My attempts at recording acoustic guitar were always fine.  Never great, but they could pass.  Now that I have my own acoustic/electric, I figured I can try to figure out what way would be best to capture a nice, thick sound.

Recording direct (whether it was acoustic or electric) always sounded dull to me.  There was just a certain tone that was missing, and I could never put my finger on it, whether it was the missing reverb, or just the way the pickups were bringing in the sound.

With an electric guitar, you can always use plugins to mess with the sound because electric guitars are manipulated in so many different ways today that you can record something direct, then use effects to get the desired effect later.  This goes for distortion, overdrive, flangers, chrouses, and whatever else.

Acoustic guitars are a lot more difficult, because the desired tone and/or sound for a majority of acoustic guitar uses will be very similar.  The differences may come in the way it’s EQ’d, or some style of compression or reverb.  However, that particular sound of an acoustic guitar cannot be created or be the product of a manipulation from an electric guitar and have it sound that accurate (at least during the time of this writing I haven’t found anything that would do that yet).  Of course you can get VSTi’s that have acoustic guitar sounds, but where’s the fun in that? =]  Especially since, unlike an orchestra or a chorus, you can buy yourself a guitar and a mic to record with for about $200 (of course at the very low end of the food chain.)

With an acoustic/electric, you have a choice of either mic’ing it up, or going direct, or doing both.  Neither on its own for me ever fit the bill completely.  However, recording both simultaneously covered all grounds and got me the sound I personally was looking for.

Keep in mind also that I don’t have a state of the art studio, and I’m stuck with an E-MU 0404 Sound Card with two mono inputs.  I do have a Samson MDR6 mixer, which I thought would be useful for me when I bought it, but realized after I wouldn’t be able to simultaneously record four tracks and be able to manipulate post-session.  I could, however, use two mics and feed them through one mono signal or two for a stereo, if I so desired.

The final setup that I came up with that got me the sound I wanted was the following:

1. Ibanez Acoustic/Electric direct with the bass slightly up into a Studio Projects VTB1 Tube Preamp  into one channel on the 0404
2. Audio-Technica PRO37 small diaphragm condenser mic at the 12th fret about four inches away + Audio-Technica 2020 large diaphragm condenser about six-seven inches pointed at the third fret, going into the MDR6,  then into the other channel on the 0404.

I then compressed both recordings softly and gave both a slight reverb.

The direct recording captured I’d say about 80% of the sound I wanted, but the mics gave it that extra 20%; that character and natural reverb.  I then panned one 25% to the left, then panned one 25% to the right.

I think it’s pretty good.  What do you think?

More to come people.  Stay tuned.

-mnshyn

To help you aspiring (and already established) producers out there with your search, every week I’ll be posting up new sample sets to add on to your music!

This week, we start with a drum kit that has the folder name “Complete Urban Flava.”  These were passed on to me by my cousin Boy Gnyus of Gnyus Productions.   It has over 300 different drum sounds, and it should be enough to keep you occupied until I drop another next week.  Head on to the vault to download it for free today!

The MsP Production Vault

More coming soon!

-mnshyn

Some notes on the type of music, from what I’ve heard and studied:

1. The music feels like what should be played in a fashion show in Paris
2. Speed should be around 120bpm give or take a few beats per minute
3. Pads preferred as opposed to real sounding strings
4. Kick drum should be hard, same formula as the Guetta kick (see this previous post for the formula), but using a different kick drum to start that is less hard than the K034, on every beat
5. 303 type of bass going at every eighth after each kick drum to give more pump
6. Dance clubby saws with slides, if possible, are desired
7. Hard snares with the right touch of reverb, standard pattern at the 2nd and 4th beats
8. Percs are okay to use; nothing over the top; and they break the beat in different spots to allow for variety
9. Did not notice hats being used; at least not heavily
10. Song format would be pop like, possible use of a middle 8, and something repetitive and catchy for also about 8 bars to get in people’s heads.

This, like the others, if used by Speaks, will go on the Roll Call ’10 album.  Below you can find a lo-fi version with tags [for security reasons. ;o) ]  for your streaming pleasure.

More to come soon!

-mnshyn

It took a while to really figure out what to do to get that particular sound, but I think I’ve pretty much gotten it down.

It consists of three different parts.

1. “K034″ from the Deep/Hard Kicks set (I believe from Modern Beats?)
2.  EQ this kick around 150Hz, raising it, with a fairly wide Q,
3. Compress the kick: Threshold = -1.2dB, Ratio: 11.5:1, Gain: 7.0dB, Attack = 23.4 ms, Release = 2205 ms

At the end of that chain, that kick will knock you on your ass.  A few alphas before, I had a much higher gain, higher ratio, and faster attack.  This one sounds pretty good to me though; a nice pumpy bass sound with a nice kick in the attack.

