Mixing and Stuff

Mixing

So, yeah. Hi.

I've been mixing my albums.  Finally!  And they're done.  The fabulous Joe Rubel at Pixel (who engineered the recordings) has mixed them.  We did it across four days spread across June.  Having some gaps between mixing sessions was actually really useful as it let us take a break from the mixes and then revisit and tweak them with fresh ears.  I say "we", it was all Joe.  I just said "Yeah, that sounds great" with the odd "Could the piano be a bit more present?" just to liven things up a bit.

It was a really nice experience for me.  Joe is so relaxed and cool that it made what can be, let's face it, quite a dull part of the process for us composers really fun.  It's necessary, it improves the sound of our music but it involves a person doing things that I, at least, have no comprehension of.  I'm not tech savvy, I don't really understand how mixing works.  If I mix, they're always muddy, or sound great in the studio but absolute crap everywhere else.

In the days between sessions I would listen in my studio to the mixes Joe had done, then take them out with me on dog walks and listen on various sets of headphone.  I even listened in the kitchen on my bluetooth Bose speaker.  They sound great on all of them.  I couldn't be happier.

Sadly, that doesn't mean they're ready to release...  The next step is to get them mastered.  Luckily for me, I'm able to get them mastered by John Webber at Air Studios, which is very exciting.  I know that he'll add the sparklywow (a technical term I've picked up from my sister-in-law's sister - an awesome one I'm sure you'll agree) that will be the cherry on the icing of Joe's mixes.

Once that's done I have to go for a meeting with my publisher and play them everything so that we can discuss what the next step.  They want to try and find a record label to release, we'll then have to decide if to release physical copies or just do download.  We also need to coordinate releasing the sheet music (for at least the String Quartets) along with the albums so that people can not only listen to the music put perform it.  I'd love to get some string quartets performing them in their concerts.  So any quartets out there that are interested get in touch with Music Sales about performing them.

"But when will I be able to buy the albums?" I hear you reluctantly mumble.  Well.  That's a very good question.  I won't be releasing them at the same time, I doubt.  I wouldn't want to saturate the market (yeah, right!).  I guess you'll just have to keep an eye on my blog (and Twitter, when I go back on there).

Stuff

I should remain apolitical really as this is my professional blog but stuff that.  We're in a time of transition, of uncertainty and I really need to get some things off my chest.  I doubt I'm going to say anything that hasn't already been said so I apologise for that.

Now. Yesterday I posted on Twitter that I was leaving it for a bit, which I am.  It'll probably only be for a few weeks, maybe a month.  I just need a little break from it.  I get the irony of posting this blog on Twitter having said that I'm not going to be on Twitter...  I just thought it better to leave with something a little more positive than a rant about not liking it much at the moment.  I love Twitter and the people I've met because of it but it's become quite a toxic place recently, especially post Brexit vote.  These are unsettling enough times without adding to the negative atmosphere.  The events of the last couple of weeks have really shaken me.  It has just been one thing after another both globally and within the UK and as much as I love Twitter for it's diversity and the immediacy of it I am seeing things that I don't want to.  I will still be using Snapchat (filmmusicsam) and Instagram (@i_is_sam) so you can still chat with me on those.

I feel I should say that I'm a Yorkshireman who lives in the Home Counties.  I worked in call centres and factories as a young man.  We had hard times.  We weren't rich.  I'm not rich now but I know that I am well off relative to a large number of people in this country.

I have had to begin, over the last few days, to come to terms with the fact that the UK is not the country I thought it was and that my place in it is also completely different from what I thought it was.  I am as out of touch as our politicians and now I have to work personally to change this.  We all live in our own personal bubble and in this ever smaller world, this global community in which we live we need to burst those bubbles if we are to adapt, change for the better and make this little planet an awesome place to be for every single one of it's citizens.

I was, at first, angry at Leave voters.  I still am, to an extent, but I'm mostly angry for them now. They were lied to.  We all were but there are those of us who are privileged enough to have had a good education and/or have a job which pays well, have a house, can afford to shop in a supermarket rather than rely on food banks and have the interest in politics and don't feel like the political elite don't care about us and that our vote won't matter so why bother?!  Not that all Leave voters come from this demographic, obviously, but they are the ones I feel have been most harmed by it all.  The people who have been downtrodden, alongside the people who benefit from the EU without realising it.  And they weren't told that they do because the EU has been used as a scapegoat.  It's by no means perfect, there are many problems with it and I will admit that at the start of the campaign I was on the fence.
I ended up despising the tactics of the Leave campaign, they really owned hate.  Having said that, the Remain campaign really owned fear.  So voters were placed between a rock and a hard place.

