Fmp Offical 19th June Essay

7/26/2019 Fmp Offical 19th June Essay

1/16

Final major recording project

Over the past 7 weeks, both Jack and I set out to write, record andmix a 5 track ep. his ep!s target genre was alternative rock,however we would tr" to incorporate elements prominent to othergenres, such as emo pop, post#hard#core and $hoe ga%e. &e wouldincorporate these genres b" using similar pla"ing techni'ues andsounds. (s "ou can hear reverb was used extensivel" on all tracksranging )rom use on a snare drum, guitars and other stringedinstruments. *ope)ull" it is evident in our tracks that we tookin+uence )rom the shoe ga%e scene. Our target audience )or this epwould be people who mainl" listen to bands such as iti%en,

-asement, irvana and Foo /ghters and would be )or all ages wholisten to such t"pe o) music. &ith bands like -asement doing ver"well )rom their recent release o) the album 0romise 1ver"thing, itshows that there are still man" -ritish bands who are doing well inthis genre.

rack 2# 3sk"4

https66mindmemor".bandcamp.com6releases

$ummar"

For this track we used various dierent instruments, these wereguitars, bass, live and programmed drums. &e also used variousdierent production techni'ues used to give more bod" to thetracks such as soundscapes which were used extensivel" to build upthe ambience and vibe o) the track. he guitar tone "ou /rst hear inthe intro to the track is m" Fender $tratocaster running through m"0olara reverb pedal then running through the *all o) )ame reverbpedal. he 0olara was set on a moderate spring setting with thetrails turned o so that there wasn!t a long deca" time a)ter eachnote, the hall o) )ame was set ver" mild, meaning that in wasn!tadding too much to the tone, however we did have the hall o) )amepedal set to a small hall sound which bridged the gap in all ourtracks because it is a ver" common sounding reverb.

arget sound

Our target sound )or this was similar to a track b" -asement called1llipses.

8ecording and production techni'ues


2/16

On the intro "ou 2sthear the guitar, the guitars used )or most o) theep were both a Fender $tratocaster and a Fender ja%%master, theintro was recorded using the strat running through m" amp, an29watt el9: valve amp. he reverb "ou hear on the guitar is a pedalreverb. One reason wh" we chose to use the reverb )rom our pedals

was because we had alread" )ound a reverb which suited the tonewe were going )or and both Jack and I )elt that i) we have a reverb,which we both like we should tr" and capture that sound during therecording. (lthough it is advisable to run a dr" signal and )or "ou toadd reverb when mixing the track, man" engineers do run guitarsthrough pedals when recording. One o) these who are )amous )orusing eects pedals while tracking guitar is the engineer Joe -arresi.&hen micing up the guitar cab we used an sm57 which was pulledback and o axis. &e chose to use an o axis mic placement )or the57to one reduce the ampli/ers hiss noise this also results in awarmer guitar tone. In conjunction with the 57 we used a condensermicrophone which captures the room sound and more o) the reverb)rom the pedal.

he mix

()ter /nishing recording we sat down and started to mix the guitars/rst. he 2stthing we chose to do was to e' the guitars. *ere "oucan see the e' we used on the guitars.

*ere "ou can see that I added a high pass /lter, this stopped)re'uenc"!s below ;5*% )rom being audable. ( guitar in standardtuning )re'uenc" range starts at about 9


3/16

challenging and ver" precise I thought that the st"le o) compressorwould suit the st"le o) pla"ing.

rack B 3land4


$ummar"

&hen recording this track we used the same instrumentation seenin the last track. hereb" we were using multiple eects on guitars.8anging )rom overdrive pedals to distortion pedals and reverb

pedals. On this track "ou can hear the dierent t"pes o) reverbpedals used.

