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I was reading the Utica Observer Dispatch supplement- either the Weekend Plus or Fusion (the free weekly magazine they introduced to put The Vine out of business) and I ran across an article about a woman named Diane Schnier who had recorded her album of original material at home with her husband. The article also included a website address that you could preview the material (www.alschnier.com/diane/). Of course I checked it out and guess what--really liked what I heard. I've since listened to the entire album and it is a real treat. Diane's husband Al Schnier of the band moe. helped with recording and other technical aspects of the cd. In their owns words, here is their account of what they did. DIANE:
What we had to start with were cassette tapes with 75 songs that I had written 8 - 10 years ago. The songs were just piano & vocals - as low-fi as it gets. First, we transferred the songs to cds. Then we got our A list together and made an outline for each of the 14 songs we were using. Al figured out all of the instrumentation - when things would come in and out, etc. I think he did a fantastic job with the production. It seemed he really knew just what to do with each song. He's a natural. I could have never done it without him. Since he did all the technical work, I will have him write about some of his experiences recording the cd. He used Digital Performer (Digital Performer is an integrated digital audio and MIDI sequencing production system. It provides a comprehensive environment for editing, arranging, mixing, processing and mastering multitrack audio projects) and it worked great up until the mixing phase. We started to have problems at that point, were able to overcome them, but it was quite frustrating and time consuming. I'll let him take it from here. Meanwhile, we were in the process of finishing the basement, which included a playroom for the kids & a playroom for us. Our studio space is about 15'x20', pine floor, double sheetrock + insulation on 3 walls & ceiling, block foundation on 4th wall. It really makes a great control room / overdub studio space. There are also lines (16 mic, 8 spkr, ethernet,etc in ea. panel) run to 3 other rooms in the house (incl. the living room). Once the studio was complete, we moved in (Cochi painstakingly wired everything). Over the course of several years I have been collecting vintage recording gear. I have several old Ampex 350 & 351 tube mic pres, altec 1566 pres, siemens V72s, U74s, langevin am16s, api 512s & an old allen & heath console from the '70s which belonged to jim o'rourke (wilco, sonic youth). Once we were up & running in the studio, we got down to vocals (Sony C37a (microphone) > api 512 (preamp)> api 550b (eq)> Distressor (an automatic gain (or volume) control device (AGC in engineering terms) designed for pro audio (music) applications.) > MOTU 896), guitars, additional keyboards, bass, percussion, etc. There are also several tracks of midi keys recorded direct thru Reason (Reason is an expandable music workstation on a CD-ROM, complete with its own realtime sequencer.). We used MOTU's Digital Performer 4 for the whole recording. We even switched from one 828 to two 896s. Everything was smooth until we got to the mixing. Our good friend, Bil Emmons (Yo La Tengo, Jon Spencer, Sonic Youth, moe.) came up for 2 marathon sessions to mix (& fix the mess I'd made). This was my 1st time really tracking a traditional album from scratch. I learned a lot along the way. My initial tracks sounded pretty weak, but they improved as the recording evolved. Bil made them sound sooooo much better. Problems arose once we started sending tracks from Digital Performer into the real world & back again. It started getting glitchy on us. Granted, this whole thing was being done on a 1 ghz/1gb G4 ti laptop. Perhaps a dual processor G5 would have helped??? Most songs were about 16 tracks in the end & we managed to get them all mixed w/o losing any music to the digital netherworld. In the end, the process was a great learning experience. I'm really looking forward to the next one. Diane did a great job. The learning curve was huge, as she'd never made a proper recording - ever. anyone who's been thru this, knows what a cruel psychological experiment studio recording can turn into. She was cool throughout & did a great job w. her music. I've since made the switch to pro tools (digi 002 rack + mbox for the road), hoping I will not run into the same glitches on the next mix. If you've never recorded an album length cd yourself, you really should. The equipment is affordable and the final results can be quite surprising. The next three installments of this column will follow the complete process of recording your own cd by following drummer Robin Banks' progress as he creates and records his cd. Banks was the drummer for the 80s rock band Roger Wilco & The Radiowaves (yeah they had hair mouse and eyeliner!) . Banks has recently been diagnosed with tinnitus (a hearing disorder that results in a constant ringing in the ears). The cd entitled "42"took two and a half years to make (done in his spare time), is his first effort. You'll hear how raw cassette recordings of mumbled songs are turned into a final cd. (I'll have some mp3s) I am certain your raw recordings will compare favorably to the ones you'll hear from Banks and the ones that Diane Schnier used. Your garbled barely barely listenable snippets of songs really can be turned into a cd! Also info about mastering, cd art production and how to cut corners on a project without cutting your musical throat. If you have any tips send them to me. |
Al has had some prior production experience, as he's produced several tracks on moe. albums and has also produced both of his solo albums "analog" (al and the transamericans) and "al.one" (electronic instrumental). alone. was the first album that he actually engineered as well as wrote and produced, but the recording process was far less traditional that with "before cowboys". In any case, he had enough experience to get us started & he figured the rest out as he went along. I was really amazed to see the whole process and amazed that we were doing it here in our home. Al & I were always very busy in the evening, but usually doing different things. It was really nice to have a project like this that we were working on together.