Rockn'M Studio

    As of this month I'm abandoning regular blogging and this page will now be dedicated to information about my studio, Rockn'M Productions.

    Various post on the blog told about my career as a musician and music producer/engineer. I've been working with recording equipment since buying my first tape machine, a Realistic 2-Track with Sound on Sound. This was a system that allowed primitive multi-track recording, allowing one to layer sounds on over previous tracks. It was a destructive process...you only had one chance to get it right. Sometimes it worked great...others not so much.

    

    Later, I got a TEAC 3340 4-Track and that opened up a whole new world for me. It was an amazing machine, and I used it to make my first commercial recordings, right up to the point where I got my first job in a studio, a small 4 track that mostly did radio ads, but I would work at night on music. Fast forward to the 90s and the emergence of digital technology which put professional recording into musician's homes. In 2000 I moved to Nashville and eventually ran a boutique studio that specialized in recording demos for songwriters.

    Today, Rockn'M Studios is housed in a former storage room in my garage that I remodeled last year. I have all I need to record in a comfortable, efficient environment that enhances creativity and helps artist achieve their vision. This includes microphones, processing equipment, computers and software. Most recently I got an Alesis electronic drum set that uses high quality digital samples to give us 50 great sounding drum sets. Microphones are the heart of recording. Here is a partial list of ones I use:

AKG 414 Studio Condenser                                                                                                           CAD Large Diaphragm Condenser                                                                                                 CAD Tube Condenser                                                                                                                      Earthworks TC20 Omni                                                                                                                    Shure SM57 SM58                                                                                                                       MXL V67N, 441 Small Diaphragm                                                                                                Various Other Dynamic and Condensers

RATES:                                                                                                                                       $20/hr with a 3 hour minimum session. A planning meeting via phone or email is included beforehand at no charge so we can determine your needs and goals.

CONTACT: rocknm@charter.net

Please take a look at some of my past blogs for more information and contact me if you have any questions.

Singer/Songwriter Rick Millward lived and worked on the West Coast until moving to Nashville in 2000. He was part of the Music City songwriter community, collaborating with other artists and producing projects in his boutique studio, including two EMMY nominated soundtracks. Now in Southern Oregon, Rick has discovered a vibrant local music scene centered around the many tasting rooms which has led to a return to performing.

His records: "Limited Edition", "Home for Good", and “Loveland” are available on Spotify and other streaming platforms. His new recording, "Workin' On It", will be released later this year.

LOVELAND ON SPOTIFY

                          

                        

A Quiet Creative Space

     Home recording studios were huge game changers when they first appeared in the 90's. It was due to the development of analog to digital conversion hardware becoming cheaper and more ubiquitous, along with processing software.

Pete

    Successful musicians had previously had recorded at home but they were the few who could afford it. As early as the 70s Pete Townsend of The Who was a notable first who made demo recordings of his songs and experimented with early synthesizers for their album "Tommy". He and others installed tape recorders in their homes in order to work on their music before going into a professional studio. Some bands also tried making their records this way, like Led Zeppelin who famously recorded at Hadley Grange mansion, using the cavernous foyer to record drums.

    Digital recording was invented in the 70s and by the 80s had begun to replace analog tape recorders, with digital music recorded on tape as a step along the way. The real breakthrough came when storage became more compact and affordable with the development of the hard drive. Hours of content could be created and stored in a compact format and easily worked with. One simple advancement was that the need to wait for a tape to rewind was eliminated, a huge time saver and aid to creativity.

    Software that could mimic the multi-track function came along about the same time and began a progression that has led to the ability to have a high quality recording system on a laptop for a fraction of the cost of a studio. The only drawback was monitoring. In order to listen on speakers it still is necessary to have an acoustically treated space; one that is "flat", that is, reproduces all frequencies equally. This still requires expensive construction and a larger space. As a result professionally built studios still have value, but they are less in use, sometimes just to provide a trusted reference for a project created elsewhere.

    I've had home studios in one form or another as soon as I could afford the equipment, and I've seen the professional studio lose its dominance over the last 25 years. I miss it though. There was something very special about entering a studio; the unnatural hush was like a sanctuary, the room dim, just lit with the lights on the equipment. This is something I've tried to reproduce with my own space. 

