Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Monday, September 1, 2008
Don LaFontaine
Movie fans across the USA may not know the face, but they surely know the voice. It was everywhere. The undisputed king of movie trailer narration. The "In a world" guy. Sort of a mythological creature in the voice over world. Don LaFontaine passed away today and Hollywood lost one of it's behind the scenes legends.
For those of us who had the opportunity to work with him, he'll be missed. It was always an adventure when he came to the studio and he never stayed long. He didn't have to. You handed him a script and three takes later, he was done. You'd have the action adventure version, the romantic comedy version and the dramatic version in the can. It simply worked. His timing was impeccable. His voice could be soothing, scary, authoritative and funny all at the same time. It really was weird...and a bit nerve wracking. I don't think I ever heard anyone question his reads. He had sort of a godfather presence that may have kept the producers at bay. Maybe it was one of his early jobs narrating the trailer for Godfather II, but some 5000 plus trailers later, he's gone.
He became a bit more human to me one time when he showed up a bit late to a session and told me that he had to return an RV he had rented for a family vacation. He loved his family and it was really the only thing he talked about other than his work. Our condolences go out to them in a difficult time.
We'll all miss you Don
For those of us who had the opportunity to work with him, he'll be missed. It was always an adventure when he came to the studio and he never stayed long. He didn't have to. You handed him a script and three takes later, he was done. You'd have the action adventure version, the romantic comedy version and the dramatic version in the can. It simply worked. His timing was impeccable. His voice could be soothing, scary, authoritative and funny all at the same time. It really was weird...and a bit nerve wracking. I don't think I ever heard anyone question his reads. He had sort of a godfather presence that may have kept the producers at bay. Maybe it was one of his early jobs narrating the trailer for Godfather II, but some 5000 plus trailers later, he's gone.
He became a bit more human to me one time when he showed up a bit late to a session and told me that he had to return an RV he had rented for a family vacation. He loved his family and it was really the only thing he talked about other than his work. Our condolences go out to them in a difficult time.
We'll all miss you Don
Monday, August 25, 2008
Another ProTools Blog
Scott Church of Digidesign has started a personal blog for ProTools users that should be another good resource for those doing music and post production using Digidesign Projects. There are some good video tutorials, tips and tricks and as a long time ProTools user and educator himself, can he hopes to clear up some mis-information that may exist on some of the other user sites.
It's not an official Digidesign/Avid blog, so please don't rant about how your system crashed in the middle of a mix session and you were too tired to back it up.
Thanks Scott.
It's not an official Digidesign/Avid blog, so please don't rant about how your system crashed in the middle of a mix session and you were too tired to back it up.
Thanks Scott.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
NARAS Producers and Engineers Wing Videos
Post Haste Media just finished editing a number of videos for the Producers and Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy.
For those of you not familiar with the P&E Wing of the Recording Academy, it's an educational and advocacy group dealing with issues of particular importance to working music producers and recording engineers. They strive to develop relevant standards for music recording, delivery and archiving, to national and stage legislation to mentoring youth interested in a career in music.
If you're involved in making music for CD, film, television or video games, contact your local chapter. It's a great opportunity to meet collaborators, see old friends, learn a thing or two and give back to the community.
For those of you not familiar with the P&E Wing of the Recording Academy, it's an educational and advocacy group dealing with issues of particular importance to working music producers and recording engineers. They strive to develop relevant standards for music recording, delivery and archiving, to national and stage legislation to mentoring youth interested in a career in music.
If you're involved in making music for CD, film, television or video games, contact your local chapter. It's a great opportunity to meet collaborators, see old friends, learn a thing or two and give back to the community.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
7.1 for Home Entertainment..what's the deal?
I've received a number of calls asking about 7.1 surround mixing for Blu-Ray lately. There is a lot of confusion about it so let's take a look at the reality of 7.1
Blu-Ray disks do have the capability of 7.1 audio. It's in the spec, though it is not a requirement. The marketing mavens at the studios like the sound of 7.1...after all...it's "added value". The classic "mine goes to 11" syndrome.
7.1 does exist in the film world as Left/Left Center/Center/Right Center/Right/Left Surround/Right Surround. This format can make some sense for a film being shown in a very large theater, the rationale being that important stereo information can be sent to the Left Center and Right Center monitors to keep the stereo perspective from being too wide for people sitting on the extreme left and right side of the venue while keeping the far left and right free for some of the more subtle stereo ambiences, etc.
Digidesign's ProTools does have a 7.1 format specifically for this purpose, though in reality, it's rarely used, even for theatrical dubbing.
7.1 in home entertainment is a different animal. The setup is Left/Center/Right/Left Surround/Right Surround/Left Rear/Right Rear. The surround speakers are actually at a 90 degree angle to the listener or directly to your side, while the Left and Right Rear speakers would be positioned in the traditional spot for the surrounds in a 5.1 setup.
We won't discuss the reality in which the great majority of people don't have the ideal architectural layout to properly set up a 5.1 system in their homes, much less a 7.1 system, but that's a whole other blog. For those who are mixing for home entertainment...you can say things like "the definition of the side monitors adds to the overall encapsulation of the listener in the audio environment"...or something like "it's 5.1 Enhanced!!!!". Heck, I'm all for the ability to squeeze a few more dollars from your clients but it's hard not to laugh when saying it.
Most any audio professional will tell you that 7.1 is more of a marketing ploy than any sort breakthrough in home entertainment audio, but since it's looks like it may be shoved down our throats (and potentially our collective pocketbooks), what do we need to do to make it work?
First of all, for those already mixing 5.1, you'll need two more satellite monitors and depending on what you use, you may need a new monitor controller. At Post Haste Media, we use the Blue Sky Sky System One with the Bass Management Controller. This feeds a Multimax EX monitor controller which I'm happy to say is capable of feeding a 7.1 system and is a very well made and easy to use surround controller. Now with the Blue Sky you will need two Bass Management Controllers so that's something to think about and if the marketing people keep it up, you'll be ready for up to 10.2 in which case you'll need a new house.
You will also need to learn about the new delivery formats and get a new encoder/decoder.
Dolby now has Dolby Digital Plus, which is an extension of Dolby Digital AC3. They also have Dolby True HD which is their lossless codec. The Dolby Media Producer software package will allow the encoding and decoding both Dolby Digital Plus and True HD. I won't go into great detail on the encoding and decoding as the Dolby web site does a much better job than I could in explaining the ins and outs.
DTS also has their DTS HD Master Audio Suite and again, check out their web site for more detail.
So here's one little bugaboo. Digidesign has yet (and as far as I have heard have no plans) to implement the 7.1 home entertainment spec into ProTools, so you're going to have to work around the panning issues. What I've done is simply use the theatrical 7.1 configuration and moved the Left/Right to the Left Surround and Right Surround positions while using the Left Center and Right Center for the LF/RF. Yes it is a pain and slows down the mix a bit, but you're charging by the hour and they asked for it, so no complaining.
The big trick here is convincing your client that a 7.1 mix is going to cost them. This should not be a huge problem being that there are about 6 places in Los Angeles currently mixing in 7.1 and none of them are your typical schmoe at home in his closet with an LE system trying to undercut the big boys.
So, where were we? Ah yes...7.1...should you even be thinking about it? My take is...don't lose any sleep over it. Even though people like to throw around the 7.1 mantra, most of the material claiming to be 7.1 is actually a 5.1 mix where they throw the Rears into the Side Surrounds and call it a day and this is for the actual feature film on a DVD and very rarely if ever for extra content or menus.
Granted there are a few studios who will spend the money needed to remix source material for home entertainment and send it to specialists like the folks at Pacific Ocean Post or Mi Casa Multimedia, both of who do exemplary work, but for the most part, 7.1 is the Quad of the new century.
Blu-Ray disks do have the capability of 7.1 audio. It's in the spec, though it is not a requirement. The marketing mavens at the studios like the sound of 7.1...after all...it's "added value". The classic "mine goes to 11" syndrome.
7.1 does exist in the film world as Left/Left Center/Center/Right Center/Right/Left Surround/Right Surround. This format can make some sense for a film being shown in a very large theater, the rationale being that important stereo information can be sent to the Left Center and Right Center monitors to keep the stereo perspective from being too wide for people sitting on the extreme left and right side of the venue while keeping the far left and right free for some of the more subtle stereo ambiences, etc.
Digidesign's ProTools does have a 7.1 format specifically for this purpose, though in reality, it's rarely used, even for theatrical dubbing.
7.1 in home entertainment is a different animal. The setup is Left/Center/Right/Left Surround/Right Surround/Left Rear/Right Rear. The surround speakers are actually at a 90 degree angle to the listener or directly to your side, while the Left and Right Rear speakers would be positioned in the traditional spot for the surrounds in a 5.1 setup.
We won't discuss the reality in which the great majority of people don't have the ideal architectural layout to properly set up a 5.1 system in their homes, much less a 7.1 system, but that's a whole other blog. For those who are mixing for home entertainment...you can say things like "the definition of the side monitors adds to the overall encapsulation of the listener in the audio environment"...or something like "it's 5.1 Enhanced!!!!". Heck, I'm all for the ability to squeeze a few more dollars from your clients but it's hard not to laugh when saying it.
Most any audio professional will tell you that 7.1 is more of a marketing ploy than any sort breakthrough in home entertainment audio, but since it's looks like it may be shoved down our throats (and potentially our collective pocketbooks), what do we need to do to make it work?
First of all, for those already mixing 5.1, you'll need two more satellite monitors and depending on what you use, you may need a new monitor controller. At Post Haste Media, we use the Blue Sky Sky System One with the Bass Management Controller. This feeds a Multimax EX monitor controller which I'm happy to say is capable of feeding a 7.1 system and is a very well made and easy to use surround controller. Now with the Blue Sky you will need two Bass Management Controllers so that's something to think about and if the marketing people keep it up, you'll be ready for up to 10.2 in which case you'll need a new house.
You will also need to learn about the new delivery formats and get a new encoder/decoder.
Dolby now has Dolby Digital Plus, which is an extension of Dolby Digital AC3. They also have Dolby True HD which is their lossless codec. The Dolby Media Producer software package will allow the encoding and decoding both Dolby Digital Plus and True HD. I won't go into great detail on the encoding and decoding as the Dolby web site does a much better job than I could in explaining the ins and outs.
