The Makeshift Musician

Producing Natural-Sounding MIDI Notes

2009-06-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

When making electronically-produced music, you'll find yourself often programming notes rather than playing them. People who don't understand the medium will say that this makes the music cold, mechanical and lifeless, but they simply don't understand the amount of work and craftsmanship that goes into manually arranging notes. A composer needs to take into account very precise attributes of every note of every measure of every part they program. This can be very daunting. When I write melodies that are more complex than I can feasibly play, I'll use Cubase's piano-roll style grid to place notes, and then I'll let the computer play them. In the early days, this usually meant that the notes sounded harsh and machine-like. How do I fix this? How can I make MIDI-generated tones sound more natural to the listener?

Well, I thought, human hands are not machines. We don't hit every note on precisely the right beat, right? After placing my notes, I would nudge them just slightly out of sync with the rhythm. Hopefully this would be the subtle change needed to make the music sound more organic. Right?

As it turns out, the hands of a trained musician actually have excellent rhythm; better than you would ever expect. Once I'd learned to play piano with some moderate skill I found that my own notes pretty much hit precisely on the beat when needed. My nudging of the MIDI tracks only served to make my melodies sound amateur and unrefined.

No, the key to lifelike melodies, I found, is in the velocity of the notes played. With some exceptions, almost all of your machine-played notes can be placed in perfect sync as long as they have heavily varied velocities. Velocity, in this case, means how hard the note is played. Think of the difference between a piano being played softly and a piano being played loudly and you'll know what I mean.
I could spend several paragraphs describing the method to you, but I'll let this picture do most of the talking:

As you can see in this very generic guide, the odd-numbered notes are louder, while the even ones are quieter. You can also see that there's a more subtle pattern of general volume change: The smaller the note (8th, 16th, 32nd etc.) the more likely it will be relatively quiet when it is not on the main beats of a measure.

When making a melody, I will start with this pattern and then adjust it according to what I want it to sound like for that particular part. Following this pattern works particularly well for complex melodies with many notes.

If you simply follow that chart to the letter, your melody will still have a machine-like quality to it. It's best to arrange your velocities in this pattern and then adjust everything a little afterward, putting emphasis on certain notes for dramatic effect. This particular chart, for example, is clearly skewed towards something that emphasizes beats on 1 and 3, which you don't alway want. Try adding a little randomness too and see how it comes out. The beauty of MIDI-generated music is that if you don't like it, you can endlessly tweak it until it sounds perfect.

Do you have any cool techniques for MIDI melodies?

Weekly Music Writing - Like lifting weights made of creativity

2009-05-11T15:15:00.001-07:00

A while back I wrote about writing music constantly in order to build your skills and flex your creativity. I've been making music for several years now and my biggest project had been a 16 track score for a tragically unreleased computer game, which I finished in about 6 months. This was a great exercise, but afterward I got somewhat lazy. I was still producing music and getting better all the time, but unfortunately at a very slow rate.

It was roughly two months ago when I had completed a song in the studio that took me about a week to make when I realized 'You know, I should really be finishing a song every week.' That's when I decided to start my project.

I call it the Jupiterman Weekly Song-A-Thon. I'm writing and producing a new piece of music every week for three months. This means by the end of it I'll have twelve tracks, and so far I've completed nine. There are no requirements in the project other than finishing each song by Friday. The songs can be any length and any genre. In the 9 songs that I've already made, I've done electronica, jazz, solo piano, cinematic, ambient, and... er, harpsichord rock (kind of a failed experiment. It was a rough week.)

Here are some things I've learned along the way so far:

1. There are ways around writer's block. Usually by Friday when I'm finishing up a new song I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do for the next week and I may even start working on the next song immediately after finishing. This isn't always the case, however. There have been a couple of weeks when I've started without any clue what I was doing and nothing I try seems to click with me. It can be very frustrating. This is not the end, however! I've somehow managed to deliver a song every week regardless. How?

Well, one week I simply couldn't get much time to work on anything. Instead of just giving up, however, I dug around through my hard drive and dredged up an older song that I had been working on several months before. I hadn't been too happy with it, but in the few hours that I had that day I polished it up and finished it off in time to release it that afternoon. I became much more satisfied with it.

Another week was truly a case of writer's block. Friday came around and I still had nothing, despite having spent a lot of time in the studio previously that week. I didn't know what I was going to do. Then I remembered I had a piano piece that I had written as a sort of chord exercise for myself almost a year ago. I only played it on my keyboard in my bedroom and never really considered recording it. Until now, that is. Despite it starting out as an exercise, it was musically sound, had an interesting chord progression, had some real emotional power and I could play it fairly competently. Problem solved! I recorded it, tweaked it, and had it done in less than two hours.

Writer's block will most likely hit you sometimes, but there are creative ways to get around it. You can also try doing something completely off the wall, if you have no ideas left. This is how you get stuff like harpsichord rock; not the best thing ever, but something different, at least.

2. I have a style/formula and I have certain limitations. I've always kept this idealized vision of myself as a composer who is genre-less who can write a competent piece of music in any style imaginable. This project has shown me the reality of myself as a composer. There are certain genres that I gravitate towards, like electronica, and others that I struggle with, like rock or symphonic. I really want to make another rock song after the success of Mighty Surf Wizard Battle, but I have a hard time mixing electric guitar sounds and coming up with chords to make up the verse and chorus sections. I have an easier time with symphonic works, but again, chords (my arch-nemeses) are difficult. The real problem with symphonic, however, lies in the technical limitations of my own studio.

I also have a very specific way of putting chords and, indeed, whole songs together. I tend to have chord changes occur every measure, but almost never more frequently. This can be very limiting.

None of the problems I've mentioned here are insurmountable. They are not intrinsic aspects of my or anyone's character. There more learned about music and more practice one gets, the better their work becomes.

3. Time constraints will give you perspective. Since I'm not living in a mansion built out of solid gold BMW's, I have to work at a job like everyone else. My particular job, thankfully, affords me some flexibility to work on other endeavors. Still, work, social obligations, self-education and writing for multiple websites take up a lot of my time, and I'm sure you can relate. With all of this in mind, I set aside around 8 to 16 hours of my free time each week to work on my music. This is certainly not enough time to create a masterpiece, but it is enough to put together a well-made 2 to 3 minute song.

Having such a time constraint will force you to know and understand what is most important in the music you're composing. There are many things I could tweak on each piece that I write; making sure every last drum beat and portamento swing is absolutely perfect, but I simply don't have enough time. Instead I focus on making sure it's a finished product that has some emotional weight and is produced well. When you write all the time, you get more efficient. Little technical things that you struggled with before and would take up so much of your time will eventually fade away as you become more competent at them or you find a more efficient way of doing things. You'll learn to produce quality on your first try, rather than your third, simply because you'll have no choice.

4. Forcing yourself to make music is incredibly rewarding. This project has been great fun and I've learned a ton from doing it. It has even given me a lot of ideas for things to do after the project is over. I'm thinking of doing a pure electro-jazz album in the style of my third song in the project. I want to do some collaborations with a few of my friends. I've now proven to myself that I can make quality music quickly and efficiently, so there's no hesitation or wariness about getting started on a new project.

I urge you, fellow makeshift musician, to start your own Song-A-Thon. It doesn't matter if all you have is a guitar and a tape recorder, just give it a try. Maybe bring some other musicians in to help. By the end of it you'll have a sweet album to give away or sell. It could just be the best thing you've ever done for your music writing career.

Microphones, Cables and Everything Else in Your Studio

2009-04-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

This is the final part of the Makeshift Musician's Comprehensive Guide to Building Your Own Studio

So, you've got your room for your studio, you've set up your computer, hooked up your audio interface and installed your recording software. What's next? Actually, a lot of stuff.

Microphones

Unless you're an all-software kind of musician, you need a microphone or two. Entire books have been written on the subject of microphones and how they are used in different situations; it's a very large field. You can get specialized mics for any instrument you can think of for thousands of dollars and often they are purchased in pairs. If you're like me, though, and I know I am, you don't have those kinds of resources. I'll try to point you to some general-purpose mics instead.

AKG Perception 120 - This is the one I use in my studio. It's a good general purpose mic that has a very crisp sound. It comes in a nice case with a shock mount. It usually goes for around $120.

Shure SM57 - This is a classic mic that has been in use for something like 30 years. It generally goes for $70 to $100. It works great for guitar amps and drum kits, (just don't put it too close to the kick drum; that'll be too much for it) and if you get a decent preamp, it works pretty well for vocals too.

Wait, what is a preamp? What a great question! A good microphone needs power to sound good. Some microphones can work with very little power but they're not very sensitive, i.e. your computer microphone that comes with your webcam. The more power your microphone has, the better your overall recording quality will be. A preamp's job is to provide power to your microphone, which your mixer or audio interface may not be able to do. My M-Audio FireWire 1814 audio interface also acts as a preamp, but I'm thinking about picking up a separate one.

Don't forget to check out my article How Microphones Work.

Cables

You should get cables for each device you have. Don't scrimp here. A cable for each microphone you have, two 1/4 inch cables for each synthesizer or drum machine you have. Also, you may be tempted, as I was, to get shorter cables to save money. This really isn't a good idea. 3-foot cables are almost useless unless your device sits right on top of your audio interface. Get at least 6-foot cables for everything. You might consider getting a particularly long mic cable, as you never know how you might set up a mic and you may need some extra length to accommodate.

Everything Else

There are lots of other items you'll most likely want to round out your studio and make it more usable.

Mic stand - If you have a microphone, you want a mic stand as well. What, are you going to hire someone to hold the mic in front of the guitarist while he plays?

Stools/chairs - A musician needs to sit on something while they play, especially during long recording sessions. Simple, cheap stools or chairs do the trick.

Instrument stands - for putting guitars and such on between records. A rack could work pretty well also.

Vocal booth - If the room for your studio has a closet, this is a great opportunity to turn that into a vocal booth. You often want an intimate sound when recording vocals, and even in a padded studio room a voice can sound echoey in recordings. This is why professionals have separate recording booths. If you don't have a closet, try to find some other way to isolate a singer as best you can. Always experiment!

Mini-fridge/food - Long studio sessions can lead to hunger. Always keep musicians happy and fed.

Couch - for lounging. 'Nuff said.

Now get in there and start making some music. Let me know how it goes!

Go to part 5: What Speakers Should I Get?

>>> Go back to the index

Audio Recording Software for Your Studio

2009-03-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

This is Part 4 of the Makeshift Musician's Comprehensive Guide to Building Your Own Studio

We're now down to the last big component of your beast of a studio. To add this last piece, we need to dive into the prickly, sometimes confusing realm of software. Luckily for you, though, there are a lot of easy options to work with.

What does the software do? In the old days of recording, I'm talking, say, pre-Beatles era, audio-guys would just stick a microphone in front of a preforming band. The band would play, the mic would record onto a big reel of tape, and the audio-guy would call it a day and presumably get trashed afterward. Now, we've all listened to those old recordings and, well, they've got personality, but overall they sound pretty bad.

There's a misconception among folks that modern stuff sounds great in comparison because our space-age microphones and recording media are simply better, but that's actually only a very small part of the reason. Most engineers can't even tell the difference between a well-built microphone from the 1930's and a well built microphone just off the assembly-line.

The real reason modern recordings sound so good is because of the multitrack recording technique. Essentially multitracking allows you to record and synchronize multiple tracks at the same time, drums on one track, guitar on another and your vocals on a third, for example. You can add effects and edit each of these tracks without affecting the others or destroying or really even changing the original audio, allowing you free reign to tweak the sound until it's perfect. Since the edits you make are on top of the audio in a separate layer instead of integrated into it, if you mess up you don't need to rerecord -- you just take off the edit and you still have your pristine file. For a more in-depth explanation of how it works, read my very first article: An Introduction to Multitrack Recording. Back yet? Okay, now we can delve into software.

There are several options at your disposal and in fact some of them happen to be free of charge. Lets take a look at the free ones first.

GarageBand - If you're using an Apple computer for your studio, then, lucky you, you've already got software built-in. Professionals may scoff at it, but GarageBand is a true, honest-to-god multitrack system, that you can use to record real stuff. Like all Apple products, it's easy to use. This would be a great place to start, and it won't cost you a dime if you've already got a Mac.

Kristal - Another free bit of software, Kristal is so good they could charge $100 for it and people would be willing to pay it. 16 audio tracks, effects built in. VST support. This has everything. If you're just starting out, get this first. You can't beat free.

Those are the nice free ones, and are probably good enough for anything you might need. If you really want to go pro, however, then following is the studio software that'll take big chunks out of your wallet. Keep in mind, all these are competing with each other for your business, but really, ask any professional and they'll tell you they all do the same thing. The important thing is that you take the time to learn to use your software effectively.

DigiDesign ProTools - ProTools is usually the software choice for professionals. You can get the LE version for around $150. The high-end, HD version is much more, but seriously, you probably won't need it. The nice thing about ProTools is that there's a lot of specialized hardware, like mixing consoles and audio interfaces, that can accompany the software seamlessly. DigiDesign has built a whole, unified system around ProTools and supports it really well. I've used it some, and I believe it is geared more towards traditional studio recording, so it may have just slightly less support for purely electronic and MIDI setups.

Steinberg Cubase - This here is my software of choice. Steinberg invented the VST (Virtual Studio Technology) system, which is a platform, of sorts, for developers to create new systems that 'plug in' to Cubase, so you can add things like new effects processors or synthesizers. It has been so successful that other companies have added VST support to their systems. Anyway, Cubase is more geared towards electronic setups, but it can handle pure acoustic recording just fine, as I've used it for both. Cubase Studio 5, the current lower end version, goes for $299, which is pretty pricey.

Cakewalk Sonar - To be honest I don't know a whole lot about Cakewalk, and their product line is a little convoluted, but I know there are some artists that swear by it. The Home Studio version goes for a paltry (by comparison) $100, so it may be the most cost-effective of the bunch.

Remember to approach your software as you would an instrument: This is something you need to practice with and learn the intricacies of before you can really be effective with it. Find tutorials online and record and experiment as much as you can.

You'll most likely be overwhelmed by all the stuff onscreen when you boot up your software of choice for the first time. Here are some items to help get you oriented:

1. Find out how to get your Audio Interface talking to your Software. This is the first thing you need to do. You want to be able to hook up a microphone and start recording, so make sure it actually works when you do it. Go through the manuals for both products, and if all else fails ask the internet: search for both items in a single query on Google.

2. Figure out how to make new tracks. Also, each track has a 'recording input.' This is how it decides where it gets it's sound, be it from the microphone or the synthesizer or the bass guitar. Find out how to set this.

3. Automation. It's generally fairly simple to see how to change the volume of a track manually, but what you really want is to have the volume change throughout the song automatically, such as when an instrument fades out. This is usually called automation. Automation can cover other things too, like panning the sound left and right, or mixing effect levels.

4. Find the keyboard shortcuts. I can't emphasize this enough. Learn the keyboard commands! They will make your life easier.

5. Learn how to use Equalization and Effects. Equalization (EQ) is your best friend. You can use it to cut or boost, with great precision, any range of frequencies in your individual audio tracks. You do this so that you can fit lots of different sounds together without it all sounding like mud. Fiddle around with EQ a lot to learn how it works. Also experiment with effects as much as you can.

Go to part 3: Audio Interface, or How to Get Sound into the Computer

>>> Go to Part 5: What Speakers Should I Get?

Audio Interface, or, How to Get Sound into Your Computer

2009-03-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

This is Part 3 of the Makeshift Musician's Comprehensive Guide to Building Your Own Studio

Now that you've got a computer, it's entirely possible that you're now standing in front of it with your guitar or piano or whatever, your eyes slowly moving back and forth between the two objects in a confused manner, wondering how to get sound into machine. At least, that's what I did.

You see, computers don't normally come with a usable audio interface. Sure, you've got a sound card, and it probably has a tiny microphone jack, but you're not actually thinking of using that, are you? Are you??

So what is an audio interface? It's a box that hooks up to your computer, usually through FireWire (you did remember to get a computer that has FireWire capability, right?) On this box is a number of inputs, for taking in sound, and outputs for, uh, outputting sound. I've made a little diagram to show you how it all works. This is to give you an idea of roughly how your studio should be set up:

Click on the image to see it full-size.

Now here are the different components that you want to look for in an audio interface:

Mic inputs

What can I say? These are for your microphones. If you do any acoustic stuff (guitars, drums, vocals, sound effects etc.) your audio interfac e should have at least two of these inputs on it. If you're recording a whole band, you'll want as many mic inputs as possible.

1/4-inch Line inputs

These are for bass guitars, keyboards, synthesizers, drum machines, turntables or anything electronic. If you've got a rack full of synths, you'll want more of these.

MIDI inputs

It's hard to find an audio interface that doesn't have MIDI inputs and outputs, but make sure yours has these anyway, especially if you're planning an all-software electronic setup.

With all this in mind, here are a few interfaces I found with a little digging on Sweetwater.com:

PreSonus Inspire 1394 - This has two 1/4-inch inputs and two mic inputs for $200. No MIDI though.

Roland Edirol FA-66 - Now we're talkin'. 2 mic inputs, 4 1/4-inch inputs, RCA inputs (you know, those red-and-white cables on your DVD player?) MIDI in and out, this one looks pretty sweet. Not bad for $280.

Alesis iO|26 - If you've got a larger studio setup, or you just want to get fancy, this has more inputs than you'll ever need, plus you can use it to control your software. $430.

In my studio, I use an M-Audio FireWire 1814 , though these seem to be increasingly hard to find these days. It has eight 1/4-inch inputs, two mic inputs, MIDI and some other nice features. When it works, it works well, but it tends to crash a lot. Remember to do a lot of research before plunking down your cash for one of these devices. You can find reviews for just about any product by typing in the product name followed by the word 'review' on Google.

Hopefully, this can get you started with choosing an interface. What you get depends on your needs as a musician and recording artist. For example, I have more synths and workstations, so my interface has more 1/4-inch inputs. Some of you might have an all software setup, so you may only need midi inputs, in which case you'll be spending very little on hardware and spending more on software.

Speaking of software, that's our next issue to tackle. See you next week!

Go to Part 2: Get a Computer for Your Studio

>>> Go to Part 4: Audio Software

The Makeshift Musician's Comprehensive Guide to Building Your Own Studio

2009-03-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

So you have a great band or you're a composer and you really want to make a sweet album yourself, but you don't know where to start? How does someone even record music? How does one go about putting together a studio? Don't you need to go to school for that kind of thing?

Fear not, gentle reader. Like the majestic albatross, I swoop down from the heavens and bestow upon you the greatest tool you'll ever receive, The Makeshift Musician's Comprehensive Guide to Building Your Own Studio.

My article Make Your Own Recording Studio is the most popular piece on this site. I've always felt like it was a bit short and lacking, so I really wanted to make something, well, more comprehensive and valuable. I hope this guide can help you make the whole process of home recording a little less daunting and mysterious and more fun.

Remember that there are roughly 5 million different ways to build a studio, and what I'm telling you covers just one way. The studio I've built for myself is a pretty good general purpose setup that is also highly portable and easily changeable, and that's about what you'll see in this guide.

Part 1: Do-It-Yourself Sound Dampening
Part 2: Get a Computer
Part 3: Audio Interface, or Getting Sound into the Computer
Part 4: Software
Part 5: What Speakers Should I Get? (Older article recruited for the Guide)
Part 6: Microphones, Cables and Everything Else for Your Studio

Get a Computer for Your Studio

2009-03-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

This is Part 2 of the Makeshift Musician's Comprehensive Guide to Building Your Own Studio.

