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What's going on in 2009?

2009-05-19T10:22:00.002-06:00

So, as I mentioned a while ago, I am now focusing on writing and working on shorter mixing gigs and taking the occasional other project (scoring, sound design, etc.). A lot of my time has been going to the commercial A/V work I have been doing for about a year now. Its a great gig.

I am currently working on developing a recording "co-op" model that could be used for sharing resources, space, etc. with a number of people who don't have access to gear but can combine resources to makes albums, write, jam, and generally just collaborate. It's very early, but there may be some good opportunities there.

later

What's up at the end of 2008

2008-12-08T21:34:00.002-07:00

Wrapping up 2008 and as usual, Colabs keeps evolving as growing. A few notable changes for me and Colabs this year:

Moved to the west coast and got plugged into the music scene here.
Moved the studio from one decent studio space to a much preferable one, my house!
Had a baby, a beautiful son!
Have started scaling back whole album mixes in favor of singles and EPs
Starting to take my own writing and music creation more seriously

2009 will be an exciting year for me personally as I dive into fatherhood and a new creative season with Colabs.

Thanks to everyone who has worked with me in the last year!

The heartless task of arranging your music

2008-07-27T15:38:00.002-06:00

Often when mixing an album I will be faced with a dilemma: with all the tracks roughly balanced at a level where you can hear everything, there is no way for all the tracks to live together in the same song - there is too much going on.

So, I am forced to make a tough call, a musical "Sophie's Choice", if you will. Someone has got to go. I need to cut some tracks.

I will often consult the artist or producer before doing this. No one really likes this at the mixing stage because it involves a compromise. There are often a lot of good ideas in there and you know that by choosing one direction, you are shutting down another one.

In the end the music sounds better. The song and the melody will likely be more memorable or maybe the music just grooves better. But there is a better way: the heartless task of arranging you music.

Write your song.
Establish an arrangement that supports all the best elements of the song.
Record your song in the most fun and natural way you can.
During the overdub stage, feel free to get all your crazy ideas out there but keep the overall song and the melody in plain view all the while.
Before you mix the song, ruthlessly cut every part that doesn't add to the original vibe and magic of the song. Cool sounding or not, if it doesn't support the song and jives with all the other elements, cut it.

If you make smart creative choices early on and trust that the song will speak for itself, a mix engineer will be able to do her job and take the song to a whole new level.

Rhyme and Melody Podcast

2008-06-13T21:27:00.002-06:00

A local (Vancouver area) producer has launched a new podcast that covers (loosely) hip-hop, beat boxing, freestyle, and general urban music creation in a collaborative studio context. They are doing some fun stuff with creating some musical ideas though improvisation in the studio and then polishing between shows. I may be doing some collaboration so check it out and support the local music scene.

You can find the podcast here.

Later.

Jeremy Melodic Makes Fox SEEDS top 20

2008-06-09T14:13:00.002-06:00

Jeremy Melodic recently had there three song demo mixed at Colabs in preparation for submitting their band to the Fox SEEDS '08 contest. Jeremy Melodic has made the initial top 20 pick, so congrats to them on that!

Sign up and vote for Jeremy Melodic.

Making records should be fun.

2008-05-03T12:12:00.002-06:00

I had a fun jam and recording session with a good friend the other night. As we collaborated and threw different musical ideas around my friend made a comment that stuck out to me:

"...this is so different from when we made our album. It wasn't fun."

He was referring to a record that he had made with his band recently. It was a fairly big budget project and most of the time was spent in bigger studios working with a producer. The formula for a great album was all there and the finished product actually sounds pretty good.

So why would he say that he preferred the recording process of a couple of guys in a small studio throwing ideas around and not really being all that finicky about sounds, perfect playing, etc.?

1. You need to have a good working relationship with your producer. sound's like my friend had a producer who, despite getting the sounds he wanted in the end, was not really easy to work with. Sometimes this is ok and necessary to keep a project moving forward, but it can also stifle creativity. My friend and I get along great and can take creative risks with each other while still being able to say when something is stupid. A good producer can hold those two elements in balance to keep a session creative and on track.

2. Big budgets can create big pressure. A good product cost money, but the decision to work entirely in large studios and by expensive hourly rates can be a massive wet blanket on the creativity and enjoyment of making music, especially for a struggling artist or band.

Making music, no matter the style or your goals in recording, should be fun. Creativity is often about taking risks. Record in an environment where you feel the most creatively free and with people who can both welcome your crazy ideas and call out the bad ones.

New Gear

2008-03-19T08:54:00.002-06:00

I've been looking at getting a couple new pieces of gear into the studio. Here is a short list of some of the really cool things I have been looking at and considering.

Rolls Music Folcrom - Analog audio summing has become pretty big over the past four or five years with the 'mixing in the box' crowd. Basically, the argument goes, that a big part of why analog consoles make mixes sound so good is in the summing amp (a device that takes all your channels and 'sums' them into a stereo signal). The rolls is cool because it is totally passive and you need a preamp to make up the gain of your stereo signal. This means that your sound is totally determined by what mic preamps you use for make up gain. Cool!

Waves Studio Classics Plug in Bundle - Really good sounding emulations of SSL, Neve, and API gear. Most people are stoked about the SSL stuff but It all sounds pretty cool.

Celemony Melodyne Studio - The new version of this program can tune notes within chords of recorded audio. I have absolutely no idea how they figured out how to do this, but I would guess someone at Celemony sold their soul to the devil or something similarly dubious. Tune your guitar after you get a good take!

BFD 2 - Actually I already ordered this. Really good sounding, really usable multi sampled acoustic drum machine that I can also trigger with Drumagog. More of a songwriting tool or a convincing back up when you can't get a real drummer with a good kit in a great sounding studio. I like that I can use drumagog to trigger new drum sounds with their corresponding room and overhead mics that I can mix in afterward. Sweet!

