YouLicense Music Industry Blog: Video Presentation of the YouLicense Private Label Solution

YouLicense Music Industry Blog: Video Presentation of the YouLicense Private Label Solution

Using Loops

In the last ten years, hard-disk recording and editing techniques have revolutionized the way music is produced. These capabilities go far beyond the simple audio recording and mixing of a musical performance, to the extent that they now have become an integral part of the recording and editing process. One of the most obvious manifestations of this is the use of audio loops in music production. Although we’ve explored the basics of editing and using loops here, their use goes far beyond simply spicing up an arrangement. Programs such as Acid, Live, and now Apple’s Soundtrack enable producers to construct entire productions from loops.

What are the benefits of using loops and what are the "undesirable" side effects?

In your response consider the following:

* Does the use of loops add to the musicality of a production?
* To what extend is interaction between musicians needed to create a compelling musical production?
* What are the musical considerations in using loops? Melody? Rhythm? Harmony?


My first sampler was the Roland S-50 sampling workstation. It's a dinosaur by today's standards, but it taught me a lot about sound design and loop contruction. It plugged into a TV via an RCA cable so you could see the sample as you worked with it.

Samplers like this one and the AKAI really helped define the sound of the late 80s and early 90s. I still drag that keyboard out every now and then just to make sure it works and to keep my old floppy discs from decaying to the point of being unusable.

Because I had the experience with actual samplers, I feel like I have an advantage when I work with sample editors like the one found in Logic. The layout makes sense and it seems very intuitive to me. It is so much easier to work in Logic and it is capable of so much more than was available in the 80s.

I enjoy working with loops as long as they are extensions of the musician, and not a replacement. I cherish the cats I play music with, and I don't think anyone can be replaced by machines.

My colleague, Shueh-li Ong, is an expert at what she calls "extended synthesizer techniques"; one of these techniques is the use of loops being triggered as part of a live performance set-up. Visit http://www.electricmuse.com/extkbtech_thesis_08.htm to read more about her concept.

One undesireable side effect of using loops may be that it may cause young musicians to become lazy performers, writers, and producers. I liken it to the use of Photoshop and In Design. These are great tools, but they are no substitute for learning the rudiments of drawing and photo composition. Using loops may help us produce cool music, but there is no substitute for learning theory, harmony, orchestration, arranging, etc. The importance of education, talent, and experience can not be underestimated, replaced, or bought with money.

There are no short cuts.

When Should You Use Effects?

Although there are no rules in music production, we can get some clues by listening to what’s already been done. Consider how effects have been used:

* Does the use of effects improve the mix?
* Does the use of effects distract from the music?
* Are the effects used appropriate to the musical style of the production?

Your responses to what others have done will undoubtedly reflect your own personal taste--adding distortion to the tuba may not be everyone’s cup of tea--but we should be able to get some general sense of what works and what doesn’t.

Effects like EQ and compression may be used in subtle ways that aren’t always apparent, but there are plenty of examples of effects that are easy to identify. For example, the opening guitar part in Queen’s "Keep Yourself Alive" is a great example of flanging.

When choosing whether or not to use effects on a mix I ask myself what it is I am trying to accomplish by using them. Understanding what it is I'm trying to achieve helps to keep me from overdoing it.

I try to avoid using effects to "fix" a performance and I concentrate on recording the sound I want to hear before adding anything to it. The effects then act as slight adjustments and not repairs. In this regard, I think of the dry signal as my main color, and the wet signal as "hues" or variations of that color.

If I do decide to use an effect to make something sound "larger than life", it is because I am doing it on purpose, akin to using metaphors and similes in writing. Just as figures of speech are used to draw the reader's attention to a particular phrase, the effect is used to draw the listener's ear to the musical phrase or part.

In the end, it all comes down to personal taste. If we study the mixes that some of the master producers and engineers that have come before us have made, we can learn a great deal about what works well for particular styles. We can begin to develop guidelines and parameters that we can apply as good starting points while experimenting to discover our own methods for using effects.

