The Making of the New Pretty Lights Album

Tons of amazing gear porn in this one.  That hat, though.

[via Thump]

A Tour of Mutato Muzika with Mark Mothersbaugh

If you're a fan of unusual and rare instruments, DEVO's Mark Mothersbaugh is a man after your own heart.  In this video, he shares some of the more unusual instruments he has in his collection.

[via keyboardmag1 on YouTube and Matrixsynth]

cEvin Key & Ryan Twilight Circus @ Subconscious Studios LA 2012

A brief look at cEvin Key's amazing Subconscious Studios and his massive "Synthasaurus" modular system.  Commence to drooling.

Your Monday Morning Dose of Studio Porn

I don't know that it's anything new, but I only just ran across the FUCK YEAH STUDIO PORN tumblr this afternoon.  Some seriously drool-worthy set-ups here.  And a few that would drive me absolutely nuts.  Funny how subjective what makes a good working space is.

A Look at Dave Gahan's Personal Studio

Sonicscoop has posted a seriously cool and very detailed profile of Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan's personal studio in NYC.  Check it out!

[via Slicingupeyeballs]

Subcon Studios Jam 95

Here's a couple clips from a jam session with members of Skinny Puppy and friends.  This was the last jam session they caught on tape before Dwayne Goettel's untimely death.  Pretty out there!

Depeche Mode Studio Being Set Up

Here's timelapse video of Depeche Mode's synths being set-up in the studio for work on their new album.

[via Matrixsynth and DepecheMode on YouTube]

Studio Disguised as a Woodpile

Here's something you don't see every day - a home studio built to look like a pile of wood.  Not sure I dig the interior decorations, but it actually looks quite nice.
[via froot.nl]

"Alan Wilder Collected" Trailer

"A preview of the new documentary : COLLECTED - The Alan Wilder/Depeche Mode Collection."

[via thinlinestaff on YouTube]

Infected Mushroom's "Pink Nightmares" Studio Blog

Infected Mushroom shares some insights and breaks down their track "Pink Nightmares".

[via InfectedMushroomVids on YouTube]

Raising the Dead

I'm getting ready to leave for a short European tour a week from now, and as a result, I'm trying to get as many loose ends tied up as possible. One of those loose ends is to finish up the production of a track for SD6, a band on my label.

We had discussed recording a new song from scratch originally, but as both Brandon (the band's lead singer and songwriter) and my schedule began to fill up, he suggested to me that we resurrect an old song we had abandoned many years ago when we started the recording of their debut album. 7 years, to be exact. I remember really liking the song back then, but Brandon wasn't happy with the vocal, so we left it off. So I thought I'd share a bit of the process and what can be learned (hopefully) from it.

TOTAL RECALL

I'm fairly anal about backing things up (*pause for laughter*). Like most people who are fairly anal about backing things up, I came that way by learning the hard way. So generally, speaking, if it's a project I worked on, I have it backed up somewhere. Seven years can be getting into sketchy territory for some CD-Rs. For better or for worse, when it comes to backing stuff up to CD-R, I generally spring for more "premium" media. I wouldn't be surprised if these were as much of a scam as high end audio cables, but they haven't failed me yet, so for now, I'll stick with what I know. So, my first step was to find the back-up and attempt to bring it back onto my Mac. Fortunately, that turned out to be as simple as dragging the files to my hard drive.

RESTORATION

The files copied without any problems, but that didn't mean I'd necessarily be able to open the files. While these were Logic files, and I still work in Logic, they were from Version 5 - many, many revisions ago. Logic is designed to be backward compatible and for the most part, the project came back without too much trouble. The two biggest issues here were: 1.) these were recorded back when I had an old Emagic AudioWerk 2 soundcard, so I needed to re-assign the outputs on my channel to my new soundcard, and 2.) there were a bunch of out-dated plug-ins. This brings up a good thing to remember - if you have a track that is dependent on an unusual plug-in or softsynth, bounce down a copy of the track to audio. This way, if the effect is impossible to replicate with a newer plug-in, you still have a copy of the audio effected as you want it. I did encounter a handful of technical gremlins, mostly weird graphic glitches - but nothing that would keep me from the job at hand.

