The Latest on 'Current-Sounding'

[Len911]

My definition of current-sounding is anything with a teen or 20 something singing on.

[mrwonderful]

Yeah, right...it's gotten to the point where, given the market ever-drifting toward the 'Tween' set, there's actually a whole new genre out there. Around my house (my wife also thinks it's funny) we call it PHO.

What's 'PHO' stand for? 'Pubic Hair Optional'.

Not a Born Geezer, something musta just happened...

Jordy

[cardell]

I don't know that there's a single definition. Amy Winehouse was winning grammys a couple of years ago for productions that sounded like they came from 1965. So many influential artists get their influences from some bygone era it's hard to say what sounds current. I think great songs, performed well and simply produced will always be timeless... eo.

+1

Keith

Yes, I like Cee Lo Green for the same reason.

I do recognise the styles and sounds of the newer music, but i fail to write and produce that way.

I am stuck in a time warp. What are ya gonna do

I'm the same Paul. I've stopped trying to create current sounding tracks, now I'm concentration on using this situation to my advantage.

Let's make old sounding music and submit it to listings that require....old sounding music.

For example, I'm working on an early 90's thing right now: http://snd.sc/wojRfd ...why the hell fight it.

Stuart

[mojobone]

Ah, Taeko''s post jogged my memory; there's something I've been doing lately, a technique that might help with some styles, though usually not pop, as few pop songs use real drums, these days.(unless it's Neo-Soul or Retro-Soul) I've been playing along with certain very current, but old-school genre records (Dave Alvin, Jimmy Vaughan, Peter Wolf) on my Addictive drums and copping the rhythmic feel. (I record from the CD deck into the DAW, for convenience) I then mix and match drum kit pieces and tweak the sounds to get as close to the record as I can manage. It helps to read up on sessions in magazines like Mix and Sound On Sound to learn how drums and guitars were recorded on certain classic tracks, because the mic techniques and treatments get recycled quite a bit. For the retro kinds of stuff I do, a lot has to do with having the right instruments/sounds in the first place; with the rock'n'roll, it's actually pretty hard to screw up the mix, if you can get the sound right at the source. It's a lot of really pretty subtle things that add up to a really big thing.

I keep a stable of guitars; an early sixties reissue Strat, single-ply pickguard Tele, (meaning it has a capacitor on the neck pickup) a Samick semi hollow with dual humbuckers, configured Gibson-style, a Line6 Variax, a lap steel with a single P-90 and a Washburn dreadnought. These cover a lot of bases, when run through the dozens of amp sims in my POD X3L; though I'm a little hampered by having only one bass, I have over a dozen bass amp sims, and mixing and matching cab sims extends the capabilities that much further.

It helps with the retro stuff that there were only a few popular EQs and compressors back in the day, and three flavors of reverb: spring, plate and chamber. Also, that there were four flavors of electric piano, (Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Yamaha CP70 and Hohner Clavinet) three popular combo organs (Hammond, Vox, Farfisa) and the occasional harpsichord or Mellotron for all of the classic rock era. The tools back then were pretty T-Raxx crude; simple, but effective.

None of this helps you to sound 'modern', whatever that means, but paying attention to the instrument sounds at the source and then trying to cop the mixing style and mastering aesthetic might be the bones of a plan of attack...part of the key is that most pop and country music are mixed around the vocal, whereas rock is mixed from the drums up; these considerations and perhaps the use of cloning EQs could be at least instructive, if not useful. Toontrack is set to debut its new EZMix in few days, after which we can all jes' forget everything we know and use the presets.







(I'm keeding)

[ahoth]

I agree with Mazz; you need a target track (or genre at least) to compare with. OP, can you post an Ala and one of your own tracks so we can give some specific feedback?

Andre

[Casey H]

Andre!!
Long time no speak!! How are you?

Nice to "see" you again.

Casey

[ahoth]

Hi Casey...good to see you and some other familiar faces still around here. How are things?

[Rndre]

Hello George W.,

A lot of different genres are being referenced in today's pop music, but the majority of tracks borrow arrangement/production teqniques from house, trance, dance, urban/hip hop, and country(which I am not addressing here, since I think contemporary country doesn't make use of the following techniques).
To my concern a lot of the "contemporary" sound is hidden in the chords, and I'd like to reference the song "Domino" by Jessie J (prod. by Dr. Luke). The chords/arrangement of the song sounds very simple, but actually makes use of a very well-crafted (sophisticated?) riff in the chorus.
bassnote/Upperstructure chord:
c/D-G-D
a/C-G-C
e/H-G-H
d/C-G-C

This funk/disco-inspired progression makes use of both minor and major chords, but only uses 5-chords and minor triads, consequently avoiding major thirds, lending the progression a more edgy/sophisticated feel (as opposed to using of the somewhat trite major chord). I think the majority of contemporary sounding songs make use of a 4 chord progression, by gradually expanding the chords from one section to the next. "Domino", e.g., starts off with a simple 2-note riff, with the bass note being held on a G, and then expands as the song develops. This way of arranging is obviously inherent to dance and house music, but is used all around in contemporary music.
Artists that do make use of major sounding progressions, like Bruno Mars ("The Lazy Song", "Billionaire", "Forget You"), do it in the context of referencing old school soul, reggae, and Motown pop. I.e., they only get to use these "trite", major chords because they are using them in reference to cool/acknowledged, and mostly urban genres, and write lyrics using fresh metaphors and perspectives, with references to current trends in pop culture. I would even go as far as to say that, to a certain extent, Mars is sampling the sound of past generations, and merely adding new melodies, beats/drums and young lyrics, and perhaps changing up the song form.

The above written observations are obviously subjective generalizations, but nonetheless definitely some of the concepts I'm currently working with, and I'm sure they'll be useful for you.

Also, on a completely different note. I noticed you mentioning, how you "don't much care for popular music en masse these days." Do correct me if I'm reading too much between the lines, but I would strongly advise you to never to try imitate a production method/style or genre that you're not passionate about, or even despise- Your audience will always be able to tell, and you'll never love creating it. You might get all the synths, compression and beats right if you try hard enough, but it'll only sound like hallow flattery. Audiences/people, no matter of what genre or birth year, want honest appreciation of their culture/music, and will ignore your products/ideas until you can deliver this.

I hope this helped you!
P.S.: Natasha B. created some contemporary pop classics, no doubt, but she's pretty much out of the picture as of right now. I would aim at Adele instead, as her wave is still pretty high!

[guest4254]

Might also be helpful if you've got a certain artist in mind, to research or read an interview to find out what type of guitar/amp set up they used, and try emulating that.

[DesireInspires]

The easiest way to sound current is to work with young musicians. Working with younger musicians is a great way to energize your sound and to learn what works for listings. Seek out the youth and your sound will definitely improve.