Words In Motion
Spellbound - Vol III Iss I
© June 1996

From Darren McK., Glen Iris, VIC, Australia -
How does Iva blend musical pieces together when writing music to DAT or CD, such as the songs on Big Wheel and The Berlin Tapes? I’d like to learn how this blending is achieved so I can apply it (or at least try it out) in putting together some music of my own.
Iva's answer -
The pieces are made independently, they are mixed as separate entities but the top and tail content is written with a “segue” in mind. They are then transferred to Computer as digital stereo recordings. It is then possible to “overlap” them by “cross fading” i.e. as the first “fades out” the second “fades in” underneath. The trick is to make the content of piece #1’s “tail” compatible with piece #2’s beginning e.g. they might be in the same musical key. This is how the various “segues” and inserted “connecting pieces” are integrated. This kind of “editing” is very easy with a digital recording/editing facility like “Pro Tool 111” which is what Trackdown Studio has had for some time. I have only acquired it here at my own studio in the last two months so all the Big Wheel editing was done at Trackdown.