Task 1: Three Minute Song Production (70%)
Task 2: 1000 Word Write-Up (30%)
Vocal Recording
When I was recording the vocals for this track, I wanted a warm sound as the lyrics the singer wrote were very personal and intimate; I chose the Rhode K2 microphone. I then used a mic stand to hang it upside down and a little above the singers face to avoid plosives (as all plosives sound straight ahead or downward from the singers mouth. To reinforce this, I used a pop shield to compensate for the singer facing upwards to the mic. Once I had this setup, I gave the mic time to warm up, as it has its own power supply. I then used an AML 500 series per-amp, as it gave a clean tone to the warm sound of the mic. During the recording, we took multiple takes of each section – gain staging for each one individually as the energy behind the vocals varied per section- and I made a final comp of each section, taking the best parts of each take. I then used a noise gate to remove any subtle sounds like lip smacking, however I wanted to keep the breath sounds in, as many songs which have intimate vocals, like Gracie Abrams or Billie Eilish, do. I then used EQ to bring more clarity to the lead vocal and to embed it into the mix effectively. I then used a compressor for dynamic stability throughout the track, and to compensate for the vocalists movement around the mic. I then used a de-esser to remove any harsh sibilance remaining after the EQ. I added a little bit of delay to them too, to put the vocals in a space and to add some rhythmic variation. I also took a send of the vocals to a bus for my reverb. The bus processing was a low cut to remove any muddiness in the lower frequencies, followed by a plate reverb which are typically used for vocals, and then a high cut to remove harshness and improve the clarity with the vocals. I then adjusted the bus send as I saw appropriate within the mix.
I used the same mic setup for the backing vocals, but I used EQ slightly differently as they were sung by a different vocalist (me) and would sit in a different place in the mix. I then took a send to the same bus to keep the vocal reverb consistent throughout, but increased the send than the lead vocals so they would sit further back in the mix. I also applied a compressor to the track stack composed of all 4 of the backing vocal tracks to glue them together. I panned each part of the backing vocals to different parts of the stereo field to give the overall vocals width, allowing the lead to cut through in the middle.
Use of Sampling
I used one shots of drums from splice and put them into samplers to compose my drum kit for the track. I write all of my drum parts in MIDI, making use of velocity and the sample editor within the sampler. This is the technique I use most of the time when it comes to making drums for my tracks.
[MIDI Tracks of the Samplers of each Drum One Shot]
[Use of Velocity within the Toms]
I layered my snares to create the timbre I wanted, using EQ to avoid them clashing as well as a side chained multi band compressor on the snare sounds I wanted the higher frequencies to be the focus of. I also used volume shaper (from Shaper Box 3) to shape the envelope of the main snare – giving it punch and shape, making it easier to integrate into the mix. I then put a compressor on a track stack of the snare sounds to glue them together.
[Punchy Snare Volume Shaper]
[Snare Track Stack with Effects]
I put all of the drum sounds into a track stack, applying a EQ to further shape the drums, and subtle compression to glue them together. I then took a send to another bus for reverb to give them a place in the mix.
[Drum Track Stack with Effects]
I also used a multisample of a piano on Splice Instrument and wrote the MIDI for that, utilising the velocity maps and using the humanisation function (as my MIDI keyboard is too small to play it in) to make it sound as if a person is actually playing the piano. I did this because it adds more expression to the track, mimicking the emotions of the vocals, allowing the track to build naturally, instead of through the addition of instruments and effects. This keeps the track intimate and avoids it sounding too busy in the choruses.
[The MIDI for the piano track]
