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Reflective Summary

What I Did In This Project:

My main roles within this project were overseeing the production of the EP with Dead Rooster and helping Oliver in any way that he needed during the process, I also set-up the equipment during the recording sessions and coordinated with Oliver to make sure they were to his specifications and also corresponded with his Pro-Tools session tracks. My next job was as the main mix engineer, I mixed ‘I Don’t Try’, ‘Out All Night’ and ‘Save My Soul’, I also oversaw the mixing of Olivers two songs and pointed him in the right direction in terms of mixing to the same way as I had. I also worked together with Oliver to master the tracks and make sure they all have similar levels. I was the main contact between the band and our group as it was less cluttered to do it this way.

How Did We Work As A Team:

Oliver and I have always worked as a fairly cohesive pairing and make sure we are always on the same level every step of the way. Oliver had a tendency to panic when things didn’t go very well, which at first caused me to panic, however after a while I just made sure he was reassured that things will be fine and the work will get done. When it came to mixing the songs we contacted each other regularly to show each other our mixes and give feedback as to how they could be improved and also discuss levels, I found that this helped create a better product in the end.

How Do I Feel The Project Went As A Whole:

On a whole I believe the project went rather well, apart from the problem we had with the recording studio, there weren’t many times that we had problems. However, a major problem that both I and Oliver have come to terms with is that our time management for this project was not up to scratch and affected us coming up to the deadline and may have put a strain on us and may have affected the mixing of the music slightly due to time constraints. There were definitely problems in terms of my research in the way that I don’t I kept up with it very well, and it caused me a lot of stress, however, I feel the number amount of posts I have made are sufficient. However, I feel that the amount of research that I put into each of my learning outcomes could have been higher and of better quality and this is something I would change when I do it again.

LO1 – Pros/Cons:

I feel that LO1 was my weakest aspect of my research as I don’t have a lot to show for what I did due to the way that the band behaved when I asked them to post content to their social media. This is an area I would have done completely different if I had the chance to. I believe that the best course of action for this research aim would have been to become an admin on their social media accounts and posted on behalf of the band, that way I would not have to rely on them and could instead follow the schedule I had set out at the start of the blog. I believe that if I were to retake the role of the PR person, I could have done it a lot better and had made more of an impact for the band.

LO2 – Pros/Cons:

I believe this was one of the better research aims as I have an interest in the topic and I enjoyed researching it. Distribution techniques will play a big part in the future of the band and I believe I have helped them set-up a good amount of platforms so that they can reach the largest audience. I have let the band know how to set up all the accounts for the streaming sites and music stores so that they can make sure they get paid for their music. I believe this is the learning outcome that went the best way it could have as it is a large part of the process which is often overlooked by smaller bands.

LO3 – Pros/Cons:

Mixing was one of my main roles in this project and although I did research for the mixing and tried to do it to an industry standard, I feel like I let my own tastes take over the mix at times, which isn’t the worst thing in the world as I still believe we made a good product and the band agrees. I made sure I gave the band multiple mixes of each song so they could give feedback and I only thought it as finished when they agreed that nothing else needed doing to it. I enjoyed mixing however I dont tend to follow a way of doing things, I tend to just mix until it sounds good, which isn’t something that all mix engineers do, however, it worked out in the end as the band liked my mixes.

LO4 – Pros/Cons:

I feel that I met the learning outcome for this one, I created the profile to get the band onto the BBC introducing website and then hopefully get them played on the local BBC introducing radio station. I have also talked to my friend who hosts a show on Brayford Radio to see if he can fit a song into his show after Christmas. I am still working on getting a radio edit of ‘Out All Night’ mixed so that I can upload it, however, this is not going to be on the EP so I don’t have to worry about the university deadline for this. I have given the band the login information to the BBC introducing website so that they can upload any future songs that they record.

Final Words:

I have enjoyed most of this project, it has been a good learning experience and I have learnt a lot about the aspects of music production that are carried out after the recording of music. I have also learnt more about mixing and making sure it is of a quality that can be sold and distributed online. There are definitely things that I would do differently if I were to carry out the same process again, especially in terms of PR. I believe I have worked well with Oliver and I think that Lee has been an excellent tutor that has helped us with really focussing us and aiding us when things go wrong.

