So you're an engineer?

What does it mean to actually produce a record? Speaking on an engineering standpoint for a small time studio; where do you feel engineers should draw the line? I myself have spoken to a few engineers and producers in my year or so in the field, and have had numerous opinions, suggestions, and more about what it is to be an engineer for an independent studio.

I came up with the following dos and don’ts of recording an album as an engineer.

1.     DO always listen to the band members opinions. This does not mean you always have to agree, but you should always give them your undivided attention.

2.     DON’T align tracks right to a grid. It makes tracks, especially drum tracks, sound robotic and inhuman which you tend to lose that actual band feel when you do this.

3.     DO always treat every mix like it’s going to be your best mix to date. You shouldn’t fall into that repetitive job pattern; which can directly reflect in your mixes. I am speaking with EQ a vocal like a unique vocal, not like the vocal you recorded four months ago.

4.     DON’T accept payments on credit. Get your down payment up front, and always collect final payment BEFORE releasing the material. No matter who it is, it could be your mother, there is a chance you won’t see that money for a long time. Let’s face it, that money is needed!

5.     DO record more takes than you THINK you’ll need. Comping is your friend in the studio and some random nuance while recording a take can be your ‘money maker’ in your final mix. I remember a random harmonic happening during one a take during a recording I did that ended up being in the final mix.

6.     DON’T be afraid to use multiple microphones.

7.     DO remember what you’re doing. By this I mean remember your roots, and how much of an honor it is to have customers go to you for their recordings. I had two return customers come to me this last month, and I couldn’t have felt any better about what I do.

The above are just my opinions and not to be considered in anyway shape or form ‘gospel’ as THE WAY to run your studio. Mixing, recording, and anything involving music is just like someone’s DNA. Everyone is unique, and so is his or her music work. Respect that, and you are on your way to running a successful studio.

TED Inspiration - Benjamin Zander on Music and Passion

TED Talk: Benjamin Zander
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion
Blog Link: http://570studioblog.blogspot.com/

The TED Talk I chose was a great inspirational speaker named Benjamin Zander. Benjamin’s goal during the TED talk was to expose people to the world of Classical Music without them barely knowing it. Benjamin inspired the audience by not only teaching them the realm of Classical music, but also involving everyone in the audience by using humor, anecdotes, and speaks in a language everyone can understand.

Benjamin built trust with his audience by not only describing his leadership traits, but talks to them on the same level without putting himself on a pedestal. The trust builds through the talk by Benjamin teaching the audience along the way about many things involving music. He teaches them about notes, cadences, and also breaks the stigma on tone deafness!

He conveys his message to the audience telling a story about a boy he presented the same presentation to. His brother was killed when they were younger. The boy came up to him after the presentation and said that he did not cry when his brother died, but when he listened to him play the piece of music he finally cried for his brother. People gained much appreciation, myself included, about classical music without even knowing it.

Lastly, the moment that grabbed me the most was his most memorable quote from his TED talk. He speaks of two siblings on a train going into Auschwitz. An older sister saw her younger brother missing his shoes, yelling at him she says he never can keep himself kempt. After that moment was the last moment she saw her brother. She then vowed that she would “Never say anything that can’t stand as the last thing you’d ever say.” That quote resonated with me not only in my professional, but personal life also. Think about how many things we say to our significant others, parents, brothers, sisters, and friends. If they were gone tomorrow, would you be happy with the last thing you said to them?

How to Get Ready to go to the Studio!

Reading many forums online I have come across many instances of artists asking “I am hitting the studio next week, what do I need to do?” When I see that post it makes me quiver just a little. Not for the sake of the engineers involved, but the artist as well. If you are not prepared to enter the studio, it cannot only be a waste of time, but also money! Through my experience, and also taking a few great tips from Blue Room Music Studio; I am going to give you some tips to get ready to record your album!

