piano – Aaron J. Trumm

Caging The Beast

July 8, 2019 by Aaron

aaron j. trumm, piano, piano micing, piano miking, recording magazine, recording piano

How to mic pianos

First appeared in the May 2016 Recording Magazine, reprinted by permission.

I have a lyric, “88 ebony and ivory blisses”. Many people feel that way about the piano – until they have to record it. The piano is big, complex, has a frequency range as large as human hearing. Plus, there are hundreds of different kinds. It’s a beast, and caging it is said to be the most frustrating thing in recording, but I think of it differently. For me, it’s the instrument with the most possibility. But “possibility” means variables, and that can be overwhelming, so I’ll try to get you started here.

I won’t go into the history or construction of a piano; you can look at previous articles by Michael Schulze and Nathan Rosenberg for that. I’ll just dive into miking it, and try to cover as many bases as possible. I’ll focus mainly on grand pianos, but I’ll give lip service to uprights.

The way I think about miking the piano is to first visualize the instrument and the room it’s in. I picture all the places a mic could go, and think about what that will sound like. I might even have someone play while I put my head in those spots.

Next, I think about how the piano can be manipulated. There are four basic states: open, half stick, closed lid, and lid removed. Where the instrument is in the room, the room itself, and playing style are also factors I lump into this category. I also put “problems” in this category: noisy pedals, overly bejeweled player, clicky fingernails, rattling keys, creaky benches, tuning issues, etc.

Next is context. Is it a concert or a recording? Is it a solo or group piece? Are there other instruments playing in the room? Classical? Pop? Rock? Where on the piano will we be playing? All of these factors influence your choices in miking up the beast.

Last, I think about the mic, pickup pattern and technique. Dynamics are rarely used in piano miking because the heavy diaphragm lacks the ability to capture high end nuance, but it’s not unheard of. Both large and small diaphragm condensers and ribbons are common, usually with an omni or cardioid pattern. Techniques boil down to spaced or coincident, and there are several flavors of each.

To review the overview, we’ve got: Placement, Instrument, Context, Mic(s).

I’ll center around placement, and consider other variables around that.

Room Micing

Many engineers would disagree with this, but I think there are no wrong places to mic a piano. It depends on what you want to hear. For example, if you want a muddy sound, you could go behind the lid, but usually the accepted place to mic any instrument is in front of where it fires. With a grand piano, that’s in front of the open lid, which is a large area. As with anything, the closer the mics are, the less room sound you get. This is a place to consider context. In classical recording, it’s typical to place mics in the room. You will notice the piano sounds even and live this way. How far back depends on the room, but try 2 or 3 feet back for a relatively close sound in a decent room, and go back from there. Try head high when you’re closer, or draw an imaginary line along the angle of the lid. Place the mics around where that would line would be – higher if farther away. This can help with capturing high frequencies reflecting from the lid.

With the lid at half-stick, high frequencies reflect more downward than into the room. So you won’t get as much high frequency brilliance with a half closed lid and room mics – a duller sound. Closing the lid and room miking really won’t work, unless you want major high frequency attenuation and a muddy sound. In the classical context, we usually leave the lid fully open.

As far as mic choice, small diaphragm condensers work great. Large diaphragm condensers are awesome too, but small diaphragms have a better off axis response, which is nicer for capturing reflections. You can do a cardioid pattern here, but if the room is nice, an omni pattern might be better. Even in omni, point the mic at the source (downward toward the strings), because there will always be SOME off-axis coloration.

You can choose between a single mic, a spaced pair (Figure 1), or a coincident pair like an X-Y (Figure 2). A spaced pair is straight forward but comes with two potential problems: phase and “hole in the middle”.

If they’re spaced too wide (Figure 3), you could get a feeling of having a hole in the middle of the stereo field. You can bring them a little closer, or you can try adding a third in the middle.

The other potential issue is phase. As your spaced pair is summed to mono (which still happens quite a bit in broadcasts), you could find a major change in tonality based on complex phase interactions. Careful placement and checking in mono can help, or you can change your technique to an X-Y placement. This will create a more natural stereo image, eliminate any “hole in the middle” issues, and (mosty) take care of phase and mono compatibility issues. That makes X-Y configuration seem superior, but I myself am more likely to use a spaced pair.

In front of the lid or way out in the room is not the only room miking option. You can also try a behind the player placement. An X-Y slightly above the player’s head, pointing down toward the strings (not the keys) is good, and I like to put a spaced pair 2 or so feet behind the player, 3-4 feet apart (Figure 4).