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Dead Rooster – Social Media – Update 2 – 7th – 14th Dec (LO1)

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During the last week, the band were reluctant to post any of the content that I suggest they upload, so this seems to have made an impact on the amount of likes that they have garnered over the past week. I personally do not understand why they have chosen not to follow the schedule that I created for them and I believe that I could have organised it in another way so that perhaps I was an admin on their page and could post for them as the band. I have a feeling this may negatively impact the amount of hype around the EP and will likely affect sales, however, I can’t give quantifiable proof of that.

There are many things I would have done differently if I were to take on the role of promoter again, which I will discuss in my reflective summary.

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Mixing – Drums (LO3)

My main goal when mixing the drums is to make sure the frequencies that need to be heard are the ones that are left in and heard in the mix. I don’t like to mess around with the sound of the drum kit as I like the original sound of the kit and so does the drummer of  Dead Rooster.

 

I tend to start off by EQing the overheads of the drums to cut out some of the low-end and brighten the cymbals, I also like to add some size to the drum kit and make sure it doesn’t sound like it is in the drum room so I add a slight reverb to the overheads. I will then just go through each of the drums individually and EQ them to get rid of some of the sounds that just don’t need to be in the recording, such as the bleed from other drums. The kick drum is the drum I tend to spend the most time working on as I want it to be able to cut through the sound of the bass, so I tend to cut in the EQ and raise certain areas so that it is present in the entire mix.

In terms of how loud the drums are in the mix, they tend to be quite high as both me and the band like to be able to hear the drums, especially as in a couple of the songs there are small drum solos that need to cut through the rest of the instruments.

As inspiration for the drums I look mainly to Royal Blood as their album has a very clean drum sound and it is very present in the mix and is very punchy. I specifically looked at a song called ‘Better Strangers’ as the song starts with drums and it just fits right into the song.

 

 

http://www.audio-issues.com/music-mixing/a-quick-n-dirty-guide-to-getting-your-drums-sounding-punchy-powerful/

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Mixing – Guitars – Bass (LO3)

The bass was probably the most annoying part of mixing as the performance was at times, subpar. However, I did my best to try and make it work within the context of the three songs I mixed. The process for mixing the bass was fairly simple for me, I just EQ’ed the frequencies that were just not needed, most of the high end was cut off with a low-pass filter so that the lead guitar would have more space to work in. I also cut out some of the lower frequencies that the kick drum was situated in so that they both came through in the mix.

The bass levels were often brought up when i gave rough mixes to the band and it it took a few mixes for me to get the level right within the mix, however after a few attempts I believe that it sits well within the song without being too obtrusive.

 

I just had a multitude of references for the bass guitar, I mainly focussed on bands that the band had said were inspirations for them and they included:

Arctic Monkeys – When The Sun Goes Down
Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Any song of theirs – very bass heavy.

I chose these songs as the bass is fairly prevalent in the song (especially in the RHCP songs), they don’t seem very processed which is a sound i like in the bass and it sits well in the song.

http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mixing-bass

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Mixing – Guitars – Lead/Rhythm (LO3)

One of my major goals when mixing the guitars was to make sure that the lead and rhythm guitars were easy to distinguish between, the two guitars were somewhat the same tonally. The way that the lead guitar was tracked made it easier for me to add effects to separate parts of the song, as the lead was recorded once with the verse parts and then recorded the solos and chorus parts as they have a different tone and required different settings on the amp and pedals.

I started with the rhythm guitar as that is playing through the majority of the songs from start to finish. I ran the track through the Eleven-lite amp plug-in to give it more of a bite and a cleaner sound as I found that it helped to cut through the rest of the music and made it stand out against the lead. I avoided adding any reverb to the rhythm guitar as I had added reverb to the other guitars and didn’t want it to become cluttered and messy.

For the lead parts that weren’t solos or choruses, I left them alone mostly apart from some basic EQ to cut out some of the low-end and also add more clarity and brightness to the guitar sound. For the solos, I ran it through the same amp plug-in as I did with the rhythm guitar but instead made the high-end frequencies stand out more and cut out some of the low-end to give it clarity. I added some reverb to both of the lead tracks as I believe it added some presence to the mix and also cut out some of the harsher sounding parts.

I aimed to make the guitars sound like classic rock guitars, some of which were included in the inspirations playlist i mentioned near the start of the blog posts. I used these as inspiration as they have guitars that vary in frequency ranges, the leads tend to be rather high and the rhythm, mid to low range. They included songs such as:

The Darkness – I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Guns N’ Roses – Sweet Child Of Mine

http://atoragon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/how-to-mix-guitar-solo-guide-for-dummies.html

http://www.guitarplayer.com/miscellaneous/1139/7-eq-tips-for-mixing-guitar/23122