Ok enough nerd gear talk.

Later.

How Much is Too Much?

2008-03-11T09:08:00.002-06:00

...or "How cheap is too cheap?"

Recording an album is almost always a significant financial undertaking for an indie band or artist. Typical indie budgets start in the $5k range and often run up to $30k or higher. That would be the low end. Budgets of $50,000 or more are not uncommon with serious working bands. They may or may not be getting a bit of support from a small indie label, but chances are that they are paying a lot of cash out of their own pockets.

The crazy thing is, I can't really tell the difference between the $20k or $30k album and the $50k album. I mean, in general, I hear projects in both price ranges that sound amazing and some that sound cheap and amateur. Neither price range is high enough to guarantee success, sales, critical acclaim, (not sure any price range does, actually) but the higher price range seems to especially miss the mark as it is basically throwing money away.

Now, I've heard so many arguments for the value of the recording process, the "minimum budget" for a professional product, you get what you pay for, blah blah blah. Typically it is studio owners who talk this way because it is clearly in their best interest to sell studio time on the grounds that a bigger budget will always mean a more professional album in the end. And there is some truth to this. Fair enough. However, many studios charge their rates based on the use of all there facilities and equipment. If a recording studio has all the gear and accoutrement's of a $1000/day room, you are going to pay $1000/day regardless of whether or not you use all of it.

So the question to ask is, "what do I need to make this album?"

Start by making a list of the things that cost you nothing...

-rehearse
-write songs
-arrange your music
-get critical feedback

If you get these elements down, you will automatically reduce your need to be in the studio for longer chunks of time. Next, consider what you can take on yourself and what you need outside professionals for.

-Can you do you own preproduction?
-Do you own recording equipment?
-Are you qualified to engineer the album or just put down "scratch parts" and ideas?
-Can you play all your musical parts or do you need session players?

Finally, make a list of things you probably can't make a good record without. These would include (and I would recommend them)...

-A producer who you get along with and who gets your sound
-A space to record
-Gear to record with
-A good engineer to capture the sounds
-A good mix engineer to make it sound like the record you want
-A mastering engineer
-Some way to duplicate and distribute your music (doesn't have to be a CD)

If you start be thinking with the mindset that the majority of the recording process rests on your own shoulders, your thinking about cost will be quite different (and cheaper). The trap you absolutely must avoid is thinking that because you don't have the big studio, big budget, celebrity producer, special vintage gear, _______________(insert other excuse here), that you can't make a record. If your music sucks without those elements, it's because your music sucks.

Think about that before you start writing checks, then get recording!

Later.

Collaborative Incentive

2008-03-03T08:57:00.002-07:00

A good deal of my mixing clients over the past years have been friends of friends who have heard first hand about how they could get a better sounding mix and an overall better album by working with me. I've always appreciated the warm and positive feedback that people have given me and how it has lead to more people hearing about my mixing.

So this month Colabs is launching a collaborative incentive program that pays you for telling people about us. We appreciate the word of mouth endorsements that we have received all along and now we want to give something back to you and also give you incentive to keep doing it!

Contact me if you want to find out about this. Anyone can sign up, we'll send you promo materials and you stand to make some extra cash just for telling people about Colabs!

The Future of Making Music

2008-01-18T15:43:00.000-07:00

I am fully convinced that the music industry of yesteryear, the one that many people still think exists, the one they talk about in passing on tv shows, the big glitzy powerful multi-national corporation owned and driven music industry where big labels are the gatekeepers to a lucrative career in music, will be almost totally gone in the next few years.

I believe this for a couple obvious and maybe a few less obvious reasons.

1. CD sales are toast - I'll jut download it.

2. Anyone can make a record - Turns out the kid in his basement can make a pretty decent record without paying $200/hr. at Studio XYZ.

3. Indie is Mainstream - Your mom really likes Feist.

4. Entrepreneurship is key - Sorry, but no one is going to stumble upon your demo and 'sign you to a big label'.

5. The interwebs - social networking, facebook, youtube, myspace, computervideonintedoipods, blah, blah, blah.

My view in a nutshell? Successful artists in 2008 will produce there own products (record on there own with a hand selected group of specialized people), find there own fan base through social networks, distribute music and merch on the web, and overall take an entrepreneurial approach to there own music careers.

That's it. Now get crackin'!

Later

2008 is really great!

2008-01-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

Happy new year people!

Hope 2007 was as fun for you as it was for me. Lots of cool new stuf coming up for Colabs in 2008. Keep an eye out for the new site up this month.

Later.

Nearly....

2007-11-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

Hey, the website is almost up!

Check back around mid December and you should be presently surprised. Actually, since I'm announcing it right now, you won't be that surprised. But check it out anyways, I think it is looking pretty cool.

Later,

A

Since we've moved...

2007-11-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

There are a number of things that I have noticed initially since moving to Langley.

It's really beautiful here. Coming from Calgary (nice city, don't get me wrong) we are still getting used to all the vegetation and walks by the ocean. Very inspiring.

People talk about rain a lot. I don't mind the rain. Never have. It does bug me though how often people talk about how much it rains. Every time you turn on the radio it's "well it looks like mooooooore rain" or you tell someone you just moved here and they say, "well hope you like rain." Seriously, find something else to talk about!

Way more bands. I'm loving connecting with so many bands out here. Everyone is in a band, which is great. Its a big reason way we are out here now. A bigger, more active music scene. Love it.

Later.

Setting Up

2007-10-31T11:17:00.000-06:00

Well, I've moved into my new place, got all my gear out of storage and am in the process of setting up a new studio space.

The new mix room is about the same square footage as my place in Calgary but has much higher ceilings and has an attached overdub booth that is all treated, wired and ready to go. I've got a bit of work to in this new space just to get it up to my standards for a mix room; mostly acoustic treatment on the walls and some bass trapping. Maybe a coat of paint and some nice decor? Some throw pillows and mural of an ice princess riding a polar bear?

