Gabriel & Dresden (album) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Production

It is Gabriel & Dresden's first and last self-titled artist album, on their new label Organized Nature

Organized Nature

Organized Nature is a record label founded in the spring of 2005 by San Francisco's Top-DJs and current No. 1 American DJs Gabriel & Dresden. The label is UK based via Gabriel & Dresden's management company and Plastic Fantastic Label Management....

. The duo is usually seen remixing songs from rock, pop and alternative bands but Dave Dresden

Dave Dresden

Dave Dresden is an electronic dance music DJ and producer, co-founder of the collaborative acts Gabriel & Dresden with Josh Gabriel, and Dresden and Johnston with Mikael Johnston of Mephisto Odyssey fame.-1990-2000: Early years:...

and Josh Gabriel

Josh Gabriel

Josh Gabriel is an electronic dance music DJ and producer, formerly of Gabriel & Dresden with Dave Dresden.-Early Years :In 1988-89, a 20 year old exchange student from California Institute of the Arts, was living in The Hague in The Netherlands and studying at the Institute of Sonology...

decided to build their own work with Apple's Logic Pro

Logic Pro

Logic Pro is a hybrid 32 / 64 bit digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software application for the Mac OS X platform. Originally created by German software developer Emagic, Logic Pro became an Apple product when Apple bought Emagic in 2002...

software and music sequencer Ableton Live

Ableton Live

Ableton Live is a loop-based software music sequencer and DAW for Mac OS and Windows by Ableton. The latest major release of Live, Version 8, was released in April 2009. In contrast to many other software sequencers, Live is designed to be an instrument for live performances as well as a tool for...

. In February 2005, Gabriel and Dresden collected their equipment: a Minimoog Voyager

Minimoog Voyager

The Minimoog Voyager or Voyager is a monophonic analog synthesizer, designed by Robert Moog and released in 2002 by Moog Music. The Voyager was modeled after the classic Minimoog synthesizer that was popular in the 1970s, and is meant to be a successor to that instrument.-Design:Like the original...

, Roland

Roland

Roland was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. Historically, Roland was military governor of the Breton March, with responsibility for defending the frontier of Francia against the Bretons...

TR-909, guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

s, bass

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

and odd instruments like a German log drum

Log drum

A log drum is a type of unpitched percussion instrument.*see drum for the history of log drum and information on the log drum as a means of communication in ancient cultures* see also:**Tongue drum**Slit drum**Bosalabos**Wood block...

and metal bell plates played with mallets to build up their pop-rock-structured dance tracks. They used plug-ins and samples

Sampler (musical instrument)

A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...

as their synthesizer along the Logic Pro

Logic Pro

Instrumental

Eleven, an instrumental track which includes the participation of Scarlett Etienne featured oscillating synth sounds and bass layers of the Voyager

Minimoog Voyager

, string

String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

sounds were created by delay

Delay (audio effect)

Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...

ing, distorting

Distortion

A distortion is the alteration of the original shape of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation. Distortion is usually unwanted, and often many methods are employed to minimize it in practice...

and phasing

Phasing

In the compositional technique phasing, the same part is played on two musical instruments, in steady but not identical tempo...

the bass making it sound harmonically but it is an automating pitch

Pitch (music)

Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...

shifter. Then the sound was set in through reverb, tremolo

Tremolo

Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term that describes various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration...

, and a NorthPole filter; This creates an uncluttered clear space in the track. Drums are an integral part of their mixes, Gabriel and Dresden tend to layer snares more than kicks. They adapt a high end kick in one side and a low end kick on the other, but they do not usually layer them because the kicks provide the tones

Musical tone

A musical tone is a steady periodic sound. A musical tone is characterized by its duration, pitch, intensity , and timbre . The notes used in music can be more complex than musical tones, as they may include aperiodic aspects, such as attack transients, vibrato, and envelope modulation.A simple...

, when layered, the frequencies are interconnecting which causes a beat not a kick. They make arrangements to move the bass rhythm which has no downbeat or fading in or EQ

Equalization

Equalization, is the process of adjusting the balance between frequency components within an electronic signal. The most well known use of equalization is in sound recording and reproduction but there are many other applications in electronics and telecommunications. The circuit or equipment used...

which takes the low end out only when the kick is happening to make a pure kick, just like their song Summer Calling as Andain

Andain

Andain is a San Francisco-based electronic music duo. Their style incorporates a blend of acoustic instrumentation, blissful vocals, and introspective lyrics, companioned by dark electronic elements and sound design. Band members initially included producer Josh Gabriel, singer and songwriter Mavie...

