Composers Block

Radial Engineering Re-Amping Kit

Alan — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:03:33 +0000

I like it when something just works, but I always feel a bit ambivalent when I can't really notice it working.

The Kit

In this case, I've just been using the Radial Engineering Reamping Kit. It consists of two main components (the J48 active phantom DI and the X-Amp amp driver) plus a power supply for the X-amp and a plastic box to hold it all in.

Plugging In for Re-Amping

I read the instructions, mainly to figure out what happens with signal levels, plugged the Radial X-Amp in and in less than 5 minutes I was recording a guitar track again. It really was a case of plugging a mic XLR lead between the audio interface and the X-Amp, connecting up the power supply to the X-Amp and plugging a normal guitar lead between X-Amp and guitar. It's worth reading the manual for the order of connections and powering-up. I spent longer configuring the software mixer for my audio interface to output the guitar signal on a separate channel than I did connecting everything together.

Advantages

I can record the clean, DI signal no matter what the amplified sound is (ok, this is just using a DI box).
I can then re-record many times the clean through a number of guitar amps and/or cabinets with different eq and gain settings.
I find it goes a long way to reducing the lifelessness from direct recording into software amp emulation.
I can record a clean sound at unsociable hours, knowing that I'll be able to crank up the amp when it's more socially acceptable.
I can play with mic placement and room acoustics in a way that I can't when I'm the guitarist and recording engineer.
Allows me to record a heavier, overdriven version of the same track and blend this is with a clean recorded sound.

Disadvantages

You have to be disciplined or you can spend a lot of time tweaking the amp settings and re-recording the same track many times.
That's it, the components seem to work so well, I don't notice them working.

Overcoming Lifelessness

I mentioned the lifelessness of a guitar track recorded using software amp emulators. I believe they can produce great results, but for me as a guitarist, it doesn't feel the same as playing through a pure valve guitar amp and a 4x12 loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s (that just happens to be my longest-running preference). Some of my best guitar tracks have been recorded using software emulators, I only wish I'd been able to record them with at a mic'ed amp at the time.

I think it's down to the interaction between guitarist, guitar and amplifier/cabinet. Guitarists adjust their playing relative to what they hear coming out of the speakers, hence guitars recorded direct through software amp emulations can miss out the way that the guitarist changes their playing. Actually I think it's further than that, the guitarist changes their playing to suit the software emulator, after all, it's just another amplifier/cabinet combination to handle.

This kit goes a long way to helping me overcome the lifelessness of the software route, while still giving me the flexibility to record when I want to. It does not overcome it completely; you can't beat using the guitar, amp, speaker, effects and mic combination at the time of tracking that you want to hear on the finished song.

So in this case, the product's great and it does the job it's designed to do well. My ambivalence comes from the fact that it's such a simple job that, from that perspective, it has to do that it doesn't seem worth spending the money on. From the perspective of having something that works and does the job well, then you probably can't beat this re-amping kit.

Using Compressors to increase attack - Musical Creativity 45

Alan — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:30:37 +0000

Compressors are regularly used to tame errant dynamics or to increase the perceived volume of a track. As well as squashing the audio, the compressor can be used to bring out some elements more than others.

Letting the attack through

Remember when you were learning about compression? You probably wanted the attack at 0ms so that the whole signal was compressed equally. But it ended up in a squashed mess. The output sound had a different quality to what was put in. The guitar no longer sounded like a guitar, but like an old keyboard emulation of a keyboard. So we all gradually learned to allow the initial transients through with delays of 20ms upwards, depending on the instrument and the wanted effect. This allowed for a natural sound.

Reverse your thinking

Usually we're using a compressor to tame peaks or increase the perceived volume of the track by decreasing the dynamic range. This time we'll focus on increasing the dynamic range and still using a compressor.

Set the compressor to have a longer attack, e.g. 30ms to let the initial strike of a guitar string through. Set the compressor to moderately reduce the dynamic range of the rest of the signal. What you'll see if you compare the input to the output is that the initial peaks where the string is hit or plucked are louder in comparison to the rest of the signal.

