Day #28

The Studio Edge Recording Series Vol. 2 is the second educational video that Jim is currently in the process of shooting. He’s spent a lot of time writing the script and reviewing it over the past few months. When it came time to start taping it, there were many things that needed to be completed. The most difficult part of the day was that the process was very time consuming and many little details had to be considered. This included the lighting, the positioning of the camera and the sound. When Jim taped a scene in the live room, there was a camera angled at his face and also another one pointed at him from a different angle. There were tall lighting stands that were positioned so that the scene looked good on camera. In addition, Jim wore a microphone that was attached to his shirt. He was reading his script from a teleprompter that covered the camera lens. However, it didn't interfere with the shot that the camera got; it was only visible to Jim reading the screen when he was standing in front of it. This is beneficial because it wouldn't appear pleasing if Jim was reciting lines and the viewer saw his eyes moving back and forth. I believe that could potentially be distracting.

When he was finished shooting what needed to be shot in the live room, everything had to be moved to the control room for the next scene. To begin a different section of the film, the first thing that needed to be shown was the chapter that Jim was going to be speaking about and what that chapter was called. My job was to write the chapter, its name, and which room he was taping in on a white board so that it could be filmed. The purpose of doing that was for when Jim went back to edit the film and put scenes in order, he would know which scene was which in case some tapes were out of order or the scenes were filmed out of order. I was grateful to be able to experience the taping of the video because I had never seen anything like it! It is a rewarding but tedious project that is not yet finished. Yet, I know that the end result will be great!

Day #27

The new acoustic panels for the live room, amp room, and bass room arrived at the studio. I was excited to see them and the newly painted rooms! We even held up the three different colored panels just to get a feel for what they would look like. It looked amazing and I can't wait for them to be put up. Jim, Joe, and Chase discussed what they were going to do about filming Jim's new educational video. There are some complications because it takes a lot of people to make a good production and it seems like there weren’t going to be enough people to help. Also, Jim normally films back to back, but it might have to be broken up for scheduling purposes. It is a challenging process but I can see why it is important that it gets done.

Day #26

Today Jim held a training session for the employees/engineers at Allusion Studios. We began in the live room where Jim talked about how to tune a drum kit. He showed us all of the steps and we each got to tune a drum by ourselves. It was so helpful for me to actually be able to physically do. I feel like I learned it better and retained the knowledge for the future. We also cut a hole in the front head of the kick drum so a microphone could be placed inside for a different sound. Before miking each individual drum, Jim taught us about the specific polar patterns a microphone can have. As well, he explained which microphone would be a better sound for a certain instrument. As an experiment, we set up two different types of microphones on a single drum to see how they would sound in comparison. Once that was completed, we went to the control room to set up a new file in Nuendo and created new tracks for each specific part of the drum kit we just miked. We recorded Jim playing the drum kit so that we could listen to how the mics sounded. For the drums with two microphones, we decided which ones sounded better in quality. I realized that the more expensive mic doesn't always sound better. It depends on what instrument it is being used for and where it is positioned. Additionally, Jim explained in detail about how the patch bay works and how to use it. I really dreaded this part because last time I tried to learn how to use it I was confused. After listening again and successfully completing a signal chain scenario, I was thrilled! I love that Jim gives his employees and interns an opportunity to try things because it is exceptionally beneficial. For extra practice and to become more familiar with the patch bay, Jim let us take home a copy of the patch bay map, which is basically a labeled diagram of the patch bay. I learned a lot at the training day and felt more comfortable being at the studio knowing I could apply the things I have been studying to the process of an actual recording session.

Day #25

The client today was a girl who sang in the vocal booth while she played the guitar. She is in the studio to "test the waters." She wants to be a musician, and before she came into the studio she had recorded some on her computer. Jim began the session by asking her essential questions that start the recording process. For example, he asked her if she liked her mix and if it was loud enough, and what the name of her first song was so he could make a file for it in the software. While she played the guitar part for her first song, Jim noticed that it was off key, so he gave her a tuner to try and fix the problem. As she played through again, Jim marked a few places that he believed needed to be recorded better. As well, he controlled the volume and heard a "string buzz" coming from the guitar. They listened to the whole guitar recording back with her mic on just in case she wanted to say a comment about it. At the very end of the song, Jim added a fade.

