Tech Specs vol. III

...which I would love to build in the future. It is my hope that the now empty space on the other side of my garage will someday be my music room.

So I am planning and budgeting and designing the space. I would like to start construction in the spring of 2011, but you know how quickly time can slip away.

http://sketchup.google.com/

Tech Specs vol. II

In Pro-Tools however, each microphone becomes a separate mono track. So after you record all those drums you can listen back and adjust each drum to get a more balanced sound.

Need more bass? Less snare? Want to use EQ or compression? All of this and more is available in post with Pro-Tools.

As you can see, I'm excited about the new equipment and looking forward to really using it. Now if only I had a nice, new, smoke free, acoustically treated studio to keep it all in...

Tech Specs vol. I

Here's a little look at the recording equipment for the Acid setup. I use this Yamaha mixer to bump several microphones down to one stereo signal. For example; when we record the drums we'll mic the kick, mic the snare, and use a pair of overhead condensers.

Then everything goes into the 1/8th inch mic input on the laptop.

Each take becomes one stereo track. Guitars and vocals and additional sounds all get overdubbed later, and are separate tracks. Here's what that looks like:

Acid can only make one new track at a time. All four drum mics get mixed down into one track. The old expression of "garbage in garbage out" definitely applies. Because you cannot adjust the individual drums in post production, the signal at the 1/8 inch jack is final. The drum sound has to be right before you press that red button.

Dropping Acid (it's not what you think)

Every Bella Dramatic song for the past 10 years has been recorded with Sonic Foundry Acid 2.0

This month we are setting up to use Acid for the very. last. time.

I'm in the middle of switching to Pro-Tools 8, a much more professional piece of software. Once it's up and running Pro-Tools should drastically improve the sound quality of future recordings. But first let me tell you a little story...

About a year ago decided it was time for an upgrade, after all, 10 years is a good run for any computer program. Are you still using the same operating system you used a decade ago? So I got permission from my loving wife to spend $250 on Pro-Tools. What an exciting day that was! I was installing it on the laptop before the UPS truck was out of the driveway.

The first snag was a memory issue. The program won't run on the laptop. No problem, $60 for a little RAM upgrade and we are back in business. I'll just double click this exe...CRASH! Unlike Acid, Pro-Tools will not record audio from the sound card. You need a dedicated USB interface to even start the thing. Oh boy, so much for that $250 upgrade. So I begin to shop online for a supported USB audio interface. The unit that I want goes for $500 on most websites. Ouch! But Julie catches a break and wins a brand new one on Ebay for $350.

Now Pro-Tools boots up for the first time, I even recorded a scratch track. Happy with that, I attempt the first overdub. CRASH. You bonehead! Laptop hard drives don't spin fast enough playback and record at the same time! "You've got to have power" It becomes clear that if I'm going to do this right I need a new computer. A desktop with lots of RAM and 2 hard drives: one for the OS and one for the audio. Once again Julie to the rescue. She goes to the Dell outlet and finds a great open box deal. Several weeks go by and the new compy hasn't arrived yet. When we call customer service they discover that one computer had been sold twice. Awesome.

Dell makes it right by sending a better computer for the same price! Sweet! 64 bit Windows Vista with 8 gigs of RAM and duel hard disks. Perfect. CRASH! There are no 64 bit drivers for the audio interface, I need a 32 bit OS. After several more customer service phone calls to India; Dell sends a 32 bit Vista disk over night. Now, finally, 4 months and $960 later, the switch is complete! "It's alive, ALIVE!"

I have started playing with Pro-Tools and made a few demos, but there's a lot to learn. This is a powerful new setup and I need some time to get comfortable. Am I upset about how much money we spent? Not really, I mean this did get out of hand - $250 can become $1000 pretty fast. But the previous set up lasted ten years, and I feel like this will too. One last song with the old gear and then we are finally dropping Acid. It was a good run.

What's next?

Over the last few weeks I've blogged about the history of music along two parallel timelines. I tried to select the most significant song of each decade and illuminate a path from the blues of the 1930's to the music of today. To the 4 or 5 people who read, and even commented, I want to say thank you.

I would like to continue to blog, but maybe change the format. Posting Youtube links to other peoples music is interesting in the short term but ultimately meaningless and empty. So I'm looking for a new angle. I would like to make this a little more personal.

Over the long thanksgiving weekend I plan to start recording the final song for my next album (and it only took 4 years!) I'll try to upload some video and give you a behind-the-scenes look at our recording process. That's the plan for now, and that's what's next.

2003a

"Y'all don't wanna hear me, you just wanna dance"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xe9Ur0wEsY&feature=related

Runners up: Jay Z, T-Pain, Eminem, Lil Wayne, and Ludacris.

1994a

At the time I was too busy listening to the Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Weezer, Sonic Youth, and Pavement, to pay any attention to the Notorious B.I.G. I was so deep in my little alt rock world, that I was missing a bigger picture, ignoring some of the best music of the 1990's. I do remember when Hypnotize came out, and when he died, but I didn't really discover his music until more recently. Christopher seems like a cool guy. One question though... Why would you cheat on this with this???

Other notable artist of the decade include: the Wu-Tang Clan, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and 2Pac. But Biggie had a special talent for piling up rhymes on top of each other and making multi-syllabic rhymes sound silky smooth. I believe the young people call that "flow" ?

Amazon.com

1987a

In the early 80's Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster Flash started the trend of hip hop with a social agenda. But in the late 80's Public Enemy, and NWA took it to a new level and showed suburban middle class America what life was like in the inner city.

Ice Cube reminds us that theres are some good times, but violence is always just around the corner.

1979a

Who ever posted this on youtube made an unfortunate typo...

That Rapper's Delight is the "first" rap song is total misnomer. However the Sugar Hill Gang did introduce rap to a wide (read: white) audience.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJ_Kool_Herc

Forgive me if this seems like an obvious choice. Tomorrow I promise to deliver something a little less predictable.

1965a

Whatever James Brown did, he always did it cool. The man wore funky like an overcoat, and tied his shoes with soul. James Brown didn't need a belt. He was so hep his pants stayed up without assistance. So of course his music is groovy.

Some consider his 1962 live album the birth of the break beat. I had to choose a song from the 60's but he got REALLY funky in the 70's. Check him out.

1950a

In alternate 1955 the piano of Little Richard trumps the guitar of Link Wray. He certainly is an energetic performer. Unfortunately, this is from one of those TV shows in the 50's where you would lip sync to your record instead of performing live. So the band looks a little lethargic here.

What was Richard really saying? "I got a girl named Sue... I got a girl named Daisy." Tutti Frutti means multi fruit flavors. "All rooty" was hep cat slang for "it's all right." So what's really going on here is; Little Richard is bragging about all the different ho's he slept wit!

These lyrics were famously cleaned up because the original words are so filthy I can't type them here. While guys like Little Walter and Muddy Waters were singing about girls they had lost, Little Richard was singing about all the girls he had bedded, and that's why he's my pick to kick off the alternate musical timeline.