Here is my top 10 list of tips to get ready to hit the studio

Practice, practice, practice! – How do you know when it’s enough? A great album is recorded when the band can come in and have minimal mistakes that involve ‘forgetting’ parts. I am not saying you HAVE to be flawless, but by the words of the great Veit Renn “Do it perfectly 8 times, then you know you are ready to go.” 

Singers, Know the lyrics! – This piggybacks off of tip #1 a bit. If a singer is reading off of his or her lyric sheet, believe me you can hear it in the take. I don’t even have to see you doing it to know. Music should be felt, and reading off the sheet takes away from the emotions you are trying to compel in your words.

 Leave it all at the door! – When you come to the studio, keep your personal problems at the door. The studio is a place to let the emotions fly through your words, not through anger or being miserable. The studio should be a relaxing place and a great experience to remember for years. Take it all in!

Rest up! – You should give yourself a few days rest before hitting the studio, especially the vocalists! You are going to be doing quite a few takes yourself in the studio and if you strain your voice, this can be a huge issue! The other band mates should rest as well.

Don’t Bring Friends or Family! – The studio is not a stage. Quite often if I see bands recording while a family member is in the control room the singer or musician plays pretty terribly; kind of like they don’t want to get made fun of or get criticized by their guest. I recall an instructor from my tenure at Full Sail say he was working with an artist that their mother was in the control room barking orders at them as they did their takes. The producer kicked the mother out, and the next take from the vocalist was flawless!

Don’t Change Songs! – The studio is not a rehearsal hall. The studio should not be a place where you decide to write a new track, completely change a section of your song, or try to play Free Bird as fast as you can. Going back to rule # 1, practice what you are going to do at the studio. I am not saying changes in songs aren’t welcomed in the studio, but keep them at a minimum.

Be Respectful! – Leave your ego at the door with your problems. There is nothing worse than an egotistical person entering the studio that their head is taking up more headroom than your snare drum! When you walk through the door of a studio, we already respect you for giving us your business, return the favor and respect us for helping you get your art to the world.

Be Prepared! – Bring extra drum sticks, guitar picks, strings, drum heads, etc. 99% of the time we don’t have extras laying around; especially the exact heads you are accustomed to that will give you the same sound you want to be on the record!

Practice with a metronome! – Most studios and engineers align your tracks based on a tempo grid. This grid is the BPM of your song, and this is pretty much the heartbeat of your track. Do yourself a favor and practice your songs with a metronome to not only make your engineer’s life easier, but it will also better yourself as a musician to boot!

Have Fun – I can’t stress this enough. If you come in the studio with a heavy weight of the world on you, then the whole experience may be a negative one. The studio is a place that many dream to see one day, and it is a place where your emotions come to life on a soundscape. Take a breath, take it all in, and lay the track down like there is no tomorrow!

These tips are not gospel by any means, but they are just general things out there that can help you get prepared for the studio. There are so many more tips out there, if you want to see many more check out Suspect Studios' tips page. They have a lot of great information as well surrounding prep, also a great article on the good and bad of a home recording. Please feel free to ask any questions or email myers570@gmail.com with your own tips!

Record Deals - Are they heaven on paper, or are they the devil in disguise?

Recently I came across an article called "7 Things a Record Deal Teaches You About the Music Industry'. The article goes over a record deal that was given to a young musician, and went over how many issues he had along the way.

Just to sidetrack a little, my focus of this blog is not to just copy and paste someone else's material, but to add to it, and provide my own feedback to the scenarios.

So let's start! #7 - Labels Hunt for Unique Voices

What do we mean here? You are sitting in a room with a bunch of people talking, let's say a crowded restaurant. Out of nowhere you hear someone talking and pick right up on what they are saying. Why? They're unique, something in their voice triggered you to focus. Whether it's articulation, delivery, or that slight rasp they have in their voice from baby colic. They got your attention. The same thing goes in the music business. Record labels don't want some girl that can perform like Ke$ha, they have it already. They want someone unique, and someone who stands out to them.

So let's say you are you, and a company contacts you and slaps a check in your hand like our good pal Spose from the article. What happens next?

