Fingertips

Tuesday, February 28. Day two. My fingers hurt.

This was a lot of playing today. My calluses must have become thin or something. Or I must not be playing enough. Or maybe it was just a lot of playing today.

First Rob came in and drummed. We did several takes of each of the six songs we had ready. By the way, here is a list of the probable songs, in their probable CD order. You may not know them, but from now on, I can refer to them by title:

1. Metaphor
2. Fire
3. Let It Burn
4. Blessing
5. Haruach
6. Edge of the Ocean
7. Reason to Believe
8. The Silent Son
9. Take Me Back
10. Light
11. Every Step a Prayer
12. She Knows God

OK. So Rob came in and we put down drums for six of the songs: Metaphor, Let it Burn, Haruach, Reason to Believe, Take Me Back and Light. We worked from about 10:00 to 2:30 and then broke for lunch. Rob left for the day and will be back Thursday and Friday. He really wanted to work with the bass player, Derek Poindexter, in the studio to establish a tighter groove. The only chance they'll have to do that is on Friday. We got him to put down tracks anyway so we could listen to them and make decisions later. We'll have time to get something new if we need it. Rob will probably end up doing some kind of percussion on every song.

BTW, Rob and Derek have worked extensively together. In fact, I met them while doing "Tony n Tina's Wedding" at the Hanna Theater (see Noah's Attic). They, along with keyboard player Ed Ridley, were the band. Even though they were playing "wedding music" anyone could recognize their tremendous talents. After some 400 shows, I never got tired of watching Derek fingers, or listening to the subtle jazz riffs or musical references Ed would slip into the familiar tunes. And sometimes they would jam between shows, which was like a show in and of itself. But I digress.

After lunch we went back in with my guitar. I did OK on most of the tracks. I'll have to add the phrase "punch in" to the glossary soon because we did a lot of that. The hardest song for me to get down was Edge of the Ocean. It has a fairly intricate (for me) little guitar riff which I could NOT play to the beat. It's a fairly delicate riff and quiet, gentle song, but in my headphones…that was a different story. Imagine listening to "Daniel" by Elton John with the percussion part to Queen's "We will Rock You." That's what it was like. You, of course will never hear that percussion, but that was about the only way to get me to (almost) stay on the beat.

We recorded primary guitar tracks for all but two of the songs. After three or four takes of "Fire" my hand was beginning to cramp up. It has to do with the shapes of the chords. Chew on that.

At the end of the session we put down reference vocals (also referred to as scratch vocals) for all of the songs. Again, these are the vocals we will not keep…just so the musicians know where they are in the song.

Accordion player has not called back yet.

Rolling

In the past week there has been a flurry of emails. It was actually a textbook definition of the word "flurry." Look up "flurry" in the dictionary and…well, you get it. Me, David, the studio, musicians…confirming everybody's schedules, etc.

Monday, February 27. We're rolling. Day one in the studio was tedious as expected. Recording is not a "fun" process for me. At least not this stage. But we're right on, or maybe even a little ahead of, schedule. Here's what we did on day one:

• Set the tempos for each song and established the click tracks (see glossary).


• Set up the drum kit and (and microphones) and got levels. That took about an hour. We'll reset the levels when Rob Ticherich, the actual drummer, comes in on Tuesday.


• During the Drum setup, I booked two more musicians for sessions. The incomparable Norm Tischler will be playing Sax of two of the songs, and my old friend and band mate Mark Freiman will be playing trumpet on one number. He's a fabulous keyboard player too, but he, like me, has the proverbial day job and really does not have the schedule to do much more with us. Still waiting for my accordion player to call back.


• Recorded some drum loops for a few songs to help me stay in tempo when putting down the guitar tracks. These loops will not end up in the final recording. In fact, we're pretty much done with them now. They were just in my headphones. This is an exacting science which is why, for me, it's tedious.


• Recorded about half of the primary guitar tracks. We put down the six songs on which we're using a full drum kit so that when Rob comes in, we'll have something for him to record.

This was an eight hour work day.

Tuesday we'll try to get the rest of the guitar parts after Rob leaves. He'll be back on Thursday and Friday to finish up any of his parts. Maybe we can even get some of David's bass parts down depending on how accurate I am on my guitar parts. Lemme tell ya, I do not have a terrific natural sense of rhythm.

