Beauty In: Beauty

To Build A Home is one of those songs. Y’know the ones that you first listen to and can’t quite deceipher what it means, but it’s just taken you on an incredible emotional journey. Big part of this is because it is as much a sonic experience as it as a song. The lyrics surely do sum up to something, but for me they serve more as individual poetic lines, that sound very meaningful when sung. Consequently the entire production for the song seems to be about directness, dynamics and making sure shit sounds pretty!

Often songs that go for aesthetics, impact and an emotional journey, will be swimming in a sea of reverb. At some point, I wasn’t around, it was decided that reverb=drama. This annoys me. To Build A Home instead relies of good instruments being played and recorded well. Part of the key is the piano sounding dense without being muddy. Lots of mechanical sounds, which give it a more intimate feeling. The vocals are dry and sound close mic’d without being, again, muddy. They are rich, crisp without being brittle. These two elements carry the song and on their own are beautiful to listen to.

When the double bass starts playing it blends with the piano deftly, enriching the soundscape. The last verse features a string section playing and are panned halfway left as a mono channel. I cannot stress this enough but this a fantastic example of sacrificing short term impact for a better aesthetic and unification. Later as the string instruments are panned separately in the final chorus, it contributes to the intensity at that crucial high point of the song.

Part of the beauty of the sounds and the song is in the fact that they have such a wide dynamic range. The song breaths, ebbs and flows. It’s allows the instruments to get so loud they almost overwhelm the listener before they come crashing down for the end of the song. All the while, they just sound beautiful. Nothing else.

Does your bass has vibe? Box in the mix and on it’s own, does it have personality? Well if the bassist is boring that probably doesn’t matter, they can just add some extra low end informations. However if the bassist is actually doing something interesting, then you wanna chase that vibe. I’ve noticed that the vibe comes more from the actual instrument itself and the player, than from the amp or the processing. Those may enhance vibe, but won’t had it to you. Below are two videos by Snout, featuring Ross McLennan on bass. Playing basses with more personanility in them than most singers.

Sometimes bassists will be very attached to certain bass. Often one that is nice to play, not one that sounds really distinct. Also knowing whether the bassist you are working with can play with a pick or only fingers or visa verse. Either have listen to these songs, you’ll get what I mean.

 

 

Beauty In: The Living End – Part 2 “Support Roles”

The Living End are doing something silly over the next few months. They’re playing all their albums. All of them, at least five times each. For two months straight. For every city they’re playing their debut album twice and some others have had additional shows added. But this silliness does make me extremely happy, as it means they will be performing the entirety of State of Emergency. My favourite all around album of theirs.

To awesome to be considered awesome

 State of Emergency is often overlooked I feel. It’s not the rollicking debut, it’s not the raw slightly trickier rock of Roll On their sophomore effort, it’s not the misguided back to basics attempt that is album #3 Modern ARTillery, it’s not the slightly heavier and more melodic White Noise, nor is it the the attempt at a straight pop-rock album that is The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating. State of Emergency is all of those things.

The album manages to strike the balance between energy, pop, rawness, intensity and overall polish. No small part of this is the song writing and arrangements from the band, but I feel the true hero of this album is producer Nick Launay. The overall sound is similar to that of a live gig. Bass prominent in the mix, guitars close mic’d and not overly overdubbed, the drums sit back in the mix and seem to mostly be drawing from close mics or at least it is made to sound as such. This is one the keys to giving it a “live” sound and energy. The drums are exciting cohesive, perhaps not slamming the kick and snare as most bands have since the mid 90s, but ultimately with more impact. They also sit behind the guitars and bass, in the same way they would if they were being played acoustically behind guitar and bass amps. Similarly the vocals are not as rich as many are and sit slightly further back in the mix, as they would live.

Nick Launay

In the same vein as a live, the overall mix and aesthetic stays similar between songs. This helps create a cohesion no matter what they change in style. Yet something about that open, live sound, allows for little bits of change that make a large impact. This “live” sound is similar to that which TLE and Launay accomplished on Roll On, however due to the songs being slightly more straight forward and less rough, it gives the band a different vibe. Subtle bits of delay and barely noticeable double tracked vocals seem to be part of the key. They add a sense of space, depth and polish without attracting attention away from how live it sounds. When I say subtle I do mean subtle. Launay has not been egotistical about these production additions, they are there to enhance the core of the song. Not to be their own independent element.

Beauty In: Ambition & Cohesion

When I was younger I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to classify The Cat Empire as a band. Ska, Funk, Salsa, Jazz all came to mind and are all legitimate. These days if I have to describe them, I’d call them a Hip-Hop band. They do more than that but, ultimately that’s what I feel is easiest. This genre mashing has been a strong influence on the way I think about and appreciate music. Ultimately I appreciate ambition and striving for something distinct, even if that distinct isn’t the “best” or if the execution is slightly lacking. This applies to the production as well as the musical composition and performance.

