MTF 'Round 2: Presentations' Week 7

After sitting in class listening to metal and rock music, it’s opened my eyes (and ears) to appreciate different genres of music. Although I’ve never been against metal and rock music, it’s hardly been a big favourite of mine but I couldn’t help but tap my feet to the music, sit back and enjoy!

I owe my thanks to Jake, Stuart, Rowan, Scott H. and Ben, who respectively played music produced by: Kevin “The Caveman” Shirley, Dave Fridmann, Ross Robinson, Jason Suecof and Eddie Kramer (Fieldhouse, 2007).

It was interesting to hear what they each classified as a distinctive style and I’m curious to know if it depends on the type of music to be able to hear them more clearly. For example, it could be very possible that I couldn’t hear the different techniques used in the music that Barry Gibb produced however could it also be plausible that it is easier to hear them in metal and rock music?

I found it quite interesting when Stuart mentioned the usage of 8 speakers for a particular Flaming Lips song (Johnston, 2007). I guess it’s sort of an interactive- like ploy for people to get together with their speakers and get the full force of the desired outcome! I would actually like to try that and see what it’s like!

I was thinking about what it would be like for me to become a producer- how would I influence the music industry? I think I would play a number of different roles like of course the producer and engineer, but also the listener, advisor, communicator, planner and ‘tension- breaker’. To become successful and sought after, I would become all those roles so that everyone in my team and also the artist, experience the most comfortable and enjoyable recording session they’ve ever had! Of course this is all in theory so in real life it may not run so smoothly- damn reality!

This class has taught me that being a producer is not all about sitting in a room pushing buttons and sliding faders (as fun as it may sound). It’s like any other job where you can’t make assumptions about it unless you really know. For example, until I spoke to an accountant I thought their job revolved around playing with numbers- how wrong I was!

Reference List
Fieldhouse, Steve. 2007. “Week 7 Presentations.” Lecture presented at University of Adelaide, 26 April.
Johnston, Stuart. 2007. “Dave Fridmann.” Lecture presented at University of Adelaide, 26 April.

MTF ‘Round 1: Presentations’ Week 6

Today’s class was the beginning of presentations on our self- chosen producers; technically it isn’t as Ken presented his last week on Stock Aitken and Waterman- which I must say was very entertaining. I must admit I was quite surprised at the way Ken presented his because it was so insightful and I felt like he was talking about them as if he was part of the actual group.

What I liked about Ken’s presentation was the fact that he chose someone he didn’t necessarily like. I think Ken’s opinionated view of Stock Aitken and Waterman was the best quality of his presentation. Great job, Ken! I especially loved the flashback of Kylie’s “I should be so lucky”!

Next up was Lauren who chose Nigel Godrick, you may have heard of him as he has produced many Radiohead albums. I found her presentation interesting and I liked how she added in quotes. One topic brought up that I found intriguing was whether Radiohead reached success because of Nigel Godrick, or vice versa. That had me thinking, is it like that with all producer- artist relationships?

I was up for the slaughter next, but I won’t reveal to you the gruesome details in this Blog, ohhh no. You get all the gory details in my 1000 word journal paper discussion!

Scott was after me and boy did he make me look bad! Scott did his presentation on Bob Ezrin and played some great tracks, in particular the one where you can hear the feedback coming from various guitars. I think it was great how Scott got us involved and asked us to try and count the various feedbacks!

To end the day’s presentations was Brendan who talked about Matt Bayles. I thought it was a great effort how he managed to get in contact with Matt Bayles. Too bad he wasn’t able to help Brendan in time as it would’ve been nice to hear about it, and maybe why he chose, for one track, to suddenly add in a couple of bars of country/ western music!

For the last 15 minutes of class, Steve played some classical music which was a change from what we’re used to. I thoroughly enjoyed it as I come from a classical background and sometimes feel like an alien being in this course. However, it could be because it seems like everyone else in this course know what they’re doing whereas to me, everything’s new. At least I can say with total honesty that I am learning something new everyday!

MTF ‘Discussion Paper’ Week 6

For our presentation I chose to do mine on Barry Gibb. Many people might not have known that Barry is a producer as he is more commonly known for his singing and song writing. In fact, Barry is considered to be the second most successful producer (after George Martin) and also the most successful songwriter/ producer combination (Barry Gibb- The Producer).

