Small Town Sleeper - Day 9 - Video Blog #2

Well, i think i finally solved at least the short term issues with video encoding. Wow, this is another world for me and I feel very much like an amateur at video, which i am, but I'm learning. Hopefully some of you are getting some good stuff out of these, its been alot of work, but fun at the same time. This is Video Blog #2, still pretty rough, but i think i solved both the video and the audio encoding puzzles, as well as the file size. Again, give me feedback and let me know if you agree.

I've already shot Video Blog #3, i just have to edit it and clean it up. I would have already had it done, but i've been working on fixing this one for about 4 days. Maybe tomorow I'll have Video Blog #3 up. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Dont hold your breath.

Ken Lewis - Video Blog #2

I still am not tech savvy enough yet to do Video Blog's on things like compression, EQ, etc.... Anything having to do with filming a computer screen, i cannot do yet. I have the right tools, but i dont yet have the ability to work them. Soon.

Enjoy!!!

Ken

VIDEO BLOG #1 - Small Town Sleeper - Day 6

At long last, i figured out (kind of) how to video blog. I wanted to reduce the file size of this blog as low as possible so that more people can download it. If your on a dial up, forget it. Its still 43 meg.

Question. Would ya'll like a but higher res video and audio in exchange for a much bigger file size?

Anyway, please give me feedback, good, bad or otherwise. I'll be working to make this process smoother on my end (you have no idea what it took to get this thing done). This video blog goes into visual detail about what i've been talking about with recording drums for Small Town Sleeper. It covers mic choice, mic placement, my own personal mic'ing techniques, etc..

Hope they help you.

Here's the file to download.

Ken Lewis Video Blog #1

-Ken Lewis

Small Town Sleeper - Day 4 & 5 Drum Tracking.....

Its Midnight on Day 5, as i sit here, Troy, Will and Derek are cutting scratch tracks to a click for three songs. Tomorrow Dann will come in round noon and bash out keeper drum parts for these three songs. But i digress, let me start at Day 4.

Day 4. First day of actual drum tracking. We tackled keeper drums on 4 songs today. It was awesome to finally get to record music after many days of choosing drums, putting on new drum heads, tuning & tweeking, doing mic shootouts and mic pre shootouts, lots of listening to music, and now finally Dann gets to hit things with a purpose. We took several takes for each song. Basically all the parts have been worked out down to the stick stroke in pre-production and rehearsals, now is the time for Dann to play these songs better than he's ever played them, and its time for me as the producer to know when he's given me that performance, or if he needs to do it again. Its always one of the challenges of being a producer, knowing when you've captured "it", and even more difficult, knowing when you havent yet. Kind of like a beatmaker knowing the beat is perfect just the way it is and it doesnt need anything else. I'm sure alot of you inexperienced beatmakers find it hard to know when a beat is done, and when your a year or two down the road, you listen back to your older work and often say "Wow, i was adding the kitchen sink to that beat, it didnt need it" or "wow, i thought THAT was all i could do to that?". There's usually nothing that can replace experience.

One of my challenges with these songs is picking the right drums for the right song. One thing i personally dont like about alot of records i hear is when i feel like the whole record was recorded with the same exact drum kit, same mics, same room, same cymbals. Once you've heard the same drum sound several times in a row, dont you wanna change things up a bit? I do. So far, 4 songs, 4 different snare drums used, 3 different cymbal configurations, 2 different hi hat configurations. Same Kick and toms. I dont see changing those, however, i might treat the kick radically different in different songs as i mix, or maybe not. I always try to pick a snare drum that works musically with the song. Here are some questions i ask myself.....

1. Do i want a deep snare or higher snare?
2. How bout a ringy snare, or something tighter with more attack?
3. does the tone or color of the drum make sense with this song?
4. Am i going to have the drummer hit the center of the drumhead or slightly off center? Hitting the center gives more attack and less ring, hitting half way to the edge will give a little less attack but alot more ring, and in a loud rock song, sometimes having the snare hit last for that extra split second can help it hang in a mix without turning it up really loud.