One thing I have noticed in these songs is that some of them were heavily limited (limited as in the compression effect, not limited as in with a restraint).  Thing is, some of the versions I have of these songs are limited so hard that even the vocals sound pumpy from the mix.  They obviously all hit very hard, but the mix itself sounds terrible from an overall standpoint.

Hopefully, I’d like to try to get a mix of both worlds; get a good pumpy feel without compromising the rest of the mix.  If I can get the bass to pump and still achieve a favorable mix, then I’d say we’ve done a good job.  The pump of it all (I guess it’s what gives that fistpumping action) is part of the genre, I feel, and without getting that, I’d be betraying the sound we’re trying to achieve here.

So far, ADM and I have gotten a pretty good track so far, and I’m getting REAL excited about this.  We’re looking to work on Sunday to get in some vocals and get this song into the beta stages.

As always, I’ll make sure to keep you guys updated!

-mnshyn

The FoRcE oNe project has some interesting tidbits.  First off, the beat for this one as selected was a custom I made specifically for him in his interests.  He’s a big Lil’ Wayne and Young Money fan, so this beat follows that new southern sound with an MsP twist.   The drum pattern and bassline are akin to those found on their recent work, but the instrumentation and sampling is more MsP style.  Once some recording is done, I will post up a tidbit so you guys can get an idea of what we’re aiming for.  The second thing about this that I like is that FoRcE oNe will be spearheading the project, and I will just be trying to bring out the vision he’s got.  I’m trying to get him to let his creativity loose while increasing my producing experience in the sense of producing for other people.  Most of my producer work has been for myself, so getting a chance to produce for others (especially for uno because he’s only done one song on his own, this will be his second) is always exciting.

The beat is in Bb minor, and utilizes samples from a rare old school soul song called “Why,” as well as the use of the Hypersonic plugin by Steinberg.  Drums used were from the Sounds in HD kits that Boy Gnyus supplied me with, and of course the beat was created in FL Studio.  It clocks in at 140bpm, but will mostly sound more like 70bpm with that Young Money style flow that’s been coming from the South.

The second project that was worked on this weekend was the impromptu MooN ShynE/ADM/K-Maculate project that started earlier this evening. What we’re looking to do is something in the vein of what David Guetta has been doing these days as well as other non-hip-hop club hits.  So far, we’ve nailed down a decent club beat akin to Guetta’s recent hits such as “Sexy B*tch” and “Memories” with Kid Cudi, but once again, putting an MsP spin on it.  It’s a good mesh of styles as ADM’s electronic work comes into play here production wise in a big way, K comes in with some creativity as far as concepts, lyrics and vocals, and I come in with my lyrics/vocals and production work.  We’ve already recorded a small piece of the song that will fit as one of those catchy 8 bar loops that DJ’s should have fun with in the clubs.

The song is in Ebm, using a mixture of different drum kits we have here at Lunar Base.  We used Native Instruments’ FM8 for some synth work, as well as Vanguard for a gate.  We were using Cakewalk Studio Instruments String Section, but we may opt for a different set of strings (Hypersonic being a very likely candidate) as I’ve overused String Section to death lol.  We layered the kicks and included 808 bass drums to give it that extra push.  We’re also using the Izotope plugin called Trash (the plugin used to achieve Justin Timberlake’s voice in Sexy Back) to give it that real gritty club feeling.  Next week, we’re looking to do some more work on this, and I hope to have a sample for you guys to hear after that session.

All in all, a very productive weekend, and with other projects also in the wings, there will be more fun coming!  Stay tuned.

-mnshyn

If you have been following this blog, you’ll notice that the first ten blogs were about this particular song which took almost 2 years to create when you include all the delays (no pun intended) and the different versions and iterations.

Well here is the final song, in all its splendor and glory, [at 96k though, CD quality available from iTunes on March 1, 2010 ;o) ] and I hope you guys like it.  Considering it’s the first song where every active MsP member’s voice is on it, this is a very important song to me and one of the ones I’m most proud of. =]

Order of performers:

0. GnP’s Takewun on the prologue.

1. Cocoa
2. DiMpLeZ (MooN ShynE and ADM in the background)
3. K-Maculate
4. Less with a cameo by GNP’s Boy Gnyus yelling “Aiyyo back the f*ck up!”
5. Harmony Speaks (on the walkie-talkie, talking to MooN ShynE)
6. FoRcE oNe
7. Brian Bullion
8. ADM (with MooN ShynE)
9. Destiny Soprano
10. MooN ShynE

Some blog posts of importance to this song, for anyone wanting to ask about production techniques:
History of the song
Robot voice used for DiMpLeZ
Vocal notes for Harmony Speaks
Comp’ing Destiny Soprano’s vocals

Hope you guys like it. =] Remember, to get the CD Quality version, get it on iTunes when it comes out on March 1, 2010 when “Phase 3 – L.Y.R.I.C.A.L. Without Fear” makes its debut.