REMEMBRANCE

Another good thing to do when you're backing up a project is to bounce down a full mix as a "demo". This can be especially helpful if the person doing the mixing and production is different from the one who recorded it. So, I gave a listen to the original demo. As I remembered, it was a kinetic, syncopated track with a good groove to it. And it still was. The problem was, it wasn't really a song in the state we had it - more like 5 minutes of a good groove. So this would be an area I would need to concentrate on... adding more of a sense of structure to the song so the listener doesn't get bored with it. The vocals were fine on the original, but we decided if we were going to start this from the ground up, we should apply that to everything and we ended up re-recording the vocals. Another problem was the arrangement. The track was originally sequenced on some older Korg workstation and some of the sounds were a bit uninspiring, while others were clearly muddying up the mix. So I would need to replace some of the recordings with better sounding synths.

RECREATION

One hitch I encountered here was that the band had recorded the instrumental tracks at someone else's studio. This person just recorded straight from the Korg's sequencer, so there were no MIDI tracks at all. So any part I wanted to put in a different octave, change the sound of, or layer, I'd have to play over from scratch. Fortunately, the elements of the song were relatively simple, so learning and re-programming the parts was not a big issue. It's well worth working on playing things by ear if you have the motivation to. It can take awhile to learn, but the time it can save you down the road is immeasurable.

REARRANGEMENT

As I mentioned, the original track was one that sort of starts and keeps doing what it's doing until it stops. There wasn't a lot of tension in the way it built and even though there were separate verse, chorus, and bridge parts, there was little to differentiate them. The original rhythm was built around a pair of stuttering, syncopated drum loops. I liked these a lot, but discovered these loops were not very tightly timed, so when I tried to program new drum parts on top of them, the new parts sounded out of time. So I decided to replace the drum loops with some new loops, and to use the introduction and removal of these loops to help build and lull the energy level to keep the feel of the song evolving.

The original stuttering loop was great, and I recreated it for the intro of the song, but we want this to be a song the DJs would like to add to their set, so I felt we couldn't keep this feel for the length of the track. Therefore, I began the track with just the spare, stuttering loop, gradually entering a hi-hat part, and a couple of additional "top" loops. Then, after the first chorus, the loops all slow down and a steady 4 on the floor beat comes in. I decide that the bridge portion of the song would be the perfect place for a breakdown, so I stripped out most of the drums in this part, gradually re-introducing them until the whole thing kicks in again.

As I mentioned, the sounds used in the original were making the arrangement sort of ho-hum, so I went through and replaced sounds for something more interesting. One of the main parts of the song is a propulsive, Moroder-like sequence that runs throughout almost everything. This not only came across as a bit monotonous in the original, but the Virus sound I originally used was distorted and a total frequency hog. My solution was to replace the sound with 3 additional sounds. The first two would be arps I programmed in Vanguard. These used LFO modulation to change the sound as it played, and to add a bit more unpredictability, I set the LFO speeds on both to different random values, so the two sequences would modulate against one another in a constantly shifting, more interesting way. I also added the same riff an octave down with a tight, analog-sounding bass I made in Omnisphere that would kick in when the 4 on the floor beat did.

RERECORDING

With most of the music in place, we re-recorded the vocals. Originally, we thought this might not be necessary, we discovered that the old vocals, which had been recorded to the original, slightly-off-time drum loops and no longer matched up with the new material. So we took the opportunity to record everything from scratch and to add some new harmony parts sung by Brandon's wife, Jessica. Everything here went pretty damn smoothly. The biggest obstacle was that I was recovering from a cold and had to desperately keep myself from having a coughing fit in the middle of someone's vocal. Mission accomplished.

RESULT?

That I can't share with you just yet, as I haven't finished the track, although I hope to have it done tomorrow. But I can tell you that this has been a really valuable learning experience. The new track is a huge improvement over the original we did 7 years ago. Although I disagreed with the decision to not release the track at the time, I'm now glad we waited. We ended up with something way better than we ever could've imagined all that time ago. So the next time you're ready to toss some track that isn't working into the trash, give it a second thought. You never know what it might teach you further down the road.

