocess than a musical one. But whenyou really need to get “inside” thewaveform, there’s no better option.

MICRO-MASTERINGClients want loud cuts, but I’d rathernot put a limiter on the output andsquash the file to death. “Micro-master-ing” is an effective, albeit tedious, wayto increase overall level, while minimiz-ing the negative effects of any limitingor compression that does get used.

This works on the principle that anymixed file has occasional peaks thatare significantly higher than otherpeaks. For example, suppose that 12peaks have values between –2dB and0dB, and all other peaks fall below–2dB. If we reduce the 12 peaks to–2dB, then it’s possible to raise thelevel of the entire file up by 2dB, thusgaining 2dB of “loudness” withoutusing compression.

Finding those peaks is easy withWavelab’s Global Analysis feature.First, decide how much headroom you

want to open up—I’d suggest 2dB untilyou get a feel for how this processworks. Go Analysis > Global Analysis,and click on the Peaks tab. To find onepeak at a time, enter 1 for themaximum number of peaks to report.Click on Analyze, then click on theMaximum field for either the right orleft channel. Click on Focus, and Wave-lab jumps to that peak.

With snap to zero crossingsselected (it’s under Options, or justtype Z), define the half-cycle contain-ing the peak as a region, then invokenormalization to change the peak levelfor this region to –2dB. If thecorresponding region in the otherchannel exceeds the peak you justreduced, normalize that section as wellwhile you’re in the same general area.

Keep working through the file, apeak at a time, until the maximumpeak Wavelab finds is –2dB or less.Your work is done for that channel.Similarly, reduce peaks on the otherchannel to –2dB.

When all peaks have been tamed to–2dB, use normalization or gainchange to bring up the file level (Fig-ure 8). The file will be noticeablylouder, but you’ll notice no artifactsfrom compression because you haven’tcompressed anything. Furthermore,anything lower than –2dB has been

Fig. 7. Adobe Audition’s Spectral View is idealfor making edits with surgical precision—you caneven lower the level on a single drum hit, orremove the cough from a live recording.

Fig. 6. Waves’ plug-ins are very popular for master-ing, but don’t overlook the LinEQ Lowband Stereo forremoving subsonics and rumble.

from denisbul

S P E C I A L A D V E R T I S I N G S E C T I O N



GEAR HEAD

untouched. Now if you want to addsome maximization, if you had origi-nally wanted to boost the overall levelby 6dB, you only need to apply 4dB.The result: a loud cut that can “com-pete” level-wise with other music, butwhich has a more natural sound thatretains dynamics better.

WHAT ABOUT THIRD-PARTY PLUG-INS?Although digital audio editing programscome with a plethora of plug-ins, don’toverlook what third-party plug-ins canbring to the party. Universal Audio andTC Electronic (with their PowerCore)offer several mastering-oriented plug-ins hosted by hardware so they don’tload down your CPU, and previousissues of EQ have covered useful mas-tering plug-ins like tape emulators. Also,note that McDSP has announcedupcoming availability of many of theirplug-ins in VST and AU formats; severalMcDSP plug-ins are superb for master-ing, so this is good news.

As to other favorites, this is a verysubjective area but I like PSPAudioware’s compressors, EQ, andtheir Vintage Warmer; and of course,Waves makes outstanding masteringplug-ins. I also find some of SSLDuende’s plug-ins invaluable when youwant to add “character” but if yourbudget is tight, check out what Voxengohas to offer—their plug-ins are oftenunderrated. URS makes several coolplug-ins, but for me the ones thatstand for mastering are those thatmodel mixer stages, transformerinputs, and the like—they’re subtle, butsubtle is often exactly what you need.And for a one-stop solution, it’s hard tobeat Ozone 4.

TRANSFORMING A DAWINTO A MASTERINGMACHINEAlthough there are many similaritiesamong digital audio-related programs,digital audio editors still exist as a sep-arate product category because they

put individual bits of digital audiounder the microscope, while DAWs areabout dealing with large numbers ofhard disk, MIDI, and virtual instrumenttracks. Still, some DAWs are slowly butsurely turning into mastering machines.

