Produced by: Steven Conklin
Mixed by: Mike Derochick & S. Conklin
2011 from Steve about the recording of Not What I'm Known For:
"Released in 2005 this was my first real adventure into digital recording - with the limited gear and resources available at the time.
Budget??? What's a budget??? I was determined to prove you don't need a million dollars and a hangar full of gear to make music.
And I did."
"I also made the decision to play everything on it. Started with banging out the drums to a click followed by bass, etc. The piano on
"So You Don't Like Me Anymore" I programed in Sonar and used whatever they had for a synth (TTS-1 maybe) at the time through a
filter and panned against another patch - I don't remember the other patch - it was some GM (Ed note: general MIDI) world
instrument. All the other little sound effect bits I recorded as well: the thunder rumble after the intro to "Arena" was from a storm, as
were the rain and wind effects."
"Also, while I did play to a click, it was a reference and unless I was really off time the part would stay. There was NO moving parts
around to put them in time. We also didn't time-align the overheads either. "
Q1: "A Bit Concussed" is a great title because that song sounds so...concussed.
Steve: {Laughs} yeah. Nothing special just a BBE Sonic Maximizer plug-in on the drum buss. The rhythm guitars were direct with a
Boss GT-6. For some reason those 2 sounds worked well together for that track. The delays were from the Cakewalk FXDelay if I
recall. Yeah everything kinda blended.
Q2: So the title came after the final mix?
Steve: Before.
Q3: What in the world is the concept behind "Pagan Dance" and is that a square dance for the solo?
Steve: That had a few totally different versions. Much shorter as well. The only idea I had behind it was the classic story of a small
group of ETs rise up, topple the human leader and then proceed to populate the rest of the planet. At least that's what I was kinda
trying to put into sound. With that in mind you can see the concept as the song goes: the intro up to the 2nd theme they lurk around.
Then theme 2 hits and they make their plan. The next part is again more lurking followed by a reworking of theme 2 - their new plan.
The happy square dance part for the solo would be when they take over, which in turn, is followed by the lurking outro which I left
somewhat open on purpose. What do they do after they take over? Where do they go from there?
Q4: To another galaxy.
Steve: Pagan Dance part 2 man. I always thought it'd be fun to put out a trilogy but the only problem is I'd have to write all 3 albums at
once because I have a bunch of songs that fit between the songs on NWIKF. So NWIKF #2 would shift gears more than the first.
Could release it as a digital set.
Q5: You also mastered it (NWKF) as well. What did you use and any tips you can share?
Steve: Work at a moderate volume because what's the point of blasting your ears at 120dB for 8 hours for a critical task? I also spent
time with Ozone learning what it's reaction would be to various audio fed into it. Listening back I think I made the album too loud at
times and it's a bit light in the bottom by todays so called standards. But it is what it is.
One thing I do remember is having to go back and remix "Oh, That's Attractive" because I over "enhanced" the overheads during
mixing and when I tried to bring up some top end in the mastering session all I had was ugly, nasty overheads. So that was a lesson
learned.
All the tracks were imported into Sonar where I assembled them in order and adjusted the gap between tracks. After a complete
listen through and taking notes of what stood out I automated Ozone to do what needed to be done. Not all modules were used all
the time either. Once I was content with the final sound the session was exported as one wave file and put into CD Architect where I
finished up the track markers, ISRCs and whatnot.
Q6: This is a guitar album but the bass on "Anyone Out There" stands out as a memorable non-guitar moment. It catches your ear
because it's not the expected follow up track to "3 Minutes", and it's got that crazy slide rule time to it.
Steve: "Anyone Out There" started on the bass. I was watching TV and started playing that riff and wasn't even thinking about time
signatures, it was just "hey this sounds cool." But yeah the time changes were actually the easiest thing to nail down. The problem
was getting the drums to blend around the bass and all the guitars.
