Week 3:
The most valuable thing that I learned during my time at George's studio last week was how important it is for an artist to come to a music studio with enough confidence to voice opinions to the producer about where the music should go, but without overconfidence which can make for an unproductive and difficult studio session.
I sat in on a session where the artist was constantly referring to George to direct the song's artistry (not strictly his job). It seemed to me that the artist was not confident in his abilities, and so was causing George to have to work overly hard to make a low-quality recording sound decent. In essence, George had to overcompensate on the technological side of things to make up for the artist's lack of direction and confidence.
I think what would have made the session (and song) better is if the artist came to the studio confident in his singing abilities so that George did not have to spend time (and the artist's money) fixing mistakes that could have been prevented, had the artist practiced his part.
The situation, though, seemed to not allow that, because the artist had to take the job of lead vocal duties, last minute. So it was a problem with his band as well.
In sum: Auto-Tune doesn't make up so well for lack of artistic direction because its designated job is to add spice to the direction that already exists not necessarily create the direction, itself.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Monday, March 2, 2015
Week 2:
This was a pretty long week, but what was weird was that I felt exhausted after just two days of work.
The first day, George was recording a hard-rock artist. She and George had been working for a few weeks, I think, because when I arrived there, they were working on an already-completed song which had guitar, vocals, bass guitar and drums.
He spent most of their session recording a guitar solo for the song, which took several hours. I sat there listening to the process, where he seemed to play the track over and over again, as his ideas for the solo slowly evolved into a comprehensive mold. Every time he replayed the track and tried to record the solo he would take parts that he liked, but discard the rest, sometimes even the whole recording.
Eventually, he got to a point where he had everything he liked, but there was a piece of the guitar solo which required playing an arpeggio at a high rate, which he played and re-recorded several tens of times, but eventually the solo came out and it sounded exceptional.
That day I learned that it is okay to spend several hours on one piece of music, as long as there is progress mounting.
The next day was long. It was eleven hours (with breaks, of course). I was there for that long on my own volition.
The day started with a solo piano artist, but his songs had more than just piano sounds in them. I arrived at a point in the song's evolution where it already had programmed drums and guitar. There were also vocals, and tons of keyboard-created sounds all played by one person.
The part that most interested me about this song was it's unconventional structure. What I mean by that is most radio-songs have the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure, whereas this song seemed to weave in and out of tempo-changes and more than three different distinct sections which were not returned to, yet the song sounded cohesive and musically pleasing.
At the end of the session, the artist explained to me that that song had been through about twenty years of evolution, where he meticulously picked and crafted the sections to produce the unconventional structure.
Later that day, I sat in on a rap artist's session, there I learned about ad-lib rapping. That is where an artist adds "comments" to the main vocal track that work to accentuate the main track. The ad-lib track might have vocal samples like the word "what" after the main track says something absurd or noteworthy.
The last session of the day was with a hip-hop duo. One of the members made the music while the other rapped lyrics. It was interesting to see that the the member who made the music was not using the most updated equipment. In fact, he was using a drum machine and keyboard, both from the 80s.
This was a pretty long week, but what was weird was that I felt exhausted after just two days of work.
The first day, George was recording a hard-rock artist. She and George had been working for a few weeks, I think, because when I arrived there, they were working on an already-completed song which had guitar, vocals, bass guitar and drums.
He spent most of their session recording a guitar solo for the song, which took several hours. I sat there listening to the process, where he seemed to play the track over and over again, as his ideas for the solo slowly evolved into a comprehensive mold. Every time he replayed the track and tried to record the solo he would take parts that he liked, but discard the rest, sometimes even the whole recording.
Eventually, he got to a point where he had everything he liked, but there was a piece of the guitar solo which required playing an arpeggio at a high rate, which he played and re-recorded several tens of times, but eventually the solo came out and it sounded exceptional.
That day I learned that it is okay to spend several hours on one piece of music, as long as there is progress mounting.