Michael Seifert, studio owner and our main engineer, will be out on Tuesday. He's having his wisdom teeth pulled. He thinks he's coming back in on Wednesday. We told him we'd see him next week. His right hand man, Jimmy, will be at the controls. Jimmy handled much of the session today and is a fine engineer with great ears. (Not the appearance or size of them - the way he hears stuff.)

I'll let you know how it goes.

Slowly But Surely

OK. Now, I'm officially excited. I finally got a chance to listen to the recording from the scratch session we did and…how do I put this? I love it. Yes, I love the recording. Yes, we only did one live take of everything. Yes, it has mistakes. No, there isn't any production on it. But, with all humility, I still love it.

The studio is excellent. The sound is crisp and clean. The vocals are just where I want them - not singing-wise, but sound-wise; the placement of the vocal. Up front. In the room with you. Hard to explain if you are not familiar with recording. The guitar is clear and pretty. I don't consider myself much of a guitarist. Not like Rabbi Joe Black or Beth Schaffer. I'm very basic. But somehow my old Guild is sounding silvery and spry. And this is all just from a one-take-mistake-filled scratch session. I can't wait until we get in to production.

I feel like it's already halfway there; halfway to where Hallelujah Land ended up. I'm hoping to take it above and beyond. Troy Dexter (my HL producer) is a genius. I mean no disrespect. Without Troy, there would be no Hallelujah Land. He produced, engineered, and played every instrument (other than my guitar parts) you hear on the record. But, as I said elsewhere, much happens in ten years time.

Remember when the Beatles were playing ratty little clubs in England in 1961 and then they went to Hamburg for a couple of years? Neither do I. But when they came back, they came back polished and ready. OK, I'm not the Beatles. And instead of a year or two, it's taken me ten. But I'm not a novice now. I've had so much more experience - performing, writing, playing with other musicians. I felt comfortable in the studio. Like I knew what I was doing. And the proof was in the, er, resulting scratch session CD.

You'll never hear it. Nobody outside of the project ever needs to. It's full of mistakes and wrong notes and missed beats. But it energized and encouraged me, knowing what it can be.

Glossary

Chart – This word has many meanings in the music industry. Here, we are referring to something the musician in the studio (or in performance) can read that indicates his or her part to play. A chart can be a complete piece of music written out on manuscript (staff paper) with all of the notes, time signature, key signature, etc., or it can be a set of lyrics with the chord names (A, C, Bb, etc.) written over the top of the words showing the changes. Or it can be the chord names with hash marks (/ / / /) underneath, divided into measures so the musician knows when and what to play.

Click Track - A recorded rhythm track (metronome, drums or simulated drums) that the musicians hear in their headphones to keep them in tempo and on the right beats, but which may or may not (usually not) be used in the final mix.

Compression - 1. The portion of a sound wave in which molecules are pushed together, forming a region with higher-than-normal atmospheric pressure. 2. In signal processing, the reduction in dynamic range or gain caused by a compressor. 3. In computing, data compression reduces the number of bytes in a file without losing essential information.

Engineer - A technician in charge of a recording session; Also called Recording Engineer. The engineer works the controls on all of the equipment in the control room and studio. He/she sets up the microphones, tests the levels, is responsible for achieving the desired sounds and effects, logs all of the tracks and cues and performs any and all tasks on the technical end that the artist and producer require. There may be more than one engineer on a recording, usually a head engineer and assistants.

Label -- The record company (or division of a record company) that overseas the entire production and manufacture of a recording. Record labels make, distribute and market sound recordings. The term "label" is derived from the actual sticker labels that were affixed to the center of vinyl record faces -- record companies use specific logos for the purpose of "branding" to build an audience loyal to a particular artist or genre of music. Therefore "the label" actually means "the name of the record company." Example: 1) Capitol is a major label. 2) Righteous Babe Records is an indie label and inherently tied to Ani DiFranco, her style of music and the quality of her recordings. (Click here for a good article about indie labels)

Mastering -- Mastering is the link between the production process and the manufacturing process. Your project will go from the recording studio, to the mastering studio, to the manufacturing facility where the copies will be made

In the mastering process, the overall level is set, as well as song-to-song or “relative” levels (this keeps folks from having to turn the volume up and down when listening to your CD!). The mastering engineer may also use compression and/or EQ to make your music sound as good as possible when played on a home or car stereo system.

