However, when working on demos or just doing some jamming or writing, it’s not always feasible to have a drum kit mic’ed up, and often there’s not a drummer in the room.  So at that point I have to rely on other tools.  I think that may have been a drummer joke, sorry.

In the past I’ve enjoyed using Acid Pro to lay down ultra-quick drum tracks.  I started using Acid when it first came out, and it’s intuitive to stripe down a series of loops.  It’s also pretty tweakable as far as manipulating the loops that I’m using – I can slice and dice things into completely different patterns if I want.  And I like the way I can add loops of other instruments to fill out a temporary arrangement.

The workflow with Acid has left a little to be desired.  Even though I think you can now ReWire Acid directly into Pro Tools, I haven’t gotten that far.  I stopped at exporting the soloed drum/percussion tracks and importing that audio into the PT session.  I had to make sure that sample rates and tempo of the Acid output matched the PT session, and if I wanted to make changes I had to pretty much go back to the drawing board.

So this year I’ve been tooling around with some virtual drum plug-ins.  So far I’ve used the demo version of BFD Lite and Addictive Drums.  I’m trying to find a demo version of Superior Drummer 2.0 too, but no luck so far.

There’s a lot to like about the virtual drums (beyond the fact that they stay in time): they are MIDI-based, so I can program from scratch or use any of the hundreds of patterns available in the plug-in library; the samples are solid; the plug-ins have integrated mixers and controls that let you mix the drums as if they were actual inputs to a mixing board.  And in some instances you can change other aspects of the drums (damping, bleed from mic to mic, attacks, decays, and so on).

Once again it’s almost a case of having too much flexibility.  I can imagine sitting here tweaking drums all night instead of finishing a track.  But, in the absence of having access to a great studio and a pro drummer, this may be the best option.

I’m still trying to figure out which one I like best.  When I figure it out and pull the trigger I’ll follow up on this post.  Until then, if anyone has experience with these plug-ins, I’d welcome your input.

Yesterday, while looking for audio tracks to a song I want to remix, I ran across a gem I had occasionally thought about but had relegated to the eternal recycling bin of life.  I found a 10-year-old CD that was cryptically labeled, and it had 6 CD audio tracks on it.

This was about the time that I first used Acid, man.  No, not that acid, I mean the once-revolutionary audio looping software. The first five tracks were garden-variety loop ideas, some of which turned into drunkdude69 songs.  The sixth track, however, was the special surprise I wasn’t expecting.

We had recently finished Tom Smith’s album I Need A Change, and I was apparently going no holds barred on loops.  I strung together a partial remix of the title song from Tom’s album as an experiment.

Years went by, computer drives were swapped and changed, and the track disappeared as far as I knew.  Until I found track six on that CD.  It sounds as wacky as I remember: dance loops under country guitar loops mixed with rock elements – all grafted onto Tom’s song.  Of course the original is far better, but this was a great reminder of having fun with music.

Joey DeFrancesco Trio at the Winchester

Last week hellpellet and I went over to the Winchester, an old bar in Lakewood that has for the last several years hosted a wide array of excellent music shows.  At one time in its presumably storied past, the long back room was a bowling alley, and the front room was a bar.

The front room hasn’t changed much and still has the flavor of an “old man” bar, which I love.  No tchotchke all over the walls, no useless junk masquerading as a “theme”.  Nope, it’s just the old bar and old trimmings with the addition of some excellent framed photographs of musicians that have performed there.  And, of course, booze.

The back room has been remade into a music hall, and they’ve done a really nice job of creating a cool atmosphere for shows that include rock and jazz, national acts and local groups.

We were there last Tuesday to get tickets to see Joey DeFrancesco the following night.  Tuesday nights (and Thursdays I think) the Winchester hosts an open mic night.  We wound up sticking around for a little bit after we got our tickets, chatting with proprietors Jim and Rebecca about music and Twitter (find them at @TheWinchester) and other techno-geekery.  We even got to catch a little of the open mic evening before we had to head out.

I returned there the following evening for the show along with my friend and band-mate Charley.  Charley and I have been to the Winchester to see a handful of jazz/fusion shows (Frank Gambale, Allan Holdsworth), and we were looking forward to tonight since we would be seeing one of the best Hammond players around.

Joey and his trio did not disappoint.  They wound up almost 90 minutes of wicked organ-based jazz/blues.  There was a brief interlude during which guitarist Paul Bollenback played a solo piece that was really moving.  Unfortunately there was some juicebag in the back of the room that was eating Fritos (loudly) and crinkling up the bag repeatedly.  Why this jackass had to wait until the quietest part of the night to do that is beyond me.  I guess he was really hungry.