DTS also has their DTS HD Master Audio Suite and again, check out their web site for more detail.
So here's one little bugaboo. Digidesign has yet (and as far as I have heard have no plans) to implement the 7.1 home entertainment spec into ProTools, so you're going to have to work around the panning issues. What I've done is simply use the theatrical 7.1 configuration and moved the Left/Right to the Left Surround and Right Surround positions while using the Left Center and Right Center for the LF/RF. Yes it is a pain and slows down the mix a bit, but you're charging by the hour and they asked for it, so no complaining.
The big trick here is convincing your client that a 7.1 mix is going to cost them. This should not be a huge problem being that there are about 6 places in Los Angeles currently mixing in 7.1 and none of them are your typical schmoe at home in his closet with an LE system trying to undercut the big boys.
So, where were we? Ah yes...7.1...should you even be thinking about it? My take is...don't lose any sleep over it. Even though people like to throw around the 7.1 mantra, most of the material claiming to be 7.1 is actually a 5.1 mix where they throw the Rears into the Side Surrounds and call it a day and this is for the actual feature film on a DVD and very rarely if ever for extra content or menus.
Granted there are a few studios who will spend the money needed to remix source material for home entertainment and send it to specialists like the folks at Pacific Ocean Post or Mi Casa Multimedia, both of who do exemplary work, but for the most part, 7.1 is the Quad of the new century.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Izotope RX cleans it up
Today I did my first real test with the Izotope RX audio restoration software. Izotope is a company based out of Boston. They are generating quite a bit of buzz in the audio DSP world with their well designed plug-ins and applications.
RX is a stand-alone application with Hum removal, De-clipping, De-crackle, De-noise and spectral noise repair. My main use for a noise reduction application will be for removing broadband noise and sometimes even music from production dialog tracks and often mix stems where no element stems are available.
My first test was with removing loud broadband noise and some low frequency drones from a dialog track of whispering. A difficult task for anybody.
With 5 minutes (about the time usually given to clean up audio for a trailer) and no instruction, RX did a remarkable job at both tasks.
The first thing I did was to use the "train" function in the de-noiser to learn the broadband noise. This took all of a few seconds, then compared it with the original file and tried a second not so extreme setting. RX allows you to create multiple settings which you can audition and compare before committing the changes. This is a great feature. I found the best setting for removing as much broadband noise as possible without degrading the dialog too noticeably and applied the reduction. I then saved this as another file and opened it again this time using the spectral repair function.
With spectral repair, you can select audio using the spectrographical representation of your audiofile (while overlaying a waveform to the spectrograph) and I was able to see the low frequency tones and harmonics, select them and listen to the "soloed" version of what I was removing. This feature alone is worth the price of the software. Once I grabbed the unwanted area, I applied the changes and the whisper leaped out of the speakers.
That's the technical term for being very pleased with the results.
So, team Izotope...whoever you are. Congratulations. You've earned a very loyal customer in less than 5 minutes.
RX is a stand-alone application with Hum removal, De-clipping, De-crackle, De-noise and spectral noise repair. My main use for a noise reduction application will be for removing broadband noise and sometimes even music from production dialog tracks and often mix stems where no element stems are available.
My first test was with removing loud broadband noise and some low frequency drones from a dialog track of whispering. A difficult task for anybody.
With 5 minutes (about the time usually given to clean up audio for a trailer) and no instruction, RX did a remarkable job at both tasks.
The first thing I did was to use the "train" function in the de-noiser to learn the broadband noise. This took all of a few seconds, then compared it with the original file and tried a second not so extreme setting. RX allows you to create multiple settings which you can audition and compare before committing the changes. This is a great feature. I found the best setting for removing as much broadband noise as possible without degrading the dialog too noticeably and applied the reduction. I then saved this as another file and opened it again this time using the spectral repair function.
With spectral repair, you can select audio using the spectrographical representation of your audiofile (while overlaying a waveform to the spectrograph) and I was able to see the low frequency tones and harmonics, select them and listen to the "soloed" version of what I was removing. This feature alone is worth the price of the software. Once I grabbed the unwanted area, I applied the changes and the whisper leaped out of the speakers.
That's the technical term for being very pleased with the results.
So, team Izotope...whoever you are. Congratulations. You've earned a very loyal customer in less than 5 minutes.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Consolidation...one more time
New Line Cinema....no more. Apparently the parental number crunchers at Warner Bros. have decided to give New Line and 600 some odd employees a permanent time out. USA today reported the reason for this was “to maximize film performance and operating efficiencies, achieve significant cost savings and improve margins,” the company said in a statement.
What about making good movies? Is that something lost in the haze of profit?
Apparently the company behind a wide variety of films including "Lord Of The Rings" and some great indies like "Maria Full Of Grace" has been misbehaving financially as of late, so the punishment is to make cheap, profitable non-art. Sort of the mediocrity rules philosophy.
There seems to be a lot of that going around lately. An associate of mine was recently told by his superiors that they did not care if the sound sucked, as long as it could be done quickly. Has it really come to that? I certainly hope not but it's looking more and more like in the pick two out of three contest, cheap and fast have won out over good.
With a bit of luck, the Time Warner brass will hang on to the good creative and technical people around and New Line can continue to release some great movies. One of the reasons I liked New Line was because they seemed to understood and care how their major releases sounded once they were re-purposed for home entertainment. Sure, they had some dogs, as all studios do and the cheap money makers were just that...fluff and funding for the good stuff.
I had the chance to speak with Bob Margouleff and Brant Biles of Mi Casa Multi-Media about the work they did re-mixing and optimizing the theatrical sound tracks to play well on home theater systems. Yes...DVDs are are played back in significantly different acoustic spaces and with radically varied equipment than a theatrical mix and the crew at Mi Casa knows how to make that transition from theater to living room work.
Let's hope that someone at the top still knows that a well written, produced, directed and mixed film is still a viable medium and can even make a profit.
Best of luck to those of you affected by this situation.
What about making good movies? Is that something lost in the haze of profit?
Apparently the company behind a wide variety of films including "Lord Of The Rings" and some great indies like "Maria Full Of Grace" has been misbehaving financially as of late, so the punishment is to make cheap, profitable non-art. Sort of the mediocrity rules philosophy.
There seems to be a lot of that going around lately. An associate of mine was recently told by his superiors that they did not care if the sound sucked, as long as it could be done quickly. Has it really come to that? I certainly hope not but it's looking more and more like in the pick two out of three contest, cheap and fast have won out over good.
With a bit of luck, the Time Warner brass will hang on to the good creative and technical people around and New Line can continue to release some great movies. One of the reasons I liked New Line was because they seemed to understood and care how their major releases sounded once they were re-purposed for home entertainment. Sure, they had some dogs, as all studios do and the cheap money makers were just that...fluff and funding for the good stuff.
I had the chance to speak with Bob Margouleff and Brant Biles of Mi Casa Multi-Media about the work they did re-mixing and optimizing the theatrical sound tracks to play well on home theater systems. Yes...DVDs are are played back in significantly different acoustic spaces and with radically varied equipment than a theatrical mix and the crew at Mi Casa knows how to make that transition from theater to living room work.
Let's hope that someone at the top still knows that a well written, produced, directed and mixed film is still a viable medium and can even make a profit.
Best of luck to those of you affected by this situation.
Monday, February 25, 2008
And The Oscar Goes To
I should have known...I lost the Oscar pool AGAIN by choosing the wrong winners for best sound editing and mixing. The winners were of course the loudest action pictures (or maybe the second loudest). I of course picked "No Country For Old Men" which in my humble opinion had superb sound. The Coen Brothers put together another great audio team with Skip Lievsay as supervising sound editor and Greg Orloff as re-recording mixer. I was surprised to see that Marko Costanzo didn't perform the foley tasks for them on this film. His work on their past films has always been outstanding. As usual, the use of sound and music by the Coens was subtle, dynamic and very effective. They are one of the few production teams that really understand how to use sound and music effectively. Don't get me wrong, there are many other film sound teams who could do this if the producers and directors would let them, but the "more is better and make everything loud" philosophy is forced upon most editor/mixer crews.
Now the winning team from Bourne Ulimatum were no slouches. The sound job on that film was a ridiculous task and kudos to the production audio team and dialog editors. The location recording had to have been challenging to put it mildly. This year was one of the first in many that every nominee in sound did awesome work, so I'm not too disappointed that the Bourne team took it and I loved that film. "There Will Be Blood" also was one of my favorites so it was a tough choice.
Randy Thom's team up at Skywalker is also one of the world's best and most of the directors and producers they work with understand dynamics ala the great Walter Murch.
It's not that I don't appreciate a great action film, but to get the greatness of sound by leaving things out is something the Coen's excel at and it deserves some respect.
It would be nice if one year the Academy would vote for subtlety over volume and quantity.
Maybe next year. Anyway...congratulations to all.
Now the winning team from Bourne Ulimatum were no slouches. The sound job on that film was a ridiculous task and kudos to the production audio team and dialog editors. The location recording had to have been challenging to put it mildly. This year was one of the first in many that every nominee in sound did awesome work, so I'm not too disappointed that the Bourne team took it and I loved that film. "There Will Be Blood" also was one of my favorites so it was a tough choice.
Randy Thom's team up at Skywalker is also one of the world's best and most of the directors and producers they work with understand dynamics ala the great Walter Murch.
It's not that I don't appreciate a great action film, but to get the greatness of sound by leaving things out is something the Coen's excel at and it deserves some respect.
It would be nice if one year the Academy would vote for subtlety over volume and quantity.
Maybe next year. Anyway...congratulations to all.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Blu-Ray.......At Last
At long last there is a winner in the High Definition DVD wars. After a few years of battling it out, Sony's Blu-Ray has won out over Toshiba's HDVD format. It was a silly and very expensive game they were playing to start with. Bad all around for consumers and media creators. Sometimes competition is just a big jerk off of egos. They could have solved this five years ago by combining the best aspects of both formats, pooling their resources, improving and speeding the feature sets to market and sharing the spoils.
I suppose that Sony was still feeling the bite of not licensing the Betamax video format to the rest of the world. That decision was also bad for consumers as we ended up with VHS while Betamax was a far superior format. But this battle seems to be over. Possibly a bit too late.
