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Mixing and mastering
Mixing and mastering
Mixing
Mixing
Due to having already done a year of practice using Logic and mixing on the Btec music production course, I had a very good basis knowledge on what to do for the mixing and how to navigate logic, however I found myself not as good at mixing live instruments, hence why it is my area of study for project 4, task 2. When going through this task (project 3, task 3), I came across a few issues, however my main struggle throughout this task was my organisation, as I found that having many different tracks and trying to divide my attention efficiently was hard and often I would lose track of what I was doing and on certain tracks, specifically centred around the drums, bass and vocals.
To provide an example, I found very often that the bass would mask the kick drum, or vise versa, and was often going back and forth between each, however there was something that helped me with this, this being the use of sidechaining through compression, allowing the bass to duck out and the kick come through, but by the end of this project I found the kick was too punchy as I was so focused on it trying to stand out in the bass frequencies along side the bass guitar. By the end of this task I realised that as a means of avoiding this I should more frequently ask for a second set of ears to help me tackle these kind of issues as they arise.
As for the vocals, I found it hard to find the correct level for them when mixing them, as any time making a change would generally add more volume and result in me tweaking the volume constantly. I thought the vocals stood at a good volume by the end of this, however it consumed a lot of my time which I could have spent making a more cohesive mix. In the future I will try tackling this by adjusting the levels of my vocals/lead part both as part of the levelling stage at the start of the mix, and only again at the end of the mixing stage, of course adjusting it if it becomes too loud.
Mastering
Mastering
Mastering was something I had far less experience with compared to mixing. I knew some features which weren't taught as part of this course, such as the multi-compressor, however when attempting to use this I felt out of my depth due to being out of practice with this tool and found myself making the track sound really thin and too snappy. This was an issue as it wasted some of my time trying to figure out, and in the end I decided not to use this as it was too time consuming and that it would be more efficient to use what I was more comfortable using. This highlighted the importance of time management and going forward I will use what it most comfortable for me as it is both more time efficient and will help me to achieve a good sound within time constraints, a good skill when working in studios.
Overall I found my final result to be something I was proud of, however if I could change anything about these processes and how I approached them, it would be to manage my time better, more frequently ask for feedback and to find what is comfortable for me whilst also working well as part of the process.
Synthesis and sampling
Synthesis and sampling
My use of synthesis and sampling have both significantly improved over the time on this course. As an example for my synthesis, I now know how to efficiently and creatively use an LFO, this allowing me to create more in depth and experimental sounds, specifically when using Alchemy. Overall I had no issue with this and I now feel I have a better knowledge on how to use synths.
To provide an example with my use of sampling, I now have a more vast knowledge on how to use the multi-sampler in Logic, allowing me to create sample parts in my songs using different velocities and volumes. For example, when creating my drums for one of my compositions, I decided to record individual parts of a kit at different velocities to create more variety, interest and to give it a more natural sound, this worked very well and achieved this, however when coming to the creation of my composition, I found that some of the other velocities had a worse sound quality to that of the max velocity, so as to avoid this I still ended up using one sample per part of the kit, this making the hats in the song sound very repetitive in sound, so in the future I will try and find ways to work around this, perhaps by gathering even more hits and listening to them more thoroughly before leaving the studio.
These are the original recorded samples for each drum hit that was used.
Recording and studio skills
Recording and studio skills
Over my time working in the studios, I have found that my efficiency working within the has increased, especially when it comes to setting up kit quickly and being able to navigate the audio interface. However, when recording the drums which I would sample for my composition, I recorded each drum hit from lightest to harshest with the same gain on each mic and I believe that this caused me to use only the harshest velocities as the other hits had less quality recorded, this making them not sound as good as the harshest hits, and due to me only using these harsh hits, the drums sounded less natural and had less feel, as i had prior mentioned in the sampling section. For recording individual drum hits I found using the same gain for each recording lost detail, so if I do this again in the future I will be more aware of this, as it may cause me to go back and rerecord.
Experimenting in Logic
Experimenting in Logic
As a means of experimenting in my composition, I decided to look into different synthesizers, this leading me to use the ES M (monophonic synthesizer). This went really well as by using my knowledge from other synthesizers I managed to create a very good lead sound.