-mnshyn

So this is the results of the first second draft.  Not too bad.  The scratches you hear obviously won’ t be part of the actual song, they’re just meant as a tag in case somebody wants to try something slick.

Here’s the rundown of what’s in the recording:

1. Sequenced drums
2. Snares from “Hit the Road Jack”
3. Recorded drums, live: Beta 52 on the kick, PG58 on the snare, AT2020 overhead (mostly the ride cymbal with natural reverb)
4. Live guitar, Epiphone Les Paul Special II, direct through a Studio Projects VTB1 preamp with tube injection at 12 o’clock, through a Samson C-Com16 compressor, IK Multimedia Amplitube DUO on the Bluesy Combo setting5. Cakewalk Studio Instruments Bass Guitar (later to be replaced by an actual live bass [Epiphone Viola Bass])
6. ReFX Nexus on Ballad Grand Piano
I’m enjoying this so far, and I can see where I can take this and maybe add in some hip-hop elements.  I may employ the vocal talents of one Harmony Speaks to join me on this.  We’ll see. =]

More coming soon!

-mnshyn

My main issue with the recording was the fact that I forgot to change the preset on the Samson CCom16 Compressor from Aggressive Vocal to Smooth Vocal or just to bypass.  This caused her vocals to sound like they hit a wall, and I didn’t get the fullness of Destiny’s vocals.  That was my first conclusion, but by the end of the second session, I found out that wasn’t my only issue.

We met up this past Thursday to try to re-record.  Unfortunately, this time, Destiny had done her share of raising her voice a couple of times for various reasons throughout the day.  The result was Destiny’s throat hindering her performance.

Her part on this song (at least for the first half) was singing the first four bars of the chorus to “Alone” by Heart.  Anyone who knows this song and has tried to sing it knows that following Ann Wilson’s vocals is not an easy task.  Ann Wilson has a very strong voice with that definitive presence and the ability to reach very high notes.

Destiny’s presence in general when singing has a slight similarity in terms of strength that Ann Wilson does.  The notes on this half of the verse are relatively high, and after making quite a few attempts, we settled on a few takes, and moved on to the second half.  I wrote the second half, and it was slightly lower in range than the first half.  Problem is, however, after going at the first half really hard, she found it difficult to adjust to singing lower because she had already strained herself trying to do the first half.

To salvage the session, I ended up having to comp the vocals, using a combination of the first session and the second.

For those who don’t know what comping is, comping is taking parts of different takes of the same verse, and putting the best pieces from all the takes together in sequence so that it sounds like what would be the best possible take.

To do so, you just have to cut and paste the snips you need from the different takes together in your multi-track mixer on your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation [if you do your audio on a computer, that is considered a DAW]).  You have to listen to each take carefully, jot down which parts you consider the best, then do the actual comping.

Figure 2010-01-24/1: Comping vocals, notably track 2 and 3.

As you can see, what’s on track 2 and 3 are similar, except that track 2 has little snippets from different takes put together, and track 3 has a single instance recorded take.  Note also on track 2 that each snippet crossfades into adjacent snippets  slightly overlapped so that the transition between snippets are smooth.

Considering Destiny’s throat, this was the best option considering also that we were trying to meet the deadline for the 1/23 and a supplementary recording session would not be possible before deadline.  Also, because the takes from both sessions had very solid performances in various parts of different takes in different snips (the second session had 209 takes, each take having it’s solid points), it was very possible for me to find very good recordings of every phrase in different parts (it’s best to cut and paste by phrase, and not by words or syllables, because cutting in between phrases can sound choppy), and after comping, the combination would sound like a single instance solid take.

Aside from this though, there is still the issue of the recorded quality of Destiny’s vocals, as the second take also felt like some nuances of her voice were not being recorded accurately on the mic.  I concluded that it might be a good idea now to upgrade my mic to one that may be able to more accurately record Destiny’s voice and improve the recorded quality of others as well.

So right now, I’m eye-ing the Audio-Technica 2035, which is an upgrade from my Audio Technica 2020.  The Rode NT-1A is also on my short list, as well as one or two others.  I’m looking for the best mic under $200, and those two have been recommended to me.

Let the mic search commence!