Magix Samplitude (Figure 9) andAdobe Audition have always empha-sized a combination of multitrackingand mastering. More recently,PreSonus’ Studio One (Figure 10)has integrated mastering with track-ing/mixing in a highly evolved way—forexample, edits to a mix are reflected inthe playlist that burns a CD. But evenprograms that aren’t billed as master-ing software per se can often bepressed into service.

Take Cakewalk Sonar: It has severalphase linear processors, a spectrumanalyzer, dithering, markers that iden-tify peak levels, high-resolution meter-ing (down to –90dB), and othermastering-oriented tools. WhileSonar’s default workflow isn’t particu-larly suited to efficient digital audio

Fig. 9. Samplitude includesseveral mastering-level effects,including this multibanddynamics processor.

Fig. 8. The “micromastered” file is at thetop, the original file at the bottom, andWavelab’s peak-finding dialog is towardthe right. The peaks on both files are at 0,but the micromastered file has a higheraverage level.

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editing, customization can make it“feel” more like a digital audio editingprogram (Figure 11).

For example, simplifying menus sothat they show only essential functionshelps improve workflow; there’s usuallyno need for MIDI, measures, staff view,lyrics, virtual instruments, and video. Irenamed the “Process” menu “DSP”and placed all audio DSP functionsunder it, and as I’ve been using SoundForge since the mid-’90s, I re-arrangedand re-named Sonar’s File menu to bemore like Sound Forge’s.

I also created a layout for digitalaudio editing, with a large track viewto make waveform viewing simpler,and a very restricted console view thatshows only the master bus (with levelsset to 0). This recalls Wavelab’s mastersection, but there’s a practical reasonfor splitting the mastering load intodestructive “technical” fixes thatinvolve DSP (like getting rid of clicks,

glitches, noise, etc.), and “artistic” fixesthat usually involve plug-ins (like howmuch EQ, limiting, or other “spices” toadd). I make technical fixes on thetrack view itself, but the plug-ins getloaded into the master console strip.It’s therefore possible to bounce thefile to another track through the mas-ter effects, and if needed, do multiplebounces with different variations thatthe artist can evaluate.

Another advantage is that whensaving the project, all these variationsare kept as separate tracks; whenworking on the “technical” elements,you can put temporary dynamics andEQ processing in the master strip for abetter idea of what any changes willsound like after mastering.

For me, the biggest shortcoming oftypical DAWs is a lack of noise reduc-tion, but as mentioned previously,BIAS SoundSoap Pro 2 can take careof that. Like many other DAWs, Sonar

includes dithering (I use the noise-shaped Pow-r 3 option, even thoughit’s the most CPU-intensive) and theability to burn CDs.

Adobe www.adobe.com

BIAS www.bias-inc.com

Cakewalk www.cakewalk.com

Har-Bal www.har-bal.com

iZotope www.izotope.com

Magix www.samplitude.com

McDSP www.mcdsp.com

PSP www.pspaudioware.com

Sony www.sonycreativesoftware.com

SSL www.solid-state-logic.com

Steinberg www.steinberg.net

TC Electronic www.tcelectronic.com

Universal Audio www.uaudio.com

URS www.ursplugins.com

Voxengo www.voxengo.com

Waves www.waves.com

Links

Fig. 11. This window layoutoptimizes Sonar for digitalaudio editing. Note the“Master Strip” to the right;on the waveform itself, apeak is about to bereduced by a few dB sothat normalization can givea higher average level.

Fig. 10. Studio One has a separatewindow for not only mastering indi-vidual cuts, but assembling theminto a playlist, adding mastereffects, burning CDs, and publishingto the Web.

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Loop Workshop follows the “down-load for cheap” model—typical ProSession Drumz series packages arearound 100–200MB, averaging50–150 song segments duplicated asstereo kit and room mics only (layerthem in parallel to choose theamount of room sound), and cost

$12–$14. No, that’s not a typo, and these were recorded inNashville by Tony Morra, so the playing is great. There aremany other packages too, like a dozen drum machineloops for $1.99.

