Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Practice makes permanent
Well I've neglected the blog long enough! Time to start up again.I realized this week that while I feel really confident in my live mixing skills, I still have a lot of room for growth in my studio mixing skills. Looking back at my discography, most of it is tracking, or really simple mixes (or just shy of terrible). I just haven't done all that much studio mixing. So, it's time to practice.
Now there's a word that sounds weird for an audio person. I quit my minor in music in college because I didn't really like practicing. Maybe its that I never really learned how to practice well in order to stretch myself. Practicing is not just learning the song or playing the same exercises that I play well over, and over, and over again.
Luckily, I now have a little more insight about the whole practicing ordeal. My weaknesses have been exposed in the recent project that I've been mixing. The band sounds great, and the vocal sounds fine, but they're not "gelling" together well. They're not feeling like they're in the same space, and I really struggle with getting the vocal pocket just right. So, now I've got a weakness that I can focus on in practicing.
Mixing live, the vocal pocket isn't quite as big of a deal, since you're looking at a stationary target; what you hear is what you get, and everybody listening is in the same room with you, listening to the same sound system. Mixing in the studio, your speakers, the room, how far your speakers are from one another, how they're coupling with the wall; all these are factors in getting a good "vocal center" that translates well from the iPod earbuds to the hi-fi sound system, to the car stereo.
And yet knowing all this, I'm still not quite on target. So, I'm going to focus on my weakness, and practice that, over and over and over. I can't read my way into being good at this- I actually have to do it.
Time to go practice.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Experience is the best teacher...
As I've been writing curriculum for my Live Sound classes, I've been thinking specifically about the labs and how to make them as beneficial as possible. I want to create an environment where the students say, "Wow, I get it now!" I want it to recreate those situations where I was put in a pinch and I had to grow up real fast... but without freaking them out on a daily basis. They're already mixing 6-8 hours a week, but I want to keep feeding them things they can assimilate and so they can grow quickly.
My biggest shove off-the-deep-end was quite an experience. I was mixing FOH for Belmont's Urban Showcase. The showcases had 4 acts, each of which were totally different; one was a rap duo, another was more R&B with lots of percussion, guitars, horns, loops and keyboards, the third was a female vocalist with 5-piece, and the last guy wasn't unlike a popular Caucasian rapper (let the reader understand). So there I am, having never mixed a show with any more than 16 inputs, on a PM1D for the first time with between 48 inputs going. Now add in that I'm doing it in front of 1,000 peers, teachers and "industry" people, and the showcase producers want it loud... really really loud... it was probably pushing 105 or 110dB SPL A-weighted... (I prefer a show around 97 or 100-- I want everyone to keep their hearing). And of course I bring every sub I can get my hands on, so there's just loads and loads of low end, and by the time sound checks are done, my ears are fried. When it was all said and done, I made a few mixing mistakes, and I'd do some things differently now, but I grew a ton in those 16 hours.
So now it's time for you to chip in... What were your most memorable learning experiences in music or audio, or just life in general? When did fake-it-till-you-make-it work for you? When didn't it work for you?
Happy commenting!
My biggest shove off-the-deep-end was quite an experience. I was mixing FOH for Belmont's Urban Showcase. The showcases had 4 acts, each of which were totally different; one was a rap duo, another was more R&B with lots of percussion, guitars, horns, loops and keyboards, the third was a female vocalist with 5-piece, and the last guy wasn't unlike a popular Caucasian rapper (let the reader understand). So there I am, having never mixed a show with any more than 16 inputs, on a PM1D for the first time with between 48 inputs going. Now add in that I'm doing it in front of 1,000 peers, teachers and "industry" people, and the showcase producers want it loud... really really loud... it was probably pushing 105 or 110dB SPL A-weighted... (I prefer a show around 97 or 100-- I want everyone to keep their hearing). And of course I bring every sub I can get my hands on, so there's just loads and loads of low end, and by the time sound checks are done, my ears are fried. When it was all said and done, I made a few mixing mistakes, and I'd do some things differently now, but I grew a ton in those 16 hours.
So now it's time for you to chip in... What were your most memorable learning experiences in music or audio, or just life in general? When did fake-it-till-you-make-it work for you? When didn't it work for you?
Happy commenting!
1 comments:
- Jordan Singleton said...
- The day that Mike Janas pulled out one channel strip from the API in RCA-B, and I could see the little wires going from gain, to EQ, to busses, etc., alllll the way down to the fader, was the day the clouds parted and I GOT IT.
- April 20, 2010 4:28 PM
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Why now?