- John Anthony Martinez
Fingerfoot Music Productions

What Makes for a Good Mix?

Everyone has their own opinion about what they believe makes for a good mix. There are, however, certain qualities that make some mixes stand apart from others. These characteristics can be looked at from two angles: aesthetics and technique.

How a song makes one feel, and the extent to which the mix contributed to that feeling has to do with the aesthetic effect of a mix. Most of the aesthetic impact of a mix occurs during the initial exposure to the song. The memories of the time and place when you first hear a song helps define how you feel about it when you hear it again at a later date. We often play songs to recapture a mood that we relate to those songs, which often relate back to when we first heard them.

How a mix was achieved has to do with the technique of the actual production of the recording; microphone selection, the quality of the instruments used, the performers, whether the performance was recorded using analog tape or digital means, and so forth. Some tracks capture a particular sound, and define a genre or a decade because of the equipment available at the time of the recording. Regardless of the era in which a recording was made, there are basic technical elements that all great mixes have in common. We’ll examine these in this discussion as well.

Aesthetic Considerations:

• “Is It Live or is it Memorex?”
  

One thing that I’ve always enjoyed about a mix is when it sounds like I’m in the room with the musicians, either in the studio, the club, or the concert hall. These recordings have a common thread connecting them; the way they were able to capture the dynamics of the performance. Many recordings today are very compressed and limit the highs (fortes) and the lows (pianos), giving the mix “loudness” but sacrificing a lot of the life found in recordings of the past. Here are a few examples of great mixes that sound like you’re in the venue while it’s being recorded.

John Williams - “Darth Vader” from the “Star Wars Trilogy” CD

Miles Davis - “New Rhumba” from the “Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall (Live)” CD

Cannonball Adderly - “Mercy Mercy Mercy (Live)” from the “Cannonball Plays Zawinul” CD

• “It Sounds Cool”
  

Some mixes captivate the listener because of their uniqueness. The performance may not be virtuosic and the composition may not be great, but there is something about the sound that makes the listener want to hear it again and again. George Martin was a master at doing this with the Beatles’ mixes. Below are a few examples of recordings I think stand out because they just sound cool.

Santo and Johnny - “Sleep Walk”

Jean Michel Jarre - “Oxygene IV”

Groove Collective - “Rent Strike” from the “Groove Collective” CD

• “It Grooves”
  

Groove is a funny thing. It means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Groove is too subjective a topic for me to say anything definitive on the matter. In my opinion, groove is anything that makes you want to move some part of your body. Groove usually implies a strong rhythmic element, especially when the bass player and drummer play particularly well together. Groove isn’t limited to one particular genre like funk, disco, or hip-hop. Folk music can groove hard; so can a ballad. Below are some examples of songs that I think have a nice groove. The first is an example of some Malaysian funk; a style called Dang Dut.

Amelina and Sheedah - “Secangkir Madu Merah” from the “Dang Dang Dut” CD

Steely Dan - “Babylon Sisters” from the “Gaucho” CD

James Brown - “Super Bad (Pts. 1 and 2)” from the “The Number 1’s” CD

Marvin Gaye - “What’s Going On” from the “What’s Going On” CD

• “It Rocks”
  

Some mixes get you “pumped-up”, and leave you with a feeling of invincibility. Perhaps they evoke the angst of your teenage years. Songs that rock tend to have strong guitar hooks, great vocals, and memorable (almost anthem-like) lyrics. Below are some examples of songs that I think “rock”.

Led Zeppelin - “Black Dog” from “Led Zeppelin IV” CD

Van Halen - “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” from the “Van Halen” CD

Queen - “Bohemian Rhapsody” from the “A Night at the Opera” CD

Dance Gavin Dance - “Lemon Merigue Tie” from the “Downtown Battle Mountain” CD

Technical Considerations:

• Balance of Levels
  

This is the meat and potatoes of mixing; making sure that everything is balanced in terms of volume. A good mix is one that has enough transparency in it to allow the listener to hear everything in the recording as intended by the composer, producer, and performer. Give another listen to Steely Dan’s “Babylon Sisters” and pay particular attention to the balance of the levels.

• Spatial Placement
  

Where things sit in a mix is another factor that good mixes have in common. Panning is the technique mixers use to place things in a mix from left to right. Some mixers use very extreme hard panning, while others like to keep things almost monophonic and dead-center. Style has a lot to do with this mixing decision. Time-based effects such as reverbs and delays influence the way a sound is perceived in a mix. Reverb gives the psycho-acoustic illusion of a sound being off in the distance. “What’s Going On” is a great example of a mix that has a lot of texture, but because of spatial placement doesn’t sound bogged down.

• Tonal Balance
  

A good mix is also one that has a nice frequency balance. When high frequencies dominate, a mix can be piercing. When the mid-range frequencies dominate a mix can sound boxy. When low frequencies dominate a mix can sound boomy. A good mix allows every element ito occupy it’s own space in the frequency spectrum, and allows the listener to enjoys the sizzle of the highs, the presence of the mids, and the meat of the lows.

Conclusion

These are by no means all of the elements of a good mix, but I think the basic ingredients have been touched upon in this short discussion.

I believe the best mixes are the ones that help communicate the story of the song the best, be it vocal or instrumental. I once read that the best paint brush was the one that the artist was unaware of while painting. I listen to mixes the same way. A song becomes “over-produced” when I find myself hearing the moves the engineer made. I think what ultimately makes for a good mix is when I am unaware of the mixer, and I’m only aware of the song.

-John Anthony Martinez

Fingerfoot Music Podcast Item #003

FMP's third podcast features music from "Nouveau Electronica"

The concept of: Nouveau Electronica

The most recent experimentation in DJ-style cum Electronic Music performance from Shueh-li Ong and John Anthony Martinez

Imagine an original electronic music set using the latest synthesizers and drum machines; non turntable style. We like to think of it as the next revolution in DJ and EM music as it takes a retrospective step back to virtuosic performance that puts the pulse back into dance or stretches it out to lounge on chill-out.

Making Music Expressive with MIDI

What makes a musical performance expressive?

Before I discuss what makes a musical performance expressive, I think the words “expression” and “expressive” need to be clearly defined. “Expression” is the process of representing in a medium, such as words, music, or body language. For example, a facial aspect or vocal intonation indicative of feeling is an expression. To be “expressive” is to effectively convey meaning or feeling.

Although MIDI only allows us to transmit two very specific pieces of information about a note, namely the note number and velocity, some sequenced and live performances using MIDI are more expressive than others. Following are my thoughts on what performers do to make music expressive and how these techniques can be represented in a MIDI sequence.

Are some instruments more expressive than others?

I don’t believe that one instrument is more expressive than another. For instance, one may not think that a bagpipe is a very expressive instrument, but if the emotion I’m trying to convey is a longing for the green fields of Ireland, I’d be hard-pressed to find a more expressive instrument for that purpose.

I do believe, however, that some instruments are able to convey a wider range of emotions. What made the piano, or pianoforte, such a hit when it first arrived on the scene was its ability to be played softly and loudly. Its dynamics gave it a wider range of expression than its predecessor the harpsichord. There is also a broader range of material or literature available for the piano. I’ve heard classical music, jazz, and every style in between played on the piano. Each style conjures up different emotions and imagery. Musical styles have their own languages and rules that give them their musical identities. Each style is a musical expression. What it really comes down to is personal experience. Why? Because a sound has to be associated with a memory to spark an emotive thought in the listener.

What performance characteristics are specific to particular instruments?

This is too broad a topic to cover here, but instruments are generally categorized by their performance characteristics, or family.

