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Hi I am Emily James and I will be presenting 3 artefacts within the role of a producer. This portfolio will showcase my learning from my year in HND1, in sound production. The three core units that will be represented are:

Recording

Mixing

Remixing

Originally, I had planned to create 4 artefacts, but this had to be cut down to 3 as I didn't have enough time to get started on the 4th one due to the lack of time management.

I also planned to do a cover by The Hunna, but I changed it to Astronomy by Conan Gray due to the fact I already knew the piece quite well, as did the guitarist, so it didn't benefit us to learn a new piece in such short time.

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Artefact 1:

Preparation for recording in a studio.

Execution of the artefact.

Explanation of what I did.

Artefact 2:

Preparation for remixing on a DAW.

Execution of the remix.

Explanation of what I did.

Artefact 3:

Preparation of the cover.

Execution of the recording, and mix.

Explanation of what I did.

Use of copyright, and why having a license is important for this artefact.

I will also speak about any changes that were neccesary during my time creating these artefacts.

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For this artefact, I wanted to focus on strictly a studio recording, what I had planned was to record vocals and keys. I had booked SSL 5 and live room 6 to begin the process. The equipment I had booked was an SE 1XR,a SM57, a pop shield, and a keyboard. The reason I chose the SE 1XR was due to the warmth and increased low-end frequencies from the mic, which I really wanted to encapsulate for my piece. And the SM57 is a generally good sounding microphone that picks up a lot of dynamics, and high quality audio.

For this session, I followed the signal flow that I was taught in my studio class, to which I set up the patchbay with the following:

DAW OP 1&2 - QA L/R

DAW OP 3&4 - EXT B 3L/3R

Afterwards, I made sure the AWS was all correct, it should be laid out as:

Monitor source EXT-B

L/S Mini A

Control room volume at 8

Phones FB/A

Then I opened a protools session and changed the I/Os to the recording template. Once that was all ready, I made sure everything was in order by checking my master fader was up and playing a drum loop to make sure my playback was working and my signal was correct.

I then placed my mic's accordingly and began my sound check. As I was the only one recording, I found it quite a challenge to do a soundcheck on my own, so I used my phone to play music and use that as a way to do it. Once I got all of that completed, I added a click track as well to make sure everything was on time. I began recording and found the tracks I liked. After that I found myself to think I was finished, so I edited my track so everything sounded clean and saved it.

Now the issue with this is, I ended up losing my audio files and they could not be retraced at all. To which, I ended up deleting the whole session and started from scratch. By then, I only found this out a week before I had to submit my work. So I decided to go back in and do another recording of my piece, and do a very simple monitor mix. This time, I chose vocals and guitar, as I had improved on the composition since then. I was able to get into SSL 3 and begin my new recording. I had booked a SM57, and an acoustic guitar. I had my own SM58 so I just brought that in with me. I was given a faith guitar, which I found to become really fond of it as the acoustics really complimented the piece of music.

I opened up a new protools session, and changed the I/O's to the according settings; as it was mainly used for a mixing room, and it doesn't have a desk, the settings are different, so it was vital to know how to configure the I/O's correctly. I began to set up my microphones so I can begin recording, I started with recording guitar as I found that the easiest for the vocals to follow along with. Once I found the recording I liked, I began on my vocals, to which I began with my lead vocals, and I decided to layer the lead vox with 2 more vocals. This created a lot of definition to the vocals, which added a nice dynamic alongside the guitar. I then added 3 harmonies to create more space with the melody. Once I finished the vocals, I decided to layer the guitar, and added another recording but this time it was with a lower melody playing so we can hear more of the low frequencies from the guitar.

MIXING:

For the monitor mix, I just wanted to create a simple mix that consisted of panning, reverb, compression and EQ.

For the vocals I kept it really straight forward with the EQ by using the channel strip plug-in, and removed some of the LMF, and focused on the LF, HMF, and HF. I applied this to all of the vocals. For the lead vocals, I used Black Spring reverb as I liked how natural and classy it sounded. For the harmonies, I used studio reverb and changed the room to a cathedral, as I wanted to give it more of a dreamy feel, which captured exactly that.

For the guitars, I used compression, maxim, and reverb. I used the dynamic compressor for both guitars. I noticed the guitars were sounding quiet, due to the fact the room was not used for recordingds, so the input signal was very quiet, so I had to put maxim on GTR 1 to amplify the volume to a reasonable amount, the reason I didn't do the same for GTR 2 was because I didn't want it to overpower the main melody. For the reverb, i used D-verb to give it more of a dreamy acoustic, which complimented the vocals nicely. Afterwards, I panned the 2 lead vocals surrounding VOX 2 very minimally so they was more of a direction with both of the panned vox. And I did the exact same with the harmonies, but I panned them more aggresively to around 80 left and right. Once I was satisfied, I bounced my mix to 44.1KHz and 16 bit.

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For this artefact, I wanted to create a remix of my original piece Promised Youth, focusing on my remix class. which would consist of a more vibrant feel to the piece, rather than it being acoustic. I used Ableton as my choice of DAW, and i used my presonus audiobox and my SM58.

