9:45 - 12:15
Today I met with Chris at his house instead of meeting at school like we usually do so we can get some more of the song recorded. I was supposed to be there at 9:30 but because I move slow in the morning I arrived a little late, which he was fine with because he says he's the same way. So first we talked about schooling I could attend after I get out of highschool to begin my path on becoming a producer. I explained that what I would love to do eventually is be able to be a producer for many different types of media, sort of like an entrepenuer. Ofcourse this would be soemthing very hard to accomplish, and Chris advised that atleast to start off, I should pick one of the choices, like music production, and focus on that so I can establish a career, and then later use some of the skills I have learned from producing music to learn more about producing other things so I can eventually be the type of producer I'd like to be. Chris told me there are classes I can attend that usually are about 2 year courses, which would give me the experience needed to work in a record company or studio. During or after those courses I could aslo get an internship with a recording studio, where I would move up while learning how it all works. After talking for awhile we got down to business and started recording the next part of the song. The next riff in the song is almost as complicated as the riff before it, and finding the right timing was extremely tough, almost enough that we're not completely sure if the riff is right, but we managed to make it work. The speed and tempo has proved to be really hard to work with without a drummer, which brought Chris back to explaining more that recording the drum parts first for a song is always easiest because it is easier for a guitarist to play along to a drummer, especially one that he has been playing with, rather than a click track. It took us about two hours and hour and a half to get the riff to a point we felt acceptable to fit with the song. We then recorded the next riff, which was actually really easy compared to the other riffs and it only took a little time to get it down. I had to get to school by the time we finished that so we decided to break until next sunday, where we planned to finish the lead guitar parts and start adding in the basslines and possibly a lead guitar riff to play over the chorus.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Mentor Log 5
3:00-6:00
I went to meet Chris at 3:00 like we did last week. This time I brought my guitar and distortion pedle so it would be easier for me to play the guitar riffs I created and to get the sound I wanted. Chris welcomed me into his home, where I was welcomed by the Scredon's barking dog again. Ms. Scredon took the dog out with her to do whatever, while Chris and I started working in the studio. Chris set up the speakers again, and we talked about the new song I was going to do because I didn't want to keep messing with the one we had recorded last week, mostly because the one we recorded this time represents more of my style and I have alot more ideas to construct it. We tuned up the guitar and starting trying to play the first riff. The first problem we encountered is the speed and tempo of the song was hard to work with. We had to get it down at a set tempo so that it could be constructed properly for the whole song. Chris explained to me that, in most cases, the drum parts would be recorded first, because it sets the rythym of the song and its much easier to record the guitar tracks along with the drums, rather than vise-versa. Unfortunatley, not only do we not have a concrete drum pattern in this case since I haven't been able to mess with drum parts for it, but recording drums properly takes a lot of microphones and preferably a studio, and that could end up costing up to $100. So we decided that the song will be focused mainly on instrumental guitar and bass riffs, and if possible we'll add in drum parts later. So to get the timing right, we used whats called a click track, which has a range of tempo and sounds to use for timing. We spent a little while trying to get this right, mostly by having me play at different speeds and seeing out it worked out until we found a proper pattern. The first riff was relatively easy to get down compared to the second riff that we recorded next and took up most of the rest of the time I was there. Finding the tempo was easy since we just had it at the same speed as the last riff, but finding the pattern to make sure I could play along with that tempo properly was tough, and Chris even said it was hard for him to wrap his head around it. The riff is also somewhat complex and requires a bit of skill and acuracy to pull off, as well as speed. We had to try a few different things to figure it out, including Chris listening to the tempo himself and beating on the table with it to try to create a beat that would make it easier for me to play with. We ended up sticking with the click track after messing with it for awhile. Chris would then hit record and leave me to play the riff 4 times. The initial plan was the try to record the riff 4 times in one take because it actually is played that many times in the song, but because its a complex riff, this proved to be extremely difficult to get right and took a few times until we found one part of the riff that was perfect, and we ended up copying and pasting it to work with the song, which ended up working very well. Since that took up most of our time, Me and Chris talked about how the rest of the song is set up and how many riffs are in it. With about 6-7 possible riffs in the song, we figured we need to make sure we have a bit more time in studio to make sure the product would be ready on time. So we set up a time for this wensday like we usually do, but instead of meeting at school at 11:00, we would meet at his house at 9:30.