The Leave campaign have fully rescinded their promises.  They have said there won't be £350m a week extra for the NHS and that immigration won't be reduced but still have the balls to say they never promised those things (despite the former being emblazoned on a bus and on leaflets posted through millions of doors and politicians from the campaign ACTUALLY SAYING IT ON TELEVISION).  They didn't distance themselves from UKIP because it was gaining them votes. They didn't loudly point out that Farage wasn't an official Leave campaigner until he revealed that hideous poster and by then the damage was already done.

Many people have blamed the "baby boomers" for the leave result but looking at the figures there is a lot of "blame" to fall on the 18-24 year olds (probably the under 40s in truth).  They didn't come out and vote in big enough numbers.  Why?  Do they not care?  Too busy getting drunk?  Or do they feel that politics isn't for them.  I have a feeling it's the latter and that they fall into the "disenfranchised" camp.  But I obviously have no way of knowing without going out and asking everyone under 40 who didn't vote "Why not?".

It would also appear that many people didn't understand that the referendum was "advisory" (so the government don't have to implement it) and that it was being voted for under Proportional Representation (PR), something that we don't use in General Elections in this country (remember that referendum in 2011?), so people thought they could use their vote as a protest vote.  Labour Leave even tweeted that "A vote for leave is a vote against the Conservative government" (https://twitter.com/labourleave/status/743084647236653056) implying that it would be a protest vote.  Appalling!

I would love to know how many Leave voters, having seen the ramifications, the financial uncertainty, how it has had an effect across the world, and the fact that Leave have come out and said that the only thing they want to change is the lawmaking side of our relationship with the EU, would still vote to Leave.  I would also find it interesting to know if any Remain voters wish they had voted Leave.

I was shocked at how much I cared about the result.  I cried for most of Friday morning.  I'm fearful for the arts, for my job, for many things.  I'm fearful for the people of this country who migrated here and for their children.  I'm worried for my nieces and nephew.  My creativity has slumped.  I'm finding it hard to write music.  But I know this will change.  I can feel it change as my mindset is changing.

In an ideal world, I would like the referendum to be nullified on the grounds that it was fought on "facts" that are now clearly lies and that the promises made were never intended to be kept.  But that isn't democracy and that's just how political campaigns seem to be run and we have to live with that. It appears that democracy is in the act of voting not in the way the people who are there to inform us how to vote have to act.  I'm hoping this will change. We need a return to ethical politicking (if we've ever had it).  I wouldn't be upset if Scotland choose to implement their veto stopping us from leaving the EU.  I'm hoping all this turmoil triggers a general election and that a viable party comes forward and campaigns with the main points in their manifesto being a vote for them is a vote to remain in the EU (therefore being a more recent vote, a democratic way of nullifying the referendum) and that they will pass a law making it illegal for politicians to knowingly and willingly lie to the electorate.  This is tough because it's technically subjective and hard to prove that someone was purposefully lying, especially when they are a silver tongued, weaselly politician.  I also hope that we will switch to PR for all votes in the future as I believe it is must fairer that the First Past the Post system.  The question of how democratic Scotland's veto or a general election won on the promise of remaining in the EU are is one that I haven't fully comprehended yet and is probably best left to someone better educated in these matters than me.  I understand that ignoring the outcome of the referendum would cause uproar with many people who voted Leave and if it does happen that is something we will have to live with the consequences of.

I'm think I'm coming to terms with it now.  The democratic thing is to enact Article 50, that is the will of the people apparently, although I would argue that the (democratically elected) government has a (democratic) mandate to do what is in the best interest of the country regardless of whether it's a popular decision or not and it is becoming more and more clear that remaining in the EU would be best at least in the short term.  Should a narrow (very narrow) win for Leave on an advisory referendum override the fact that they are a democratically elected government?

Either way we must hunker down and make this country awesome in whatever way we have to.

I am now becoming hopeful for us, for what we can become.  I don't underestimate how hard it will be to fix the problems that have been accumulating for who knows how many years of underhand, fear based politics and lying, scaremongering newspapers blaming anyone but us and our government for our problems but I hope that with Westminster in meltdown our politicians will realise that they have lost a great many of us and that it is not something they can ignore as they may have previously thought.  I am not a Jeremy Corbyn fan but I do share the hope that we can have a kinder, gentle politics.  I also hope that we can work towards a government that will bridge the gaping chasm between wealth and poverty in this country.