Inspiration track

he track which we would consider as an 3inspiration track4 is atrack called vapour trail b" 8ide. -eing a guitarist m"sel) I admirenot onl" the tone o) the guitar itsel) but the wa" d"namicall" it callsthe shots throughout the song. =ou can hear that Cark Dardenerand (nd" -ellare using various guitar eects, which aid them to

shape the song.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=1913&bih=905&q=Mark+Gardener&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOPgE-LUz9U3MDSLNy5X4gIzCwoLK4y15LOTrfRzS4szkyFkYk58elF-aYFVbmpuUmpRMQB_Ot92OgAAAA&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEmsnAqLTNAhUGBsAKHTg8DiQQmxMIuQEoATAXhttps://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=1913&bih=905&q=Andy+Bell&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOPgE-LUz9U3MDSLNy5XAjNNTHJTzLXks5Ot9HNLizOTIWRiTnx6UX5pgVVuam5SalExAGDhYI05AAAA&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEmsnAqLTNAhUGBsAKHTg8DiQQmxMIugEoAjAXhttps://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=1913&bih=905&q=Andy+Bell&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOPgE-LUz9U3MDSLNy5XAjNNTHJTzLXks5Ot9HNLizOTIWRiTnx6UX5pgVVuam5SalExAGDhYI05AAAA&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEmsnAqLTNAhUGBsAKHTg8DiQQmxMIugEoAjAXhttps://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=1913&bih=905&q=Mark+Gardener&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOPgE-LUz9U3MDSLNy5X4gIzCwoLK4y15LOTrfRzS4szkyFkYk58elF-aYFVbmpuUmpRMQB_Ot92OgAAAA&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEmsnAqLTNAhUGBsAKHTg8DiQQmxMIuQEoATAX


4/16

arget sound

I )eel that the wa" we used pedals in our track is similar because itshapes the song much the same as the wa" 8ide use their pedals tocreate an atmosphere. *owever because the st"le we have written)or this ep it would be a lot darker than 8ide. &e wanted our drumsto sound organic which I )eel that we did create. he target sound)or our drums is the sound &ill =ip is )amous )or creating. On top o)this we wanted a bass guitar sound which acted as the backbone o)the track. -oth Jack and I )elt that the bass needed to be sturd"through the whole track because the guitars are heav" eected b"overdriveEs and reverbE$.


he bass we used to record this 10 was a Japanese )ender ja%% bass.&e tried to keep the bass line as eective and simple as possiblebecause it needed to be there to support the guitars throughout thewhole track. he bass sound "ou hear is a simple chain. &e ran thebass straight into the Focusrite Isa one preamp.

&hen recording guitars )or this track we had to manuall" changeeects pedals throughout recording a guitar take. he wa" we did

this was b" having Jack in the live room with me once pressingrecord, he would then begin to up the amount o) reverb at a giventime. (t the beginning o) the track the guitar starts with a simplehall reverb and as the tracks drums come in "our can hear the )xlevel o) the reverb increasing. he wa" we got that huge soundingguitar was b" the addition o) the -oss rv#G reverb pedal. &e usedthe same mic placement as we had done in the previous tracksusing the same amp and guitar. he onl" other thing we added inthe signal chain along with the added reverb pedals was the Coogm) drive.

he mix

()ter mixing the drums, the /rst thing I chose to do was to e' thebass guitar. For this I added a high pass /lter stopping an"thingbelow :.5?- li)t at 2:


5/16

One problem I did encounter when mixing the bass guitar )or thistrack was that volume wise some notes were a lot stronger thanothers. I pla"ed bass )or this track and there are a )ew imper)ectionsin the bass track. One wa" I tried to counteract the dierent

volumes o) notes was b" using logics multipressor.

ogics multipressor is a use)ul tool to have because it allows "ou tocompress certain )re'uencies and allow others to continue through.

