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Crossover Music Question

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Crossover Music Question

Postby ConnieR » Sun Jan 20, 2013 4:52 pm

Hi,
I'm mostly a classical music composer, but I would like to do what I would call "cross-over" music, like music with a country feel, or rock, etc. Sort of like film scores, which combine orchestral and other styles of music, or the instrumental arrangements on some of the country singers' Christmas CD's. My question is this, is Notion suitable for that, or should I look for something different? Would it be best to do the instrumetnal parts in notion, then export it to another program to add a drum track? Part of my problem is that I don't know how to "write" non-classical music onto a score. Also, I don't play an instrument, which makes it difficult to add a Midi track in Notion.
I know this is probably a dumb question, but I'd apprecieate any help. Thanks.
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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby GaryExo » Mon Jan 21, 2013 7:01 am

Hi Connie

It's not a dumb question.

I don't have any experience of using Notion in this way. Indeed, I'm just getting to grips with it myself, having tired of creating entirely electronic music for years and moved into classical composition. I bought Notion purely for composing classical music. I'm sure others will offer opinions on using Notion for other types of music. However, from a couple of the things you said, I thought I'd venture some advice. It may be that using another software under the general name of DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) would be better for you. I think it might offer you much more freedom in the way in which you lay down tracks and not have to worry about what notation would be required.

I used Ableton Live for quite a long time and still have it. Many composers on here seem to have a DAW of some kind in addition to Notion. Apparently Notion works very well with other applications like Live, Digital Performer, Logic. Read about how it works using ReWire to link with another sequencer.

You don't even need to spend any money on a decent DAW either as there is some great free software out there. Look for these:
Reaper
LMMS
Temper
Ardour
Renoise
Traverso
and I used the free ancestor of this to make the entire album, "Pyrite Lessons", which you can hear here.
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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby tubatimberinger » Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:29 pm

It is more than possible to create the kind of music you have described using Notion. However, the user interface that it uses is music Notation. Therefore, if you don't read music that well (you said you don't play any instrument), then you might encounter difficulties. But as Gary said, Notion works with pretty much everything via ReWire etc. and it's very inexpensive when compared to many other music applications. I would say any composer (regardless of style) would benefit from having it in their arsenal.

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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby Surfwhammy » Mon Jan 21, 2013 4:35 pm

ConnieR wrote:Hi,
I'm mostly a classical music composer, but I would like to do what I would call "cross-over" music, like music with a country feel, or rock, etc. Sort of like film scores, which combine orchestral and other styles of music, or the instrumental arrangements on some of the country singers' Christmas CD's. My question is this, is Notion suitable for that, or should I look for something different? Would it be best to do the instrumetnal parts in notion, then export it to another program to add a drum track? Part of my problem is that I don't know how to "write" non-classical music onto a score. Also, I don't play an instrument, which makes it difficult to add a Midi track in Notion.
I know this is probably a dumb question, but I'd apprecieate any help. Thanks.


NOTION is perfect for doing all genres of music, for sure!

For sure! :)

The fact of the matter is that it is all music, and what people call "Classical" and "Orchestral" music is just another flavor of what other folks call "Rock and Roll", "Melodic Death Metal", "Polka", "Ska", "Jazz", "Rhythm and Blues", and so forth and so on . . .

If Mozart were alive today, he probably would be doing Melodic Death Metal, Dubstep, DISCO, Rock and Roll, and Pop songs or perhaps would be doing film scores . . .

From my perspective, the only significant difference in the various genres is that it tends to be a bit difficult at times to determine the basic melody, bass, and rhythm for Classical and Orchestral music, but this usually is a matter of there being none rather than its being there but not so obviously . . .

Consider the classic Edvard Grieg hit from the , "In the Hall of the Mountain King", which actually has a melody, bass part, and rhythm, where in the following examples "consider" maps to listening to the YouTube music videos . . .

"In the Hall of the Mountain King" (Edvard Grieg) -- YouTube music video

I think it is reasonable to suggest that nearly everyone in the Western hemisphere knows this song, in part due to the fabulous animation work done by Walt Disney and company in the animated film "Fantasia", but there is another reason that people know this song, although I doubt that more than a handful of people actually realize why, where I suggest this because I should have realized it decades ago but I only realized it when I was working on a silly song on New Years Day 2010 . . .

Specifically, "In the Hall of the Mountain King" is the same song as "Purple Haze" (The Jimi Hendrix Experience), which is obvious simply by listening to the first few measures of the songs . . .

