Julian in the Studio – UPDATE II

1. Editing a new video of recording in the studio – to be posted soon
2. Creating the content pages for website – October launch?
3. Deciding if spending the $ on mastering is worth it unless you go with someone who costs $$$$
4. Waiting on final artwork for the CD jacket…
5. Having a guest musician (Tom Snider!) come in and record bass tonight on “These Idols” as the last tracking on the CD
6. Final mixing to be done tomorrow and Thursday – whoopee!
7. Deciding should we go with CD Baby or TuneCore…hmmmm
8. Happy when it’s finally out there and done!

Julian in the Studio – UPDATE

Hey, it’s been awhile since I updated on Julian’s upcoming CD so I figured I post real quick with where we are at. Tracking was a fun process and for the past few weeks I’ve been in post-production, essentially doing the final mixing for the CD. Last night I completed a “final” version of the CD and will ship it off to Julian at JBU for him to listen to and give a green light on. Here’s the album order:

1. Perfect Day
2. These Idols
3. Here With Me
4. Between Us
5. So Long My Friend
6. Rescue You
7. How Long
8. Must This all Last?
9. Lost it All
10. 1000
11. Time to Move On

Plus there is an intro track on the CD and a coda. Anyway, the album title is “Time to Move On” and Julian played everything on the CD, drums, bass, guitar, keys, piano, voice, etc. We are working on album artwork and developing a website for him. Both should be done soon. Final steps are mastering and duplication. This part costs money so we are praying in some funds so that there is no delay in releasing the album. If you want to help us out please give on our PayPal account by clicking here.

I would love to shoot for a mid-October release. Gosh it’s crazy launching a studio! For fun you can check out these videos of Julian in the studio from prior posts:

http://michaelburwell.com/2009/07/09/julian-in-the-studio/
http://michaelburwell.com/2009/07/14/julian-in-the-studio-–-part-2-we-roll-tonight-to-the-guitar-bite/
http://michaelburwell.com/2009/07/22/julian-in-the-studio-part-3-victory-salute/

I have a 4th video to post, but haven’t had a chance to edit it so hopefully I’ll get that out here soon!

Studio for Beginners: Proximity Effect on Vocals

While recording vocals in the studio I found that trying the vocalist way up on the mic and taking advantage of what is called the ‘proximity effect’ was really useful to capture a great performance. The ‘proximity effect’ is something that happens when you get all up on a mic and it seems to the listener that the bass, or low end, gets louder. (If you want to read more about it, check this article out on Wikipedia.) The advantage of this is two-fold to my ears 1) your vocalists voice sounds fuller and 2) you get a recording that sits in the mix better.

The interesting thing is that this also seemed to free up the performer a bit. They backed off and relaxed knowing they were getting a super positive sound on the mic.

The only challenge I had was a) I needed to really control the input gain especially on stronger/louder passages and b) the vocalist sometimes wanted to get *too* close. Rather than creating an intimate sound, I ended up needing to re-take the passage since we ended up with some muffling, etc.

I should point out that I am using large diaphragm condenser mics such as the Studio Projects C1, CAD Trion series, Octava 314, Shure KSM27, MXL V63, etc. Usually mics like these will be noted in instructional books and videos as properly being recorded at roughly 12″ (1 foot) away. I was trying some things as close as 3″ with the vocalist’s nose almost touching the pop filter! And yes, this was recording a very dynamic vocalist. (No compression used.)

Side note: I will be getting my hands on a cool dynamic mic (think Shure SM58 like what you would use in a live situation) called a Shure SM7B which has proven to produce some great close up vocal recordings.