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Mixing – Vocals (LO3)

The vocals for the three songs that I mixed were definitely the most scrutinised parts of the mixes that I sent to the band for them to review and give feedback. They are also the part of the songs that have the most EQ’ing and editing done to them.

My process for editing the vocals was fairly similar across the three tracks; I would start off by just using subtractive EQ to get rid of frequencies that stood out too much and were harsh on the ears. I would then bring up certain frequencies to give the vocals more presence and cut through some of the other instruments on the song. I avoided doing too much EQ as I didn’t want to lose too much of the original sound of his voice.

The next step was then using a De-Esser plug-in to get rid of some of the harsh sibilances that were present on most of the tracks. Due to the vocalist’s vocal style, there were a lot of times that he would almost ‘sing through his teeth’, especially in louder parts of the music, so a De-Esser was incredibly necessary.

Lewis, the vocalist, did not like the sound of the vocals in the first mix that I sent him and he said that they sounded slightly weak, so he asked if I could add just a slight distortion and reverb to cover up the sound. It took me a while to get the distortion right on the vocals as it isn’t something I would normally apply to vocals, however, I found that just adding very light distortion did seem to fix the vocals slightly, as did the slight reverb that was added to just give the vocals some depth and cut some of the harsh sounds.

Whilst mixing the vocals I focussed on two main songs as inspiration:

Foo Fighters – Everlong
Royal Blood – Little Monster

I drew from these songs as I personally think they sound very good and interesting as well as being inspirations for the band. I really wanted to try and replicate the sound of Dave Grohl’s vocals in Everlong, it sounds like there are two of him and it just has a real presence in the song, however, I couldn’t quite figure out how it was done. However, the Royal Blood song has a distorted sound to the vocals and I think I replicated that sound to some degree.

Mixing Vocals : The ALMOST-Ultimate Guide to EQ’ing Vocals

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Mixing – Into/Track Setup (LO3)

Before I start to mix anything I have to set-up the session so that it is neatly sorted and organise things so that it just makes the workflow faster and more streamlined. I have tried to do this since year one as without it, I find that the project becomes messy and hard to work with.

The first thing I like to do is make sure all of the tracks are in order, starting with vocals, then guitars and then drums. I will then make sure they are all named correctly and colour coded to make them easily identifiable. The next step is to group the instruments into drums and guitars so that I can edit them all together. After that, I bus the guitars, drums and vocals so I can change their levels together without affecting any of the volume automation on the tracks later down the line.

The first thing I like to do to the tracks is strip silence things like the vocals and any tracks where they are not playing the whole time, this way any times where there is background noise, it will be cut out and not interfere with the mix. I will then listen to the tracks and see if I can spot any mistakes or easily fixable problems like a missed note or a cough in the vocals and make sure they are solved before anything else.

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Getting A Song On The Radio – Stations/Application Process (LO4)

The final post based around getting a song played on the radio will focus on the application process for some of the stations as well as the process you have to go through to get a song played. I am focussing mainly on three stations, BBC Introducing and Siren FM and Brayford Radio, the latter of which is fairly simple.

BBC Introducing:

The process that you have to go through is fairly short to begin with. You must fill out some information on the band, your influences and also give personal information in case they want to get in contact with you. You then upload your songs and can choose which station you would prefer to be played on, however, you can just choose no station and it will be based on your location (specified by your postcode) and go to the local BBC Introducing channel if they wish to play it. You can only have three songs up at a time that haven’t been listened to and then you may add additional songs as slots empty. The BBC have fairly strict guidelines about what can be played on the radio and I will make sure I follow all the terms and conditions talked about in a previous blog post.

This is the route I will likely follow first, I will converse with the band to see which of the three songs (or less) they want to be uploaded, I will create radio edit versions of the songs and then upload them to the site. I will keep them updated on the process of the songs and make them aware of any airplay that they will get.

Siren FM:

Siren FM is a community radio station based out of Lincoln, aiming to reach an audience of 9-25-year-olds. They are very happy to play new and upcoming artists, especially those that have been recorded in the university as that is where they are based. The application for this is fairly simple and involves contacting the station and sending them the songs for them to review and see if they are radio ready. After that, you will be told whether you will be played on air and given a time so that you can listen to it live.

Brayford Radio:

Brayford Radio is a student-run radio station based in the university building and getting your music on air is fairly straight forward if you know someone that has a show. I, fortunately, know someone who currently runs a rock show on a weekly basis and I am going to ask him if he would feature the song on an episode of his show. Although this is not a very widespread station in comparison to the BBC radio stations, it’s a start.

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Dead Rooster – Social Media – Update 1 – 30th – 6th Dec (LO1)

Week 2

 

The likes and amount of people that are talking about the band have grown substantially since the last time I uploaded, and most of this was based on just one post that contained some images of the most recent recording session that took place on the 27th. I believe that if we continue to upload content and perhaps create new social media accounts on Twitter and Instagram they can continue to grow their potential market.

I think it is important for the band to post regularly and upload a variety of content. The band regularly upload updates that discuss dates when they are doing live shows, but I think that if they also upload things like videos of them playing live and also links to their other social media (which they don’t currently have, it would be very useful.

http://www.lastminutemusicians.com/how_to_get_gigs/?p=1426
http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/guitars/how-to-promote-your-band-online-605318

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Distribution Techniques – Streaming Platforms (LO2)

One of the most used forms of free, digital distribution is streaming platforms such as Spotify and Soundcloud. These platforms tend to be used a lot as they are free to use and you can easily upload to them, however, the monetary returns tend to either be minuscule or non-existent.

Pros of Spotify:

  • Free to upload music to the platform and can upload entire discography of a band with ease.
  • Can reach a large user base (40 Million paid subscribers).
  • Can make money for every listen of a song.
  • User controlled platform – no middle man (production company/Publisher).
  • Music streaming counts towards chart positioning.
  • Can link social media accounts and if someone you know is listening to a song, you can then click a link straight to that song.

Pros of Soundcloud:

  • Free platform – no subscriptions required to listen to music.
  • Free to upload any type of audio (podcast/music…).
  • Easily shareable – Create a link and post it to social media – has an embeddable media player.
  • Very simple user-interface – doesn’t turn people off.

Cons of Streaming Platforms:

  • The amount of money you gain via a single play is usually only $0.0084 (Spotify) – and Soundcloud will not pay out anything.
  • Not equivalent to sales of a CD.
  • You have to let people know that you are on these platforms for them to even start listening to your music.
  • The platforms are incredibly saturated with content that it can be hard to cut through and stand out.

I will be uploading the band’s EP to both of these platforms, purely because it gives them a rather large user base to sell their music too. I am aware that this is not a long term, money making idea as the gains from the online platforms are very small, however, it gets their music out there for free and will allow many people to listen to their music without them having to buy it prior.

 

http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/7/9861372/spotify-year-in-review-artist-payment-royalties

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/4/10/1428667990141/GUARDIAN_Musicians_2015_09_FB_(2).png?w=1920&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=890d2de699d4fb0f0da17aac4ae16bbd