studio update - worship album

it's always hard holding out for long term goals. whether it's getting through a 4 year college degree or simply waiting a day for the paint to dry on a model rocket, waiting for the payoff sucks. but it's so fun when you get that diploma.....and even more fun when you shoot off your rocket.

tricia and i started the wheels moving on a worship record last march. (NO, she is not quitting Superchic[k]).

a wise man once told me that nothing worth doing is ever easy, and he was right. after various label meetings, record contract negotiations and about 5 months of songwriting, we finally started tracking drums for tricia's first solo record which will be a worship record.

well of course i booked out the Cabin at Darkhorse studios. i love this room. it's absolutely my favorite place to tracks drums in nashville. when recording drums, one of the biggest factors in getting a good drum sound (after good player, good drums and good song) is having a good sounding room. it doesn't matter how high quality your mics are or if you have the best gear. if you have a bad sounding room that just means those mics will pristinely capture how bad it sounds. i'm no rocket scientist. i don't know a ton about the science of acoustics, but good rooms usually have a few things in common:

- high ceilings

-no parallel surfaces

-wood floors/walls (NO DRYWALL!!)

Anyway, here's a few shots and highlights.

trident series 80 console. i usually use outboard mic pre's, but if needed to, every channel has a high quality pre in it. it's not in-line like an SSL or the newer Neve's, but that doesn't make much difference if i'm using mostly outboard pre's.

here you can see the amek 9098 mic pre/EQ that we use on a pair of room mics. below it are two brent averill 1073 clones that we used on the outside kick mic and the snare bottom. i've decided that i'm not a huge fan of 1073s. i mean, sure they sound fine, but the EQ is so limiting. and speaking of the outside kick mic, check this out. i always experiment with at least one thing when i record drums. this time i tried a royer 122 ribbon mic on the kick. the attack from a kick drum usually comes mostly from the inside mic whereas the outside mic better captures the very low sub frequencies. ribbon mics are known for being darker, and since it's outside of the drum, i usually find myself rolling off the top end to get rid of the extra cymbal noise. but with the ribbon, i didn't really have to do that. finding a natural solution is usually better than having to carve out the sound with EQ. most ribbon mics are very sensitive to very loud noises, but the royers are specially made to handle a lot of sound. check them out here http://www.royerlabs.com.

of course we have vintech x81's which are neve 1081 clones. great sounding mic pre and a very capable 4 band EQ. side note - i finally got to buy one for myself. more on that in another blog.

the white piece of gear is an Amek 9098 stereo compressor which i absolutely love. rupert neve consulted for Amek after he sold Neve and this is essentially a clone of his own design. in a previous blog from Quad studios, i noted how i used the Neve 33609. what's weird is that i like the newer 9098 better than the 33609. anyway, i also used API 3124 pre's on overheads, hat mic, ride cymbal mic. and of course i'm taking advantage of those two distressors down there. although i don't have them pumping that hard....that sounds like a thats-what-she-said joke.

neumann m147's. i usually ask for these mics when i track drums are darkhorse and they always seem to be taken up by another client. i used very little EQ and these guys sounded great.

and of course the best part of the day.....

yes, that's right. i bring my dogs to the studio. DEAL WITH IT. and yes, my wife and i put clothes on them because they look cute. SO SUE ME. i would love to have someone look me in the eye and tell me that those aren't the two cutest dogs in the world. and if someone actually did, i would probably punch them in the face.

oh, and i think i went the extra mile on this blog because i actually got some video. here's the dogs playing, trish looking hot and joey sanchez playing drums in the background. his Mlasko kit and ludwig black beauty always sound amazing. it's one thing to record a good drummer, it's a whole different thing to have a drummer who really knows how to tune his drums. a better sounding drum means less EQ and a cleaner signal path. so anyway, here's the video. side note: the vocals you hear in the background are just a one take scratch vocal.

doctor visit

ok, i got a weird one for ya. a week and a half ago my ear started acting funny. like, really funny. i actually started hearing everything in a lower pitch in my left ear. seriously. if i whistled, i heard two distinctly different notes. i started to get freaked out that i was losing my hearing.

