Recording - JCHMusic

Production Notes

05.26.2009

This is meant as a central filing cabinets for more thoughts I have on the whole production business, including DIY vs. ‘pro studio’, ‘live vs. loops’ and various ‘how do you do that’ techniques that people ask about from time to time. I want to come back here and flesh these out as time permits. If you’re looking for a link to the post on playing techniques. It’s here But First A Sub-Rant On ‘Loops Vs. Real’ I almost never use ‘loops’ or MIDI ‘patterns’. I’m either thrilled or annoyed when people tell me my stuff sounds ‘mechanical’, but a [...]

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The Steroid Scandal Of The Nineties (Part II: The Other Problem)

12.31.2008

Recording

In Part I, I ranted on about the evils of compression. How it has been used to make records louder and louder to the point that they are not only far less musical but also almost painful to listen to. The flip side to this has been that music is itself changing in response to the technology. As I pointed out, this started out as a subtle enhancement to the pulse of music… aka ‘disco’, but now the effects are far more dramatic. In fact, I’d suggest that things went so far afield that the music that so thrived during [...]

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Mastering 101

12.9.2008

Recording

The new record, Beautiful Sounds has now been passed off to the mastering guy Ed. (RFICD.com). Who has passed it back to me. We’re doing a lot of passing. Mastering is an excruciating process. Even at the best of times it is completely draining. What you do is sit in a very dark and quiet room on a very nice couch, behind a guy sitting at a desk listening to your stuff very intently. For eight hours. Over and over and over and over. Every once in a great while he may say ‘hmmmm’ or perhaps. ‘Ahhhh’. It’s like your [...]

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