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Singer/Songwriter Rick Millward lived and worked on the West Coast until moving to Nashville in 2000. He was part of the Music City songwriter community, collaborating with other artists and producing projects in his boutique studio, including two EMMY nominated soundtracks. Now in Southern Oregon, Rick has discovered a vibrant local music scene centered around the many tasting rooms. 

His records: "Limited Edition", "Home for Good", and “Loveland” are available on Spotify and other streaming platforms. His new recordings, "Astronomy", will be released later this year.

LOVELAND ON SPOTIFY

Keeping Up

     My song list is almost exclusively made up of  #1 hits. These tunes are instantly recognizable and part of the joy of performing them is seeing the audience's reaction. For instance I can almost guarantee I'll see a woman's face will light up when I hit the first notes of Stevie Nick's "Landslide".

    

"Landslide"

Typically, I give a short intro about the song without giving away the title or artist so it's a bit of a surprise when I start. These are songs from well known bands and singers, many of whom are still touring today, 50 years after their initial success. That this music resonates for so many is because it was popular when they were young and carefree. Most of us stop listening and other things become more important in our lives; careers, family and other interests. Another big reason is that pop music is associated with courting.

    But the music industry is continually creating new recordings, and new artists become popular as each generation comes of age.  Some songs lend themselves to being reinterpreted and can become part of a later time. One recent example is Tracy Chapman's hit "Fast Car", that was redone as a country song and found a whole new appreciation. Songs like these can become "standards", part of the larger culture. This is less prevalent these days, I think for two reasons: 

    First, the amount of music being released is enormous and second, it's more derivative of earlier work and so less likely to catch on. This isn't a criticism of quality, more that it's difficult to be original and fresh. Another reason is that a hit song isn't interpreted by other artists at the same time, which was common in the past, which led to songs becoming timeless, like "Autumn Leaves".

    For me this means that as I've embarked on a mission to include some newer songs I've found it a challenge to find ones that I think will both fit my style and complement those from my generation, but not impossible. As a result I've added songs from Sheryl Crow, John Mayer and, yes, Taylor Swift that I believe will stand the test of time. 

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Singer/Songwriter Rick Millward lived and worked on the West Coast until moving to Nashville in 2000. He was part of the Music City songwriter community, collaborating with other artists and producing projects in his boutique studio, including two EMMY nominated soundtracks. Now in Southern Oregon, Rick has discovered a vibrant local music scene centered around the many tasting rooms. 

His records: "Limited Edition", "Home for Good", and “Loveland” are available on Spotify and other streaming platforms. His new recordings, "Astronomy", will be released later this year.

LOVELAND ON SPOTIFY

A Quick Look Back

     It's hard to make the transition from December to January without feeling like we are crossing a bridge into new territory, when in fact New Year's Day is an arbitrary endpoint. Actually every day is New Years and we might be better off not making such a big deal about it.

    Nevertheless, this is the time we collectively take stock of the previous twelve months and make some observations about how things went and make some plans for the future. This time last January we were standing at the bottom looking up at a mountain of tasks to climb; bookings, house projects, the Studio, and all the inevitable unforeseen sideswipes on the highway of life. The common thread has been the discipline of practicing, making time each day, with a steady succession of dates serving as mileposts along the way. I'm a list maker and this year started with a long one

   Looking back, one thing loomed large; I wasn't completely confident about how well I was performing. I was, in my mind, making too many mistakes and dumb ones too. It seemed like the slightest distraction would trigger a "clam" (musician-speak) even in simple songs, and no amount of practicing would help. I came to realize it was a mental problem and so I worked at keeping focus, and over time it improved. I can confidently say I've become better; a never ending process.   

The Studio is done and I'm looking forward to working in it, and have several songs in progress already. This was another thing that I didn't really appreciate was affecting my mental state. Because of other more pressing projects, mostly involving paint, I didn't get moving on it until Fall but once it got going I started to see the end of the tunnel and the result was worth the effort. I'm particularly pleased I finished before the really cold weather came, even though it took a month longer than planned.

   It's not always that you end a year feeling like you achieved your goals. I had very specific things I wanted to do and I'm looking back at a list with (almost) everything crossed off. Now it's time to make a new one.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Singer/Songwriter Rick Millward lived and worked on the West Coast until moving to Nashville in 2000. He was part of the Music City songwriter community, collaborating with other artists and producing projects in his boutique studio, including two EMMY nominated soundtracks. Now in Southern Oregon, Rick has discovered a vibrant local music scene centered around the many tasting rooms. 

