Don’t Leave Off Till Tomorrow What You Can Do Today

I am preaching to myself with today’s topic.  I have heard the phrase so many times, but I don’t always follow it.  That is why my blog (which usually is posted at 11:00 AM every Monday) is getting posted so late today.  Yesterday (after church) I had time to fly a kite and play on a scooter with my daughter.  Later on I recorded some vocals and then relaxed in front of the television.  There was a little voice in my head saying, “Don’t just sit here!  Write your blog for tomorrow.”  However, another voice said, “You’re exhausted and you deserve a break, so relax and get the blog done tomorrow.” 

Today, everything happened.  I had more issues to deal with at work than ever before.  I had three people respond to my advertisement for a gig audition.  I had a possible employer respond about a job opportunity.  Basically, I had just enough time to breath.  By the end of the day I was really regretting that break I took yesterday. 

A musicians schedule can be very unpredictable.  Successful business strategies, however, often require regular and predictable scheduling.  As independent artists, we are both musicians and business entrepreneurs.  This is why it is important to get stuff done ahead of time whenever you have a free moment.  With today’s blog and post scheduling aids, many things can be placed on automated schedules.  This allows for much more time to breathe (and practice – remember last week’s post).  I assume that many of you are already familiar with these scheduling tools.  However, if you would like to learn more about them mention it as a comment and I will provide the information in a future blog post. 

Has the Modern DIY Musician Age Hurt Musicianship?

               You’ve probably read dozens of blogs about how to be a successful DIY musician (or as we now call it “independent artists”).  Everyone seems to be writing about successful social media tactics, marketing strategies, booking strategies and so on.  Modern technology has taken the music industry out of the hands of the record labels and opened it up to the independent artists.  Hurray for us!  The modern independent artist needs to know how to utilize social media, marketing and more to launch their musical career, so it is good that many people are writing about these topics. 

                I am writing this blog post to ask/discuss a different question, though.  What affect are all these new tasks/responsibilities having on the modern musician?  Many modern blogs criticize musicians for being lazy.  They chastise us for just sitting in our room playing/writing music all day and explain that we will never be able to launch a career that way.  They are correct, but why do so many musician just want to sit in their room and make music?  Maybe this happens because we are musicians, not marketing experts.  Music is what we love.  We didn’t get into this because we had a burning desire to design web sites or launch advertisement campaigns.  We want to make music. 

                The old system allowed for this.  The musician made the music.  The record label had other people who handled media and marketing.  Going back to the beginning of record labels a musician didn’t even need to have a substantial following to be considered.  They just needed a shot to pitch their music to the correct people, and the talent to convince those people that they were worth investing in. 

Now, due to the way that technology and independent artists have changed the industry, a musician has to build a fairly large fan base and successful independent career before a label will even consider them.  This forces all musicians to divide their time between their music and the other aspects of starting a career if they ever want a shot, but at what expense?

Have you ever heard the expression, “jack of all trades and master of none?”  I feel that this may be happening on some level in the music industry.  It takes a great deal of time and devoted practice to develop a musical talent.  Think of all the monumentally great musicians throughout American history.  People like Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (to name a few).  These people spent enormous amounts of time perfecting their craft.  Charlie Parker mentioned in an interview that he spent three to four years of his life practicing fifteen hours a day to achieve the level that he performed at professionally. 

If a person spends 15 hours a day practicing, how much time is left for marketing and media?  This is why I ask, “Has the modern DIY musician age hurt musicianship?”  How many truly revolutionary musicians (at the skill level of those mentioned above) have emerged recently?  Even the Beatles (and others from that era) were not as encumbered by today’s multitasking demands.  Are there still musicians out there who are raising the bar on musical skill?  If not, perhaps the lack of time available to practice (due to the need to cover other tasks) is at least partially to blame. 

Does this mean that I think modern musicians should forsake media and marketing development and just focus on their music?  Of course not!  Those days are gone.  Unless we want to spend our lives playing only for ourselves, we have to adapt to the new culture.  However, we should try to keep a good balance between music and the other stuff.  Let’s not get so wrapped-up in the new trends that we forsake the true art of musicianship.  One of the most powerful marketing strategies is having a truly amazing product.  

Recording Your Own Vocals pt. 2

              After you have found your proper microphone placement you need to track your vocals.  This is also a task that presents many challenges.  In a traditional studio, the microphone and singer are placed in a separate room from the control room.  The noise of the computer and other equipment could ruin a good recording if it bleeds into the microphone.  The avoidance of noise bleed causes singers to even be placed in separate vocal booths while recording a whole band at once.  However, larger rooms tend to sound better and the singer is normally placed in the main recording room for overdubs.

                In a home recording situation it can be difficult to run between the control room and the recording room in order to capture the ideal vocal recording.  Setting up an additional computer monitor along with a wireless keyboard and mouse helps to eliminate the trips to the control room.  You will need a display card that can handle an additional video output and a cable that will reach to the next room.  A Bluetooth keyboard and mouse will usually have a better wireless range than the type that uses a USB transmitter, but I have used the USB type to control my DAW (which is in the basement) while recording my piano (on the main floor in the living room.  It is also possible to create a wireless link between a laptop and your main desktop computer.    This will allow your laptop to remotely control your desktop.  However, bringing a laptop near your vocal recording position will introduce noise that may bleed into the recording. 

