Transcription & Engraving Nat Bartsch's Forever And No Time At All Album

During the general curtailing of activities that happened in 2020, I found myself at home with a lot of time on my hands.  Spending a lot of time at home with my two young children, homeschooling, camping in the lounge room over Easter, watching some live streaming concerts... It was an interesting time.

My eldest had grown very fond of Melbourne-based jazz pianist/composer Nat Bartsch and was listening to her latest album For Ever and No Time At All very regularly.  She even started to pick out the notes of the melodies to some of her favourite pieces on the piano.

Since we were listening to the album via Spotify, I started to feel guilty about how much we were listening to Nat's music, and how little we were supporting her financially.  I saw that she had her sheet music for the album for sale on her website, so I added it to my cart, paid up and downloaded the zip file containing the PDFs of the sheet music.

Over the next few weeks, I started playing these lullabies for my kids on the piano while they were heading off to sleep (or at least that's what they should have been doing).  I started to notice missing parts or layouts that weren't quite right.  So, I decided to send an email offering to work on improving the collection of music.

I was very glad that the response I received from Nat was positive rather than taking offence to someone saying that their sheet music wasn't up to snuff.

Over the next month or so I worked collaboratively with Nat transcribing solo sections, filling out arrangements/transcriptions from lead sheets and generally improving the layout of the sheet music.

I found this process a really interesting one.  It's well known that the act of music transcription can give you a detailed look into an artist's idiosyncrasies, preferences and tendencies.  I've known Nat for a while now and have been listening to her work for a long time.  However, this much more intimate knowledge/appreciation of her work really inspired and lifted my spirits.

I ended up donating my time as a labour of love, again, feeling that artists were already struggling financially this year and I probably still owed Nat some financial contribution given how much joy her music has brought our family.

If you are interested in purchasing the sheet music you can find it on Nat's website. If you are interested in checking out her music, you can find that on her website or on Spotify.

Don't Dream It's Over - Film Clip

A few months ago, I was approached by film crew who wanted to create a film clip for my dark interpretation of Crowded House's Don't Dream It's Over.

I was very excited at the opportunity to be part of a film clip and jumped at the chance.

The final clip is quite a confronting piece and takes cues from the musical treatment of the traditionally uplifting song.

I'm really pleased with the final clip and thank all those involved for their endless enthusiasm for the clip as well as their technical achievements.

Check out the clip below

- Andrew



Music/Audio Credits
Original song by Crowded House
Original arrangement was written and recorded by Andrew Rostas in collaboration with John Walsh
Thanks to Brad Jackson for an excellent sounding mix

Film Clip Credits
Director: Ryan Macabenta
Producer: Tegan Lynch
Cinematographer: Owen Stephens
Art Director: Luce Macleod
Editor: Christopher Mann
Assistant Director: Rebecca Binfield

Sound Design - Exciting Times!

I have recently started working on a project with an old school friend.  Way back when... well... a long time ago now, I was in the same year at school as Sandy Sutherland.  We worked on a few things back then, but ultimately pursued our various interests and life continued.

Sandy has done some amazing work with computer generated graphics and visual effects, working on films including: Gravity, Dawn of the Planet Apes, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, The Dark Night, Sherlock Holmes.... you get the idea.  He's kind of awesome at what he does.

Anyway, a few months ago, he approached me to see if I would be interested in working on a VR game that he was working on.  We have started down the long road of brainstorming ideas, writing an awful lot of lists, design documents and to-dos, but I'm happy to say that so far, things are moving along really well.

I've also started to learn FMOD (a middleware program for adaptive audio and its integration for apps and games).  I'm really enjoying the challenge of designing interactive sound as opposed to doing foley work on fixed timing films.

Here is a little peak at what it looks like.

FMOD - My first interactive or adaptive sound!

I hope to upload some screencasts once I have a few more things to share so I can talk about what I've done and how I've put them together.

That's about all that I can share with you at this time, but I hope to upload some progress reports in the coming months.

