00:00:00:22 [Music]
00:00:31:20 Hi! I am Moe Berg.
00:00:32:29 And I am Laurence Currie. Welcome to Master Tracks.
00:00:35:16 And we are here at Metalworks Studio.
00:00:37:26 A very talented young artist here today, Rachelle.
00:00:41:05 We are going to be doing her song, Last Time Again,
00:00:43:08 and this is a special kind of show because,
00:00:45:29 I worked on this song with her.
00:00:48:01 We started right from the song writing process this time,
00:00:49:29 it wasn't just taking a song and producing it.
00:00:52:05 We have got right involved right with the song at its inception,
00:00:55:01 and so we are going to basically...
00:00:56:24 just the three of us today are going to create
00:00:58:23 the track for this song.
00:01:00:19 So it should be really interesting and we can do it
00:01:02:23 in one day, just like we do the other ones.
00:01:04:08 Which basically means you are planning everything.
00:01:06:09 Yeah, kind of. Yeah.
00:01:08:07 It'll be good.
00:01:09:29 Yeah, it's going to be great. I am really excited about it.
00:01:11:14 Alright, here we go.
00:01:12:27 [Music]
00:01:19:28 Right now,
00:01:22:18 in this process of
00:01:23:29 kind of doing a bunch of different things.
00:01:26:08 We are in the process of releasing an EP
00:01:28:26 and we are still trying to decide on those songs
00:01:31:16 and as well.
00:01:33:03 Since I have finished those songs from the EP,
00:01:35:22 we have also written like, a good dozen new songs.
00:01:39:02 So trying to fit those in somewhere
00:01:41:18 and after writing the first EP,
00:01:43:25 I have actually had some other songs placed,
00:01:45:28 through artists.
00:01:48:15 One of the Idol winners over in Europe,
00:01:50:28 had some stuff in movies, some stuff in Canadian TV.
00:01:54:05 So it's just song writing
00:01:57:06 and trying to get my stuff out there right now.
00:02:00:18 -Hey! -Hey! How is it going?
00:02:02:08 Good. How is it with you?
00:02:03:28 Good.
00:02:04:28 Nice to see you.
00:02:05:28 You too, it's been so long.
00:02:06:28 -Hi! I am Laurence. -Nice to meet you.
00:02:09:04 Pleasure.
00:02:10:09 -Just have a seat around. -Great, thanks guys.
00:02:12:11 I started working with Moe, a little while ago,
00:02:15:05 just back and forth to Toronto working in his studio
00:02:19:03 and Last Time Again, was actually one of the songs
00:02:21:03 that we ended up writing in one of our sessions.
00:02:23:19 So Rachelle, actually brought the song idea to me.
00:02:27:20 It was sort of part of the song, with the sort of idea
00:02:31:18 of the lyrics, sort of concept for the lyrics.
00:02:33:27 When I write with Rachelle, what I usually do is,
00:02:35:28 I try and get her to tell me the story of the song,
00:02:39:03 and that's how we end up finishing the lyrics.
00:02:41:12 So it's just because the song is for her,
00:02:44:19 I want them to be in her voice.
00:02:46:03 I don't want them to pull lot of my ideas, my experience on her.
00:02:51:00 She is a young girl, I am an old geezer.
00:02:53:14 This is the version that you taught me.
00:02:55:12 Okay, it's just before.
00:02:57:03 ♪ [Music]
00:03:53:18 Usually how it works when I go in with Moe is,
00:03:56:12 I'll come in with lyrics.
00:03:57:27 I came in with a couple of lyrics,
00:03:59:25 I have a little recorder, through my iPod,
00:04:02:20 I have an ancient iPod that still has one of the plug-ins
00:04:05:18 and I am just able to plug-in and send them song ideas.
00:04:09:20 So that was one of them.
00:04:11:08 I sent it to him a week before I got out there,
00:04:14:00 and he mold over it a little bit
00:04:16:08 and then when I got there he gave me his view
00:04:19:05 on where he thought the song might go.
00:04:21:03 And if it worked with what I was doing
00:04:24:16 where I saw the song going, we just went with it,
00:04:27:01 and we ended up with the rough kind of skeleton of
00:04:29:18 Last Time Again.
00:04:31:15 We want to actually get to work.
00:04:34:27 Yeah, we should probably get the drums going.
00:04:36:00 Alright, so we'll figure out the actual tempo,
00:04:38:17 we are going to play this at.
00:04:40:04 You have to be comfortable with that.
00:04:41:08 So what we'll do is, we'll get...
