Making Tracks Across the Miles

BUENA PARK, CA (August 17, 2004) — Dallas-based drummer Ron Kaplan lists an unusual credit in the liner notes of Television Mind, the recent album he recorded with The Cleavers – a Yahoo internet message board dedicated to users of the Yamaha AW4416 Digital Audio Workstation. Without it, Kaplan says he would have had trouble putting out a CD with his bandmates, who live more than 1,000 miles away in the Chicago area.

The AW4416 and the Internet turned Ron Kaplan into a computer-savvy recording engineer.

Kaplan has been a drummer for most of his life, but it was only recently that he turned into a self-taught recording engineer. That happened when a longtime friend in Chicago, songwriter Dick Eastman, whose credits range from New Edition to The Monkees, asked him to lay down drum tracks on a new record by his project band, The Cleavers. Kaplan played in local bands around Chicago from his teens through his mid-30s before moving to Dallas to work for a promotional products distributor, while Eastman had been a staff songwriter for MCA Music in the mid-1980s. The two, along with guitarist Bobby Diamond, had played together in several bands, and remained friends. And, although Kaplan had originally planned on making several trips to Chicago to record, the September 11 attacks convinced him that it might be safer to avoid flying. "Even at the best of times, I'm not the best flyer," he says.

"Becoming a music technology buff was something that happened out of necessity," he says. "My previous brush with the high-tech world was owning Mac computers and doing basic maintenance on them. I had recorded in professional studios before, but was always 'on the other side of the glass,' and didn't really pay attention to what the engineers were doing."

Cleavers band members Dave Leeds (seated) and Dick Eastman with one of several AW4416 units used on the Television Mind CD project.

The answer seemed to be remote recording. "We came up with the idea that I would buy some gear and record my drum parts," he says. "Dick and Bobby could send me the guitar and vocal tracks. I'd record my drums and send those tracks back to them."

Kaplan purchased a set of electronic drums and a Yamaha AW4416. "Dick and our keyboard player, Mike Kroell, each owned AW4416s, and liked the fact that you could produce master CDs, share the material with other AW units, and can transfer all the mixes, EQ, etc. all at once," he explains. "It seemed like the perfect solution."

The bandmates used Apple Computer's iTunes or PC-based MusicMatch software to rip the music from their master CDs into MP3 form, allowing them to quickly send digital copies of their music to each other for instant feedback.

"We sent recordings back and forth, mixing in our ideas penpal-style, if you will," says Kaplan. "Mike, Dave, Bobby and Dick would work on parts and send me an automix, where everything had been submixed down to a drumless stereo track. I'd lay down the drums directly into the song on eight tracks without having to submix them or bounce tracks. It took us a while to get a good working routine. After all, I was trying to learn the songs and to use the gear at the same time!"

"Not everything was perfect, but to be able to back up to CD and send the tracks was incredibly convenient. The automix, the scene recall and the onboard effects were all great. For my purposes, there wasn't anything the AW4416 could not do."

Kaplan found much of his help on the Web in the form of the Yahoo AW4416 users group. "I got a real education from real users," he says. "Everything from recording advice to techniques. We also found our mastering engineer, Ronny Morris, on there. He owns Digitak Mastering in Brunswick, Georgia, and also happens to be the forum moderator. I sent him tracks for some feedback, and he told us not only was the material great, but we had gotten excellent sound quality using the AW4416. I also put a notice on the forum offering to collaborate with other AW users, and as a result, got to work with people from Australia, New York and Kentucky – over the Web."

The Cleavers are hosting streaming audio samples of their finished CD at www.allrightrecords.com. The release has reached number two on Internet Radio (www.aiiradio.net) and has garnered positive reviews on CDbaby.com/thecleavers.

"This is definitely a band project," says Kaplan. "I'm merely a spokesman. My goal is to make people aware of the music."

For more information on the AW4416, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Pro Audio & Combo Division, Professional Audio, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com; or visit www.yamaha.com/proaudio.