ASSR is a proud sponsor of the Line 6 event series What's Next Musicians' Conference . The next stop is in Los Angeles at Studio Instrument Rentals (6465 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA, 90028) on Saturday, August 10, 2013. For more info and RSVP details, check out this Line 6 article.
Announcing the official Appophone profile on AppShopper Social (Link opens in App Store).
Profile name: Appophone
By following our profile, you will stay up to date on our favorite iOS music production apps. We have some great apps on our list that will get you started making music on your iPad or iPhone.
In case you haven't used Appshopper before, the website and app allow you to discover the latest popular apps on the App Store, add apps to your own wish list, and keep track of apps you already own.
Jim Dalrymple has been on a roll with his links to music production resources. This checklist makes for a valuable guide that you can quickly refer to during your mixing phases.
As you may have noticed, sometimes our Appophone blog does not post the ASSR Album of the Week on Monday. We will try our best to post our mini-reviews on Mondays, but in the meantime we can assure you that the actual Spotify playlist gets updated every Monday. What does this mean? As long as you are subscribed to the ASSR Album of the Week playlist on Spotify, you can stay ahead of the curve and listen before our blog posts are up!
This week's pick is for the brave of ear; it's the "cro-magnum opus" by the experimental band Battles known as Mirrored. Released on May 14, 2007, on Warp Records, this album represents a dynamic shift in the way mathematical patterns and rhythms coalesce with noise and glitch-influenced melodies. This band has changed in recent times, losing vocalist Tyondai Braxton (son of avant-garde composer Anthony Braxton) and collaborating with other stars like weirdo-in-his-own-right Gary Numan on My Machines (check out the incredible music video below).
Battles "My Machines" from DANIELS on Vimeo.
The best way to enjoy this album is with an open-mind. I'm not just saying that because the songs are barely accessible or outside the realm of popular appreciation, but because you will simply gain a lot more creative insight as your brain unpacks the wild resonances and polyrhythms. Think of this album as a modern exercise of Mike Patton's courageous beat-treat manifestos.
Prepare to have a lot of fun with this week's selection from the ASSR blog. The latest ASSR Album of the Week is Ars Longa Vita Brevis by The Nice. I hadn't heard of this album before today, basing my selection on a process inherited from years of being a British mod/rock DJ on KZSC-FM. What I would do on my radio show is go through the stacks of old records from the late 1960s British rock scene and look for either familiar band names or cool-looking album sleeves. That is how I found the astounding Nuggets and Pebbles series of rare rock compilations, and would cue up a fresh-to-my-ears track on the air. Similarly, I searched for some older English rock albums on Spotify and came across Ars Longa Vita Brevis and it's X-ray skeleton (almost kaleidoscope-gothic) album art.
This is the second album from the English band that comprised of Keith Emerson, Lee Jackson, Brian Davison, and up until half-way through the completion of
- Ben Cruz
This week's selection is Beck's Sea Change, an album reserved for sincere moments of tenderness and longing. A collaboration with producer Nigel Godrich, Beck recorded the album at Ocean Way Studios following an emotional breakup with longtime girlfriend. As in most pro sessions, the setting and tone of a studio location can make a palpable difference in the sound (you might recall Alan Parsons at Ocean Way Studios during some of the scenes in ASSR).
Whether you think the added reverb effects transport you into a heartfelt dream within a solacing landscape or perhaps illustrates the introspective confines of Beck's half-barren mind and body, the production value of Sea Change depends on the subtle qualities of sound wave reflections. According to this post on Gearslutz, much of the ambience on the recordings were heard through Ocean Way Studio's reverb chambers, reverb plates, and digital reverb from a machine that Allen Sides gave Nigel Godrich as a gift.
Want to learn more about the properties of acoustic reverb? Here is an excerpt from the Reverb section of ASSR, featuring an overview of natural reverb in acoustic instruments and spaces. The physical qualities of a room will almost undoubtedly affect the nature of a recording, so it is important to be mindful of both the playing and the space when using microphones.
- Ben Cruz
Galactic pop princess and space-synth musician Grimes recently shared an interesting how-to article on Tumblr.
Mildly valuable for its purchasing suggestions, her Tumblr post more interestingly provides a rare perspective into the successful contemporary indie artist's workflow. It seems rare that an artist openly reveals his or her secrets of production. Here you get the chance to read about Grimes' notes on BPM, thoughts on microphones, and basic program and buffer settings for Ableton Live.
If you are looking for some of the gear mentioned in Grimes' tutorial, look through our list of available products from Keyfax.com.
