Still alive!

So what's up people? Yeah, it's me again. It's been a hot minute but, I'm still alive. I haven't posted since april considering I haven't been working full time, I haven't had the time to just sit and write a blog. Kind of ironic isn't it? I lose my employment and then have less time to be online? Yeah, I know...

Next week I start a new job. Somewhat excited about it, as I'm switching careers completely. I'll still be in sales, but I'm moving out of the software industry as it's just too fickle in a bad economy. It's a "what have you done for me lately" industry, and I need job stability and security. Hopefully the new career field (financial) will help me out in that regard.

What else has gone on? Well, we had a new baby on July 5th. Judah Mason Penney. He's been great but, he's also been a handful. I've had some health issues as well but, God is good and I'm doing quite ell now. We took a week in Missouri for vacation with some close friends and had a great time.

That's about it on the home front. I'll do my best to get back in rotation here.

Peace and blessings.

Bat in the chimney.

This is the story of a 30 year old male, fighting for survival in his own home. A battle of wills between two occupants of the domicile. The Bat, and The Man. Bat vs Man. No Batman.

It was a brisk spring day in Michigan. When "The Man" and his wife were sitting in their living room, watching some eloquent programing on the moving picture box. A scratching noise was heard emanating from the general vicinity of the fire place. This fire place is a coal burning fire place, which hasn't been used in over 60 years. It has a cast iron covering, which doesn't allow anything in or out. The chimney on top of the house has a wire mesh covering, which has apparently been removed or damaged in some way. I blame squirrels. Or I mean, "The Man" blames squirrels for the removal of the mesh covering.

So, after hearing the scratching and noises from the fire place, I decide to go have a look-see. I slowly removed the cast iron covering (weighs about 50 lbs) to discover a Bat hanging in my chimney. I promptly placed the cover back in it's place, and did what any man would do in this situation... I looked online to see what I should do.

Apparently it's illegal to kill a bat. Apparently removal from your home is only supposed to be handled by a licensed professional. As you can imagine, I simply couldn't care less about these apparent road blocks to my bat-free home. Therefore, I moved quickly to the kitchen to get the most appropriate tool for bat-removal I could think of. A pair of Bar-B-Q tongs.

Armed with my tongs, and sporting a pair of black leather gloves (no O.J.) I sealed off the other rooms in the house, and opened the front door so I could place the bat outside. My wife took the dog and cat into the den, and shut the door. Next, I made my way back to the fireplace. I noticed a can of FeBreze aerosol spray on the mantel and thought it would be a great way to dope the bat, making it easier for me to excercise him. I was wrong. The FeBreze had no apparent effect on the monster bat, which was at least 6" long from head to toe. However, he now smelt like a lovely summer day. I decided it was time to physically manhandle this gigantic rodent into submission with my trusty tongs. I soon found out my tongs were too short to reach the rodent from outside of the fireplace... I would have to go in, and I was not so pleased about this new found information.

As the protector of my domicile, I had no choice but to sacrifice my own life if necessary, to save the lives of those I love. I made my move, swiftly, and fiercely. As I squeezed down on my tongs, the monster bat began clicking and screeching. I'm convinced he also began to grow, much like the Hulk when provoked. As I made my way from the fireplace to the front door, the Hulk-Bat pried himself free from the grasp of my tongs. There was no shredding of purple pants, but I'm positive there would have been, if he'd been wearing them. Hulk-Bat took flight from the end of my tongs, and began soaring throughout the two open rooms in the house. The dining room, and the sitting room. As Hulk-Bat soared, I did what any grown man protecting his home from a humongo-bat would do, I ducked and screamed like a schoolgirl.

Gathering my composure while bent over and running away from Hulk-Bat, I decided I had no options other than to fight. As I stood up to confront this flying monster I noticed it's vast wingspan of at least 14". Shocked by it's enormous stature, I wasn't sure if I had the fortitude needed to survive this battle to the death. I drew strength from my Sunday School memories of David defeating Goliath as Israel stood by in fear. With great trepidation, I attacked! I furiously swung my tongs while moving toward this Dementor when it dive-bombed me into the cubby of my stairwell door and our den. I had no place to go, and certain death loomed above. What was I to do? I was clearly out of options, so I did the only thing I could. I made a break for the opposite side of the dining room.

Successful in my journey to the other end of the room, I had no time for celebration. The wraith was moving in for the kill, and I had to move fast. I released an obligatory "Oh Crap" for the 100th time in this ordeal, and hit the floor. My cat-like reflexes have saved me many times in life, however, none more important than now. I must admit, if I had obtained the object of the Dementor's desire, I would have surely given it to him. Alas, I had no such jewel in my clutches.