- Andrew

Writing an Arrangement for Viña del Mar International Song Festival

I was recently employed to arrange an original song written by Melbourne artists Allison Ellguetta and Shawnee Brennan.
I've done a number of large scale arrangements before, but this is the first one that I've done for an international TV ensemble.

I think it turned out quite well in the end.  Skip to 10:36 for the song.  Big congratulations to Allison and Shawnee on the song and to their achievements in the competition!

Guest Speaker @ Ableton Live User Group

Ableton User Group (Melbourne) Guest Talk


On Wednesday 16th September I gave a guest presentation with long time collaborator and friend, John Walsh.  We had been asked to talk about the art of collaboration, specifically talking about how we managed the process during our most recent collaboration Don't Dream It's Over, by Crowded House.



It was a really rewarding experience and I think it was well received.  I would strongly recommend anyone in Melbourne who is interested in using Ableton to come along to these monthly events.

Presenting Don't Dream It's Over at the Ableton User Group @ The Channel

Text from the event blurb:
This month's session is about collaboration.

We have a couple of guest speakers Andrew Rostas and John Walsh who are coming in to talk through their recent collaborative project.

Andrew Rostas started his musical education at an early age on the piano, and has completed a Bachelor of Music (double major in composition and music technology) from the University of Newcastle and Newcastle Conservatorium in 2003. Since completing his bachelor degree, Andrew has continued to involved himself with a broad range of musical activities. Playing in a number of local original rock bands, taking part in experimental improvisational ensembles (with Tom Donald), working as a session musician for a number of Melbourne studios, composing music for video artists (Shaun Wilson), arranging and working as a producer/engineer for many original artists in his home studio.

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/stass/tracks
Website: http://www.andrewrostas.blogspot.com.au/

His creative collaborator is John Walsh, comes from much more of a technical, rather than musical approach, reading manuals rather than manuscript. Andrew and John will talk through a recent collaboration, opening up their live set and explaining how their drastically different approaches to music creation have complimented each other.

Entry is free, and we welcome all attendees no matter what level of experience you have with Ableton Live. The user group is a chance to meet with other producers, share our knowledge, get feedback and hang out with other like minded enthusiasts.

Ableton User Group Melbourne is thrilled to be partnered with "The Channel" in Arts Centre Melbourne, for these events. If you have never been to the Channel before, it is right on the Yarra above Hamer Hall. (See pics/map)

It is easy an easy walk from Flinders St. station.

Transcription and Engraving Work

Well, it has been another long while since my last post, but things have not stood still. Quite the opposite.  I'm currently working on a few music education projects but I thought that I would tell you all about the latest few musical things that I have done.

The last two weeks seem to have been transcription and engraving heavy.  It started with Australian composer Ric Mills contacting me to create a score of three of his piano works: Peace, Irrelevant and Grounded.   

The process of transcribing Peace and Grounded was relatively straight forward (unfortunately I can’t show the score as I don’t have copyright of it).  However, the process for creating a score for Irrelevant presented some interesting challenges.  The nature of the piece was described to me by the composer something like "a melody which is desperately trying to show itself through a thick dissonant texture".

The nature of the work lends itself to a more or less consistent four / four meter, but I thought that the composition might work better without bar lines as there isn't a suggestion of emphasis every four beats.  Perhaps I was influenced by Philip Glass's experiences working with Ravi Shankar??

I ended up creating two versions of the score; one with bar lines and one without as neither of us were willing to commit to one or the other.  I hope to hear about the performance of these works at an upcoming concert in the near future.

The other large transcription work which has now been completed was organising a team of musicians to create piano/vocal rehearsal scores for a new Australian musical “Cook”, composed by Gareth Hudson & Nick Higginbottom from Newcastle (NSW).  We had less than 2 weeks to create these scores from recorded songs.  I had to organise a team of musicians to assist me as there was too much for a single person to do.  I’d like to thank Stewart Taylor, Gemma Turvey, Sam Donovan and Joseph Beckitt for their efforts to to get this done.  Using Google Docs and Dropbox to coordinate everything we managed to complete this mammoth task. 

