As this project has commenced this reflection will highlight the struggles and strengths we experienced as a team and as I did individually. There were significant events that effected the overall outcome of the project some were good and some were bad.
The most significant included when we decided to not use a key board to record the keys but rather use midi. This decision happened after we took Nells Junior into the studio to record a scratch track with just keys and vocals. However, we shortly realised that once we recorded it as an audio file it was going to be hard to manipulate. Considering we had a vision for the song but needed the time to add sequenced drums and other instruments we found out that we should use midi instead of audio. This is something we both should have seen as the presets on the key board are only presets just like in midi. If we were recording a real piano then yes that would have been the correct method but using a DI and just recording a preset was not the way we needed to get the sounds for this project. So after this session in the studio which was essentially a waste Nell came to my house and we used my midi key board and mic and recorded the piano parts for the scratch track in about half an hour while being able to constantly change the sounds. It was good they we realised this method was more effective as early as we did.
Another important event was when we made the drum sounds from scratch instead of using a programmed drummer. This gave us more creative depth and let us really vibe with the drive of the song. There isn’t much more to say about this as the track I referenced for the drums was a simple 4/4 beat with a little bit of reverb on the snare. This needed up being the perfect addition to the track regarding some complexion to make it sound fuller rather than having the beat the same the whole way through.
Something that wasn’t so great that happened was when Nell recorded the main vocal parts by herself. There were mistakes made during this session that would have been avoided with us both there. Also the decision to do this at the last minute because we had some extra time was affective but I would have used a different microphone as an Sm57 is not a good vocal recording mic. This is where I believe team work is important on a project such as this one and it would have been achievable for us to do it on a day when we both could make it so that things like this don’t happen and everyone can have their creative input. Another issue with this session I was not there for was that The studio my partner used didn’t have a live room and she didn’t put head phones on when recording so there is bleed of the track in the back ground of all the takes. This was frustrating to me as it’s a silly mistake to make and I wouldn’t have happened if I was there. We defiantly could have communicated better in this last two weeks of production as I gave Nell my work roster but she still went a head and did these major sessions alone and as a result I don’t believe we got the best sound out of her voice and the vocal production could have complimented the track a lot better.
The effectiveness of our plan was good! It helped us meet all the dead lines that we needed. We met even more frequently that planned most weeks. However believe we should have planned so that any recording we did we were both there for as I mentioned in the paragraph above. I feel like even though we made very good use of out time this was something that was over looked in some cases and the outcome of our project was affected by this factor. In saying this there was a great deal of help that that plan gave us it kept us connately meeting dead lines and when we achieved something before or after the dead line we didn’t need to panic as we allowed time for mistakes in our plan. As far as straying from our original plan we did have a few different parts to the original planned process. One was that we didn’t record with the key board as I mentioned before. This was due to a lack of communication between us and how we wanted thee outcome to be. I thought that using midi would be better than recording the keys as an audio file because I thought New had a particular sound she wanted. When we realised this wasn’t the case it was much easier to record midi tracks when we wanted and change things very easily rather than having to record they key board like we originally planned. As far as the over all outcome I believe we stuck to the original plan and achieved the outcome we wanted. For instance the sounds we created and drums we used all were executed as planned. We did change our reference tracks though the process and ended up using a number of them for mixing techniques. We also changed the sounds of the synths that we created in logic ES2 a few times as we realised some of the frequencies that the synth was creating were clashing with some of the frequencies in Nells voice or piano parts. As we planned to ova this synth patch done by the third week then build the song around it as a fundamental but needed up doing the opposite. This was fine though as building the song around the synth wasn’t the most affective idea in the first place.
The key creative process’s that we executed in this project included:
Chord composition
Melody composition
Harmony composition
Midi drums
DI guitar for the guitar solo (choice of distortion)
Automation in the DAW for volume and reverb
Microphone techniques and choices
Synth creation (Bass, lead, pad sounds)
The composition parts of the project regarding the chordal structure and melody line were all Nells original ideas for the track. I am actually not sure what chords are played in the song but I know its a repeating pattern of four chords through out the whole song. Its in the key of F# which I worked out when writing the guitar solo. I could have been more engaged with the original composition for this track but I wanted to take more of a producers seat rather than be apart of the song writing. I used an F# major scale for the solo and make sure that the phrasing complimented the chord changes and wasn’t too hectic sounding.
As far as the Midi drums went this is one of the elements I defiantly need to work on we ended up using some audio files as well as the drum kits in logic but found we liked different sounds for different kits. I should have made sampler instrument with all the sounds we would need after we had decided on the sounds. I then would have separated the midid data so that each drum sound was in its own midi track. This would have made it easier to automate the drums when needed and easier to add effects such as reverb. Instead we had the drums in sections and some of them on their own tracks. This worked but if we decided we wanted to add effects to a particular part I have to copy the midi data into a separate track and it became a little messy. This is something industry standard wise I need to practice as it would make music production a lot easer and more professional.
The microphone choices as I have mentioned previously in this reflection were not good. I would have used a NT2A instead of the SM58. This would have captured Nells voice a lot better as she has a large vocal range that naturally differs in volume. A condenser microphone would have captured the tiger frequencies in the vocal range where the Sm58 made it sound thin and was hard to edit. This was however a creative choice made. After speaking with Nell I asked why she wanted to use this mic and she said that she wanted her voice to sound more raw and organic. I believe however that due to the quality of the recording and the amount of processing we had to do to boost the harmonies that it would have been more affective to have just used a condenser mic. In this situation I should have suggested that we re record the vocals and use a mix of both for a different affect but we put so much effort into the editing of them that it would have been a waste of time. This could have been easily avoided if we were both present for this session.
The creation of our synth patches was something I put a lot of energy into. Nell hadn’t ever used a synth before so it was cool to show her how it worked. We started by replicating a synth we heard in one of our reference tracks to use to compliment the piano plug in sound that we chose. It was a high frequency synth sounds like sounded like an 80’s pad. It evolved over the length of the chord changes so I wanted to replicate that element especially. I used cut LFO’s to try and emulate this by making them control the frequency cut offs. This is feel was effective and worked well with the piano. After hearing it inlayer versions of the song however we changed it bit to not have such nigh frequencies and used an EQ to boost the mid range as our track was lacking around 400-600 HZ. I think that when making synth sounds the more you practice the better you get and knowing what will fit into a song. I want to keep evolving my skills when it comes to this and I think that by recreating sound I hear I will be able to eventually be confident in what I am creating and know that it will have the frequencies I need to enhance a track. More over using a spectrum EQ analyser was very helpful when making the synth bass sounds later in the track as will out the use of the getting a synth to produce the correct bass frequencies is hard.
Another few aspects I wish to improve with my production include, using the different types of deals to mix while recording. This is something that will only come with practice and by watching other people use the desk as well. I also want to improve my goal production styles so that I know what is the best approach according to the vocalist on what mics to use, how I should EQ and the types of processing I should use to make a vocal take sound crisp and professional.
In conclusion I believe that my self and my group have well excited this project and we are both proud of the out come. I have learnt a lot about working in a team and the pros and cons of having different strengths and dynamics in a group work situation. I am proud of what I have achieved and can’t wait to do something pretty different than a pop production for my next project.
And finally here is the finished product!
https://soundcloud.com/user-728945829/nell-fyf-aud210
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