I've thrown up an offer on craigslist, but I will post it hear to. Since I need to set up my room and get a feel for the new space, I'd like to mix a three song demo/EP for someone who has some solid material and has there material ready to go. It would be totally free and there would be no obligation to use the mixes in the end. I just need to get the room set up and tuned, and an actual mix gig would be great.

If you know of someone who could make use of this during the month of November, have them send me and email: info@colabs.ca

On an unrelated note, I've become a big fan of Last.fm. Great way to hear new music. Check it out.

Later.

Changes... Big Changes

2007-10-11T12:07:00.000-06:00

Well, the blog has sat dormant over the later part of the summer and into the fall. Obviously something is up.

Well, for those who knew, I was living in Calgary, Alberta and running the mixing studio there. Well, know I am in Vancouver, Langley, BC, to be exact.

Over the past few years my wife and I have been trying to find a way to move out to the coast or near to it. The west coast lifestyle, the music scene, the beautiful scenery, all were important things to us. Then, this summer a number of opportunities opened up for us with jobs, etc. that made the transition look like a serious possibility. So we took a deep breath and jumped into this big life transition with both feet.

The move went well and I have managed to line up a studio space that will work well for my mixing work. It was a little difficult leaving the studio in Calgary since there was a lot of hard work and creativity that went into that space. But the important thing is that I have a solid space to mix in and am now closer to a really lively indie music scene, something I have always been passionate about supporting.

So, new studio pics will be up in the near future and an updated website is on its way.

Later,

A

Where's the new site?

2007-06-25T18:49:00.000-06:00

I mentioned a while back that there was a new colabs.ca site in the works. Well, it's still on the way. It has been taking a little longer then expected, but it should be up soon.

The new site will look a lot cooler, be easier to navigate, and will have some helpful resources for independent artists who are in the recording process. Also, I'll have a Q&A page up to answer some of the common questions that I often get asked about Colabs and the mixing process.

On another note, if you would like to hear how I spend my free time in the studio, check out www.sunsetarrest.blogspot.com. I'll be posting my ongoing writing/production projects there.

later.

Special Effects

2007-05-28T10:00:00.000-06:00

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End the other night. Basically it is a lot of eye candy, a ridiculous cameo by Kieth Richards, and a half baked and confusing storyline that is hard to follow. In this way the feel of the movie is a good representation of the theme park ride that it is based on. I'm sure there are a lot of people who loved it, but I think that this type of movie is best enjoyed when testing out a home theater package at Best Buy.

The thing about amazing special effects is that they don't really stand on there own apart from a good story. I've bought so many albums that, on first listen, sound so fresh and creative, but when you actually listen to them, they sound over-hyped and bland. It's a funny thing. Some of my favorite albums definitely have a distinctive sound that seems to lock them into a certain time and place - but in a good way. On the other hand, an album that lacks real depth in the songs seems to quickly sound dated - like a fad that died out as soon as you bought into it. I hate that!

In music production, there is a big temptation to gloss over the imperfections in the writing with clever production tricks. When it come to the mix, it's easy to get carried away. You can get peoples attention with "special effects", but without substance, you'll likely be forgotten quickly.

X92.9 Xposure Contest

2007-04-25T22:09:00.000-06:00

If you live in Calgary and listen to X92 you may have heard mention of the Xposure contest that they are taking submissions for. Basically you send in a CD of your band's best three songs to the station and "...the top 5 bands will each win $15,000, inclusion on the Xposure CD, $1,000 gift certificate from Guitarworks and a track in full radio rotation on X92.9.� Partial proceeds from the Xposure CD will go to each of the band as well." (Xposure Blog)

So here's the deal. This is a great opportunity for bands that have a good CD project but not much exposure at this point. I'd love to help your music get recognized and see some deserving new bands win this thing. So, if you are thinking of submitting a CD for this, but aren't sure if your demo will cut it on competitive radio airplay, CoLabs can help you out.

I'll mix your project to be submitted up front for FREE. You will get a totally pro sounding mix of your product that will really stand out and get some attention. If you don't make the winning top five, you don't pay a thing.

This thing will be over soon so contact me at info@colabs.ca if this is something you are interested in.

Later

Creative Voice in Mixing

2007-04-15T23:21:00.000-06:00

I've always felt that I've had difficultly expressing my musical voice through any one musical medium. Some people are naturally gifted in one area, whether it be songwriting, some instrument that they are really proficient on or something like that, and they are able to express there creative voice effortlessly. It's a little different for me.

By "creative voice" I mean that inner creative identity that you try to expose through your art. Your view of the world, your statement.

But this voice takes time to develop. A painter must learn the appropriate techniques and skills before she can freely create without any technical barrier stopping her from realizing her creative vision. Until she arrives at that certain level of proficiency (it's different for everyone) she will struggle to give voice to her creativity and will likely feel that her work is always half finished or under realized.

I have found that I can't give voice to my creativity in any one medium. Practically, while I play a number of instruments, I'm not amazing on any one of them. Artistically, I've often found that one instrument, one sound, one color isn't enough to say all that must be said. Kind of like painting with only one brush and one color. This is way I have always loved producing, but especially, mixing.

Mixing may seem an odd medium for giving free reign to an artistic voice, but I find it to be a very creatively freeing experience. You could say that a song could be mixed a hundred different ways, but upon hearing a piece that I'm going to work on, I usually hear the end product in the first few listens. I then work backwards to realize that sound in my head.

Instead of a restrictive thing, this is a very clarifying process in giving voice to my creativity. After all, your creative voice isn't about infinite possibility so much as it is about that one thing that you are trying to say in that moment.