we were stuck in LA on some days off so somehow i found my way to a clinic in West LA. i'll make a long story short - the doctor saw me and said it was just an ear infection. i was relieved. anyway, he prescribed some ear drops and told me i could buy them for only $75 from him and that at a pharmacy they are normally $150. well, naturally, i was skeptical. when's the last time your doctor tried to sell you something? so i made some excuse and didn't buy it. the last week and a half i either didn't have a chance to get to a pharmacy or flat out forgot to get the prescription. i was just happy that it was just an ear infection and i wasn't losing my hearing.

today i finally had some free time to go get it filled. walgreens didn't have the drug. apparently it's not really used a lot. they suggested a more common drug that's very similar and universally used for ear infections. so they called the doctor, got the ok and switched it. as they were ringing it up, i braced myself for the total. i was expecting something brutal - easily over $100. but when she told me the amount, it was only $30. and no, that wasn't after an insurance co-pay.

so my question is this: was that first doctor just screwy? is it normal for a doctor to prescribe the more expensive and less-commonly used drug specifically so he can sell it to you right then and there in his office for a highly inflated price?

note to self: don't go to clinics in West LA.

Robot Voice

sometimes i hear people say certain things in social situations that are flat out wrong. but the statement is so trivial that for me to jump in and correct it would just make me look like some arrogant snob so i just end up letting it go. when someone insists that some urban legend is absolutely true, all of the sudden i'm captain buzzkill if i say the truth. and that's the story of how 90% of all blogs got started. so here's something that people continually get wrong that i am 100% sure of the answer. and it all has to do with the ROBOT VOICE. when i was in college, i went through a couple month period where i was obsessed with finding out how to do the robot voice. and for the enjoyment of the techies out there, here's how to do it.

There are actually 3 distinct ways to create a "Robot Voice"

1. Vocoder

2. The Talkbox

3. Auto Tune

1. Vocoder

The Vocoder is commonly mispronounced "Vocorder". yes, i know, vocoder is hard to say, but that doesn't excuse your linguistic ignorance. the vocoder works on the principle of combining the pure tone of a synthesizer with the modulation of a real voice. and the end product is a keyboard that sounds like it's talking. Your voice actually works on this principle too. Your vocal chords vibrate and produce a pure tone. but the way you move your move changes how that tone sounds, creating different sounds. So really, your vocal chords provide the pure tone, and your mouth modulates the signal. in a vocoder, the synth is the pure tone and you speak into a microphone which translates that modulation into various filters to make it sound like the synth is speaking.

one of the most popular examples of a vocoder in action is the famous "Mr. Roboto" by Styx

or for those of you born after 1985, at the end of "California Girls" by Katy Perry, the robot voice you hear singing the words "California girls" is also a vocoder.

2. Talkbox

The talkbox has been around since the 60's but was first made famous by Peter Frampton in Frampton Comes Alive where he makes his guitar talk. but when explaining the talkbox, i don't think frampton really counts as a pioneer. the "talking" isn't very clear. richie sambora of Bon Jovi used one at the famous beginning of "Living on a Prayer" but his talkbox playing just sounds like a glorified wah pedal, not a clear and concise talking. the hands-down master of the talkbox is Mr. Roger Troutman from the late 70s, early 80s group Zapp and Roger. You may not know the name, but if you've ever heard "California Love" by Dr. Dre, then you've heard Roger Troutman. He's the guy singing with the talkbox robot voice.

the talkbox works on the same principle of the vocoder, but it accomplishes this in a completely different way. the keyboard provides the pure tone, but instead of speaking into a mic and having the modulating sounds translated into a filter, the effect is accomplished in a much more natural way. the talkbox is essentially just a speaker with a long tube attached. that's it. you plug the keyboard or guitar into it. the sound travels from the speaker up through the tube and into your mouth. the way you move your mouth modulates the sound. it's actually kinda hard to do. it requires practice and skill which is why some people are better than others at it.

a few of you may remember a couple years ago when i was with TFK i used to play a talkbox at the end of one of the songs.

