Understanding Technology

Question 1: What is equalization, and how has it changed the working process since the early days of studio recording and mixing?

Equalization, also known as EQ, is when you alter the frequencies, mostly used to change a sound (i.e. vocals, instruments, etc) if it doesn't sound right to the person who is mixing/mastering.
It's changed the working process by saving more time for the studio engineers because instead of the engineers having everything recorded only to find out there's something wrong so instead of recording it again with a different microphone, they can simply use EQ as a plug-in on a DAW to mix/master.


Question 2: What is the polar pattern called that the U47 used for recording vocals? What is the polar pattern of the other microphone that was used previously? Why do you think the directional ability of the U47 helped in the recording process in this particular case?

Cardioid (U47). Figure of 8 (ribbon mic). Because the U47, which has a better focus on the mid-range & high end compared to RCA 44, prioritized the vocals so it wouldn't be overtaken by the orchestra that accompanies the singer, and because of that it gained popularity within the industry.


Question 3: Identify some of the differences between a software mixer (like the one in ‘Logic’) and a hardware mixing console (like the Audient ‘Zen’ mixing desk in the studios). What are the pros and cons of each?

Hardware:

Pros:
*If you were to record automation live, all you have to do is move the fader up or down and you also have the freedom to stand up and look down on the mixer whilst grooving to the song.
*There's a control for adjusting the monitoring level.
*You can move more than one fader at a time as you're physically using your hands to adjust the fader's position.

Cons:
*Takes up space on deck which, for some people, may interfere with how they work.
*You need to make sure everything is plugged in correctly so you don't have more issues in the long run.
*If you want the mix back to how it sounded before you altered it, you have to do it manually instead of relying on a button to do it for you.

Software:

Pros:
*You can have more channels than a hardware mixer meaning you can get more work done in shorter time.
*Compared to hardware mixers, offer higher quality audio.
*You can recall to what your mix was before you adjusted it, saving you from wasting any time.

Cons:
*If you wanted to record live, you'd generally have to use a mouse and you can't move much otherwise it'll mess up the way you want to automate the track.
*You can't move more than one fader at a time in different directions.
*High prices.


Question 4: If you were investing in a system to use in a home/bedroom studio, which type of mixer would you personally choose, software or hardware? Why?

Personally, I'd prefer to use both but I would pick software because I know that if I had a software mixer at home/bedroom, I'd have to sit down and I'd prefer it that way because I work much better if I'm sitting down in a silent (or a suffice) environment, I would focus solely on what I'm doing and not be distracted by movement.


Question 5: What other benefits do using DI boxes give an engineer in the studio?

When recording, you can send the balanced output straight to the audio interface meaning that you can record both wet and dry versions of the track, giving you more options later in terms of mixing/mastering. DI boxes can also let signals from instruments, power amps and/or pre-amps be used as a recording source.

It also saves the studio engineer so much time, money and effort because instead of going through the effort of investing in a studio and buying all the equipment you need, you can simply plug in the DI box to the console, adjust it to the settings you need and simply record. It's also very essential for bass players to have as it gets rid of any unnecessary noise and makes the tone of the bass easy to control when it's plugged to a mixer.


Question 6: What would you suggest?

If you cannot invest in a studio with more space, then I'd heavily suggest to record every instrument one at a time so you don't need to worry about someone else, their instruments or any of the gear they'd need (i.e. PA, mics to record, etc). I suggest recording the drums first because then the other instrumentalist(s) and singer(s) can easily tell the tempo and rhythm of the track and stay in time.

You should also be concerned with panning and EQing once you have everything recorded because instead of recording something then pausing the process to EQ/pan when you can easily do everything at the end. Also, I'd suggest mixing it on a computer instead of a laptop because a laptop can only hold so much and easily overheat in comparison to a PC.

