450 Records: 450 FEST
My Career Path: COPPER
I Have always enjoyed a wide variety of music and I love challenging myself to write something new. Working with 450 Records was no exception. My aim with this endeavour was to explore the R&B field more, as it is not a genre I am too familiar with. I strive to be as versatile of a composer/producer as possible, to developing my skills in this new genre is a step in the right direction.
One day, I hope to become a producer-artist like Flume or Metro Boomin, and to do so I need to seek talent that will be willing to collaborate with me to release music under my alias, COPPER. I hope to use this opportunity with 450 records to jumpstart that dream. for me
Kate Roberts
Being assigned as a producer and mixing engineer for Kate was a very interesting and exciting experience. To create the best possible collaboration with Kate, it was important to understand who she is as a person and her history. She provided notes on key moments throughout her life and outlined her skills and abilities within the music field.
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We then discussed her career goals, style, sound, etc., to help her create an identity as she has never released music prior to us working together. She then provided a thorough list of songs and artists she is inspired by, to help me understand her sound.
Establishing a Sound
After the meeting, I went home and started thinking of ideas for some tracks that would help her establish her identity as a Pop and R&B singer. I went throughout and listened to her inspiration tracks and identified key elements, which I would then incorporate into my work. The most common instruments I identified were, guitar, bass guitar, drum kit, drum machine, and most of the tracks were quite slow and mellow. I jot down as many musical ideas as I could and sent them off to her as wav files for feedback. I also included some music that outside her explicit sound range in case she wanted to try something different as well.
Picking the Right Track
After sorting throughout each demo, she selected "Obsessed" as the track she liked best. It is a 4/4 composition in C minor and is inspired by artists such as Ariana Grande and SZA. Once we finished conversing, I finished producing the song by fleshing out elements, incorporating new instruments, tidying up the instrumental parts and creating a structure to the song.
Working Efficiently
To streamline the production process of creating as many songs as possible for Kate in such a short time, I subscribed to a plugin called Arcade by Output, which is essentially a royalty-free sample library that you can manipulate in real-time (Output 2021). The production also involved several instruments that were all created through virtual instruments on midi or through the Arcade plugin.
Working With Live Sampling
The main guitar loop was from the “Crazy for You” sample pack, which is located in the Honey line within the Arcade plugin, which was manipulated to fit the C minor key.
Working With Midi
The electric bass line was played via a midi input.
The Bassline and the rest of the percussion vary from the Apple default instruments to Native Instruments’ Kontakt VST.
The Chorus Guitar loop, Chorus Spacey Guitar loop, Ari Perc, Bass Pluck and the clicking were all also sourced from Arcade by Output and manipulated to fit the sound and aesthetic of the track.
Demo Vocals
After completing the production for the song, I sent the bounced wav file to Kate who then came up with lyrics that were recorded over the next couple studio sessions.
At our first studio recording session, we recorded Kate’s first demo vocals. The goal of this session was to feel how her lyrics and melody would fit the accompaniment and would determine if we liked the structure and texture of the song.
Moving Forward
Once we finished recording the vocal demos, we discussed what worked and what should be improved. We decided that one of the synths that were in the verses was too distracting and decided to remove it.
We also decided the bass section needed a rework, by changing the contour and adding a second bass that plays parallel but an octave below.
Ready to Mix
In preparation for the next recording session, all the midi files were bounced out to reduce the processing power needed to play back all the audio (Talbott 2014). We laid down the final vocals in the final recording session, so the track would be ready to mix. After consoling with the recording engineer and our artist, we decided to use the Neumann U87 as it would provide the best vocal tone, and then attached it to a shock mount which would eliminate surface vibration and thus
no rumbling of the recording (David Miles Huber and Runstein, 2017). By the end of the session, we were left with more than eighteen different vocal tracks. We decided which vocal takes were the best, and then we spliced and compiled each vocal layer. The session was ready to undergo mixing.
The Beginning of the Mixing Process
To start mixing, I first exported all the stems and organised them into busses. I split them into Vocals, Guitar, Synth, Bass, Percussion and Sound Effects. This is to help keep the project organised and easy to navigate which will ultimately streamline the process.
The Power of Bus Groupings
Another positive to grouping instruments into buses is that I can control these groups rather than having to apply a change to each individual track separately. This can be seen in “Obsessed” when I wanted the percussion
louder in the second verse. All that was required was the automation of the volume of the percussion bus, so all the stems increase in loudness at the same rate.
Panning Effectively
I then began panning each line, starting with the main vocals. Panning is critical because it helps construct the illusion of physical location in a stereo plane (Huber and Runstein 2017). As this was a pop/R&B song, the main vocals are the most important part. To accentuate this, the main vocals were panned into the centre in both the verses and chorus. However, in the chorus, the main melody was recorded three separate times, and then panned far left, far-right and down the centre. This is to help create a wall of sound that helps with the dynamics of the song, as well as the texture and timbre.
