Audio Geek Zine » Music

Watch this: PressPausePlay

Jon — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 04:34:51 +0000

“A film about Hope, Fear and Digital culture”.

I checked out this film last weekend after seeing an enthusiastic post about it on a forum. ”Every 21st Century artist must watch this” he said, and so I did.

The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.

Upon reaching the PressPausePlay website I was surprised to see I could download the film for free in very good quality, via torrent. A very efficient way of delivering the content. This is a film that SHOULD be shared, I thoroughly enjoyed it and want everyone to see it. To me, this is a 5/5 star documentary. The visuals, audio and content were excellent. This is a film I found so inspiring, I’m going to watch again and take notes, then I’m going to make some noise.

Go get it free – PressPausePlay

In Flames in the studio 2011

Jon — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:36:44 +0000

In Flames is a great metal band from Sweden. On their YouTube channel they’ve posted 6 short documentaries on the progress of their 6th studio album. There’s not a lot of techniques to see but there is some discussion of the production and lots of nice gear to see and hear.

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Strapping Young Lad in the studio recording Alien

Jon — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 22:02:42 +0000

@SydneyGalbraith shared these videos today and I think you’ll enjoy them. Strapping Young Lad document the recording process of their 2005 album Alien at The Armory in Vancouver, BC. Devin Townsend is a weirdo but he’s funny and a great musician and producer.
The band is super prepared before they go into the studio and it really pays off.

Maybeshewill Recording Video

Jon — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:58:31 +0000

Back in August I posted an interview with Jamie from Maybeshewill. A few days ago they posted a short video made while recording in January.

If you don’t know what they sound like, here’s a live video from 5 months ago.

Drugstore Fanatics Recording “What’s Born In The Basement”

Jon — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:47:49 +0000

Drugstore Fanatics is a band from Los Angeles, their 2009 Self-Produced/recorded album “What’s Born In The Basement” was documented in two ways; A PDF (How We Made A Studio Grade Album for $190) with detailed explanation of the recording process and a series of YouTube videos (see below). You can get their album free (10 songs, 192kHz mp3) or for $5 in higher quality (320 mp3) with 5 bonus tracks.
I say this album sounds F**king great, whether it cost $200 or $20,000 to make. They did have great gear to start with and generous friends to help but they really put in the hard work and excellent performances to make phenomenal recordings in their home studio.
They also have several of their songs available to Remix. Submit your remix to be included on an upcoming release. I’m going to use some of these as standards for my own recordings, especially the bass.

I’m a little late finding out about this band, but I have to say I’m really impressed.
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Pretty Hate Machine Remaster

Jon — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 05:04:09 +0000

My parents weren’t cool enough to buy their 5 year old a Nine Inch Nails album when Pretty Hate Machine was first released. Actually I probably didn’t hear PHM until 10 years after its release. The Downward Spiral was my first NIN album, then I got Broken, then I started listening to Marilyn Manson, Skinny Puppy, KMFDM and others. When I first heard Pretty Hate Machine I didn’t like it, it sounded old. I still listen to Nine Inch Nails regularly and of all their releases spanning 22 years, PHM is my least favorite. I don’t hate it, but don’t listen to it as often as the others. I’m telling you all this as a disclaimer.

Recently Trent Reznor announced that Pretty Hate Machine was going to get an update and re-release.

I’m happy to finally announce the re-issue of the first Nine Inch Nails record “Pretty Hate Machine,” releasing worldwide 11/22. UMe and Bicycle Music Group managed to locate the original mixes, so I went in the studio with Tom Baker and remastered it for a greatly improved sonic experience. In addition, Rob reinterpreted Gary Talpas’ original cover to make for a fresh new package.

It’s been an interesting trip watching the fate of this record float from one set of hands to another (a long and depressing story) but it’s finally wound up in friendly territory, allowing us to polish it up a bit and present it to you now. We had fun revisiting this old friend, hope you enjoy.

TR

Tonight I had a listen to the new and improved Pretty Hate Machine to see if I liked it more. About a minute into ‘Head Like A Hole’ I asked my wife if she heard anything different. She did immediately. “It sounds different, I don’t like it, its not as dirty.” So there’s the totally non-audiogeek first impression. It does sound cleaner, and louder, more modern in some ways. I dropped the original and remaster into a DAW to A/B compare.

These are my thoughts as I listen to Head Like A Hole on speakers and headphones. I like this song more than the others on the album.
*NOTE* the remastered file is an mp3, I’m not going to buy it again, remember I didn’t like it all that much the first time

Clearly a louder master, as is the trend
Fuller bass, the kick drum definitely hits deeper
More midrange, listen to the synth bass, the original had the mids aggressively cut out
Much less dynamic, as are most hard NIN songs
Some of the percussion parts can be heard more clearly
Wider stereo image

It sounds better to me, but I wish they would have just rerecorded it with modern equipment. The very dated sounds, drum machines, cheap reverb etc and of course immature songwriting keep me from really liking most of the album. *flame suit on* Let me know what you think.
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Key Of Grey collaboration Project

Jon — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:00:38 +0000

Sean at KeyOfGrey.com is organizing a music collaboration project. I’ll be taking part in this and hope you will too. The more contributors the better this will turn out. It’s still in the brainstorming stage, so if you’re interested in not just talking about making music but actually making some too, get over to Sean’s site and get involved.