Your Monday Morning Gear Boner

Click the picture to get a larger look at this new studio shot from the Chemical Brothers studio. Holy CRAP.

[via Solid State Logic]

Learning to Listen to Your Own Music

There is no doubt that as musicians, we hear things differently than non-musicians. We analyze and deconstruct every element of a track, breaking it down into its respective parts, shifting our focus to different parts quickly and easily. In one respect, this is an incredible gift that allows musicians to appreciate music on a deeper level than the average listener. On the other hand, it's a rather difficult way of listen to turn off, and especially when you're listening to your own music before deciding it's "finished" (although, of course we know nothing is EVER really finished), it can be beneficial to step back and learn to listen more like you did before you started making music. So today I want to talk about learning to listen to your own music objectively.

One of the biggest issues musicians face when trying to give a final evaluation of their songs is that by the time they're close to being finished, they've probably heard the song in question literally hundreds of times. It becomes very easy to lose your focus and misplace what's important and what isn't. So, to be able to give your own music an objective listen, the key is to lose some of that familiarity. How do you do that?

• Take a Break

It's a good idea to take frequent breaks when working on your music anyway, as your ears, especially at loud volumes, tend to get fatigued. But beyond that, when you've listened to a song over and over, you often begin to lose your ability to judge what works and what doesn't. So take a break! At the very least, get up and do something every couple hours or so. Eat lunch. Go for a walk. Run some errands. Anything that gets you out of the studio for a bit helps. Ideally, if you can go a few days without listening to the song, you'll find you're much more able to come back and listen to it with fresh ears.

• Turn Your Monitor Off

It's amazing how much the visual feedback in your DAW can impact how you hear things. Try turning off your computer monitor and just listening to the music without the visual stimuli. Hell, just close your eyes and listen. You'll be amazed how much more focused your listening abilities become.

• Listen Outside Your Studio

By now, you're probably very used to your studio as a listening environment. And that's good! The more you know the sound of your studio, the better you'll be able to mix. But if you want to shake things up and listen to your music from a new perspective, burn it to a CD (remember those?) and go listen to your music outside of the studio environment. You should do this anyway to ensure that your music will sound good on a wide variety of sound systems, but hearing your songs outside the studio can be very helpful in letting you hear them in a different way and can help you pinpoint potential issues.

• The "Behind Closed Doors" Listen

This is a somewhat unconventional technique that I've found useful in honing a mix. Simply step outside your studio, close the door, and listen to it in the next room. It needn't be blasting, just loud enough for you to hear it. For me, this helps me hear the track as a whole instead of picking it apart into each little part. It's really the only way I can get back to listening to music the way I did before I was a musician. Big problems that might not be obvious after getting used to a mix usually stick out to me more when I use this trick. Instruments that are too loud or quite often sound more obvious from the next room. Your mileage may vary, but I've had good results from this.

• Get a Listening Buddy

If you're a musician, especially in this day and age, chances are you know other musicians. Find someone whose production and ears you trust and become listening buddies. Have an agreement that they'll listen to a track whenever you need them to and return the favor. Agree that you'll both be brutally honest and that no one's feelings are going to be hurt if the feedback is negative. It's much better to find out about those problems now than when you release your album to the public. With the ease of sending files over the Internet, there's really no excuse NOT to do this. And if you're a bit of a lone wolf? There are tons of forums online where you can post your works in progress and get feedback. This isn't quite as ideal since you don't know the backgrounds of the people listening, but as a last resort, it can still be valuable in honing in on your weak spots.

Alec Empire In-Studio Profile

Inside the Subcon Studio

Looking for an Electronic Music Studio in the Pacific NW?

Waveformless reader Trevor sent me an email about his new electronic music studio here in Seattle.  He is currently accepting bookings, so if you're looking for a well-appointed place to record some tracks with a speciality in electronic music, check it out!  Trevor has also produced some sample libraries for Producer Loops that you can check out here.

1 More Non-Musical Purchase That Will Improve Your Life in the Studio

Thanks to reader Mangadrive for pointing out a HUGE omission I made in yesterday's post about non-musical purchases that will improve your music-making experience in the studio: a big monitor.