The mastering process can be a little hard to understand at first. Many musicians think, “I’ve spent all this time on my project, I’ve come up with some great mixes, how can someone who’s never even heard my music make it sound better?

A good mastering engineer brings a new perspective to your album. When you are in the midst of recording your project, you and your producer will concentrate on one song at a time. The result is that your mixes will have subtle differences: the peak levels will be slightly different; the EQs for each song are different, etc. The mastering engineer will look at the album as a whole, and try to bring unity with the use of gain, EQ, and compression. His goal is to achieve a consistent sound, and to make it sound the way you want on any home stereo system. He will also be able to raise the overall level so that your CD is as “hot” as any major label release. If the CD of your final mixes doesn’t sound “loud” enough, or doesn’t sound quite the same as your “regular” CDs, don’t fret. After the mastering process, that problem is always solved!

For a really good article about mastering and recording in general, from which this text was pulled, click here.

MIDI - Short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface; a digital signal system (a system of number signals) used to communicate performance information to and from musical instruments making music. MIDI: Abbreviation for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, a specification for a connection between synthesizers, drum machines, and computers that allows them to communicate with and/or control each other. MIDI CHANNEL: A route for transmitting and receiving MIDI signals. Each channel controls a separate MIDI musical instrument or synth patch. Up to 16 channels can be sent on a single MIDI cable. MIDI CONTROLLER: A musical performance device (keyboard, drum pads, breath controller, etc.) that outputs a MIDI signal designating note numbers, note on, note off, and so on. MIDI IN: A connector in a MIDI device that receives MIDI messages. MIDI INTERFACE: A circuit that plugs into a computer, and converts MIDI data into computer data for storage in memory or on hard disk. The interface also converts computer data into MIDI data. MIDI OUT: A connector in a MIDI device that transmits MIDI messages. MIDI THRU: A connector in a MIDI device that duplicates the MIDI information at the MIDI-In connector: Used to connect another MIDI device in the series.

Producer - The "director" of an audio recording project responsible to get a final product of desired quality within a budget. The producer may be a liaison between the artist and the engineer and creates the overall sound of the recording by suggesting and/or dictating arrangements and instrumentation, recording techniques and effects.

Punching In and Out - Putting the recorder in record on a previously-recorded track while the tape is playing in sync playback and the singer or musician is singing or playing along is called Punching In. A feature in a multitrack recorder that lets you insert a recording of a corrected musical part into a previously recorded track by going into and out of record mode as the tape is rolling.

Session - A period of time reserved for the artist and musicians to record in the studio.

Synthesizer - A musical instrument that artificially (using oscillators) generates signals to simulate the sounds of real instruments or to create other sounds not possible with real instruments.

Take - The recording that is done between one start and the following stop of a recording device.

Track - 1) A path on magnetic tape containing a single channel of audio. A group of bytes in a digital signal (on tape, on hard disk, on compact disc, or in a data stream) that represents a single channel of audio or MIDI. Usually one track contains a performance of one musical instrument. 2) A specific song on a compiled recording (e.g. The first track of his CD opens with strings)

Or this alternate, more confusing definition:

Track - 1) One audio recording made on a portion of the width of a multitrack tape. 2) One set of control commands in a sequencer recorded in a similar manner to an audio track and often controlling one synthesizer over one MIDI channel. 3) A term with the same meaning as the term Band Track (the part of a song without the lead vocal or without the lead and background vocals). 4) A section of the magnetic surface of a disc consisting of a circular band at a fixed distance from the center.

Tracking - Recording the individual tracks of a multitrack recording.

Track Log (Track Assignment Sheet) - A sheet of paper kept with a multitrack tape which tells which instrument was recorded on each track. (Note: With the digital software sytem Pro Tools that we are using, the tracl log is kept automatically by the computer program.)

Track Signal - The signal sent to or coming back from one track of a multitrack tape recorder.

This glossary was compiled from these two sites and expanded upon by me. I'll add more terms as needed. If you want to read a complete glossary (and why would you?) check out these sites:

http://recordingeq.com/glossary/glosae.htm#sectA

http://www.tape.com/Bartlett_Articles/recording_terms.html

First Session

We had our first session on Monday, January 9th. It was really more of a production meeting. We sort of killed two birds with one stone.

