Looks Like I've Got My Own Indie Label

[Bob Boyer]

...and it needs a name.

Spring Fed Records is taken by my friends over at the Arts Center of Cannon County. But I gotta come up with something to go on the album cover for a bluegrass album that's being released in a few weeks. Been working with a band I met up at the Mountain Opry last spring and they decided that wanted to go ahead and use some of the stuff I was going to archive for an album. One thing led to another and we've got 11 strong renditions of some traditional bluegrass for a first outing, complete with professionally done photography and artwork (that would be me, remembering what I did in a previous life).

They're working on getting permissions from the songwriters, including Bill Monroe's family, while I'm trying to get the cover art to conform to the duplicating company's printing template. Hopefully, we'll have CDs for sale at the local bluegrass jams in three or four weeks. We also need to look into iTunes distribution, but let's get the CD out first.

Just in case you were wondering where I've been these days... *grin*

[Pacific Stereo]

Very cool. Looking forward to hearing some of it. Will you have the recording mastered?

[Elite-ist]

That's exciting news, Bob! Are you solicitng ideas for a label? You'll have to give us the scoop on the recording process you took during this business venture. And I know you would have captured such moments on the camera, right?


Nando.

[Rat44]

So you've been 'Pickin & Grinnin'.
Hows that for the first entry ?
Good luck on your new venture.

[VintageSteve]

How about something like "Blue Wing Records" or "Blue Lark Records"....?

In any case, wishing you great success! I'll bet your having fun. *bigthumbup*

[Bob Boyer]

I like those, Steve. Yes, Nando, I'm soliciting names. What with my first two shows at the Fine Arts Center coming back to back and getting ready to travel to booking and showcase conferences next week, I've not had time to think much on names for the hobby. A friend of mine who is the Executive Director over at the Arts Center of Cannon County came up with that Spring Fed name, which is pretty cool. He's mining the same historical vein at this point - bluegrass and old-time gospel artists only more over into middle Tennessee. Fat Possum, which I like a lot, has also been taken - that's a blues label out of Oxford, MS.

I was contemplating Cheap Bastard Recording but that wouldn't go over too well among the traditionalists who might actually buy such a CD.

Pacific - I'm not mastering this one per se. I've matched levels and we've put a lot of thought into song order, but it's pretty simple instrumentation and I spent a good bit of time on the mixes using my home stereo as a final arbiter of the sound. Trying to stay away from as much compression as possible, so it's reasonably dynamic for bluegrass instrumentation. If we sell any of this one, I'll probably get the next one mastered. I'd like to really see the difference.

I've got a few more pix over on the blog, but I keep forgetting the camera...

[ke4mcl]

what about... Derby Records?
a little link to the kentucky derby.

[Elite-ist]

Maybe, "Sweet Grass Recording?"

Nando.

[Bob Boyer]

We went with Sucker Punched Records. *lmao* The lead singer for the bluegrass group came up with it.

Jeez - guess I'll have to start another business that won't make any money, either.

[Bob Boyer]

To answer your question about process, Nando, here's a summary of the details as they appear across multiple posts in the blog (Lance and others who do this regularly, feel free to chime in with suggestions as I'm still in the steep part of the learning curve):

We're recording up to seven mics (that's all I have) into the mixer and outputting up to 4 tracks to a Teac 3440 at 15 ips with no compression and as little eq as possible.

On small (3 piece ensembles), I'm creating the stereo spread with the guitar, one mic on the frets, one on the soundboard, panned hard right and left. Vocal gets it own mic, as does acoustic bass. Banjo and/or mandolin each get a mic as well. Vocals usually center across the guitar, so three mics are channeled to tracks 1 & 2. Bass goes on 3, banjo/mandolin on 4.

If the ensemble is larger, each instrument and vocal gets its own mic. For tracking, I try to keep the instruments with similar frequency responses off the same track and bass and vocals each get their own track.

For tracking, we use a Drawmer Quad Gate across busses 1-4 to help keep random noise out of the quieter portions of the tracks as the room is not isolated and since it's the University's property, not mine, it's not going to be isolated any time soon.

Once everything is on tape, I output the Teac through busses 5-8 to the computer through my Focusrite 24 bit/96 kHz converter, which has four line level inputs. This way, I've got all four tracks on the computer to continue mixing. I've strapped a pair of FMR Audio compressors across busses 5-8 to help tame the hottest levels going into the computer. Since I'm still using the demo version of Ableton Live, I can only use up to four plug-in effects in the software and I usually save those for the reverb that gets added in the mix.

