Overdubs with Mike Payne

On March 11th, Nashville studio guitarist Mike Payne started recording overdubs for three songs that we were unable to get to on our trip to Nashville back in early February. This past Monday, he posted the audio files from these sessions for me to download. Over the past week, I’ve been pulling these new guitar parts into Pro Tools, and just finished importing the last of these files last night. I have to say, Mike’s guitar parts have taken these last several songs to a new level! Two of these tunes are the worship song and the love song I’ve mentioned in previous blogs. I can tell Mike really spent his time on these tunes. The harmonies and counter melodies he came up with aren’t just icing on the cake; I believe they are foundational in bringing these songs to life!

Tones and Parts
I have learned quite a bit from working with Mike (I’ve recorded with him twice now – once on February 4th at his home studio, and then again on March 11th over iChat). Not only is he a skilled guitar player; he is extremely adept at choosing guitar tones that work well in the mix and guitar parts that compliment the other instruments. I’ve heard a couple professional engineers comment about “Mike’s (great) tone.” He just knows his amps, pedals, and guitars and knows what it takes to get a certain sound. At one point, I remember saying to him, “This song is partially inspired by The Fray. I don’t want to sound exactly like them, but do you think you could find a guitar tone which might fit this style?” Sure enough he did – and he actually came up with a slightly varied tone that sounded somewhat “Frayish,” but different enough to give my song it’s own sound.

The Skill of Listening
I find that a lot of musicians don’t listen to anyone but themselves when they are playing. It’s good to be aware of what you are playing/singing as a musician, but in a band setting, it’s important to make sure your tones/parts/pitch/etc. are blending well with everyone else. I’ve played with some musicians who are determined to play at all times with as many notes as possible. Often, silence is as much a musical tool as musical notes themselves. Simplicity is also at times more powerful than complexity. Sometimes, silence is used to give a song dynamics (instruments are brought in and out at key song sections) and other times, silence is used to help a melody or counter melody “breathe.” Simplicity can likewise be used to communicate a certain emotion (intimacy or innocence) or to punctuate a more note heavy musical passage.

I think one thing that makes Mike such a good studio musician is the fact that he is a careful listener. While recording overdubs, he actually asked me to turn his guitar down quite a bit in the mix so that he could hear how his parts were blending with the other instruments. He also had me turn the drums up a bit higher than everything else so that he could make sure that his playing was tight. As I go back to listen to his parts, I am amazed at his sense of rhythm. I’ve hardly had to edit any of his parts because about 99% of the time, he is locked to the drums like a leech to a leg. Absolutely amazing.

A Pleased Costumer
In conclusion, I am so thankful that my friend Dave Bechtel introduced me to Mike Payne. It has been awesome to work with him, and I hope we have more opportunities to work together in the future!

Piano Tracking at Liberty Presbyterian

Well, last night, I began to officially track piano for the new album. I got through about four songs, and have six to go. Here are some pics from Liberty Presbyterian in Delaware, OH. I've decided to go with the Yamaha C7 for many of the songs. Our church's Kawai just doesn't sound grand enough for the big tunes. However, I may use the Kawai on a couple of the more popish songs.

One Piece at a Time

The pieces are really coming together for the new album! Last Friday, Mike Payne recorded guitar overdubs for the 3 songs we were unable to get to while in Nashville last month. He should be sending me those files in the near future. Also, this coming Thursday, I will be meeting with composer Robert Nugent to listen to a cello part he arranged for one of the new tunes.

I now have most of the MIDI strings programmed. These sampled strings will be mixed underneath the real strings to create a larger sound. I’ve also been quite busy practicing and making final tweaks to piano parts. I hope to record real piano in the next month or so. Next week, I may do a practice recording session where I will set up some mics on a live piano and experiment with different mic positions and pre-amp settings. In addition, I’ve been practicing vocal parts – mostly in the car while driving (I’ve created a variety of mixes – some without vocals, some without piano and vocals). You may see me driving down the road singing at the top of my lungs!

I’m still paying for the album as I go. I’m currently saving up for an Empirical Labs Distressor, a compressor that I will use on the final vocals, along with my API A2D pre-amp. I want to use the highest quality signal chain as possible!

I’m still hoping to release the new album sometime the middle of this year.

Programming MIDI Strings (Video)

Marc talks about string articulations, and the process of programming MIDI strings which will used to fill out the sound of a smaller string section.

Click on the photo for video. Video is 12.5 MB and may take a minute or two to load. You can also right click on the photo and select "save target as..."

