Before The Music Dies
Not sure how long this will last, but Google Video is now playing the entire 2006 documentary Before The Music Dies. This film takes a look at today’s music business and provides some answers to the following burning questions:
- Why radio sucks.
- Why there’s more teen acts than before.
- What artist should do to have a solid career.
Probably the most chilling moment comes when the film’s producers take a 18-year-old female model who can’t sing and give her a trashy teen song written in 5 minutes. They then proceed to correct her vocals to give the impression that she has talent and film a polished music video that shows her…hum…assets. The results are painfully similar to what Ashley Simpson, Britney Spears or Miley Cirrus have been producing in the past five years. Scary stuff.
The film does end on a positive note and artists are encouraged to do it on their own or band together to form artist-friendly record companies such as ATO Records and Tunecore.
Butch Vig’s Recording Secrets
Super-producer Butch Vig is currently fielding technical and artistic questions over at Gearslutz. Vig is the acclaimed songwriter, drummer and producer behind seminal albums such as Nirvana’s “Nevermind”, Smashing Pumpkins’ “Siamese Dream” and all the Garbage studio albums.
Vig is was one of the first producers to use the ProTools “sound” to his advantage. One characteristic of his sound is the inventive use of rhythm based mixing . This is where several types of drums (live drums, programmed beats & mastered rhythm sections) are playing back in parallel, all occupying their own pocket in the frequency range.
Vig on recording Garbage:
A lot of the Garbage songs had multiple drum sounds…live drums (usually looped and mixed down to stereo, sometimes mono), programmed beats (usually run through an amp or stomp box) and sometimes we would make our own “record”…which means taking a beat, maybe with a bass line, guitar line, or some sound effect, and running all of them through the same stereo effect to give it a “mastered” feel…almost like we were sampling off an old album.
Also, he gave some information on recording the first Garbage album:
In fact, the 1st Garbage album was done in a sort of lofi chain:
We recorded into a 24 track Otari MX80 (I think!) and almost all the tracks except for vocals were run through either an Akai S1000 sampler or Kurzweil K2500…then we mixed the whole thing through the Harrison w Flying Faders.
It wasn’t until Garbage’s V 2.0 that we jumped into Pro Tools!
This explains the constant pulsating rhythm in the first album. These days, the same sound could be achieved by running all my guitar tracks trough a sampling synthesizer like the Korg M3. The M3 has rocking compressor that makes everything sound “pre-mastered” and of course an incredibly rich palette of BPM-synched filters and modulators.
Try it, this may inspire a brand new batch of songs.
Write By Humming
In this interview with GuitarJamDaily, guitar wiz Paul Gilbert discusses a method of songwriting he calls “Write By Humming”:
I would make a backing track and put the guitar down and then get a vocal mike and just sing. I wouldn’t use any lyrics, but just sort of hum melodies that I may want to use. The reason I put the guitar down is because I didn’t want be influenced by my guitar vocabulary. I didn’t want to play the licks that I normally know or gravitate toward because I know them. So write by humming, to me is a very natural way of writing. And after I have something I like, I record it, get the guitar back up and copy what I just sang.
Actually, I’ve been using this method for years and this is in fact the main technique advocated by Jason Blume in “6 Steps to songwriting success”. According to Blumes the vocal melody is the most important part of the song as it is the one people will remember, even when they don’t recognize the words or the chords. So humming a hook is one way to make it more memorable. Plus, it doesn’t require any knowledge of an instrument.
What’s most fascinating is that Gilbert does this to keep his guitar wizardry from influencing the quality of his songwriting. That’s something only a great songwriter can recognize.
Berklee’s Pat Pattison Teaching Lyrics Optimization
A master at work. In this set of four videos, Berklee’s Pat Pattison gives a lesson on how to follow the natural shape of language when writing lyrics. Allison Rapetti, a talented singer-songwriter, sings and plays the guitar to illustrate his points.
The basic idea is to try to use phrasing that one would use in conversation instead of choosing words that happened to fit a particular beat. This makes sense, but I would add that some genres (such as hip-hop and dance) are more rhythmic in nature and do require frequent transgression to that rule.
Still, it’s amazing to see how little changes here and there can really improve the delivery of a song. Inspiring.
Korg nanoSERIES: Small Size, Big Idea
Speaking of nano, Korg is coming out with a brand new line of portable controllers called the nanoSERIES. They are coming out next month, and judging from the feedback they are getting everywhere, this one is going to be one hot product.
This summer, I’ve finally moved from a desktop music system to one based around a Macbook laptop. The little nanoKey is exactly what the doctor ordered: it’s small, stylish and doesn’t require external power. Anyone who has ever tried to input drum sequences using a keyboard will appreciate the nanoPad and while, I’m not much of a mixer type, I totally want the nanoKontrol too.
I must applaud Korg on this: this is one company listening to its user base and coming out with useful products at a reasonable price. These are perfect for the songwriter on the go who does not want to haul around a bunch of midi controllers and power supplies.