As a final attempt at the patronus, I swung my tongs and was able to divert Voldemort back towards the sitting room, and the open door to his freedom. As it circled the room for what seemed to be a lifetime, I readied my tongs for the final attack. One of us would surely die this night... As I moved toward the bat, he flew out the front door. Apparently he knew he was no match for me and my tongs, as I was growing stronger by the second.

I slammed the door shut, tossed my tongs in to the sink, and resumed my leisurely evening as if nothing had happened.

Who's house? My house... and I shall not relinquish it to any threat, foreign or domestic.

Engineering: 101 "Tracking Vocals"

It's been a month, and a long one at that. Sorry for the break in the action, folks. Blogging is serious business. Sirius Cat says so...

Anyway, welcome to our second installment of the Blogging Engineer. Today we're going to cover some very simplistic elements on tracking vocals in your DAW of choice. Regardless of your preferences, these simple techniques can help bring clarity, headroom, and an overall better quality to your recordings. Unless of course, you simply have horrible equipment which is beyond help. Which I doubt you do, so here we go.

Based on our last installment in this series, you should already have your signal chain setup correctly. If not, go back and read that blog. We'll wait for you, go ahead.... you done yet? Ok... how bout now? Ok good. Now that your signal chain is properly configured, let's get you tracking at the proper levels with the proper techniques to bring the best possible quality to you that we can.

1. Environment:
Your recording environment is extremely important. Are you recording in a booth? In a closet? In an open room? All these things must be taken into consideration for the natural reverb and ambient sound that you'll pick up in your recordings. The best option here imo, is a recording booth.

2. Mic Placement:
This is also extremely important. If you're recording in an open room, your recordings will be vastly different based on where you place the microphone. Middle of the room? More reverb, more ambient sound. In a padded corner? Less reverb, less ambient sound. Etc, etc...

3. Recording Media/Signal Processing:
What you're recording through and onto makes a large impact on the quality of your recordings. Digital or Analog, DAW or Hard Disk, etc... Recording via mixer, soundcard, both, or an M-Box or Digi003? These all play a role. Not to mention pre-amps and compressors.

If you have the space and the finances, I recommend building a vocal booth. It's a low cost investment with very high returns. There are plenty of blueprints etc. online to help you build your own recording booth. Or, if you're savvy enough you can design and build your own booth. I designed and built my own over 7 years ago, and it's never failed me. Every artist who comes through and records, raves about the quality of the booth and it's ability to knock down standing wavs. This is not to say "Go ME!" but moreso to say, if I can make one, you can definitely do it.

My personal preference is to eliminate everything from the signal chain other than the mic's power source whether preamp or mixer, and run directly into the soundcard to DAW. I want the clearest uncollored sound I can get when tracking vocals. I can compress in the box if I need to, and I don't run the risk of messing something up on the way in to the DAW. Like I said, this is my personal preference.

The biggest problem I run into with clients vocals they've tracked at home or in another studio is, volume. Apparently someone somewhere decided that hotter was better, and that's simply just untrue. Now, I can understand tracking hot vocals if you have a dirty signal chain causing some background hiss etc... But that's a problem with your signal chain, and you shouldn't be compensating for that in tracking. You should be fixing your signal chain... When tracking your vocals, you should be averaging a volume level around -18dbVU. It's an RMS calculation but simply put, this should keep your peaks aroun -12db and your valleys around -24. Plenty of headroom for compression and mixing when you layer multiple tracks.

The other issue I commonly run into, has to do with noise reduction. Most people don't calibrate their ambient noise in the room, and compensate for it after recording. You can eliminate that ambient noise almost entirely by creating an FFT filter based off an empty recording of your space. It's best to do so before each tracking session, to get a good sample of the room. Create a noise reduction envelope based on the FFT filter, and save it in your DAW. After tracking, you may need to run that filter on each vocal track individually to eliminate the ambient noise. It will make a world of difference in the end result.

Last, when tracking vocals, make sure your vocalist knows proper mic technique. Don't shout into the mic while two inches from the popper stopper, and certainly do not make a habit of standing a foot away while trying to record either. Three to six inches from the popper stopper is a good starting point for most individuals, and you'll make adjustments based on what they're tracking. Practice makes perfect.

As I said, simple yet effective lesson today. Hopefully it's useful.

Engineering: 101 "Your Signal Chain"

I recently decided that I’d expand my blogosphere a bit, and reach into the teaching realm with some basic engineering techniques that every artist should be doing if mixing their own material, or at a minimum, tracking their own material. Almost everyone I know in this business, signed or unsigned, is tracking at home these days. Some do so very well, and some do so very poorly. Considering I’ve done work for some of your favorite artists, you’d likely be surprised at who’s doing it right and wrong. Not to say there’s no gray area in this realm, there’s plenty, but I’d rather take a pinpoint approach and say if you’re going to do it, then do it with some “best practices” instead of “it works for me”. It may work for you, but as soon as you hand off that material to the engineer, you’re about to lose a friend… let’s not go there if we can avoid it.

