tips...029.
A REAL RECORDING SESSION WITH POWERTRACKS.(cont.).
ok...folks we are now up to trak 34.
with 6 spare ones for "song sprinkles".
(plus we have blank traks that we have left in our earlier recording work on bed tracks etc etc and other tracks.)
thus ,remember when i said try and do a song in 40 traks ??
as you can see this song will prolly be comfortably
done within 40 traks.
heres why i'm pretty firm on this max 40 trak belief of mine.
the answer is cos ni find i'm fooling myself if i need more traks.
let me explain.
typically i find that if i need more than 40 tracks,
i'm compensating. ie..trying to polish something that mebe wasnt a good tune to begin with.
thus if i need more than 40 traks this is a clue to me that ive screwed up.
and believe me ive done major lulus...its called being human.
i just keep in the back of my mind all the time that great records of the past were done with
way less than 40 traks.
for example those great rok n rol records recorded "off the floor"
in the 50's to mono that became hits.

now you can record "off the floor" useing ptw.
particularly a great guerilla recording idea if u have a very slow old computer.
i urge u to try it.
it can be lots of fun, and youll learn a lot bout mic positioning.
what this term "off the floor" basically means is that everyone .
ie....the whole group is recorded "live" at once.
how would u do this in ptw ??
pretty simple actually.
in main tracks view (also u can do in classics view.!)..
right clik over the midi plug icon on a trak and select stereo audio.
its THAT EASY. then record live off the floor.
but let me warn you. you need ace musicians n singers that really jive
together. your main PROBLEM will be correct mic positioning on everyone to achieve
a good sounding track as well as a nice sounding room.
as well as possibly some creative mic leakage.
its not for the faint hearted....lol.
if u want to cheat a bit...one thing you can do is just record the band firstly on a stereo trak
then the lead vocs n lead instruments on
seperate traks.

what do i mean by the term "sprinkles" ??
sprinkles can mean anything that improves the song.
it might mean useing something as simple as a tamborine..
right thru a whole violin section or mini orchestra for example.
it can also mean doing additional fx to improve the sound picture.
sprinkles .in essence are what makes the final house seem very pretty.
a good corollary is my wife n i sometimes go out on a sunday..
and suddenly my wife says .what a pretty house....lol.
ie..the house stands out from the rest.
paying attention to the sprinkles idea might just make the song
stand out like the house.

now i would like to pass on a tip on sprinkles.
and its not an original tip.
its one a engineer once passed onto me in a big studio.
he said...over time, try and build in a notebook, and by your own research
an itemisation of every single instrument u can think of includeing all
orchestral instruments that can think of.
a difficult task of course..
but with things like google today...
one could build up a huge list of instruments i am sure to make it a bit easier.
why did he tell me that ??
the answer is that we all get locked into what is familiar.
mebe by useing something unfamiliar in a song , it might add to the song.
for example a guitar band like CEFE might just use guitar sounds.
but if they extended their thinking mebe some orchestral instruments might
add to this song. OR..instead of the same old zillion notes a second guitar break,,,
mebe record a rok violinist for the guitar break.
mebe a harp might be usefull as a sprinkle . or some special unusual softsynth sound that lifts the
song. in summary a "sprinkle" is anything that makes the song more interesting.
in summary try and build up a list of lots of different instruments or sounds u
could use as sprinkles.
ptw itself could help u build sprinkles.

remember when i mentioned earlier that ive used ptw to create odd ball
sprinkle sounds out of common household items by morphing useing
ptw effects ?? these last 6 tracks tr's 35 to 40 is where u could experiment with these types of ideas.

in summary after all the major traking is completed.
take a break and a rest, then come back to the song and listen with fresh
ears. and write down all your ideas for sprinkles that might make the song sound better.
i dont have every answer...but heres a weird tip.
i find at this stage that listening to the song play back on tiny speakers seems to help form my next step
sprinkle ideas. what i do is play the song and sit casually in another room...
trying to put myself in the mind of a casual consumer listener.
dont ask me why. but i find that this way i often hear lots of song or production flaws as well
as any sprinkle ideas. honestly i cant explain why it seems to work.
it just does. or i'll make a test mp3 of the song...
(i'll cover mixdown etc later.) and put it on continuous play so...while im doing say a crossword in
another room , i hear the flaws.

(more to come.)