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ECHOES RADIO INTERVIEW
J. Arif Verner works with unusual sound designs in what he calls "three dimensional music." His instruments hover between acoustic and electronic models that seem to shift position on the horizon of his compositions. J. Arif Verner talks about his music and his new album, "A Vision Beyond Light." J. Arif Verner is a name we've come across in unusual places. He's been an engineer on the last few albums for synthesist David Borden and he's thanked in the liner notes for African musician Samite. Then we got a CD called "A Vision Beyond Light" by Verner himself. The CD revealed a mature sense of sound design and a penchant for atmospheric space that sounded like it started on keyboards from someone with a classical background. But J. Arif Verner is self- taught, and most of his orchestrations begin on guitar strings. Kimberly Haas hears J. Arif Verner's Electronic Impressionism. KH: For most synthesizer composers, the passion for new equipment can be ex- pensive. But J. Arif Verner has come up with a solution - he reviews equipment for trade magazines. AV: Since I do a lot of tech writing, I need to keep up with what's available. As I get products in my studio for review I play them and if I'm inspired I record them. It's convenient to be able to incorporate it into the music. A lot of times the gear will create an inspiration for some thing and you'll just run with it - something will just come out from the different sounds and different processing. KH: The results of Verner's product reviews can be heard on his CD, "A Vision Beyond Light." It's a sophisticated blend of sound design and atmospheric compositions. Although Verner has lots of equipment at his disposal, the philosophy of his sound can be found in the simplest instrument used on the album - an Aeolian wind harp. AV: Yes. I have a friend in Upstate New York. He lives on a farm way out in the middle of no where. He's a sculpturor and makes these things, they're just incredible. The harps are around twelve feet tall and there's about ten strings or so on them. He has them way out on top of a field. As you sit there the wind starts blowing and then the wind harps start singing and chiming and it just radiates through the air. It's incredible - so mesmerizing. KH: The simplicity of the windharp underlies J. Arif Verner's music. He thinks of sound as an environment, moving through space. AV: I guess you could say I'm an ambient composer but really there's two things that I'm concerned with. One obviously is the music composition but also within the music you have the timbres of the sound that actually can be breathing and alive. Okay, so if you can get this interacting with the music then you can create a kind of three dimensional sound stage. KH: You'd never know from listening to these compositions that J. Arif Verner actually started out as a guitar player. In fact, in the mid 1980s he put out an album called "Clear Colors" that was centered around his guitar compositions. AV: I wasn't doing electronics at that time. I had other people doing that. I was just just playing acoustic and electric guitar. The recording fidelity on the album isn't up to today's standards. However, I like the material and I'd really like to redo it. KH: Even in this early music you can hear the core of a J. Arif Verner's sound developing with his environmental, painterly approach to music. He still plays guitar, but he's been seduced by synthesizers AV: Well, the fact is that you have so much power. When I work with synths, I do a lot of programming. And the idea that you can go in at the gut level and change sounds, bend things, stretch them and come up with stuff that no one's ever come up with before is an incredible experience. And then the idea that you can do this stuff in a computer. You can layer it into a sequencer and make your own compositions. It's just wonderful! KH: Now Verner plays a guitar synthesizer that triggers' electronic sounds and samples. AV: The MIDI guitar is primarily a vehicle for inputting data into the computer. I also use keyboards. But I don't really consider myself a keyboard player although I can get around on keyboards. MIDI guitar tends to be kind of temperamental but if you're a guitarist you don't have a lot of choice. I've also used an instrument called a ZTAR. It looks like a guitar but instead of having strings, it has buttons on every fret - so it's kind of a combination between a synthesizer and a guitar. You push the buttons on the fret board and it triggers the sound. KH: Despite all his technology and button pushing, J. Arif Verner never forgets the pure simplicity of sound that he loves in the Aeolian harp. His compositions include many acoustic touches like the Finnish zither. On the piece, "In Lucid Dreams" he lays the main themes on the strings of an acoustic guitar. AV: I'm attracted to the idea of a merging of opposites - acoustic and electronic, structure with improvisation, realism with abstraction and orchestral sounds with synth sounds. I think all of this is really embodied in that piece. KH: J. Arif Verner is currently working on a new album. His latest release is "A Vision Beyond Light" on Spotted Peccary Records. For Echoes, I'm Kimberly Haas. Copyright 1996 Pennsylvania Public Radio Associates,
Inc.
ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN PROFILE: SURREAL WIND Verner creates ambient music with Aeolian harps. by Diane Lowery On a small farm in upstate New, York, J. Arif Verner sits at the top of a hill and waits for the wind to blow. Two Aeolian harps sing in the slight breeze, and Verner hopeshe can record the airy, mesmerizing tones without interference from an overhead plane or a distant barking dog. These delicatesounding, difficulttorecord harps are featured on Verner's new CD, A Vision Beyond Light, and contribute to what he describes as ambient surrealism. "The sounds the harps make are very eerie and rather mystical," explains Verner, who recorded the instruments with a pair of B&K 4006 condenser mics {set on their cardioid patterns) and a Panasonic SV255 portable DAT. "When the wind blows, the instruments play by themselves without any human intervention. The harps get louder as the wind blows harder, and as the wind fades away, the sound fades away, as well." Aeolian harps are typically about ten feet tall and three feet wide, with a dozen strings attached vertically between a bridge and a wooden sound box. Because of the ebb and flow of the wind, the harps have a rather tricky dynamic range that can make it difficult to find a "set and forget" recording level. But Verner discovered that maintaining at least a 6 dB level on the SV255's input meters allowed him to capture the ethereal sounds of the harps without risking audible hiss (due to recording levels that were too low) or digital clipping (from signal levels jumping unexpectedly into the red). Another problem with miking the harps was the lowend rumble produced by the wind. Verner attempted to eliminate the howling with various pop filters and windscreens, but the majority of his four hours of recordings were marred by lowfrequency garbage. "I spent hours and hours listening to find sections of the harp recordings that were usable," says Verner. "Then, I made timing charts that designated where the best sounds were. Finally, I recorded the good bits onto an Alesis ADAT so I could fade the sections in and out until the piecedtogether harp recordings sounded like one continuous track. I also ran everything through a parametric EQ to reduce the lowend rumble." However, wind and ambient noise were not the only natural hazards that plagued Verner's location recording session. "It was a wonderful sunny day, and sitting out on that hill waiting for the wind to come was not a very painful task. But the B&K 4006s are so detailed that they picked up everything, including flies landing on the harp strings. There would be this buzz and then a plucking sound as the flies landed and took off. Sometimes the flies would zoom in front of the mics, and when I listened to the field tapes with headphones on, I'd find myself swatting at nothing. It was pretty funny." For more information contact Spotted Peccary Music, PO Box 2029, Encinitas, CA 920230930; tel. (679) 9421694; Electronic Musician, 6400 Hollis St. #12, Emeryville,
CA 94608.
Guitar synthesis is alive and well at Infinite Sound Studio. Nestled in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, Infinite Sound is owned and operated by J. Arif Verner. In addition to producing outside audio projects (and occasionally writing for this very magazine), Verner has found time to release a solo album called A Vision Beyond Light.This new album on the Spotted Peccary Music label (see Roland Users Group v14/2) was conceived almost entirely on Roland guitar synths. "I'm a guitarist who loves synth sounds, so guitar synthesis is a perfect fit," states Verner. "On this album we used acoustic and electric instruments. percussion, synths, samplers and even Aeolian Wind Harps. The Wind Harps were great. We recorded them on a farm out in the middle of the boonies! We brought the DAT tapes back to the studio and mixed the Harps in with the music. Some of the parts on the album were sequenced and other parts were performed live. Stylistically, I guess you could call this genre of music ambientatmospheric." Verner's instruments of choice are Roland guitar synths. "Is there any other choice," he smiles. "On this project, I used the GR50, GR0l and the GR09. Roland has been making guitar synths longer than any one else and they continue to improve the technology. The sounds on my GR50, GR0l and GR09 are really different. They work great together. The GR50 has a moreelectronic feel while the GRO l and GR09 are more sampleplayback oriented. We installed the GR9E1 Expansion Board in the GR09, which is definitely worth having. I have to admit, if it weren't for Roland guitar synths. this album would not have been possible." "Another workhorse in the studio is our Roland JD990. This synth is gorgeous. We've souped it up it with the Roland World Expansion Board (SRJV8005) and three JD990 sound cards Modern Sonics. Oz Perspectives and Modern Masters. The problem with most commercial sound cards is that they try to be all things to all people. In the end, there is little which is usable for anyone. Personally, I like sounds that have a creative twist to them-something different. And these cards do it. The usability ratio is very high. As for the World Expansion Board, it's awesome. I'm still finding sounds that I didn't know existed. Verner also used the Roland S760 Digital Sampler on his album. "The S760 handled most of our orchestral samples-woodwinds, strings, brass and the like. The amount of quality samples available for the Roland format is staggering. And the sound quality on the S760 is absolutely pristine. Also, I like the fact that you can work with the S760 from a monitor screen-not just the LCD." What's next for J. Arif Verner? "I'm currently working
on a followup album for Spotted Peccary. I hope to have it finished
shortly. However, the production work at Infinite Sound Studio has been
real busy. so if we could only kind a few more hours in each day. we'd
be all set." In the meantime, check out the Infinite Sound Web Site at
http://www.infinitesound.com/.
