MPR4C001R-003 Portfolio: Production & Log 2 Template
Task 1 – WAV Mixes
Track 1 (Genre-Specific Emulation)
The track we chose to recreate was ‘Chamber of Reflection’ by Mac DeMarco. We liked the track for its interesting drum production, 80s synth sounds (which we knew we could recreate using the Juno 60 at the conservatoire) and soupy but interesting vocals. Because we found the vocals to be so integral to the track, we started by finding a vocalist who would suit the style and trying them out before committing to our track choice. We booked a session and got a project ready by quantising the original track to a fixed tempo in Ableton using the warp feature and splitting the stems in Logic with the AI Stem Splitter. This allowed us to create a customisable guide track for our vocalist to sing to. We booked out two microphones to A/B during the vocal session: the Warm Audio WA-251 (a vintage tube mic recreation) and a humble SM57, as Mac DeMarco referenced frequently using these on all applications in a Tape Op interview:
We ended up preferring the SM57 and thought it was closer to the vocal sound of the original track, and also kept this home-recording, minimalistic philosophy in mind for the rest of the production process. Despite being happy with the performance and tone of the vocals, we recognised that the vocalist struggled with the track’s high pitch, so we planned to dedicate time to pitch correction.
We then moved on to record the bass guitar for the track. We simply DI’d the bass and ran through some EQ on the desk, some compression in Pro Tools and also played around with some chorus on the Lexicon to mimic the modulation heard on the original track; however, we refined this later with plugins instead.
For drums, we used a minimal setup with the larger kick drum in 113, a snare and Zildjian K cymbals. We completely dampened the snare with a jacket and slightly muffled the kick. We used a WA-87 as a knee mic, which picked up a nice overall image of the kick, snare and hats, and we also set up a room mic which faced into the corridor.
Lastly, we tracked the synth parts. I referred to this interview when trying to figure out how to recreate the synths:
Because DeMarco used a Roland synth, we decided to mimic this using the Juno 60. The chorus effect on this synth especially enhanced the sound. Here is what we dialled in:
The organ part felt like more of a digitally synthesised preset, which would have been harder to recreate using analogue synths, so we decided to use a Kontakt instrument for this sound.
I took it upon myself to edit all of the parts. This included: using Beat Detective to quantise the drums, creating a drum loop, comping the vocal and creating nice fades at the beginning and end of clips.
The next stage was mixing the track. We each did a mix of the track and then contributed the best ideas to the main mix. I suggested recreating an ADT-style effect for the vocal, as it sounded like it was artificially doubled. To do this, I created an auxiliary send which had a vibrato on it. We utilised a lot of the room sound when mixing the drums, but also created ambience using plate reverbs and subtle tape delay. Because we recorded the drums in mono, we panned them slightly to the left to emphasise this and mimic the stereo image of the track.
Track 2 (Live In the Studio Stereo Recording)
For this recording, we organised to record a string quartet. To hopefully yield the best result, instead of telling them what piece to play, we asked what piece they were most well-practised in as a group. One of the group had done an arrangement of the K-Pop Demon Hunters track ‘Golden’ for a concert they were playing. We were more than happy to record this.
In terms of mic choices, we decided to use two stereo pairs of microphones. One was a pair of Omni Schoeps small-diaphragm condensers, which we used to pick up an overall image of the quartet only a few feet away from them in an ORTF positioning. This is referenced by DPA to replicate human hearing, to an extent, which is useful as we were aiming for a naturalistic recording. We set up the players so they were all equidistant from these mics.
We also set up a pair of Sontronic Delta ribbon microphones in a Blumlein arrangement. In reflection, we didn’t realise these mics were designed to handle high SPL, so we ended up having to use a lot of gain, which introduced quite a high noise floor. However, we did like the sound of these mics, with a tapered-off high end which tamed the shrillness of the higher register strings. This wasn’t the final positioning of the mics:
We approached the mix using a hybrid of in-the-box plugins, but also the console and outboard equipment in 113. Our first step was to get a balance between the close and ambient mics and surgically remove any harsh frequencies with a linear-phase EQ in the DAW. We used the linear-phase EQ in order to maintain the highest possible quality of audio and avoid phase issues. We then used the EQ on the desk for our broader-scale EQ adjustments. After this, using two auxiliaries, we sent the stereo signal to the Lexicon reverb and then back to the short faders of two new channels. We got a balance between the wet and dry signals, then used the bus compressor on the desk with a slow attack and a moderately slow release to apply some subtle compression. We did this to limit the dynamic range of the track because the quieter sections were very quiet and the louder sections were very loud. We then routed the mix output through the Neve 1073 preamps as an insert, to the audio interface and then reprinted the signal. Our routing and processing are shown below:
Track 3 Remix track
I started the remix track with the clear intention of creating a dub reggae remix; however, I immediately found that getting found-sound drums to sound like an acoustic drum kick would be incredibly difficult. For this reason, I completely changed my approach and decided to make an electronic fusion of garage and house.
Drums
For my kick, I plugged my guitar into my interface and forcefully plucked my low E string while also heavily palm muting it. Here it is unprocessed:
I immediately noticed that it was a tiny bit too clicky and also needed some low-end. I therefore added a low-pass filter at around 200 hertz, compressed it to get just the attack, added a gated sine wave to match the fundamental harmonic of the original sound and finally saturated the signal. This resulted in getting this sound:
For the snare/rim knock, I sampled a drum stick hitting a plastic surface. I duplicated the sound and pitched one of them down to create a bit of depth.
For the hi-hat, I spoke into a microphone and chopped up the sibilance or ‘Ss’.
For the percussion, I hit two wine glasses together and then distorted the signal. I then arranged these sounds to get a fill.
Use of Lead Vocal
I utilised the lead vocal in two different ways: I used it as a topline for verses and bridges, but also as a vocal chop in the drop. For the topline, I pitched the vocal up and processed it with EQ, compression and (slightly unusually) chorus. I also sidechained it to the kick in the pre-chorus to create a ducking effect. For the vocal chop, I loaded a phrase into a sampler which automatically recognised transients and mapped each one to a different note on the keyboard. I then found a motif which I liked, then recorded and quantised it. I processed this motif with EQ and also OTT, which is an extremely aggressive multiband compressor, because I wanted the drop to feel exciting.
Live Instrumental Parts
The two parts I performed live were the rhythm guitar and the lead guitar, both of which were double-tracked. I processed the rhythm guitar with an amp sim, some EQ and a plate reverb. I also used a glitch plugin in parallel to provide some flutters of ear candy. I also automated the gain of the amp in parts to emphasise transitions and structural changes.
The lead guitar was processed with a fuzz pedal into an amp sim. In the first iteration of the mix, I left it like this; however, I felt it didn’t really tie into the electronic feel of the track, so I added a bitcrush and an LFO panning effect to make the guitar more unrecognisable.
Other instrumental parts
I used a Rhodes emulation plugin as the main harmonic instrument in the track. I wanted it to feel warbly like an old cassette, so I processed it with vibrato and chorus modulation and cranked the gain to get the speaker amp to break up slightly.
I also used a Minimoog synth bass. I utilised pitch bends in this part, sidechained the synth to the kick drum and distorted the whole signal.
Additional Elements
I also added risers, which I created by reversing the reverb tails of the vocal. I also layered this with a white noise riser and faller, which I created by automating the volume of the white noise and the resonance on a bell curve EQ.
I finally ended the track by using a tape stop effect a beat before the end of the track to catch the listener off guard.
