Don’t take that tone with me

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the idigifest at South Plains College. I was on an amazing panel that truly was wide ranging. We had a video game developer, a web developer, an indie film maker, an educational video business owner, a cartoonist, a television station manager, and myself representing music production. I got so much out of the other speakers, I actually took notes while I was on stage with them. The station manager actually turned out to be a former student of mine, Brent McClure. Brent was a good guitarist in his youth and studied with me at Brandon Guitar Studio. Now he’s the General Manager of News Channel 10 in Amarillo, Texas.

He said something that really stopped me in my tracks. He was relating a story about how they had a huge ice storm hit Amarillo, Texas. So they sent their weather team out into the thick of it with their new quarter-of-a-million dollar mobile satellite truck to capture the essence of the storm. Unfortunately, the ice came down so fast that it completely froze their state-of-the-art broadcast truck.

So instead of throwing in the towel, the crew went into problem solving mode. Luckily, someone on his staff had the foresight to pack a laptop and a webcam. So here they are in the middle of the ice storm broadcasting with a webcam. A gigantic media company would have had zero live coverage of the storm if it hadn’t been for the simple problem solving and forethought of one individual. It might not have been hi-def video, but it was news and they got the job done.

How does this apply to the studio? If you own one, you know things are constantly breaking down and you have to fix them on the fly. If you own a studio where more than one engineer works, things get misplaced easily. Case-in-point:

I had a session that needed that big Fender vibrato surf-thang. I own a ’66 super, so that’s an easy tone to achieve. Except the pedal for the vibrato was missing. If you own an old Fender, you know that you can’t turn vibrato on without the switch. So I searched. No dice.

So I had to solve a problem. How do you turn the vibrato on? It’s a simple RCA jack. Connecting the tip and ring turns it on. So I pulled out the tool kit to see how I could rig it. I had some desoldering braid in there. So I wrapped it around the tip until it filled the gap and touched the ring.

Volia! We had vibrato! If you’re out there and want a studio job, learn how to solve problems. It seriously impressed an owner (not to mention the client) when you can solve problems creatively and quickly.

I recently purchased a stereo matched pair of AKC C414 XLSs. I absolutely love these mics… especially for overheads. I’ve used so many different pairs and these just take the cake. But I have one serious complaint: their H-85 spider shockmounts are poorly designed. As a matter of fact, I believe they are designed to fail.

I have no complaints at all about how the mount holds the mic. I actually think it’s quite brilliant. It’s very easy for you to adjust angles, etc. But they break way too easily at the neck between the clip and the mount itself. One recently fell over at my studio and snapped in half. Then, not more than two weeks later, I was working at Studio 1916 down in Austin and, low and behold, I see an AKG C414 shockmount on their shelf broken in exactly the same way.

Dusty Wakeman over at Mojave Mics says most manufacturers spend very little money on their shockmounts. In the range of about 50¢ (see this video from audiomidi.com at about 7:30). That’s pretty frikin’ cheap. I have no idea how much AKG spends on these, but they sure sell for a small fortune. $120 bones or so. And the warranty doesn’t cover “accidents.” That sucks. Bad business, AKG.

Luckily, the guys over at Sweetwater are fantastic and gave me a hook-up on a replacement. AKG, I love your mics. They make me happy every time I use them. Please. I implore you to make your shockmount more durable.

Sometimes you see something that defines your thoughts. It clarifies your vision and helps you dig deeper into your dream. It’s even better if it makes you laugh.

Sometimes a picture says it all.

I recently was doing a session for the uniquely talented singer/songwriter Katie Howell and learned something new. We hired a buddy of ours, Jonathan Smither, to play bass. Jonathan’s a great player who knows how to groove and has a great sense of tone.
For the session, he brought his custom 5-string which sounds great. We smacked it through my Hamptone tube preamp (which loves bass guitar), but it wasn’t the right tone for the track. It was too bright and clear. It really needed a P-Bass. WARNING: You’ve got to take me with a grain of salt here. I think a P-Bass through an Ampeg is the greatest bass tone know to mankind. Almost every song needs a P-Bass.
Jonathan actually has a beauty P-Bass, but he didn’t have it with him. I mentioned that I wished we could get more of that vintage tone, and he pulled out a trick I’d never seen.
First, grab some Kleenex. Preferably not the kind with lotion in it. Toilet paper works fine. Stuff just enough under the strings down near the bridge, and it creates a fair approximation of that slightly dampened sound I love so much. Kudos to Jonathan for teaching me a new trick!

Bassist Jonathan Smither and his nifty trick!

