Audio. Train Wreck

We received this blog from Joe Were, an accomplished keyboard player, composer, music director and all round great guy; about his experience at the Youtube.ke launch at the Tribe hotel. Our aim by putting this up is to keep sound reinforcement companies accountable and bring much needed professionalism to the field

Read. Enjoy. Share

"So this is my first ever blog post and unfortunately I have been driven to write this due to nightmarish circumstances that every artiste/musician dreads in the hands of a “professional” service provider.

First of all, a little background on myself. I am a keyboardist and have played for various artists as well as Provided backline equipment (That would be Instruments, mics, cabling e.t.c) and also onsight Audio recording solutions. So I tend to believe I have a little know how and experience on the stage and how to solve problems as they arise.

Now that that’s out of the way…here we go.

Enter Wednesday 5^th October, and I was playing with Just-A-Band, a popular Electronic Music band that just concluded a recent tour of New York, even getting rave reviews from the likes of Will-I-Am and Drum Magazine. So after the New York experience, this would be the first “back home” gig at the famous Tribe Hotel. The sound Provider for the event…Home BoyzEntertainment.

We get the call to soundcheck at 5pm on Tuesday the 4^th…and we arrive 30 mins before…just to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be…plus I was carrying my pretty bulky Yamaha S90XS keyboard (just because I prefer using my own settings and am familiar with the sounds). When we get there…there is no evidence of any instrument setup going on…6pm…ummm, nope…7pm…still waiting…8pm…oh cool…a guitar amp has been put near the stage….9pm…no…just the guitar amp…so we decide to leave around 9:30pm and reschedule the soundcheck for the next day.

Wednesday, 5^th October D-Day. We arrive somewhat late (a half hour late)  for our scheduled soundcheck time of 4pm due to traffic. So we would imagine since we had an hour at least of slotted soundcheck time. We get there and the Instruments are on stage but no cabling has been done…so we wait…5pm…no…6pm…ummm, no. 7pm, I got impatient and decided I’m going to setup my keyboard myself.

About 8 Home Boyz guys in “Crew” T-shirts walk around with walkie talkies looking busy but if you really follow one of them, he’s literally just walking around. So I ask one of them to point me to the person in charge of setting up the instruments as we were supposed to sound check about 3 hours ago. He points me to one of them and I go to him and ask him where I should set up and which channel I should use and what not.

Bear in mind, on this night we had pretty minimal equipment by Just-A-Band standards…we just had to hook up the keyboard and a laptop which was hooked up to a loopmaster. We basically needed only THREE channels (Stereo output from the laptop and a mono feed from the Keyboard)

The main engineer asks me if I have a jack to jack cable. WAIT A MINUTE…even I, who doesn’t do this on a day to day basis, do not leave home without a jack to jack cable. If it’s not in the boot of my car, it’s in my shoulder bag if I’m not driving….It’s the sim card in your phone, it’s the water in your rice…it’s the hour hand of cables as far as instruments go…Home Boyz Entertainment did not have Jack to Jack cables. 

I of course at this point was tired of waiting for them to sort the setup out so I obliged and went for the jack to jack cable…I get back and he asks if I had a D.I… at this time…jumping into the nearby pool with my clothes on seemed like a very welcome idea because my blood is boiling…

So I asked him if they received the tech rider that was sent to them earlier the previous week…he said he didn’t know…I asked him who would know…he didn’t know…I walk off to get my D.Is from the car…

So they hook up the laptop and they don’t have any feed on the main mixer… after fiddling with buttons and knobs they ask me if I have headphones! HEADPHONES!!!!! Mr, sir on the mixer…how were you going to monitor your mix in the first place? No problem…another trip to the parking lot to get my headphones from the car. At this rate, I’m so fit from the trips on the stairs at the Tribe, I think I might enroll for the next marathon.

It’s now about 10pm…no soundcheck…and we’re about to be called on stage…(well, we’re already on stage trying to sort the sound) so we decide since there’s no way we’ll use the laptop…we’ll play it full LIVE. Perfect…this is what I do baybie…let’s go. I, the client, am telling HomeBoyz, the service provider how to turn on Phantom power so that the keyboard feed can be received on their mixer…after fiddling with  buttons they eventually find the right one…which I had showed earlier anyway.

So we kick off our performance with pretty poor sound quality with just the keyboard, drums and bass guitar!