3. Auto Tune

Auto tune is probably the most recognized of the robot voice mainly because of T-Pain. Auto Tune has been around since the late 90s. In 1998 Cher released "Believe" where the robot effect was first showcased. It was actually an accident. back in college, i couldn't figure out how to get this affect. what's funny is that i had auto tune on my computer at the time, but didn't realize what the effect was. then one day for a recording school assignment i walked into a studio on music row in nashville and asked if i could sit in on a session. the studio manager walked me into a mix session with a guy named Reid Shippen who happens to be a big mix engineer in christian music. he was mixing a song by Jump 5 (remember christian boy bands??) and in the song they were using the robot voice i had sought after for so long. i asked reid what it was and he showed me and i felt like an idiot that it had been at my fingertips for so long.

auto tune works on a completely different principle than the vocoder or talkbox. the way the program "tunes" a voice is by analyzing the sound and determining what pitch it is. it then looks at the key you are in and adjusts the pitch to the closest note in the designated scale. one of the controls is for "Retune Speed" which controls how quickly the program adjusts the pitch. the human voice doesn't go straight from one pitch to another. it slides between notes. but the engineers for Cher's "Believe" stumbled upon the fact that if you turned the retune speed allllll the way up, it truncates that sliding and goes straight from one note to the other. and that's what makes it sound like a robot.

the best thing to come out of this technology would have to be the guys who do auto tune the news and gave us the famous bed intruder song.

so there you have it. three ways to do the robot voice. and i have also successfully ended another blog with the bed intruder song. SCORE!

stopit

This has always annoyed me.

some of you see this picture and don't need to read any further. you know exactly what i'm talking about. but for those of you who don't, i'll explain.

no, it's not the oversized floppy hats. it's not the goofy smile on the girl with dark hair and yellow dress. it's the awkward half-stooping pose that girls universally feel the need to do every time they're in a group picture.

did the photographer catch them right in the middle of sitting down? are they standing on top of a vent and are merely preventing their skirts from blowing upwards? do they need to use the bathroom?

so let me get this straight....you're hunched over, hands in your crotch, knees together and butt sticking out. for those of you familiar with the rocky horror picture show, it sounds strangely familiar to the time warp dance - but with one exception. the time warp was designed to be clumsy and awkward for the purpose of a movie. but the girl-group-photo-pose is somehow the status quo. every girl does it at one time or another. do they give lessons on how to look terrible in group photos during girls P.E. or something?

i know, i know. you're just trying to fit into the picture frame. well try this. when you take a group photo, stand there like normal and just make the person taking the picture take a step back. you can thank me 20 years from now when you're searching through old pictures and you don't look ridiculous. your welcome.

we are all weiners

sometimes destiny has your name on it. sometimes the skies open up and God looks down on you favorably for a moment in time. and sometimes you show up early to a KC Royals game to watch batting practice and you get asked to be in the hot dog race at the end of the 5th inning.

that is exactly what happened to me, @adamagee and @jordanmesser yesterday. i'll back up. here's a handy bullet point list of what happened:

* day off in Kansas City

* Burro manages to get us free tickets to the KC game

* we show up early to watch batting practice

* nameless, faceless Royals employee sees us and thinks to himself, "wow, these guys would look great in weiner suits"

* he approaches, makes his request. we accept. history is set in motion.

It was an epic race. while suiting up we were all making outrageous claims of who would lose and how. Adam was mustard, i was ketchup and jordan was relish. when the time came we got our two seconds on camera on the jumbo tron. i was talking trash. adam smiled politely. jordan mouthed "RELISH BE JEALOUS."

and then we were off. adam is good at everything he does so of course he won. me, being slightly overweight and out of shape came in last. but it doesn't matter. all that matters was that i made a fool of myself in a weiner suit on the largest HD jumbotron in the world.

how did you spend your friday night?

(video posted below)

choices

we all face decisions every day of our life. some are more weighty than others. as a teenager growing up i found myself constantly getting in trouble. and of course, many times i would find myself in the office of Pastor Mark. his mantra to me was something like, "Nick, life is full of choices, and what you choose every day affects the outcome of your life". everytime he would see me screwing up, he would just sigh and say "choices, nick....choices." this happened so many times that it almost became a joke if it weren't true.

sometimes we are faced with choices that pit the principle of what we believe against the realistic consequences of those decisions in the short term. for instance, when you have a screaming kid who wants too much candy, do you hold to your principles and suffer the crying, or do you give him candy and risk setting a precedent that the kid can get whatever he wants if he throws a big enough fit? many frustrated and exhausted parents have chosen the latter even though they know better. they let their emotions push them towards a pragmatic decision as opposed to an idealistic one - a decision based on principle.

i'm going somewhere with this. i promise. and ya know where i'm going? politics. yup. don't worry. i'm not going to try to indoctrinate you. i'm not trying to push you to be a republican or democrat. i just think there's a practical lesson to learn from the last two years about choosing between the pragmatic (the realistic, short term) decision and the idealistic (long term, principled) decision.