"Purple Haze" (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) -- YouTube music video

And this is the my completely and totally silly version of the same song, which I did mostly to spank Angela Gossow, the lead singer for Arch Enemy, for singing a song with lyrics which included the phrase "carnivorous Jesus", which was a bit of a delayed reaction, because I like the song but was unable to make sense of the lyrics until I had listened to the song several hundred times . . .

[NOTE: This was done when I was doing everything with real instruments, but so what . . . ]

"(I Want) Angela Gossow's Underpants (Ya-Ya-Ya)" (The Surf Whammys) -- YouTube music video

And this is the Arch Enemy song, which is fabulous . . .

[NOTE: Daniel Erlandsson is my favorite drummer; the Amott brothers (Michael and Christopher) provide the "Melodic" part of the genre; Sharlee D'Angelo provides the deep bass; and Angela is just too cute for words, really . . . ]

"Ravenous" (Arch Enemy) -- YouTube music video

Fabulous!

Something similar happens with "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", which is the best known colloquial version of the classic French children's song, and Mozart had a bit of FUN with the song in his "Twelve Variations on 'Ah vous dirai-je, Maman'", which was followed a few centuries later with the classic Disney version of "When You Wish Upon A Star" (Leigh Harline, Ned Washington) and then a few decades later by the Beach Boys with "Surfer Girl" and the Beatles with "This Boy", all of which are the same song but done in different styles and genres with extra bits added every so often . . .

[NOTE: There is a MIDI transcription for the Mozart piece, and it will play if your web browser has a MIDI plug-in, but if not, then you can download the .MID file and import it to NOTION where NOTION will assign it to Piano. And you can convert the MIDI stuff to music notation via one of the NOTION menu options . . . ]

Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" (Amadeus Mozart) -- wikipedia

While on the topic of MIDI transcriptions, there is a company in Australia that sells MIDI transcriptions of popular songs, and this is a excellent way to see how the music notation looks for various genres, since the transcriptions tend to have a full range of instruments and to be very accurate . . .

[NOTE: Currently the prices range from approximately $10 (US) for one song to $5 (US) per song when you get eight or so songs at one time. And for reference, the "play by ear" folks after a while can listen to a song in their favored genres and get a very accurate mental mapping of the notes, chords, rhythm patterns, and so forth, since the "play by ear" folks usually teach themselves how to play an instrument by listening to a song over and over to identify each individual note, chords, and so forth, where at first it might take a month or two to make sense of a song but after a while you realize that that most popular music songs are composed using a basic set of patterns, which once you know the basic set of patterns makes it nearly trivial to learn new songs, and in particular for Rock and Roll, Rhythm and Blues, DISCO, and Pop songs the fact of the matter is that there are not so many patterns, hence by learning a few carefully selected songs, you actually are learning hundreds or perhaps thousands of songs . . . ]

Hit Trax MIDI and MP3 Backing Tracks

For reference, it is vastly easier to do this stuff on the Mac, and it all works wonderfully on the Mac when you use the various digital music production applications I recommend, and I recommend them because I have done extensive testing to verify that everything works wonderfully . . .

When a song has or is likely to have some number of real instruments and singing, then you need to have a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application like Digital Performer 8 (MOTU) or Logic Pro 9 (Apple), since real instruments and vocals are recorded via microphones, although you can run some type of real instruments directly to the external digital audio interface, which here is the sound isolation studio is a MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid, with electric guitar, electric bass, and keyboard synthesizers being examples of real instruments that you can run direct without needing to play them through an amplifier and loudspeaker and then getting the resulting sounds via a set of microphones . . .

Hence, when you want your complete system to be able to do everything, you need a DAW application like Digital Performer 8 and an external digital audio interface like the MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid to get the microphones and real electric instruments digitized so that the computer can work with the resulting audio . . .

And since my background began with Classical music as a child, primarily the types of music one sings when in a liturgical boys choir, I have a good foundation in treble clef music notation, and consequently do everything on a treble clefs, which I can do because NOTION has a feature that lets you specify the register where notes are played . . .

But once I started junior high school I switched to the "play by ear" strategy and focused on Rock and Roll, Rhythm and Blues, and a bit of Jazz, Big Band, Western Swing, and Country Western, where I mostly played string bass or electric bass but later switched to rhythm guitar and lead guitar, which is an excellent way to learn how to compose songs and to improvise, as well as to recognize patterns in songs, since in the more popular genres everything is based strongly on patterns . . .

This is one of my ongoing topics in this FORUM, and it provides a more detailed set of information on using NOTION as the foundation for a complete system . . .

Notion 3, DISCO Songs, and Sparkles (Notion Music FORUM)

I have other topics in this FORUM, and I update the topics whenever I discover a new bit of information about the various techniques, but the high level version is that I begin songs in NOTION, where at minimum the NOTION score for a song has a Piano playing reference tuning notes and a Kick Drum playing quarter notes, which is what I use in the DAW application for tuning the real instruments and for what in the recording industry is called a "click track" . . .

~ ~ ~ continued in the next post ~ ~ ~
Last edited by Surfwhammy on Tue Jan 22, 2013 1:33 am, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby Surfwhammy » Mon Jan 21, 2013 4:39 pm

~ ~ ~ continued from previous post ~ ~ ~

The advantage of beginning with a NOTION score--even is it is just a Piano playing reference tuning notes and a Kick Drum playing quarter notes at the desired tempo or "Beats Per Minute {BPM)"--is that once you record some real instruments and singing, if you then decide it would be nice to add some strings and horns, then you can switch from the DAW application (Digital Performer 8) to NOTION, where you can do the strings and horns in music notation using the bundled NOTION instruments or some of the third-party VSTi virtual instruments like Kontakt 5 (Native Instruments), MachFive 3 (MOTU), and so forth . . .

Everything will be in tune and correctly synchronized, because you tuned the real instruments to the NOTION Piano and played the instruments to the Kick Drum tempo in the NOTION score, which also is the case for singing, and this is very important, because if you begin with real instruments and singing but decide later to enhance the song with NOTION stuff, it is not easy to synchronize and tune real instruments and singing to NOTION virtual instruments after the fact, hence it is better to start with a simple NOTION score (Piano and Kick Drum), even if you never plan to have any virtual instruments . . .

And for what one might call more "modern" genres like Dubstep, House, Electronic, Trance, and so forth, many of those types of songs are done with Reason 6.5 (Propellerhead Software), which is a self-contained application and digital music production system, and Reason 6.5 does not work as a plug-in, but this is not a problem, because you can control and play Reason 6.5 synthesizers and instruments using music in NOTION, where the strategy is to use External MIDI staves . . .

Reason 6.5 (Propellerhead Software)

All three of these digital music production applications (Digital Performer 8, NOTION 4, and Reason 6.5) communicate via ReWire 2 (Propellerhead Software), which makes it possible to run all three simultaneously, where DIgital Performer 8 is the ReWIre 2 host controller and both NOTION 4 and Reason 6.5 are the ReWire 2 slaves, except that NOTION 4 also controls Reason 6.5 via the NOTION 4 External MIDI staves . . .

And it is very important to have a calibrated full-range studio monitor system when you are doing the mixing and mastering, since you need to be able to hear the recorded information accurately, where the calibrated full-range studio monitor system needs to have a flat equal loudness curve across the full-range of normal human hearing (20-Hz to 20,000-Hz) at the optimal listening level of 85 dB SPL, because otherwise you have no idea what actually is recorded, hence cannot mix and master it accurately, all of which is explained in detail in one of my ongoing topics in the IK Multimedia FORUM . . .

The Fabulous Affordable Studio Monitor System Project (IK Multimedia FORUM)

This is one of the Pop songs I am developing for my pretend musical group, The Surf Whammys, and it is coming along nicely . . .

[NOTE: This is done in NOTION 3 and Digital Performer 7.24, and the only real instrument is the lead guitar doing "Pipeline" glissandi and the "Peter Gunn Theme" variation. Everything else is done with IK Multimedia VSTi virtual instruments, except the singing, which is additionally processed with the Melodyne Editor (Celemony) . . . ]

"Feel Me" (The Surf Whammys) -- MP3

And this is a new Country Western song I am developing for The Surf Whammys . . .

