6020 hits in total / 4 today.
How to record a PPOT song
There are of course lots of different ways to approach record a
PPOT song. Here is one way used by Jesper to create the Star Paws
tune. For the CD "RUN/STOP RESTORE" we decided to let each band member
choose one tune each for which that member could totally decide how it
should be made---including who should play what and how. Jesper chose
to do Rob Hubbard's Star Paws in a heavy metal style much inspired by
bands like Anthrax and Slayer.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to record a PPOT tune
Step 1: Learn how to play the music
First you have to learn the music. Skilled musicians can use their
ear to learn all the chords, leads, themes and bass lines, but for the
less skilled a good trick is to export the original SID to midi in
order to get the notes easily (please do not just use these
midi data for your song! We definitely think a SID re-mix should be
done by playing the stuff on real instruments yourself).
One way to do this is to use the tool Sid2Midi
to generate midi tracks. Not every SID gets converted to midi in a
usable way, though. Especially the use of arpeggios (notes switching
very fast in one channel to simulate a full chord) and pitch slides
often confuses Sid2Midi. Anyhow, it is a valuable tool which can be
quite handy---especially for the really fast passages of some
tunes.
Using SID2MIDI you can get some great help in
learning the tune. |
Step 2: Set up a multi track project with the SID as cue
To make it easier to know where you are in your recording, you can
have the SID present in your multi track recorder program (we use
Sonar from CakeWalk). This can either be
done my using the output from SID2Midi or by exporting the individual
tracks as wav-files from SidPlay
Using
SIDPLAY you can export the individual SID tracks to wav and use them
in your project as cue. |
The advantage of having real wav-files is that is quite easy at
this stage to rearrange the SID if you want. Often some passages of
the SID can be impossible to play or perhaps you want to repeat a
theme or simply make a break. For this a wav-file can quite easily be
edited to reflect new ideas. We usually make a "sid_mp3" for all the
tunes we play which reflects the arrangement we want to play (like for
example Hypa-ball vs. Mission AD).
Often a SID will be slightly out of pitch so you might have to
pitch shift it a bit by ear in your favorite sound tool. Now the
wav-files can be imported in your multi track project.
Step 3: Find the exact BPM of the SID
You need to know the exact BPM (beat pr. minute) for the wav file
in order to take full advantage of the editing facilities of your
multi track recorder (to make sure that periods hit the right
measure-marks and so on).
When exporting wav-files from SidPlay remember to use version 1 and
also to skip the first 10-20 seconds as these often are flaky in
regards to keeping a steady beat.
This is found by using your favorite sound tool: Load the sample,
zoom in on exactly the start of a new measure, zoom out, step forward
in time about 64 to 128 measures to keep a safe margin and zoom in on
the same again and set the marker exactly at the end of the last
beat. Your sound tool needs to be able to tell you the exact
time of each marker and using this together with you own count of how
many beats there are between the two markers will give you the exact
BPM. This may very well be a floating point figure.
By importing the original SID as wav-files in Sonar
and setting the correct BMP you can have a useful guide as to what to
record at a particular point in the
tune. |
Step 4: Make the drums
There are many different ways to make drums. The obvious way is to
record them yourself :) This of course requires a drum kit and a whole
lot of microphones, know-how on how to mix the drums, and so on. An
easier approach can be to use an electric drum kit like we do live (we
use the Roland TD-5) as this just outputs the drum track in
stereo. This, however, also means that it is impossible to alter the
levels between the individual drums after the recording have been
made. Also, the TD-5 does show it's age and the drum sounds are not
that great. For RUN/STOP RESTORE we have therefore almost
exclusively used the sample drum kit Drum kit From
Hell by Toontrack. This features state- of-the-art drum samples
which can easily be integrated in Sonar. (What PPOT's drummer Søren
have done is then to program the drums almost as he would play them
himself). Each drum sample exists in a version recorded close to the
drum and another recorded a couple of meters away. Mixed together this
make up for a really authentic drum sound.