This monitor, keyboard and mouse combo will give you everything you need to stop takes, listen back in your headphones, rewind, find appropriate punch-in locations, start a new track or layer, adjust the headphone mix, mute tracks or perform other relevant engineering tasks without leaving the recording room.  This is an important benefit because when recording any take (especially vocals) the most important element is capturing the correct feel/expression.  It is difficult to maintain this feel when the artist in you is constantly interrupted by tasks that you need to perform as the engineer.  The less time that is spent on these engineering tasks while tracking the better.  I like to get everything tracked (even if the punch-ins are sloppy) and then clean up the edits later.  This is a good rule to follow regardless of the method you use to track your vocals (several whole takes, multiple punch-ins or anything in between).  If the moment is interrupted the performance will suffer.

You can get by with just a wireless mouse and keyboard, however, this limits the amount of things you can do from the recording room.  While recording my piano (mentioned earlier) I used only a wireless keyboard and a set of headphones.  The keyboard allowed me to start and stop both recording and playback.  I could also scrub back and forward through the recording.  I used my ears to find punch-in locations and my DAW (Studio One – but most are capable of this) preserved the original take under the punch-in.  I had the option to move takes to different tracks, adjust start and end points of takes and perform other editing tasks latter on.  I found this to be more effective than constantly running between the living room and the basement, but it takes some time to get used to working blindly like this. 

Many home recording studios do not have separate rooms for recording instruments and vocals.  My set-up is one large room (in my basement) with no dividing wall.  I know I mention the piano, but that situation only exists because I cannot get my baby grand into my basement.  In these cases it is important to track your vocals far enough away from your computer to avoid noise bleed.  My room is rectangular.  I have my control room setup on one end of the room with the reference monitors aiming down the length of the room (best way to setup in such a room).  I track vocals on the other end of the room.  In addition, I am able to manually control the speed on my computer’s cooling fans.  This allows me to temporarily turn down the noise while tracking.  My main computer monitor is large enough that I can see the vocal track from my singing position as long as I maximize its size in the multitrack window.  I setup my wireless keyboard and mouse near my singing position and I am ready to go.     

I hope that you find these tips helpful when recording your own vocals at home.  Always remember why you started home recording in the first place.  Hopefully you got into this because you thought it was fun.  The little issues that arise along the way can sometimes rob you of the fun you use to experience.  These tips and preparations may help to avoid that from happening.      

Recording Your Own Vocals

Being a DIY singer/songwriter and home recording engineer is full of challenges.  One of the toughest challenges is recording your own vocals.  Playing the roles of both singer and recording engineer presents many issues.  This week I’ll discuss the issue of microphone placement (other issues to follow).

Finding the correct recording position for the microphone is a critical part of capturing the ideal sound.  There are some go-to placement techniques that one can follow, but the only way to find the best position is trial and error.  People like us are at a disadvantage since we are playing the role of the engineer and the vocalist.  Usually the engineer will place the singer and microphone in what they assume is the ideal spot.  Then he will ask the singer to sing through some material.  An experimental stage begins where the placement is adjusted slightly and the results are compared.  Finally a decision is made and the vocal is recorded.

With our situation the experimentation is much more laborious.  We have to do each perform each stage of the placement, singing, comparison and final decision.  There is a great deal of running back and forth, changing this and that and making silly mistakes (because you are trying to wear every hat).  By the time you are done you will probably be too exhausted to lay down a great vocal. 

My solution was to dedicate a separate day to experimentation and finding the ideal position.  I actually went into the studio and spent the entire session finding my placement.  I know it sounds strange to spend a session in the studio and not accomplish any real recording, but we have to get out of the pro studio mindset.  Most people don’t want to waist a session like this because they are paying by the hour.  We own our studios, so that is not an issue.  Plus we have the advantage of recording the same vocalist in the same room with the same microphone.  This reduces the amount of recording variables drastically and allows us to achieve repeated results by mimicking past practices.

If you consider these benefits, spending a session to find your proper microphone placement will actually save you more time in future recording sessions than it costs for this one.  Take your time during the experimentation and be precise.  Find what you feel is the best spot in the room and then mark your positions (standing and microphone stand spots).  Then experiment with the placement of the microphone and your distance from it.  Consider the general rules of proximity affect and room ambiance, but use your ears as the ultimate guide.  Label each track you record specifically so that you will remember which placement it represents.  You may even want to mark down placement details in a notebook so that you can better replicate them. 

I know this sounds like a great deal of work, but trust me it is worth it.  In the end you will have a go-to microphone placement that is easy to replicate.  You will be able to start you vocal recording sessions sooner and know that you are capturing the ideal sound.  You will also grow as a recording engineer after going through the process of finding the position.