[NOTE: This is not the final version of the singing, but it is reasonably "ballpark". There are two problems, one of which is that the bass line is wrong, which I will correct by playing it on a real electric bass, and the other of which is that singing bass is very difficult, since the frequency difference in notes is so small, where for example the A below Low C is 110-Hz and the B below Low C is 123.47-Hz, which is a difference of only 23.46 cycles per second, so I need to do a lot more practicing singing deep bass, but so what. And in this version all the instruments are IK Multimedia VSTi virtual instruments, with the exception of the lap steel guitar, which actually is the NOTION 3 bundled Electric Guitar. There are a lot of wrong notes in the singing and I have revised some of the lyrics, but I think it is helpful for people to hear a song in various stages of development, where the reality is that it in the "play by ear" universe it is an iterative process, where you continually listen to identify notes that sound wrong or "bad" and then correct them until everything sound right or "good", which is yet another stellar reason for basing everything on NOTION scores, since the music notation is a reference point for everything and it is scientific, which introduces logic and order into the process of creating a song . . . . ]

"It Was Only A Dream" (The Surf Whammys) -- MP3

Summarizing, you have the advantage of knowing music notation, but you have the disadvantage probably of not devoting a lot of attention to the "play by ear" aspect of music, so the answer to your question about "not knowing how to 'write' non-classical music onto a score" is that you need to devote a bit of attention to listening to songs in the genres you want to compose, where the key is to focus on the rhythm patterns of the notes . . .

The difficult aspect is that many of the instrumental and vocal parts for DISCO, Pop, Country Western, and other genres are played and sung by "play by ear" musicians and singers, hence have very precise and often elaborately synchronized rhythms that are not so easy to transpose accurately to music notation, where one of my favorite songs to study at present is the iTunes single version of "Billie Jean" (Michael Jackson), where among other things it is FUN to determine the specific pattern that Michael Jackson used for the high-pitch "whoo", "he-he-he", hiccups and so forth he did every once in a while, where there are patterns but they are not so easily anticipated or identified, which adds excitement and surprise to the song and is something Elvis Presley did, although initially more along the lines of hiccups due either to being vastly nervous or to being vastly tickled, except that he noticed it made the young ladies in the audience go crazy, so he taught himself how to hiccup on demand, which is a clue to the level of detail one needs to understand to make everything work, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :)

~ ~ ~ continued in the next post ~ ~ ~
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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby Surfwhammy » Tue Jan 22, 2013 12:34 am

~ ~ ~ continued from previous post ~ ~ ~

For reference, In the following topic in this FORUM there is an high-level overview of what I consider to be "everything" as it applies to digital music production . . .

A Notion Plug-In? (Notion Music FORUM)

(1) Real Instruments and Vocals: These are recorded via microphones and in some instances direct input, where the microphones and direct inputs for instruments like electric guitar, electric bass, and keyboard synthesizers and music workstations are handled by an external digital audio interface like the MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid (a personal favorite), which also handles the MIDI hardware interface for real external MIDI instruments and devices. And these things are recorded in a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application like Digital Performer 8 (MOTU) or Logic Pro 9 (Apple), hence if you are working with real instruments and singing, then you need a DAW application and an external digital audio interface to get the analog microphones and instruments digitized so that the computer can work with the audio, where it is important to understand that NOTION 4 is not a DAW application in this respect . . .

(2) Virtual Instruments (Steinberg VSTi Technology): This is handled by NOTION 4 and the various VSTi virtual instruments you decide to use, but most high-end DAW applications have somewhat similar functionality but not nearly so advanced as NOTION 4, where with NOTION 4 the focus is on working with music notation, which is the foundation for what I consider to be the complete system . . .

(3) Virtual Instruments (Propellerhead Software Technology): This is handled by Reason 6.5 and the new Rack Extensions. It is similar to (2), but instead of the various instruments being available as plug-ins, everything runs in a single application environment, hence rather than controlling and playing the Reason 6.5 instruments directly in Reason 6.5, which you certainly can do and at times will want to do, you can control and play the Reason 6.5 instruments via music notation in NOTION 4, which is done with NOTION 4 External MIDI staves, where each External MIDI stave maps to a MIDI port and MIDI channel, which is the way that NOTION 4 sends the various MIDI commands, notes, instructions, and so forth to the appropriate Reason 6.5 instruments. However, as noted, you also can define, play, and record the various Reason 6.5 instruments natively in Reason 6.5, as demonstrated in the following video where Digital Performer 8 is the DAW application and is the ReWire 2 host controller, while NOTION 4 and Reason 6.5 are ReWire 2 slaves, and NOTION 4 additionally is controlling and playing two of the Reason 6.5 instruments via NOTION 4 External MIDI staves and the music notion specified on the two External MIDI staves . . .

[NOTE: All the applications, VSTi virtual instruments, and VST and AU plug-ins are 64-bits, which is important, since everything has plenty of space when it is running 64-bits. The Reason 6.5 audio is a little hot, which is due to my being focused more on getting everything to work than on dynamics, and I did not notice that the Reason 6.5 stereo master track was hot at the time, but so what . . . ]

Digital Performer 8, NOTION 4, Reason 6.5, External MIDI, ReWire 2 on the Mac -- QuickTime Movie -- MOV (63.7MB, approximately 14 minutes and 45 seconds)

In some respect, doing all this stuff is at least as complex as running a Fortune 100 corporation or piloting an USAF F-22 Raptor fifth generation jet fighter aircraft, but if you want to do everything, then this is the way it works, and this is one of the many reasons that I strongly recommend doing everything on the Mac, since it is easier on the Mac, plus I have verified that everything actually works when you do it on an Apple computer, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :ugeek:

And in addition to needing to make sense of all this stuff so that I can do songs with my pretend musical groups--one of which is The Surf Whammys--I also am planning to write a technical book focused on explaining a simple way to do all this stuff for people who want to learn how to do it and at least have sufficient funding to get professional quality hardware and software, which specifically maps to an Apple computer; a MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid external digital audio interface; a very specific set of digital music production applications, sampled sound libraries, and effects plug-ins; some microphones and at least a MIDI keyboard; and a calibrated full-range studio monitor system that has a flat equal loudness curve at 85 dB SPL . . .

It might take a few years to make sense of everything in a practical way, but if you work at it, then you can make sense of it, especially when you have some clues regarding which stuff is important and cannot be avoided, as contrasted to all the primarily esoteric stuff which is interesting but not so necessary when you have a complete system and well-defined procedures for doing the various activities . . .

Being able to work directly with music notation is very important, and this is the reason that NOTION 4 is the foundation for my complete system, but it also is important to be able to work with virtual instruments in another way, which is the way it is done in Reason 6.5, where you are working with what I call "music boxes" that do a lot of work in a different way than it is done when you are composing with music notation . . .

There are some excellent tutorial videos at the following link to the Propellerhead Software website, and they provide an overview of recording real instruments and singing, as well as working with "music boxes", but as noted (see above) it is possible and practical to control Reason 6.5 instruments with music notation in NOTION 4, which is done via NOTION 4 External MIDI staves, and while in some respects Reason 6.5 is a DAW application, it only acts as a ReWire 2 slave application, which at minimum is the reason you need a full-featured professional DAW application like Digital Performer 8, since controlling both NOTION 4 and Reason 6.5 requires a ReWire 2 host controller, which is one of the roles of Digital Performer 8 in the complete system . . .

Reason 6.5 Overview and Video Tutorials (Propellerhead Software)

After you watch the various video tutorials for Reason 6.5, the obvious question becomes "Why not use Reason 6.5 for everything?", and the answer is that Reason 6.5 does not do everything, which is one of the reasons that I base my complete system on NOTION 4, where by working with music notion in NOTION 4 I have access to all the Steinberg technologies (VSTi virtual instruments and VST effects plug-ins), which when combined with a few real instruments, some real singing, and all the fantastic stuff that one can do with Reason 6.5 and Digital Performer 8 maps to being able to do everything, where for reference I do the producing and mixing with Digital Performer 8, which is the primary activity for which Digital Performer 8 is designed, and Digital Performer 8 uses both the Audio Units (AU) and VST versions of effects plug-ins, which is very important for the various advanced mixing and producing activities. NOTION 4 and Reason 6.5 have mixing boards, and they are handy, but neither of them does all the advanced stuff that Digital Performer 8 does, hence you need all three of these primary digital music production applications (Digital Performer 8, NOTION 4, and Reason 6.5) to be able to do everything, which among other things makes sense when you understand what George Martin did for the Beatles in his role as musical advisor, arranger, and producer . . .

Lots of FUN! :)
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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby scarter » Tue Jan 22, 2013 1:13 pm

You might get some ideas from my video on Organizing a Recording Project. It shows how I use Notion in my workflow, to combine orchestral instruments with jazz and rock.
Organizing a Recording Project

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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby Surfwhammy » Tue Jan 22, 2013 10:14 pm

scarter wrote:You might get some ideas from my video on Organizing a Recording Project. It shows how I use Notion in my workflow, to combine orchestral instruments with jazz and rock.
Organizing a Recording Project

Steve


Excellent! :)

After describing a lot of highly detailed steps required to do some type of reasonably complex activity in the digital music production universe, I usually include the observation that doing digital music production entirely by yourself, where you do everything, is at least as complex as running a major corporation or flying a jet airplane, which certainly is the case, but I am not so certain that everyone understands how precise I am being when I write this . . .