#6 - They Have Minions for You

How does one impress the impressionable? Pampering. Whether you're trying to land that new job at your work, or in this case you want a young artist to sign the contract. They mush up to you like a hormone crazed teen in high school trying to get the cute blonde to take him out. Not just the big studios have them, even the little ones do, but the studio runners are people who go out and get anything that is needed for the recording sessions whether it be beer, food, a cable, or drugs (if you are into that sort of thing). The runner sometimes is that kid that just likes to hang out at the studio, or even just the guy they have duplicating CDs for 4$ an hour.

Also - There is another classification of minion. Do you know that many pop artists rarely write their own music? A lot of people write a song that you hear on the radio, and most of the time the songs are never written by the artists. Some people are hired as up and coming artists, but then get turned down later and maybe placed as a studio musician or a lyricist to help new artists write their records. Don't believe me? The article mentions Bruno Mars, you know this guy, right? Superbowl? Halftime? You get the point. Well this guy WAS a minion, for about ten years he was a writer for OTHER artists until he finally got his break. They would have Bruno record his vocals for a placeholder then find a 'better' artist to replace them.

#5 - The Labels Convince Naive Kids They're Rock Stars

The record labels like to fatten you up. Feed your ego and make you feel like you are the best thing since The Beatles to walk this earth. Why do they do it? They need your ink. They need your soul to reap of all of it's innocence to sell records to make money for them. THEM. Just like the article, they had fluffed him up with flying him in a jet to NYC immediately, but then later sent him some papers that "YOU HAVE TO SIGN IMMEDIATELY". Why would you do this?

The reason being they are forcing a document in your face. You don't have an entertainment lawyer, you don't really have real world experience yet, and you're going to sign a document that you know about two words within it. Those two words are your name. The only language that is universal is the other thing you recognize in the papers, those $$$$$ symbols that make your eyes flip open like Yosemite Sam.

#4 - They are Casting a Role

The record label is the director now. They are casting you to play the lead role, but what you don't know is you're filming the extended version of The Lord of the Rings and most of it isn't hitting theaters. Artists record upwards to 25 songs per album, but only put maybe 10-12 on the actual press. Why? Maybe it didn't jive with the flow of the record, or maybe it didn't please the producer. The main thing is, you are placing your heart and soul into tracks that some guy that did nothing but listened to it goes "Nah, won't sell" Where is the music? Where is the emotion that was poured into songs like Janis Joplin's song "Mercedes Benz"? It's gone. You are the puppet and the industry is the puppeteer.

#3 - You Write Songs by Committee 

How about this scenario to resonate with you. You order a pizza. Only one. This pizza needs to feed 12 people and only one slice per person. All twelve people need to decide what they want on this pizza. This is how a committee writing works, a bunch of people deciding what the song is about, what it will sound like, and how it will be sang. The deciding factor is, the producer has the Dominos app open and he's going to have the last say if ham ends up on your pizza. You don't write your music anymore, it's there for you, please enjoy the shirt we sent you.

#2 - It's a Ridiculous Numbers Game

The label doesn't just want one single out of you. They want the second single as well, and if they think they have that second single picked out, guess what? You're doing revisions until you're blue in the face until they're happy with it. Just like the article he had done 60 revisions of his second single. There's a high chance you won't even find that second single. Is it luck of the draw? Or are the cards already stacked in the dealers favor?

#1 - There Is a Blessing for One-Hit Wonders in 2014

2014 and the latter years bring great fortune to one hit wonders. The basement musician can list their songs on iTunes for a small fee and make some cash that they would NEVER see in the record industry. The industry says piracy and internet downloads are destroying music. Are they? Or are they sprouting a new breed of musicians that don't have 1,000,000$ to make a record? This is where I come in. I support the basement artist. I support the kid that works two jobs to feed his family and just wants to put out a demo for his close friends and family. I am the angel in the world of devils.

Shawn Myers
570 Productions