Endless Productions: Music Production

<BODY background="images/parch-blu.gif" link="blue" vlink="navy" alink="#FFFFFF" leftmargin="25" topmargin="5" marginwidth="25" marginheight="5"> <A NAME="how-he-does-it"></A> <CENTER> <TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=TOP><TR> <TD ALIGN=LEFT> <IMG SRC="images/plug1.gif" WIDTH=75 HEIGHT=13 ALIGN=RIGHT></TD> <TD ALIGN=LEFT> <FONT SIZE=5 COLOR="#660000" STYLE="letter-spacing:2pt">Production example: Before and After</FONT> </TD> <TD ALIGN=LEFT> <IMG SRC="images/plug2.gif" WIDTH=75 HEIGHT=13 ALIGN=LEFT></TD> </TR></TABLE> <H2><I>I Need You Here</I>   and   <I>I'm Going To Win This Fight</I></H2> Songs by <B>Glen Hoffman</B> and <B>Ron Krown</B> </CENTER> <P> <BLOCKQUOTE> Article by <A HREF="sp.html" TARGET="_self">Steffen Presley</A> - May 2010. <P> In this months example, I will detail the production of two songs representing contrasting approaches. <NOBR><I>I Need You Here</I></NOBR> was done pretty much from scratch, while <NOBR><I>I'm Going To Win This Fight</I></NOBR> already had a great recording production done in Nashville by top professionals. </BLOCKQUOTE> <P> <H3>Origin of the songs:</H3> <P> <I>I Need You Here</I> <P> Lyricist <B>Glenn Hoffman</B> and melody expert <B>Ron Krown</B> were making a great song writing team until the unexpected and untimely passing of Ron Krown. Years later, while looking for an arranger and studio to create updated versions of his songs, as well as complete unfinished songs, Glen found <B>Endless Productions</B> (us) on <B>Google</B>. <EM>"I Need You Here"</EM> was one of the songs left unfinished due to Ron's passing. Glen played me his cassette recording of very early attempts by a group of musicians and himself to work out an arrangement. What I heard appeared to have been taken from only Glen's microphone feed, which featured Glen's vocal melodies with the music accompaniment barely audible in the background (<NOBR><I>Example #1a</I></NOBR>, below). With this "mix" revealing the true essence of the song, I was able to imagine just what the finished production should sound like. <P> <I>I'm Going To Win This Fight</I> <P> In this case, Glen already had a top notch demo recording done by professionals in Nashville TN (<NOBR><I>Example #1b</I></NOBR>, below). He wasn't completely satisfied with the demo and asked me how I could make it even better. I could hear right away that this song had been done very well, and I certainly didn't want to mess it up! I let Glen know that, but also told him I felt that his demo lacked the emotional dynamics necessary to really put it over the top, and that perhaps the addition of strings could aid towards that objective. Glen also suggested adding my alto saxophone playing. <P> <DIV CLASS=box> <CENTER> <B CLASS=title>--- <FONT STYLE="text-shadow: -4px 4px 2px grey">Before</FONT> ---</B> </CENTER><BR> <DIV> <I>Example #1a:</I> <A HREF="sound/Ineedyouhere_demo.m3u" onmouseover="document.rollover.src=button2.src" onmouseout="document.rollover.src=button1.src"> <IMG SRC="images/play-button1.gif" ALIGN=MIDDLE WIDTH=25 HEIGHT=25 BORDER=0 name="rollover" ALT="play button"></A> <A HREF="sound/Ineedyouhere_demo.m3u">I Need You Here</A>   <FONT STYLE="font-size:smaller">The first verse and chorus from the original <I>a capella</I> demo.</FONT> </DIV> <P> <DIV> <I>Example #1b:</I> <A HREF="sound/gonna_win1.m3u" onmouseover="document.rollover2.src=button4.src" onmouseout="document.rollover2.src=button3.src"><IMG SRC="images/play-button1.gif" ALIGN=MIDDLE WIDTH=25 HEIGHT=25 BORDER=0 name="rollover2" ALT="play button"></A> <A HREF="sound/gonna_win1.m3u">I'm Gonna Win This Fight</A>   <FONT STYLE="font-size:smaller">The original Nashville recording. </FONT></DIV> <P> <FONT STYLE="font-size:smaller">both songs: ©2010 Glen Hoffman and Ron Krown</FONT> </DIV> <P> <H3>Deciding the arrangements:</H3> <P> <I>I Need You Here</I> <P> Right away, I was hearing a catchy reggae/ska feel to the choruses. Glen, being an open minded person with no apparent musical biases and having already done a couple of tunes with me, gave me the go ahead to do my thing. Of course every