Oceans of Creativity

Piecing It All Together
It’s been about a month since we recorded strings and guitar overdubs in Nashville, and since then, things have been quite busy here at 10x12 Productions. At this point, I’ve cleaned up most of the string and guitar tracks, and have pulled those tracks into my “main” Pro Tool sessions (the strings and guitars were recorded and edited in separate Pro Tools sessions to cut down on clutter with all the unused takes). I’ve also been busy working on programming the MIDI strings that will be mixed in under the real strings for a larger orchestra sound (I’m preparing a video blog which will explain this process in more detail). This is quite an exciting stage as I am for the first time hearing all of the “final” instruments together - with the exception of the real piano, which I hope to record in the next month or so. As mentioned in my previous blogs, I still need to record guitar overdubs for 3 more tunes. I am planning to track these guitar parts with Mike Payne next Friday, March 11th (remotely, over iChat, as he is in Nashville and I am in Columbus).

Practice Makes Perfect
In addition to studio work, I’ve been busy practicing with my live band (drums: Jim Davis, bass: Joey Bradley, guitar: Matt Meyer). We’ve been rehearsing almost every Saturday at Jim’s place (he has a nice finished basement space with an in-ear monitoring system). We don’t have any official shows lined up yet, but we do have a possible gig in June, which would have us opening for a national Christian act. We hope to start playing out officially in early summer (mainly regional shows at first).

An Overcrowded Boat
The creative process continues to be exciting and wearying. I’m currently working on a tune that is overly concentrated with instruments, and I’m trying to figure out what parts to cut out. This song has been driving me crazy the last couple days, but I think I am making some headway on deciding what to eliminate. Sometimes less is more. I’m a sucker for big production, but even with “grand” songs, you have to find a tasteful limit to the number of musical layers. Originally, the “size” of this song was built around some guitar power chords, a big organ, a couple synth pads, and an arpeggiating synth lead (not to mention a few drum loops here and there). As the song developed, I had Rich Barrett add some string parts, and Mike Payne added some cool guitar accents that I hadn’t originally envisioned. Suddenly, I was having trouble finding space for everything. I think I’ve solved some of the clutter issue by cutting out the organ and some of the pads for much of the song. I also lost the drum loop in the choruses, and pulled out the strings for the first part of the first chorus. Just like an overloaded boat, sometimes you have to sacrifice some non-crucial luggage to the sea for the well being of the vessel.

Video blog coming soon...

What’s Next on the Menu?

For the next couple months or so, I will be attending to some miscellaneous to-dos.

(1) I still need to record a cello part for one tune. I was going to record this in Nashville during our last trip, but decided it’d be more cost effective to have John Catchings (the cellist) record the cello part at his home studio at a later date, instead of recording the part at David Davidson’s, where 3 other players would be sitting around twittling their thumbs… not to mention I’d be racking up unnecessary studio and engineer costs. Robert Nugent will be arranging the cello part. I will simply mail John a Pro Tools session, he’ll record the cello, and he’ll then mail/email me with the audio files.

(2) I also need to record string parts for the first song on the album. It’s a pretty simple string arrangement, and for cost reasons, I will have a single string player layer violin and viola parts over some full orchestra string samples I am already using on this tune.

(3) I need to record guitar overdubs for 3 more songs with Mike Payne. Unfortunately, we were unable to get to these songs last week when we were in Nashville. We will use iChat (similar to Skype) to communicate while recording (I’ll be in Columbus and he’ll be in Nashville). I think this should work relatively smoothly as we’ve already worked together a little bit. He will be tracking to his Pro Tools system and will mail the sessions to me once we are finished recording.

(4) Additionally, I will start working on editing the live strings we recorded last week and the MIDI strings which will be layered under the live strings. Basically, the rhythms of the real strings and fake strings need to line up. I will also need to program a number of MIDI articulations (marcato, slurs, etc.) that will emulate the articulations of the real strings. String arrangers Robert Nugent and Rich Barrett are providing me with MIDI files of the string parts, which I will further edit to align with the real strings.

(5) Also, in the near future, I will begin recording all the piano parts on a real piano. Still working on a location for this.

(6) After all these miscellaneous tasks have been completed, I will begin recording the final lead vocals as well as the background vocals (at 10x12 Productions). After these have been edited, I will hand all the files off to Dave Bechtel for mixing!