Right after the first verse…the keyboard is MUTED….apparently they have no idea the keyboard cannot be heard…as I’m signaling the sound engineer and he looks right at me with a blank stare. The drummer and bassist do a pretty good job covering for the rest of the song…and as the song is about to end…the sound engineer comes onto the stage to ask if we’re OK…and I ask him what he thinks…and he goes like, “Oh, the keyboard is off?”

And that is why, ladies and gentlemen, HomeBoyz Entertainment should stick to doing what they do best..DJing."

*inhales deeply"

Watu Wako © 2011

MoFaya Musical: Basel Switzerland 2011

I got the call to go on tour with Eric Wainaina for the Basel Switzerland Sept 2011 tour; having done the show previously there were not many changes in the basic set up i.e band of 5 musicians and a cast of 10.

The thing that made this musical challenging from a F.O.H point was that this musical was basically a very new one compared to what was put up in New York and Nairobi two years ago. The reworked script had included a lot more singing, about 10 new songs  and the interplay between the cast and band was even tighter than before.

Gear List

1.  10 DPA 4066-F mic headsets

2.  10 Shure UR1 Bodypacks 

3.  Allen & Heath iLive mixer T144 with Muco stagebox

4.  Electro Voice RE20 - Kick

5.  Shure Sm57 - Snare

6.  AKG C451 - Hi Hats

7.  7 AKG P4- 3 toms + 4 percs

8.  Shure SM58- Cahon

9.  AKG 414 C14 * 2 - Over heads for drums and percs

10. NEXO GeoS Line Array

11. Stage Wedges Shiva2306/2406 300W

12. 10 custom Black mic pacs - Kiko Romeo *

the Stage was  15 m x 6m and the band was in a 3.5m x 2m "smaller stage".

The concert space was not that big sitting approximately  300 people.

Learning Points.

1. The only hiccup right through both performances was the triggering of a gunshot via midi. On both Occasions while the gunshot was triggered, what we heard was an electric guitar sound! [gasp] This because was the Korg Triton keyboard that was being used to trigger the sample [ off Logic EX24] was also sending patch change controller messages and the failure to anticipate that, meant that we heard a totally different sound.

2. The Allen and Heath  iLive T144 is a wonderful desk to mix a musical on. I am now a convert! 

Media

Photos

Audio: [recorded through a matrix out]
Anna Mali Has Brought Many Benefits by MTAA

Crew.

Producer: Sheba Hirst

Director: John Sibi Okumu

Written by: Eric Wainaina

Asst. Producer: Velma Kiome

F.O.H/ Tech Director: Tim Rimbui

F.O.H: Dave

BackLine and Equipment: Sound Pool Ltd- Basel Switerland

I would love to know your thoughts. Send me an email.
Cheers
Tim Rimbui...Copyright MTAA blog 2011

* hahahahahahah

Logic Samples: EXS24 Scratches

Hey sorry for the absence. I promise to blog a bit more frequently
here's a link to a collection of Dj scratches that I converted into a Logic EXS24 Program.

If you use the samples in commercial recordings, a credit would be nice. I am plan to release a commercial library in the coming weeks
Click to download


For the non Logic and Mac readers of this blog, the samples are saved as 44.1Khz 16bit samples so you can trigger them from your hardware or software sampler of choice
By RT for TheMtaaBlog copyright 2011


If you do not know how to copy them into your computer click read below ( its copied from the Logic Pro Manual)

Managing EXS24 Sampler Instruments

As your sample library grows, the list of sampler instruments will also expand. To help you keep the list of sampler instruments manageable, the EXS24 mkII features a simple but flexible file management method.

To organize your sampler instruments into a preferred hierarchy

1. Create a folder in the Finder—Basses, for example—and drag it into the desired Sampler Instruments folder.
2. Drag the desired EXS24 mkII sampler instruments into this newly created folder.
   The modified menu structure will be reflected when you open the Sampler Instruments pop-up menu.
   
   Note: You will need to choose the Refresh Menu command in the Sampler Instruments pop-up menu after changes are made to the folder hierarchy in the Sampler Instruments folder.

The Sampler Instruments pop-up menu will display submenus only for folders that actually contain EXS instrument files. Other folders are not added to the menu. Aliases pointing to folders that contain EXS instrument files outside the Sampler Instruments folders can also be added to the menu. Even the Sampler Instruments folder itself can be an alias to a folder on a different drive or in another location.

