Hello one and all. Sorry for being a bit late with this, I am trying!

This week I’d like to talk a little about a subject that is often overlooked and ignored by musicians (and often engineers) in the recording process and leads to a lot of wasted time in the mix and worse, a lot of unnecessary compromises. I’m referring to the art of knowing what you sound like. Before any session I talk to the band I’ll be working with and discuss what direction and overall sound they want to aim for. Invariably they will have a strong, definite vision of who they would like to sound like, but when they actually start loading the kit in it becomes obvious that they have no idea how to achieve that goal. The guitarist will want to sound like Hetfield but will only have a Strat and a Fender Princeton amp, and the keyboard player will want to sound like he’s playing a Steinway with a £30 Casio.

I believe that a lot of this comes from a lack of understanding of what The Studio is for. Yes, most studios will have an array of preamps, equalisers, compressors and the like with which you can beat your particular sound waves until they submit to your will, but wouldn’t it be better to use said tools to enhance your sound rather than mangle it into something it didn’t want to be? I’m starting the movement now  - getting your sound at source is the new black!!!

For now I’m just going to be talking about electric instruments, as I think setting up acoustic instruments for your individual needs is something to be talked about separately another day.

The problem that I see most is when a musician wants a sound he’s heard produced by a hugely expensive pro rig. Invariably the penniless musician will only have the instruments and amps that he can afford, and usually these are nothing like what is required to get the aforementioned ‘expensive’ sound. What I propose is that you (the musician) should give in to fate, accept the equipment you have and it’s limitations and use it to your advantage. Sure you may never sound like The Edge or Jack White, but you will hopefully start to carve out something that sounds like you and nobody else!

The most important thing here is to not get frustrated. Frustration will lead to gear lust which will lead to spending money on kit you can’t afford, debts, jobs delivering pizza, and broken marriages, all to chase a sound that belongs to someone else. What you need to do is to sit down with the equipment you have and learn how to use it! I cannot stress this enough. Learn the sounds that your rig is capable of.
Guitarists - go through each pick up setting on your guitar. Roll the tone pot back and then up again. Roll the volume pot back and then up again. Try different combinations and take note what effect each change of setting has. Set the equaliser on your amp to zero and listen to what each knob does as you turn it up. Then try different combinations of eq, more bass less treble, more treble less bass. Crank the gain up, see how distorted a signal you can get from the amp. Is there a sweet spot for the gain? Listen loud, and (very important) listen quietly. What sounds good loud might sounds terrible quiet and vice versa.
You are now learning what your rig can do, what it is capable of. Forget what anyone else sounds like; just keep experimenting until you get something that you like. Certain combinations of settings will sound better to you than others and this will be the beginnings of your very own sound produced by your very own rig.
Keyboard players – learn what every setting on your keyboard does. Read the damn manual!!! Synthesisers often have hundreds of settings and you are going to have to learn them all. Sorry. What do the filters do? What do the oscillators do? Can you set the portamento rate? Can you assign settings to the mod wheel? Can you turn effects on and off quickly? If you are using a sampling keyboard do you know how assign and edit new samples? Most will have a display with menu functions, so learn what is buried within each sub menu of this. What does the sine wave sound like? The square wave? The sawtooth?

So now you should have a pretty good idea of what you can do with your rig, and what you sound like playing through it. Hopefully you will also have found a unique combination of settings that you feel good about. This, my friend, is what you sound like!
And as you now have an expert knowledge of what each component of your equipment does tweaking it should be a breeze. Does your guitar amp sound a bit dull in a particular room? You should know whether it’s the treble or the presence knob that needs turning up right? Are your synths oscillators slightly out of tune with the track? That’s ok because you know how to alter the tuning right?

All of this hard work will make your life so much easier both in the studio and live. You will be able to adapt your unique sound quickly and easily to fit in with other instruments and to be heard in a mix without having to be kicked through with a steel toe capped boot. And now all of the dark arts of the studio can be used to make you sound as good as you possibly can. No longer will microphones be placed with damage limitation in mind, they will now capture every facet of your dynamic performance! Equalisers will be used to sweeten rather than chop huge chunks of offending frequencies out. And compressors will help you to bounce along in the mix instead of keeping you in your place with a sledge hammer. Happy days and good times for all!

Kev.

What a crazy week! I've had three sessions canceled because of the damn snow. They couldn't get to the studio which you can't blame them for as the transport system in and around London shuts down at the sight of the first flake. It's just mad to think that the UK can't handle some snow. I know we don't get much but it really shouldn't be this much of a shock when it happens.

Anyway, rant over. This week I should have been recording rhythm tracks for Massimo and doing some more editing on Rachels vocals for Rory Forsyth but alas that wasn't to be. I did manage to finish the mixes for Lydia Lunch which was really enjoyable. Lydia had returned to Barcelona so it was just the other guys (James, Terry and Ian from Gallon Drunk who are acting as her backing band) and me. Nice and raw, and a great lesson in resisting the temptation to overmix.