The computer is the most important part of your studio. It is the brain, the place where all the audio and data crunching happens. You can make a studio without one, using a dedicated mixing console, but I find it more useful and intuitive to just use a computer. You can use it for not only recording, but also mastering and manipulating your files.

So what do you look for in a computer? The general rule of thumb is the more powerful, the better. You need RAM to manipulate multiple audio tracks at the same time; essential for multitrack studios. You need hard drive space to store all these recorded tracks. Again, that is essential. You need a speedy CPU so you can actually hear the audio while you're editing it, without delays. Jeez, it's starting to sound like you simply need the most expensive machine available, doesn't it?

Here's the thing though. If you have a computer that was built in the last few years, then it can probably work with multitrack software, and you can use it for your studio, just fine. You don't absolutely need the most powerful system money can buy. Computer makers prey on people's desire to own the best product and will release new systems every few months to maximize their profits. You don't need to give in to their pressure. As long as you have a system that works fine for you, you have no need to upgrade. Wrap that thing in duct tape and write "NO UPGRADES EVER" on it . That'll keep it working for years.

I'm reluctant to write down precisely what you should get since standards do change over time and will potentially make this article out of date. It is good to have a reference though, so I'll put the minimum that you should have in order to have a seamless, trouble free experience. Hopefully, if you're an advanced space-musician from the future, my writing will help you get the gist of what you should get for your Infini-core DNA Supercomputer even if the numbers I list seem laughably out of date.

CPU: Get something 1.5 Ghz or faster. This may sound a bit low to gamers or graphic designers but the fact is people have done multitracking on computers since the 1980's with much, much slower CPU's than that. I've personally recorded professional-level audio using Cubase on machines that were 700 Mhz and 1.5 Ghz and it's always worked without a hitch. This is the one area where you can afford to cut costs a little. Right now my iMac is a 2.4 Ghz. Not the fastest but it's respectable.
RAM: Simply get as much as you can afford. Again, I've recorded with as low as 512 megs and it worked out alright. Each track you record and mix into a song uses a chunk of your RAM while you're working on it. As you can imagine, it really starts to add up as you go and there is undeniably an upper limit to how many tracks you can have going at once. To guarantee a high number of tracks and a good comfort level for you, don't go below 1 gigabyte.
Hard Drive: You're going to be recording lots of audio, probably more than you realize right now, and you need a place to store it all. Get a big hard drive. Hard drives are relatively cheap these days, and a hundred dollars can get you pretty high capacity. Get two and use one to back up the other.
FireWire Port: Make sure your computer has a FireWire port or two. This will be necessary if you use an external device to plug in all your audio equipment. It will also be good if you use an external hard drive to backup your data.

Now, I'm going to break from my already feeble grasp of professionalism and give you some unofficial, personal, man-to-person advice, based on my experience. Get a Mac. I've used Windows-based PC's for lots of things, including recording. They generally work fine, but man, nothing is easier to use than a Mac. They're built for this kind of thing. You plug stuff into it and it works. A Mac works so well, in fact, that it is invisible. I never even have to think about it when I'm writing music or recording or backing up files or whatever. It's like using a reliable appliance: you turn it on and forget about it. Though I can't give up Windows on my sweet gaming rig, I'll probably never go back to PC for recording.

That said, there's nothing wrong with using a PC for recording. In some cases it may be better because any given piece of software is more likely to be written for Windows rather than Mac. And of course, PCs are cheap, and Apple has never understood the meaning of 'affordable', so that's not in their favor either.

What about a display? When working with software like ProTools or Cubase it's nice to have a big display with high resolution. A lot of data is displayed at once and can things go quicker when you don't have to keep closing some windows to make room for others. Many studios employ a dual-monitor setup (or duel-monitor setup, if they're badass.) For me, this is a luxury that I simply can't afford at the moment. It's nice, but not really necessary. Again, the general rule of thumb is the bigger the better, but even if you can only afford a 15-inch monitor, you'll still get by.

So, you've got your sweet computer, now how should you take care of it once you set it up for your studio?

The setup: The computer keyboard should always be placed in a way that makes it readily accessible. This may sound obvious, but it's always tempting, when working with limited space, to have your musical keyboard in front of you and push the computer keyboard to the side. This isn't going to be like web browsing where you only need your mouse, however. You will want to learn all the keyboard commands, or better yet, set them yourself, so that you can operate this beast with maximum efficiency. I've used a studio setup where the keyboard was mostly out of reach, and without having every function at the push of a button it can be almost crippling.

Backups: If you're the tech-savvy type, then you probably can come up with some sort of fancy automated system for regularly backing up your data. Even if you're like the rest of us, however, you can still backup your files pretty easily. Whatever kind of operating system you choose, Mac or Windows, learn the basics of how the filesystem works: know how to create folders, copy files and move them around. You bought two hard drives, right? On a regular basis, copy all your important music files over to this second drive.

Now that you've got your computer, it's time to start making some music on it. Check out the rest of the articles in the series, including getting an audio interface and software for your machine.

This is part 2 of the Studio Guide

Go to part 1: Do-It-Yourself Sound Dampening

>>> Go to part 3: Audio Interface, or, How to Get Sound Into Your Computer

Anniversaganza! Free Music! Wizards!

2009-02-09T12:08:00.000-08:00

Well, the Anniversaganzathon is over, and although I didn't get as many submissions as I would've liked, the ones that I did get were pretty awesome. These are songs from regular folks like you or me, readers of The Makeshift Musician who wanted to make something cool. Click on the title of each song to download it.

First up we have Jettison Joe from California, with the, ahem, creatively titled Makeshift. He says:

"I composed this piece in four or five short sittings at the piano. I recorded it in Garage Band on my Powerbook laptop, which I connect to my Roland FP-7 keyboard with a normal USB cable. The only instrument sound used is Garage Band's default Grand Piano."

It's a very fun piano piece with an absolutely awesome twist about two-thirds the way through the song. It totally changes the feel of the song without changing it's spirit. Very clean overall, the piano sounds great, which shows you that you don't need a studio full of professional equipment to make something sound good. GarageBand is truly a great tool for the Makeshift Musician. Thanks Joe!

Next up is my own piece. It's surf rock mixed with 8-bit chip elements and it's called Mighty Surf Wizard Battle, because wizard battles are totally sweet. I got the 'acoustic' instruments from my Yamaha Motif ES6 and the chip-sounding elements from my Novation XioSynth. I recorded it all in Cubase on a Mac and mastered it in WaveLab on a PC. It started out as a pure rock piece, but, as is the case with most of my songs, it didn't stay that way for long. The chip elements were an experiment, but they sounded cool as a back-and-forth contrast to the acoustic elements so I decided to keep them in. Also, it's quite a process to get an electronic guitar to sound realistic. I hope you enjoy it, dear reader; my credibility as a music writer is at stake.

Lastly, we have Jim Hickcox Heartbreaker from either Texas or Tennessee (?) with our only song with lyrics, titled Heartbreaker . In his writeup he weaves technical and personal issues into a classic tale of the troubles of a Makeshift Musician:

"When I saw that the Makeshift Musician was looking for submissions for the Anniversaganathon I decided immediately that I would make not only a pop song, but a second (perhaps less poppy) song using only free software. Two songs. That was my goal. Unfortunately, this goal could not have come at a worse time, as I was in the process of moving from Austin, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to my being in process, most of my instruments (including my midi controller) are in a guy's garage in Los Angeles right now (remind me to take care of that, would you?). This leaves me with just what's on my computer and a stunning lack of inspiration.

I have been into pop songs lately, so I wanted to go in that direction, even though I am a rapper by trade. My options for music were as follows: Pd, Max/MSP, Reason, or playing real instruments into either Garageband or Acid. My first attempt was to build a drum machine and synthesizer in Pd. I didn't get very far. It's hard. To just program in one song didn't seem worth it. Perhaps I'll get back to that. My next try was to program some drum beats in Reason, and then use Acid to record me playing an actual piano (the only instrument I have access to at the moment) and put them together. I kept getting pretty insipid results, though. I'm not a piano player, much though I may wish for it. I ended up working almost entirely in Reason. I had a new restriction this way, because I don't have my midi keyboard I could only program melodies in Reason's pattern sequencer, which is fine, but not awesome. Lucky for me, I have a thing for the basic chord playing features on your average fifteen dollar keyboard, so I emulated that. I took the (relatively minimal) track that I made and stuck it in Acid so I could record me singing on it. For whatever reason, I decided to record my singing slow so it would be high-pitched. Sometimes I do that. I also did the opposite, and if you listen closely you can hear what sounds like a retarded bear singing along in the background. I think I needed to do that to fight back against the crispness of the track."

Seriously, this is a hilarious song. Is it just goofy or is it wry satire? It's hard to say, but it's great that he can pull something like this together against difficult odds, some of which he places against himself intentionally. Now I got that chorus stuck in my head.

Thanks for the submissions, guys. Here's to another awesome year of making music any way we can!

Two Weeks till the Anniversaganzathon!

2009-01-26T19:12:00.000-08:00

So if you haven't started your song yet, you've got only two weeks to finish it. February 7th, fools. Remember to send the file or a link to the file to makeshiftmusician@gmail.com. Send it in before I add a few more syllables to the event's name!

Be a Part of The Makeshift Musician's Anniversary

2009-01-12T12:14:00.001-08:00

That's right, reader. The Makeshift Musician has now been around for a year! It is now old enough to walk around clumsily and can eat mostly solid foods! I've written a little over 40 articles in the last 12 months, and some of my favorites turned out to be yours too, and some articles I'd just rather forget about. Anyway, for the anniversary I thought we would do something a little different. I present to you

The Makeshift Musician's Music Anniversaganzathon!

I challenge you, reader, to make a song in ONE MONTH. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece. Just make it, put together a short writeup about how you made it and what equipment you used, and then send it to The Makeshift Musician via makeshiftmusician@gmail.com. I'd prefer that you sent a link rather than the actual file, but do what you need to do. I'll post the submissions on here for everyone to hear, along with the writeup and whatever lame comments I'd like to add myself.

I don't care what genre the song is, or how you made it. You could take a Fischer-Price tape recorder and record yourself throwing plastic cups at your Grandma, as long as you did it musically. The due date is February 7th. Also, it would be cooler if this song was something that you started after you read this post, but obviously I can't regulate that.

Send your ridiculous, awesome, or ridiculously awesome song to makeshiftmusician@gmail.com by February 7th.

What are you waiting for? Why are you still reading this? There's nothing left here of value. This sentence doesn't tell you anything useful. Make some music!

Learning Music Theory

2009-01-12T11:42:00.000-08:00

Hey folks, I hope you all had a good holiday. I went to Maine and discovered that I don't necessarily enjoy snow as much as I thought I did. Shoveling snow out of a boat will do that to you. Anyway, onto the article!

Wait, what is music theory? I get this very question from a lot of folks. The phrase 'music theory' isn't exactly self-explanatory. Let's see if I can give it an understandable definition. When you study or practice music theory, you are breaking down music into it's individual elements, defining them, fitting them together and seeing how they work. Pitch, melody, chords, notation, rhythm, notes, these are all different elements of music theory. By understanding every aspect of music and how all the pieces fit together, you can easily figure out how to make melodies and songs that will move the listener in the exact way you intended.

Why is that some songs sound sad? Or triumphant? Mysterious? How is that a song can build tension and release it? If you learn music theory, you will understand how all of that works, and you'll know how to do it yourself when you write your own songs. Sure, some people can get away with not learning any of it formally. They have managed to figure it out intuitively. I'm not one of those people. For the most part, I can't listen to a chord and be able to guess what notes it's made out of, for example. At least, not yet. This is why I learn theory.

After you've gotten started playing your instrument of choice for a while, you've got a good base for learning theory, and you probably already know a lot of it already and don't even realize it yet. I don't recommend studying theory before you've played any music.

The first thing you should learn is how to read sheet music. This doesn't necessarily have to come first, but it will make your life ten times easier, by my extensive calculations. Though you could, theoretically, learn music theory without knowing how to read music on a staff, I don't know of anyone who has. Theory is usually expressed using the staff. Learn what the staff is, how to read notes and rhythms and by the end of it you should be able to sight-read at least some really simple tunes. If you want to be a composer, then you should learn some piano too. I've covered that in a couple of other articles. By taking up piano you can get the triple-benefit of piano-playing skills, the ability to read sheet music, and some basic music theory all at once.

Now we get to the meat of this. While the Makeshift Musician usually recommends that you learn things on your own, perhaps in this case it might be good to get a lesson or two from someone else. Music theory is both complicated and abstract, like math or a language, so it can be difficult to learn without someone there to make things clear for you. You don't have to get a Bachelor's in Theory or anything, maybe just a couple of classes to get you started, or find a mentor to help you out. Check local colleges and adult education programs and see if they offer some sort of basic music theory course.

If, on the other hand, you're like me and want to slog through it all by yourself, then I have a great book to recommend. In fact, I recommend it even if you are getting lessons:

Edly's Music Theory for Practical People

This books starts from the basics and goes all the way through up to the most complicated chords and unusual concepts. It is taught in a clear, linear way (don't you hate it when books tell you to skip ahead and back just to get everything?) It's written in a conversational style so as to not be confusing and it has a goofy sense of humor, which I like. If you read this book while you're learning an instrument, it'll all come together pretty intuitively.

There are several other books that will teach you music theory, this is just the one that I've been using and I like it a lot. If you have any questions about learning theory just shoot me an email: makeshiftmusician@gmail.com.

Podcast: The Process of Making a Song

2008-12-08T10:35:00.000-08:00

This week I'm doing something a little different. You can now listen to me provide a running commentary on one of my own songs. I talk about the chords, working with MIDI, EQ, robots, and how stuff comes together to make a cohesive whole. It's like having the Makeshift Musician come over to your house! In a non-creepy kind of way. You can download the original, non-commentizated track, Ashur, the Sky God here. Then,

download the podcast here.

Music Appreciation

2008-12-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

Often I've found myself in social situations like a date or a party where someone asks me "what kind of music do you listen to?" This question usually confounds me. I like good music. How do I convey this to others without sounding like a jerk? I haven't quite figured that out yet, so I usually just end up haphazardly listing several different musical genres and artists that I'm into at the time. Something like "Oh, I like classic rock like Queen and Kansas, I also listen to a lot of scores for videogames since that's what inspires me in my career. I love bluegrass. Camille Saint-Saens is my favorite composer, and I love all the folks at OCRemix. Oh yeah, and some punk and electronic stuff as well. Oh and I just started getting into modern funk. Er... What about you?"

At this point I've just about killed the conversation. Anyone else have this happen to them?

There are many folks out there who are dedicated to a particular genre . They are the type who will have hundreds of CD's, possibly alphabetized. They can name all of the obscure sub-grenres within their genre of choice, and they'll know the vast differences between two different bands when, to us outsiders, they all sound the same.

Then there are those who will just say that they listen to a little of everything. Other music fans tend to look down on these people. The devoted fans will say that those who claim to like any type of music aren't really listening and don't appreciate music on a deeper level.

This is bull. You should spend some time and learn to appreciate any type of music you can find.

Let's go back to my original point. I like good music. I think we can all agree that this covers a wide variety of genres. I like anything that has these elements, in order of importance:

1. Strong Melody
2. Interesting Rhythm
3. Compelling Atmosphere

Having only these three simple requirements means that I can enjoy just about every genre imaginable. I do tend to have a hard time with rap music since there is usually no emphasis on melody, but there are still a few in the genre that I enjoy.

Do not be too afraid, embarrassed or ashamed to enjoy music outside of your usual comfort zone. Our appreciation for music comes almost entirely from our experience of it, meaning our appreciation doesn't actually come from some built-in musical part of our brain. For instance, if you were to raise a child exposing her to only music in the minor scale, and then as an adult she heard a major scale for the first time, it would sound completely alien to her, with half-step and whole-step changes that didn't make sense. You can try this on yourself by simply making up a completely arbitrary scale that doesn't match any known ones and then playing it. What is built in is a sense of rhythm and the ability to recognize the space between notes. Everything else is piled on by the music you listen to.

We will appreciate a song if it has, in our subconscious minds, an equal balance of familiarity and surprise. Too much familiarity and the song becomes boring, like listening to an old children's song. This is why I hate slogging through most beginner piano books. On the other hand, if the song has too many unfamiliar elements it will sound grating and generally unpleasant. This is why many folks don't like jazz or metal: they break too many conventions of music that other genres adhere to.

As we age, it seems that our definition of 'unfamiliarity' grows wider, and our perception of what is familiar becomes more narrow. By the time we are adults, we've pretty much decided what music we like and what we don't. But remember that these concepts of familiarity are not built in genetically; they are slowly constructed, song by song, out of what you've listened to your whole life.

So engineer your own music appreciation. Challenge yourself, and your understanding of music will grow, as well as the music you enjoy. And great new music is always a good thing.

My Journey Through Music

2008-11-03T10:27:00.000-08:00

How did I get to where I am now? What cosmic sculptor shaped my life to get me from a dork who knew nothing about music to one who is writing articles about composing and engineering? How does one get from a layman to a master? Okay, I can't answer that one, since the distance between my skills and 'master' is about equal to distance between me and Saturn. But I can at least tell you how I got to where I am, which is a pretty good place to be, let me tell you. What follows is a brief autobiographical account of my musical history. If you're like me, and I know I am, you'll be able to extrapolate some of this information to apply to your own life.

When I was a kid I didn't show much interest in music. Music on the radio tended to bore me. I can't even begin to describe how little popular music moved me at the time. Now I can look back and appreciate a lot of it, but it sure didn't affect me then. As I got older, and other kids were listening to snore-fests (at least to me) Nirvana and Green Day, I discovered an obscure branch of music that actually did hold my interest: videogame soundtracks. While the popular grunge movement generally stuck with a couple of chords per song, games like Chrono Trigger, The Dig and EarthBound were showing an absolute stunning variety in musical styles. My emotions were finally being manipulated.

I had a mini tape recorder, the kind used for dictation, and I would hold it up in front of my TV or computer and record the soundtracks of King's Quest or Castlevania. I would play Mega Man to get to a certain level, then pause it just to listen to the song. I was hooked, though I didn't understand the full implications of what was happening.

At the same time, I was learning to play trumpet in the school band. I was not particularly good at it, and the only real information I retained from that was reading music from a scale. I eventually quit the band in high school. But around the same time I started gaining an interest in making my own music. I had this image of myself in a room full of blinking machines, building an entire song from scratch. Rich, multilayered compositions would come straight from my brain, through the electronics and onto a CD. It all seemed very romantic and incredible, and I felt like it would be a worthy use of my time and energy. Of course, I had absolutely no idea where to start.

How does one even make music electronically? I knew there were musicians out there who made whole songs and entire albums by themselves, but how did they do it? It was a mystery to me. Did they have special machines? Computers? My family didn't have a computer more modern than a Commodore 64 until I was much older, and I didn't quite understand the role of the PC in music making at the time. My sister encouraged me to get turntables, because after all, her favorite DJ's like Bad Boy Bill and Tiesto spun records, and it all sounded electronc-y, right? I didn't know, but I was pretty sure that wasn't it and held off.

Even by the time we got a computer, 'the internet', that great modern tool for getting information, at the time was nothing more than a curious novelty for rich people, so our machine was offline. I didn't know anyone who made music, so it seemed like this dream of being a great music maker, admired by all, would not be fulfilled.

Then one day I was looking through one of those massive computer catalogs that occasionally came in the mail, (remember those?) ogling over the amazingly advanced laptops: Several-color monitor? Less than 15 pounds? CD-ROM?? Anyway I found something in the software section that caught my eye: Sonic Foundry ACID. It was billed as a "loop-based music production tool." The concept of stringing loops together to make music was a concept that I could grasp, and it was only a hundred bucks. My journey had started.