For information on copying sampler instruments to your hard drive, and backing up sampler instruments used in a project, see Copying EXS24 Sampler Instruments to Your Hard Drive and Backing Up EXS24 Sampler Instruments.

Copying EXS24 Sampler Instruments to Your Hard Drive

It is strongly recommend that you copy any EXS sampler instruments, along with all associated audio files, to your hard drive. This way, you always have direct, immediate access to your sampler instruments without searching for and inserting CD-ROM or DVD discs. This also enables you to organize your sampler instruments to meet your needs. In addition, load times are faster, and you can play back samples that exceed the size of your computer’s RAM by “streaming” them from your hard disk. This feature is not suitable for optical drives.

To copy sampler instruments to your hard drive

1. Copy the sampler instrument file into the ~/Library/Application Support/Logic/Sampler Instruments folder.
2. Copy the associated samples into a folder named Samples in the same folder as the Sampler Instruments folder.

Backing Up EXS24 Sampler Instruments

You can use the “Backup audio files of all used and active instruments of current project” key command to copy the audio and sampler instrument files (of all currently active sampler instruments in the project) to a specified file location. Folders for the audio files associated with these sampler instruments are created in the target location.

This makes it easy to keep all of your sampler instruments and audio samples in one place, and ensures that every project folder contains all the necessary sampler instruments and audio files you will need, even if you don’t have access to your full sampler instrument library.

Tip: You can also do this by setting up your project to copy EXS24 sampler instruments and samples into the project folder. For more information, see the Logic Express User Manual.

Live Sound: All That Jazz with Aaron Rimbui

Date: 3rd Feb 2011

Aaron Rimbui is an acclaimed Jazz pianist from Kenya who together with his band hold a bi-monthly jazz concert for music enthusiasts in Nairobi. His music can be broadly described as funky/pop jazz with a mix of classical elements, all together a very entertaining act. This month, the band was made up of Aaron Rimbui on keyboards, Issac Mugunda on guitars, Asaph Uzelee on Bass and George on Drums.

The Space 
The Louis Leakey Auditorium is a nice place, purpose built for conferences and small concerts or theatrical events. It has a seating capacity of about 350, inclined from the entrance to the stage. The stage is not too large (about 35 by 15 meters) with really good in house lighting as well as proper acoustic treatment (i.e., the roof and walls) it is one of the more easier venues to do sound in. looks and feels great.

Equipment
Our back line was rather simple, Aaron was placed at the centre of the stage and he used a Yamaha S90 XS as his primary keyboard as well as a  Korg MicroKorg Vocoder that was small enough to placed on top of his keyboard. He also had a macaudio monitor on either side of him. Issac used a roland JC-120 amplifire with 2 12” speakers in it, pretty simple and standard. He used his digi-tech guitar FX. Asaph used an old Peavey bass amp (make and model not worth checking up) it had 4 12” cones, one of which was torn, which gave us a problem (I shall address a bit later on). Issac and Asaph shared one macaudio monitor. George used a Yamaha Custom Kit, standard piece kit with 2 crash symbols and one ride. We micd it with a standard Shure drum mic set, including SM 57’s for the snare and hi hat. He also had one MacAudio stage monitor to himself. We also had 2 Shure wireless mics, one for Aaron and the other for the guest performer/singer (in this case Kanji Mbugua & Eric Wainaina) this mic was positioned on Aaron's left hand side with a MacAudio monitor assigned to it.

For our FOH set up we had 2 DnB C-Series top and mid range on either side, as well as a DnB subs on either side. These were set up on both ends of the stage. Our main desk was the 48 channel Yamaha M7CL Digital mixer. And that’s it! Or so we think…

On the desk

The Yamaha digital mixer is very versatile and might seem complex at first. I will walk you through it. It is also important to note that the kind of power we were dealing with (FOH) was way more than needed, but who’s complaining.

