issue05

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)

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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!!

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------------------------------

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)
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------------------------------

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

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