Sound Bites Dog

It's About The Music, Stupid.

Ah, the end of a decade.  Some humble thoughts for the New Year...

After 10 years of an internet-centric age, T-Bone Burnett famously said this year that musicians should steer clear of the internet.  Heh heh.  Let the backlash begin.  Some folks went berserk but I think his main point was to remind musicians of why any of this "newfangled" technology matters; the music.   I'm a big fan of the new tools, but if you have nothing to say and can't write a song, it's all for nada.   That being said, it sure is nice to be able to connect with your fans with the click of a button.   I agree with T-Bone in spirit, even though I'm pretty sure he's not suggesting that we go back to the days when we delivered upcoming tour dates via stage coach.

In a similar vein, recording engineer Bobby Owsinski recently blogged that 2011 will be the year of musicians getting realistic and I think it's already true.   I've heard a lot fewer musicians seriously discussing "getting signed" or becoming "rock stars."  Is this the end of hope or just the death of posers?  All of the cats who got into this because they thought it was a fast ticket to US Weekly and driving a Bentley... good luck (and by the way, it NEVER was, even when times were good... take a look at this chart).  Talented people deserve to make a living  but music is not a popularity or beauty contest.   

For anybody who cares about audio fidelity, it's been a painful decade.   It took a while for everybody to get used to the software, but I'm finally starting to hear mixes and records that sound great again.   All of the "analog" snobs (you know who you are) started off this decade saying they'd never sit in front of a computer screen all day or use amp-modeling technology. Ha ha.  Yeah, right.  Tom Petty's "Mojo" comes to mind (it was recorded and mixed entirely "in the box").   At this point it's like taking a stand against electric drills in favor of screwdrivers.   Or chocolate vs. peanut butter. Does it sound good?  If so, who cares how you got there?   The important part of anything is always the idea and craftsmanship.  That's it.   Just don't tell that to the boy with the most expensive toys.

Mastering has obviously had it's own challenges.  There's nothing quite as lame as the so called "Loudness Wars" that have marred this decade.  How many records were ruined because somebody was in the volume equivalent of a dick measuring contest?  Yes, I said it and I apologize to those of you who have more sensitive constitutions, but it's the truth.   I am, however, eternally optimistic. I'm finally starting to hear more musical approaches in the records that I'm buying.  Or at least that's all I'm listening to.   And more importantly, I didn't hear one client this year say, "can you make it louder?"  Right on. 

Onwards and upwards.  Have a great 2011 and as always, I'm grateful to be working with you guys.

 

 

The Silver Lining in a Bad Tour Summer

It's not surprising at all, 16 years after Pearl Jam testified in front of Congress about the insidiousness of the Ticketmaster monopoly (to no avail), proceeded by this year's merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, that we're staring down the barrel of the worst touring summer in recent memory. Higher ticket prices, fewer venues, and too many bands have put the squeeze on one of the last remaining sources of revenue left in the music business.

And yet, musicians are finding a way. I'm reminded of the old school, 80's punk days when bands had to find alternate venues to play (sometimes living rooms) because mainstream promoters and club owners just didn't get it. This new underground touring circuit was forged out of communities of like-minded people and worked out very well for bands like Black Flag, Fugazi, and many others of their ilk. It demonstrated the power of networking and niche before there was even the internet.

Fast forward to now: the more things change, the more they stay the same. Fans and artists once again find themselves working together to get the shows back on the road. Websites like http://dodiy.org/ are establishing networks of people willing to host shows at houses, backyards, galleries, you-name-it. Artists such as David Dyas, Scott Warren, Manda Mosher, and Matthew Ryan are filing into cars together, splitting the gas, and backing each other on stage, all without the traditional accoutrement or overhead. Homebound artists are hosting live online concerts through companies like Ustream. Even heavy-weights like LCD Soundsystem and Pixies are challenging the old-guard by brokering tickets directly to their fans with the help of Topspin (see below).

Pretty cool, eh?

Now I'm not saying DIY touring is easy and there's gotta be a 100 Woody Guthrie songs bemoaning the life of the traveling troubadour... but compared to the "old days", the resources available to you now are a veritable gold mine. Hell, the Honduran gov't has been overthrown with less.

Good luck. Have fun. Godspeed.

Additional Info on this summer's touring:

The Perils of DIY Touring: There Are Too Many Goddamn Bands (The Village Voice)

Hot Summer, Cold Economy, Weak Concert Sales (The New York Times)

Cancelled Tours Suggest Brutal Summer For Touring Acts (Billboard)

Using a Compressor or Limiter in the Final Mix Down

I am asked almost everyday if it's OK to limit or compress the final stereo mix BEFORE mastering.  While there is no clear answer to this without actually listening... the screen shots below are excellent examples of the process and what's at stake. Thankfully, in this particular instance, the client provided me with both limited and unlimited versions of their tracks.  They preferred the limiting but were concerned that it would get in the way of the mastering.