I make my final mix decisions at home, with the computer and converter running through the Exposure amp and LSA speakers. Once things are where I like them, Ableton will output a 24 bit/96 kHz two track master from the 4 tracks which I can then save and downsample as needed to make everything accessible in the library's archive. For the sake of mastering the final CD that will be duplicated, I'm actually burning a CD on my Tascam CD recorder, using the SPDIF connection between the Focusrite and the CD burner. I've yet to figure out enough about Ableton Live to go directly from the files onto a CD in the computer.

For field recordings that I've been doing with the little Marantz cassette deck and for old tapes that are being given to us to archive (an increasingly important part of the project is preserving all these old recordings from the 50s and 60s that we're finding while working with these musicians), I'm tracking through the mixer and a compressor directly onto an Olympus 24 bit/96 kHz 2 track digital recorder. Once it's in there, I just transfer the files onto my computer. While the sound quality off of that deck is amazing for what it is, it's still not as good as 15 ips reel to reel, and the venues I'm recording in aren't sonically that great either, so I'd rather preserve the computer's hard drive by not burning several hours worth of jams and concerts directly to it. The converters in the Olympus are certainly good enough for this task.

There's more, as there always is, but that's a summary of what's been going on so far.

[Elite-ist]

Hi Bob,

That's a huge undertaking for a live recording: you have initial set-up, then the recording and monitoring of the live recording, then the computer time for mixing, and creating a master. And on top of that, you probably ensure all your equipment is maintained and checked before the recording, itself. And I think it's a long process for such a simple mix tape recording for a member.

You must have students who are interested in helping you? I, certainly, would be!

Nando.

[Old Busted Hotness]

PM me when you've got some CD's ready. I love me some bluegrass.

Maybe consider selling quarter-track stereo reels, too.

[Mr_rye89]

We went with Sucker Punched Records. *lmao* The lead singer for the bluegrass group came up with it.

Jeez - guess I'll have to start another business that won't make any money, either.

Thats a good name! I think I'll commandeer Cheap Bastard Records lololol jk *lmao*

Also Bluegrass is the shizz, we cant wait for the CDs/Cassette/Quarter Track/whatever to come out.

[Bob Boyer]

Sorry not to reply for a while - been out of town, and getting ready to go back out a town next week right before a show.

To answer questions, we should have the first CD out in a few weeks. I've got a source for pre-printed inserts and jewel boxes, along with pre-printed CDs I can burn as needed. Photography and artwork is ready.

However, the band leader is working on licensing issues for all the songs; it's taken her four-friggin'-evers to track down Bluegrass Stomp, which we think was written by Bill Monroe but are having a devil of a time finding it listed anywhere - public domain, Harry Fox Agency, Sony/BMG, or wherever. It's like it doesn't exist. And we're trying to do this right so we do our part to compensate the songwriters or their estates, even if we only burn 100 CDs at a time.

All of that is to say I hope we have things ready in three weeks, but it could be a little longer. I know they'd love to sell some.

I could be tempted to try doing some reels but it would be a pretty custom effort. I've bumped a few things back over from the computer to reel to reel just to see how it sounds and the 24/96 stuff sounds damn fine on tape. Have to find a way to keep the price reasonable but I doubt it would be competitive with a CD as there would be a lot one-to-one time involved dubbing the tapes. Still...

And yes, Nando, I have my very own University Honors slave this semester. He's been transcribing the interviews with the musicians for me. He's also been helping me evaluate musicians before we offer recording time to them. His dad was a recording engineer for 20 plus years in Nashville, so he's been fun to work with. Probably knows more than me...

[Bob Boyer]

Quarter-track reels might be available around New Years if there's any interest. I've got to get the Teac up to Nakdoc and see why it's noise level is so high and try to make it quieter. I can't get there until the middle of the month, after my next show. Once that's taken care of, I might feel confident in running some off. 2 trackers could perhaps come more quickly, but I've got a basement to redo (paint/carpet and all that) over Thanksgiving and we're going to Dallas to see the kids over Christmas.

