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Michelangelo and Mastering
A Musician’s Guide To Copyright
Auto-Tune VS
Paul Pesco on the VS-2480CD
Michelangelo and Mastering
by Paul Elliott, Chief Engineer at The SoundLab at Disc Makers.
http://www.discmakers.com/music/soundlab/
Earlier in 2004 in Florence Italy, the restoration of Michelangelo’s “David” was completed to the praise of many. The cleaning stripped away a murky façade of years of dirt that had deposited itself upon the statue’s marble. I’ve been mastering albums for over 12 years now and have not yet had the pleasure of working on the musical equivalent of “David,” but I’ve found strong parallels in the restoration of a sculpted work of artistic genius and what is done in the audio community every day.
Both in the restoration of a statue and in audio mastering, a great deal can be accomplished with even the simplest of tools. Many of the materials used for “David”’s restoration and many of the tools for audio mastering are available to just about anyone. The “David” restoration was completed by Cinzia Parnigoni, who used a wide variety of what he called “harmless, very light substances.” Some of these, such as distilled water, cotton swabs, rice paper, and clay, are even available at any local art and hobby store. Similarly, the audio community has many fine tools available for recording applications that are affordable and can be found easily at local music stores. For example, one can easily, on many tools, do a quick sweep of your EQ to reveal some problem areas in your mixes. Sweeping is accomplished by boosting one of your EQ bands an extreme amount and them adjusting the actual frequency you are boosting. You may want to go with a smaller “Q” depending on what you hear as an offending frequency during your sweep. The “Q” of an EQ adjusts how wide the frequency of your cut or boost will be. A wider Q will effect more frequencies and a narrower Q will effect only the closest frequencies to the one you chose. However, avoid the temptation to overprocess; sometimes the most effective tool is the one used tastefully or not at all.
In addition to simple tools, both the restoration of a statue and audio mastering also can make use of more complicated and powerful tools. When restoring the “David,” Parnigoni had some resources at her disposal that the average person cannot obtain. She used a 3D modeler in order to evaluate the fall of contaminants on the statue’s surface, such as mist and dust. This aided in the decision-making processes needed to ensure that a proper restoration was accomplished. Similarly, while many manufacturers make very good equipment that put powerful processing at your fingertips, the mastering-specific devices that mastering houses have available to them are very precise and accurate, and they allow the engineers to see finer detail in their decision making process.
In both cases, it is important to take the structural integrity of the work to be restored into account. In the restoration of “David,” the statue’s ankles were weakening, so they had to pay careful attention to the piece’s foundation and find a way to support the structure. In audio mastering, some effective bass EQ and compression can help solidify the structure of your mixes; compression will tame some of the peaks in your mix and tighten everything up if done correctly. However, when compression is done to an extreme, it can do just the opposite. Overcompressed music can sound small and brittle and take away effective punchiness that you were probably looking for.
When working with any work of art, however, the most significant resource is the person using the tool. I can buy great amounts of cotton balls and distilled water, but no one, including me, would want to give me the job of restoring a precious sculpture! In the world of audio, many musicians try to keep control of every aspect of their music; something near and dear to your heart is a tough thing to trust in someone else’s hands. But just as with the restoration of a legendary statue, if it’s put in well trained, respectful hands, beautiful things can happen. If you think that you have the abilities and talents to do it all, then the best thing you can do for yourself is train. Just as musicians need to practice and train their fingers and minds, ear training is crucial for the successful engineering of a record. Spend time getting to know the gear; practice with it and try different things.
It is crucial that any restoration be done with taste, subtlety, and sensitivity to the creator’s intent. In the case of “David,” Tribuna of the Galleria dell’Accademia director Franca Falletti pronounced the restoration of the masterpiece a “success”: although there are still some streaks on one shin and a mold stain on the back, it was simply as if “a light gray veil had been removed” from it. The restorer Parnigoni said after completion that “’David’ is still itself, only “less cold; what has changed is his luminosity.” These people’s descriptions of “David” after the restoration are similar to comments I hear when a happy client is describing the difference they hear on the newly mastered version of their album: “It’s warm,” “It’s as if a veil were removed,” etc. These are the most satisfying conversations I get to have with a client; I know I did their music justice when they say their “David” was left intact but that I changed its luminosity. Mastering your project is an essential step, vital to enhancing the enjoyment value of the art which has been created. Musicians spend the time training, writing, performing and investing their emotions in their music. As a mastering engineer, our hope is that our influence on the project is similar to what Parnigoni can say about her influence on Michelangelo: “’David’ is still itself, only what has changed is his luminosity.”
