A History of Production Technology

Looking back in history, not long ago, one had to spend hundred thousands of dollars to build a professional recording studio.

In the 60s The Beatles were one of the first bands to use the recording studio as a tool of expression instead of just recording their live performance.

In the 70s, the emergence of the multitrack age was only a logical progression, and the pro audio industry soon introduced 8-, 16- and 24-track open real tape-recorders (1972).
Later on, ways were found to sync several 24-track machines into even bigger systems and so grow the mixing desks, too! The music reflected that evolution hence we are still enjoying the big arrangements of an ABBA record. Needless to mention that all this was only available to those who had the backup of major label money.

The 80s brought digital technology and sampling "monsters" like the Fairlight CMI or the Synclavier of New England Digital (NED). The Fairlight CMI Series III costing 76.000 Australian Dollars had a maximum of 14 MB memory, included an onboard sequencer and was the second most popular toy amongst 80s popstars (1st was the legendary Ferrari Testarossa).

So isn't this the place where we should really show off the " bling" recording studios of our producers?
No, cause we are here to tell you that you do not need to spend a lot of money before you can start producing a hit record. Today, anybody with a decent laptop computer, a good recording software, and a few choice pieces of outboard gear owns the physical tools to produce a hit record - at least in theory! The necessary skills to utilize all the right tools at the right time are the result of years of experience, steadily building creative instincts and reflexes.

And even though some of us are quite in love with those "historic" tools of the 60s, 70s and 80s, the majority of work gets done with DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). We use programs like Apple Logic Pro, MOTU Digital Performer, Digidesign Protools or Steinberg Cubase and even some inspiring smaller applications that go for as low as the price of a dinner with a drink (believe it or not - some of the coolest Reggaetón and Hip Hop beats have been made with "Fruity Loops", a popular studio software starting at $49).

However, over time we will start showing you the places where we spend most of the time producing our music. Jens indeed owns a very nice recording studio in the center of beautiful Berlin - a great place for recording drums, guitars and even string ensembles. Bob is building a stunning live room in Dallas. Frankie B. has a great digital facility in Brooklyn/New York. Erik-Peter M. (“EP”) uses a Windows laptop and takes his studio where ever he goes; I work whereever there’s space to setup a mic and a computer - traveling back and forth between Europe and the States.

Being independent from a specific location is a concept we take a step further.
Our team is constantly sending mixes and even complete project data with single tracks back and forth between the producers and writers. We've recently worked on a project where the same piece of music has been worked on in four different countries on the same day! John worked on the basic playback from Berlin/Germany while songwriter Crissy and a session singer were working on lyrics and vocal recording in London.
Boris guided the team through the process from Berlin/Germany and finally the parts were all sent back to him to mix the final master that was then handed over once more to Dave in Hollywood who performed his magic mastering skills on the finished mix.
Not once have we physically sent harddrives or even CDs from studio to studio. It was all done with either Apple iChat (Mac) or AIM Instant Messenger (Windows + Mac), via a .Mac server upload, our own FTP server site uploads, or - in some cases - via one of the many file transfer services such as YouSendIt.

There are no rules anymore. And also, there are now no more excuses, for anyone! You don’t sing on pitch… Auto-Tune it! You ain’t got rhythm… edit, slice, beat-correct, quantize, ‘till it swings. I personally still prefer a real performance, with the soul and spirit that a musician in the moment, here and now, can deliver, versus the overly labored, edited, spliced, diced, corrected sort of approach. Perspective and interpretation are all there is.

It took me all these years to get to this point myself, never thinking years ago that I could get a producer to really realize my own vision, and believing strongly that production is part of the craft, part of the songwriting as integral part of the sonic picture the audio-artist wants to paint, and thus I felt I could not delegate it without giving up complete control over my artistry and career. It took me a few more years than I had foreseen to learn and totally master the computer production approach, with every facet from sound design to vocal editing tricks. But I feel time was on my side, as the digital and computer technology has progressed so fast, that now not only can one do so much for so little, but one can get amazing analog-type major studio sounds out of little plug-ins inside the computer.

The sky’s really the limit now.

Saving Time by Color Coding

I am using color coding in many areas of my production work. For example, on my audio-drive, the files/folders with a red label are not backed up - so I should go ahead and do this before I loose important data. Once backed up, I change the color into green. I back up constantly during sessions, via drag-and-drop into a temporary backups. This is simple and in fact, many people use the labels. The old Mac OS Classic had them and - after disappearing in OS X for a while - they came back with Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther".

At the end of the day, I activate a complete HD backup to a mirror hard drive. Every hard-drive on my system has at least two mirror HDs: one daily backup, and one fire-safe backup, and when completed one off-location archive. This way, nothing gets lost, and one can sleep safe and sound.

Now with Apple’s new OS integrated Time Capsule, we’re starting to use that automated backup system on a few Leopard Mac OS systems.

When collaborating across different studios and exchanging song files all the time, it is extremely important to be well-organized. After all, we want to load a song into the computer and start working on it without wasting too much time figuring out what audio is what and belongs where.

One aspect of that is to always keep meticulous track naming standards, and then further organize into sub folder within the main Audio folder hierarchy of a project. I include information such as BPM (beats per minute) and key in track-/audio file-/soundbite names as well, when helpful (e.g., when working on more than one version of a song in different tempi or keys, or when doing a remix in a different tempo).

Another aspect is color coding, within the main DAW (digital audio workstation) software of choice. Apple’s Logic Studio and MOTU’s Digital Performer have color palettes that allows us to color our tracks and parts in the arrange window. I came up with a new color coding system that worked for me, with my own logic as to what colors I perceive with what kind of instruments and frequency bands. Together with Frankie B., who had devised his own color coding system in Logic, we combined both our approaches, which actually shared many similarities, and we perfected it together for our collaborations and beyond. Frankie has the same studio setup as my main studio, which also helps streamline the process.

The Color Coding System is the idea to put instruments in different categories that have all their own unique color code, while also using shades within the color categories (darker = lower frequency, lighter = higher frequency):

dark purple = KICK DRUMS

dark blue = SNARES, CLAPS

pink = PERCUSSION
dark brown = BASS
light green = GUITARS
light blue = KEYBOARDS (Synthesizer, Organs, Piano, Clavinet, etc.)
green = INSTRUMENTS (all "realistic sounding" Orchestral Instruments)
red = LEAD VOCALS

dark pink = BACKGROUND VOCALS
yellow = CYMBALS & FX (sound effects, hi hats, crashes, high frequency vocal fx...)

orange = AUX TRACKS

We use these color codes all the time, e.g. even in our sound library, as well as in the Arrange Page of Logic and Tracks Overview in Digital Performer 6,:

Even Mixer Channels in the Track Mixer have their own colors. So if you keep the tracks belonging to the same instrument group next to each other, you get this as a result:

You get the idea... color coding makes things so much easier and focused. After a while, I got so used to it that I now see a dark purple track and I know without thinking: "This is a drum track".
Anything I have worked on in the last five years is color coded. If I wanna work on an older song or idea, I am literally "back in the picture" within seconds.

If you're a professional, you might know all this - but it's the same as always: Knowing about a color coding system doesn't save you any time unless you actually start using it! The increase in productivity and the additional organizational benefits of such a streamlined workflow are tremendous.