The String & Guitar Sessions

Our trip to Nashville was exceptionally smooth – no snow, hardly any traffic, and we made great time! Crystal and I left Columbus a little after 5:00 am and got into Nashville around 11:00am (Nashville time). We grabbed some lunch at O’Charley’s, rested in the car for a little while, and then headed over to violinist’s David Davidson’s house around 1:30. It was nice to not feel rushed! After meeting David Davidson and engineer Bobby Shin, we headed inside and up to the control room. I gave my hard drive to Bobby, who copied all my Pro Tools sessions to his computer, and then imported his Pro Tools templates into each of my Pro Tools sessions (his templates contained audio channels set up to accommodate all of the string mics). The other string players began rolling in around 1:45 – David Angell on 2nd violin, Monisa Angell on viola, and John Catchings on cello (and David Davidson on 1st violin).

My friend Dave Bechtel was to be at the session, but had unfortunately come down with appendicitis the night before, and was in the hospital getting his appendix removed. David Davidson made the comment, “Well, Dave did say he might not be able to make it because he might have another gig… he got another gig alright… at the hospital! Ha!” All humor aside, we were disappointed that Dave could not be there and we continue to pray for his speedy recovery!

The plan was to track strings for 5 songs, all within 3 to 4 hours. We ended up recording 3 passes for 3 songs and 2 passes for 2 songs in 3 ½ hours. Why 3 passes on some songs and 2 on others? Well, most of the strings are going to be supplemented with strings samples in the final mix, but some of the tunes have more unique string articulations (slides, runs, etc.) that will be hard to copy with string samples. I wanted to keep the recording time to a minimum as I was trying to stay within a budget, and I figured 2 of the songs would be easier to fill out with samples while the other 3 might need more layers of real strings.

We finished recording around 5:30pm. What an amazing session! I was so happy with the audio we captured. Bobby was a great engineer, and David, David, Monisa, and John were phenomenal! Not to mention, David Davidson provided us with coffee, snacks, and a bag of oranges and grapefruits for the road! The day couldn’t have gone better. I think the musicians really enjoyed playing the songs. Thanks to Robert Nugent and Rich Barrett for some killer arrangements!

Crystal and I headed back to the Hampton Inn, where I immediately began copying the audio files to a backup hard drive. I also began burning the string Pro Tools sessions onto DVD. It’s always comforting to know you have a hard copy of such important data. After kicking back at the hotel for a little while, we went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants – The Olive Garden! Afterwards, we returned to the hotel, and I began exporting stem files (sub-mixes) of the strings, as I would be using them for the guitar session with Mike Payne the next day. We finally got to bed around midnight. It was going to be a short night.

We woke up Friday morning around 7am, and after getting ready, we headed downstairs for a surprisingly tasty continental breakfast. I’ve had some pretty lousy hotel breakfasts in my day, but this was pretty good! We left the hotel around 8:40 and arrived at Mike Payne’s house at 9:00am. Mike took us upstairs to his home studio, and asked me if I’d be willing to man the Pro Tools system while he played guitar. “Sure!” I exclaimed. I plugged my trusty dusty self-powered firewire drive into his iMac, he grabbed several of his guitars, and we began recording!

Depending on the song, Mike used one of 3 guitars – a beautiful red Gretch, a warm toned Telecaster, or a PSR90 Jr. (which sounded remarkably great for the low price tag). All of his amps were set up in another room, and were feeding through a Chandler Limited Germanium Pre and a Universal Audio 1176 compressor into Pro Tools LE. He implemented a variety of pedals (delays, reverb, chorus, etc.), none of which I was familiar with, but then again, I’m not a guitar player - I just know his effects sounded amazing and he knew how to use his gear!

We stopped for lunch at noon and the 3 of us headed over to one of Nashville’s favorites, Oscar’s Tacos. We exchanged conversation about marriage (Mike is a newlywed), church, recording and touring, financial planning, and of course, the Toyota Matrix (as both of us are owners).

We returned to the house about 1:00pm and picked up on song #4. I had hoped to spend about a ½ hour recording guitar overdubs for each song (we had 12 to record), but unfortunately, we were only able to get through 9 of the 12 songs. Mike had to wrap up at 6:00pm. We could have worked faster, but I really didn’t want to rush through the songs, as I was so happy with the sounds we were getting, and didn’t want to skimp on anything. We will end up recording guitar overdubs for the remaining 3 songs via. iChat (more about this later).

We concluded the recording session at 6:15 and again, Crystal and I headed back to the Hampton for some chill time. I also copied the guitar sessions to a second drive, and began burning backup DVDs. We then went out to celebrate at another one of our favorite restaurants – The Cheesecake Factory (the restaurant where Crystal and I first met in February of 2008). We had to wait a little while, but the food was worth the sitting. We couldn’t believe how busy the restaurant was at 10:00pm at night!

