Recording - April 2010 - 40

less than the time it would have taken to coordinate, travel, track and transfer a live session. See, you too can have the Memphis Horns on your next project! Give the track a listen and see what you think. Innocence—a choir augmented Innocence also features Tioni Tam Sing on lead vocal, supported by a killer gospel choir (sampled) and two live male vocalists. This was one of those rare moments where I found just the right sample for the tune—key, groove and lyric. A rare miraculous find! The main Thanks for asking stereo sample came from the Spectrasonics Vocal Planet The song “Innocence” that I was asked to write about sample library. It consists of a full male/female gospel is one of seventeen tracks that Howard (my songwriting choir singing, clapping and stomping. partner) and I composed for Higher Ground. Of those sevTo add the final dimension of reality to the backenteen, three were written as ‘sample dictates the song’ ground vocal (BGV) track I hired James McWhinney (Big and fourteen were written as ‘song dictates the sample’ Mountain Band) and Damon Williams (one of the best compositions. Some of the biggest sample challenges for R&B singers I have ever worked with) and used their talme as producer, orchestrator and engineer were orches- ents to augment the vocal sample “Love, set me free!” trating the two cuts “Survival” and “Innocence”. Both of Using a Neumann U87 in Omni mode, I set up the these songs were freely composed and needed orches- mic in the middle of my tracking room, baffled with trations that our budget wouldn’t gobos. The singers stood on oppoWhat’s On The Menu? allow. i.e., going to an outside stusite sides of the mic with gobos Here is a complete list of library samples set up immediately behind each dio, hiring the right players, tracking them and transferring the files used in the production of Higher Ground • of them. I had them sing the back to my studio for the final mix. The Songs of Howard Shapiro & Gregg Perry melody, double it, then track the Therefore I had to find appropriate (Perryscope Records, © 2009 Kumanu Music second and third harmonies and samples in my existing sample & Peck Tunes LLC): double each of those; six tracks library for the somewhat complex •Horns: The Memphis Horns library from Ilio, of two live male vocals. Voilà! others from the Roland sample libraries. orchestrations I had in mind. Twelve live voices added to a •Banjo and mandolin: Roland library. sampled choir of some forty-plus “Survival”—with horn section •Orchestral instruments: Roland, Yamaha gospel-choir voices! This song features the incredi- and Miroslav Vitous libraries. Adding the live tracks pleasantly bly talented Tioni Tam Sing on •Sampled drums: Spectrasonics Stylus RMX brought the realism out in the origlead vocal (from Honolulu and and EZ Drummer/Superior Drummer Pro 2.0. inal gospel choir vocal sample and the current Miss Hawaii Runner- •Percussion, tambourines, conga, shakers, gave the overall background vocals up). My biggest challenge orches- cymbal FX, etc.: Spectrasonics Liquid the presence and room air that was trating the song was the horns. I Grooves, Back Beat, Retro Funk and required to make them crisp, lively had an idea for a horn arrange- Metamorphosis libraries and my own custom and articulately present. ment, but I sure didn’t have the recorded sample library. resources to get what I wanted •Bass (electric and acoustic): Spectrasonics Final take live; no budget, no live players. So Bass Legends library. Thanks to manufacturers who I went to the Memphis Horns sam- •Piano: Synthogy Ivory plug-in. continue to make available a •Vocal: Spectrasonics Vocal Planet and never-ending menu of sample ple library from Ilio. The problem then became find- Symphony of Voices libraries. libraries I have a universe of ing the right key, tempo, lick, etc. •Guitar (electric & acoustic): The Hans sounds at my fingertips. I’m only So I spent some time gleaning the Zimmer library. limited in my use of this technoloSome lead electric guitar licks and electric gy by my fear of trying something Memphis Horns sample library auditioning samples. It’s less rhythm guitar parts from the Yamaha Motif bold and new, and every success expensive to pay me $50 per hour sample library based in the Yamaha motif lessens that fear. doing this type of work than to series keyboards.—GLP As you listen to these tracks and incur the cost of multiple musiothers on ‘Higher Ground’, try to cians and outside recording/production costs. pinpoint some of the sampling that was used throughout The horn arrangement you hear on the final mix start- the production. You’ll hear not only sampled backed as three separate sample lines. Two were cut into two ground vocals but a myriad of sampled trap kits, both sections each and time-expanded (original sample brushes and sticks, percussion parts of tambourine, played too fast and had to be slowed down to fit the song conga, shaker, cymbal FX, acoustic and electric basses, tempo) using the TC/E (Time Compression/Expansion) acoustic piano, acoustic and electric guitars, horns, tool in Pro Tools (version 7.4 and above) to tailor the banjo and mandolin. Check out the string and orchessample line to fit the groove. The third sample I had to tral arrangement by Stephan Oberhoff on the track ‘See slice into three separate files, then reconstruct the The Flame’. All the orchestra instruments used in this slices in the order I wanted the subsequent licks played. orchestration consist of Roland, Yamaha and Miroslav Then I used the TC/E tool to adjust the playback of the Vitous sample libraries. resulting compilation sample to the tempo of the song. All this took some editing in my Pro Tools system but Gregg L. Perry (perry@recordingmag.com) keeps himself was well worth the end result. The final horn arrange- busy with music performance, production & publishing, ment sounds seamless. None of this is particularly diffi- and with running his companies Peck Tunes LLC and cult, but it is time-consuming. The total time to get this Perryscope Records; Gregg invites you to check out his work horn arrangement together was about four hours—still at www.pecktunes.com.RECORDING APRIL 2010

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Recording - April 2010

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