EMU – MTF - Week 9 Blog

This week is Music Tech Forum Steve touched on different musical genres and their respective characteristics regarding style/ mixing and production. It was interesting to note the different periods of time, as well as different geographical locations that, in turn, ended becoming benchmarks for certain styles and genres, some times even spawning their own sub-genres.

Among other genres, one I found interesting was Jazz production. The drum kits used appeared dry and notably bright in a lot of the examples shown. Also, there wasn’t a lot of Kick Drum in the mixes. We learnt this was to leave room in the mix for the Bass (most probably ‘Double Bass’ when we are talking about Jazz). Production wise, less overdubs and effects, like compression, were used and in general the essence of the Jazz genre was usually maintained by capturing the special kind of ‘live and spontaneous’ aspect. Another thing to note was the panning in the mixes in the examples we were listening to in class we’re panned accordingly to have that live feel, to keep all the elements sounded organically separate. When listening to these recordings they created the feel of being in the same room as the artists when it was recorded. This was because the production style utilised was mainly focussed on capturing the musicians in a natural, roomy and pure kind of way.

We also touched on Reggae and Ska. Some of Reggae’s hallmarks were loud bright sounding cymbals, guitars and keyboards with radical panning, rhythmical delays and the use of flangers/ phasers. Sharing similar characteristics as Reggae, Ska was a bit faster but retained the ‘off-beat’ feel on the drums, only at a faster pace.

Trying to steer away from my usual focus of Hard Rock/ Metal, I might add that the production traits of Blues recordings also stood out. Blues production has its fair share of close miking, additionally we also learnt that the ‘Green Bullet’ mic (Shure) was very popular. The main element that stood out with Blues was that it was ‘no frills’ and performance driven. That is just the nature of the essence behind the music. We heard examples of artists like BB King, Leadbelly, John Lee Hooker and Muddy waters. The employment of distorted/ overdriven harmonics and that raw ‘stompfoot’ percussive feel really adds to the whole idea behind the blues movement. I personally really appreciate the way this genre retains the heart and soul of way back when it began, almost to the point that they still use the same production techniques and ideology even today.

EMU Blog - reflections - week 7

In class I presented Ross Robinson as outlined in the previous blog, so i will discuss some of the other speeches.

Jake presented Kevin 'the Caveman' Shirley, a producer, who was born in Johannesburg in the 60's and moved to Sydney, Australia, in the late 80's. He's worked with many artists ranging from Dream Theatre and the Black Crowes to Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin. In more recent times he has worked with Australian artists, Silverchair. He likes to work with both analogue and digital and enjoys recording artists in a live room, as well as believing each member of the band is entitled to their own monitor when recording. The latter is probably due to his 'band playing together' style of recording. I found this quite interesting.

Scott Talked about wheelchair bound Trivium producer Jason Suecof. The part that stuck out the most was when Scott played us a sample of a Trivium song that had a bright acoustic guitar at the same time as a dull sounding piano. I would take a punt and guess that they are actually complimenting each other in the mix of the song, as they both can co-exist with enough space to breathe. I believe this may be because Suecof purposely made them contrasting tones, so that they would occupy different parts of the mix, possibly using equalisation.

Ben spoke about Eddie Kramer, a prolific producer born in Cape Town, South Africa, who had worked with such greats as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Joe Cocker and the Rolling Stones. I previously didn't know he founded electric lady studios with the help of Jimi himself. Which was named after Hendrix’s album of the same name 'Electric Lady', which i might add was apparently his highest rating album in the US. Another interesting point is that Kramer is a master of live albums, having produced them for many of the artists mentioned above.

Reference:
In class presentations

Presentation - Ross Robinson - (from Week 7)

Ross Robinson is a successful record producer of hard rock music. He is known for loud dynamic recordings. Robinson is also infamous for essentially launching the whole nu-metal fad.

Robinson has worked as a producer for acts such as Sepultura, Machine Head, Fear Factory, Slipknot, Glassjaw, as well off-beat acts such as Limp Bizkit and Vanilla Ice, amongst others. Back in 1983 Robinson played in a thrash metal band, as a guitarist, with the ex-drummer of machine head (Dave McClain). He was drawn towards engineering and picked up some of his knowledge of producing from the studios where his band recorded demos. After a few years Robinson was well-versed enough with the recording studio that he received his first shot at a production job as an assistant engineer for W.A.S.P.'s 1993 album 'The Crimson Idol'.