I supported and voted for Ron Paul in the last presidential election. i liked his small government philosophy and extreme respect for the constitution. i knew he was an outlying candidate that didn't have a huge chance at winning the election, but i really believed in what he said even when he didn't win the primary. some said i was throwing my vote away. and maybe i was, but i was facing a decision to either go with principle or go the pragmatic way and vote for McCain because it was more realistic that he would have a chance at the presidency.

here we are a few years later. of course Ron Paul didn't win. but i realized this - before that election, republicans were still big spending "compassionate conservatives." but now everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of smaller government and stronger individual rights. Tea Party candidates are putting old school republicans out of races. and speaking of the Tea Party, do you realize that the first Tea Party (other than the one in the revolution) was organized by Ron Paul's campaign back in the fall of 2007?

listen, i'm not trying to convince you how awesome he is. that's not my point. i'm trying to demonstrate that sometimes you have to just follow your gut and make a principled and idealist decision even if you don't see the benefit in the short term. Ron Paul's run for the white house was not successful. but it was hugely successful in changing the tone and the direction of the republican party. do what you know is right - even if you don't see how anything good can come of it.

15 Things I've Learned Recently

Hey everybody. it's been a while since i've shouted at you. i've grown, learned many life lessons and quite frankly, am a different human being than i was before. and by quite different, i mean i'm the same cynical, sarcastic and self effacing douche bag you all know and love. here's a few life lessons i've learned in the past few weeks:

1. don't try to film any video blogs while in the red light district in amsterdam. no matter how family friendly your message is, you're bound to get something a little PG-13 in the background of your shot

2. my sister @AlieghShields's music has turned out awesome. that's not so much a lesson as it is a fulfillment of prophecy. we'll have it posted soon.

3. don't mess with @jordanmesser. he will have a smile on his face and then all of the sudden SNAP on you and stab you with a water bottle. i learned that the hard way

4. i am the greatest fisherman ever - and by EVER i mean the best this tour bus has ever seen.

5. Losing weight is awesome....the part that sucks is the not eating as much as you want. 

6. i miss my wife. i will not see her for a whole month. to those of you enjoying superchick and stellar kart shows this month, this is the price i pay for your enjoyment. your welcome.

7. i miss my dogs. see #6 for witty, yet scathing comment.

8. if you have an iPhone with a cracked screen, people will constantly ask what happened. just tell them you have the cracked screen app.

9. a good show sometimes has absolutely nothing to do with how well you played or how good it sounds. it's about how fun and entertaining you make it for the audience. no matter how well we play SK songs live or how much we rock it out, kids still tell us their favorite part of the show was "A Whole New World."

10. i don't know if this qualifies as a lesson i've learned, but i have definitey learned that i want this guitar:

one of the guys in Philmont had this exact guitar at a show we played the other day. I COVET!

11. it's all about the song. we've been writing and writing and writing for Tricia's solo worship album that i'm producing. i'm definitely going to do my best to make the record sound good, but the most important part of any record is getting great SONGS. you can have the best production, the best gear, the best performances, but if the song sucks, no one cares. however, if you've got great songs, then at least you have a fighting chance of getting noticed. we've written about 15 songs in the last two months and have had about 45 songs pitched to us for the record. we're still writing and will have to narrow it down to 10 songs eventually. sometimes it's just a numbers game. the more songs you write, the more chances you have at writing a hit song. someone told me a while back that for Tim McGraw's latest album, they sifted through over 1,500 songs. and guess who wrote the lead single? Chad Kroeger from Nickelback. now i'm not a fan of douche bag rock, but the dude definitely knows how to write a hit song. he also knows how to be ugly.