Before she started the second song, Jim had her retune her guitar. I observed that she was a talented and obviously experienced guitar player. There was a specific part of the recording she decided she wanted to take out, though, when she tried to explain it to Jim, he wasn't exactly sure where she meant. They continued working together and talking through it to make sure she got what she wanted. She still had vocals for the songs, so she had to check the timing with her guitar which is crucial. If the timing was off, I would assume that it would take a long time to try to fix everything once the vocals and guitar parts were recorded.

For the third song, Jim let her know when a note sounded sharp to him. It seemed to me that, for this client, it takes less time to play through an entire song and mark the mistakes rather than stopping every time and starting over. But it might not be that way for every client. As people say "time is money," and that is definitely true when you are in a recording studio, so to make things easier for everyone it is important to know how to save time. Although, I can tell Allusion Studios is not quick-paced so that the client feels pressured. Jim is efficient at making the client's quality sound great and the way that they want it to sound, while also staying aware of the time.

Once, she concluded the guitar for all three songs, she moved on to the vocals. Jim had her practice to warm up her voice. At the beginning, her voice sounded a little shaky. But when she began to feel more comfortable, her voice sounded more powerful and strong. Jim stopped for a second to discuss how much time she wanted to spend in the studio. He said that he didn't want to mess her up while she was "in the zone." He wanted to nurture what she was doing because it is about the client. She listened back to what they just recorded and wanted to redo the whole thing. I could tell that she was having a good time singing and recording. Yet, she remained focused and professional, which was admirable to me. It is apparent that Jim was producing with a bigger voice compared to when they recorded the guitar. He did "punch-ins" with her, which means he had her sing along while he recorded over the places that he needed to be redone. Jim saw that there were a few sharp notes. He explained to me that it takes a long time to notice pitches. I felt more comfortable after he said that. Many times, Jim's client asked him if her singing improved as she kept recording. It was difficult for Jim to say because he wasn't that familiar with the lyrics yet. She wanted to put echoes in the song and add harmonies. Jim blended the harmonies by adding a fade at the end of the song. Then he added a concert hall sound to the guitar, rendered it, and did the same for the other two songs. Lastly, he went into a different program to master it and make the CD. When the client asked what she could do to get better, Jim suggested that she practice and possibly go to a vocal coach, which I thought was extremely helpful information.

Day #24

I finally finished all of the website corrections for the Pure Wave Audio site. It took me quite a long time, however, it was an essential task to complete. I believe this because potential customers who are considering buying an item from the website could be turned off from it if they see an accidental mistake. By doing this assignment I learned more about how to thrive and look professional while running a business.

Day #23

The final show for the 2011 Battle of the Bands was at the Rialto. Allusion Studios was the sponsor, in fact. The six finalists were all talented bands, including Alisha Peru who recorded at the studio. She sang amazingly and I was impressed hearing her sing live! During the last band’s performance, Jim took me backstage so I could see what it was like and what went on. I thought it was the most incredible thing! It is a completely different feeling when you view the musicians from the side rather than from the front. Jim showed me the individual monitors that each band member had on stage. They each had their own mix of what they wanted to hear while on stage. Also, there was a monitor engineer who had control of what sounds would be heard in the monitors and occasionally he used his own monitor to achieve the sound the band wanted. I will never forget that experience!

Day #22

Vera Farmiga was in the studio to record voiceovers for the movie Source Code. There was a live mic in the control room and Jim used the phone patch so the producer of the trailer could be involved even though he was in another state. Vera had several lines she went through, and she said them in many different ways. Sometimes the producer for the trailer company, Adam, would tell her to say things faster and let her know when she could move on to the next line. She was polite and did exactly what he asked of her. When Jim heard her lips smacking, he gave her water to drink. It made a huge difference. When Adam was satisfied with the way the lines were said, she left the studio after being there for only a short time. Vera was polite but very direct; her visit was all business. Jim explained to me that she was probably in town for some reason and when they decided to redo her lines for a new trailer, they looked for a local studio and put her in it to work. He truly “mirrors” his clients. If they are like Vera, and are just strictly all business, he accommodates them. Yet, not all clients are like that. Some will talk for a while and hang around the studio. Jim edited the recordings and made the edits really obvious. I believe he did that because someone else would continue to edit it for the trailer. As well, he made it stereo 48kHz, 16-bit, which he told me was the number you use for video. I asked Jim if he always took clients who are famous, like Vera, even if he was busy. He said that if he can’t fit them in, then no, because he can’t do everything which I think is completely understandable. I have already seen the trailer for Source Code on television and it is extremely cool to think that I was there when she recorded those lines! I didn’t think I would have an experience like that!