The next day was long. It was eleven hours (with breaks, of course). I was there for that long on my own volition.
The day started with a solo piano artist, but his songs had more than just piano sounds in them. I arrived at a point in the song's evolution where it already had programmed drums and guitar. There were also vocals, and tons of keyboard-created sounds all played by one person.
The part that most interested me about this song was it's unconventional structure. What I mean by that is most radio-songs have the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure, whereas this song seemed to weave in and out of tempo-changes and more than three different distinct sections which were not returned to, yet the song sounded cohesive and musically pleasing.
At the end of the session, the artist explained to me that that song had been through about twenty years of evolution, where he meticulously picked and crafted the sections to produce the unconventional structure.
Later that day, I sat in on a rap artist's session, there I learned about ad-lib rapping. That is where an artist adds "comments" to the main vocal track that work to accentuate the main track. The ad-lib track might have vocal samples like the word "what" after the main track says something absurd or noteworthy.
The last session of the day was with a hip-hop duo. One of the members made the music while the other rapped lyrics. It was interesting to see that the the member who made the music was not using the most updated equipment. In fact, he was using a drum machine and keyboard, both from the 80s.
Week 1:
The first thing I learned is that the Pros (users of Pro Tools, that is) don't use auto-tune anymore; instead they use something called Melodyne.
This application is similar in function to auto-tune, but expanded in capability and sensitivity. When using the application, it allows for sound to be recorded and then translated into visible and modular musical score for the producer to make changes to. Keeping in mind musical keys and timing, one can use Melodyne to change both the pitch and timing of a sung musical note once it is translated to musical score.
That's not all either. When I was at George's studio two weeks ago, I observed him using the application and he was even able to change how much vibrato (that shaky sound a singer can put into a sung note) a note had. When he was done working with the artist, the piece he sang sounded pretty different. George had moved the singer's recorded notes around and changed the amount of vibrato on each to make the sound more smooth and less out-of-key.
I was even able to help with this process: the song he was recording was in the key of A Major and I noticed there there was a note he had missed that probably should have been changed to fit the key of A, so I told him which fixed a problem he had been hearing, but was, at the moment, unable to fix. I felt like I was catching on.
I am glad to be working at Luna. I haven't made any music for about four or five months because I have been out of ideas, but being at Luna with George has given me plenty of new ideas with which to work once I start on my own music again. Not to mention, it reminds me that I still have much to learn.
For now, though, I will continue to shadow him as much as possible and continue to observe the processes he is using to make exceptional-sounding work in as much detail as possible!
The first thing I learned is that the Pros (users of Pro Tools, that is) don't use auto-tune anymore; instead they use something called Melodyne.
This application is similar in function to auto-tune, but expanded in capability and sensitivity. When using the application, it allows for sound to be recorded and then translated into visible and modular musical score for the producer to make changes to. Keeping in mind musical keys and timing, one can use Melodyne to change both the pitch and timing of a sung musical note once it is translated to musical score.
That's not all either. When I was at George's studio two weeks ago, I observed him using the application and he was even able to change how much vibrato (that shaky sound a singer can put into a sung note) a note had. When he was done working with the artist, the piece he sang sounded pretty different. George had moved the singer's recorded notes around and changed the amount of vibrato on each to make the sound more smooth and less out-of-key.
I was even able to help with this process: the song he was recording was in the key of A Major and I noticed there there was a note he had missed that probably should have been changed to fit the key of A, so I told him which fixed a problem he had been hearing, but was, at the moment, unable to fix. I felt like I was catching on.
I am glad to be working at Luna. I haven't made any music for about four or five months because I have been out of ideas, but being at Luna with George has given me plenty of new ideas with which to work once I start on my own music again. Not to mention, it reminds me that I still have much to learn.
For now, though, I will continue to shadow him as much as possible and continue to observe the processes he is using to make exceptional-sounding work in as much detail as possible!
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