An artist is tortured in not feeling that he can give voice to his creativity, that he will never be able to express in a pure way just how he see the world around him. And this is the simple beauty in mixing for me. In the four minutes of that one song, I get to paint a view of the world as I see it. If you listen behind the music, you will hear my creative voice.

The Story of CoLabs Pt. 2

2007-04-02T12:20:00.000-06:00

So, to pick up the story from last time..

I found myself in a strange place in January of 2005. I knew that my place was with artists, making music in the studio, but I had just left a studio where I did that on a daily basis. I was pretty angry about how the last six months had just played out but I didn't feel like fighting any more. I knew that I needed to find my way back into the studio but it was becoming clear that it was going to be a very different road then what I had planned for.

I decided to pick up a job in some related field and to start looking for new opportunities to make records again. I found a company that installed audiophile equipment and home theaters and wired "smart" houses.

Close enough. I figured I would be there for a few months, maybe find a new home base to work out of and get back to making great music. Well, three months went by, four months, five, six...

I tried to stay sharp and keep learning in the middle of all this, so I read a lot, networked with different studio owners and keep recording on my own from home. I picked up the odd gig to engineer or mix something for people, but there wasn't really a clear direction as to where things were going. I started to think more about opening a studio and what that would look like in Calgary, but really didn't know if Alberta needed another recording facility.

Many of the studio owners and producers that I spoke with seemed to be somewhat frustrated with the way the whole recording industry looked like in Alberta and talked about things needing to change. One frustration I noticed was that the nicer "pro" studio owners felt that the guys with project studios where destroying the industry by charging people $20/hr. to make whole recording projects in their bedrooms and basements. I saw the point but surely the project studio/home recording trend was not going to go away. One thing I was becoming more convinced of through conversation with different studio owners was that the "one-stop-shop" approach was not working. Sure, it kept clients in the building longer since you would offer everything from songwriting to graphic design and mastering. But, in the end, the music suffered and people felt that if you had any real money you would need to leave for Vancouver or Nashville to get a really good product. Isn't there a better approach?

I kept chewing on these ideas.

It was November and I was working out in the mountains wiring a beautiful new vacation home. It was pretty cold and the walls of the building where only partly up so I was wearing some work gloves. I needed to use the table saw on the job site to build a guide for the wires we were pulling that morning. I'm not sure what happened, but I think my glove touched the spinning blade as I pulled the piece I had just cut off the table. I felt my left hand get thrown back to my side almost instantly as the saw made a quick hiccup sound. I switched the saw off. I thought the wood must have caught the blade and kicked back into my hand. But when I looked at my hand, my glove was ripped apart and my fingers where covered in blood. The blade had caught a small piece of my glove and pulled my hand across the top of it, ripping apart my middle and ring fingers in an instant.

I had reconstructive surgery done that afternoon by, thankfully, one of the best hand specialists in Calgary. I kept all my fingers, but lost the first two joints in my ring and middle fingers.

I went from this...

To this...

I couldn't work for about five months. Because I had four metal pins between the two fingers, I couldn't move them from my knuckles down. So I sat at home, healing up, hoping that I could continue to play bass and guitar when the pins came out.

As I waited to heal up, I realized that if I was going to live out this whole studio thing, I would have to make some major changes starting right then. I couldn't afford to wait any longer.

But that's for next time...

The Blog Keeps Changing

2007-03-09T09:44:00.000-07:00

I keep changing things on this blog 'cause I'm not very tech savvy when it comes to web stuff and this is a bit of a guinea pig for me. So I keep changing the look and feel of things to try and become a little more fluent in this stuff. If you stop by from time to time, thanks for that, and feel free to drop any suggestions or links in a comment to any helpful resources for a virgin blogger.

later.

Live music

2007-03-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

I live in Calgary, a city of a million people. We have the beautiful skies of the prairies while in view of the rocky mountains, an exploding economy, some of the best cuisine in Canada, and a vibrant theater scene. Oh, also, It's a Friday and I can only find four venues for live music.

Seriously.

Now, obviously this is partly due to the fact that the papers and websites probably aren't reporting all of the live music that is going on. But they are reporting the notable stuff; the stuff worth reporting in their opinion, I guess.

I see this a big problem and one that the music community should be doing more to address. The Sidetrack Cafe, one of Edmonton's most significant live music venues, recently closed it's doors. Hopefully more venues will emerge to fill the void so that Edmonton's growing music scene can continue to find a home around the city.

As for Calgary, I really want to see more venues open up for the specific purpose of supporting the music community in Alberta and in the city. We need more entrepreneurial
leaders in this area. We need to take more personal ownership in the music scene in our city and take steps to improve it.

If you want to chat more about this, I'll be at one of the live music venues tonight... you've got a one in four chance of finding me.

New website on the way...

2007-03-02T09:40:00.000-07:00

A whole new colabs.ca website is in the works right now and should be up in the next month or so. The initial site that I put up kind of sucks and is hard to read and navigate. Big thanks to my bro Jesse for taking on the new website. Should be a lot cooler then what is up now. Check the site in a month or so and feel free to give some feedback if you love/hate it.

Later.

The Artist's Vision

2007-02-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons why I have felt so strongly about the need for accessible world class mixing for the independent artist has been the numerous stories I often hear when talking with them.

"My friend put a lot of money into his project but it sounds cheap!"

"We worked on the album for months but we weren't really happy with the end product."

"I didn't really get the album I was hoping for."

While I really feel that great mixing is crucial to making a great album, I think that vision is even more important. I feel that an artist must have a clear vision of the type of project they want to make. Beyond that, they must really take the right steps to communicate that vision to all people involved working on the project.

The producer is the first part of this because he is the one who must understand the vision the most; he must make it his own vision (often by blending it with his own vision for the project) and execute it well.