=ou can see that I have chosen to compress B


6/16

I )elt that the reverb onl" helped this snare 3pop4 in the mix. I) I wasto record this again I would tr" and get a session bass musician topla" on the track. I )elt that the bass was the weak point on thetrack. $a"ing that I )eel that I was able to get around the bassimper)ections b" using the mulitpressor, and although "ou should

tr" and get the best take possible be)ore tr"ing to correct the soundas a musician there is onl" so much "ou can do. (lso looking backat the bass tone I )elt like I should have recorded through an amp aswell and stacked the sounds, although the di does the job o) keepingthe back beat o) the song# I wished now I recorded a more drivenbass sound as I think it would have suited the mix better and itwould have added to the character o) the song. I do believe thistrack has met the re'uirements o) the genre because the guitarslend them sel) ver" well to the alt rock and shoe ga%e scenebecause o) the amount and t"pes o) reverb used. he reverb on theguitars gives it a 3dream"4 sound. his was our intention )rom thebeginning o) this track as we set out to make a ver" wet reverbguitar sound but )or it to work well in the mix.

rack > 3beaut"4


$ummar"

For this track we used various dierent instruments, these wereguitars, bass, live drums and programmed, midi instruments such asviolins, cellos, piano, and various dierent production techni'uesused to give more bod" to the tracks such as soundscapes whichwere used extensivel" to build up the ambience and vibes o) thetrack we wished to create. In addition we used various guitar eects)rom both m" pedal board set up and Jacks, ranging )rom dierent

reverbs, to overdrives, to digital dela"s to chorus pedals. &e alsoused man" dierent samples which we stacked onto o) drumsalread" recorded to give the drum kit a wider )ootprint in the mix.

Inspiration track

he inspiration track )or this song was how does it )eel ! b"iti%en. I chose this as m" inspiration track because I idol the wa"&ill =ip has engineered the record and created a scKne o) tensionthroughout the whole track. his track had a ver" authentic drum

sound which I have aimed to replicate in m" track.


7/16

Link

arget sound

o achieve our target sound )or this tack we had to encorpare arange o) techni'ues ranging )rom the use o) eects to mic

placement. (t the beginning o) this track we wanted a warm guitartone with reverb. he guitar "ou hear at the beginning wasrecording in studio one running through the Focusrite isa onepreamp straight into logic pro x.On track > we aimed to recreate the drum sounds&ill =ip is )amous )or. On a lot o) his records thedrums sound ver" organic, and have a big soundto them due to the si%e o) room he t"picall" tracksin. &ill tends to work out o) studio : inonshohocken, 0enns"lvaniaalongside Dramm"

(ward#winning producer 0hil icolo.


&e decided to double track this opening chord progression with anamp running through m" pedal board using the ?iditech 0olarareverb. &e used the modulation on the reverb because it had a ver"nice high end boost to the guitar which we thought would cutthrough the mix. &e decided that a di guitar was best suited to thebeginning o) the track so that throughout the track the guitarswould develop and become more prominent in the mix when thedrums kick in.

(part )rom the original di signal we used m" amp to record the resto) the guitar )or the track. o record the amp we used ansm57which was close miced. he $C57 was slightl" pulled back andplaced o axis Esame setup as previous . &e also used a rode nt2conceder mic about B metres back )rom the cab to capture a warmsounding guitar. &e had the sm57 running straight into the

Lniversal audio (pollo and the condenser running through theFocusrite Isa One preamp. he ab we were using was loaded withelestion vintage >
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conshohocken,_Pennsylvaniahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Awardhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Awardhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conshohocken,_Pennsylvaniahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Awardhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award


8/16

Hick (udix$nare sm57!s xB

oms (udix )G x>*i hat 8ode m5 pencil condensersOverheads (udix pencil condensers

8oom mic node nt2

he mix

()ter recording drums )or this track we soon started to realise thatwe did not achieve the desired sound we then decided to drumreplace part o) the kit and use the drums we previousl" recorded astriggers to tell the samples when the" should be hitting. &e 2stusedthe standard kit on logic to replace the drums and a)ter this we

decided that we was not content with the sounds )rom logics midisnares. Instead I took the mix home that night and then decided inaddition to drum replacing the kit to edit the drumming. For this Istarted to add in ghost notes towards the end o) the 2stverse tomake the track sound like it was building up to the chorus.