Figure 4 – Behind The Player Spaced Pair

There’s no reason not to try various locations in the room or multiple mics simultaneously. You’re under no obligation to use all the tracks in your mix. One of my recent sessions was miked with 4 spaced pairs of small diaphragm condensers. One was 2 feet apart at the edge of the piano, another was 4 feet apart about 4 feet back, another was about 10 feet back, 8 feet apart, and another was a pair behind the player. I varied my use of the tracks in the mix, but I found that the farthest room mics added nothing, because the room was fairly dead. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and throw away what doesn’t work.

Close Miking

Close miking a piano is more typical of pop and rock music, and is, to me, more complex and interesting. There are a million ways you could achieve something cool with close miking.

Any placement starting at the edge of piano and moving in toward the strings we’ll call close miking. I like a spaced or X-Y pair right at the edge of the case, where it curves, about two feet above the edge. Another set up I like is a spaced pair of 414’s a little deeper into the piano, but still a good 2 or 3 feet above the strings. As you move toward the strings, you’ll find more distinction, ie: certain strings will be emphasized more. This isn’t always good, so you want to play with placement and think about where the song is mostly played.

Another technique is to use an X-Y pair in the middle of the piano, using cardioid patterns. The directionality of the cardioid pickup in this situation can pick out the high and low strings.

Recently I put an omni 414 deep into the piano, about 6 inches above the low strings and 3 inches behind the dampers, to emphasize a line that was played only on the lowest octave. This track I centered in mono, but there were 3 other tracks to mix with: a 414 a foot above the highest strings, and a spaced pair at the edge of the case. The latter 3 were for overdubs higher on the piano, but I recorded all the tracks on all three takes.

All of these placements use an open lid, and I’ve used both cardioid and omni patterns to great effect. With a half stick lid, shoving mics inside gets trickier, but this might be preferable when other players are in the room. It’s also typical to use blankets to help isolate from the rest of the band. Half-closing the lid changes the acoustics inside the piano, but not THAT much.

Closing the piano entirely is another story. First off, you can’t stick booms inside a closed piano, and as I mentioned, room miking a closed piano doesn’t work. A traditional solution is PZM mics taped to the underside of the lid. With care, you can get cabling out of there without too much disturbance, and you can even pile on more blankets for isolation. The problem with putting PZMs inside a closed piano is a boxy sound. The inside of the piano is an insane place acoustically with the lid closed, and decent PZMs do an ok job, but it’s still tough.

There is a solution I like for that dilemma. It’s the Earthworks Audio PianoMic (reviewed in the September 2011 issue). The PianoMic mounts inside the piano (Figure 5), allowing the lid to fully close. The mics attached to the adjustable boom are what’s called “random incidence” mics, which means they “don’t care where the sound is coming from”. Basically, they’re “super duper omni directional”. This matters because sound inside the piano comes from all directions, making locating a specific source difficult.

Figure 5 – Earthworks PianoMic mounts inside the piano

Earthworks was kind enough to send me a loaner for this article, and I did some testing in an environment not ideal for recording: a showroom. Alex Boggs at 88 Keys Piano Warehouse here in Albuquerque (88KeysPianoWarehouse.com) generously lent me their space, where I installed the PianoMic on a baby Yamaha. The environment was relatively noisy due to street traffic and air conditioner noise, and I was curious how well I could isolate by closing the lid. I also tested with the lid open and at half stick. The playing masked the room and traffic noise, so isolation became less of a question. I really liked the sound; I did notice that with the lid closed, it was slightly darker and boxier, but less than I expected. What impresses me about the PianoMic is that it takes the guesswork out.

Figure 6 – PianoMic goosenecks can be re-posititioned

The mics sit on tiny goosenecks so there is some play (Figure 6), but really not that much choice in the grand scheme of things. This makes miking the piano less overwhelming. You sacrifice some flexibility, but I like the efficiency. I especially like that notion for live situations, and lo and behold, Earthworks makes a touring version of the PianoMic which breaks down more for easier transport.

Even with great mics, a closed lid is the least desirable scenario, but when you must close the lid, I like the PianoMic.