. The pulsating Moog

Moog Music

Moog Music is an American company based in Asheville, North Carolina which manufactures electronic musical instruments. The current Moog Music is the second company to trade under that name.-R.A. Moog Co. and the original Moog Music:...

bass synth in Eleven is fluid, but as soon as the kick hits, the bass fades. In Logic, Gabriel created fade-ins at the quarter note, and with the bass having holes in it when soloed, nothing sounds missing when played alongside the kick. The duo uses bass space wisely to put bass sounds through one bus and put a limiter such as Waves' L2 Ultramaximizer on the track. Gabriel will also compile simple bass sets on a bus and put a multiband compressor through it, to create unity which makes it possible to be controlled with only one synth, another plug-in for bass is the Ohm

Ohm

The ohm is the SI unit of electrical resistance, named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm.- Definition :The ohm is defined as a resistance between two points of a conductor when a constant potential difference of 1 volt, applied to these points, produces in the conductor a current of 1 ampere,...

Force Frohmage. To surround the bass Gabriel makes sure that there is no superfluous low end taking up space in tracks that don't need it, having nothing below 400 Hz

Hertz

The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....

. Their second single from the album was Mass Repeat which included Eleven as a B-side, Darryl Smyers of the Dallas Observer

Dallas Observer

The Dallas Observer is a free alternative weekly newspaper distributed around the Dallas, Texas . At its inception, it was conceived as a weekly local arts and cinema review publication, with the credo "Advocate for Excellence in the Arts" on the cover. For a time during the early years, the paper...

described the single as "a clever comment on the entire genre", he also stated that both are "engaging and expressive mixes of movement and mind".

Vocals

The album features two lead vocalists, Molly Bancroft and Jan Burton

Jan Burton

Jan Burton is a Welsh music producer best known for his work with ex-Fluke member Mike Tournier in their joint project, Syntax. He is currently engaged in musical activities in a group called Fatal and working on Syntax's second Album....

, as well as backup vocals from Dave, Josh, Gabriel's wife, Kristy; and their little son, Rowan. The vocals also set in onslaught; this can make a background vocal chopped, reversed

Backmasking

Backmasking is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward on to a track that is meant to be played forward...

, reverbed, delayed, phased and distorted. The sound is made by Gabriel and Dresden with a Studio Projects tube microphone through a Grace 101 preamp into a Summit Audio TLA-50 compressor as well as in a MOTU

Mark of the Unicorn

Mark of the Unicorn is a music-related computer software and hardware supplier. It is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has created music software since 1984.Products by MOTU include:*Digital Performer*AudioDesk*BPM*MachFive*MX4*Unisyn...

828mkII interface. Some vocal songs like "Let Go" featuring Molly Bancroft and "Enemy" with Burton prove how Gabriel and Dresden's methodology

Methodology

Methodology is generally a guideline for solving a problem, with specificcomponents such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and tools . It can be defined also as follows:...

of creating an obvious lead vocal into separated, secondary layers. The background vocals provide a mid-point between high and low due to the sibilance; the highest part of the voice is the thing that gives one intelligibility, the high end is what makes the words clear since there is nothing clearer than one voice; everything else is blurrier once it is added. A song that meets these criteria is "Tracking Treasure Down", which features one clear voice and the additional background vocals at a certain high end pulled down so high frequencies don't interfere with the lead voice. By taking away the high end it would become muddier, which is something Dave evaded; he took all high-end voices away, except for one, which peaks through and creates a definite position of all minor vocals. The layer comes from the pitch part of the voice and not the sibilance, which eliminates most high end and low end voices making it sound in layers. Leaving several vocals with all the high end in position overloads the sound for the ears. By taking all ends off it hurts the ears; in this situation they used a shelf, so it would pull 5 dB

Decibel

The decibel is a logarithmic unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity relative to a specified or implied reference level. A ratio in decibels is ten times the logarithm to base 10 of the ratio of two power quantities...

less from 5,600 Hz

Hertz

, making it sound like if the vocals lose edge, as if it were falling behind, which does not remove the bass. Dresden uses a high-pass filter

High-pass filter

A high-pass filter is a device that passes high frequencies and attenuates frequencies lower than its cutoff frequency. A high-pass filter is usually modeled as a linear time-invariant system...

