EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 20, Number 5 This issue's topic: Tips and techniques Effective use of Reverb (3 messages) Nick's topic Techniques (6 messages) Vocal Recording Techniques (2 messages) Your EMUSIC-L Digest moderator is Joe McMahon . You may subscribe to EMUSIC-L by sending mail to listserv@american.edu with the line "SUB EMUSIC-L your name" as the text. The EMUSIC-L archive is a service of SunSite (sunsite.unc.edu) at the University of North Carolina. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Aug 90 08:21:00 EDT From: Craig Hicks Subject: Effective use of Reverb I've been noodling with my first reverb unit for the last two days, listening to how different reverb programs affect different sound sources. I have yet to try recording anything and combining it with other reverb-processed sounds on tape (i.e., in a musical arrangement). Obviously, it would be easy to go wild and put lots of reverb on every sound, but I doubt that it would sound very good in the mix. Any reverb gurus out there care to share any tips or tricks that have succesfully worked for you? Experimenting is half the fun, but it would be interesting to hear your thoughts, too. Craig Hicks National Acdemy of Sciences Washington, D.C. USA chicks@nas (bitnet) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 90 10:20:03 EDT From: Joe McMahon Subject: Reverb-verb-erb-rb-b-b One neat trick - if your unit can do a straight delay without reverb - pan a dry (unprocessed) signal hard left. Pan a wet (delayed) signal hard right. Pick a very short delay and voila - instant chorusing! The resultant sound seems to spread out across the stereo image - depending on how long your delay is, you can get the effect that the sound is also panning across the image very quickly (with slightly longer delays). If you use this, be sure to listen to your mix in mono to be sure that you aren't getting phase cancellation (i.e., the chorused sound drops out). If you happen to remember the Alan Parsons Project's album "I Robot", a similar effect was used on the bass line with a delay of exactly 1/16 note to make the bass line sound much busier than it actually was. It also was quite an experience on headphones. And of course, there's the famous bass line on "Welcome to the Machine". This can be done in much the same way. The only thing you really need to watch out for is giving the same reverb to everything in the mix, which tends to sound kind of dull and insipid. Reverb is great for simulating depth in the stereo image as well, especially if it's increased or decreased, making a sound move "forward" and "backward" in the image. --- Joe M. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Aug 90 08:59:35 EDT From: Patrick Robinson Subject: Re: Effective use of Reverb On Wed, 22 Aug 90 08:21:00 EDT Craig Hicks said: >Any reverb gurus out there care to share any tips or tricks >that have succesfully worked for you? Experimenting is half >the fun, but it would be interesting to hear your thoughts, >too. Mmmm. I'd appreciate this kind of advice, too. More generally, I suppose I'd appreciate pointers on most aspects of engineering and production. Or pointers to 'The Literature' ... >Craig Hicks -Patrick ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Sep 90 16:10:00 EDT From: "John Young, Southern CT State Univ" Subject: Nick's topic >I'm starting to plan out an extremely long and detailed article >going over the whole experience we've had taking two sets of sequenced >music material and two independent home studios, and getting >everything ready for a concert appearance several hundred miles away. >I thought it might be of interest, and there are lots of spin-off >topics about software design in current instruments, the flexibility >(or lack thereof) in current sequencer technology, the facilities >needed to learn, rehearse, and organise live playing, the arrangement >of the music, and so on. So: where do I post? Is anyone interested in >this? Or is it just tech-head trivia? I'm too close to this project >at the moment to decide. > > Nick. > I, for one, would be very interested in reading your article, Nick. I think it would provide a great starting point for some discussions on several different things. It will be interesting to hear your experiences of doing electronics "live". Good luck. John Young YOUNG@CTSTATEU ps. In my humble opinion, I think I wasted more time reading mail messages about whether or not to cut the feed than I ever did on messages from the feed. Joe volunteered to run the list. I think we can trust him to make a decision on the matter and put it to rest. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Aug 90 15:14:49 -0400 From: Eddie Anthony Subject: Arpeggios You can, in fact, use the Roland 707 to PLAY the arpeggios. Set up the keyboard map with the proper MIDI note numbers and have it play as a drum pattern. I've done it for ostenato bass lines and it works fine. Just remember to turn off the 707 volume or you will hear all kind of volcanic eruptions!! -- --------------------------------------------------------- Compuserve >INTERNET: aa588@cleveland.freenet.edu Internet aa588@cleveland.freenet.edu Bitnet aa588%cleveland.freenet.edu@cunyvm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Aug 90 13:42:46 EDT From: Joe McMahon Subject: Techniques I'd like to move on from drum machines and the like for a while, and start a thread on synth techniques. I picked up a copy of Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin's new album, "The Big Idea", on Friday, and have been listening to it mostly for pleasure. Today I've finally gotten to the point where I can keep from getting sucked into the emotional impact of the tunes and started listening to technical details. I've noticed several interesting techniques in the songs, and I thought I'd see if there were any implementation suggestions out there. As longtime readers of the list know, I'm not a hot keyboard player. Anyway to get to the point of all of this, I've noticed that in many cases the rhythm tracks are pretty simple, but they are propelled along by semi- repetitive 16th-note figures jumping apparently at random through the chords. Is this normally done in step-time, or is it simply a matter of gritting my teeth, slowing the tempo down to sub-dirge, and playing the darn things? I've gotten some conga parts to work at near tempo with the help of quantization, but I don't necessarily want to lockstep the rhythms together (too mechanical instead of just enough). So, does anyone else go for this type of thing? And how do you do it? PS - Check out the album, if for no other reason than Stewart and Gaskin's homage to a pioneer of E-music, "Mr. Theremin". --- Joe M. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Aug 90 14:58:00 EDT From: METLAY@PITTVMS.BITNET Subject: Re: Techniques "The Big Idea" is a marvelous album from start to finish. No, it isn't-- why did I even type that, anyway? It has wonderful parts to it, but suffers from a couple of severe problems, most notably Stewart's occasional penchant for running a Minimoog through a fuzzbox and saying, "I don't need a guitar soloist... SEE?!" and the annoying problem that he writes glorious, emotional, heart-wrenchingly beautiful five-minute songs... that are nine minutes long on the album. (e.g. "Heatwave," "New Jerusalem," and "Shadowland"). If he were to lose the insecurity that keeps his guitarists from playing leads, and shorten his songs a bit, "The Big Idea" would be my favorite album of the past five years. As it is, it is merely my favorite album of the past ONE year. Buy it and enjoy-- especially the tunes that either are only SLIGHTLY too long ("Grey Skies") or NOT too long ("Levi Stubbs's Tears" and a PHENOMENAL cover of Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues"). BTW, this is NOT the Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. This is the OTHER one. |-> RE Joe's question: this is a technique I'm almost afraid to elaborate upon, as it forms a strong base for my current composition style as of now and will be heavily featured on my album coming out later this year (plug plug plug, oh plug plug plug)-- but no good idea ever suffered for being shared, so here goes. The key is in that most wonderful of performance devices ever invented-- the arpeggiator. Set the scan pattern to "random," feed it your chord changes, and let it rip! If memory conservation is a problem, you can run the arps live to tape with your sequences, but a better method is to record them into the sequencer, play them back and clean them up in the rough spots. I have three of them, each with its own strengths and weaknesses: one is on my beloved Prophet VS, and syncs to MIDI timecode and does all sorts of fascinating layers and evolutions, one is my Oberheim Cyclone which (when it doesn't lose note-offs and hang up) has even MORE power, and the one I use the most often is the one on my Xk, which has one remarkable feature that the VS doesn't and the Cyclone can do only with some tweaking-- it can step through an arp based on a trigger signal from a voltage source, making ostinati that follow my trusty TR-707 a breeze. This isn't The Whole Story, of course-- that's a compilation album by Kate Bush, and that's not important right now. |-> One then needs to mutate the timbre of the sound as the arp runs, with front-panel tweaking or MIDI controller sweeps. An even better technique is to introduce timbral changes on or within each note-- a purpose for which the Korg WaveStation is ideally suited, and for which I plan to purchase one as soon as the pop public is bored with them and selling them for reasonable prices.... But the little runs in the intro of "Grey Skies" are almost certainly done this way, to answer your question, Joe. If I'm wrong and Dave Stewart actually DID put in each note as needed, then he's the audio equivalent of a pointillist, and has a vast degree of patience that I do NOT possess. |-> metlay ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Aug 90 10:54:00 BST From: hvmpa!apearson@IHLPB.ATT.COM Subject: Re: Techniques "The Big Idea" (Dave Stewart/Barbara Gaskin) is featured in a series of articles by the man himself in "Sound On Sound" magazine. I think the series is planned to run over about 10 issues, currently only the first two have been published. Trouble is, SOS is published in England - dunno whether it's available else- where. Don't despair, the series was originally published in "Keyboard"... BTW I haven't heard the album (yet), but having tried out the ideas Mr S talks about I reckon I will be buying it soon. Brilliant! -Alan. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Aug 90 09:31:00 EDT From: Craig Hicks Subject: RE: Techniques >Anyway to get to the point of all of this, I've noticed >that in many cases the rhythm tracks are pretty simple, but >they are propelled along by semi- repetitive 16th-note >figures jumping apparently at random through the chords. Is >this normally done in step-time, or is it simply a matter >of gritting my teeth, slowing the tempo down to sub-dirge, >and playing the darn things? I've gotten some conga parts >to work at near tempo with the help of quantization, but I >don't necessarily want to lockstep the rhythms together >(too mechanical instead of just enough). >So, does anyone else go for this type of thing? And how do >you do it? PS - Check out the album, if for no other >reason than Stewart and Gaskin's homage to a pioneer of >E-music, "Mr. Theremin". >- Joe M. "...jumping apparently at random through the chords", eh? Well, I may have to give this one a listen. They could have used an arpeggiator, but if I were doing it myself, I would go the step-time route, which would allow for more control over which notes were actually sounding when without having to worry about what my hands were doing. I'd then use my free hands to vary the sounds in real-time, changing the filter cutoff or resonance, etc....or maybe I'd just put the whole mess through a flanger. I've found that "lockstepping" this sort of 16th-note pattern is desirable, as it really is providing a tempo-pulse reference and gives other rhythmic parts something to play off of (i.e., your conga part could move around a bit in reference to the pulse). Anything less than dead-on the beat with this sort of part and the whole arrangement sounds like it's falling to pieces. Craig Hicks National Academy of Sciences Washington, D.C. USA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Aug 90 10:57:00 EDT From: Jeffrey R Kell Subject: RE: Techniques On Wed, 29 Aug 90 09:31:00 EDT Craig Hicks said: >>Anyway to get to the point of all of this, I've noticed >>that in many cases the rhythm tracks are pretty simple, but >>they are propelled along by semi- repetitive 16th-note >>figures jumping apparently at random through the chords. >Well, I may have to give this one a listen. They could have >used an arpeggiator, but if I were doing it myself, I would >go the step-time route, which would allow for more control >over which notes were actually sounding when without having >to worry about what my hands were doing. I'd then use my >free hands to vary the sounds in real-time, changing the >filter cutoff or resonance, etc....or maybe I'd just put the >whole mess through a flanger. Well, in the "analog days" you could use the clock (gate) signal as a sample/hold trigger to select a CV from white noise and pass that to your filter CV input. Or slightly nastier, use it as CV for a 2nd oscillator that is sync'ed to the first. ****************************** * Dear sirs: * Apparently a slight violation of the truth-in-advertising laws * forces me to make the following statement. When, in my commercial, * it was reported that I had sold more records than the Beatles, Elvis * Presley, and Frank Sinatra combined, it was not clearly stated that * the Beatles, Presley, and Sinatra had never combined to make a * record. My apologies for any confusion. * Slim Whitman * (adapted from National Lampoon, 10/85) ****************************** +-----------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | Jeffrey R Kell, Dir Tech Services | UTC Postmaster/Listserv co-ord. | | Admin Computing, 117 Hunter Hall |Bitnet: JEFF@UTCVM.BITNET | | Univ of Tennessee at Chattanooga |JEFF%UTCVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU | | Chattanooga, TN 37403 | Bell: (615)-755-4551 | +-----------------------------------+----------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Aug 90 15:57:00 EDT From: Craig Hicks Subject: Vocal Recording Techniques Hmmm, how many of you emusic-l subscribers use vocals in your recordings? I would be interested in finding out. Also, pursuant to the new "techniques" discussion, I would be interested in finding out if any of you have suggestions for effects treatments of vocals or solutions to any problems in recording vocals that might be particular to the emusic environment. Craig Hicks National Academy of Sciences Washington, D.C. USA chicks@nas.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Sep 90 12:38:00 EDT From: CHRIS@FANDMA.BITNET Subject: RE: Vocal Recording Techniques I use vocals in some of my more commercial stuff, but I don't have any flashy techniques to share. Maybe I'll pick some up here (I hope). I use a Shure SM57 mic which currently is running dry into my Fostex X-15. It's a lousy setup in that dry vocals are pretty dull, and the combination of low-quality mic and low-quality four-track gives me little or no headroom, but it's better than nothing. I'm in the process of acquiring a Yamaha R-100 digital reverb (similar in quality to the MicroVerb II, but with more preset options); once I get it and play with it I might have some stories to tell. Oh, yeah, almost forgot that I have an old Roland digital delay pedalbox which I might try putting into my vocal/sax line. Film at eleven. -chris ------------------------------ End of EMUSIC-L digest ******************************