Jeremy Larson

Q Clone Tutorial

If you own any of the Waves plugin bundles, theres a good chance you have a little plugin tucked away that you are not using- the Q Clone plugin.  The Q Clone can in theory resolve a very common problem: you have one or two great outboard EQ's, and a full drum kit to mic.  In other words, not enough outboard preamps to go around.  The Q Clone plugin will allow you to use a single outboard EQ on as many tracks as you want in realtime without having to retrack through your preamp.  Yeah, it's kind of a miracle!

Step By Step Setup

I'm using Nuendo, and these steps should work for Cubase as well.

1.  Make sure "Direct Monitoring" is off.  Go to Devices-Device Setup.  You will see a checkbox that says "Direct Monitoring"- uncheck it.

2.  Run a cable from one of the outputs on your interface, to the EQ you want to use.  For instance, if you have 8 outputs on your interface, put one end of a cable into output number 8 (any output will work), and the other end into the input on the outboard EQ you want to use.

3.  Run a cable from the output of your EQ back into your computer.  For instance, if you have 8 inputs on your interface, you'd run a cable out of the EQ and into input number 8 on your interface.

4.  Add a mono track in Nuendo or Cubase.

5.  Make the input and output on that mono track the same as you did for steps 2 and 3.  In this case, I'd select input 8, and output 8.

6.  There are actually two halves to this plugin, and the first half we will use is the "Q Capture".  So find the mono Q Capture in your plugin list, and put it on the mono track you just added.  It will be look like this:

The Q Capture is sending and receiving signals from your outboard EQ.

7. Turn on the "monitor" button on this track.

8.  Go to a track you'd like to EQ, for example, the lead vocal track in your project.  Add the mono Q Clone into the first plugin slot.  It will look like this:

9. Click on the "Capture" button, and start changing the EQ on your outboard preamp.  You will notice that the Q Clone EQ is changing with it!  

10.  When you get the EQ where you want it, click "Hold", and it will hold on to that EQ for you- even after the preamp is turned off.  You can move on and EQ as many other tracks as you'd like with it now.  If you ever want to go back and change a setting, just turn the outboard EQ to "flat" first, then open up the Q Clone on that channel, and click "Add".  Then it will simple add to what you already had, and click "Hold" when you are finished.

I had a lot of fun with this plugin yesterday, and I hope this is a useful guide for some of you.  Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

Day In Photos

Piano Sounds

I've been on the hunt for an amazing digital piano sound for nearly a decade.  I still have not found anything that completely blows me away, but I've found out what doesn't work.  I will share.

The most valuable thing I can tell you, is to stay away from expensive keyboards from Guitar Center- unless you are talking about playing live.  That's a different story.  I know your bro's at Guitar Center are going to tell you that "this" keyboard uses "samples from a 30 foot grand piano in a 3,000 year old cathedral on the top of a mountain", but I wouldn't touch it.  For recording, I would strongly recommend getting a MIDI controller, and a program to create the sound.  For example, I have this MIDI controller:

http://www.hitsquad.com/news/hardware/kx_series_usb_keyboard_studios/

I think you can find them for around $300 used.  Now, this keyboard doesn't make any sounds, it simply provides keys to play on in connection to the software on your computer.  There are some that are much cheaper, and would do fine.

And then you will need a program to connect with the keyboard.  The absolute closest thing I've found to a real piano sound, is the Abbey Road Keyboard Library:

You will need Reason to run it, which makes it more costly I suppose, but well worth it.

So, let's say $200 for a decent MIDI controller, $125 for the Abbey Road Keyboard library, and $300 for Reason.  I haven't looked in a while, but the chances are, I'd pick this combo over pretty much everything sitting in the keyboard showroom at any music store.  Hope that was helpful to some of you.  Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

Ski Lift- "Give It Up" (My Process)

I'm a little late on blogging this, but this past year, I produced an album with my good friend Trey (Ski Lift).  It was a long distance collaboration that was done mostly through email.  He would send me tracks, and I would add to them.  For most of the songs, he had written and recorded the core of the song already, but wanted me to hype them up a bit, and then mix them.  

Oddly enough, this has become the norm for how I work on projects.  Bands will send me an Mp3 of an idea, and then I try to fill them out.  The benefit of this, is that I get to keep my own schedule, and work the hours that I want to alone.  I'm a lot less self-conscious when I work alone, and I usually feel a lot more inspired.  But it takes a lot of courage for a band to give me free reign over a song.  I have a tremendous amount of respect for the client who is able to hand over control to someone who lives in another state.  The process can be very rewarding when it works.  As a self proclaimed micro-manager, I have a very hard time handing my stuff over to anyone, even for mixing or mastering.  Trey is a micro-manager as well, and I commend him for letting go of some of that for this project.  

Above, is the song, "Give It Up" (you have to skip ahead to track three).  Some of you might remember this from the first Red Velvet dress line promo video.

Most of what you hear was already written and recorded before I got my hands on it.  Trey is a great songwriter, but he also has a great mind for production.  Most of the parts were already great.  If memory serves, Trey had some temporary electronic drums in there as a placeholder for the time being.  I wanted to make the song much more "vibe-y", so I deleted them and started recording some drum ideas of my own.  I remember that I wrote an entire blog post about working on these drum sounds, you can read that post here.