Second, the artist and producer must chose a team to execute the project that can get behind the vision. This is why I don't encourage artists to stay in one place with one guy doing everything just because it is convenient. If that studio and that producer/engineer is what will best support and execute the artistic vision, then by all means, stay put. But, do your homework. research the work of producers and studios to find the best team for your vision.

As a mixer, I always make sure that the vision for the project is front and center. It is the creative "road map" that I use to navigate the project. It lets me know not only what the artists expectations are, but also how best to present the music in a totally professional way.

Take time in preproduction to outline the vision and goals for the project. You will not only meet your own expectations, but it will help those who work with you to do there best work!

iPhone Predictions

2007-01-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

Well, the iPhone is officially announced and I have to say that it looks absolutely insane! I have been a loyal Mac user for a number of years now since they are arguably the most stable and hassle free computers to host Pro Tools and many of my power hungry media apps. However, in spite of my bias, I have to say that the iPhone, as far as I can see, will be the most influential technological device of 2007 and the effects will likely change the landscape of the entire telecommunications industry!

RIM, the company that makes the Blackberry, saw a 6% drop in their stock value as result of Apple announcing the iPhone, which will offer a free "push" IMAP email account from Yahoo! as well as a fully functional web browser (not the "baby web" as Steve Jobs called it). Basically, they are giving away the main service that people have been paying for on a Blackberry but in a much cooler package and with way better functionality when you buy the iPhone.

It will be interesting to see what comes of the major cell phone manufacturers when this thing hits the market. I think the hardest hit will be RIM and the other high end "smart phone" companies. Clearly the iPhone is going to make there services and features seem obsolete and kind of primitive. However, the $499 US price tag will likely mean that the lower end phones won't likely be to threatened... not yet anyways. If the devepment of the iPod is any pattered of prediction, I wouldn't be surprised to see an iPhone Nano or something like that with a smaller footprint and a more budget friendly price tag by the end of the year or early 2008.

If you haven't seen the video of this thing in action yet, check it out. You will want to throw your cell phone in the garbage.

iPhone

The Story of CoLabs Pt. 1

2007-01-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

So how did CoLabs get started?

The company is pretty unique and I probably wouldn't have started it if it weren't for all of the crazy experiences that brought me to this point.

Here it is...

I always saw Calgary as a great location to start something new in the music industry since it had such a hot economy, large population and relatively young music scene. I initially moved to Calgary, Alberta to help establish a small studio and record label with a company that was relocating to Calgary from BC. I essentially took over the studio end and wore a lot of hats as I wrote, produced, engineered, and mixed albums of a pretty wide variety of genres. At this point I had been producing albums with bands and solo artists for just over a year and a half and I was just starting to get the hang of this stuff as a serious profession. I was on the other hand, getting tired of the craziness that came along with trying to make albums without any real studio to work out of or any decent gear to do it with. I owned a small recording rig and would rent space or work after hours in rehearsal halls or churches to get the work done. Fun at first but the idea of working out of a real studio sounded much better.

Over the next year I worked like crazy and really began to work at learning the craft of record production. I loved producing albums, I loved engineering a tracking session, and I especially began to sink my teeth into mixing albums. For the first time I experienced how the learning process in the music industry was truly a lifelong endeavor.

As fun and exiting as it was, the studio was really poorly managed and after about a year, the stress effects of the long hours, unpredictably pay and crazy management style began to take it's toll. Also, I began to see things in the way artists were treated and often taken advantage of that really bothered me. It was around this time that I started dreaming about new ways that the whole recording and production process could take place.

But, I was committed to the artists I was working with and I loved being in the studio so, against my and my wife's better judgment, I stuck around. At the time I was working on what would be one of the biggest album I had ever produced. It was getting a tonne of buzz and everything was in place for the album to get some serious recognition.

Unfortunately, right before I was about to mix the album, the stress and frustration with the studio and label owners finally bottomed out. Everyday was a battle to keep the artist and the music first and not let all the stress kill the creative process. It was one of the hardest decisions I had ever made, but I had to quit the studio. In a lame turn of events, the album was quickly released after being rushed through a mix that left the album sounding dull, lifeless, and totally unprofessional. The buzz around the album carried it a long way in spite of it's lackluster presentation, but at the end of the day, a "breakthrough album" it was not.

The lessons I learned from this stage of life have been invaluable. namely...

The Artist and the Music must come first.
Integrity is a must, both for yourself and those you work with.
You are only as good as the last project you touch - every day needs to be better then the last, every project needs to be the best you have ever done.

The decisions I made over the next few months would start me down a path toward some pretty crazy events...

HNY

2007-01-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year!

2006 was a crazy year and there is a lot to reflect on as I look back and plan for 2007. A major highlight for me was definitely the launching of CoLabs. CoLabs has been a long time coming and the story of how this all got started is a little crazy. I'll share the unabridged version in my next post!

Christmas

2006-12-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

Things are pretty well wrapping up for the year around here. Just wanted to wish everyone who I worked with this year a Merry Christmas or Happy (insert holiday of preference here). It was a great year and it is awesome to finally have CoLabs up and running. There are lots of exciting plans for 2007 and I look forward to making great music with all of you in the new year. See you then!

Anthony

Arranging = Mixing

2006-12-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

A beautiful and well conceived arrangement is essentially the same as a great mix.

Mixing concepts share many parallels with orchestral arrangement. The spacing and panorama of an orchestra, the conductors control of dynamics and the wide range of tonalities and timbres in the instruments are all core concepts for many mix engineers in their approach to the mix. Even if you never work on traditional or classical styles, the concept stays the same. The music should have depth, a sense of dynamic range, and a variety of sonic colors. These decisions are made at both the arranging stage and the mixing stage.

