Green (Money to be Made)

Green (Money to be Made) is the second heavy metal release from Tatius Wolff! This new single is the second in a series of fusion djent and 1990's style death metal.

This is the second track on my first single, Thumbscrews. It's available:

• YouTube - Green (Money to be Made)
• SoundCloud - Green (Money to be Made)

Theme

The theme behind this one is the military industry complex. I wanted to include Eisenhower's warning speech from 56 years ago. But unfortunately in the end it didn't make it into the song. So I'll put it here for anyone who's interested.

Transcript of excerpt from President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address (1961):

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United State corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

Home Recording Concepts - Gain Staging

Home Recording Concepts (DAW)

So when I started using a sound recording software or a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), it took me forever to get my head around it. Even today, you might watch a handful of YouTube videos on how to do something in your DAW, and they'll all be different and most of the time, they'll only explain what to do, not why they do it.

Traditional Recording

So to wrap my head around it, I used a bit of divide and conquer. I thought about how recordings were done back in the 1970's, and why they did what they did and how that applied to today.

Traditional Recording Setup

Conceptual Traditional Recording Diagram

So let's take the above setup. The guitarist sets their sound on their amp. The studio engineer positions the microphone for the best sound possible and everything is recorded onto tape.

• The audio signal coming out of the Instrument (guitar) is minuscule in signal power.
• Inside the Amplifier Head, there is a Pre-Amplifier and a Power Amplifier
• The Pre-Amp is taking this minuscule signal level, increasing it or preparing it for the Power Amp
• The Power Amp is about powering the speaker cabinet to make it loud.
• Outside the speaker cabinet, the volume level is pumping.
• The microphone will convert this back into a minuscule signal level,
• This goes into another Pre-Amplifier section of the Audio Recorder
• And the audio signal gets recorded to tape.

Digital Recording Setup

Conceptual Digital Recording Diagram

So why does this matter? Well, when you're recording on a laptop at lot of these steps are all merged together, and because they are all dependent on each other - get one wrong in the beginning, will make life difficult further down the chain.

Traditional Recording Process

So you'll hear the following terms mentioned sometimes and it's good to know what they mean, with some descriptions from Gain Staging 101 article.

Recording or Tracking

• Recording or Tracking to laying down the raw sound to a medium (tape or digital recording).
• During recording, the main priority is to accurately capture the performance with a good signal level, but without clipping (exceeding 0dB)

Mixing or Mix-Down

• After recording, during the mix-down, the main priorities are to…
• Apply volume adjustments, effects, EQ, compression and limiting to shape the sound of individual tracks so that they fit well (sonically) with the other tracks.
• Balance all the elements of the recording (tracks) in relation to one another to get the best possible complete picture.

Mastering

• After the mix-down, during the mastering process, the main priorities are to…
• Apply adjustments to the final mix (stereo or surround sound) including EQ, compression and limiting to maximize the recordings’ overall volume, and ability to play well on a variety of sound systems (car stereo, home stereo, etc.).
• If a complete album is being mastered, each song is also balanced for volume and overall tone in relation to the other songs.

Now remember these, because we'll talk about them a bit later below.

DAW Recording

My Engl Powerball II Amp Simulator (LePou/NadIR)

So looking at the Conceptual Digital Recording Diagram above, in the Digital Audio Workstation/Recording Device box, you will find all your recording plugins. An example of my guitar setup is shown above. Bearing in mind this is only for the Recording/Tracking stage, the plugin chain's entire purpose is to emulate the Traditional Recording Setup to the tape. If you zoom in on the plugins, you'll see:

• Electronic Tuner
• Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer simulator
• Engl Powerball II amplifier simulator
• Engl Pro 4 x 12" speaker cabinet emulator
• Analog tape emulator

At this point, what I'm recording to WAV file is as close as I'm going to (personally) get it to the Traditional Recording Setup.

DAW Mixing/Mastering

Guitar Mixing Plugins

I personally do all my recording work in one project, just to keep my own processes very separate. I usually export all my tracks to WAV files and import them into a "mixing" project. I find this separation helps me to keep focused on the task at hand.

The picture above shows my mixing plugins for my guitar track that I imported. Don't worry about the settings or the plugins themselves - this blog post is not about them specifically!

The output from this mixing track is ready to be summed into the mix bus and then ready for mastering. I have an equaliser, parallel compression and another analog tape emulator on my mix bus, before I go into mastering. And bear in mind I haven't mentioned Send/Return tracks for reverb, etc.

My mastering chain is simply small tweaks in equalisation, compression and a limiter.

What is Gain Staging?

We call this Gain Staging. From Wikipedia:

In audio engineering, a gain stage is a point during an audio signal flow that the engineer can make adjustments to the level, such as a fader (volume control) on a mixing console or in a DAW. Gain staging is the process of managing the relative levels in a series of gain stages to prevent introduction of noise and distortion. Ideal gain staging occurs when each component in an audio signal flow is receiving and transmitting signal in the optimum region of its dynamic range.

Here's a summary again from that great article Gain Staging 101:

• In the digital world, when recording from an instrument or microphone, the raw input maximum (not average) level you want to see on the software’s input meters is somewhere between -6 and -12dB.
• In the digital world, a cleanly recorded signal can be boosted significantly after being recorded with little or noticeable addition of noise. Rather than turning up the preamp too high, stop at 3 O’clock  (or don't peak above -6dB), and apply any additional gain at mix down.

Gain Staging In Your DAW

So as I mentioned in the beginning of the article, gain staging in your DAW is a bit more difficult because the separation between components is not physical or clearly defined.

Here's a summary from Sound On Sound's article, Gain Staging In Your Daw.