Saturday morning, we slept in, which was great. We were both struggling from some serious sleep debt. After packing up our things, and grabbing some breakfast (at the Hampton again), we went to visit my friend Dave Bechtel, who had just got out of the hospital. It was great catching up with he and his family!

We got on the road around noon (Nashville time) and arrived back into Columbus around 8:15pm or so (Columbus time). Again, the roads were clear and we had very little traffic. Thank you Lord for a wonderful trip!

What’s next on the production schedule? There is still plenty of work to do. Stay tuned for details…

Video Clips From Nashville

Video 1: Mike Payne playing guitar. Video 2: The David Davidson string group.
Click on the photos for video.

Leaving for Nashville

It’s hard to believe the time is here! Here’s the plan. Tomorrow morning, we’ll be leaving at 5am for a close-to-seven-hour trip to Nashville, TN. We’re hoping the roads are clear and the traffic is minimal! We’re aiming to get to Nashville around 11am (Nashville time), we’ll grab some lunch, and then we’ll head over to David Davidson’s studio for a 2pm string session. We will be recording strings for 5 songs. The session will last anywhere from 3-4 hours. We’re hoping we can get everything tracked in 3 hours, as every hour is an additional $460! There will be 4 players – cello, viola, and 2 violins. Depending on the song, we will be recording 1-3 takes… for some songs, we’ll be layering multiple takes; for other songs, a single pass will suffice (as we will later be layering the real strings with sampled strings). All I’ll be bringing is a hard drive that I’ll plug into David Davidson’s Pro Tools system. After the string session, we’ll probably grab dinner with my friend Dave Bechtel. Later that evening, I may need to do some quick mixes of the strings – these mixes will be useful for the guitar overdub sessions the following day.

Friday morning, we’ll head over to studio guitarist Mike Payne’s place at 9am. The goal is to record for 7 hours with a one-hour lunch break. Mike needs to wrap up by 6pm. I’d like to track guitar overdubs for 12 songs - this amounts to just over 30 minutes of recording time per song. Again, I’ll just bring a hard drive and plug it into Mike’s Pro Tools rig. I’m sure we’ll we exhausted that night and will just want to chill out after a long day of recording! We'll return to Columbus on Saturday.

If you’d like to pray for us, here are some prayer requests:

(1)We’d appreciate your prayers for safe and quick travel!
(2) Pray that we’ll be able to get through the string tracking in a timely fashion on Thursday, and pray that the players will have skill as they play!
(3) Pray that we’ll have creativity as we record with Mike Payne on Friday. His guitar tones and playing are going to greatly define the sound of this project.
(4) Pray that Lord willing, we won’t have any technical difficulties!

Thanks for all your support! I’m very anxious to share this new music with you! It still looks like the album should be finished towards the middle of this year (maybe June-July).

What a Men’s Retreat Taught Me About Recording

This past weekend, I attended a men’s retreat at our church. It was both an encouraging and a convicting time. Our speaker, Tom Burns, focused his attention in the book of Ecclesiastes and compared our lives with Solomon. Solomon spent much of his life searching for the meaning of life. He diligently pursued knowledge, pleasure, wisdom, foolishness, and toil, but none of these things satisfied his empty heart. In the end, Solomon concluded that man could only discover true meaning through a relationship with God. Our speaker Tom went on to encourage us to look to the Lord for our purpose and satisfaction.

As we broke into small groups, a number of men shared about their own struggles. Some guys were looking for their identity in work; some of the single guys wrestled with believing that a mate would make them happy. I was going to open up, but never got a chance to do so. Nevertheless, I went away from the retreat sensing that God was trying to tell me something.

Over the course of the weekend, two verses especially stood out to me. One was Ecclesiastes 2:4 which reads, “I undertook great projects…” and the other is 2:23 which reads, “All his days his work is pain and grief, even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.” Ever since I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with projects. Before my teenage years, I was preoccupied with LEGOS. In fact, I remember once having a temper tantrum because I was missing a key piece to one of my building sets. In middle school, I became enamored with skateboarding, and spent most of my summer days rattling my wheels down the sidewalks of Clintonville, OH. Later in middle school, I became consumed with music and recording, and have been consumed ever since.

