Edward Bambach
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Fade To Blue
unfive
This is my alt rock EP, Fade To Blue, and I consider it my main project this trimester. This project was inspired by a 90's / early 00's alternative rock sound, as thats what I was listening to a lot when we started the assignment. Bands from the west coast of America like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains were a massive inspiration throughout this project.
This album art was created by design student Blake Beveridge
Process
The first step I took after my analysis was writing the songs, I using sampled drums, played chord progressions on the guitar, and played bass. This barebones arrangement, along with providing reference tracks and some descriptions, allowed me to effectively communicate the feeling / vibe of the tracks. I sent these to the drummer (Grant Gerathy), bassist (Tony Bambach) and guitarist (Dirk Terrill) along with some chord/structure charts.
Below are the chord/structure charts I provided to the musicians
Copy of Alt Rock Track 1 Chart.pdfALT_ROCK_2_124_Em.pdfI wrote the lyrics in a fairly stream of consciousness manner, just typing on my phone/laptop, which is how I write most efficiently. I made adjustments while recording in the studio if I felt it was necessary, which was easy cause I was the one singing.
Below are the lyrics I used
Fade to Blue Lyrics.pdfUnnatural Lyrics.pdfRecording!
Bass: The 4 hour window I had to record bass with Anthony was closed due to covid related reasons, so I borrowed the Avalon DI box, an audio interface, headphones and TRS cables and relocated to my parent's house to track the bass. It went swimmingly, Unnatural suits his style of playing to a t I thought. In Fade to Blue, he adapted really well to the adjustments I suggested.
Electric Guitar: For the first track, I was lucky enough that Dirk laid some lines down perfectly for the Fade To Blue. I played the chords and lead lines for Unnatural via my interface at home.
Acoustic Guitar: Dirk ended up tracking all the guitar lines for me for Fade To Blue, which ended up being perfect. I didn't use acoustic guitar in Unnatural.
Drums: Grant nailed Fade To Blue on then first take. He redid the 4 bar buildup after I communicated how I wanted it.
Here are the Mics we used
Kick in - AUDIX 06
Kick out - speaker mic
Snare over - AOX51
Snare under - MD441
Boundary - PZN
HH - AOX51
Rack tom - NT2A
Floor tom - NT2A
OH Mid - KMI83
OH Side - NTR
Crotch - KM183
Room 1 - NT2A
Room 2 - PZN
Listenback - AKGC4000
Anthony on the bass
Micing up Grant's drums
Drums cont:
I planned on using the same microphones for the other kit for Unnatural, but some of them had already been hired out..
The second drum recording was a bit harder, as I'm pretty rusty. Keanu was great with lots of positive feedback, and he, Callum and Narin were all a great help with using Pro Tools to record and track the Audio.
These are the mics we used when recording my drums.
Kick in - Shure beta 52
Kick out - NT2a
Snare over - AOX51 / SM57
Snare under - MD441
Boundary - PZN
HH - Rode NT5
Rack tom - Audix d2
Floor tom - Audix d2
OH L - KMI83
OH R - KM183
Crotch - Sennheiser NK4
Room 1 - NT2A
Room 2 - PZN
We changed the snare mic from the AOX51 to an SM57 as Keanu, our engineer for the session suggested.
Vocals: I started by tracking melodies I thought would work to the song. Before recording I did some vocal exercises, like braying and going hngggg. I used the AKG 414 as Dirk suggested to mitigate sibilance at least a bit. I didn't start very well, and by the time I was in the swing of things, my voice was going well!
I started by doing a few full takes, then going back and amending line by line where I needed to. It would be helpful to have another person in the studio with the while recording vocals. It would have been helpful if someone else was there helping me out.
Other Projects
Sync Library
These are tracks made to pitch to companies for the purposes of licensing them for sync.
Genre Reinterpretation: Something About Us
This Daft Punk Original track reconstructed as a house tune.
Music For A Video Game: I envisioned these 2 pieces to be a part of the one video game, likely a little indie one, as these were inspired by the game Undertale, which was releaseed in 2016.
The first, 'Rain Walk', is intended to be a 'Route Theme' as the player is exploring a new, not so hostile area.
The second, 'Something Major', is for early on in the game, when a low level, comical, easily defeat-able is encountered.
Car Ad: I composed new music to a pre-existing Nissan Leaf advertisement.
Song A Week
An amalgamation of ideas, this project was all about music creation and enjoying imperfection for me. We were instructed to spend no more than 6 hours studying/creating one specific thing, and not be attached to the outcome.
The theme of this Song A Week was to create a full track in the 6 hours to see whether I would want to use it for another project instead of one of the alt rock tracks, as I wasn't happy with one of them, and I was very close to pulling the trigger on it.
I set out to make a melodic house tune, as its one of the genres I am most comfortable in.
I do like this track and think it has potential, so I may finish it one day.
Reflection
Much was learned over this trimester, as one would hope. I found a lot of value in churning out content without being attached to it, being ok with throwing it out or never opening the session again. For example, I'd make music for a minimum of one hour every day, no matter what it was. As it turned out, a couple of the projects we were assigned aligned with this workflow, as Song A Week is the embodiment of this concept.
I've deliberately created many different kinds of music this tri, as my goal is to be as versatile as possible as a producer, and I can see I am on my way there.
I found creating the alt rock EP super challenging, as I had never even tried to make anything like that genre before. Something I really relied upon and enjoyed was the collaboration aspect of this project, as I usually just make music on my own. It was fantastic getting people who are experts at their instruments to play on my tracks, instead of playing every instrument myself, which I could do, but the result would be nowhere near as good. This really emphasised to me the importance of being connected to reliable, good people in the music industry.
I feel that I communicated very clearly and efficiently with everyone I worked with, over text, email and face to face. Much of that would have been to do with the pre production. The good communication in combination with the fantastic musicianship was a massive factor as to why the parts came out how I wanted, which then is why I consider the Fade To Blue project a success.
I now understand that I learn far more efficiently in a face to face environment, but I'm sure more zoom sessions are inevitable unfortunately.
Putting this page together has been a rewarding experience, its often easy to forget how much work you have done when its not all laid out in front of you.
Thank you if you read this far, I trust you enjoyed what you saw, read and heard.
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