I have become one of them

As I sit in a local Starbucks, shortly after sunset on New Year's Eve, waiting for my progeny to finish their progeny stuff it seems as good a time as any to write one of those reflective, retrosoective entries that fill the tubez at this time of year. Fuck that.

I will, however, talk about one really cool thing from the past year...

2010 is the year I went pro.

Actually that's not the cool thing. The cool thing is Ramen Music. Ramen is the brain child and dream of Sudara Williams and its aim is to deliver a curated feed of good music to subscribers all while giving most of the money to the artists involved.

One of the ways in which Sudara differs from me is that he actually gets stuff done. I know it hasn't always been easy for him but he's building something cool and deserves a lot of credit.

So as a New Year's gift to you, I offer my links to the first two issues:

Issue #1
Issue #2

Happy New Year!

The sharp eyed will notice that one of my tracks appears in the inaugural issue. Thus my "pro" remark.

Acoustic Treatment? Hell yes!

I recently renewed my 2 year sub to Sound on Sound magazine.  Each month they have a column entitled Studio SOS where they go into someones home studio and make it better.  Without fail, one of the main things they do is apply some kind of acoustic treatment.  I have been reading this for over two years now and done nothing myself.

Sure I'd been thinking about it.  Even talking about it.  Even promising myself not to buy anything new until I did some acoustic treatment.  But it was work.  I'm a messy guy and this involved some cleanup, some money, and some time.  All major impediments.

The mess before

My room is fine, I'd tell my self.  This is a hobby.  I don't want to deal with mineral wool or fibreglass.  Auralex is really expensive.  Bass traps are even more expensive.  And did I mention my room was fine?

Chatting with some friends online, I learned of a green insulation alternative called Ultratouch made of recycled denim.  Hmmm.  Some searching on the Intertubez led me to a supplier within semi-sane driving distance.  Their website listed a bag of the stuff containing 5 sheets of 24"x48" (x8" thick) for under $90.  This started the wheels turning...

So over the holidays, while my fellow Canadians rushed around insanely looking for Boxing week deals on TVs and other crap I finally got my ass in gear and went to visit Eco Building Resource to have a look at this Ultratouch stuff.  (Apparently, I 'm not the only musician type to have come through there)  Wasn't long before I had a big bag of the stuff in my truck.

Next stop, a fabric store.  After wandering around like an idiot, I asked somebody for the cheapest black cloth and ended up with $15 worth (5m of black broad cloth).

Next, I went to a hardware store and got some cheap board (1/2"x5 1/2") and had it cut to the 2 and 4 foot lengths I would need.  I also needed a staple gun and some vapor barrier (plastic sheeting).  Spent another $60ish there.

Then took a break for some oysters with my sweetie (fade to black).

The next morning I realized that I'd proably also need some L brackets, screws and some anchors for the hanging.  After dropping another $30 there I was ready.

As you might expect, not all the wood was exactly the same length, so I took some time to identify pairs that we closely matched.  Then banged in three finishing nails on each corner and had a box.  I then drilled pilot holes and screwed on the L brackets.  Without these brackets, the box would be flimsy and the nails would easily work loose.  And the pilot holes keep the wood screws from splitting the boards.

Now with a completed box, I stretched out a double layer of vapor barrier over the one side and stapled it down.  I bought super cheap vapor barrier which was quite thin so I ended up doubling up.  I suppose I could have something else here, like that stuff you see on the back of your sofa but I wasn't that smart.

Next I spread the cloth on the floor (I had previously cut it to size) and put a sheet of the insulation onto it.  I then lowered the box over that.  I could now staple the cloth to the box.  I arrived at this order of operations after wrestling with the first one a little (first one, I put the insulation into the box, put the cloth overtop and then had to flip the whole thing without it all coming apart).

After building all five panels, I set about worrying about how and where to hang them.  I decided that it would be best if I hung them in "landscape" with the 4 foot side being horizontal.  I put anchors into the walls and a screw into the anchor such that it protruded about an inch then simply hung the panel on the screw.  Totally sleazy and definitely not earthquake proof but hey, we don't really much of that here.