The online audio demos are very helpful, because thenumber of samples is pretty overwhelming—I checked outBig Drumz, Pop Drumz, Rock Drumz, Alt Drumz, andReggae Drumz. The sound for these is raw (but not grungy),muscular, and well-recorded—not surprising, as founder Rick

DiFonzo was half of Discrete Drums, whose libraries are stillmy go-to loops for rock drums. In addition to stereo files,the site will also be offering multitrack Pro Tools sessions;this appeals to me a lot, as I tend to mix cymbals somewhatlower than most people, and the crash cymbals on thestereo files are a bit hot for my taste.

Overall, Loop Workshop seems aimed at the instant grat-ification crowd—“I need a big rock backbeat now, what am Igonna do?” Why, you’re going to go to the Loop Workshopsite, listen to the demos, see what works for you . . . thendownload, and pay for, only what you need. —Craig Anderton

Contact: Loop Workshop, www.loopworkshop.comFormat: Downloadable AIF (Apple Loops 16-bit/44.1kHz or24/48), Acidized WAV (24/48 only), and EXS24; for manyfiles you’ll need to edit transient markers when stretchingList price: Varies depending on product, but value is excellent

LOOP WORKSHOP VARIOUS DRUM LOOP PACKAGES

SONY CONTINENTAL DRIFTWhen they say world loops, they meanworld: Some of these sound likeSmithsonian field recordings, but higherquality—this isn’t “new age” world.

Some regions are sparsely represented:Asia has four instruments, Native Americansand Arabians get five, Gypsies and Celtshave seven; however Africa has ten folders

and East India, six. Fortunately each folder has a reasonableamount of loops, so it’s easy to create variations.

Yes, you can make ethnic-sounding music, whichmight seem limited unless you’re scoring an actionflick where the hero jet-sets to exotic locales. But then Idid the “let’s throw loops together and see what sticks”test, using African vocals and bass, Arabic rhythms,Celtic dulcimer, and East Indian harmoniums and vocals.It sounded surprisingly cool, and as I assumed you

wouldn’t believe me, check out the audio example atwww.eqmag.com.

Of all the “world” sound libraries I’ve reviewed, this is atough call. On one hand, there are enough spices to takeany dance mix to the next level in a Peter Gabriel-esqueway, and it’s a gold mine for soundtracks; but a lot of thematerial is very exotic, likely limiting its usefulness in tradi-tional genres. Still, this is a bold and novel library, andbecause some of the loops are outstanding in terms ofbeing chills-up-spine evocative, it keeps pulling me back infor more. —Craig Anderton

Contact: Sony Creative Software, www.sonycreativesoftware.comFormat: Two CD-ROMs with 969MB of Acidized WAV files;24-bit, 44.1kHzList price: $69.95

UEBERSCHALL PURE FIREThis loop library-meets-instrument is allabout intense, hardcore urban music with amostly minor vibe. I could probably scorean entire inner city crime drama show withjust these loops (and it would be a greatsoundtrack, too).

The drum beats are bone-crushing andhuge, but not huge as in ambience—huge

as in taking over most of the audible spectrum, holding itby the neck, and threatening its family. The synth riffsbuzz away, some FX sound like samples of the apoca-lypse, and there are even a few massive, orchestral-typestings and strings.

The 20 construction kits include deconstructed andmixed riffs, each playable via MIDI (controller or sequencernotes). The Elastik player features stretch algorithms from

zPlane; Ueberschall’s “loop eye” interface brings realtimecontrol sensibility to a loop-based virtual instrument (seethe 3/10 issue), This makes it easy to create extendedimprovisations within the context of a construction kit.

But it’s not all doom and gloom: Take out the melodicinstruments, and you’re left with beefy drum parts that workwith other genres. And don’t get me wrong—the drama anddanger in these loops isn’t a bad thing, as they’re extremelywell done; the intensity and depth lifts them above the ordi-nary. If you seek big, bad, authoritative loops with an under-tone of power and menace, these deliver. —Craig Anderton

Contact: Ueberschall, www.ueberschall.comFormat: DVD-ROM with 1.54GB of content (approx. 900loops), arranged as 20 construction kitsList price: $99.95

SOUNDS

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHTSPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

To advertise in this section contact; Will Sheng at 650-238-0325 [email protected] www.eqmag.com APRIL 2010 EQ 63

ASC Quick Sound FieldAcoustic Sciences CorpNow AvailableQSF takes the room out of the mic andputs the talent in the mix. It's a freestanding live room, where you'll lovethe mics you used to hate.SRP: $3,245 for set of 8 traps.

