Lucien
11-17-2004, 10:34 PM
So I went in today for my recording session, which hopefully would be giving me enough quality vocal tracks to use for my professional commercial demo, something which would hopefully get me work, work which hopefully I'd be getting paid. Money = good.
--Intro--
So I walk over to the studio which is about 10 minutes away from my house with a plastic bag in my hand, containing: bottle of water, bag of Cheerios, apple, two copies of the commercial material (one for me, one for Tim, the director/engineer), pack of listerine strips, and my wallet. As I walked there, I hummed to myself a random tune which I made up off the top of my head. I had already done a full vocal warm up, but I wanted to make sure my voice was resonating as much as I could get it to before I got there.
I arrived at the building at a little before 1, and took the elevator to the 4th floor. I entered, and greeted Tim as he was leading some other people out, including Rachael Lampert from the Kitchen Theater. After swapping a few formal 'hello's and 'how's it going?'s, I took out the commercial copy, and explained to him briefly what my goal was to get from the session. He then led me into the back room, where his Neumann microphone stood in a little booth. After explaining to Tim that I preferred to be sitting, I got comfortable in a nearby chair which was in the booth. I laid my copy on the music stand, and positioned myself so that I could read the copy while being close to the mic as well, and doned the nearby head phones (as per usual, always with my right ear left open). Tim went back to his station. It was time to begin.
--Recording--
"Ok, we're rolling" said Tim, in my headphones.
Things happened pretty much as I expected them to. I would read the first spot all the way through, and then Tim would give his critiques; often concerning enunciating certain parts of words which were lost, or keeping things from running into each other. Often I myself would stop in the middle of a take if I wasn't liking the way it was sounding, and redo it from the beginning of the phrase. I also would do multiple takes of a line, to get as many options with the inflection as I could. Sometimes I would feel like the over-obsessiveness over making sure "every single part of the syllable is heard properly" was a bit over the top, but I knew he was just trying to make me sound as professional as I possibly could, so I put up with it, trying to follow his wishes, while trying to make sure the reading didn't become mechanical. There were also a lot of outtakes, some of which caused me to go into silly voices and hysterics. I realize this might have made me look a bit immature, but it's honestly how I loosen myself up. You can't be serious all the time. I remember specifically, for whatever reason, the word 'digital,' especially when having to say it after a specific word, kept messing me up. I just couldn't pronounce it. It kept coming out as "dijital" instead of "di'git'tal." I think I must have spent 15 minutes just figuring out how to pronounce that one word. It seemed like no matter what I did, whatever tactics or tricks I used, I couldn't get myself to pronounce it. Slowing down didn't work, and even starting at the beginning of the sentence didn't work at first. Finally, out of some act of God, I was able to get it. After playing it back for me, I said humerously, yet firmly "Yeah, that sounds good enough for me. I'm not redoing that section."
I'm rather proud of the fact that I got to utilize various techniques which I had picked up over the years, and use them to the fullest extent possible. During the session I shifted from a 'close to the mic' intimate sound, to a 'further from the mic' projected sound, and various places in-between.
Although I packed suplies in the case that my stomach would give me trouble, I luckily only encountered 'stomach rumblings' twice during the whole session. These were quickly neutralized by a few swigs of water.
Part way through, Tim asked me if I wanted to stop there, and come back at a later day to record the rest. At first I thought he was saying we had 'run out of time,' but then he added '...if you're feeling tired.' To which I responded "Oh...no, no, I got lots of energy right now!" After a bit more convincing that I was good to go on, I proceeded to record the remaining page of copy, which included one of my favorite bits, the Spirited Away promo. During this whole recording session, as I'd read the commercial copy, Tim would roughly edit together my different takes, and let me hear it back. This was the first time that I actually smiled in delight as I listened back to the edited together Spirited Away commercial, saying into the mic after it was done, "....Yeah...I really like that"
Finally, we ended with a commercial for the Playstation 2 game True Crime: Streets of L.A., which utilized a voice which I didn't really care for, but seemed to be appropriate for that type of game, and writing. After hearing an edited version of it back, I said "Alright...I guess..we're done, aren't we"
--The Editing Process--
I had expected that was to be it; that I'd hopefully get a burned CD with the rough tracks and take them home, and that would be the end of our session. However, as we listened back to some of the tracks in the editing room, and Tim began to instinctively edit together the different parts, processing the lines in different ways, and who knows what other things, we decided; now's a good a time as any to sit down and assemble the different takes into whole pieces. As Tim played back different takes, I listened, and would tell him if I had a preference as to which take I liked. Otherwise, I just trusted Tim to use his judgment as to how to put the different parts together to create as he called it, "A monster!"
As the pieces started to come together, and I was able to hear the bits in their entirety, I began to feel more and more excited, thinking "this is actually starting to sound good. Maybe I am decent at doing these commercial things after all"
Probably the best indirect compliment I got while we were editing the pieces was when we were assembling the Applebees commercial, and Tim commented "This is really making me hungry. I haven't had any lunch!"
I offered him my apple, but Tim refused, saying "Nah, that's alright."
--Rapping up--
The last piece edited, a CD in the process of burning the recorded and now edited tracks, I got up and stretched. I had such a sense of accomplishment, of having done something which was truly important. After confirming with Tim that, 'Yes, we do take credit cards' I paid for the session fee (a little over a hundred dollars) and thanked Tim for his time and effort. We talked briefly about 'the next step' being acquiring appropriate music, and told him I might be calling him up again in the near future once I had assembled some music to use.
