Found this really cool chart mapping instruments and their frequency ranges on Audio Issues. The accompanying article is somewhat high level but really useful in explaining the ranges as it pertains to mixing.
Author Archives: Glenn Schoonmaker
For Kicks
One thing that I have been meaning to learn more about was how to tune kick drums/low pitched drum samples to the key of a song, at the very minimum to ensure that they won’t clash with other low frequency instruments. Sometimes this can be done by ear, other times it’s good to get more analytical about it.
First determine the fundamental frequency of the drum as described in this great article on Mode Audio. This can be done by opening up a EQ with a frequency analyzer (e.g. “Channel EQ” in Logic) on the drum track in question to see where most of the energy is being displayed, like so:
Then analyze the fundamentals of any other low frequency instruments that may clash in this range.
Look up the relative note names of the frequencies on a table such as this one from Liutaio Mottola.
Then you can tune the drum using techniques outlined in Attack Magazine’s article. The highlight of this article for me was: “A neat trick for making the job a little easier here is to transpose the kick upwards by one or two octaves, do the fine tuning, then transpose it back down by the same amount. It tends to be easier to determine the pitch of the drum hit and hear how nicely it interacts with bass notes when it’s transposed up an octave or two.”
Humanized
Had fun trying out the “Transform MIDI > Humanize” functionality in Logic, which I learned about through this really useful video on YouTube (starting at about 8:48).
One of the problems with not being a world class keyboardist is that I tend to rely quite heavily on quantization which is great for making things “perfect” but not so great for emulating real human performances. Essentially this “Humanize” feature randomizes your MIDI data within a defined range (default values being 10 ticks). Parameters that can be modified are “position”, “velocity” and “length”. Worked great!
A Different Drum
One of my all time favorite artists is Peter Gabriel and my favorite record from him is his 1989 masterpiece “Passion: Music For The Last Temptation Of Christ”. Musically and sonically it stood out from everything else at the time and still sounds great today.
One of the assignments from the “Hearing & Writing Music” book that I’ve been working through was to “find examples of drums or non-pitched percussion instruments to transcribe”. I could have chosen anything but this album was the first thing I thought of and I picked the beginning section of “A Different Drum”.
At first it was daunting, but I notated a little bit a day over a few days and then played it into Logic using Native Instruments “West Africa” collection. My version is far from being “just like” the original but I like how it turned out.
Photo taken while visiting Kyoto Japan.
Final Cut
I really enjoyed and got a lot out of Final Cut Pro X 10.3 and 10.4 Essential Training by Ashley Kennedy on Lynda.com. It’s really well done and has a bunch of really useful information in it.
I particularly enjoyed learning about color correction, how to use various scopes (Luma Waveform, RGB Parade, and Vectorscope) to get things looking good.
Here is a shot before and after color correction:
Acoustically Speaking
I was having trouble getting a recording of my acoustic guitar that fit well in a song that I’ve been working on. Everything I had tried was either too boomy or too thin. The song is really dense with a lot of sonic information in it already, yet I wanted the guitar sound to be full as it is a primary instrument of the arrangement. I did a quick search and found this video on YouTube.
The gist of this method is to place the mic in front of the sound hole but angled towards the 12th fret. That way you capture both the fullness of the body (without the boomy-ness of facing the sound hole directly) and the brightness coming from the fretboard.
While this was good I decided to add a second track, this time using a technique that I used when playing and singing at the same time. This approach involves placing the mic at about the height of and facing your right shoulder, above the guitar but below your mouth. It’s a nice warm and full sound, not too harsh or heavy.
Between the two tracks I was able to get a blend that worked well with the mix.
Pedal Board 4.0
I’ve had various incarnations of my pedalboard over the years. In the past I had ones that were designed specifically for acoustic guitar. Others were to be used with either acoustic or electric. This one is a side project that I’ve been working on for quite a while and it’s all about the electric guitar.
It’s pretty large when compared with what’s popular these days, but hey, I’m a large guy with large feet and large hands. Given that I’m not gigging out much these days I decided to go with comfort and ease of access on this one.
Aside from it’s substantial footprint, the biggest feature of this pedalboard is that it is set up to be used with two amps, either one at a time or simultaneously. (I had no idea how good two amps could sound when blended together. It really is quite remarkable.)
So far I’m pretty happy with how it is working out. Sounds really good and I can access everything/make modifications quickly and easily. Now I just need to program the loop switchers and it will be good to go!
For The Love
Remember when you did something purely for the act of doing it? No ulterior motive (e.g. “I’ll do this and maybe this other thing can happen…”). I’m guessing that you, like me, were pretty young when that was your modus operandi in choosing how you spent your free time. For me it was skateboarding, sports and music. I remember being about 12 years old playing the saxophone in my bedroom. I had been practicing a piece over and over for about 2 hours (driving my mom and neighbors batty) and feeling totally alive, free, and fulfilled. At that moment I felt that there was nothing better in the world that I could be doing with my life. It was pure, honest and direct. I still think about that moment when I start to wonder why I do what I do with music and always come back to the same answer: “For the Love”.
Almost Heaven
MusicSketch of a song idea I came up with during my studies the other day.
Photo taken by my wife Rachel during our honeymoon in Tahiti.
The Bends
A few months ago I stumbled onto this series of videos put out by Guitarist magazine featuring Guthrie Govan giving a master class on string bending. It’s really well done and he gives a bunch of exercises to improve your bends.
I’ve incorporated the idea of bending the notes of any given scale into my daily practice. Each day the scale is different but I’ll bend my way through it. While playing up the scale (ascending), I’ll bend up to the next note. On the way down I’ll pre-bend to match the preceding note.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with Guthrie you can thank me later.