Here are some of the drums soloed:

Drummm

You may or may not be able to tell, but there are actually several full drum takes blended together.  Many times I will just record a bunch of ideas separate, and then stack them.  This allows me to get a more "layered" sound on the snare- which I like.

Bass and Crumar were added, but I won't spend time on that right now.

The EP is both fun and epic.  You can listen to it here:

http://skilift.bandcamp.com/album/romantic-ep

I'm very proud of this collaboration, though the greatness of it lies more in the songwriting than in anything I contributed.  Give it a listen!  Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

PS.  If you are interested in hiring me to do this type of thing, you can email me at band@jeremylarsonmusic.com .  When the new site is up, I will post a price sheet for collaborative work.

What To Buy, and When To Buy It

I have to admit, I'm a little surprised that my brief mention of a car jacking with a hatchet didn't peak anyone's interest...  I guess there's not really much of a story there anyhow.  That's just what happened.  I watched a man sprint at full speed toward a large SUV with a hatchet.  He tried to get in, but the car sped around him.  Pretty crazy.

Moving on.

Let's do something fun here.  

Did any of you ever play Mega Man X for Super NES?  It's awesome.  Now, when I first started playing it, I was trying to beat the levels by choosing one at random.  What I didn't know, is that there is an ideal order to beating the Boss's.  If you beat the Flame Mammoth first, he'll give you what you need to beat the Chill Penguin and so on.  If you go out of order, it's almost impossible to beat.  For the longest time, I kept thinking why is this game so damn hard?!?  There's a sequence to it.

Buying gear is like Mega Man X.

I'm going to tell you the order I think you should buy your gear in.  Recording equipment is expensive, so many of us have to buy one piece at a time.  For the sake of simplicity, let's pretend you already have a computer, and Garage Band.  In order of importance:

1.  A/D Converter: (that's analog to digital converter)

I bought this fairly late in the game, and I wish I would've bought it much sooner.  I'm gonna be honest, it's not a glamorous purchase.  You plug it in, and it just sits there.  Usually there aren't many knobs to turn, and they don't do much.  You also don't easily hear an immediate difference in the sound with a single track.  It's in the details of the mix.  Buying a good converter improved my recordings more than any other purchase.  Don't skimp on this.  

2. Monitors: (your speakers)

People always told me to "mix on what you're used to".  I disagree.  I say, mix on what exposes your flaws.  When I bought my new monitors recently, my old mixes sounded terrible.  The new monitors exposed a lot of chaos in the low mids.  My old monitors seemed to just slap a bunch of makeup on my mixes and made me think they were ok.  They weren't.  

3. Room Treatment

Now, I know that room treatment can cost a fortune, but that's not what I'm talking about.  Buy some bed foam, mattresses, blankets, etc.  I don't care what mic you are using, if you're recording drums or  acoustic guitar in a room with nasty acoustics, it's gonna sound nasty.  Your brain is going to tell you that if you just got the right mic, your drums would start sounding amazing.  It's just not true.  I've used some very expensive microphones in really nasty rooms, and you know what, those mic's captured that "nasty room sound" perfectly.  It's gotta sound good in the room first.

4. Preamps

Now we can move on to the fun stuff.  Don't buy a $100 outboard compressor or EQ.  Your built in Garage Band plugins are probably every bit as good.  Wait until you can drop some money into this.  I have a different opinion on this than most people.  I've worked with racks of tens of thousands of dollars worth of outboard gear, and found myself using everything sparingly.  Recording is different than it used to be.  If you're like me, you're afraid to commit to a sound right off the bat.  I want to be able to change compression and EQ while I'm mixing, therefore I use a lot of plugins.  I typically use preamps as a part of the signal chain, but not really for the "sound".  So if you've heard something I've recorded and thought, "man, I wonder what mic and preamp he used for that...", it's probably irrelevant.  90% of the "sound" probably came from me using plugins.  People may do things differently, and that's ok.

5. Microphones

I know, you were hoping this would be number one.  Microphones are cool and sexy.  I was using decent microphones before I bought any of this other stuff.  It was a mistake.  I was constantly disappointed that my thousand dollar microphone didn't sound like a thousand dollars.  I've heard amazing things come from the right singer in the right room, even with a cheap mic.  Don't rush out to buy a nice microphone.  If you are just dying to get a cool looking workhorse mic, I'd recommend an SM7 (that's not the same as a 57).  I've used it live and in the studio, and I love it on almost everything.  We even used it on Stacy's voice for the live DVD and it came out beautiful.  You can get a used one for about $300.

Hope that helps someone out there.  Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

Helpful

I really have to give a huge thank you to Harley for sending me this wonderful chart.  As soon as I got it, I started putting it to good use while mixing.  I have it right next to my Bob Katz chart in my control room now.  It's probably a little hard to see here, but click on it, or save it to your computer.  It will come in handy.