Our drums took up channel 1-8 (Kick, snare, hi-ht, tom1-3, overhead L and R), channel 9 was bass, 10 guitar (both DI), 11-12 Yamaha keyboard (LR), 13-14 MicroKorg vocoder (LR), 15 and 16 were the wireless mics. Make sense? Good.
Now the M7CL allows you to have up to 12 independent mixes other than your stereo out, (which was our FOH mix) and a mono out. One the monitors on stage were fed through 4 mixes. I.e., mix 1 for Aarons monitors, mix 2 for the monitor serving the Bas and lead guitarist, mix 3 for drum monitor and mix 4 for the guest vocalist monitor.

Testing …one…two...three…

Learning Points and Notes
Now it was a pretty straight forward set up but there were a few problems to deal with.

1. Main FOH mixer position. The hall provides a sound booth at the back but the space cut out for the engineer to see and hear is too small. So we had to move our mixing position into the hall. With no space in the middle we had to place the mixer on the back right side of the hall. A much better reference point, but the sound there was slightly muddy and bassy as compared to the middle of the hall.
Solution: there was not much we could do to move positions, so a thorough sound check was needed. We would keep referencing our mix by going to the middle of the room and this helped us determine what worked.

2. Bass guitar. The direct out of the bass amp was not too great, we had a real deep and muddy sound even after a heavy low cut on that channel. This would not help for the kind of sound we were trying to achieve.
Solution: believe it or not, since we did not want the extra hustle of mic-ing the guitar amps (which would have been the best solution), I re-wired the di box so that the feed coming to the mixer was directly from the bass guitar.

3. Hum…Buzzz
because the gig was not s massive, the sound company did not feel the need to come with their generator, which meant we would be getting power from the building. The electrician did not phase it correctly and so we were stuck with being on the same line as the house light. This is a major problem usually.
Solution: the di-boxes helped with the line instrument, lifting the ground. But our mics did not escape the buzz! Luckily there was not o much singing or talking, but when there was it drowned the buss. I must say a general low cut on all the mics is essential especially when using subs. It can also heal this problem slightly.

4. Vocoder
one as to be very careful when using this live, because the vocoder mic isn’t anything special. It picks up pops and can feedback all over the place.
Solution: hard eq-ing helped to level the sound as well as compression that the M7CL had and riding the fader. A slight low and hi cuts o your working with a bit of a n ‘n’ shape on the equalization. But subtractive mixing had to be done from time to time.

5. Drums
there were not to many issues here, just need to make sure you get your eq right especially on your kick and toms. This is usually dependant on ones preference. But basically you want the kick not to be too bassy for this kind of music; with some good compression it also gives the bass guitar room on the lower frequencies. The overhead mics need to be placed correctly and a hard low cut placed on both (a well as hard pan LR) everything except the kick was sent to a slight hall reverb that the MC& provides as well. This gave the drums a really tight almost produced sound with a punch kick right under them.

Once the monitor and FOH mixes mixes were complete it was time to tone down. Now most of the sound was absorbed by the over capacity crowd but remember with a system this powerful it is easy to go overboard. Its not a hip-hop concert and not really a classical one either, so finding a comfortable level is important. Referencing the sound from different areas of the hall (from right in the front row till the back near the exit) will help you get a better idea of what’s happening as the band plays during sound check.

Finally 

The M7CL also allowed me to apply a 24 band eq on the main mix. Now this is a really great tool but unfortunately does more harm than good to an overall mix if its tweaked even fractionally wrong.
Everything from 25 Hz-190 Hz needed to be dropped to get rid of the low rumble that would be unwanted in this kind of setting (especially with really powerful subs). Everything else pretty much remained flat except for a slight nudge at the 2k-6k regions for clarity in the mids. Thereafter any ‘tingy’ sounds on the highs that could be a bit irritating was brought down on the eq graph of individual instruments (this can be caused especially by the drum hi-hat and overhead mic) as well as the guitar sometimes (depending on what effects he was using) so a high shelve on that channel was useful, would play around with it from time to time. But we pretty much achieved that warm George Benson sound with the guitars.



Last note: People have a habit of either mixing out the keyboard entirely by making it to light and tone-y, or making it too muddy and annoying. So finding a good balance is helpful especially when it’s the main ingredient of the sound you are trying to achieve.
*exact eq settings etc will always depend on where you are and the dynamics of the space



Crew

Jaaz Odongo- Monitor and FOH


By Jaaz Odongo for TheMtaaBlog Copyright 2011 

Live Sound: Tusker Project Fame 4

Tusker Project fame 4 was probably the most talked about music- television event in East Africa's history; hate it or love it, TPF4 was an inescapable popular culture marker. Every weekend, life between 7.30 -9pm would literally come to a stand still for the 10weeks the show was on air; the season finale won by Davis from Uganda was reportedly watched by an estimated 10million people in the East African region!