I'm hopeful that politicians will work on ways of engaging the disenfranchised back into politics and into believing that this country cares for them.  Because we do.  The politicians might not, but I believe the public do.  I'm hopeful that we will defeat the far-right and we will not let this country become a small minded, introverted, hate-filled nation the likes of the sweaty faced lie factory of a man that is Nigel Farage would like to see.  Immigration is vital for this country.  I believe that the majority of us embrace it, even those who have worries over the numbers of people migrating here. And those worries are legitimate.  It doesn't make you racist to worry about the effects migration has on our public services, on housing, on schools.  But that's not the EU.  Our government has woefully underfunded the NHS for decades along with all our other public services.  Houses aren't being built because of our government.  Huge corporations aren't paying a fair amount of tax because of our government (the EU actually wants to pass a law to help reduce off shore tax havens).

So for showing our politicians that we don't want to stand for this in a very big way I applaud Leave voters.  I think it is mistimed and misjudged but it is what it is.  I believe that our politicians can no longer be self-serving, career minded egoists.  And not all of them are.  I think they now know that, quite frankly, we won't stand for their bullshit anymore.  So I'm hopeful.

I'm still uncertain what the future holds and I'm more than a little bit scared but I'm hopeful.

Recording at Script Studios

Last week (on the 18th and 19th April), as you probably know, I went into Script at the Tileyard in London to record a couple of albums.  It was so much fun.  Sorry I'm only just getting around to blogging about it but as you know, I'm a bit rubbish at blogging.

Day One

So, we did two days.  Day one started at about 8am for engineer Joe Rubel and the studio assistant Reece.  My brother Dan (who was along for the ride but also made loads of helpful take and performance notes as well as buying loads of biscuits and cake for us to eat even though he was on a diet and couldn't have any of it) and I joined them shortly after.  The quartet arrived at about 9:30 and we set off recording across three sessions (10-1, 2-5 and 6-9), which made for a very long but enjoyable day.

Script Studios set up ready for the quartet to come in and record.

Cellist Peter Gregson put together a fabulous quartet for me, including himself.  On violins were Sara Wolstenholme and Kirsty Mangan and the viola was played by Laurie Anderson.

We started the day recording the strings for my semi-concept album.  This was all done to click so that the players could be totally in sync with the electronics and programming that I'd prerecorded.  It was really nice to have the time to do plenty of takes and cover the performance fully while feeling relaxed and having fun.  There was plenty of joking around (especially between Peter and Joe).  I think it's really important to make recording sessions fun.  After all, it's the best bit of the job, it should be the most enjoyable - and enjoyable for everyone.  Recording for a film or TV session is great fun but comes with pressures of time restraint, cost restrictions (not that I had an endless budget for this project) and the fact that you have so many other people (namely producers) to make happy. Now, I'm not complaining, I love it.  One of my favourite parts of the job is when the people commissioning you to work on their project beam a big smile and tell you you've nailed it.  However, it was really refreshing and quite liberating to know we had the time to just enjoy it.

Sara, Kirsty, Laurie and Peter kicking ass.

We popped for dinner at a local pub.  We all got our food except for Sara.  Hers turned up 10 minutes before the evening session was supposed to begin.  I felt awful for her.  She asked for a takeaway box for half of it and shoved the other half down as quick as possible.  I doubt it will go down in her memory as one of the most pleasant meals she's ever had.

For the evening session Angus MacRae joined the quartet on piano to record a piece for the second, completely acoustic album.  It was an interesting challenge, Angus was in a booth so that we had good mixing separation between the quartet and the piano but this meant that he and the quartet had no line of sight.  They had to play completely from feel.  It was amazing to watch and hear.  They totally nailed it and after a few takes were really in the flow of it.  It goes to show that if you get great musicians in anything is possible.

Once we'd recorded the piece with Angus we went back to record the final track for the first album before heading home for a well deserved sleep.

The great thing about recording across two days is the fact that at the end of the day you can just go home and leave everything out, no packing up at night and no setting up in the morning.

Joe doing his thing.

Day Two

Day two started at 9am with me in the booth recording some piano for the first album then the first session with the quartet started at 10am and went until 1pm.  We started with my String Quartet No.1, went onto another piece for quartet and then in the 2-5pm session we went on to my String Quartet No.2.  It was great recording the acoustic stuff.  It's not something I do a lot of, and the "banter" (I hate that word when used non-ironically, but there we go) continued at very high levels.

For the evening session it was just me in the booth with Joe and Dan (and Peter) in the control room. I started by recording the remaining piano parts for the first album, including doing some passes using the felt setting, which is just lovely.  We then set up the Hammond organ in the main studio and I played that on a track too.  It was a noisy old beast but a joy to play.