Finished off the vocals for Steve from datapuddles solo outing. Really good stuff. Very cool bluegrass track as well which was good fun.

Last weekend I had the mighty Silvery back in tracking three more songs. A bit more straight pop this time, well as straight pop as these guys get!! They should be huge by now so go check them out and buy the album . I'm not on points so don't think i'm trying to hard sell it:)

Right, that's it from me today. Short and sweet. I'll be back with more when the snow stops and the clients can get in:)

Lots of Love,
Kev.

After the night of wining and dining with the Portico boys at the Mercury's, I, rather dull-eyed and shabby-tailed, join another Mercury Nominated musician at Pinna for a mind blowing session. None other than Mr Seb Rochford was in with the delightful Pamelia Kurstin on theremin.

They were basically jamming together for hours... literally hours and I got to sit back and listen to it. It was fucking awsome. I threw some mics up and they did the rest. Seb's drum kit was one of, if not the best sounding kit I've recorded.

I don't know what they are going to call themselves (neither do they), but stay tuned as it's going to be a blinder of a collaboration. Check out some of what they were up to.



Sonny Pinna.

Well... it was last night and unfortunately Portico Quartet didn't win it, but what a record to be beaten by. Great news for Elbow. They've been doing it for 18yrs, which I didn't know.

It was a great night though. if you missed it on telly it's showing again one Friday on the BBC so watch out. Portico played a blinder and they were all just happy to be a part of it. For a first record from a instremental group, it's a pretty good acheivement. Well done guys. Thanks for having me there.

Some great performances from Adele and Rachel Unthanks and the Winterset... truely spine tingling. It's great to see so much good British music about. What a year.

Check out more about the night here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7606963.stm

A date for your calendars everyone. The Ivory Tinkling, Jazz-legend-in-the-making that is Mr Joe Stilgoe is Launching his debut Album on Candid Records. It's going to be at the famous Ronnie Scott's from 20th-22nd of October. Now I know what you're thinking, it's a long gig, 3 days How's he going to have enough material for that long. Well most of the songs will be played at half speed. The band begins at ten to six When Mr. S. performs his tricks without a sound And Mr. H. will demonstrate Ten somersets he'll undertake on solid ground. Having been some days in preparation a splendid time is guaranteed for all And tonight Mr. Stilgoe is topping the bill.

It's not really 3 days long... don't be silly. Check him out here http://www.myspace.com/joestilgoe

And have a peak at what weve been upto.

Our music and recording community has changed it's name. We're not called JITTERwall and you can find us on www.jitterwall.com. So come and join us. Become a member and tell us what you think. Join the discussions in the forums and talk to other people like you... or people not like you if you want.


View my page on JITTERwall

Only got a week to go before I'm off to the Mercury Music Prize Ceremony with Portico Quartet. We're going to be rubbing shoulder with the likes of Radiohead and Elbow and other such wonderful people... and they're all going to be playing too. Got anything you want me to ask Tom Yorke or Guy Garvey? Let's hope Portico win ey.

Oh one thing we've all got to do is place a bet on Portico to win so that the odds are lowered and that my sway the judges. You might just get yourself a nice little kick back too. Check them out.

Sonny Pinna



Sonny Pinna

It's been a little while since my last blog, so apologies, but I've been up to some interesting stuff... well I thinks so... I'll let you be the judge of that, but I hope you agree.

Just finished another 4 days at PINNA Studios with the young genius that is John Elliott... now to be know as Me & John... so watch out for the name. We finished off another 3 tracks for his debut album which is all him. Other than some strings on a couple of tracks soon, he's the only on playing and singing. Little genius he is.

We've also been shooting a video for his first couple of tracks, which should be out soon. We'll keep you informed. He's editing the video as we speak. That's right he's doing the video as well. he's the only person in that too. For now he's made a wee video of himself doing a cover of a Radiohead song 'Faust Arp' which is cracking. Check it out below and some of the stuff we've been doing in the studio this last week... including "when we're cleaning windows". Ha











Sonny PINNA

Hello,

I know I keep banging on about Silvery but hey, I recorded and mixed the album so I'm allowed to plug them:) Anyways, if anyone fancies a listen to them then you can tune into BBC 6 Music as the new album 'Thunderer And Excelsior' is their album of the day! That basically means they'll be playing tracks from the album throughout the entire day. Pretty sweet eh? You can listen to how radio compression destroys all of my beautiful dynamics too:)

Happy listening,

Kevin Feazey

Hello all,

Just a quick one to let you know about a band whose album I recorded and mixed. They are Silvery and the album Thunderer And Excelsior is out on Monday (yes i know i'm plugging, but I want them to do really well:) ).
You can read the reviews they've been getting here, or you can listen to the session they did for Radio 1 here (although that link may die soon). Their myspace is here. Have a look anyways, i'd love to see what everyone thinks of it!

Kevin Feazey,

www.pinnaproductions.com
London Recording