I ordered it (by mail; who does that anymore?) waited a painstakingly long time for it to arrive, then immediately installed it when it came. It was, in fact, pretty easy to use, and I was stringing together all sorts of loops that came with the program. It was fun, and I learned a lot about putting together music on a computer. I never quite felt truly proud of what I was making, however. These were, after all, just ready-made loops, composed by someone else, and then included with every single copy of ACID. I wanted to write my own music.

I didn't know a thing about composing, but I went to Best Buy and bought one of those home keyboards and plugged it into my computer through the microphone jack (I know, I know) and started playing little melodies along with the loops that I put together. I started to feel a little better about what I was doing.

Around the same time I was thinking about what I wanted to do for my college career. When the time came to talk to my career counselor, I told him 'sound engineer'. Composing music just didn't seem to have career potential at the time, but someone who recorded and made sound effects did. As long as I could be in that room full of machines and blinking lights. This unusual request kind of surprised him, but after a moment's thought he shuffled over to a filing cabinet and dug up an ancient brochure from a New England School of Broadcasting in Bangor, Maine, which had an Audio Engineering program, supposedly one of the finest on the east coast. I was a little wary because this pamphlet looked like it was from 1975, and in fact the school had changed its name from Broadcasting to Communications since then, but I learned more about it and eventually ended up going there.

Though in my classes I learned to record other people, like actors or a band, I utilized the knowledge I gained for myself. By the time I was finished, I had a complete understanding of how to make music using computers and recording equipment. Actually getting the money to acquire this equipment was a different story, but it was empowering to finally have this knowledge. I now understood that making music as a career was a possibility. There was just one problem.

I still did not understand music theory, so at this point I could only make bad music with technical excellence. (This is at least better than bad music with technical sloppiness.) During the next few years I moved and got a job at a major tech company somehow, gradually building a nice studio and making music occasionally. Because of my lack of knowledge I was never quite confident that I could make valuable music, however. Then one day, feeling unfulfilled, I quit my job and decided to work for myself.

Since then I've made it a personal quest to teach myself music theory. I picked up the banjo while in college and started formally teaching myself piano a couple years ago. I've been leveraging the internet to it's fullest potential to assist in my learning and have gotten at least good enough for people to want to pay me to make music for their games. This, of course, was the goal the whole time, though maybe I didn't always know it.

The journey so far has happened over the course of roughly ten years and I am far from finished. I still only perceive it as beginning, and I'm excited for what is to come. Come back in another ten years and I'll tell you where I've gone.

The Beginner's Guide to Becoming a Musician

2008-10-20T17:31:00.000-07:00

If you're looking to learn about playing, writing or recording music in some way, any way, but don't quite know where to start, this is for you.

So you want to start making music? You want to be the next Bach? Have lots of ideas and want to make a CD? Perhaps you just have a serious deficiency of groupies in your life and you want to change that? Whatever brought you here, you want to make music in some way, and doing that may not be as hard as you think. This guide will act as your starting point on your new path. Regardless of what instrument you want to play, or what kind of music you want to get into, this guide will show you how to get started, from choosing an instrument and learning to play it to composing and eventually recording.

Before you start

If you're completely convinced of your own ineptitude, or you think it is too late for you to take up the difficult task of making music, then I've got something to say to you:

You Don't Need Musical Talent to Make Music

Getting an instrument

The most popular instruments in Western society are the rock staples (guitar, bass guitar and drums) and piano. There are plenty of other instruments out there to choose from though, if you feel like doing something different. If you haven't decided yet, take a look at this article for advice on choosing and buying an instrument:

Picking up an Instrument

If you've picked piano, here are couple of other articles that you should check out:

Starting out with Piano
Piano Playing Tips for Beginners - (note: while this article was technically written for pianists, the lessons generally apply to all instruments)

Becoming a better listener

As you start to play music, you'll discover an interesting phenomenon: you'll notice more about the musical world around you. After a while, you'll gain the ability to de-construct all the different music that you've been listening to. This is a wonderful experience and will make you a more observant person in general. Now is a good time to take the initiative and start actively becoming a more deliberate listener. Try the techniques listed in these articles and discover new dimensions in music that you never understood before:

Introduce Yourself to New Musical Genres
Listening to Music Intelligently

Composing music

I have two things to say here about composing music, whether it's a short rock song or a 20-minute symphony. 1. All music, and I mean all of it, is made of of the same basic components, which means that if you can write a bluegrass song, you can also make a disco song, a dirge, a traditional Japanese folk song or anything else you could imagine with the same basic techniques. 2. There's no special talent or magical skill needed to write music. If you have the ability to make pleasing sounds on your instrument of choice, then you also have the capability to compose your own songs. Once you've learned some music theory, even just a little, you'll realize how simple it is. If you can take a pile of colored blocks and arrange them in an interesting pattern, then you'll be pleased to know that while writing music is a bit more complicated, it's still pretty much the same basic concept. If you're still not convinced, this might change your mind:

Gain the Confidence to Compose Music

Then look over these once you've decided to take the plunge:

Don't Find Inspiration: Create It
Daily Songwriting Exercise

Making a studio and recording music

This is possibly the most complicated part of being a musician, but it can also be the most fun overall. Recording is also most likely the most mysterious aspect of music creation for beginners. Years ago, the recording realm belonged solely to the professionals with expensive studios. Now that computers have changed literally everything in our society, anyone can make a studio of their own and even make their music sound fairly professional with minimal equipment.

There are a couple of things you need to know when delving into the recording world. First is the concept of multitracking. You need to understand how that works before you can understand how a studio works:

An Introduction to Multitrack Recording

Knowing and understanding the components of a studio and how they relate to each other make up the second important part of what you need to know. You can learn this and how to build your own studio on a minimal budget in the Makeshift Musician's most popular article, short and snappy:

Make Your Own Recording Studio

or go in depth with the ultimate resource:

The Makeshift Musician's Comprehensive Guide to Building Your Own Studio

Read these too:

What Speakers Should I Get?
Do-It-Yourself Sound Dampening

Once you've got your studio up and running, this would be a good read:

How to Make the Best Recordings on Earth

Beyond

What is left to learn, now that you've become a prolific, multi-talented musician? Believe it or not, there's still a lot we don't know about music and how it affects us. There's much to learn, and you could devote your whole life to music and still not learn everything there is to know about it. Here are a couple of articles that may help guide you towards a deeper understanding of the mysterious phenomenon that is 'organized sound':

The second most popular article on the site: The Importance of Music to Humankind
Book Review: This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin
The Origins of American Music

Some Interesting Stuff

2008-10-13T12:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry, loyal reader, no new article this week. Here, however, are some books that might interest you:

The Indie Band Survival Guide by Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan - A neat book on how to best prepare yourself for being an independent musician. Being very modern and hip and such, it includes information on how to best make your website and utilizing social networking sites to further your band.

The Everything Home Recording Book by Marc Schonbrun - There are lots of these books, but this one seems to be the best one geared towards beginners.

Hal Leonard Pocket Music Theory by Keith Wyatt and Carl Schroeder - It won't teach you music theory, but it would be a great complement to your learning it. Tons of information packed into the tiniest book.

And here's a great, free web program for guitarists: you give it a chord and it shows you the fingering, complete with strumming so you can tell if you sound right.

Rest assured, there are several great articles and some new surprises on the way. See you next week!

Book Review: This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin

2008-10-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

Music communicates to us emotionally through systematic violations of expectations. These violations can occur in any domain - the domain of pitch, timbre, contour, rhythm tempo, and so on - but occur they must. Music is organized sound, but the organization has to involve some element of the unexpected or it is emotionally flat and robotic. Too much organization may technically still be music, but it would be music that no one wants to listen to. Scales, for example, are organized, but most parents get sick of hearing their children play them after five minutes.

-Daniel Levitin, This is Your Brain on Music

This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin was recommended to me by a reader after I wrote one of my most popular articles, The Importance of Music to Humankind. I recently finished the book and I decided to share my thoughts on it with you.

Daniel Levitin is a record producer turned neuroscientist, driven by a great curiosity and passion for the world of music. He knows many famous people in both the music industry (such as the Grateful Dead) and the field of human biology (like Francis Crick). Because of all this I consider him to be a great asset to the world, as he helps us a get a little bit closer to understanding why music is a part of us.

What about the book though? He starts off with telling us about each of the basic components of music, like rhythm, melody and so on. Even if you already know music theory it's presented in such a unique way, from the angle of a scientist, that it is still compelling to read. He tells us what parts of the brain are at work for each aspect of music, and what it might tell us about ourselves.

He goes on to discuss how music manipulates our emotions, how hours of practice, rather than talent, makes good musicians (score one for makeshift musicians!), and how culture and evolution both affect our music in different ways.

One problem that I had with this book was that Levitin wanders a lot in the course of each chapter. He breaks the well-established convention of letting the reader know where the author is going with a particular tangent. He'll start a topic, then veer off with some anecdotal story without telling the reader how it ties in to his point, sometimes for several pages, until he's done. Occasionally he won't even bother tying it in at all. This makes it a somewhat more difficult read than it should be, but the information is so fascinating that I didn't mind too much.

Every musician will benefit greatly from reading this book. It will help you understand what it is you are doing when you write and perform music. Levitin's insight will give you focus on your purpose as a musician, and the powerful and strange things that happen to your consciousness when you listen to music will seem just a little less ethereal.

Most Interesting Piece of Information: The fact that inside your brain is an honest-to-god synthesizer. It's so complete that if you were to wire up that particular part of your brain to a speaker, you could produce simple tones just by thinking about them. We don't actually do this because poking wires into a human brain is generally considered to be a bad idea. We're not entirely sure how this evolved.

How to Make the Best Recordings on Earth

2008-09-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jade from OffBeatLove for the article idea

I recently went to see a great funk band perform at a big event. I've been into funk music lately and I really liked their sound; enough that I decided to buy their CD after the show. I was pleased to learn that the album contained pretty much the same set that the band played at the show, and since their set was fantastic I was excited when I put it in the CD player in my car a few days later.

Well... It was clear that it was the same band. The talent showed through, but... it was just so dull! I kept skipping tracks, ready for the next one to blow me away with some badass funkiness. Instead I got that disappointing feeling of being underwhelmed. (Now you know why I don't name the band itself!)

Why does this happen? How does a great band make such a stunningly mediocre album? The answer, good reader, is what I call conservative recording.

Let's say you're just learning how to record. You've learned all the rules of proper recording, like avoiding overloading and conventional EQ techniques. For example, you are supposed to record with a loudness threshold at just below the point of overloading (overloading causes distortion) and you are expected to keep the entire mix that way. When using EQ you are told to dampen tracks instead of boosting them whenever possible. Reverb is only for room ambiance. These and many other techniques make up what is considered 'correct' recording: methods for making music that is pleasing to listen to.

It is vitally important that you learn these rules and implement them. Understanding why these guidelines and practices have been established will make you a better recording artist. What I'm getting at though may involve a fundamental rethinking of the recording and mixing act itself.

In both the visual and musical arts, the great, respected masters have spent years learning the rules of their craft. A master painter has learned perspective, light and shadow, and anatomy techniques. A master musician and composer has a deep understanding of music theory, like chord progressions, rhythm and melody. Their status of 'master' however, was not achieved by their technical skill alone, but also from the skillful way that they bent and broke conventions in ways that surprise and move us and allow us to see the world from a new perspective. Yet they could not have achieved any of that without first learning the rules. One who has no technical skill and who simply breaks conventions will likely end up producing ugly art, and one who has great technical skill but doesn't surprise us will end up boring us to tears. Both trained skill and the creative violation of expectations are necessary to make great art.

How does this all apply to recording? Instead of viewing recording as a means of getting your live performance on tape, you should instead be looking at your recorded music as a separate kind of performance, in a way unrelated to your live one. The recording act should be seen as an integral part of the performance, rather than a means to an end. How you mix your music will affect how people enjoy it, so it should be given just as much care and attention as your playing.

Let your drums overload a bit. Crank the midrange equalizer on your guitar track in a way you've never heard before. Use effects in unconventional ways. Never be afraid to break the rules of recording to see how it sounds. The beauty of digital recording is that you can simply change it back if you don't like it.

Give your recordings some life! Do everything you can to make the recording as breathtaking as the live performance. You and I both know that this is possible, but as long as you keep viewing recording as an obstacle in the way of your music, then you'll never be able to achieve true studio greatness. The problem with the funk band was that they recorded and mixed their music very well, with great technical proficiency, but they didn't take advantage of the opportunities available to them with producing an album.

The sound made by musical instruments and human voices are fundamentally altered and weakened when recorded and played back. You can easily tell the difference between a real guitar playing and one playing through a speaker. This is why we have studios in the first place; you can't just put a microphone in front of a band and expect the recording to sound great. You need to use the recording and mixing tools at your disposal to make that band sound incredible.

So do it. Learn the essentials of good recording, and then add the same level of passion and creativity to your studio work as you would anything else that you love do. Don't play it conservatively. Do it like you mean it, and your album will be something you're proud about.

5 Reasons Why You Should be a Musician Instead of Working in IT

2008-09-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

Whenever some bloated media company makes a list of the best jobs available, 'Information Technology' or 'Software Engineer' is invariably on it. Popping up like some wretched leprechaun, it promises you good pay, exciting challenges and opportunities for long-term growth. This must be a lie, as someone clearly tripped, fell on a keyboard and accidentally published jobs like 'Product Brand Manager' and 'Paralegal' on the same list. Don't fall for it. You should become a musician and make people pay you for your music instead. You don't have to worry about 'job stability' when you're unemployed. Here are five reasons why you should give up the corporate hamster-wheel and start making noise:

1. Women - There's no question: rock stars attract the opposite sex. Look at Keith Richards (or better yet, don't), a man who could probably frighten babies just by thinking about them. If women can somehow overlook his terrifying fossilized-magma-face, then they can certainly find the strength to ignore your pasty complexion and never-lifted-anything-heavier-than-a-paycheck body, just as long as you're holding a guitar. Some anthropologists believe music performance evolved as a method to attract potential mates. If this is true, then ghouls like Steven Tyler and dorks like John Mayer so far represent the pinnacle of human evolution. Be afraid.

And if you happen to be a member of the fairer sex, well, if you're not yet tired of having every guy you meet slobber all over you, how about meeting a few more of them by becoming a musician?

2. No Money Problems - Really, how can you have money problems when you have no money? Only the most successful rock gods have to think about nerve-wracking stuff like 'which dollar-bill denomination should I roll up and smoke tonight?' All you'll have to worry about is gas money, Taco Bell and where you can crash after a gig. You get to have the Zen-like existence of a traveling monk, except with burritos and more hair.

3. Better Self-Image - Actually, you don't have to change much here. Instead of being a muscled barbarian warrior with a sweet ax on your D&D character sheet, you get to be a muscled barbarian warrior with a sweet ax on your album cover. What could be better?

4. No More Corporate Butt-Monkey - Corporate life is rough. If people don't like you at your job, you pretty much have to just bend over and take it like a champ. For instance:

Boss: Your code for the donkey level is messed up. The QA testers couldn't even get 3 donkeys in the bed before the whole game crashed. And I know you logged 150 hours of overtime last week to make it, but we decided to put those funds towards gold-plating the inside of the CEO's pockets, so now they're always full of money. Oh yeah, and you're fired."

You: Oh no, who will crush my spirits and make me want to dig my eyes out with pistols now?

No one can really say 'You're fired' to a musician.

5. Fulfill Your Childhood Dream - When you were a kid, did you say, "When I grow up, I want to work hard at my job so that each day I can be propelled a little bit further up the corporate anus"? You probably said something more like "When I'm older, I'm going to play a song so ridiculously awesome that John Lennon himself will have no choice but to crawl his fetid corpse out of the grave and throw up the horns."

Maybe not in so many words.

Though children crying have to be one of the funniest things on this green Earth (see Fig.3), if you think that your child-self would have cried at the sight of your current-self, then you need to snatch up a guitar right now faster than Fat-Elvis would grab a peanut-butter-&-'nana sammich.

After you read this, you'll probably go back to pretending to write an SSH script and when you get home you'll strap on that ever-dignified plastic Guitar Hero toy for your nightly session and think to yourself "I can't make music. I have no talent!" This will be your excuse. Well, I've beaten that argument to death with a bloody wrench already, and I'm still not done talking about it. I challenge you to take up an instrument, quit your job, and start looking for gigs. Give Lennon's corpse an awkward, grimy high-five for me when you get to the top.

You Don't Need Musical Talent to Make Music

2008-09-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

You know why I believe in this so much? I'll tell you why.

I joined the school band when I was in fifth grade. I played trumpet. I didn't particularly like playing the trumpet and I only mildly enjoyed class. When, in high school, we had to learn music theory, I was almost completely mystified by things like the Circle of Fifths, chords and other musical concepts. I never did particularly well and and mostly languished in the beginner level classes while my classmates moved on to the advanced ones.

I never showed any real musical talent; indeed, folks around me probably thought I didn't enjoy music at all. I didn't listen to popular bands like other kids my age listened to and I was very vocal about my disappointment in the music on the radio. I appeared to be a pretty un-musical young person.

You know what though? Now I play piano and the banjo. I've learned and understand a great deal about music theory. I've made several hours worth of music. I went to school for Audio Engineering and got an A- on my final independent study (writing and producing a six-song album.) Someone thought my music was good enough to ask me to write music for their game. I write about music, for a site you may have heard of, and actually have people writing to me, me for answers about making music. This is the guy who could barely stay afloat in band class! If those poor folks only knew!

Am I writing just to praise myself? Well, after putting all that together I have to admit it does sound pretty awesome, but that wasn't my point. My point is that if I could do all that without any 'inborn' musical ability, then anyone else can do it too. I don't see myself as a particularly self-motivated guy either, so I'm sure anyone out there can probably do better than me.

I've heard many people say that they won't pick up an instrument simply because they think it is too late for them to learn. There are a lot of scientific studies that say people can't learn as effectively past their teenage years and after age 17 your neural pathways are pretty much do-blah blah blah. Forget that crap. Maybe my neural pathways aren't as flexible as they once were, but I have many other skills and traits that come with age that make up for that problem, like self-discipline, good time management, big-picture thinking, and the prospect of getting paid for what I do. I had none of these things when I was a kid, and my learning was probably much slower because of it.

The only reason you might think that you are aren't a musical person is because society tells you that you aren't. But the fact that you can enjoy music scientifically proves that you can also make it, since you use much of the same parts of your brain for both listening and performing. In many hunter-gatherer cultures, the concept of musical talent doesn't even exist. Everyone is taught how to make music and dance from a young age. This is how our own cultures were until relatively recent times. Why the change? Different values? Elitism? Who knows? You shouldn't let it hold you back.

So what are you waiting for? Angels to come fluttering down, bestowing upon you a golden guitar? You definitely have no excuse now. If you do still have an excuse of some sort, you can bet that the Makeshift Musician will do it's best to unceremoniously blast that one out of the water too. Go pick up an instrument and start playing!

Electronic Musicians: Use Some Acoustic Stuff!

2008-09-10T15:56:00.000-07:00

I have a challenge for all you purely electronic musicians out there: incorporate some sort of acoustic instrumentation into your songs. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Sing! You've got a voice, and even if you don't, you probably have a friend who does. Throw in some lyrics. If you're no poet, just write some stuff that doesn't make sense. It wouldn't be the first time an artist did that.