Part of what I teach my students is the history of recording. It's interesting in itself, but what really gets me excited is to think about when it happened in the big picture of history. Recording is a centrally important task in the Church; some of the Levites were given to be scribes in II Chronicles 34:13. The root word for "scribe" is caphar, which means "to recount or declare exactly or accurately." It's related to a testimony."The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy." - Revelation 19:10.
Habakkuk is also commanded to "write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it."(Habakkuk 2:2) There are so many implications to that command: that the message is clear, that it's stored and available for a long time, that it's powerful and enables those who hear to run with the Word of the Lord. I like to think about the Apostle Paul when he's writing his letters to the churches. He's sitting there in prison, unable to go see those for whom he longs, but he still has a way of communicating with them and conveying the deep things on his heart. I imagine him being so thankful for the scrolls and pens, that he can send precious messages to those whom he loves and wants to see grow up into the full measure of Christ. I also imagine him dreaming about having both the tenderness and sternness of his voice clearly captured in the letters, so the Church could know more fully what the Lord had revealed to him about them and the hope of their calling. I wonder if he thought about having some way to record his voice. . . I also like to think about King David writing his psalms down before the Lord. "Send this to the scribe, and make sure that it goes to the tune of the lilies!" I bet that he would have loved to be able to have the melodies and rhythms played in the tabernacle of the Lord captured and distributed throughout the land. He had to know the melodies sung and played would get stuck in people's heads as they journeyed back to their homes after worshiping the Lord in Jerusalem, but I wonder if it crossed his mind to have a way that they could take it with them, so the friends of the guy who couldn't carry a tune in a bucket could hear the songs sung around the Ark of the Covenant. There are no surprises to the Lord-- He was fully aware of audio recording technology and its implications before time began. However, He chose to reveal all the different parts of the equation together at this time in history. The first audio recording and playback happened in 1877, and broadcast radio began in 1921. Suddenly a few people could have an audience of man thousands of people, shooting quickly into the millions. Until the last 10 years or so, recording music was very expensive, and distribution channels had very high entry barriers. Since digital technology has made audio recording easier and less expensive, almost anyone with a few hundred dollars can record a CD in their basement. And now that the internet has made the distribution's entry barriers almost non-existent, anyone can broadcast themselves to the entire world for almost no money at all. All of this culminates into one question: Why now? It begs more questions: What's so important about this generation that the Lord waited for thousands and thousands of years to make this technology available? What's He going to release next that He wants His people to be able to broadcast clearly across the globe? Who's He going to trust with the songs? Who's going to capture and distribute them? Who will be the messengers who utilize the technology with excellence and purity of heart to trumpet what the Lord is saying in this hour of history? Whoever it is. . . I hope I'm one of them.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Training Sound Techs in a 24/7 Environment
My job is a little odd... I'm taking a craft that's been traditionally taught in an apprenticeship format and teaching it in a format for masses of people. The goal of it all is to fill the prayer rooms of the earth with singers and musicians that will exalt Jesus in song and lifestyle until He returns. The musicians I focus on are the sound techs-- those who have a combination of musical and technical skill to amplify the singers and musicians on the platform, giving an on-ramp to the masses participate in prayer meetings.
Here's the twist: it happens in a place where the music never stops-- there's no sound check! Worship teams transition every 2-hours, and it's been going for over 10 years. So how do we actually train someone without just throwing them in the deep end? (I must admit, I've been thrown in the deep end a couple times, and it wasn't all that bad for me... but that's not the best way for everyone.)
We've traditionally had a hard time training and retaining sound techs. There have been countless all-staff meetings where we've put the whole meeting on hold until we get enough volunteers (who know nothing about sound) on the condition that we'll train them. The problem comes when someone takes 2-4 hours a week for a couple weeks teaching the novice one-on-one about gain structure, EQ, etc., and then they quit since they don't really get it, and it's painful for the room full of people to hear them learn. Musicians and singers have a much easier time-- you can experiment with something that sounds awful in your room and no one really cares. Sound techs practice in rooms full of people, and here at IHOP-KC, the teams have at least 8 people on stage at a time. It's not exactly the easiest way to learn...
The answer: multi-track recording the worship sets and taking them somewhere else to play back. We already multi-track the prayer room for our Limited Edition CDs, so its just a matter of file management and a console in a room for playback at that point. We could even sync it to a video camera feed from FOH and use timecode to lock the video and audio together, put a projector in the room with the console, and it looks and feels like a real prayer meeting, only without the room full of people.
Now this solution opens up a whole realm of possibilities. Not only can we train sound techs, but we can help our musicians learn to mix their headphones through the Aviom mixers (read: fewer musicians with hearing loss). Hook a recorder up to the Aviom input module, and BAM! you've got inputs to figure out how to mix. You could even put it a practice room, replace one of the recorded inputs with their live input, giving them an opportunity to play with a team and follow songs and chord changes. Brilliant!