Detail of bassist Jonathan Smither's trick

So me and one of my engineers (Patrick) decided to attend the Eddie Kramer Experience in Frisco, Texas, the night before last. Having engineered 5 albums for Led Zeppelin, all of Jimi Hendix’s major works, not to mention Frampton, the Beatles, Bowie, the Stones, and even the recordings of Woodstock, Eddie is a true legend of rock and roll. The event promised (and I quote):

Join legendary producer/engineer Eddie Kramer for a special event. A true rock insider with dozens of smash hits to his credit, Eddie Kramer will share his vast knowledge of recording techniques, shedding light on yesterday’s analog gear and today’s plug-in models. Eddie will be joined by Waves product specialists, who will be on hand to take an in-depth look at Waves latest plug-ins. So come on down, meet living legend Eddie Kramer, and get experienced!

The part about “sharing his vast knowledge of recording techniques, and shedding light” was definitely what I went for. I, of course, expected a sales pitch from Waves about the new Eddie Kramer plugin series. Waves is a great company who makes many of the plugins we use at the Amusement Park Studio. Unfortunately, the experience was light on “sharing” and almost completely about selling.

Eddie began the event with some opening remarks about his career. He is a likable guy and a capable speaker. The remarks lasted about 3 minutes and then he cut straight to the plugins. They used tracks from 2 bands Eddie had mixed as examples. They would play individual tracks with no processing, then apply the Kramer plugins.

Arguably, the Kramer plugins sound great. They are basically presets that make you sound like Eddie. Complete with tape delay, plate verbs, nice fat compression, and more. Pull up your drum tracks, apply the plugin, and it’s pretty nice sounding. They would be a real time-saver in certain mixing situations.

On a side note: I was shocked to hear massive amounts of autotune on the vocal tracks of the first band. It sucked and I couldn’t believe Eddie would do that. A hero was about to fall. Then he revealed that he did not track them. Thank God.

So we listened for about 2 hours. It was cool to hear individual instruments in a before-and-after situation. And it did reveal a lot to my ears. But where was the vast knowledge he was going to share?

So I asked a question:

Can you tell us specifically what you’re modeling to achieve these sounds? Can you, for instance, discuss your signal chain for drums including what EQs and compressors you prefer?

And he flatly refused.

But he (and Waves) refused.

Those are secrets of my sound. It wouldn’t be fair. We aren’t here to reveal…

So that was sharing his knowledge? Let’s face it, there are really only a few compressors it could have been (1176, LA-2A, Fairchild, etc.) Same with EQs (Pultec, Neve, API…). He could have revealed at least some basic concepts. I guess Eddie and the Waves crew fear losing sales due to openness. It reminds me a lot of what’s going on in other areas of the music industry these days.

As a former educator at the world-renowned South Plains College Creative Arts Department, I’ve been to countless seminars like this. The best ones include tons of information and anecdotal stories that educate and inspire. Once that is achieved, you couple it with a low-pressure sales pitch. And bang, you’ve built new customers and evangelists for your brand.

Unfortunately, the Eddie Kramer Experience was 95% sales pitch and 5% information. Eddie didn’t even really speak about any of the famous sessions he was involved in. No inside stories (other than one about Santana which I will share next time), and almost no cool tips about how he got certain sounds. What a drag.

I actually would have been much more inclined to purchase if the seminar had taught me something. I would have left with a favorable impression of the company. Instead, I felt Waves was stingy and wasted my time. After all, we drove 6 hours to attend.

It wasn’t a total waste, as Eddie is clearly a decent cat who really knows how to lift the energy level of a room. He’s funny and you can tell he would be great to be in session with. And he did share a few limited pieces of information that were helpful. Next time I’ll share those, along with my thoughts on what these plugins are modeling.

Another milestone for the Amusement Park Studio: I was hired to record all the classical guitar pieces for the Christopher Parkening Method Books, Vol.1 & 2 (Hal Leonard Publishing). David Brandon performed all the pieces and I captured them in Pro Tools.

Chris and David were so pleased with the sound I captured on David’s “Legacy” CD, that they asked me to do the project. I used a stereo matched pair of Schoeps MK4s into an API A2D directly into Pro Tools at 24/96. I mixed it using a few plugins – very subtle eq and compression mainly to handle a peak in David’s Ramirez guitar that centers around A 440 and its related harmonics (his guitar is really prominent in A) along with a couple instances of Altiverb, then summed it out through my Amek console into a TLA semi-parametric tube EQ. We then went back into the A2D analog-to-digital converter into a Masterlink at 24/96. The first CD has a total of 99 tracks!

David felt so strongly about my work that he had it put in the contract that my name had to be printed in every book and on every CD as the recording engineer. Kinda cool.

David was back in recording the CD examples for the Christopher Parkening Method books, so I snapped a couple pictures.  You can see the micing technique we used for the Legacy CD here.

(Also note the fancy cardboard box we used as a music stand!)

I got back from a great trip to Austin.  Everytime I work with Bobby Bookout I am impressed with his songwriting.  This is going to be a phenomenal album.

I start recording the metal band This Soul Divided Friday.  We had a preproduction rehearsal tonight and I dig where they’re going.  I’ve wanted to record a metal project for a long time and these guys are great.

Ben (my chief engineer) has been working with some amazing hip hop clients. I really dig ABC…  Check ‘em out.