• Brass: including trumpets, french horns, trombones, tubas, are usually metal and are played by vibrating one’s lips on a metal mouthpiece. The tones produced can be long or short, depending on the amount of air blown into the instrument, and the tonguing techniques used in performance.

• Woodwind: including flutes, clarinets, oboes, English horns, bassoons, and saxophones, are or were once made of wood, and are played by blowing across a reed, in some cases a double-reed, to produce sound. The exception being the flute, which produces sound by having air blown across an edge.

• Percussion: my principal instrument, can generally be broken down into two categories, non-pitched and pitched.

Non-pitched percussion would include snare drums, bass drums, toms, bongos, congas, timbales, shakers, tambourines, cymbals. Most drums have a membrane stretched over a hollow cylinder, that is struck either with the hand, a stick, or a mallet. Some drums can produce long and short sounds and have wide ranges of expression, like the Brazilian surdo. Cymbals come in many shapes and sizes, and are generally made of a bronze alloy. They can also be very expressive in dynamic range, and in note value.

Pitched percussion would include tubular bells, kalimba, marimbas, crotales, timpani, steel drums, and glockenspiel. These instruments are struck to produce a pitch which can vary in dynamic range and duration as well.

• String: including violins, violas, cellos, double basses, guitars, guqin, dobro, steel guitar, erhu, and oud. These instruments produce sound by being bowed, plucked, or strummed to cause the strings to vibrate. They can produce legato and staccato sound in a wide range of dynamics.

• Keyboard: including harpsichord, piano, and organ, are instruments that are played using a musical keyboard. The harpsichord has strings that are plucked when a key is pressed. It has very limited dynamic range and is most closely associated with the music of the Baroque period. The piano has hammers that strike the strings when a key is pressed. As mentioned above, the piano has a wide dynamic range and the use of pedals further enhances its expressive properties. Organs are keyboards played with the hands or feet to move air through pipes or reeds of various lengths to produce sound. Electric organs generate electrical signals and produce sound through loudspeakers. Organs are diverse and can be used to express a wide range of emotion, from the majesty of high church hymns of old, to the bounce of the jazz organ trios,

• Electronic: include theremins, analog synthesizers, digital synthesizers, electronic drum sets, and virtual instruments, these instruments produced sound by the use of electronics. These instruments are very expressive in that they can be edited to produce an almost infinite variety of sounds.

Are there some parts of an expressive performance that just can’t be represented using MIDI?

There are many parameters that effect how expressive a performance is. Besides the actual characteristics of the sound used (attack, decay, sustain, and release), there are velocity, pitch bends, channel after-touch, and modulations that can add to the effectiveness of a performance.

Quantization and step-editing allow for very precise sequencing of notes. Not quantizing a solo will allow the part to “breathe” and prevent it from sounding too mechanical. Another technique that may be used is the “humanize” function, which takes a quantized performance, and through the use of algorithms, varies the velocities and timing among other parameters to approximate the feeling of a live performance.

Velocity, not to be confused with volume (which is amplitude), is the rate of attack and can alter the sound of a given instrument. For example, I can program a keyboard to produce a bass guitar that sounds plucked when played softly, and “slapped” when played with increased velocity.

Other than the human voice, I think that nearly every part of an expressive performance can be represented using MIDI. We have very powerful tools at our disposal, and we are only limited by our imaginations and ingenuity.

- John Anthony Martinez

Music Production and Keyboard Skills

Do you need to be a keyboard player to be a successful desktop producer?

I believe there is a very short answer to this question, but the explanation is fascinating and makes for an interesting topic for discussion.

Before we can answer this question, we need to consider what it means to be a “producer”. The dictionary definition of a producer is “a person who supervises or finances a work (as a staged or recorded performance) for exhibition or dissemination to the public.” The production of music has evolved for many centuries, but the role of the producer really has not changed much as defined above.