 This Rose by Melbourne duo Crimery is one of those songs. I feel the ambition slightly outstrips the production and performance at times. But I’d prefer to hear it like this, than something bland. The warm imperfect piano recording with ambient background sounds, not quite emotionally resonant vocal, sharp drums and the slightly too clean wobble bass, never quite mesh right. They come close back never quite get there. But ultimately the shift from the slow piano intro and Hip-Hop verse into the breakdown is ambitious enough to compensate. It is also likely the fact that it comes so close in execution that can make the flaws more obvious, even if they are quite minor.

 

It feels as if the producer when switching musical styles, wishes to switch production styles as well. The verses feel warm intimate, while also spacious and the breakdowns feel sharp, clean and more hard hitting. But by changing the production style, even subtly, the contrast becomes magnified and problematic. Yet how many Hip-Hop songs do you know that could equally be played at Club and at a nice chilled Cafe. Through the clean tones of the drums, the song manages to never become too intense during the fast breakdowns.

I think a commitment to one sound/aesthetic would be more effective as it would allow the compositional changes to shine, while keeping the song more cohesive. This would have possibly weakened each section when taken on it’s own, but made for a stronger statement.

 

 

Beauty In: Asymmetry

The Beatles had no rules for stereo. Today we are indoctrinated to believe that Kick, Snare, Bass and Lead Vocals are panned dead centre. Often the rest of the drum kit will be spread across the entire stereo width, with the floor tom and crash cymbals hard panned in search of large, full sound. Guitars get, at least, double tracked and hard panned etc. Don’t worry you’ll know it when you hear it because that is the format for almost every Rock/Pop derivative record produced in this modern age.

Monkey Wrench – No. 12 on the ARIA Charts

Now this format doesn’t have to be bad. Have a listen to Monkey Wrench by The Foo Fighters. Sounds pretty cool huh? Big, thick, loud. A million and one guitar tracks accosting your left and right earholes, vocals in the centre and, slightly to contrary the drums, are actually rather confined. But it is rather conventional and dynamically it really only ranges from 7 to 9 on an 11 point scale.

The Beetles- No.1 recording artists of all time

Now have a listen to Helter Skelter by The Beatles, a song which arguably influenced music like Monkey Wrench. The drums are mono and panned hard right, the bass hard left, lead vocals centre, rhythm guitar and backing vocals slightly right and left respectively, all while the much louder than anything meanders around the stereo field. Dynamically it probably ranges from about 5 to 9, perhaps never quite as thick as The Foos production, partially due to the asymmetrical panning. I feel that this panning, while not as immediately impactful, draws the listener in to a greater degree and serves the dynamics of the song to a greater degree.

Prometheus – Damon Lindelof’s latest divisive piece of media

I would compare it to the look of Prometheus as opposed to Alien. Both are beautiful films, but Alien is less perfect, more tanigble. Perhaps not as epic and you can sometimes see the seams in the world. Yet somehow more engaging and therefore impactful.

Beauty In: Bone Dry Cash

Johnny Cash started off on the Sun Records label, which has been remembered for several reasons. One the incredible roster (Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and many more) and its unique sound. The was that of a short 100 milisecod, or so, delay placed on the main mix. It was a technique stumbled upon by Sun’s engineers and they used it to create a greater sense of room, a substitute for the expensive reverb technologies of the time. It provided a very artificial and echoey, yet bouncy sound. Reinforcing the tic tack rhythm of rockabilly music.

New Cash

This is the sound which Cash began his career, a lo-fi but still very “produced” sound. It is however the opposite to how, production wise, he ended it. American IV: The Man Comes Around was the last Johnny Cash album released before his death and featured a cover of the Nine Inch Nails song Hurt, which is by many people considered to be Cash’s epitaph. The song, and the majority of the album, is defined by Rick Rubin’s minimalistic and bone dry production style. Hurt features three acoustic guitars, Cash’s vocals and an upright piano. No additional reverb can be noticed even on careful headphone listens. The instruments simply play and in the choruses they slowly rise and build in volume, threatening to overwhelm Cash’s pained vocals, but never quite.

Old Cash

Rubin knows the calibre of musician that he is working with and simply lets the performance speak for itself. The ability to know when to pull back, do almost nothing and use good unprocessed source material should never be underestimated…. just make sure tat your original recordings are tope notch.

My Work: The Kilniks Double A-Side

I recently produced a Double A-Side single for Melbourne Indie Rock band The Kilniks and it has just been released. Since I spend so much time criticising other people’s production, I thought it would be only prudent to share some of mine.