I went to meet Chris at 3:00 like we did last week. This time I brought my guitar and distortion pedle so it would be easier for me to play the guitar riffs I created and to get the sound I wanted. Chris welcomed me into his home, where I was welcomed by the Scredon's barking dog again. Ms. Scredon took the dog out with her to do whatever, while Chris and I started working in the studio. Chris set up the speakers again, and we talked about the new song I was going to do because I didn't want to keep messing with the one we had recorded last week, mostly because the one we recorded this time represents more of my style and I have alot more ideas to construct it. We tuned up the guitar and starting trying to play the first riff. The first problem we encountered is the speed and tempo of the song was hard to work with. We had to get it down at a set tempo so that it could be constructed properly for the whole song. Chris explained to me that, in most cases, the drum parts would be recorded first, because it sets the rythym of the song and its much easier to record the guitar tracks along with the drums, rather than vise-versa. Unfortunatley, not only do we not have a concrete drum pattern in this case since I haven't been able to mess with drum parts for it, but recording drums properly takes a lot of microphones and preferably a studio, and that could end up costing up to $100. So we decided that the song will be focused mainly on instrumental guitar and bass riffs, and if possible we'll add in drum parts later. So to get the timing right, we used whats called a click track, which has a range of tempo and sounds to use for timing. We spent a little while trying to get this right, mostly by having me play at different speeds and seeing out it worked out until we found a proper pattern. The first riff was relatively easy to get down compared to the second riff that we recorded next and took up most of the rest of the time I was there. Finding the tempo was easy since we just had it at the same speed as the last riff, but finding the pattern to make sure I could play along with that tempo properly was tough, and Chris even said it was hard for him to wrap his head around it. The riff is also somewhat complex and requires a bit of skill and acuracy to pull off, as well as speed. We had to try a few different things to figure it out, including Chris listening to the tempo himself and beating on the table with it to try to create a beat that would make it easier for me to play with. We ended up sticking with the click track after messing with it for awhile. Chris would then hit record and leave me to play the riff 4 times. The initial plan was the try to record the riff 4 times in one take because it actually is played that many times in the song, but because its a complex riff, this proved to be extremely difficult to get right and took a few times until we found one part of the riff that was perfect, and we ended up copying and pasting it to work with the song, which ended up working very well. Since that took up most of our time, Me and Chris talked about how the rest of the song is set up and how many riffs are in it. With about 6-7 possible riffs in the song, we figured we need to make sure we have a bit more time in studio to make sure the product would be ready on time. So we set up a time for this wensday like we usually do, but instead of meeting at school at 11:00, we would meet at his house at 9:30.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Mentor Log 4
Sunday October 5th, 2008
4:00-6:30
Today I went to meet Chris Scredon at his house where he has a setup that doubles as a studio. I was supposed to be there at 3:00 but mapquest had his address posted down the road and it took me a while to find a way to contact him and find out where he lives. Once I finally got there, Chris' dog went crazy and wouldn't stop barking until an hour or so of being there. Chris set up his speakers and explained to me how the hardware he has for his studio works. A box that acts as a sound processor is a piece of hardware that is used with most Digital Audio Workstations(DAWs) and is required for the program that Chris is teaching me how to use, Protools, which is one of the standard DAWs used in the industry. The box processes the sound and allows you to input instruments from outside sources, through the computer, and then back out to the speakers. Although he had one that was required to use Protools, Chris says that there are many pieces of hardware that can subsitute for this and even be better, and that actual recording studios usually have a bit more than just the sound box to make it accesible with the computer. After he finished setting up, he showed me a song he had made for a wedding recently, and explained to me a basic concept that goes along with recording tracks together. Chris explained that mixing isn't so much about putting the sounds together but seperating them apart to be heard properly. For example, if one instrument is playing two different parts at the same time, their frequencies and tone are going to be very similar and may drown eachother out and not sound as good, this is where equilizers and panning is used. Using the equilizers you can set the exact pitch or frequency for the different parts which allows you to set the high notes louder than the low notes and letting them be heard more clearly rather than having it drown out within the low sounds of the bass. Panning was another useful technique he explained to me that I never realized would be so important in the perfection of the sound quality. Panning is simply shifting an instrument or track to one side of the speakers rather than play on both speakers. My thoughts before having this explained to me were that a recordings sounds would probably sound best if they were equally distributed between both speakers, but after showing me a few examples and having me sit between the two speakers to hear the difference, I was able to see that singling out an instrument on one side will often help it blend better with the other side rather than sound like your listening to a completely different