Blu-Ray version 1 still has many problems to overcome. The interactivity touted since the beginning still does not work, so those of you who own Blu-Ray players today will have to purchase a new player as new features are added. By that time, we all may be downloading our content making disks a moot point anyway.
The people working to author the disks are pulling their hair out trying to get features to work and unless you have a 50" or larger screen, the average viewer won't see a significant difference when compared to your standard DVD.
The jist of the matter is that you now have one less consumer decision to fret about.
I suppose that Sony was still feeling the bite of not licensing the Betamax video format to the rest of the world. That decision was also bad for consumers as we ended up with VHS while Betamax was a far superior format. But this battle seems to be over. Possibly a bit too late.
Blu-Ray version 1 still has many problems to overcome. The interactivity touted since the beginning still does not work, so those of you who own Blu-Ray players today will have to purchase a new player as new features are added. By that time, we all may be downloading our content making disks a moot point anyway.
The people working to author the disks are pulling their hair out trying to get features to work and unless you have a 50" or larger screen, the average viewer won't see a significant difference when compared to your standard DVD.
The jist of the matter is that you now have one less consumer decision to fret about.
Friday, February 8, 2008
GRAMMY WEEK
This week is the 50'th Anniversary of the Grammys. Last night there was an event at the Village Recording Studios here in Los Angeles to celebrate the Producers and Engineer's Wing of the Academy. We all know the artists behind the Grammys, but the behind the scenes people go largely unnoticed and in many cases uncompensated.
The P&E wing grew out of the need to address issues concerning the people who direct the artists and technology that drives the music business. In 1997 people like Ed Cherney, Chris Stone, Nile Rogers, Bob Ludwig, Al Schmidt and a number of other creative and business icons, got it moving with the Music Producers Guild of the Americas. After much hard work, the MPGA joined forces with NARAS to form the P&E wing and has grown to over 5,500 members.
Special Kudos must to go to P&E Executive Director Maureen Droney and the people at the Academy for putting together exciting events for the membership, where we can network, re-connect with old friends and meet new ones. We can learn to navigate the new business models and build on the history and achievements of the old ones.
There is a lot more to the music business than records and radio. There is music for film, theater, television shows, commercials, trailers, video games, web sites and corporate presentations. There is music on phone answering systems, in restaurants and on airlines. There is an ever expanding new wave of technology, formats and delivery methods for music and video. iPods, iPhones, MP3 Players, High Def home entertainment systems, and satellite radio. Technology marches on and the creators of content must learn to adapt and incorporate this technology into their business models. Granted the music business grew complacent for many years and the fear of new technology has hurt it greatly, but it's never too late to learn something new.
With the help and camaraderie of it's directors and members, we can work together to achieve the goals of striving for quality and financial returns from our work.
The P&E wing grew out of the need to address issues concerning the people who direct the artists and technology that drives the music business. In 1997 people like Ed Cherney, Chris Stone, Nile Rogers, Bob Ludwig, Al Schmidt and a number of other creative and business icons, got it moving with the Music Producers Guild of the Americas. After much hard work, the MPGA joined forces with NARAS to form the P&E wing and has grown to over 5,500 members.
Special Kudos must to go to P&E Executive Director Maureen Droney and the people at the Academy for putting together exciting events for the membership, where we can network, re-connect with old friends and meet new ones. We can learn to navigate the new business models and build on the history and achievements of the old ones.
There is a lot more to the music business than records and radio. There is music for film, theater, television shows, commercials, trailers, video games, web sites and corporate presentations. There is music on phone answering systems, in restaurants and on airlines. There is an ever expanding new wave of technology, formats and delivery methods for music and video. iPods, iPhones, MP3 Players, High Def home entertainment systems, and satellite radio. Technology marches on and the creators of content must learn to adapt and incorporate this technology into their business models. Granted the music business grew complacent for many years and the fear of new technology has hurt it greatly, but it's never too late to learn something new.
With the help and camaraderie of it's directors and members, we can work together to achieve the goals of striving for quality and financial returns from our work.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Customer Service Props to Digidesign
We all have experienced the derth of good customer service over the last decade. The joke used to be that the DMV was the gold standard for poor customer service, but today just try calling a mobile provider after signing that 2 year contract. Unless you have a personal assistant, you're in for a half day or more of frustration. How about a problem with an erroneous credit card charge or a dispute with a HMO provider....good luck and I'll see you in a couple of months.
We've all had the experience of attempting to describe a technical problem with someone who can't speak our native tounge and then being transfered around for 40 minutes listening to schmaltzy jazz before being disconnected and giving up in sheer frustration.
I'm one of the lucky ones who can actually diagnose and fix a great number of tech problems, so I can only imagine what a computer illiterate person must go through.
But it's not all bad. Once in a long while you'll find a company that is actually doing something big to improve not only their products, but their customer service. After a few bad years of people ranting and raving, Digidesign seems to have made the wise decision to put some real resources into finding out their customer's needs and filling them instead of handing it off to the marketing department with the directive to "make us SOUND like we listen to our customers".
For a number of years Digidesign would add interesting, but questionably useful features, but over the last three or four years, things have changed. How often to you find a company that will send representatives out from ground zero...company headquarters to research how the customers actually use their tools? Not an online multiple choice questionnaire sent out by marketing wonks, but an actual support team with real life experience. Not often. Digidesign does it.
No, I am not a paid representative of the Digidesign, though for full disclosure I have done some beta-testing for them in the past, mainly out of enlightened self-interest. I'm also not a 10 room facility who can afford to upgrade entire systems every 2 years. The simple fact is that their last few software releases have shown us that their ability to turn a request into a useful feature has become a reality.
When our livelihood depends on the reliability and feature sets of the tools we use, this is the type of customer service we need, deserve and very much appreciate. Of course we won't get everything we ask for....at least not right away, but just the fact that we see a respect for our input and a true effort coming from a publicly traded corporation is reassuring.
With the speed of change in operating systems, hardware and workflow, it's really sort of shocking that anything works, but the people at Digidesign deserve well earned props now and then to let them know that we really do appreciate the effort.
Keep it up and hopefully other companies will learn from their success.
We've all had the experience of attempting to describe a technical problem with someone who can't speak our native tounge and then being transfered around for 40 minutes listening to schmaltzy jazz before being disconnected and giving up in sheer frustration.
I'm one of the lucky ones who can actually diagnose and fix a great number of tech problems, so I can only imagine what a computer illiterate person must go through.
But it's not all bad. Once in a long while you'll find a company that is actually doing something big to improve not only their products, but their customer service. After a few bad years of people ranting and raving, Digidesign seems to have made the wise decision to put some real resources into finding out their customer's needs and filling them instead of handing it off to the marketing department with the directive to "make us SOUND like we listen to our customers".
For a number of years Digidesign would add interesting, but questionably useful features, but over the last three or four years, things have changed. How often to you find a company that will send representatives out from ground zero...company headquarters to research how the customers actually use their tools? Not an online multiple choice questionnaire sent out by marketing wonks, but an actual support team with real life experience. Not often. Digidesign does it.
No, I am not a paid representative of the Digidesign, though for full disclosure I have done some beta-testing for them in the past, mainly out of enlightened self-interest. I'm also not a 10 room facility who can afford to upgrade entire systems every 2 years. The simple fact is that their last few software releases have shown us that their ability to turn a request into a useful feature has become a reality.
When our livelihood depends on the reliability and feature sets of the tools we use, this is the type of customer service we need, deserve and very much appreciate. Of course we won't get everything we ask for....at least not right away, but just the fact that we see a respect for our input and a true effort coming from a publicly traded corporation is reassuring.
With the speed of change in operating systems, hardware and workflow, it's really sort of shocking that anything works, but the people at Digidesign deserve well earned props now and then to let them know that we really do appreciate the effort.
Keep it up and hopefully other companies will learn from their success.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
RE-EDUCATION
Creative professionals today face an exponentially growing challenge of keeping up with technology while making a living in fields where the tools become more affordable to the masses.
Of course experience still matters, but not as much as it used to. The fact is that to survive, we have to accept change and at a rapid pace. To do this, we have to continuously re-educate ourselves to new forms of media delivery, formats and the tools needed to create them.
I often get asked about schools, seminars and tutorials by both working professionals and people wanting to get into the business. Personally I've taken courses at places like Moviola Digital, Video Symphony, UCLA. I've also ordered books and DVD tutorials by both manufacturers and third party teachers. Of course one of the best options is finding working editors, graphic artists, audio engineers, etc. to act as tutors. You can also take advantage of the numerous online user groups. One of my new favorites has been Lynda.com and it's business model.
Lynda offers online or DVD tutorials available as a monthly yearly or multi-user subscription. For a flat yearly fee you can access an extensive variety of tutorials ranging from the Adobe product line to Apple's Final Cut Studio to Avid Express. Currently they have over 370 tutorials and they manage to keep up with current versions of software updates as well as keeping legacy tutorials up for a reasonable amount of time.
The nice thing about this business model is that it allows you to use downtime to brush up on things you may have forgotten about or learn some new applications without having to run out to a night or weekend class. You can download project files and media to work with as well as go back and review anything you may have missed, or simply jump to a specific lesson where you may need some extra help. Lynda's tutorials vary somewhat in how deep they delve into each application and some are much better than others, however the basics are well covered in most of them.
Lynda is not the only one jumping on the subscription bandwagon. Avid now has the ALEX program (Avid Learning Accelerator) which I have yet to try, but for me, online tutorials are a great way to go for a working professional as well as people wanting to get a quick overview of a new application.
For a business owner, getting a subscription for your company can keep your people engaged and offers a very cost effective method of keeping your staff up to date on new applications.
Give it a try.
Of course experience still matters, but not as much as it used to. The fact is that to survive, we have to accept change and at a rapid pace. To do this, we have to continuously re-educate ourselves to new forms of media delivery, formats and the tools needed to create them.
I often get asked about schools, seminars and tutorials by both working professionals and people wanting to get into the business. Personally I've taken courses at places like Moviola Digital, Video Symphony, UCLA. I've also ordered books and DVD tutorials by both manufacturers and third party teachers. Of course one of the best options is finding working editors, graphic artists, audio engineers, etc. to act as tutors. You can also take advantage of the numerous online user groups. One of my new favorites has been Lynda.com and it's business model.