song-writer and artist have certain things they expect to hear in the fully realized creations. Glen has told me that he mainly wants instrumental "hooks". He had hoped that I could glean some "hooks" from his original demos, but other than his vocal there was nothing to be gleaned from those recordings, the song arrangement state being too primitive at that point. Since catchy hooks were a big part of what I was already hearing in my head anyway, I was quite confident that Glen would not be disappointed! Before tracking, I just needed to figure out some missing chords and how to effectively get in and out of the choruses. <P> <I>I'm Going To Win This Fight</I> <P> Because the original demo had been done so well, I thought the most economic way to go about it would be use existing tracks, add to that and then re-mix. However, Glen had no access the original tracks. The fortuitous exception was the vocal track, sung by <B>Natalie Tidwell</B> in Nashville, which he was able to procure from the Nashville studio. I was very happy about that because she had done such a first-rate job it would be risky (not to mention, costly) to find someone to even match it! As I now needed to reproduce all of the other tracks, good as they originally were, I figured I'd play them all ever better than the Nashville pros. There was a way I could do it real quickly as well... <P> <H3>Performing and tracking the instrumentations:</H3> <P> <TABLE ALIGN=TOP STYLE="float:left; margin-right:1em"><TR> <TD ALIGN=LEFT> <IMG SRC="images/SP_sax1.jpg" ALIGN=LEFT width="276" height="327" alt="Steffen Presley on sax"></TD></TR><TR> <TD ALIGN=CENTER BGCOLOR="white"> <FONT SIZE=2>Producer Steffen Presley on alto saxophone</FONT></TD></TR> </TABLE> <P> <I>I Need You Here</I> <P> I take my clients investments in my time seriously, so I never waste time "experimenting". Knowing just how it should go, I laid tracks down quickly while playing all the parts. I wanted a band-like sound, envisioning a certain "retro-modern" quality defined by the instrumentation, an approach that some bands are using quite successfully in these modern times. As such, instead of using a drum-machine or pre-recorded "loops", I performed the drum part on my <B>Roland V-Session Pro</B> drum kit throughout the song. Next up was bass guitar, and it was real fun playing those highly syncopated Ska type motifs and rhythms. Now with a solid rhythm track, I added an old Wurlitzer style electric piano, and then electric guitar using my <B>Gibson Explorer</B>. A 60's style organ sound enhanced the Ska rhythm in the chorus. A very simple baritone sax riff was added to provide a particularly catchy bottom-end hook to the chorus. Finally, my alto saxophone riffing over the top completed the music tracks. <P> <I>I'm Going To Win This Fight</I> <P> The chord structure for this song was complex, so while figuring them out I created a "lead-sheet" with chord symbols to follow while adding tracks. Since adding notation to include the vocal melody with the lyrics took so little time, Glen also received the added benefit of gaining a professionally printed score which he could use for live performance, and with no added cost! With the aid of this lead-sheet, I was able to re-play the basic tracks which included drums, bass, acoustic piano and guitar all the way through the song in mostly single takes. Syncing in the original vocal track took about a minute. From there I added new string parts and expressive alto saxophone licks and phrases making sure to really build the dynamic. Adding authentic choir sounds was the finishing touch. The new music backing actually had the effect of making Natalie's original vocal track sound better and more emotional! <P> <H3>The vocal session</H3> <P> <I>I Need You Here</I> <P> <IMG SRC="images/Gonna_Win_This_Fight-leadsheet.gif" ALIGN=RIGHT width="500" height="655" STYLE="margin-left:1em" alt="lead-sheet"> I felt that a male vocalist would be complimentary to these music tracks. Towards that end, I enlisted local vocalist/musician <B>Marc Bosserman</B> to sing the lead vocal for this recording. He has a "youthful" sounding voice I