My wife and I recently got back from a 10 day trip that included 7 days at a folk music gathering. A friend asked me to play a song I wrote called Savior Blues that I included on my 1996 album Copper-Lined Sky. I forgot a chunk of the words. A few days later in my hotel room I came up with the lyrics and decided to share the song with everyone who had been in the room when I messed up.
Using my 3GS and my Blue Mikey version 1, I placed the phone on a tall TV cabinet. I sat on an ottoman so the mic was just above the top of my head. I sang and played guitar on track one using MultiTrack 2.0 Then I overdubbed a mandolin and a lead guitar with the phone on an end table. I panned and adjusted the volume before uploading it to SoundCloud and making an aac file I could email to my friend who had requested the song in the first place. It all worked seamlessly. Click on the link at the top to listen to the song as mixed by MultiTrack.
I converted the aac to mp3 and emailed the song to about 10 people. One friend said he didn’t know why I had so much gear in my studio when I could produce good acoustic music using the iPhone. I could improve the mix by exporting the files into Logic but I got a kick out of using only MultiTrack’s feature set. BTW, I later recorded Jesse Winchester’s Isn’t That So, and brought the phone down to the hotel lobby where there was digital piano. Unfortunately, the nearby water fountain made too much noise and the piano had some silent keys. What I did play using the built in mics sounded good but for those limitations.
This setup is ideal for traveling. An iPhone, the Mikey, and earbuds. Small footprint. I could have gotten by without the Mikey but it was nice to have the stereo mics.
In the past week I rehearsed my arrangement of an old folk-blues song called Tell Old Bill. I based it on a version played by John Blatz back in the mid-70s. I wanted to record it for the iPhoniqFolk project as part of my microphone testing. This time I wanted to use my Cascade X-15 stereo ribbon microphone with the Alesis ProTrack. I also wanted to record guitar with my Blue Mikey stereo iPhone microphone.
I recorded a strummed acoustic guitar part using the Mikey. While the Mikey doesn’t have high-end sparkle, it adequately captured the guitar. I recorded a “scratch” vocal using the Mikey, so I could add guitar and mandolin fills. Again, the Mikey was perfectly fine for getting a track into the phone. I recorded guitar fills with it (trying out ideas mostly) and let the recording sit for a few days.
I identified the licks and fills I wanted to use on a final version and moved back to the iPhone-Alesis Multitrack combination. I plugged the two XLR cables from the stereo ribbon microphone into the Multitrack and set levels. I needed most of the gain from the unit to drive the ribbon. I recorded another strummed part and panned these parts left and right. Then I used the ribbon to capture the guitar fills. I panned this track to the left and set about recording some simple mandolin tremolo parts on each verse. I concluded my use of the ribbon by recording a guitar solo. Somehow I did it on the first take. Finally, I unplugged the ribbon mic and used the Shure SM7b for the final vocal.
I exported the selected tracks and edited the song in Logic. I ended up discarding sections of the guitar fill track and used the mandolin on only one part of each verse. I added a pinch of reverb on the vocal and mixed down using very little bus compression. The mix is okay but I will probably go back at some point and tweak the guitar levels and eq a bit.
The track is posted on my Bandcamp site, where you can download a high-quality mp3. The 128k versions used by the SoundCloud and Bandcamp media players are merely adequate.
A compatriot of mine who sings a different version of the song may add a harmony underneath my vocal line. There is also the possibility of a professional bass player adding a track as well. If they make these contributions I will likely offer a second mix on Bandcamp.
A funny thing happened as I warmed up for one of these sessions: as I strummed a melody “arrived” that I found intriguing. I ended up recording an 8 minute demo of this new song on MultiTrack using the ribbon mic. The song has three distinct sections of music. Now I have to figure out what the song is about and what lyrics are needed to match the intensity of the music. The nonsense words I was singing just won’t cut it.
At this point I have used part of my mic locker with the MultiTrack, as well as the built-in mics on the iPhone and the Multitrack, and the Mikey. I now need to try recording an electric guitar using the Multitrack interface and a special breakout cable for the iPhone that lets you input a dynamic microphone (most likely a Shure SM57) through the headphones jack. There are two inputs on the cable—one for the mic and one for the headphones. I am guessing I will be playing a blues turn on my electric baritone. I will likely try the breakout cable/dynamic mic combo on my voice and a banjo as well.
It took me quite awhile to get back to using the iPhone for recording. Yesterday I decided to record a newly-finished song for this project: There's a River. A soft folk ballad that required simple instrumentation.
