New Monday #15
Happy Monday,
I'm still experimenting with the format. That might never change, and it probably shouldn't.
(If you're creative and not experimenting then somethings wrong).
All the links are now tucked into paragraphs, and people asked if the musical examples could start at exactly what I'm writing about, so I did that as well.
I really appreciate all your comments and ideas. Please feel free to write and suggest. New Monday is here to inspire you and open ears and minds to possibilities, mine included.
I think it is best we start off with a song today. Something mellow and sort of sad, like Memorial Day in the US, so have a listen to Paper Tiger by Beck. This is a great recording and performance. And we will chat about it lower down the newsletter...
Developing Plug-ins: the Dan Method
We get asked a fair amount about how we develop plug-ins and why our plug-ins are the way they are. A lot of what we're about is revealed in this blog post Dan wrote about how he developed the Talkback Limiter. Did you know the TBL started as a DIY project with circuit boards, resistors and wires, etc.?
Minimal Drum Micing and Drum Tuning
Drum recording has evolved from letting them bleed into the vocal mic to over and under micing every piece of the kit... and then replacing everything with samples.
The Glyn Johns Micing Technique keeps popping up. It's not really a fixed technique as much as it's an approach, and Glyn Johns himself kept evolving and changing it.
In a nutshell, it's a mic on the kick, and then two overheads, one basically over the snare, the other somewhere near the floor tom. Often, though, extra mics were tossed in there as needed, depending on what was lacking.
You've heard this sound a lot — The Rolling Stones from Beggars Banquet to Exile on Mainstreet, the first Led Zeppelin album, and on and on. It's the sound of the early 70s.
I stumbled across a really excellent video on the Glyn Johns thing, and on minimal drum micing in general. But what's really good about this video is how Joel from DrumsDotPizza ties drum tuning into the whole picture.
Tuning is not just a way to make the drums sound good, but getting them pitched correctly changes how they're picked up by mics. This guy gives away a lot of good information that applies to all drum recording, not just when you're being minimal about it. This is the most valuable thing in this week's New Monday.
Stealing Ideas and Influences
Back to Paper Tiger...
This song has been on my mind since I first heard it. I love the sounds, and the orchestration. I originally pulled it into this newsletter because it seems to be a pretty good example of minimal drum micing, but I would bet it was tight mic'd as well. Whatever, a dandy fine drum sound. But there's more...
Steal this:
There's wonderful interplay between the guitar on the right channel and the string section on the left—it sounds like they're soloing off each other, and I was wondering how the hell they pulled this off. Turns out Beck sang the string part, and then his father arranged it. This is a very stealable idea.
The theft, or inspiration, gets worse. Or better?
Paper Tiger, and Beck's Sea Change album from which it came, are influenced heavily by a 1971 album called Histoire de Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg.
Histoire de Melody Nelson
Gainsbourg is... beyond France's Bob Dylan? Culturally, in France, he's a HUGE deal.
Histoire de Melody Nelson is a concept album about a middle aged man hitting a 14 year old English girl with his car and then seducing her. And then she's killed in a plane crash. I kid you not. Needless to say, thematically, this wouldn't float at all today. It was controversial when it came out.
But the album was a tremendous critical success, and very influential. It featured very close mic'd vocals, a bass and drum driven funk groove, psychedelic guitar parts, and wonderful strings by arranger Jean-Claude Vannier. Have a listen to the first track from it, Melody.
See where Beck got Paper Tiger?
But not only Beck. There's also this recording by Goldfrapp. It's much tighter playing, but those string parts seem awfully familiar, as does the whole vibe.
Not sure you can hear it, but the chorus is a V - IV progression that we talked about a few weeks ago.
And more. Here's a song off Melody Nelson with a distinctive acoustic guitar part...
Note this highly very extremely similar guitar part on this song by French electronica pioneers AIR.
J'adore AIR, and their entire career seems based on mixing Melody Nelson with certain songs off Dark Side of the Moon... like this song Highschool Lover. Sounds a lot like Breathe (in the air), doesn't it? Just add the bass and strings from Melody Nelson.
And there are of course, more people who dipped into the Melody Nelson pool. Portishead. Jarvis Cocker. Placebo. Michael Stipe. The list goes on...
Is it an influence? Is it stealing?
Is it something that actually matters? It doesn't seem to.
Be influenced. Pick ideas like flowers and put them in your garden and let things grow.
Now get out there and borrow!
Warm regards,
The guys at Korneff
