Creative Caffeine: Nashville Recording Studio

Major musicians are exploring the market potential for directly interacting with their fans and releasing music independently. Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead both made headlines recently for experimenting with Internet-based releases, but NIN frontman Trent Reznor has just called Radiohead’s effort “insincere.”

“I think the way [Radiohead] parlayed it into a marketing gimmick has certainly been shrewd,” Reznor said when speaking to Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Michael Atkin. “But if you look at what they did, though, it was very much a bait and switch to get you to pay for a MySpace-quality stream as a way to promote a very traditional record sale.”

link to full article:
Reznor: Radiohead offering was insincere, industry is inept

A week after releasing his four-volume instrumental work “Ghosts I-IV” through his Web site, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor is reporting that he amassed more than $1.6 million in orders and downloads.

Reznor made the albums available at five different prices, including a free download, without any advance publicity. His marketing campaign, such as it is, consisted of a terse announcement on his nin.com Web site. On Wednesday, he reported 781,917 transactions, including free and paid downloads and orders of physical product. A $300 box set sold out of 2,500 copies within a day. Nine of the 36 songs were made available as a free download. The complete set also was available as a $5 download, a $10 double-CD and a $75 set with bonus visual content.

A few months ago, Radiohead adopted a similar strategy in releasing its latest album, “In Rainbows.” Fans were allowed to name their price for the album, but the U.K. band did not release sales statistics.

link to original article:
http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2008/03/reznors-one-wee.html

From turning down the Beatles to stomping Napster— the most ill-advised, foolhardy and downright idiotic decisions ever made by The Man.

By Jon Dolan, Josh Eells, Fred Goodman

Original Article:
http://www.blender.com/articles/default.aspx?key=18696&pg=0

Blender March 11 2008

They Never Even Recouped Their Aqua Net Expenses

#20 As grunge dawns, one label bets on hair metal

In 1989, with hair metal reaching its zenith, the A&R department at MCA Records finally decided to get in on the act—by tossing a rumored $1 million at L.A. band Pretty Boy Floyd, who at the time had played only eight shows. The band’s debut, Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz, peaked at No. 130 on the Billboard charts, and the Floyd blew another mil or so of MCA’s money before the label finally dropped them in 1991 … right around the time the suits blew a chance to sign a fledgling Seattle outfit called Nirvana.
Unintended consequence Around 1992, the Sunset Strip pizza-delivery scene gets a fresh infusion of talent.

The Vinyl Solution

#19 The industry kills the single—and begins its own slow demise

In the early ’80s, the music industry began to phase out vinyl singles in favor of cassettes and later, CDs. Then, since it costs the same to manufacture a CD single as a full album, they ditched the format almost altogether. But they forgot that singles were how fans got into the music-buying habit before they had enough money to spend on albums. The end result? Kids who expect music for free. “Greed to force consumers to buy an album [resulted] in the loss of an entire generation of record consumers,” says Billboard charts expert Joel Whitburn. “People who could only afford to buy their favorite hit of the week were told it wasn’t available as a single. Instead, they stopped going to record shops and turned their attention to illegally downloading songs.”
Unintended consequence The Eagles still top the album charts.

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East Nashville has seen a dramatic transformation in the past decade. Historically the east side of the river has always been more progressive than the other parts of Nashville, and today it is a hotbed of what just might be an artistic renaissance… especially if you are involved with music performance and production.

There is something about East Nashville that attracts musicians and artists. That something might just be other musicians and artists, but it also could be the relatively affordable housing, the best coffee shop in Nashville (Bongo Java), the hip music-friendly clubs (Radio Cafe, The Family Wash, The 5-Spot), as well as an overall hometown-within-a-city vibe. You might just forget you’re in Nashville if you stay for a spell.

Time and space seem to change dimension when you cross over Gallatin road or Main Street into the 37206 zip code. There are beautiful Victorian and Tudor style homes, people walk freely for pleasure and transport, and there always seems to be something interesting happening: art exhibition at the Garage Mahal; dogs walking people; gatherings at the tiny post office; bold renovations of old homes.

Bohemian. Well, as bohemian as Nashville gets. It is no East Village, but it is the Nashville equivalent.

However, what you might not see until you live and mingle in East Nashville is the preponderance of music recording and performance behind closed doors. Studios don’t often advertise their existence for practical and zoning reasons and because most real studios aren’t like Sam Phillips Sun Studios where you walk in and book a session with a receptionist; business is built on reputation and referral.

It is possible that there are literally hundreds of active recording studios operating today in East Nashville and growing. This is not the PC mixer and condenser mic variety, but professional project studios with multiple isolated rooms, expensive microphones, preamps and multi tracking systems.

The granddaddy of them all is the legendary Woodland Studios where many a classic country sessions went to tape in the 50s and 60s. Today Woodland is owned by Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings for their projects.