For an open lid, I already described spaced and X-Y pairs placed either at the edge of the case, or deep within the piano. I tend to gravitate toward the player, and I’ve spaced two 414’s as wide as the width of the piano, 2 inches from the strings, right up on the hammers. Another option is to bring that pair together, or X-Y a pair of small diaphragms right up near the hammers toward the middle. This will yield a percussive sound with a lot of attack. Any of these techniques might get you a lot of pedal noise, though, and depending on the player and piano, that may be too much.

You might solve that problem by going to an overlooked spot on the piano: the foot. In Nathan Rosenberg’s article on our website he says, “there is a wonderful place at the tail, just about where the back leg is, or often just outside the case. Here, the various registers tend to project in a surprisingly uniform manner.” That’s a good place for a mono recording, too. Thanks, Nathan!

Another accepted technique is to place one mic toward the middle of the group of high strings (toward the music stand) and a second more toward the foot of the piano. Typically these would be condensers in omni configuration.

Another extreme option is what Elton John producer Gus Dudgeon did – remove the lid. This allows you to hang mics above the strings almost anywhere your heart desires. It can result in a considerably brighter sound with less low end power, and that may not be for everyone, but some people swear by it. A spaced pair of omnis about 2 or 3 feet above the strings would be reasonable.

Of course there are the “sound holes”, which aren’t really sound holes, but can yield some interesting results. One technique involves an X-Y pair about halfway between the lid and case, pointed diagonally toward the strings. People have also been known to stick a directional mic right down into a hole, usually as a supplement to more traditional techniques (Figure 7). This is the one situation where a dynamic might suit you. I once put an SM57 in the middle hole, ran its cable directly to two guitar pedals (delay and distortion), ran that to a vintage Fender amp, and miked that amp like I would a guitar. I put the amp in an isolation booth across the room and closed the door and it was STILL feeding back! The point is, there are any number of creative things you can do, like miking under the piano to help bolster your low-end or for a mellow sound (Figure 8).

Indeed, there’s an endless variety of spaced pair, X-Y, mono and multi-mic configurations you can try. We’ve talked mostly about condensers because that’s more common, but in any of the situations I’ve described, you could substitute ribbons. We’re not done though. We haven’t talked about the mid-side pair, which can be a great way to use ribbons.

A mid-side pair makes use of two mics to create 3 tracks. Mic 1 – the “side” – must use a figure 8 pattern. Mic 2 – the “mid” – is a cardioid, pointed at the sound source. The side mic is perpendicular to the mid, so the figure 8 is left-right of the source direction. Once recorded, the side is doubled and one side is phase-reversed. These two tracks are panned hard and the mid is placed in the center. You can then mix to taste. A mid-side pair can be quite beautiful on a piano, and is perfectly mono-compatible since the 2 sides will cancel when summed. Placement of an effective mid-side pair for piano is similar to other placements – there are plenty of great possibilities. The other day I set up a mid-side pair at the edge of the case (Figure 9), right where I would normally put a spaced pair.

Figure 9 – Mid-Side pair at the edge of the piano

I loved the result. I also loved the result when Houston engineer Rock Romano recorded me with a mid-side of ribbons placed about the middle of the piano, with the cardioid pointed right at me. However, I do find that a mid-side can go wrong a little easier than other techniques. The experimental set up in Figure 10 was placed near the edge of the case a little higher, and I found the result lacking depth and character. I ended up killing side two and panning the mid left and the original side right to salvage the take.

Figure 10 – Mid-Side pair higher near the edge of piano

That brings me to a point on mixing. It may seem there’s no room to play in mixing a piano, but that’s not true. Especially if you use multiple mics, there are many ways to experiment and adjust. For example panning an X-Y closer together is always an option. A spaced pair will start to change tonally as you bring the panning in (because of phase issues), but that tonal change may be something you like. Just as there are no wrong ways to mic a piano, there are no wrong ways to mix it.

Before I end, I’d like to give my promised lip service to uprights.

Upright pianos aren’t recorded nearly as often as grands, and the reason is simple: they don’t sound as awesome. But that doesn’t mean it never happens. Some general concepts still apply. Condensers and ribbons usually work better, spaced pairs have more phase issues than X-Y pairs, and close miking yields less room sound than getting farther away. The upright is physically different though. So where do we place mics? There are three basic possibilities: Inside or above the top (with the top open), in front of the piano underneath the keys, or behind the piano. Upright pianos are often shoved up against a wall, and it’s probably best to not do that. It’s also probably best to remove panels either in front or in a back, to give better acoustic access to the sound board and strings. My personal preference would be a spaced pair of cardioid condensers placed about 2 feet off the ground, right about even with either side of the bench, so the piano player kicks them when sitting down or getting up, with panel removed. I once shoved a cheap dynamic into a 100 year old out of tune monster and the result was…magnificent…in its way.