So here I am, days away from another trip to Nashville. I am both excited and nervous. I can’t wait to hear the live strings and I’m dying to hear what cool sounds studio guitarist Mike Payne brings to the table. However, I’m also worried that we’ll be delayed by bad weather or traffic on our way down, and I’m afraid we may not get everything completed in the allotted recording time. I’m concerned I may have to spend more money than I was planning to spend. Then there’s the possibility of technical difficulties. I really doubt I’ll even sleep the night before we leave.

Throughout the course of making this album, I’ve battled panic attacks and physical anomalies most likely triggered by stress (headaches with broken vision, ringing in the ears, occasional numbness in my arms and/or hands). I am keenly aware that I am an uptight guy. I don’t need anyone to tell me that. I obsess and worry a lot. It’s one of my many issues. I constantly have to hand “my plans” and “my comfort” over to the Lord.

Despite all my fretting, it’s good to know God is in control. I know He cares about this album, but more importantly, He is concerned about where my heart is. He wants me to trust Him, and He wants me to keep the small things of this world in perspective with the big things of eternity. Thank you Solomon (and speaker Tom) for the timely reminder.

” Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21

Marc Andre & Band Performs at InsideOut

This past Saturday, we got the chance to perform some of my new songs for the first time at Grace Brethren of Polaris' InsideOut Creative Forum. No electric guitars or drum kits this time - just a small acoustic set. Pictured left to right is the touring band: Joey Bradley (bass), Matt Meyer (guitar), Marc Andre (vocals & keys), Jim Davis (drums). To learn more about InsideOut and to see a video of us playing, visit http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=132754520101762

Making Final Preparations

This week, I hope to wrap up exporting stem mixes that will be used in the Pro Tools sessions we’ll use for recording in Nashville. Stem mixes are basically sub mixes of groups of instruments. I’m specifically creating stem mixes for bass, drums, rhythm guitars, keyboards, vocals, as well as fake lead guitars and fake strings (these will be used for reference when we are tracking the real lead guitars and strings). The purpose of stem files in this situation is to allow for some monitoring flexibility while recording. In other words, the studio musicians can adjust their headphone mix to their own tastes – more vocal, less bass, more drums, etc.

I am also working on getting some decent demo mixes in Pro Tools. Previously, all demo mixes were in Logic Pro, the program where all the songs were originally composed. My friend Dave Bechtel will eventually be mixing the songs in Pro Tools, but in the meantime, it helps me to hear what the songs might sound like.

I met with composer Rich Barrett last Monday, and plan to meet with him at least one more time before we go to Nashville Feb 3rd-5th. Rich is wrapping up string arrangements for two songs. He initially played all the string parts into Logic Pro, but is now completing the actual notation (for the string players) in Sibelius. Logic is a great program, but is a bit unintuitive when it comes to notation.

Here’s a quick recap of what we’ll be doing in Nashville – we’ll be recording a string quartet (which will be layered multiple times to create a large string sound) as well as guitar overdubs with Nashville studio musician Mike Payne. All of the “bread and butter” rhythm guitar parts have already been recorded. However, Mike will be adding the guitar “seasoning,” if you will – effect based guitar sounds and leads. The guitar sounds we’ve recorded so far fall into two categories – acoustic rhythm guitar and distortion/overdrive rhythm guitar. Mike will be adding guitar tones that make use of other effects – delay, chorus, tremolo, etc. These sounds will function to further set each song apart from each other, giving each tune a unique guitar color palate.

Today, I practiced for the first time with drummer Jim Davis and guitarist Matt Meyer. We hope to start playing out in the spring or summer to promote the new album. Eventually, the live band will consist of drums, bass, two guitars, 1-2 keyboards, and vocals. However, we plan to first nail down our parts as a three piece, and after doing that, we will start adding other players.

Nashville, Here We Come!

Looks like we will be tracking strings in Nashville on Thursday, February 3rd and electric guitar overdubs (in Franklin, TN) on Friday, February 4th. Can't wait!!!

In other news, I got a Korg nanoKONTROL from my sister for Christmas. It's been fun using this with Logic 8 and Pro Tools 8!

The album is coming along! I've basically been doing a lot of miscellaneous work - tightening up guitars, adding a few extra synth/loop parts here and there, as well as stream lining and backing up Pro Tool sessions to DVD. I also met with composer Rich Barrett before Christmas and am meeting with him again this week. We're trying to wrap up string arrangements for two songs. We need to hurry as we will be heading to Nashville in less than a month!

Production Update

Here are some things I’ve accomplished over the last few weeks.