 

Track 1 (top) is the client's final mix down without any limiting. You can see that there is tons of dynamic range. While this is not necessarily an indication of the way the track sounds, I can testify to the fact that it was rich, warm and open sounding.

 

Track 2 is the the client's preferred mix and it's obviously brick-wall limited almost beyond recognition. Strangely, the output was set to -4 dbfs which is an indication to me that they mistakenly thought this would provide me with enough room to "take it on home." The truth of the matter is that the output of a limiter doesn't matter as much as what's occurring on the Threshold side of the equation. A quick reminder regarding limiting, it's basically compression with a ratio of 10:1 or higher (up to 100:1 with brick-wall). 10:1 means it would take an increase of 10 decibels to cause the output to increase by 1 db. That's a lot on a stereo mix, especially when you're driving well beyond peaks. And don't forget that just because you're not clipping doesn't mean the limiter's not causing distortion.

Back to this particular version.  You can tell just by looking at the wave form that there's some nasty stuff going on. On the original, unlimited version, the volume discrepancy between the quiet and loud parts was fairly huge for pop music... close to 20 or 30 db, but all of that was stripped away by the limiter, which left me scratching my head as to why they even bothered mixing it with such dynamic range to begin with. What did they like about the limited version? Certainly the upper mids became more pronounced due to all of the distortion, and the "quiet" parts were now "in your face."  But, in order to make the "quiet" parts sound like that, the limiter had to be driving at least 20 db deep into average level (not peaks) and the chorus' sounded like the audio equivalent of 'Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer' (ie, a song nobody wants to listen to because it's just too brutal and gruesome to bear.)  So why would I master from this?

 

Track 3 is the final master. Needless to say, I worked from the original, unlimited mix. Notice that the dynamics are still somewhat intact (especially for a dance/pop tune).  I was able to get a substantial amount of volume WITHOUT flatlining the entire mix and destroying all of the wonderful low-end.  And equally important, when this track is played next to other commercially released tracks of the same ilk, it holds up both sonically and volume-wise.  I'm happy.  Client's happy.  No need to belabor the point.

In summary, I like compression and enjoy hearing the results. If it's done lightly, in stages starting with the individual tracks and working your way up to the final mix down, I say "yay." The more you control your peaks and valleys in the mix down, the better the master will be. I wish I could play you these examples without singling anybody out and making them feel bad, but the waveforms speak for themselves. Avoid brickwall limiting but if you just absolutely have to use it, only grab peaks.

Catching Up and "Your Reputation and You"

Hola.  

I've finally made the switch from doing e-zines, which were incredibly labor and time intensive, to blogging (as if I wasn't already enough of a dork).  It's mostly just a formality.  I will continue to interview cool people from time to time and you can find all of the old e-zine articles and interviews under the E-zine Archive link (off to the left). Thanks for still tuning in.

It's hard to believe it's been 9 months since my last post and I haven't even been pregnant. Allow me to pull a Grandpa DeKline and say, time really does fly.   There's really too much to catch up on so I'll just do a couple of quick shout outs and move on... 

If you haven't already, please check out the digital release of Songs For Haiti spearheaded by the lovely and talented Shannon Hurley.  It's a record that I mastered pro bono benefitting the Haitian relief effort (via Oxfam America).  Yes, there's still a need.  And extra bonus, the album features tons of great artists like Peter Murphy, Steve Kilbey, Josh Mease, Sierra Swan, Kate Earl, etc.

I never thought my work would wind up on both NPR (Jesca Hoop's "Hunting My Dress") and Kanye West's blog ("Gold" by Teachers) in the same week. The world must truly be ending.  If you're looking for something to do while you wait for the four horsemen to ride down your street, check 'em out...

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On to business.

I'll make this short and sweet.  After having a couple of interesting conversations with managers and label reps in the last few months, I've been ruminating on the subject of "your reputation and you."

Back when I was a recording artist, I accepted doing business with sketchy people as a necessary evil.  I assumed that the people who promote artists have to do a certain amount of tall-tale telling in order to do their job.  And while some of this might be true, a little harmless exaggeration here, a whole bunch of hype there, it doesn't take long to realize that this technique can also be employed against you.  At best, they're white lies -just meant to ease the pain or grease the axial.  At worst, your rep is spewing all kinds of insanity around town in your good name. 

I'm not going to get into the specifics that prompted this semi-rant.  But I will say this, there's nothing worse than working with an artist whom I love and support and feeling like their representative is just plain "dirty." The cliche "guilt by association" is a cliche because it's true.  The people you choose to work with, regardless of whether they're spending money on you or the other way around, should continuously earn your respect and appreciation.  If not, find somebody else to work with.  

Yes, I know.  I'm a bit of a boy scout, but at least you know what to expect. 

I'll leave you with this: