Recording - April 2010 - 38

When you think about “Necessity As The Mother Of Invention”, you might not choose trying to create a fullon record with choir and horns in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as an example. But it’s a darned good one By Gregg L. Perry SAMPLES MADE REAL note that I don’t do final mastering; I insist that my clients take their productions out for mastering. The songs I’m going to talk about in detail come from my most recent personal project Higher Ground • The Songs of Howard Shapiro & Gregg Perry, which was mastered by Robert Hadley at Doug Sax’s Mastering Plant and by Paul Elliott, Senior Mastering Engineer at Disc Makers. Samples—tyranny or liberation? For me, I see two ways to work with samples when I write, arrange and orchestrate: 1. The sample dictates the song. 2. The song dictates the sample. The Sample Dictates The Song: This means that maybe I find a sample that inspires me to write a song/composition based on the sample tempo, groove, key, mood, etc. The biggest challenge with this method is that it locks me into the tempo, groove and key of the base sample because the sample’s elements are, for the most part, unchangeable. However I find this method valuable when I’m working on groove/beat based compositions. The Song Dictates The Sample: This method lets me freely compose based on my inspiration and creative process, then find what I need in my sample library to orchestrate the piece. This requires a thorough knowledge of my sample library. I keep my sample library I heard Gregg’s new CD, and when I came to the song “Innocence” I simply had to ask about the background vocals. I’ve known Gregg for a quarter of a century, as a fine keyboardist and allround musician, so it didn’t surprise me that his latest CD sounds great—but I wondered, how on earth did he find this gospel choir where he lives? Over to you, Gregg, and much Aloha!—LzR I live on the Big Island of Hawaii in the Puna district (Windward), and seasoned studio musicians are rare in this rural part of the island. It’s a fabulous place to live but a very challenging market to produce contemporary, professional-quality music. Most of the budgets I work with here are limited when compared to more major markets. Generally speaking I’m left short when looking for world-class drummers, string players, percussionists, and especially guitarists that play a wide diversity of acoustic and electric styles. Another challenge is the fact that my studio is a simple 400 square foot Ohana house (guest house) on a quarter-acre lot behind my home and is not designed well for high-level audio tracking of drums, acoustic guitars and such. Hence, most of my work uses an extensive sample library and is programmed via MIDI. I bring in outside guitar work (usually via internet sessions), vocals, and some horn and reed melodies using some quality local orchestra players when my budget permits and the right players are available. I am fortunate also to have several professional singers available here. The Time Compression/Expansion Trimmer in Pro Tools (icon at left, in use at right) is one convenient tool for matching an audio region to the length of another region, a tempo grid, a video scene, or to practically any other reference point you want. Engineer by necessity I prefer to work with a hired engineer and keep my focus solely on the creative efforts of producing and playing, but in past years I’ve become an engineer by necessity. In today’s market I need to do as much as possible to keep costs down and profits up. So I’ve had to learn my way efficiently around Pro Tools HD (MOTU’s Digital Performer and Apple’s Logic Pro for some clients). I currently work in a Pro Tools (7.4) HD 2 Accel environment on a Mac G5 running OS X 10.4.9. I must say I’m getting much better at engineering, thanks to my mentor Stephan Oberhoff (Full Circle Productions, Pasadena) and others like Joe Vanelli (Blue Moon Studios, Agoura Hills) who have given so much of their time educating me so unselfishly. As for my productions, I do some sessions via Skype with collaborators in Pasadena, Seattle, and Portland, but most of what I produce here must rely on my 500plus GB (and growing) sample library. With this magazine issue’s topic in mind, I shouldRECORDING APRIL 2010 well organized, to make sure that I can get to the sample I’m looking for quickly and efficiently. Occasionally, I miraculously stumble upon a great sample that just happens to fit the tempo, groove, key, etc. But generally this method challenges me to ‘custom fit’ samples to the composition by using time compression/expansion and/or in-depth creative audio editing through cutting, pasting, copying, trimming, etc. This method also requires me to play the sample as a live player would play the real instrument, using the proper technique, articulation and key range of the specific instrument in my use of the sample. With that being said, there’s also the creative possibility to completely alter the sound and articulation of the sample to create an entirely new soundscape. But that’s an aesthetic choice. Most of what I do is in keeping with traditional orchestrations. Both the above-mentioned methods are valid and work well but have their inherent challenges.

Recording - April 2010

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