When you're using a professional audio interface, -12dBFS is broadly equivalent to the nominal signal peak levels on an analogue console, so there's no need to let your DAW's channel levels peak anywhere near 0dBFS

• Commonly, problems arise when you introduce plug-in effects and processors, because some are just not designed to operate well when presented with very hot (high) signal levels.
• You need to be aware of and manage the levels at every stage of your mix, and to be aware of the impact these levels have on your software's sonic performance.
• If you leave plenty of headroom right the way through your digital signal path, everything should be just fine.
• If you find that you need things louder when you're mixing, use the volume knob on your monitor.
• Gain-staging is about providing you with an (audio level) safety buffer.
• Avoid the archaic practice of recording levels as hot as possible, in order to maximise the signal-to-noise ratio of the digitally captured audio.
  (Update: I personally don't agree with this one and I've since maintained recording my guitars and bass "hot" as they seem to lose all their power otherwise.)
• Leave your faders at unity gain (0dB) when ensuring input signals have sufficient headroom (peak between -6dB and -12dB)
• Mastered reference tracks need to be lowered appropriately (-6dB) when used in comparisons.
• Unlike the digital audio level meters in your DAW, the VU meters of analogue consoles calculate that average over a relatively long time window (about 300ms). They provide a more effective indication of how close or far away the signal is to/from a suitable nominal level.
• You could, if you wished, insert virtual VU or PPM meters on every channel of your mix.
• Before you start mixing, set your initial channel input levels (faders) at around -6dB mark to allow sufficient headroom.

Dynamic Range (DR)

You might also hear this term mentioned - also good to know. The Dynamic Range or DR of an audio signal is the numeric difference in dB between the average (RMS) audio level and the highest peak dB level. There is a audio VST plug-in which measures this value for you, that I use all the time called TT Dynamic Range Meter. From my understanding and experience a DR of 14 is really good, while a DR of 8 is moving towards the lower range of the ratio. Highly compressed audio or highly distorted guitars will usually be around the 8 or 9 value.

Recommended dB Levels

So based of what we've talked about so far and been recommended by those much more educated that I, I'm going to go out on a limb (as I am not qualified at all to make this call at all) but to note it here for future reference (and it may change in the future as my experience grows).

Assume these dB values are from virtual VU or PPM meters (with approx 300ms attack time).

Stage Output Level	Average (RMS) dB Level	Peak dB Level	Ideal Dynamic Range
Recording Output	-20dB	-12dB to -6dB	8DR to 14DR
Mix Track Output	-20dB to -14dB	-6dB	8DR to 14DR
Mix Bus Output	-17dB to -11dB	-3dB	8DR to 14DR
Master Bus Output	-14dB to -8dB	-0.3dB	8DR to 14DR

Now I know a lot of sound engineers and I'd be really interested to hear what they have to say about my little table. Like I said earlier, these are just my thoughts and talk is cheap. They are not set in stone and as I learn more, I may very likely revisit these values. But hey - it's a great conversation starter!

Disclaimer

I am NOT an experienced sound engineer. I'm just a middle aged metal guitarist who likes to experiment with sound. What is written above is just the result of an experiment, my opinion and nothing more.

Debut Release - Thumbscrews!

The debut release of my first single, Thumbscrews, happened today. I'm really happy with it, being the first time I've ever done this kind of thing. No, I didn't sing on it - maybe I'll practice enough to try it on another one. But yes, it makes me very happy and proud, that at 43, father of four, I am able to release my first solo single!

Acknowledgements

Thanks to "The Missus", who allows me time away from our four kids to do stuff when I need too. No, I don't know how we manage it either, with four kids, but we chip in and hold the fort on our own whenever the other parent has something important to be done.

Theme

So, if you're curious as to what the theme is, it's about history repeating, the cycle of human nature and how we as humans, never seem to remember the past much to learn from it.

Yes, Thumbscrews (also known as "thumbkins" - the nursery rhyme just got creepy!) are a torture device. The whole process of watching society do the same mistakes over and over is torture to watch.

You'll hear excerpts from a 1934 speech by Winston Churchill, "The Threat of Nazi Germany". This is six years before World War 2 broke out. Ironically, if you listen to the entire speech, you'll see many of these same triggers in today's society, as Churchill foresaw in 1930's Nazi Germany, clearly evident in our own shift to the right over the past 30 years.

"... there dwells a nation of nearly seventy millions of the most educated, industrious, scientific, disciplined people in the world, who are being taught from childhood to think of war as a glorious exercise and death in battle as the noblest fate for man."

"There is a nation which has abandoned all its liberties in order to augment its collective strength. There is a nation which, with all its strength and virtue, is in the grip of a group of ruthless men, preaching a gospel of intolerance and racial pride, unrestrained by law, by parliament, or by public opinion."

"... the possibility of compelling the submission of nations by terrorizing their civil population; and, worst of all, the more civilized the country is, the larger and more splendid its cities, the more intricate the structure of its civil and economic life, the more is it vulnerable and at the mercy of those who may make it their prey. Now, these are facts, hard, grim, indisputable facts, and in the face of these facts, I ask again, what are we to do?"

Yes Mr Churchill - what are we to do?

Tatius Wolff - The Roman Standard Bearer!

Why the Roman soldier?

When I chose Tatius Wolff as a name, it was mainly because my nickname, Wolff, which was already taken by another band.

Tatius is a Roman given name without meaning - it's just a name.

A bit of research dug up that wolf (lupus) pelts were frequently worn by the Roman standard bearers of century and cohort units.

And so was born my alter-ego, Tatius Wolff.

A big thank you to Adam Fahey Illustration & merchandise for the design of the Tatius Wolff logo.