I now have 4 of the 5 panels hung.  I still have to work out how to hang the final one from the ceiling but that's going to involve doing something creative with the light fixture and thus will wait for the next surge of energy (which may never happen).

So I'm out around $200, my back is sore, was it worth it?  ZOMG!  Yes!  I'm sure you've all read the audio geek terms about improved stereo separation etc.  I'm going to try to say this in English.  The difference is profound, amazing, fill in your favourite gushing adjective here.  First thing I notice is that I can hear bass.  Previously I was thinking that someday I'd need a sub(-woofer).  Bull cookies.  I have loads of bass, I just couldn't hear it before.  I might even have too much and will need to think about bass traps.  Not sure yet.  Second thing I notice is that I can hear without straining where things are panned (ah, so this is what they mean by improved stereo imaging).  Finally, I'm noticing new details in music I thought I knew.  Presumably that's because those details aren't being masked/buried by early reflections...

Quite simply this is the best $200 I have spent on this crazy journey.

The slightly improved mess

Studio kitteh

Verb Musings

This morning, my friend Sudara complained that he was loving Eos too much. (Hard to fault him, it's my absolute favourite reverb).

The conversation rambled towards convolution reverbs. I'm fairly ignorant about them beyond the layman's description that we're given to make us layman stop asking questions. This ignorance allows me to formulate all kinds of crazy bullshit.

See, we talked about recording sounds in small reverberant spaces like bathrooms. It occured to me that people like the sound of stuff in their bathrooms more because of the resonances of the room (the way certain frequencies are boosted) than any reverb.

That's a subjective statement for sure...  but bear with me.

Which led me to wonder, does convolution reverb capture the EQ/resonance of a room and is it able to impart it to the affected signal.

My initial guess was no.  But thinking more on it, the IR inherently has the EQ of the impulse (how can it not?) so unless the convolution black magic loses it somehow, the affected signal must have at least some of this EQ curve applied.

I can certainly imagine an experiment that could test this (at least subjectively) but it's so much easier to ask the Google of Mountain View.

And having asked, I learn that there are several methods of gathering impulse responses.  Some involve a sine sweep over the audible frequency spectrum and others involve some kind of digital noise burst.  So if the IRs you have in your convolution reverb are made with sine sweeps,  the implication is that every audible frequency is covered and would be applied to whatever you were running through it.

Sort of revealing my earlier assertion as the naive bullshit it was.

Which raises questions about the kinds of IRs I have kicking around...

And thus we learn.

/me is off to play with impulse responses

CC licensed photo by flickr user: Pulpolux !!!

Blog on Life Support

There is still minimal brain activity. Won't be pulling the plug just yet.

A busy summer has come to an end and with the change in season, I change from a wannabe athlete back into a musician.

Stay tuned...

CC licensed photo by: RambergMediaImages / Keith Ramsey

Sub-Bass! What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing!

Except perhaps annoying the crap out of everyone around you.

Yesterday I was driving in my car testing a mix when along comes a powerful low frequency rumble. Because I was listening carefully to my mix my first reaction was holy crap did I mess that up? Slowly I realized that must be from some joker with a subwoofer in a nearby car.

People have learned that some of us don't like having smoke blown in our faces. How hard is it for people to figure out that not all of us like the sound of your music, your Harley, your leaf blowers or the tinny techno beat leaking from your crappy ear buds when you're on the train beside me.

Your noise is just as much an encroachment on my personal space as your physical presence.

Grow some manners. Stop it.

The Craft

I have long viewed computer programming, which pays my bills, as a creative exercise. Those not in the field may not understand this but among my colleagues, this idea seems to resonate. Large programs are not made overnight, but rather built from many smaller pieces or ideas over a long period of time.

One of the things that initially (re)drew me into making music was the speed with which I could produce something.