Anyway, there are probably a ton of other subtle things that cross my mind as i try to pick cymbals, hats, snares, what kind of tuning i want on the toms, tom sizes. All of it gets considered at length. Also, typically for cymbals i like dark fast decaying cymbals. i HATE bright cymbals in the studio. they usually sound like breaking glass. (.......side note...... the guys are cutting scratch tracks to the probable first single right now, this song sounds like a juggernaut of a hit to me.......end side note.....back to day 4)

So, Day 4 ended very late. After drums were done (around 10:30pm), i brought Troy, Will and Derek back in to cut scratch tracks on three more songs that i cut drums to on Day 5. The guys left the studio at 3:30am, i stayed up and worked til 4:30am and called it a night.

DAY 5. More drums!!! Dann and I cut drums to three more songs today. One more snare drum got added to the mix, that makes 5 different snare drums on 7 songs, one more cymbal got added to the fold, and i moved a bunch of mics around a bit, and changed one mic. There are a million and one styles of recording drums. Here's my personal philosophy. I like as much audio separation between close mics as i can get. Conversely, i like to get as little bleed between mics as possible, with the exception of toms. I also like my overhead mics to focus on cymbals instead of trying to capture an overall picture of the kit. If i'm listening to a playback of a drum take, and i mute the hi hat, i want the hi hat to go away. If i solo the snare drum mics, i want to hear as little hi hat bleed into the snare mics as possible. Often i'll get songs in to mix where the hi hat bleed into the snare mics is as loud as the snare itself. This presents many problems, first if i brighten the snare, the hi hat gets brightened along with it, and hi hats are usually bright enough. Second, if i want to compress the snare, it will by default bring up the level of the hi hat. If the hats are too loud in the snare mics, often i cant compress the snare, or i have to trigger a new snare on top of it and blend it in (which i do alot of anyway if i get in songs with weak drum sounds).

Toms. I dont usually mind bleed with toms, because i always go thru and digitally remove all the sound on the tom tracks when the toms arent playing, and i have some super secret tricks i do with the toms to reduce cymbal bleed. Maybe someday i'll tell you how. Maybe not. Maybe. So, my goal with micing toms is only to get the best tom sounds possible, which has as much to do with tuning as it does anything else, but as i discovered more than i realized, it also has alot to do with which mics you use. I personally think alot of the "standard" tom mics sound like crap on toms. and with cymbals i found out that some of the mics i have been using (and liking) for years, like the Royer R122's didnt sound to my ears nearly as good as the Shure KSM 137's i recently aquired for a small fraction of the price of my Royers. I do love my Royers for other things.

Anyway, Day 5 is ending right now with Derek, Will and Troy cutting scratch guitars, bass and vocals to three more songs that i'll cut keeper drums to tomorrow. This may seem a bit piecemeal in that you might be asking "Why arent you trying to cut keeper guitars, bass, and drums all at the same time. Well there are a few good reasons. Usually, i have to do so many edits and timing fixes with a drummer that once the drums are cleaned up, not much else lines up with them anymore and i find myself doing a ton more editing of guitars and bass to realign them. On this record so far, Dann has been so rock solid on the click and so rock solid with his feel, that i dont think i'm going to be doing much editing. the other reason is that i find i want to take my time with each piece and make sure i'm focusing as a producer on getting each really amazing. I spent 2 full days just getting drum sounds worked out. Imagine the low moral if i had the whole band waiting around expecting to play that whole time. i'll spend a ton of time getting guitar sounds too i'm sure when that time comes, which will probably be Tuesday on Day 7. I'll probably do a bit more cleaning up and rough mixing tonight, and some prep for tomorrow before i call it a night, but for now, this has been a LONG blog. If you made it all the way to the end, i hope you enjoyed the ride.
-Ken Lewis

Small Town Sleeper - Day 3 - More Mic Shootouts

End of Day 3 right now, I am completely exhausted, but i'm determined to try to blog every day. Today was another microphone shootout day, but moreso a mic pre shootout. The only mic's in competition today were overhead cymbal mics and kick drum mics. I tried three different pairs of mics on the cymbals, Royer R122's, Studio Projects C4's, and Shure KSM 137's. I gotta say, the KSM 137's won hands down, no contest, so they are my new cymbal mics. Then, for the outside of the kick drum (with the front head on and no sound hole) i tried my favorite from the last shootout, the Rode NTK, against the Royer R122, and the NTK is still the reigning champion.