Tutorial on Enharmonic Spelling of Written Intervals

This seems to be something that many students have difficulty understanding, especially once you start talking about diminished and augmented intervals.  This tutorial goes through a two step process which I like to teach students which allows (hopefully) students to confidently identify any written interval between a perfect unison and a perfect octave.

I hope this helps you and/or someone you know better understand the process of correctly naming written intervals.

- Andrew



Enharmonic Spelling of Written Intervals (Tutorial) from Andrew Rostas on Vimeo.

Effective Rehearsals - How can I get more out of rehearsals?

Effective Rehearsals

Over the years I have attended many rehearsals both as a musician and as a supervisor.  All too often I have seen large amounts of time wasted because bands/ensembles have a misconception about what rehearsal is.  Time spent in rehearsal studios need to be productive.  Often musicians are time poor and need to maximise the little time that they have together.  The following is a list of what I have found to greatly assist the effective use of time within a rehearsal context.  I hope that these tips will help you get more out of your rehearsal times and therefore be able to achieve greater musical performances.

Set Goals

Each rehearsal should have some goals attached (even if those goals are something like “jam out and experiment with a section of a new song”).  Having clear goals can really help to make rehearsals an efficient use of time.  As I said above, musicians are often time poor.  The less time is being wasted, the more likely other musicians will be willing to give their time to a project.

Homework

At the end of each rehearsal, each musician should leave with a clear idea of what they need to work on between now and the next rehearsal.  You should try to set individual tasks as well as ensemble tasks.  Some example tasks might be:

•        Learn the lyrics of a specific song(s)
•       Chart the form/chords
•        Learn a specific solo/part
•        Set up sounds (guitar/keyboard especially)
•        Practice vocal harmonies

Keep notes (come prepared)

This is really part of Homework.  When you make notes of things to work on between rehearsals, write them down; either using pen and paper or digitally.  Make sure you complete the tasks and come prepared for the next rehearsal.  The last thing that anyone wants is someone who continually comes to rehearsal without making progress as this is a waste of everyone else’s time.

Another great tip is to make notes during rehearsals regarding chord and/or form changes.  This is especially important when working on originals. 

Rehearsal is NOT practice

As I said above, time spent in rehearsal studios with the whole band is so precious; you don’t want to waste it.  You should not use band rehearsal time to practice things that you can work on individually.  Again, this leads to other band members feeling like their time is being wasted.  Make sure you come to rehearsals having achieved your goals from the previous rehearsal session.

Provide Charts/Lead sheets.  If none exist, create your own

One of the biggest time wasters is playing a song over and over with the whole band so the form can be learnt.  It is far more beneficial to write down the form of the song as a chord chart which can be shared with all band members.  Not only is this great aural and chart writing practice when writing the charts, but it’s great reading practice too.  This will also allow you to really work on performing the song. 

Listen – It’s not just about you

When playing with other musicians, always try to listen to what is happening within the ensemble.  You might hear some conflicting rhythms or notes within the ensemble which could be addressed.  I remember countless times when writing original songs within a band where I had come up with a part that I was really happy with, only to realise that it was conflicting with another instrument/part.  By acknowledging this, you are able to isolate the issue and work out a solution (either to be solved then and there or set as a homework task).

Sometimes during rehearsal it’s hard to have a critical listen, I’d suggest regular recordings on portable devices (digital recorders or phones).  Not everyone has to do it, but if there is someone in the ensemble who is good at that stuff, sending around an MP3 of a song or rehearsal for review can be really beneficial.  A review can be done either individually or as a group, or both.  Don't forget that this could form a homework task to be discussed at the next rehearsal.  

Acknowledge when you made a mistake so it's not necessary to revise with the whole band

Don’t be afraid to acknowledge if you make a mistake during rehearsals.  No one is perfect.  By acknowledging that you have made a mistake you can save valuable time in rehearsals.   I learnt this technique while singing in a chamber choir.  The signal was raising your hand briefly after the error.  This indicated to the choirmaster that: “I am aware that I made a mistake and it was either a one-off, or I know what I did wrong and will fix it in my own time.”  Feel free to experiment with your own system but try to implement a similar system.  You’ll be surprised at the results. 