That initial honeymoon period appears to be ending and I find myself wanting for higher quality output. I'll leave aside the discussion of what higher quality means but there is a general recognition that higher quality requires more time.

To date, most of my musical output is something that has been created in mere hours. Even if I recognize problems, I rarely go back and revisit these creations. The few times I've tried, I've found it quite difficult. And that difficulty kind of leaches all motivation and ... you know.

This morning, I had a brain flash and I asked myself, why is it that I can write software over many days or weeks but not create music over the same period.

Some immediate thoughts come to mind. One is simply skill. My career in technology is simply longer than my hobbying with music. If you accept, like Gladwell suggests, that time invested leads to results, skill, etc then the math is simple.

Making music, like making anything else, requires a collection of skills that are often called "the craft". With software, I am reasonably versed in the craft. With music, much much less so. My musical skill (knowing notes, scales, chords, etc) is akin to a young programmer that is simply fluent in a programming language (learn Java in 20 days) but otherwise unskilled in the art.

This got me thinking about what aspects of software craft might be transferable to music (as a way to avoid going to a Songwriting for Dummies seminar).

One thing I realize is that in programming (at least using textual languages, as opposed to a visual language like Max) the form seems to lead the programmer to be somewhat organized. We need to organize things into functional blocks that interface with other functional blocks. And if one piece doesn't fit, modifications are made.

There are similarities in music. Each block (verse, chorus, intro, bridge, etc) needs to connect with the others. Now while many of us work with these musical blocks to varying degrees... but when you get stuck, how willing are you to re-record an idea that you've already committed to "tape"? Speaking for myself, almost never. Hmmm. Difficult to improve the whole product if the components are not up to par.

Inability to re-record a block speaks to a bunch of problems. One is just "the sound, man". How many times have you dialed in a sound, wanted to do a little overdub later and not been able to match it? Or simply not remembering how to play a part because you never wrote anything down?

Seems to me that these and other problems and strategies for dealing are all part of the craft. And I have much to learn.

Proud Papa

Woah.  Been awhile.  Oh well, can't be helped.  If you were holding your breath, I'm sorry but I know you're lying.

This weekend past, the fabulous T-Rox Music Academy (now defunct?) held its 2010 Summer Showtime and once again many kids and adults masquerading as kids performed.  I was one of the latter.

Performing for me is getting easier but...  it was warm and humid that day and with the nerves my hands were clammy.  My playing is questionable at the best of times but with clammy hands, laying down the main loop in my quasi-improvised affair was frought.  But I soldiered through.  The funny bit was after I got the finger picked loop into the looper, I realized I forgot my pick in my pocket.  So I had to stand up mid performance, smile stupidly and grab a pick.  Look ma no hands.  Doh.

But enough about me and just a little more about me.  My youngest child, J the drummer, decided to sign up to perform Come Together.  After signing up, I asked him who he was doing it with and he looked at me a little blankly (in that way that boys have) and he said, "uh, you?"  Figuring I could learn the bass part, I said sure.  What about the rest of the band...  Long story short, we roped in his older brother A to play guitar.  Of course, coordinating rehearsal times between all the various activities...  well not so much.  Finally, on the day before the show, we all got into the same room and worked it out.  It wasn't too bad but we still needed a singer to tie the whole thing together...  we arrived at the theatre and found J's drum instructor Ed and explained our plight.  He helped rope in the fabulous Kirt (a guitar teacher) to sing the song with us.  Awesome.

So, after my guitar performance, I got the bass ready and we waited for our slot.  My hands were still clammy.  And we're on.  Quick setup, intro, etc.  And go!  A bit of a shaky start but before long were were loping along like we'd been gigging for years.  It's hard to describe the little bubble you're in when you perform.  When you're solo, you're juggling stuff, you're busy.  But in a band, it's kind of a team thing and you get a chance to breathe, look around and really enjoy it.  And the thing that I thought about as we played?  Just how incredibly proud I was of my two sons.

Can't wait to do it again.

2023 Update: unfortunately the video evidence on youtube has been removed for unknown reasons