Pro Sound Blog

Here are four reasons to stay out of the recording business.

Yes they are all bounced checks. One is for 18 bucks and one is for 5 freaking bucks. My bank charges me $30 for each bounced check I deposit. So that $5 check cost me $30.

Frigging musicians….

mediaguru Rants, Recording

I’ve had this one client for years. He is very cool. He wants SO bad to be a rock star. He hires great musicians for his albums and the tunes are pretty good. There’s only one problem. He has no ear for pitch and he can’t sing.

It is a nightmare trying to get a take out of this guy. For years it has been like throwing darts in the dark and hoping you hit something. We’d try lines over and over again, hundreds of times until we found ONE good one to keep. Then move on to the next line.

Thanks to today’s technology we have a new way for this guy to write and perform his vocal tracks in the studio. Most everyone knows about “Auto-Tune” hardware/software. I prefer to call them pitch correctors. You basically punch in the key of the song and it automatically makes every note the person sings fit a note in the key, even if they are way off. The most famous misuse of this is in Cher’s “Do You Believe In Love” where her voice starts to sound like a robot. That is what the pitch corrector sounds like when it is set too high.

Anyway, enough background. So the new way we have to get vocal parts written and recorded for this guy is just plain sick (in a good and bad way). I’ll basically run the track and he’ll just sing the words as best he can (which isn’t very good). He’ll just freaking butcher the vocal parts but he’ll get through the tune. Then we’ll put the auto-tuner on his voice and set it to the “Cher setting.” That thing takes all of his bad notes and puts them in tune.

Then he goes through over and over again, singing to his new found notes and melody. Then he lays down the track, as close to the pitch corrected version as he can. After that track is down, we take out the old one, and auto-tune the new one. Voila! New vocal part!

To me pitch correctors should be used only sparingly, to tweak great vocal parts that just need a little help. But in this case, the auto-tuner just plain helps me get the job done.

mediaguru Boneheads, Musicians, Recording

The hall is called Abravanel Hall. This is an absolutely beautiful hall. It is acoustically amazing. There is an aura about the place just walking in. This shot below is a couple of hours before the gig while they were warming up.

Here’s a funky shot below of the stage from the closest seat on the 3rd tier.

mediaguru Gigs, Musicians, Recording

The pic above shows the console and the racks they use. In the racks are tons of patch bays which literally can connect anything in the building. Not only that building, but the convention center next door! The 4 small screens are remote control cameras so you can zoom in on all the pretty ladies!

In the pic above the big screen is a monitor showing the stage. (I should have taken my drink down from next to the monitor). The little monitor is for the lighting system. The console, well you should know what that is for.

mediaguru Gigs, Musicians, Recording

Tomorrow night I record the symphony. May sound like a hard gig but it’s actually really easy. I get to hang in the killer sound booth with some awesome gear, and about 5 remote controllable video cameras. I’ll snap some pix and post a report following the gig.

mediaguru Gigs, Musicians, Recording

For my 2nd article at The Apple Blog I’ve tested out the iMic by Griffin Technology. This is a neat little USB audio interface that is real cheap for the quality you are getting.

CLICK HERE to check out my article

mediaguru Gear, Recording

Checked my phone messages the other day and this is what I get:

Phone Message

This is an .mp3 file. I claim no responsibility for the content of this audio file. Please do not play this if you are offended by 4 letter words. I wouldn’t play it in front of your boss at work either. Please do not play it in front of children!

Parental Guideance Suggested.

mediaguru Boneheads, Recording

I’ve been asked thousands of times “how do I get a record deal?” Most people think this is an extremely complex question with many different possibilities. But it really is simple. When people ask me this quesion I give them all the same answer:

Shop at 7-11.

Yes, shop at 7-11. This is how to get a record deal. I’ll explain:

There once was a rock band with a decent female singer that I had done many albums with. This band was just like any other rock band trying to “make it.” They practiced twice a week, did shows, released CD’s, sent their discs in to record companies etc. They were doing all the usual things a band does to break into the big time.

One day the female singer stopped in at 7-11 to pick up some sundries. On her way out she bumped into a guy and dropped all of her groceries. The guy was very nice, and helped her pick up her stuff. Introductions insued. The conversation soon led to him saying “I’m an A&R guy with XXX record company (one of the big 5), and her saying “I’m a singer.”

One thing led to another (don’t know if any sexual favors were involved), and she was offered a recording contract. The record company only wanted her so she immediately dumped her band in a very sour situation. She then moved to LA.

She spent 2 years in LA working on her album. Then one day, record company XXX went through some management changes and all the A&R guys were canned. When the A&R gets canned, usually their artists get canned as well unless they are proven sellers.

She returned from LA with no record deal, no money and no band.

mediaguru Boneheads, Musicians, Recording

The biggest studio in town had some audio problems. It seems all their mixes sucked. This is a world class facility with world class gear. No one could figure out the problem so they hired a specialist from JBL to analyze their system.

This specialist was not cheap. First they had to pay the cost of flying him in, putting him up in a hotel, paying for his meals and transportation. On top of that was his $1500/day fee.

The JBL specialist arrived at the studio, listened to about 5 seconds of audio and then reversed the connectors on one of their studio monitors. Seems when they set the studio up, they wired their studio speakers out of phase.

It cost this studio about $2500 to pay a guy to flip over a banana connector. Total repair time: 10 seconds.

mediaguru Recording

I stood next to this Solid State Logic console yesterday. Unfortunately the console was in a crate and may be in a crate for the next 2 years.

I met an interesting guy who is just like me. He is the owner of this beautiful SSL console. He owns a studio and does CD/DVD duplication just like me. The only difference between me and him is his studio and duplication setup is about 100x bigger than mine. Right now his duplication business is going so crazy that he doesn’t have time to set up his SSL…What a rough problem to have.

mediaguru Gear, Recording