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Radial J+4 Stereo -10dB to +4dB Line DriverBy Radial EngineeringNow availableConverts consumer level unbalanced high-impedance signals to +4dB forbroadcast, recording or live applications. Transformer isolated activebuffered circuit delivers >95dB signal-to-noise and eliminates hum and buzzfrom ground loops. SRP $220 USD

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AT4080 & AT4081 BidirectionalActive Ribbon Microphones Audio-Technica Now Available Revolutionary active ribbon microphones featuregroundbreaking Audio-Technica dual ribbon designwith 18 patents pending; innovative MicroLinearôribbon imprint; powerful N50 neodymium magnets;extremely durable performance; and smooth, warm,high-fidelity sound.AT4080 $1,245; AT4081 $895

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CLASSIFIEDS


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Buying or selling instruments through our Classified

Ads offers you convenience, a big marketplace, and

a wide range of instruments and prices. However,

buying mail-order does have its drawbacks, too. EQ

Magazine suggests the following guidelines to help

the buyer and the seller in these transactions: 1)

Get a written description of the instrumentshould

include the serial number. 2) Get front and back

photos of the instrument. 3) Get a written purchase

agreement, with a 24-hour approval clause allowing

the buyer to return the instrument for a full refund

if it does not meet his/her reasonable expectations.

ACOUSTIC PRODUCTS & SERVICES

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GET IT SOLD INEQ CLASSIFIEDS!

CALL Will Sheng650-238-0325 or EMAIL at:

[email protected]

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An ad in EQ’s Classifieds reaches more than 34,500* serious musicians for only $2.40 per word plus $7.00 for an address. Minimum

charge: $25.00. Please underline words to appear in bold type and add $0.50 per every bold word. Please indicate clearly any words

to appear in all caps and add $0.25 per every cap word. Each phone number, e-mail address, or website address counts as one word.

Call for display rates. 3 months minimum schedule required. Deadlines are the 8th of the month, 2 months prior to cover date (for example,

April 8th for the June issue, on sale in early June. Businesses must list business name in ad.All ads must be received in writing, paid

in full in advance.All ads must be music-related. Retail advertisers may not list discounted prices or percentages on specific models,

unless items are used or discontinued.Advertisers must provide us with complete name, street address, and phone number, whether

or not included in the ad copy (you may list a PO Box address in your ad, however). Mail ads to: EQ Classifieds,Attn:Will Sheng, 1111

Bayhill Dr., Suite 125, San Bruno, CA 94066. FAX (if paying by MasterCard, or Visa): (650) 238-0263. For more information, call Will

Sheng at (650) 238-0325; E-mail: [email protected]. (*Audited circulation; does not include pass-along rate.)

AD ORDER FORM

Category: ❒ Marketplace ❒ Duplication ❒ Talent and Employment ❒ Sounds/Sequences/Software ❒ Mixing/Mastering❒ Instruments ❒ Accessories ❒ Gear for Sale ❒ Acoustic Products & Svc’s ❒ Studio Furnishings ❒ Other

Company Name ________________________________ Contact Name __________________________________________________

Address __________________________________________________ City ________________________ State ______ Zip __________

Telephone ____________________________________________ E-mail__________________________________________________

Please print your ad clearly. Use a separate sheet of paper if you need more room.

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STUDIO FURNISHINGS

On Air MasteringBrooklyn, NY

www.onairmastering.com347 5233714

Free full song sample!