RECORDING MAGAZINE: THE BUSINESS OF RECORDING - MAKING IT PAY Interviews by Lorenz Rychner
According to our latest reader survey, a hefty percentage of you are turning a profit from your studios. For the benefit for those who would like to be in that position - and for everyone else, who would like to be turning more of a profit - we set about answering the obviuos question: How are you doing it? So we're going to be featuring a number of reader's studios in upcoming issues, looking at how they make it pay. Meanwhile, we spoke to several professional
engineers and producers with whom we've worked in the past - most prominently
on our Playback CDs - and discovered that many of them have taken unusual
routes to get where they are. Here's what they had to say.
J. Arif Verner
Did you always have you own studio? Not for a long time. I was a gigging guitarist, both acoustic and electric. I recorded my own music, but went to pro studios to finish and mix them. I graduated from one of the first Teac “sound-on-sound” 2 tracks in the early 80s to the 4-track Tascam, and I also got a Roland GR-50 guitar synth, while still working with 2-inch analog at 30 ips. I took community college classes in recording, and I began writing for music magazines, which enabled me to get my hands on gear and software that I normally would not have access to - a great learning experience. As soon as the first ADATs rolled off the production line, I got my hands on one. Did going digital change your life? To my surprise, I began getting calls from people who wanted to do projects with me on one of these new machines.I had no intention of going “commercial.” One of the calls came from electronic composer David Borden. He had a major label release coming up, so I engineered, produced and mixed the album, “Cayuga Night Music.” It received excellent reviews from the media. Several years later, we did his next album, “Places, Times and People.” All thanks to the ADAT. Recent Infinite Sound projects include working with film composer Ron Riddle on numerous television program mixes. These feature shows have been for Disney, Audubon, Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel. Anyone interested in television soundtrack work should be able to work under excruciatingly tight deadlines and cranky TV producers! Have you moved from digital tape to hard disk? We now have Pro Tools, a great DAW with the automation of the TDMs and the new Audiosuite architecture. Actually, I like going back and forth from digitial tape and hard disk. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. On-going work includes the digital editing for Calcante Recordings Ltd., a record label specializing in classical organ music. It’s always a challenge to glue together a dozen takes into a final “masterpiece.” Other digital editing projects have been for contemporary classical composer, Henry Brandt and traditional jazz performer Sol Yaged. Infinite Sound has also recorded, mixed and digitally edited several acoustic World music albums. These include CD projects for Ugandan musicians Samite (Zenophile/Shanachie Records) and ethnomusicologist, Dr. James Makubuya (through a grant from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Wonderful sessions using traditional African instruments, most of which were very, very difficult to tune with one another! Any live recording? Infinite Sound is strong at mixing projects, MIDI production, acoustic recording and digital editing. While we’ve recorded concerts, outdoor festivals and individual performances, our forte is in the studio. Decide on your studio’s strong points and work in those areas. It’s also important to have an impeccable reputationin the music community - your career depends on it! Go that extra step to do great work. And networking is important. You need to have people who you can call and ask questions, lend and borrow gear and exchange professional services. Is there still room for your own work? The greatest rewards comes from working on my own material. Stylistically, I’m interested in combining acoustic and electronic music. Electronic instruments provide an unlimited palette of sounds whereas acoustic instruments provide intimacy and life. That’s a hard combination to beat. I signed a record contract with Spotted Peccary Music and have released one album with them: ‘A Vision Beyond Light.’ A second one is in the works. My goal is threefold: to compose and record music without any restrictions, work on outside projects with other artists and write magazine articles about music technology. That’s what Infinite Sound Studio is all about. It’s been great! (Recording Magazine, Music Maker Publications
Inc, 5412 Idylwild Trail, Suite 100, Boulder, CO 80301-3523. Used with
permission by the author.)