LCD monitors in 20"+ sizes are getting cheaper all the time, and once you switch over to one of these, you'll wonder how you ever lived without one. If anything, this one should've been number one on that list. Trust me, you won't regret it.

5 Non-Musical Purchases to Improve Your Life in the Studio

Being a musician can be expensive. I tend to break down musical purchases into "sexy" and "non-sexy" categories. Buying a new synth? Sexy. Buying MIDI cables? Non sexy. The thing is, a lot of the time, it's the non-sexy purchases that can make the biggest difference in our day to day lives in the studio. So today I'm going to concentrate on a few of these that I've found particularly important.

1. A Comfortable Chair
Few people really think about the furniture in their studio, but it's really important. After all, you're going to be spending hour after hour parked in front of your monitors, you might as well be comfortable, right? Which chair is the right one for you depends largely on personal preference, but you want to make sure that the comfort doesn't come at the expense of offering proper support. I also recommend looking for a chair with wheels on it so you can scoot around your studio to access equipment easily.

2. Nice Lighting
I feel like a hypocrite for writing this since my current studio has pretty ugly overhead fluorescent lighting, but it's only because I don't have a lot of extra outlets in my studio. Soft lighting from a lamp or two can really make your studio a lot more pleasant and relaxing to be in. The mood you set in your studio often will set the mood for your sessions, so take time to find something you really like. Ikea has a ton of good, cheap options perfect for studios.

3. Cable Organizers
If you have a lot of hardware like I do, then you undoubtedly also have miles of cables snaking all over the place. Aside from looking ugly, it can also be a real pain in the butt when you're trying to trace one cable from output to input. There are a lot of options for keeping your cables neat from simple velcro bands to fancier split 'looms'. Have a look at Cableorganizer.com to see a number of creative options to this end.

4. Cable Storage
Again, this mainly applies to those of us with lots of hardware, but any studio worth its salt should have an ample supply of spare cables of all sorts. You never know when a cable might go bad or when you might find yourself needing to plug in an extra piece of equipment and you're going to be bummed if it's 1 AM and you suddenly find yourself in need of one. Equally important as having these spares is keeping them organized in a way that makes them easy to find. My studio closet door had an old wire frame for holding shoes that turned out to be perfect for this purpose. I wind the cables up neatly and organize them by type. If I need a 1/4" to 1/8" cable or an RCA adapter or even a USB cable, I can find it quickly and easily.

5. Avery Labels
I've mentioned this one before, but it bears repeating. If you take the time to label both ends of your cables, or your various power cords and adapters, it'll make your life so much easier. You know instantly what belongs to what, and if you've ever had to move, you've probably had the experience of not being able to remember what bit of gear a particular power adapter belongs to. Avery makes adhesive labels in virtually every shape and size imaginable. I use the standard size mailing labels. They're just the right size for wrapping around a plug or adapter and they're easy to find in just about any office supply store you're likely to run into. Another nice thing about Avery labels is that they have templates for Microsoft Word so you can make your labels nice and neat and have them print out perfectly.

Can you think of any other non-sexy studio essentials that you can't live without? Share them with us!

Pictures of Various Bands' Studios

There's a cool thread going on over at the Vintage Synth Explorer forums where people are posting pictures of the studios of some famous artists. It's interesting to see how compact and "home studio" looking many of the more recent ones are. The times have really changed. I have to admit the picture of Hans Zimmer's studio made me pee in my pants a little.

X Marks the Spot

In theatre and in films, directors often use bits of criss-crossed duct tape on the floor to indicate a specific location where an actor needs to stand or walk to. It helps create consistency in between shots since scenes are usually made up of several different shots interspliced to look like a single, continuous one.

This can actually be useful when you're recording vocals. When most producers cut a vocal, they edit together a composite 'perfect' take out of the best bits of several different takes. Much like in a film, consistency is key here, as if the tone and volume are inconsistent in between takes, it makes it harder to make these composite bits sound like a convincing, single take. Since the distance you stand from the mic can greatly influence the sound of your vocal recordings, it can be helpful to mark where you're standing while recording so if you need to leave the location to operate the controls of your DAW or fiddle with other settings, you can easily position yourself in the correct location every time you come back and insure a consistent sound between takes when you build your composite.