Studio name: Mayfield MasteringLocation: Nashville, TennesseeWebsite: www.mayfieldmastering.comKey players: John Mayfield, Justin Bonnema Latest projects: Katie Armiger, Steve Green, Naturally 7,John Rutter (Handel’s Messiah), CeCe WinansDAW: PC-based Merging Technologies Pyramix MassCoreand Pyramix Virtual Studio 6.1.8Plug-ins: Cedar Retouch, Celemony Melodyne, Flux, iZo-tope Ozone, PSP Audioware, Serato, Sonnex Oxford, Uni-veral Audio UADConsole: Custom-built Crookwood Mastering ConsoleEQ: Avalon Design AD2077 analog EQ with custom mods,Weiss EQ1-MK2 LP digital EQCompressors: Alan Smart C2, Manley Variable Mu withmastering and m/s mods, Prism Maselec MLA-2, WeissDS1-MK3 digital compressorEffects: Sony DPS-V77Room treatment: Custom-built diffusion, Whisper Wallabsorption, Hidley-style bass trapping Power Conditioning: Equi=Tech Balanced PowerMonitors: Mains: PMC IB1 speakers and XB2 subwoofer, bi-amp, Bryston powered; Smalls: Blue Sky EXOHeadphones: UltrasoneWhy did you open your mastering studio in 1996?Shortly after moving to Nashville in 1993, I bought a SonicSolutions DAW to properly prepare my final mixes formastering. After turning down repeated requests to mas-ter my own mixes (something you should never do!), Idecided that it might be smart to at least consider thechange. I had played music professionally for seven years,recorded and mixed for 23 years. The transition to master-ing was a no-brainer because I liked the idea of havingmore control of my own hours. However, running a high-end mastering facility with a staff of five is not cheap oreasy. But it’s a great work environment where everyonegets along. And clients especially love our catering serviceand open kitchen.You expanded the studio in 2002. What was involved inthe project, and what additional gear was needed?The expansion was primarily based on simple physics. Toreproduce the frequency ranges required in mastering,you need lots of cubic footage. Client comfort is a niceby-product of that large space requirement.

Throughout my career, I had never considered a record-ing studio a good financial investment. The stock marketprovided a much better return without the headaches ofproperty management. Besides, there were always plentyof good rooms available to rent for recording and mixing.A mastering control room, on the other hand, is a

completely different situation. These rooms are truly cus-tom built and set up for the specific engineer that will beusing it. So when the decision was made to dedicate all ofmy time to mastering, I started planning for the big build. Ittook six years of financial “focus” and planning, but webroke ground in mid 2002 and finished in early 2003.

Regarding gear, the only thing we needed to addresswas the speaker layout, so we looked to PMC and installedtwo IB1s, each paired with an XB2 sub via the Bryston10B-Sub Crossover. Amplification is provided by four Brys-ton 7B SST mono blocks.What gear couldn’t you live without?My personal mandate is the implementation of a goodquality master clock and great converters. I cannotemphasize this point enough. Though there are manygood ones available, I use the Apogee Big Ben andRosetta Converters.

And I would not be able to start a mastering session with-out the monitors I have become so accustomed to. As arecording/mix engineer, I traveled with my own speakers andamplification. Before I moved a fader though, I would alwayssit down and listen to some known sources to hear what myspeakers sounded like in that particular control room.Now, if I sat down at my console one morning and saw adifferent set of speakers in my room, I’d stop the sessionimmediately, tell everyone to go home, and start a lengthyeducational listening process. (After which, I’d launcha full-scale investigation into who switched out myblankin’ speaks!)

I also would not be able to start my day withoutMerging Technologies’ Pyramix Virtual Studio, whichmight very well be the best audio production tool on theplanet! Lastly, our in-house FTP server allows us to stayconnected with our worldwide client base.What is one “Aha! moment” you’ve had in your career? I spent all of my recording/mix career in the analogdomain. When I switched to mastering in 1996 and startedreceiving mixes from great engineers who had switched toall digital, it was more of an uh-oh moment. The conve-nience of digital recording was just too hard to ignore formost. Unfortunately, the quality level just wasn’t there.Even today, gargantuan efforts persist to “emulate” thesounds of old. Thankfully though, in the last couple ofyears, designers have started figuring things out, and digi-tal is finally starting to sound acceptable. But that’s notquite an “Aha! moment”; it was more of a “Finally! Whattook you guys so long?!” moment.

by

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HEY, EQ READERS. WANT US TO FEATURE YOUR STUDIO?

SEND PICS AND INFO TO [email protected].

ROOM w/a VU

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eq magazine april 2010

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