Rich’s blog

“The Squirrel,” Part 2: The Technical Side: On Mixing and Combining Sounds 2

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:01:31 -0800

This entry also appears on Focal Press’s blog for the audio community, AudioUndone.com
One important lesson I learned from Monster Cable’s Noel Lee several years ago is that in the movies, sound is just as important, if not more important, than the visuals. Even as a film school graduate and film geek in general, and as someone who’d mixed my own records, I’d never really thought of it that way before. Learning this helped me gain a greater appreciation for sound design in the movies and the effect it can make on the film’s emotional impact and ability to immerse the audience in the illusion of what they’re seeing. One only has to remember that most films are audio-recorded (and of course animated) on a silent soundstage to appreciate the role of the sound designer. Sound is especially important in sci-fi, what with all its alien creatures and futuristic technology.
The definitive film for sound design in terms of technical achievement, creativity and sheer impact is of course Star Wars. Our perception of the laser blasts, hum of the light saber, roar of the TIE-fighter, Chewie and R2-D2 was defined just as much by their distinctive sounds as they were by their appearance. I recently browsed the new book The Sounds of Star Wars, which features a speaker that plays 250 of legendary sound designer Ben Burtt’s sounds from the film. One page I stumbled on described how Han Solo’s light saber blast when he fries the bounty hunter Greedo was created by combining a cable and the screeching of dry ice against a hard surface to create this highly distinctive new sound. This page from filmsound.org further describes some of Burtt’s other combined sounds, but perhaps even more usefully for educational purposes, it also contains a very practical short list of those fundamental techniques for creating new sounds. Some of those include slowing existing sounds down, speeding them up, altering the sound or creating a new sound with a synthesizer. George Lucas’s direction to his visual design team was to make the film’s sets and costumes look beat-up, weather-worn, or rusty, as they might appear in the natural world, or “organic.” Burtt followed similar direction for his audio work, recording sounds largely from the natural world, then altering and combining them to create a new sound.
In my book, Indie Rock 101: Running, Recording and Promoting Your Band, I describe a number of techniques used by audio pro producers and engineers to make their musical recordings sound bigger, more polished and unique. I used practically all of them in my new single, “The Squirrel,” which you can listen to or free-download from this page on the Indie Rock 101 website. What sounds like one big rhythm guitar during the verses is actually several tracks—each with different effects and settings applied—combined to achieve that big power-pop sound. The snare and kick are two tracks each, but again with different settings applied to achieve a new sound. One of the kick tracks is a triggered sample, the other the recorded kick. The background vocals throughout and most prominent near the end (“your very last days”) are three vocal tracks recorded with different mics, and with me singing at different levels of intensity for that somewhat ghost-like, breathy sound that Mutt Lange’s made famous in songs like big pop tracks like the Cars’ “You Might Think” and Def Leppard’s “Photograph” (…And props to my IR101 technical editor and go-to engineer/bassist extraordinaire Ron Guensche for teaching this old dog Mutt’s trick about the breathy singing). Even the “woo-hoos” and “strings”-sounding synth in the beginning and choruses are multiple tracks combined to achieve new and unique sounds.
If I could provide just one more example I’ve always liked from an existing classic from my teenage years: listen to the jangly rhythm guitar mixed with the electric at 3:45 in Journey’s “Escape.” Your ear doesn’t think, “That sounds like two guitar tracks combined to make a new sound”—but the unique, combined sound evokes the passion and feeling of the song’s narrator boxing his way toward a better life.
Anyone can record and mix raw tracks and come out with a decent demo, but it takes a combination of sound creative and technical decisions to faithfully evoke and reflect the mood of the song in the final recording. The song I’m currently mixing, “Frostbites,” is a more intimate song than “The Squirrel,” which is why I’m completely starting the mix from scratch, as I typically do. It probably won’t have as many combined sounds as “The Squirrel,” but there will be doubled or “combined” tracks for sure. As it is in life and art in general, in audio production, the sum is often far more evocative, unique and interesting than its parts.

“The Squirrel,” Part 1: The Creative Side: On Songwriting

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:56:43 -0800

This entry also appears on Focal Press’s blog for the audio community, AudioUndone.com
There are a few stock questions we’ve all heard asked of songwriters far more famous than I. The two that spring to mind first are:
• What comes first, the lyrics or the music?
• Where do you get your ideas for songs?

In Indie Rock 101, I cover a few key aspects of the songwriting process, including basic song structure, along with less conventionally discussed aspects such as band interpretation of the material; impressionism and storytelling in lyrics; what to avoid in general and elements of what makes a great song, to name a few. But I realize the one thing I didn’t cover is that elusive preliminary element of divine inspiration that marks the necessary beginning of every song.
Speaking for myself and amalgamating what I’ve read in interviews with some of my favorite songwriters, the truth is that there is no single answer to these questions; they are as unique and individual as the songwriter, their circumstances and source of inspiration themselves. A lot of the songs I’ve written that I like the most literally come to me in the form of a nugget of chords and a melody of a certain mood or tone. It just needs to be a few bars. Lyrics never pop into my head but I might hear the vague, muffled syllables and syntax of what I refine later as I’m sitting down with pad, paper and guitar.
One song I wrote years ago, “Falling,” was built on a melody that popped into my head after several years of musical inactivity that I had to write and record—along with nine other songs that followed. The chorus and refrain of another, “Working for the Man,” popped into my head as I was, naturally, biking to work on a Monday. More recently, I recorded and mixed a song called “The Squirrel,” which you can listen to or free-download here at the website for my book, Indie Rock 101.
Unlike these previous examples, this song hadn’t germinated in my mind before its inspiration upon hearing an otherwise reasonable couple express their hatred for and attempts to exterminate the squirrels “infesting” their yard.
The inspiration for songs, in itself, is a mysterious and awe-inspiring thing. As an artist, I am compelled and feel a duty to answer the call of the songs that visit me when I least expect it. I think the harder work—which requires a certain baseline knowledge of craft, one’s instrument, and the discipline and fortitude it takes to fully realize any idea—is in the sometimes painful and frustrating songwriting process itself: sitting there with pen, paper and instrument, trying different things, working it out.
Whether it’s songwriting, writing fiction, or Indie Rock 101 itself, I like to compare the creative process to solving a riddle or a puzzle. At first, you’re given a few clues in the form of inspiration, but it’s your job as the artist to chase it down, tease it out of yourself and ultimately realize your vision. The work is in finding and creating more pieces—a lyric here, a guitar part there, a bridge—and editing, refining and combining the pieces until it all fits. Most times I start writing a new song, and working on a new mix especially, I think, “This sounds terrible. It’s not going to work.” But of course the hard work is in making sure it does. And to me, one of the most satisfying parts of the songwriting process is finishing the mix, cranking it up and hearing how the puzzle pieces all come together.
Stay tuned for “The Squirrel” Part II, The Technical Side: On Mixing and Combining Sounds.

