So after a whole semester of learning and exploring in MMS 172, it’s finally time to share what I’ve been working on. For my final project, I decided to cover the worship song Araw-Araw—a song that really stood out to me. Don’t worry, I’ll also walk you through the process and how I put everything together.
Hope you take a moment to listen and enjoy it!
This project began with a simple idea: I wanted to create something that felt familiar, doable, and meaningful. I didn’t want to overthink it — just something I connected with and knew I could finish.
Worship songs have always been part of my life. Growing up, I heard them in church, at home, and during quiet moments of reflection. So when MMS 172 assigned us a final project, I thought, “Why not do something personal?” That’s when the idea of covering a worship song came up.
I was initially thinking of songs like Wala Kang Katulad, Sa Piling N’yo, or This Is the Day — songs I know well and love. But my sister suggested Araw-araw, one of her favorite songs, and since it’s one of mine too, we decided to go with that.
What made this project really special was that I wasn’t doing it alone. I recorded my sister singing and my brother-in-law playing guitar.
That said, it wasn’t easy. Both my sister and brother-in-law are teachers, so finding time to record was challenging. We kept having to push back our sessions because of their schedules, church activities, and emergencies. It was frustrating and mentally draining at times, and I doubted if I’d finish on time.
But even with all the delays, I’m thankful. I believe God made a way for me to complete this project, even if it didn’t happen on my timeline. Now that it’s done, I see that every challenge was part of the process — and part of my
The church's audio booth was locked, so we set up at the back booth (PLAYROOM) instead. It wasn’t perfect, but it was quiet enough for my setup, so we made it work.
Since I didn't have a live drum recording, I used a 140 BPM rock-style 4/4 drum loop as the drum track.
For post-processing, I started by adding the Special Effect → Vocal Enhancer → Music (musical balance priority) on the vocal track. The original recording sounded a bit dull, and the breathing was a bit too noticeable, so I used this effect to help the vocals stand out more and cut through the mix without actually making them louder. After that, I applied Special Effect → Mastering → Make Room for Vocals, which helped by slightly reducing some of the mid-high frequencies in the instrumental. This created more space for the voice to sit nicely in the mix without clashing too much with the background elements.
I also added a high-frequency cut using Effect → Filter and EQ → Equalizer (10 bands) on both the guitar and vocal tracks. I targeted the 8kHz to 16kHz range to tame some of the harshness, especially when it came to sibilance in the vocals and string noise from the guitar.
To clean up some of the background noise, I applied Effect → Noise Reduction → Adaptive Noise Reduction → Light noise reduction across all the tracks—vocals and instruments included. I wanted to eliminate any subtle ambient sounds or environmental noise that might be lingering, but without affecting the natural tone of the recordings. It did a good job of smoothing things out while still keeping everything sounding organic and not overly processed.
For volume control, I used Effect → Amplitude and Compression → Hard Limiter. I bumped the input gain up by +5 dB to make the overall mix louder, but I capped the max amplitude at -3 dB to avoid any clipping or distortion.
Then, to bring the instruments together more naturally, I applied Effect → Reverb → Studio Reverb → Room Ambience 1 separately to Guitar 1, Guitar 2, and the drums. This created the impression that they were all performing in the same physical space, rather than coming across as separate, isolated tracks.
To give the vocal track more space and depth, I applied Effect → Reverb → Studio Reverb → Vocal Reverb (Medium). It added a subtle room ambiance that made the vocals sound more natural and less dry, without pushing them too far back in the mix.
Finally, I applied Effects → Special → Vocal Enhancer → High Tone to the vocal track. This boosted the higher frequencies, which helped bring out the brightness and detail in the vocals.
Well, the truth is, I was truly not really sure what to do when I first read Assignment 3. The clear vision that I had at the beginning was to come up with a narration-type story about my baby nephew. However, when I was reading the ideas of my classmates, I felt like trying something new, a cover of a Christian song. I also felt this idea on a more personal level since, in my case, this project was not merely about grades. It was one of my ways of experimenting with my ministry as a Christian by means of music. But first, I felt nervous and unsure. I did not have experience in music, and I sensed this weird negative energy in the way of my optimism. I did not believe I would be able to pull it off.
I remember I wanted to shoot the project with a creative style that reflected a praise and worship feel, something that is uplifting and inspirational- such as the videos that I watch a lot on YouTube that make you just want to stand up and sing along. I had started with only three layers in my track guitar, electric guitar, and vocals. I was however, encouraged to include drums and basses to lend it a certain energy. The thing was that I did not record a drum track. I eventually located a YouTube drum track that fit the tempo and beat of my guitar, although getting it to perfectly match was a huge problem. I was having a hard time matching the sound of the guitar to the main sound of the drum in the end. After some time, I stumbled upon a tutorial on matching waveforms, which allowed me to resolve this issue and made a significant difference.
Additionally, once I had all the recorded work, I was mostly concerned with leveling the volume of each track. This was challenging as I am still learning how loud each element must be in comparison to others. But I must say that being organized was another key factor--I labeled all the tracks, and I did not want to stack several recordings within one track. This made it easier to focus on perfecting each part. Nevertheless, I found myself hitting a creative wall many times. I was continually questioning myself, "Okay na ba to? And sometimes I would not know whether what I was changing, such as EQ or adding reverb, was actually making the sound better. I simply felt sometimes too inexperienced to see the difference.
Some challenges were present as well. So the initial plan I had was to record in the audio booth of the church, but it was locked, and it was necessary to set up in the playroom at the back of the church. Then the PC of my brother-in-law had a problem with audio, and we could not hear the playback on the speakers. Fortunately, a churchmate of mine had a Logitech H111 headset, so we were able to proceed. These hurdles reminded me how important it is to have backup plans for recording locations, equipment, and tools during production.
Moreover, the project was a unique experience and an eye-opener to me. I had not imagined how hard it was going to be; I thought that it would be as easy as editing, but it was not that easy. In fact, there were numerous occasions when I was exhausted and I felt like quitting at night. Nonetheless, I liked it a lot more when I was doing it with my family in the process of recording, and they could help me by learning the technical aspect of music. I also like the encouragement of my classmates; their comments and supportive words in our chat group made me feel that I am not the only person undergoing this. If they could do it, so could I.
Overall, this project was both challenging and fulfilling. I am proud to have finished it, even though I was doubtful at the beginning, and I felt rather negative. It gave me a glimpse that music production is not only based on technical abilities but on persistence and heart. Now I feel inspired to keep experimenting with remixing and remastering, and I look forward to the future.