Then you’ve got other well known rooms like legendary violinist Buddy Spicher’s The Fiddle House across the street from Woodland, as well as Roswell East run by Jordan Richter (Mathhew Ryan, Sixpence None the Richer, the Legendary Shack Shakers).

A couple of blocks over you’ve got Grammy winner Brent Truitt’s Le Garage (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Lonesome River Band), and Danny Ramsey’s Little Hollywood studio which is also has the distinction of once being the home of Marty Robbins and studio legend Grady Martin. Little Hollywood has put microphones in front of Ronnie McDowell, Victor Wooten, Walter Egan, Jeff Cease, Albert Lee, and many others.

Beyond these heavyweights of the major label biz, there are dozens of other studios hidden in otherwise unsuspecting homes, like Eric McConnell’s place. A friend saw a bunch of vans loading in and out of McConnell’s home and a roadie that looked remarkably like Jack White of the White Stripes. Turns out it was Jack. The phenomenal Loretta Lynn record produced by White was tracked at McConnell’s classic Victorian home. Hell, even the picture on the cover was taken in East Nashville.

Jack liked it so much that he relocated Nashville, but sadly to another part of town… We think. But we surely won’t hold that against him.

McConnell is in the Vanguard of the new generation of East Nashville studio wizards who feel equally at home with classic vintage guitars and advanced pro-tools techniques. Most musicians these days tend to be computer geeks too, and the modern computer has brought the barriers to entry down when it comes to getting top-quality recordings. For this reason, most musicians professional and otherwise invest in impressive home studios that allow the creative impulse to happen where they are most comfortable.

Another hot studio for indie rockers is Jeremy Ferguson’s BattleTapes, nestled in an East Nashville house and producing some amazing recordings for the likes of Forget Cassettes, Apollo Up, Hands Down Eugene and others. BattleTapes takes the cake for ambiance and bohemian vibe, because indie studios often realize that mood is just as critical as sound quality for a good recording.

It seems like everybody in East Nashville is damn talented, and to top it off, they probably have a studio and a killer self-produced CD, or a buddy who can help them get one. Everyone is genuinely interested in and supportive of the grassroots community. Walk into a bar like The Family Wash and you can throw a rock in the air and probably hit a working musician, producer, or agent.

So what is it about East Nashville that has things cooking in recording land? A possible explanation is the ‘Americana’ movement that keeps building steam. Country is cool again, Western is hip, and a new generation of musicians have embraced the rootsy sound of bluegrass, slide guitars, honky tonk, and well… great songcraft.

Quite a few professional musicians are relocating (or at least buying homes) in East Nashville for a variety of reasons: access to music community, a low cost of living, no state income tax, laid back environment, and moderate climate.

But what you will hear most from the working professionals living here is that the attitudes and ethics of music producers, writers, and managers are substantially different from LA, New York, Portland, Chicago, or other “hotbeds” of American music. Nashville has always been about professionalism and modesty. Nashville is synonymous with country music, and Country has always been down-to-earth music made by down-to-earth people.

Being a professional isn’t about being an enigma, or being in the inside crowd. Some folks pick guitars and write songs, others build houses or own businesses. Selling out is a blessing instead of a curse, and is never a reason to get up on a high horse. This is an unspoken ethos of the southern country music culture that I hope Music City never loses sight of, and just might be the ticket for an artistic renaissance of global proportions here on the Cumberland river.

- Ernie Gray

Nashville Skyline: » Is East Nashville Becoming A Recording Studio Mecca?

The Nashville Number System is simply the best and most practical way of charting your song for a recording session. Any studio player should be able to follow these charts with no problem. The primary advantage on using the number system over actual chord names, is that if the key to the song needs changed at the last minute, the charts don’t need re-written, nor does the musician have to transpose on the fly.

Things You’ll Need:

* Either a real piano keyboard or a simple mock up of one
* Knowledge of the basic note scale and where those notes exist on the keyboard
* Paper
* Pencil

Step 1:
If you are not familiar with the basic note scale and where it exists on the piano keyboard, just look it up on the Internet or have someone knowledgeable about the scale show you.

Step 2:
Once you know the basic note scale, write the scale down across the top of a sheet of paper, beginning with “C” and leaving a little space between each of the remaining notes.

Step 3:
Write the number “1″ above the letter “C,” the number “2″ above the letter “D” and so on across the scale. Once completed, you now have the core of the Number System in front of you. In the studio, if the players were preparing a “chart” for a song in the key of C, and the first, say, five chords to be played in the song were C, F, G, F, G, the “chart” would simply read 1-4-5-4-5.

Step 4:
The final step is what makes the number system so user friendly. Unlike conventional sheet music which has to be re-written for each key that the song needs to be played in, with the number system, you change keys simply by assigning the number 1 to the key of the song and then numbering the other notes accordingly. So, if the song is in the key of G, the G note in number 1 and so on.