00:04:43:03 like we'll set up a sort of like an idea what the tempo is,
00:04:45:25 and maybe we can even just put up a click.
00:04:47:06 Of something, and you can play along with it,
00:04:49:01 and we can sort of hear, where the song is going
00:04:51:22 to actually be, instead of just listening to click
00:04:53:28 and deciding that there's where the tempo is going to be.
00:04:56:05 Yeah.
00:04:57:15 Well, let's do that.
00:04:59:04 [Music]


00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:04:17 Producing is just trying to create the best possible
00:00:07:28 experience for the listener.
00:00:09:18 So it's like when you are making a record,
00:00:11:25 I mean bands and artists are always like say,
00:00:14:18 I am doing it for myself, and you are doing it for yourself,
00:00:17:03 in terms of like you are trying to fulfill your creativity,
00:00:19:03 but once you present it,
00:00:21:01 you are expecting other people to like it.
00:00:25:08 So in that case, you have to bring a listener
00:00:27:18 in to the experience, and say,
00:00:29:15 how can I best take my good idea, my good performance
00:00:33:27 and put it into a situation where the listener
00:00:35:28 will have a best possible experience and they want to
00:00:37:28 play it, buy it and comes to your show, and play,
00:00:39:28 and all that stuff.
00:00:41:08 So that sounds weird and some bands might bristle out that
00:00:45:27 like that sounds commercial, it's not commercials,
00:00:47:18 it can be for any kind of music, it can be for Death Metal.
00:00:50:04 Any kind of music, it's like, how is the Death Metal listener
00:00:53:18 going to most appreciate what you are doing,
00:00:56:28 and so it's like you just try and present it in a way that
00:00:59:14 your audience is going to be able to experience,
00:01:01:21 have the best possible experience.
00:01:03:10 [Music]
00:01:08:18 He asked to play it, how I hear it.
00:01:11:29 The ideas that I bring to him and then he will say,
00:01:15:03 Okay now stop, what do you think about this?
00:01:17:18 and he may stop me in the middle of the sentence or whatever,
00:01:21:01 wait till I am done, and say listen,
00:01:22:18 like what do you think about this, or what do you hear
00:01:26:04 when after I play these chords, or whatever.
00:01:30:15 So it's pretty much bouncing ideas straight off of each other
00:01:34:20 or just sitting there maybe for five minutes
00:01:37:03 trying to figure out one line or trying to figure out
00:01:39:18 where the next chord should go, or where the bridge should go.
00:01:45:23 So, basically we have got the form.
00:01:47:27 [Music]
00:01:52:10 So we have established the tempo of the track
00:01:55:06 which is 81 beats per minute
00:01:57:12 and we are actually going to be building
00:01:59:22 a midi sequence for our drums.
00:02:02:04 We just spent a little while selecting sounds,
00:02:07:25 and basically we are going to build it from the ground up,
00:02:11:07 starting with the kick drum snare, high hats, all of that.
00:02:15:03 And we will go from there.
00:02:17:04 It's quite a simple process actually to do this,
00:02:18:26 and it's actually fascinating.
00:02:21:08 It's essentially just drawing the beats,
00:02:23:21 all the instruments are sort of lined up on a grid,
00:02:25:28 you are just basically drawing the beats
00:02:27:13 where you want them to be.
00:02:29:07 We necessarily advocate this for,
00:02:30:23 I still think a real drummer is the best possible thing,
00:02:33:28 but this is an incredible simulation.
00:02:36:22 Laurence can just show you what we are doing.
00:02:39:25 Yeah so basically what we have here is we have,
00:02:44:00 all our midi-notes on one side
00:02:45:27 and then our tempo map for the song,
00:02:49:00 and I can select individual notes
00:02:52:07 for the individual instruments on the drumkit
00:02:55:18 and basically what we have done is
00:02:58:18 we have mapped up the entire song.
00:03:00:22 [Music]
00:03:04:28 At any point if I want I can change my instrument
00:03:08:03 to something else.
00:03:11:13 So depending where you are there.
00:03:13:21 It will change that exact note to any instrument
00:03:17:03 on the drumkit.
00:03:18:26 Again not quite as nice as a real drummer
00:03:21:17 but works in a pinch.
00:03:23:08 A lot smarter.
00:03:27:03 [Music]
00:03:30:14 A lot of times when you record a band,
00:03:32:03 you sort of take the band's ideas.
00:03:33:11 The bands come up with all the parts and stuff like that,
00:03:35:03 and you fix some of the parts that are not working
00:03:37:08 but in general you sort of let the band come up with...