Lynda offers online or DVD tutorials available as a monthly yearly or multi-user subscription. For a flat yearly fee you can access an extensive variety of tutorials ranging from the Adobe product line to Apple's Final Cut Studio to Avid Express. Currently they have over 370 tutorials and they manage to keep up with current versions of software updates as well as keeping legacy tutorials up for a reasonable amount of time.
The nice thing about this business model is that it allows you to use downtime to brush up on things you may have forgotten about or learn some new applications without having to run out to a night or weekend class. You can download project files and media to work with as well as go back and review anything you may have missed, or simply jump to a specific lesson where you may need some extra help. Lynda's tutorials vary somewhat in how deep they delve into each application and some are much better than others, however the basics are well covered in most of them.
Lynda is not the only one jumping on the subscription bandwagon. Avid now has the ALEX program (Avid Learning Accelerator) which I have yet to try, but for me, online tutorials are a great way to go for a working professional as well as people wanting to get a quick overview of a new application.
For a business owner, getting a subscription for your company can keep your people engaged and offers a very cost effective method of keeping your staff up to date on new applications.
Give it a try.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
A GOOD TEAM
Sunday we did a video shoot for a new project we are working on. Tara Zucker directed and Alec D. Boehm of Mental Slapstick was the DP. As far a shoots go, this was about as painless as it gets. One fixed camera, two lights and a stool for the actors.
Just wanted to thank Alec, Tara and the team of actors who generously brought their talents and experience to the project. Film, Video and Music are creative collaborations. Having the opportunity to work with very talented people is what makes it all worthwhile. We couldn't do it without all of you.
Thanks again.
Just wanted to thank Alec, Tara and the team of actors who generously brought their talents and experience to the project. Film, Video and Music are creative collaborations. Having the opportunity to work with very talented people is what makes it all worthwhile. We couldn't do it without all of you.
Thanks again.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Radiohead's In Rainbows
Well you can't say that Radiohead doesn't know a thing or two about marketing. They've created quite a stir in the traditional media as well as the blogosphere by releasing their latest creation "In Rainbows" on their web site and simply saying "pay what you want". Blogs like this one from The Numbers Guy all have their own speculation on how this method of releasing music is working for Radiohead, but I think that the only way we will ever know is if Radiohead decides to do it again on their next release.
A company called Comscore released some estimated figures stating that 62 Percent opted to pay nothing at all. An article in Rolling Stone said that Radiohead called that figure "wholly inaccurate" and hundreds of bloggers are all hazarding to make up their own figures.
Full disclosure, I paid 5 pounds for my download...though I really can't tell you off the top of my head what that adds up to in devalued American dollars. Somewhere around $10.
After hearing the album, that was a bargain. It's a fun record and they deserve to get paid for it.
It's a very interesting experiment Radiohead is doing though it would be more interesting if you were required to write down why you think you should just be able to get the music for free even if offered the opportunity. I would really like to hear the lame rational people would use. In my humble opinion...it's theft pure and simple if you download it without paying the owner.
For all of you folks out there who really believe that you should just be able to take whatever you want for free..and that includes music and videos...I hope in the near future you can experience the full effect of theft for yourself. Maybe someone should steal your iPod full of stolen music for themselves...that would be good. You deserve it.
A company called Comscore released some estimated figures stating that 62 Percent opted to pay nothing at all. An article in Rolling Stone said that Radiohead called that figure "wholly inaccurate" and hundreds of bloggers are all hazarding to make up their own figures.
Full disclosure, I paid 5 pounds for my download...though I really can't tell you off the top of my head what that adds up to in devalued American dollars. Somewhere around $10.
After hearing the album, that was a bargain. It's a fun record and they deserve to get paid for it.
It's a very interesting experiment Radiohead is doing though it would be more interesting if you were required to write down why you think you should just be able to get the music for free even if offered the opportunity. I would really like to hear the lame rational people would use. In my humble opinion...it's theft pure and simple if you download it without paying the owner.
For all of you folks out there who really believe that you should just be able to take whatever you want for free..and that includes music and videos...I hope in the near future you can experience the full effect of theft for yourself. Maybe someone should steal your iPod full of stolen music for themselves...that would be good. You deserve it.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
THE WRITERS STRIKE
Today marks the second day of the writers strike. If the strike goes on for an extended period of time, it could have an effect on my own bottom line. It could get tough for a lot of people who are not writers. I support them completely. Without writers, many of us would not have a job doing what we love...or at least we would not be able to make a living at it. We all should back them up, even if our lives may become a bit less abundant in the short run. For those of us who rely on quality writing for our livelihood, they deserve our support.
Take a look at this video. I don't know who created it, but it's worth a watch.
This morning's Los Angeles Times published a couple of letters to the editor that I found interesting. One said that the writers strike was the "the best thing that's happened to the entertainment industry in years". This was based on the commenter's assessment of the "barrage of mindless TV shows and graphically violent movies this season". Well, for the most part, the writers write what the producer's ask them to write. Yes, there are a lot of mindless shows on TV, but those shows are picked by the studios, networks and to a great extent the marketing departments via the ratings. If you want better shows, don't watch the mindless ones. Believe me, the good shows would not exist without quality writing. All of the graphics, costumes, set design, music and sound design in the world won't save a poorly written script.
The other letter was from a sound designer complaining that he did not receive any residuals, so why should writers? After all, they are "work for hire". His comment was that "Residuals should be reserved for those who have proved their talent and should not be built into the union contract as a basic provision." Yes, I agree that people should have to prove their talent. I think that statement validates the writers position. If a show is successful and the network, studios an producers decide to release it on DVD or the Web or any future medium that will inevitably come out, they are not doing it for charity. They are doing it for profit and the writers should share in that profit. In a perfect world, the sound designers, mixers, costume and set designers, cinematographers and editors would also get a piece of that action along with the actors and producers. That's not bound to happen, but this is one sound editor who places a high value on a good script. Have you tried to sell a silent movie lately? How about a sound effect CD? Try to make a living doing that. Advertisers are paying more money each year to be associated with the web and even adding advertising to DVDs that we pay for. That is all money in the pockets of corporations. Well my friend, corporations would not exist without the hard work of some very creative people. Don't let them down because if you do, in the long run, everyone loses.
There are many thousands of writers in the L.A. area alone who never make the cut selling a script or being on the staff of a TV show. It's an extremely competitive field and the people who do make it deserve the compensation for doing a great job. They are not asking for a fee ride, but a small percentage of the profits. If the DVD does not sell well or if people don't pay for the download or advertisers don't choose to pay, the writers don't get paid. It's no skin of the producers backs.
In my humble opinion, sharing the profits with the people who create these shows motivates everyone to do their best work as it is in their own interests to do so. If everyone does their best work, everyone wins.
So...if you see the writers picketing, give them the thumbs up. Go say hello. Write to or call the producer's guild, the networks and the studios and tell them to buck up, do the right thing and stop their whining.
Take a look at this video. I don't know who created it, but it's worth a watch.
This morning's Los Angeles Times published a couple of letters to the editor that I found interesting. One said that the writers strike was the "the best thing that's happened to the entertainment industry in years". This was based on the commenter's assessment of the "barrage of mindless TV shows and graphically violent movies this season". Well, for the most part, the writers write what the producer's ask them to write. Yes, there are a lot of mindless shows on TV, but those shows are picked by the studios, networks and to a great extent the marketing departments via the ratings. If you want better shows, don't watch the mindless ones. Believe me, the good shows would not exist without quality writing. All of the graphics, costumes, set design, music and sound design in the world won't save a poorly written script.
The other letter was from a sound designer complaining that he did not receive any residuals, so why should writers? After all, they are "work for hire". His comment was that "Residuals should be reserved for those who have proved their talent and should not be built into the union contract as a basic provision." Yes, I agree that people should have to prove their talent. I think that statement validates the writers position. If a show is successful and the network, studios an producers decide to release it on DVD or the Web or any future medium that will inevitably come out, they are not doing it for charity. They are doing it for profit and the writers should share in that profit. In a perfect world, the sound designers, mixers, costume and set designers, cinematographers and editors would also get a piece of that action along with the actors and producers. That's not bound to happen, but this is one sound editor who places a high value on a good script. Have you tried to sell a silent movie lately? How about a sound effect CD? Try to make a living doing that. Advertisers are paying more money each year to be associated with the web and even adding advertising to DVDs that we pay for. That is all money in the pockets of corporations. Well my friend, corporations would not exist without the hard work of some very creative people. Don't let them down because if you do, in the long run, everyone loses.
There are many thousands of writers in the L.A. area alone who never make the cut selling a script or being on the staff of a TV show. It's an extremely competitive field and the people who do make it deserve the compensation for doing a great job. They are not asking for a fee ride, but a small percentage of the profits. If the DVD does not sell well or if people don't pay for the download or advertisers don't choose to pay, the writers don't get paid. It's no skin of the producers backs.
In my humble opinion, sharing the profits with the people who create these shows motivates everyone to do their best work as it is in their own interests to do so. If everyone does their best work, everyone wins.
So...if you see the writers picketing, give them the thumbs up. Go say hello. Write to or call the producer's guild, the networks and the studios and tell them to buck up, do the right thing and stop their whining.
Monday, November 5, 2007
BLOG SURVEY
Knowing who blogs and who reads them may be interesting to some of you.
Please take my Blog Reader Project survey.
Please take my Blog Reader Project survey.
BABY STEPS TO SUCCESS
It's not an easy thing being an artist today. I suppose it never was. Many of the greats of past centuries died poor and unknown, while their work continues to inspire...and make a hefty profit for the "owners". With the writers strike just beginning, the struggle for not only fame, but ownership and fair renumeration goes on. Baby Steps.
Well, I'll talk about the writer's strike another day. Today I want to talk about achieving success in the music business.
Now that record companies have divested themselves of truly creative types and are basically living off their catalogs, songwriters and bands are pretty much on their own. They are fighting to be heard among the din of thousands of other artists posting their music on Myspace and Youtube. Maybe if they can sell 50,000 units themselves a major label may take some interest...though if you can sell 50,000 units on your own, why would you need a record company? For the radio play?!! Puleeezzze.