[Nakdoc]

I was gonna suggest Deer Lick Records....
Bob, if you wanted, we could set up a real time cassette here and get some analog copies out.
I question using a compressor after the 4 track tape. Are the musicians moving around the room? You should have enough headroom to not worry about overloads. Anyway, it is the tape most folks worry about overloading.

[Bob Boyer]

There's no compression when tracking to tape, Tom. Lotsa headroom there and on the couple of occasions where I've actually started distorting (and we re-record), it's not an overly-harsh sound. Digital, OTOH, sounds just plain ugly when the meters hit the "over" light.

So I've taken to putting some gentle (2:1) compression across the busses when bumping from tape to the computer just to give me a little extra help in keeping things clean during the transfer.

One of the nice things about the little FMR is a switch that engages an internal three-compressor chain that is very gentle with the compression as opposed to the normal setting. For someone who would rather eschew compression altogether but wants just a little bit of help, they work pretty well. Another plus for me is that when used in this mode, they have no sound of their own. A lot of folks don't care for that and use compressors for a particular sound - and I've got some of those units as well - but I kind of like the idea of hearing what the mics hear and adding as little else to the equation as possible while still getting a smidge of help.

[Warped Bezel]

Thats a good name! I think I'll commandeer Cheap Bastard Records lololol jk *lmao*


You do realize there are a billion more cheap bastards now so it's probably much cheaper now!

[Old Busted Hotness]

I'm interested in a quarter-track tape, when they become available.

[Nakdoc]

2:1 compression is not gentle! Are you using a limiter function instead? Are you companding, using 1:2 expansion going D back to A?

[Bob Boyer]

2:1 compression is not gentle! Are you using a limiter function instead? Are you companding, using 1:2 expansion going D back to A?

True this, Tom, but it's a lot more gentle than 8:1! *yes* Plus, my normal threshold setting is around -10db, so there's not too much of the signal that gets touched by the compressors. But no companding...

[Bob Boyer]

Ordered the printing for the covers and inserts for the jewel boxes and printing on some blank CDs today. Maybe things will be done and ready for us to burn copies and package some CDs by the time I get back from my conference in North Carolina next week.

I'll have to work on resizing the artwork for 7 inch reels and boxes.

[Old Busted Hotness]

I can't speak for the others, but the artwork isn't that important to me. Put the CD card in the box and write the title on the spine is fine with me.

[Ricardus]

True this, Tom, but it's a lot more gentle than 8:1! *yes* Plus, my normal threshold setting is around -10db, so there's not too much of the signal that gets touched by the compressors. But no companding...

If 2:1 compression isn't gentle, I don't know what is. The lowest compression setting available on the 1176 (for example) is 4:1.

[Nakdoc]

1.2 to 1 is compression. Does one really need 2:1 to fit 80dB of dynamic range into a 60dB package?

[Ricardus]

1.2 to 1 is compression. Does one really need 2:1 to fit 80dB of dynamic range into a 60dB package?

(currently furiously searching all of my analog and digital compressors to find a unit that can do 1.2:1 compression) :-)

It's not always about the overall dynamic range of the piece, it's sometimes about fitting an individual track into a mix, or using compression as an affect.

Sure, you don't HAVE TO compress anything, and CDs certainly have plenty of dynamic range. But things do have to be audible without having to turn your amplifier up to 11 to hear them (because you left ALL of the dynamic range in the music). I wouldn't want to be around when you play the NEXT CD that you have, that was compressed like most modern CDs, after you played one of his, and FORGOT to turn your volume back down! :-)

Leaving in dynamic range is fine, but some compromises need to be made. I would probably look to the releases from Rounder Records to see what they're doing, and even possibly the releases from The Tape Project.

[Ricardus]

So what's the latest with this project?

[Bob Boyer]

Working on some stuff with the lead singer and guitarist for Bunch of Bluegrass...that group is kind of falling apart so she's looking around for some new players. I keep pushing her to get organized so we can get some stuff recorded before I have to report back to work on July 2.

Otherwise, I'm delivering a bunch of gospel and bluegrass recordings from the 50s and 60s, along with some stuff from around town that I recorded at various live venues earlier this year, to the local history museum and the UTC library's archives.

Been kinda busy with arrangements for the fall conference I run every other year and haven't been able to find much free time to get out in the last three weeks.

[Ricardus]

Sounds cool. Can't wait to hear it. if you ever need any mastering help or anything, let me know.