Critical Reflection Of Project One and it's Production Plan, with a dash of Psycho-acoustics..

Well that was difficult!! I believe overall, from the minimal to non existent knowledge that I have for producing a song, I am quite happy with the end result. Below was the intended Production plan map of how the track would be produced. In a previous blog titled 'Finalising Production and Mixing', I gave a play by play of how the session was carried out. This post is a little more in depth and gives more reasoning as to why these procedures were carried out, how the group moulded together, how the song turned out and how it made me feel along the way....I know you guys love that shit!

Recording/Production Session Elemental Breakdown from Production Plan-

1. Production begins week 4 with the recording of the acoustic guitar elements of the song, initially with the hook (chorus). This will provide us with the main melody of the song. It is made up of finger picking primarily, with a background vocal synth that will be sampled and constructed with Ableton/Logic.

2. After the hook is established, recording for verse one will commence. Once desired composition is achieved, pattern can be duplicated for verses two and three. The verses are strumming patterns primarily. The overall song structure will be completed working from chorus outwards.

3. Now only an outro is needed for this part of the recording phase to be complete.

4. We can now move onto creating the drum pattern. This will be undertaken by one of two ways, either using a DAW MIDI or recording hand claps in the studio. The live recording will be attempted first, if desired sound cannot be achieved, the group will move onto the DAW to complete.

What we changed/didn't do....

In regards to point one, that is predominantly how the recording was carried out. The acoustic guitar chorus was recorded first. It was not until mixing/editing was commenced that the group realized that there was a chord missing that in fact connects the 8 bar loop, as the chorus is 8 bars looped once, to make a total of 16. This is due to the fact that I am an inexperienced 'musician' (use that term ever so loosely). It sounded good to me and the rest of the group in the studio. A way to have possibly alleviated this mistake would have been to play our recording alongside the reference track to see if it matched up. Another reason that I thought the hook was recorded 'perfectly' was that the guitarist was doing such a great job playing, that I thought "it has to be right'. I am not a guitarist, and have no real idea on how chord progression works whilst playing. Inexperience in both recording and producing let me and the group down here. Whilst it was just a minor mistake, it did take away from the overall flow and smoothness of how the hook should have sounded. It was then a process of cutting and placing a chord from the beginning of the recording to try and connect the segments. Whilst still melodic like the original in its own way, the little 'blip' connecting the two 8 bar loops, stood out like dogs balls.

Above,Continuing on with point one, the vocal synth that runs in unison with the acoustic string picking in the chorus, was created using Logic. We did try and use Ableton for this process but ended up using Logic. Like I have said in many blogs, including this one, I have no prior experience using DAW's. Ableton is pure Egyptian hieroglyphs to me. People who use this program speak and work in ancient languages as far as I am concerned. I like the interface and workflow in Logic much better and moving forward in further productions, it will be my DAW of choice. A sample vocal was taken from freesounds.org to try and replicate the one used in the original. The overall sound we generated was not as soulful and melodic as it could have been, due to the fact it was not in tune with the song. It was a free sample. I believe the original version of the track had the artist sing the synth sample they used and then manipulated it after the fact. What we produced sounded alright in hindsight, but it could have been done better by sourcing a singer to help with it. But being under a restricted time frame, we decided to go with the free sample.

Moving on to point two, the verses of the track. No issues were present during the recording or mixing process in regards to this part of the project. But as previously stated, there could very well have been a mistake present due to the fact we did not run the recording along side the original track. We got lucky here I realise now. But the guitarist nailed it and we got a great take, which was then looped to construct the remaining 3 verses.

Point three then was carried out by feeding the guitarist the previously recorded guitars from the studio to do some improvisation. Soulful licks were recorded in the same key, E minor. They fit very well with the original recordings. It was our own little spin on the original and a great way to end the song. It created a melodic closing to the project. It slowly tapers off the galloping/busy tempo of the whole song, and provides quite an aesthetically pleasing alternative to the original. Automation was then used to have the guitar fade off into the distance.

Finally, point four was carried out by recording the galloping knee slap heard in the verses. Like the original, it sets the mood for the song. It makes the mix very busy. Group member Cody was able to emulate the same method used in the original to re-create the desired sound. An AKGC414 was used to get the clearest possible recording available to us. Getting the timing right was important. It took a few takes but eventually we got it done.

During the production process, after a lot of searching, we found a kick drum we liked that sounded pretty close to the original. But we encountered a small problem as addressed before; the guitar was missing a chord. Although all elements were recorded to a click track, it was now very hard to match the kick to the hook. Editing was carried out on the guitar as previously addressed above and we got it to match the beat in time. But prior care whilst recording and rechecking the reference track could have saved us some time here.