This time I employed the Alesis ProTrack to assist the iPhone. http://www.alesis.com/protrack It was designed for the iPod line, which means it can only use the Voice Memo app that comes with the iPods. (It should be noted that the iPod Touch is not limited in this way.) Therefore, no ovedubbing can be done UNLESS you use the iPhone. You slip the iPhone into the 30-pin connector dock and then take advantage of either the built-in stereo mics or the two microphone/instrument jacks. The Protrack can provide phantom power to condenser microphones as well as driving dynamic and ribbon microphones. There are two downsides for iPhone users. The iPhone does not have the same layout as iPods, so you cannot place the protective cover over it; it sits loosely on the connector. I saw one forum post where the person simply used a rubber band to secure it. Second, the headphone jack does not work. You would not be able to overdub tracks except for the fact that the iPhone headphone input is at the top of the phone. By plugging the headphones into this jack you can overdub. Ipod Touch users can surmount this problem as well by buying a dock extender that allows the headphone jack to be exposed.
So, yesterday morning I fired up the ProTrack using its batteries as the power source. I could have used the AC adapter but I wanted to see if the batteries would survive the session. I opened the MuliTrack 1.1 16-track app (http://www.harmonicdog.com/), placed the iPhone in its compartment and then plugged my Avantone ribbon microphone into one of the jacks. Ribbon mics do not use phantom power but they do require more juice that most dynamic microphones. I dialed the preamp gain setting to 12 o'clock and had plenty of juice. I recorded a finger-picked acoustic guitar part. After finally getting a good performance I moved on to the second guitar.
The second guitar essentially doubled the first part but at an octave higher. I used a Nashville high-string acoustic guitar made by Wechsler Guitars. The guitar's E A D and G strings are strung with the higher octave strings in a 12-string guitar set. This means that they are higher in pitch than the B and E strings. The reversal adds a striking, shimmering sound without adding mid and lower overtones. Moreover, it sits in the mix perfectly. I used the ProTrack built-in stereo mics for this guitar. As I assumed, the mics handled the high frequencies well.
I panned the two guitar tracks left and right at 8 and 4 o'clock and tried recording a vocal with the ribbon mic. If you get too close to a ribbon the proximity effect can be hard to handle. I recorded one take and listened back. I decided to switch mics. This time I went for a classic broadcasting mic: the Shure SM7B. If you read TapeOp and GearSlutz.com you know that many engineers swear by this mic for vocals. It is a dynamic mic and doesn't need phantom power, but it needs a strong preamp to power it. I was skeptical that the Protrack could deliver. I was wrong. I got close to maxing out the gain setting but the SM7 worked well. I recorded three takes and then moved on to recording an understated mandolin part with it as well. (I was too lazy to switch it out for the ribbon, which does an incredible job with mandolin picking.)
The session was at an end. The batteries had survived over two hours of recording. I had used 13 of the 16 tracks. I chose the best takes and exported them to my MacBook Pro via Bonjour and WiFi. I loaded the tracks into Logic and selected the best vocal and mandolin takes to go along with the two guitar tracks. I applied some EQ, just a bit of compression on the guitars, and a small amount of reverb via the Space Designer plug-in. Then I got to try out for the first time the Vocal Rider plug-in from Waves. This plug-in automates the tedious job of keeping a vocal at the same volume throughout the song. It listened to the guitar and mandolin tracks that were fed to a bus and then I tweaked the sensitivity of several parameters. Once I was satisfied I put the automation feature in Logic into Write, set the plug-in to Write, and played back the song. It was amazing to watch the fader move up and down on its own. The volume envelope that was produced on the track was something to behold, as the line squiggled here and there. I tuned two or three notes in the song and I was ready to bounce the tracks to a stereo aif file. I edited the beginning and end of the recording to eliminate dead space and create a fade-out. Then I exported the aif file and had Logic make a high-quality mp3.
I was pleased with the results and sent the mp3 to friends and relatives last night. I have received many compliments about the song but most responders have ignored the iPhone aspect. This likely means that the quality of the recording was good enough to make the means of recording invisible. One person said my vocal was smooth--I think the SM7 is my new secret weapon. I may have to sell off one or two of my condenser/tube mics....
I have now used the stock iPhone microphone, Blue's Mikey (I will post soon on those results), the Protrack's built-in mics, and two high-quality microphones. The two recordings have been all-acoustic, so my next post may document the recording of electric guitars and perhaps the importing a stereo rhythm track with drums and bass for overdubbing purposes. I need to use a condenser mic with the ProTrack to check out its phantom power option. Finally, I have a stereo ribbon microphone that can be used for straight recording purposes or to "re-amp" sampled instruments coming through the monitors. You definitely get a room sound with this stereo mic, so there are a number of things that can be attempted.
