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  #31  
Old 04-15-2010, 12:20 PM
muscmp muscmp is offline
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bob: this thread has really opened things up for me. the way you described how you worked on the vocals to sync them up and the way you used your guitar to create certain sounds.

i do have to ask about the term, in relation to the piano, that you put in quotes,"thinkening." did you mean that to be thickening, or did the piano part have you thinking too much about it which made it stand out too much, thus you needed to lower the level? i guess your term could be a combination of the two. sorry, i'm not up on all of the studio terms.
thanks,
mikeB.
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  #32  
Old 04-15-2010, 01:48 PM
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The arrangement of the piano part was very midrangy and was filling out the recording so that the vocals were being competed against. I was attempting to find a balance between chugging electric guitar, a piano that was banging on the quarter notes, and a florid string section, and all of a sudden realized the piano was muddying up the mix. I pulled it back a couple of db and this wonderful hole developed in the midrange that allowed me to push up the volume of the strings and the guitar without obscuring the voice. Voile' ! A fuller, louder instrumental sound without the roar of the midrange.

Bob
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  #33  
Old 04-15-2010, 06:37 PM
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I have been following with great interest But I have to wonder if perhaps 95 tracks is a bit sparse ?
My head gets dizzy with 10

Interesting about your use of the beta 52 for the kick. I know a gentleman who is somewhat known for drum recording .He has recorded the likes of Terry Bozzio. He also says he has tried many mics but always comes back to the 52 for kick
check out Bozzio's drum kit in this instance One snare , 14 Toms and lots of cymbals !! He also commented the Bozzio was so good at tuning that he didn't have to use any gels or rings
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  #34  
Old 04-15-2010, 07:37 PM
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Yeah, I've recently transitioned to the 52 from RE20. I'd like to say I noticed a big difference, but most of the kicks I've had to sample were either so bright and full that I could have slapped up an SM58 and it would have sounded great (exaggeration), or so dark I ended up throwing gobs of EQ on to break even. I'm looking forward to a normal job on a two-vent front head so I can try 'em side by side. I may start adding a beater-side mic just to get the click I need on the dark ones.

Terry's set looks like a handful!

Bob
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  #35  
Old 04-16-2010, 06:26 AM
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As predicted, yesterday's session started with vocal overdubs to the first verse to bring down the emotional pitch just a little and give the piece time to develop. While we were at it, we also overdubbed the first chorus, because the two were adjacent and the ear might detect a little difference between the sound of the tracks from the two different sessions. The vocalist recorded two complete passes of each and left for the day. The producer and I settled into comping (compiling) parts of the takes from the session into one performance and then manually pitch correcting them. The result is a very nice first vocal section.

Meanwhile, the timing of a figure played by the first violin was bothering us a bit so we dived into setting it straight. The first violin was playing long, legato descending lines and then had a quick little triplet figure to perform. As is typical of musicians, knowing he had this little florid thing to do, he "leaned into" he timing and hit just before the beat. We had doubled the passage and each of the copies was slightly off in timing. I pulled up hte click track as a reference and then split the two copies of the figure off into independent regions. I was then able to slide the whole figure and a few of the notes into time independently. Because we had the rest of the string section sawing along, the edits were nicely hidden.

Finally, we made a head-to-tail pass making little level tweaks for personal preference. The executive producer dropped by and signed off and then we called it a semi-final version. Then came "shopping" the mix to multiple monitor and playback systems. It's something I do about every day during the final stages, but I really lean into balance verification before I mark the mix "final."

By listening in the car and at home overnight I've already determined that somewhere along the line the strings were dropped a little low at the beginning of the piece. This morning I made that tweak and managed the EQ of the new vocals to make them blend with the old. Just for fun, I also made a personal "guitarist's/engineer's mix" that restored some of the little bits and bobs (hah!) of guitar sweetening I did that ended up on the cutting room floor. Engineer's privilege!

We're almost there.

Bob
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  #36  
Old 04-16-2010, 06:54 AM
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This is all so fascinating to follow. I've so much <sigh!> to learn.