The producer acts much like a director of a movie. His or her main purpose is to make a finished product on time and under budget. The great producers capture great recordings of great performances of great songs. They know how to “cast” the right musicians for each part. Like a good director, a producer understands people and how to coax the best performances out of them.

My short answer to this question is, “No, you don’t have to be a keyboard player to be a successful desktop producer.” A producer needs to develop a network of good musicians, know how to communicate clearly with an engineer, and have a solid plan for getting the finished product to the market. Having a good working knowledge of music theory, harmony, and arranging allows the producer to communicate with musicians in a language they can easily understand, and helps the producer gain their musical trust.

Of course, with the advent of “cut and paste” technology and “looping”, everyone thinks they can “produce” music. But the fact of the matter is that there are no short cuts, and if music production is what a person really wants to do, they owe it to themselves, the music, and the listener to assimilate as much information as they can about the art of making music. This includes all of the aforementioned skills.

What keyboard skills are most valuable in music production? Timing? Sight-reading? Knowledge of scales and chords?

Timing and sight-reading skills are important, but can easily be compensated for using quantization and step recording techniques. A knowledge of chords and scales is of the utmost importance because these are the building blocks for producing music that makes sense to other people. This is an ongoing process which takes a lifetime to appreciate.

I’d also like to mention hearing (ear-training) as another skill that is a must to develop because a good ear helps one work more efficiently. It is nice to hear an idea in your head, and know exactly where to find those notes without having to search for them.

Another important keyboard skill to develop is a very thorough understanding of your controller. It is important to know the function of the modulation wheel, pitch bend, and all of the other knobs on the controller. Again, there are no short cuts when it comes to understanding your controller. Some of them have greater learning curves than others, but it is amazing what some of these keyboards can do with a little imagination and some time spent reading the manuals.

What strategies can you employ that will help you efficiently record expressive musical parts?

Once again, I refer to the dictionary definition of strategy. A strategy is “a careful plan or method.” As mentioned earlier, the more you understand your tools, the more expressive your recordings will be. Reason and Logic are very powerful applications, with a lot of wonderful plug-ins and sounds, but they are only as good as their operator.

Having a good plan for what is to be accomplished ahead of time is very helpful. For instance, if a project will require the use of a big string section, then some time should be spent listening to great string arrangers, and some experimentation with different string sounds, effects, and playing techniques should be done before launching into the project.

One of the best strategies for me has been to get the best musicians I could find to play the parts for me. We live in an age where distance is no longer an issue. We can have musicians from all over the world perform on our tracks. I endeavor to get my music into the hands of the masters, because they can say it better on their instruments than I ever could.

As an example of efficiently recording expressive musical parts, I’d like for you to click on the link to one of my compositions titled “When I Think Of You”. I got my good friends pianist/keyboard player extraordinaire Bernard Wright and bassist Mike McKinney to play on the track, while I played drums, produced, and engineered. I know without a shadow of a doubt that the music would not have been nearly as expressive with me alone playing all the parts.

Another strategy I’ve employed with wonderful results, is collaboration. I’ve been blessed to work closely with one of the world’s most brilliant thereminist, keyboardist, music synthesist, and music technologist named Shueh-li Ong. I had the opportunity to compose three pieces for the upcoming CD “Xenovibes III: Xing Paths”. This got very interesting for me, because not only did I learn that a good producer knows which musicians to choose for a given piece, but a good producer knows that a given piece might benefit from the productions skills of yet another producer. I’m aware of the old adage “too many chefs spoil the pot”; unless Gordon Ramsey or Emeril show up. When they show up in your kitchen, you step aside and expect to learn something. Collaboration requires humility, an eagerness to learn, and mutual respect; it can yield tremendous results.

Please visit Xenovibes to hear the results of my collaborative efforts with Ms. Ong.

Final thought:

Q: What’s the difference between G-d and a DJ?

A: G-d doesn’t think he’s a DJ.


-John Anthony Martinez