Category: Studio Diary (Page 20 of 23)

Here’s the pattern: It all starts when someone (Tony!) asks for a CD of my music. So I start compiling the tracks that I want to include, and I hear something in one of the pieces that was supposed to be finished and completed, and think, “I’ll just open up the project in SONAR and tidy up that glitch.” Well, the first thing that happens is that the project is from SONAR 2.0 and I have to migrate it to SONAR 5. No biggy… but there are a few features in SONAR 5 that really make things easier – like track folders and effect bussing and improved effect plug-ins.

Then I realize how much I like actually playing this music instead of just listening to it. So I break out one of my guitars – these days usually the Carvin HF2 – and mute an instrument in the Track View, and play along. Then I make a mistake, or play something different for a change, and suddenly I really want to re-record the entire track. Because I can play it better now. Or this newer instrument sounds better. Or the timing was off a little, before. Or I have a better microphone now.

Which leads me to my current project, a piece called “Strange But True”. The excuse for firing up the studio on this one was that SONAR 5 included a plug in called “V-Vocal” which provides sophisticated pitch correction for monophonic audio sources – such as vocal tracks. I can usually sing in tune but being a perfectionist, I am never completely happy with the results. I think of V-Vocal as spackle – applied judiciously it is pretty seamless and improves an acceptable performance to one where it can sound like the vocalist was just “on” during the session. I like it.

If only I could stop there. But no… As I listened to the mix, it seemed to me that the Ovation steel string guitar was out of time in places. So I break out the Ovation and put some new strings on it, tune up, and start to play along.

Then I have an idea – instead of just tracking the built-in piezo acoustic pickup in the guitar, why don’t I simultaneously record the natural acoustic sound using my new MXR condenser microphone? (Yowser… I say “new” but I see I got it more than a year ago…). Seemed like a good idea.

Oh boy. I didn’t know what I was missing. Or to put it another way, I did know but I didn’t care. Well, now I care. The acoustic sound is way better than the internal pickup. It has “more wood” in it. Also more finger noise, but hey, that’s part of the performance.

Several weeks pass as I regrow callouses on my fingers, and practice playing the notes cleanly.

To cut a long story short, starting with the much improved acoustic tone, I’ve re-recorded all the guitar parts. I’ve also replaced all the synthesizer parts with sounds from my Roland VK-8 virtual tone-wheel organ, because it sounds so good. Much less artificial and, well, electronic. It’s not a real Hammond organ but it’s as close as I’m ever going to get. I didn’t realize how suited it was to this particular piece of music, but once I started playing around and trying things out, it was a no-brainer.

Now I’m working on re-doing the drums and percussion. Real tamborine, real shaker, real doumbek.

I know this doesn’t get me any closer to finishing the other various songs and bits of music I have in my head, but this is too much fun. The final result is going to be awesome. And this time, it’ll really be finished. No, I mean it.

Why are you looking at me like that?

I “finished” working on a version of my song “Listen” a month or so ago, but I was listening to it again today and I realized that, when I’d changed the final reprise of the chorus from a minor to a major key, I’d left a flattened 6th note in the bass line unchanged. Probably no-one except me would notice, but I thought it stuck out like, well, a flattened 6th in a major scale.

I opened the project in Cakewalk‘s SONAR 5 (My Digital Audio Workstation software of choice), made a copy of the bass track, and applied the V-Vocal plugin to the relevant section. V-Vocal is part of the SONAR 5 Professional bundle and is normally thought of as a Vocal pitch and formant corrector (to “fix” a terrible performance. Use with caution, apply conservatively, and not that *I* need to use it on *my* vocals… yeah, right), but it works very well on any monophonic audio. It did a great job of sharpening up that 6th note in two places. Thanks, Cakewalk! I did not want to try and “punch-in record” that bass line. For a start, I’m not sure what outboard processing I used on the Chapman Stick when I recorded it in the first place, many years ago.

I read on unfretted.com that the choice of strings really makes a difference to the fit and handling of a fretless classical guitar. One guy recommend Thomastik-Infield KR116 strings, but mentioned the caveat that they were about three times the price of regular nylon strings, but in his opinion, they were worth it.

I tried purchasing some at Ed Roman’s (ok, he may or may not be an arsehole but he has an unbeatable range of stock) but they didn’t have them in stock and the price they quoted was ~$40! Ouch.

Fortunately, I discovered an online resource that had them for $19. Check out Elderly Instruments. I ordered a couple of sets and they arrived three days later. Thanks!

Ok, basically as soon as I opened the packet I could see why they cost more than regular ones. You can smell the quality. And it’s not just the smell. It’s the little things. For a start, they have the perfect length. You don’t need to trim them. All six are ball-terminated, and have blue fabric binding at each end. At the ball end, this is just sufficient to cover the length of the string that passes through the holes in the bridge. At the other end, it forms a nice grippy section of string that makes winding and securing the string to the tuning pegs a breeze.

The next thing I noticed is how thin the treble strings were. I thought I’d ordered a completely wrong set, but no, this is correct. They are just much thinner than regular nylon.  The bass strings are “flat-wound” which much reduces the “rasp” of finger movement during slides. Surprisingly, the treble strings are “tape-wound” which actually makes the finger movement sound louder than regular nylon.

The sound of an open string is much brighter than regular nylon. I have to say that these strings most of all remind me of violin strings.

I’m re-recording the Chapman Stick tracks in “Painting Abstracts”, using the ROCK BASS settings on the J-Station. Wow. This really rocks. It’s so much better than the previous bass line. It’s not just the resulting tone, but the fact that it inspired me to go somewhere else with the bass.

OK. I’ve redone everything now except the vocals, and you can bet I was planning to do those as well. So much for the “tidy-up”. It’s more like a cover version of my own music.