Be Punctual

This sounds like basic stuff, but again I see it happen all too often.  If your rehearsal is from 3pm – 5pm, make sure you are ready to start at 3pm.  If you require 15 minutes to set up for rehearsal, make sure you are there 15 minutes beforehand.  As a common courtesy to others using the rehearsal space, make sure you vacate the rehearsal studios at the allocated time.  This usually means finishing 10-15 minutes before your time is up so that you can pack up and debrief from the rehearsal without eating into another band’s rehearsal time.  If you find you are running late to a rehearsal it’s good manners to let the rest of your band know.  On the flip side, if a band member is running late, there are always things that can be worked on without members.  Break it up, try something different.

Hope you found this helpful.  Happy rehearsing!

- Andrew Rostas

Session with Lesle Lewis

Wow! Almost a whole year has gone by with out a single post on my poor music blog!  Rest assured that I have not been doing nothing.  2011 was a huge year full of wonderful things, just not a lot of them musically oriented.  


Now where was I??..


Last week I had the pleasure of doing a session at The Base studios in South Melbourne.  It was a two day session with Indian producer/composer/musician Lesle Lewis.  Others involved were local musicians Luke Hodgson (bass), Leigh Fisher (drums) and Marcel Yammouni (guitar).  First of all, it was an absolute pleasure to play with these musos.  I think the thing that I appreciate the most about good musicians when they play is the communication through physical gesture, aural interaction and just nutting out an arrangement on the fly.  Big shout out to Phil Threlfall at The Base for being an all round legend!


Musically, the session was quite interesting because Lezz was trying to weave a delicate blend of western influence into his music.  The result was like a western accompaniment to an Indian melody.  I found it really interesting listening to how subtle some of the differences were between western melody and Indian melody, yet the differences give distinctly different flavors of melody and phrasing.

Lezz running us through one of his songs at The Base

I'm not yet sure exactly what Lezz has planned for these songs that we recorded last week, but I'm really curious to hear the finished product.  He was taking them back to his studio in India to record vocals and mix.

I'll keep you posted.

- Andrew

Timothy Cannon Album Finally Available

Well it's been about a year since we started working on Timothy Cannon's first solo album and I'm happy to say that it's now available for listening and purchasing on iTunes, Amazon and a number of other online music retailers.
We are all super happy with how it all came out and can't wait for you all to hear it.


To help you get a bit of a feel for the album and how it progressed, we put together some little video snippets throughout the recording process.





Last but not least, here is a sneak-peak at one of the tracks off the album.  The song, "Coming Home" gives you a good snapshot of what the album is like arrangement and sentiment wise.  Hope you like it.


Preview track: Coming Home by Timothy Cannon


We hope to start playing gigs around Melbourne and hopefully make it to other cities around Australia to promote the album and eventually get some physical copies of the album out too.


Till that time though, you can buy the album digitally from the link below.  Thanks for reading.


- Andrew

Back Back Forward Punch EP Launch

A few months ago now I helped out a great electro band called "Back Back Forward Punch". I recorded vocals for their single "What Do We Do" and assisted with some of the structural elements of the song. You can hear the finished product in the link below.

What Do We Do? by Theory Works

Also on the topic of Back Back Forward Punch was their actual EP launch which they did in conjuncture with Kiss FM. It was a great launch sitting in a nice little courtyard with the afternoon sun streaming in with cold beer and warm pizza in hand listening to a live broadcast set from the electro three piece. You can watch highlights from the launch in the video below, which includes a great cover of the John Farnham song, "Age of Reason" to which I also recorded the backup vocals for! =)

If you get the chance, I'd recommend getting along to see these guys!

- Andrew

Some Interesting Things

Hi All,

It's been a while since I've posted anything here but that doesn't mean that I've been sitting on my proverbial, doing nothing. We are getting very close to finally mixing the Tim Cannon album which is very exciting. I've been involved with a little demo session for an artist called Michelle Payne which turned rather well, and I have started playing with a Melbourne based band called Goodbye Motel. So, all in all, I've been rather busy.