A decent pair of bongos or some other percussion instrument only costs around fifty bucks or more. Go ahead an add some fun drumming. Record multiple takes of the same part for a cool, dense multi-layered effect.

Grab your guitar or steal a friend's. Learn a couple of basic chords or simply learn the exact chords that you're already using and then strum along with your own music. Something as basic as strumming can be very effective. For an example, see Pink Floyd's 'Welcome to the Machine'.

If you are absolutely clumsy with real-world instruments, find a friend who can play something and record them. Recording with other folks is really fun anyway, and it could lead to fantastic collaborations in the future.

Why am I challenging you to do this? There are three interrelated reasons. One is that acoustic instruments not only sound great by themselves, they will also add real gravity to the electronic ones. Synthesizers just sound more legitimate when performing next to physical instruments, and having them mixed together makes for a profoundly rich sound pallete.

The second reason is that by being purely electronic, you are limiting yourself. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a mostly electronic musician myself, but I've still found the time to recorded banjo, guitar, bongos, random percussion, sound effects, my own voice and the voices of others. I see these as challenges. I'm always looking for ways to record real stuff in with my electronics. By getting a microphone and adding some acoustic elements, you are expanding your own potential as a musician, and that can't be a bad thing, right?

The third reason comes from the motto of the old LucasArts Audio Stooges (Michael Land, Clint Bajakian and Pete McConnel), the geniuses behind some of the best music in the game industry: "Music travels through air. If it's not going through air, there's a problem somewhere." Just as it is good to get out of the house and play sometimes, it's good to step out of the computer occasionally and just make some noise. It will enrich your life.

Do-It-Yourself Sound Dampening

2008-08-21T10:46:00.001-07:00

This is part 1 of the Makeshift Musician's Comprehensive Guide to Building Your Own Studio

Maybe if you're just starting out with your studio you haven't given it much thought, but do you realize what professionals do when they build a studio? They design the entire place from the ground up, making walls with crazy angles and covering them with different materials. Then they make a separate room for a drum kit and another separate room for vocalists. They cover the walls with either unusually-shaped wood or this unbelievably expensive foam padding with tons of little pyramids cut into it.

Obviously, we at home can't recreate this stuff, but we can throw together our own acoustic dampening setup without giving up thousands of dollars and our first-born.

Most of us don't really get to choose where our studio is, we just have to deal with whatever room we can fit the studio in. I've had, as a studio, my childhood bedroom, a college dorm room, the single-bedroom in a single-bedroom apartment, and the one-car garage of a much nicer apartment. If, however, by some stroke of good fortune you can choose where your studio is, try to choose a room that is somewhat isolated from everything else. You want to be loud and not have to worry about neighbors or roommates attempting to bludgeon you to death after you've played the same guitar solo eighty times just to get it right.

Once you've got your place, what can we do to make it less echo-y? Here are some of my suggestions:

EDIT: My astute readers have suggested that the things I mention the upcoming paragraphs tend to do very little for acoustic dampening, and that the difference between cheap foam and expensive foam is a lot more than pretentiousness. After just a little bit of research, I have to agree with them. Take a look at some of their fantastic advice in the comments section.

Rugs: Go to Goodwill or Wal-Mart and get some big, ugly shaggy carpets like your Aunt has in her living room and nail them to your wall. The more hideous the color, the more fun you'll have putting them up.

Pictures: Since they have flat, non-porous surfaces, pictures would seem like a bad choice for acoustic dampening. However, anyone who's ever moved knows that a room sounds really obnoxious until you put some pictures up on the walls. Get some pictures that you know will inspire creativity.

Egg-crate-style mattress pads: For the true faux-professional look, get some of these while you're at Wal-Mart. Remember, the only difference between expensive acoustic foam and cheap mattress foam is pretentiousness.

Furniture: You'd be surprised at how well furniture can not only scatter sound waves, but also make the studio more comfortable for everyone. Get an old couch or easy chair and see how it changes the feel of the place.

Just remember that the more angles you have in the studio, the more sound gets bounced away harmlessly from your microphones, which is what you want. You don't want the place stark and hospital-like, but you don't want it overly cluttered either. Try to make your studio into something cozy and comfortable and inspiring. I hang huge wall-hangings full of weird geometric patterns in my studio, which have the double-effect of dampening sound and looking awesome at the same time. Experiment a lot and you'll likely find some combination of things that works perfect for you.

This is part 1 of the Studio Guide

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>>> Go to Part 2: Get a Computer For Your Studio

Random Music Making Techniques, Volume 1

2008-08-20T13:00:00.001-07:00

There are lots of cool hints and techniques I've wanted to share, but I couldn't think of a good context in which to deliver them. So decided to just put them together in a series of articles. Enjoy!

Stealth Chords: So you have an interesting chord progression in your song. Instead of just leaving your chords as basic triads or whatever, try to change them up a little to make them unique. Take out some of the notes, or arppegiate it occasionally. This may help make the chords blend better with the rest of the music, and it will keep surprising the listener.

Fadeouts: Many folks hate fadeouts. I think they're pretty cool, if done well. If you're doing a fadeout at the end of your song, try introducing a new element just seconds before the song fades out completely. Something like a new melody or maybe a new melody played by a new instrument. This makes the fade out more interesting and will make the song feel like its part of something larger.

Hard Panning: If you have an element in your song that's in the center channel but you want it to have a nice, big presence, try doubling the track and then panning one hard left and one hard right. Sometimes this can give the sound a large enveloping feel.

Key Changes: You've seen Jeopardy right? You know the Jeopardy song? Halfway through it they do a key change, but they don't change anything in the song! It's the exact same music, just transposed up a few steps. I hate this with the fire of a thousand suns. I call that 'technique' artificial lengthening. There's nothing wrong with key changes; they can add so much life to your piece, but for the love of Mike, at least change the melody, if not everything else. Okay, rant over.

Orchestras Play in Concert Halls: remember that if you are making orchestral/symphonic sounding stuff, reverb is very important! Listen to any orchestral recording and you'll hear lots of beautiful reverberation. Spend a lot of time tweaking your settings until it sounds like a real concert hall, and consider simply putting a reverb effect over the entire mix. Whichever works best.

Radio Voice: When recording vocals, for whatever purpose, I've found that a lot of amateurs won't mess with equalization much and leave the voice as is. It's a good idea to play around with the vocals, for instance try cutting out some of the low end. This will often give it a more realistic sound, allow it to mix better, and avoid that deep, booming 'radio voice'. Pay attention to some of your favorite albums and you'll see that the singer doesn't have a lot of deep low-end in his or her voice.

That's all for this edition! Feel free to add your own writing or production techniques in the comments section.

Make Music on Your Computer Right Now for Nothing

2008-08-01T14:31:00.001-07:00

Even the studio in my article about building one cost a few hundred dollars at minimum. If the words "a few hundred dollars" make you run for your food stamps, you might need to start with something a little cheaper, like perhaps in the no dollar range. I've listed three options that I've found on the internet over the years, and each one is for a different kind of musician or composer. If you're like me and you're a little bit of all three types, then try all of them:

For those who play an instrument or have a band and want to record it:
Kristal Audio Engine

This could be Window's answer to the Mac's GarageBand. You get 16 tracks and a professional-grade interface. This is a great way to get yourself acquainted with multitrack software.

For you electronic/software nerds:
Jeskola Buzz

They call it 'the first free soft-studio'. The idea is that it's an entire studio's worth of gear running on your computer. It has low system requirements and it's fun to use once you get the hang of it. Note that there's quite a learning curve to get past, and your music is strictly electronic-based. If that's what you're going for and you have some patience then this is for you.

For you of the ruffled shirt, powdered wig and real music training:
Finale Notepad

If you know how to write music on a staff and enjoy doing so, then this is perfect. It's so easy to use that a one-armed dyslexic monkey could do it. You select your time- and key-signatures when you start a new piece and then it automatically calculates the structure of each measure for you as you place notes. Without ever using it before, I was able to fire it up and transcribe 8 measures of a piano song I've been working on in about 15 minutes.

I was just kidding about the ruffled shirt and powdered wig thing. Although if you do wear these items, please send me a picture.

Daily Songwriting Exercise

2008-06-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

A great exercise that I mentioned in my article on finding and maintaining creativity was writing music every day. What does this entail? Does this mean you should start and finish a new song every day? Work on just one song over a long period of time?

The mindset you should have is that you will sit down in front of your keyboard, sheet music, studio, guitar, jug or whatever you have to make music every day regardless of what ideas you have. It is important to remember that what you actually make is irrelevant. You could be working on one polished song, making a different little sketch each day, or just recording weird stuff that comes to your mind. Just as long as you sit down and do something every day.

As soon as you stop thinking about results, you can start thinking about making something. Think of it like daily exercise. When you go for a jog, you don't really care about the destination, you are simply doing it to condition your muscles and heart. You do daily creative exercise to condition your creative abilities and your neural pathways. You should not be worried about the result of your efforts. No one is embarrassed about running in a loop every day and getting nowhere. So too, you shouldn't be embarrassed about the random crap you make every day. No one has to hear it but you.

I have often paralyzed my music output because I would worry too much about making something professional and polished. I felt that anything I started wasn't good enough, and soon I would just get in a rut, making pretty much nothing. Finally I decided that this was lame and making somewhat unpolished music is better than making no music at all.

It is particularly fun to simply try to make something new every day. Sure, a lot of it will be crap, but it will keep forcing you to come up with new stuff, which means new neural pathways for you and more creative energy. Plus, you'll quite often stumble on something awesome and you'll want to expand it into something more complete.

So here's my challenge for you: sit down with your music making equipment for at least an hour every day and make sure you have at least something by the end of your session. I don't care what it is, and neither should you. You will discover all sorts of new stuff this way. In fact, go do it right now.

Starting Out With Piano

2008-05-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that I've been writing music and performing melodies on my various keyboards for something like eight years now, I've only relatively recently started learning to play the piano in a formal fashion. You know: proper hand position, sight-reading, stuff like that.

Although I've had some musical training and could, in fact, read music, I wanted to learn piano as a beginner, as if I couldn't read music and had no training whatsoever. I did this so that I knew I wouldn't miss anything important. This might be beneficial for you too, if you're thinking of playing.

If you want to learn piano, here's what I think you should do:

First get yourself a keyboard. No one who isn't smoking hundred-dollar bills can afford a real piano, so don't bother. I tend to make fun of Casio keyboards a lot for their uninspired, out-of-date sound, but in fact I have a Casio keyboard in my bedroom and practice on it every day. The piano sounds fine on it.

Anyway, get yourself a keyboard that has a full 88 keys. Any less and you'll be hindering your own learning, and you don't want that. DO NOT get anything that has fewer than 88 keys. If you're really serious about practicing all the time, you will, within a few months, regret getting a smaller keyboard for cheaper. You'll start trying to learn an awesome new song that you've always wanted to play and then find that you can't because you don't have enough octaves to work with. This is maddening.

The best place to find a nice keyboard is a local music shop. They'll have a nice selection and can point you to a decent one in your price range. You can get one with 88 keys for around 200 to 400 dollars. It probably wouldn't hurt to check a place like Best Buy too, though their selection is limited.

Now you need to actually learn to play. You could pay for private lessons and they certainly would be nice, but you don't need them. There's nothing wrong with getting lessons, but you can very easily teach yourself. I've looked through a number of beginner piano books and the best one, the one that taught me to play, is the Hal-Leonard book Teach Yourself to Play Piano by Mike Sheppard and James Sleigh. You can probably find this one at the same music shop where you bought your keyboard.

Teach Yourself to Play Piano assumes that you have no experience with music whatsoever, so its a good start for the beginner. It emphasizes using the left hand as much as the right, it teaches some basic music theory, and best of all, it doesn't resort to godawful kid's songs like Mary Had a Little Lamb or London Bridge to teach you music. You even get to play a genuinely enjoyable and satisfying étude at the end of the book. You will be able to play piano by the time you finish, and it's only 50 pages!

After that, I suggest you find some beginner-level books of sheet music for you to learn from. Find books with music that you've always wanted to play, like from bands or composers that you really enjoy. This will make the learning process very rewarding. Not only will you be able to appreciate the songs on a more intimate and technical level, it's also simply very satisfying to hear yourself play a song that you love. I really enjoy music from video games, so I bought sheet music from old games Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana, both of which have great soundtracks. You can also find a near infinite amount of sheet music on the internet, if you know where to look.

As you keep playing, you'll learn more and more about music theory. The best advice I can give you is: practice every day, even if it's only a few minutes. Really, you should be practicing about thirty minutes every day at least. For maximum results, practice an hour-and-a-half or longer every day and your skills will skyrocket in weeks.

Now that you've gotten to this point, take a look at my other article, Piano Playing Tips for Beginners.

By the way, no one paid me to endorse the book Teach Yourself to Play Piano. I don't get nearly enough traffic for anyone to pay me anything!

Interview with Star Salzman

2008-05-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

Who is Star Salzman? He's the most fun singer/songwriter/composer/producer you've never heard of. Check out his website at http://starblast.org/ and you'll see what I mean. With a keen and intelligent pop mentality, he writes catchy and whimsical vocals, complex synth arpeggios, sweeping (and realistic-sounding) orchestral arrangements and interesting, multi-layered drum parts. Take a listen for yourself, these are a couple of my favorites: Goodbye, Benadryl, The Long Road to October, Home is With You

Or hear some of his fantastic videogame remixes (from scratch. Not like those awful 'remixes' you hear at the end of pop albums): Tickle My Wily, Pillar of Salt

Since he writes, plays, sings, records and masters everything himself and is then humble enough to offer it to the world for free, I thought he would be a perfect candidate for the Makeshift Musician's very first interview. Thankfully, he also thought this was a good idea. (Warning: small amount of profanity ahead):

MM: First off, tell me about yourself, for folks who don't know who you are. What do you do?

Star: This is how you start out?! What do I do? I coalesce the vapors of human emotion into a semi-tangible musical experience.

Not really. Mostly I am just trying to figure out where I fit into things. I spend most of my time working my day job, which is figuring out computer problems, and then I come home and spend most of my other energy on social interaction, and if I have any leftover I write a few notes or tweak a few volume envelopes on the song that I’m working on. I wouldn’t say I’m a musician. I would say that occasionally I write music. Most folks don’t really know I’m into writing music. But I doubt they’d be surprised to find out, either.

MM: How did your interest in making music start?

Star: I used to be a bit of a nerd in middle school. I was in choir and orchestra and stuff. Really into music and really into composers. So I started downloading lots of .MODs off of BBSs and then I was listening to them in Scream Tracker 3 when I realized I could change parts I didn’t like and even write stuff since I didn’t have the download credits to get new music myself. But everything I wrote was very crap (http://www.starblast.org/starsongs/old.mp3) (1995ish). So I forgot about it for a while. In college I had a lot of free time on my hands so I started writing music again, this time using Impulse Tracker (http://www.starblast.org/starsongs/fire.mp3) (http://www.starblast.org/starsongs/FIRE.IT) (2000ish). I was still using the same samples I ripped off my mod collection from 5 years previous.

Anyway, music changed for me one day, when I was madly in love with a chick who later turned out to be a lesbian. I decided to record my devotion to this chick in song form. And thus my first lyric music was born (http://www.starblast.org/starsongs/sayitold.mp3). I recorded this in my dorm room on a p3 450 by first writing the music in impulse tracker, and then playing it through my speakers into sound blaster’s wav recording thing while singing over it through a Packard Bell screenmount microphone with a Ricola cough drop wrapper as a pop screen. One take, no autotune, just some chorus and reverb thanks to SBLive EAX. I was such a good vocalist back then. I seriously have deteriorated.

Anyway, showed this song to her (she never knew it was about her, I think) and she said it was “cheesy” so in a fit of emotional angst I stopped writing for a while again. A bit later a friend of mine was showing me this complicated program called Reason. I helped him figure out some basics on it, and then took the demo home to try myself. I fell in love immediately and wrote this piece of crap: (http://www.starblast.org/starsongs/starz0r.mp3) (2001) but the seed had been planted. Since then it’s been a steady, slow improvement process. Along the way I started using cubase to sequence instead of Reason, and started gravitating more and more toward vocal music. Interestingly enough, the first vocal thing I did that was met with any sort of positive feedback was the Incredible Singing Robot (http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00988/) (2003). But the rest is pretty boring incremental improvements.

MM: Did you have a lot of formal training in the areas of music, composing, or recording? How did you learn these things?

Star: I’ve had formal training on a few instruments. I was in orchestra for a couple of years on string bass… had private lessons for a year on Saxophone. But most of my real training is vocal. I was in choir for 4 years in high school and competed and such. I was really into it. Composing and recording I just sort of figured out by myself. When I was starting out there weren’t much resources on the internet for learning that sort of thing. There was no such thing as web 2.0 or Wikipedia. People were using Netscape in windows 3.11. I learned both recording and composing by painful trial and error and having some really close and honest friends to keep me dispassionate. Nothing is more important than an honest opinion when you are learning. I try to be as honest as possible with folks for that very reason. If something is crap, you should say it’s crap. Don’t beat around the bush.

MM: Most people, even many great musicians, avoid composing and producing because they're intimidated by the idea and are afraid of looking or sounding bad. What gave you the confidence to write and produce and *gasp* sing? What keeps you confident?

Star: Honestly when I started out I didn’t need to be confident. My music was for me. This was again, pre-online community era where people still did art and stuff for their own personal enjoyment rather than social validation. This has largely been obsoleted by the tons and tons of online communities willing to provide “feedback” to folks. Singing I had the confidence from competition and solos in choir and whatnot. It was never really an issue. I’ve sung at weddings, in public, in front of large audiences so that part was pretty natural. Writing and production I basically tempered on the anvil of harsh self-analysis and equally harsh opinions from my friends until I made something to be proud of. However that bar keeps climbing, which makes it hard to produce anything anymore. What keeps me confident? Partly, it’s the nice feedback I get from people, my family and friends. The recognition is nice and it validates my own sense of confidence.

MM: What instruments do you play, and what is your studio setup?

Star: I suppose I technically play the piano a tad, but very terribly. However, I just added a badass Yamaha So8 Keyboard in addition to my crap no-name midi keyboard. I have two Event Studio Precision ASP8 Powered Monitors which kick all sorts of ass and were very expensive. I have a nice dual core amd 3800+ with 4 gigs of ram and a shiteload of hdd space. I have a rack setup with an ART Studio V3 preamp, an Electrix Warpfactory vocoder, a Boss RV-70 reverb, and my Motu 2408 Mk2 hardware interface. I have 3 mics: an AKG Solidtube, an AKG C3000b, and a Shure Sm58. I also have a Yamaha midi DT3Express drum interface that a friend left over here and never picked up. And a guitar and a bass lying around for no reason. All of this stuff including the rack and keyboard I bought used for around half price off craigslist, with the exception of the computer and my speakers. I also have a separate pc running gigastudio with an M-audio firewire audiophile. Pictures: Http://www.starblast.org/studio1.jpg Http://www.starblast.org/studio2.jpg Http://www.starblast.org/studio3.jpg

MM: What inspires you as a musician and composer?

Star: Chicks, mostly. After chicks, myself. I really only get into songs when I really like them. If I don’t absolutely love the song, I usually half-ass it till completion. If I love the song, I can’t stop writing it. I think you can usually tell when I start disliking a song because it’ll radically change in the middle out of nowhere. That’s my feeble attempt to create inspiration by changing things up.

MM: Any awesome techniques you would like to share?