Now that my mic's are all determined (see the previous mic shootouts for what mics are on what, or read below and I'll post all the drum setup), i did a full on mic pre shootout. Here are the mic pre's used

GML 2032
Chameleon Mic Pre
Avalon 737
Oram Oramsonic
Sytek
Focusrite 428 Bluerange

I had the drummer hit consistently, one drum at a time, and one by one, the drum mics into each pre. Here are the winners...

Kick inside - Audio Technica AE2500 condenser - Chameleon
Kick Outside - Rode NTK Tube - Oramsonic
Snare Top - Shure SM57 dynamic - GML 2032
Snare Bottom - GT55 condenser - Oramsonic
Hi Hat - Studio Projects B1 condenser - Oramsonic
Hi Tom - Audix D4 dynamic - Chameleon
Mid Tom - Studio Projects B1 condenser - Focusrite 428
Low Tom - Sony C800G Tube Condenser - Focusrite 428
Ride Spot mic - Shure KSM 109 condenser - Sytek
Cymals Left and Right - Shure KSM 137 condenser - Avalon 737
Room 1 - Royer R122 ribbon - Oramsonic
Room 2 - Royer R122 ribbon - Oramsonic
Room 3 - Oktava ML52 Ribbon - Sytek

I have to say that i found not alot of difference in audio quality between the different mic pre's. Some you could hear a noticable difference on some things, sometimes it was really subtle. When we did the microphone shootout, the difference in sound from one mic to another was astounding, but that was not the case with mic pre's. Having said that, all of my pre's are supposed to be pretty darn good, so i guess thats not surprising. Maybe the results would be different if i threw in some real budget mic pre's, but i dont have any. Funny thing is, i found some of my best sounding mics were some of the least expensive. For instance the Studio Projects B1 is truly a great mic at any price, and its a $100 mic. The KSM 137's are fairly inexpensive, and they sound great! And of course, the Shure SM 57 beat about 12 other mics for the top of the snare drum, and its under $100.

Anyway, today, Day 3 was all about getting drum sounds (yes i realize this is taking forever, but this band only gets one chance to make their debut album), and we have the luxury of time, so we're getting the most amazing sounds we possibly can. And i'm completely exhausted from working 30 hours in 2 days. time for sleep, tomorow will be another long day, and we'll finally be cutting songs tomorrow. Have a good night.

-Ken Lewis

Small Town Sleeper - Day 2 "Drum Hell"

Day 2 started out with me, Dann, Will, and Derek going to out Hopatcong, NJ to check out The Barbershop Studios. Holy geez what a place. In addition to a retarded equipment list, the vibe and sound there is stellar. BReaking Benjamin just did their album there. The place is a 100 year old stone church thats now been converted to a studio complex. very nice. We'll be spending a day recording there for this album.

Back to my studio, Troy arrived just as we got back. (Troy is the singer, Dann - drums, Will - Bass, Derek - guitars). Today, all day, was spent tuning drums. endlessly tuning drums. We decided to use my Pearl kit for the album, which of course i am very happy with. We also meticulously tuned up about ten snare drums, 8 of which have passed approval for use on the album. We've got plenty of great choices. My drum tech from Collosal Drums, named Dylan Wissing, came out for many hours and made everything sound great. in fact, at 3am, he just left, along with Dann and Cooper. Those boys are real troopers, and their hard work today will pay dividends tomorrow when we put up microphones and get sounds. Yes, thats correct, we spent about ten hours just choosing drums, tuning drums, listening, tweeking sounds, trying cymbals, hats, etc... Not a single mic was used today. There are certain luxuries that come with an album budget from a label, the biggest luxury is time.