9/16

Once we had /nished o the /nal editing o) the drums we thenrecorded all o) the midi sounds out into audio /les so then we couldthen use e' and compression. &e done this b" opening a new

channel on logic and set the input o) the channel to a bus, whichisn!t being used. hen "ou change the output )rom stereo output tothe bus "ou assigned the new channel to a)ter "ou then press recordthen "ou have an audio /le o) the drum "ou replaced withoutbouncing it out, we did not bounce the drums out each timebecause when "ou bounce a track out "ou come into contact with/le compression. -" assigning the inputs and outputs! to busses "oumaintain the /le as it was, allowing "ou to continue with mixing thedrums.

&hen mixing the kit we used the use o) e', compression, reverb and

dela". For the kick I added a :.5 db boost at 2


10/16

when using e' )or the snare drum I added high pass /lter which wasset at 9< *% stopping an" bleed o) the kick picked up b" the sm57. Iadded bod" to the snare drum at around 2:9h%, this a a > db boostmaking the snare drum have more impact in the mix. (lso I added a5kh% M >.5db li)t to add more presence to the snare drum not onl"allowing it to cut through the mix more but to give the track someoverall 3air4.

&e also added compression to the snare )or this I chose the studio)et model with a relevantl" )ast attack and relice with the same ratioas the kick at >22


11/16

For the overheads I chose to boost ever"thing over 7kh% to )urtherbring out some high end 3air4 to the mix making it not so much bassand mid range )re'uenc" heav" through out the mix. In addition tousing the e' I added a vintage vca compressor to just glue thedrums together. he intention )or compressing the overheads wereto compress it just enough so that the d"namics o) the hits ringthrough but the kit as a whole sounds controlled and as one. I chosethe vintage vca compressor because its model on the ssl :


12/16

track and that in conjunction with the guitars which were panned Ithink we achieved our aim o) creating space and distance in thetrack through the use o), dela"s, reverbs and panning. ot onl"having a wide stereo image but giving the track the depth whichwas an original production goal.

rack : 3love4


$ummer"

his track as "ou can hear is slightl" dierent and lends itsel) moretowards the genre rock. (lthough all our other songs are still classedas rock, this one "ou can hear is more upbeat and as "ou wouldassociate with rock it comes across loud and in "our )ace. his is aresult o) a cranked amp running through hot pickups coloured b"pedals, which onl" add to the vibe o) the track.

arget sound

our target sound )or this track was dear rosemar" b" the )oo/ghters. Our aim was to create a vibe similar to this track wewanted a loud in "our )ace rock song which still had a lot o) depthand character. &e still wanted our drums to sound organic and

d"namic but we wanted a more traditional gain sound when it cometo the end o) the song where ever"thing started to build up.


he wa" we started to build this track up was b" the use o) guitaroverdubs. One man who is )amousl" known )or this is im 0eirce.

im is a session guitarist who adds his own signature sound to atrack with the use o) overla"ing chords, arpegited notes and leadguitar. (s a guitarist I look up to im a lot and on this track have

given him a nod and tried m" best to capture some o) histechni'ues. &hen the build us happens "ou can hear a guitar, whichcomes in with a melod" just be)ore the song changes. his issomething im would do a lot and this acts as a bridge between thetwo guitar ideas allowing the track to develop into that loudaggressive track we aimed to create. For this we changed up themic placement on the amp slightl", we still had a 57 o axis andpulled back and a rode nta2 to capture the room sound placed Bmeters back but we also added another sm57 but this one wass'uare on to the speaker and was placed where the dust cap meetsthe speaker cone. his >rdmic helps us achieve the aggressive

sounding guitar.


13/16

8ecording bass )or this track we much the same as be)ore, we usedthe Focousrite isa one preamp, the bass line )or this was written togo along with the backing guitar. he bass line works along side thelead guitar and in the track the bass s"ncopates with the guitar. hiscreates a a nice melodic +ow to the song which was intended to

have during the writing process )or this 10.

he mix

In addition to this we have stacked chords on top o) each other, I hitthe chord once at the beginning o) the chord and panned this theother side to where the guitars are normall" sitting in the mix so notonl" does it add emphasis to the chords but gives it gives theaudience a wider stereo image with more punch to create that rockvibe.