Though, rather than go into the details of any of those projects, I thought I would share a few interesting things that I've found on the interwebs.

The first thing I want to share with you is a podcast from CDBABY, called the DIY MUSICIAN PODCAST. I'm pretty sure that I have mentioned this before in one of my posts but it's such a wealth of knowledge and ideas for the DIY musician, I can't recommend it enough. They are up to episode 90 right now and it's well worth listening to all the back episodes. I've gone to the trouble of making an iTunes link (below) so you can go and download all the episodes so you can listen to them on the way to work.


The other thing that I wanted to share with you is an interview with Dave Allen on 'Music Business - Musicians on the Internet: Strategy Vs Tactics'. I was put onto it via the DIY Musician Blog which is run in tandem with the podcast mentioned above. It's another great source of information and inspiration. Anyway, the interview below is in 4 parts so be sure to watch them all. And a little note about the videos, the sound is very quiet so be sure to listen with headphones.



Hope you found this information interesting and I look forward to telling you more about what I am doing in music.

- Andrew

Creating an Album on a Budget

During the second half of 2009, I was involved with co-producing and recording an album of singer/song-writter Tim Cannon.  I have written about various stages of the process in previous posts on my blog (here, here, here & here).  This was the first time that I had been involved with recording an album in this way and I have found it to be a very effective way to maximise creativity in arrangements whilst also keeping budget constraints in check.

There were a number of steps in our approach which I will outline below.  While this process may not be possible or practical for everybody, I certainly found it a very rewarding way to create/record an album.  

To take this approach you need a small amount of additional gear, however most musicians own, (or have access to) this gear already.  Items and skills that you will need include:

- Basic DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) in the form of a computer running an audio recording program (such as Logic, Pro Tools, CuBase etc).  The program you have isn't THAT important.  Sure, it's nice if you have the same program as the studio has but your knowledge of the software you use is much more important. More on this later.

- A decent microphone (condenser usually), to capture the sound

- A decent audio interface (sound card), to convert the audio into digital information.

- Time, &

- Imagination

This equipment can be purchased for under $5000AUD.  While that may sound like a lot of money, think of how far that would stretch if you were in a cheaper studio paying $400-600 per day, let alone a professional studio (upwards of $800 per day).  You can see that it doesn’t take long before your equipment has paid for itself.

So anyway, where was I?

Ah yes, the first step was to get a basic demo of the material to be recorded.  For this process, I got Tim to come around to my place (my home studio is our second bedroom) and basically got him to play a gig for me.  I set up my two microphones (Rode NT3 on the guitar and the Rode NT2-A for his voice) to capture the sound clearly, but without making too much fuss about it.  After all, these were just going to be the demos for the band.  As Tim was quite used to performing solo gigs, this process was very easy to do and went without a hitch.

After listening to the demos over the rest of the week, we started to get an idea of most of the songs.  Which ones were going to be straight forward to arrange in a band ensemble, and which ones were going to need a little more work.  My good friend Stew, whom I’ve played in bands with for nearly 10 years and I, got together to ‘nut out’ some of these songs.  I wrote a blog entry back in September about one of these songs (High Hopes) and put a number of audio examples up so that you can hear the song progressing through the different stages of production.  Workshopping song ideas in an environment where you are not paying by the minute (i.e. a recording studio) is a huge bonus.  It allows you to really relax into trying ideas and it also gives you the freedom to scrap them if after a week, you don’t like them.  Once we were happy with the overall arrangement ideas of the songs, we workshopped them with the band.  Now, this may seem like an unnecessary step, but it’s one that will save you a lot of time in the studio.  You should only go into the studio once the whole band (or everyone who will be recording) has a clear idea of what they are playing.  So much time is wasted in recording studios debating song structures, which chords to play, what guitar tone to use etc etc.  If you can go in to the recording studio with a clear idea of what you want to play and how you want it to sound, you’re more than halfway there.  A good practice to get into is to record each band session as much as possible and listen back to the recordings while making notes.  It doesn’t have to be a great recording, just good enough so that you can hear the song.  There are plenty of portable stereo recorders out there which you can buy for a few hundred dollars which are fantastic.  Just remember that you might have to do a test recording to make sure that the band/ensemble is balanced in the recording.  Play around with amp levels and placement of the recorder till you get something that you’re happy with.  You might just find that magical drum fill or melody which may have been played by accident which you think, ‘that’s it! That has just made the song complete!‘  It’s amazing how often you find the really good things in an otherwise ordinary rehearsal recording. 

