Recording - August 2010 - 18
G5 running the equally stable Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger). For audio interfacing, I used my now defunct, first-generation MOTU 828 FireWire unit. After 10+ years and many hours of great recordings it finally gave out a few weeks after opening night. (But from all losses comes growth, and I recently welcomed an Apogee Ensemble to the racks.) For drum and percussion miking, I relied on Audix’s Studio Elite pack, and for vocals, I used an AudioTechnica AT4050, all connected directly into the 828. Since time was of the essence (as is the case for all professional projects in Hollywood) I needed to use a DAW that would offer me flexibility in the realms of songwriting and producing/mixing. As it turned out, I ended up using three different platforms: Ableton Live 8 for composing and producing the demos for the four songs; Apple Logic Pro 8, for composing and mixing the two instrumental pieces, and Avid Pro Tools, for tracking live instruments and mixing the final versions for the three of the four songs. I also used some sounds from Propellerhead Reason 4. Recording with Ableton Live I chose Ableton Live 8 as my main platform because of its extremely flexible interface and workflow design. The program’s user-friendly and intuitive Clip and Scene systems (both part of the program’s unique Session view) proved to be very practical for laying down our ideas piece by piece, moving them around, and combining them in different ways before committing to a final form in the Arrangement view, where all the sections and pieces are combined to create a final version of the form. Recording Clips allowed me to try out multiple oneor two-bar phrases and then move them around using a simple copy/paste command. The use of Scenes allowed me to rearrange the form of the song with a couple of keystrokes. The opening song for the play, “And the Clock is Ticking,” required a Broadway-flavored, overture-style composition, so I decided to use some of Live’s quite convincing symphonic instruments such as strings, brass, and oboe (which was later replaced by a real oboe), in addition to piano—all included in the software’s factory library. A “ticking-clock” sound, which gave the song an eerie and ominous effect, was recorded by striking my sticks together count-off-style. I also added some real snare and cymbal parts, which I recorded using an XY pattern with a matched pair of Audix SCX1-C pencil condensers from the Elite Drum Pack. I performed all the vocal parts for this demo and the others using my faithful AT4050 on the cardioid setting with the pad at 0 dB and the low-cut filter activated. One big lesson I learned after the first demos were delivered is that musical fadeouts do not work for songs in theater. Mr. Ávalos told me that all the compositions required very dry and clear-cut endings. Turns out the audience needs to know exactly when to clap, and lighting and sound designers also depend on such cues or “buttons” to do their jobs.
18
RECORDING AUGUST 2010
The next song to tackle was “Do the Howdy Do,” a number that would have the full cast singing and executing a very complicated square dance-style choreography. For this reason, Mr. Ávalos and I decided it would be wise to meet with Stephen Hues, the choreographer (www.stephenhuesdance.com), to discuss the piece. The meetings were very productive, especially when it came to coming up with more strictly “theatrical” decisions such as length of intro and tempo changes. In the case of “Howdy Do,” a tempo change was decided on after I had already produced and delivered a full demo of the song, so Ableton Live’s Tempo Control and Warp capabilities, which allow you to change the speed of a composition without affecting the pitch or sound quality of the audio tracks, were a godsend. In the screenshot on page 20 you can see the tempo (top left) is now 150 BPM (up from 135). I punched in the variation “on the fly” while the song was playing. To give the tune its “down-home” Country feel, I used the very authentic and realistic banjo and fiddle samples from the Sonic Reality ReFill for Propellerhead’s Reason 4, a program I love but that I hadn’t used in a while. Triggering these sounds from Live was simple thanks to the ReWire protocol shared by both platforms. The banjo part was made up of arpeggiated figures, played at lightnin’ speed, so I had to play it a lot slower and then increase the tempo. Even so, the sample held its own, so much so that this part ended up in the final version and everyone thought it sounded real! Business lesson: The original intention was to hire some big-name Nashville players to perform the banjo, guitar and fiddle parts, and have them send me the files. After running the numbers, though, the director and I realized that this would have put me us out of budget. So, if you can fake it, go for it, especially under a tight indie budget. There was much work to be done and the money had to be stretched as much as possible. The third piece, “A Song About Nothing”, was a duet number in which a husband and wife are talking about global warming and end up having quite a, er, heated discussion. The composition I originally submitted was a Sondheim-esque piece that did not make the cut because Mr. Ávalos felt the music simply did not reflect the mood of the moment. Back at the drawing board, I came up with a The Who-style rocker that was just what the doctor ordered. The song proved to be one of the big hits of the play. The demo for the second version of the song included real acoustic guitars and drums, plus virtual bass and cello, in addition to the vocals. The