We thought we might take a couple moments and share our thoughts regarding the way in which we make music. The music and recording industry today is dominated by several "Innovations" that we deliberately avoid at Brandt Morain Studios. These innovations are vocal pitch correction devices, vocal modellers, vocal harmonizers, drum machines and extensive use of compression and limiters. In our opinion, these innovations are literally destroying the quality of music. Please let us explain. Let's say you are a record label looking for that next hit. You know that sex sells and you also know that it takes an awful long time to groom somebody into a real talent that people will be willing to pay for. You have this bombshell of a beauty just dying to be a recording star, but she has no talent or musical education and can't sing if her life depended on it. You don't have four years to tutor her. So what's a poor producer to do? Answer: Technology. Problem #1. She can't sing in tune. Her intonation is all over the map. It is hopeless. Answer: Vocal pitch correction devices. Using a piece of technology that is now virtually in every studio, the tone deaf beauty can walk up to a microphone, sing way off key and walk away. The Engineer rolls up his sleeves and literally "fixes" each and every note she sang. Now she sounds like she has perfect intonation. Her voice sounds sterile and without vibrato or tremolo but at least she is now singing accurately. Problem #1 solved. Problem #2. She has this terribly irritating shrillness to her now perfectly in-tune voice. Answer: Vocal Modeller devices. The Engineer now pulls out another innovation called a vocal modeller. This tool allows him to literally reshape her voice, electronically, so that she can sound like anybody he wants. Is her voice too shrill? Well, let's use a model that synthesizes larger sinuses. Does she have a puny sounding voice? Well, let's use a large cavity throat model. These models are computer algorithms that electronically reproduce the vocal tract. So, now your shrilly bombshell of a beauty is starting to sound like Luciano Pavarotti. Problem #3. She can't sing harmonies. You try and try, but she doesn't have the ear for harmonies. Answer: Vocal harmonizers. Now the Engineer is almost done. He pulls out the vocal harmonizer and takes her perfectly in-tune, deep and rich Pavarotti voice and creates new background vocal tracks by first making a copy of her lead vocal track. Then he alters the pitch of this new track by the correct amount. He does this for three harmony tracks and Viola!! Now she is singing perfectly, in three-part harmonies behind her lead vocal. It all sounds very sterile and has no character to speak of but it only took a week. So, in a matter of days the Producer has taken a beautiful bombshell who cannot sing a single note, has a voice that sounds like somebody scratching a chalkboard, that doesn't understand the concept of harmony and background singing and turned her into a hit album with perfect intonation, perfect tone and timbre and perfect background three part harmonies. It sounds sterile, mind you, but it only took a few weeks instead of four years of tutoring. Now the Producer is really excited but running out of time. He would like to have a real drummer on the album but it is terribly difficult to record and produce drums and takes a long time. So, he whips out the trusty ol' drum machine and hires an engineer to start programming. The drum tracks sound sterile and artificial but it only took a week and people have gotten used to them anyway, right? Now, your album is nearly done and you want it to be noticed, right??? How do you compete? How do you get that edge that you so desperately need? Answer: Make the album as loud as possible so that it screams out. Make it louder than anybody else in the recording industry. This is done with heavy compression and limiting. Using these pieces of technology that have been around for decades and now are being abused the engineer can take any recording and make it artificially loud and hot. This creates a temporary sense of excitement for the listener but at a price. The problem with this technology is that it forces the entire musical content to playback at the same level of loudness. That subtle piece of recording that was so beautiful is now jumping out of your stereo system. It has all the subtlety of a hand grenade. Additionally, that temporary sense of excitement is starting to turn into ear fatigue as your head takes the pounding by this artificially loud, relentless and steady stream of volume. Also, if you listen closely you will hear distortions in the music--cracks and pops, high frequency noise. This is called digital clipping and it is the result of recordings being pumped up too much in volume. Can you hear that bass drum that has an irritating high frequency click to it?? That is not the sound of the bass drum recording. This is digital clipping as a result of overuse of limiters. Remember when you saw your favorite band live?? Remember how your favorite song really soared during the chorus?? Now, as you listen to the album, you notice that the chorus of your favorite song doesn't soar at all. You notice that the volume of the chorus is exactly the same as the volume of the verses. Once again, the limiter has squashed the beautiful chorus in the effort to keep the verse as loud as possible. Your favorite band is probably furious over this but they signed their life away during the contract negotiations with the record label. The Producer wants his volume, he wants his excitement----he want his sales and couldn't care less about musical quality. So, now, you have an impressively loud album that cannot be ignored. It has perfect lead and background vocal work being sung by a stunningly beautiful woman who is scantily dressed on the album cover---all her physical imperfections having been photo edited out. The drums are in perfect tempo too. And the sales start rolling in. Here is the truth. Today, you are not listening to humans that sing. You are listening to a computer that sings. You are not listening to a drummer playing drums. You are listening to a computer playing drums. You are not listening to a recording the way it sounded in the studio at the time the recording was made. You are listening to a computer crank up the volume to artificial levels that change the entire mix and quality of the original recordings. You are not listening to high quality recordings, you are listening to recordings with audible distortions everywhere. And you are not seeing the stunning beauty the way she looks when she first gets up in the morning. You are buying a piece of fiction with human performance credits pasted all over it. At Brandt Morain Studios we do not use any drum machines, vocal modelers, vocal processors, vocal harmonizers, or pitch correction devices of any kind. We hate them. We also use very little limiting and compression. Jared went to great lengths to develop proprietary recording and production techniques that allow us to skip the use of almost all compression and limiting, yet the album is still hot enough to compete with other commercial productions. You might notice that our album is not a loud as some. This is done deliberately. We refuse to destroy the beauty of natural recordings when all you have to do is turn your volume knob up a few decibels. We refuse to introduce digital clipping distortions and other distortions when all you have to do is turn your volume knob up a few decibels. Sooo, TURN IT UP!! This is why you bought an amplifier, isn't it?? You will notice that we have the cleanest, most natural recordings possible. The sounds are beautiful. The singing is real. The drumming is real. The sonic quality and character of Brandt Morain Volume One is absolutely fantastic because we have abandoned these industry "Innovations". This level of quality is not easy to achieve and requires much--MUCH more time to record. Brandt Morain Volume One took approximately 3000 man hours to record and produce. The average commercially produced album takes only 2 months to record and produce. It all boils down to one simple truth. Either you are interested in making good music or you are interested in making good profits. Our opinion in this matter is not unique. There is a large backlash in the music industry against such practices. If you wish to learn more, on this topic, then please visit So, if you like to listen to computers perform music, then keep shelling out the $$ for these abominations that the music industry is cranking out. If you want to listen to real music then buy Brandt Morain Volume One. Thanks for reading our rant. Sincerely, Jared and Eddie. All content that exists on this website including graphics and photography copyright © 2009 by Jared M. Brandt and Eddie B. Morain, Sr. Music and Lyrics copyright © 2007 by Jared M. Brandt except for "Heartburn" and "That's What I Get" copyright © 2007 by Jared M. Brandt, Eddie B. Morain, Sr, and Adam Morain. Sound compilation copyright © 2009 by Jared M. Brandt, Eddie B. Morain, Sr. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use of this content is strictly prohibited Website maintained by Poop Dog |