The time frame we set ourselves as a group to get these steps completed by in the Pre-Production plan are as follows-

* Guitar recording- Week 4

* Percussion recording Week 5

* MIDI use for vocal synth Week 5

* Editing/Mixing in weeks 5/6

* Deliverable- Week 6

Now the guitar recording went smoothly (we thought) and the project was off to a good start. It wasn't until later the following week that we realised the guitar was slightly off as addressed above. The MIDI session and live recording of percussion that were scheduled to be at the end of week 5, were actually undertaken at the beginning of Week 6 on a Monday morning, due to the fact a lot of time was spent editing and readjusting the track to fit with the kick drum. It put some added stress on the group and to be honest, it actually threw our time management out the window a little. I should have kept the ball rolling and begun work on the rest of the project sooner. About 70 percent of the workload was carried out in the final week the project was due, on account of recording errors.

Although the deliverable was delivered on the delivery date (haha), it was somewhat rushed in areas. The appropriation of time should have been used better and then I may not have been under as much stress as I was. This whole experience of university is all new to me and I must admit, still a major learning curve to me. Professional? Nope. But it is my cross to bare at the moment and I am moving forward at least!

Mixing-

The mixing/production stage of this project was always going to be an important one for the end sound of this project. Editing and mixing was supposed to be carried out at the beginning of week 5, but in reality, only really commenced in week 6. This left the group shorthanded with time to perform. And it actually showed in the end result. All basic elements like Kick, Snare, Synth, Guitar, etc were carried out at a base level, but more research was required from myself on how to use different studio techniques to really emphasize each sound in the mix more.

For instance, on project two, I am currently mixing drums for my final deliverable of a another Hip Hop cover. The Kick drum in particular could use some fattening up. So I researched this issue and discovered that the use of a signal generator plugin could be helpful. Setting the frequency to a 60Hz continuous sine wave, and then side chaining the sound via a bus to an Aux Track to come in on the kick signal. This fattened up my kick sound very audibly. I think in regards to project one's mix, this particular studio production technique could have been used and would have been rather effective in helping the overall sound we were trying to emulate. The Kick, played in unison with guitar and the hand clap, create a real galloping feel to the original. I think we captured the galloping feel, but the kick and the guitar especially was just lacking 'oomph' and brightness respectively.

The following video is the 'how to' of signal generating! Give it a peep-

(Pro Tools 'How to' Signal Generator, YouTube, 2017)

As stated above, both the kick and acoustic guitar in hindsight could have used more punch and brightness respectively. I wish I knew more about layering before the commencement of the mixing process. It really has the opportunity to fatten up the mix and fill it out better. The following video basically describes how a 2nd acoustic guitar, playing the same chords, can be used and aggressively EQ'd to help make the original guitar sound even better.

Guitar-

(Pro Tools Brightening Guitar. YouTube,2017)

In our project we could have had a another guitar playing the same chords, but turned down in the mix. This method, along with taking the low frequencies out an accentuating the high's, adds a noticeable brightness to the original. Something that I feel our production was lacking.

The good thing about being a member of this particular group, is it's love for music. We wanted the cover to resemble the original as best we could. The most important issue in this song was to capture the timing of each element in the original. When the aforementioned kick, hand claps and guitar are all going, it is the gallop and pace of the song that helps direct it from pure melodic gold, to urgency and back again. I feel the verses in the groups version, did in fact hit that mark. But as for the chorus, I feel we missed the desired intent. There is no real defining switch in momentum from verse to chorus. Even with the multiple kick run up, the 'life' in the original is not captured in our track. I am very happy with how it turned out for a set of novices, no doubt. But with even more thorough research, we could have tightened a few things up that would have created a better deliverable.

This project has been a big step forward in my development as a producer. I have learned the value and importance of teamwork. The need for Production plans and sticking to them, mixing techniques for future use and over all...just producing. Literally getting into the studio and getting shit done. As far as the team dynamic, I am happy at how we performed. But we could have performed even better if we had stuck to the plans. I look forward to the next trimester of schooling ahead to put these lessons learned into practice.

References-

YouTube. (2017). 5 Minutes To A Better Mix: Kick Drum Low End - TheRecordingRevolution.com. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4J-PSPYlzo [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].

YouTube. (2017). Tips for Mixing Layers of Acoustic Guitar. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pin2hW6-mWI [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].

Google.com.au. (2017). teamwork meme - Google Search. [online] Available at: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=teamwork+meme&rlz=1C1MSNA_enAU726AU726&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiC2c6f2PnXAhUIXbwKHSzSAxoQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=949#imgrc=QI5Ifvcy83ENsM: [Accessed 8 Dec. 2017].