Don’t take that tone with me

Over at my studio (the Amusement Park), we just completed a project for the Silent Wings Museum. They hired me to rebuild their audio environment for their main exhibit: a glider landing pre-dawn, Normandy. It was an amazing experience.

I spent the last year researching what our grandfathers and great grandfathers went through over there. I researched the weapons, equipment, process, and the flora and fauna of Normandy. Our mission was to create a historically accurate audio “snapshot” of what it was like to land behind enemy lines on that fateful day.

One of the coolest aspects of the job was recording the WWII weapons. We got to meet some wonderful people who passionately believe in keeping the memory of WWII alive. They reenact WWII events and collect WWII memorabilia including the actual weapons. And they were kind enough to share it with us.

Prior to this project, the only gun I had ever fired was a BB gun when I was a child. As we were recording the Thompson submachine gun, the owner turned to me and asked if I wanted to shoot it. So on that day I lost my gun virginity to a Thompson on fully automatic! What a way to go!

This video was shot in a canyon in Texas. Enjoy. I know I did.

I had the pleasure of speaking at Bloomsburg University last week. The students were fantastic and I had a great time there. I’ll post some more info about it soon, but here’s a link to the article:

Dreams In Progress: Indie Producer Shares His Story

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.

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

On with my thoughts on the Eddie Kramer Experience (after a terribly long hiatus!). So Eddie (or Waves) wouldn’t answer my questions. Frustrating. It kinda seemed like Eddie wanted to talk about it, but the Waves guy clearly vetoed it. So I left feeling empty-handed and kinda cheated.

In hindsight, I should have stopped and talked to Eddie after the event. Perhaps he would have divulged more privately, as he really seemed to be pretty nice. Live and learn.

The next day I called a buddy of mine who used to work at Electric Lady Studios in NY. He had the pleasure of working with Eddie. He said everything was coming from tape into a Neve 1073EQ. Guitars hit an 1176… and sometimes two of them. He uses the SSL 2-buss comp on drums (and a host of other things).
I also figure there’s an LA2A in there on vocals, or maybe a fairchild. Pretty standard stuff (that is, if you have them!). For effects, tape delay is king. 7.5ips or 15ips.

Eddie did share a story about the recently released 40th Anniversary of Woodstock recordings (which he called 3 days of peace, music and hell). Carlos Santana and his band were told they were going to go on at 8pm. So the band dropped acid… only to find out they actually went on at 3pm. So Santana hit the stage completely wasted. On one of the songs, he was so lost and out of tune during the intro that the track was completely unusable. Therefore, it never made it into any of the originally released recordings from the event.

So 40 years later, Eddie has Santana come in and rerecord the intro. Eddie raved about how wonderful it was that we can now hear this historic recording. Hmmmm. While I completely understand the nature of our business and its demand for perfection, it’s tragic that a great live recording like this isn’t really the truth. Then again, I never enjoy having one of my mistakes documented for all time (they are too numerous to mention).

While I was working on Cary Bank’s (of The Maines Brothers fame) record Long Time Since It Rained, he said something I will never forget. “A modern recording is a documentation of an event that never happened.” Wow. There’s a lot of depth in that statement. I’m guilty of it too. We work so hard to edit a recording to perfection that many times we lose the magic (and mistakes) of a live performance.

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.