Production Diary (Single Release)

Equipment List:

FL Studio 11
Panasonic Stereo Headphones RP-HT225
Sony Stereo Headphones MDR-XB300
Sony Earphones (Model unknown)
Trust MiLa Speakers (Desktop)


I used FL Studio 11 to create both projects because it's the first DAW that I got when I really got into music and music production and it's also the first DAW that I actually taught myself to use at a sufficient level. Despite the fact I have experience on both Logic Pro 9 & Logic Pro X, I felt more comfortable using FL Studio 11 simply because I've spent much more time on it compared to Logic 9 and X combined.

I used the Sony headphones (MDR-XB300) simply because those happened to be the headphones I had at the time and they worked out really well for me. Seeing as I started off mainly producing hip-hop and the headphones mainly specialized in the low and mid range so I could hear the bass lines (low end) and other aspects of the song very clearly (i.e. melody/harmony, snare, etc).

However, I felt I couldn't really focus on the high end through the Sony Headphones, so when it came to mixing and mastering the track, I'd use both the Sony earphones and the Trust MiLa speakers to concentrate on the high end more. I would also constantly switch between each one of the three because in both projects, there would certain sounds I want to obtain and by rotating around the three, I can analyze the differences and create a balance between them until I'm satisfied with the sound.

I also used the Panasonic headphones (RP-HT225) for mixing & mastering purposes, however it overtook the Sony headphones simply because the wiring in the right ear of the Sony headphones burst and it altered how it picked up the lower and higher range of songs in a very unpleasant way. The Panasonic headphones work better than the Sony headphones in my opinion as it has much more of a balance between the ranges rather than having the low end being the main focus. Also when I'm mixing, there's a volume control on the wire and when I put it all the way down to 0, it doesn't turn the sound down to 0 but very close to 0 and if you're in the correct environment, you can vaguely hear it. This works to my advantage because I can accurately make out a hierarchy in the mix by hearing out what's the loudest and quietest element in the mix.

Recording:

Track 1: California Living

When it came to writing the MIDI, I personally found it easy because I had a sample which was driving the song and all I had to do was create my own drum line and I mainly relied on my sense of rhythm to create the drum line but the hard part was finding the right sounds I wanted to compliment the sample. So, to solve that issue I went through all the drum kits to find the hi-hat, snare and kick sounds I initially had in mind, make a drum line out of it and if I felt something was off, I'd keep the rhythm but change one of the drum parts I've selected and analyze the differences before finally choosing what to go with.

Track 2: Midnight

For this track, I chose to go with a sampled drum kit rather than MIDI drums because none of the MIDI drums I tried wasn't good enough to compliment the sample I picked out as they all sounded "plastic" and "fake" instead of the "live" and "real" drum kit sound I was going for from the start. One thing in this song is that there is a lot of automation from the start to the end of the song which I've manually made myself (via mouse) and I added automation to achieve transition which really affected everything in the track so I needed everything sounding good before I even mix anything, let alone think about mastering.

Mixing:

Track 1: California Living

For the mixing, I used EQ and Reverb mainly on the drums and vocals in the track but other than that I used the volume levels to create a balance because everything sounded close enough to how I initially wanted it.
On the drums, I didn't touch the hi-hats as I felt dissatisfied with all the plug-ins I tried (reverb, EQ, delay, echo, etc) so I left it how it was and just adjusted the volume on it. I used enough minimal reverb on the snare that there's a difference from the original but not very noticeable as I wanted to keep the snare very snappy but added reverb as I felt the original was too "snappy" for my liking. I EQ'd the kick so it had more range in the low-end (more bass) because it felt too "punchy" to me and played more of a dominating role instead of a role that supported the bass line throughout the song.
I also used EQ on the vocals in the track because some of the ambiance would be too noticeable and overtaking in the song so I decided to cut off all of the ambiance I could without affecting the vocals so the vocals would stick out much more.

Track 2: Midnight

In this track, I chose not to use any plug-ins to enhance any of the sounds and only adjusted the volume levels whilst relying on the automation that I put throughout the track because I felt that I achieved the initial sound I was going for from the very start.