Okay, I’m calm now.

As I was saying, it was a really enjoyable show, the kind that leaves you wanting more. They closed with a great blues number, and Joey surprised me with some really solid vocal chops.  Way better blues singing than I could do.

After they were finished, they were hanging around at the far end of the room.  Surprisingly not too many people were back there talking to them, so Charley and I went back to tell them how much we liked the show.  Joey was very gracious and chatted for a few minutes.  We could tell he was surprised at the low turnout, but he didn’t complain.

Me and Joey D (right before I went home and smashed my hands with a hammer)

I hope they come back to Cleveland.  It seems like a lot of bands that I’d like to see aren’t coming to Cleveland much anymore (if at all).  I guess if the turnout is low and the show isn’t all that profitable then why would they?  I’ve been in bands that have played at clubs that have been “dead”, and after a few occasions we wound up not booking that same place again.  I guess the only thing to do is to try to get the word out so more people can get into different music and support it when it comes to town.

So go check out some Joey DeFrancesco (and maybe some Robert Walker, Soulive, Greyboy Allstars), and if they come to town we can all go see them together.

I came across this remix of the Jackson 5 song “I Want You Back” some time ago.  Every so often (as I’m trying to find some funky flavor for something I’m working on) I like to go back and check it out.

I like this remix because it takes the original tracks and exposes them in ways that I haven’t heard before.  Hearing the sublime complexity of the guitar part still blows me away.  I used to think that this was a “simple” song, but hearing the various parts in more detail has completely changed that.  From backing vocals to a stone groove, this is still as funky today as it was when it was released.

They served pretty well.  I got used to the way they sounded; after taking mixes from the studio room at the Ranch to different cars, boom boxes, CD players and stereos we realized that the mixes sounded great in our studio, but were massively bass-heavy everywhere else  (apologies to anyone whose speakers rattled loose while listening to test mixes of drunkdude69).

So we learned to mix the bass lighter when listening on our home system.  It’s not unusual to have to make those kind of adaptations when you mix in a less than perfect environment like a back room or basement or garage.

A few weeks ago, one of the Alesis monitors developed some distortion.  At first I thought I had recorded a track too hot, but after isolating a track that produced the distortion on the right speaker I panned the same track to the opposite speaker and found that the track was fine.

It looks like part of the woofer cone (which is some kind of polymer or polymer-coated fabric) pulled away from the edge of the cabinet on the suspect speaker.  Not as bad as a tear in the cone, but not really so good for mixing audio.

So I used the remainder of my gear fund for the year (yes, the wad has been shot pretty early on, *sniffle*) to get some new monitors.  After research and listening I settled on a pair of JBL LSR4326P powered monitors.  They are generally well reviewed, have a raft of features, and when I listened to them in comparison to other monitors in that price range I was much more pleased with their clarity and punch.

I ordered them from Sweetwater on a Thursday morning.  They arrived the next day after lunch.  I didn’t ask for any special kind of shipping.  Sweetwater was just that fast.  Amazing.

Don't blow out your O-ring lifting this

These speakers are frigging heavy.  I had to unbox them upstairs (after I managed to drag the box into the house (them FedEx drivers must have some serious pipes).  I got them down into my lair, unpacked everything and got them set up.  They are self-powered and connect to each other with CAT5 cable.  Changes you make on one speaker are reflected on any of the speakers in the network.

The package I got came with a “room mode correction” microphone.  Once I had the speakers set up (admittedly they aren’t placed optimally, but that’s what you get with basement recording) I set up the RMC mic in my “listening position” and ran the speaker diagnostics.  Each speaker burped out a series of loud sine waves and used the response to apply filters that can allegedly compensate for deficiencies in the room.

Speakers and RMC mic/remote control/cables

In A-B-ing the playback with and without the RMC filters applied, I was hard-pressed to hear a major difference.  Any difference was subtle at best.  However, I’m willing to give the RMC the benefit of the doubt because I know my room isn’t treated nearly enough.

The speakers sound amazing in comparison to my old ones.  I feel like I’ve been listening to mixes for years with some kind of thin pillow strapped around my head.  The clarity of the new speakers is impressive, and they’re able to handle strong levels without grating on my ears over time.

I’m looking forward to seeing how mixes translate to other environments.  In the meantime, though, I have to say I’m really happy with these beasts so far.

Pump it up 'til you can feel it

The GeekDesk in "rock" position

Late last year I invested in a GeekDesk.  The main reason I got it was to reduce the amount of time I spend sitting down during the day.  Writing code and working on music both involve a lot of time spent in a seated position, and although I have a great desk chair, I still wanted to make sure I was doing as much as I could for my circulation, alertness, etc.