From an audio perspective the challenge for the fourth season was to make it bigger than any other seasons, musically. This meant that the in house band came earlier in the season; there were more guest acts with more complicated switchovers and acts. In addition to this, 90% of the guest performers had to perform with a live band (any one who has followed the show’s history will know why this was such a big deal and in my opinion as to why the show this time was very good)

 And as such couple of changes had to be made which played a huge impact on how the show was heard both at home (TV) and in the Dome

I was given the challenge to deliver 5 discreet mixes during every live show i.e.

• 1.          Stereo Band mix for broadcast (later summed to a mono mix because Citizen TV like all other free to air TV stations still broadcast a mono audio signal and are not keen to change well done dinosaurs!) 
• 2.         Front of House  Mix(F.O.H) for the Dome
• 3.          MD Aaron’s mix
• 4.         Band mix
• 5.         Two monitor mixes for contestants/ Guest Performer’s on Stage

The ideal situation was to have had a stage split that allowed all mixes to be handled by different mixer and engineer but then again TIA (This is Africa).

Now this herculean task was made easier by one nifty gadget that the good people at Frame24 SA (thanks Tiens and Eugene) brought i.e. The LS932 Yamaha Digital Console. Any one who has used Live Gig’s Yamaha MCL7 or Yamaha PMD5 would find their way around this console in minutes as it is described as the baby brother of the larger format mixing consoles. The LS932 allowed me create all the mixes I needed and additional sub mixes and routing of effects. I had no need for outboard for this show as my LS32 allowed for 2 dynamics inserts per channel, multiple effects routing in additional to parametric and graphic EQ for the all master outs.

I had worked on TPF4 before but never in this capacity (F.O.H Live Sound Engineer) so it was definitely new ground. Another challenge was design of the dome and F.O.H position. 

This is how we did it (get your pens and papers kids)

Gear List

1.          15 Sennheiser Mics  (SKM300) + 6 A 1031-UFlap antennae

2.         Shure Drum Kit PGDMK6 mics- 

3.          5 Behringer ULTRA-DI DI100

4.         Yamaha LS932 Digital Mixing console

5.          Samson 50M 24 by 8* 8 multicore snake

6.         Samson Power Amplifiers: SX 2400, SX 3200, SX 2600

7.          Assorted Wharfdale Monitors and Speakers

Band

                     I.         Yamaha Gig Maker Drum Kit

                  II.         Yamaha ES8 Keyboard                                                      (Aarons)

               III.         Bass Amp - peavey max 115

              IV.         Guitar Amp - peavey bandit 112

                 V.         Guitar Pedal – Digitech RP500                                     (Izzo Muganda’s)

              VI.         yamaha mg12xc Mixer

           VII.         Warfdale evp x15 pm - powered monitor 2

        VIII.         evp 12m  2

               IX.         Motif ex 8

Routing

The Ls932 handled all the routing; all mics old had a low cut, some compression and EQ and all performers' mics were patched into a reverb and/or delay; pity that the effect did not get broadcast. By the end of the Season when I was more comfortable with the console almost all signal patched in to the LS932 was going through some master buss compression,EQ and effect. I also really appreciated the tap tempo feature, because that I could assign it to any of my delays, which added extra spice to the performances

Below is the Channel Input List into the LS932

 1-10               -Band Channels (Drums, Bass, Electric and Acoustic Guitars)

11                    - VT

12                    - MCR playback

13                    - Mitch

14                   -Sheila

15-17             - Judges

18                   - Faculty

19-28             -Contestants/ Performers

29                    - Mc

Master Output Routing

1-2- Band Only

3- Front Monitor

4. Back Monitors

5. Aaron’s Mix

6. Band  mix

7. Delay Master

8. Long Reverb Master

9. Short Reverb Master

10-11 Reference Recording Stereo  to M-Audio Fast Track Pro

14. Subs

15-16- F.O.H stereo mix

Learning Points and Notes

1. Light and Sound MUST have separate generators and their cabling must be routed way from each other. It a huge source of ghost buzzes and hums. 