What I’d like to do here, is get a general consensus of some topics you, the viewer, would like me to cover in these “Engineering: 101” postings. Since most of you who read this blog would rather email me than comment on the post, feel free to submit your topical suggestions via either method. Of course, it would be nice to have the suggestions all conveniently located here in this initial posting.

First let me place this precursor out there… I am not the end-all of engineering. In the grand scheme of things, my 8 years behind the boards is nothing compared to the people I try to emulate in my work. I don’t know everything, and I don’t presume to know everything, but I can certainly find out, or figure it out if you ask. Just because I say it, or do it, doesn’t mean it’s how you have to do it, or should do it. Even if I think you should… Also, I will often use paraphrased content from other engineers I've read from. I won't label it as such, as it's all my opinion as well, so if you find something on Google which resembles something I've written here, don't get all mad at me. Please consult your physician before starting any engineering plans prescribed by me.

With that said, let’s embark on today’s lesson… “Your Signal Chain”

The last few years have seen vast improvements in home audio technology. The Prosumer market is saturated with DAW’s and Digital Interfaces which all play a role in your signal chain. This is the most often overlooked area in home recording in my opinion, and it’s generally due to budget. You could easily spend upwards of $10,000 on A/D converters or pre-amps and microphones to improve one measly portion of your signal chain. However, I expect most of you are like me, and don’t have that kind of coin to spend. So we’ll assume we all want the best bang for our buck, and that buck is very short right now.

There are 5 main areas we need to be concerned with in our signal chain and they are:

1. The Source. This is the vocalist or instrument you will record. Some people will argue that it’s the most important part of your signal chain, but I’m not one of them. Especially in the realm of hip-hop, we can get away with some particular things that other genre’s can’t, typically being, poor vocals. Just remember, some of you dudes should never try to sing on a record… ever.

2. Microphone. To me, this is a very important piece of the chain. Many things to consider when picking your microphone for purchase, like self-noise (the lower the better), frequency range (the wider the better), and also what polar pattern it uses, so it can capture most of what you need, and reject other ambient sounds that you don’t want mucking up your recordings. I’m not of the belief that the more you spend on a mic, the better the mic will be. Blue Bottle anyone? So don’t be upset when your Nuemann u87 is full of static and I can make an NT1 sound better than it. Money can’t buy quality if you don’t know how to use it.

3. Mic Pre. Important, however, the only important consideration for this section, is that it is CLEAN. The mic pre has one job, and one job only, which is to boost the microphone signal to an acceptable level for tracking. Some mic pre’s color the sound, cause static, etc… you do NOT want that. Keep it clean, keep it simple. Do your research on your mixer or dedicated preamp. Read reviews, test it at Guitar Center, what have you. Just do your research, please.

4. A/D converter. This is generally in your Firepod, M-Box, Digi 002, or if you’re like me, a Prosumer Sound Card. This is a vital part of your chain, and a very common area where people often cheap out. A/D converters come in many shapes and sizes, and people assume if it’s got a certain name on it *cough*ProTools*cough* that it’s great quality. Well, this isn’t so. Many high profile companies have taken the cheap route on A/D converters as they assume you’ll be using a standalone converter and bypassing their integrated one altogether. Thanks for making that assumption! We appreciate your lack of effort…

5. Computer. You really want a hefty and powerful CPU with a dedicated Audio Only HDD on which to store your digital gold. Too many people are using their work laptops as their DAW’s as well. It’s really sad when you can build a dedicated studio PC for less than $400.

If you have static recordings full of ambient noise and garbled vocals, you likely have a problem in your signal chain somewhere. Got digital bubbles and pops in your otherwise clean recordings? You’re A/D converter isn’t performing up to snuff. Your vocals peaking and clipping in your recordings? Well, that’s a tracking issue, and we’ll cover that in our next installment…

Remember to get at me with your requests for topics.

One.

Clear Channel Sucks.

Clear Channel Sucks. Clear Channel Sucks. Clear Channel Sucks. Clear Channel Sucks. Clear Channel Sucks. Clear Channel Sucks. Clear Channel Sucks.

Did I mention, Clear Channel Sucks? WDFN, Detroit’s beloved Local Sports Radio Station was completely wiped out yesterday by Clear Channel (who sucks, btw). The only Detroit Clear Channel station (of the 7 they own here) that laid off any employees. They wiped out the entire staff. Gone, no notice, nothing. Countless listeners and devoted fans such as myself, are left in disarray. Who do I listen to now? Where do I get my local sports fix? Fox Sports Radio broadcasting on my local station now? You can Die In a Fire, Clear Channel.