I continued to work on the website like I had before. I fixed any words that may be wrong or something other than they should be.

Later, Jim told me that he wanted to put a grand piano in the live room. He has been looking for about two months and wants to find a really good one. So, Chase, Jim, and I went in there to measure the space it would take up just to see if it would fit. In addition, we measured specific places in the live room and guitar room because he is getting new acoustics. This is part of Jim’s new educational video, The Studio Edge Recording Series Vol 2.

Day #21

It was fun for me to post updates about new gigs that Jim’s band, Domingo DeGrazia, is going to perform. I posted them on his website and also on his Facebook fan page. I enjoy working on computers because I pick things up quickly and don’t really struggle to get work done. Jim also had me go on the Pure Wave Audio website to fix specific words. When creating the page, sometimes the letters show up as something other than they were intended to, so I basically changed them. This process is time consuming but it doesn’t bother me at all.

Day #20

The NAMM show is an enormous trade show that many people attend every year. It is a place where companies have booths to show new products to musicians and studios. In addition concerts are held and there are shows for people to promote business and fun things for people to do to be entertained. Jim, Joe and Chase recently went to it! When I talked to Chase, he said NAMM was so much bigger than he expected. They walked around for 3 days and still didn’t see the whole thing. Joe explained that NAMM has roughly the same number of people in attendance each year.

Chase has been working as the engineer on some projects, and he said it’s intense. After focusing for 8-9 hours, your brain is exhausted. I believe that concentrating for that long is something you must get used to. Chase also showed me some new products from the NAMM show that Pure Wave Audio is now selling. The advertisements were mainly for microphones and some were headphones. I was interested in learning how they attempted to sell to potential buyers. What did they say to make people want to buy their product? Obviously, they know that their buyers are educated in this business and know what a good product is and what is not. In the microphone ads, it talked about polar patterns and I wasn’t sure at first what that meant. Chase explained that it shows where the microphone picks up sound at a certain frequency. A bidirectional mic is good because you can have two people singing on two sides of it and it pretty much cancels out all other noise on the sides. I noticed that the ads didn’t have any prices listed. While at NAMM, Jim had meetings with his manufactures. They have a good relationship, which includes them expecting sales and Jim giving them feedback on marketing and quality of their gear. Jim’s plan going into NAMM this year was to seek out an acoustic guitar. The studio recently added instruments for clients to use, and the acoustic guitar was still needed. Since Jim doesn’t play the guitar, it has been a long, difficult process. He simply wanted the greatest guitar for the studio and saw a few that he liked. They are still looking and will hopefully find one soon! It has been a 4 month process.

Later, Jim showed about four people around the studio. I think that he basically has to sell his studio, equipment, and education all at the same time. I figure that the people are eager to see what he knows and what he has to say about recording and producing their unique sound. Jim explained to me that some studios may have equipment and no education and little experience. So a client could work there for 20 hours for maybe half of the price per hour of Allusion. Allusion may have a higher price, but it comes with 25 years of experience, the education, equipment, and instruments. The same job might only take 5 hours to finish in a proper facility like ours. Jim said “We never get in the way of the client achieving their goals like home studio does. Sometimes people are looking at price per hour which has nothing to do with realizing their vision. The home studios will never be able to realize their vision correctly so it is just money thrown away since the audio does not represent the artist.”

When I think about the business aspect of this profession, I conclude that you have to be polite and organized. You may have to make difficult decisions wisely so that they will benefit your company. It is important to know what move to make and how to handle specific clients. At the end of the day, Jim and Joe had a meeting, which I think is important. In order to stay on track with your company, you have to keep up with your competitors. Owning a business is complete dedication and determination. There is so much to think about such as new products, clients for the week, ways to promote the business. At this point, even thinking about that stresses me out. I wonder if when I am older I will be able to handle stress better. At least, I hope that is the case.