There are however some vestiges of hope for the emerging musician with a bit of marketing savy. I just got an email from Jonny, the vocalist for Los Angeles band Warner Drive. We produced a few simple music videos for them and their producer Mike Clink about a year ago. They are not playing Staples Center....yet.
These guys work hard. They play all the time. Not only in their home town of Los Angeles, but all over California, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Oregon and Washington and are slowly expanding the radius of their quarterly tours.
Warner Drive is not tooling around in a $500,000. Prevost bus with direct TV and a fridge fully stocked with top line imported brews. They travel in a big van towing a trailer. They are not sleeping on 600 thread count imported linens at the Four Seasons, but at any number of motel hells in the middle of the desert or on the floor at friends houses.
Still...they keep on with it and when they play a town for the first time and there are 12 people in the audience, they give it their all. Next time there will be 43 people and the next 250. Which brings me to the Baby Steps title. There are no overnight successes, but Warner Drive is slowly building a loyal fan base. They answer their fans questions on Myspace. When they play they don't talk down to their audience. They LOVE their audience. And it's beginning to pay off. Saturday night they won 3 awards at the All Access Magazine Music Awards. So it's not a national televised awards show where you win a gold plated cup of popcorn or a hefty gramophone. It's a local awards show sponsored by a music magazine here in Los Angeles. They won for "Best Overall Album of the Year", "Best Overall Live Band Performers", and probably the most important, "People's Choice". Baby Steps. It will help them get more gigs, sell more CDs on CDBaby and iTunes downloads. Move more merchandise at shows and slowly move up the rung of the rock and roll ladder. It's not easy or quick. It's difficult, frustrating and requires a lot of sacrifice on the part of the band members and their families.
We met with a couple of the heads of The Agency Group a few weeks ago to get a reality check on how the band is doing and to discuss the general state of the music business. Their assessment was sobering, but well received. The Warner Drive boys are essentially doing everything right. Doing what it takes. Working hard, moving forward and putting themselves out there.
The bottom line is that nobody is going to give you anything. You have to put yourself out there. You have to play lots of crappy gigs, get out and meet your audience, talk to them, put up a web site, get a myspace page, record your music and sell it on the web and promote yourself....over and over and over.
Good luck.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Stories From The Studio
Phil Ramone (with Charles L. Granata) has just released a new book called "Making Records-The Scenes Behind The Music". It's a terrific read and well worth picking up for anyone interested in a career in music production or even if you have been making records for years and need a reminder of why you got into the music business in the first place.
I have not been making records in a while, but many of the vignettes he tells along with his philosophy of how to make a good record are tied closely with the best record producers and engineers I worked with in my career. Tom Dowd, Tom Flye, Bob Johnston, Jim Ed Norman, Brooks Arthur, Jim Gaines to name a few all put the artist first. They earn the respect of the songwriters and musicians by leaving their own egos behind and making the artist comfortable. I learned a lot from them. First and foremost was to do whatever it took to capture the performance. One session I remember was especially eye opening.
At the Record Plant I had mainly been working with rock, funk and younger pop artists throughout the 70's and 80's. One morning I got a call to do a vocal session with the classic crooner Vic Damone. Vic had just recorded a live album at Bimbos 365 Club in San Francisco and was not happy with his vocal performance on a couple of tracks and wanted to do some repairs. Though I had worked on sessions with people like Neil Diamond and Burt Bacharach, these were mainly live remote recordings so I was a bit anxious about doing a studio session with one of the greats from Frank Sinatra era, on a genre of music I had not worked on before, in a studio with tie dye covering the walls.
They brought me the multi-track tapes early in order to prep the studio, find the takes we were to work on and so that I could get familiar with the songs. Knowing from my sessions with Tom Dowd that the tube 47 was his mic of choice on his early sessions, that's what I went with. I set it up along with a stool in the studio and focused some gelled spotlights to try to replicate the ambiance of a nightclub hoping that it would make him comfortable.
When Vic arrived, he introduced himself and took one listen to the tracks and said "let's do this". I showed him into the recording booth, quite impressed with my "nightclub" ambiance. Now the studios at the Plant during that era were acoustically very dead. The walls were covered with sound absorbent panels, the floors were carpeted and the ceiling was a giant bass trap. Vic put on his headphones and I started to run the tape. After an 8 bar intro...nothing. He didn't start to sing...or talk. I looked at his handler to see if this was something normal, but no clues there. After the song had run finished, I rewound to the top and asked if his headphones were OK. He nodded and said to run it again. Once again...8 bars....no singing. I asked if he needed some water, wine, less light, more light? "No"....still no clue as to what the problem was. Another try and half way through the song he pulled off his headphones. He looked very uncomfortable and I was a nervous wreck. Had I done something to offend him? Was the headphone mix way off?
Vic came into the control room and whispered something to one of his people and walked out. I was dumbstruck. After taking a deep breath I asked the silly question "is anything wrong?". The response was something I was not at all expecting. "Vic never sung in a studio with carpet before". Then it struck me. The odd answer was the clue I had been searching for. He was hearing the deadness of the room in his headphones and it was so disconcerting to him that he just was not feeling it. He had a few friends with him and the other studio was not working that night, so I asked if I could have a couple of minutes.
I took down the Neumann M49 that I had set up in the studio and replaced it with a Shure SM-58 hand held mic, set up a small pair of speakers and some chairs in the wood lobby and asked his entourage to take seats in the chairs. Vic stood in the lobby and I played the track through the speakers and without a pause, he started to sing. His friends were there, the unfamiliar engineer was out of sight and it turned into a cozy private performance. Two takes and he was done. Great vocal, happy artist and another lesson learned.
Thanks to some great mentors, a bad situation was saved by a simple changing of the mood and making the artist comfortable.
I have not been making records in a while, but many of the vignettes he tells along with his philosophy of how to make a good record are tied closely with the best record producers and engineers I worked with in my career. Tom Dowd, Tom Flye, Bob Johnston, Jim Ed Norman, Brooks Arthur, Jim Gaines to name a few all put the artist first. They earn the respect of the songwriters and musicians by leaving their own egos behind and making the artist comfortable. I learned a lot from them. First and foremost was to do whatever it took to capture the performance. One session I remember was especially eye opening.
At the Record Plant I had mainly been working with rock, funk and younger pop artists throughout the 70's and 80's. One morning I got a call to do a vocal session with the classic crooner Vic Damone. Vic had just recorded a live album at Bimbos 365 Club in San Francisco and was not happy with his vocal performance on a couple of tracks and wanted to do some repairs. Though I had worked on sessions with people like Neil Diamond and Burt Bacharach, these were mainly live remote recordings so I was a bit anxious about doing a studio session with one of the greats from Frank Sinatra era, on a genre of music I had not worked on before, in a studio with tie dye covering the walls.
They brought me the multi-track tapes early in order to prep the studio, find the takes we were to work on and so that I could get familiar with the songs. Knowing from my sessions with Tom Dowd that the tube 47 was his mic of choice on his early sessions, that's what I went with. I set it up along with a stool in the studio and focused some gelled spotlights to try to replicate the ambiance of a nightclub hoping that it would make him comfortable.
When Vic arrived, he introduced himself and took one listen to the tracks and said "let's do this". I showed him into the recording booth, quite impressed with my "nightclub" ambiance. Now the studios at the Plant during that era were acoustically very dead. The walls were covered with sound absorbent panels, the floors were carpeted and the ceiling was a giant bass trap. Vic put on his headphones and I started to run the tape. After an 8 bar intro...nothing. He didn't start to sing...or talk. I looked at his handler to see if this was something normal, but no clues there. After the song had run finished, I rewound to the top and asked if his headphones were OK. He nodded and said to run it again. Once again...8 bars....no singing. I asked if he needed some water, wine, less light, more light? "No"....still no clue as to what the problem was. Another try and half way through the song he pulled off his headphones. He looked very uncomfortable and I was a nervous wreck. Had I done something to offend him? Was the headphone mix way off?
Vic came into the control room and whispered something to one of his people and walked out. I was dumbstruck. After taking a deep breath I asked the silly question "is anything wrong?". The response was something I was not at all expecting. "Vic never sung in a studio with carpet before". Then it struck me. The odd answer was the clue I had been searching for. He was hearing the deadness of the room in his headphones and it was so disconcerting to him that he just was not feeling it. He had a few friends with him and the other studio was not working that night, so I asked if I could have a couple of minutes.
I took down the Neumann M49 that I had set up in the studio and replaced it with a Shure SM-58 hand held mic, set up a small pair of speakers and some chairs in the wood lobby and asked his entourage to take seats in the chairs. Vic stood in the lobby and I played the track through the speakers and without a pause, he started to sing. His friends were there, the unfamiliar engineer was out of sight and it turned into a cozy private performance. Two takes and he was done. Great vocal, happy artist and another lesson learned.
Thanks to some great mentors, a bad situation was saved by a simple changing of the mood and making the artist comfortable.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
GRAMMY VOTING
For those of you eligible to vote in this year's Grammys, take note of Jorma Kaukonen's release "Stars in My Crown", the follow-up to his Grammy-nominated Blue Country Heart! As always, thanks for your support of quality independent roots music...these artists could not continue the tradition without you!
I know that there are many categories that don't get radio play and unless you are a music supervisor or into that specific genre of music, you may never be exposed to many of the nominees. It's worth taking the time to do some research and support all of the genres of music and musicians.
Cheers, Rick
I know that there are many categories that don't get radio play and unless you are a music supervisor or into that specific genre of music, you may never be exposed to many of the nominees. It's worth taking the time to do some research and support all of the genres of music and musicians.
Cheers, Rick
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Report from AES...a bit late
It's been a few weeks since I returned from AES in New York. The show was good this year. One of the best things about these events is being able to see old friends and make some new ones. And of course there the opportunity to examine new trends, equipment and techniques in one fell swoop.
A couple of personal highlights were talking to Les Paul, who at '92 is looking more fit than most musicians I know 1/4 his age. Without him, a lot of us would never have been in this business. He still plays two shows every Monday night at the Iridium Jazz Club in the city so if you have not seen him, it's worth a trip.