Thus, I left the studio. It was a little after 4 o'clock.
All was done.
My day was complete.
--Intro--
So I walk over to the studio which is about 10 minutes away from my house with a plastic bag in my hand, containing: bottle of water, bag of Cheerios, apple, two copies of the commercial material (one for me, one for Tim, the director/engineer), pack of listerine strips, and my wallet. As I walked there, I hummed to myself a random tune which I made up off the top of my head. I had already done a full vocal warm up, but I wanted to make sure my voice was resonating as much as I could get it to before I got there.
I arrived at the building at a little before 1, and took the elevator to the 4th floor. I entered, and greeted Tim as he was leading some other people out, including Rachael Lampert from the Kitchen Theater. After swapping a few formal 'hello's and 'how's it going?'s, I took out the commercial copy, and explained to him briefly what my goal was to get from the session. He then led me into the back room, where his Neumann microphone stood in a little booth. After explaining to Tim that I preferred to be sitting, I got comfortable in a nearby chair which was in the booth. I laid my copy on the music stand, and positioned myself so that I could read the copy while being close to the mic as well, and doned the nearby head phones (as per usual, always with my right ear left open). Tim went back to his station. It was time to begin.
--Recording--
"Ok, we're rolling" said Tim, in my headphones.
Things happened pretty much as I expected them to. I would read the first spot all the way through, and then Tim would give his critiques; often concerning enunciating certain parts of words which were lost, or keeping things from running into each other. Often I myself would stop in the middle of a take if I wasn't liking the way it was sounding, and redo it from the beginning of the phrase. I also would do multiple takes of a line, to get as many options with the inflection as I could. Sometimes I would feel like the over-obsessiveness over making sure "every single part of the syllable is heard properly" was a bit over the top, but I knew he was just trying to make me sound as professional as I possibly could, so I put up with it, trying to follow his wishes, while trying to make sure the reading didn't become mechanical. There were also a lot of outtakes, some of which caused me to go into silly voices and hysterics. I realize this might have made me look a bit immature, but it's honestly how I loosen myself up. You can't be serious all the time. I remember specifically, for whatever reason, the word 'digital,' especially when having to say it after a specific word, kept messing me up. I just couldn't pronounce it. It kept coming out as "dijital" instead of "di'git'tal." I think I must have spent 15 minutes just figuring out how to pronounce that one word. It seemed like no matter what I did, whatever tactics or tricks I used, I couldn't get myself to pronounce it. Slowing down didn't work, and even starting at the beginning of the sentence didn't work at first. Finally, out of some act of God, I was able to get it. After playing it back for me, I said humerously, yet firmly "Yeah, that sounds good enough for me. I'm not redoing that section."
I'm rather proud of the fact that I got to utilize various techniques which I had picked up over the years, and use them to the fullest extent possible. During the session I shifted from a 'close to the mic' intimate sound, to a 'further from the mic' projected sound, and various places in-between.
Although I packed suplies in the case that my stomach would give me trouble, I luckily only encountered 'stomach rumblings' twice during the whole session. These were quickly neutralized by a few swigs of water.
Part way through, Tim asked me if I wanted to stop there, and come back at a later day to record the rest. At first I thought he was saying we had 'run out of time,' but then he added '...if you're feeling tired.' To which I responded "Oh...no, no, I got lots of energy right now!" After a bit more convincing that I was good to go on, I proceeded to record the remaining page of copy, which included one of my favorite bits, the Spirited Away promo. During this whole recording session, as I'd read the commercial copy, Tim would roughly edit together my different takes, and let me hear it back. This was the first time that I actually smiled in delight as I listened back to the edited together Spirited Away commercial, saying into the mic after it was done, "....Yeah...I really like that"
Finally, we ended with a commercial for the Playstation 2 game True Crime: Streets of L.A., which utilized a voice which I didn't really care for, but seemed to be appropriate for that type of game, and writing. After hearing an edited version of it back, I said "Alright...I guess..we're done, aren't we"
--The Editing Process--
I had expected that was to be it; that I'd hopefully get a burned CD with the rough tracks and take them home, and that would be the end of our session. However, as we listened back to some of the tracks in the editing room, and Tim began to instinctively edit together the different parts, processing the lines in different ways, and who knows what other things, we decided; now's a good a time as any to sit down and assemble the different takes into whole pieces. As Tim played back different takes, I listened, and would tell him if I had a preference as to which take I liked. Otherwise, I just trusted Tim to use his judgment as to how to put the different parts together to create as he called it, "A monster!"
As the pieces started to come together, and I was able to hear the bits in their entirety, I began to feel more and more excited, thinking "this is actually starting to sound good. Maybe I am decent at doing these commercial things after all"
Probably the best indirect compliment I got while we were editing the pieces was when we were assembling the Applebees commercial, and Tim commented "This is really making me hungry. I haven't had any lunch!"
I offered him my apple, but Tim refused, saying "Nah, that's alright."
--Rapping up--
The last piece edited, a CD in the process of burning the recorded and now edited tracks, I got up and stretched. I had such a sense of accomplishment, of having done something which was truly important. After confirming with Tim that, 'Yes, we do take credit cards' I paid for the session fee (a little over a hundred dollars) and thanked Tim for his time and effort. We talked briefly about 'the next step' being acquiring appropriate music, and told him I might be calling him up again in the near future once I had assembled some music to use.
Thus, I left the studio. It was a little after 4 o'clock.
All was done.
My day was complete.