Ethan Hudson – Guitar Track, Jazz Track, Remix Production
Track 1 (Guitar-based band production)
Pre Production + Organisation:
- For the guitar based production we acquired a singer songwriter who had an idea for a track. Unfortunately the bands bass player was never able to make it to any of the recordings we had arranged, nonetheless we produced the song with the guitarist, singer and drummer for the groove and the guitarist Solomon laid down some bass at the end. As a group recording the project, we grouped the song into 9 mains sections. One group for the drums. 4 main guitar sections and 4 main vocal sections too. Together as a group we organised dates and musicians to use, and executed around 6 3-5 hour studio sessions to complete out the project. See images below.
Mic decisions:
- The mics we used are shown in the list in the picture. We used an AKG C 414XS for the vocal capture, a mic suited to capture bright high end vocals which we needed for Ariana on Nice Girls Never Win.
Recording:
- When recording the singer for the track I helped to setup the mic and desk, positioning the singer roughly around a ruler length behind the microphone for the best quality sound. Creatively we chose to record the vocals in Studio 109, without a small vocal booth to allow the vocal to have some slight natural room reverb to the sound.
Mixing:
- On the drum bus I applied supercharger compression to control the gain. Every track except the bass and kick have a high pass filter filtering 80hz or more to allow space for the low end.
- The vocal processing was kept to a minimal, slightly reverbed, airy yet up front vocals to fit the singer songwriter genre type of sound. I did this through the use of multiple EQs, compression and de-essing.
- Truthfully, I found the mixing of the song quite a struggle, I don’t often mix this genre of song where the drums don’t need to be so big and punchy and so it was a task to not catch myself boosting everything into the peaks. As the assignment brief specified about the song sounding like it could be a live performance, I didn’t want to add too many effects to anything to keep it sounding natural. I wanted each part to sound cohesive yet stand out from one another, emphasising each musical role clearly. The most levelling was probably on the bass as it is gain heavy, I had to bring it down in the group by 6db and individually the tracks are turned down 3db.
Reference Tracks:
- Clairo – Sofia. I used this track as a reference for the drums, I liked how they cut through this song and wanted to mix the drums to create a similar feel.
- Phoebe Bridges – Motion Sickness. This track I used to help me shape the sound of the guitar in the mix, when I listened to this track I thought the guitars shared alike tonal qualities.
Track 2 Live in the studio (jazz/folk ensemble)
Pre Production + Organisation:
- The jazz track was the first we completed as a group and individuals. Together as a group we would decide on dates when we are all available, fitting with when the musicians had time for us, and often taking a vote on the best day, keeping the process democratic and easy to organise. Equally we all played a part in contributing to the songs getting done as we would all have to be there for the recording process in order to make further creative contributions on the pieces assigned.
- The mic setup for this song was one of the most crucial parts for the quality of the final product because there was nothing we could do within the DAW post production to correct any slight errors. We had to get a high quality recording in a few takes max to stick within the studio sessions time slot. In order to allow this to happen smoothly we setup the recording studio before the musicians would arrive to keep their responsibility to a minimum.
Mixing:
- Containing drums, piano, guitar bass and sax. My main collaboration to the project was largely done during the outboard mixing phase. Through the use of the patchwork bay I compressed the guitar signal through the warm audio wa – 2a compressor. Only doing light work, controlling the levels with some light peak reduction, nothing too major to allow for the sound of the track to keep it’s human feel, and stay cohesive in it’s one take.
- Most of the mixing we did was light touches such as using the compression hardware to control the levels of the tracks. Because we had more tracks than hardware, we compressed the drums with one compressor, used one on the sax, one on the bass and one on the piano and guitar grouped together. We additionally used reverb creatively to apply to the guitar and saxophone, to allow the instruments to sit more in their own spaces. When we recorded in the final recording through the desk, I suggested to the group that we automate the piano to increase in volume during the solo, because before it would get too drowned out by the other instruments. The group agreed to it being a good idea and we proceeded to record in the live automation, dipping back down to its original db after the solo ends.
- As someone who hasn’t used much hardware equipment, switching over from EMP to Music Production in year 2, I took insight into my creative process after this as recording live automation seems like a great way to add finishing touches to songs, even if they were entirely produced in the box.
Track 3 Remix track
Pre Production:
- With a remix track firstly it is important to clarify what genre, or at least feel of the track you are trying to create. I decided to create an upbeat trap inspired slightly nu wave track. Below are the images of the project file created on Fl Studio at 140BPM. The original sample was around 108bpm so it was quite a speed up. However the pitching of the sample remained the same, keeping it in the original key. I grouped everything into the melody instruments, the drum bounce, bass rhythm, extras such as fx and the automation. I kept the vocal sample at track 1 always to always remind myself of the most important element of the track as a whole.
Vocal sample and creative decisions:
- In order to create this style of song,I knew I needed to chop the sample up to bring more energy into the track, whilst also playing segments of the acapella outright for longer. The chords and melody were initially created over the full length acapella to make sure it sounded together, and I then proceeded to create the chops. I created the verse chops to counteract the repetition of the chorus, as much as I wanted there to be a consistent theme with the chops throughout the entire piece, I knew it would easily get too repetitive if I didn’t bring in variation within use of the vocal sample. I found the sample to get out of time at certain points when I was initially creating the foundations. I would have to slice and drag around the sample at various points to snap it in otherwise the beat would end up messy. There are various elements of panning such as the hi hats and percussion to bring about more of a sense of space and width in the song.
Recording:
- The recorded elements of the track I created were the piano + the bass. Recorded by myself, myself playing both instruments in room 113. The Yamaha grand piano was used along with a simple fender Bass. I had already created the parts out in midi so that I knew what I wanted to record when the time came. Images below show the sent files of the piano and bass parts I recorded in Uni, as I don’t play these instruments professionally I recorded various takes and had to chop and sort through them in post production.
Mixing:
- Seen as a lot of the track was synth based I knew it was going to be a challenge to get the natural sounding recordings to fit in with the rest of the piece, through the use of EQing, Compression, reverb on the piano I believe I managed to achieve this by taming the sound. There isn’t much going on with these instruments they’re ultimately there to help fill the backbeat, the piano used to capture more energy during the main hooks of the song. Bass to fill the low end along with the side chained bass plugin. In order to allow for the bass guitar to fill the sub of the song I put a steep high pass filter at 40hz on the side chained bass plugin, and a low pass filter at 550hz to cut the highs so it can predominantly fill the 200hz frequency area.
- The vocal sample itself was not left dry, EQing, reverb and delay were used to enhance the sound and allow it to fill its space correctly. For the call and response within the chorus I resampled the sample by consolidating the track and pitching it up an octave to create a back and forth tension and release element in the song.
References
- Kevin Gates – 2 Phones. I used this track as an inspiration for the tightness of the drums in my remix
- MK – 17. The overall cleanness and sleekness to the mix. I took inspiration, aiming to produce my remix to a similar feel.