Additional Options with Software

Pre-empting

The problem with hardware compressors is that they can only react once they receive the signal they receive. Software compressors have the advantage of being able to look-ahead at the signal and react before a hardware compressor could. That's useful for enabling the compressor to act on the initial transients.

Sidechain

You can also eq the input signal to trigger the side-chain. Some allow you to do this in the plug-in itself. For others you'll have to set up an aux/bus track and route the signal in parallel through that and eq the aux channel. This can be done in hardware as well if you eq the feed going into the sidechain.

Using Other Processors

Expanders

Expanders are built for job of increasing the dynamic range. Effectively, they're compressors with upward compression. And so should be more suited to increasing range. However, sometimes I prefer to use a basic compressor.

Enveloper

These react to the envelope of the sound. Think back to the basics of synthesis with every sound having Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release (ADSR). Envelopers provide a way to change the gain at the various stages. The one in Logic allows the user to change the gain at the Attack and the Release stages. So you could potentially just change the gain of the attack and leave the rest of the signal alone.

Gain

This doesn't increase dynamic range. I've included it because I had to increase the gain of the guitar track to match the results of the effects.

Results

I recorded a steel-string acoustic guitar using an x-y pattern of 2 small diaphragm microphones. These were routed to a bus (aux in Logic) and the effects were applied to the bus only. The main output for the microphone channels were removed, meaning that the signal was only going through the bus. I applied the following effects in turn: compressor, enveloper, expander and gain. For each one, I spent about 2 minutes changing the parameters on a part of the track that was of roughly average volume. Then I bounced the output to a separate audio file.

It's important to note that I only spent the time configuring the parameters for one part of the track. There were louder and quieter parts elsewhere in the track.

Rather than play the whole 5 minute track, I've extracted three parts; one quiet, one average, one loud.

The Screenshot

The screenshot shows the unprocessed as well as the results of having each of the compressor, gain, enveloper and expander applied in turn. The order from left to right is Average, Quiet and Loud.

Download a larger version of the image here

What you'll notice is that there's not that much different between most of them in the average and quiet. However, the compressor did a good job of using the dynamic range available. The gain effect just made everything louder, as it's meant to, but doesn't bring out the peaks. The expander and enveloper both coped well, but I prefer the compressor.

In the Loud section, we see the issues with applying parameters for one section only. In all reality, we'd probably be riding the faders or at least automating the fader/effect parameters. But for the moment, it gives us a good idea of how flexible the processors are. Most of them are showing clipped waveforms for the loud section, indicating too much make-up gain. The compressor waveform still has thin ends to the spikes indicating a more managed approach. And the sound does reflect that.

Quiet

Unprocessed

Gain

Expander

Compressor

Enveloper

Average

Unprocessed

Gain

Expander

Compressor

Enveloper

Loud

Unprocessed

Compressor

I've only published a few of these files in case anyone risks damaging their speakers. I haven't published the files with square ends, e.g. the "gain" and "expander" files.

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

Use the wrong preset for a better sound - Musical Creativity 44

Alan — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:04:36 +0000

Opinion is divided as to whether presets in plug-ins are useful. From my perspective, they can be useful short-cuts to a starting point, but I'll usually need to tweak the parameters, sometimes quite extremely. I'm usually happy just starting from scratch, knowing what result I want to achieve.

However, I love putting an ordinary audio track through a plug-in and working through the presets, especially those presets that it's not designed for.

The Concept

Calling it a concept is too way too grandiose really. Basically, take an instrument channel, e.g. guitar and apply presets for other instruments, e.g. piano, drums, etc. Some work, some don't. Either way, they'll get you thinking about the sound differently.

Work Through the List

With the signal-processing power at our fingertips and the flexibility provided by the plug-in architectures of Logic, Cubase, etc, it's easy to apply a processor, change it, remove it, try another and so on. Rather than reaching straight for the standards of eq, compressor or reverb with their respective expected settings for the instruments I'm processing, I'll sometimes put a different effect on, just to hear what it sounds like. If I don't like the result, I can undo the changes and be back where I was.

Waste of Time?

