Project Proposal
Production Project Files
Progress and Management Records
Project Overview Document
In this document I tracked the overall progress of my portfolio. It was a key document in managing the work load and effectively planning sessions to carry out recording. The spreadsheet is chronological. I aimed to fully record three overdubs by 18th of February when the full band live takes were recorded, after which I would have completed the next overdubs. I came into the project with ‘Daughters’ & ‘Coin’ as backup tracks, ultimately choosing to use Daughters following feedback from Jason Ellis in a 1 to 1 session and because the demo titled ‘Ummmm’ did not get finished.
Session Plan Document
In this document I managed the short-term elements of the project. It was used to figure out the details of each of the blue ‘PLANNED’ sessions including the studio room, personnel and equipment that would be required for the session. This outlined a plan for each session however there was still spontaneity when it came to mic choices
Evidence of Communication
Communication With The Band
Communication with the band happened primarily through the band’s Whatsapp ground chat, in which we would find dates for sessions. Below is a photo of the planning of the live recording date.
Live Recording
Live recording took place on the 12th of March 2026. In this session we recorded the drums, bass and three guitars for ‘Liko’ and ‘Ghosts’. As we also play as a live band together on a regular basis I felt that these two songs had sonic characteristics that we had developed in a live environment that may be lost if we recorded them purely as overdubs.
For this session I booked studio 115. I picked this studio as it allowed for the best separation between instruments. We placed drums in the drum booth, bass in the vocal booth, and had three guitars set up in the main room. Below is the track sheet and videos of the live session.
Additional Elements
From these live takes I developed on the arrangements, overdubbing vocals, synths, percussion and additional guitars. Whilst this did take away from the purely live elements of the songs, I felt it made these tracks more cohesive with the rest of the portfolio. The basis of each of these songs was a full live take, we did not comp any takes together. Below is the live mix of ‘Ghosts’.
Live Take Reamping
To develop the live takes into full arrangements I completed reamping sessions. Below is a video of the reamping process for the verse lead guitar part in ‘Ghosts’, which I ran through a Roland JC-120 and created an auxiliary send for the Lexicon PCM92 to create a controllable reverb texture of this part. Capturing and reamping the DI’s allowed me to craft the track sonically whilst not losing the original groove from the full band takes.
Other Live Elements
To keep a live feel across overdubs recording I employed several different techniques.Firstly all drums, percussion and bass were recorded as full live takes with no comping. Occasionally parts were tracked together, such as the bass and rhythm guitar of ‘soft’ to achieve a more natural feel. Additionally quantised MIDI synths from the original demos were replaced with analog synths played live.
Contingency Planning
Live recording offered a form contingency plan, had over recordings not fit within the timeframe, or not come together sonically through overdubbing, we had the option and experience to use live recording. The main contingency planning on this project involved planning around the schedules of the other members of the band who. Unlike myself, are not current students of the conservatoire. At the beginning of the project other musicians from within the conservatoire to see if they would be willing to fill in on sessions if that chance arose. I lined up backing vocalists and a bassist, ultimately choosing to record a lot of guitar and synth parts myself. Luckily depping musicians was kept to a minimum with the only really swap being that some bass was recorded by the bands guitarist instead of our bassist.
Management Analysis
The main criticism I would have of my management would be the approach to the recording process. Due to the large scale of most of the track’s arrangements it was at times difficult to decide when a track was complete. I think I should have prioritised finalising the arrangements and recording of parts such as the backing vocals and additional synths for the first three overdubs, over working on new material at the midpoint in the project. This would have allowed me to mix and master these tracks whilst still working on the recording of the rest of the portfolio. As I did not do this, the mixing and mastering phase became very dense and had to be completed in a shorter time frame.
I also felt that not enough feedback was gained from outside the project and as I was so heavily involved in the recording process, often completing sessions alone, it was hard to be objective as a producer. Whilst I engaged regularly with 1 to 1 with my supervisor Jason Ellis and received feedback from those within the band, I believe I should have sought opinions from outside the project more regularly for example, from other students, tutors and in ‘The Bridge’ or ‘Music Production Drop In’ sessions offered via the conservatoire.
Lastly I believe that time frames for the project should have been more strictly planned. My planning failed to account for the mixing and mastering process which was a key element of this portfolio. Whilst I believe I achieved well arranged and engineered recording, this alone does not fulfil the project’s end goal. Were I to undertake the project again, I would create planning documents for the mixing mastering that included time frames and a similar linear process of how these mixes would be completed, for example how many versions or feedback sessions I wanted to do on each track before rendering them complete.
Overdub Recording
Alongside the live recordings, seven tracks were completed as overdub recordings. The arrangements of these tracks contained drums, percussion, bass, guitar, synths, lead vocals and back vocals (male and female).
Typically drums and percussion were recorded as full live takes. In the mixing stage drum replacement was used to shape the drums sonically. Below are videos of the recording of the drums and percussion for ‘Traces’ one of the only tracks where drum comping with used, this was due to the complexity of the chorus kick and drum pattern.
Bass was recorded through a range of amps as well as digital modelling amps on a line 6 helix, below is the bass recording session for ‘Drift’ where I used a mix of the DI signal and an orange bass amp ran through heavy compression on the Empirical Labs Distressor.
Many of the tracks featured a baritone guitar, which was used to add weight in the low mids to riffs and guitar arrangements. For the track ‘Liko’ the DI signal captured in the live recording was re-amped through an Epiphone Valve Junior and mixed through a UAD Pultet EQP-1A to add weight to the low end and extra presence to the highs at around 3k. Below is the amp set up and the baritone stem pre & post processing.
Guitars were recorded through a range of amps, typically leaning toward fender amps for bright and present clean guitars, also using the Roland JC-40 and blackstar Ht club 40 for more driven tones. I frequently routed amp signals into the lexicon PCM92 to create a separate controllable reverb level, I found that in the mixing stage this made it easy to control the presence of the guitars as opposed to using reverbs on the amps themselves. Below is a video from the recording of ‘Drift’ where a fender hotrod is being routed into the PCM92, as well as the stem of this part with the lexicon send.
The synths used on the project were: Micorkorg, Novation Bass Station II, Korg Minilogue, Roland DS61 as well as some software synths such as the UAD Anthem Analog Synth. The goal of synth recording was to replace a lot of the quantised MIDI from the demos I had at the beginning of the project, as I felt this could take away from the natural groove of the band captured through other elements. Below is a retracking of the verse lead synth for ‘Liko’.
Vocals were predominately recorded through an SM7B, the lead singer projects his voice loudly and we found that other mics would struggle with the plosive even with pop shields. Whilst recording I used the distressor to control vocal levels, such as in the recording of ghosts videoed below, and the lexicon PCM92 to create the vocal effects on ‘Soft’ which vocal stem is below.
Mixing & Mastering
On this project I aimed to capture effects such as reverbs, choruses and delays in the recording process, so mixing predominantly consisted of EQs, compression and creating bus sends to mix on. In my mix projects I would focus on group processing and tying each stem into a cohesive mix that could be dropped into a mastering project. I used the UAD SSL bus compressor to help achieve equal leveling across these stems and channel EQs to shape where each group would sit in the final mix. Below is a typical mix project, in this case for ‘Avarice’
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Mastering would consist of setting the levels, using automation to control any final tweaks, such as on effect sends. In avarice this included the vocal reverb send. Finally using the UAD Hitsville Mastering EQ to shape the final tone of each track before adding light compression through the UAD Captiol Mastering Compressor. Below is the mastering project for avarice.
