................ new york sound development artist . music experimentation linked to true imagination and enjoyment for popular sounds meeting the disapproved..........

Brief info about Tidy Kid in his producer mode. Recent Credits: Albums for The Red Paintings / The Black Market Rhythm Co. / The Wells

Currently Tidy Kid is planning on a trip over to Europe and back to the US, to work on his own releases, as well as sit in on the final stage of the Red Paintings Debut Album production.

A remix of the Red Paintings single, We Belong In The Sea, is underway, here is a small journal about this speacial remix..

Hey it's March 2008.................... The Red Paintings Debut Album was completed at some point in Feb, we decided we had done all we could in our room, the room we have spent the last 6 months in, the room that housed all the equipment and furniture needed to create the Album. It's off to America now for a final tweak and a Master, i'm looking forward to hearing it through someone else's ears, it's certainly a big album, my favorite track is Fall Of Rome.

Orchestra's, big drums, 10 guitars, vocals fast bass lines everything hitting you bam bam bam, it's damn intense, with the same feel that a large live show presents. These guys will have plenty of fun capturing all this on stage, along with their already large stage designs and people power, it's all very epic, good luck fella's! I had a ball.

Expect this Album out late 2008, early 09.

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January 15th 2008

We are mixing the album this month, and aim to have it finished by the 2nd of Feb at 5pm. It's all going through a nice old mixing console and my fingers are pushing the faders. We are also doing live automation mix downs, to get a true feel for the dynamics of these vast songs.

So far, most tracks are between 80 to 150 tracks. They get sub mixed into 24 groups, where we use bus compression and effects, instead of doing to much work on individual tracks. They are left as they were tracked, with just panning and trimming going on.

Like most successful mixes, we are attempting to choose the 3 main features of each song, bring those out in the mix and create a backdrop flavor with all the other sounds. They will create the character and sound of this release, which will defiantly have its own sound. All great records have their own sound, and that's why we aren't mixing in the box. Plus it's much more cool man................

................. Journal, by the Tidy Kid, requested by the Trash, 21st October 2007.

A Journal, one to be placed on another site then mine, hmmmmm, let me think, what head space should I be in. Cough cough, where's my coffee ………............................................................................................................................

Emotionally this Album project has been extreme. It's my instinct as producer to take Trash's vision, wrap it up in an audible package and place it into the hands of the people. We have been working on it now for about 3 months, with only a couple weeks in between to rest the ears and play in sand pits. At this stage, tracking is almost complete. Left to go though are guest musicians/artists and their instruments, a large amount of editing and then, in separation, 2 weeks of mixing, with the concept of sticking to a single day per track. This time restriction will allow us to get back to the first intentions of each song. This will include bringing up the parts, which hold the naked truth, and smooth out the back tapestry of sounds, of which the flavor of the album will come from.

Throughout the project, speaking for myself, it's been full of highs and a few lows. The lows are mostly due to the largeness of the project and the undertaking of it as a solo engineer/producer. To be honest, this style of project would usually consist of a few tracking engineers, a separate producer and a separate mixing engineer. To flip between 2 minds all the time is comfortable when the energy is there, but confusing when the body is tired. The pro's of us doing it all ourselves, surrounded by many other performers and artists, is that the original vision will stay mostly intact, with a direct muscular energy.

Trash has had to go through a lot of new emotions I gather over this period. The usual quest is to get in and out of a studio, in a limited time, and not have the chance to breath. This time around, he's doing a lot of breathing. He's finding through this, many pro's and con's. Luckily, all con's have solutions. On the other side of things, he's not sleeping much, he eats sometimes, and he's always managing the band, sometimes till 6am in the morning. If not for his unique fans, their energy and direct participation with all things TRP, something I've never experienced in a band project before, things would be quite different.

This is a very unique project, something which I think I'll only find myself part of once. Recording with so many different characters in the project has added so many colors into the mix, but funny enough it's not turning gray. It's holding up and starting to sound like one of those Albums that you can listen to heaps of times, and for years to come.

The orchestra recording was something anyone with a more conservative mind would have tried to avoid. With a limited budget, we were able to get a space for free, players who donated their time for some food and petrol money, and the immense time and dedication from Ellen, who magnificently, scored up to 120 pages of material, for around 10 tracks, just in time. Dave did a fantastic job as conductor on the day, he was a man with plenty of hand. It's all a bit of a blur but its all working as well, nothing really has fucked up, it's quite astounding actually.

Since meeting the Red Paintings back when they were touring with Dresden Dolls in New York, and starting to work with them on the Feed the Wolf EP, which was fast in contrast, I've been making it my mission, like I usually do with producing projects, to become part of what they are. Taking on the role as Noah at rebellion marches, hanging out with fans, making friends and pissing some off, playing tennis with Trash, and most importantly, cleaning their kitchen over a 6hr heavy duty session ( http://www.tidykid.com/kitchen_theredpaintings.htm ) has all helped me to condition myself for the role as producer. Isn't that what Producers are meant to do? Sorry, I didn't read the book, oops.

