Andy Waterman's Cloudbursts

We're All in This Together

Andy Waterman Productions is proudly starting our fifth year as recording producer for John Jacobson's Music Express Magazine published by Hal Leonard. Janet Day, Editor-in-Chief, asked me to produce the theme song, We're All in This Together, from Disney Channel's High School Musical. This made-for-cable movie musical has become a huge hit. I had no idea.

That is... until we recorded the accompanying Music Express Interview with our young host Lauren Frost interviewing High School Musical cast members Zac Efron and Monique Coleman. After the interview, our session singers (adults, might I add) working in the other room mobbed Zac and Monique for their autographs. Ostensibly for their kids...but who knows for sure?

These kids are hot! With ratings of over four million viewers, this movie musical has become the highest rated program in the history of the Disney Channel. And I believe it's an interesting trend indicator as well.

In a country where arts education is increasingly marginalized or eliminated from school curriculums - where being in the school band, chorus, or drama department is perceived as uncool or nerdy - this show celebrates the incredible opportunity for personal expression that music offers young people.

For me, High School Musical, recalls the passion of wanting to entertain and put on a great show. It's also about overcoming the obstacles along the way that keep us from reaching our goals. And more than anything else, it reminds me how music keeps us young and in touch with the next generation.

My goal on every session is to remember the enthusiasm and raw passion for music and performance that I had when I was part of my own high school musical.

Mono Mixing

Dear Andy,

When I mix in my home studio, the sound field and ambience sounds weird when I listen in mono.  What's the problem?

Radio-Head

Dear Radio-Head,

Important question - does anyone still listen in mono?  The answer is...they should.  Here's why.  Mono compatibility is often a revealing indicator of overall good balance and a mix that will ultimately sound good on lots of systems.

First, as you build your mix, try slightly closing the pan pots on some of your stereo images.  Stereo piano and other stereo elements often will hold their sonic personality better by not being 100% panned.

For a real radical approach, try taking some of your stereo images - especially synth patches - and "mono-ize" them.  Then pan those sounds like organs, stereo guitars or clavinets to one side or the other of the stereo field.  This can open up huge amount of sonic space in the mix and leave more room for vocals, pumping bass sounds and driving drums that, more or less, have to be in the center.

Finally, try building your mix with the mono button on.  After all the parts are in good balance, switch to stereo.  You'll be amazed how your mixes will hold up better on multiple systems.

Good Luck!

The Boo Boo Bell

It's not like singing in the shower!

After all... in that venue, anyone with a loofah sponge mic and hot and cold running accompaniment sounds fabulous. Pitch, lyrics, timing...everything's perfect.

But singing in front of a live audience is an entirely different matter. You have to dress a little better for one thing. And what if you're recording that performance for a CD? Lot's of pressure to do it perfectly. Right?

Maybe not! 

The 4 Friends, who recently recorded their act at NoHo Studio Live, devised a brilliant antidote for perfectionism. They called it the Boo-Boo Bell. Here's how it worked:

Whenever anyone made a mistake, they simply rang the bell, acknowledged the boo-boo and did it over. At the end of the evening, the Friends got the CD they wanted, the audience was enchanted and everyone had a great time.

Even the Dalai Lama would have approved.

Why? Because he likes cabaret? Possibly. But it's more likely that he would have dug the very Zen-ish-ness of the evening. The performers, the audience, the recording crew were all very much in the moment and enjoying it.

And that's a guiding principle at Andy Waterman Productions. It's kind of a hair-brained...er, half-brained philosophy. Because the best sessions happen when the musicians leave their left brains at the door - when they are gently discouraged from analyzing, stressing, critiquing and second guessing. Wonderful and spontaneous things happen when the right brain is free to cast its spell.

Andy's core recording strategy is that music sounds best when the musicians performing it are in love with the process. He believes that the magic happens when the musicians and the music are in the moment - in "the place that is right now."

Okay, enough with the waxing philosophical.

Well, maybe one more thing. Can you imagine how much more enjoyable almost anything in life would be if we'd only stop and listen to our inner Boo-Boo Bell.

Click here to listen.

Long "Term" Memories

I wrote my first major term paper in 6th grade and titled it, "The History of Jazz." So working with the Side Street Strutters on their new CD was very nostalgic for me. As a budding young musician, I was totally...well, totally jazzed to learn how the music traveled up the Mississippi River soaking up African, European and quintessential American flavors along the way. How it evolved and mutated as riverboat musicians influenced local music scenes in Memphis, St. Louis and finally Chicago.

On this CD, like ambassadors from the future connecting America with its musical past, the Strutters take their fans on a journey that is entertaining, educational and delivers a virtuosic showcase of the last 100 years of American music.

Recording this CD, I kept wondering what W.C. Handy, Louis Armstrong or Bix Beiderbecke would have thought of a recording session in today's digital world of samples, copy and paste, loops and auto tune?