A Musician’s Guide To Copyright
by Paula Kouletsis
You’ve got car insurance, right? You probably have insurance for your house, and most people have medical insurance. Did you ever think about insurance for the music you write and record? What if that song you wrote last November gets picked up by a publishing company, performed by Aerosmith, and turns into a huge hit? Just when you’re getting ready to start collecting royalties, your old roommate suddenly surfaces and claims he wrote the song. Then what are you going to do? If you want to protect the value you have created in your original music, the best thing to do is legally register it with the U.S. Copyright Office and use the copyright notice before you perform your songs and distribute your CDs. Think of it as an inexpensive insurance policy for your creative works and recordings.
Do I Have to File?
You do not have to register a copyright in order for your work to be protected under U.S. Copyright law. A work is protected the moment it is “created and fixed in a tangible form of expression” (e.g. when it is recorded or written down). The hard part – if it comes to this – is proving the ownership and creation date. That’s where registering with the U.S. Copyright office will save you days if not weeks of headaches and aggravation later.
Many incorrectly think to protect your work it’s sufficient to seal it in an envelope and mail it to yourself, and let the postage date stamped provide the proof of date of creation. You can certainly do this, and if someone illegally uses or copies your work or claims it is actually their work, you simply arrive at the court house with your envelope showing the postage date stamped along the edges and offer it up as proof of creation. The same theory applies to using an electronic “date time stamp” on your recordings before uploading them to song databases or websites.
However, these methods pose some problems. Neither method creates a legal document verifying a public record of your claim to copyright. Also, there are many things that can make it difficult to use that envelope or electronic stamp to prove your rights in a work. The work can be damaged or corrupted over time; someone else could have registered a legal copyright at any time and have more substantial proof of a creation date; there is no record of who the authors of the work are (what if there are many band members?); and most importantly, if you do not file a copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office, there are significant limitations to the amount of monetary damages you can receive if the work is ever infringed upon.
What does that mean for you? If you did not file a copyright and someone infringed on your work, many thousands of dollars that could have been awarded to you per infringement could be lost (that is, for each and illegal copy or use). Count up how many copies can be downloaded over the internet and the pennies add up pretty quickly. There are examples of civil sanctions of up to $30,000 per infringing act, or up to $150,000 per each willful infringement. So no matter what you may hear, the only way to have protection under the full strength of the law is to register with the U.S. Copyright Office.
Don’t Guess When Completing Forms
As a recording artist, musician or songwriter, there are a few things you should know before completing a copyright form. If you find yourself guessing how to list multiple authors and different claimants, derivative works (based on an earlier work or works) or if you run into some other tricky copyrights questions, these just may be the longest forms you have ever completed. But it doesn’t have to be complicated.
There are a few key points that will make it easier. The first is to know the Copyright Office views the underlying musical work and the recorded performance of the material as two separate things. This is important because it will determine which form you use to file (Form PA – Performing Arts to register the underlying work or Form SR – Sound Recordings to register the recorded performance, or recorded performance and underlying work) and what your claim to copyright in that work will cover.
Another point that can be confusing is that you can submit a recording of a song (such as a CD, tape, etc.) while only claiming copyright in the underlying work using Form PA and NOT the recorded performance), even though what you are submitting is a recording. An example would be if you recorded the song on a CD but you only want to protect the underlying song, not the actual recorded performance of the work. You are always asked to use Form SR when you want to register the recorded performance of a work.
Does it Matter if a Company or Individual Owns the Work?