By now you’ve got the picture that piano miking is a complex and variable task, with a lot of room for creativity. I’ve covered as much as I could, leaving out one big possibility: surround. That’s a can of worms that I think deserves its own article. Talking about piano miking is by no means simple, and neither is getting what you want from such a complex instrument, but I hope you’ve at least got some places to start now, and at best, a better idea of what to expect when caging the beast named Piano.

In case you’re wondering, I put together a bunch of notes and samples from my session with the EarthWorks PianoMic – you can get all that stuff for free right here.

Trains Interlude

February 8, 2016 by Aaron

interlude, lin, option, piano, sandy, techno, the four hard edges of war, third, trains, violin

Ok – still going through Third Option’s The Four Hard Edges Of War.

Here is track 4, “Trains Interlude”:

This has no vocals, just music. I like it. It’s ..what’s the word? Reminiscent? Or something? I like the multiple violins. I wrote a simple violin line and a fellow student at Stanford, Sandy Lin, played it. She was really rusty so it was quite inconsistent, but that was actually perfect. I had her play it 7 times. Then I panned them around and added a fake violin playing the same line. I personally liked the result.

There’s all this cutting around, and in the surround sound version the stuff gets abruptly cut from one place to another – behind you, in front, etc. That was an accident that people in class liked, so I actually made the stereo version MORE abrupt to match what I accidentally did in the surround version.

It’s weird to listen to this stuff again, and try to talk about it in a way that other people might care about. You do something like this and you really hope it moves somebody other than you, but does it? Does it matter? (I think it does) Hmmm. Nostalgic? Is that what this song sounds like?

Well tell you what, if you happen to see this, shoot me and email and tell me what stuff YOU’D like to read about or hear about… 🙂 I’m at aarontrumm @ nquit .com for purposes of this. 🙂

Meanwhile you can grab some free stuff at www.thirdoptionmusic.com – just as a little thank you for even reading this 🙂

— Aaron

[purchase_link id=”1275″ text=”Download The Four Hard Edges Of War Here” style=”button” color=”blue”]

Two Trains

February 4, 2016 by Aaron

andre de korvin, music, nquit, piano, poetry, techno, third option, two trains

Hey! Still (slowly) writing little bits about tracks. Here is track 3 from the main The Four Hard Edges Of War:

I didn’t do it on purpose (except maybe subconsciously), but I can’t help but notice the beat is sort of like – well – a train chugging along. Chigga chigga chigga chigga – CHOO CHOO!

“I would like to sleep, oblivious of the thousand faces of corruption” – see it’s lines like that that just get me. Andre de Korvin is a badass poet!

What else can we say about this track that you might care about? Well there’s two piano tracks again. And there’s some crazy delay effects on them. There’s also several versions of the drum track that kind of get layered. I love when the beats just BREAK and for like a measure is JUST live piano – that sounds fantastic to me. I love contrast and I love natural instruments….oh and then it breaks again and he’s talking “and ivy grows from dolls with cut off heads…”

I’m not sure I actually love this song personally though…it’s so airy and ethereal in a way that I don’t enjoy, but hopefully other people. That’s something to note. A lot of times you just make the music that YOU want to hear…but sometimes the muse pulls you and you end up just playing, composing, doing something that you really don’t even care for as a listener, it’s not what you would have thought of, it’s just flowing through you. It’s not for you and it may not even be FROM you, if you believe in that sort of spiritual stuff. I think letting that happen is really very key. I think that’s a part of the right of passage of a creative person, especially a professional, to be able to follow the muse, and follow through and finish things, and let go and let it be for other people. I talk about it being for other people a lot. That’s why musicians seem to crave attention or fame, I think. Because they want to know that what they’re doing musically is affecting and moving other people. It’s this dream to think of gobs of people having a relationship with something you made…

I still like that thought…

Ok I got mixing to do…

The View From Lighter Years Away

July 17, 2015 by Aaron

andre de korvin, nquit music, piano, poetry, spoken word, techno, the view from lighter years away, third option

HEY! For the first time in like…what? 10 years? I’m writing these little blog posts again! Linking to TUNEZ, sayin some STUFF. 🙂

Ok…I’m gonna start in on The Four Hard Edges Of War, which is the last Third Option album, made mostly at CCRMA at Stanford. It’s a collaboration between me and Andre de Korvin, a great great poet from Houston. So first of all, here’s the first track…

The View From Lighter Years Away

That title is his – see what we did is, there’s a book by him: The Four Hard Edges Of War which as you see, we’ve also re-released as a digital book…

We recorded him reading the book. Then years later, I cut up piece of that recording, and used it as inspiration and weaved it in to a bunch of avante garde techno/piano. The View From Lighter Years away is track 1, because it’s section 1 in the book. The book is four parts.

