2/28/12

MIXTUREcast #2: Fall

Episode #2 of MIXTUREcast has been posted. In this one Joey & I talk about Fall, an epic tune we were about to mix.

I'm typing this well after we got finished, and I must say it's pretty good. Watch the video and you can hear snippets of the finished product under the bumpers at the beginning and end.

Fall starts out peaceful, with a very cool vocalization effect (ooooh, ooh ooh aaaaaah). After we paly around with the primary melody for a bit (plus a bassline compliments of a vintage Korg DW8000 analog synth) it kicks into an epic rock section complete with a smokin' guitar line and drums with Dr. Marcus Reddick.

Oh, and yes, we realized that my head got cut off in the video. That's the last time I let Joey aim the camera!

Good stuff. Enjoy!

2/21/12

MIXTUREcast: Raining

Joey & I give the back-story about "Raining" from Joey's new album MIXTURE.

This tune is different on the album with it's interesting simplicity. BTW that's not a bass you hear - it's Joey's guitar.


2/17/12

A student's success

One of my private piano students, Wil Dannenberg, also performs on French Horn. [In fact, he is currently considering a double major in jazz piano and classical French Horn at a variety of colleges.]

He recently won the 2012 Macon Symphony Concerto Competition AS WELL AS the 2012 Macon Morning Music Club Joseph Maerz Award competition.


I was his accompanist for both events - and he indeed played well [if I do say myself!].

2/14/12

Mixing "Fall" from the album MIXTURE

We mixed Fall yesterday [Fri 1/27/2012], and while mixing I took some notes on what we did and how long it took. Granted, this is a 6 minute song with some 43 tracks of audio, but still it takes a really long time when you look at it.

We did save some time because we had previously done a rough mix, so all the tracks were already setup so they went out to the proper channel on the big mixing board.

We started our day by recording about 5 minutes of video talking about the song - it will [eventually] get posted over at joeystuckey.blogspot.com - you can sign up for auto-updates from that blog as well!

...and before we get to the details, and in case you don't know - this is Joey Stuckey's newest album we are working on. The mixing is being done down at Shadowsound Studios in Macon, GA [home of the Allman Brothers and Otis Redding - and a TON of other great musicians you've never heard of!].

Joey and I have co-written all 10 tunes on the album, and we are co-producing as well. We've pulled in some excellent musicians to work on some of the tracks, including Dr. Marcus Redding, Miguel "not-related-to-the-dictator" Castro, Dr. Monty Cole, and Pam Rule.

You can CLICK HERE to see all the videos that have been posted while we have been recording the project. We'd love to here from you - what style do you think this album is? We're still trying to figure it out!

So here is a peek at how the tune got mixed down from 43 tracks to 2.


10:00 am Record Video thingy - to be posted at joeystuckey.blogspot.com [eventually!]. Power up the studio, put the camera away.
10:30 Drums - setup, EQ
10:50 Add verb to drums [which one? We've got hundreds to choose from]
10:52 Bass - working on EQ, panning
11:00 Piano part - timing issues to be fixed. EQ out the lower end b/c it needs to punch in the rock section.
11:10 Begin working on jazz section at the top
11:50 Djembe reverb? A few of the hits are too loud - we selected those few individually and dropped their level.
12:05 pm Oboe part - EQ, add reverb, pan so it's there, but not majorly obvious.
12:15 "Chunka" part - setup a new bus in the computer, selected a cool effect to run it through. Took some time to get the parameters just right, but the time was well spent. It made those 5 seconds in the songs just magical.
12:25 Worked on panning on the lead-in into the rock section. Had to automate the electric guitar part.
12:30 Rough mix 1 burned to CD...ooops, forgot the rainstick at the end. We'll add it later.
12:40 LUNCH BREAK! Joey popped out for an appointment - he listened to the rough mix while in the car and made some notes.
2:00 Several tweaks done from the rough mix notes: Adjust volume on several tracks, fix some solo notes, bring the Verse pad up, add the rainstick at the end.....
2:35 Modify the rainstick timing - and add some stereo effects to it....not a lot, but just enough! [There's often a fine line between those two states.....]
2:45 Djembe scrapes - add effects at the beginning of the tune. had to move a few clips to a new track, and then route them through the same bus as the "chunky guitar" bit.
3:10 Burn test disk, go check the mix in the car.
3:20 Sounds good - time to start burning the stems [i.e. different versions of the song - one with no melody, one with just the percussion, just the keyboards, etc. These are for use later]/
3:45 Done! A long but very productive (and absolutely fun] session!
next Friday ...on to the next tune!

2/7/12

Advice for a potential Music Major

I received an email about auditioning for admission to a college music program:
Well I am auditioning for ******* University's Music department.

Here are the things I have to do:
1. Perform 3 pieces
2. Take a music theory test
3. Sight sing

I am not however able to take lessons right now due to family and school responsibilities. But that will not stop me from doing my best. Would you happen to have any other resources that I can use to study for this audition?

Here was my advice to this person:

1) Practice everyday. Regardless. Make it happen to the point of being rude.

2) The difference between amateurs and pros:
http://jmichaeldolan.com/comment.php?blogid=168

3) Record yourself "performing" the pieces. listen to the recording analytically (what could have been better?) Make a list, and work on the list.

4) Tons of music theory sites online - I have a short list at http://www.tomrule.info/piano

5) Know your scales. The goal - though it isn't critical that you be able to do this at the outset, is both hands, 4 octaves, 16th notes at 120 bpm - all 12 majors, as many minors as you can get.

6) Best way to learn to sightsing is to sightsing. At every practice session sightread through a new section of music for about 5=10 minutes - there is TONS of music online for printout (public domain stuff - yup, they're legal).


Last note: the purpose of the music theory test and the sightsinging test is partly to measure your musical experience [and thus your chances of being successful], but mostly for placement purposes. Perfection is not expected!

2/1/12

Performance with Cloud 9 Orchestra November 2011

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)