Many musicians have independent publishing companies or recording studios and want to know if they should be listed as the owner of the copyright as individuals or if their company owns the copyright. The Copyright Office provides a definition of Work Made for Hire (e.g. work done within the scope of employment, work that was commissioned by a company, etc.) on the application forms.
In general, in order for a company to own a copyright, the company has to be a legal business entity such as a sole proprietorship, LLC, Inc, etc. If an individual owns the copyright, and not a company, then the individual would be listed as the copyright claimants. If a publishing or record company owns the rights in a work, then the company would be listed as the copyright claimant. The same generally applies to a Work Made for Hire. If the company hired or commissioned the work, or acquired ownership (by written transfer, etc), then the company would be listed as the claimant.
What’s The Easiest Way To File?
You can find all the forms you need to file for copyright at the US Copyright Office’s website. But if there are other things you’d rather be doing than figuring out how to complete forms, there are online filing services that make it easier. One of those services, offered by Official Software, allows you to file online and upload your MP3 files for under $100. For unpublished works, you can even file an entire collection of works on one form, with one fee, and protect them all at once.
Official Software’s online forms have a built-in error-check that catches common errors. These online forms have built in intelligence that makes complex decisions, like registering an unpublished collection with one form and one govt. fee simple. Registrations can be tracked in and password protected online account, where forms can also be saved and edited. There is auto-form fill for common spaces so you don’t have to retype information, among other time saving features. With the online filing system you can do everything you wish you could do with a US Copyright Office printed form and in half the time.
As a special offer for Track Talk visitors, Official Software is providing a substantial limited time discount on their online copyright filing service. See the link at the end of this article for the specifics of this program. There are other services you may like to explore, or you may want to try downloading the US Copyright Office forms. What ever you decide, make sure you file before you distribute your works or let others hear your new recordings or performance of original material. The amount of time required to file a copyright is far less than the amount of time you could end up spending in legal battle should your work be infringed. Some day, you may find it was well worth it.
http://www.officialsoftware.com/roland
Auto-Tune VS: Invaluable Production Tool
or the End of Civilization as We Know It?
by Marco Alpert, Antares
While much of what is involved
in the recording and production of a song
is a mystery to the average listener, thanks
to coverage by the mainstream media (for
a recent example, check out this
feature story from NPR's Morning
Edition),
the widespread use of Auto-Tune for vocal
pitch correction has become relatively common
knowledge. And the media being what it is,
a lot of that coverage has focused on the
question of whether pitch correction technology
signals the end of talent as a requisite
for success as a singer.
Of course, as anyone
who has spent any time recording singers
knows, there's a lot more to great singing
than just being in tune. Things like phrasing,
vocal timbre, and the ability to communicate
the emotional essence of a song are all equally
important requirements. A poor performance
processed with Auto-Tune is still a poor
performance that happens to be in tune.
The real power of pitch correction
is that it frees good singers to concentrate
on their performance, secure in the knowledge
that any inadvertent pitch errors can be
seamlessly corrected by Auto-Tune. And the
key element of that power is that "seamless" correction.
The secret to effectively using Auto-Tune
is knowing how to use just enough of its
power to fix any pitch problems while leaving
the unique characteristics of the singer's
performance intact. Here are some tips for
doing just that.
 The first thing to do when
setting up Auto-Tune VS on a track is to
make sure that you take the time to select
the correct Input Type. Auto-Tune VS offers
a selection of optimized processing algorithms
for Soprano Voice, Alto/Tenor Voice, Low
Male Voice, Instrument, and Bass Instrument.
Selecting the appropriate algorithm results
in even faster and more accurate pitch detection
and correction. Choosing the wrong Input
Type (or, more likely, just forgetting to
set it at all) can result in compromised
performance. Pay attention.
 The
next step is to select the Scale that Auto-Tune
will tune to. If the singer you're recording
is largely in tune (with any pitch errors
limited to less than a quarter tone in range)
you can often  simply set the scale to Chromatic
and move on to the next step. However, if
the performance has errors of more than a
quartertone or contains pitch gestures like
scoops or slides, you should start by selecting
the Scale that matches the key of the song.