at 1,100 Hz which lies in-between. Rocktronica singer and songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

Jes Brieden

Jes Brieden is an North American singer, songwriter, producer, and frequent guest vocalist.-Early life:Jes Brieden is a singer, songwriter and producer. Born and raised in New York City, she studied art and singing in an art school. She first began experimenting with music production at her...

helped with the writing of lyrics for songs like "Enemy" and "Dangerous Power

Dangerous Power

"Dangerous Power" is an award-winning musical track from Gabriel & Dresden and Jan Burton. Under the label Organized Nature, the track won the "Best Alternative/Rock Dance Track" in the IDMA in 2007. The song was written by Dave Dresden, Josh Gabriel, Jes Brieden and Jan Burton...

". Tracks "Enemy" and "Dangerous Power" are adaptations from the track "Imagination" by the duo's group Motorcycle with Jes Brieden

Jes Brieden

. "Dust in the Wind" is a cover of the band Kansas

Kansas (band)

Kansas is an American rock band that became popular in the 1970s initially on Album-Oriented Rock charts, and later with hit singles such as "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind"...

; alternatively the duo wanted to cover "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden

Soundgarden

Soundgarden is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto...

but they decided for "Dust in the Wind" since Dave felt it was a tribute to 9/11.

Transitions

Gabriel and Dresden have both been known as deejays for years, when they mixed Gabriel & Dresden, they felt the pressure to make it come across like a mix CD, but also tried not to be mistaken for a mix CD. They mixed the songs together with beatless transitions. Laying out the tracks back-to-back in Ableton Live

Ableton Live

which forms quick seamless transitions between tracks in the overall 124 to 135 bpm range. The automation

Automation

Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...

features in Ableton Live

Ableton Live

made the transitions easy to accomplish during the in-between parts with tempo

Tempo

In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...

set, volume

Volume

Volume is the quantity of three-dimensional space enclosed by some closed boundary, for example, the space that a substance or shape occupies or contains....

and filter

Filter

- Chemistry, engineering and materials :In chemistry, engineering, or household usage, a device to separate mixtures. See:* Filter , critical components of both freshwater and marine aquaria...

fades into action. The length of sounds were stretched to fit the music and create a complete chord changes at the 11th hour creating perfect segues. Josh Gabriel

Josh Gabriel

has a tendency of using 37 million effects on one track, but is rarely one of them. His philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

on why he holds back on panning is because it is an effect

Sound effect

For the album by The Jam, see Sound Affects.Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...

. He only panned the vocals and textures or pads to make it feel spacious. Tracking Treasure Down is an example of how panning was used during the production, on the background vocals to make the chorus sound interesting and sound like different people were talking, both voices were panned differently.

Credits

This list contains information credited to the artwork designers, engineers, photographers and producers.

Artwork Design By - Dave Dresden
Dave Dresden
Dave Dresden is an electronic dance music DJ and producer, co-founder of the collaborative acts Gabriel & Dresden with Josh Gabriel, and Dresden and Johnston with Mikael Johnston of Mephisto Odyssey fame.-1990-2000: Early years:...

, Josh Gabriel and Mark Oliver Skinner
Engineered and Mixed By - Josh Gabriel
Josh Gabriel
Josh Gabriel is an electronic dance music DJ and producer, formerly of Gabriel & Dresden with Dave Dresden.-Early Years :In 1988-89, a 20 year old exchange student from California Institute of the Arts, was living in The Hague in The Netherlands and studying at the Institute of Sonology...
Mastered By - Kris Solem
Photography - William Henshall
Producer - Gabriel & Dresden
Gabriel & Dresden
Gabriel & Dresden is the project name of the DJs and producers Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden from San Francisco. Their popularity and activities were centered in the United States. They won the WMC award as Best American DJ twice in 2007 and 2008, the same day the group split-up...

