Life In Notes

Wrote a new single with Changing Homes. Feel free to give it a spin!

I took a trip down nostalgia with this song. After making 4/5 different versions of it, I finally settled on this. https://soundcloud.com/embersinsnow/fire-reworked-rendition

Listen to Sunrise by Embers In Snow - https://soundcloud.com/embersinsnow/sunrise

I've had this song running across the back of my head for a while now (read 8 months). And to be honest, the way you are listening to it now is not what I started off with, initially. This track (almost like all my other works) went through a series of changes (pop-reggae-jazz) until it finally settled down to this which I think is the perfect setting for the track both in terms of name and title.

I was originally inspired by No-Man's 'Wherever There Is Light' for Sunrise. And as I played more and more of the track, it seemed to change. Funnily enough, I could never settle down on one particular style. It just kept on changing. Perhaps it was due to my affinity for certain styles of music when I was writing it. And when I arrived here in Toronto, given the atmosphere of this place of how calm and beautiful this place is, I couldn't really think of anything outside the lines of serenity and peace. I took a really pop-ish approach for the song when I was a bit hooked on to Ed Sheeran for a while (after listening to I See Fire) and then oddly enough, when I was listening to Walking After You by Foo Fighters I eventually ended settling on to this arrangement. Fortunately, when I was going through multiple phases of this song, I had my significant other's opinion all throughout as to what sounds nice to her ears all along and that helped a lot (A second opinion - a listener's perspective always helps!). So, in a way, this song was sort of written by me and her, as she helped me put a lot of pieces together starting from the atmosphere to some of the synth sections too, hahaha!

The idea that inspired the track was 'new life.' I was simply just recalling few memories down my life and looking through a few phases and eventually a new beginning and it came down to this track and hence the name, Sunrise.

So, once I was done with settling down to the arrangement, it was just recording the base track and adding more layers on top from my imagination to shape up the overall track and see how the output was (that's how I always work). Although, before adding up layers (which I don't do randomly), I tend to play the base track a few times and imagine some of the sounds I'd like to hear in my head and that helps a lot. It's always great to have an imagination going on while the base track plays, at least for me, it's a start as to how I want the final mix to sound like.

I used Sonar 8 this time for the recording. Actually, I used both Sonar 8 and X2 for this. X2 being more versatile when it came to the synth recording side of it. I used Amplitube 3 as a plug-in to record the guitar. So, basically, I just switched on the plug-in and played the guitar through this amp-simulation of a '65 Fender Twin Reverb and '65 Deluxe Reverb simultaneously with two different settings that I had saved up with me since I got all my gear back. I added a little reverb and delay which gave nice ring to the tone especially when I accentuated on a few notes.

Once the base track was done with, adding the other layers had to be taken into account. I knew given the way that the base track was, adding too many layers would kill the essence of the track, so I settled down to 4 layers in total - base, space instrument (something that occupies a lot of space), ambient guitar/track, solo guitar, initially.

For the space instruments I considered a couple of instruments starting from a flute to an oboe but eventually, settled down to strings - orchestral arrangement, in this case. Cakewalk String Section VSTI is in my opinion, the best VSTI for delivering string sounds. Using a lot of reverb that spread out the space of the sound a lot, it was the ideal sound that I was looking for in the track and it was spot on. I knew that for the ambient track, I needed something that doesn't occupy too much space or does up until the point where the orchestral arrangement kicks in. I decided to use the EBow for this one creating a cycle of notes that sort of repeats itself in a process creating a hook for the listener. And with a slight tweak once more through the Amplitube plug-in, I could generate this spacey yet tight sound using a delay, chorus effect on once more through a '65 Twin Reverb amp-sim. 

Once the third layer was ticked off, came the last layer, the solo part. I originally planned to put this nice jazz solo midway through the song. Turns out, as always, I can never satisfy myself with my soloing so, I decided to try obscure sounding solo-ing instead. So, instead I settled down to making the solo layer an ambient layer that blends in with the orchestration creating an amplification that doesn't overpower but adds nicely to the entire thing. I was originally skeptic about this layer but, when I worked the way through the track during the editing, it started to blend in and sound a lot better.

As always, I try to minimize most of my work in the edit section by trying to get perfect or more specifically, near perfect takes. So, it can be said that almost all the sound that is audible in my tracks are a result of making them and capturing them and not much editing them. So, it was just equalizing the sound a little and leveling out the layers for best audibility and that's all.