I recorded a theme song for the morning show “It Is What It Is” with host Sean Baligean a couple years back. They loved it, and it’s been in daily rotation for two years + until today. Sean is likely the most honest and fair sports reporter I’ve ever known. Level headed, not overly cynical, but doesn’t kiss butt at all. Would never play up to coaches or players to get on their good side. He simply told it like it was, and made no apologies for it. He represented everything that radio should, and could be, if done right.

Stoney and Wojo, the comical duo of Detroit Sports over the last decade or so, are now defunct. Thanks Clear Channel, you can choke on a chicken bone for all I care. Stoney and Wojo made my evening drive on Detroit Freeways tolerable and often times, fun. Ok, Wojo had a tendency to be whiny and annoying, but more often than not, the show was good. Thanks for the “Eat em Up Tigers” song on Jam It or Slam It. That turned into a classic. I can proudly say, I didn’t have anything to do with that.

Diesel, Otto, Marty, Spicolli, Shep, and anyone else. We’ll miss you. God Bless, and I hope you all land on your feet somewhere. Hopefully, some of you land on 97.1 FM and displace the crapfest that graces their airwaves all too often.

RIP to WDFN

WD TV HD Media Player.

New Year, new things, new additions to the Home Theater. I've spent less time blogging as of late, and more time in Home theater heaven in front of my Samsung 50" Plasma HDTV, which is now connected via HDMI and Optical Audio to this little bad-boy. The Western Digital TV HD Media Player.

To those of you with no tech knowledge, let me make it simple. This plays video from a computer hard drive to your TV and Surround Sound system. Very simple.

For you tech-geeks like myself, here's the goods. Full 1080p output and upscale of 480i or 480p SD Content. Plays almost every container or media file type I've thrown at it. MPEG1, MPEG2, MKV, AVI, FLV, VOB, etc... The list goes on. This last weekend, I ripped my sons DVD collection to a portable 320GB USB powered HDD. About 25 DVD's allocated to 100GB of space on the HDD. Full quality rips to VOB in Video TS folder structures. No conversion required. Anything from Pixar looks amazing through this little gem, and especially on the 50" Plasma.

Why would anyone want this? Simple, really. I can host my sons entire movie collection on a hard drive. He no longer gets to play with DVD's and scratch them, rendering them useless. I no longer have to look on the DVD shelf, then upstairs in the bedroom, then in the living room to find a DVD he recently watched, but doesn't remember where. They can all be accessed by the touch of a button (one button on the Logitech Harmony remote, multiple buttons for you people without one).

Blu-Ray rips, mkv containers for TV show downloads from TVtorrents.com (if you need an invite, holler at me) x264 or AVCHD from your Hi-Def camcorder... No conversion necessary. This thing is awesome, and it was priced very reasonably. Less than $100 in most places online. If you catch a great sale like I did, it can be had for less. I got mine from Worst Buy, but only because of the deal they offered. I despise Big Box stores, but that's another blog.

Oh yeah, Happy 09' folks.

out.

Snow + Roads + Stupid People = Road Rage

Well, we've recently been dumped on here in Southeast Michigan. 10" in the last couple of days, with another 3" supposed to drop today. Looking out my office window at work, I'd say 3" is the least we'll get. It's been coming down steady for the last couple of hours.

My daily commute is 48 miles each way. 90% Freeway, 10% back roads. My 10% back road stretch this morning took me 25 minutes! This is something I'll never understand. I live in Michigan, I realize it's going to snow. I prepare for that mentally and physically. I understand there are extra precautions I must take, and adjust my schedule to accommodate the possibilities on the roads. However, what I don't understand is, why the other drivers in this state act like Anthrax is falling from the sky and their death is looming around each curve.

Seriously. YOU LIVE IN MICHIGAN!!!! Why does snow surprise anyone? How does snow surprise ANYONE in Michigan? This isn't Florida, people. HELLO???? Does this compute? The roads are plowed, they aren't icy or slippery, yet people drive like they've never seen this magical white powder falling from the sky. It's not mana from heaven, you morons. IT'S SNOW!!!!

You'd think I was actually in Florida, in some sort of senile living facility the way these people forget from one year to the next what it's like to live here. It's not that hard to drive in snow, I actually prefer it to the rain. What we need is a mandatory moron lane on the highways which allow anyone driving under the speed limit to mosey along at their personal leisure. This would allow those of us who aren't idiots to drive in the remainder of the lanes and arrive at work on time.

Yes, I complained publicly on a blog. I'm too transparent. Yes it's fleshly and very non Christlike to call people morons. Doesn't take away from it being truthful...

I need to make a bumper sticker for my car.... "Jesus loves you, I think you're an idiot."