Mastering:

Track 1: California Living

For mastering the track, I had to make it ready to be put on a CD and played through a good sound system so I used EQ and compression on the output to make the song sound much more complete and like a finished product rather than sound like a bunch of ideas just placed together.
I chose to do so rather exporting a WAV file and putting plug-ins on it because I heard a slight difference in the bounced version and the original version I was working on from the DAW and it kept annoying me so to successfully master the track, I ultimately decided to use those plug-in's on the output.


Track 2: Midnight

For the mastering on this track, it went through the same mastering process as "California Living".

Sequencing Analysis (Terminology)

MIDI:

When it came to recording/editing all of my MIDI, I chose to completely use the mouse because I currently don't possess the ability to reflect all my ideas whilst I sequence everything live and I don't organize the one at a time because I feel that I'd be wasting time in comparison to using a mouse. However, my ideal choice would be to record everything live then polish and add a few ideas afterwards. I choose not to quantize my MIDI because I feel I don't need to as I'm already organizing the data as I'm progressing with my ideas and by doing so, I'm already putting everything where I want.

When it comes to note length and velocity, it's very dependent on the instrument and the role it plays in the song. It would vary in terms of note length however I choose what I want whilst in the process of creating the song, for example, I'd choose to have a kick drum at a shorter length so it could apply a "bouncy" feel in the drum line, to do this I use the mouse to adjust the length. I then turn my attention towards velocity either when I have the idea is completed or when the song is completed because it can make a huge difference when I'm mixing down my track. If I want something to play a more predominant role, the velocity would generally be more orange (red if need be) but if I want something in the background or to serve an ambient role, the velocity would be more green or light green.

When it comes to arranging my music, I choose not to colour in sections because I find that distracting and off-putting when I want to make music. For example, when I'm concentrating on what needs to sound different or what else I want to add to the song, I wouldn't concentrate as well with all the colours in front of me and I'd feel it would influence my decisions. I also choose not to use markers because I prefer to look at my music and point to the screen "that's the chorus, that's the bridge, here's the break down, etc".

On the arrange page, I generally use copy/paste to repeat sections of a song instead of looping it because I know for a fact that I would want to develop it later on in the song since it may become a bit boring.  I also don't use the scissors or glue tool to edit the data as I generally the bottom right corner to lengthen or shorten the region in question, plus I find myself not needing to use them. I use "solo" way more in comparison to using "mute" because once I hear one part that's isolated from the track, it sticks in my head clearly even when I play it with the rest of the instruments. The only time I use mute is when I'm judging whether or not a certain part of the texture fits in with the song or not, by listening to what it's like without it and questioning myself what it brings to the song and how it can help it's development.

For sections, you'll find in various song that I don't really follow a typical structure of a "verse/chorus/verse/etc", but instead decide to let the song develop on it's own by introducing new rhythms, change in harmonization/rhythm and even instruments, but there are some songs of mine where I follow a clear structure.


Audio:

For recording audio (which I've done in my Electro piece for Olly), I used a Shure SM58, which is a dynamic microphone and the reason I used it was simply because it's regarded as one of the "go to" microphones when recording vocals and I recorded was me channeling my James Brown by saying "1, 2, 3, 4, hit it!". I placed the microphone in my hand whilst recording rather than using a mic stand simply because I felt more comfortable holding it. I recorded it all in one take because all I had to do was count up to 4 and say "hit it!" at the end, which isn't a hard thing to do.

To edit my audio, I'd usually use non-destructive editing when using audio especially when I sample because I know for a fact that I would want to use more parts of the song I'm sampling from to give my song more development and changes to catch and maintain the listener's attention. In that case, if I use destructive editing before I pick out all the parts I want, then I'll have to reload the file and that would be annoying and time consuming in the long term. However, that doesn't mean I don't use destructive editing as I use fades mainly on vocals or to transition from one part of a song to another and I especially time stretch a lot of songs of my own (refer to my SoundCloud) to simply give my song a completely different vibe to the song I sampled from.

"The vocal samples is the performer breathing, taking a sharp inhale and what sounds scatting and I didn’t think much of it at first however I saw potential in it and adjusted the sound by using an EQ to make it sound much crisp and stand out as if it never came from the song I sampled it from."