Robinson developing style was and still is to this day one that values ‘keeping it pure and real’. What this means is he is most about capturing the essence of a band and the energy behind them, which is to me, one of his most endearing factors. He also values getting quality raw sounds from the equipment first rather then tampering and editing them later. Ross is also and self pro-claimed ‘analogue junkie’, and to this day he still likes to use old ribbon mics for vocals and vocal effects.

Not long after he got his foot in the door, Robinson recorded as massive breakthrough debut for the band 'Korn', which was extremely successful, so much so it started it own sub-genre. The band uses de-tuned 7-string guitars, as well as a very bass/ rhythm section driven sound. The raw sounds that Robinson pulled for them captured much of the bands energy and displayed in such a way that much of the hard rock listening public had never heard. The sound was unique, and to some a new benchmark for a new breed of de-tuned heavy metal. I found the ‘Sans Amp’ effects processor used on the de-tuned, 5-string bass guitar and raw kick drum sound contributed heavily to this signature sound.


This particular recording started a trend which many to follow would try to replicate, some better then others. To me, a lot of the many imitations that followed ended up sounding, not only like watered down versions of Robinson’s style, but also missing the main focus of ‘capturing the performance’ and a bands spirit like Ross achieved. This may be because apart from trying to pulling great sounds, production wise, one of Ross’s main roles is working with the artists to harness and attain a great performance with feeling out of them.


I might be added that since then he has denounced the Nu Metal movement for becoming complacent and the newer bands for not expanding on the style.




Another extremely successful recording Robinson did, which also was successful of pushing this low tuned raw sound into the mainstream, was Sepultura’s album ‘Roots’ that was released in March of ’96.

With this recording Robinson opted on getting ‘the right sound out of the right equipment’. To Ross, the less you have to mess with the sounds in post production, the better. I believe this is because Sepultura are an extremely organic sounding band, and Ross knew this and wanted to capture and harness it. He used almost entirely vintage gear as well as had the renowned transparency of indigo ranch’s (The studio in which they recorded) rooms at his disposal. The results speak for themselves. In conjunction with the de-tuned thick base sound acquired by a ‘Musicman’ bass, the low and brooding vocals by Max Cavarlera and the organic drum sound, this tribal sounding recording was very well received.


After this time, Robinson signed a deal with Roadrunner Records that officially casts him as A&R scout/in-house producer, which essentially gives him the power to ‘discover’ and produce the debut albums of three new acts per year through the Roadrunner imprint label ‘I AM Recordings’. Since then, new acts are now being distributed under the Virgin label. Robinson continues to produce records, especially for artists signed to his own label. The artists currently signed to his label are Amen, The Blood Brothers, Glassjaw, Slipknot.



In more recent years, Robinson has also been successful in the post-hardcore genre, producing ‘At the Drive-In's’ final and most successful album, Relationship of Command in 2000, as well as Glassjaw's albums, ‘Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence’ (2000) and Worship and Tribute (2002).




Another unique sounding band he recorded around this time was The Blood Brothers album ‘...Burn, Piano Island, Burn’, which was again, a departure for both the band and Robinson. In contrast to The Blood Brothers' previously underground and often under- produced recordings, it featured much longer and more complex songs and arrangements, while Robinson's decision to work with a previously little-known hardcore band with experimental leanings was uncharacteristic with his previous choices of more straight forward nu-metal acts.
Robinson has also continued to try new things and work with different types of artists since. He worked with The Cure on their self titled album (2004), which is quite a big departure from some of the material he had been to previously.


Even so, each one of these collaborations with different have still retained his trademark loud and dynamic style. Another unique sounding band he recorded around this time was The Blood Brothers album ‘...Burn, Piano Island, Burn’, which was again, a departure for both the band and Robinson. In contrast to The Blood Brothers' previously underground and often lo-fi recordings, it featured much longer and more complex songs and arrangements, while Robinson's decision to work with a previously underground hardcore band of an erratic and experimental nature was uncharacteristic of his previous choices of working with more common nu-metal acts.



In conclusion, it appears since Robinson had the momentum behind him to hand pick the bands the he wanted to produce, he has been able to attempt to step outside his comfort zone and take more risks. I get the feeling that he wants to collaborate with increasingly unique artists and now has the freedom to do so. In the future, I'm sure he will find what he is looking for.





References:



Australian Musician

http://www.users.bigpond.com/apertout/Robinson.htm

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Robinson