I structured my remix with the chords: keys, gtr,violin and bass.

To which I began on the vocals, I started with harmonies first, and layering them up for the intro, and adlibs. Then I added the lead vocal, which I did not layer.

After I was satisfied with my vocals, I began on a drum beat, a very simple one at that, as I didn't want to go crazy. Afterwards i added a bell, and a mallet to compliment the piece nicely.

I decided to use some ambience from the Hollywood sound library, just to add a nice touch.

For the chords, I used E-piano dreamy, and used E-piano EQ. I just duplicated the keys and changed the instrument to a guitar(drippy cave pluck), and added strings EQ to give it a nicer texture. I also lowered the octave so it contrasted with the keys. I kept the melody simple with the bass and I used basic wash bass, and also used E bass Modern EQ to make it sound appealing with the chords.

For the violin, I used classic violin strings and used an ambience reverb to give it a spacious sound.

For the vocals, I wanted the harmonies to sound very much like a choir in the renaissaunce time, so I added a cathedral reverb on both the harmonies and the lead vocals. Other than that, there wasn't anyhting else I added to them.

The drums consisted of a kick and snare, and it was the dry session kit. I used boom capture to catch the low ends of the kick drum and make it more spacious.

I moved on to the bells, which I only used during the intro and towards the second verse, this was so it can fill up space and give the song a nice accent. I used bells deep, and set the pitch down to -12 semitones. I didn't want the bells to be too obvious so I used dark small room reverb to lighten it and not take all the attention.

For my mallet, it just consisted of one extended note 3 times throughout the dong. i used the nostalgic VHS bells, and used ambience to not make it overpowering as it was slightly unbearable beforehand, and did not fit the piece.

For the ambience, i used sirens and outdoor crowds to give the feeling of a busy place which can be overwhelming, which fades out into the introduction of the music.

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For this artefact, I chose to do a cover of Astronomy by Conan Gray. I will be focusing on skills for business and audio skills in the product.

I brought my friend in SSL 1 to record a song, and we hadn't planned to record the cover that day, so I had only booked the SM58 for two of us. So I used my knowledge from my studio class, and set up the desk to get started, once everything was set up, we decided to start recording vocals of another cover from Conan Gray 'Miss You'. We decided it wasn't really working, so we grabbed a guitar and decided to do the cover today, but this poses for an issue as I had only booked two SM58's. As the SM58 uses a ball grille, which killes a lot of the dynamics coming from the guitar, whereas the SM57 is flat rounded and also uses a ball grille, but smaller so it's more practical for instruments such as guitars, and snares. So I decided to try it with the SM58 anyway, and it came out nicely in the final monitor mix. The reason for that was because the person playing it was sat down, so there wasn't a lot of movement and she was close enough to the microphone to pick up majority of the dynamics. Afterwards, we begun on the vocals, and just kept it simple with one track. Once we were happy, I saved the mix and got the stems ready for the monitor mix.

For the monitor mix, I wanted to create a similar mix to the original, so I focused on some instruments to elevate the piece. I used Ableton as my choice of DAW, and I moved the stems over so I can begin with my piece. I began making sure my levels were okay, and once they were, I added a trumpet to create some atmosphere alongside the stems. I then sidechained kicks from the sample library onto the trumpet, the reason for this is because in the original song, the trumpet sounds like it is playing trills. I then added an ambience reverb so it can have that muting effect, and I put a bright reflection reverb so it an contrast with the ambience and give it a little more colour. I added my glue compressor and sidechained the kicks.

Then I focused on the guitar, and added EQ, clear acoustic guitar, so it can catch those high end frequencies from the recording and accentuate them. I then added reverb to give it more space and definition throughout the song as I felt it was lacking some movement. I added some compression to allow those softer notes to come through smoothly.

For the vocals, I added some classical compression to allow for notes to flow easily without being disrupted by any harsher notes. I added some EQ, I noticed that the vocals were slightly nasally, so I used the Remove Nasal Frequencies to give a clearer and more defined tone. Alongside that, I used vocal control, which split the frequencies and allowed me to focus on the high and low frequencies, rather than the mids. I then used reverb to allow more space for the vocals.

Afterwards, I made sure my levels were okay and not overlapping eachother.

Now onto copyright, this will cover the skills for business class; when it comes to covers, it is essential to have a mechanical license, what is a mechanical license? Well, it is an agreement between the user and the owner of the copyrighted composition. If the decision is agreed, then they permission to release the cover in audio format only, e.g. C.D vinyls, and digital downloads. If they don't agree then this would pose for any infringement if we were to still continue with the cover. As it is intellectual property, the owner has full legal rights and it is not allowed to borrow the piece as it would be stealing. With copyright, this gives the owner of the music 70 years to protect their work, and once it expires, it falls in the public domain for anyone to use. If I was performing in a live event, I would need to get permission from the owner, and the business needs to have a PRS license, which allows for songs to be played in spaces that still allows royalties for the owner.