His records: "Limited Edition", "Home for Good", and “Loveland” are available on Spotify and other streaming platforms. His new recordings, "Astronomy", will be released later this year.

LOVELAND ON SPOTIFY

Continuous Improvement

    "Kaizen" is a compound of two Japanese words that together translate as "good change" or "improvement." However, Kaizen has come to mean "continuous improvement" through its association with concentrated methodology and principles.

"The word refers to any improvement, one-time or continuous, large or small. However, given the common practice in Japan of labeling industrial or business improvement techniques with the word kaizen, particularly the practices spearheaded by Toyota, the word kaizen in English typically is applied to measures for implementing continuous improvement." (Wikipedia)

    One of the key elements is the concept of daily practice and here's where it coincides with music and it's also where the "zen" comes in. For me, zen is about the ability to have a calm focus as one completes a task. In the past I had a tendency to rush my work, not being attentive to process but the end goal, and then not always achieving a good outcome. Once I understood that "slow and steady wins the race", I started having more success. It's a craftsman's approach; every step is done with care to insure the desired result.

    When I started taking piano lessons I was required by my parents and teachers to practice every day for 30 minutes. It was torture at first, but after a while as I improved, I started enjoying  the learning process. When I switched to guitar it was the same; at first I spent hours in my room practicing, mostly learning songs off records, but when I started playing in bands I stopped practicing in favor of rehearsing. As a result I only became moderately proficient, which was fine for playing in bars, and never quite mastered the instrument. Songwriting and recording demos don't necessarily demand a virtuoso ability either so I was content for the most part to plod along with occasional flashes of brilliance.

    That changed when I returned to performing. When I began I had to learn a bunch of songs pretty quickly which meant I returned to practicing every day. It was one thing to learn enough songs to do a gig, but another to actually do them perfectly. Every song had some challenging passage with intricacy that was beyond my ability and I found that I had to spend time every day to work on specific parts. 

    It's taken some time, but recently I realized that this has paid off. I've gotten a handle on the passages that eluded me and that's rewarding and confidence building. I've also discovered that I can learn new things faster which is a benefit I didn't anticipate. Even though I knew about "Kaizen" and had found it useful for business, it really applies to everything you wish to master.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Singer/Songwriter Rick Millward lived and worked on the West Coast until moving to Nashville in 2000. He was part of the Music City songwriter community, collaborating with other artists and producing projects in his boutique studio, including two EMMY nominated soundtracks. Now in Southern Oregon, Rick has discovered a vibrant local music scene centered around the many tasting rooms. 

His records: "Limited Edition", "Home for Good", and “Loveland” are available on Spotify and other streaming platforms. His new recordings, "Astronomy", will be released later this year.

LOVELAND ON SPOTIFY

Studio Update - Motivation

     As I wrote a while back, I had set up a temporary studio in the garage space to work on some projects and as often happens it stayed that way longer than I intended. The truth is that once everything was in there it was daunting to contemplate taking it all apart. 

Motivation

    What finally got me going was a lull in bookings and going on a short vacation to the ocean. This may be a universal thing, but when I'm on a trip after a few days of leisure I start thinking about the things I want to accomplish, large and small. Maybe that's a function of getting recharged. At any rate, when we got back I dove into the room...almost.

There was kind of a Tetris game that had to be played with the stuff that was already in the garage proper.

    Before I could begin I needed to add some storage in the garage which involved getting some materials to build some shelves and put a floor in the attic. I try to use recycled materials and we have a Habitat for Humanity store nearby. I got some salvage plywood ($1 a sheet!) some 2x4s and a bag of 3" screws and spent an afternoon to put it all together. Now that I had a place to put it all, I started taking the studio apart. It took a couple of hours to dismantle everything and get it out of the way.

Progress!

    Now with the room empty I could tackle the first task; insulation. Off to Home Depot where I also got 8 sheets of wall board. This room wasn't built using the standard eight foot ceilings...they are the same height as the garage...10 feet...so there was a lot of extra work including putting wallboard in a closet and the storage space above it. As of now I'm about halfway through getting it all taped, which includes a fair amount of redoing some past work on the exterior wall. This room was intended to be storage so those walls were just perfunctorily finished.

