When mixing out of the box, your I/O should remain the same, unless a channel is not working or is unavailable. Every time you pull up a file, pull up a protools session with a designated Output that should be used for each mix. You should basically set up a template for the session you are going to have. I am thinking ahead of time for my capstone in this way and imagining what I will need, like how many channels, do I want certain instruments running to aux tracks with an effect on the other end, set up gating systems. When doing a session, you should constantly be thinking about your routing and layering for tracking and mixing. When recording drums, sometimes upwards of 12 microphones are used. The thing is you don’t need to use all of them – all of the time. It will just increase chances of phase issues As far as mixing the album goes, we have decided as a group to edit our own tracks and then bring them all together in the studio to mix down. There seems to be a ton of different opinions on what to mix and leave in the arrangement, and things seem a little sequacious at times.

“Ya know?... Maybe you just don’t have it…”


Fact: Some people have it, some people don’t. I don’t call myself a drummer simply because I have an interest in drums or because own a drum set. There is more to being a drummer than just having the internal drive to want to do so. When my interest first sparked in drums and I got my first drum set, I was playing 4-8 hours a day, at least 5 days a week and the weekends as well. Since I have gotten older, and am going to college, I didn’t lose the time for it, or let “life get in the way”. Despite my busy schedule I still constantly get the itch to play drums everyday, and I still manage to average an hour a day 7 days a week and have maintained that at least that for 8 years now. Ever since I started playing drums and my skills grew, if I heard a drummer do something or I thought of something in my head, I wouldn’t stop until I figured it out. I don’t mean figured it out like “yea, I know what he is doing” - I mean figured it out like “I can play what he is playing and show you what he is doing.” When listening/studying/analyzing music/trying to record music in the studio, I have come across people that seem to mistake “knowing what’s going on” for “they really have no clue what the shit is going on”. I’m sure how this happens. First of all, it may come from simply not practicing your instrument (whatever it may be) on a regular basis. Maybe in the case previously mentioned, it seems to be one of those people that think they have it, when in fact, something is lacking. That something may not just be hearing (or even not hearing) when you are sharp or flat, but rather the lack of confidence you seem to have, because you are obviously making up all this shit on the spot, and singing it 8 different ways on 8 different takes instead of singing it the same way on 8 different takes which is how you should do it (say, how it is written). Then again, if it takes you 8 takes, you probably shouldn't be recording. I can’t present much more than these things before I will just have to sing it for you (which could end up happening): a complete song, with lyrics, and a melody, sectioned out by verse and chorus, charted out, with the lyrics following the pitches along the staff, with a synth guitar in the back of the mix playing exactly what is charted and what you are supposed to be singing. Then, after all that, it should be known that pre-production has been done, probably about 2 months prior, and the songs have been collecting dust for weeks, not being rehearsed when I was told they were. You can lead the horse to the water but you can’t make it drink. Well at this point the horse should just want to drink and move on with its life. Instead, now everyone in the room feels uncomfortable and the vibe sucks because you don’t have your shit down, when you say you do, and time is being wasted because you like to blurt out “I’m sorry” for screwing up in the middle of the take, but then you get all irritated with the engineer when the tape is stopped – claiming you were going to keep going when you clearly fucked up anyways. Well guess what, the take sucked ass, so let’s try it again, and then if we get a good take - or not, we’re moving on.

The Vocoder:

Some of the first usages of the vocoder were for actual voice encoding used by Bell Labs for communications purposes during WWII. Just like all analogue outboard gear started out, the vocoder in the music world (which is shortened to mean voice encoder) is either a piece of analog rack gear, or it is available in most DAW’s and packs as a virtual plug-in. It filters certain frequencies and changes the harmonic content of the signal. There is an input signal and a voltage control signal. The input signal is sent through a multiband filter that is adjustable on the face of the rackmount. When you route from Protools to the Vocoder and back to Protools, keep the harmonic emphasis fully counter clockwise. If you are using an instrument, you can adjust the level -30, -15, -0db. There are 4 levels of gain staging. In terms of creating proper gain staging for the output, you can just it at the line level, mic level, attenuate using the graphic eq, and adjust the output as well. Using a keyboard direct into the vocoder as a control signal with a vocal as the input signal is a good way to get the most emphasis out of the processing because the keyboards output is pretty consistent as compared to a guitar, where there is much dynamic change. It is possible to take 2 previously recorded signals and send them through the vocoder, using one as the control signal and the other as the input signal. All you need to do this is the correct adapters and patch cables and route accordingly. Send the tracks out of ProTools on the patch bay into the vocoder, and come out the output back into protools and record it onto a new track. If you want the effect of the processed sound and no dry signal, the setting should be turned all the way to the vocoder.