Day #19

I spent most of my time in the office. For a while I explored the Allusion Studios website to learn more about Allusion Studios. I enjoyed reading its content and seeing the pictures of people and events the studio has been a part of. Jim and Joe were extremely busy taking calls and working on the computer. What I like about this business is the fact that your mind never stops processing and thinking; I never become bored. I would dislike being at a workplace that deals with things I am not interested in. I love that music is the biggest part of a recording studio. Also, I checked prices on the Pure Wave Audio website, and made sure that they matched the real, current prices for specific products.

Tomorrow, Jim will have a session with a producer who will be in a different state. Jim will need to patch in the phone because the producer has to be heard through the computer. He needs his own file/audio track, just like all the other people involved in the project would need their own file/audio track on the program. I was able to create those files, with Jim’s help of course. In order to make sure that you could hear the person calling in, we tested it and called. The voice then came through the speakers, so it worked! As well, we checked to see if you could hear the caller through the headphones in the vocal booth, which you could. It was funny to me, when I talked back to Jim through the microphone. I wasn’t used to hearing my voice and it sounded a lot different than I had expected it to be!

Day #18

The band Ten Times Gravity had been in the studio to work on their album. Typically Jim is the engineer, however, Jim allowed Chase to gain experience as an engineer during the session since Jim was hired to play drums. The bass guitar player, Brian, was playing in the control room. He played different notes and measures because they were trying to figure out the bass part to the song. Throughout this time, Jim stopped him when he noticed that the bass was off key. Therefore, Brian tuned his bass and checked if it was on pitch again. Hearing many notes that are out of tune can actually de-train someone's ear, I learned. I believe that there are many reasons for guitars to go out of pitch. For example, if the player uses the guitar for a long time or if the player strums too aggressively on the strings, the strings could loosen and change the sound. Jim listened back to the song to "punch in" a few parts. In order to get the sound that you want, it takes a lot of playing and listening back to recorded pieces of the song. I wasn't aware of this, but there are several ways you could hit a note on the guitar. It might sound different than what you desire if you hit it too hard or too soft. Brian hit a note in a way that was different than what Jim wanted so, Brian cut his nails. I thought that this was kind of funny, but I understand now that it could make a difference in the way he played a note. It was interesting to me to see that if Jim couldn't find the notes he wanted to hear, he would sing them. In return, Brian would play the note Jim was looking for on the bass.

Chase spent hours adjusting and adding microphones to the drum kit that they used the previous day when the entire band was in the studio. He also made files, which means he named all of the instruments that they would use in the session into the appropriate computer program. In addition, he made the mix for one song, and copied it as a template into all of the others. Chase also was the engineer for that day while they recorded. He explained to me that it can get frustrating because there were guests in the studio talking and observing the session, so sometimes it was difficult to hear Jim when he spoke behind the kit.

Jim clarified to Chase that in order to save time editing later, now Chase could be very precise with the "punch ins." The bass player continued to play and even when he messed up Jim allowed him to keep on playing to get the feel of what he wanted. Sometimes the musician will play parts that he thinks of on his own. Other times, he does things over until he gets the "right" sound. As I have mentioned before, in order to succeed here, you must be creative and unafraid of failure. A musician will never be able to please everyone, but you have to be persistent. In addition, I observed that you have to be responsible and aware while in a session, no matter if you are the musician, engineer, or producer. All through the session, Jim was alert of the constant key of the bass, it was "off" to him. In my opinion, he is very observant and notices small things that could ultimately affect the song in a negative way and tries to fix them immediately. However, it seemed that there was nothing they could do as of that moment that could fix the issue with the bass. Jim wouldn't add tuning and noise reduction to the song, because he doesn't like how it sounds and said it "doesn't sound right." Since there was a recurring problem with the bass, Jim and Brian decided not to continue on with the bass part, after working on it for many hours. Jim says all the time that the bass is the most important part of the song, so he wants it to be perfect. They both wanted to continue but they preferred a five string guitar and not a four string, which is what Brian was using for the session. It appears to be an exhausting process but the outcome is the significant reward! I enjoy watching the process, honestly. It truly makes me appreciate a song more just knowing how much dedication, hard work, and passion goes into it. I always knew that before coming to the studio. However, being able to view it in front of me gives me a whole different perception. I was expecting the part of the process where the artist writes the lyrics, comes up with the instrumental parts, including guitar, drums, vocals, back-up vocals and more. Yet, I knew very little about the actual recording process and how much work goes into that!

