Assignment 2

Pre-production

Project Concept

For my final project, I want to do an a cappella arrangement of “Love Song” by Sara Bareilles.

I have always been fascinated by a cappella arrangements like the ones from Pentatonix and the Pitch Perfect movies—how they manage to create different parts of music with just their voices. I am especially fascinated by how they mimic instrumental accompaniment. While they are imitations, they have a unique and organic sound that can’t be replicated by traditional instruments. Inspired by this, I wanted to try my hand in arranging, recording, and producing an a cappella cover myself.

Due to the nature of the project, all tracks will solely be composed of my voice from the melody, harmonies, background vocals to the bassline.

Project Plan

Timetable

The project will start on July 22, 2024 and end on August 25, 2024, spanning 5 weeks for its completion.

A set number of weeks is allotted for three milestones. Namely, these are Pre-production, Production, and Post-production. They are described as the following:

Pre-production

Week 1: July 22 - July 28

Task 1.1: Acoustic Treatment
Task 1.2: Writing the Arrangement

Week 2: July 29 - August 4

Task 1.3: Rehearsal

Production

Week 3: August 5 - August 11

Task 2.1: Recording
- This entails the recording of the melody, harmonies, background vocals and bassline.

Post-production

Week 4: August 12 - August 18

Task 3.1: Mixing & Mastering

Week 5: August 19 - 25

Task 3.2: Final Adjustments

Once the final milestone is completed, the project will be published through SoundCloud.

Logistics

Equipment

FIFINE T669 USB Microphone
Edifier R19BT Speakers
Apple EarPods
MacBook Air M1

Software

REAPER

Recording Area

My Bedroom
- The room is relatively small. There are some items that can potentially absorb reflections such as the bed, but there are still many hard surfaces such as the bare walls and ceilings. I am considering installing foam panels on critical areas of the room such as the wall in front of my recording area and possibly the ceiling to improve the overall acoustics of the room.

Signal Flow

Inflow

The signal flow for recording is rather straightforward. My microphone, the FIFINE T669, connects via USB, so it directly interfaces with my laptop without the need for an external audio interface. However, the recorded audio may be more susceptible to noise because of this connection. To ensure proper recording, I will be taking some steps in pre-production, production, and post-production. In pre-production, I will be optimizing my recording environment by treating my room and removing sources of noise such as the whirring of my system unit and wall fan. During production, I will be using a windscreen to minimize noise and maintaining proper distance from the microphone. Then, in post-production, I will be applying noise reduction to remove ambient noise that slipped through during recording.

Outflow

I plan on using two audio outputs to listen to the tracks throughout the production process. I will mainly be using my earphones so I can critically listen to the finer details such as nuances in the vocals and any subtle background noise. The speakers, on the other hand, will allow me to hear how the audio translates in an open environment.

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