Song Prod. & Write Up

Task 1: Three Minute Song Production (70%)

Task 2: 1000 Word Write-Up (30%)

In order for a song to obtain commerciality it must have a few main features such as: 

“identifying the appeal of the song, the strength of that appeal and recognising the potential number of customers that are likely to be drawn by that appeal.” (“Commerciality”) A strong melodic hook / chorus as well as catchy memorable lyrics are a key factor in a song’s commerciality. Taking this ideology on board, I began writing what would soon be my song, Poison. Whilst this song doesn’t adhere to any specific genre it has singer-songwriter lyrics, pop vocals and indie / indie pop-instrumentals. I think this is acceptable in today’s music scene as the lines between genres become increasingly blurred. 

Lyricism.

I wrote this song whilst working with my band. I wanted to write a song that captured a woman’s rage in regards to men who are giving up on themselves and in tow giving up on their partner. With the verses signifying increasing frustration and laying out the storyline for the song, whilst the choruses are fueled with anger and the finality of being over someone’s drama. 

• Structure.

The structure of this song is:

Verse, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, Bridge and a final double chorus all amounting to roughly 3 minutes 15 seconds. This also adheres to today’s commercial / radio standards (“Song structure: How to build a song (with examples) – Blog”). This structure allows for a sense of familiarity to be formed by the listener allowing it to get stuck in their head. A consistent structure paired with a slight variation in lyrics (predominantly in verses), and the addition of a bridge “provide a balance between predictability and surprise, keeping the listener engaged” 

For the verses I tried to keep each line to 4 syllables and relatively soft for the first half as it contributed to the storytelling and detached aspect of the song however, for the choruses the vocals become more ‘whiney’ and moves up to an average of 5 syllables a line as the choruses are there to represent desperation as well as anger. The middle line of the chorus being “I need you all in” which is the main change between the first two choruses as the first chorus dies off after that line is said and the following two: “But you never leave it alone, you walk away im alone” signifies defeat and reliance although, with build established by the drums in the second half of verse 2 (01:25) the character is getting progressively more impatient with their partner and in the second chorus it is kept at a high dynamic throughout until the introduction of the bridge (02:05) where in the drums we hear a consistent splashing hi-hat which progresses into a drum build though, in regards to the lyrics we hear phrases such as “just stand up, and face me” indicating the characters need to confront their partner contrasting to lyrics in areas such as verse one stating “I keep asking… I backed down”. 

Recording and Production.

Throughout the bridge you can also hear backing vocals which are my demonstration of sampling. I sampled the backing vocals in my track from a song a friend of mine produced then layered and panned them in order to fill the space towards the end of the song.

Here you can see the panning information as well as how I trimmed the audio to fit my vocal line. I had to chop the audio up in order to rearrange the notes to fit my melody- I chose to pan these sections as I felt it added a nice bit of depth being able to feel it travel through the monitors as well as highlighting this requirement from the brief. Whilst there are two tracks for this it is the same part doubled with slightly different reverb settings. All my backing vocal sections are being sent to a bus:

I chose to do this as it reduced the amount of individual plug-ins i needed to use however, on the first backing vocal I added an extra individual reverb in order to soften the vocals in comparison to the lead vocal. The sampled backing vocals are effective as they contrast the lead vocals due to it being two different vocalists with two different styles, whilst both vocalists are females Martha (the lead vocalist) has a more harsh ‘sassy’ tone in comparison to Katie (backing vocalist) whose vocals have a softer texture to them. I also got the guitarist to add an extra element to their part in between the “leave me alone” backing vocals to embed the sampled parts more naturally.

Below are the part of the guitar track I am referencing:

The lead vocal was difficult to work with as the singer recorded the take with the vocal booth door open which created a lot of bleed especially from the drums therefore, a lot of post-production was needed in order to try eradicate the drums.

Here is how I tackled this issue, initially I tried to combat it with logic plug-ins such as an EQ and a compressor, this made the vocals sound too processed and like they had a telephone effect over them due to the low frequency range boosted via the EQ. This also caused for the lead vocals to sit underneath the backing vocals which ruined the mix but then, I realised that logic now has the ability to stem split which ended up being the perfect option for this issue as it completely took out the instrumental bleed meaning i could alter other areas of the vocals such as the dynamic automation and add reverb freely without having to avoid boosting the unwanted sound. 

Lead vocals before using AI splitter:

Lead vocals after using AI splitter:

Lyrics layout: