Great song or Great Engineer?

What would you rather have:  

A great song that tugs at people, drawing them into the music and evokes emotions connecting the listener to you and your music

OR

A great production that has the music jumping out and wrapping itself around the head of your listeners with balance and proper blending that focuses their attention on the nuances that are within? 

Of course in a dream world, you could have both of these, but that is a much harder prospect to come by, so let's examine the benefits of both.

I once heard it said, (and I'm paraphrasing here) "I've never heard a shitty band sound so good."  

How you look at that statement is generally going to be reflective of what you want your take away to be.  If you look at that statement and emphasize the "sound so good" portion, you definitely are doing your best to remain optimistic that someone thought you sounded good.  But you are ignoring a very important part in that they called you a shitty band.  A shitty band or song with a great production behind it may only emphasize and expose all the flaws, mistakes, and issues that a band has.

By the same turn, a great band or song can have issues overcoming a terrible mix.  The best example of this is hearing a band’s album and thinking that the music was just decent but not exceptional.  Then you go and see the act perform live and the music just has a whole new life to it that leaves you humming your new favorite tune as you exit the show. 

This is one of the most common examples where a bad production can actually hurt good songwriting and performance. 

Good songwriting can overcome a poor production, but poor songwriting will only be more exposed by a bad production.  

The reason that I'm emphasizing the idea of good songwriting vs. good production is because in the modern age of the home studio, artists sometimes get too attached to their music and aren’t able to let it breathe beyond their vision or get too caught up in the production aspects causing them to forget why they wrote the song in the first place.  

A good song will carry an artist no matter how high quality the production may be.  So musicians out there, please, focus on your craft.  Emphasize the playing and the writing.  The production can be simple and the song will speak for itself.  Use the talents that you have to create a high quality product, and when the time and opportunity come, get the high quality engineer to take it to the next level.  But never forget, it all starts with you and your songs, the production is secondary.

The Musical Trinity: Arrangement

The third and final installment of this series that was originally posted on hypebot.com.


Next week - new content...I hope you're ready!


When you listen to a song that you haven’t heard before, what is it that draws your attention?  Is it the beat that gets you moving?  Is it the lyrics tugging at your heart strings?  Is it the arrangement and interplay of the instruments?  A great song has a bit of all of these elements, but what can set a song apart from the rest often involves the hidden science and art of the audio engineer helping to put those pieces together.  

With the diversity in music today we can all find something that draws our attention.  What I want to look at is how the Musical Trinity of engineering, songwriting, and arrangement creates those songs that linger with us.

Arrangement

The last prong of the musical trinity is the arrangement.  This is where the artists start to separate themselves from the musicians.  Many years ago I was playing bass in a jazz band.  I was the least experienced member of the group by far, as I was only just learning to play the bass at the time.  My conductor took more time to work with me that week than any other member of the band to make sure that I would be able to contribute to the group.  Being as we were all just teenagers at the time, he had to work with us to make sure we understood how to get the best performance required.  This included teaching us how to play what we were supposed to, as well as listening to what the other musicians around us were playing.  It was the musical conversation that made the songs appealing.  Each instrument having a role to play; I don’t remember how he described each section, but I will never forget the following two descriptions:

The drums are the headlights of a band – letting everyone know where they are headed.  Are we speeding up?  Are we slowing down?  Are we going into a shout chorus?  Are we hitting a break?

The bass is the heartbeat of the band – it keeps everyone locked down to the tempo, it drives the chord progressions, it gives everyone the down beat to realize where they are at any time.

And it’s that understanding of how the instruments are talking to each other that becomes so vital in an arrangement.  A musical conversation doesn’t just have to be a call and response, it can be simultaneous.  What the conversation actually refers to is the interplay of notes, chords, and melodies that everyone is playing.  If it is a minor progression it draws a certain emotional picture and tone for the song that becomes dark.  A major progression tends to keep our emotional connection to a song more positive.  Creating this interplay between the instruments and using the knowledge of how to evoke those emotions allows the musician to create a backdrop for the lyrics.

