Final Project

Introduction

In this blog, I will be narrating the entire process in which I created my Final Project—an a cappella cover of "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles. The walkthrough will include the making of the composition, the recording, and post-production.

The Process

Making of the Composition

I created the composition in MuseScore 4—a free music notation program. There are only four parts which I named Main Vocal, Soprano, Alto, and Bass. The Main Vocal is the actual singing part of the cover while the Soprano, Alto, and Bass act as the instrumentals.

My composition heavily referenced two other compositions for "Love Song". For the Main Vocal, I referenced slar's piano-voice sheet, and for the Soprano, Alto, and Bass, I referenced ZakuraMusic's piano sheet.

Recording

All recordings took place in my bedroom, where I treated the walls nearest to my microphone with absorbers to lessen unwanted reflections that might get captured. Given the environmental noise in my area, such as birds in the morning and insects in the evening, I recorded between 2PM and 5PM, the quietest time of day.

For equipment, I used the FIFINE T669 microphone, equipped with a windscreen and pop filter. My distance from the microphone varied depending on the pitch of the tracks. For higher-pitched tracks, I stayed about six inches away. On the other hand, I moved closer to four inches for lower-pitched tracks because I'm not good at projecting my voice that low. For the software, I used REAPER.

Due to the repetitive nature of the song, I only needed to record a few different audio files for each of the Soprano, Alto, and Bass tracks, then looped the audio where it's repeated in the song. I also took many takes for the Main Vocal track so I could have the option to mix and match parts that sounded okay.

Post-Production

There were only some minor changes to the mix after Blog 2 and most steps remained the same. I also used REAPER for editing the tracks.

After recording the tracks, I adjusted the timing of the notes in the Soprano, Alto, and Bass track by slicing and repositioning them to achieve a more polished and tighter sound.

Then, I used ReaFir to remove background noise. I set the mode to subtract and ticked the option 'automatically build noise profile' then I played the parts with noticeable noise.

After that, I applied equalization to all of the tracks to stop them from competing and instead make them work together especially since there is some overlap in the frequencies.

For the Bass track, I wanted to highlight the lower frequencies so I boosted frequencies around 50-300 Hz. Then, I cut the frequencies below 50 Hz and the frequencies beyond 20k Hz because they were unnecessary.

Since the Alto and the Soprano tracks share very similar frequencies, I decided to give the Alto track more warmth and body and the Soprano track a brighter and clearer sound instead.

For the Alto track, I cut the frequencies below approximately 100 Hz to prevent the track from sounding muddy. Then, I boosted the frequencies around 200-500 Hz to increase warmth and body, and I slightly reduced the frequencies around 2 kHz and above to avoid competing with the frequencies from the Soprano track.

For the Soprano track, I also cut the frequencies below 100 Hz, and I slightly boosted frequencies around 200-500 Hz to give the track a little more body. I reduced the frequencies around 1 kHz to let the higher frequencies shine through better, then I boosted around 1.5 kHz and above to give the track a crisp and bright sound.

For the Main Vocal track, I mostly cut because I thought the track had harsh and muffled qualities. I cut frequencies below 100 Hz for the same reason as the other tracks. I also tried to retain frequencies around 200-400 Hz for the body of the sound.

Next, I applied compression to all tracks using ReaComp.

For the Bass track, I set the attack to around a medium level to maintain the initial punch of the notes. I set the release to 0 to give the vocals a more immediate presence.

For the Alto track, I also had similar settings but with a lower attack to emphasize the percussive qualities of the vocals, mimicking the sharp rhythmic sound of a piano.

I also used the setting from the Alto track to the Soprano track.

For the Main Vocal track, I set the attack to around a moderate value to let the initial clarity and punch of the vocals to come through. I chose a slower release to let the compression taper off smoothly after each vocal phrase so that it could maintain a natural-sounding flow.

The last thing I did was adjust the volume and panning settings of the tracks. I set the Main Vocal track to be the loudest so it could stand out from the other tracks and left it in the center. I set the Soprano track to be much quieter and panned it 50% to the left. I also made the Alto track quieter and a bit more just so that it doesn't compete with the Soprano track and instead support it. I panned it 50% to the right, ensuring that it blends well and doesn't compete with it. Then I set the Bass track to be very slightly quieter than the Soprano track and left it in the center.

The Result

The cover was finished and I rendered it as a .wav file and uploaded it to SoundCloud. Here is my a cappella cover of "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles.

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