"I mainly used non-destructive editing because I knew I was going to sample more than one section of the song. For example, in "Melody (Strings)" I simply cut it up using the scissors and marquee tool and re-arranged them on the lines so it stayed in beat rather than time-stretching it because I was going to use the same technique and I didn't want to risk altering the sample too much to ruin it. I chose this method because I found that if I just cut it only using the scissors & marquee tools, I preserve the sample at it's original pitch (in terms of the recording) and the quality of the sound."


Advanced Techniques:

I've used Drummer before to create a MIDI file to see what I could do with it. I chose to use it as MIDI because I was adjusting the settings on the Drummer, however there some small specific parts that I wanted to adjust but the Drummer wasn't accurate enough and that kept getting to me, so I changed it into MIDI and changed everything I wanted and added new things I wanted to enhance my ideas.


Reference Songs (found in my folder in L3 Music Prod Yr 1 & Sequencing Folder):

Like We Used To
Naruto
September Wind
Electro (Olly)
Jungle-Type Drums

Business Plan

The First Draft (Releasing An EP)

Objective:

My aim is to record and release an EP (The First Draft) that is mixed and mastered so it's ready to be listened to by people whom are interested in my music. I aim to sell 100 copies or more, regardless of format, so I can walk away with a profit.

Target Audience:

Ideally, my target audience is everyone that enjoys listening to music but since I'm not at such a level where I can grasp everyone's attention, my target audience will be in London since that's where I'm based at.

My majority target audience will have to listen to hip hop for me to catch their attention since that's the genre I specialize in, however, this is where my USP (Unique Selling Point) comes into play. Seeing as hip hop is heavily based on the use of samples, this can attract those who don't listen to many hip hop because they can simply like a song of mine that samples their favourite genre and that could lead them to opening up to not only my music, but the genre as well.

My target audience wouldn't have an age range simply for 2 reasons: As I said earlier "Ideally, my target audience is everyone that enjoys listening to music", the other reason would be my USP. Seeing as I'm primarily a sampler, I sample from records that have been released ranging from modern genres of today to as far back as I can go (i.e. blues, classical, folk) and everything in between. That would mean my interest in music could cross over someone with a similar age to mine and someone who's well in their 30s, 40s, 50s and so on.

Although it's hard to determine how much income my target audience will have to their disposal, I do know that they'll have enough to purchase my EP as I plan to set the price at a very reasonable price (more info in Marketing Strategy).

The one thing that will attract people to my music is my individualism and how I try my best to be myself rather than trying to emulate other artists or be a mixture of other artists. However, seeing as there are countless people trying to be their favourite artist, there are also a lot of people who want to do things differently and my target audience may turn their heads, for whatever reason, to another act who may have a similar mind-state to me.

Timeline:

First and foremost, the music needs to be created/written so I have to something name, record, make artwork for, promote, sell, etc. Then, once each song is named and the track listing has been sorted out (to make things easier in the long term so I don't have to worry about that), I'll then look to record everything I've arranged for the EP so that I have something to give to the studio engineer(s) whom are mixing and mastering my tracks, however, I could decide to master some tracks myself simply because I'm the artist and I know what sounds I want to accomplish.

Once all that is completed, I would then turn my focus on the artwork and I'd spend less time than I would because I already have the product so I could base the artwork off of the music on my project and after all that, I'll then decide on what format will I want to release it on simply because I won't know how long it'll take me to the EP (it could take a day or even years to make something I'm satisfied with, as evident with many other musicians) so if I decide what format I want to release it on from the very start, it may affect me in the long term and I could miss out (i.e. vinyl sales going up in sales in 2014 ever since 1996). Once all that is completed, I will then turn my attention towards promotion and advertisement because by then, I'll have a finished product with it's own packaging ready to be consumed.

Marketing Strategy:

My product will be an EP consisting of 10 tracks and I chose to have it at 10 tracks because I want to grasp and maintain the listener's attention within a suitable time range. For instance, if I had more tracks, that would mean that the EP would be longer and I'd run the risk of losing the listener's attention, or they'll become bored, etc. As mentioned earlier, my USP is the fact that I sample and that really expand my target audience from simply being "mainly fans of one genre" to being "general music fans of various genres".