We now had the basic band ‘beds’ (the basic drums, bass, piano and acoustic guitar arrangements) ready to roll and had booked a weekend in our favorite studio to lay down the beds of the ten album tracks.

After we had recorded the beds of the ten album tracks, I loaded the files onto an external HDD so that we could continue working on additional tracks or layers back at my home studio where we weren’t paying by the minute.  This is the part where you need a little bit of “technical know-how”.  You need to make sure that you are able to open or import the song sessions from the studio, onto your home studio setup.  You should also talk to your engineer about what settings he would like you to record with (things like sample rate and BIT depth).  While there are obvious benefits from recording things at the professional recording studio, rather than at your home studio, there is still a lot that can be done in your home studio.  Having this time and freedom to explore all the creative potentials of the song arrangements while saving up money for the professional studio is a great use of time and a really good way to keep the momentum of the project up.  We recorded all the keyboard and organ parts at home as they were straight from my keyboard with no microphone required.  Most other additional layers were recorded, or demoed at home with the knowledge that they would be re-recorded later in the real studio.  Again, knowing exactly what you are going to record going into a recording session saves HEAPS of time.  Preparation is key!  As a musician, I can’t remember how many times I have read that in magazine articles, on studios websites etc but I never really paid too much attention to it.  So with the hope that it helps even one person have a better, more productive recording session, get organised!

We booked another weekend at the recording studio and went in armed with an external HDD of audio files and a check list of ‘to dos’ (see example below).   

From Blogger Pictures

Having completed all but a few main vocals, the project just needs to be mixed.  I hope that this has given you an insight into a slightly different way to create an album.  As you can see, we have had many months of pre-production and production and to my knowledge, have paid for approximately 6 days in the studio.  I encourage you to sit down and talk about how you are going to attack your next recording session.  Be it an EP or an album.  Discuss it amongst your band mates and your engineer (once you have decided where you want to record).  Most engineers are happy to help out independent musicians when they can, especially if they can see that you are going to be easy to work with and organised during the recording sessions.  Remember, recording an album should be an exciting time, a creative time and an enjoyable process.  Don’t cheat yourself out of it by wasting time unnecessarily and therefore stressing about not completing the recording or worrying that you’ll have to book another day and that will put you over budget etc.  It’s not worth it.  

- Andrew

Discussion Topic

An interesting article (right-click title and open link in a new tab/window to read the article). I've read a little bit about the whole loudness war and am a fan of the movement "TurnMeUp". I strongly believe that the essence of music is not only sound, but also the absence of sound. It's the absence of sound which makes sound [when present] special, just as in without darkness, there would be nothing special about light (and vice versa). My own experience in listening to music, is that I prefer uncompressed, or less compressed music. If I want to hear it loud, I turn up the volume. There is a lot of talk about the loudness war being another attempt to literally "rise above the noise level" of the radio station, as no one wants to be the quiet artist on the radio.


I think that if your prime target audience is people listening to the radio as they are doing something else (i.e. background listening) then this makes sense to a degree. BUT, a song still has to be good right? Being loud is not a trait that people associate as a positive for a song on its own.


This brings me to the second part of the discussion which is the current trend of 'capturing' the impossibly perfect performance. Consumers (yes people who listen to music are also consumers) today demand high quality products. The same way that advertising and marketing bend the truth as far as they can without actually lying to put the product in the best possible light against the competition.