One caveat: they do look a bit toy-like. I wish Korg had used a more elegant metallic enclosure, like the Apogee Duet. Then again, they would have been more expensive. Maybe for version 2…
IPod Nano: Now Songwriter-Approved
new ipod nano
OK, quick: What’s the most awesome features in the brand newiPod Nano? Is it the gorgeous curved screen? The accelerometer? The wild colors?
If you’re a songwriter, the only thing that matters is that…the Nano also now features a built-in voice recorder. Yes! No more clumsy third-party add-ons and missed song ideas! If you’ve read my past posts on the subject, you know that I’ve been waiting for a long time for this feature alone.
I’m praying that the sound quality is more than the 4 or 8khz I’m getting on my 3G iPod…
Digi Is Your Friend
Following a surprisingly candid letter from its CEO, Digidesign has now started a blog in order to better communicate with it’s user base. The man behind this is Scott Church and he’s quickly making friends around music blog circles. This is good news because it puts a human face on an otherwise opaque corporation.
Personally, I hope they follow the example of Adobe’s John Nack, who basically confronts every hot situation with clear answers devoid of cynicism or corporate double-speak. It’s great for the company, because it stops the rumors and half-truths from spreading. It’s great for the users because they have a way to influence future releases and better understand the decisions coming from the company.
Desmond Child’s ASCAP Interview
ASCAP’s Playback magazine has a great interview with hit songwriter extraordinaire Desmond Child (Clay Aiken “Invisible”, Aerosmith “Dude Looks Like a Lady”, Bon Jovi “You Give Love a Bad Name”, Kelly Clarkson “Before Your Love”, Ricky Martin “Livin’ la Vida Loca”). Child is an expert at co-writing and has some great tips for budding and pro songwriters alike.
His main songwriting method is to find a great title and then write lyrics that support the idea behind the title. I can see how this helps focus several people toward the same goal. There’s a much bigger chance of having a fruitful co-writing session this way.
Songwriting also runs in his family as he mentions remembering how his mom used to place her songs herself. Apparently, she’s still getting checks for these efforts.
New XecretCode Web Site Online
In preparation for the release of Xsong v.1.0, I’ve put up the new XecretCode web site. This removes the old confusing SonoGraphx web site which I used as a stand in for a few months. For now, I’m still preparing version 1.0, but after the release, I’ll have a couple of screencasts to demonstrate some of the most interesting features.
In order to make things more manageable, I will release the Windows version first around April 25th, then will work my way toward a Mac OS-X release a few weeks later. Thanks to everyone for their patience.
Man, I love writing software, but after 15 years of programming, releasing a 1.0 is still a dreadful task. However, once you see the software in action, I think you’ll agree that it was all worth it.
Learn Songwriting From Apple…and American Idol
Submit By March 31st
Via WIRED’s Listening Post: You only have one week left to enter your songs into the American Idol Songwriting Contest. While I don’t always agree with their final choice, no one can argue the benefits of winning such contest. You get tons of exposure and the pleasure of sharing your publishing with 19 Entertainment.
Learn Songwriting From Apple
One interesting note for me was this year’s inclusion of Apple’s GarageBand as the “official” songwriting application. Apple even offers workshops in selected stores for budding songwriters. That’s pretty cool, as GarageBand is by far the most accessible DAW out there, besides being a very good introduction to Apple’s Logic. Apple has the best songwriter check list ever. Read it and remember: it’s all about the vocal melody.
Rigged Against Windows
The contest’s Songwriting Guide suggests that you record your song with Windows’s Sound Recorder applet. What? Do they want Windows users to lose? I know that they are basically encouraging people to participate with free tools, but Sound Recorder will never sound good. If you want free, use Audacity. It’s a decent multi-tracker with basic effects and editing.
Can’t wait to see who wins this year.
UPDATE: You may want to read this before you apply.
Leonard Cohen’s Rock n’ Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Speech
In case you missed it, Leonard Cohen was recently inducted into the Rock n’Roll Hall Of Fame. After a short rambling introduction courtesy of Lou Reed, Cohen proceeds into probably the most poetic induction speech ever.
My favorite part comes around 7:11:
Well, my friends are gone
And my hair is gray
And I ache in the places
Where I used to play
And I’m hungry for love
But I’m not coming on
I’m just paying my rent every day
In the tower of song
Well, we all know why he’s one of the best. Pass this one around folks.
Wired’s Eliot Van Buskirk On The Music Business
Over at NPR Music, there’s this excellent interview with Eliot Van Buskirk who writes the Listening Post blog for Wired.com.
He does a pretty good job at explaining the current state of the music business. He puts TuneCore in relation with iTune and CDBaby. He can’t go too deep about hip hop as he’s mostly a rock guy, but that’s OK. Highly recommended.
Speaking of the record industry, don’t miss next’s week MacBreak Weekly with special guess Pat Wilson, of Weezer. With fan Merlin Mann onboard and Alex Lindsay’s experience as an ex-Sony Music employee, things are bound to get interesting.