Check it out the info and post your ideas for the project.

Everything Is A Remix

Jon — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 21:51:14 +0000

Check out this great video on copying, remixing and outright stealing musical ideas. Part 1 of 4 to be released.

www.everythingisaremix.info

Mastering Engineer Greg Calbi on Loudness in Mastering

Jon — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:23:35 +0000

I just watched this interview with Mastering Engineer Greg Calbi on the subject of the Loudness Wars. It turns to a bit of a rant but he makes a lot of sense. I think my own mastering skills just improved having watched this.
If you have the time, spend some time on YouTube and watch some more of the interviews with him.

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Recording Maybeshewill – Interview with Jamie Ward

Jon — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:34:11 +0000

Maybeshewill is one of my favorite post-rock bands and they’ve started working on their third LP. They’ve posted a few updates on their site (read part 1, and part 2) but there hasn’t been much info for a while and nothing specific about the gear and techniques. I decided to give Jamie Ward (Bass, Engineer, Producer) a little poke to find out what’s going on behind the scenes on the new record.
Hi Jamie
I was wondering if you could share some info from the production side of things on the new record. What’s the progress?
We’re still at a writing stage in the record but we’re not too far off now. We’ve had two recording sessions so far. One for drums for a few tracks at a studio called Seamus Wong where I do some engineering and one for guitars for the single we’re putting out (To the skies from a hillside) at my home studio. On previous albums before I joined the band Maybeshewill have recorded everything themselves with whatever gear they could get their hands on and wherever they could. These sessions have been a bit of an explorative venture. I can record drums fine at my home studio but it’s pretty dry so tracking in a larger room was a bit of a no-brainer.
We’re doing more recording sessions in September. I think I’ll try a few more room mics on the drums this time see if I can bring out even more ambience.
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What’s the guitar tracking signal chain?
For the single we used mostly used John’s Gibson 335 into my friends Marshall JVM, into our toured-to-death Marshall AX cab. I miked it up with 2 (Shure) Beta 57′s one into my TLA C1 and one into my SSL X Logic Alpha Channel. One of these has much crisper high end and one has much fatter low end, no prizes for guessing which one’s which.
In the past the band have used distortion pedals into a Plexi and also Guitar Rig so the sound is a bit of a departure form the previous album’s guitar sounds. At the time I just thought “Lets get the best gear we have together and make it sound as rad as possible”, the tone is slicker but perhaps not as punk, a less gritty aesthetic than the pedal distortion on albums previous. We only had one day to get it done so there was no time for indecision. I don’t take D.I’s either, I like to make commitments.
How about Bass?
I don’t really have any decent bass gear so it was just Squire P-Bass into my SSL, then the SansAmp plugin. That thing sounds great but has a slightly boomy low mid so I find myself having to multiband it.
Any cool electronic stuff going into this record?
Yes I think this will be the most electronic sounding Maybeshewill record, some tracks are perhaps a little dreamier sounding. The single is probably the least electronic track on the album but that’s just how it fell.
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Any tips for recording post-rock in general?
Record your drums in a big or at least fairly reverberant room. I think having that air around the kit is essential in sparse atmospheric music and reverb just won’t really do it my opinion. Triggering room mics is nice but I can never find a decent kick room sample. The Slate snare room samples are sweet but there’s something odd about the kicks, I find them a bit plasticy and boomy. Adding these over an already nice room ambient sounding kit can make things sound really lush.
I think with a lot of post rock band it’s important to capture the band live as interaction and moments are very important, with Maybeshewill however there are a lot of electronic elements so we have to be fairly strict to the grid and record each part separately.
Do you have any studio upgrades planned? Any gear your lusting for?
I’d like to get a 1073 clone, maybe one of the Vintech ones, just to have one channel of super awesomeness. Spending all that money on something as plain as a preamp kind of bums me out a little though, for that money I could buy 2 synths or a different amp or something. Things like that are much more satisfying things to spend money on really. I think the quality of instruments/amps makes more difference to the sonics than things like preamps but It certainly doesn’t hurt your recordings to have a few nice pre’s.
What’s the post rock scene like? How are the fans?
I don’t really know how to answer this. Like with any scene there are a handful of great bands and a heap of imitators. Hopefully the Maybeshewill sound is identifiable enough for us not to be classed as imitators.
I think people who might be into post rock are looking for something challenging and unusual so I would say fans of the genre are open minded people. Meeting anyone who is into your band and has made an effort to come see you is always a humbling experience.
What bands are you guys into?
Between the band we listen to quite a wide range of music. I think we generally agree between bands we like and don’t which is quite important really when it comes to trying to write together. Band’s I’m really digging at the moment are Caribou, Arcade Fire, Four Tet and Codex Leicester.
Any bands you’d love to be on tour with?
I’d like to go on tour with And So I Watch You From Afar again. They’re good friends of ours so touring with them is pretty lively and they are totally amazing every night.
Excellent. Thank you good sir.
Find Maybeshewill online
Their site http://maybeshewill.net
Twitter http://twitter.com/mybshwll
Myspace http://www.myspace.com/maybeshewont
Here’s Jamie’s studio myspace (with gear list) http://www.myspace.com/parkfarmstudios
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