I happen to not master my tracks as I decided to follow into the footsteps of my idol, Steven Wilson and his saying that 'mastering kills tracks'. Well, if you think of it logically, it is true. Well, mastering is indeed a powerful tool but, I kinda think it's something that should be considered by considering the type of music in question. For ambient music, there's a lot of dynamics at play. Now in the mastering phase if you take a compressor and put it in your effects rack to level everything out, all you get is a muddled up wall of sound and that is dynamically dead containing no texture or whatsoever. So, yes, I prefer not to master my tracks, mostly. 

Finally, once everything was in order, exporting the track and uploading it was all that was left and with that taken care of, it's now on SoundCloud! Unfortunately, I had to compromise on a lot of texture and amplitude by converting the tracks into mp3, despite the bitrate being 320 kbps (which is the highest quality mp3 available). I really hate the fact that these websites don't want to accept WAV files and even if you do, it doesn't always do justice to listeners as streaming a 120 MB file isn't really a good choice.

Well, it's been a while since I have been out of touch with music. And it wasn't a nice experience at all. 7 months without music kills you a lot.The frustration almost had me head over heels at times.  Nonetheless, I finally managed to set up my small home studio (or rather, dorm-studio) here at my university residence in Toronto.  It's nothing extraordinarily out of the box but, more than enough to get me going for a good long time and of course, more than enough for me to be able to carry around my music setup, anywhere I go. I'll explain all the patches and tricks I've done while setting up the setup so that whoever reads this blog finds it beneficial for a first-timer setting up their own portable home studio. Well first and foremost, was the equipment choosing part. I had been at it ever since I arrived in Toronto. The point for me was to get the cheapest and the best gear possible. Crazy, I know but, that's me. But after a lot of tantrums and arguments and debates at my musical mind palace I finally settled down to what I actually wanted as well as needed. 1. I had a decent laptop (although, I'd love to get a MacBook Pro) with me and I needed a good DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Only this time, I opted to have multiple DAWs at my disposal unlike my previous working style so, I got my hands on Sonar X2 - Producer's Edition, Sonar 8 - Producer's Edition (both of them containing the Waves Mercury Bundle Plug-ins) and Adobe Audition CS5.5 (for really quick and simple recordings).

Sonar X2 is badass on a whole new level!

2. As for the equipment - for ambient music I needed an interface that could capture all the delicate sounds that I make with anything and everything (instruments to children shouting in the streets or a classroom) at a good quality. So, I got my hands on the Yamaha Steinberg UR22. With a capacity to record at 24 bits of audio and 192 KHz sampling rate, it was the best thing that money could buy for me!

Don't mind that radio thingy on top of the interface. That's my practice amp! 3. The next thing was obviously something that would clearly allow me to monitor the sound that I was recording and editing so, basically, a pair of monitors. Now, obviously given the fact that I live in a communal space, I couldn't get myself loudspeaker monitors so, I settled for headphone monitors instead and got myself the Audio Technica ATH M30. I wasn't too sure about the output equalization of these headphones. I knew that the sonic quality will be outstanding (as I've experienced using a ATH M10 beforehand) but, I just wasn't sure about the sonic fairness they will grant me when it came to audio editing. But lo and behold! Turns out that my arrow in the dark actually hit it's mark! The ATH M30 turned out to be amazing! The clarity to balance in EQ is just perfect and I could definitely conclude on that by comparing the output of my audio editing on them against cheap headphones (which is a good way of understanding your output mix if you're looking for reference!).

I'd love to listen music on them as they're so comfortable and amazing but, they're a bit too expensive for everyday music listening!

4. Well, obviously these two things are more than enough for me to make my music. As most of my ambiance is actually very guitar-based (only recently, I've decided to expand onto a keyboard as I'm getting better at playing it!) so, I needed something to naturally generate the ambiance and sustain and therefore, an Ebow to the rescue! For those of you who don't know that an Ebow is, it's a tiny electronic device that generates this continuous stream of sustain on the particular string that you hold containing really rich harmonics and obviously that was a tool that I had to have (obviously having previous encounters using one!).

As an ambient musician, I just cannot make do without this guy!