This will insure that Auto-Tune will always
correct to the right scale note instead of
an incorrect adjacent semitone.
Once you've
selected a scale, it's time to fine-tune
the scale to the specific performance. One
of the most powerful tools for preserving
the expressive elements of the original performance
is the Scale Edit Bypass function. When you
set a scale note to Bypass, whenever the
input pitch is close to that note the input
will be passed through with no correction.
 There
are two main reasons to set one or more scale
notes to Bypass. If a performance includes
expressive pitch gestures around one or more
specific notes that you want to preserve
with no modification whatsoever, you can
set just those notes to Bypass. This lets
Auto-Tune VS correct any pitch problems elsewhere
in the scale but passes everything near the
bypassed notes completely unprocessed.
Conversely,
if a performance is perfect except for one
single error, you can set all notes to Bypass
except the one “sour” note.
Auto-Tune VS will then pass the entire performance
through unprocessed except for the one sour
note, which will be corrected.
 Finally,
we come to probably the most important parameter
for natural pitch correction: Retune Speed.
Retune Speed controls how rapidly the pitch
correction is applied to the incoming signal.
Setting the correct Retune Speed is critical
because if it is not quite right, it will
become painfully obvious to the listener
that pitch correction is being applied. If
it's too fast, expressive gestures will be
suppressed and note transitions will sound
unnatural. (An extreme example of this is
the now-infamous " Cher effect" from "Believe.")
On the other hand, if the Retune Speed is
too slow, Auto-Tune will not have time to
correct all the way to the right pitch before
the singer has moved on to the next note.
Finding
the correct Retune Speed setting for a particular
performance is almost always a matter of
trial-and-error and depends on such attributes
as song tempo, note duration and vocal style,
among others. For best results, try making
small adjustments to the Retune Speed while
listening to its effects on the performance.
And keep in mind that it's not always best
to set and forget. Sometimes changing the
Retune speed for different sections (or even
different phrases) of a song will insure
that the only thing a listener will hear
is the singer's artistry. As always, let
your ears be your guide.
PAUL PESCO
JUST ADDED
Paul Pesco interview on the VS-2480 and his process. (MP3)
Click here to listen
 Some of these ideas may seem very simple, but in reality, it's attention to the simple things that often make the most difference when trying to get a great sounding recording.
First of all, the source is the most important single element of any track: make sure it's loud enough so you have a good front end gain stage, and that the sound is really what you want. Find a great sounding room if the instrument you're recording is acoustic or even for vocals. You'll get more character for your track with a great room than you can create after the fact.
 Make sure the source is loud. You don't want to have to add level later down the signal chain if possible. Keep your input and track faders at 0 dB. That's the ideal location. Then use the trims to get the right level to record. But if you find you're having to add too much gain from the trims, go back to the source.
I recently recorded a solo Japanese Shamisen player. The instrument has two distinctly different sounds. One is wonderfully soft and breathy, the other is a loud strike to the strings. To keep the exquisite space in the soft sound I had to manually ride the trims, watching the performer during the whole performance, and adjusting for the hard strikes. This gave the performance a more natural and open sound than using an external compressor would have created. Many engineers that I have worked with don't like to do any processing at all to the signal before it is recorded.
 Pay close attention to your sources as well. If that Speed King pedal has a squeak, get out the oil can and duct tape and get rid of it. If you have to go back and EQ it out, some important elements of the sound are bound to be casualties!
When I record my guitar, what I use depends on the style of music and effect that I need for that song. I usually have a combination of direct and mic'ed sources. For some rock material I'll just use the direct guitar with the internal processing from my VS-2480. For other material I might use my great sounding John Suhr OD-100, or my Roland VG-8, but add some direct sound to that with some internal, processing added during mixdown. That requires using at least 2 and often more tracks for just the guitar part, as I usually use both close and room mics. I won't EQ anything before it is recorded. Then during mixdown it's not uncommon to pull out some 1k or other frequencies to make room for the vocals or some other important song element, depending on the song and the style.
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