Thoughts on Songwriting :: Signal Chain

In the beginning is a spark, it is an impulse in the head…

So begins our record.

…digital to analogue, conversion on the breath..
it travels on a wave the length of which cannot be seen
but anyone can hear it, if anyone is near..
cause it goes….alllllllllll the waaaaaay…..

What is a Signal Chain? In the studio, the signal chain refers to every piece of gear that transports a sound from an analog source into a recording system and then back out again so that one might hear it. Think about it like this:

A singer hits the booth at a recording studio. They hear the track as it stands coming off of a previously recorded source, say a DAW like Pro Tools or Logic. They then sing into a microphone which transforms its reading of the sound wave into electrical information which is then passed along through an audio cable where it hits the microphone preamplifier. This device takes the sound and, as advertised, amplifies it to a level that can be detected and recorded. After the amp, a little equalization is applied if the engineer feels its necessary. After the EQ, one might insert a compressor, to help the singer avoid losing a blown take because the signal overdrives and distorts, and also because the sound of rock and roll is the sound of compression. After the signal has been squished and squashed in a hopefully pleasing manner, it hits a device called an analog to digital converter. Now it’s all just zeros and ones, baby.

Now bear in mind that this is a rudimentary description of really only one part of recording an album. 14 signal chains for drums. 3 per piano pass. 2-3 guitar overdubs, 4-6 vocal passes, 1 track for bass, a partridge in a pear tree, and you can see how it starts to get REALLY important that you hire a great engineer, and a great mixer. They are supposed to know which knobs to turn and which buttons to push to make sure that every one of the signal chains in a recording process sounds as good as it should.

I got to thinking about signal chains as a metaphor when we recorded our first record. It was the first time that we had produced a full length album of original music in a large studio with multiple musicians. As songwriters, we start long before the signal chain even comes into play, with an idea. A hook. Something that’s just eating at us and won’t leave us alone until we write a song about it.

Sometimes we’ve tried to write songs and they just don’t come out right, either recorded or played live. Getting that idea from it’s fledgling state… I call it the baby fawn stage, as in, “Don’t criticize my freshly written verse yet! It’s a vulnerable baby fawn”… into a fully baked song with a beat and a vibe and an arrangement and the idea still intact is quite a thing to accomplish. Why, in our very next installment, of this ongoing 28 part series, we’ll talk about “The Tempest,” a song which almost got the axe!

So, I had this thought that ideas go down a signal chain. Then I had this other thought, that the whole idea of God has come down a signal chain as well. Generations are like signal chains. One generation hears the original idea and records it. The next amplifies. The next adds this crazy fx pedal and everything gets all loopy and phased out. (think… oh I dunno… the dark ages)

Then the next generation decides they don’t like that effect and they go back and discover that the original signal was split off and also recorded without all the additional schmutz on it, so they go back to the purest source so they can remix it properly.

On and on it goes until it reaches the listener. Or the lack of listeners. I would suppose it had to do with the strength of the signal and the quality of the chain.

We called this record Mixing Metaphors for a reason. We spent a lot of time trying to find new and interesting ways to express what we’re thinking about. It’s purposeful that some of the lyrics are vague and evocative rather than explicit and obvious. There was imagery that flashed into my mind that I couldn’t shake. I giggled at the idea of Moses hearing the voice of God from an Marshall stack… burning, of course. I enjoy the imagery of the last verse, talking about reverb and decay. It brings to mind the old, stale cathedrals that dot Europe. Is there still a melody bouncing around those old places?

I dunno.

But I know that we really like our opening cut. Hope you do, too.