Phil Ramone was at the NARAS booth on Saturday signing copies of his new book, which is a very entertaining and informative read. BTW...If you are eligible for membership into NARAS, you really should join. No, you may not be able to afford some of the events, but they do some great philanthropic work and it's well worth the price of membership for the networking events and seminars.
As far as equipment goes, there were some very interesting developments. Both API and NEVE introduced small format 16 input 8 bus analog consoles with all of the features of their old gems. For those of us who grew up tracking on these desks, it was nice to see that you can have a great front end for your DAW now without having to spend $250,000. Wunder Audio also had an interesting looking piece with the Wunderbar Console. I've not tried the Wunder line myself, but the 70's British aficionados I asked about it were comparing it to the Helios desks.
As far as microphones go, the sheer number of choices and newer companies was staggering.
Of course the standard studio choices of Neumann, Sennheiser, Shure, AKG, Sony were well represented, but one standout was Telefunken USA. They have re-issued what in my opinion are some of the greatest microphones ever. The Tube U47, the Elam 251 and the stereo version the Ela 270. These are not for the weak of heart, or the weak of cash. At over $15,000, the Ela 270 is for the true audiophile or a collector. They do however have some more moderately priced microphones that are very well made and sound beautiful. If you are looking for one showpiece, it's worth saving for one of these beauties. The folks at Telfunken are passionate about what they do and it shows in the quality of their products.
For those of us who are looking for something a bit more modest, there were plenty of choices. Brian Risner, (Weather Report, Bernard Hermann, Star Wars re-mix) an engineer I have much respect for, advised me to check out the Cascade Ribbon line. A small upstart out of Olympia, Washington, they made quite a splash at the show eith an AES special pricing of $100. for their FATHEAD microphone!!! That's the price of a good lunch in New York. Even if it sounded bad, it looked interesting and at that price, how wrong can you go? Well, it does not sound bad, in fact, I've been very impressed with everything I've tried it on. It's a ribbon, so the shimmering top end is not there, but on electric guitar, a sibilant voice and brass instruments, it has not disappointed. I used old RCA 77dx whenever I recorded Tower of Power and would have no reservations about using the Fathead in place of the classic. For your information, the Fathead is the low end of the Cascade line, so I would not hesitate to listen to their top of the line models, which are also very reasonably priced.
The higher end microphones that also made a good impression are the DPA line. They are more in the colorless end of the spectrum, but for acoustic music and nature recording, DPA would be a welcome addition to any mike locker. If you have never tried one on an concert grand, you are missing a whole new adventure in detail. They have a new shotgun (Type 4017) microphone that I found to have exceptional rejection while keeping a rich low end and a very smooth midrange. Their website, though a bit dry, is very informative and offers some great insights to mic technique.
In the realm of monitors, John Meyer and Co. keeps coming on strong with new innovation and a dedication to quality and ease of use. Meyer Sound's new M'elodie is an ultra-compact high-power curvilinear array adding to their extensive and impressive line of monitors. Once you've mixed a show using a well set-up Meyer rig, you never go back. Clean, loud and flat. Since I have not mixed a live show in 7 years, I'll leave it to the working pros to go into more detail.
For studio monitors, a company from France called Focal had a product line that made quite an impression. As at any of these events, it's difficult to do any critical listening, but my initial reaction was that they sounded musical...and that's really the point isn't it? The 5.1 system they had set up was one of the first I've heard where the subwoofer didn't sound like an afterthought. When they demonstrated an A/B comparison with and without the sub, the addition of the subwoofer extended the low frequencies, while not overwhelming you with a new point source. The high frequencies were clear while the mids were smooth and distortion free at multiple reference levels. Bob Hodas had mentioned the company to me and he has never steered me wrong. If you are looking for some high quality near field monitors, Focal is definitely worth a listen.
Of course, last but not least...the workstations, software and controllers. Digidesign was showing the 7.4 release which will make my job a lot easier with the "elastic time" feature. Every day I'm having to time compress or expand voice over to fit advertising spots and this new feature makes it easy and quick. There are also improvements in the algorithms and considering the fact that 90% of my voice work is done over questionable quality ISDN, every little bit helps. They have also added more support for networking and hi-def video. It seems that they do listen to the end users. Thanks guys.
The Digidesign added to it's line of controllers and consoles with the D-control ES and the C-24
As usual, the Digidesign booth was swamped with curious lookers and buyers, so I didn't have a chance to give either a try, but they seem to be moving in the right direction and keeping the end-user in mind when it comes to feature sets and ease of use. I'll try to get a hands on demo sometime here in the near future.
Speaking of voice over, Source-Elements John Binder and Robert Marshall have done it again with Source-Connect 3.0 with Auto Restore and Auto Replace. Source-Connect is sort of the IP version of ISDN, but with higher audio quality and now with the Auto Restore/Replace feature, you need not worry about bad packets corrupting your files. Yes, it will still happen, but now the application will auto-verify the integrity of the file and if there is a problem restore it from the sending side. For those of us who abhor the sound quality of mp3, "Auto Replace feature calls for the remotely recorded, uncompressed audio file and then locally replaces the AAC file with the full resolution PCM counterpart; not just on the hard drive but also within the timeline. No longer does the Recording Engineer have to re-edit the uncompressed file into an already edited timeline." GENIUS!!! I don't have source-connect myself, but it's coming soon to Post Haste and looks like a very useful tool for anyone doing remote sessions.
The plug-in and software world were brimming with new and updated additions. The Abbey Road Plugins looked like a must have for anyone working in rock music production with the TG12413 Limiter getting a lot of interest. Izotope, Massenberg and Minitonka all had products of interest. I'll go into these at a later date along with some of the outboard gear that you may want to look into.
Cheers, Rick Sanchez
Post Haste Media, Inc.
A couple of personal highlights were talking to Les Paul, who at '92 is looking more fit than most musicians I know 1/4 his age. Without him, a lot of us would never have been in this business. He still plays two shows every Monday night at the Iridium Jazz Club in the city so if you have not seen him, it's worth a trip.
Phil Ramone was at the NARAS booth on Saturday signing copies of his new book, which is a very entertaining and informative read. BTW...If you are eligible for membership into NARAS, you really should join. No, you may not be able to afford some of the events, but they do some great philanthropic work and it's well worth the price of membership for the networking events and seminars.
As far as equipment goes, there were some very interesting developments. Both API and NEVE introduced small format 16 input 8 bus analog consoles with all of the features of their old gems. For those of us who grew up tracking on these desks, it was nice to see that you can have a great front end for your DAW now without having to spend $250,000. Wunder Audio also had an interesting looking piece with the Wunderbar Console. I've not tried the Wunder line myself, but the 70's British aficionados I asked about it were comparing it to the Helios desks.
As far as microphones go, the sheer number of choices and newer companies was staggering.
Of course the standard studio choices of Neumann, Sennheiser, Shure, AKG, Sony were well represented, but one standout was Telefunken USA. They have re-issued what in my opinion are some of the greatest microphones ever. The Tube U47, the Elam 251 and the stereo version the Ela 270. These are not for the weak of heart, or the weak of cash. At over $15,000, the Ela 270 is for the true audiophile or a collector. They do however have some more moderately priced microphones that are very well made and sound beautiful. If you are looking for one showpiece, it's worth saving for one of these beauties. The folks at Telfunken are passionate about what they do and it shows in the quality of their products.
For those of us who are looking for something a bit more modest, there were plenty of choices. Brian Risner, (Weather Report, Bernard Hermann, Star Wars re-mix) an engineer I have much respect for, advised me to check out the Cascade Ribbon line. A small upstart out of Olympia, Washington, they made quite a splash at the show eith an AES special pricing of $100. for their FATHEAD microphone!!! That's the price of a good lunch in New York. Even if it sounded bad, it looked interesting and at that price, how wrong can you go? Well, it does not sound bad, in fact, I've been very impressed with everything I've tried it on. It's a ribbon, so the shimmering top end is not there, but on electric guitar, a sibilant voice and brass instruments, it has not disappointed. I used old RCA 77dx whenever I recorded Tower of Power and would have no reservations about using the Fathead in place of the classic. For your information, the Fathead is the low end of the Cascade line, so I would not hesitate to listen to their top of the line models, which are also very reasonably priced.
The higher end microphones that also made a good impression are the DPA line. They are more in the colorless end of the spectrum, but for acoustic music and nature recording, DPA would be a welcome addition to any mike locker. If you have never tried one on an concert grand, you are missing a whole new adventure in detail. They have a new shotgun (Type 4017) microphone that I found to have exceptional rejection while keeping a rich low end and a very smooth midrange. Their website, though a bit dry, is very informative and offers some great insights to mic technique.
In the realm of monitors, John Meyer and Co. keeps coming on strong with new innovation and a dedication to quality and ease of use. Meyer Sound's new M'elodie is an ultra-compact high-power curvilinear array adding to their extensive and impressive line of monitors. Once you've mixed a show using a well set-up Meyer rig, you never go back. Clean, loud and flat. Since I have not mixed a live show in 7 years, I'll leave it to the working pros to go into more detail.
For studio monitors, a company from France called Focal had a product line that made quite an impression. As at any of these events, it's difficult to do any critical listening, but my initial reaction was that they sounded musical...and that's really the point isn't it? The 5.1 system they had set up was one of the first I've heard where the subwoofer didn't sound like an afterthought. When they demonstrated an A/B comparison with and without the sub, the addition of the subwoofer extended the low frequencies, while not overwhelming you with a new point source. The high frequencies were clear while the mids were smooth and distortion free at multiple reference levels. Bob Hodas had mentioned the company to me and he has never steered me wrong. If you are looking for some high quality near field monitors, Focal is definitely worth a listen.
Of course, last but not least...the workstations, software and controllers. Digidesign was showing the 7.4 release which will make my job a lot easier with the "elastic time" feature. Every day I'm having to time compress or expand voice over to fit advertising spots and this new feature makes it easy and quick. There are also improvements in the algorithms and considering the fact that 90% of my voice work is done over questionable quality ISDN, every little bit helps. They have also added more support for networking and hi-def video. It seems that they do listen to the end users. Thanks guys.
The Digidesign added to it's line of controllers and consoles with the D-control ES and the C-24
As usual, the Digidesign booth was swamped with curious lookers and buyers, so I didn't have a chance to give either a try, but they seem to be moving in the right direction and keeping the end-user in mind when it comes to feature sets and ease of use. I'll try to get a hands on demo sometime here in the near future.
