Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr.

In this digital age of software such as Reason, Pro Tools, and even Garage Band the idea of a single person recording and engineering a song is a very common occurence. Would you be as shocked as I was to learn that this was the very case for one of the most iconcic songs of 80’s popular culture. If you want to get a song recorded and mixed at the very last minute you should be calling Ray Parker Jr.

It is nice to know that procrastination does not stop at college and continues on to the Hollywood level of filmmaking. That was the story behind how Ray Parker Jr. landed the gig of recording a song for the classic 80’s film Ghostbusters. Parker's old friend Gary LeMel came to him and asked him to see if he would watch this film Ghostbusters and write a song for it. The only catch was that he only had two days to get this song to him. Talk about pressure. Nearing the deadline by hours Parker was finally struck with inspiration on how to apply the word Ghostbusters into a song. Only problem was with this being so late there was no time to call in any band members, he would have to play all the instruments himself.

What I love about this mix, espeically after reading about how it was gestated, is just how busy it sounds but the same time it is very simplistic in terms of tracks. A great quote from Parker Jr. about the instruments played is  “It sounds big, but it's really just one rhythm guitar part, one lead guitar part, a horn keyboard [synth] part, one bass part, one drum part and some synthesizer overdubs. Then I overdubbed the sax later.” None of the tracks are even doubled up, each instrument is just it's own track. I would really just love and feel relieved if I ever had to deal with just a 9 track song like this one.

All of this is a result of everything being down to the wire, but it actually turns out to be very effective. Trying to actually pinpoint when each instrument would pop up sometimes would drive me nuts just because they all play off of each other so well. It was part of the reason why I was having such an issue trying to replicate it in Reason. 

Even with all the synth parts that appear, there is no fancy mixing effects to be heard. This could be either due to the fact time was of the essence but Parker Jr. recalled "It was one of those days when everything came together — bang, bang, bang — and it didn't seem like I could do anything wrong. The bass part sounded great, the drums were big. Everything sounded fat." Knowing this really inspires me that my work doesn't always need to rely on plug-ins to get something that is studio caliber. Sometimes you just got to put that effort in the raw recording and get it right before you hit any hardware. If I look at it this way in terms of trying to replicate, as long as I had the raw recordings I would have the song Ghostbusters sounding perfect.

Instruments: Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar, Bass, Drums, Synths: Korg Poly 61, Jupiter 6, Horn Keyboard

Mixing Board: MCI -24 and MCI Multitracks

Engineer: Ray Parker Jr. and Steve Holquist

Studio Recorded: Ameraycan

Studio Mastered: Ameraycan

Mix Analysis:

Rhythm guitar starts to play an emergency vehicle sirenesque rhythm and continues throughout the song, there is some panning to the right in the beginning (00:00- 1:00)

What I believe to be some of the horn keyboards start to play their first part (00:02 - 00:11)

Lead guitar makes its entrance into the song with an echoy strum to set up the main beat (00:06 - 00:09)

Snare drums start off a rhythm that transitions into the main drum beat (00:10 - 00:12)

Drums, and both guitar parts continue a beat throughout the remaining of the song (00:12 - 1:00)

One of the synth keyboards plays a part at (00:12)

Synth returns with one of the main lines at (00:20 - 00:28)

First vocal part of the song appears with "Ghostbusters" being yelled (00:26)

Ray Parker Jr. has his first vocal part (00:29 - 00:34)

Second apperance of the "Ghostbusters" shouting (00:35)

Ray Parker Jr. has his second vocal part (00:36 - 00:42)

Third apperance of "Ghostbusters" vocal (00:43)

The horn synth keyboard line begins to play (00:45 - 01:00)

Ray Parker Jr. vocal of "I ain't afraid of no ghosts" (00:51 - 01:00

Ray Parker Jr has also recorded with such artists as Barry White, Stanley Turrentine, Tina Turner, Boz Scaggs, Herbie Hancock

Research: http://mixonline.com/recording/interviews/audio_ray_parker_jrs/index.html

Reason Replication - The Final Countdown

Getting to know a new piece of software is always filled with pain, but excitement as things start to go together. It has been that way as I learned Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools, software from Adobe, and now I can add Reason to this list. I have heard of Reason before but never touched it prior to this class. To say it has overwhelmed me with the amount of options would be an understatement, but after completing this assignment I am ready to delve deeper into this software and learn some creative uses for it in my work.