Tomorrow, we'll do another extensive drum shootout (remember the last one i did????), i'm putting the winning mics from the last shootout up against some newly aquired mics. Then i'm taking my favorite picks (which were all listened to thru an Avalon 737), and doing a mic pre shootout, where i'll try different mic pre's on the same mic and see which pre's fit which drums and mics the best. It'll probably be fairly eye opening. Boring, tedious, and eye opening. I'll try to blog about it.

Oh, and my webcam came in today. I'm gonna try to start video blogging very soon, maybe even on Day 3.

- Ken Lewis

Small Town Sleeper - Day 1

Ok, so its actually day 2 right now, but i'm going to blog about Day 1, then do another blog about Day 2, and I'm going to attempt to keep up daily with blogging about this album.

Preface. Small Town Sleeper is an amazing pop rock band from Urbana, Ohio. I met them many years ago, began developing them, signed them to my production company, produced a ton of songs with them, gave them time to grow into the amazing band that they are, and then got them a record deal. I've been back and forth lately to Ohio to do pre-production with them, working up new songs, changing up older arrangements, trying ideas, etc..... and today we started the album, kind of.

Bright and early. Dann arrived in town at 7:15am, after having driven all night from Ohio. When he got here i told him "go sleep for an hour, we've got to leave for the City at 8:45am". Dann and I took the train in to see Sear Sound Studios at 10am, and Electric Lady Studios at 11am. Now, I plan to record the majority of the album (including drums), out of my own studio, however, I am going to spend a couple days in other rooms to get some variety of sounds happening.

Sear Sound. Unbelievable. Its been around for 42 years, and has the sickest allotment of vintage gear you've ever seen. Much of it Sear has owned long before it was ever considered "vintage". They have a Neve 8038 console, built in 1972, as well as many pieces of outboard that i've never even seen with my own eyes before. it was crazy. The highlight was a 1 inch 2 Track machine aquired from Abbey Road Studios in London. Apparently Abbey Road had it in their basement and they were just going to throw it away. Sear Sound saved it. By the way, Sgt. Pepper was recorded on that machine!!!!!

Electric Lady Studios. Our next stop was to see Jimi Hendrix former digs. I've worked out of this studio countless times, but havent been there in a while. Probably one of my favorite drum rooms on Earth. The Tracking Room at Emerald in Nashville ranks pretty high too. I think we'll cut some drums for this record out of Electric Lady's Studio A. Amazing sound. The vibe at the Lady is just so cool. I love it there.

Back to my own studio. Lots of busy work, prep work, etc... today. Dann, Will, and Derek all got into town today, Troy gets in tomorrow. I've got them all staying in a house that we have set up as an additional recording/editing/ creative space, as well as a rehearsal room. I'm efficient. I also went shopping for food for the boys. Food bill = $504 at Costco. I hope that lasts them at least a week or two! We also put new drum heads on a TON of drums today. I have a great Pearl kit, and Dann has a Yamaha, and i'm renting a DW kit, a bunch of snares and cymbals from Collosal Drums in NJ. We put new heads, top and bottom on everything so we could hear what it all sounds like, pick our favorite drums, and use those to record. That about wraps it up for today. As my body is not at all used to seeing the morning sun, I'm tired, its late. Tomorrow is another day, Day 2 in fact.
- Ken Lewis

Jeannie Ortega's Album Drops Today!

Jeannie Ortega's debut album "No Place Like Brooklyn" drops in stores today. She's signed to Hollywood Records, and i mixed seven songs on the album. Style is rhythmic Pop, with definite hip hop underpinnings. Really good stuff, I'm really happy i got to work on this one, i think it could be a big album. So, if you wanna hear some of my latest work, there it is. For you tech nerds (i'm one myself), these mixes were done completely in the box, using Logic Audio on an HD Accel 4 rig, with all the super cool TDM / HD plugins that money can buy. Lately i'm mixing much more hybrid, half in the box, half out, thru an SPL Analog summing box, which also allows me to use a bunch of my super cool outboard EQ's, compressors, and reverbs. I like my current setup better than mixing all in the box, however, I think my Jeannie Ortega mixes stand up to anything out there. Check em out.

-Ken Lewis


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