Speaking of voice over, Source-Elements John Binder and Robert Marshall have done it again with Source-Connect 3.0 with Auto Restore and Auto Replace. Source-Connect is sort of the IP version of ISDN, but with higher audio quality and now with the Auto Restore/Replace feature, you need not worry about bad packets corrupting your files. Yes, it will still happen, but now the application will auto-verify the integrity of the file and if there is a problem restore it from the sending side. For those of us who abhor the sound quality of mp3, "Auto Replace feature calls for the remotely recorded, uncompressed audio file and then locally replaces the AAC file with the full resolution PCM counterpart; not just on the hard drive but also within the timeline. No longer does the Recording Engineer have to re-edit the uncompressed file into an already edited timeline." GENIUS!!! I don't have source-connect myself, but it's coming soon to Post Haste and looks like a very useful tool for anyone doing remote sessions.
The plug-in and software world were brimming with new and updated additions. The Abbey Road Plugins looked like a must have for anyone working in rock music production with the TG12413 Limiter getting a lot of interest. Izotope, Massenberg and Minitonka all had products of interest. I'll go into these at a later date along with some of the outboard gear that you may want to look into.
Cheers, Rick Sanchez
Post Haste Media, Inc.
Friday, October 19, 2007
The NEW music business
Hoyt Axton once said that there are only two sure things in the world.
1. Things Change
2. A hat flies off in a high wind.
Things certainly do change. Madonna has inked a new deal. Not with a major record label, but with concert promoter Live Nation. I'm sure if you've purchased a ticket online, you are familiar with and are now bombarded with emails from Live Nation. It's a new model called a 360 deal. What does it mean exactly?
I'll try to explain. Madonna pulled in close to $500 million in concert sales over the last 6 years and you don't even want to know what the ticket scalpers made. Add clothing and merchandise, commercial endorsements, DVDs, film projects and even new music to that and you could bring a smile to even the most jaded executive. 360 degrees of profit...or at least that's how I understand it.
Granted, LiveNation paid a pretty sum to get the Material Woman, but the publicity it will garner both will probably be worth it in the long run. The music industry killed itself. It's had suicidal tendencies since the inception of the cassette tape.
Remember when the Record Plant made T-shirts saying "TAPE A RECORD GO TO PRISON"? It was a joke perpetuated by then studio manager Terry Delsing, but the majors were all atwitter claiming that allowing people to make tape copies of records would KILL the music business. It didn't. They did the same cry baby routine when CDs came out with the new fear that people could now make "high quality" copies. Yes they could..and they would give them to friends. It's called viral marketing.
Then came Napster. Oh my GOD!!! SHARING MUSIC!!!! Online downloads!!! We must stop it at all costs. Well..they didn't and it cost them a bundle. Instead of embracing technology and the changes it brings, they fought it tooth and nail. Instead of partnering with Napster, they sued them.
The point is that thinking outside of the box got lost in the fear factor at the major labels. The free ride of exploiting the artist AND the consumer was over. Now they actually had to work to make a living and they just didn't get it. There are a few exceptions. HEAR music was an upstart and joined forces with Starbucks (DUH!!!), Rhino's retro hip formula and brilliant packaging worked and I am still watching closely what Rick Rubin will do with Sony if they free up the reigns for him.
Artists have figured out that they can sell their music online with the help of visionaries like Derek Sivers of CD BABY. Consumers and artists alike figured out how much it actually cost to burn or replicate a CD and the writing was on the wall. Musicians could actually make a record at home (granted, the fidelity of audio has plummeted in many cases), reach out to the world and make alot more per sale than they would with a label...but that's another blog. The only people who were had the looks of deer in the headlight were the majors.
Now the labels are telling music producers "once you sell 50,000 CDs on your own, we'll talk to you about signing you". NOTE TO EXECS. Once I've sold 50,000 CDs on my own, I don't NEED you to sign me. Who listens to radio anymore anyway? Pre-programmed 15 song repeating playlists and muzakish disc jockeys. Myspace and sites like Pandora are today what Beaker Street on KAAY Littlerock and FM radio were like in the early seventies. You can find ANYTHING in any genre. It's like panning for gold. It may take a while, but the rewards are great.
It's time that more free thinkers jump into the fray. Agencies can join forces with Promoters and do festival tours of new artists (what's old is new again). Short term equity partnerships with artists, agents and promoters sharing the proceeds. Short term corporate sponsorships and cross branding can help to build a new artist and bring that effervescent youth demographic into the corporate fold.
Cmon...where are the new Bill Grahams? Yes he was a shark of a businessman, but the man absolutely loved music, musicians and the people who shared his passion. He would put Roland Kirk on a bill with a hard rock band and people would LOVE it. NO FEAR!! That's what it takes to really innovate.
And forget about all of these new "hi-def" surround formats. Unless the band is in the room with me, I don't want to be surrounded by them. It scares me. Besides...High Def already exists in the form of the DVD. Don't even THINK about making the consumer purchase some new media player. We all have DVD players and HD and BluRay players will handle 24 bit 96k audio with ease. MP3s are fine for your sweaty little earbuds, but the producers and artists out there should at least put a foot forward to promote
fans hearing their music as it was meant to be heard. Uncompressed.
OK...so it was more of a rant than a well articulated article, but stay posted. I'll grow up one of these days.
Cheers
Rick Sanchez
Post Haste Media
1. Things Change
2. A hat flies off in a high wind.
Things certainly do change. Madonna has inked a new deal. Not with a major record label, but with concert promoter Live Nation. I'm sure if you've purchased a ticket online, you are familiar with and are now bombarded with emails from Live Nation. It's a new model called a 360 deal. What does it mean exactly?
I'll try to explain. Madonna pulled in close to $500 million in concert sales over the last 6 years and you don't even want to know what the ticket scalpers made. Add clothing and merchandise, commercial endorsements, DVDs, film projects and even new music to that and you could bring a smile to even the most jaded executive. 360 degrees of profit...or at least that's how I understand it.
Granted, LiveNation paid a pretty sum to get the Material Woman, but the publicity it will garner both will probably be worth it in the long run. The music industry killed itself. It's had suicidal tendencies since the inception of the cassette tape.
Remember when the Record Plant made T-shirts saying "TAPE A RECORD GO TO PRISON"? It was a joke perpetuated by then studio manager Terry Delsing, but the majors were all atwitter claiming that allowing people to make tape copies of records would KILL the music business. It didn't. They did the same cry baby routine when CDs came out with the new fear that people could now make "high quality" copies. Yes they could..and they would give them to friends. It's called viral marketing.
Then came Napster. Oh my GOD!!! SHARING MUSIC!!!! Online downloads!!! We must stop it at all costs. Well..they didn't and it cost them a bundle. Instead of embracing technology and the changes it brings, they fought it tooth and nail. Instead of partnering with Napster, they sued them.
The point is that thinking outside of the box got lost in the fear factor at the major labels. The free ride of exploiting the artist AND the consumer was over. Now they actually had to work to make a living and they just didn't get it. There are a few exceptions. HEAR music was an upstart and joined forces with Starbucks (DUH!!!), Rhino's retro hip formula and brilliant packaging worked and I am still watching closely what Rick Rubin will do with Sony if they free up the reigns for him.
Artists have figured out that they can sell their music online with the help of visionaries like Derek Sivers of CD BABY. Consumers and artists alike figured out how much it actually cost to burn or replicate a CD and the writing was on the wall. Musicians could actually make a record at home (granted, the fidelity of audio has plummeted in many cases), reach out to the world and make alot more per sale than they would with a label...but that's another blog. The only people who were had the looks of deer in the headlight were the majors.
Now the labels are telling music producers "once you sell 50,000 CDs on your own, we'll talk to you about signing you". NOTE TO EXECS. Once I've sold 50,000 CDs on my own, I don't NEED you to sign me. Who listens to radio anymore anyway? Pre-programmed 15 song repeating playlists and muzakish disc jockeys. Myspace and sites like Pandora are today what Beaker Street on KAAY Littlerock and FM radio were like in the early seventies. You can find ANYTHING in any genre. It's like panning for gold. It may take a while, but the rewards are great.
It's time that more free thinkers jump into the fray. Agencies can join forces with Promoters and do festival tours of new artists (what's old is new again). Short term equity partnerships with artists, agents and promoters sharing the proceeds. Short term corporate sponsorships and cross branding can help to build a new artist and bring that effervescent youth demographic into the corporate fold.
Cmon...where are the new Bill Grahams? Yes he was a shark of a businessman, but the man absolutely loved music, musicians and the people who shared his passion. He would put Roland Kirk on a bill with a hard rock band and people would LOVE it. NO FEAR!! That's what it takes to really innovate.
And forget about all of these new "hi-def" surround formats. Unless the band is in the room with me, I don't want to be surrounded by them. It scares me. Besides...High Def already exists in the form of the DVD. Don't even THINK about making the consumer purchase some new media player. We all have DVD players and HD and BluRay players will handle 24 bit 96k audio with ease. MP3s are fine for your sweaty little earbuds, but the producers and artists out there should at least put a foot forward to promote
fans hearing their music as it was meant to be heard. Uncompressed.
OK...so it was more of a rant than a well articulated article, but stay posted. I'll grow up one of these days.
Cheers
Rick Sanchez
Post Haste Media
Friday, September 21, 2007
What happened to quality?!!!!!
The other day I was talking to a musician friend who was seemingly in a state of shock after plugging his iPod into the studio sound system to listen to his latest masterpiece. "What happened?!!! It sounded so good when we mixed it?" I had tried to warn him about attempting this test sensing the impending disappointment, but he wanted to hear how his audience heard it. Just so you know .mp3 happens to be the Walmart version of sound. You can have more of it than you could ever dream of in your coat pocket, it's fast to download and it's cheap (as in free) to replicate and virtually free to distribute. That's the whole point. MP3 is not about the quality, it's about convenience.
As for his audience, I tried to explain to him that if you've only ever experienced beef ala McDonald's, you're never going to miss the flavor of a perfectly grilled fillet mignon. My apologies to the world's vegans. Most of his audience listens to music on 99 cent earbuds while trying to ignore the general public.