00:03:40:16 it's like I don't like to invent everybody's part
00:03:42:28 from the scratch which is what we do here.
00:03:45:00 And so parts are all together,
00:03:47:28 I already come up with all the parts for everything
00:03:49:20 and you know the drum beats and what the bass going to do,
00:03:52:18 what all the guitars are going to do.
00:03:54:20 But one of the things that we hadn't figured exactly
00:03:56:23 was how are we going to...
00:03:58:13 what kind of sounds we are going to use,
00:03:59:24 because we wanted it to sound modern.
00:04:03:03 She is a young girl and so I didn't want it to sound
00:04:05:03 too old fashioned.
00:04:06:13 It's just kind of like, it could be an old fashion pop song,
00:04:08:18 but I want to sort of modern
00:04:09:28 so we introduced sort of electronic
00:04:11:28 not electronica elements, but sort of like more heavy
00:04:14:28 kind of elements, heavier guitars, Leslie guitar
00:04:18:02 and just kind of an idea of pushing the song.
00:04:20:03 So it sounded sort of more in place on modern radio than
00:04:23:19 something that might sound like it was all like easy rock
00:04:26:23 or something like that.
00:04:28:09 [Music]
00:04:38:28 One of the impediments to recording a song is when
00:04:41:08 the musicians don't want to play the song,
00:04:43:22 they want to play their part,
00:04:45:13 and so if their part is clashing with the song
00:04:47:28 then it's not a good song anymore.
00:04:50:07 So in some ways, it's better this way because
00:04:53:28 like all I am on playing is what is supposed to be in a song,
00:04:56:21 I have no ego about any part I am playing,
00:04:59:11 because really I am working as a producer,
00:05:01:12 and I am sort of bossing myself as a musician around,
00:05:04:22 so it's like I don't play anything
00:05:07:00 that I don't think will help the song.
00:05:08:16 Okay, so we will just get you playing acoustic along through
00:05:12:27 your track and then I guess you just want to play in the verses
00:05:16:18 and the choruses, so that's fine.
00:05:18:03 I mean we will have a lot of layering, going on in that,
00:05:20:24 I am calling in the intro, reintro section.
00:05:23:24 So I mean I think the important thing is just to feel
00:05:27:16 the whole pattern of the guitarist is sort of
00:05:30:20 it comes from the drums, this sort of funkiness of the drums.
00:05:34:18 So just follow the drums as much as possible
00:05:37:02 and it should be fun.
00:05:38:08 -Got it. -Okay.
00:05:39:28 [Music]
00:05:47:29 There were just like things that weren't tying song together,
00:05:50:17 there is sort of intro part, it goes like,
00:05:52:27 [Music]
00:05:56:08 that I play on the Leslie guitar, and that thing.
00:06:00:22 I just came up with that to give us an intro
00:06:03:03 and tie the different parts of this song together.
00:06:07:18 So, and then a lot of the other chords, were kind of chords
00:06:10:01 she came up with and I would just sort of change a chord,
00:06:12:06 that wasn't like taking us to the next part properly.
00:06:15:04 So a lot of the song was already...
00:06:18:11 she already had a good idea for it.
00:06:20:16 That actually sounded really good.
00:06:22:06 So I think what we should do is just do another one
00:06:24:08 and we should just grab that,
00:06:25:15 because I think it kind of really fills out the sound.
00:06:28:21 Sure.
00:06:29:28 One thing is that there is a chord you are playing wrong.
00:06:33:13 In the break down part.
00:06:35:03 ♪ [Music]
00:06:44:08 Yeah that chord,
00:06:46:06 yeah that was the chord that was weird.
00:06:48:08 [Music]
00:06:51:28 I think I was playing A through that.
00:06:53:20 ♪ [Music]
00:07:04:28 That should just be like... just play that as like F# or
00:07:10:08 there is just going to be a big...
00:07:12:11 Yeah, I think I played A through that anyways.
00:07:15:04 So that must have been what it was, it was just fine.
00:07:16:28 But that was great, like your timing was great,
00:07:18:18 everything is great it really sounds amazing.
00:07:19:28 You are doing awesome.
00:07:21:26 [Music]


00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:04:12 You want your song to be bigger than the demo.
00:00:07:17 For sure, you know more strings, more...
00:00:11:10 just anything you want it to sound full.
00:00:13:18 I am hoping that it's going to be like a real radio quality
00:00:16:28 track, if everything works out and it makes it that far.
00:00:20:23 Then by all means, I want to have the tools to get there
00:00:24:06 and I think that song is definitely a good candidate.