The DIY Choir
To create the impression of a choir, the harmony panning was fanned outwards to cover all the range within a stereo plane.
Creating Track Width
Not only were the main vocals centred, but so was the kick drum as it keeps the pace of the song. The rest of the instruments were panned where there was ‘free space’ to help create auditory width and to help the listener hear each layer.
It was important to continue adjusting the volume of each individual track while applying panning, to ensure that the mix is level and no sound is left buried.
Perfect Pitch
Once I was happy with the panning and volume levels, it was time to start tidying up the individual tracks. This process mainly involves equalisation (EQ), compression and pitch correction.
The first step was pitch correction. The program I used for this was Melodyne as it is the most natural-sounding pitch corrector on themarket (in my opinion). To use this effectivelyI had to transfer
each individual track, into the program, sync the key and bpm, then ensure each note was in-tune by finely adjusting the pitch.
The Clean Up
Next, I applied EQ to all tracks. This is vital as boosting and subtracting certain frequencies (depending on each instrument) can help each layer stand out in the mix. This process also provides the opportunity to cut out the low end to eliminate potential muddiness.
Smooth it All Out
After, I compressed each track, to reduce each layer’s dynamic range. This is particularly important for live recordings because a compressor simultaneously increases the low volume and decreases the louder volume of an audio file, to make the recording sound even and natural. Different compressors can also add different colours and tones to a recording. However, it is important to be careful that over compressing can “squeeze the life” out of the music (Hicks 2019).
I also added plugins such as a DeEsser to help reduce sibilance and a Gate to try and limit bleeding from the live audio takes.
Creating Depth
I then set up multiple delay and reverb busses which each layer was sent through. This constructs the illusion that the song is occurring in a 3D space, and ultimately creates more depth to the track (Mendelson 2021).
Reverb!
Small, medium and long reverb refer to where they are placed in the ‘3D’ space we are creating. This was done by syncing the pre-delay times with the bpm of the track, then either doubling or halving the “ms” to create the 3 tiers of distance.
Echo!
The small, medium and long delay busses refer to how long after the initial audio input the delay occurs. This is done by syncing the delay to the bpm of the track, then adjusting whether you want the delay to occur an 1/8th note, ¼ note, ½ note after, etc. The incorporation of delay with reverb accentuates the illusion of 3D space within the stereo plane and also helps make the depth of the track more dynamic.
Automation Creates Life
The next step was the most crucial step to creating life within the song, automation. I used automation throughout the mixing process to balance particular lines and to help blend crossfades.
Using Automation to Create Interest
I also used automation to change the panning of particular instruments. For example, during the chorus, I wanted the Bass Pluck to bounce from the left ear to right (Dixon 2021).
Using Automation to Create Smooth Transitions
Automation of reverb and delay was common throughout the mixing process. This was effective in accentuating the end of each ‘line’ in the lyrics, and transitions between different sections (verse to pre-chorus, pre-chorus to chorus, etc.). The frequent use of reverb and delay, particularly within the vocals, helped create the spacey R&B tone we strived for when were initially started writing (Dixon 2021).
Accentuate the Bass
The final step before I was ready to submit the track to the mastering engineer, was to add sidechain to the bass. The bassline and the kick share similar frequencies and can often sound overcrowded in the mix. So, every time the kick was played, it triggered the bass line to simultaneously reduce in volume, so the kick drum was clearer (Sage Audio n.d.).
The Final Step
Finally, to prepare the mix for mastering, I ensured the track output level reach around -16 LUFS by adjusting the volumes of the multiple mix busses and then exported it as a wav file to avoid the extra compression that would usually occur with an mp3 file.
Reference List
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Dixon, D 2021, 7 Creative Automation Tips for Music Producers, iZotope, viewed 21 May 2022, <https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/7-creative-automation-tips-for-music-producers.html>.
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Hicks, M 2019, Audio Compression Basics | Universal Audio, Uaudio.com, viewed 20 May 2022, <https://www.uaudio.com/blog/audio-compression-basics/>.
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Huber, D M and Runstein, R.E. (2017). Modern recording techniques. New York ; London Routledge Taylor Et Francis Group.
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Mendelson, R 2021, What is EQ in Music? 10 Audio Equalization Tips, Berklee Online Take Note, viewed 20 May 2022, <https://online.berklee.edu/takenote/what-is-eq-in-music-10-audio-equalization-tips/#:~:text=If%20you>.
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Output 2021, ‘Arcade Royalties Explained’, Output Support, 21 September, viewed 21 May 2022, <https://support.output.com/hc/en-us/articles/360050589753-Arcade-Royalties-Explained>.
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Sage Audio n.d., ‘What is Sidechaining?’, viewed 21 May 2022, <https://www.sageaudio.com/blog/pre-mastering/sidechaining.php>.
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Talbott, R 2014, On The Bounce, www.soundonsound.com, viewed 21 May 2022, <https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/bounce>.