Having said all this, I know that I can pack up the ProTrack, earphones, Mikey, etc. in a plastic shoe box and be ready to track anywhere. I would only need to bring a mic or two and a mic stand to complete the mobile studio. Very cool.
Last week I finally made a multi-track recording on my iPhone. I only used three tracks but the recording came out really well, all things considered.
My musical collaborator, Jan Hauenstein, put music to the lyrics of a song I wrote in 2000, called Laying in the Weeds. Jan shared his demo recording last week–a haunting melody performed in a slow tempo. I had recently loaded up my iPhone with demos I had recorded from 2000 onward using various hand-held digital audio devices. I discovered a rough demo for Laying in the Weeds and the music was quite different. I had written a bluesy number with a modal melody–closer to mountain music than country blues.
Within a few minutes of hearing Jan’s demo, I loaded the 16-track recorder app called MultiTrack. Though it is only a 1.0 version, it is stable, powerful, and easy to use. I created a song file, set track 1 to record and played the rhythm part using a flatpick on my wood-bodied National resonator guitar. I used the built-in iPhone microphone, forgoing the plug-in mic called Mikey by Blue Microphones out of either simplicity or laziness. I placed the iPhone in a table-top holder called the Naja King(??) and I sat back about 2 feet.
I put on my ear buds and listened to playback. The guitar sounded pretty good. I then armed track 2 and sang the melody by holding the iPhone in my right hand. I held it under my chin to avoid popping the mic. I was quite happy with the results and moved quickly to track 3, where I used the Naja King to record the lead guitar.
A few cool things about MultiTrack: you can pan the tracks and adjust volume level, you can use input monitoring to hear yourself as you overdub a new part, and you can import and export audio files using WiFi. I could have mixed down the song right there but instead I exported the three tracks to my computer. The process took just a few minutes.
Once on my laptop, I imported the tracks into GarageBand and mixed. I exported this mix and took it into Logic, where I edited the beginning and end and buffed up the sound a bit. I then exported the song as an mp3 file and shared it with Jan and a few other musician friends.
The total time for all of this was about an hour. My wife Theresa liked the song but the English major in her suggested I change Laying to Lying. A Google search showed that the words are used interchangeably with the phrase. In the end she agreed that Laying was fine.
The recording is rough in terms of my performance. I had never sung the final lyrics until I hit the iPhone record button, so my phrasing is off here and there. But I do like the rough, spontaneous feel–too often I worry recordings to death in search of a better vocal or guitar part.
I finally got an iPhone two weeks ago. Apart from the wonderful phone and Internet features, I was intrigued by reports of musicians using the iPhone as an multitrack audio recorder. There are currently two apps that are successfully capturing multiple audio tracks on the iPhone: 4 Track and Multitrack. I have experimented with both applications, using the built-in microphone and the stereo mic from Blue called Mikey. It plugs into the connector at the bottom of the phone.
Last week a blogger who is attempting to record one song a week for a year on the Iphone revealed that a cable company is now selling a split cable that goes into the iPhone headphone jack. One input receives the headphone plug and the other will take an audio source such as a dynamic microphone. The only thing lacking at this point is an iPhone holder that connects to a microphone stand.
I have recorded music in many ways over the years: two-track reel-to-reel, TEAC 3340 four-track overdubbing reel-to-reel, Tascam multitrack cassette recorder, and computer. Companies such as Boss, Tascam, Roland, and Zoom have made small multi-track recorders that rely on SD storage cards, but even these look like behomoths when contrasted with an iPhone and its GBs of Flash memory.
So, I intend to experiment with the iPhone, recording some of my original songs. The apps I mentioned allow you to export the audio files to a computer using a Wi-Fi connection. Once inside the computer, you import them to your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), most of which mimic the controls and linearity of a reel-to-reel recorder. After editing and mixing, I will post a file online, using SoundCloud as my host.
Why would I do this, when I can record in my home studio with great equipment? I would like to see if this will become a viable and low-cost way of recording and sharing music. It is clear to me that iPhones will only get more powerful and have more storage capacity, and that app developers have only begun to touch the surface of what their software can do. I suspect that when Apple releases its tablet next year it will use the iPhone operating system or variation of it that will run iPhone apps. With more screen real estate, I can envision mixer consoles and more DAW-like features.
The plan, if there really is one, is to try different combinations of software and hardware and then evaluate sound quality as well as ease of use. I also want to see if my procrastination-to-productivity ratio changes with a “simpler” approach.