Star: Tons! One I really like is for pop songs, mix/master at a low volume. It works wonders since your ear works with a lot of natural compression. Also, free VSTs are great! Check out ymVST! Great synth. I use it all the time. Also, for a real punchy song, double the drum with the bass in a regular pattern. With vocals, sometimes it’s good to use double mics to get different EQ curves. Also, a good way to mix multiple vocals is to go into a parametric EQ and peak a certain set of frequencies until it sounds painful and clips. Basically you find where your own voice has spikes when added to itself. Then invert the curve to eliminate the spike. Use vocoder on sources other than voice on synths for cool effects. Like instead of singing use a drum track to make a synth percussive.

Arpeggios are awesome! A great arpeggio is the 16^th triplet arpeggio. Go up in thirds or on the pentatonic scale for 5 notes, then starting on the 3^rd note of the original 5 notes, go up 5 more notes in either scale and repeat that pattern until you’ve filled out the measure. It sounds great. To vary up a regular, pulsing synth line, use pitchbends and play with note length. Say you’ve got an 8^th note regular arpeggio, for the first iteration go the full 8^th notes, second, change the 8^th to 16^th+16^th rest with a pitchbend on the last note... It’s nice for variety instead of just varying velocity and timbre. Glissando/portamento is awesome! But use it for EMPHASIS rather than general effect. Try to vary intensity in general throughout your song, have a climax, have quiet parts. They make music much more interesting.

MM: How do you like working in different genres? Do you have a favorite genre that you like to write for?

Star: For a while, different genres were my only means of inspiration. I was so tired of my standard stuff. Most of the time I don’t really have a set genre when I set out to write stuff, and even when I do sometimes it goes in a completely different direction than I planned. Case in point: http://www.starblast.org/starsongs/weather.mp3. This started out as “80s” music but ended up sounding like the weather channel. But I made it work. I don’t really have a favorite genre. I just have some that I really hate. I hate most drum and bass, and I hate most “indie rock”. Before you jump all over me, I just think calling something ‘indie’ these days is usually just an excuse for shitty production and lousy singing. Since I am responsible for both and I know these bands make way more money than I do, they might as well stop pretending it’s because they are ‘indie’ and admit that it’s for the ‘I don’t care’ image.

MM: How do you decide what to work on?

Star: I work on whatever generates the most fun for me at the time. If it’s not fun I’ll unusually do something else. Like play video games.

MM: What about remixes? What makes you choose a particular song to remix?

Star: Mostly fun factor. Also I try to remix stuff that I think will generate a lot of feedback. OCRemix for me has turned into a confidence booster. I don’t really write remixes for myself. I write them so folks will tell me I’m good. Shallow, I know. But it helps. So whenever I feel like I suck at music, I make an ocremix to make myself feel better.

MM: What advice would you give to a budding musician, or what advice really helped you when you were starting out?

Star: My advice is to get honest opinions and LISTEN to them. Even if it means you have to cry a bit. If your stuff isn’t ready for prime time, the honest person will tell you. Go work on it. You aren’t perfect, you aren’t even close especially when you first start out. Don’t listen to sycophants, listen to the critics. If you make them happy, then you are probably making pretty decent music.

MM: How has making music affected your life, and how has your life affected your music?

Star: Making music gives me stuff to talk about at parties where there aren’t any “real” musicians there who will argue with me for hours about how software will never sound as good as hardware. It lets me hate bands because I can say “I could do better” and then prove it when I get called out. My life has gotten in the way of my music and the output has slowed considerably. But I still love it. Hopefully will have more music for you to listen to soon.

The Difference Between Reverb and Echo

2008-05-19T10:57:00.000-07:00

When you're working on music and you want to add some nice room ambiance to a vocal track that you recorded dry, you add reverb. But when you're in a large room and you hear your own voice distinctly coming back to you, you call it echo. Wait, what? What gives? Is there a difference?

'Reverb' isn't just some fancy term to make industry professionals feel elite, though I'm sure it has that effect. Reverb and echo are two different things. Here are the technical definitions of each:

Reverb is characterized as random, blended repetitions of a sound occurring within thirty milliseconds after the sound is made. This is all the sound that immediately bounces off any nearby surfaces before it gets back to your ears. So first you'll hear the original sound and then all the stuff bouncing off the walls, furniture, trees, people, giraffes and even acoustic tiling. Your brain is specially equipped to notice reverberations before your conscious perception does. It blends the reverb with the original sound before you even notice it and then tells you that it all came from the same location, just so you don't get confused. Weird, huh? With enough practice though, you can turn off this feature and notice the reverb that occurs in every space. Snap your fingers, or as I do, make a sharp clicking sound with your mouth, and try to listen to the room around you instead of yourself. You'll start to hear it. Try it in different rooms. It'll sound different each time.

Echo is defined by distinct repetitions of a sound occurring after 30 milliseconds. This is when you can unquestionably hear a distinct... well, echo of a sound coming back to you. When you are at a big canyon or inside a gigantic room and you, of course, say "Hello!" and then a moment later you hear it again, that's echo. For some reason, in the world of music production, it's called 'delay'. The term 'echo' is, to my knowledge, never used. What's wrong with 'echo'? I have no idea.

Next time you're at the Grand Canyon, a cathedral or an ancient meteor impact site, try some of these other phrases instead of boring ol' "Hello!":

"I'm not a crook!"
"Olly-Wolly Poliwogy Ump Bump Fizz!"
"Nooooooooooo!"
"AMPA receptors are both glutamate receptors and cation channels that are integral to plasticity and synaptic transmission at many postsynaptic membranes."
"meine hosen sind juckende!"

Vacation

2008-05-02T15:16:00.001-07:00

I'll be on vacation for the next couple of weeks, so there won't be any updates for a while. In the meantime, why not read up on some of the articles that you've missed? Every one of them is listed by category on the sidebar over there. Or, send a message to makeshiftmusician (at) gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you!

-ben

What Speakers Should I Get?

2008-04-25T12:14:00.001-07:00

This is Part 5 of the Makeshift Musician's Comprehensive Guide to Building Your Own Studio

Some folks, upon hearing that I had a studio, would immediately ask about what speakers I had. This aspect seemed to be the most important part to them. Audiophiles and engineers are a special breed. They love their speakers, to a degree that is frankly a little beyond me. This kind of thing used to intimidate me. You may be experiencing this if you have an audiophilic friend. You may feel the pressure to get some really expensive speakers as part of your rig/studio. Is this something you should be worrying about?

Before I give my opinion, let me get some things out of the way first. The point of high quality studio monitors (which is what audio folks call speakers) is to give a producer a flat frequency response. That means that all frequencies, from the deepest bass to most nasally voice to the highest note on a piccolo are given the same amount of power. The speaker will not favor any particular frequency range, so to speak. This helps the producer make a clean, well-balanced mix. If his speakers have a tendency for a heavy amount of bass (like most of the speakers you'll find at Best Buy), then the producer's music will probably end up with a weak bass sound, if he's not careful.

So should you be spending hundreds of dollars to get yourself a nice pair of real studio monitors, so you can have an authentic, flat sound? Only if you want to. I'd say when you're starting out, don't bother. Get something halfway decent and be happy. When you are working on your music, you should be more concerned with listening to your mix on a variety of speakers. When your song is nearly finished, burn it to a CD and listen to it in the car, on your home theater if you have it, boom box, laptop, weird ipod accessory, whatever you have. You will learn a lot from this sonic variety and you'll be able to make a great mix.

What do I have? For my studio, I do, in fact, use studio monitors. They're fairly cheap ones though: a pair of Behringer B2031P's. You need an amp for them, but they're still relatively inexpensive for a makeshift musician like me. On my Windows computer, the one I use for mastering and playing games, I have the Logitech Z-2300 set. It sounds great and I love it. If these sound good enough for me to do mastering, they should be good for anything.

Some things to consider when buying speakers:

Size DOES matter: No matter what some manufacturers might tell you, tiny speakers are physically incapable of giving you a rich, full sound. Sound waves are literally shaped like the object they come from. Sound waves from a guitar are actually guitar-shaped. Because of the large resonating chamber that the guitar has, it's lower frequencies are massive. A small, 4 inch high speaker absolutely cannot accurately recreate the sound of a guitar's resonating chamber simply because of its size. My audio engineering teacher said once that the ideal speaker would match the exact size and shape of whatever it was recreating. Keep that in mind when buying speakers. If you want a nice, full sound, get something bigger; at least somewhat bigger than your fist. My Logitech's are relatively small, but they have a nice big subwoofer that helps makes up for it.

Speaker technology hasn't really changed or improved in years: Well-built speakers from, say, the 1970's will sound just as good as well-built modern speakers, provided they haven't deteriorated yet. Making speakers into weird pod shapes does not actually make them better. Any talk of this or some sort of new technology is just a gimmick. Don't be fooled! Look for simple claims of high quality instead.

Search online for reviews of speakers to see what is best for your price range. By reading a several reviews of the same product, you can generally triangulate its quality yourself. And when your audiophile friend gives you a hard time for not buying 500-dollar (each!) speakers, just let him (it's always a him) know that he was probably ripped off!

Go to part 4: Audio Software

>>> Go to part 6: Microphones, Cables and Everything Else

The Makeshift Musician's Studio

2008-04-23T12:49:00.001-07:00

I apologize to my loyal readers for the lack of articles recently. Rest assured that I have a lot more content on the way for your enjoyment. Also, if there's anything you would like to see covered in this blog, please let me know.

A very astute reader may have already figured out my studio setup after reading all the articles so far. But for clarity, lets just go over everything in my own studio. What does a makeshift musician use? I was lucky enough to be blessed with a single car garage. In this garage I've cobbled together a fairly nice studio (if I do say so myself.) One of the problems with the garage is that it has a slightly sloped floor to keep water from getting in. This is a little annoying because it makes my chair swivel when it should stay still, but most of the time I don't notice. Here's a list of equipment:

2.5 Ghz Apple iMac with 2 megs of RAM - the iMac with OS X on it is so reliable that it's practically invisible. I almost never even think about the computer itself. This is what a computer should be. George Sanger, AKA The Fat Man talks in his book about turning the usually unreliable computer into a solid appliance by first making sure it is working and in stable condition, then sealing it up with duct tape and then writing "NO UPGRADES EVER" on it in sharpie. This is a great idea. Once your studio computer works well, try not to add much software or hardware to it. iMacs are great because they're already stable, self contained machines that work more like appliances than computers.

Steinberg Cubase SE - This is the software I use for recording and mixing. For the most part it is functionally identical to other software like Pro Tools and Cakewalk. The software's usefulness is really just a function of your own familiarity with it. Find a particular piece of software and stick with it. You'll get really good with it after a while.

M-Audio FireWire 1814 - This is how I hook up the keyboards, headphones, microphones and monitors (speakers) to the computer. When this thing works, it works perfectly. It is well built and solid. However, occasionally it will inexplicably lock up at random times, just like a computer crash. I have no idea what causes this, and it is always fixed simply by turning it off and on again, but it is incredibly annoying and is unacceptable for something so expensive. Next time I'll get something from a different manufacturer.

Behringer B2031P Studio Monitors - ('monitor' is a pretentious word for speaker) These are relatively inexpensive and have great sound. Highly recommended. You need to get an amp for them though.

Yamaha Motif ES-6 - This is a high-end workstation keyboard. It's interface is cryptic and difficult to learn. I've only barely learned it's basic functionality, but it has some powerful ability to manipulate sound. It has a fantastic bank of crisp, loud patches covering almost every genre imaginable. It's wind and guitar instruments, in particular, sound incredible. This is where the majority of my sounds come from.

Korg ES-1 Drum Machine - This thing is the oldest part of the Jupiterman studio. It's starting to show its age and has become much less relevant in recent years, but it it still reliable, tough-as-nails and embarrassingly easy to use. I say embarrassingly because the other devices that surround it are more advanced and more expensive and yet are still designed in a completely illogical way. If you've listened to music from jupiterman.net, you'll likely hear a lot of glitchy, multilayered percussion, as in Rebuilding a City, the second half of Apathetic Macrocosm (after the lyrics end), or Continuous Welded Rail. That is all from this one drum machine.

Novation XioSynth - A nice little synthesizer that replaced my old Korg Microkorg. It's a bit easier to use and has a more modern sound. I made a great recreation of a theremin with it. It's only problem is that it doesn't have MIDI input. Only an output, for some reason.

AKG Perception 200 Microphone - This is a crisp, full-sounding microphone with some nice features. Plus it is relatively inexpensive.

What else is in there?
- a microphone stand,
- a couple of stools for whoever is playing an instrument,
- a large plastic container full of scrap metal, balloons and some other random junk for sound effects,
- a bean bag chair left over from the previous tenant,
- a few hippie-looking wall hangings and carpets on the walls and floor for sound dampening,
- a pair of bongos,
- books on audio engineering and chord progressions,
- manuals galore,
- illustrations from Stephen King's Dark Tower series on the wall (a major inspiration for me),
- and some christmas lights that I haven't gotten around to hooking up

Tell me your studio setup and maybe it will be featured in a later article!

The Origins of American Music

2008-04-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

In the last 100 years, the music output from American culture has become a dense and intricate web of interesting history, with new genres created and adored practically every few years, and musical styles splitting, forming, coalescing and ultimately mixing back with the styles they split from in the first place. It's all a very evolutionary process; the DNA of musical styles mutated by individual artists, their survival decided by record companies and ultimately listeners.

But the origins of American music can be traced back to relative simplicity. Essentially, if you learn nothing else, remember that almost all American music stems from the mixing of European folk music (mostly Irish) and African folk music. The Irish, Scottish, English, French and Spanish immigrants, many living in the Appalachian mountains, started hanging out with African former slaves, who's polyrhythmic spiritual music was already gaining popularity after the civil war. The Civil War itself brought many whites and blacks together simply out of necessity; soldiers' fighting together shared their music with each other. Modern bluegrass is the closest reflection of this ancient (by American standards) combination of styles.

Negro Christian Spiritual hymns gained popularity in the late 1800's, which were essentially old European hymns sung in an African call-and-response polyrhythmic style. Then near the end of the century, a peculiar African American dance gained popularity; an over-the-top parody of ballroom dancing called the Cakewalk, often accompanied by goofy costumes. The intense popularity of this led to ragtime, which then evolved into jazz, thanks mostly to African American marching and, bizarrely, funeral bands from New Orleans. Jazz, of course, became possibly the single most influential change in America music and led to blues and rock n' roll. You probably know the rest.

It is interesting to note that if it weren't for African Americans, the United States would probably still be listening to John-Philips Sousa and Irish-Appalachian jigs.

This is all a gross oversimplification of the full history of American music. I didn't even go into Native American music, Cajun, Latin-American, or any of the several other cultural styles that have had their effect on our culture. The amount of literature related to this subject seems near infinite; the depth at which you can research any particular sub-topic is really only limited by your own conviction. Now that you have this tiny bit of information, you can strike out on your own and maybe hear some new stuff on the way.

Do-It-Yourself Wireless Control Surface

2008-03-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

I was looking through my gigantic, elephantine Sweetwater Sound catalog the other day an I came across this item:

It's a wireless control surface for your studio. It's very nice, with a transport wheel and display and all sorts of other nice functions. I'd love to have one myself. You can control your entire setup from anywhere in the room, which is particularly useful if you tend to record yourself, like I do. The idea is that your controls stay on your person so you don't have to hit record on your main setup, run across the room, pick up your instrument and then start playing. Anyway, having this fancy control panel would be cool and all, but look at the price! Two-hundred dollars!? I don't know about you, but I only know one, uh, person who can afford that luxury.

Since I'm not lighting cigars with hundred-dollar bills and throwing solid gold bars at pigeons for fun, a while back I bought this thing at Staples for about 30 bucks instead.

It, too, is a wireless control surface, and it has 80% of the usefulness. All you need to do is hook this thing up, start up your recording/mixing/ speadsheet/ whatever software and assign keys. I have functions like play/pause, set placemark, undo, record, create new track, and switching between various tools all mapped to my wireless keypad. I almost never touch the actual computer keyboard at all. It is much easier to record my own vocals when I don't have to take the headphones off and walk over to the main setup whenever I want to rerecord. I just hold the device while I'm singing.

Sure, it doesn't have it's own display or a cool transport wheel, but give me enough time and I might be able to come up with those too. Anyway, there are several different kinds of wireless keypads and input devices. They can totally make your life easier without the need for indentured servitude.

Jumpstart New Song Ideas

2008-03-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it can be really hard to come up with ideas for new songs. You may find yourself, as I often do, simply repeating the same chord progressions over and over again, and you're afraid that all your songs will start sounding the same. Here are some things that I do to get myself back into the creative flow:

Listen to New Music - I have an article on introducing yourself to new musical genres. Follow the steps in that article and you'll no doubt gain several ideas for new songs. Listening to interesting new music always gives you a new perspective on things. Everyone else in the world looks at things a little differently than you do. A piece of music represents one artist's or group's point of view. By continually stimulating yourself with new viewpoints, you will always be able to see everything differently, even that keyboard sitting in front of you.

Try writing in a different genre - I covered this a lot in Don't Find Inspiration: Create it. Writing a different genre than you usually write in will give you something new automatically, plus you'll learn a lot while you do it. Pick a random genre or combine two different genres that don't normally go together. You can get some weird and interesting results, and they will always be creative.

Play with more obscure chords - Break out your old books and look up some of the more esoteric chords in them. Like listening to new music, hearing new chords will give you a fresh perspective. Try combining chords in ways that you haven't tried before.

Mess around with some pre-made loops - If you have the ability throw together some looped drum tracks or chords on your workstation, dig through the presets that you have and put some together. You'll have instant accompaniment while you try to play new stuff. It really helps get things flowing quickly.

The Makeshift Musician's Favorite Albums

2008-03-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

This week, allow me a little bit of self-indulgence with my list of my favorite albums. I can listen to these any time and love the experience over and over again. Everyone should be listening to these. Here they are, in no particular order:

Queen - A Night at the Opera - ...and not just because of Bohemian Rhapsody. Actually, my favorite song on the album is '39. This album is a pinnacle of songwriting, musicianship, experimentation, dramatic effect, modern recording, and just plain delivery. When you listen to this album, you can tell that Queen knew what they were doing and they can outclass anyone else in the world of rock.

Greg Graffin - Cold as the Clay - This humble collection of old-timey folk songs has depressing subject matter but nevertheless has an incredible warmth to it. The simple honesty of it all is inspiring. Plus it shows us that old-fashioned recording techniques still have a place in modern music.

Telefon Tel Aviv - Map of What is Effortless - Telefon Tel Aviv is a little known duo from Chicago who made the lovely album Fahrenheit Fair Enough back in 2001. In 2004, they released Map of What is Effortless, which was completely different in presentation. While the first album was light, glitchy and relaxing, the second album is dark, funky, dramatic and soulful. The album has that wonderful quality of being an epic musical journey from start to finish.

Eumir Deodato - Deodato 2 - Deodato was a pioneer in genre fusion. Deodato 2 is the epitome of his music writing skill and his and his band's improv abilities. It's sort of a mix of Latin, disco, jazz and funk. If I wanted to show you true musicianship, I would play this album for you.

Orbital - Middle of Nowhere - Orbital had an interesting history: some of their albums had a random, haphazard feel to them, while others would be amazing examples of clarity, substance and overarching intention. Middle of Nowhere fell into the latter category. Starting with the over-the-top double feature of Way Out and Spare Parts Express, the album descends into mysterious and moody atmosphere before slowly bringing itself back up to upbeat conclusions with Style. Another musical journey showing the great skill and experience of the Brothers Hartnoll.