2. Battery checks (for mics and DIs) 30 mins before a show are mandatory...a lot of mics tend to die when the biggest act is on stage or when the MC has cracked his best joke yet.

3. The strongest link to any music for live TV production is the communication between backstage, stagehands and F.O.H. If there's no teamwork and clear responsibility lines between this guys then sit back and wait for disaster

4. There's nothing as too much rehearsal and proper practice. ( I now agree with you, Heidi)

5. A script can save your life and that of a show.

6. Always make sure the antennae are working. No one ever remembers that RF interference and irregular antennae placement can lead to dropped mic signals or even to complete death microphones that were previously working

7. Always record whatever your sending out (mixes, broadcast etc) as they make great reference points for your work, in addition to being irrefutable proof for solving any audio fidelty disputes

8. Your average "sound engineer" from any Kenyan TV station is an ex KBC electrician from Kenya Poly who wears a white lab-coat or safari khaki waist-coat with many pockets and carries a pliers........(kill me now.)

9. Some one somewhere will inevitably drop the ball and cause a crisis. Be calm.  Trouble Shooting, Teamwork and delegation will solve it in minutes.                  

10. The true test of good work is; if no one remembers to give you a credit for great engineering. As a rule of thumb the audience and client will only remember the engineer if there were "technical problems".

11. Remember TIA: THIS IS AFRICA; make it work with what you have; demanding for a Digico D5 and $400 DIs is not clever… as no one has the budget; but also agreeing to deliver 15 mixes with Mackie 1202 mixer is could be considered as the height of engineering folly

By Tim Rimbui for TheMtaaBlog Copyright 2011

 Crew

Director: Heidi Ulys

Producer: Matthew gray

F.O.H Dome: Tim Rimbui 

Assistant F.O.H: Moses Onyango

Broadcast Mix: Martin Makasi and Tim Rimbui

System Tech: Eugene Koetze

Assistant System Tech: Brian Marende

Band Tech: Joe Were

Runners: Martin, Audi, Geideon, Lawi,Sharon, Lucy

Equipment and Backline Provided By: Frame 24- SA

            LiveGigs

            EnnovatorMusic

           Joe Were

Eric Musyoka: Profile (Producer Engineer)

Any one that has lived in Nairobi over last 10 years and listened to radio must have heard the auditory signature “beat ya Musyoka”; synonymous with writing and producing catchy hooks and crafting killer songs, Eric Musyoka is one of the most influential music producers working in Nairobi right now. A man of man many talents, Musyoka holding is his own as a busy live, studio engineer and also finding time to work with a diverse array of bands and single acts such as pop heavy weights/MAMA award nominated P.UNIT, Afro/electro pop trio JustaBand and even the dazzling Nikki. TheMtaaBlog managed to catch up him at his Decimal studio where he was gracious enough to give us a one on one in-depth interview

Enjoy!

Who are you?

I am Eric Musyoka; I love music with all my heart. I run a recording studio known as Decimal. Its part of Decimal Media, a business involved with all aspects audio work and music.

Your early beginnings as an audiophile

I Initially I belonged to a rap group Nannoma when we were in high school. I was in charge of producing the music for the group. We met Mohamud Omar, Mandugu Digital and Ogopa Deejays who helped us record our first song around 1998. I was producing then but it was more of directing to the “real producers” what we wanted.

My biggest influence though came from listening to bands performing at annual shows when I was growing up in Machakos. I had a burning desire to know how they did what they were doing. I started drumming tins and when we moved to Nairobi, I was able to enroll for music classes in Primary school.

There was a studio located with the school and seeing Five Alive recording spurred the interest to pursue music as a career, though I didn’t know how to approach my parents and let them know what I wanted. But with time, I got more exposed to western music and the like of Dr Dre and Timbaland. By then the music scene in Kenya was ripe for me to venture into and in 2001 I left my music group Nannoma to pursue life as music producer.

In 2003 I got the opportunity to work at Homeboyz. It was there that I discovered my full potential as a producer. I was able to horn my skills and get the insight of what it was like being a music producer and sound engineer.

What is in your tool box (hardware software, mics, monitors, DAW) and why

My studio is centered on a console-less set-up. I mix entirely in the box and do my summing outside through analog compression but I still return it to the box. This allows me the freedom to invest in what really matter – Good Pre-amps and Mics and plug-ins. I do plan to get a console but my current set-up is small for the console I would like to have.

