Lost - A Review

When recoding and producing a song, it’s the ‘unique personal identity with which they infuse their productions’ (Burgess, 2013) that ultimately affects the quality of the sound of the song, making it different than the usual charted pop song. When recording ‘Lost’, I kept this in mind in trying to set it apart from the mass of generic songs and feel like I did do this justice, simply by just recording guitar and vocals, the rawest form of music.

My decision to record both the vocals and guitar separately worked well because it meant that it was easier to edit when both tracks were done, but also it meant that I could solely focus on the one task at hand – the main reason as to why it only took me two takes to record the guitar to a good standard. I feel like if I had recorded them both together, I would’ve either lost the strumming pattern or the strumming would’ve drowned my voice out. When I first played the song through using my fingers to strum, the sound was quiet and soft (which didn’t work well with the acoustic rock sound of the song) so instead I used a celluloid 0.88mm pick, giving a richer sound, producing a more vintage tone. If I could experiment, I’d like to use an acrylic pick with a thinner tip, to create a brighter and more focused sound. This became a small issue as I am not used to playing with a plectrum however I feel like I coped well with the challenge and overcame it, producing a cleaner, more rock-styled sound.

When it came to editing the track, I was interested in the effects that were used such as reverb to add a bit of warmth to the voice, as the room that we recorded in wasn’t a proper sound booth. Furthermore EQ ‘Provides mid-frequency controls in addition to bass and treble’ (Self, 2009) which meant that the high pitched sliding on the guitar could be cut out as well as the low breathing and background noise, while the mid range frequencies that could not be heard as much were brought up. And what impact did it have on your finished piece? Remember to evaluate your learning.

For next time, I think I’d be more confident, especially when it comes to recording the vocals. ‘In a state of flow, there is no room for irrelevant thoughts’ (Kircher, 2011) so by entering this state a flow, it would allow myself to feel more confident and ultimately feel better about each take, whether I like it or not. The small recording studio made me more nervous as it meant I could hear myself back as well as having someone else in the room making it feel as though they were judging me. Also, I would have liked to play more around with the effects of the vocals to give it a cleaner sound, instead of being slight ‘fuzzy’, possibly using less reverb would help to achieve this.

Finally, to develop the song even further, using a program such as Protools to create a drum beat as well would make the song more substantial as I feel like ‘Lost’ as an acoustic song works well however turning into something more rock sounding, being played on electric guitar would also work as well.

Bibliography:

Burgess, J, R. (2013) The Art of Music Production: The Theory and Practice. New York: OUP USA

Kircher, J, M. (2011) Incorporating flow into practice and performance. USA: IOS Press

Self, D (2009) Audio Engineering Explained. Massachusetts: Focal Press

Recording Continued (Bringing It All Together)

Having recorded both the guitar and vocals for my song, I was both relieved and happy when hearing it back (despite my detest for my own voice) as I finally had something I was proud of and wanted people to listen to (as opposed to the Soundcloud version which was recorded using my laptop, not quite the same).

Then came the the more technical side of the process which involved adding the effects and mixing/altering things to get it sounding as clean as professional as possible.

-Starting with the vocals, first reverb was added to give it more of a 'smoothness; and 'ambience' to suit the song, as opposed to the vocals sounding 'dry' and a bit lacking.

-Then the EQ which is a spectrum that shows the frequency in voice was looked at. It's where you can cut off the low noises (background noises) and also the very high pitched sounds (which there weren't any), however it also brings up the bits that are hard to hear to round off the piece, using a good mic means you don't have to do much with that (with was made apparent because not much needed to be done).

- Finally, the same copy and paste that was done for the guitar part, was also used for the vocals as there were bit's that I didn't like.

The guitar editing was similar to the vocals with the EQ to bring up the the quieter parts of it however there were a few other things that were used.

- One plug in that was used is a compressor which is important for a guitar - specifically when being picked as it evens out the dynamics. You can set thresholds to to louden quite notes and visa versa, which again, rounds out the piece, making it cleaner.

- Fades were also used on both the guitar and the vocals to give it a nice intro to the song and to nicely fade out with the guitar part. Also, it got rid of the background noise on the tracks, the few seconds before I started playing/singing.

Finally, to complete the recording, the two tracks were exported then imported back in as a stereo track (combining both the guitar and vocals into one track), and the maximiser was used to give it more 'power', which meant that the idea was to get the levels as close to 0 as possible without it clipping, one thing that is done in professional studios to make it as loud as possible overall.

When it was finally done I listened to it back and was really proud of what I had managed to achieve (with some help). It was nice to see something become more 'real' and I honestly did enjoy it, even the part about playing in front of one person as it's still some form of performance, therefore help with the confidence part of performing.

Recording in the studio

Creating something and having it on paper is one thing but actually being able to turn into something a bit more real is another.
Having been writing songs for a few months and having enough material to create an 'album' which I put on Soundcloud meant that I had accomplished something I'd wanted to have done for a while now however it's only recently where it was made apparent to me that I could actually produce this and possibly have something to be proud of (possibly doing open mics/small gigs and being able to give out CDs that I made).

Recording something is always a nerve wracking task, even though you have as many chances as you want to get it right however it's always nice to get things done it one take, for a sense of accomplishment, as opposed to performing live where you only get once chance which allows for more mistakes. "A musician's fear of failure" (Fogle, 1982) can prevent the the piece being as effective, which in a sense is also true when recording because it was made aware that no take was ever perfect for me.

Cubase 7 was used to record and edit the tracks and like Protools, I think that if I were to play around with it, it would be quite easy to grasp and record things on my own (as opposed to being aided with the technician as I had no idea what I was doing). The recording was done in two 'sections'. First I recorded the guitar part, then when I was happy with that, I moved on to recording the vocals to the guitar part I recorded. I did it this was as opposed to doing it both together so I could concentrate more on getting on part right as opposed to having to split my attention 50/50.

Tech-y things that were used:

• DI Box which made it cleaner and better to mix
• Studio mics which pick up more clarity, as opposed to dynamic mics which can take more pressure (2 for the guitar, one above the fret board, the other below the sound hole. Never put the mic over the sound hole as all you'd get is the bass notes)
• Neumann condesner mic with a pop filter (the pop filter filters out the harsh blasts of sounds when made while singing certain letters - P or S for example, therefore softens the sound)

Recording the guitar part first, to get the levels I played a bit and when it was all set, proceeded to play the song. The first time I played I wasn't happy with the instrumental so recorded it again and found that I preferred the second take - however there a few mistakes. To create the mistakes, it was as simple as copying the good parts then pasting them over the bad parts (As an observer to that, as I didn't actually do it, it seemed pretty simple...but then again, the proof's in the pudding, maybe next time I'll do it)

Recording the vocals was always going to be my biggest challenge especially since I hate my voice and think I can't sing, even thought I've been told I can. Furthermore, only have one other person in the room was a bit nerve wracking so I decided to look at the wall and zone him out (I had a preference of playing to large crowds where I can pick out an individual face). 

At first, I tried singing hearing myself back however I felt that because I could hear myself breathe, it put me off, therefore when trying it without hearing myself back, I was more comfortable with singing.