    Another thing I was looking for at Habitat was a replacement for the old single pane garage window. I'd check in there once a week to see if one that fit had been donated and I'd just about given up hope when the perfect one showed up. Getting the original removed took a day because it had been installed with the siding over the window flange, which meant that I had to carefully cut around the window to get it out and prepare for the newer window. More extra work...

    There's an old saying, "A rested field will produce a bountiful crop". What I realized is that between other projects, gigs and the everyday stuff I was just too distracted. Once I took a step back, basically doing nothing for a few days but walk on the beach, I was able to reactivate my motivation. 

    By slowing down, just a little, I opened up some space to look at the project not as a chore, but something enjoyable, a journey to be taken for it's own sake. It will take some time and simply accepting that gave me the energy to get going on it. 

Also, while at the beach we made a video of a new song that I'll put out next month.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Singer/Songwriter Rick Millward lived and worked on the West Coast until moving to Nashville in 2000. He was part of the Music City songwriter community, collaborating with other artists and producing projects in his boutique studio, including two EMMY nominated soundtracks. Now in Southern Oregon, Rick has discovered a vibrant local music scene centered around the many tasting rooms. 

His records: "Limited Edition", "Home for Good", and “Loveland” are available on Spotify and other streaming platforms. His new recordings, "Astronomy", will be released later this year.

LOVELAND ON SPOTIFY

Something in Common

      The Beatles had been playing regularly in Liverpool for a couple of years when an enterprising promoter booked them for an extended time in Hamburg in 1960. The next two years would see them in and out of various nightclubs in the city and it matured them as performers.

1960

    This was an apprenticeship. They expanded their song list, began writing and most of all learned how to entertain an audience. Unlike the teen clubs in Liverpool, these were rough venues in bad parts of town, frequented by all manner of shady characters and fringe types and the young lads also got a number of life lessons along the way. They emerged as seasoned performers who were prepared for the success they would soon get when they returned to England. 

TS  at 15

   

    Similarly, Taylor Swift began her career at a young age. Her family moved to Nashville when she was still a teenager and she paid her dues rising through the ranks of the many aspiring musicians who gravitate to Music City. In Nashville the road to recognition is through playing showcases and songwriter nights in hopes of attracting attention from record labels. After several years of this Taylor was chosen as an opening act for a touring band, and this led to more touring and a recording contract in 2005. 

   

    In my own way, I had something of the same experience. Way back when a band I formed was hired to be the house band at a little bar and we ended up working 9PM-2AM four nights a week for almost a year. It was a pretty rough place with a rowdy crowd and frequent bar fights. One day we showed up and another band was setting up...that's how we learned we were replaced. Looking back, I still am amazed we lasted so long. I believe one reason we did was that we were constantly learning new songs and keeping up with the hits on the radio. Though I didn't understand it at the time, I was learning my craft and now that I'm performing again I sometimes get flashbacks from those days.

    It's an axiom that someone must to "pay their dues" in order to be successful. What it means is immersing oneself in the game, to commit fully 100% to becoming proficient at what you aspire to achieve. There really is no substitute for these kinds of experiences. It also means starting at the bottom, and building a strong foundation of the fundamentals.

    There are a number of TV shows and online talent contests that promise aspiring performers overnight success if they win the competition. It often doesn't pan out for the contestants and one of the reasons is that despite winning, the performer isn't actually ready for wider exposure. One exception was the country singer Carrie Underwood, who won "American Idol" in 2004 at age 21. While being extremely talented, she also had been performing professionally and earning a college degree before the show. She actually had gotten some interest from a record label when she was 15, but it fell through and she has been quoted as saying it was actually fortunate because she wasn't ready.

    Not everyone can be a Beatle or this generation's "Beatles", Taylor, but it is possible to become as good as you can be, if you just put in the time and effort. It can be arduous, painful, and heartbreaking at times, but it can also be rewarding beyond one's expectations.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Singer/Songwriter Rick Millward lived and worked on the West Coast until moving to Nashville in 2000. He was part of the Music City songwriter community, collaborating with other artists and producing projects in his boutique studio, including two EMMY nominated soundtracks. Now in Southern Oregon, Rick has discovered a vibrant local music scene centered around the many tasting rooms. 

His records: "Limited Edition", "Home for Good", and “Loveland” are available on Spotify and other streaming platforms. His new recordings, "Astronomy", will be released later this year.

LOVELAND ON SPOTIFY