My main Pre-amps are Focusrite ISA-One’s and Platinum series, and a Presonus 8 channel pre-amp for drums and multiple micing set-ups. I prefer the Focusrite as they are affordable and I used them extensively in audio school so I know what to expect from them. My mics include, a Neumann, Rode, Sennheisers, Audio Technica, AKG’s and Shure Microphones. My choice of microphones is determined a lot by where am to use the Microphone. I have mics for most of my basic and everyday requirements.

I monitor through Yamaha NS-10 with a Sub Woofer. I prefer the NS-10 because I find them flat and very realistic. They also don’t fatigue your ears hence I can listen to them for longer periods without taking a break. Also I can’t blast them so much so that controls my desire to mix and listen to music LOUD. I also have some M-Audio BX-5’s for my mobile rig.

My DAW of choice is Pro Tools. I know it inside out, BUT I also use Logic Pro extensively for Composing. Each has its own strength. I do a lot of audio editing on Pro Tools as I find it easier to navigate through BUT I find it difficult to quickly put down ideas on to. So for that I jump to Logic Pro.

What can't you do without and why (hardware  and software)

I cannot do without my Mac Book and MBOX. Because it affords me the flexibility of working anywhere I want as long as my laptop has power given our power situation in the country. My Pro Tools HD Rig gives me the flexibility spread out the workload on my machine so I am able to get more from my system without taxing my computer. I am able to do complex mixes of up to 192 tracks without a glitch…… this allows me to experiment a lot. It came in handy for a film project I was working on and I really loved what I was able to do with it. I just loved it! It was superb. It the best investment so far in the studio

Walk us through your work process from brain fart (rough idea) to finished song

Most of my ideas come outside the studio, in traffic, or just at home. I record to my phone and then when I get to the studio I redo the songs now properly. I rarely sit down and compose music. It has never worked for me. Once the idea is down, I built around it. Sometimes it takes a few minutes, other times you need to add a guitarist or a keyboard player to complete the picture. Then I get it to the client/ artist. If they like, we record any remaining parts e.g. vocals, mix it and do all necessary edits then deliver it as a complete product ready to be heard.

Specific Production Cuts: Ha-He(JustaBand) Juu Tu Sana (P-UNIT)

Walk us through the making of the tracks: from pre production to Mix

Ha-He for Just-a-Band was my “Billie Jean Moment” My wife was using the car that day so I had to take a bus to work. I happened to enter a “boom twaaf” and I remember I conversation I had with JAB of how will Kenyan’s appreciate their perspective on art and music. So as I was watching the music video I thought - what sound will be unique to JAB but still endear them to Kenyans without sounding too foreign So I began chanting the Ha-He’s in the song and as usual my phone at hand with fellow passengers thinking am mad….. Ha- He was born. I made the track in say 1 Hour and by the time I gave it to JAB, it had a Chorus and all they had to do was add the verses, Jim also added the synth at the bridge and we had Bill come record it and within a month it was all ready

As for P-Unit…… lets just say in my recording history I have never ever recorded a bunch or creative guys like them. They compose on the go and each idea is always fantastic. The only need direction on how to execute the idea but any producer would love to record such a group. Most of their music is computer sequenced so once they give me an idea, I start working on the track, and it may take a few days or a few minutes to create it. They listen and we adjust accordingly. There are a few joints that I have created a track before and they jam to it e.g Juu Tuu Sana KArE! and Hapa Kule. Hapa Kule was for another artist who said the track was WHACK!

When it comes to mixing, I mix all the songs in a similar format. I also record all the same except when there is a specially requirement e.g. stereo micing or choirs. I record to Pro Tools and transfer all the elements from Logic to Pro Tools if the song was done in Logic. But at times I may do all in Logic but transfer the stems to Pro Tools for finalizing. I mix all my Vocals first, they are the most tasking since the track would have been touched during composing. I treat each song differently depending on the feel am going for.

For HA-HE we were going for a retro look, a 70’S vibe on the vocals. We used auto tune slightly and a phone effect with gentle distortion through out. Depending on the vocalist, I can at times double the take and process a separate one differently then gently blend it with the original. That technique I use a lot with singers but at time I use it on rap vocals. My vocals will always be INFRONT of everything else. They ate the center stage. The rest of the elements are mixed around the vocals…

Audio Post for TV:  Changes

Walk us through what you do.