drums and guitars I tracked for the demos were full of energy and punch, but the actual song quality I obtained was not up to my standards, and rather than re-tracking for a final version, I opted to go for the “let’s-try-to-get-the-same-vibe-as-the-demo” approach at another studio (see below). The lesson here? Be ready to rewrite entire compositions when collaborating on a play; remember, you are working as a team, so don’t get attached to anything! You might end up with even better material in the end anyway. The final song of the play was “A Song for Mother Earth,” a call to action to save our planet. I came up with an 80 bpm R&B/Gospel-style composition that was loved by the entire cast. We rehearsed the piece intensely (I was also musical director for the production) and everyone was excited about the song. Everyone, that is, except Mr. Ávalos. I received a call from him some three weeks before opening night and he told me the last song had to help the play end on a high emotional note. I mounted my defense for the current version, mentioning not only how great the cast was sounding on it, but also the enormous amount of time I had spent on the production and arrangement of the demo. Plus, I had already tracked final drums, electric guitars and bass at a separate studio committing part of the budget. After allowing the director’s perspective to sink in, however, I understood that even though the original version was good in and of itself, it did not reach the excitement that was required for the closing number. So, I again went back to the drawing board. The final version of “Mother Earth” was a fast-paced radio-friendly Pop song that was initially received with much hesitation by the cast. It was a driving 166BPM tune with a completely new melody and feel. One of the female singers, studio session mainstay Rebecca Brand (who was balancing her participation in the play with rehearsals for an upcoming performance with Ennio Morricone at the Hollywood Bowl), even wrote me an email in which she expressed her disappointment in the change of versions. But after rehearsing the new piece for a while, though, the entire company had embraced it completely and the tune eventually became the highlight of the musical numbers and a worthy closer. The lessons? Well, again, it would have to be do not get attached. And to remember that the playwright/director has the final say, not the cast! Oh, and finally: be ready to work your behind off on a tune only to scrap it and start all over again. (Did I mention do not get attached?)
http://www.stephenhuesdance.com
Recording - August 2010
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - August 2010
Recording - August 2010
Fade In
Contents
Talkback
Fast Forward
PreSonus Studio One
Recording the Music for a Theatre Play
AEA A840 Active Ribbon Mic
Jennifer Batten
Reviewed and Revisited
Running Your Studio Under Linux
Recording’s Guitar Column
Steinberg CC121, MR816 X/MR816 CSX, and CI2
Glyph GT 062E
Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
Muse Research Receptor 2
It’s Your Music—Know Your Rights. Chapter 5: The Business End—Part 2
Plug-in Outlet
Readers’ Tapes
Advertiser Index
Fade Out
Recording - August 2010 - Recording - August 2010
Recording - August 2010 - Cover2
Recording - August 2010 - 1
Recording - August 2010 - Fade In
Recording - August 2010 - 3
Recording - August 2010 - Contents
Recording - August 2010 - 5
Recording - August 2010 - Talkback
Recording - August 2010 - 7
Recording - August 2010 - Fast Forward
Recording - August 2010 - 9
Recording - August 2010 - PreSonus Studio One
Recording - August 2010 - 11
Recording - August 2010 - 12
Recording - August 2010 - 13
Recording - August 2010 - 14
Recording - August 2010 - 15
Recording - August 2010 - Recording the Music for a Theatre Play
Recording - August 2010 - 17
Recording - August 2010 - 18
Recording - August 2010 - 19
Recording - August 2010 - 20
Recording - August 2010 - 21
Recording - August 2010 - AEA A840 Active Ribbon Mic
Recording - August 2010 - 23
Recording - August 2010 - 24
Recording - August 2010 - 25
Recording - August 2010 - Jennifer Batten
Recording - August 2010 - 27
Recording - August 2010 - 28
Recording - August 2010 - 29
Recording - August 2010 - Reviewed and Revisited
Recording - August 2010 - 31
Recording - August 2010 - Running Your Studio Under Linux
Recording - August 2010 - 33
Recording - August 2010 - Recording’s Guitar Column
Recording - August 2010 - 35
Recording - August 2010 - 36
Recording - August 2010 - 37
Recording - August 2010 - Steinberg CC121, MR816 X/MR816 CSX, and CI2
Recording - August 2010 - 39
Recording - August 2010 - 40
Recording - August 2010 - 41
Recording - August 2010 - 42
Recording - August 2010 - 43
Recording - August 2010 - 44
Recording - August 2010 - 45
Recording - August 2010 - Glyph GT 062E
Recording - August 2010 - 47
Recording - August 2010 - Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
Recording - August 2010 - 49
Recording - August 2010 - Muse Research Receptor 2
Recording - August 2010 - 51
Recording - August 2010 - It’s Your Music—Know Your Rights. Chapter 5: The Business End—Part 2
Recording - August 2010 - 53
Recording - August 2010 - Plug-in Outlet
Recording - August 2010 - 55
Recording - August 2010 - Readers’ Tapes
Recording - August 2010 - Advertiser Index
Recording - August 2010 - 58
Recording - August 2010 - 59
Recording - August 2010 - 60
Recording - August 2010 - 61
Recording - August 2010 - 62
Recording - August 2010 - 63
Recording - August 2010 - Fade Out
Recording - August 2010 - Cover3
Recording - August 2010 - Cover4
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