thing through each ear. After showing me those basics, we talked about recording something to work on, which I was at first shy to do and felt I had no ideas at the moment that I would feel comfortable recording, until I decided to use a simple song I had made up awhile back. I found myself feeling very picky about the recording sounding right, it also being a song I felt doesn't really express my true musical taste, rather it was a good sounding simple song. I could manage to get the basic riff down, but I had trouble playing the parts the exact way I wanted it to sound, so we recorded parts of the riffs individually a couple times and picked the best ones(which I was not completely satisfied with but dealt with so we would have something to work on). We then blended these to parts together using a tool in protools that helped mix the frequencies from one track to another so it sounded like it was done in one take. We decided to take a break after that to give myself some time to come up with some more ideas for the riff that we would use next time we met. After feeling a bit more comfortable just getting a recording down, I decided next time we meet rather than carry on with the same riff, I may choose a set of riffs that I work on more often and have more ideas with.
4:00-6:30
Today I went to meet Chris Scredon at his house where he has a setup that doubles as a studio. I was supposed to be there at 3:00 but mapquest had his address posted down the road and it took me a while to find a way to contact him and find out where he lives. Once I finally got there, Chris' dog went crazy and wouldn't stop barking until an hour or so of being there. Chris set up his speakers and explained to me how the hardware he has for his studio works. A box that acts as a sound processor is a piece of hardware that is used with most Digital Audio Workstations(DAWs) and is required for the program that Chris is teaching me how to use, Protools, which is one of the standard DAWs used in the industry. The box processes the sound and allows you to input instruments from outside sources, through the computer, and then back out to the speakers. Although he had one that was required to use Protools, Chris says that there are many pieces of hardware that can subsitute for this and even be better, and that actual recording studios usually have a bit more than just the sound box to make it accesible with the computer. After he finished setting up, he showed me a song he had made for a wedding recently, and explained to me a basic concept that goes along with recording tracks together. Chris explained that mixing isn't so much about putting the sounds together but seperating them apart to be heard properly. For example, if one instrument is playing two different parts at the same time, their frequencies and tone are going to be very similar and may drown eachother out and not sound as good, this is where equilizers and panning is used. Using the equilizers you can set the exact pitch or frequency for the different parts which allows you to set the high notes louder than the low notes and letting them be heard more clearly rather than having it drown out within the low sounds of the bass. Panning was another useful technique he explained to me that I never realized would be so important in the perfection of the sound quality. Panning is simply shifting an instrument or track to one side of the speakers rather than play on both speakers. My thoughts before having this explained to me were that a recordings sounds would probably sound best if they were equally distributed between both speakers, but after showing me a few examples and having me sit between the two speakers to hear the difference, I was able to see that singling out an instrument on one side will often help it blend better with the other side rather than sound like your listening to a completely different thing through each ear. After showing me those basics, we talked about recording something to work on, which I was at first shy to do and felt I had no ideas at the moment that I would feel comfortable recording, until I decided to use a simple song I had made up awhile back. I found myself feeling very picky about the recording sounding right, it also being a song I felt doesn't really express my true musical taste, rather it was a good sounding simple song. I could manage to get the basic riff down, but I had trouble playing the parts the exact way I wanted it to sound, so we recorded parts of the riffs individually a couple times and picked the best ones(which I was not completely satisfied with but dealt with so we would have something to work on). We then blended these to parts together using a tool in protools that helped mix the frequencies from one track to another so it sounded like it was done in one take. We decided to take a break after that to give myself some time to come up with some more ideas for the riff that we would use next time we met. After feeling a bit more comfortable just getting a recording down, I decided next time we meet rather than carry on with the same riff, I may choose a set of riffs that I work on more often and have more ideas with.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Mentor Log 3
9/17/08
11:00 - 12:00
I met with Chris again at the same place and explained him my situation with my paper. My paper had gained some of the information that I needed to fill in the gaps, but it still lacked some personal explanation and found that I repeated alot of what I said. Chris took this oppertunity to explain to me how he saw my situation: I had alot of work to do, I was procrastinating, and I needed to get my act together. At this point he said, he could help me with my paper but it is ultimatley up to me to make sure it gets what it needs since he can't just walk me through it. After explaining this to me, we tried to go back to how my personal view of a producer was and how I would want to go about creating a product. We decided I could compose a song or use a previous recording of mine, and using pro-tools we would layer other tracks over it to construct it into one full song.