Bad Religion - the Process of Belief - Most people would cite earlier Bad Religion albums, like Stranger Than Fiction, as their favorite, but the combination of dead-on songwriting, new drummer Brooks Wackerman, and much higher production values put this one on top for me. If nothing else, no one can fault Bad Religion for their bull-headed consistency and dedication to their craft. Particular favorites on this album are Kyoto Now! and Bored and Extremely Dangerous.

Alison Krauss & Union Station - New Favorite - Anyone who says white folks have no rhythm have obviously never listened to bluegrass. Bluegrass is the closest modern genre to our American musical heritage, the fusion of Irish and African folk music. Allison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Jerry Douglass and the rest of Union Station are the finest ambassadors to the mostly forgotten world of our past. And what incredible musicians they are! Listening to them jam together is a truly transcendent experience. New Favorite is the most accessible and fun album, with a lot of rhythm and a good showing from all the vocalists.

They Might Be Giants - Apollo 18 - Weird, nerdy experimental rock at its finest. This was when TMBG's style was still catchy and fun in addition to being eccentric. Highlights include The Statue Got Me High, Dinner Bell, and the incredible Fingertips, a sequential collection of no less than twenty individual songs, all different, each between five and thirty seconds long.

William Orbit - Strange Cargo - Undeniable atmosphere. Extensive sonic variety. Masterful skill with a studio. William Orbit's Strange Cargo albums represent all of these things. One minute you're listening to lovely latin style folk music, the next minute an unsettling soundscape of dissonant music and sound effects, then an 80's sounding rock song with backup instruments that sound like they came from the Amiga demo scene. All of the Strange Cargo albums are great, but the first one makes the best overall impression throughout the entire album. Pick this one up to hear something truly unique.

Start to Finish: The Process of Making a Song

2008-03-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

The way I write songs may be a bit different than most. First of all, my songs don't exist in live form. I only write a song as a finished studio piece. Second, I generally don't know where the song is going when I start it. It can be a kind of messy way to make music, but it usually yields interesting results. Even my more focused songs, like Harvest or Continuous Welded Rail followed a similar writing process. I mostly deal electronic instruments, because I have a strong, possibly quixotic desire to be a one man show, but I'll occasionally throw in vocals or some live instrument part. Lets get to work!

Part I: Composing and Producing

I always start with one of two things: a concept for a type of sound, or a melody or chord progression. Sometimes I'll randomly come up with a melody at an unexpected time, or sometimes I'll stumble on one when playing around with the keyboard or banjo. Other times there will be a particular song that I like and I'll want to write something in a similar style. I never use those AB-whatever song structures that are so prevalent in pop music, nor do I try to come up with hooks for my songs. I love hooks, I'm just not particularly good with them.

Anyway, lets say I've got an interesting melody. I'll then practice playing it over and over with different instrument sounds, like piano, strings, synthesizers, maybe horns or something. During this time my left hand will often be searching for chords that fit with the melody as well. Eventually, I'll find a sound that clicks with me and I can picture an entire soundscape surrounding the melody, which is when I get to work.

First I'll decide the tempo I want the song to be at. I do this by tapping a special button on my drum machine that gives me a tempo readout based on my rhythm. I start a new song in Cubase and set that tempo. Then I'll pull up some drum preset on the keyboard and record it real quick and loop it. I'll choose a drum loop that roughly fits the feel I'm going for, though it is unlikely that it'll be used in the final production. This makes for a metronome, or click track, that is way better than the usual obnoxious beeping sound that the software gives you. Now I can play my melody along with a nice beat to keep time.

I'll record the melody first in MIDI format, which means instead of recording the sounds of my keyboard, I record the data of what keys I press onto a MIDI track in Cubase. After that, I'll tell Cubase to quantize my notes, which essentially means make minute changes to each note so that they're all in time with the rhythm. I don't do it too much or everything will sound too mechanical. But since I have just about the worst rhythm a musician could have, it's very useful. Once the notes are in place and they sound like someone with actual talent played them, I'll have the software MIDI track play my keyboard, and this time I actually record the sound. Often for simpler melodies or chords, I won't bother with the whole MIDI/Quantization thing.

I'll then record other parts in the same fashion, like a bass line or a sweet pad (a simpler background chord). I'll also start thinking about what kind of percussion I want. I make sure that I experiment with any instrument sound I can think of. I never leave out any possibility for any kind of sound. Who says you can't have harpsichord, oboe, a screaming synthesizer, xylophone and distorted rock drums all in one song? I'll never tell you that.

By this time I'll be thinking about new melodies to follow up the first one, new chords to move the song to, and transitions to tie the pieces together as I make them. Because I pretty much record as I write, a very experimental way to make music, I'll often end up with several versions of a song, each one going in different directions. Many of them are terrible, but by continually experimenting I'll find new avenues to write in. Working with each part is like working on a miniature song, since any one part can sound completely different from the next. Sometimes I'll go from purely symphonic to purely electronic to several layers of percussion without melodies, and each one requires a different mindset when mixing. This is also a good time to record anything acoustic, like bongos or, *shudder*, vocals.

Eventually I'll get to a point where I either think it would be a good place to end the song or I simply can't think of anything else to add. Sometimes I'll try to incorporate some elements from the beginning of the song into the end, to wrap things up nicely, but it isn't necessary.

Part II: Post Production and Mastering

After I have everything pretty much written, I get to the mixing and engineering stage. This is where it starts to sound less like a collection of disparate sounds and more like a cohesive song. I'll fix up the percussion and add in interesting rolls and crashes to spice up transitions between parts. I might add some small, quiet higher pitch melodies to complement the main ones. I'll change the volume levels on everything until it all sounds great. Remember this: Good volume levels on everything will mean the difference between a mediocre song and a great one. I'll add effects like reverb, filtering and distortion.

I'll keep tweaking it as much as I can. Then I'll leave it alone for a day or two. This is important. I'll leave it alone and make sure I listen to a lot of other music that's not mine during this time. When I come back to the song I'll have a much more neutral and fresh perspective. I'll tweak whatever I think needs work and then I'll burn the song to a CD. I'll listen to this CD in my car as I drive to see what it sounds like there. Listening to your song or mix on different sets of speakers is a great way to make it an excellent, well rounded mix. I often find, for instance, that the bass in my mix is a bit heavy in the car compared to my studio monitors. I'll also probably listen to the song on headphones, which you should be doing anyway occasionally when writing the song. This helps with tweaking the stereo image you've made in your mix.

Once I've listened to it in a few different environments I'll go back again and tweak whatever is left. Then I'll declare it done. (Maybe after listening to it in the car again?) I save it as a WAV file, and bring it to my Windows computer for mastering. I only do this because my mastering software ended up being Windows only. I'll add a very small amount of compression which I add to all my songs to give them a consistent volume level. Then I'll convert that to a high quality (256kbps) mp3 file, put all the necessary tags on it, and upload it to my website or send it to whoever may have asked for the song in the first place. I keep the master WAV file in several different places, (one on the Mac, one on the Windows machine, and one on a separate backup hard drive) to be safe. I also backup the original Cubase tracks as well, because you never know when you're going to need the original tracks when you're famous and some creatively starved rapper wants to pay you millions for the right to call your song his own.

Then I take a quick break and start all over again! If you want to hear examples of songs of mine that followed this procedure pretty much to the letter, listen to:

Falling Gracefully
Apathetic Macrocosm
Quantum Foam
Behold! The Mountain Cries

Postmortem - What I Learned From Producing a Game Soundtrack

2008-03-08T13:50:00.000-08:00

Recently I completed my first soundtrack for a computer game; a turn-based strategy title in a stylized fantasy setting. Although the game is on the verge of cancellation, working on the score was a fantastic learning experience.

Generally, a composer is given artwork from a game, or if he's really lucky, an early playable copy of the software to play around with. I didn't have much artwork or software to go by. Actually, I didn't have any. I was writing the soundtrack based entirely on the background story and game structure that the director described to me over the phone and through email. So it wasn't quite the same experience that a composer for media usually has. Regardless, in the end, I had roughly 40 minutes of music spanning 15 tracks. Here are some of the things that I learned from the experience:

MIDI Quantization is your friend - I didn't start using MIDI quantization until this project, but now I've learned how useful it can be when trying to write and simultaneously record. MIDI Quantization is the process of playing a melody and then having the computer nudge the notes around a little to keep everything synced up with the tempo. Some would call it cheating, and it is in a way, but when you're writing an entire soundtrack and live performance is irrelevant, then it can save you a lot of time and frustration, and allow you to focus on quality of composition.

Restraint is an important musical technique to know - Because of the experimental nature of my writing style, I tend to simply throw in whatever sounds I think will make a song interesting. The game had a fantasy setting, so I couldn't go nuts with, say, the electronic elements as much as I would like. I had to stick with a smaller sonic palette than I normally use, a situation which tends to give a person a false sense of creative limitation. It will, however, force a composer to be more creative with the elements that he does have. This is probably why the soundtracks to all those old Nintendo games are so catchy: when you only have four channels of audio to work with, you tend to make those the best damn four channels of music you can possibly deliver.

I really, really need to learn more about chords and chord progressions - oh boy do I ever. Learn how to make a variety of good chord progressions or all your songs will start sounding the same. This has always been a problem of mine and it's starting to catch up with me. I learned a lot just from making so much music in a relatively short period of time, but there is still so much left to learn. If you learn as much as you can about chord progressions, and drill chord structures into your mind, you will become a much better musician.

When writing for others, you can't get too attached to what you make - You need to see everything you make objectively. Even when you think you've made your best work, the other members of the team may not like it at all, and you'll have to rewrite it. I was fortunate to have a team that gave me a lot of creative freedom, but I still needed to do the occasional rewrite.

You can learn a lot when you force yourself to write every day - In fact I wrote a whole article on this after finishing the soundtrack: Don't Find Inspiration: Create It. It is one of my most popular articles.

LABEL YOUR MUSIC TRACKS - I didn't really do this before I started the soundtrack, but now I can't stress this enough. If you have a 30 track song, and you need to re-record a particular string part but you just left all the tracks labeled as "track 21", "track 22" or something else equally generic, you're going to be miserable trying to figure out precisely which string patch you used before, especially if you first recorded it weeks ago. Label each track with precisely what was recorded, along with any special conditions involved in recording it.

I learned a lot of small technical things as well, but these are the most important, overarching lessons I've learned from writing and producing a score. I think they all can apply to music writing in general. Any other composers or producers wish to share their thoughts?

Head over to http://myspace.com/jupitermanmusic to hear a few samples from the game soundtrack: The Regrets of Man, The Inevitable and Legacy of the Dead.

Piano Playing Tips for Beginners

2008-03-03T17:32:00.000-08:00

Now, I'm not a fantastic pianist, but I've been learning for a few years now. While I'm not going to teach you to play, (there are plenty of other resources on the internet for that) I can share a few things that I've learned about playing. They all tie in to one golden rule: with practice, skill comes automatically. These principles can apply to practicing with any musical instrument, by the way.

Forget the tempo: go for accuracy - The most important thing to remember when practicing with an instrument is to slow down. Play as slow as you need in order to play accurately. With practice, speed will come automatically. You never need to worry about tempo. The correct tempo will come on its own. Remember that: ACCURACY is the most important part of practicing and playing.

No problem is insurmountable - As you're playing, you'll come across parts in a song that seem too complicated for you to play. Most likely, this is because you're going too fast (see above). There's no leap in skill or ability required to nail a particularly hard part, just keep practicing it over and over very slowly and the skill needed to play the part will come automatically.

Reading music will get easier - Reading music was always a chore for me at first. When I would get to a new note, I would have to stop, look closely at where the note was on the staff, then go over the acronyms in my head (e.g. FACE) to figure out what note to play. It's painfully slow in the beginning and really frustrating when all you want to do is play, but after several songs, you'll just start to remember what notes are where, and the link between the musical staff, the names of notes, and the notes on your instrument will strengthen to a point where, once again, it becomes automatic.

Take frequent breaks - As soon as you start feeling clumsy, or if you're like me, clumsier than usual, take a quick break. Do something else with your hands, like play a song you already know well or play a quick game of Tetris for a few minutes, then go back to practicing. This works wonders for me. Roughly for every 20 to 30 minutes of playing I'll take a 5 minute break. I'm convinced that I'm getting better faster simply because of this.

Okay, so that last one doesn't tie into my golden rule so well, but it is important, so I'm keeping it in there. Deal with it. Remember these principles and practice every day and you will be able to play anything. I promise.

Patrick Bettison's Carnival of Music Lessons

2008-03-01T19:57:00.000-08:00

My article, Gain the Confidence to Compose Music has been featured in the March issue of the Blog Carnival of Music on Patrick Bettison's Bass Lessons blog. Go check it out if you haven't already read it, and check out all the other interesting articles on there. There's quite a variety this month, ranging from a high schooler's essay on music and cognitive theory to my personal favorite, 5 Reasons Why you should Ditch Your Guitar Teacher. Go self-teaching!

The Importance of Music to Humankind

2008-02-27T15:09:00.000-08:00

I can't think of anyone I know who doesn't love and/or express music in some way. I have one roommate who plays guitar and piano, another who sings and dances in stage productions. My dad plays multiple instruments in a church group. My best friend is the lead singer in a popular emo band. Everyone I know can talk passionately about either the music they make or their favorite music of others. People associate certain songs with specific memories and even develop emotional attachments to them. Heck, Guitar Hero, a game involving only rudimentary musical performance is far more popular than anyone imagined.

Clearly, music is a powerful force that drives all of us. Although I think the term "universal language" is misleading (play some modern heavy metal for your grandma to see what I mean), I still think there's wisdom to that statement, pointing out the deep, subtle and compelling influence that music has on our subconscious.

What is music? Why are we even capable of creating and appreciating it? Did music evolve specifically along with our other unique traits, like communication, strong memory and creative thinking? Was it once a necessary part of survival in some direct or indirect way? Or is our extraordinary ability simply an emergent behavior; just a lucky bonus that came along, unplanned, packaged in as a result of our innovative brains?

We can (relatively) easily trace other aspects of human behavior to evolutionary survival and social techniques. For example, we enjoy team sports because their main aspect, rapid coordinated group behavior achieving a goal, is built in to our DNA. Look at football: there's really not a huge difference between a group of players throwing a ball towards a goal and a group of hunters throwing spears at an aurochs. Communication was always important in a hunt, which, unlike most modern hunting for sport, involved a large group of people. This necessity for coordinated articulation initially led to sign language and eventually spoken language.

With such large groups of people living and working together their whole lives, communication had to eventually develop into something more abstract and versatile than simply the expressing of tactics. To develop camaraderie in a large tribe of folks, symbolic thinking and a sense of humor developed, which led to mathematics, visual arts and laughter.

This, and much more, are all things that anthropologists have known for years. But where does music fit in? This is more difficult to find out. Methods for recording music didn't exist until the 1800's, so while we have cave paintings or venus figurines to show us the visual expressiveness of our distant ancestors, we don't have an equivalent for music. We've found some prehistoric instruments, like 30,000-year-old flutes made out bone capable of a five note diatonic scale, but these don't tell much without us resorting to educated guesses. So all we have are theories of a relatively few dedicated musical anthropologists.

Is music unique among humans? Birds make a repeating pattern of notes that we call a "song". Whales will repeat hours-long sequences of clicks and whistles, presumably from memory, that we also label as "songs". Though, really, nobody has any idea what they're doing. Why is that great apes, who share more than 90% of our genetic material, display no musical abilities, while humpback whales might be writing day-long symphonies right under our noses? The questions just never end.

My point is that despite all the music that we have made and enjoyed in the span of recorded history, we still may have only scratched the surface of the full potential of music. It may in fact really be a universal language, and we've all forgotten how to utilize it in that way. Nobody really knows. If we can somehow figure out where music came from and how it emerged, we might all be able to tap into some long dormant part of our brain (which really hasn't changed in 250,000 years) and realize the true potential for music.

So here's my goal: to achieve a deeper understanding of the origins of music and to understand the "point" of it being part of humankind's physiology and identity. I will achieve this by 1) Understanding as much about music itself as possible, through playing, composing, studying and listening, and 2) Researching as much as I can on the subjects of anthropology, musical anthropology, evolutionary theory and biomusicology. You can bet that I'll write about my findings whenever I get to a point of greater understanding. Feel free to send me your own thoughts as well.

Here are some books I plan on reading. Check them out yourself if you're interested:

The Singing Neanderthals by Steven Mithin
Essentials of Physical Anthropology by R Jurmain, L Kilgore and W Trevethan
How Musical Is Man? by John Blacking
The Anthropolgy of Music by A Merriam and V Merriam

Guitar Hero vs. Actual Musical Skills

2008-02-25T11:45:00.000-08:00

Ah, Guitar Hero. Who would've thought that hitting rainbow colored buttons on a Fischer-Price toy while watching cartoon characters dance on screen would be so popular amongst adults and teenagers, who are usually very self-conscious about that kind of thing? Everyone has wondered whether Guitar Hero skills translate to actual musical skills. Alas, just about every real musician will tell you that they don't. That's only the quick answer though, and it's not entirely true. I think there is some benefit to your musicals skills by playing with that little plastic toy guitar, even if those benefits are subtle, basic mental ones. I'm no neuroscientist, but I decided to do some research on the subject and then come to some hasty conclusions after that. Here's what I found.

When you play Guitar Hero, you are sort of performing a simplified version of sight reading: watching as the nodes come down the line and then hitting the associated note. Now, obviously you aren't reading from a real musical scale, and you only have a maximum of five notes to keep track of. But there's one crucial difference between Guitar Hero and actual sight reading: Timing.

In sight reading studies, people display two different eye movement behaviors, saccades and fixations. Saccades are the rapid movement of the eye from one location to another, and fixations are when the eye lingers on a particular note. Though the musician is keeping time, this is not necessarily true for their eye movements. A musician may choose to occasionally move his or her eyes ahead briefly to see what is coming up, or they may have to perform rapid saccades when the melody gets complicated. With Guitar Hero, the "musical staff" is continually moving, forcing both the player and their eyes to keep up. The player cannot see very far ahead, so they can't plan. During the first several rounds of a song in Guitar Hero, the player goes through some very rigorous sight reading exercise. Now, if someone would make an educational Piano Hero, with a moving musical staff (thanks Joe, for that idea), we could have a truly amazing way to learn to sight read.

There was a study done in 1997 by FE Truitt on peripheral visual input. This refers to the ability of the eye to capture more data around the point of focus without actually moving. The study found that even the most skilled sight readers could only see about 5 beats ahead when focusing on one note. Unskilled sight readers could only see about 2 ahead. With a constantly moving "staff" and a very short viewing distance, Guitar Hero is most certainly exercising your peripheral visual ability. Both the musician and the guitar hero will be exercising their short-term musical memory, storing what notes they can, and processing them to be played. Will Guitar Hero help with sight reading actual music? Nobody knows for sure, but it probably can't hurt.

Of course, after several rounds of a particular song, the player is mostly relying on pattern memorization. But really, the same is true for musicians. A musician, when practicing a piece, will play a particularly difficult part over and over again. A Guitar Hero player is forced to play the entire song at the same tempo every time, where a musician can play however they want. Once again, the guitar hero is only playing different combinations of the same five notes, so they have a severe advantage over the musician.

Of course, the most obvious benefit of playing Guitar Hero would be the exercising of the fingers of your 'fret' hand while hitting the five buttons. I don't believe this really does a lot for your fret ability on a real guitar, since that involves moving your hand in very bizarre and unnatural positions. But it does exercise your finger muscles and improves your coordination, which can translate, at least, directly to better piano skills. For your left hand, anyway.

