Happy New Year!
Hope everybody got a little R R over the holidays.
I took a few days off and came back to a flurry
of new work and some great news about a few SBD
clients: Shannon
Hurley was voted one of Rolling
Stone's "Top
25 Bands on Myspace" for the song "Sunrise"
which was mastered by yours truly... and The Minor
Canon was named one of "10
Bands on the Horizon in 2007" by the L.A. Times.
They both deserve it.
Music biz news... The marching advance of
digital media continues: according to Soundscan,
analog CD sales were down 5% in 2006 while online
downloads were up 65%. DRM (digtal-rights
management) seems to be on it's way out as major
labels look for new ways to compete against iTunes
(incl. deals in the works with Limewire, Amazon,
Yahoo, etc). eMusic (the indie-only specialist) just
surpassed 100 million downloads all sans DRM. And
for those of you who didn't believe satellite radio
would ever take
off... Sirius has finally turned a profit... signing
up it's 6 millionth customer last week. I'm for
anything that challenges the consolidated power of
traditional radio and it's boring, paid-for formats.
R.I.P. Atlantic Records co-founder, Ahmet
Ertegun. The man is an icon and legend.
I wanted to announce the addition of grammy
nominated engineer Bradley
Cook to the Sound Bites
Dog roster (no relation to Bryan). Not only is he a
great engineer with tons
of major credits, but he's a good guy to boot. Go
figure.
 | | |
Interview w/ Greg Richling of the Wallflowers
A long time member of the Wallflowers,
Greg Richling
has also written, played and/or produced on a wide
range of albums with many great artists including
Fiona Apple, Joe Henry, Michael Penn and Macy Gray.
The most recent Wallflowers album "Rebel,
Sweetheart" was produced by Brendan
O'Brien (Pearl
Jam, Bruce Springsteen) and released on Interscope
in 2005.
1) First off, thanks
for doing this. You were
the first bass player I had
worked with
that really
impressed me with your musicality and attention to
detail (something
that I think perfectly compliments your migration to
producing). Tell
me about your humble beginnings and
evolution. More...
| |
| | |
Making a Great Album
DeKline
Most of you probably know that I'm a huge fan of the
newfangled, home-recording revolution. I love the
fact that the recording industry has become
affordable, accessable, and de-mystified. Yeah, the
days when engineers donned white lab coats was cool
but you don't need to be a mechanic to be a great
driver.
This reality leads me to one question; given the
proliferation of all you DIY'ers, where are all the
great, new albums? The ones that define our times,
break all the rules, or just surprise us with their
inventiveness and creativity?
Now, I'm not saying there aren't great albums being
made... I'm just wondering why there aren't more.
There are certainly a lot of factors that play into
greatness most of which may not be in our control...
talent, genius, skill, etc but I also think there is
something wholly obtainable and realistic. A
forgotten golden rule.
Here's what I think it is: write songs everyday,
pick the
best ones to record, do your homework (choice of
musicians, engineers, studios), arrange, rehearse
and let the recording process flow naturally with as
many live tracks/takes as possible.
This advice may seem obvious to some, but the
propensity for home recordists to miss the point is
greater than ever. Just because you have no real
deadline and the sky's the limit doesn't mean you
should obsess on 10 songs for 2 years or longer.
The Beatles
released an album every 6 months and although George
Martin was certainly a master of creative
overdubbing... some songs consisted of 125 band
takes until they got the right version to work with.
"Dark Side of the Moon" was written and recorded in 6
months... mixed in 2 weeks with no automation (a la
Alan Parsons).
Also, remember that momemtum and enthusiam have
everything to do with the recorded performances. If
the process is contrived and belabored... it's
probably going to sound like that too.
If you approach recording your songs with these
things in
mind, I guarantee you will have an album that sounds
more natural and alive, maybe even something you and
I will want to listen to 10 years down the line.
| |
| | |
Q & A
What does "Class A" mean? Class A is a type of analog, amplifier
circuit used almost exclusively by pro-audio
manufacturers for it's low noise, even-order
harmonics (warmth), and accurate sound. The circuit
design lack's wider appeal for it's inefficiency
(it's always
"on" and has relatively low output power). Many
people assume Class A implies the use of tubes but
the amplifying device can be transistors or ICs
(integrated circuits) as well. The circuit's sound
is often characterized as "pure" because it is a
linear design and produces a mirror image of the input
signal with no crossover distortion.
When you find the phrase "discrete circuitry"
used in conjuction with Class A, it means all of the
above with the exclusion of ICs in the signal
path.
There is literally volumes of info on this
subject... If you want more detail, click here
| |
That's it! See ya next month (upcoming interview
with infamous punk producer Geza X and many others).
phone: 310.621.1896
|
