Arrangements and "space"

[Phil O'Keefe]

The quote of the week in Pro Sound News this week got me thinking about the topic of "space" in arrangements and on recordings. Here is the quote:

 

 

Quote of the Week "God knows what kinds of records and productions I am going to do over the course of my career, however long that lasts, but I have a very big respect for space. When I listen to Booker T. & the M.G.s for instance, the most impressive thing to me is the space. I mean, you could drive a goddam Mack truck through those tracks. [When artists feel the need] to control every second and have their fingers on every string to feel good about a song, it can make it sound so forced. You can hear all this in the recordings though, and you know when it is not relaxed. The point of doing the record in the first place is to make the song stand out. I think even with the larger productions we’ve done in the past, we’ve managed to pull this off." —Justin Townes Earle

 

http://www.prosoundnetwork.com/index

 

 

I think there is a tendency with some modern recordings to try to fill up every instant with some kind of sound, and space is often under-appreciated and under-utilized. IMO, too often when people try to cram everything PLUS the kitchen sink into a recording, they wind up with an over-busy and cluttered arrangement which is not only hard to mix, but difficult for a listener to take it all in. Often a sound will have more impact if there's a bit of space - some breathing room - around it. As the old saying goes, the rests are often as important as the notes. What you don't play is often as important as what you do play.

 

What do you think? Do you have a tendency to over-play, over-produce and/or over-arrange your recordings, making things too busy? How can we better utilize space in our recordings and arrangements?

[WRGKMC]

This topic is Deju Vu to something I was working on this weekend. I had an original with a pumping bass part and clean jangly rhythm guitar part going with the drums and I spent the better part of a day trying to get a second guitar/lead part to fit in.

 

I knew first off a cranking lead wouldn't work. White noise would mask the good parts I already had recorded. Maybe if I blocked it into a specific lead spot after vocals are added, but It really would have been distracting to the rest of the music and especially to the groove the bass and drums were pumping.

 

The chords from the Rhythm didn't need complimentary chords added. I thought maybe keyboard or strings might work and they may still be an option, but I eventually determined less would be more on this one. I eventually went with increased guitar compression and less drive and did some George Benson like octave notes on the neck while using a Bigsby to create long wavy long trails to the notes.

 

It wasn't perfect, but it was a whole lot closer to sounding "Right" With some additional touch ups I may wind up leaving with just those subtle parts in there and possibly a lead vocal. Its funny because when I was playing the bass and other parts, I though the song might be a high impact, very tight focused energy tune. After waiting a week to reflect on it I found the drums and bass capture that quite well on their own and I had a huge soundscape left over to paint my notes in and still have plenty of that space left with the song near completion.

 

Normally I wind up with just the opposite issue. Too much happening and not enough space left so you have to severely limit some tracks bandwidth to make them fit. I really didn't even attempt to limit things like frequency response in this particular tune yet all the parts stand out with space between them. This leads me to believe its got more to do with the musical arrangement then it does with the actual tones dialed up.

 

There's a time and place for everything. That one tune I did will be a nice break between other busier tunes on a CD or in a set list. When you go back through your old album collections and judge the entire works you undoubtedly have contrast between the songs. You may have a hard hitting opener followed by something a little more laid back and somewhere in there you usually have something spacious and laid back. Those songs may not be as easily remembered as the hits on those albums but they were usually the biggest contributing force behind those albums going gold.

 

When it comes to playing live, both you and your audience need a breather. I've seen many bands who play back to back high energy metal and after the first three or 4 songs the audience attention just shuts down. Both their mind and their ears block the noise so they can still think. Your ears actually have a mechanism built in that does this automatically to protect your hearing. White noise can be the ultimate in musical confusion. Silence can be the ultimate relaxation, but some (many) people are wired backwards.

 

Some cant sleep without a fan or some other noise source going because their own thoughts are too loud or violent and they awaken then if not diluted by some other steady sound source. I grew up on the Jersey shore and for me the sound of the ocean which goes from white noise to the silence of beach sand absorbing the sound is the ultimate relaxation.

 

If you mix in a couple of tunes that have space, I'm not necessarily talking about laid back either, my example above pretty much defines it can have allot of emotion and energy, but its refocused to a different level. Then you dial back that white noise so you can clearly hear the backing instruments, it has just the opposite effect on an audience.

 

You would think if a band did it the other way around and went from having mostly spacious tunes then threw in a heavy white noise tune, people's attention would be drawn, but I think most people are wired backwards to some degree where they've trained themselves to relax with a high level of white noise going. When you go from white noise to something spacious, its like their engine just went dead and all of a sudden they get spooked and realize they are coasting along without an engine and might crash. That spurs an adrenalin rush and their ears open up to hear the details in that space. I have no idea why it works, it just does.

[onelife]

I was playing in a three piece band in the early 80s and I paid quite a bit of attention to The Police. One thing I noticed was the heavy reggae influence, especially the one-drop where the first beat of the measure is left empty but still "feels" strong. It seemed that if a part was really obvious they would not play it. The space they left then became the fourth instrument in the trio.

 

 

I really admire Eric Johnson as a guitarist but, for the most part, I can only listen to two or three songs at a time before the notes start to get lost in the flurry of all the other notes. BB King, on the other hand, makes me wait for the note and when he does play it it stands out like a single star in a dark sky. There have been nights when the sky was so full of stars I could not even pick out the Big Dipper.

[Folder]

What do you think? Do you have a tendency to over-play, over-produce and/or over-arrange your recordings, making things too busy? How can we better utilize space in our recordings and arrangements?

 

Oh I used to over-arrange.

 

I usually work on songs over long periods of time and I will constantly be coming up with new ideas. The problem is that all of those ideas won't fit into one song. One of the hardest things about recording for me is making decisions about what to leave in and what to take out. Which parts work well with other parts? Does the cool piano part clash with the guitar? If so should I take it out or should I try to rearrange it so it works? Or should I just take out the guitar instead? I can spend hours and hours on parts that end up never being used in the finale mix. As a matter of fact I probably spend more time working on parts that are never used than the ones that are. Most of my songs have far more parts muted than are actually playing.

 

I used to think that I had to get every part that I came up with in the mix and I've got some recordings that I can hardly listen to because they are so busy. But I'm much better able to edit myself now and my arrangements are a lot more sparse than they used to be. You have to be able let go of parts that don't work even though you spent your time and energy on them.

 

[mistersully]

for me, space brings power and intensity... it allows me to connect with music on a more emotional level, rather than an intellectual level, if that makes sense

[WRGKMC]

I read a quote by Sun Ra, It said music is the silence between the notes.

 

You can take that a step farther. With No silence, only chaos exists. When you understand that you realize no matter how high, how low or how loud a note is, you still have to return back to silence.

The silence is you, the calm spirit and you are the music. You are the one who hears the sounds around you. The notes are the distraction, the chaos, the farthest you can get away from silence and peace. When you are at peace you hear the rhythm or your own heartbeat, breathing, and nature.

 

Most musicians work someplace in between these two extremes and the better ones master both extremes. The methods of taking an audience from one extreme to the other is what a musician is paid to do with the intention of evoking emotions the listener may not experience on a daily basis. Its not that far from religion. Its just uses tones instead of words to enlighten others.

[mistersully]

got a guy coming in today to record a track that will be just vocals, stomps and handclaps... if i make this arrangement too busy i'm doing something wrong

 

funnily enough though... i was toying with the idea of throwing a sample of a kitchen sink getting hit (from bfd percussion) in there lol