in each folder below within the embedded google drive folder you will find one of nine pieces made over the course of this trimester

process

It'd simply take too long to cover the process of every one of these tracks, so I'll breakdown one for the sake of the exhibition. My mixing style is fairly similar from track to track these days too so if you see one you've practically seen it all.

WEEK TWELVE/THIRTEEN: PROPHET 12

With my recent acquisition of a DSI Prophet 12 Desktop, I decided to take a break from my overload of project work and have a session where I can actually finish something with it and see how it really sounds in the right context. This probably took me about three hours overall and isn't a shining example of my mixing, but I guess that makes it a little easier to explain what's really going on. There's a decent chance I might touch it up in future, especially if someone was to hop on it for a track, but it certainly suffices for listening now.

I'll break it down into sections so you can make sense of what's really going on

FULL ARRANGEMENT:

In the first screenshot below you can find how I've placed all the elements together, including transition points and breaks. On the right hand side you'll see the breakup of channels, as well as the sends down the bottom and amount of sends applied on each channel.

SECTION ONE: MELODY

To get things started I had a dive through the patches on the P12 until I found this nice synth bell sound. I then played around with the parameters and onboard mixing/effects to make sure it was just right before committing to recording the audio. Then, instead of just recording the pattern regularly over a run through or two, I decided to use a technique I learnt this year, recording the first run or two normally, then using the parameters on the synth to change it over the runs after that, creating something that evolves a bit and really sounds alive. As you can see above in the full arrangement, this recording came out to a total of about 3 minutes and 15 seconds, perfect timing for a whole beat to be built around it. The only mixing I had to apply to this (besides sends of course) was a simple 180Hz soft low cut to make sure the low end doesn't get too muddy, after getting feedback in class I also added a chunky -4.5dB high shelf at 1kHz to help with the harsh high ends. Fair bit of reverb and delay send applied to this as I turned off the 3 or 4 types of delay being used on the Prophet itself.

SECTION TWO: CHORDS

After I'd knocked out the melody I felt like it needed something else to hold it together. I tried playing some simple chords from the start of the first bar, but it just didn't quite sound right to my ear. I kept messing about with placement until I figured out using them at the end of every couple of bars lined up nicely with how the melody was playing, creating a little bit of a call and response situation. I then expanded it with the final chord taking up more of the domain, though figured it needed something a little extra to help with variation/overall texture. This is when I figured I could utilise the extensive modulation possibilities on the P12 by setting the mod wheel up with a few parameters to spice things up at the end of the two eight bar sections. From memory I believe it was oscillator pitch and the filter envelope opening up, though I never took a photo of the Prophet itself to improve it. Safe to say when combined with the pitch bend it certainly added an interesting element to the pattern. After this was done I did a more simple 2x run through record to capture the audio, as this element wasn't really the star of the show. Same as the melody I only applied a soft 180Hz low cut to ensure a clean low end down the track.

Below on the left you can see the mod wheel automation and on the right is the pitch bend.

SECTION THREE: 808 + DRUMS GROUP

For processing this group I've gone with my favourite glue compressor of late; the Analog Obsession SPECOMP, a modelled yet heavily modified version of an SSL desk compressor. This thing seems to make sounds simply fit together so much better. Seeing as it's mainly to help glue the two sound sources together (and not really compress them all that much), I've opted for a fairly low ratio of 1.25:1, a threshold at 9dB, release at 150ms and an attack time of only 10ms.

Seeing as the 808 channel was only the Simpler used to play it in, I haven't bothered to include that. I usually go for a high shelf drop and some sidechain on my bass, but I felt with the glue compressor and the relationship between the kick and the 808 it wasn't really necessary.

I've set up my drum rack for easy playing, making sure to separate my kick, snare and hat with plenty of space in case I want to try finger drum anything in. With the intention of fast beat completion, I focused on finding sounds that were the right fit on their own, avoiding spending more time with layering multiple samples and levelling them correctly (which can be incredibly tedious if it's done for more than a couple drum elements). As for processing, I've gone for my favourite drum distortion beast Devil-Loc, keeping the settings fairly tame as usual. Crush is up a fair bit at 5.5 to emphasise the kick a bit more and make everything sound a little 'bigger' in the mix, crunch down low at .5 to avoid making anything in the mids/highs too harsh, seeing as the melody has a decent amount of harshness in it already. Darkness down at around 2.7kHz again to avoid any harshness and then mix at a measly 15% to keep things a little less extreme sounding. Drum buss up next with fairly standard settings for me; 35% drive on the medium setting, 10% crunch with a 5kHz dampener to add to DL. 35% boom at B0, which I actually changed a couple times to try get the kick in tune with the rest of the track (as you can see in simpler with the -1st transpose. Volume out turned down to -9dB to keep me from touching any faders during the rest of the session.

SECTION FOUR: TRANSITIONARY REVERSE CHURCH BELL

I haven't used this technique in a track for a decent amount of time so I figured it was time to bring it back into play. I took a lovely foley sample of a big old church bell with a big release, then reversed it to use as a riser of sorts between sections in the track. I make sure to play it long enough so that I get the build up to a peak, but not enough to drown out anything else in the mix or become too much of a distraction. Soft low cut at 225Hz to get rid of any unnecessary lows.

THE SENDS SECTION

Last but most certainly not least we have Decapitator, my absolute favourite distortion/saturation plugin. This is where I give my bass and drums some extra beef, while applying just a little bit to everything else to give it some grit and help it all sit a little better in the mix. I like to keep the drive around 3 most of the time to avoid going too hard and getting any hiss from over-saturation. The E setting is what I find most effective for adding some real thump to the lows so I stick with that most of the time. I cut about 1.5dB into the dark side of the tone, while also making sure to drop the high cut down a fair bit to ensure things don't get too scratchy up top (sometimes it's nice to have it further up towards 10kHz, but this time I only wanted saturation around the body of the sounds; lows and mids).

previous work

included here are the mastered mp3s from trimester one's elective (mastered by the legendary ben saffire @ plasma studios), as well as the previous trimester's elective project, the summer instrumental tape under the same label/aesthetic. for good measure i've thrown in last trimester's song a week project as well, seeing as this will be my last exhibition until i complete my major towards the end of my studies

consider the files from the first ep a free download for all who stumble upon this exhibition page, however if i catch you using any of the beats above without my consent expect some repercussions