I needed to make a recording of all the possible songs that will go on to the record, just me with my guitar. These are called scratch tracks, or reference tracks, so that everyone involved in this phase of the project can get familiar with the material and begin to formulate ideas - about musical arrangements, instrumentation, lyric changes, song order, and anything, any detail, that might make a difference in the overall quality and perfection of the final product (and everything does).

I was also anxious just to get into the studio and spend some time there. I wanted to get a feel for the room (where we'll be recording). I wanted to feel like I had really gotten started on the project. I wanted to get to know the engineer (who, in this case, is also the owner/operator of the studio) and wanted him to hear the songs.

So instead of singing into an old cassette recorder, I booked three hours in the studio to accomplish this first step. David came and played bass and guitar also, and the recording we got was pretty high quality, mistakes and all. Making a viable, saleable recording is all about perfection. But at this point, perfection ain't gonna happen. This is the first step toward the honing of a product as close to perfection as we can manage. No one will really ever hear this recording after we get going full steam in March. No one needs to.

The main people involved in a recording project, almost any recording project, at this stage are the producer(s), the artist(s), and the engineer(s). (If you don't know what these people do, click here for a glossary of recording terms.) Depending on, among other things, the size and scope of the project these three roles could all be filled by the same person or several people. In other words, one gifted individual (such as the Artist Who Was Formerly Known as Prince but is now called Prince again I think) could conceivably play all of the instruments, sing all of the vocal tracks, produce the record and engineer (Prince probably had an engineer). Or they could all be different people. In this case, the artist is me. I am also the co-producer with David at the helm. David is also one of the musicians. The engineer is Michael Seifert.

I've arranged to take two weeks off from work (my real job at Stone Gardens) during which we'll be in the studio pretty much every day for many hours a day. We should get the bulk of the recording done at that time. We'll start by putting down click tracks (see glossary) and then we'll do a set of reference tracks with guitar and vocals. Then we'll start laying down and layering most of the instrumental tracks, usually starting with percussion and bass. At some point closer to the end of the process we'll put down the keeper vocals. Backing vocals, overdubs and tweaks come next. Then we begin mixing. I don't know how much we'll get done in two weeks, but it should be a good chunk.

Recording is really a very tedious process. I much prefer performing. But recording is all about perfection and second (and third and fourth and fifth and sixth…) chances, neither of which occur in performance (for me). All I really want to do is share my music.

Hallelujah! We're in Production

After almost ten years, I'm back in the studio working on CD number two. Thanks to everyone for their support - emotionally and financially - and patience. Thanks for all of the kind words about my music and performances, your encouragement, the begging for a new CD, and for hiring me and bringing me to your cities, towns and venues.

Some of you may remember that a few years ago I was touting a recording project called "Heartbeat." This is essentially the same project but the working title has changed to "Metaphor." Anyone who donated or invested money toward that project is still in. Only the name has changed.

Much happens in ten years time. When I recorded Hallelujah Land, I was pretty much a novice - at recording, at playing the "synagogue circuit," at playing with other musicians. In the ensuing years I've had so many wonderful opportunities and learning experiences. I've played with, and perhaps more importantly, gotten to know and admire as truly wonderful people, some of the best musicians around (Jewish and otherwise). To try to list them here would be a disservice because I will surely, inadvertently leave somebody out. I've got a great team and terrific facilities in place and I'm very excited about this project. I'm looking forward to putting out an excellent product.

Metaphor will consist of between 12 - 15 original songs. My producer on the project is my brother David. David is my older brother. Much older. I only say that because he is. And because he's had many more years experience in the music business than I have and in an era when important things (musically speaking) were happening. David will also be playing guitar and bass. Click here to see David's bio. We're recording at Ante Up Audio in Cleveland, Ohio and our engineer is owner/operator Michael Seifert. Check out Ante Up's page and Michael's bio. My percussionist is Rob Ticherich, one of the best around, Derek Poindexter one of the finest bass players in the business will grace us on a few tracks, and Ed Ridley, Jr., the hardest working man in Cleveland and (at the risk of sounding redundant) one of the best keyboard players in the country, will round out my core musicians. And no musical project in Cleveland would be complete without my long time friend and clarinet/sax/flute player Norm Tischler.

Others will be joining us. Check back periodically for recording updates. I'll blog our progress on the project from initial meetings to rehearsals to sessions to receipt of the first shipment of CDs.