Mixed by: Mike Derochick & S. Conklin
2011 from Steve about the recording of Not What I'm Known For:
"Released in 2005 this was my first real adventure into digital recording - with the limited gear and resources available at the time.
Budget??? What's a budget??? I was determined to prove you don't need a million dollars and a hangar full of gear to make music.
And I did."
"I also made the decision to play everything on it. Started with banging out the drums to a click followed by bass, etc. The piano on
"So You Don't Like Me Anymore" I programed in Sonar and used whatever they had for a synth (TTS-1 maybe) at the time through a
filter and panned against another patch - I don't remember the other patch - it was some GM (Ed note: general MIDI) world
instrument. All the other little sound effect bits I recorded as well: the thunder rumble after the intro to "Arena" was from a storm, as
were the rain and wind effects."
"Also, while I did play to a click, it was a reference and unless I was really off time the part would stay. There was NO moving parts
around to put them in time. We also didn't time-align the overheads either. "
Q1: "A Bit Concussed" is a great title because that song sounds so...concussed.
Steve: {Laughs} yeah. Nothing special just a BBE Sonic Maximizer plug-in on the drum buss. The rhythm guitars were direct with a
Boss GT-6. For some reason those 2 sounds worked well together for that track. The delays were from the Cakewalk FXDelay if I
recall. Yeah everything kinda blended.
Q2: So the title came after the final mix?
Steve: Before.
Q3: What in the world is the concept behind "Pagan Dance" and is that a square dance for the solo?
Steve: That had a few totally different versions. Much shorter as well. The only idea I had behind it was the classic story of a small
group of ETs rise up, topple the human leader and then proceed to populate the rest of the planet. At least that's what I was kinda
trying to put into sound. With that in mind you can see the concept as the song goes: the intro up to the 2nd theme they lurk around.
Then theme 2 hits and they make their plan. The next part is again more lurking followed by a reworking of theme 2 - their new plan.
The happy square dance part for the solo would be when they take over, which in turn, is followed by the lurking outro which I left
somewhat open on purpose. What do they do after they take over? Where do they go from there?
Q4: To another galaxy.
Steve: Pagan Dance part 2 man. I always thought it'd be fun to put out a trilogy but the only problem is I'd have to write all 3 albums at
once because I have a bunch of songs that fit between the songs on NWIKF. So NWIKF #2 would shift gears more than the first.
Could release it as a digital set.
Q5: You also mastered it (NWKF) as well. What did you use and any tips you can share?
Steve: Work at a moderate volume because what's the point of blasting your ears at 120dB for 8 hours for a critical task? I also spent
time with Ozone learning what it's reaction would be to various audio fed into it. Listening back I think I made the album too loud at
times and it's a bit light in the bottom by todays so called standards. But it is what it is.
One thing I do remember is having to go back and remix "Oh, That's Attractive" because I over "enhanced" the overheads during
mixing and when I tried to bring up some top end in the mastering session all I had was ugly, nasty overheads. So that was a lesson
learned.
All the tracks were imported into Sonar where I assembled them in order and adjusted the gap between tracks. After a complete
listen through and taking notes of what stood out I automated Ozone to do what needed to be done. Not all modules were used all
the time either. Once I was content with the final sound the session was exported as one wave file and put into CD Architect where I
finished up the track markers, ISRCs and whatnot.
Q6: This is a guitar album but the bass on "Anyone Out There" stands out as a memorable non-guitar moment. It catches your ear
because it's not the expected follow up track to "3 Minutes", and it's got that crazy slide rule time to it.
Steve: "Anyone Out There" started on the bass. I was watching TV and started playing that riff and wasn't even thinking about time
signatures, it was just "hey this sounds cool." But yeah the time changes were actually the easiest thing to nail down. The problem
was getting the drums to blend around the bass and all the guitars.
All songs & images Copyright 2005 Steven Conklin (BMI)
Contact: webmaster@stevenconklin.com
So what's it all about man?
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