5. As I mentioned earlier above that recently I've been getting better at the keyboard (perks of having a full-fledged piano that I have regular access to here at the university residence), I got myself one. Not a big one. Just a small, 25 key MIDI keyboard that I could use to create some obscure sounds (something that a guitar, unfortunately cannot do). The more important reason for getting a MIDI keyboard was to use it as a controller with the DAW. So basically, now, I don't really have to jump between my laptop keyboard and my instruments every now and then for, basic pause, play, record, level, pan functions. I can do all that on the keyboard while also using it to play virtual instruments. It's a pretty cool feature to have now that I'm using it! So, in order to get these features running, I got myself the Masterkey25 from Acorn Instruments. And with it also came this software called PreSonus Studio One, which is essentially a bundle of really amazing sounding Virtual Instruments. I've been using that as well alongside the DAWs that I already have.

A really simple and versatile DAW with a huge collection of VSTIs. And the modulation features are really handy for creating crazy sounding synths! 6. Lastly, I acquired a microphone. Nothing too expensive. Just a regular cheap dynamic microphone to let me carry out simple vocal applications. I am hoping to invest in Audio Technica Condenser Microphones after a few months so, I decided to just acquire something simple instead of a very expensive good microphone. Therefore, I got myself the Apex 940x Dynamic Microphone. It's okay. The quality isn't hugely over the top but, it gets the job done for me so, I shall be satisfied with it till the time I get my condenser microphones! So, after having acquired everything, came the setup. Fairly simple setup, actually. Nothing too complex only setting up the MIDI keyboard both as a controller and an instrument was the challenge but, I got around it. Turns out that the best thing to do is have 2 MIDI keyboards. One as a controller, the other as the instrument. Perhaps I will do that down the line later on when I have more money and my music making picks up it's pace, once more.  So, back to explaining the setup. It's simple. The Audio Interface connects to the laptop via a USB cable. I've set up the interface drivers in the laptop using a DVD disc that came along with it. So, once this was setup, the rest was just automated. Opening the DAWs for the first time results in audio driver scanning which registered my audio interface as a compatible recording source and therefore automatically set itself up for recording. And the rest was just simple work. Plugging in the monitors into the phones input (as I didn't have loudspeaker monitors so, no jacking into the output lines!), connecting the MIDI Keyboard to the laptop using an USB cable (which also installs automatically) and the rest is just plugging into the interface and get going! As I said, the only challenge was setting up the MIDI keyboard as a controller and an instrument. It was a challenge because, I've never done it before but, it's always a fun experience to try out new things! As the exact ways of how I did it is a bit complex, I'll just explain how I got two things running one after another. I simply set up two presets in Sonar X2 (being my primary DAW). So basically, one preset allows me to use the MIDI Keyboard as a controller and the other one, allows me use is as an instrument. I use the controller preset when I am editing and at times recording (in a track where I don't need synths). It's particularly handy at that time because, I can simultaneously mute, play, pause, isolate, and control the volume level and pan (balance of sound left and right) altogether. And therefore, I can have an instant reference of what does an audio track sounds like when altering the levels of particular sounds and it's very helpful because now, instead of altering each track one at a time, I can do it altogether and that saves a lot of time (and I mean A LOT!). So, my final setup appears something like this (not the classiest home studio setup, I know) -

And so finally, my studio set up was sort of complete, for the time being! I still have a few things missing but, I can make do without them for the time being. Hopefully down the line, I will get the Audio Technica AT2020 and AT 2024 Condenser microphones and a proper vocal/instrument take side will be taken care of. I am also planning to get another MIDI Keyboard although that's undecided as of now. It will depend on how crazy I want to get with my recording setup and also, IF I start doing solo shows here in Toronto. And lastly, alongside my already existing, trustworthy Epiphone Les Paul - 100, I am planning to add a Taylor Baby Mahogany Acoustic Guitar (http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoustic/baby-mahogany) to my collection. I have tried this little baby out. It does indeed look and feel like a baby when you hold it but, the sound it gives out is way too big for it's size! And for the price tag on it, I would definitely get it! But, that's for the future! All in due time, one at a time!

And as for the name (as it's apparently, a trend and I chose not to be a hipster), I decided to name my music place, Ember's Forge. I really don't know if it sounds classy to you but, for me, it definitely is better than calling it Studio Embers or Ember's Kitchen for that matter. Forge sounds.. elegant, yes!