All of the music stuff on Four Hard was created in strange ways, as various homework assignments in the master’s program at CCRMA. There’s real pianos that I played, but there are also drum tracks written in linux using Hydrogen, there are noise pieces and riffs written by programs…yes I meant that. I would write programs that would write music. That was part of the course of study! Here’s a picture of the studio where a lot of this record was made:

That’s actually a picture from 2013 but it’s pretty same same.

Andre was recorded earlier – like in 2002 or so, in Houston at Rock Romano’s Red Shack.

So there you go – a short post, but a post none-the-less!

HEY! Here’s a thing – you can now grab a couple FREE Third Option tracks – just click HERE and enjoy on me! 🙂

– Aaron

[purchase_link id=”1275″ text=”Download The Four Hard Edges Of War Here” style=”button” color=”blue”]

Kong

September 11, 2008 by Aaron

fusion music, kong, monkey set, nquit, piano, poem, techno, trance

Kong, by Third Option

and here we are
at the green leafy apocalypse of it all
fallen down
broken bones

temptation sin and banishment
here we are
in the locker rooms and candlewax shops we forgot about
everything torn down and overrun

king kong fallen in the night
done in by monkeys
mighty mighty mad world
might wonder why the jungle does this

but we all know
it was the aching sun at fault
comparing the trusses of the castles of the sky to arms
making as much sense as a garden full of monkeys
laughing laughing laughing
crazy at the sight of king kong’s blood

“some might have thought,” they howled
as he felt long ago
how one ape rule the land
tile monkeys merge one day
on high ground

til one becomes 10 becomes a million of us
joined by the tail

standing in the blazing sun
one mega monkey with a crown
gleaming
choking
groping for a name

we forgot the last
we beat sense into our own breast and put the smaller monkeys back
we call ourselves king
and kong sits soon to follow

Hmm. Interesting. A lot in here. I’ll just listen.

You too! 🙂 If you haven’t already, you can get some free downloads at thirdoptionmusic.com 🙂

– Aaron

[purchase_link id=”1318″ text=”Download The Monkey Set Here” style=”button” color=”blue”]

Monkeys Belong In The Jungle Baby

September 5, 2008 by Aaron

monkey set, monkeys belong in the jungle baby, piano, poetry, techno, third option, trance

Well here, again, is the first “track” of The Monkey Set, “Monkeys Belong In The Jungle Baby”. It’s really just the build up to the first poem thing/second track. Here’s the “lyrics”, or the “poem” for this part. Which isn’t really lyrics or a poem. It’s just some improv I did on the mic. But then I noticed that that had a little statement – we belong in the jungle. Not in vast expanses of concrete. Etc.

I’m not really sure why I was saying “lonely lovely bouncing baby”. *laugh*

monkey

lonely
lovely
bouncing baby
lonely
lovely
bouncing baby
lonely lovely bouncing baby
monkeys belong in the jungle baby
lonely lovely bouncing baby
monkeys belong in the jungle baby
lonely lovely bouncing baby
monkeys belong in the jungle baby
lonely lovely bouncing baby
monkeys belong in the jungle baby
lonely lovely bouncing baby
monkeys belong in the jungle baby
lonely lovely bouncing baby
monkeys belong in the jungle baby
lonely lovely bouncing baby
monkeys belong in the jungle baby
lonely lovely bouncing baby
monkeys belong in the jungle baby
lonely lovely bouncing baby
monkeys belong in the jungle baby
lonely lovely bouncing baby
monkeys belong in the jungle baby
lonely lovely bouncing baby
monkeys belong in the jungle baby
lonely lovely bouncing baby
monkeys belong in the jungle baby
lonely lovely bouncing baby
monkeys belong in the jungle baby

That’s – you know – kind of all there is to this one. I regret having the vocals throughout this whole CD be a little too quiet. But I kinda like my performances from just a vocal art/sound perspective. *shrug*

So as always, I say grab some free Third Option stuff right in this link! 🙂

– Aaron

[purchase_link id=”1318″ text=”Download The Monkey Set Here” style=”button” color=”blue”]

B-Movie

August 7, 2008 by Aaron

aaron trumm, b-movie, cult of nice, nquit, piano, poetry, scary movie, tamara nicholl, third option

B-Movie, by Third Option

This one has more pieces of the “Cult Of Nice” essay, read by Tamara.