It’s like looking at a picture or painting.  There may be a focal point in the near field such as a person (the lyrics) but the world around that focal point finishes the image (the arrangement).  Is the person in the country or the city?  Was it night or day?  Was it sunny or raining?  The lyrics can convey the message very directly to the listener, but the arrangement is what completes and compliments that image.  Without an arrangement we don’t get the whole image of what was happening.  With an arrangement that contradicts the lyrics, listeners can become confused as to the intent of the song.  The instrumentation plays into this scenario by acting like the type of brush or the color selection used to contribute to the background.  Do you want broad brush strokes (which could be similar to a horn section)?  Do you want subtle color enhancements (string pads)?  Do you have a specific theme to the artwork (a repeated musical line that continues throughout a song?  All these considerations must be made as the development of the arrangement proceeds.

The Musical Trinity: Songwriting

This is the re-posting of an article that I wrote posted on hypebot.com last fall...Enjoy part 2 while I continue writing new articles for your consumption!


When you listen to a song that you haven’t heard before, what is it that draws your attention?  Is it the beat that gets you moving?  Is it the lyrics tugging at your heart strings?  Is it the arrangement and interplay of the instruments?  A great song has a bit of all of these elements, but what can set a song apart from the rest often involves the hidden science and art of the audio engineer helping to put those pieces together.  

With the diversity in music today we can all find something that draws our attention.  What I want to look at is how the Musical Trinity of engineering, songwriting, and arrangement creates those songs that linger with us.  

Songwriting

Songwriting is a completely subjective thing to people.  So while I could write about the formulaic ideas that can create a hit song, you could also just think of yourself at the age of 14 and write to that kid and you’ll probably reach the same point.  The key with songwriting is to draw your listener into the song by giving them something they can relate to, effectively creating an emotional attachment. 

Nick Hornby once wrote about songwriting in his book “High Fidelity” (and John Cusack embodied it) that we listen to thousands upon thousands of songs about love and heartbreak.  So why is it that the most common theme across ALL musical platforms is misery over lost love?  Because it is something that everyone goes through, something that everyone can relate to, and something that is a fundamental human understanding as we go through life.  That topic brings together more people than anything else.  Seems like a bold statement to make, but how many of us turn on music for at least an hour a day?  Next time you’re listening to the songs blaring through your speakers or headphones count how many of them carry the underlying theme of love or heartbreak.  Yes, I am including the types of songs that include lyrics like “finding my bitches in this club” – momentary love is still love – call me a romantic if you will, but it still counts. 

Beyond the lyrics, songwriting involves having the basic fundamental chords that will move with the song.  As you develop the structure of a song make sure that the chords that are chosen convey the message you wish to express.  Do you want dissonance in your song to express tension or sadness?  Do you want more upbeat sounding tones?  Then stick to major chord structures.

The last piece of songwriting goes with tempo and feel.  If you’re writing a song designed to get people up and dancing in a club on a Saturday night, you’re not going to want it to be slow.  The same would be true for the style of song.  If the base of fans that you’re trying to reach out to listens to country, giving your songs a reggae feel probably won’t draw them in.  Knowing what kind of audience you’re trying to reach can help you tailor the feel of the song and tone of the song to maximize exposure.  It can also help you determine instrumentation, which leads us to…

The Musical Trinity: Engineering

A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to have this 3 part series run on hypebot.com.  As I have been absent for a little while, I thought we'd kick off the new year of posts by re-running them and getting back to the basis for what this blog is all about.


When you listen to a song that you haven’t heard before, what is it that draws your attention?  Is it the beat that gets you moving?  Is it the lyrics tugging at your heart strings?  Is it the arrangement and interplay of the instruments?  A great song has a bit of all of these elements, but what can set a song apart from the rest often involves the hidden science and art of the audio engineer helping to put those pieces together. 

With the diversity in music today we can all find something that draws our attention.  What I want to look at is how the Musical Trinity of engineering, songwriting, and arrangement creates those songs that linger with us. 

Engineering

Some people hear “engineering” as a dirty word when it comes to music; they start to think about the dreaded auto-tune and how someone has manipulated the recordings to make flawed artists sound like premiere musicians.   Sadly, this has become more commonplace with the more famous artists as they want to have that absolute perfection to the recording.  But what about the up-and-comers?  They can’t all afford the studio time or the necessary equipment to put out that top notch production.  This has created an interesting gap between the self-produced albums and the label productions.  Is one production better than the other?  Sure, you can hear a better fidelity with a label production but that doesn’t take anything away from the quality of the self-produced albums.  The key thing to look for when listening to the production of an album is balance.  Having that discerning ear to notice where instruments are placed in space, to notice if they all sound like they are playing in the same room, to be able to close your eyes and actually picture it, as if you are sitting in front of this group watching them perform. 