00:00:29:19 I mean, right now,
00:00:31:11 I am just making sure that we get the vocal.
00:00:33:11 The vocal is the most important thing of any song.
00:00:35:18 So it's just like in a situation like this...
00:00:37:22 that we are in right here,
00:00:38:28 where everything is sort of under time
00:00:40:13 and stuff like that,
00:00:41:19 it's just important to make sure
00:00:43:04 that we have the vocal.
00:00:44:13 So that's the challenge of a day like this.
00:00:47:23 It's like making sure that you leave enough time to do the
00:00:49:21 vocal, and if the vocal needs a lot of extra time.
00:00:51:16 Sometimes it would be better to just let something else slide,
00:00:54:11 in the overall cataphony of the track where you hear
00:00:57:18 whereas in terms of the vocal
00:00:59:18 it has to be great,
00:01:00:29 because that's the thing that everybody listens to.
00:01:02:28 ♪ [Music]
00:01:15:23 We actually stayed pretty true to
00:01:17:25 where the song or where we...
00:01:19:28 I guess heard the song going, in the first place.
00:01:22:07 It was just little things like pronunciation of words
00:01:26:04 and just Moe's ear kind of catching
00:01:28:23 a couple of little things that may be originally
00:01:32:07 I wouldn't have thought of changing or
00:01:34:11 I didn't you know... see it could have been improved.
00:01:37:17 But I guess that's just what comes at being a good producer.
00:01:40:03 Moe really caught a couple of little things and made honestly
00:01:42:24 like the biggest difference in the whole song to me.
00:01:45:14 I mean yes, so she is still straining up.
00:01:48:18 I don't know what to do.
00:01:49:27 But then besides reminded a song from here and then here.
00:01:53:27 Right, you got a lot of check marks, huh!
00:01:55:26 Yeah, I mean... It's just the occasional word or line.
00:01:58:10 Yeah, it's just like a word will come out a little bit harsh or
00:02:02:01 whatever, so it's like.
00:02:03:19 So.
00:02:06:04 She prefers to talk in person.
00:02:07:20 That's okay.
00:02:09:23 So yeah, so I just... I mean I don't know,
00:02:11:17 when you are singing the chorus,
00:02:12:21 I don't know where your voice is starting from...
00:02:15:09 you must remember to get this sort of like,
00:02:17:28 just a bit of a piercing kind of quality
00:02:20:05 and feels like it's not coming from here,
00:02:21:13 it feels like it's coming from right here.
00:02:22:16 Yeah.
00:02:23:16 And it sounds like almost you are straining a little bit.
00:02:25:09 But I don't think it's high for you.
00:02:27:16 I just think that, you can strain a little bit of that.
00:02:30:08 So you just need to push a little bit like,
00:02:32:11 when you are getting those high notes that
00:02:37:02 that thing there,
00:02:38:06 just so those notes just don't.
00:02:40:13 It's more or like, I just need to take a deeper breathe before
00:02:44:01 I going into and that's just something like...
00:02:46:15 it should be natural.
00:02:48:11 But just breathing in a little bit more,
00:02:51:22 every if I feel like I have to push out the breathe
00:02:54:08 because there's nothing left.
00:02:56:09 That's when you are going to get the higher,
00:02:58:14 you know the piercing whatever
00:03:01:02 and that's not going to sound nice,
00:03:02:08 it's going to sound force.
00:03:03:28 ♪ [Music]
00:03:09:13 Yeah, I mean you do whatever you want, it's kind of like
00:03:13:00 because just it's just the way I am hearing that it's like,
00:03:14:20 I am giving it up again, because we can do like a
00:03:16:16 back up call and add the thing.
00:03:17:29 And then we can have someone have a back up with you,
00:03:20:11 I am giving it up again,
00:03:21:24 and then you can do a back up to that.
00:03:23:01 So if change the melody of that, we can't do that idea.
00:03:28:18 Just kind of went through the song a couple of times
00:03:31:08 and there's always going to be parts that you go back
00:03:33:13 and you think I could have done that better, whatever.
00:03:36:13 But I... when it get to me a little bit
00:03:39:08 and I just had to take a little walk.
00:03:41:00 But a little breather and some good...
00:03:43:24 just clearing my head really helped me out.
00:03:47:04 I think I got through the song pretty well,
00:03:49:21 and we'll see I mean we got some really good takes
00:03:52:02 and I felt really good about a couple of them.
00:03:53:22 So, I trust Moe and I trust Laurence for sure,
00:03:56:13 to go through and pick out the best parts
00:03:59:26 and really I think it's going to sound good.