For those folks who think that everything is simple, I recommend that they watch your video on organizing a recording project, since it provides significant clues to some of the high-level stuff that happens behind the scenes in terms of managing everything, because this is the way it works when one does digital music production professionally . . .

And I am being very precise when I write that your video on organizing recording projects covers the high-level aspects, because for example there are hundreds of steps involved in mixing and mastering a song, and there is a way to develop a checklist or general procedure for mixing and mastering, which is what audio engineers and producers do at one time or another as they become increasingly skilled in audio engineering and producing where the general strategy is to create a song in layers, one layer at a time, which when done correctly becomes an equation or formula for creating songs and ensures that each step or layer is created correctly . . .

I like having checklists, procedures, and guidelines for everything fully documented, although I do some of it in my mind, and for a while I thought that I was a bit obsessive in this, but then I got a copy of "Recording the Beatles" (Curvebender Publishing) and discovered what being completely and totally fanatic about having checklists, procedures, and guidelines really involves . . .

Recording the Beatles (Curvebender Publishing)

Abbey Road Studios in the 1960s had a checklist, procedure, and guideline for everything detailed to the level of military precision, which included the way "pop singers" were expected to stand, to position themselves, and to behave generally when singing, which was specific to the various types of microphones and microphone patterns, as well as to whether it was one "pop singer" or several "pop singers", where for "pop singers" the position and location of each "pop singer" was specified to the level of including the recommended angles, position, and distance from the "pop singer" to the microphone, but the truly amazing aspect of this particular guideline was the instruction that "pop singers" were required to avoid unnecessary and frivolous body motions, including avoiding fidgeting and dancing . . .

Image

Absurd as it might appear initially, it makes sense when you consider that the goal is to record the singing as accurately as possible with good and strong signal levels, and from this perspective doing a lot of body motions, fidgeting, and dancing causes the head to move in position relative to the microphone, which in turn causes fluctuations in the vocal signal level, where the motivating principle is that when recorded vocals have good and strong signal levels, then the audio engineer and producer can enhance everything easily with advanced signal processors . . .

Once you understand that the Beatles were instructed in every aspect regarding what they were expected and allowed to do when recording, it is easy to watch them performing and to understand the reason that they do what I call "working a microphone" so precisely, where for example John Lennon limited his body motion most of the time to standing in place and pretending to ride a horse at a slow but steady tempo, and you can see each of the Beatles being very precise in where they position themselves when singing, which comes directly from the fanatic set of checklists, procedures, and guidelines at Abbey Road Studios, all of which makes sense in the grand scheme of everything, because the Beatles literally were and continue to be a billion-dollar business, and the more perfect the product (Beatles songs), the more profitable and successful the business, where the way they "work microphones" is easy to see in this live performance of "Help" on The Ed Sullivan Show . . .

"Help!" (Beatles) -- The Ed Sullivan Show, August 1965 -- YouTube music video

Switching focus a bit, I purchased the album "Music to Cook By" (Steve Carter) at CD Baby, and at present my favorite songs are "Fra Diavolo", "Simmer Samba", and "Tropical Shake", where I particularly like "Tropical Shake", which is fabulous . . .

Music to Cook By (Steve Carter) -- CD Baby

Fabulous! :)
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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby scarter » Wed Jan 23, 2013 11:19 am

SurfWhammy,
Thanks for your kind words about my video, and my music.
Also, thanks for writing about the book about the Beatles. I'll have to check that out.

As another example of attention to detail in the recording process, I'm reminded of my engineer, Alex Case -- who, by the way has worked on Grammy Award winning albums. At the end of each session he takes a photo of the mic array in front of my guitar amp. Once he even used a small tape measure so he could take note of the distance of each mic from the speaker. (One mic was an SM-57, but I forget what the other one was -- I guess I should have taken notes! ;) )

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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby ConnieR » Fri Jan 25, 2013 1:29 pm

Thank you to everybody for your replies. ow, Surfwhammy, you really get int oa lot of technical details! I'll have to read your posts through a few more times to make sure I understand everything.
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