Beauty In: Pure Performance

When talking about production, one usually talks about records which have had meticulous care put into them. Products that are the sum of days, weeks or months of work. These are generally studio albums but live albums can be subject to significant production as well.  Bruce Springsteen Live at the Agora Ballroom is not that. Bruce Springsteen Live at the Agora Ballroom is a bootleg of a 1979 concert taken directly from the live radio broadcast mix, no more. It is also a fantastic example of how important a great, energetic and emotional performance is to the success of any production.

Ads for radio perturb my senses

I’m going to take the first two numbers, Eddie Cochran’s Summertime Blues and Springsteen’s own Badlands,  as an example. From the opening of Max Weinberg’s punchy tom beat there is a sense of energy and excitement. Springsteen’s vocalisations build the tension until the band stops  and he sings his first phrase of “Well I’m gonna raise a fuss/I’m gonna raise holler” with extreme gusto, then the band comes crashing in around him with the songs iconic riff. The sound achieved could be described as a coordinated cacophony… or perhaps more accurately as a a live reproduction of the Springsteen/Spector ‘Wall Of Sound’, uh sound. Weinberg stays steady on the drums, keeping a strong pulse. But everything around him bursts with so much liveliness and vigor that it doesn’t matter that Springsteen isn’t all up on dat mic 100% of the time or that you can here the sound engineer adjusting the levels, bringing up and instrument a bar into a solo. Also the tape is saturating all over the place. So from a mix perspective it is imperfect,  but at the same time this imperfectness contributes to the vitality of the production.

This kind of communal high that …Live at the Agora Ballroom accomplishes is something that producers strive to achieve in the studio. When recording in the studio, one generally strives to eliminate the technical imperfections found in this production. Whilst attempting to capture a performance with that kind of energy. This is of course made difficult when the musicians are in separate rooms, not playing at the same time and frankly without an audience. Music is by nature dynamic and reactionary, it changes depending upon environment, often dependent upon the musician’s mindset. As a producer one need to find a way to induce that mindset. Sometimes musicians can find this in themselves but rarely will a entire band be able to reach it. With care one can coax musicians into this state, whether it be through drugs, hyping them up, meditation, getting them angry, getting them happy or even giving them an audience in the control room. If you can conjure up a good performance then you have a diamond that you can mix into oblivion   perfection. But perhaps a question worth asking is whether the good performance inherently requires those technical imperfections to shine… or dull as it might be.

It’s vintage

Also – It’s worth mentioning that it helps that the E Street Band were/are incredibly tight and good players that stand up to intense scrutiny. Heaps good editing and mixing is no substitute for getting your musicians to that level in pre-production

Also²  – Live at the Agora Ballroom can be found here

Beauty In: The Mids

Elvis Presley’s studio rendition of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller penned Hound Dog is one of the best produced records of all time. This statement is hyperbolic and I could probably list songs that I think are just as well produced, but they do not have the simple elegance and efficiency that Hound Dog posseses.

Scotty is the real star of the show

Now without pulling out a pristine original copy of the 7” single accurately judging the sonic aspects of the production is difficult, due to the existence of various remasters (an excellent breakdown of today’s most common master can be found here). Without going going into immense detail the most common remaster features a overly compressed signal with an extremely limited frequency range, reducing the highs and lows. Yet even in this compromised state the song still shines, it sounds especially great on those little white earbuds that everybody seems to be using.

Essentially what this demonstrates is that all the important sonic information is in the midrange, which is the reality of most music. But with the emphasis on mixing with high fidelity monitors, with an balanced and full frequency response what one can end up with is music mixed to it’s fully potential. A mix which is giving all the instruments space, depth and sonic breathing room. Which gee whiz is a nice idea except the majority of music listeners don’t listen to music on headphones or speakers with a full frequency response. They listen to it on the aforementioned white earbuds.

Now going back to Hound Dog if one listens to the compromised remaster on accurate headphones or speakers, one will notice that it’s a bit lacking and there are a lot of precious Hertz not being used. Yet the snare sounds explosive, Scotty Moore’s guitar chugs and twangs, the ride sizzles in the background, Mr. Presley’s vocals punchy front and centre etc. Asides from the absent highs and lows it sounds great. Now if one can find the slightly less common, arguable less compromised 1989 remaster and listen to it suddenly the full potential of the production is realised without a loss of any elegance. The bass now has real power to it, the hand claps and guitar cut through like a razor on accurate sound systems and not to the detriment of the Apple indoctrinated plebeian crowd.

Weapon of the Indoctrinated Pleb

So take a lesson from Hound Dog and make 300Hz – 6kHz all that matter in a production, that’ll end up being 90% of what’s going to be heard. Find a way to make the instruments sit comfortably and the way you want them to just within that range and then add the rest in for those who have the luxury of getting to hear it. The result will be better for everyone.

Also – A comparison between the compromised master and the not so compromised.

Also^{2 – Did I mention it is in mono?}