A thing I like about this one is I had all the drums and everything decided, and then we were mix the song and we were like “the snare drum is weak can’t we do something with that?” so I tried running it through a guitar distortion thing, and it totally changed the nature of the snare drum, which totally changed the nature of the whole thing.

I like this one. There’s something so different and badass about it, where it sort of seems like somebody else did it. But then it has this flute sound that really reminds me of the first Third Option Frosted Mini Wheats thingy.

Man. There’s this organ in here and everything. And these little pitz pluck strings. And delayed stuff. And man I used to be so creative!! 🙂

I suppose I still am. Hmmm. Does creativity go away due to becomming cynical?

There’s so much shit in here. Somebody once said it stressed them out. I dunno I guess it’s supposed to in a way. Not that I ever try that stupid thing where you hate something or something is so tedious and the artist goes “you’re SUPPOSED to hate it! that was my goal!” Oh PULEASE you lying sack of arrogant.

My aunt was talking about a movie the other day with us, and she said (paraphrasing) “I guess if the director was trying to get us to feel the feeling of being in the south at that time and being so incredibly bored then they succeeded, but I just got the feeling that he didn’t notice he was making a movie”

*laughs and laughs*

Anyway enjoy being maniacally stressed by B-Movie. I think that’s the right title though. She talks about the monster creeping up through the toaster and I think it sounds sort of B-Movie ish. In fact I think I was in a very loose way emulating the sound/style of a soundtrack that I was engineering on, that the son of the owner of the studio, Steven Romano, was doing.

He was actually doing the soundtrack for Bubba Hotep, which may be a movie you heard of. I was engineering for him. It was very dense stuff. Unfortunately the movie makers went behind his back while he was working on it and paid somebody ELSE 20,000 dollars to do another score, and that’s what they used. I don’t know, maybe he took too long or something. What a rip.

Anywho, you don’t need to go behind my back or pay $20k to get you some FREE tracks from Third Option – just go HERE and get em! 🙂

[purchase_link id=”1325″ text=”Download Cult Of Nice Here” style=”button” color=”blue”]

Get the CD Here

Cult Of Nice!!!

August 6, 2008 by Aaron

aaron j. trumm, cult of nice, nquit music, piano, poetry, spoken word, tamara nicholl, techno, third option

Well. I kinda got done with Artistic Apocalypse.

So I think I’ll move on to some Third Option.

So here is the title track/opening track to the Third Option album Cult Of Nice which me and Tamara (Nicholl) worked on at Rock Romano’s Red Shack in Houston.

The album is based on this essay that Tamara wrote in college about dark heroes and the cult of “nice”. It’s really an incredible piece of work, I think (the essay). There’s actually clips of her reading the essay in the album, in this track, in fact. She’s doing a poem called “Airborne” in the beginning. Then she reads from the essay. “we have cast what we have named as dark aside”

I love the end of the Airborne poem, when she goes “soon, we will not be accustomed, to Earth”, and the beat rips back in. FUCK that’s cool.

This song kicks ass I think. I like it. This is one of those songs that people have heard and said “why aren’t you famous” to which I replied, “because it doesn’t work like that” or “i dunno why don’t you go spread the word?” or something.

It seems like I’ve talked about the intro somewhere before. I left this space on the tape and improv’d the intro, knowing that I would have to stop sooner or later when the beat, which was already on tape, came in. My buddy Larry Lines was engineering, and we rolled, and I did the thing, first take. And I somehow knew exactly where to lay my last chord so that the beat came in perfect. No we did not slide that around or edit that. I just happened to land it perfectly the first time.

I came in to listen and we heard that and Larry got all excited and punched me right in the arm. Fuckin A!, he was saying! We loved it!!