You would think that with all my knowledge of sound design, and total lack of music talent that I would of just sticked to what I knew while learning some software. But I figured where is the fun in that, I have this very powerful music creation tool so why not try something out of the box for myself. I am happy that I decided to go this route, but same time wish I chose a more beat centric song. 

My decision to go from Ghostbusters to The Final Countdown came from my lack of being able to teach myself the main synth part of Ghostbusters. But I was able to find an easy to follow tutorial on The Final Countdown that inspired me. After listening to The Final Countdown again, paying attention to the drone sounds that resonated in the first 30 seconds I figured this wouldn't really drive me nuts. I quickly realized that I should never be this naive when it comes to music creation. 

I could not find any helpful research about the creation of the song in the actual mix other then the type of keyboards that they used for the infamous synth line. This made me pretty much attempt to create this song from ear, which with my lack of musical skill was a real challenge.

The strongest aspect of what I had going for this song was finding a Thor patch called The Valley that really was close enough sounding to the Yamaha synthesizer used in the actual song. The notes I played for this part sound fairly accurate to myself, the beat maybe off a bit, since when I tried to play with the song it would match at parts but I would quickly loose my rhythm. This resulted in me playing it in the beat that I could remember or at least sounded right to myself. Even if the rest of the beginning failed I would at least end on a fairly high note, as we all can laugh and smile at this amazing synth line.

Trying to find the correct drone sounds was a real challenge, I even tried to play around with a helicopter sample sound but it didn't end up working. Once again I used a Thor patch to help me out entitled Listening. I created one drone that would be played throughout the entire song, and in the beginning a few higher notes of this patch. It is passable for something that sounds like the original song, it doesn't quite have the same heft to it but it works for what I was attempting.

A fun fact I noticed trying to replicate the song that I never seemed to pick up on before, was the fact there are lasers being shot during the songs intro. To help my song become an epic space battle I used Malstrom synthesizer with an amazing titled patch called Terminator. I mixed these lower then my rough cut just so they weren't too overpowering.

I investigated playing around with Kong drum kit for that sound in the beginning that sounds like someone dropping a wrench in a hallway or something that nature. With some playful modification of the the pitch and decay I used a conveniently pre-reverbed sample called BigVerb. 

Accompany the synth line there is this very synthy vocal sound which I recreated with the good ole NN-XT and monk choir patch. It was very tough trying to find a vocal choir sound that sounded both majestic but same time still synth. The Monkchoir gave me both of those attributes, even if it doesn't sound as big as the one in the actual song.

Out of all the tracks for me to create, the one I really don't think I nailed at all and had the most trouble with was this Grand Piano I played on an NN-19. During the main synth line and synth choir in the original song, there is a piano sound that plays sporadically. The problem that I had was since this song is so overblown with cheesy production values, it was very hard for me to monitor the exact timing on how the piano parts were played. I was able to get a ball park on when I thought it was played, but same time I felt like there were parts I was missing due to everything else going on. In addition to timing it was also hard to hear the exact notes that were being played. I had to keep experiment with octaves until I got something that sounded sort of like the same finger progression. This is one time where I really wish I found an actual source type files of this part just to isolate it.

Overall I feel fairly satisfied with my replication. I can easily say this is nowhere an exact replication, but for myself with not having much musical knowledge it at least reminds me enough of the intro to get by. I did have a tough time trying to mix all of these tracks together and it something I feel like I will keep constantly adjusting even after I turn it in. While there isn't a huge number of tracks, what is there in the intro are very bombastic sounds that are tough to balance out so one doesn't overpower the other. However I made sure that the main synth line was mixed the loudest and stood out above all the other textures, since this is the main part of the song that we all remember and hum all day long.

Chicago

Supervising Sound Editor - Maurice Schell

Dialogue Editor - Laura Civiello

Sound Effects Editor - Eytan Mirksy

Sound Re-recording Mixer - Michael Minkler and Dominick Travellla

Re-recording studio - Sound One Studio Two in New York City

When it comes to the sound categories for the Academy Awards there are usually two types of films that are likely to sweep the category in any given year. It would be either the big blockbuster action film of the year like Jurassic Park, or in the year I looked at a musical like Chicago. The reason why a category like sound mixing really gets musicals noticed is because of all the intricacies of the sound mix. This is a type of film where the music is the true focus of the film. Sure there is a narrative most of the type, but while the dialog may be good the reason we watch these films is for the lavish musical numbers. What makes this tricky for a re-recording mixer is for the fact that you can’t just have the music take up the sound mix. There still maybe dialog that is intertwined in the numbers as well as sound effects to help create the space of the musical performance.