I got the frame only, and then I went to Ikea and found an inexpensive, lightweight top for it.  After I assembled the frame and attached the top I got it situated and started to use it.  At some point I spilled some beverage (probably, um, idea juice) and realized that the Ikea top would be permanently marked by any spills (it’s just particleboard, after all).

I hit the fabric store and got a sheet of clear vinyl cut to the size of the desk.  Since I put the vinyl on the desktop I’ve slipped photos and fortune cookie fortunes and stickers and all kinds of other stuff underneath.  It’s pretty groovy, baby.

Standing up while working has turned out to be really pleasant.  I feel like I get more done, and I’m more focused when I’m standing.  And there’s a benefit I didn’t even think about: when I’m recording guitar or vocals, I can easily control things with the desk in a standing position.  No more hunching over with a guitar slung around my neck to change things in the session.

Of course I only had the desk for  a few months when I fell down the stairs and sprained my ankle.  Naturally.  But now that I’m back on my feet, it’s therapeutic to stand for some short periods.  As I continue to recover, I’m sure that I’ll be spending more time upright while working, recording and mixing.  Thanks, GeekDesk.

Tom checks out some playback

It’s been great to get back to working on some music with Tom Smith.  He’s motivated and excited about finishing the current set of songs, and that in itself is motivating to me.

We got together to start mixing a couple weekends ago.  After years of mixing and trying out all kinds of different methods, I think I’ve finally hit on a methodology that works for me.  I think it’s a pretty standard practice, but it’s taken me a while to get around to it.

The setup is pretty straightforward for Tom’s tracks.  Generally we are dealing with a set of eight or so drum tracks, 1 – 3 acoustic guitar tracks, several electric guitar tracks, occasional percussion and keyboards, and lead and harmony vocals.

I set up a bus for each group of instruments: drums, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, lead vocals, harmony vocals.  I can then route the outputs of tracks to their appropriate bus.  I’ll send all the drum tracks to the drum bus, which allows me to control the whole drum mix volume with the bus fader while still maintaining the relative levels and any automation.

I can also run effects on the bus tracks as well.  For the drums, for example, I’ll apply a little compression to the whole kit to give it some punchiness.  I may have already tightened up the kick and snare with compression, so there is an element of parallel compression going on, but usually the bus compression is pretty light. I can also add a little overall reverb if the song calls for it.

I’ve gotten into the habit of using multi-band compression (Waves C4 is a nice plug-in for that) on drums and sometimes vocals.  That allows me to focus on managing certain frequency ranges that need more aggressive control.

Considering we cut the drums for all of these songs in one long session, it’s been nice to be able to transfer the settings from the first session we mixed to the subsequent sessions.  That has saved major amounts of time because we can get a baseline mix up and running, and then make changes to tailor things to the song we’re working on.

In the span of six hours or so, we nailed down the preliminary mixes for two songs.  I imagine the rest will go pretty quickly now that we’ve got some basics dialed in.  More to come!

TRS caught in the act

What better time of year to be inside working on some music?

While we on the north coast haven’t gotten hammered like Maryland and DC, we’ve gotten our usual dose of cold and snow.  Tom Smith has taken the opportunity to use this time to revisit the tracks for his second album tentatively titled “Out On Your Own”.

We must have tracked 16 or 18 acoustic guitar tracks during our day-long session.  We had about eight songs to record the tracks for, and we generally did at least two takes for each.  After each take we punched in to clean up any areas that needed attention, or we comped together a master take from all the takes we did.

I like to fatten Tom’s acoustic guitar sound by having at least two, and sometimes three acoustic tracks in the mix.  Generally I like to have one panned right and one panned left, although sometimes having a track in the center of the stereo field works better.  It depends on the final instrumentation.

After we created a master take for the acoustic part in each song, I used the remaining playlists to put together a second acoustic track that I could use for the purpose described above.

After a brief break for dinner, I returned to the studio.  Since everything was already warmed up, and I was feeling motivated, I tracked a whole bunch of backing vocals for Tom’s stuff.  I did some additional vocal tracking for some of the upcoming drunkdude69 material as well.

All in all it was a fantastically productive day in the studio, something which is (mostly) unhampered by winter weather.

We’re excited to return to work on the Thomas Reed Smith follow-up to his first release I Need A Change.  It’s definitely been a while since we picked up on the project, but it’s good to know that we’ve got much of the work done as far as tracking and instrumentation.

New sessions will be taking place soon, and we’re planning to finish both this record and the new drunkdude69 record in 2010.