This gets the product through stage one, which is the purchase by the consumer. However, like music, if the product is no good, the consumer will usually figure this out and look for something else which better meets their needs. Perhaps this is why pop music is such a consumable thing in our world today. My personal opinion about the impossibly perfect performance being captured is this: On one hand, I feel that as a documentation process, a recording should be what is intended and nothing less. If a wrong note is played or a beat is dropped then, if it is consequential or detrimental to the song/art, you should try your best to fix this. There does come a point though when (if you are fixing all the mistakes) a recording does start to loose that human feel about it. It's a very intangible, but there is definitely a point when a recording stops being human and starts sounding computerised and cold. I guess you have to decide whether you are creating music/art for the sake of the art or if you are trying to create it to fit in a pre-determined place in which to do so you must follow standard practices.


As the development of modern recording and editing techniques progress, it might seem that REAL musicians are less and less needed. You have programs like Fruity Loops, Logic, Pro Tools and hundreds of other plugins/software instruments etc which make it easy to approximate what a real musician would do. But what they will never be able to do is create, synthesise or simulate that "x" factor and that "vibe" that happens when a group of musicians get together and create music. Warts and all.


I hope that there is a back-lash of people demanding the return of 'real' musicians/artists. Already, there is a movement stirring in the Australian Government which would require artists who plan to lip-sync during a concert to put a disclaimer on their tickets. I think that this would be a great thing as it would really highlight the difference between a musician and a pop-star, pro-tools entertainer to the general public.


I wonder, where can we go from here? Music seems to be reaching the limit of loudness and compression and pop music is so 'perfect' that it all starts to sound the same. I think the real beauty in all art forms is not what is normal or expected, it's the surprise of the unexpected which really gets that "wow" reaction. No human is perfect, why should we demand that anything that we create is.


What's your opinion on the topic? Please leave your comments.



- Andrew

Tim Cannon Producing In a Little More Detail

I thought I might talk in a little more detail about one of the songs on Tim Cannon's album and the changes that have been made to the song during the production process. The song which I think has undergone considerable change is 'High Hopes'. Originally, I considered this song to be a bit of an adult trapped in a childs body with refined melody and lyrics, with harmony that to me, didn't do them justice.
Below is a sample of the original recording made as a demo of the song.




First thing we set about doing was removing the acoustic guitar and reharmonising the melody to emphasize the emotional rise and fall of the lyrics and melody. We separated the verse and chorus harmonically by making the verses quite static, removing the dominant chords from the demo and creating a rocking harmonic movement (backwards and forwards). The release comes with the chorus. Moving to the key of the relative major the chords have much more movement. We altered a few of the chords to give it more of a dramatic feel. For example, instead of repeating the first two chords of the chorus, we went to the minor iv chord (f minor) and then back to the relative major (c major). To me, this makes the chorus sound like it's heaving like someone taking deep breaths.
Below is a sample of the original band arrangement. It's worth noting that we used the vocals from the original acoustic guitar demo. Because this was not recorded with a click, I had to cut up each phrase and place it on the grid so that I could use sampled drum kits and midi instruments and edit sections much easier. The playing on the demo is very rough but it illustrates some of the changes that I have been talking about.




Tim was pretty happy with the transformation at this stage, so we decided to workshop "High Hopes" as a band, using this as a reference point. If you listen to the recording below you'll hear the result of the band workshop. Players were: Tim Cannon: Bass, Stewart Taylor: Acoustic Guitar, Mark Leahy: Drums & myself on Piano.

Straight away you can hear that we have done away with the brushes idea from the demo above to give it more of a drive/groove. The tempo of the song is also slightly faster to make sure that it doesn't plod along too much.

Another arrangement change that was made is to this version was the rhythms in the chorus. In the previous version (above), the guitar was strumming in 1/8 notes (quavers), strings were playing 1/4 notes (crotchets) and the piano was playing ever 2 bars. This was re-arranged into the following: Piano to play in 1/8 notes (quavers) and guitar to play in 1/4 notes (crotchets) and no strings. We decided that the aesthetics of the album didn't allow for string ensembles and so arranged the other two instruments (piano and guitar) so that each part would contrast to the verse part. However, this creates an interesting effect because throughout the entire piece, you always have the 1/8th note pulse weather it's in the hi-hats, guitar or piano. This helps to both move the song along and to create intensity.