My EP will go for a price of £3 (if not, then certainly cheaper), but since it'll be available on different formats, prices will vary. I chose to set it at a cheap price because I want it at a price where it's affordable for everyone, regardless of what class they're in (i.e. working class, etc). In regards to format, I plan to release the project on digital, CD and vinyl (£2.50 for digital, £3 for CD & £4 for vinyl), however each format will have it's own feature.

For digital, I'll just release the original EP in it's initial form, for CD, I'll place a hidden track at the end of the last song and for vinyl, I'll alter the production work, especially songs produced by me. Also, I'd sell my project for a cheaper price for those that turn up to see me perform but the prices will vary dependent on how many people turn up to my show. You will be able to purchase the music through virtual stores and places such as supermarkets and retail stores, however once again the format will be taken into consideration. For example, for vinyls and CDs, I can sell it through websites such as www.discogs.com.

For promotion, I plan to advertise my project everywhere I can. For example, I can advertise through
local newspaper ads simply because I've never seen an album get advertised via newspapers, let alone a local one. One other affective way would be to get my project promoted/reviewed by a blogger (the bigger the blog/blogger, the more exposure I get) and I could do a favor for them in return. I can also ask a friend to help me create some flyers so I can post them around venues. I can also advertise my project through social media outlets, for example Facebook, because I can then reach out to people who I may never ever reach and if they're interested, they'll click on the link and discover me and my music.

Development:

Once I release this EP, I plan on continuing producing/composing more music and writing more lyrics, releasing more EP's and releasing LP's in the process, as well collaborating with other artist's, whether if it's only a single or a full length studio album.

Budget:

Since this is my first EP and I don't have a huge (or any) presence in the music industry, I can instantly save myself a lot of money and gain more time by choosing to create the EP at home. I can also decide to record at home but that'll require me purchasing a microphone (£40+ for condenser, £15+ for Dynamic but you can find some really cheap).

I'd also need acoustic foams for the room I'll be recording in so I'll be looking at around £30+ for some tiles. However, I can simply go to a friend's house (who happens to be in a music collective with me) and record my stuff their for free which can save me around £85, plus he offered to mix down and master each track for my project for free, so that covers my concerns for mixing & mastering costs. However, the only other person(s) that would mix down and master my tracks would be myself simply because I know what sounds I want to accomplish in the music I make.

For artwork, I would prefer to do it myself to compliment my project. I would either draw the artwork and alter it with the use of photoshop (or something similar) or don't draw at all and gather images and/or takes my own pictures and solely solely use a program like photoshop to execute what I want to do.

For the format, digital will cost me nothing as I can simply upload it on sites like Soundcloud, Bandcamp, etc. For CD's, I can buy stacks of empty CD's and burn the music on the CD's myself (I'd be looking at £20 or less for stacks of empty CD's). For vinyls, I understand it's difficult these days to get a pressing, however, through my friend's family friend whom works for a small label directed me to a place very local to me (near Holloway Underground Station) where I can press 2 vinyls for £25.

For the advertisement, I plan to have around £50-£100 because the more money I have for advertisement, the more I can spread my name out there and let people know I exist, meaning that investing a bit more into advertisement can pay off for me in the long term.


I will have two main sources of income to invest into all this: part-time job and doing sets with my collective. Funny enough, I know a bunch of guys that have invested in a sound system (which is still growing) and they organize legal events and me and my fellow group members were fortunate enough to perform on one of their stages and get paid for it. I also met someone at the event who planned on hosting an event at the same venue later in the year (December) and asked for a promo by my group so he can confirm a slot for us.

I'd much prefer a part-time job to a full-time simply because that gives me more time to focus on my music and not have all my spare time consumed by work. It would also give me motivation to keep on creating better music for the project and not to slack off as I'll always keep telling myself "You're doing this job to fund for your project".