Also, “Phase 3 – L.Y.R.I.C.A.L. Without Fear” was submitted today through TuneCore.  Looks like March 1, 2010 is the day we will publicly announce that it’s available on online through iTunes.  After five long years, it’s finally done! =D

And yes, there will be a Phase 4.  Tentative Title:

Phase 4 – Response.Redirect

As always, stay tuned for more!

-mnshyn

EDIT 8/23/2010: Phase 4 has a new name: SymboLYRICism.  Peep here for details.

I released “Phase 2 – Lyrics to an Identity” almost 5 years ago.  It took 5 years to make this album, and it’s gone through so many iterations and name changes that at one point, during a low point in my life, I didn’t think the album was going to come out.  I have to thank God for that one (and everything else), because ever since I started playing in the church band every Sunday and cleaning up some of the stuff in my life that needed cleaning, I became revitalized and re-inspired.  I’m not exactly making Christian music right now totally, though I have made Christian songs in the past, but He’s blessed me anyway with inspiration, wisdom, and freedom of creativity.

The acronym in the title of the album, “Phase 3 – L.Y.R.I.C.A.L. Without Fear,” stands for Leave Your Regrets In Christ And Live.  This is the basically the approach I took with the album as time went on.  The songs that were going to originally be part of the album were all pretty standard, and although I love every song I make, it was the songs that were different from what I’m used to doing that were the most enjoyable to make.  There were three guitar solos (“Mostly Boast,” “Found Me,” “The Bomb Squad”), a video game sample (“Call to Arms” from Final Fantasy VI), a symphony orchestra (courtesy of Project SAM Symphobia, on “Round and Round”), capoeira rhythm (“Roll Your Windows”), blaring choirs with my “Bleeding Heaven” technique (on “Devastator,” more on the “Bleeding Heaven” technique later),  multi-layer samples (“Roll Your Windows”), Beatles style build up and scream (“Mostly Boast”), live drums, bass and piano recordings (“Live Hip-Hop,” available on the iTunes version of the album) and other things.  Although some signatures of mine are there, this album sounds distinctly different from my past two, and I think it’s for the better.

As far as concepts go, I think “The Bomb Squad” was the most fun.  You also have “Found Me” and “Round and Round” which are both incredibly personal to me.   “Mostly Boast” was the record that I let loose on and I stopped caring about what people would say if I did certain things in my music.  “Call to Arms” was actually inspired by a crew of people I was running with that was finally getting over past beefs to go have fun again.  “4 My Ghostwriter” actually makes the idea of a ghostwriter a more positive thing (listen to the song and you’ll see why).  “Do Something” was my declaration that I wouldn’t just sit around and do nothing, especially after my best friend Rain past away in 2007.  “Every Move” was me slowly getting to the point where I wouldn’t let people dictate what I rhyme about.  “Handle Our Biz,” “Spear,” and “You Need To..” were getting my people involved with some 5fam love.   “Devastator” was simply me kicking ass and getting you to want to kick ass too; in some ways an “I OWN YOU” part two.

I had a lot of fun with this album, and about just as much frustration.  All the frustration was worth it though, and what resulted was an album that I’m most proud of and can’t wait to show the world.  I’ve even got a plan for the songs I will perform, and hopefully I can gain some traction with some new listeners.

I have to thank everyone who helped me on this album with their contributions: Harmony Speaks, Destiny Soprano, CoCoa, DiMpLeZ, Brian Bullion, FoRcE oNe, Less, K-Maculate, ADM, Boy Gnyus, Vincent, Takewun, JC and SL.  Each recording was a fun (and funny) experience.  Especially “The Bomb Squad,” which took two years to complete and everyone in MsP had a role and their voice recorded on it.

Hopefully, when you listen to it, you’ll learn some things from it, whether it’s personal to you or on a musical/lyrical level if you are a musician.  Either way, most importantly, I hope you enjoy the music when it comes out on March 1, 2010.

Thanks for reading also!  More to come!

-mnshyn

1. Old school radio quick filter in Audition 3.0
2. Distorted vocals
3. Stripped the lows
4. Used the walkietalkie_eot (after the message transmission) and tilt (before the message transmission) wave files from freesound.org (awesome resource for royalty-free sound effect samples for download)

Sounds pretty good, if you ask me.  One benefit of this was also to cover up some of the new speech nuances that Speaks now has because she had just gotten braces.

We still haven’t done the oohs and aahs.  I’m going to leave this up to her though if she still wants to do that since she will probably be experiencing more pain from her braces since she’s still new to the experience.  She did a good job with the dialogue, so I’m happy with that at the minimum.

Now, I will set the table for you guys so you can see what this song is about.  Peep the next post for the recording by Takewun of Gnyus Productions that will serve as a prologue to this song, “The Bomb Squad.”