Auralex to the Rescue!

As some of you may know, my wife and I are expecting our first kid in June. It became clear pretty quickly that, as our second bedroom, my writing/recording room was to become the nursery. Thankfully, we had some space in our basement that showed potential for becoming a devoted space for creating music.

There was really only one main problem: with concrete/plaster walls, the room basically acted as a rectangular reverb chamber. It was obvious that something needed to be done to address the acoustic situation. This is where Auralex came in.

Here are some pictures of the basement room before I brought in my recording equipment:

We decided to start by repainting the walls a more vibey green color (these pics were taken while the paint was still drying):

Here's where the Auralex came in, along with my recording setup:

My new man cave!

My co-writer's seat

The vocal booth, enclosed by movable Auralex ProMAX panels

The Mopads were the perfect thing to separate the monitors from the stands, isolating the vibrations

I suspended the foam from the ceilings with these gold hooks

Eric Smith from Auralex

Not only does the new setup look cool, it actually encourages creativity. I've been told that it's easier to focus when there are less rogue sound waves bouncing around the room, and I've experienced that to be true. I've never heard the stereo image like I have in the past couple months. My mixes are improving, and I'm enjoying listening to music more now than I have in the past couple years. 

The room's acoustics are so tight now that, one day, I noticed what sounded like a static problem in my left monitor only to discover that I was actually hearing a candle burning on my desk. That's a good sign of an accurate acoustic environment!

If you have a dedicated space for writing/recording, I highly encourage you to invest in the room's acoustic treatment. If you can't accurately hear what's coming out of the monitors, you'll have trouble competing with those who have a proper setup. Check out Auralex.com for ways that you can turn your room into a space that serves your creativity. Treat yourself to proper acoustic treatment!

Keep writing (a treating acoustics), 

Ben

Avoiding Distortion

Back when tape machines were the main way to record audio, it was important to get as loud of a volume to tape so that the signal to noise ratio would be as high as possible. There was a little thing called "hiss" that wasn't the most pleasant thing to hear in a song. When it comes to digital recording, it's now possible to raise the volume gain within software without adding noise to the track. This being said, the last thing we need to try to do when recording is have the volume level right up to the edge of distortion. With tape, a little distortion sort of sounded cool (ie, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"). But digital distortion doesn't really have much artistic value. 

Just make sure you're not maxing out the input level and causing distortion on the track. If you have an undistorted recording that's pretty well in time and in pitch, you can always have someone else help mix it later on.

Keep writing (and recording),

Ben

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

New Solo Discovered on "Here Comes the Sun"

It's not often you get to hear anything new from The Beatles, so this is definitely a treat!
 



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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Ho-ho-ho-verdubs

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Quote of the Day - Merton

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

- Thomas Merton 

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Skill & Talent

I am not an expert, nor am I claiming to have arrived at some inspired insight into the creative process. And this metaphor isn't perfect; I just want to share what I've been thinking about.

In this graph I am defining "skill" as the ability to write songs, and "talent" as the ability to perform them. The goal of all singer/songwriters is to always be moving from the bottom left area to the top right area.

1. This is what I would call the "potential" box. For a budding musician, this is usually the place where people start noticing talent, and doors begin to open. Some never leave the potential box.

2a. This is the writer who has sharpened his/her craft, but isn't able or confident enough to perform their tunes.

2b. This is a musician who has far more singing ability than writing chops. A listener may comment, "I love their voice, but I can't really remember any of their songs."

2c. This is where the truly great artists meet their full potential. The writer performs their original song well and nothing gets lost in translation. Also, the primary goal of the publishing world is ensuring that writers from 2a and singers from 2b meet here.

The reason I've been thinking through this is because I feel like more and more singer/songwriters are ending up in 2b rather than 2c. When an artist shows great potential in the potential box (area 1), generally doors can open up for them to perform more often and work with recognized producers. Unfortunately, the result of those two factors can result in less time to focus on the craft of writing, and the opportunity to rely on production to compensate for whatever the song may be lacking artistically.

I love Coldplay, but to some degree it seems like they've been gradually moving toward 2b, and while they may be introducing some interesting production styles, I'm not sure that the songs will stand the test of time. Any well-written song from 2a or 2c will translate acoustically, but a song from 2b will only be itself when immersed in the landscape in which it was created.

Keep writing (and moving toward 2c),

Ben

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Questions - Where?

Where should you write?

A few months ago my wife and I decided to repaint our guest bedroom (which I refer to as my studio). Previously, the house was owned by a couple with a two year old girl, so the walls were bright yellow and the ceiling was baby blue. With a couple gallons of paint, we were able to completely transform the feeling of the room, making it a far more inspiring space in which to create.

When it comes to creativity, it's important to have a space where you feel absolutely comfortable and understood. That corner of the room should scream "you." If you don't yet have a space to claim as your own, dream up a few simple ways to create an environment enjoyable to you. And never underestimate a couple gallons of paint!

Keep writing,

Ben

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

From the Writing Room to the Studio

I had someone ask me recently, "How does a song get from the writing room to the radio?" Well, the most important step in that process is the song's transition into the studio. In my experience, only about one in every 8-10 songs written makes it from the lower-quality GarageBand version to the full-band studio version.

Here's an example of a song that made the jump from the writing room to the studio:


          "Breakthrough" (Ben Cooper/Jenn Schott) ©2010

          Exhibit A - Writing room version, immediately after finishing the song (Jenn singing):

          Exhibit B - The full-band demo recording (artist Mallory Hope singing):

In the course of three hours (the length of each "session"), a band of musicians will usually record five songs. Broken down, that's a song every 40-45 minutes, at a quality that sounds like something you could hear on the radio. The way this proficiency is accomplished is by having the songs mapped out ahead of time by the session's lead musician (here is an example of a chart written using the Nashville Number System).

When the time comes to begin recording the next song on a session, the players all congregate in the mixing room to hear the songwriters' rough recording (Exhibit A). They follow along on the charted road map, jotting notes along the way. After hearing the song only one time, the players take their places in the soundproofed tracking room and run through the tune. Then after a little banter about who should take the solo and when and where each player should come in, they play through the song for the final pass (Exhibit B). Generally the final demo version of a song is literally only the second time these players have ever attempted the song! After the band's tracking session, a demo singer or artist will come in and overdub the final vocal, and the engineer will mix the songs, sometimes even the same day.

These session players and singers are some of the most talented individuals I have ever been around. I wish I could bring everyone into the studio on days that we are recording, because it is such an amazing process to see. I believe that the most "Nashville" thing that a tourist could ever experience is not walking down Broadway through honky-tonk bars, but rather sitting in a studio while a song comes to life before their ears. And this is an experience that I hope you are all able to have someday soon.

Keep writing,

Ben