I rarely work on classical styles or orchestral recordings, but I have taken bits and pieces from the school of thought that there is essentially no difference in approach between mixing or arranging an orchestra and mixing a hard rock project with lots of layered guitars. My feelings on arrangements that work the best are pretty simple:

1) Loud is relative, so play/mix things softer and with more space to create more impact on the loud portions instead of trying to play harder/turn thing up on the loud portions. 100% is all you have so make it count when you get there.

2) Play Less/Play more: An orchestra usually adds whole instrument parts in or takes whole parts out at a way of developing dynamics as opposed to always having everyone play something. Lots of bands feel that they need to have a part for everyone at all times and as a result, the dynamic range and impact suffers. A verse with four layered guitars, drums, bass and big vocals is cool, but it's tough to go up from there on the chorus. Try drums and guitar only under the lead vocal or bass and drums only. I do this in mixing all the time where the arrangement is too dense and the verses need to be thinned out some. Makes for a much more interesting listen.

3) The mix should pull you in. I like to balance things in such a way that you are pulled into the sound field. Practically, this means placing the lead vocal (or lead instrument) at a level so that when the listener turns up the volume to hear the words, the rest of the mix is at a level that seems to envelope your head. Basically, any really loud element that causes the listener to want to turn down the music or be "pushed out" of the sound field is avoided. Additionally, I try to pan things a little wide so that the vocals have lots of room to live in the middle without any loss of intelligibility. If you have used the previous two concepts in the arrangement, this is pretty easy to accomplish. Sting's Desert Rose Album is a really good example of this. You can't listen without being sucked into the sound field!

These are all elements that are common to both mixing and arranging and could work either way. Hope you find that useful!

New Stuff

2006-12-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

I recently wrapped up the mix on the Amber Schneider album that I have been working on for the past few weeks. I'm quite pleased with the mix and used a number of new techniques on this project that I thought I would share.

1. Parallel compression: The new versions of ProTools (I'm on 7.2) allow for plugin delay compensation which makes this trick possible. You could do it in older versions, but it required a lot of fooling around with delay settings, etc. Basically, this technique is where you split a signal and only compress one of those signals. The combined sound is thicker and more controlled then the uncompressed sound while sounding less compressed and "pumpy" then the normal approach of just compressing the one signal. I have used this technique on drums and sometimes vocals in the past but on this album, I found myself using it a lot more. I was quite happy with the results. This is a great way to get a vocal to sit in the mix without squashing the life out of it. Also, probably one of the best tricks to use on drums to make them sound powerful and fat without killing those ever important transients. SNAP!

2. Minimal EQ: This is somthing that I have been leaning more and more towards. When I engineered the tracking sessions for this album, I tried to capture a really clear picture of the songs at that stage. I selected mics, pres and eq when necessary to get the sound "in the neighborhood" at the end of the tracking session. The session players where great and most of the sound was there so we just massaged a few things to get everything gelling at the tracking stage. Also, Craig Learmont (producer on the album) did a great job on getting really clean sounds in his overdub sessions. I the end, most of the mix was a matter of balancing levels, not "sculpting" things out with eq. I really like mixing albums this way. It truly feels like you are working with the music and not against it. Kudos to Craig, the players and Amber for their hard work on getting it right at the tracking stage.

I look forward to hearing these songs on radio and seeing what kind of response it receives. Blessings on your career Amber; the album was a blast to mix!

Later

The Mix is a Medium

2006-11-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

Mixing usually gets lumped into categories with other elements of the recording process. You know, studios offering "mixing/mastering" services, the guy who mixed the album gets credit for "engineering" or "producing". I've been given credit for producing albums where I was never in the room when anyone was recording.

It's always funny to me, but I guess people don't really understand what happens in the mix and how big of a deal it is to the final product. It really can make or break an album. I've heard (and even worked on a few) projects with massive budgets that either rushed or skipped the mix process that in the end sound pretty embarrassing. On the other hand, I've heard albums with essentially no budget where people have taken their time and the finished product sounds really great.

The thing is, mixing is an artistic medium. The song and all of its recorded parts become your palate of colors. The impact of the music, the spectral balance between all frequencies, the dynamic range, the size and depth of the sound field; these all become elements that the mixing engineer carefully manipulates in the mixing process. A skilled mixer can pull out the best elements of a song and present them in a way that feels natural and true to the music... or not. A mix is more then good vs. bad. Any given song can come out of the mix process a dozen different ways, each good in its own way.

I have always felt that the key to a great mix is it's transparency, so to speak. The best mixes I have heard initially dazzle me with their sonic beauty, but then seem to disappear as I get lost in the song. These mixes let the music speak for itself and don't try to impose an artistic direction on the music that it doesn't naturally call out for.

A little abstract and obscure, I know. But you likely know what I'm talking about if you love listening to great music and, by extension, hate listening to garbage.

Next time you are listening to a piece of music that you feel is really great sounding. Listen to how the recorded parts are arranged in such a way that it supports the natural artistic flow of the music. It may be a lush string section that envelopes your whole head in it's soft swells. Or it may be a piercing guitar part that jumps out at you hits you in the middle of you forehead.

You can learn to appreciate a lot more music out there if you listen not just to the music itself, but the medium it is presented in.

Trying to copy a mix...

2006-11-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

Ever tried to perfectly copy the mix of some project to the artist's "favorite album" 'cause they asked for it to sound "just like so-and-so"? Trying to simulate what you hear on a well recorded album is actually a pretty good exercise for learning how they got that sound and to train your ears to hear things in the studio. For example, most people start out mixing (for the first time) with the bass too loud the drums too quite and the vocals kind of buried under it all. Comparing your crappy mix to a beautifully mixed album in a similar genre will show you that your balances are way off and you can start compensating and training your ear in the studio to get closer to the finished product with out any referencing.

The problem with this process is that, ultimately, you will be mixing to copy the sound of a mixed and mastered album. The result will be that you get your balances to where they sound ok (usually with a lot of compression) and then you have your mix mastered (usually compressing and limiting it some more) and all of a sudden your mix sounds flat and squashed.