It's worked often enough that 5 minutes or so spent assessing the impact of different plug-ins can be useful, especially if I've hit a block. The more I play with the effects, the more I can predict the sound I'd get. So this tends to be for the effects I don't use as often (e.g. various auto-filters) or more extreme parameters of effects that I do use.

BlockFish

The best example of this I've ever come across is to insert a compressor on a vocal preset onto a drum mix signal chain.

Digitalfishphone.com's BlockFish provides a great example of this. Choose the "Close-up Vocal" preset - I'm doing this from memory so I may have the name wrong, but it should be obvious which preset I'm referring to. I used to use this when using Windows as my DAW's operating system. I remember there were some issues with no OS X version, but it looks like there may now be. Will have to give it a try, not sure if it's Universal Binary though.

Applying this preset immediately provides more energy and bite to the drums. If I wanted it a little more restrained, I'd patch the effect as a send and mix the return in to the required level. I remember slightly tweaking a few parameters to make it more suitable for drums, or at least the sound I was looking for. I think it was the Air Frequency and Air Level that were of most use. And of course, making it stereo since I'd be running a stereo drum-track through it.

OS X

In Logic 8, the Compressor effect can produce very similar results to the BlockFish effect. It doesn't have the same presets for the plug-in itself, so you'll have to play a bit more with it. In this case, changing the compressor type to Opto makes a drastic difference to drum-tracks. I'm not so sure I like it, I can hear the high-end clearer, but I can also hear too much compression, bordering on distortion with the optical variant, even after tweaking threshold and make-up gain for it to be more subtle.

Logic 8

Logic 8 has more emphasis on presets for channels rather than presets for plug-ins. On one hand, it makes the process of adding a preset chain of plug-in presets (yes, presets of presets) easier and it's a good way for learning how effects chain together. On the other hand, it's about chains of effects rather than a particular effect. In the end though, it's whatever works for you. There are still presets for plug-ins, the above image is the Compressor with a setting of Drum Kit Compression with the circuit type to Opto.

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

End of Year Review - 1st year

Alan — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:00:16 +0000

The Award Sounds website had its first birthday yesterday. One year old. Wow. I posted the first articles on 15th July 2007. They were mainly placeholders stating what I was going to place on the site.

Musical Creativity

And a year on, we're up to 43 articles on the Musical Creativity series, for ideas for overcoming composer's block/writer's block. That's a little less than the one a week that I'd intended, but not far off. I'm happy with that amount, especially as some of the articles have been more in-depth than just a blog article.

Fundamentals of Process Mapping

I also started the Fundamentals of Process Mapping ebook series to help me mentor analysts and users on consultancy projects. That series still needs a couple more articles to make it worthwhile. I've already got a few mostly-written. They're in the pipeline. I can see that growing although each article takes longer to write than any of the other articles on this site.

Photography

It's the articles on photography that have gathered the most interested. Thanks to those that have commented. This is an area that I don't get much time for, but when I do it's enjoyable. It's even better to hear from others about their experiences.

Side-Project

The Space Opera side project has captured my own imagination more than my past side-projects have. I'm not that sure what to do with it now. While I'm on consultancy assignment, it will remain a side-project. I'll continue to write music that I think is suitable and clean up previous ideas, getting them into a fit state for publication. Some of that music may remain ear-marked for the side-project, some I may release out through other channels.

Memory and Venn

Spinneyhead Presents released Memory in 2007. It was the first release from the team, I was involved as composer, but also offered advice on how to plan the production; some advice was taken, some not. Most importantly, what wasn't heeded was the advice on location audio (not something I've that much experience in, and I don't claim to, but I do follow basic audio engineering principles). The result was that the location audio was horrific and I spent more time editing in post than composing. I wrote up the lessons learned so others can learn from the team's experiences.

That may sound harsh, but it was a first release for a new team and there are two real positives came out of Memory.

The team delivered. It finished what it set out to do. Despite the quality of the footage and hard work involved, the team completed the project. There are enough teams that fail, lose their way or find the work is too difficult.
The team learned from the experience and the following (and unrelated) series Venn is so much better, it's hard to believe the same team is behind it.