Day #17

Instead of recording in the studio like bands usually do, Jim recorded a mariachi band at a church. It was a completely different experience for me, but I thought it was so incredible! Even before arriving on the location, Jim, Joe, and Chase had to pack things they needed from the studio into their car to bring to the church. They packed microphone stands, chords, a laptop that has the recording programs on it, and headphones. First, everything was taken out and set up. I got to set up microphone stands and plug in the chords that connected them to the computer. Jim and Joe set up the laptop and made sure the microphones set up in front of them corresponded to the placement on the computer. There were specific placements for all of the microphones. They had to be positioned in a way that would be best to hear the sound of the specific instrument. Each section of instruments either had their own microphone or a shared one. For example, the violins in the band shared a pair of microphones, while the three types of guitars each had their own. It was so interesting to see them warm up and practice! They were an extremely talented band. Sometimes one person sang lead vocals, and sometimes they would all sing together. There were about ten people in the band altogether. While they readied themselves, Jim was doing a sound check. I stood at one microphone and said “check, 1, 2, 3, 4” over and over until he was satisfied with the sound levels. I wondered if they had to be the same for each microphone. Jim also set up two microphones toward the back of the room. The band wanted to record here in the first place because they like the sound they hear when they play in the church. It was such an exciting thing for me to see! I loved every part of that experience!

Day #16

A band that I had observed before, Mercury Transit, was in the studio. Jim was having them listen to the song to see if there was anything they wanted to fix or add. At the same time he put in effects and delays. He mentioned that there were two lead vocals and that she, the lead singer, must have sang it twice. Jim asked her what vocal she wanted. Her voice sounded distorted and she liked the way it sounded. Jim explained that he thought it was too loud because it “cuts through” easily. She loved the setting of her voice; however, she was concerned with the fact that maybe she only liked it. I wondered if this came up with many artists. Did they make a decision simply because they liked it and didn’t care about how it truly sounded? Maybe sometimes you have to make a decision like that because you like it and hope others do too. Jim brought some of her original voice back in and the decision was that they liked the way that sounded better. She was concerned that when she sings this song live, if it would not go with the rest of the album. This made me curious as to how artists sing their songs live when the songs have effects on them. How does the audience hear it? I have noticed at concerts and performances on television that the effects are played on the speakers so the audience can hear. And the artist usually sings lead vocals, however they might play with their band as well.

Once Jim archived the virtual instruments, he rendered the song. For the second song, Jim and Mercury Transit went through the song and made more changes. He put a setting on the drums and a delay on the guitar. Also, she wanted to hear a warm sound with the reverb, so Jim brought up the bass. At one point in the song, there was a certain effect that sounded too much like the other parts. I realized that you have to pay attention to the entire song, as well as focus on smaller, more specific parts. I wonder if it is ever hard, as the engineer and producer, to stray away from doing something that you like. I believe that Jim doesn’t do something just because he likes the way it sounds. I know that he expresses his opinion but wants his clients to produce their own sound. After they finished editing, Jim had them listen to the song. When they were happy with it, he rendered it and made a CD.

Day #15

Jim was in the process of mastering for a client, Robert. This means that he was making the songs the same volume, deciding how much time there was going to be between each song, the order of the songs, adding fades, maximizing levels, and he turned up the bass in one song. I wondered why it shows the song in blue above the same in red below on the mastering program that Jim uses. I imagine that there are probably many different types of software. As an engineer, do you have to be familiar with more than one program?

Jim explained to me that he has more of a mellow song of Robert’s so he physically made it a mellower volume on the CD. Jim made Robert two masters. There is only so much that Jim can do when he is not part of the tracking or mixing process. He said that Robert recorded in a home studio so the music image was very small. The band recorded the tracks and did the mixes elsewhere. Lastly, Jim printed the name of the band, the title of the record, the date, and Allusion studios on the CD with a CD labeler.

A lot of the music industry is about image and not about the music. Even though I wish that people liked music because they actually liked the music and not just the person singing it, I know it won’t ever change. However, it is cool to think about how each city pretty much has its own music scene. In Tucson, I think it has changed negatively. I wonder what influences the changes. I also wonder how the music scene in Tucson differs from a city in California.