Believe it or not, I think they would have felt completely at home at the Strutter's session.

Oh, we didn't ask the musicians to gather around a huge gramophone horn, or - as often happened in the 20's - for the drummer to play on a box because real drums would cause the stylus to skip out of its groove. Bix might have questioned having more than one mic on the drums or the piano being mic'd in stereo.

"What's stereo, man?"

But in almost every other way we recorded just like Louis did on hundreds of recordings - straight ahead, live, no overdubs. Like the founding fathers of the recording industry, the Strutter's secret sauce is musicianship - honed and perfected with thousands of live appearances. My job in the studio was to get technology out of the way and capture this incredible band much as if they were recording at RCA studios in the 1930's.

From 6th grade until now, I continue to be attracted to the history of American Music. On all the CDs I produce and engineer, I try to bring to the project the appropriate technology and recording environment that will deliver the best musical results. This is especially important as we travel back to Bourbon Street and the roots of America's indigenous art form.

Click here to listen.

Memoirs of a Drug Pusher

by Lauren Price

After 15 long years serving time as a pharmaceutical rep, I was happy (understatement) to stop schlepping from office to office and retire my sample bag in favor or a new career.

And what could be more different from calling on doctors than working with musicians and singers? That's what I would have thought.

Ah, but I was wrong!

As a rep - you know, those annoying people who breeze right into the doctor's office while you're cooling your heels in the waiting room reading magazines from the last century - I called on all kinds of specialists. And what became obvious was that, within specialties, practitioners had very similar personality traits. Not only similar, but consistently, predictably, and unerringly the same.

Turns out, it's the same with musical people

For example, take a typical rhythm section. These guys are fun and easygoing but are also great problem solvers. They're way cool, hip and dialed into all the latest trends.

Tell them, "I'm looking for an ethnic Mongolian groove with Afro-funk influences for a Tuvan throat singer" and they nail it by the second take.

Want to hear the latest jokes? Hire horn players! Aside from being fun and boisterous, they exude an aura of macho self-confidence. Who hasn't heard the horn player mantra of, "Ok, let's make it." And if it's not perfect by the second take, it's probably the copyist's fault.

String players. These folks are very particular, precise and focused. They have a very empathetic relationship with their environment - it has to be just right.

But often in the studio world, the music stands are too high or too low, the lights too bright or too dim, the chairs too hard, too soft or too non-ergonomic. And as for the A/C - well, it's never, ever right.

Singers are charming, dramatic and not surprisingly ...very verbal. Oh how they love talking about music. In fact, talking about it is almost a prerequisite to actually singing it. And are they ever versatile.

This is a typical singer comment: "Let me show you what it would sound like if I was born in Finland, studied in South Africa and I was currently living in Tokyo. And it actually does sound exactly like that. Hilarious!

Here's the biggest difference between doctors and musicians

When I was calling on doctors, one of their favorite expressions was, "Sounds good!" Of course, this was usually uttered as they were inching away from me in an attempt to end the conversation. (Even as I was delivering a brilliant discourse on why my drug was the safest, most efficacious, most blah, blah, blahest drug on the market.)

But when a musician says, "Sounds good," it has an entirely different meaning. And, to me, that makes all the difference in the world.

Overheard

The Young Vocal Artists of Los Angeles were waiting to start their vocal session. And as singers often do, they were discussing music:

A virtuoso is a musician with real high morals.

When electric currents go through them, guitars start making sounds. So would anybody.

Probably the most famous fugue was the one between the Hatfields and McCoys.

My very best liked piece of music is the Bronze Lullaby.

My favorite composer is Opus.

Just about any animal skin can be stretched over a frame to make a pleasant sound once the animal is removed.

The 4 Friends at NoHo Studio Live

The 4 Friends, Brenda Silas Moore, Wayne Moore, Bryan Miller and Gilmore Rizzo, created a sparkling evening of music and fun based on their great friendship with each other. This lively and improvisational show was performed at NoHo Studio Live and will be released as their new CD.

Click here to listen.

Side Street Steppers' New CD - Back to Bourbon Street

Traditional jazz by the resident jazz band at Disneyland. The band members are Rob Verdi on tenor sax, Vince Verdi on clarinet, Roger Bissell on Trombone, Greg Varlotta on trumpet, John Noreyko on tuba, and both Mark Massey and Curtis Brengle on piano.

Jennifer Leitham

Cutting edge acoustic jazz by America's premiere female, left-handed bassist and composer. Scott Whitfield is producing the CD which features Josh Nelson on piano, Randy Drake on drums and special guest artist John Clayton on bass.

Click here to listen.

Kidzania

Advertising campaign and in-park music for inovative theme park in Monterey, Mexico.

Click here to listen.