As another part of my experimentation, i want to achieve the sound of the boomy drums like in "when the levee breaks" and "starburster" (both mentioned in task 1 and 2), however, these song's boomy drums are achieved by initial sound treatment, so trying to mix drums recorded in a studio to sound like this was difficult. My approach was to use a room mic facing into a corner as to try and capture any reverberations and layer this with the original drum hits, however this still came out too clean and less boomy. Looking back at my research, I realise now that Sylvia Massy's garden hose technique may have worked better, so if I were to repeat this and try and achieve this boomy sound, I may consider using this technique.
Importance of a production brief
Importance of a production brief
When researching, I found that briefs are important to provide an outline which contributes to the creation or formation of a project, described as similar to highlighting and outlining key arguments for an essay before writing it. Another thing mentioned was that it shortens the time spent overall on the project, allowing for clear communication of ideas.
Brief and composition comparison
Brief and composition comparison
Overall, I thought that I followed my brief well and that my composition reflects this. I found that I achieved using the multisampler for my drums well, recording different hits and mapping to my midi keyboard so that I could create a drum beat. And I also used a different drum beat to what I usually would, using a hip-hop beat as a basis to create a more alternative sound, fitting of my genre description and aims. I also achieved creating a bass sub and doubling up a bass riff, this being something I haven't done much and I think it added to the song well and sounded good in the end result.
This is the bass synth on its own
This is the bass guitar and synth doubled
However, I feel I could have done more experimenting with different guitar techniques which was something I mentioned, as the most experimentation I did with this was using harmonics which I am pretty comfortable using in my usual playing, so if I were to do this again I would try and experiment more with the guitar. Another thing I mentioned in my Task 2 was that I would aim to use vocals, however my track didn't feature any, so if I were to go back I would add in some vocals, as I feel it would have added more variety into my composition.
Importance of problem solving
Importance of problem solving
It is highly important as a sound engineer to be able to come up with solutions to issues that may arise as if there is an initial issue with a recorded track and you are unable to find a solution, it will mean that you will have to rerecord that track. This however is sometimes unavoidable however, as unintentional clipping and distorting during the recording process is impossible to remove. I had this issue doing task 3 where the bass was distorted at a certain bar, however I was able to cut and copy a bar with the same riff. This highlights the importance of being able to solve issues as they arise, as in a real world scenario, this would have save me a lot of time and would also make it less costly for the band recording.
Problems and solutions
Problems and solutions
When working on my composition, I had a problem in which my most recent saves of my composition disappeared, this leaving me to use a very old save. Whilst this left me with a lot of time pressure to create a new composition, I ended up preferring the composition I created. There was very little I could do so solve my issue, so I decided to create a plan for my composition, first outlining an idea of what instruments, melodies and chords I would use before restarting. This helped me to stay on a steady path to create my composition in time. I have learnt from this the importance of saving my work to multiple places and making sure to save more frequently than I had, so in the future I will make sure to use a USB stick, so that I can back up my work to two places and have less of a risk of this happening again.
Achievements
Achievements
Over the entirety of the development blog, I found that my ability to mix drums has developed, and along with this I now understand parallel processing from learning to mix drums. This is particularly helpful and I will almost certainly use this in my mixes in the future. If I were to go back and do this task again, I would make sure to look at improving my mixing ability on other instruments or live elements, as in my aims for the entirety of the task I said I wanted to learn to mix multiple live instruments, and my development blog consisted mainly of improving my drum mixes. Overall, I found that my understanding of mixing live instruments has increased, however I feel if I had focused on other elements too, this would have furthered my understanding of this point of topic.
Production development
Production development
This project has helped me with my creativity in song writing, as it has forced me to move away from what I am comfortable doing an trying something new, as I typically do not write in an alternative genre. The use of experimental ideas has also challenged the way I think when creating a composition and I think that it will help me to make more original sounding music. Furthermore, this project has further assisted me in my use of logic and in my production, specifically in my use of synthesis. Before the start of this project I had only a basis knowledge on how to use a synthesizer, however now I understand more of the capabilities, and with this, how I can implement it more into my music as I can create a synth that is fitting for the song or genre.
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