To help my classmates visualise the information I was giving them, I used a PowerPoint show and handed out a sheet summing up the important facts about Barry. I also included pictures for each slide so that they might be able to identify with the different artists Barry had worked with. This was used as a tactic so that if my classmates were bored they could be entertained by the various 70’s/80’s photos I included!

The handout sheet I gave out included facts such as:
· His first studio experience
· When he first produced an album
· His influences
· The celebrities he’s worked with
· His distinctive styles

To elaborate briefly, Barry’s first studio experience was when he met a man named Ossie Byrne who owned the St. Clair Recording Studio. He allowed Barry and his brothers free access to his studio anytime they wanted (Bilyeu et al. 2000, p. 78)!

It was in 1965 that Barry produced his first album, sung by a young girl called Lori Balmer. This was done at the EMI Studios in Sydney where Barry was supervised by Ron Wills, the house producer (Bilyeu et al. 2000, p. 91-92).

Throughout Barry’s childhood he was influenced by Tommy Steele- Britain’s first rock ‘n’ roll singer/ guitarist (Bilyeu et al. 2000, p. 17), the Mills Brothers- their music was played on a regular basis in the Gibb family home (Bilyeu et al. 2000, p. 29) and of course the legendary Beatles (Bilyeu et al. 2000, p. 62).

During my presentation I talked about five artists Barry had worked with, they were: Barbra Streisand, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, Dionne Warwick, Andy Gibb and Samantha Sang.

I drew up a table displaying the distinctive styles Barry had as a producer and related them back to the artists’ songs which are:
· Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb: Guilty
· Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton: Islands in the stream
· Dionne Warwick and the Bee Gees: Heartbreaker
· Andy Gibb: (Our love) don’t throw it all away
· Samantha Sang: Emotion
My main goal was to show how Barry frequently used them and thus illustrating his distinctive styles.

All of the songs I played are ballads and although it shows Barry’s not very versatile, for example, I don’t think he’s produced a heavy metal band, I believe it acts in his favour as it represents what his forte is. After all, in the music industry Barry is highly sought after because they know how good he can make a record sound, for that particular genre of music.

Next on the chart are ‘gentle and easy- going’. These two go hand in hand because they describe the overall feel for each song, which is calming, easy listening etc… I don’t know about you but when I listen to this music it makes me want to sit back and relax!

In the beginning of the four out of five songs, I could hear a synthesizer being played. I think it’s important to have them at the start as it sets the tone of the song almost immediately. This is evident especially in Andy Gibb’s ‘(Our love) don’t throw it all away’, where you can also hear and feel that ‘gentle and easy- going’ style I was talking about earlier on.

If you play the chorus of each song you’ll notice that there is a strong harmony present, now this could be due to the fact that Barry and in some cases his brothers, wrote the songs, and the Bee Gees are famous for their harmonies, in particular their three part harmony.

Keeping on the topic of the Bee Gees, my last distinctive style is titled ‘Bee Gees influence’. During the presentation I played two examples, which were Andy Gibb’s ‘(Our love) don’t throw it all away’ and Samantha Sang’s ‘Emotion’. Both examples showed the infamous falsetto vibrato that Barry frequently uses.

To show what I meant by the distinctive styles I played bits and pieces from various songs, which were mainly the beginning, chorus and the odd few bars where you could hear a familiar Bee Gees tone in it. This was just in case anyone didn’t understand what I was trying to describe about each style.

After watching others in my class do their presentation I realised that my own was so different to theirs in terms of identifying distinctive sounds. I don’t think I actually recognised proper techniques that a producer uses, for example, Brendan was talking about how Matt Bayles likes to layer instrumental parts and that he also likes to use a lot of drums in his productions. Whereas I was discussing more along the lines of how and what the music sounded like, which was on a totally different tangent.

I suspect the reason why I wasn’t able to correctly identify appropriate producer techniques was due to my undeveloped hearing memory and critical listening skills. I know that compared to others in my course I’ve probably had the least amount of experience in this type of area so while doing this assignment I based it on whatever I could hear.

I must admit though, I did have fun doing this assignment and in a few years time when my ears are more developed, I can promise you there’ll be no more of this amateur- like analysing of the great Barry Gibb!