11:00 - 12:00
I met with Chris again at the same place and explained him my situation with my paper. My paper had gained some of the information that I needed to fill in the gaps, but it still lacked some personal explanation and found that I repeated alot of what I said. Chris took this oppertunity to explain to me how he saw my situation: I had alot of work to do, I was procrastinating, and I needed to get my act together. At this point he said, he could help me with my paper but it is ultimatley up to me to make sure it gets what it needs since he can't just walk me through it. After explaining this to me, we tried to go back to how my personal view of a producer was and how I would want to go about creating a product. We decided I could compose a song or use a previous recording of mine, and using pro-tools we would layer other tracks over it to construct it into one full song.
Mentor Log 2
9/23/08
11:00 - 12:00
I met Chris at the Jittery Joes at school again and we began to figure out how I should put my information in the paper. My problem with most of my paper was that I didn't have enough information on the topic and with the paper's rough draft being due soon I would have to put in a lot of work to make sure it could be turned in. We looked at what I had done for the paper so far and began making an outline of the things that needed to be included in it. Although I could explain the basic idea of what a producer does, I needed more specifics about the tasks performed, such as the people he communicates with and the skills needed to perform technical tasks.
11:00 - 12:00
I met Chris at the Jittery Joes at school again and we began to figure out how I should put my information in the paper. My problem with most of my paper was that I didn't have enough information on the topic and with the paper's rough draft being due soon I would have to put in a lot of work to make sure it could be turned in. We looked at what I had done for the paper so far and began making an outline of the things that needed to be included in it. Although I could explain the basic idea of what a producer does, I needed more specifics about the tasks performed, such as the people he communicates with and the skills needed to perform technical tasks.
Mentor Log 1
8/27/08
11:00 - 12:00
Upon getting to school I waited for Chris Scredon at the Jittery Joes counter in the middle of the school. I only waited a few minutes until he showed up and we went into an empty classroom to talk about the best way to go about my paper and the rest of the project. For most of the time, it was mostly conversing and getting to know eachother, sharing our ideas of what a producer would do in the music industry and how you might apply that to other types of media. Chris explained that he has produced his own album before and has a studio set up at home. He uses a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) called Pro Tools to do his work and tells me he will teach me how to use it considering it is the standard program used in the Recording Industry.
11:00 - 12:00
Upon getting to school I waited for Chris Scredon at the Jittery Joes counter in the middle of the school. I only waited a few minutes until he showed up and we went into an empty classroom to talk about the best way to go about my paper and the rest of the project. For most of the time, it was mostly conversing and getting to know eachother, sharing our ideas of what a producer would do in the music industry and how you might apply that to other types of media. Chris explained that he has produced his own album before and has a studio set up at home. He uses a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) called Pro Tools to do his work and tells me he will teach me how to use it considering it is the standard program used in the Recording Industry.
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