Day #14

Jim, Joe, and Chase discussed major business ideas. I realized just how much Jim does with balancing his engineering career at Allusion Studios and managing Pure Wave Audio. It has to take up a lot of time, work, and energy in order to keep up with it all. It is motivating for me to witness Jim’s eagerness to always be moving forward and prospering in a positive way! I can’t imagine how complex thinking of business ideas could be, it definitely requires creativity. Something I have observed while interning at Allusion Studios is that Jim often says things are “a learning process.” I am comforted by that because I don’t feel as intimidated coming into a different environment. It makes me believe I can make mistakes and not be looked down upon for them. Jim states that he wants to progress and move forward to be the ultimate, but at the same time, he has to be cautious and think about what he is doing. For instance, money is always a burden on someone’s shoulders, and I bet even more when you own a business. However, when Jim believes in something, he says he will put money behind it. I am confident that he is a strong business owner and knows how to run a successful business.

Day #13

Jim was playing the drums in the live room with a guitar player and a bass guitar player. I wondered if it was ever distracting recording with multiple people rather than just playing by yourself. Chase informed me that sometimes it is actually easier because you have that “live feel” and the musicians can play off the other musicians. In some cases, the clients may want to play in the live room to get the sound and the dynamics of a “jam band”, which is a band that plays together for fun and because they love it. I made the assumption that they all had different mixes that they were listening to through the headphones. I questioned how Jim could control the actions he usually does in the control room if he was in the live room playing the drums. Chase explained that he was using something called a wireless transport controller which allowed him to have some control over what he did from the other room. Editing-wise, Jim doesn’t have as much control. The transport controller has a playback button, rewind, fast-forward, and record buttons. I understood that this was a convenient device for engineers who participate in the session as a musician like Jim did. Jim edited the tracks to make them sound the way he wanted them to. Fernando, the guitar player, did a solo at one point in the song. His amp was in the guitar room so that it was isolated from the other instruments. Jim mentioned he could “de-noise” the buzz of the guitar and I didn’t comprehend what he meant by that. Chase told me Jim could take the frequency of the buzz, and then figure out what it looked like then subtract it from the wave. That would be removing the noise from the signal. Also, when the bass player came in late on the intro, Jim could essentially fix that so that it was the correct timing. The bass player was Jim’s client and he wanted the one song burned audio CD.

Jim explained to me that all clients are different as are his relationships with them. Some book the studio for two weeks, some for only three to four hours, and some every two weeks. Inconsistency is something you have to be familiar with if you work in this business.

Later I decided to ask about everyone’s education levels. Chase said that he went to college and the types of courses he had to take included music theory, ear training, and music history. In addition, he took guitar lessons, music business, economics, accounting, and piano. It was very interesting to hear about the classes. It is something for me to consider when I think about pursuing audio engineering as my career. I know that I would be extremely fascinated in classes like music theory and music history! Joe explained that also went to college and took a lot of the same courses as Chase. His degree was in music composition but I notice that at the studio he also does a lot of web development and communications. Jim achieved his degree in electrical engineering. I suppose that I could choose from several areas in the music field as long as it is something I am passionate about.

Day #12

The project that Jim was working on when I got to the studio was for his client, Wes. The client was in the process of making a rock oriented album. Jim was starting the mix for the first song so when Wes came in to sing he would be able to do it. The song has a lot of guitar tracks and too much of it could be distracting or not what Wes wants to hear while he sings. While Jim edited the song and listened to the instruments on the program, he sometimes muted one instrument in order to hear another better. He did that to hear what it sounded like as a single instrument as opposed to hearing all of the instruments together. Perhaps he also did it to get it to sound exactly the way he wanted. There were timing issues with the guitar that was played and recorded on the song. There is a lot that Jim could do, but since the chords were “hanging over” he couldn’t do much to fix it. Jim prefers to re-record the musician in order to capture best performance, rather than having to do a lot of editing. That is a great thing, in my opinion. What he decided to do was create an effect by putting in a delay. There was a part in the song that was “dead” and “dry” so Jim decided to add reverb/delay to it. He explained to me that messing with multiple effects to mask issues was not his favorite part, but sometimes has to be done.