The warmness and vitality of spring brings us a new cycle of vegetation, but the season also means 2013 is moving at full-speed towards many anticipated musical releases (I personally can't wait for new sounds from Marnie Stern, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Earl Sweatshirt). Among the new crop of musical ardor is electronic pop duo The Knife's upcoming album, Shaking the Habitual, set for release in early April.
Late last year, the following video teaser was released on YouTube:
As you may know, Karin Dreijer Andersson of The Knife performs solo as Fever Ray. The icy-chill hauntings of her musical project were finely recorded for 2009's self-titled album, Fever Ray.
This album hits and resonates on a visceral level of listening. The opening track,If I Had A Heart, is ominous in tone that contrasts with any Tin Man's point of view. The song also conceptually frames the album as a claustrophobic horror story.
A definite highlight of the album, Keep The Streets Empty For Me creates a huge sense of space through its sonic production of reverberant synth hits and electrifying synthesizer shrills. Throughout the record, you truly gain a sense of physical emptiness within a large, vacuous space. The aural recreation of the Scandinavian peninsula's terrain and environment washes over the listener in such a way that resembles a trance. As a testament to this highly-original piece of work's personal connection, almost all of the vocals, engineering, mixing, and producing was done by Fever Ray herself.
- Ben Cruz
Last week, while reluctantly digesting a steady stream of Academy Awards buildup all over the media, I reconsidered both the appreciation and role of musical works in the context of the Oscars. For something that is so commonly understated, the film soundtrack is an everlasting emblem of interdisciplinary arts. I contend that image and sound in film do not work on separate parallel tracks, say as in a professional editing software timeline like Final Cut Pro, but are better represented as a gestaltist media art form (something more akin to Twitter's social video platform Vine).
As David Lynch has said, "Films are 50 percent visual and 50 percent sound." 1. It is the power and play between visual and sonic elements that can really propel in film into legendary heights, as this year's list for Best Original Score nominations displayed a keen sense for musical scores that drove the narrative as much as the cinematographic work. The contenders included Dario Marianelli, Alexandre Desplat, John Williams, Thomas Newman, and the chosen winner Mychael Danna for his soundtrack in Ang Lee's Life of Pi. I suggest you check out these composers' recent works to gain some insight on the current state of movie soundtracks.
On a slightly-related note, I was inspired to pick this week's ASSR Album Of The Week based upon its ability to create a visual atmosphere from its sounds. The latest album from English teendreams Veronica Falls results in an experience similar to sitting through a Hollywood drama. The rhythms are peppy and upbeat on the earlier songs like Broken Toy and Waiting for Something to Happen, suitably acting as 'character introductions' in the make-believe narrative force of the album.
The plot thickens during during the reflective tones of Everybody's Changing, featuring the lyrics You moved to another town/ But you wont look back/ No, we wont look back in somber repetition as the band leads up towards the album's conclusion of mutual defeat and bitter understanding in Last Conversation.
This album slowly settles half-way through into a bleak and monochromatic slumber, but the listener is carefully guided through the experience. This album does not deliver a Hollywood-ending, but instead relies upon its creation of imagery through lyrics and trusting relationship with its audience that aims to charm throughout the course of the presentation rather than end with a feel-good, blasé fortune cookie ending which actually distances the listeners from the music. Give this album a deep listen and let the band lead you sonically through their localized American Beauty story of misaligned friendships, ephemeral youth, and love forever lost.
For over a year now, we have been quietly rolling out a weekly Spotify playlist dubbed the ASSR Album Of The Week. The best news is that we also have a large collection of additional playlists and musical guides. Simply click our Spotify channel link and check out all of our ever-growing playlists. Now, let us introduce this week's ASSR Album Of The Week.
With Valentine's Day in the rear-view mirror, this week's album is the latest release from Charlie Wilson (lead singer of The Gap Band). It is an album that lifts the mood as a smooth and soulful soundtrack to your day. The production is fantastic and the vocals are unsurprisingly amazing.
Turn on and tune in now:
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A Brief History Of Recording
Studio Acoustics
Microphones
Consoles & Controllers
Digital Audio & Computers
Monitoring
MIDI
2
EQ
Compressors & Limiters
Noise Gates
Reverb
Delays
A Band Tracking Session
Vocals
Internet Recording
3
Drums
Keyboards
Bass
Guitar
Recording Acoustic Guitar With Vocals
Recording A Choir
Approaches To Live Recording
Mixing
Dealing With Disasters