Using an Octaver for Easy Funk - Musical Creativity 43

Alan — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:23:43 +0000

Mention an octaver to a musician, especially a guitarist, and you're heading for a conversation about Hendrix.

It can be used for other styles. So here's a quick trick for writing funk. Forget the bass when you start. I half-expected to get lynched, but bear with me, at least until the end.

Background

I like the old P-funk of Funkadelic and Parliament. I think what made me hear it more was the inclusion of a distorted guitar in a funk show. This was often played in sync with the bass guitar.

Setting the groove

Find a sparse drum track. You want big drums (not 80s soft rock big though). Make sure it's a tight loop. Set it to loop as your background track. Now remove the click track if you've got one. You'll play better this way.

Setting up the guitar

We'll get the distorted guitar set-up first. That'll be a distorted guitar from the 70s, maybe even a distorted DI from the 80s. Keep the speaker simulation to a minimum. We're not looking for a modern hi-gain sound here so go for a raw guitar sound.

Next add an octaver effect. I've had better results recently with it placed after the amplifier/amplifier plug-in, but normally I'd place pitch effects before the pre-amp.

Set the octaver so it adds a note one octave (12 notes) below the signal.

Roll the tape

Now play and record. Use an extended pentatonic scale (i.e. blues scale with a few additional notes) to get started. The p-funk guitars had lots of semi-tone intervals.

Fill it Out

Add a second guitar with a modulation effect, most commonly a subtle phaser playing rhythmic, strummed part-chords.

Finish it off

I've added a club-type reverb to bond the 3 instruments tracks together, aiming for a live club feel.

Make it more complex

You could add the octaver as a send instead of a insert, allowing to mix the levels better and potentially (depending on the quality of the octaver effect) retain the character of the original signal with more clarity.

Make it more authentic

Put on the star-shaped shades, pick up the bass and record the part properly. The octaver gives you an easy way gets you started in the groove, but it really should be done with a bass.

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

Use of Tremolo - Musical Creativity 42

Alan — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:27:29 +0000

I've talked about tremolo as a musical feature before, this time I want to go into more detail.

First things first, let's sort out the guitarists: I don't mean using the tremolo arm/whammy bar or whatever you want to call it ("handle" as my girlfriend called it - and no she won't be picking up my guitars for a while). The whammy bar creates a vibrato feature, not a tremolo. Vibrato alters pitch.

Amplitude

Tremolo is the act of altering the volume of a note or set of notes. For an electric instrument, the simplest to hear is by regularly turning the volume knob up and down. The notes fade in, fade out, fade in, fade out and so on.

It's a great tool for livening up a piece of music. The previous article on the subject covered some more ways of using it.

Recordings

Tremolo features on a lot of famous recordings. Three extreme examples are:

How Soon Is Now - The Smiths

Crush with Eyeliner - REM

What's the Frequency Kenneth - REM

But it's used more subtlely on many, many more recordings. Think of any country song and listen to the guitar. Many of the 1950s and 1960s guitar recordings had tremolo on them. Think Duane Eddy (although he mixed it with vibrato by using the whammy bar a lot). Lots of Elvis recordings featuring Scotty Moore had tremolo. This situation was accentuated and facilitated by the inclusion of tremolo circuits in the guitar amps, e.g. Vox

Types of effect

The common tremolo effect alters the amplitude or volume of the incoming signal apply a regularly repeating pattern before output. The most common pattern is the sine wave, although some FX units also allow square and sawtooth. The output signal increases, decreases, increases, decreases, etc.

The waveform applied changes how fast the signal reaches the extremes and how long it stays there before beginning the journey to the other extreme.

Depth

If the signal is applied completely at 100% depth, then the output will have no signal at the points when the applied FX is at its lowest point, conversely it will have the maximum volume when the FX is at its highest point.

Lowering the depth introduces a less radical effect, to the point that if the depth were at 0%, then there would theoretically be no difference between the input and output. As with most effects, the most appropriate depth is usually somewhere between the two extremes.

Symmetry

The waveform applied so far has been the same on both sides, i.e. going up and coming down. Altering the phase allows more time for the signal to climb and a quicker fall or vice versa. This is great for imparting a slower or a rushed feeling to the track.