Hammond Organ. Such fun!

The Joy of Real Players

As always, over the two days, it struck me just how much real musicians add to a recording. Especially players of the calibre I had at my disposal.  The love and the life that players add to a composers music cannot be measured or underestimated.  I think sometimes people think I'm a bit of a fraud or a bit wishy-washy in sessions when they ask about performance.  If I have a very set idea I will tell a player and when they ask specific questions about how this bar or that phrase should be played I'll answer.  But I often answer "Play it how you feel it" or "Do it how you think it sounds/feels best". This isn't because I don't know what I'm talking about (although I don't know what I'm talking about), it's because I know that a player knows their instrument better that I do.  There's also something about the different interpretations that a player can add upon reading your music.  It may not be what you had in your head but 90% of the time it sounds a million times better than you imagined.

Post Recording

And so, this week the task of editing the takes has fallen to me.  I have to say, Mr Rubel did such a great job of comping as we recorded that there's not a lot to do but I am checking through my notes and listening back to takes just in case there's some gold we missed in the hubbub of recording.  I can't wait to get into Pixel and get mixing so that we can release the albums and let you all hear the hard work and, hopefully, the fun we had making them happen.

Right, I better get back to editing.

Sam x

Albums and stuff

So, yeah.  I've failed once again to hit my weekly target... Oh well.  *Must try harder*

Now, I have news.  If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram (or both) you will know that I've been writing two albums.  One will include my two string quartets and some other music for string quartet including a piece for piano and string quartet.

The other is for string quartet and loads of electronic stuff.  I spent a week a little while ago down at my brother Dan's studio adding to what I'd already written and using his ear as a producer.  It was great and I think has really lifted the music.

I've now booked to record at Script Studios a little later this month, which is very exciting.  I'm being decadent and have booked two days so that I can have five sessions with the strings so that we have time to play about and get a great performance. I'll then spend the rest of the time recording the piano and some other parts for the second album live, which will be a lot of fun.

The fabulous Peter Gregson is putting a quartet together for me and the very talented Joe Rubel is going to engineer and mix.  I've asked Angus MacRae to play piano live with the quartet for one of the pieces and luckily he has agreed.  It's all very exciting.  Can you tell I'm excited?

Anyway, they will be released (separately) later this year.  I'll keep you posted with any other developments.

Hello again.

Hi again.  Sorry I've been in the land of not blogging for, well, years.  I thought I should start up again and try to do it properly this time.  Realistically I think I might manage one a month but I'll aim for one a week...

So, erm... Yeah...

I'm currently writing a couple of albums which I'm going to record in April (hopefully).  I've not booked players or a studio yet but I have an engineer, huzzah!  I thought I'd get on top of the music prep so it's not a last minute 2am job this time.



I'll be releasing them on iTunes later in the year, so I'll definitely blog about that.  I'll also blog across the whole process.

That's kind of all I have to say for now.  Not the longest blog, or probably the most exciting but it's a start...

Until next time.

Sam

BBCNOW and then (see what I did there?!)

Last Thursday was the recording for Wizards vs Aliens Series 2 with The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and what a triumph it was, even if I do say so myself.

It was a fun day.  I have to thank every single one of the players, they really played their hearts out.  We had a few technical problems in the first session and a hell of a lot of music to get through but we still managed to finish the second session 15 minutes early.  Most of that was because of how few takes we had to do.  On average three takes of a cue would mean the orchestra had nailed it, and some we only had to do two (the second being purely for safety as the first was so good).

I don't know what Huw, the engineer at Hoddinott Hall did, but the recordings sound fantastic.  I thought they sounded good last year, but this year they are amazing.  The level of separation is unbelievable so Dan has loads of control when mixing, which can be difficult when you're recording the whole orchestra at once.

Mark Wyllie's fantastic prep meant the sessions ran really smoothly, even with technical hitches, and his calm head saw any problems quickly rectified.  And as for Jeremy Holland-Smith... well... The man makes me feel like an impostor, he really is Mr Music.  The way he conducted the orchestra and directed their performance you would have thought he'd written the music himself.  He has an unnatural ability to interpret music and improve it greatly through that interpretation.  To you composers out there, if you ever have need of a conductor you should spend your money on him.  I know I always will in the future.

It's always tough in a recording session to make the calls and be sure you have the takes that you need but Dan and I seem to have managed, with the odd "Are you sure?" from Mark and Jeremy.

It was great to have my other brother Joe there too.  He kept an eye on the time, doing quick bits of maths to make sure we stayed on track and whether or not we had time to do another take of a particular cue.  It's a very useful thing to have someone doing that as it's one less thing to think about so I could concentrate on whether I had the performance I wanted or not.