Personnel

This list contains information of the personnel who created the vocals, song writings and guests that participated in the production of each song from the album.
"Let Go"

Acoustic guitar - David Penner
Additional Backing vocals - Kristy Gabriel
Electric Bass - Josh Gabriel
Electric guitar - Molly Bancroft
Lead Vocals - Molly Bancroft
Six-flat Bell Plate Bells - Josh Gabriel
Written By - Dave Dresden, David Penner, Josh Gabriel and Molly Bancroft

"Eleven"

Written By - Dave Dresden, Josh Gabriel and Scarlett Etienne

"Enemy"

Additional Backing vocals - Leonie Burton
Additional Writing By - N. Davenport
Backing vocals - Jan Burton
Jan Burton
Jan Burton is a Welsh music producer best known for his work with ex-Fluke member Mike Tournier in their joint project, Syntax. He is currently engaged in musical activities in a group called Fatal and working on Syntax's second Album....
Lead Vocals - Jan Burton
Written By - Dave Dresden, Josh Gabriel, Jan Burton and Jes Brieden
Jes Brieden
Jes Brieden is an North American singer, songwriter, producer, and frequent guest vocalist.-Early life:Jes Brieden is a singer, songwriter and producer. Born and raised in New York City, she studied art and singing in an art school. She first began experimenting with music production at her...

"Dust In The Wind"

Lead Vocals - Molly Bancroft
Log Drum Percussion - Josh Gabriel
Written By - Kerry Livgren
Kerry Livgren
Kerry Allen Livgren is an American musician and songwriter, best known as one of the founding members and primary songwriters for the 1970s progressive rock band, Kansas.-Biography:...

"Mass Repeat"

Additional Drums - Pete Houser
Written By - Dave Dresden and Josh Gabriel

"Closer"

Backing vocals - Josh Gabriel and Kristy Gabriel
Electric Bass - Molly Bancroft
Electric guitar - Molly Bancroft
Written By - Josh Gabriel, David Penner
Andain
Andain is a San Francisco-based electronic music duo. Their style incorporates a blend of acoustic instrumentation, blissful vocals, and introspective lyrics, companioned by dark electronic elements and sound design. Band members initially included producer Josh Gabriel, singer and songwriter Mavie...

and Mavie Marcos
Andain
Andain is a San Francisco-based electronic music duo. Their style incorporates a blend of acoustic instrumentation, blissful vocals, and introspective lyrics, companioned by dark electronic elements and sound design. Band members initially included producer Josh Gabriel, singer and songwriter Mavie...

"Not Enough"

Backing vocals - Jan Burton
Lead Vocals - Jan Burton
Written By - Dave Dresden, Josh Gabriel and Jan Burton

"Amsterdam Interlude"

Piano - Josh Gabriel

"New Path"

Additional Writing By - N. Davenport
Lead Vocals - Jan Burton
Written By - Dave Dresden, Josh Gabriel, Jan burton

"Sydney"

Written By - Dave Dresden and Josh Gabriel

"Dangerous Power"

Backing vocals - Dave Dresden
Electric Bass - Josh Gabriel
Lead Vocals - Jan Burton
Piano - Josh Gabriel
Written By - Dave Dresden, Josh Gabriel, Jan Burton and Jes Brieden

"Tracking Treasure Down"

Additional Vocals - Rowan Gabriel
Additional Keyboards - Molly Bancroft
Backing vocals - Dave Dresden and Josh Gabriel
Handclaps - Josh Gabriel and Molly Bancroft
Lead Vocals - Molly Bancroft
Written By - Dave Dresden, Josh Gabriel and Molly Bancroft

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	June 1, 2006	Organized Nature Organized Nature Organized Nature is a record label founded in the spring of 2005 by San Francisco's Top-DJs and current No. 1 American DJs Gabriel & Dresden. The label is UK based via Gabriel & Dresden's management company and Plastic Fantastic Label Management....	CD, Album Album An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album... , Mixed Mixed Mixed is the past tense of mix. It may also refer to:Mixed breed, an animal whose parents are from different breeds or speciesMixed anomaly, in theoretical physics, an example of an anomaly*Mixed data sampling, an econometric model developed by Ghysels... , Digipack	ORGNCD001
Europe
United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
	June 5, 2006		File Computer file A computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. A file is durable in the sense that it remains available for programs to use after the current program has finished... , MP3 MP3 MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression... , Album Album An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album... , Partially Mixed	ORGNCD006
	June 29, 2006		2xCD, Album Album An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album... , Digipack	ORGNCD101
Russia Russia Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...	June 29, 2006	World Club Music	CD, Album Album An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album... , Mixed Mixed Mixed is the past tense of mix. It may also refer to:Mixed breed, an animal whose parents are from different breeds or speciesMixed anomaly, in theoretical physics, an example of an anomaly*Mixed data sampling, an econometric model developed by Ghysels...	ПРЗ CD53730
Mexico Mexico The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...	2007	Mucha Mas Música	CD, Album Album An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...	2220322

Sources

http://www.discogs.com/release/1121796

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