In Sonar you can use the DXi software sampler. Then all you need is
to program a midi track of drums and then feed this into the Dxi
sampler. Another possibility (which we have not yet tried out) is to
record the midi output from the TD-5 and then feed that into the
software sampler. That way you could get good sounding drums played by
yourself. (We're actually looking into doing this live also).
Using the Drum kit From Hell in a software
sampler in Sonar makes it easy to get good sounding drum sounds. This
also gives a lot of flexibility to experiment with different drum
parts later on. |
Step 5: Recording guitar, bass and other stuff
When the drums are ready we can start recording the different real
instruments playing along to the drums (or a metronome if that is
preferred by the player). For Star Paws rhythm guitars, lead guitars,
and bass were added along the way and the exact arrangement came from
experimenting with different approaches. This is the cool thing about
digital recording--- it is quite easy to experiment and try out
something new. Another really useful feature about digital
recording is the ability to correct mistakes. We are not trying to kid
anyone by claiming to be the most professional musicians
around. Instead of spending months trying to learn each passage and
getting the perfect recording we try our best and afterwards correct
the small mistakes. This way we can record a CD in our spare time
while still keeping up with full time jobs, studying, family, and so
on.
Recording digitally makes it easier to get
somewhere fast by correcting small mistakes and recording small bits
at the time. |
In order to get a really fat sound on the guitar the
rythm guitar is actually recorded twice with different guitar sounds
(one very crisp and noisy with lots of treble and another which is
more warm and smooth). These are then panned a bit out---one a bit to
the left and the other a bit to the right. This makes the rythm
guitars sound "bigger" (and is actually a trick we use a lot on many
songs).
The lead guitar is not recorded several times with different
sounds. But, many of the themes are recorded twice played at different
position on the guitar---often one octave apart (like from
0:30-0:40). This also makes the sound "bigger". For effects some
pick-sliding were also added (1:00) as well as some artificial feedback using
an E-bow (0:40-0:50 and 3:05).
For this heavy metal style the bass sound used had some distortion,
but most noticeably in the break at 2:04-2:13 where the bass part is
almost solo-like
To record real instruments we use a Hoontech
DSP2000 C- PORT which features 8 in/out channels. Jesper does,
however, own a Line6 POD XT
which features direct recording of guitar via USB. The POD XT is
basically a digital guitar amplifier simulator, so the idea is, that
when the guitar sound signal have been AD converted once it makes
sense to you run it further on into the computer via USB without the
need of any more AD/DA conversion. This works really well and makes
Jesper capable of recording a lot of stuff at home with the wife and
kid :)
Jesper's computer corner (fully inflated). Includes
everything needed to make a PPOT tune: Guitar, POD XT, Sonar software
running, a couple of late night beers, and of course the compulsory Underberg. |
Step 6: Polish the recorded material
After recording the raw material a lot of work needs to be done in
regard to making sure that no obvious mistakes are left in and that
all instruments play nice and tight. Also, here a rough mixing can be
done by trying to set the volume of each channel approximately
correct.
When recording a difficult passage in several
parts, the trick is to zoom in on the end of each sample and make sure
that the old sample is faded out and the new sample is faded in. Even
though this happens in a fraction of a second and cannot be heard, it
does eliminate annoying "clicks" which can otherwise
appear. |
Step 7: Do the final mix
The final (and really difficult part) is to do THE
MASTERING. At this stage you have to set the volumes of each
channel right, add effects like reverb and delay, and equalize each
instrument in order to get a nice overall sound. If you haven't
already guessed this is the part where skill and experience
really start to count! This is where Søren steps in as PPOT's
master mixer guru :) At this point Søren usually gets the entire
project from Sonar and works on it at his place where he have bought
some great speakers to do the mastering on.
The really difficult part is to try and make a mix that sounds good
on good stereos and not-like-crap on cheap stereos. (or - if you want
to mix "commercially": a mix that sounds good on cheap stereos and
not-like-crap on good stereos). The only way to try to do this is by
experimenting and listening to several mixes on several stereos. This
is quite a time consuming and annoying task but obviously a very
important final step.
And that's it. It's all in a days work for a Commodore 64 revival
band :)
|