Technical Showcase.
Below I’ve included screenshots of the work I’m the most proud of technically, and how it all comes together, as with the rise of AI (booooo), it’s nice to be able to prove *I* am actually the one creating my art.
I have two specialisations when it comes to production - my mixing style, and my focus on ‘gang vocals’ and other larger vocal arrangements.
When it comes to mixing and mastering, if it is a composition fully of my own, I will mix and master it while composing and producing it - something that confused many of my Uni Lecturers - and when it comes to vocals, I love creating false choirs and figuring out the best way to make a seemingly small, untrained group sound professional; as seen below.
Viva la Vida
Vocals
This is quite possibly one of my favourite sounding final mixes I’ve ever recorded.
On the day of our friend-group’s Award Show, I had to quickly scramble together a recording session for some backing vocals for a University Assignment.
One of my favourite things to note in this project is that none of my friends are singers - and not everyone in this image is my friend - two of them were people I grabbed walking past the studio room window and asked them to help out!
Using 2 Sennheiser se4400a’s (my favourite microphones ever) and an AKG 414, I positioned each person in an arc around the 3, and took 3 different takes - moving those with stronger accents around to help create a sense of depth and width.
Then, in Logic, I slightly staggered and duplicated the takes multiple times - resulting in the mess below - but also managing to turn 7 voices into the equivalent of ~ 250. This is then also put through several reverb and widening buses, resulted in the blended mix below - all instrumentation was also recorded on the day; bar Chris Matin’s vocal stem, of course.
The Audio:
Viva La Vida - No Processing - One take, completely untouched.
Viva La Vida - Processing - 3 takes, duplicated, staggered, other FX.
Viva La Vida - Blended - Above, blended into other recordings.
We All Lift Together!
Vocals
Ok, so this one is a little weird.
And as a note, the next time I say ‘Hey, lets make something Sci-fi sound like its from a tavern!’ - shoot me.
The full recording of this is filled with ambient tavern recordings we made, with bottles and random gossip, but the highlight in my eyes is again how the vocals progress from the original recordings to the outcome.
I’d originally only pitched the idea of 5 of my friends coming in and recording the one word vocal shouts, but as I was playing back to them what I had so far, they liked how they sounded and were confident to give a chorus ago - as you’ll hear at the end. It was also my first time getting to record a 12 string guitar - something i’m gutted I’m yet to do again, but the final chorus sounds amazing with its inclusion.
You can also hear a slight stutter in the audio, this is because one of my talented volunteers kicked a mic stand, and the audio peaked - luckily at a part where it isn’t noticeable when blended in with the main audio.
Using an auto-tune, I also simulated a bass section, by making a separate bus and pitch-shifting the result down by 4.8 semitones.
And no, you don’t get to hear my awfully flexi-pitch’d attempt at singing the vocal line myself. It was as requirement that all the audio had to be original.
The Audio:
WALT - No Processing - Two takes, completely untouched.
WALT - Processing - Two takes with reverb and spread FX.
WALT - Blended - Above, blended into instruments and the original song.