Phase

For a stereo tremolo, the default set-up is to have the signal applied equally, but alternately to each channel. Changing the phase control alters the timing displacement of the second channel compared to the first, which can be used to create panning echoes or dotted note rhythms.

No Depth?

I'd usually use a tremolo inline with the signal, either at the recording stage (e.g. between guitar and amp) or at the mixing stage (as an insert). If there's no depth control, then patch the tremolo into a send and emulate the depth by the relative values of the signal and send faders.

For guitarists, if there's no depth control, then you maybe able to use it in the amp's FX loop if you've got a variable dry/wet mix. This may not work well, since the FX would be placed after the pre-amp. Depends what equipment you're using.

Playing with fingers

A classical guitar tremolo technique involves repeatedly plucking the same string with the first, second and third fingers. This is often a bass and/or melody note plucked with the thumb followed by the three fingers or sometimes a fourth is employed but the fingering changes.

The most famous example is probably Recuerdos De La Alhambra by Francisco Tárrega, although I think Agustin Barrios Mangore's Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios (Alms for the Peace of God) shows the technique more.

Various forms of flamenco use a similar technique, sometimes using the thumb plus four finger notes (not necessarily four fingers, often three fingers with one repeated) to get a 5-tuplet pattern.

Pick

For electric guitar, rapidly repeated picking of the same note gives a tremolo effect that can be used in solos. Do it too often and you'll sound you can't move your fret-hand fingers. Best to intersperse it with other techniques. Check out the Ozzy Osbourne recordings with Randy Rhoads, e.g. Tribute, to get an idea of how to fit it into a solo. He doesn't use it that often, but when he does, it works well. Nowadays, watch Matt Bellamy of Muse. There are plenty of others, but they're not coming to mind right now.

In other forms of music, e.g. drag, it can be the main feature. This is more likely to happen on the lower strings of the guitar, with a springy/slap-back reverb. Think Dick Dale. Although perhaps not part of drag, Miserlou (as featured in Pulp Fiction) is a great example of how a simple riff can lead the track. The repeated picking comes from his experience with an oud (or ud).

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

43 Reasons for Collaborating - Part 4 - Musical Creativity 41

Alan — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:43:17 +0000

13. Meet Other people

13a avoid being recluse

Composing music can be a solitary activity. For some that works, for others it can be a lonely experience. Whatever the perspective, it can quickly turn into isolation. Collaborating with others reduces the isolation.

13b friends

I've met most of my best friends through music and music-related activities. Some of the people I met as acquaintances have turned into good friends over time.

13c balance

Working in isolation for too long can be bad for the health. It can be demotivating, lonely, On the other hand, working alone can bring out the best in some. But however you handle it, get some balance in there. Meeting other people will at least introduce somebody else's perspective into your world.

13d improve community projects

There are people in your community that could use music for their benefit. Some may just need an outlet to perform, some need instruments, some need training, some just need to play music with other musicians, others want music for their own community project, some need direction.....and the list goes on. Does a project exist near you? If not, can you create one?

14. Reputation

Think carefully before you take on working with someone else. Think about whether you can do what you set out to do, how much risk is there? Is it just fun for everyone involved? What's the impact on the people if you all fail?

If you're not taking it as seriously as the others are, then that can damage your reputation. If you're too serious, again that can result in a damaged reputation.

Maybe pick a balance of projects; some more professional than others, but work appropriately.

In this industry, your name and the quality of the product count for everything. So make sure you have a good reputation and that product is the best product possible.

15. Technology

15a Support

I end up being the tech support guy for a few friends and family. It's part of what I give to them, I receive other things in kind. This isn't business, just friendship. If it takes too long, I can say I'm not interested in helping and they're better off with a formal support contract through a dedicated support company.

15b Tutorials

Teach others how to do things and learn from them what they don't know. Finding out what others don't know and helping them fill that knowledge can be a great way to build relationships. Learn something very advanced about an application and share it with friends or online. Or try looking at elements that you've struggled with, ask yourself why, then set yourself the task of making other people's lives easier by explaining it to them so they don't have the same journey you did.