Hey – thanks for reading this as always – feel free, my friends, to go get some FREE THIRD OPTION STUFF right HERE! 🙂

— Aaron

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Get the CD Here

Still Fade To Black Mix

June 6, 2008 by Aaron

annie nightingale, bbc radio I, fade to black, piano, poetry, spoken word, still, tamara nicholl, techno

Something I really love that I might not expect someone like me to love, is remixes. I don’t mean somebody sampling somebody else’s song and turning it into some mashup. That’s a new thing that people are calling remixing but it’s not. Remixes, to my mind, are new versions of songs that take the original multitrack audio and make a different version of the mix. It’s not something you think about when you think about rock n roll live music and you think a recording is just a document of some player’s sound. But really nowadays, and for a long time, the mixdown is a key part of the creative process and there’s WAY WAY more variability there than one might think. You can even have a band play a song once, and totally change the character of the song, right down to actually changing the song.

You can do this without even rearranging by cutting, pasting, editing. But then when you DO start cutting, pasting, editing, you also start into the notion of rearranging, which is an old old concept. Arrangers in classical music are old-school remixers. They take the basic “themes” of a work and make an original arrangement of it. In some cases we have music from composers like Mozart or Beethoven or whoever and it’s not actually clear what the arrangement should be. So the arrangement is the arranger’s creative contribution. But it’s not a new song (or symphony or whatever). It’s still considered the same song. It still has the same title. But there may be a footnote “Mozart’s Lost Sonota, arranged by Johnny Applebaum”.

This is what I think of when I think of remix. The track I linked above is still “Still” (no pun intended) but it’s a different version. The Still EP is 5 of these, and I totally remember where I first learned of this concept of the “maxi-single” in electronic music. I was interning at KUNM 89.9 FM here in Albuquerque, and my job was to organize CDS and take home duplicates. Well there was one CD, I forget the act or title, that was just that: an electronica act with one song (which I presumed was a hit from their full length CD) remixed in various ways.

I loved how I became familiar with the original song, and then I was hearing the same song, but with this new take. All of the Still stuff is completely modeled after that CD, for example, where I’ve gone back to the MIDI file for the song, and for the Fade To Black Mix, all I’ve done is use different synth settings for some (but not all, which I think is key/neat) of the parts. Like the former piano line becomes a vibraphone. It gives the song this whole different character.

I also love the idea of DJs or big fans having access to these secret other versions of known stuff. And usually there’s a bunch of different versions of something laying around just because in mixdown, a lot of times you do different things and decide later which one makes the cut on the album. If the versions are different enough, releasing them as remixes seems like a great use for them and a great well of extra content. That’s where I wouldn’t think I’d like the concept, because I’m not necessarily into being so desperate for content that you dredge up the same stuff over and over (like greatest hits albums – which are really just artists who have a contract to fulfill and no more material). But since I like the discovery process in a remix/new arrangement, I do like it in this case.

Of course, the other cool thing is remixes are this great way to collaborate with other artists and reach new audiences, especially if you can get Big Name Electronica Artist or DJ X to do the “Still Paul Oakanfield Scratch My Back Mix”

Anyway I enjoy remixes.

Ok. I’ll do some remixes while you get your free Third Option stuff, click here to do that! 🙂

– Aaron

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Still

June 5, 2008 by Aaron

annie nightingale, bbc I, piano, poetry, still, tamara nicholl, techno, third option

Ok so I got done with Frosted Mini Wheats and now I’ll just move right on to Still.

So Still was just one of the songs on Frosted Mini Wheats, and I probably said before that it was vastly different before Tamara came along. It wasn’t called Still, for one, because Still is the name of the poem, and the poem wasn’t there. And actually it really was completely different, the song that was in that spot. Tamara had ideas, which gave me ideas, I wrote new baselines, rearranged, wrote new beats, had Tamara do the poem, did bits of the poem myself, cut up the vocals, had us both sing – goddang what DID I keep from the other version? God only knows and no mortal man will ever find out because all those MIDI sequences and audio files were destroyed or lost.

That’s really stupid and bad, actually, because now with that record, and Frosted Mini Wheats, AND Cult Of Nice, I don’t have multitracks, I have nothing. I have no way to recreate and do a version without vocals or any kind of tweaked version if somebody wants it. That’s stupid stupid stupid. Oh well.

Then. Well. I’ll use the next couple blog posts to chatter a bit about the remixes of Still.

Meantime, as always, if you haven’t gotten some free Third Option stuff, click here to do that! 🙂

[purchase_link id=”1327″ text=”Download Still Here” style=”button” color=”blue”]