Routing live kick and snare tracks
Send the dry tracks to aux tracks and set the sends PRE fader
On the aux tracks, insert from the TDM plug-ins, a signal generator followed by a gate. You can choose between a few different waves – sine, saw, triangle, square, and white or pink noise. Attempt to get the bass drum to trigger the kick with the sine wave via the gate. Try pitching the sine wave to the correct frequency to fit the program material.
Activate the key input and input to the correct bus on the gate, otherwise you won’t hear the trigger.

Try this same technique with white noise to get and electronic sounding snare drum. If this effect is tweaked right, you can make it sound like just the snares of a snare drum. IF a beat that you are working with has a lot of ghost notes, find a sweet-spot for the threshold that allows it to sound like someone is playing with brushes.

Decca Records Andrew Bailey
(Universal Music Group)

Decca Dulcephone
Patented by Barnett Samuel & Sons in 1914

Genres & Artists
• CLASSICAL - Leroy Anderson, The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, The London Philharmonic Orchestra.
• COUNTRY - Roy Rogers, Kitty Wells, Patsy Kline, The Wilburn Brothers
• POP - Bing Crosby (White Christmas), Al Jolson, Bill Haley & His Comets, The Moody Blues, Judy Garland, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday.
• R & B - Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Louis Jordan

Early Recordings

• Cast recordings: Oklahoma! Carousel Annie Get Your Gun
-Columbia Records took over the cast recording industry by the 1950’s.

• MCA bought US Decca in 1962 - Decca Broadway Label formed with the fusion of MCA and Polygram with Universal Music Group.


DECCA Innovations
• FFRR (full frequency range recording) - first used in WWII for the detection of submarine types via sound waves.
• LP production - EMI suffered as a result in that they wanted to continue to manufacture on 78 rpms.
• FFSS - The DECCA Tree
• Recording and Mastering in the 70’s -Digital Recorders and time code.
• John Culshaw – biggest asset to Decca and the classical genre. He recorded the first LP versions of the Savoy Operas and many popular opera artists.


Tough times lead to success…

A historical mistake:

Dick Rowe, representative of the pop genre - turned down the opportunity to record the Beatles, but eventually ended up signing The Rolling Stones.

The Decca Audition
• Did not sign the Yardbirds or Manfred Mann.

• “Rockin’ Round The Clock” - original wasn’t very popular until it was used a few years later as the theme song for the film “Blackboard Jungle”. It then became the first American Pop tune to hit #1 on the American Charts.

DECCA TODAY -UMG

A few artists: Paula Cole, Bryan Adams, Sting, John Scofield, Elton John, Renee Fleming, Boyz II Men.



Universal Music Group (UMG)

• Bravado (merchandising), Vivendi (Activision/Blizzard), VEVO (online video resource)
• Twenty-First Artists, Trinifold, 5B (live music, event)

• Musicals: Wicked, Mamma Mia!, Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard

• Soundtracks: Braveheart, Schindler’s List, Slumdog Millionaire



UMG - a small handful of major artists

• Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Sinatra, Jay-Z, John Coltrane, Buddy Holly, The Jackson Five, Nirvana, The Police, Sublime, Waters, The Who, Bo Diddley, Bob Marley, Nelly, Rihanna.

• Record Labels:

Island/ Def Jam, Interscope, Geffen, A&M, Universal Motown Republic Group, The Verve Music Group, Universal Music Group Nashville, Decca, ECM, Emarcy.



Works cited:

Universal Music. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. http://www.universalmusic.com/.

Decca Records - A Universal Music Company. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. .