15c Access Demos

Show someone else what you can do with your stuff. Watch out in case they've wearing a balaclava and sporting a swag bag on their back.

16 Mastering

Read Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science by Bob Katz. Honestly, it'll give you more insight that I can here.

Other Pages

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

43 Reasons for Collaborating - Part 3 - Musical Creativity 41

Alan — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:40:32 +0000

7. Finances

Even arranging a loan with your bank manager is a form of collaboration. Ok, it's a purchase of a product by you from them, but if responsible, then the bank should be acting in partnership with you. I'm working on a few projects where I can see finances becoming an issue in the medium term. I could also see a few of the project members funding their own areas. None could fund the whole project, but as each could fund their own area, the project could still work. It's like pooling resources but more controlled.

8. Opportunities

People know people. Some of those people will have their own projects they want to proceed. It's back to the adage of being in the right place at the right time. By working with others, you'll pick up more contacts and build a reputation for yourself.

9. Exit - contracts

Whatever the collaboration, figure out how it can break up cleanly. It's one of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard about partnerships; the first thing to do when starting any partnership is to work out how to dissolve it. Working partnerships and collaborations do break up eventually, so you may as well put the time in now to understand who takes the rights to which pieces of work. If you can't agree that now, then maybe that particular collaboration's not for you.

10. Projects

Projects may just be the embodiment of a person's aims or that of a group of people. It gives them motivation and impetus to head towards a common goal. Set up a project if you're not sure about long-term commitment (either from yourself or the other members).

Think about using side-projects where you commit your time but not as much as you would to your main projects or your day-job. They can provide useful outlets for experimenting. Make sure everyone involved knows what level of commitment the others are providing. It can be mixed, but useful if everyone knows where they stand first.

11. Bands

Just as jamming with other musicians can be a great feeling, get yourself into a band. Remember it's not just about the music, it's also about the interaction of the people; their common aims, goals, their talent (or lack of it), their attitude to music, to the band and to life. Bands are a great vehicle for musicians and as a composer, you're missing out if you've never played in a band.

12. Other media

Doing everything yourself on a project nowadays is easy, but doing it well is out of the reach of most of us. Doing it to a professional, world-standard level on your own is out of the reach of everyone of us, unless you have a lot of money to spare and a few years to learn and implement everything you need.

Now that there are so many variations of the media product, it's getting more difficult to keep up. For instance you can write music, but can you produce it within the constraints of the media and making use of the quirks of the media?

radio plays
feature film/movies
shorts
tv - documentaries, comedies, adverts
games
promotional material - e.g. company annual events, wedding DVDs, Idents
theatre plays
musical theatre
phone ring tones
computer software
radio adverts
on-hold music

Collaborating with others means you can concentrate on the main parts you want to be involved in. Unfortunately you'll have to balance that with what your collaborators want.

Other Pages

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

43 Reasons for Collaborating - Part 2 - Musical Creativity 41

Alan — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:37:13 +0000

4. Production

4a Fresh Pair of Ears

A producer should remain distant enough from the in-depth recording process to be able to bring a fresh opinion. Their view can suggest new directions or, at least, a validation of the current direction.

4b Motivation

Producing your own CD, DVD, whatever it is, can be a tiring and troublesome process. Many of us feel like giving up at various points in the journey. By using a producer, you can have someone else buoy up your own motivation. Beware of producers that suck your motivation.

4c Experience

A producer should have experience of other bands, other artists and/or other productions. This experience should come to bear on your production.

4d Critical Analysis

The producer shouldn't have the same level of personal involvement in the product that the artist does during the recording stages. So if you're the artist and you really like a certain part of a track, a producer should be able to work with you and guide you in an agreed direction, even if it means losing that part. You use a good producer so that they can constructively criticise the product without criticising you.

4e Contacts

A producer can bring in industry contacts. Want a musician, want a mastering engineer, then the producer may know someone who will fit the bill.

4f Events

By having a larger base of artists than the artist would themselves, the producer will have access to events. In this way, they may be treading on the roles of managers or agents, but if you don't have either of those, the producer may be an appropriate start.