Ow, to add to it all, the studio I'm working at with trash, called Alchemix, is currently decorated with all things red paintings. We have had resident painters working in the studio, which has added a special element to the creative vibe.

In terms of my technique to pick up sound, I like to use my ears, instead of trusting gear. I don't really follow any rules, and don't mind when things are random and sound great for un explained reasons. The album has a very real sound to it. When it comes to editing, most of the material is moved around without using a tempo grid. The big epic tracks, such as fall of Rome, Hong Kong and the Revolution is never coming, are quite play full in energy. They were tracked as a live take and then that energy was kept consistent as all the other parts were added on top. Ow, and the guitars, ow man the guitars, when will trash stop with his guitars, some tracks have 10 different guitar lines playing at the same time, it's really fucking with my head. But then the next day it sounds great, and I'm ok again, I've learnt something new.

Ryan was great on Bass, he brought a new feel to the songs, which really helped to tie the energy of the drums together with the other elements. He's a great tub of glue that guy. Thank you mate!

For drums, we had the chance to utilize Greg's large selection of snares and cymbals, continually changing sounds for each song. It's a sonar kit. I liked it, so did Andy. He's was in a zone like no other, I liked when he was tracking through some of the bigger epic tracks, with a grin on his face like he was going to hover in mid air and hit the drums with newly formed limbs.

Overall, things are looking great, it's incredible to think that this is all due to the generosity of the fans and their donations. Usually this type of Album would cost well over 100 grand, but we are sticking to a very healthy budget indeed. This hole process, the way certain events create new opportunities, the way the weather changes to suit certain songs, to be aware of all the small things, during the ongoing creation of something huge, is what will resonate to listeners. I know the media will love this Album, so much to write about, so little to be bored off. Let's see where this all takes us………………………………………………………peace…..waves..................................................................................

Some earlier thoughts:

The Red Paintings Debut Album..... Hey, would you look at that, it's all crunchy and out of shape, hmmmm.

What I love to do is work out some project conditioning rules before starting any project, so naturally, I've worked out a few for this debut Album. Have a read if you like. Toot......

Alright, 3 different environments will be used. In the Studio, home locations and outside sample building environments. What we would like to do is involve allot of original and unique samples through out the Album, without having to click through sample libraries and synth programs.

The same goes with drum programming. Their might! be a few tracks with some abstract sounding drum arrangements, so this would involve manually hand placing all sounds, without using midi, loop generated soft synth's or anything that makes things faster and easier. Why? ehhh I'll tell you another time.

Day 1: We begin with laying down pre-production click tracks where needed, setting up acoustics in a few contrasting rooms, selecting the right outboard gear and mics for drum tracking. We are hiring a few kits with enough choice to wet our paints again and again and again. Drums and guide guitar/vocal takes will continue throughout the whole first week. We will hopefully have most of the drums and guides tracked by Friday (day 5). My sentences are short and don't flow that well. The idea with drum tracking, is to capture enough raw guts, with out having to sample replace anything. We need contrast in acoustics, drum sounds, playing moods and vibe to feed the creative juices for the following week. Those elements will mostly be guitars/bass/synth and additional guide experimentations. The gear we are using is mostly analogue. We are using a pro tools hd system as an editing system/tape machine. The rest we hope to accomplish in the analogue world, with all it's crazy randomness and warmth. Did i forget to also say it's much more fun!

Day 16: I've marched across the foot hills of brisbane and have made it to day 16. Drums/ Guitar / Some bass are all doing great. They say hi. The sound is really beginning to present itself, filling us with lots of confidence that this Album will stand on it's own legs very easily indeed. No plug ins have been used as of yet, everything has been tracked with it's own intended qualities, with a final product in mind. The drums are big in most parts, the guitars are bigger in most parts, and we haven't even got to strings yet, oh my oh my. It's a very enjoyable process most of the time, and we hope to have all of the string parts (excluding orchestra) done, along with synth parts and pan flutes by the end of September. The fun really begins in october with mixing and mastering booked in for november. Let's see what happens next, peace..................waves

Thoughts about production:

Contrast my friend, contrast. So far all the gear has been really good, i'll make sure to do a few things over the next weeks: Use some crap gear, use synth parts over real instruments parts from time to time again, Record the individual strings close, no room sound, orchestra recording, lots of room sound, double up important catchy parts with abnormal instruments/sounds, put very toppy white noise elements throughout tracks, add more 100hz to drums sounds in some tracks, try and not touch songs which already sound fantastic, yes there are a few which only have drums and guitar and sound already very very good indeed. That is all for now, toot.