I hope this is as helpful to many of you as it will be for me.  Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

PS. This image was taken from here:

http://www.beantownboogiedown.com/storage/Hertz-Chart.png

Cheater

It's been a little frustrating these last couple of months working on new string arrangements.  The rate of growth in my violin playing is still unmatched by my ambition to create something "better".  In other words, my technical ability is hindering my ability to fully realize the ideas in my head.  So, what do I do?  I cheat.  I cheat in one of three ways-

1. I digitally speed things up so difficult passages can be performed at a slower rate.

2. I perform passages in small sections, sometimes only three notes at a time, so jumping difficult intervals becomes a non-issue.

3.  I digitally pitch shift passages that I can't perform in higher registers.  Some violin parts are pitch shifted an entire octave above where they are performed.

Why am I telling you this?  Because I want to grow.  I assume that after I confess this, I will work harder to actually become a better player.  Plus, it becomes very un-musical to record a line of music three notes at a time.  It's choppy and sloppy.  It's tough not to take shortcuts when the ideas are coming faster than I can record them.  However, if I would've stuck it out, and actually plowed through some of these technical problems last year, I would be able to play them with ease this year.  I have a long session of strings today, and it will be a much longer session if I try to perform these parts with integrity.  But that's exactly what I will do.  Thank you for reading this, you are my musical priest, and this has been a good confession session.

Jeremy

Mixing Bass- A Good Tip!

Throughout the process of trying to mix this DVD, one of the main problems I've run into is getting the low end right.  For one thing, the bass (guitar) was coming through all of the other stage mics.  This is easy to resolve since most all other instruments do not need to share the same frequency space- I just scooped it out.  The other more common problem, is that the bass is inconsistent on different notes.  If you've ever recorded bass before, you know what I'm talking about.  You're bass player is playing a bass line and you go ahead and EQ it how you want.  Then when you put it into the mix, you notice that certain notes are WAY louder than others.  The low end can be all over the map- especially when you use old strings like I do.  Here's a good tip I learned from a good friend recently.

First, duplicate your bass channel, so that you have two identical channels with the same settings and the same performance.  On the first channel, cut out everything below 80hz completely.  Next, go to your second bass channel and do the opposite.  Cut out everything above 80hz completely.  Now, on the second bass channel, add a compressor, and just squash it!  I mean, really crunch it, you can even use a limiter in there as well to make sure it's nice and even.  Last, take both of those channels and group them together on a new group channel.  Just mix those two signals together, and you're done.  What this does is allow you to take those lower frequencies and make sure that they are even all the way up the fret board.  This is very difficult to do using a simple multi-band compressor with one channel.  It's working very nicely for me thus far.  Thanks for the tip Todd.  

Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

Upgrades

A few days ago, I upgraded my studio monitors (in recording, that means "speakers").  I bought a pair of JBL 4326's.  This was such a HUGE improvement from what I was using.  I noticed two things right away- Radiohead sounded better than ever, and my mixes sounded worse than ever.  Despite how that sounds, that's great news!  I don't really need my speakers to flatter my mixes, I just need them to be brutally honest with me.  

I've always been told to just mix on what you are used to.  As I recall, when Paul Meany was doing some mastering on my first album, he was using a tiny pair of computer speakers; he said it's what he had always used for that sort of thing.  Well, I guess I need all the help I can get.  Because mixing on what I'm used to makes for some weird mixes.  I've done some mixes with the new JBL's and they are a dream.  It was an instant change.  I felt like mixing became 100% easier instantly.  I went through all of my mixes for the DVD, and started over from scratch.  Two days later, I'm nearly done.  The best upgrade I've ever made to my studio was getting a good digital converter.  The second best, was these monitors.  

Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

Recording Tip

I've been working pretty much non-stop on the audio for the DVD this week.  The other day I was reminded of a very simple concept that I thought I'd share with you.  When you are mixing, "cut before you boost".  I'll explain.

I was working on finalizing a mix, you may even say I was doing a little mastering on a song.  I imported a Radiohead song for fun, and ran a spectrum analysis on it (that's where you get a read on the frequencies in the song- which ones stand out, and which ones are cut).  I mainly wanted to see which frequencies were cut, or scooped out of their final mix.  Then for the next hour, I attempted to cut everything that they cut.  I used 8 ten-band EQ's to do it.  Now, I realize that this is a little silly.  These are different songs from different studios, with different instruments.  But I was curious.

After I finished, I noticed some surprising things.  The vocal was much brighter, almost too much!  In fact the whole mix was very "sparkly".  Remember, I didn't boost ANY frequencies.  I know that whenever you want to make the vocal shine in a mix, you're tempted to grab that top band in your EQ and send that 8-10k range through the roof, DON'T!  Cut before you boost.  It's a very counter-intuitive way to mix, but trust me, it's the better way.  You want the kick to have a little more punch?  You can achieve this by "detailing" the low end, rather than just cranking up everything below 300hz.  It's about keeping all the instruments in their proper place.  Hope that helps!

I realized the other day that there is not a link on my blog to buy my new album.  If you want to listen to or buy it, here's the link:

http://jeremylarson.bandcamp.com/

Thanks for reading.

Jeremy