Here's the twist: it happens in a place where the music never stops-- there's no sound check! Worship teams transition every 2-hours, and it's been going for over 10 years. So how do we actually train someone without just throwing them in the deep end? (I must admit, I've been thrown in the deep end a couple times, and it wasn't all that bad for me... but that's not the best way for everyone.)
We've traditionally had a hard time training and retaining sound techs. There have been countless all-staff meetings where we've put the whole meeting on hold until we get enough volunteers (who know nothing about sound) on the condition that we'll train them. The problem comes when someone takes 2-4 hours a week for a couple weeks teaching the novice one-on-one about gain structure, EQ, etc., and then they quit since they don't really get it, and it's painful for the room full of people to hear them learn. Musicians and singers have a much easier time-- you can experiment with something that sounds awful in your room and no one really cares. Sound techs practice in rooms full of people, and here at IHOP-KC, the teams have at least 8 people on stage at a time. It's not exactly the easiest way to learn...
The answer: multi-track recording the worship sets and taking them somewhere else to play back. We already multi-track the prayer room for our Limited Edition CDs, so its just a matter of file management and a console in a room for playback at that point. We could even sync it to a video camera feed from FOH and use timecode to lock the video and audio together, put a projector in the room with the console, and it looks and feels like a real prayer meeting, only without the room full of people.
Now this solution opens up a whole realm of possibilities. Not only can we train sound techs, but we can help our musicians learn to mix their headphones through the Aviom mixers (read: fewer musicians with hearing loss). Hook a recorder up to the Aviom input module, and BAM! you've got inputs to figure out how to mix. You could even put it a practice room, replace one of the recorded inputs with their live input, giving them an opportunity to play with a team and follow songs and chord changes. Brilliant!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Hearing with Your Skin
There was a piece on NPR about a week ago on how your sense of touch affects hearing perception. The summary is that people perceived certain syllables, such as "ba" and "da," as "pa" when a puff of air hit their neck when they heard it. It makes perfect sense, since "pa" has a plosive; we're used to feeling that burst of air while hearing that syllable.
What does that mean for all of us who work in and with music all the time? It means that those people who prefer a monitor wedge to only listening through In-Ear monitors aren't crazy. Our brains are wired to use all of our perception to help us hear and understand. If you've ever played in the studio and been in an isolation booth away from everyone else, you know how it's easier to play with someone while seeing them.
So how do you know if someone's really needing to feel it on their skin? The first sign might be that they're always asking to have themselves turned up in their monitors, or they complain that they're losing their hearing. A person will blow their ears out trying to turn up the volume to "feel" it, when they're just increasing stimulation on the wrong part of their body.
Anybody have insight? I love comments =)
What does that mean for all of us who work in and with music all the time? It means that those people who prefer a monitor wedge to only listening through In-Ear monitors aren't crazy. Our brains are wired to use all of our perception to help us hear and understand. If you've ever played in the studio and been in an isolation booth away from everyone else, you know how it's easier to play with someone while seeing them.
So how do you know if someone's really needing to feel it on their skin? The first sign might be that they're always asking to have themselves turned up in their monitors, or they complain that they're losing their hearing. A person will blow their ears out trying to turn up the volume to "feel" it, when they're just increasing stimulation on the wrong part of their body.
Anybody have insight? I love comments =)
2 comments:
- KerensaJoy said...
- James, you are a genuis for sharing this. I'm one of those people that needs a floor wedge rather than in-ears. We have the same problem as dancers when they switch us from acoustic drums to electric and we don't have the low-end in our monitors that we need to "feel" it. Good luck with the new blog! Hope you're doing well! Keep updating on facebook when you post again and I'm sure I'll see every one! I love to read and see what my friends are doing! - God Bless! Kerensa
- December 8, 2009 1:37 PM
- Dayna said...
- James, great post. Interestingly enough I work at Future Sonics and we discuss this idea of "feeling" the music all day. We are known for our low end freq response in our earpieces and use our own miniature Dynamic loudspeakers, so we've literally shrunk the stage wedge and stuck it in your ear. Unlike armature based pieces our drivers have a real Diaphragm which moves air against the timpanic membrane so you get both "feel" and energy from the low end without excessive volumes. We are actually recognized by H.E.A.R. for offering a product that makes strides towards hearing conservation with our Bigger Sound @ lower volumes. Thanks again for the post! Let us know if you're ever interested in demoing some stuff to see what its all about! Happy Holidays!
- December 8, 2009 3:14 PM
