This one’s called “Final Words.”  Music and lyrics by Kim Pingul f.k.a Cocoa, produced and arranged by Kim Pingul and me and some extra assistance from Harmony Speaks.

This one’s pretty dark; Kim needed to get something off her chest.  This was the first rock/acoustic song I’ve ever produced, and it came out great.  I finally got to record my drums and bass and use the acoustic guitar recording setup that I outlined here. We’re pretty happy with the final product, and we hope you guys like the song.

Later on this week, Less will be coming through to record some material.  So we might be releasing new stuff very soon!

MsP’s staying real busy.  More coming your way, very soon!

-mnshyn

What equipment, you ask?

• Ludwig Standard Drum Kit: A kick drum, a snare drum, hi-hats, two mounted toms, a floor tom, and a ride/crash cymbal
• Evans E-Rings
• Blue Jelly Mufflers
• Shure Beta 52A
• Shure SM57
• Audio-Technica 2020
• Jazz Drum Sticks
• Drum Brushes
• Studio Projects VTB1 Preamp
• Samson C Com 16 Compressor

Here are notes on how I recorded the drums.  I took a few pictures before my Blackberry’s battery died out.

The kick drum had the resonant head removed, and was recorded a few times with one pillow and a few times with two pillows inside.  I used a Shure Beta52A to record from three different positions: halfway inside the kick drum, outside the kick drum on the resonant head side, and on the batter head.

Figure 2010-06-16/1: Shure Beta 52A on the outside, with two pillows

Figure 2010-06-16/2: Shure Beta 52A on the inside, with two pillows

Figure 2010-06-16/3: Shure Beta 52A on the batter head

The snare drum was recorded with a Shure SM57.  The snare strainer was set at different levels for different sounds.  An Evans E-Ring and blue jelly were used to muffle the drum in different ways for more variation.  Jazz drum sticks and brushes were used.

Figure 2010-06-16/4: Shure SM57 on a Snare Drum, with an Evans E-Ring

All three toms were recorded with an SM57, with the blue jelly and E-Rings for different variations in sound.  They were also hit with jazz drum sticks and brushes.

Figure 2010-06-16/5: Floor Tom with an Evans E-Ring, with my drum brushes laid down

The hi-hats were recorded with an Audio Technica 2020.  They were recorded open, closed, and pedaled.

The crash/ride cymabls were also recorded with an Audio Technica 2020.  Blue jelly was used to muffle the cymbals and calm the ring.

Figure 2010-06-16/6: Audio Technica 2020 on a Crash/Ride, with a blue jelly muffler

More to come. =]

-mnshyn

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

United Five’s description of the shirt:

The Biggie, Babe Ruth Re-Mix T-shirt. Untied Five teams up with designer CuddleMachine for this clever fun shirt. Representing two of New Yorks greatest icons.

All t-shirts are screen printed by hand using soft to the touch inks.
100% Combed Ring spun Cotton. Super-soft, lightweight, slim-fit tee. Machine washable and preshrunk to minimize shrinkage.

You can check their website at http://www.united-five.com, or go directly to their shop at http://shop.united-five.com.  I personally have this t-shirt as well as their Crooklyn shirt.  Aside from the nice designs, they’re good quality; I’ve washed them quite a few times since with no signs of wear and tear.

From what I understand, the name of “United Five” comes from the five boroughs of New York, so you’ll see some borough specific tees as well as some that represent all five.  So if you rep the city hard, you may want to grab these shirts to show your solidarity.

Tomorrow, I’ll be hitting you guys up with some info on the new SM57 I bought.  It’s the first SM57 I’ve bought for my mic arsenal.  Studio pros know the SM57 very well, and though the review I’m going to give would be obvious to those who have had it, I’m hoping it’ll be enlightening to those who are trying to find the right microphone for electric guitar amp cabinets and snare drums.

More to come, so stay tuned!

-mnshyn

Pipe organs – check.

Plucked chord drops – check.

Epic strings – check.

Dirty drums – check.

Long Beach to Compton – check.

1995 – check.

Ice Cube – check.