4g Project Management

This is what I see as being the key role for producers. It's the management of the final deliverable. They ensure that from the start to the end, you focus only on the tasks necessary for the product. If you need something for the product, they will arrange it. If you need a certain instrument, they can source that. And so on. They're not gophers, nor are they band managers, but I'd always ask any aspiring producer what they actually do. How much of the legwork would your producer do? Obviously, the more experienced and the more successful the producer, the less mundane work they'd do.

5. Writing

Maybe I should have put this at number 1 considering this is part of a series on Musical Creativity.

5a Lyrics

I like to concentrate on writing music and effects, I'm useless at lyrics. So I partner with someone else to write my lyrics. It works well, especially if I can provide a hint or description for the song in question. There are plenty of none musical people out there, who still have rhythm and feel enough to write lyrics.

One question you'll have to figure out is whether you want them to write the melody for the lyrics as well. I've used both situations. It depends on how I feel I can move the song along better.

5b Reasons for writing

Collaborating with someone else often provides a reason for writing. For instance, you could be asked to write a specific song for them or they may provide a challenge for you to complete. By accepting something out of the ordinary, you find the motivation to experience writing in different musical styles. Recently, I was asked to write something with the same feel as another song but not the same. It didn't need to sound the same, nor even have the same chord structure or instruments. Just had to feel the same. That in itself was an interesting challenge.

You can also collaborate with other composers when they're stuck and need to move tracks on. It's great when it works. Maybe your suggestions won't work, nor will they be accepted, but the simple act of making them think differently sparks off their own ideas that do work for them. That ends up being a good result all round.

5c Composing synchronously

Now that a lot of the audio can be recorded and transferred digitally, the concept of collaborating with others around the globe becomes a lot more realistic. There are still issues; if you're going to do it in a synchronous manner where you both (or all) write and play at the same time, then a lot of the rules for organising and recording a live jam session still apply, e.g.:

ensure you can hear what the others are playing - i.e. is your monitoring system sufficient?
ensure you can hear what the others are playing when they play it - i.e. timelags are a big issue
ensure you have a way of recording the complete music, not just one person's perspective
ensure you know what you're going to play, although this could just be a rough outline of chord changes, verses, choruses, etc
ensure you know who's leading
ensure you can communicate with each other in real-time - also means you may need a separate microphone for conversations.

For two composers instead of playing musicians, you'll need a way to describe thoughts to each other, a shared notepad and diagramming tool (such as groupware whiteboards) are useful. Whether it is usually truly synchronous may be picking hairs - I suppose both composers would have to write different parts, then combine them back together - it's more sequential but allows for a much quicker bounce of ideas back and forth than from asynchronous routes.

5d Composing asynchronously

Collaborating asynchronously opens up more opportunities. It's the modern equivalent of the guitarist walking into a rehearsal with some new riffs. You can record the instrument tracks you want to, then share or send the project file and associated audio. The other composer can import the project file and work on that, then share or send it back. This allows for recording overdubs, adding new loops, writing new sections of music.

Cross-platform composition, tracking and mixing is one area where few if any of the DAW manufacturers have pushed the boundaries far enough. If you can keep it to midi files, you'll get a lot further. The OMF import and export functions can work, but are often flawed depending on how the original project file was saved.

6. Live

6a Jamming

Bouncing ideas off another musician and taking the music in a new direction is one of the best feelings coming from being a musician. The more you play with someone, the more you'll know how they play, not just what they play, but how they think when they're playing. For instance, you'll understand their ideas of chord progressions, melodies, phrasing, timing. If you share in that, then the whole can be greater that the sum of the parts. It's a good way to learn new basic song. Just beware of falling into the 12-bar blues progressions. Actually, even if you have to do 12-bar blues, use some of the variations.

6b Support

The traditional headline and support roles for gigs has been blurred for a long time, e.g. with gigs showing double headline acts or 4 supports, but the concept of an established band using a new band to keep the audience entertained and warm them up definitely still exists.

Want to expand your area for gigs, then get in touch with the manager of reasonably well-known, but still upcoming local band and suggest your band do a support slot for them. Make sure the musical styles and audiences of both bands are similar enough to work.