So, now that you have had a little insight to some of the decision making process from initial idea/demo to pre-production, you can have a listen to the current album version of "High Hopes". This is unfinished, un-mixed and un-mastered but I hope you can see the progression of the song.




- Andrew


Thanks to Mindy McAdams for her very helpful tutorial on how to use this flash audio player.

Co-Producing with Elodie Adams

I was recently in the studio co-producing with singer/songwriter Elodie Adams. We recorded three tracks in total to form her first EP. The first track (Staring Game) has an interesting blend of jazz and pop. Instrumentation is Piano, Drums, Bass and Voice. We ended up really going for a sort of swing big band vibe but with only a 4 piece band. I’m pretty happy with the way things turned out and the feel that we were able to achieve.
The second track (If You'd Let Me Love You) is just Piano and Voice. Its quite a long track with quite a free flowing waltz feel. This was quite tricky to record as there was no tempo grid so the right take had to be pretty much perfect. It has a bit of a free section in it where the piano and voice are interacting with each other in a sort of simultaneous call and response fashion.
The third song (Angel) is a slow lilting song which we had to rush due to time restraints.
You can hear the songs at Elodie Adam’s MySpace page or on iTunes.

- Andrew

Old News? Battle of the Choirs - Battle Cry

Back in 2008 Channel 7 was running a choir competition called, "Battle of the Choirs". If you search YouTube for "Battle of the Choirs" you should find lots of videos of the weekly competition.

The choir who won the competition was the University of Newcastle Chamber Choir which coincidently I used to sing in back when I was living in Newcastle studying at the Newcastle University Conservatorium.

Through some of my studio contacts, I was asked if I could record the piano/keyboard parts for the album of the winning choir to be co-released with the announcement of the winner of the competition. We recorded the album with PLW in South Melbourne as instruments only with the intent that the choir would record their parts later in Sydney.

It was an interesting experience as I think there were only 2 musicians playing in the studio at any one time because of different availability. It was pretty high pressure stuff with almost no time to record. You can see a snippet of footage of me recording "Playing to Win" with Phil as the engineer below in this YouTube video.

Enjoy!

- Andrew

Shero

For a number of months I've been playing with a new band called Shero. We have had a number of gigs at the Espy and Revolver at which we have been well received. Adam Shero Baluch (songwriter and front man) has his debut album under his sleeve and is continuing to write new material for album number two.

I'll be sure to post more info on Shero as it happens, but in the meantime check the Myspace and Facebook pages for upcoming show dates. You can also follow news updates about Shero by clicking on the link to the Shero Facebook page on the left of this site.

- Andrew

The Roaring Years (for now)

Well, Friday 14th August saw The Roaring Years play their final gig in their hometown of Newcastle, NSW. There were over 400+ friends, family and fans who turned up for an emotional farewell.

I've been playing with The Roaring Years (formally Dirty Pink Jeans) for the last two years and before that, I was involved as a session player on their EP "Dance".

Since James and his wife have moved over to Italy to further their respective artistic careers, the band is on an unknown path. We may get together again sometime in the future, we may not. One thing that is certain though is that I have a lot of fond memories with this band and look forward to any time where we can get together again.

- Andrew

Kingbayler

A little while ago I recorded some keyboard/piano parts for Kingbayler's up and coming EP, "Bleary Eyed Girls and Boys". They were recording it at one of my favourite little studios (Supersonic Recordings).

The EP is a mixture of styles from Motown inspired pop songs to brooding emotional, almost progressive songs as well as Kingbayler's well established groove/pop songs.

There are six tracks in total and it's obvious to anyone familiar with Kingbayler's earlier material that the boys are definitely broadening their musical scope and experimenting with new ideas.

They tell me that the release date will be late September/October but other than that, I don't have any more details. At the time of writing, Kingbayler's website did not have any of the new songs from "Bleary Eyed Girls and Boys" but I imagine that it will be soon.

UPDATE: The Kingbayler boys have just announced that "Bleary Eyed Girls and Boys" and their 2004 release "Sections" are up on iTunes.  Below is a ling to the iTunes store where you can check 'em out.

- Andrew