Bob Katz speaks to this problem in his book, "Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science." He notes that the albums that we reference our mixes to are mastered and have a greatly reduced dynamic range in comparison to music that is only in the mixing stage. So, we compensate to try and match the sound, over compress, send our stuff to mastering and end up with a really squashed finished product. Obviously a mastering engineer with good ears will know to lay off the compression when the music is already so flat, but the damage is still done since it is unlikely that the material will leave mastering with no compression or limiting. Bob Katz points out that this likely is happening on a large scale all over the world and as a result our music in becoming less and less dynamic.

Just think... that album you are listening to as a reference was probably mixed to compare to some other mastered album as a "target sound" and they ended up with a reduced dynamic range. Now you are trying to match that final reduced dynamic range in your mixing stage!

You get the point.

Basically, if your mix sounds (dynamically) just like that album you are trying to imitate, you are likely overcompressing. Your drums should pop, your vocals should jump up slightly, if someone is playing harder, it should get louder!

If you can anticipate the compressed sound that may be introduced in the mastering stage, your mixes will translate better and you will be a lot happier with your mixes!

Staying Fresh...

2006-11-04T08:23:00.000-07:00

I often find maintaining a state of creative "freshness" a challenge. I will have these periods of creative energy where I can create, write, mix, produce, whatever, for days on end without feeling drained. Then, usually within a week or so, I seem to lose momentum and creative work seems to feel a little more like work.

I take this seriously, because I don't consider mixing to be a mundain, mechanical task in anyway. For me, it is one of the areas where i feel I draw on my creativity the most.

A few months ago I stumbled across a podcast on iTunes called, "The Accidental Creative". It focused mainly on this idea of creative rhythm. I would definitely recommend checking out the podcast and even the website. Tod Henry (the guy running the thing) runs an 'e-coaching' program through the website specifically for creative types. I've found this stuff to be really helpful in understanding the dynamics of working in a creative field where I have to "create-on-demand." The general idea that is put out there is that all creative people (all people?) have rythms of creative energy or drive that include peaks and valleys. Basically, the idea is to align your life to work with those peaks and valleys, not against them.

Check it out, I've found it helpful.

The Accidental Creative

The Best Mix

2006-10-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years I have come to find that the best mixes I have produced all have one thing in common: the don't suck to listen to.

No, seriously... I'm talking about before they are mixed. I believe that mixing is just the final artistic expression of music through a technical medium. Ideally, I'm not adding or taking away or trying to dramatically change what is there, but only presenting the artists work as it is meant to be head. This only works really well with music that has been well written, arranged, and recorded.

I've always heard people say things like, "a well written song plays itself" or, "a well written song arranges itself." Really, what starts well at the beginning, will finish well. A good arrangement is crucial to a good mix and the arrangement is dependant on a well written song. So I would say, "a well written, arranged, performed and recorded song pretty much mixes itself."

If you are in the studio or considering making an album/demo/whatever, here are a couple tips that will help you music translate well when it comes time to mix:

1. Write good songs. It sounds obvious, but the trick is to not settle for a catchy hook or two plus a verse and a chorus. A good song will contain the rhythmic, melodic, harmonic and dynamic "DNA" for how everything will play out in the recording and mixing process. Don't get to attached to your songs. You will likely need to make changes and maybe even just scrap a few. Get outside critiques from people who know what they are talking about. The more you write, the more you mature and the better your music will be, so write often. If you have only ever written seven songs in your life and you want to record a seven song EP, you are probably jumping the gun.

2. Start with simple arrangements. If you are in a band, focus on a really solid rhythm section and how the vocal sits over it. Vary your dynamics by adding and taking away whole parts, as opposed to everyone just playing all the time but at different levels. If you are writing on your own, focus on that one instrument (usually guitar or keys) that carries the song and make sure that it is simple enough to allow for a whole band to play along while still 'leading' the song rhythmically and melodically. If in doubt, simplify! From a mixers perspective, less is often more.

3. When recording, shoot for convincing emotional performances, as opposed to 'perfect' ones. If you haven't got your guitar part to your own song 'right' after 30 takes, your probably trying to hard and not focusing on the emotional content, but mearly on everything sounding surgically clean. Oh, and while your in the studio and recording guitar... turn down your distortion! From a mix perspective. Nothing is harder to make sound "big" then a wall of layered guitar parts, all with power chords playing through chainsaw like distortion. Turn your distortion down and just play a little harder when you need more crunch. The end result in mixing is a much "punchier" mix that ultimately sounds bigger.

Hope that's helpful.

A quick update...

2006-10-23T08:03:00.000-06:00

Thought it would be good to give a quick update as to what's going on at CoLabs these days. Well, I just got back from one week in Florida and I'm getting ready to take on a mix project that will be pretty exciting. It's a pop-country thing, kind of like Carrie Underwood. The first single "Fearless" which I engineered and mixed is already getting some decent rotation around western Canada on a number of radio stations. My good friend Craig Learmont of MuzikHaus Records has been producing and doing a really good job with this project. It will be a fun one to mix and I'm really looking forward to it!

The mix studio, which I have been constructing over the past three months, is nearing completion. In the past, I have mixed out of other studios, but this mix room will greatly improve my efficiency and quality since I have it tuned up the way I want it. Also, I've outfitted the studio with a really great Pro Tools HD 2 Accel rig with all Apogee A/D D/A conversion which is a dream to work on. This studio really is a representation of my own high standards when it comes to a mix space and equipment used.

Finally, I'm playing bass for my friend Corey Doak at the GMA Covenant Awards Showcase this week. Should be fun. I used to play bass and tour around with Corey back in college. Check out his website and his music @ www.coreydoak.com

That's it for now.