One of the unique aspects of “Chicago” as a musical is all the songs are not performed in a sense of reality. They are all fantastical and through the mind of the characters not set in the real world where the actual narrative is going on. One of the Re-recording mixers Dominick Travella explained this situation as  "One of the challenges with the audio was to keep a consistency between fantasy and reality, but also make a defining line between the two," Tavella explains. "So now you're off in never-never land, but you still want to stay connected with the earth. This is done visually and editorially, and the sound has to support that structural notion."

This challenge is present in the scene I looked at in the movie of the “Mister Cellophane” song performance. During the course of the song there is a scene between Amos (John C. Reiley) meeting Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) in his office. It is a nice stark contrast from the actual song performance where Amos is singing in an empty theater to a lawyer office with a lot more ambiance going on. The music plays throughout both locations but there is a distinct difference in the sounds heard that allow you not to be confused on if these office meetings are still a thing of fantasy.

While “Mister Cellophane” maybe one of the simplest performances throughout the entire film, it is a very good demonstration on how the sound mix was approached in a musical performance. Even in just an empty theater there is still some sound effects that are needed to be put in to go along with dance moves. A problem occurred however with the Foley work not sounding proper from their recording. A solution that was created involved to play “them at half speed, which thickened them up and made them denser, so the sound had a lot more weight. Then we pitched them up. He had these big shoes on, so instead of sounding like empty shoes, the shuffle has a real determination behind it." With the pitch adjusted Amos’ shoes sound very demanding and noticeable. It almost seems to emulate an entire chorus line shuffling at once, which really helps make this performance even bigger in this empty space. Another nice touch that is done in addition to the shuffling sounds is to put reverb on his voice which really allowed the theater to feel empty. Sometimes the most simple scenes are the ones that really stand out in how effective the sound mix is.

The films mix was created in Pro Tools using a “featured-loaded DFC console.” This would be their bread and butter to do all the pitch changing on sounds and instruments in order to make sure everything went along with each other properly. With this being a musical, there could of been upwards of 64 tracks dedicated to music alone at one time.  Depending on the scene this could of included 32 for the band, 16 for vocals, and 16 for an underscore by Danny Elfman.  The other Re-Recording Mixer  Michael Minkler explained his blessing for these not being just raw recordings so he “had the flexibility to do anything I wanted at any time, but I didn't have to do a lot of processing because the cleanliness, the EQ, and overall leveling had been taken care of.”

While not having the same fancy board they had access, knowing that the main focus of the sound mix was pitch bending is something that I could easily mess around with with the plug ins I have. This actually is a different idea I never really thought of to make everything sound in rhythm with each other. This keeps it a lot easier on the ears and never takes you out of the sound mix since everything is at around the same key. For a musical especially this is a key idea that I will apply if I ever cross that path. Ironically another film I would compare Chicago to in terms of sound is the Bob Fosse Musical “All That Jazz” (Fosse also created Chicago the stage play). The musical finale to “All that Jazz” is similar to “Chicago” with it being set in fantasy but trying create a theatrical stage version of the song.

Other work by Michael Minkler includes Red, Hot Tub Time Machine, and Into the Wild
Other work by Dominick Travella includes Black Swan, The Wrestler and Mamma Mia!

Research:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050831021531/http://audiomedia.com/redesign-2003/regional-issues/issue-european/2003/2003-03/html/uk-0303-fc/0303-fc-f.htm

Chicago Mix Analysis:

Amos continues to sing Mister Cellphone on an empty stage in an empty theater. There is reverb placed on his voice to create this space (1:12:39 - 1:12:59)

Foley sound for the hat being tossed to his other hand (1:12:56)

Billy Flynn grabs telephone and foley work for that sound. (1:13:01)

Dialog occurs between Amos and Billy in an office setting (1:13:01 - 1:13:04)

Mister Cellophone music starts to underscore the office and transition back to the stage (1:13:03)

Foley shuffling on Amos that has been pitched shifted (1:13:09 - 1:13:44)

Reverb on Amos’ voice again for the empty theater (1:13:46)

More of the same shuffling done prior returns (1:13:50 - 1:13:53)

More reverb is placed on Amos’ voice (1:13:55 - 1:14:05)

Shuffling again from Amos that has been pitch shifted (1:14:06 - 1:14:07)

Dialog from Amos with some reverb for being in an office space as the music begins fades out. (1:14:08 - 1:14:12)

Door slams and some heavy reverb on it to give it a real punch and causes the final notes of the song to finish fading out transitioning to the next scene like the final curtain in a stage performance. (1:14:12)