RECORDING MAGAZINE PLAYBACK CD: MIXING CLINIC J. Arif Verner "Above Empty Clouds" Thoughts on mixing electronic sounds: an interview with Howard Givens by Lorenz Rychner Howard Givens is a partner, CEO, Producer, and Engineer at the Spotted Peccary Music label in Southern California. He mixed J. Arif Verner's CD "A Vision Beyond Light", from which we selected a cut for a mixing clinic on Playback 11. "Above Empty Clouds" is all synths and samplers, with the addition of a processed electric guitar. We asked Howard Givens to elaborate on his techniques and his label. R: Tell us about Spotted Peccary Music? HG: [laughs] A peccary is a fascinating wild pig from Arizona-we made up the "spotted" part. But our label's focus is to put out mainly instrumental music by artists living in North America, reflecting feelings and impressions theyhave about North America, especally the Southwest, themselves, or whatever. That doesn't mean that we can't have instruments or ideas that came from outside the United States, but we don't want to just copy from Celtic or African or other cultures like that. R: You produce and mix most of your artist's project inhouse. Much of that music is heavily synth based. How do you deal with that many electronic sounds in a mix? HG: Synths and samplers tend to be problematic in the I or 2KHz range where the harshness comes from. And there are electronic noises and artifacts to deal with, where we often need extra outboard eq to get rid of specific narrow frequencies. Layering synchs and reverbs with their mostly broadband sounds quickly adds up to thick mud; we have to eq each sound carefully, and we return all the effects to channel strips in stereo where we can eq each return separately again. R: Why not use builtin effects and stereo outputs on all those synths and samplers? HG: I prefer mixing synth parts recorded in mono and without processing. Most synth patches and even samples are mono anyway and only become "stereo" at the instrument's output stage. Once such a sound has been tracked in stereo, I'm limited in the way I can place it in the mix. And the builtin effects are rarely as good as what I would use in the mix, particularly the sustain and decay portions of reverbs. In music of Arif's genre they're really important R: How do you go about eqing parts? HG: I find that we rarely need to add, usually we have to subtract To start with, there's always too much going on in the lower midrange, so we look to cut the extra frequencies that let us sweeten the sound. Then we look for other problem areas-I subtract gain and sweep to find what frequency needs reducing. It gets tricky with lots of stereo signals and effects. And I listen for phase coherency in low frequencies-it is very important, that's where a lot of the money goes on highend consoles, to keep the low end tight R: Do you go first for individual reverbs, or for a global reverb? HG: We don't use global reverbs very often, just individuals tailored to the different sounds. In Arif's case we made an exception-you'll hear it on your Playback CD. R: Right, we'll list the exact frequencies and dB numbers as we go through the mix on Playback Meanwhile, tell us about the label's production method and output. HG: To date [Aug. 96] we have ten releases out, three more are scheduled for this year, eight for next year. Arif recorded much of his project himself before bringing it here-but usually we might have an artist come just with sketches or MIDI files but not much more-we like to do all of the production here. R: Are you encouraging submissions from our readers? HG: Well, we're not really looking, but if there's somebody out there who's really good we'd like to at least check out what they're doing, if they're coming from the ambient or classical side of this electronic/acoustic music, as opposed to being jazz or rock/pop based. R: In your view should a demo be fully produced or as simple as possible? HG: Both can be the right approach, depending on the genre of music and what the demo is trying to achieve. If you're the songwriter shopping a song, don't produce it so it's a CD-ready, you'll only limit your chances because you're forcing the A&R people to hear it a certain way, whereas the song might lend itself to an entirely different treatment for different artists if it were presented more simply. Sure, make it a quality presentation, even hire a good singer if needed, but keep it simple and stripped down. The again, if you're trying to sell yourself as an artist or a band, your production should reflect your own performing style. R: You've had people bring you partly finished projects. What are some pitfalls. HG: Printing with effects can really lock you in, robs you of choices at mixdown. MIDI volume is another problem. We suggest that MIDI volume and continuous controllers be sequenced on separate tracks, because while MIDI volume shuts down sound sources it leaves all output circuits wide open, so you get the residual noises-they can quickly add up. You can't just put all faders up to unity gain and simulate an automated mix by using MIDI volume to change the volume of each synth- it's maybe 'the poor man's automation' but it just lets way too much noise come through to the board. If you can control the VCAs and faders, not the synths, with MIDI volume, then you're in good shape. R: What about monitoring? HG: It's absolutely crucial to listen on different systems. For closefield referencing, we listen to the KRK 7000B speakers that match up well with the Hafler Trans*nova 9303 amp because of that amp's exceptional midrange definition: then we have soffited JBL 4412 for the bigger sound. For mastering we use Genelecs, we find tham less musical but awfully precise. R: What do you print and what gets sync'd? HG: We integrate the Alesis ADATs with MOTU Digital Performer, through an Al 2 interface that Timeline built for Alesis-it takes the place of the BRC for sync'ing the sequences to the ADAT. We print mainly the obvious-any acoustic instruments like percussion, guitar, drums. But we also print synth sounds when we use more patches from within a synth than that synth has outputs for. We need to have the sounds separated, so we can eq them individually at mixdown. The same happens with the samplers--good samples take up lots or all of the sampler's memory, so we print to tape, free up the sampler's memory, and load a different sample rather than compromise on memory and on sharing outputs. Our console is a Tim Spencer modified Soundcraft 6000. We also have a MIDI preproduction room, and ProTools for digital projects. Spotted Peccary Music, P.O. Box 2029, Encinitas,
CA 92023. Phone (619) 9421694.
Recording Magazine, Music Maker Productions Inc.
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