Production Project Files
Progress and Management Records
Going into this project I wanted to blend as many of my musical influences as I could. This album contains genres such as alternative rock, trap music, drum and bass and hyperpop. The first things I recorded was the drums in the universitiesstudios. This was specifically for tracks like KRY, mum and Doctors Office. If I were the record the drums first, any sort of setbacks or failed attempts at recording meant that I could go into the studio at a later date and still have time to finish the project. I had recorded the guitar for KRY and mum on my Behringer UMC22 directly into FL Studio on my Macbook, the bass for KRY was recorded in the same session as the drums played live alongside me on the drums while my bassist Joseph Gallon played alongside. Tracks like Head Hitter, I Can’t and WishWishWish were all produced on FL Studio and finished the same day as they were made. With really chaotic songs like Tripsit You and Keep Going Sonic and FANTASTIC I made sure there was simple stripped back tracks. It makes the project an easier listen and less over whelming.
The drums for the first track Tripsit You were recorded at the studios in Leeds Conservatoire, along with the bass again played live with the drumming by Joseph Gallon. For the synths the majority of those sounds are my voice, I had recorded autotuned harmonies in BandLab on my phone other it and chopped and looped the vocals in FL Studio using plugins like Gross Beat. I also took my favourite parts of the vocal harmonies and looped sections to make looped melodies. There are screaming backing vocals which I recorded in the studio the same day as the drums and the bass as I couldn’t record in my uni flat. All of the tracks with singing / rap vocals were recorded on my phone in BandLab using a vocal preset I created using the apps effects. I would record it on my phone and then airdrop it to my MacBook and mix the vocals properly on the original beats project. The beginning of the track also features a sample of a cutscene from the game Persona 4.
The second track is Artichoke Heart, this is a short cover of Atoms For Peace by Thom Yorke in the hyperpop style. The sound of this was influenced Thom Yorke and Bladee. I had taken the bass, organ and microbeat sound effects from the original track and added my own drums on to the track. The drums are from a TM88 drum kit and vocals were again recorded and preset on BandLab which then I eventually mixed on FL Studio. When I mix vocals on FL Studio I usually EQ out all low end in my vocals and add Soundgoodizer a compression plugin over the top of it. After recording it at it’s original speed I exported the track as is and then sped it up afterwards for the hyperpop nightcore feel at the end.
For track 3 I wanted to make it heavy as possible. Taking inspiration from System Of A Down, the guitars were recorded, double tracked and panned on FL Studio on my macbook using my interface and electronic guitar. For the distorted tone iadded FL Studio’s plugin named Patcher to make it sound like its being played live on stage. I recorded a bass line on guitar pitched it down and added the same effects. The vocals were also recorded with the interface but then the drums were done in the studios at Leeds Conservatoire. This song also features samples from a YouTube video of a speedrun clip, a meme I found on Instagram of a man yelling and sound effects of Link from Legend Of Zelda.
Moving to track 4, most of the recording of this track was done on my phone. I had recorded and looped a guitar chord progression on BandLab and layered it with two other takes and hard panned them left and right. I recorded vocals on the same project, exported that and moved to FL Studio. I added synths on top of that, specifically Surge XT. This track sticks out mainly because the vocals have no autotune and no drums, I included this track to strip the listener away from the noise and chaos of the last track.
Track 5 Keep Going Sonic brings to project back into its fast scatteredness. The main base of this track is the sample of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper, which has been speed up and processed massively. With this there are incredibly fast and chopped breakbeats programmed on FL Studio with bass recorded under it which was recorded on BandLab on my phone. I added patcher to this bass for a distorted tone so it almost sounded like a guitar with various vocal samples taken from Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
One minor setback during this project was losing the project files for FANTASTIC and mum meaning I couldn’t touch on the final mixes after the files were lost. In future I will back project files up to avoid something like this happening again.
Head Hitter is the 6th track, the background synths come from a videogame called Limbo which gives it a very ethereal soundscape. It features your stereotypical trap sound with the drums and 808 and fun autotuned raps. Various sound effects and samples play throughout too such as the Grand Theft Auto 4 cutscene sample at beginning and end along with gun shot sound effects playing throughout. In the second half of the last chorus I added a chorus effect on the master to give it a really trippy feeling similar to a song by Edward Skeletrix or Ecco2k.
Certain track on this project are definitely stronger than others. One weaker track is “are there even any straws left”, with the short runtime it finishes as quickly as it starts not even reaching a minute long, when track 12 “mum” is nine minutes long and could drag on for certain listeners. Returning to this track I would definitely add more instruments and 2 verses and give it some good pop structure. Some skills of mine definitely improved after doing this assignment, such as working in a studio and recording instruments that are far more practical and take a lot of practise to perfect such as a drum kit. I quickly familiarised myself with compression and EQ and reverbs to help make good final mixes of drum takes. I also learnt how to record two instruments at the same time in a live recording setting purely to speed up the recording process and have more time in the studio to add extra ideas. It was a big risk to have such an ambitious genre blending idea despite only having so little experience recording in a studio, but with me starting the drums so early on in the assignment being given to me meant a lot of lee way to learn different mic techniques and mixing with new plugins. There is a lot of originality in the project’s variedness of influences. Going from psychedelic screamo to modern trap is a nice and varied mix of sounds with very different production techniques required to record each one. One of the weaknesses to mixing genres like this is it is difficult to master, some tracks are a lot louder than others and can be quite jarring on a first listen although that can also work in my favour to keep listeners engaged. With the constant change in direction and genre, it demonstrates my production ability to do various sounds from live recording real acoustic instruments and varied use of electronic instruments and performing with them. I utilised samples to add emotion to songs, like the sample of the beautiful boy scene at the end of KRY a song about drug addiction, or videogame sound effect samples to give the project a videogame soundtrack feel to fast bumpy tracks like Keep Going Sonic. I could imagine that song playing in a level of a sonic game or a racing game. This paired with more emotional and acoustic tracks like are there even any straws left and mum for emotional moments and giving each instrument I can play and record their moments to shine. In future projects I should definitely consider consistency in recording quality. Using my phone to record vocals was noticeably different to songs like FANTASTIC and mum which were recorded with proper studio microphones using an interface directly into FL Studio. Although limiting myself to BandLab was a good way to help me get ideas out faster whilst also learning ways to make my voice sound nice using a mobile apps features, those skills which I can apply on more professional DAWs.