1. Updated the operating system and firmware on my iMac and installed Pro Tools 8 (in the meantime, I’ve been running Pro Tools on my MacBook). I’ve been putting off this iMac update for nearly a year, fearing that it might interfere with the function of all my software instruments, effect plug-ins, and Logic Pro. Surprisingly, the updates have caused no trouble at all! Both Pro Tools and Logic (and all plug-ins) run seamlessly together on the same machine. There are many benefits to having Pro Tools installed on my iMac – (1) I am able to more easily export sounds out of Logic and then pull them directly into Pro Tools. (2) I plan to record background vocals and lead vocals using Pro Tools on the iMac, as the iMac is much quieter than my laptop and takes less time to get up and running. Before updating the iMac, I had to put the laptop in a closet when I was tracking to Pro Tools (3) the 21” iMac screen is much larger and is better on my eyes!

2. Consolidated most of the edited drum tracks (took the chopped up edited audio files and converted them to continuous files – ie. one kick drum audio file, one snare drum audio file, etc.)

3. Created “no drum” mixes of all the songs for drummer Jim Davis who will be playing in my live band. Jim and guitarist Matt Meyer are already getting together to work through some of the new songs. These no drum mixes will help them as they practice. I hope to start playing out with these guys (and a few others) this next spring or early summer.

4. Exported “no string” mixes for composer Rich Barrett who is working on tweaking the string arrangements for two songs.

I am gearing up to begin recording background vocals in January. As far as signal chain goes, I am using a Shure SM7 mic which runs into an API A2D pre-amp and then feeds via SPDIF (a digital connection) into Pro Tools. I’m looking at picking up a FMR RNC compressor for background vocals and an Emiperical Labs Distressor for lead vocals (both of which will be inserted into the API, separately of course depending on whether I am tracking background or lead vocals).

Catching the Bug

The last weeks have been slow as far as album progress goes. I’ve been a bit under the weather with what seems to be either the cold or the flu, accompanied by sinus and sometimes migraine headaches. Not the most fun thing in the world. Nevertheless, the album continues to move along. I met with composer Robert Nugent on Monday to go over the string arrangements for a couple songs, and am meeting with composer Rich Barrett on Thursday to go over the string arrangements for a couple more songs. I am also “consolidating” my drum edits, which basically means I am committing to the edits by converting sliced up files in single continuous files (one kick drum audio file, one snare drum file, etc.).

I’m getting close to having the money for the next Nashville trip. It now looks like we will be going to Nashville in early February to record real strings and electric guitar overdubs. Feels like I’ve been waiting forever for this next step!

I haven’t gotten around to recording new background vocals yet. I’ve already recorded some background vocals, but have more to record. It’s looking like January may be a good month for tracking BGVs. My good friend Matt Stepp may be singing some back up on a couple tunes!

These projects always take longer than expected. Nevertheless, it is rewarding to slowly see the finished product come together!

Demographically Speaking

Over the last couple months, I’ve been subscribing to Jango.com, an online radio station. It’s been a very helpful service! I submitted “Hurricane” from my 2004 album Backstage Pass and so far it’s been played about 2000 times, and I’ve made 84 new fans (from all over the world)! Jango is really cool in that it shows stats about the demographic and listening habits of one’s fans. For example, many of my fans also listen to Casting Crowns, Steven Curtis Chapman, Jeremy Camp, Nickelback, 3 Doors Down, Lifehouse, Linkin Park, Kutless, Newsboys, Daughtry, MercyMe, Jars of Clay, and the David Crowder Band. This list of artists is constantly changing as I make new fans. Nevertheless, it helps to narrow down who might listen to my music. I don’t think I sound exactly like any of these artists, but people who listen to these artists may also like my music. It also appears that the strongest listening audience (at least according to Jango) are female age 25-34.

So I’m curious if you think I sound similar to any artists/bands? (If you do comment, I ask that you use my album Backstage Pass as a reference, not Dishes or anything previous to Dishes).

Production Update

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful time with your families over the holidays!

Just wanted to briefly share with you what’s going on with the new album. Here are some highlights.

Met with composer Rich Barrett last week. Rich is giving me some pointers on a string arrangement I am working on for one of the new tunes.

Recorded English horn with Karen Pfeifer this past Sunday night. Really adds a cool touch to one of the new songs!

Re-recorded a couple electric guitar parts with guitarist Matt Meyer Monday evening. Matt’s Mesa Boogie amp was miked up in his basement while we recorded into my laptop upstairs (Pro Tools). Fun!

I’ve also made a few lyric tweaks here and there, and actually totally rewrote the chorus melody of one of the tunes. The melody is so much stronger!