00:04:01:28 I hope so.
00:04:02:25 Alright so,
00:04:03:28 basically we finished the lead vocals,
00:04:06:24 Moe is making notes right now, on the best takes
00:04:10:27 and he is going to give that to me
00:04:12:28 and I am going to put them altogether
00:04:14:06 and we are going to have one excellent take.
00:04:17:00 [Music]


00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:03:24 I think Rachelle is a very talented girl
00:00:05:28 and I think she kind of got inside the song eventually,
00:00:09:28 after a few takes.
00:00:11:23 I think she might have been a little nervous at first.
00:00:13:12 But I think, she really got inside the song
00:00:15:28 started to think about what it is that the song was about.
00:00:18:11 And so by the end of it, she was really singing well,
00:00:20:26 I think we got a really great vocal performance from her.
00:00:22:20 Going in there, thinking that I knew what to expect,
00:00:27:27 was may be a bad thing,
00:00:29:29 because it was completely different.
00:00:32:24 There was just so much more to it,
00:00:34:16 and I am incredibly happy with the way that it turned out.
00:00:38:05 I am really, really just so proud of the entire process
00:00:42:02 and really just ecstatic about how it turned out.
00:00:49:13 Okay, so Laurence had a chance to mix Rachelle's song,
00:00:52:21 Last Time Again. So let's take a listen.
00:00:54:22 The first thing is off the top.
00:00:56:16 We had Leslie guitar playing.
00:01:05:21 That wasn't actually there on the actual track, we added that
00:01:09:20 afterwards we ran the guitars through Leslie speaker
00:01:12:15 and we mixed down,
00:01:13:25 which is something you can do after the fact
00:01:16:04 which is nice.
00:01:17:09 Because the drums were midi,
00:01:19:07 I wanted to add a little edge to them.
00:01:25:18 So, if you actually listen closely
00:01:27:07 there is a little bit of over drive
00:01:28:18 on them actually to get them a little bit of edge.
00:01:33:28 You can hear the kick drum,
00:01:37:28 do you know what's it.
00:01:39:07 No idea.
00:01:43:23 Good to know, good to know.
00:01:45:22 And then on top of that, we have three acoustic guitars
00:01:48:03 that were played by Moe and Rachelle.
00:01:51:28 These are the two that Moe did.
00:01:54:02 Then we add Rachelle's in there, it creates a nice wide blend.
00:02:00:05 And the tremolo again, was added after the fact,
00:02:05:25 so we could get it in time.
00:02:10:26 I mean obviously a lot of what we are doing in the song,
00:02:13:10 we are just featuring Rachelle as a vocalist.
00:02:15:22 But I wrote some back up vocals for her,
00:02:18:28 just to give the song a little bit of extra color.
00:02:21:18 So we started to have the back up vocals
00:02:24:10 enter in the second verse,
00:02:26:03 and then we created some back up vocals
00:02:27:29 for the bridge part.
00:02:32:11 So we have a basic backing vocal.
00:02:40:10 Really play good,
00:02:42:19 then we get into the bridge.
00:02:44:08 That's the next verse.
00:02:52:08 Creates a nice lift at the end of the bridge.
00:02:54:29 It goes back into the breakdown with the Leslie guitars again,
00:03:03:28 and then a breakdown.
00:03:05:14 And then we just basically are out.
00:03:09:04 So I think a lot of what these elements were designed to do
00:03:13:05 is create because Rachelle is young.
00:03:15:28 We didn't want... I didn't want the track to be sort of like of
00:03:18:23 a very poppy you know some might say,
00:03:20:08 it's almost like a commercial sounding song.
00:03:22:12 But she is young and so a lot of these sort of heavier elements
00:03:26:20 and even the fact, that the drums were over driven sort of
00:03:28:28 give it sort of a younger kind of things,
00:03:33:08 it's younger kind of sound.
00:03:34:17 So I think it's like a good mix of sort of an
00:03:37:18 acoustic instruments and electric instruments.
00:03:39:28 You create something that sounds pretty modern,
00:03:41:18 like something you could probably hear
00:03:42:11 on the radio right now.
00:03:43:21 But it doesn't make your sound like too poppy an artist,
00:03:46:22 it makes her sounds more like sort of like a modern artist
00:03:49:26 instead of a poppy artist.
00:03:51:11 Let's play the master track now, for everyone.
00:03:55:23 Great.
00:03:56:28 ♪ [Music]
00:04:20:02 Nice breakdown and fade at the end, perfect.
00:04:22:28 ♪ [Music]
00:05:37:06 [Music]