Artists, producers and engineers really must take a pro-active stance if they want their audience to hear music the way they created it to be heard. They have to educate and enlighten their audience when they do interviews. Yes, you always need to talk about the content of the music you create, but that should go hand in hand with promoting not only mp3 for convenience, but the alternate and far superior sound quality of a 24bit 96k audio file heard over a well designed and in many cases affordable sound systems.
A BIT OF THE HISTORY
Why do I care about this? I'm 52 years old and came from an era when the person with the best stereo in the college dorm was never lacking for company. The audiophile in my dorm had an AR turntable, a Revox reel to reel tape machine and to go with his stereo a poster that said "By design... there is nothing like a McIntosh." (70's version of a geek). It did however teach me how music was meant to be heard. The grunts of the pianist, the valves of the trumpet and the rosin of the violin bow were all there in glorious detail when he turned up his system. It made me want to become a recording engineer more than a rock star.
That era went away around 1979 with the advent of the walkman and continued it's decline in 1984 with the introduction of the Apple computer. The product of choice went from McIntosh to Macintosh. (Don't get me wrong, I've probably owned a couple of dozen Macs over the years starting with a Mac Plus and I currently have 6 plus an iPod and a shuffle).
The video arcade started to change the collective entertainment mindset and once Atari, Nintendo, Playstation and Xbox entered the market, many of the would-be high-end audio consumers ventured into into the high-end workstation market. Graphics and interactivity moved to the front of the line and audio quality moved to the back of the bus.
Fast forward to October 2001...enter the iPod. A remarkable device that allows you to carry around upwards of 40,000 songs in something the size of your wallet or 240 songs in a device not much larger than a quarter. I have a couple of them myself and it's great for listening in the car or while hiking up Fryman Canyon. The problem with the iPod is that if you happen to plug it into a high end sound system...the audio quality sucks.
It's not designed for quality. It's designed for convenience and convenience is something it supplies very well.
Granted there have been some feeble attempts by the music executives to turn consumers back to high quality audio, but as in the 70's with Quad, surround music just did not take hold. Who wants to fight for that perfect center position to listen to an album anymore and how do you set up a 5.1 audio system in a dorm or small apartment anyway?
My personal opinion is that we can forget about surround for music and start re-releasing existing mono and stereo recordings re-sampled and remastered at 24 bit 96k, which will play on most any DVD system as uncompressed PCM files. No new equipment to purchase and inexpensive to manufacture and sell.
For mp3 listeners, it's like switching from a Yugo to a Mercedes. For gamers it's like going from a box with an Intel 286 to an Intel Multi-core Xeon and a graphics accelerator. It's the way recorded music was meant to be heard.
Let's start promoting audio quality again. You can always have your sweaty little earbuds. They just happen to be a horrible way to really hear music.
As for his audience, I tried to explain to him that if you've only ever experienced beef ala McDonald's, you're never going to miss the flavor of a perfectly grilled fillet mignon. My apologies to the world's vegans. Most of his audience listens to music on 99 cent earbuds while trying to ignore the general public.
Artists, producers and engineers really must take a pro-active stance if they want their audience to hear music the way they created it to be heard. They have to educate and enlighten their audience when they do interviews. Yes, you always need to talk about the content of the music you create, but that should go hand in hand with promoting not only mp3 for convenience, but the alternate and far superior sound quality of a 24bit 96k audio file heard over a well designed and in many cases affordable sound systems.
A BIT OF THE HISTORY
Why do I care about this? I'm 52 years old and came from an era when the person with the best stereo in the college dorm was never lacking for company. The audiophile in my dorm had an AR turntable, a Revox reel to reel tape machine and to go with his stereo a poster that said "By design... there is nothing like a McIntosh." (70's version of a geek). It did however teach me how music was meant to be heard. The grunts of the pianist, the valves of the trumpet and the rosin of the violin bow were all there in glorious detail when he turned up his system. It made me want to become a recording engineer more than a rock star.
That era went away around 1979 with the advent of the walkman and continued it's decline in 1984 with the introduction of the Apple computer. The product of choice went from McIntosh to Macintosh. (Don't get me wrong, I've probably owned a couple of dozen Macs over the years starting with a Mac Plus and I currently have 6 plus an iPod and a shuffle).
The video arcade started to change the collective entertainment mindset and once Atari, Nintendo, Playstation and Xbox entered the market, many of the would-be high-end audio consumers ventured into into the high-end workstation market. Graphics and interactivity moved to the front of the line and audio quality moved to the back of the bus.
Fast forward to October 2001...enter the iPod. A remarkable device that allows you to carry around upwards of 40,000 songs in something the size of your wallet or 240 songs in a device not much larger than a quarter. I have a couple of them myself and it's great for listening in the car or while hiking up Fryman Canyon. The problem with the iPod is that if you happen to plug it into a high end sound system...the audio quality sucks.
It's not designed for quality. It's designed for convenience and convenience is something it supplies very well.
Granted there have been some feeble attempts by the music executives to turn consumers back to high quality audio, but as in the 70's with Quad, surround music just did not take hold. Who wants to fight for that perfect center position to listen to an album anymore and how do you set up a 5.1 audio system in a dorm or small apartment anyway?
My personal opinion is that we can forget about surround for music and start re-releasing existing mono and stereo recordings re-sampled and remastered at 24 bit 96k, which will play on most any DVD system as uncompressed PCM files. No new equipment to purchase and inexpensive to manufacture and sell.
For mp3 listeners, it's like switching from a Yugo to a Mercedes. For gamers it's like going from a box with an Intel 286 to an Intel Multi-core Xeon and a graphics accelerator. It's the way recorded music was meant to be heard.
Let's start promoting audio quality again. You can always have your sweaty little earbuds. They just happen to be a horrible way to really hear music.
Friday, August 17, 2007
CC it to me: Creative Collaboration
For the first time in my life I'm working on projects for invisible clients. No face to face meetings, no phone calls, just brief electronic communications via email, and project elements via FTP and Digidelivery. Sometimes if...I'm lucky I'll get some direction. I do my work and send it off only to see it appear on television or a DVD a short time later.
Some may find this to be the ideal way to work. Personally after 30 years of micromanaged projects, I find it a bit disconcerting. Not that that's a bad thing. Sometimes a big change is just what is needed to get the creative juices flowing. I don't think any creative type likes having a manager breathing down their neck at every working moment. Knowing that a client has developed a sense of trust in your creative aesthetic and technical abilities to just let you do your work is always inspiring.
One small concern of mine is that the collaborative process will somehow be lost along the way. I love to collaborate on projects. My first career life as a recording engineer/producer on music projects was the essence of collaboration. It's exhilarating to with artists to bring out the best in their writing or selection of material, the pre-production and arranging, the recording of the performance and mixing to bring out the essence of the song and ultimately the marketing to the masses was collaborative from day one.
Of course there were always differences of opinion and occasionally a small scale war over creative and marketing decisions, and depending on your position on what rung of the ladder you happen to occupy at the moment, you may be overruled, but if you keep your mind open, you'll always learn something in the process...even if it's how NOT to do it next time.
So by all means, all of you collaborators out there...don't hesitate to put in your two cents. We just may come up with the next big thing...at least for the next 15 minutes.
Some may find this to be the ideal way to work. Personally after 30 years of micromanaged projects, I find it a bit disconcerting. Not that that's a bad thing. Sometimes a big change is just what is needed to get the creative juices flowing. I don't think any creative type likes having a manager breathing down their neck at every working moment. Knowing that a client has developed a sense of trust in your creative aesthetic and technical abilities to just let you do your work is always inspiring.
One small concern of mine is that the collaborative process will somehow be lost along the way. I love to collaborate on projects. My first career life as a recording engineer/producer on music projects was the essence of collaboration. It's exhilarating to with artists to bring out the best in their writing or selection of material, the pre-production and arranging, the recording of the performance and mixing to bring out the essence of the song and ultimately the marketing to the masses was collaborative from day one.
Of course there were always differences of opinion and occasionally a small scale war over creative and marketing decisions, and depending on your position on what rung of the ladder you happen to occupy at the moment, you may be overruled, but if you keep your mind open, you'll always learn something in the process...even if it's how NOT to do it next time.
So by all means, all of you collaborators out there...don't hesitate to put in your two cents. We just may come up with the next big thing...at least for the next 15 minutes.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Blogging Post Haste
Original content, marketing, intellectual rights management, scripted content, production, quality..where it it all headed? We want your thoughts.
With the advent of reality programing, user created content, blogging, and the 24 hour news cycle, it's all become a crap shoot. Add to that the global market economy and the corporate bottom line mindset and we find ourselves with a thousand questions and a million answers.
At the Producer's and Engineer's wing of the Recording Academy, one of the most frequently asked questions is "How do I get my music on iTunes?". Well, that's easy. There is IODA, Snocap, Tunecore, CD Baby and probably a hundred more aggregators that can help you with that and they do a fine job of it. The question you should be asking is "How do I get my music SOLD on iTunes?". For artists, film makers, commercial directors, writers and producers, the same question remains. Now that your paper boy can create original content coupled with the publics seemingly insatiable desire for free content as well as their acceptance of mediocre quality (think mp3 and reality TV) is the creative professional as we know it headed down the path of scripted television?
At Post Haste Media, we are looking to answer some of these questions and want to hear from you about your success stories and your failures.
With the advent of reality programing, user created content, blogging, and the 24 hour news cycle, it's all become a crap shoot. Add to that the global market economy and the corporate bottom line mindset and we find ourselves with a thousand questions and a million answers.
At the Producer's and Engineer's wing of the Recording Academy, one of the most frequently asked questions is "How do I get my music on iTunes?". Well, that's easy. There is IODA, Snocap, Tunecore, CD Baby and probably a hundred more aggregators that can help you with that and they do a fine job of it. The question you should be asking is "How do I get my music SOLD on iTunes?". For artists, film makers, commercial directors, writers and producers, the same question remains. Now that your paper boy can create original content coupled with the publics seemingly insatiable desire for free content as well as their acceptance of mediocre quality (think mp3 and reality TV) is the creative professional as we know it headed down the path of scripted television?
At Post Haste Media, we are looking to answer some of these questions and want to hear from you about your success stories and your failures.
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