(t the beginning o) the track we added a reversed reverb eect onthe guitar, this sat behind the dr"guitar, which added a trail to the notescreating, a pulse sound a)ter the noteshad been pla"ed. his /lled out theintro o) the track. ombined with the >mics and the reverb )rom the 0olarareverb pedal it created a bus" intro.&hen mixing theguitars I separated

the guitars and thesnare in the mix sothe" both had theirindividual place inthe mix.

&e also added a stereo dela" on the bus where the reverse reverbwas, this was to make the sound scape have a wide stereo image.

his help create a scene o) depth in the track.

*ere "ou can see the 1N )or the condenser mic used to record theguitar, "ou can see I have boosted 2BB*% to give the guitar a so)terwarmer tone and also "ou can see that I have done somesubtractive 1N as well I have done a :.5?b reduction at 52


14/16

instrument to sit in a mix well without having an track where thereis too much o) )re'uenc", this can lead to )atigue while listening tomusic )or a long time.

$nare 1N

1valuation

Overall I think this track /nished well, I m glad that we was able torecreate that t"pical rock6 loud sounding track. I )eel that the wa"this track has been mixed it has allowed ever" instrument to be ableto sit in the mix properl". I also am glad that when the song changesI was able to capture the energ" using all > mics on the guitar cab.

On re+ection I wouldrecommend using a secondsm57 because it can be used tocapture some o) the harshness,now although this is what somepeople want to avoid i) "oustack this sound with the o) axis

and pulled back sm57 and once"ou have added thecondercncer to the mix "ou can

hardl" tell that "ou are using it. I )eel like I have used e' to the beston m" abilit" on this track because I have made space in the mix )orthe instruments to sit in the mix balanced.


15/16

rack 5 3distance4


$ummer"

his track seemed the best bet to end o) the 10, I had written thissong just be)ore we started this unit o) work. For this track wewanted to create a scene o) distance in the track. &e originall"thought that b" using slightl" more reverb on the kit we would

alread" achieve that distance and big drum sound re'uired to pushthe track as the guitars are naturall" )ollowing the drums.

arget soundFor this track we thought that a good sound who would well suit thetrack is $ingularit" b" a band called orthlane. orthlane are ametal band who are )rom (ustralia. his track has a big drum sound.

he drums are power)ul and although the" don!t start until hal) wa"through the track the panning and reverb on the kit make the kit

sound huge. his sound is what we aim to recreate.

(nother Dreat track we tried to recreate the drums )rom is the beat)rom when the levee breaks b" ed Peppelin. John -onham pla"edhis kit in an open space. Jack and I wanted to recreate this iconicsound we done this b" creating various reverb plugins to create thisbig sound.


&e used a slightl" dierent setup to mic up the drums to capture a3bigger4 sounding kit. &e also added a transducer to capture thelow sub o) the kick drum. his is a ?I= transducer which is a rewiredspeaker. we used a spaced pair o) pencil condercers as theoverheads. (long side the rest o) the kit.

For this track we recorded drums with a 9 mic setup individuall"micing the drums we usedHick (udix$nare sm57!s xB

oms (udix )G x>*i hat 8ode m5 pencil condensers


16/16

Overheads (udix pencil condensers8oom mic node nt2

()ter recording drums in again I converted the /les over to midi

which allowed me to /ne tune the kit erasing an" imper)ections. Ialso changed the sound o) the kit using e% drummer!s samplesounds. I changed the snare to a ?& snare which I )elt had a moretransparent sound and had a nice ring to the snare drum.

o listen to the drum track please listen to track G on our bandcamp.

()ter we had /nished programming the drums we recorded them outwhich then allowed us to 1N the drums an compress the drums. &eused the same st"le o) 1N and compression described in track.

o conclude I think overall I am proud o) the work I have submitted)or the /nal recording project. I )eel that over the past two "ears m"work has improved. ooking back at some o) the 2stunits o) work Isubmitted I can con/dentl" sa" that I have improved a lot. *ope)ull"this is evident In the mixes6 write up I have submitted.

Fmp Offical 19th June Essay

Documents

Transcript of Fmp Offical 19th June Essay