I’m still doing a little bit of editing here and there, but I’d say I’m about 95% finished with all the editing (for what we’ve tracked so far).

It’s looking like we’ll probably be tracking strings and guitar overdubs (with the David Davidson string group and Nashville guitarist Mike Payne) sometime the first month or two of the year, possibly the end of the January. Exciting times!

Progress of the Album: Strings (Ch. 15)

Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been focusing heavily on finalizing string arrangements for two songs on the new album. Eight of the thirteen songs on Snapshots of the Shattered Soul have string parts. Rich Barrett has composed the strings for one song and Robert Nugent has composed strings for two songs, and I am writing the string parts for four songs (one being a song with a solo cello part only). I'm not nearly as experienced as Rich or Robert, but thankfully, they are giving me some feedback along the way. It’s definitely been a fun undertaking!

As far as the songs go, Rich has arranged strings for one of the key darker tunes on the new album (Rich arranged the strings for Hurricane, After Everything, A Thousand Gods, and By Now on my 2004 album Backstage Pass), while Robert has arranged the strings for two more positive sounding songs, one of which is a string/piano/vocal only piece. I really dig what both of these guys have brought to the project! I am working on the string arrangements for a couple heavier tunes (one faster, one slower), and two pop rock ballads (one louder, one quieter).

Writing Strings for Pop Music
Obviously, pop music and classical music are two completely opposite styles. With this, the string arranging process for each genre needs to be approached quite differently. Generally, classical music is made up of traditional orchestra instruments only –strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion, sometimes piano - while pop music is comprised of many other “modern” instruments – a drum kit, bass, electric and acoustic guitar, keyboards, piano, etc…. and of course, vocals. Both styles have their challenges when it comes to string arranging.

Classical music challenges the composer to carry the rhythmic energy of a song with orchestral instruments alone (there is no acoustic guitar strumming along to keep the song going). Pop music, on the other hand, may challenge the composer to squeeze string parts into an already full and busy mix of rhythm and lead instruments. As an example, string basses and cellos are a bit limited in what they can do in the lower octaves as there is usually already a bass guitar taking up much of the lower frequencies in a song. A bass guitar and a string bass would most likely clash if they were played at the same time in the same register (octave), especially if they were playing different notes. With this said, there aren’t many string bass parts on my album, although there is a lot of cello, as the cello has a much wider pitch range, and can potentially stay out of the way of the bass guitar. Violin or viola parts can also get in the way of guitar, piano, or synthesizer parts. As the rule goes with all arranging: every instrument/part should have its own sonic space.

Thinning the Parts
As Rich Barrett was working on his string arrangement, he spoke often of needing to “thin out the parts” which basically means that after his first draft, he had to go back and take out some of the more intricate inner parts (usually harmonies) as they would most likely be buried and unheard in the final mix with everything else going on (electric guitars, keyboards, etc.).

On Backstage Pass, Rich was limited in the number of parts he could write as we worked with the Nashville String Machine Orchestra and they would only allow us to record two passes for each song (a union thing, I think). We hired seven players, which means we walked away with what sounded like a fourteen-piece orchestra (7 players x 2 takes). If we wanted to have a bigger sound, we simply would have had to hire more players. Nevertheless, later in the mix stage, we did supplement these live strings with some string samples, which ultimately made the fourteen-piece orchestra sound even larger.

For Snapshots of the Shattered Soul, we are going a new route and are working with a Nashville-based quartet under the direction of David Davidson. One cool thing about this group is that they will let us record as many takes as we want – it’s just a matter of how much I want to spend as they bill per hour. This means that the string parts can be thicker than the number of players. In other words, we aren’t limited to four parts – that being cello, viola, 2nd violin, and 1st violin. Since we can record as many takes as we’d like, we can introduce a 2nd viola part if we want, or even a 3rd violin part. However, with this, we have to be conscious of the limitations that are presented when arranging strings for pop music – depending on the song and instrumentation, some string parts could be buried and unheard. Nevertheless, it’s nice to have the option of incorporating some thicker string harmonies into some of the tunes. As I mentioned before, Robert has arranged the strings for one song that is made up of piano, strings, and vocals only. He was able to take much more liberty with string intricacies, as the only other instrument besides the strings will be piano. In a sense, the strings act as the rhythm engine behind the piano and really help to carry the energy of the song from start to finish.

Recording the String Quartet
I explained this in my previous video blog, but will reiterate for those who missed the video. Although we are only hiring four players, we can easily make them sound like sixteen or more players. Why sixteen? Well, each player brings a 2nd instrument – that is, the cello player brings two cellos, the violist brings two violas, and each of the two violin players brings two violins. We will first record a pass of the quartet playing on their “first” instruments. We will next record a pass of the quartet playing on their “second” instruments. Then, each player will put a mute on his/her “first” instrument. We will record this as the third pass. Finally, each player will put a mute on his/her “second” instrument. We will record this as the forth pass. At this point, we would have created the sound of a sixteen-piece orchestra (4 players with 4 different instruments x 4 recording passes). However, if we wanted, we could record even more passes if there were more than four string parts in the song (like a 2nd viola part or a 3rd violin part, as mentioned above). The limitation is that we can only have four passes per string part. In other words, the 1st violin part could only be “four players thick” because the 1st violin player would only have four instruments (actually 2 instruments with and without a mute, giving the perception of 4 different violins). It is really not that beneficial to stack the exact same violin sound more than once. I can’t really explain why. I’ll just say that it’s similar to a choir made up of clones. Overdubbing the same voice(s) over and over wouldn’t create as large of a sound as a choir of many different voices. The same concept goes for string layering.

In a future blog, I will explain a little more about string samples and how they are selected, managed and integrated with the live strings.

Arranging The Strings

Marc talks about the process of arranging and recording the string parts for his new album.
(click on photo for video)

Progress of the Album: The Married Man (Ch.14)

Recently, I’ve had several friends ask me if “the way I go about writing and producing music has changed since I’ve been married.” Great question. In short, the answer is yes. For one, I’ve had to become more intentional about when I work on the album. When I was single, I could pretty much indulge in music whenever I wanted. There were times when my life was quite imbalanced. My social life really suffered when I was working on Backstage Pass. I would lock myself up for hours in my roommate’s basement trying to finalize an arrangement or a lead vocal. There were days and weeks when I was downright obsessive. Has marriage cured me of my obsessive tendencies? No, this focus on detail and perfection is part of who I am and is something I will fight to keep in balance for the rest of my life. However, now that I’m married, I’ve learned to better limit my studio time and try to break up the long production days with some healthy variety - a walk in the park, an evening with friends, or a trip to Graeter’s Ice Cream. Generally, I work on music Monday nights and all day Thursday (as Thursday is my day off from the church) and occasionally, I will be so wired that I’ll stay up all night only to pay for my lack of sleep the next day or two. A doctor once told me that I have an overactive brain, and I think he was right. Some nights, I’ll lay in bed with my iPod still listening to a mix I created earlier that day. I often listen to my own songs driving to work, either for the purpose of analyzing a mix or creating new parts (background vocals, etc.). I wish that my brain had an “off” switch, but since it doesn’t, I’m learning how to better put some space between myself and the things I obsess over. I am so thankful that Crystal is patient with and supportive of me as I work through this long musical and emotional journey.

Marriage has also been helpful in that Crystal has really inspired me to focus more attention on people and their needs. It’s funny that I once wrote a song called Look Like You that talks of Christ’s compassion towards people, yet I often struggle to really care about others like I should. My wife Crystal has such a beautiful heart and is always trying to help other people – whether it’s a card she sends to someone discouraged or a delicious dessert she makes for someone’s birthday. I have really been challenged and inspired with her love and concern for others. The lyrics to Snapshots of the Shattered Soul deal with a lot of issues, yet many of the themes are more outwardly focused (in that the songs are often inspired or supported by the experiences and struggles of other people) and I believe this subtle change in direction can in part be attributed to the compassionate example of my wife.

Finally, as most married people would say, marriage really acts as a mirror. I see problems with myself that I was completely unaware of when I was single. Issues I thought were fixed have often simply reinvented themselves. As the old kid’s song goes, He’s still working me! ("He" being God, of course) Since I’ve been married, I’ve been that much more challenged to confront my own immaturities face on. Looking in the mirror is good for growth, and on top of that, it gives a writer that much more writing material!

As the years go on, I’m sure I will have much more to write on as it relates to marriage, but for the time being, I am including a song of promise on Snapshots of the Shattered Soul which will be a reminder to me of what I’ve committed to Crystal. It has been a tough song to write as love songs are a dime a dozen, and I’ve struggled to find the words to communicate my love for my bride. This album would not have happened if it wasn’t for her encouragement and companionship. In conclusion, I’d have to say that making music is that much sweeter and meaningful now that I have a friend and teammate like Crystal with whom to share the journey.