Finalising Production and Mixing!

This session in week 6 was our final session, which included mixing also. I feel we were rushed in the end to complete the project in the allocated time. It's not that the group couldn't be assed to do the project, but we literally had to learn and research EVERY aspect of the process of production. The following is a play by play of the final session-

1) Created a sample in Logic Pro for the vocal background that runs during the hook. A EXS24 plug-in was used on a software instrument track

2) A custom default was used with Envelopes 1 & 2's Decay and Sustain on 100% and the Attack on 0%

3) A vocal sound taken from freesounds.org was then edited to our liking

4) Then after hitting Edit on the plug-in, assigned the sample to multiple keys, starting at C1

5) After many attempts at using the keys to try and match the track, we ended up having to use the pencil tool to use the sample (not quite the musicians we would like to be just yet haha)

6) Next was manipulating the Kick. It was EQ'd, isolating the low frequencies and then boosting them. The kick was also compressed.

7) Clap Lead- Was Eq'd and removed the top and bottom ends, and was also compressed to give them a bit more juice in the mix

8) Furthermore on the Clap Lead, it was put through a Clean Jazz Fat Amp plug-in. The treble was increased and also removed some of the presence.

9) The Snare 808 was given a slight delay so that the crash rang out longer in the mix

10) A reverse crash cymbal was added about 2 bars before every chorus, running in tandem with the multiple kick run-up. It gave the song a definitive momentum builder leading up to the hooks. The crash was also automated left to right to give a nice stereo feel.

11) The outro guitar licks needed to be gated due to some artist movement sounds during recording. Some 'fidgeting' was still present so automation was used to try and drown out the sound of the guitarist moving.

One of the troubles that occurred during this session lied in the chorus of the song. During recording, unbeknownst to us at the time, was that a particular chord that connects the repetition of the chorus was missing. The chorus is one 8 bar segment, looped once for a singular repetition. Due to the minor recording error, it was incredibly difficult to match the kick with the string plucks/timing of the chorus. Due to the fact that this was discovered too late in the week, we missed our pre-booked studio session where our guitarist was available to fix any problems we could have encountered.

I think this problem occurred due to overall inexperience from all group members. It honestly sounded great to us in the studio, and as the guitarist had the reference track in his headphones, we believed he had nailed what was required.

In the end we chopped and replaced what we could of the recording and matched it to our kick drum. It was in time yes, but it does sound a little 'wonky' and not as free flowing as it should have sounded. Lesson learned to be more thorough during the recording process. This definitely comes with more experience with recording and I look forward to the next time I am in the studio to be a more concentrated student.