So does being a master at Guitar Hero make you a better musician? I'm going to say no. Does it help with some basic motor skills that are required for a good musician? After doing some simple research, I would say yes. However, the amount of time some people spend becoming a truly scary Guitar Hero hero might be better spent actually learning guitar or piano instead. At least then you have the potential for real groupies instead of pretending to have them.

This is certainly not an exhaustive report, just me gaining a little bit more knowledge on the subject. There's plenty more to read about neuroscience, muscle coordination, sight reading and all manner of other things related to pushing giant, brightly colored buttons to a beat while pretending to be cool.

For the record, I absolutely love Guitar Hero, but I'm embarrassingly bad at it. Guess you never can tell, eh?

Some interesting reading:

Wikipedia - Eye Movement in Music Reading

Forget Genres!

2008-02-19T16:26:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things to do when I'm working on a song is to occasionally ask myself "What would happen if I introduced rock drums into the piece?" This almost always leads the song in fun and interesting directions. I have a tendency to write my songs without any idea where they're going, and most of the time I get interesting results out of that philosophy.

For instance, my song Falling Gracefully starts out low-key with simple, almost jazzy keyboard playing. It then becomes a sort of ambient thing with a choir and adds some electronic percussion and violins for, uh, maybe a new age sound? After that part I actually asked myself the aforementioned question and found out the answer by adding some rock drums and loud synthesizers and hammer instruments. Finally it ended with oboes playing some mellow chords. You can hear the whole thing here.

My point is that I never had any idea of what genres I might be using when I started the piece, I just followed my intuition as I wrote and recorded. For Falling Gracefully, it worked fantastically. Sometimes it doesn't work as well, like in Quantum Foam, where the second half ended up with a much higher quality sound overall than the first, making it inconsistent as a whole.

But it is important to remember that while writing for a specific genre is perfectly fine, constraining a song or (more importantly) all of your work to one genre will eventually limit your creative output. Pop artists tend to stay in one genre because that helps them sell records. But think of legends like the Beatles and Queen, who experimented with multiple genres, sometime in the course of one song. Two of my favorite artists, William Orbit (the Strange Cargo albums in particular) and Matt Uelman (Soundtrack to the game Diablo II) thrive on making their music span all sorts of genres. It is their greatest strength.

Although it is completely possible that you will be able to write 30 pure rock songs (as many artists have done), you will be amazed at the worlds that open up to you when you try out new genres. It is an incredible thrill to see a whole new set of possibilities laid out in front of you. So don't let the concept of genres make you afraid of branching out.

How Microphones Work

2008-02-14T17:18:00.001-08:00

Microphones are probably the most abused piece of equipment in the music world. Those poor, diligently working devices are so delicate and precise, and yet they receive the most degrading treatment. Have you seen how pop stars and folk singers behave on stage? They make out with their microphone like it was a sweaty, over-eager lover. It's a gruesome sight that we all seem to put up with for some reason; I suppose in the name of "art". Maybe if singers knew more about microphones they would stop molesting them and actually try using them properly.

Before you can understand how microphones work, you have to understand how sound works. Sound is simply vibrating air particles. That's it. There's nothing fancy going on, just the molecules of air shaking around a bit. For some perspective, wind is actually traveling air particles. For an analogy, sound is like waves on a body of water. The water is mostly just moving up and down. But if you have a hose (wind), spraying water around, that's a lot different.

Microphones are a type of transducer, which means they convert one form of energy into another. In this case they transform the energy of vibrating air (acoustic energy) into electrical energy. A speaker is a precise opposite of a microphone. It converts electrical energy into acoustic energy. Microphones and speakers are so similar, in fact, that if you were to somehow wire up a speaker in the same fashion as a mic, you could actually pick up some rudimentary acoustics (some really weird sounding rudimentary acoustics). You could probably rig up a mic like a speaker and try to get some sound out of it, but I don't know anyone who's tried and I'm pretty sure you'd wreck the microphone in the process.

There are two types of microphones: dynamic and capacitor.

Dynamic microphones use magnets and either a small metal coil or a metal ribbon that vibrates when sound hits it. As it vibrates it generates a voltage at a particular level. Dynamic mikes are rugged but not as precise or, ironically, dynamic as capacitor mikes.

A capacitor mic uses two plates to make a, well, capacitor (which means it holds an electrical charge): a fixed plate and a very thin plastic and metal diaphragm. It looks like this:

When vibrating air pushes the diaphragm around, it changes the space in between the two plates, causing a change in the voltage that it gives out. Tada! A variable electrical signal! Because there aren't any magnets to provide energy, capacitor mikes need what is called a pre-amp; essentially they need to be powered so that the capacitor can always hold a charge.

In addition to their different methods of gathering sound waves, mics are always built to have a particular pickup pattern. This is important to musicians. The pickup pattern is the direction from which a microphone gets its sound. I've made a handy diagram here for you, representing the three most common pickup patterns:

Omnidirectional mikes tends to pick up sound from everywhere. This is good when you're trying to pickup the sound of many people talking or general ambiance. Bidirectional mikes pickup sound sort of in a straight line on either side of the mic. I know people use these since companies keep making them, but I'll be damned if I know why anyone bothers. Cardioid mikes are very common. They are sometimes incorrectly referred to as unidirectional. I say incorrectly, because, if you look at that pattern, you can see that the term 'unidirectional' is kind of misleading. Still, cardioid mikes are the most directional and are generally the best for recording instruments and sounds, since they tend to block out most sounds not in their direct path.

A good thing to remember when looking at microphones is impedance. Impedance is how well a circuit restricts the flow of alternating current. This is measured in ohms (Ω). Now, we're getting into really technical territory and any minute now my brain will jump out of my head, pack up its bags and high-tail it to the nearest Amish village if I don't stop soon, so really what you need to know is that the lower impedance you have in a microphone, the better. With a lower impedance, the mic will have less electrical noise, which means a cleaner sound for your recording.

This is only a very basic overview of microphones. There's a lot more to learn about pickup patterns, transducers, acoustics, and microphone types. But at least now you know a little bit about the subject so you don't have to sound like a total audio weenie in the recording studio or at the music shop. And if you ever get sound out of your microphone, tell me about it, then punch yourself in the face since you just ruined a perfectly good mic.

Listening to Music Intelligently

2008-02-11T10:26:00.000-08:00

You've listened to music for years. You have favorite songs that you listen to over and over. You've probably memorized every tiny aspect of a favorite song to a point where you can not only sing the lyrics with the exact same eccentricities as the singer, but you can recreate the unique sounds of the instrumentation. You know who you are.

But are you really listening to your music intelligently? Listening intelligently can make you a much better musician and can help you appreciate a wider variety of music overall.

In order to listen to your music intelligently and appreciate every aspect of it, you first need to actually listen to it. You should set aside time to listen to the music without any other distractions. Sometimes driving in the car can fill this role, as long as you aren't one to get road rage. However you do it, find time to just sit down and listen in a nice environment without working or doing anything else. Now you're ready.

So take a song that you love and ask yourself, what is it about this song that I love so much? Is it the melody? The overall groove? The lyrics? The singer? Remember that the lyrics and the sound of the singer are two very different things. Maybe it's something more subtle that you like about it, like the constant juxtaposition of two melodies, or that it just seems to almost overwhelm your ears with sound and music (known as a wall of sound; one of my favorite techniques). Understanding precisely what it is about a song that you like so much will help you find other songs that you'll enjoy.

Keep listening. What else is good about this song? What else did the artists simply get right? If it really is a good song, it probably has a nice flow from beginning to end, meaning it never gets boring and no individual part outstays its welcome. It also probably has interesting and pleasing chord progressions. Interesting chord progressions are key to a great, memorable song. Artists who enjoy enduring popularity over many years all tend to have that in common; they all know how to make interesting melodies and chord progressions. You can say all you want about the importance of lyrics, and you would mostly be right, but I can guarantee that the Beatles' Yesterday would never have been remembered if McCartney wrote it in the style of, say, Jane's Addiction's (lack of) melodies and chords.

Also, think about what genre or sub-genre the song most closely resembles. Are they incorporating multiple genres? Are they adding some style in this particular song that they don't usually do? Maybe a different time signature than the usual 4/4?

Now get a little more technical with your listening. Try to locate and differentiate each individual instrument. Where in the stereo mix is the singer, guitar, bass, percussion, keyboards, synthesizers, strings, voice samples, saxophones, sousaphones, whatever? How loud is each part in comparison to the others? Do you notice an excessive amount of bass? Or maybe not enough? Sometimes you'll hear a song that, while clearly well written, will sound kind of blah or flat to you. This isn't just some ethereal impression you're getting; it may be because of the way the song was recorded or mixed. If the recording doesn't fill the whole spectrum of human hearing, it is at great risk of sounding underwhelming to the listener, regardless of how good the music itself is.

Clear, crisp high end (hi hats, egg shakers), rich middle-range (vocals, guitars, cymbals), and deep, satisfying bass (kick drums, timpani, low horns), all need to come together to make a truly fantastic listening experience. To really understand how this works, get and listen to both Queen's first album (self-titled), and their fourth album, A Night at the Opera. Go do it now. I'm serious. I'll wait.

Both albums display incredibly good compositions and musicianship. But their first album is low-budget: it's scratchy, distorted and is completely lacking in satisfying bass. The treble sounds muffled and frankly, kind of weird. On the other hand, A Night at the Opera was the most expensive album ever produced for its time, and it shows. Notice how, in the newer album, Queen's music opens up in a completely new way. Hear how the whole frequency spectrum is filled? You can really hear the kick drum properly, the acoustic guitars are crystal clear, and their trademark opera choir (which is really just the four of them overdubbed like 10 times) is loud, powerful, and never once overloads. Yell into your crappy computer microphone if you want to hear exactly what 'overloading' sounds like.

A well-produced album will have presence. It will transcend the speakers that they're playing on and become part of you, the listener.

For the other end of the technical spectrum, try listening to a very old (around or before the 1940's) or very amateur album. As you listen to it in addition to really nice albums, you'll start to understand what makes a beautiful, full sounding recording. You will start to hear that presence I just mentioned, on a conscious, rather than subconscious level.

Listening to music with this kind of trained ear takes some of the mysticism out of music, and some may not like picking apart everything they hear. But for me, a composer and producer, the rewards for hearing everything with a heightened awareness are immeasurable. Understanding how different elements interact with each other and what makes good things stand out is extremely important when making your own music.

Efficiency: The Key to Writing Better

2008-02-06T17:24:00.000-08:00

Here's a saying that I came up with for musicians, (though I'm not about to claim ownership of it): Nothing should get in between you and your music. I live by this all the time. The point is that anything that makes your music writing more difficult than it has to be should be removed as soon as possible. Everything inconvenient for you is hurting your music writing ability.

Here's an example directly from my experience. When I first put together the real Jupiterman studio, everything was built around an Apple Powerbook that I had:

You can see the laptop there, perched behind the keyboard. Now Cubase, my recording software, allows you to perform most of the functions with just the keyboard, which I did. Using a mouse is an easy but slow method of operating a computer. The problem was that to actually hit any of the keys I would have to stand up out of my chair to reach them. Now this doesn't seem like much of a problem, but I after awhile I felt like maybe it was being detrimental. So I bought a small wireless numeric keypad and attached it to the arm of my chair with Velcro. I then mapped all the functions that I normally used to that device, like play/pause, record, rewind, undo, etc.

Instantly I noticed a huge difference. Canceling and rerecording took a fraction of second, and I didn't even have to take my other hand away from the piano keys. Before, it took much longer. Suddenly I found it much less annoying to do multiple takes over and over. It was far easier to focus on simply working hard to make the music better.

If you are struggling to find a way to keep your sheet music in front of you, just get a stand. You'll be so much happier with it and you can put all of your energy each day into playing rather than carefully positioning your music in front of you or craning your neck. Sometimes your obstacle may be a little more abstract. If you write music on a staff, don't just buy a book of blank sheet music, buy 5 of them. That way, you won't feel the need to conserve your paper for masterpieces and can focus on just writing.

You should be totally comfortable, both physically and mentally, when writing your music. Learn from the best; see what professionals and other musicians do and see if you can recreate their techniques. The easier it is to make your music, the better your results will be. Nothing should get in between you and your music.

Originality in Music: A Brief Observation

2008-02-01T15:59:00.001-08:00

My grandfather once asked me: since music is simply the arrangement of notes, and there's (for the most part) a finite number of notes available, how can there possibly be any new music out there at all? Looking at it statistically, everything should have been written already, and every artist is simply recycling ideas. It was an interesting observation, from a man who's main musical interest was opera, though I wasn't prepared to give him an intelligent answer at the time. Now I think I can.

As I'm sure you know, music isn't really just an arrangement of notes. Most of the time, when it's good music, it's multiple arrangements of notes playing simultaneously. That alone increases the number of possibilities from "a whole lot," to infinity. Or think of how much can be done with just one melody. I've heard the Super Mario Bros. theme played by an a capella group, a string orchestra, a ska band, two Tesla coils, a jazz duo, and several other groups. They're playing almost the same arrangement of notes but it sounds completely different each time.

Several years ago I met a guy at a local show in Maine who called himself Neon From Candlelight. He had a single electric guitar and about twenty foot pedals that he would arrange in a half-circle in front of him. He would pluck one or two notes on his guitar and then use the different pedals to warp the sound. It wasn't exactly exciting, but it made a fascinating soundscape if you were willing to get lost in it. Neon From Candlelight shows us that a musician has infinite possibilities with something as humble as a single note.

So I've proven my point to my grandfather. When you combine the potential of multiple simultaneous melodies with the potential of modifying individual notes, you really have no limit to how much you can write. As an exercise, come up with an interesting melody. Now see if you can make a whole suite of songs using just that melody in different styles. Try something slow and something upbeat. Try different time and key signatures (modifying a melody to fit into a different time signature is particularly challenging.) Put different lyrics to the melody. This is something that composers of movie and game soundtracks have to do all the time. It's a great way to both see how notes interact with each other and understand the true potential music has.

Protect Your Ears!

2008-01-30T19:11:00.000-08:00

As a musician or a producer of music, your ears are your most valuable asset. If you're hoping to make a sustainable living from music and you damage your hearing, then you've lost your livelihood. The ear is such a precise, complicated and delicate assembly line of organic machinery that it is impossible to repair damage caused by exposure to loud sound. It's really strange to me that I'll meet people who do nothing to protect their ears and think that they are somehow immune to damage. I wish there was some way I could put this gently, but there isn't, so here goes: That is dumb. If you think that you can expose yourself to loud sounds and not get hearing damage, you are dumb. In addition to being dumb, you will be near-deaf by age 40.

Hearing loss is not necessarily a naturally occurring problem. Healthy people in societies that have less modern technology and less noise overall can experience perfect hearing all the way through old age.

If you've spent an hour at a noisy restaurant or bar, where you had to raise your voice to talk, then you've permanently damaged your ears. If you've spent an hour at a large concert or a dance club, then you've permanently damaged your ears.

Let's get a little more detailed. According to Stanley R. Allen, author of Audio in Media, any sound at 80 decibels or louder can be damaging to your ears, depending on how much time you spend with it. If you play an acoustic guitar at a normal volume, you are being exposed to 80 decibel level sound. Any sound at 150 decibels is instantly damaging. For perspective, a rock band generally plays at 130 decibels. If you're listening to a live rock band for more than a few minutes, you will permanently damage your ears.

You might remember that back in 2001, radio personality Rush Limbaugh, who had become deaf in one ear and near-deaf in the other, underwent cochlear implant surgery. This surgery is only for the super-rich and because of its primitive ability to pick up sound, can really only help you hear speech, not music. Anyway, my point is that Limbaugh claimed that his hearing loss was from an autoimmune disease. But really, this guy talked (loudly) on the radio every day, with headphones on to hear both his own voice and the scratchy sound of opinionated callers. Hearing loud vocals on headphones is roughly at a level of 100 decibels. We know, without a doubt that being exposed to that much noise causes permanent hearing damage. Autoimmune disease? You can be the judge. Most aging rock stars won't admit it, but they are probably deaf or near-deaf. My Audio Engineering teacher was the only one in his band to wear earplugs at their performances, and he is now the only one of the group who isn't deaf or near-deaf.

Now, I'm not telling you that you can't play your guitar just because it is at 80 decibels. In modern society, it is almost impossible to completely prevent hearing loss. Instead, simply be smart about your exposure. Always wear earplugs to concerts and at a loud workplace. You have no reason not to. Don't whine about how they're uncomfortable to wear. If you get well-made ones, their actually quite nice. I always use the AO Safety brand of disposable foam earplugs, because they are so comfortable I don't really notice them when they're in. Plus they cover the frequency spectrum pretty evenly, so you can still hear a band clearly, just slightly quieter than normal.

The mindset you should have is this: if you are going to damage your ears, make sure it's worth it. Protect your ears when you don't need to hear all that sound, so that you have more time to damage them when you actually care about what you are hearing. As one who wants to make and appreciate music for the rest of his life, I absolutely can't afford to damage my ears. If you love music and want to enjoy it for the rest of your life, you can't either.

Here are some other sound levels that you might find interesting:

Average conversation: 60 decibels
Busy street: 70 decibels
Crying baby: 90 decibels
Electric guitar amp at level 10 roughly six feet away: 110 decibels
Standing next to a Jet Engine: 160 decibels

Source: Audio in Media, Stanley Allen

Andy McKee Inadvertently Invents a New Instrument

2008-01-28T10:20:00.000-08:00

Have you seen this video? This guy is an incredible musician and is far more talented than I can hope to be. Because of the unusual way that he plays, it may be easy to simply write him off as a talented but gimmicky performer. But to do that would be ignoring the deeper implications of his playing style.

I'm not really sure if Andy invented his technique, but my observation here is purely theoretical anyway. Let's imagine that Andy McKee becomes incredibly famous. His music somehow becomes amazingly popular. It doesn't even have to be in his lifetime. Maybe 100 years from now, a prominent musician discovers his music and decides to learn the technique and share it with the rest of the world. Either way, when someone gets famous, others will imitate. Now say others try to play in his style. At first they will simply be called copycats, but as time wears on more and more will be adding their own style to Andy's original technique.

So regardless of how it happens, let's say that the Andy McKee style of playing has been popular for about 10 years. Big guitar companies like Fender and Gibson release a special model of guitar built specifically for that style, to cash in on it's popularity. It might have pads for hand percussion in specific places, or it will be shaped slightly different to allow more freedom of movement when playing (you'll notice that Andy's guitar is somewhat precarious resting on his right knee instead of his left). This new guitar type further legitimizes and solidifies the playing style. As years and years pass, more modifications and revisions will be made, until one day the Andy McKee style guitar will look very different from a standard acoustic, and will probably have it's own easy-to-say name. This is roughly how all instruments come into being; by evolutionary process.

Thus, you see that Andy McKee is inadvertently creating a new instrument. Or maybe he's doing it deliberately, I don't know the guy. He is a true musical pioneer, and there's a small chance that the scenario I described will actually happen. And now you can say you were there at the beginning.

Don't Find Inspiration: Create It.

2008-01-22T16:24:00.000-08:00

(Though this is the Makeshift Musician blog, the lessons in this article can generally apply to anyone trying to find creative inspiration)

How does a music writer come up with ideas for songs? Some artists continually create for years and years and show no signs of stopping. This used to baffle me. How can they keep coming up with new content without burning themselves out?

I know that there are many artists who will tell you that creativity can't be turned on like a faucet. They say that one shouldn't be pushed to be creative. Let me clarify something for you. This kind of thing is spoken by people who don't have the strength of character to understand how much can be achieved by one individual. Random, unplanned inspiration is a very real thing and can yield fantastic results, but it isn't the only thing driving creativity. Two other things that will drive you to fantastic creative heights are experimentation and goal-setting.

Goal Setting:

In the world of evolutionary theory (bear with me here), some researchers have developed computerized artificial life simulators. These pretty much simulate, from the bottom up, simple organisms with the ability to gather food, reproduce, pass on their DNA, and mutate it a little each generation. Researchers running these programs found that if the little computer beings were given an abundance of food, they would continually eat and reproduce, but even after thousands of generations, they would never evolve. They just kept eating what they had, and slacked off like college seniors. When the researchers took away most of the food, however, the beings immediately started evolving. Once sustenance became difficult to gather, the organisms had to continually become more creative with methods of achieving their goals. Think about it: if all life on earth was given infinite amounts of food right from the beginning, it would have no reason to evolve beyond single-celled organisms, and then we wouldn't have any art at all!

Now that I've alienated all the religious-types here, I'll say that this is a good analogy for your own creative output. If you just wait for inspiration to strike, you won't be continually challenging yourself to make better music. If you make yourself write every day (or almost every day), then you will soon be forced to come up with new stuff. Eventually, you'll drain your comfortable, routine way of making your art. It will become insufficient for new creations and you will be forced to think differently about composing. Your easily reached ideas are no longer abundant, so just like those little computer creatures, so you have to be adventurous and evolve.

Set a goal for yourself to write music for a couple hours every day, or to have two or three new songs a month or, if you're really ambitious, a new song every week. I think eventually your own output will astound you. When I was just writing for myself, I always thought I was running out of ideas pretty quickly. After working on my first soundtrack, I've found that constantly writing music and having no choice but to make new ideas has produced the best stuff I've ever written. Plus all that practice just makes me better anyway.

Experimentation:

Aaron Marks, in his book The Complete Guide to Game Audio, told of a really cool exercise for game musicians that I want to relay and expand upon here. It goes kind of like this: Write down every musical genre you can think of, each on a separate small piece of paper and then put them all in a bowl (or for maximum fun, put them in a top hat). Then pick out two at random. Now you have to make a song that falls into both of those genres. You might get stuck with "Bluegrass Metal", "Tribal Pop", or even "Surf Rock Polka". This is a glorious and fun way to make you look at things differently.

Now for some of us with limited music resources, or those of us who tend to stick with one genre, this might be unfeasible. In that case, just take one random genre from the bowl and try to incorporate that into your next song as best you can. If you play nothing but piano and you pull out the "Metal" card, well, tough luck. Better try and figure out how to get the 'feel' of heavy metal while still maintaining the beautiful sound of piano. Think of the new genre you might invent!

My point is that experimentation automatically inspires creativity. If you play guitar and sing, try getting a cheap pair of bongos (I got mine for $50) and record that with your song, or find a friend who's willing to accompany you on them. Don't just have it play in the background of your existing songs, though that is fun too. Try writing a new song where the bongos are really prevalent. You'll be surprised at how versatile you really are.

If you constantly challenge yourself and experiment with new ways to make music, you will never have to fear your creative well drying up. In fact, don't even think of it as well. Your creativity doesn't come from a single small source. Think of yourself as exploring the world, discovering new and unusual sources in your travels, leaving the unadventurous behind at their single, quickly depleting creative source.

Introduce Yourself to New Music Genres

2008-01-18T15:40:00.001-08:00

I read once on anthropology.net that whatever music a person listens to when they're around age 18 will be roughly what they listen to for the rest of their life. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but if you make your own music, or even if you don't, it would be a good idea to break that stereotype right now. When I was 18, which I admit wasn't all that long ago, I was listening to a lot of electronic stuff, like Orbital, Aphex Twin, Radiohead and Squarepusher, along with the occasional game soundtrack and bluegrass CD. Honestly, I was very limited in my interests. As I got more and more serious about composing, I felt I had a responsibility to start learning more genres.

I am so glad I started branching out, because now some my favorite artists are Queen, Kansas, Camille-Saint Saens, Eumir Deodato, the Beatles (yeah I know, late start), Chuck Berry, Tito Puente, Run DMC, Bach and Chopin, to name a few. I knew next to nothing about them, say, 5 years ago. It's quite a variety, and one that I wouldn't have if I hadn't made a conscious effort to listen outside my musical comfort zone.

It's easy to avoid actively discovering new genres when you think you have no idea where to start. But I'm not letting you have that excuse. First, pick a genre that seems at least a little appealing to you but you don't know anything about it. Then do one of, or both of these things:

1. Ask a knowledgeable friend about the genre. You'll be surprised at how excited they'll be to assist you in your initiation. They'll point you to some of their favorites, and when you know a particular CD is their favorite, you're more apt to pay attention.

2. Use the ever popular Internet solution. I usually try looking up the name of the genre in Wikipedia. Wikipedia writers (Wikipedians?) usually make a list of prominent artists in that area of music on the main article. That's a perfect place to start. Plus you can learn about the history of the genre.

There's just too much fantastic music out there to simply ignore it. Anyone who says there isn't any new music out there obviously isn't creative enough to discover things on their own. Get new albums, put them on your mp3 player and randomize your playlist so the new stuff mixes with your old stuff and listen away. Listening to new music enriches your musical mind and can give you an infinite number of new ideas to work with. You will be a much more intelligent musician.

Introduction to Multitrack Recording: Part II

2008-01-14T11:03:00.000-08:00

Part II: The Definition of Multitracking

(for Part I, click here)

You've been patient, so here it is. Multitrack is a recording technique where you record one thing (like a guitar) then rewind the tape, play it back, and record something else (like singing) onto a different tape while the first one is playing. That's it. Since the tapes are perfectly synchronized using some sort of wacky voodoo magic, you can play them back and it sounds like one recording. You can keep doing this with as many instruments as you want as long as you have enough tape (or hard disk space in our makeshift musician case). The advantage of this is that you can now, most importantly, change the volume level on each track individually without affecting the other tracks, and keep doing it until it sounds perfect. You could also record multiple tracks at the same time, like at a live show. Multitrack was invented by the legendary Les Paul in the 40's. He had a device that could sync up eight different tapes so he could record eight separate parts.

"I still don't get it. What's wrong with just using one microphone and just having the band play? They sound better when they play together anyway, right?" you ask. Man, you're a tough crowd. Even if you want to record all of them at once, you still need different microphones to record each band member. You know, the microphone in front of the singer isn't really going to pick up the drums that are fifteen feet away, is it? But that is an issue for a different blog post.

So here's the process:

Let's say you have a drummer named Judy and a dude who plays guitar and sings named Michael Douglas. Before coming to the studio they've memorized the song that they want recorded. First we record Judy's drumming onto a track. Now we have the drum part for the entire song recorded. Next we rewind back to the beginning of her tape and give Michael Douglas a pair of headphones and stick him with his guitar in front of a mike. Listening to the drum part Judy recorded earlier on his headphones, he plays the entire guitar part as if she really is playing drums along with him, and we record it. When he's done he whines about needing a break because he's an artist and he needs to recharge his chi or something. So now when we rewind and play it back we hear both the drums and guitar, and it sounds like they're playing together, even though they didn't. It's like magic!

After probably an hour Michael Douglas gets back. We put him in front of a mike, again with headphones on, and while using the already recorded drum and guitar part as a reference, he sings his vocal part. Now that we're done (and Michael Douglas is just so tired from a rough day of work) we can get to the fun part, which is mixing. Did the drums end up a little too loud compared to the other parts? Well, if we recorded everything at once on a single track, we would be stuck with them unless we wanted to record everything over again. Since we recorded them on their own track though, we can just turn the volume down on 'em. Then we keep tweaking things like stereo panning, equalization, (yet another topic which I'll get to), and effects like reverberation (kind of like echo), until the song sounds perfect.

Every album you've ever listened to, unless it is very old or explicitly a live performance, is made in this fashion. Listen to your music intelligently and you might be able to pick out each track yourself. Listen to how each song is carefully arranged and mixed and you'll have a much better appreciation for the studio process and musicians in general.

Gain the Confidence to Compose Music

2008-01-10T17:37:00.000-08:00

I think that the biggest barrier that keeps most people from composing is a lack of confidence. I've even met very talented musicians with confidence issues. Mostly though, I've heard people say they can't write their own music because they don't know enough about music theory. That is a big, fat load of bull. I'm here to tell you that you can make music to call your own. Don't listen to what other people say. If you can hit some notes on a keyboard, or you know some chords on your guitar, then you can write music. I started composing music before I knew anything about theory or recording, but through making music I learned just about everything I know today.

By the way, when I say 'composing' or 'making music' I'm not necessarily talking about busting out sheets of blank musical staffs and diligently writing down all the notes of your masterpiece. I might as well tell you to get one of those ruffled shirts and a jacket with long tails before you sit down to compose. There is nothing wrong with writing music using that method, but don't let anyone tell you that that is the only way to compose. If someone did tell you that, they're lying, and it is your civic duty to light their pants on fire the next time you see them. If you somehow make a sound that is uniquely yours, you just composed something. See? Easy!

So lets just assume that you've agreed to go ahead and start composing music. Depending on how you want to do this, you could read my articles Picking out an Instrument and/or Make Your Own Recording Studio. Once you either learn to play an instrument at least a little or have an awesome small home studio ready for input, or both, you can come back and REALLY soak in this article.

I know I was encouraging you a few paragraphs ago, but lets just get this out of the way: the first songs you compose probably won't sound so great. Learning to make your own music is just like learning to play an instrument; it doesn't sound all that great in the beginning, but that's because you're new and practicing. When I started making music on my computer, my rhythm was terrible, sound quality was bad, and everything was in C Major only because I couldn't figure out how to use those little black keys. I even still have some of these old pieces on my website, which you can listen to when your starting out, so that your own music can at least be better than something.

The important thing to remember about composing is that you need to compose! Compose and produce and perform your music all the time. No one needs to hear your first recordings besides you. I guarantee you'll be surprised with the results of at least one of your first few efforts. It'll sound way better than it should, and you'll look back when its done and think "Wow, that's actually not completely terrible!" One of my first songs ever was this. When I wrote it I still knew nothing about music theory and had only written a couple of songs before it, it's a very simple and repetitive song, but it does convey a feeling and is relatively polished. I was as surprised as anyone when it was done. Once you've made your new song as good as is reasonable, record it if you can, then leave it and start a new one. The more you compose, the better you will get at your technical skills and your technique.

There's a voice in your head, we all have it, that says to you "You shouldn't even bother, whatever you make will sound really bad. And what if someone else hears it? That would be a nightmare! Just give up now and watch reality shows instead. I love that one with the clown and the cheerleaders." The most important thing you can do for your composing and maybe for your whole life is learn to ignore that nagging, doubting voice in your head. When is the last time you ever thought, "Wow, thanks self-doubt! I almost did something new! That was close!"

Once you've started composing and have successfully tuned out ugly self-doubt, then there is absolutely nothing in the way of making some fine music that others will actually enjoy. If someone like me, with so little real training and even less natural talent, can do it, then so can you. Send some of it my way when its done.

Make Your Own Recording Studio

2008-01-08T15:53:00.001-08:00

Update: While this a great article to get you started with building a studio, MM now has a more comprehensive and detailed guide that you can read here.

Have you ever tried recording anything with that little plastic microphone that came with your computer? Ugh, yeah, you'll never do that again. It sounded like an ancient record player getting beat up. Don't let that keep you from ever trying again though. Most people would love to record but don't have the slightest idea how to get started. 20 years ago recording was exclusive to professionals with tons of money, but now with a little bit of cash, it's actually relatively simple to build a studio for yourself.

You can have some of the most fun you've ever had just by recording your music. Even if the idea has never occurred to you, you should consider trying it. Recording yourself playing and then hearing it play back is an extremely rewarding experience. You can then share it with your friends or relatives, keep it to yourself, put it on the web, or work towards an awesome record deal.

There are four basic components you need to have a sweet recording studio: A computer, an audio interface, a microphone, and multitrack recording software. Then just grab your instrument of choice and you're ready to make music and fight off groupies.

Computer - If you already have a computer and it was built sometime after, say 2001, you're probably good to record with it. Just remember that the more power and storage space you have, the better. If you can, use a Mac. They're easy to operate and they come with recording software called GarageBand built in. That's right, get a Mac and you've acquired two studio components instead of one. I switched to a Mac a few years ago and I'll never go back. Make SURE you have or can get a FireWire port (sort of like USB on steroids). You'll need it for the next item:

Audio Interface - This is like a computer sound card, only for cool people like us. The one that comes with your computer is probably good enough for movies and spreadsheets, but it doesn't have a real microphone jack or any sort of audio inputs built into it. M-Audio has a line of audio interfaces which I recommend, the most basic being the Solo. It allows you to either hook up a microphone or something like a keyboard or bass guitar to your computer. It sells for $200, which is a small price to pay for some of the most fun you'll have in while.

Software - You need software so that your computer will know what to do with all this sound you're making. If you don't want to spend anything, there's the totally free Kristal, a fantastic piece of software for the price. If you have a Mac, you already have GarageBand, a perfectly usable program that's user-friendly just like all Apple products. If you want something a little more beefy, try out Cubase, ProTools, or Cakewalk. These cost money and professionals use them, (I'm a Cubase fan myself) and while people will tell you one is better than another, they all pretty much do the same thing. Learning to use recording software effectively will take some time, but it's really no harder than learning Microsoft Excel or something equally unexciting.

Microphone - Seriously, just get a Shure SM-57. It's the standard by which all other microphones are judged. It sells for a hundred bucks. You really only need one microphone to record just about anything, and the SM-57 can do both vocals and acoustic instruments without a problem. Also get a stand for your microphone and a fifteen foot cable.

You also should have a room in your home that is relatively small and quiet in which to set all of this up. You probably already have a keyboard or guitar or something you'd like to record. If you don't, then check out my article Picking up an Instrument. If you're a member of the 21st century, you've already got a computer, so your spending is around $350 to $450 to make your studio, which is still less than a PlayStation 3 or a swanky plasma TV. What are you waiting for?

Do-It-Yourself Sound Dampening

What Speakers Should I Get?

Introduction to Multitrack Recording

How to Make the Best Recordings on Earth

An Introduction to Multitrack Recording: Part I

2008-01-07T19:46:00.000-08:00

Part I: The Problem with Recording Sound

You may see me mention multitrack software a lot on this blog and you may be wondering what it is. Most peoples' idea of studio recording is a band setting up in a room and then playing while a couple of microphones stand in front of them, taking it all in. You just play the song and yer done! Actually, the process of recording just one song with a full, lets say rock band can take anywhere from one day to an entire week or more, not counting post production editing. The problem with recording is that microphones just can't hear as well as our ears and brains can.

Between your ear and your brain is a fully automated mixing console called the spiral ganglion, which will go so far as to turn down what it believes to be background noise before a signal even gets to the brain where it is processed even more before you even perceive the sound. Microphones don't have this, and that is why old recordings from the 30's or earlier, which really were just a microphone directly recording to LP or cylinder or wax paper or whatever those primitive people used, sounded so bad.

Fallen asleep yet? If you haven't, you'll now get the idea that the point I'm trying to make is that because microphones are such inefficient gatherers of audio, we need more technology to get a recorded song to sound more like a live one. Multitrack recording is a completely necessary part of music production. In Part II I'll tell you exactly what multitrack recording is.

(Part II is now available! Click here.)

Picking up an instrument

2008-01-05T12:06:00.001-08:00

Deciding to learn a musical instrument could be one of the best decisions you'll make. But if you don't know anything about music and don't have someone who can help you, trying to decide may be difficult. What if I pick out an instrument and hate it afterwards? What if there are some hidden downsides? What if it doesn't attract the opposite sex like I'm hoping for? For that matter, how do I start without looking like a total knob?

You could go to a local music shop and look around, but those places can be intimidating and occasionally irritating. There's always some random guy there playing bass guitar like he's Bootsy Collins just to show off and, with luck, you'll see my favorite music store patron: the guy who subjects everyone else to the only song he can play over and over. It's usually better to go when you already have a pretty good idea of what you want. Let's go over some instruments so you can know what each offers.

By far the most popular instruments are guitar and piano. This is for a good reason. Their strength lies in their versatility. With a guitar you can easily play just about any song you've ever heard, once you know your chords well enough. The piano was originally built as a composing tool, and was therefore made to be adaptable as well. Lets look at it in more detail:

Guitar
Pros - It's light and easy to take with you. There's already a ton of literature at music stores and all over the internet. If you want to learn any song, all you have to do is Google search for the song name followed by the word 'tablature' or 'tabs' and you're done. The guitar can cover just about any genre imaginable, from obvious ones to folk, rock and country to other stuff like classical or blues.

Cons - Well, you're fret fingers are going to look ugly after a while, but such is the fate of all string players. Seriously, getting a guitar is a great idea, especially if you don't really know what to get.

I recommend getting an acoustic guitar to start with, instead of an electric one, because it covers potentially more genres and you don't have to lug around an amp everywhere you go. Those things are like bricks suffering from obesity.

Piano
Pros - The piano is versatile just like the guitar, and like the guitar, there's been plenty written out there about learning to play. Probably the best thing about learning the piano is that you will automatically learn a lot about music theory in general. Like I said before, it was built as a composing tool, so it's pretty much a mechanical representation of the musical staff. You have no choice but to learn to read music by playing. Also, if you want to make music using a computer, piano knowledge is a must. And hey - playing piano is just classy.

Cons - You can't take it with you. Until someone invents the telescoping keyboard, (I just had an idea...) lack of portability is the biggest disadvantage for the pianist. Getting a real piano is prohibitively expensive and decent electronic ones are pricey also.

Don't think that if you're starting out you should only get either a guitar or piano, though. If they sound kind of dull to you, or you just want to play something unusual to make a unique impression, you can choose several other instruments.

Some instruments work better on their own than others, however. Though learning any instrument is a good idea, something like a piccolo, which was designed to be part of a larger orchestra, just won't be much of a hit at parties. If you want to share your music with others, generally something with a lot of range is better. Here are some more unusual ideas for something to play:

Cello - The cello is a favorite of many and has an incredibly expressive sound. There aren't enough cello players in the world and it's a crying shame.

Banjo - I've been slowly learning to play the banjo myself, and it's a lot of fun. While there isn't much out there besides folk and bluegrass to learn from, I believe the banjo has the potential to play other genres as well. It has a very unique sound that is pleasing to the ear when heard live.

Marimba/Vibraphone/Xylophone - These have many of the same advantages and disadvantages as the piano, since they're structured similarly, but you can make an entirely different impression when playing.

Saxophone - The saxophone has an amazing dynamic range and can play very softly or extremely loud. Once again, it's very expressive and though its generally used for jazz, it has a lot more potential.

Violin - A classic and elegant instrument. It is good on it's own and can accompany in many other styles. By the way, the fiddle and the violin are the same thing; it's all in how you play it. If you like folk and classical music, this is a good way to go.

Harmonica - The ultimate cheap, portable instrument (besides your own voice, of course.) If you happen to be a blues fan, than there's no reason not to start learning.

There are innumerable other instruments you can learn. Things like bass guitar, drums, flute, or horns are great things to learn, but if you're not planning on playing as part of a larger group, you might not be as satisfied with the results. The instruments I've recommended above all sound great both by themselves and when accompanying others. Now, there are people who can make any instrument sound great by itself, so if you're set on playing bass like that guy from Primus, don't let me discourage you.

Once you know which instrument you want to get, it's helpful to simply go to a music store and tell a friendly employee what kind of instrument you want and the amount you're willing to pay for it. In my experience, they usually know what they're talking about and will point you in the right direction. Then you'll be on your way to being the coolest person at social gatherings.