Principal cellist John Senter is retiring from the orchestra next month (after 36 years) so it was an honour to have him playing on the score and also to have recorded a solo from him.  It's great to work with an orchestra that really cares about the music they are playing, regardless of what it is.  Associate Leader Nick Whiting (who was leading the orchestra for the sessions) popped into the control room in the first break to check that we were all happy with it so far and principal trumpet player Philippe Schartz also popped in to check we were happy.

As we had finished early I asked them to play through one cue one last time so that I could sit in the hall and hear them as live.  What a feeling.  There's nothing like a great orchestra going hell for leather right in front of you.  After I'd said my thank yous and told them all to go to the pub a few players came up to say how much they'd enjoyed the sessions.  That was such a lovely thing.  One of my aims with writing music (along side it working well to the picture, of course) is that the players will enjoy playing it.  Music should be fun for everyone involved, well, that's what I think, anyway.

I also need to thank Thom Robson who did the lions share of the copying (preparing the music for the players on a piece of software called Sibelius) without whom I don't think we would have been ready in time.

So all that's left to do is mix episodes 5-10, write the music for episodes 11-14 and then mix that.

Not a lot then...

Wizards vs Aliens Update

So.  I've just had the feedback for episodes seven and eight back.  Luckily they went down a storm.  But that's not what I've enticed you hear to tell you.  You don't care about that really, do you?!  You want proper news.  Well, here it is...

I am delighted to say that I will be recording the score for this year's series with the fabulous BBC National Orchestra of Wales again.  And in just a few weeks (cripes!).

It was so much fun last year and they really played their hearts out for me (not literally, of course, that would just have been messy).  It also made a huge difference to the show.  It's great being able to say we're the only children's drama on the BBC that is scored with an actual (78 piece, may I add?!) orchestra.  And on a selfish note it's just great to hear that many musicians playing your music (and it makes me sound like a much better composer when there are that many people putting emotion and effort into my music).

It's going to work slightly differently to last year as (in theory, if I stop typing this blog and get on with some work) I'll have 10 of the 14 episode written by the time we record so there will be more specific cues recorded this year rather trying to preempt how the episodes were going to be paced and feel.  It's much better that way.

The other big change is that I'm not going to conduct it myself this time round.  Although it was a lot of fun, it was hugely stressful trying to conduct an orchestra I'd never worked with whilst running sessions in which there was a lot of music to fit in, in a recording venue I'd never worked with and trusting everyone in the control room to ensure we had the takes we needed (and they did a very good job of it, I have to say).

So that I can be more in control over yay-ing or nay-ing of takes (I'm a control freak) I'm bringing in the wonderful Jeremy Holland-Smith to conduct.  He's worked with BBCNOW on a number of occasions so they should feel comfortable under him and my hope is that it will help bring the music to life even more.

Hopefully we'll be able to document it more this time round and I may even post some pictures on twitter on the day, so keep your eyes peeled.

Now I need to get back to writing so, you know, bye and all that.

New Studio

So, last weekend my new studio furniture was installed.  It's so great.  Made from Sapele with Zebrano (which is a lovely combination) it's a massive improvement on what I had before.  

Late last year I asked Joseph William to design me new studio furniture so that I had a much better and more enjoyable work space.  We discussed what I needed and they sent over an initial design.  We talked it through and tweaked it as we went along before finalising the design.  And we ended up with this...

The top is curved and the draws continue that curve, which just looks so cool!

The speakers are on free floating solid stands.  I've got my Mac Pro on one side and my slave PC on the other.  The peripherals for the PC sit on the surface above the drawers and the Mac peripherals are all above the rack unit.  The speaker stands, bookcase and drawers all have Zebrano inlay.

There's a useful pop-up socket and a cupboard to hide my printer and all of the work surfaces and other edges have been scribed to the shape of the walls so that it fits perfectly.

My master keyboard is on a shelf below the rack unit.  The top above the keyboard is curved so that the piano keys are fully exposed.

The rack unit is 4u and there are Sapele blanking sheets to hide the empty spaces.

I really couldn't be happier with it.  Having used it all this week it's perfect.  Joseph William are going to make me matching wall mounts for my Ukuleles and Mandolin as well as a wall mounted headphone rack and audio cable rack, which will finish the studio off nicely.

Joseph William made the furniture modular so that if I move studio it can come with me and be reorganised to fit the new space, which is great because it means it's a studio for life.  It's definitely a good investment.

Anyway, I'll stop going on about the studio now. Have a good weekend, I'm off for a glass of wine!