If you haven’t picked up on it yet, I have scored and am producing a hip-hop track (yes, hip-hop) on the MsP collaboration album Roll Call ’10.  It has the flavor of an old-school, mid-’90′s, West Coast track.  It’s not really a “Gangsta” track, though the theme for the song will be gang related, but only to a degree.

We don’t really want to give away too much on the content of the song but what we can tell you is that it will not be POV – the lyrics will be from 2 bystanders/observers.  The track WILL play on your state of mind and you WILL feel like you just watched some psychological drama.  Beyond that, you’ll have to wait and see.

Last night (4.4.10/Easter Sunday)  MooN ShynE and I discussed how this track should progress and we came up with some interesting ideas as far as the “theme” of the song.

This track will feature:
MooN ShynE – vocals / mixing / mastering / arrangement
K-Maculate – vocals
ADM – producer / composer / storyline (partial)

I would appreciate MooN ShynE’s input on this as well…

That’s it for now………

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

Both previous attempts involved me using FL Studio fully as a sequencer and using VST’s.  Sampled drums were used, as well as Nexus for various instrumentation including strings and piano.  First try came out too overdramatic, and the second iteration was too loose and modern pop/R&B.  I felt if I strayed too far, I’d be doing the original an injustice.

So this time, I figured I would rely on a hybrid of acoustic and synthesized instruments, using the same key and arrangement of the original.

The drums are a mix of sampled drums and live drums.  The live acoustic drums I have here at Lunar Base Studio are from a 5-piece Ludwig drum set I bought off of Brian Bullion a few months ago.  The sampled drums come from a batch of different drum sounds supplied by a DJ in one of the rap boards I frequent.  Since I only have two inputs on my E-MU 0404 card, I was restrained to recording the kick (Shure Beta 52) and a mic that encompassed all the other drums and cymbals (Audio Technica 2020, overhead, through a Studio Projects VTB1 preamp and a Samson CCom16 Compressor).  I have a Samson MDR6 mixer I use sometimes to get multiple signals that feed into a mono signal, but Cocoa has my other boom stand and PG58.   I do have an Audio Technica PRO37 that I use to record acoustic guitar sometimes, but I don’t have a spare mic stand.

The electric guitar used was an Epiphone Les Paul Special II (cheapest Les Paul they make. lol) recorded direct through the VTB1 and Compressor.  It was then fed into the free Amplitube plugin (only had two different amp sets because it was free via Tunecore).

The bass used was an Epiphone Viola Bass.  This bass is in the similar shape of Paul McCartney’s bass which was a Hofner.  This was plugged into an Acoustic B20 amp, then recorded with the Shure Beta 52 through the same preamp and compressor.

Piano was reFX Nexus, Ballad Grand Piano.

The result came out very juicy, with a good mix of live and sample.  It’s nowhere near completed, since it’s just the first verse and chorus.  I will post this one as a single however when this is done, so you can refer back to these notes once you’ve heard the final project (free because it’s a cover. =])

Destiny can really kill songs like these, as her best asset is her powerful voice.  Out of the four MsP girls, she has the  most power in her voice.  I don’t necessarily mean volume, but more along the lines of a presence that just commands attention in the best way.  DiMpLeZ is very soft, acoustic singer style.  CoCoa’s voice is smooth and soul-like.  Harmony’s very technical with her singing and covers a slightly lower range, with a well-rounded vocal quality for different genres and harmonies (hence the name).

So the style we’re looking at for this is almost like the original, but I would like to shy away a bit from the ballad-y over-reverberated atmosphere.  I want it to be a little more dry in terms of spacing, but rich in instrumental sound.  I’ve read from different sources that on ballads you should give the singer a decent amount of reverb to give that solo feel of being in a room singing.  I’m going to go against the norm on this one and try to be more dry on this one.  I don’t necessarily mean NO reverb, but definitely less than what was on the original.

I also refuse to use any kind of synth-like instrument for this one, and will stick to real instruments or VST’s that simulate real instruments.  I would like to take some of the lead parts of the piano over in the second verse with a smooth slightly-blues distorted guitar to give it a small edge to the instrumental.

Considering this is the first live recording of drums I’m doing here in Lunar Base, I’m quite happy with the results so far.  Let’s see where this goes from here.

More coming soon!

-mnshyn