Hey guys! just an update on the EP production. I have decided that due to some mistakes while recording this EP I shall not be releasing this on Soundcloud just yet. I am going to re-record the EP over the next few weeks and release it after. There is a few reasons why I have decoded to do this. There is a few timing issues that I am un able to fix at this stage of the process. The reason I did't pick up on these while recording was possible because they are my own songs and there for it's harder to pick up on these especially while playing. I don't really think I see this as a set back because I have learnt a valuable lesson. I really need another set of ears to listen of things in the studio as a more of a tracking producer to help out when things like this happen to help me work out ways around it. So there is defiantly a few ways around the timing with the drums. I think defiantly more practice but also being more direct about what I want the drummer to play. As I was more focused on the processing side of this I wasn't too worried about the takes being a little all over the place. I now really regret having this mind set as I am really happy with the processing side of the production. However, I have had to take back some of the reverb and delay processing on vocals and guitars due to timing issues the tracks were sounding really muddy with the timing issues as well as this processing. I am disappointed that this is the case. It really has brought down the production value of the EP.
Regarding the timing issues with the drums. I have played all the guitar parts to fit the timing of this but it really hasn't worked. I think that I may try and beat detect the drum takes and reenforce them with one shots if needed. It would be really great if this works as the sound quality of the drums are pretty good. I will then only have to retake the guitars and vocals. Which I need to take the vocal again anyway I think as when I did the takes I was very sick with a cold. This has really changed the overall tone of my voice in the EP.
I have learnt a lot about dream pop production in this recording process. I have learnt that some if the things I tried worked well and some not so much. For instance the guitar tone is really good using the two amp technique worked so well! I was really happy that I decided to try something that might not work. It was such a great feeling when it did! Id really like to try this again and change the position of the amps. I'd maybe try facing them towards each other and trying some weird tremolo effects on the amps.
The way the drums were recorded was okay but I really needed to praise a lot more with mike so he was comfortable having my guitar and vocals through his head phones as a scratch track. I think then I could have played more a producer role. I have learnt a really good lesson from this as I mentioned. I think that even using a click track would have been more effective.
The microphone's I used for my vocal sounded really good. I'd even consider using some room mics next time as well as the two stereo microphones. This did give my voice a really wide stereo imagine and give me room to play with different reverbs . I think that for this genre using some ver head vocal mics could some really cool to capture the springy higher frequencies of my voice. Especially for harmonies.
As far as the bass DI track I did. This would have been better recorded using an amp as well as this DI. I think that next time I will use an amp and DI to get a nice warm rounded sound. I found the tone to be too mid rang sounding and I think that with the used of some nice mic's I could get a rad tone from a bass amp that would suit this genre way better.
I used some synth plug ins for the EP. These really added a nice layer that is pretty crucial for the genre. I think next time I might even try and record a real organ if I ever go the opportunity. I think that this would be really cool as bands such as Beach House use real organ's in their studio recordings and adds a really nice contrast with the analogue synths. I would also love to use a really synth instead of the Arturia plug in's. I think that dream pop has that really analogue sound sometimes and it can really only be achieved with really synths.
I got some feed back regarding the first final mix I did. There was a few processing things I needed to fix up with some uneven compression and a few EQ issues. I also fixed up some of the reverb and delay times. The compression was mostly on the vocal in all the songs. There was some obvious issues with the tidiness of the tracks and adding a little more compression to the vocal busses really helped heated it up! I have applied the feedback given to me and now have two versions of all the songs with the different processing.
Here is a link to a public Google drive folder where you can access both the mixes and hear the difference.
Over all I am happy with what I have learnt in this process. Although the product didn't turn out how I would ova liked I have a few really clear ideas of what I can try from now on. If beat detecting the drums works I will be able to move this process much quicker and hopefully if the second time around works I will be able to distribute it!
Comments