Check out my expanded Amazon author page

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:48:07 -0800

Focal Press and Amazon have recently given me the opportunity to expand my Amazon author page with some cool new content, including a sample chapter from Indie Rock 101; two new articles, ‘Why I wrote IR101’ and ‘Top 10 Tips for Indie Rockers’; a music video I wrote and directed and three songs I wrote, produced/mixed and performed on (these MP3s and video files will be posted soon, so check back). If you haven’t thought of it already, the book makes a perfect gift for that special indie rocker in your life. And if you’ve read it, I’d greatly appreciate your nicest five-star review on this page!

I’m blogging for Focal Press’s blog, AudioUndone.com

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:45:32 -0800

I’m honored and excited to have been asked to start blogging for Audio Undone, my Indie Rock 101 publisher’s blog for the audio community. I’ve posted four articles in the last few weeks: ‘Killer iPhone Apps for Guitarists on the Go,’ a recap of the AES (Audio Engineering Society) 2010 Convention, and a two-part post about the production of “The Squirrel.” Part I is about the songwriting process, and Part II covers combining sounds to make new ones. Visit the page, check ‘em out, and check back—there’s more to come.

Music-related happenings in 2011 (and happy new year!)

Sat, 1 Jan 2011 15:48:52 -0800

Hi friends,

The holidays are here, and keeping with that theme of renewal and change, I wanted to collate recent announcements about some cool new stuff happening on the music and Indie Rock 101 front:

Free-download my new single, “The Squirrel”
I’m proud to share what I think is one of my finest songs for free download. I wanted to give a shout-out, too, to my crew on this studio project:

• Ron Guensche, bass and recording engineer – Also my editor on Indie Rock 101, Ron is in two stellar bands himself that play around the Bay Area, The Gentlemen and Spidermeow. He just produced albums for both, too, and they’re amazing. Check ‘em out.
• Adam Wayne – lead guitar – Also the lead guitarist of the Gentlemen. This is the first time I’ve worked with Adam and his leads on this track are sick. In a good way, of course.
• Mike Wells – The best mastering engineer in the Bay Area, period.

You can listen to or free-download the MP3 at this page on the IR101 website. And right below that, you can still free-download my latest six-song EP, 10 Megs of Luv.

I’m blogging for Focal Press’s audio blog, ‘Audio Undone’
I’m honored and excited to have been asked to start blogging for Audio Undone, my Indie Rock 101 publisher’s blog for the audio community. I’ve posted four articles in the last few weeks: ‘Killer iPhone Apps for Guitarists on the Go,’ a recap of the AES (Audio Engineering Society) 2010 Convention, and a two-part post about the production of “The Squirrel.” Part I is about the songwriting process, and Part II covers combining sounds to make new ones. Visit the page, check ‘em out, and check back—there’s more to come.

Check out my expanded Amazon author page
Focal Press and Amazon have recently given me the opportunity to expand my Amazon author page with some cool new content, including a sample chapter from Indie Rock 101; two new articles, ‘Why I wrote IR101’ and ‘Top 10 Tips for Indie Rockers’; a music video I wrote and directed and three songs I wrote, produced/mixed and performed on (these MP3s and video files will be posted soon, so check back). If you haven’t thought of it already, the book makes a perfect gift for that special indie rocker in your life. And if you’ve read it, I’d greatly appreciate your nicest five-star review on this page!

New Facebook artist page and Indie Rock 101 page
Get the latest news and updates on the book and my music on these two new Facebook pages:

• Indie Rock 101. This Page will replace the ‘Group’ page format Facebook recently assigned to the book. All future Facebook updates about the book will appear here, so please join for news, announcements and new music. The book’s main website remains www.indierock101.com.
• Richard Turgeon (artist page) – This page is different from my personal Facebook page, which is not open to the general public. This is where’s I’ll be posting music-related updates, new and old songs, photos, videos, and other good stuff over time.

Join my new Facebook page to help End Shark Finning
Moving on to a very important personal cause, I’ve started a dedicated Facebook page, End Shark Finning, with the latest news and info to ban this barbaric and environmentally destructive practice here in San Francisco and around the world. Please ‘Like’ and add the page to your favorites to stay informed, help raise awareness and link up with leading local and international activists. Some good news on this front is that Congress recently passed the Shark Conservation Act to ban shark finning in U.S. waters. While the fight isn’t over, this is a huge victory for sharks and humans alike, and proof that our efforts toward ending shark finning is making a difference.

Happy holidays and New Year, and as always, thanks for listening!

- Rich