Any chance we'll ever be able to actually hear even a bit of what you've been working so hard on, Bob? Or will copyright stand in the way?
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  #37  
Old 04-16-2010, 07:32 AM
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My client is very lenient with this sort of thing as long as copyright is protected. My plans are to put it on my site as I did with the last one. It will have to wait for the release, which will follow the shooting and editing of the song's music video and the web site update, so it may be a while. I've even considered posting some mix-minuses for educational purposes, say:

Full mix
Mix minus vocals
Rhythm section
Drums only

Would that be interesting?

Bob
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  #38  
Old 04-16-2010, 07:51 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
My client is very lenient with this sort of thing as long as copyright is protected. My plans are to put it on my site as I did with the last one. It will have to wait for the release, which will follow the shooting and editing of the song's music video and the web site update, so it may be a while. I've even considered posting some mix-minuses for educational purposes, say:

Full mix
Mix minus vocals
Rhythm section
Drums only

Would that be interesting?

Bob
Extremely interesting......thanks for this post. Nostalgic and motivating for me!!
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  #39  
Old 04-16-2010, 08:14 AM
Joseph Hanna Joseph Hanna is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
Would that be interesting?

Bob
Yes!.......
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  #40  
Old 04-16-2010, 05:39 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
My client is very lenient with this sort of thing as long as copyright is protected. My plans are to put it on my site as I did with the last one. It will have to wait for the release, which will follow the shooting and editing of the song's music video and the web site update, so it may be a while. I've even considered posting some mix-minuses for educational purposes, say:

Full mix
Mix minus vocals
Rhythm section
Drums only

Would that be interesting?

Bob
+ 1, yes indeed , and thanks for taking the time to post all this.
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  #41  
Old 04-27-2010, 07:10 PM
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"Release" party today for the crew, musicians, and their families on the song. More of a cast party. Snacks and gab and then we played the song. Kudos all around and everyone is extremely happy. They are casting for the music video so there's progress towards the real release.

Bob
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  #42  
Old 04-28-2010, 08:13 AM
Dark Eyed Junko Dark Eyed Junko is offline
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I've been loving every word of this. Thanks, Bob!
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  #43  
Old 05-13-2010, 11:17 PM
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Thanks so much for taking time out of your schedule to do this, Bob. It has been so cool and educational. Also, I found out that I'm doing something right . On the songs I've been working on, I usually burn a copy and play it endlessly in my car on my drives, on different computers, on my living room stereo. it becomes pretty apparent pretty quickly what I need to fix in the mix.

Oh, and I think the various mixes you talked about would be a tremendous educational tool for us too

Thanks again!
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  #44  
Old 05-14-2010, 05:48 AM
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Until the formal release, I'll pass on a story that makes me giggle from the sessions. After weeks of working on the tune, I had one of those high-stress meetings in the control room where all parties with a stake in the venture came to approve the final mix. Because of the timing of the meeting, some of the power players dropped by with their kids in tow. After pleasantries, everyone got settled in the chairs at the producer's desk behind me and I hit "play" on the workstation. Partway through the song the level of the mix all of a sudden started jumping up and down for no reason. I felt panic start in my gut and creep up my throat and my mind began racing through what had happened with my mix. After a few seconds of this mess and yielding to a growing tide of dread, I felt like I had to turn around and confront the issue with the crowd. As I swiveled in my chair, out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the children gleefully mashing the producer's talkback button repeatedly with a look of utter rapture on his face. The level jumped each time he did. Ah-hah! The mixing console dims the monitor levels when you punch the talkback button to prevent feedback! Right about that time, one of the sponsor's of the project exclaimed, rather sharply, "What on earth is wrong with your mix?!?"

I was able to smoothly force the gorge back down my throat, smile benignly, point at the boy caught in flagrante delicto with the button in his hand, and reply, "If your child could stop pushing the talkback button, perhaps we could hear the song uninterrupted."

Bob
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  #45  
Old 05-14-2010, 01:23 PM
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PERFECT!! Reason #1 why I'm never too quick to jump down someone's throat or blame them for something... it might actually be my fault
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