6c Recording

There will be other people starting out, trying to learn their trade. In many cases, they may be learning whether they want to continue or not. Some will be trying to branch out, so keep an eye out for people who are looking at recording gigs. A combination of inexperience, little knowledge and arrogance will often yield bad results whatever the industry, so look for someone who's actively learning and wanting to progress in recording.

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Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.

43 Reasons for Collaborating - Part 1 - Musical Creativity 41

Alan — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:22:07 +0000

A short series of articles on collaborating with other people to make your music better, make it heard or to help them move their music forwards.

1. Recording

1a Engineer

It's so much easier to play, record, change settings, do another take and all those other tasks when there's an extra pair of hands doing the engineering. It means you can focus on feeling comfortable and ensuring that you play to the best of your ability without having to change position and move a microphone, listen to the output, try again, etc. The more you work with an engineer, the more familiar you'll become with their way of working.

1b New outlook

Work with other engineers will remove some of the familiarity of the recording process or familiarity with a particular engineer but will open up new ideas. If you're acting as the engineer for someone else, then it may force you to think back to basics and undo some of your own habits that work well for you in your setting, but no so well for others in their own setting.

1c New kit

Not only do engineers have their preferred choices of recording techniques and equipment, some will have that equipment to hand. It's at the beginning and aspiring levels that it can make more difference since it's at the amateur and semi-pro levels that you're still learning which combinations work best for you. Perhaps you work with an engineer to try out their mics and return the favour later by recording them using your kit. The reciprocal nature opens up new opportunities and learning experiences.

1d Location or studio

Just as the engineer may have kit and techniques, they may also have access to other locations and studios. Want a good drum room, then you're probably better off with a studio, but want a particular type of sound, maybe even just a decent vocal booth and you may have luck with other musicians and engineers.

1e Crowd and audience

If you're thinking of recording a live gig, then the engineer may have access to a different audience (maybe bigger) than you're used to. Lots of live-recording engineers will have regular gigs. Getting a slot in one of those, could provide a ready-made, if not totally accepting, audience.

2. Mixing

2a Remix

Letting someone else mix your tracks has a few of advantages

provides a fresh pair of ears to your music
means you can focus on recording and playing
brings a different tone to your music if you use a mix engineer who has their own sound

Sometimes the mix you have just doesn't work, giving it to a mix engineer may help you out of that rut.

2b Revamp

Think of this being the use of "remix" that's becoming more prevalent nowadays. Hardly mixing in the traditional sense of setting faders, processing and effects, but getting involved in cutting-and-pasting the arrangement. In this case, the re-mixer would be chopping verses up, perhaps interspersing them with samples from elsewhere. Is there a better word for this?

2c Mashups

Taking the revamp approach a step further for a more extreme result.

2d Different mixing skills

There are a few tricks to mixing for 12 inch vinyl. Although many of these may be properly found within the mastering engineer's remit, knowing about them from a mix engineer's perspective will help move things along more quickly.

3. Playing

3a Skill

There are times when you have to admit you can't play an instrument well enough to be able to record what you want to. This is where the session musicians come in. At the more amateur level, it's more about finding a friend or a contact who can do it for you. Just beware of contractual implications if you go that route.

3b Extra Instruments

An extension of 3a, sometimes you just want a different instrument in your recording; one that you can't play. The most common for these would be real violins or cellos to augment sampled strings, or real trumpets or horns to augment brass sections. While you can get friends to fill in, again beware of contractual implications.

3c Vibe and Groove

Different players have different styles of playing. Compare the rock bassist to the jazz/funk bassist. Different styles and often even a different sense of timing. Actually, that should probably read that they can have a different interpretation of timing. By bringing in a musician who can add a different vibe, you can dramatically change the feel of a song.

3d Name and Kudos

This is the guest slot. Having someone with a known name can introduce you to their audience, but also give you the reputation of being able to work with others.

3e Broaden your Horizons

Playing or working with other musicians is a great way to expand your own horizons. Watch what they do, how they set-up, how they approach the gig, what kit they use and how they use it to produce the sounds requested of them. And that's without learning from the notes they play or the phrasing they employ.

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Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.