Peace

Executing Musical Concepts Well

2006-10-15T11:25:00.000-06:00

Navigating the complex space of an abstract creative concept can be a bit tricky at times... especially if you are doing it with a group of people.

Over the last couple of days, I have been out of town producing a demo for a very talented artist I am currently working with. We went into the studio with a couple of session players and laid down bed tracks for three songs. I always find it a challenge (although an enjoyable one) to translate the abstract creative concept of a song into concrete arrangements that a session player can 'latch on to', so to speak. In the past, I have usually put together rough "sketches" of where the artist and myself feel the songs should go. I play most of the parts, edit the song and come up with a general arrangement that feels good. When we went into the studio this time, we tried diverging from these "sketches" so we could let the songs speak for themselves and allow the players to approach them with no preconceived notions. Obviously the idea here is to allow an abstract creative concept (a song) develop into a concrete musical arrangement by letting each player interpret the concept in his own unique way. I think this works well with "bands" and groups that regularly rehearse and perform together, but in a studio session with hired players... I'm starting to think, "not so much."

The problem is that all musicians approach all music with some degree of preconception about what they think it should sound like. With some genres, this works in your favor. Country music for example, has a very defined style of arrangement that good session players will automatically turn to when put on the spot to come up with something. So does blues, jazz, funk, polka, Broadway showtunes, and pretty much any other genre that sounds like something that has already been done. But, when you are going for something new, different, and unique, you really have to have a somewhat developed idea going in that supports the creative concept so that other musicians can then adopt that preconception in support of the artist's concept.

We all stand on the shoulders of giants, but sometimes the producers role is to get people onto a different set of shoulders.

You love to mix?!?

2006-10-12T08:34:00.000-06:00

So, with all the different avenues one could choose to travel down as a career path in the music industry, why would I put so much attention into just mixing?

I remember the very first real mix I ever did. It was a recording project that I was putting together while in college. I remember taking these different tracks that I had recorded and actually making them sound like a record! It was the coolest thing. I mixed it in a recording studio that was on campus at the time and remember feeling like I totally understood this space - this recording studio thing. Truth be told, the mix was pretty muddy and there was way to much compression on everything, but that didn't really matter at that point. For me it was about discovering an artistic medium that I never even knew existed!

I went on from college to produce a lot of indie albums, engineer in many genres, and collaborate with people in making all kinds of music. All along I kept coming back to the mix as my favorite place to "live" in the studio.

I've come to realize that a great mix is a key element in realizing artistic vision. It's the point when all your hard work up to that stage comes together. A bad mix that doesn't represent the artist's vision or support the songs or focus your attention appropriately can really wreck an otherwise great project! A great mix, on the other hand, makes good music sound amazing and really pulls you into the song. It's the art of this process that I'm so driven to perfect!

What we do...

2006-10-08T14:18:00.000-06:00

So what is CoLabs all about?

Well, in a nutshell, I mix albums and draw on a collaborative network of music industry professionals to do everything else.

The whole company is based on the idea that most talented creative-type people in the music industry are really good at one or two main things. However, there is a pretty big trend for studios, independent-producers, small labels, etc. to offer the 'one-stop-shop' model. This is the one where they offer everything from songwriting and producing to graphic design and publishing your music, and everything in between. It's not that they aren't good at what they do. It's just that they aren't the best in all of the areas they claim to offer services in. It may be a really great studio that is a great place to track your drums but that also offers 'CD duplication' on the side. Or a record producer who is truly talented but ends up playing all the parts on his clients albums to save on musician fees.

flexibility is great and having a broad skill set will serve you well in the music industry, but, I believe, to really get ahead you need to know where your true talents lie. For myself, I have worn many hats in the studio. Musician, engineer, producer... but when I really looked hard at what I was doing better then anyone else and what I really had to offer, it was the mix. I LOVE to mix albums! I have been fortunate enough to have gained some recognition for my mixing work and have had a fairly steady stream of projects to work on.

So what happens when an artist asks me to produce a record (ya, I still produce albums, the other thing I do really well)? My personal studio is small and (specifically) only set-up to mix albums. Well, I have made lots of good connections in the local music/recording scene and I know where to go to get the best for each stage of the project. I know songwriters, producers, session players, studio owners, mastering engineers, etc. and they all offer a specific creative service better then anyone else!

It's a pretty cool thing to make an album this way. The best part is that it usually costs about the same or sometimes less then the "one-stop-shop" approach. Also, way more creative people get to work on that one project, and its better for the whole local industry!

So that's it in a nutshell. Cool stuff really does happen when people collaborate.

Here we go!

2006-10-07T09:37:00.000-06:00

Collaborate: work jointly on an activity, esp. to produce or create something

Colabs: One part crazy idea, one part music industry experiment, one part lifelong dream; a really great sounding mix, a network of trust and integrity, a really cool job!

Here we go!

Hopefully you have found this blog because, like me, you have a passion to work in the music industry. Maybe you are an artist trying to make a career out of your music. Maybe you are a record producer or a recording engineer wanting to get better at what you love. Maybe you just love music and like the idea of people actually work together for a change!

The music industry is a complicated thing and an odd place to try and build a 'career'. Hard work, genuine talent, a never-ending desire to grow, flexibility, passion; a music industry career requires a lot out of you is you hope to succeed. And even with all that, you still aren't guarantee success in an industry as fast changing, unpredictable and organic as this one!

But, if you are like me, you know that it is all worth it to be in this place. A place where you can get up every morning knowing that you are going to use all of your passion and talent, even if it only connects with one person. We are creative and we must create! I often say that I never chose to work in this crazy industry, it chose me.

From one creative person to another, thanks for following your passion and not taking the easy way out. There are many things about the industry that I would like to be part of changing so that things will be better for all of us. As I share more about Colabs and what it is we are about, maybe we can find ways to work together and make thing better.