Link to Original Article:
How To Learn the Nashville Studio Number System | eHow.com

LOS ANGELES: I’m standing inside a darkened eight-by-eight-foot recording booth in Nashville, Tennessee, staring into a microphone. A window looks into a small studio where the musicians I’ve hired are exchanging ideas in shorthand. I can hear them through my headphones (”Bob, come in one bar later on the vocal”), but I can’t see much. I feel vulnerable and excited. I wonder if this is what plastic surgery is like. After all, these specialists are nipping and tucking one of my most intimate parts: my song.

The song is “Finally Made ‘Em Dance,” a ballad sung by a musician to his inspirational mother. I had never been able to record it satisfactorily on the $400 eight-track home digital recorder I bought last year. As an amateur songwriter I love my eight-track because it lets me perform all the parts: no arguments in this band. But I am a sub-amateur musician who knows, at best, nine guitar chords. I can create a song of potential beauty, but after years in denial I admitted I needed cosmetic song surgery to realize that beauty.

And so, at 58, I shifted some retirement money to the life’s-too-short side of the ledger and headed from Los Angeles to Nashville, carrying a CD of “Dance” and four other songs. I would make a demo that sounded professional, right down to my singing. I kept my expectations low; I’d be happy if one pro said, “Good song.”

My guru on this journey was Steve Tveit, general manager of Omnisound Studios, housed in a small, boxy, steel-blue-painted brick building on a plain street a few blocks from Music Row. Tveit is one of my favorite in-laws (he’s married to my wife’s niece) because he’s been able to make a living in the music business, even if it means driving a ‘97 Dodge Neon without a CD player.

I had joked for years about recording in Nashville with my own band of earnest L.A. amateurs. But this time, perhaps because I sounded serious, he suggested: Just bring yourself. You can hire the same session men the record companies use.

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The Beatles’ engineer Norman Smith, who worked on every studio recording the band made between 1962 and 1965, has died at the age of 85.  Smith, nicknamed “Normal Norman” by John Lennon, took charge of the band’s first session at Abbey Road in 1962.

Promoted to producer in 1966, he signed Pink Floyd and produced their early albums including Saucerful of Secrets.

Under the name Hurricane Smith, he also enjoyed UK chart success with singles including Don’t Let It Die in 1971.

That song reached number two in the UK, while follow-up Oh Babe, What Would You Say? reached the top five on both sides of the Atlantic the following year.

Smith helped create The Beatles’ early sound

His record label EMI described him as “a legendary figure in the history of EMI and British music”.

“We were very saddened to hear of his passing away, and our thoughts and condolences go out to his family at this time,” the statement said.

Recalling The Beatles’ first session for EMI, Smith once told an interviewer: “Visually, they made quite an impression, but musically we didn’t really hear their potential.”

He was impressed by their sense of humour and style, which marked them out from the large number of other bands that came in to try to impress producer George Martin and earn a record deal.

Smith said he told Martin at the time: “For that alone we should sign them. Just because of their humour and the way they present themselves, they are different.”

‘Mood creation’

Once promoted to producer, he said he signed Pink Floyd after being impressed by their stage presentation at one of their gigs.

“I can’t in all honesty say that the music meant anything at all to me,” he later recalled. “In fact, I could barely call it music.

“A mood creation through sound is the best way that I could describe Floyd.”

Smith, who was born in Edmonton, North London, died on 3 March.

Link to original article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7284108.stm

We were proud to have Eric Heatherly in the studio recently to record his new self-produced single, “Unforgettable.” The song is great and came across very nice in the recording. We recorded all of the instruments to 2″ analog tape using Eric’s road band, who did an amazing job! From there the tracks were transferred to ProTools where we overdubbed the vocal tracks and started mixing. The result sounds very nice and we wish Eric much success on his new project. The picture above is Eric sitting at the console while listening to the final mix of “Unforgettable.”

Find out more about Eric at www.ericheatherly.com

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails made headlines again this week as he released his new, four-part instrumental album Ghosts I-IV, at a variety of price points, including a $300 super-deluxe package. He’s also giving away Ghosts I at no charge, even throwing the tracks up on The Pirate Bay for anyone to download. And it appears to be working quite well for Reznor, who has managed to sell all 2,500 copies of his $300 package without major label backing or much in the way of splashy marketing. If Reznor’s earlier experiments in digital distribution failed to recoup their costs, he’s clearly learned his lesson: grossing $750,000 in the space of three days isn’t a bad haul for any businessperson.
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* Will fans pay? Reznor opens books on ‘Net music experiment

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Lou Pearlman, the man behind boy bands ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, is set to plead guilty to a $300m (£152m) fraud scheme, prosecutors have said.

In a plea agreement, the music mogul has admitted running scams that defrauded investors and major banks for more than 20 years.

Mr Pearlman entered a not guilty plea last year, but is scheduled to reverse that in court in Florida on Thursday.

The charges carry a maximum of 25 years in prison and a $1m (£506,000) fine.

Mr Pearlman, 53, is expected to plead guilty to two charges of conspiracy, money laundering and making false statements during a bankruptcy proceeding.

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