On Changes (TV Series) , I am the Music Supervisor and Post Production Director. I over see all the music submitted by other composers for the show and make sure that it suits the mood and theme of the show. I sit with the Producers and Directors and sieve through the music collection submitted to us to determine what to use and where to use.

I am also involved in composing the main mood music that accompanies the show. This music is what carries the scenes and creates the emotional aspect of the show. Any additional songs that are required for specific scenes I have to compose that too.

Then I am involved in the final mixing of the show. I ensure that the music balances well with the ambiance, effects and dialogue and that the quality is up to the standards set by MNET. This is the part that I love doing. It’s the most creative aspect of the work and also challenging. I feel that am well utilized when it comes to mixing and balancing all the elements to make it as realistic and entertaining as possible.

Interface of being a producer who can engineer or engineer who can produce. ?

 As time passes am becoming more of an engineer than a producer. I am leaning so much into the technical aspect of sound. The producer side enables me to see the end product in more detail and to be able to steer it to the desired end. As a producer I appreciate my understanding of music and how to produce music. The sad part is that a Producer MUST has an engineer to do the work. An engineer doesn’t need a producer to work. You meet producers who cant record, or even know what microphone to use where and when So its an added advantage being and engineer who can produce, because you are able to apply your engineering skills to improve your product. If am recording a biug choir, I need to know how to set-up the session in a way to get he best sounds. If I have a good choir and an engineer who can’t record the choir well, what’s the use?

Music Business; Running a record label in Africa: how do you do it. Highs or Lows?

 As far as running the label is concerned, I am green in that area. That’s why for now am handling P-Unit to see how things go and how well I can do it. For me the reason I have a record label is to be albe to collect a huge catalogue of music that I own and that I can use in future as an asset for the company. So far I can’t say I have seen many challenges given that P-UNIT is our first release. We have Nikki and Monique on the way but mostly they handle many of the management aspects on their own.

How do you protect your intellectual Property?

I am a member of K.A.M.P so I register al my music through K.A.M.P and M.C.S.K. Kenya Copyright Board has made it mandatory to copyright any music released by musicians in the country which I think is a good step. Also I keep all my publishing rights to any compositions that I am involved in through Decimal Media. So there is always a paper trail for everything.

Selected Discography:

(List of Selected Production Work)

Ha-He – Just-a-Band

Biceps- Juliani

Juu Tuu Sana – P-Unit

Am Leaving – Nikki

Nipe Nikupe – AY

Leta Wimbo – Sema

Keroro – Nonini

Kushoto Kulia – P-Unit

Finally the Question every one wants to know: Are you Mac or Pc?

 Mac FOREVER courtesy of Steve Jobs and Mac-n-More Solutions….. Why settle for less!!!

1. Virus Free......
2. Stable and reliable
3. Good looking……. STNNING is actually the word
4.  No funny 3^rd party  parts from funny Asian Countries…..* ( Ed Note: Aren’t all macs now made in China?)
5. Fantastic Display and Graphics
6. Then there was Logic Pro…..
7. Then Steve Jobs created iTunes, and iPods….. and it was never the same again!
8. It hangs once in a year….. PC hangs all the time like a 58 Kondi…..
9. All Professionals use it….. including me!
10. Its always the first to come up with revolutionary ideas e.g Fire Wire 400 and 800, PCIe, Quad Core, Expose, Dock, Unibody, Track pad, Quick Time, iTunes, Safari ……. Then PC’s play catch up later when the technology is almost obsolete

Musyoka’s  Arsenal

• Mac Book Pro
• Apple G 5
• Pro Tools HD
• MBox 2
• Logic Pro 9
• Focusrite ISA-One
• Focusrite Platinum series
• Presonus 8
• Audio Technica 2020 pair
• Neumann TLM 193,
• Rode NT1-A,
• sE 5600a tube mic. 
• Yamaha NS-10 with a Sub Woofer
• M-Audio BX-5
• MPC 2000
• KORG Triton

As we leave Musyoka to do what he knows best, baking auditory masterpieces…it is obvious he is an apple fanboy to a fault…living in the moment, finding contentment in what he does.

By RT for TheMtaaBlog copyright 2011