Reference List
Bilyeu, M, Cook, H and Hughes, A.M. 2000. The Ultimate Biography of The Bee Gees: Tales of the Brothers Gibb. Omnibus Press, Wales.

“Barry Gibb – The Producer” barrygibb.com.
http://www.barrygibb.com/content.asp?PageID=9 (24 March 2007)

MTF, Week 4, Discussion of Production

I felt that this week’s class was great as it further expanded the topics we discussed last week. What I especially liked were the questions Steve asked us and the responses that I heard during the lesson.

For example, while talking about matching producers to artists I was thinking about my own opinion, which was- regardless of whether or not both producer and artist are great, the most crucial aspects would be communication and team work. Even if you know all the best techniques to use, or you have the best recording voice, it’s a waste of time if you’re not able to put your point across to the other party.

I was so relieved to hear that I wasn’t the only person feeling a bit lost when it came to hearing the different techniques used in a track. As Steve mentioned, it’ll take time to develop our hearing memory and also fine tuning our critical listening skills (Fieldhouse 2007).

While I’m on the subject, I was getting a bit nervous last week as I was trying to hear a trademark sound in the music samples I had chosen for my presentation and for the life of me I just couldn’t get anything. I swear it was like hitting a brick wall! It could be due to the genre of music I’m listening to is different to the genre Steve presents in class?

In any case, I’ve decided to just go by instinct and just talk about what I perceive to be a “trademark” style. I mean, as Steve said, our ears aren’t as developed as his so I’ll just warn you to be prepared for some serious amateur-ish analysing!

Another question Steve asked was, “If you were stranded on an island and you had a choice of either one great song with average production or one average song with great production, which would you choose? I wasn’t thinking outside the square and chose the first selection as I thought I could listen to a great song I loved because I can’t actually tell the difference between a bad and good recording! Then after hearing what others had to say I realised they were right! Firstly, you’d get sick of the song quickly and secondly if you chose the latter, you’d learn to appreciate it eventually AND have the bonus of a great production (Fieldhouse 2007)!

I think particularly with this class I’m going to have to be patient since we’re dealing with topics that are related to production. Sometimes I assume it’s a skill we can learn overnight but at least I know I’m not by myself!

Reference List
Fieldhouse, Steve. 2007. “Introduction to Producers.” Lecture presented at University of Adelaide, 22 March .

MTF, Week 3, Introduction to Producers

This week’s class session on producers was quite insightful. I’m actually looking forward to the presentation on producers as I feel it will open up some career options for me from the research that I’m going to embark on.

I’m amazed that from all the producers Steve mentioned, there were no females! I actually did some research on female producers and found that only one female had ever won a Grammy Award for sound engineering! Her name is Trina Shoemaker who used to be an apprentice of Daniel Lanois, one of the producers Steve presented on Thursday. (Ulaby 2003)

I wonder why there aren’t many female producers that are as well known as the numerous amounts of male producers such as George Martin or Rick Rubin. Leslie Ann Jones, who produces jazz and classical music, once had hopes of becoming a producer in the rock ‘n’ roll genre. She felt there was “a lot of typecasting in our industry” (Ulaby 2003).

I’m glad Steve discussed what producers actually do as I wasn’t very sure, but he made some good points such as having excellent communication skills (Fieldhouse 2007). I think it is an essential part of everyday life that people in all careers should possess. Without communication skills you can’t expect a perfect product.

Through the various examples Steve showed us, I was able to understand what he meant by a producer’s distinctiveness. For example, Butch Vig’s soft beginning which then lead on to an unexpected volume increase. I can see I’ve a lot to learn from this type of music industry such as the old tricks of the trade like Butch Vig’s soft beginning or another favourite of his which was to include obscure sounds in the track to confuse people so they would turn up the volume and get shocked by the sudden loudness (Fieldhouse 2007)!

It seems so easy when we’re in class to identify such “techniques”, if that’s what you would call them, however when I’m at home listening to music it’s not so easy for some reason. Maybe it’s because in class we can actually visualise the music on ProTools so we can see for ourselves the different trademarks that distinguish the individual producer.

Reference List
Fieldhouse, Steve. 2007. “Introduction to Producers.” Lecture presented at University of Adelaide, 15 March .

Ulaby, Neda. 2003. “Women Music Producers.” National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2003/apr/producers/index.html 16/3 (16 March 2007).

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