The idea behind a modern recording studio is to record the sounds as closely as possible so as to not hear any of the environment around them.  During the production and mixing of the album, the engineer will help to create the room that those sounds should be placed in.  The engineer creates that width so we hear something from the far left to the distant right.

A lot of inexperienced engineers, though, forget that we don’t just hear in 2 dimensions when we’re listening.  This means that they tend to forget to take depth into account.  When we listen to a concert are all of the musicians right at the front of the stage, hitting us at the same volume?   No, of course they’re not.  The drummer is usually towards the back of the stage, the singer is front and center, and the guitars and bass will be sitting between the two.  We hear with depth, we recognize that a sound is far away or right in front of us.  (If you want to know more about that look up the Doppler Effect.)  

It’s that principle of placing instruments in a three dimensional field that is the foundation of balance in a recording.  I say the foundation because once you’ve figured out where in the environment you are placing the instruments, you have to look at the listening environment and ask yourself the following question:  if a sound is directly in front of me or far off, how much ambient noise or reflections in the room will I hear?  That question tells you how much reverb and delay to use so that all the instruments will sound like they are playing together.

Call for Submissions

So, Now that I've said what I'm trying to do here, I want to ask you all to submit your songs.  We all have friends that are musicians, so forward this on to them.  I'm happy to listen to anything and offer any help I can.

The best thing I can say is send me the link or song and tell me what it is you want me to listen to.  Do you want me to listen to the lyrics, arrangement, mix, or just give you a general commentary?  My goal is to help in any way I can so I will make your request the primary focus for where I direct my comments, but I will also add in a few thoughts on some of the other components as well.

I can't wait to hear the creations that you're putting together!

What is Musicality for Engineers?

I have worked throughout the audio and music industries in a technical aspect and met some of the most brilliant engineering minds, as well as some of the most amazing artistic talent you could ever hope to find.  The key difference between the two groups is how they go about constructing a song.

Let’s take, for example, your unknown singer/songwriter.  What is it they concern themselves with when constructing a song?  Most of the time, you will find that a singer/songwriter will look at the arrangement of the music and the lyrics as their primary focus.  You’ll note that the lyrics are usually trying to convey a message, a feeling, or just reach their audience in order to form a bond of relation.  As much as we all like to think we are completely and totally unique individuals, we have often gone through amazingly similar experiences as our lives progress.  These lyrics allow them to generalize their story and create that shared experience with the audience.  

Looking at the arrangement of a song gets a little more complicated as it depends on training, vision, and the ability to play a musical instrument, sometimes more than one.  Many engineers are musicians in their own right that can help in the development of the music, but often don’t have the understanding of how an artist wants to orchestrate and arrange a piece.  The top engineers listen to a song repeatedly in order to make sure that there is clarity between the instruments and the voice, that the instruments all sound like they are meshing together in a particular space, while trying to make it sound as grand as possible.  Engineers want to hear subtle tones on the far left and far right of a stereo pair of speakers.  They want to hear the big bass hits that cause people to get up and dance.  They also want to be able to hear the intricate finger work of an acoustic guitar.  It is the understanding of how to place these recorded sounds in space that makes an engineer great. 

These qualities that I’ve talked about above are what music is all about.  Creating that environment that draws a listener into your song, developing an instrumentation that complements the message you want to convey, and finding a way to deliver your message.  Everyone has their own take on how music sounds and every opinion is valid in its own right. 

What I’m hoping to do here is provide a service to those of you out there seeking help in finding out why a song “isn’t working” or what it is about a recording that could be tweaked in order to achieve that grand nature.  What I am offering here is the chance to have someone listen to the music you write with a critical ear and a place to get that third party perspective.  Essentially, treat this like a final listening process from an educated outsider that can help solidify the album that you want to make and might catch a few details that managed to slip through your grasp during the creative process.  When it’s all said and done, I’m here to listen and offer my perspective to the music you create.  I won’t be comparing you to other artists, or critique the song as a reviewer would.  I will be objectively analyzing the product that you put in front of me in order to try and help you develop a product that represents you to the fullest of your capabilities.  

I truly believe every song has an opportunity to be brilliant; all it takes is putting the right pieces together to achieve that.  I’m just looking to help those of you that aren’t sure where to go.  So if you have a song, send it in.  I will be someone to listen, someone to help you figure out what can make the song great, and someone to offer a direction.