Jim explained to me that this was a nine song project that had not been worked on in a couple of months. In addition, it had taken a while to even do the guitar parts, which makes the editing process a bit more challenging. He says usually it is easy for him to remember exactly the style and sound the client is hoping to achieve, but it gets difficult when hasn’t worked on a project in a long time and works with other clients in between. I can definitely understand why that would be complicated. In the second song, Jim edited out the “noise”, when the guitar is not playing, by deleting it. After adding effects to the guitar parts and making sure they sounded the way he wanted them too, he rendered it. Next was the third song, and it sounded different than the others. Jim said that he used mixes from a different song as a template for this song. I didn’t know you could do that, but it seems like it would save time during the process. For two of Wes’ songs, he has raw vocals. That means he recorded a vocal track before the final and perfect one, so he could remember the melody and specific way he wanted to sing it. Wes now has to come in and record the vocals to complete the songs.

Another client, John, came in for an appointment. He talked about his background and let Jim, and the bass guitar player, Chris, know why he wanted to start a project possibly at Allusion Studios. He had made a few songs for his family in his home studio. What he wants to do now is take the original songs but make them more professional maybe even more modern sounding. It was interesting for me to see Jim and Chris interact with this new client. I had never seen a new client start at the studio before. I really enjoyed hearing how much this meant to John and why he wants to make his music better. When we listened to some of his songs, I noticed that they only had lead vocals and a limited number of instruments. What Jim discussed with him was prices, dates for the project to begin, and the number of musicians needed to help with the songs.

The last client to come in today was Alisha. This day really showed me how packed and crazy one day at the studio can be! Jim and Alisha went through all three of her songs and listened to them. I could see the positive changes from the beginning of the process to what it has become now! Both Jim and Alisha made final edits on the song while listening. For example, in the first song, Alisha noticed when she sang the word “face” you could not hear the “c” sound. Instead of having Alisha sing it back in, he went to the trash can, on his computer, and took out one of the old tracks that she sang from the same line. He edited in only the word “face”. Then Jim rendered all of the virtual stuff and the first song was complete!

For the second song, they listened all the way through and then make final touches to see if there was anything they wanted to change, just like they did for the first one. I saw how Jim is a fair and professional person. He allowed Alisha to have so much say in the decisions made for her songs. I was not surprised because he had done that during the entire process but it was just exciting for me to see someone close to my age accomplish this. Once they finished, Jim rendered the different parts of the song, and then the whole song.

Lastly, they edited the third song. For example, at one point Jim asked Alisha if she liked the vocal volumes and she did. Jim mentioned that he thought he heard a wrong chord in the song. It turned out that he didn’t, but I wonder what would happen if there really were any wrong chords. Would she have to re-record them? How often does that occur? There was a certain part in the song where Alisha kind of sing/screams, and after that she wanted to add an interesting wind sound. Jim went to a website online and typed in what sound he was looking for. Many options were available and some sounded a lot better than others. Jim saved the one they agreed on liking and added it into the song. It was added like any other track would be and Jim faded it in and out. I believe this is called cross fading. In order to hear the new sound better, Jim put on the headphones, which he does from time to time. Then he had to make sure he and Alisha liked the volume of it. Finally, Jim rendered the song and mastered the CD. When doing this, the artist has to consider the order of the songs, meaning how they will appear as a final product. Also, Alisha had a picture that was going to go on the CD. The songs were finished and they sounded great!

Day #11

Joe and I were in the office and he told me about a newsletter that is sent out every month. The recent newsletter contained information about the Grammy nominations of a few songs that Jim had been involved with. He wanted to sort of push them out for Grammy voters. While Joe worked on that project, I edited Jim’s Pure Wave Audio website. There were a few products that needed to be deleted from the website, so that is what I did. For the rest of the time, Joe gave me a second tour of the studio. We went through each room and he explained to me in detail of what each item did for the entire recording process. It was an extremely helpful thing because now that I know more about the industry, I could comprehend and better connect the words he was saying with what I had observed. It was a drastic difference of knowledge for me compared to the very first day when Jim did the same tour.

Day #10

Chris, a bass guitar player, was in the control room today to perform bass on some of Alisha’s songs. He plays a bass guitar with four strings. Chris and Jim explained to me that the bass plays more of the single notes while guitars play chords. Jim said the bass player makes the song. Also, it helps the recording process greatly when they are open to suggestions and can respectfully work with others involved. This was helpful because I was only familiar with guitars and could now understand better what the session was revolved around. I noticed that Chris’ bass guitar was plugged into a machine in the control room. I was not used to seeing this because typically, I saw someone playing their instrument in the vocal booth or the other room. Jim explained to me that Chris’ bass guitar was plugged into a preamplifier and he could be in the control room because his instrument didn’t bleed into anything. By doing this, the electronics does it for you and the sound goes through the wire, therefore you could play with other musicians too.