thought would go well with the style I was creating for the song. During the vocal session, I frequently had Marc listen to Glen's original vocal demo. This is because, even though Glen is not a professional singer, it was clear to me that he was completely in touch with his song during the original demo session. This is no small reason why upon first hearing this demo, the resulting production came immediately to my mind. I did not want to lose that original vibe and also wanted to closely adhere to the melody as originally sung by Glen. In the verses, I added my own voice for harmony and backing parts. For the choruses I felt that a particularly modern production sound would compliment the retro feel of the music tracks. As such, I used my <B>Roland V-Synth XT</B> in <EM>Vocal Designer</EM> mode to create the pitch-perfect artificial backing vocals now heard in the chorus, and yes, provide yet another hook. <P> <H3>Mixing and completion:</H3> <P> Mixing for both songs was pretty much automatic and took very little time. Less time spent means less cost! That doesn't mean less quality though! As is the trend with modern music production tools, I've been working with "total recall" for some time now. This has completely changed my working methods, such that I'm kind of always "mixing" at each stage of the recording. The results are always saved and can be completely recalled at any future time, whereupon I can always be evaluating the latest mix with fresh ears and then going on from there. So once the tracking and final editing are done, with just some slight tweaking (such as automating the vocal track) the mix is done along with everything else. It was only at this point that Glen first heard what I had done. He has now been showcasing these new mixes at songwriter seminars and elsewhere, and getting a very good response! I certainly wish him well with them! So now it's on to the next song. <P> <H3>The Results:</H3> <P> <DIV CLASS=box> <CENTER> <B CLASS=title>--- <FONT STYLE="text-shadow: 4px 4px 2px grey">After</FONT> ---</B> <BR> The finished mixes from <A HREF="studio-tour.html" TARGET="_top">Song-Haven Studios</A> </CENTER><BR> <DIV><I>Example #2a:</I> <A HREF="sound/I-need-you-here.m3u" onmouseover="document.rollover3.src=button6.src" onmouseout="document.rollover3.src=button5.src"><IMG SRC="images/play-button1.gif" ALIGN=MIDDLE WIDTH=25 HEIGHT=25 BORDER=0 name="rollover3" ALT="play"></A> <A HREF="sound/I-need-you-here.m3u">I Need You Here</A> </DIV> <P> <DIV> <I>Example #2b:</I> <A HREF="sound/gonna_win2.m3u" onmouseover="document.rollover4.src=button8.src" onmouseout="document.rollover4.src=button7.src"><IMG SRC="images/play-button1.gif" ALIGN=MIDDLE WIDTH=25 HEIGHT=25 BORDER=0 name="rollover4" ALT="play button"></A> <A HREF="sound/gonna_win2.m3u">I'm Gonna Win This Fight</A> </DIV> <P> <FONT STYLE="font-size:smaller">both songs: ©2010 Glen Hoffman and Ron Krown</FONT> </DIV> <P> <HR> <P>   Inquire at: <script language=javascript type="text/javascript">  </script> <P> <HR> <CENTER> <TABLE CELLPADDING=10 CELLSPACING=0 BORDER=0><TR> <TD align=center valign=top> <A HREF="studio-tour.html" TARGET="_top"><IMG SRC="images/knob2.gif" ALIGN=TOP WIDTH=32 HEIGHT=32 BORDER="0"></A><BR> <A HREF="studio-tour.html" TARGET="_top">studio tour</A></TD> <TD align=center valign=top> <A HREF="music.html" TARGET="_self"><IMG SRC="images/speaker2.gif" ALIGN=TOP WIDTH=32 HEIGHT=32 BORDER="0"></A><BR> <A HREF="music.html" TARGET="_self">hear songs!</A></TD> <TD align=center valign=top> <A HREF="demo-reel.html" TARGET="_self"><IMG SRC="images/speaker2.gif" ALIGN=TOP WIDTH=32 HEIGHT=32 BORDER="0"></A><BR> <A HREF="demo-reel.html" TARGET="_self">soundtracks</A></TD> <TD align=center valign=top> <A HREF="carolyn.html" TARGET="_top"><IMG SRC="images/art169.gif" ALIGN=TOP WIDTH=32 HEIGHT=32 BORDER="0"></A><BR> <A HREF="carolyn.html" TARGET="_top">graphic design</A></TD> <TD align=center valign=top> <A HREF="index.html" TARGET="_top"><IMG SRC="images/repeat.gif" ALIGN=TOP WIDTH=32 HEIGHT=32 BORDER="0"></A><BR> <A HREF="index.html" TARGET="_top">Endless Productions</A></TD> </TR></TABLE> </CENTER> </BODY>