For the first song, Chris tuned his bass guitar and played different things until he and Jim heard something that they liked or felt would work with Alisha’s song. They recorded a few different parts and then went back through it and decided to keep some parts and change others. I wondered how frequent musicians come into the studio not fully sure of the music they want to record. When Alisha arrived to the studio, they asked her for her opinion on the part. She quickly approved and Chris played it so Jim could record it as the final piece, not as a trial anymore. They all agreed that this song had a lot of piano so they didn’t think the bass should be moving around as much.

For the second song, they added bass as well. After figuring out how Chris could play in this song, they were all satisfied. The bass didn’t draw attention to itself in this song, yet it was still important to have it. However, at the bridge, Chris was allowed to drive and draw more attention to the bass guitar to balance it with the tension of the song at this specific point.

Lastly, the third song required bass too. Chris said it was best to keep it simple and not add too much bass. Even though it can be tempting to fill it will a lot of bass, or any other instrument for that matter, it is best to know the sound that you want to achieve, and I observed that all of the people involved in this process definitely knew that. The whole time I am in this session, I can’t stop thinking about how badly I want the songs to be finished just so I can listen to them all the time! I wonder if Alisha’s songs are in the last stage of the process because all of the instruments have been recorded on the tracks and most of her vocals.

Day #9

The client in the studio today was Zia Aslamy, he is an engineer and said that making music was just his hobby. He spent time in the vocal booth singing in a language I was not familiar with; Afghanistan. I noticed Jim was correct when he said that the beats for the music change every measure so you can’t try to keep on the beat, it won’t work. This was obvious to me as I continued to listen. The effect that Jim had on his vocals sounded like an echo. It was an interesting sound and I hadn’t heard it before in the studio. I enjoyed the way it sounded. To me, it was truly exciting to see a song being recorded in a different language. It made me realize that no two sessions in the studio will ever be the same. There are so many different people in the world and they all have a unique way of expressing themselves through their music. Also, it takes each client a certain amount of time to correctly do what they want to a song depending on the song and the client’s ability.

A question I did have was if a client comes in the studio, like today, and records in a language you don’t speak, does it pose any problems during the process? It doesn’t seem to me that it does, in the session at least, especially considering the fact that both the client and Jim speak English. Zia decided he wanted to add harmony and Jim offered his opinion on it. I wonder how it would feel to know you influenced even a tiny part of a song and you loved it, or maybe it became really popular!

There was a part in the song where the client described as “empty.” Jim said this meant one instrument was dropped at this point and the client wanted to add a different one. So Jim copied the instrument the client preferred from a separate place in the song, into the “empty” part. Then, Zia was pleased with the way it sounded. The last step of the process was mastering the song. Jim explained that he used a program for making CD’s to do this. I believe that Jim controlled the volume and matched it for both of Zia’s songs. He made it consistent and balanced. Jim made the time between the tracks what he wanted. The other program that Jim used while recording and editing dealt with vocals and instruments. While the one for mastering dealt with each track that be would on the CD. Think of it this way, if one song was done in a home studio and one was done at a different studio, mastering would make them basically match in sound. If one song had too much bass, you could add bass to the other songs, or put less bass on that one.

In the office, I asked Joe about a few terms that were not easy for me to understand. He informed me that a fade-in fade-out was exactly what it sounded like. Also, that cross fades were used to smooth transitions so they were not audible to us. Compression, he clarified, was an audio process that takes a wave file, squishes it down and averages it out to the same level, then compensates the volume. For example, Joe stated that most pop music is over-compressed. And classical music actually has dynamic contrast, a difference in loudness and softness. He was truly insightful and opened my eyes to something he called volume wars, which is occurring today. A lot of people in the music business are competing for the loudest song on everyone’s iPod and radio. They are not focusing on the beauty of music, such as dynamics in the songs. It is kind of sad to me that music has gone down so much that they just want their songs to be the loudest, instead of simply trying to reach out and help others while sharing their love for music.