INSPIRATION:

The arpeggiated synth part was inspired by the intro to "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)" by The 1975. I created a patch on a nord

PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES:

• Other than the drums, I recorded this song by myself, which means there was lots of layering

• I played the acoustic part on 4 different guitars and spread them out across the stereo mix. I played it on: a regular six string, a 12 string, a Nashville tuning guitar and a 12 string Nashville guitar.

• Added panned delay to electric guitar stabs.

• Added tape echo to arpeggiated synth part.

• In sections where things cut out (eg verse 2 were all drums, bass and guitars cut out leaving vocals and synths) I automated the volume of the remaining elements to make up for the space left.

  
  

CHALLENGES FACED DURING THE PROCESS:

• Originally, most elements of the song came in instantly, which in my opinion made the track quite messy. So I made groups for all the different elements or musical famlies, including: acoustics guitars, electric guitars, synths/ reverser bells, bass and drums; and played around muting different groups in certain sections to add a journey to the track. Having the song start with the synths then cut to just acoustic and vocals in verses one meant that once everything else comes in you can tell the instruments apart more. Then cutting to just synths and vocals verses 2 really made the track for me.

INSPIRATION: 

1 out of 2 is a lyrically important song, where the production has been carefully curated to reflect the storytelling of losing a close relative to cancer. 

PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES:

The mellow nature of 1 out of 2 gives the feeling of somebody slipping away, interwoven with moments of discomfort; reflected in the sharp 'circuit bleep synth' that is introduced as one of the first instruments and continues as a key element.

The kick that comes in at the start of the chorus rhythmically reflects a heart rate monitor. This is another key components in the track, however it felt as though it wasnt coming through the mix enough. To tackle this, I layered the live kick recording with a logic sample. Then I added a vintage FET compressor to the synth bass and sidechained it to the kick sample. This gave the kick room the breath and helped it poke through the mix properly. 

CHALLENGES FACED DURING THE PROCESS:

As tracking for 1 out of 2 wasn't done live, we approached taking the demo further by spending a day throwing a range of different synth and guitar ideas at the song. This proved difficult later down the line as all the arrangement decisions had to be made after tracking. There were a lot of ideas to select through which ended up being time-consuming and exhausting as the direction it needed to go in wasn't clear. Going through this process made it apparent that the correct approach was to simplify the production, putting the lyrics at the forefront of the listener's attention.

INSPIRATION:

Hip-Hop, EDM, wanted to do something different and push the track electronically as often use purely live takes. Took inspiration from Beyonce's 'Don't Hurt Yourself' for BV's.

PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES:

• Kick and snare samples

• Compression on drums

• Double tracked BVs

• Compression to sidechain, synth bass to kick

• varispeed to get right tempo

• flexi pitch to get vocals in tune

• sent vocals so a reverb delay bus that I automated to come up in big breaks after each verse.

• Bit crusher on vocals in gap

• Crazy eq, tape effect, delay and reverb on the saxophone in the solo. Automated the delay and reverb right up for the last note.

  
  

  
  

CHALLENGES FACED DURING THE PROCESS:

• As there is only one chord sequence for the whole song, which consists of 4 verses and a solo, it was hard to keep the song moving without it getting too repetitive.

  I took out the synth and guitars in the third verse after the solo but it still wasn't enough. I got a female singer in to do some bv parts and for the last verse I took bv bits from the rest of the song, reversed and stitched them together with cross fades and that made the song in my opinion.

• The song felt quite muddy in the mid to low frequencies, so to free that space up I took those frequencies out in the lead synth. This helped that part (which inspired the whole song) to stand out properly.

INSPIRATION

A friend of mine almost overdosed, this song is written from my experience being there with her.

PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES

• We layered 2 acoustic guitars which were close miced, one panned left, one panned right.

• Sang soft and breathy to make it feel personal.

• Mini Moog, deep unsettling synth bass, used compression to side chain to the kick

• Used Flex Pitch within Logic Pro to meticulously ensure the vocals are in tune

• De-esser on vocal

• Chrome reverb sent to an effects bus

• Layered kick samples underneath live drums

• Layered snare sample on live drums with a delay

CHALLENGES FACED DURING THE PROCESS

• Multiband EQ to deal with loud high frequency crash from poor mic setup

• Originally the song didn't sound right and we over recorded / had too much going on in the track. We started taking away the layers which gave the song space to breathe.

• Song didn't feel right as it has a weird time signature, we couldn't work it out so we had to automate a click which slowed it down in certain sections. As the slow down was so drastic, we added 16th notes in the click to help us play.

INSPIRATION

A new arrangement of an old song, taking inspiration from 80's synth pop after the resurgence - listening to tracks like 'Blinding Lights' by The Weeknd.

PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES

• Added distortion to vocals

• Very early stages of production

• Triple tracked vocals, one down the middle with effects and two LR with no effects

• EQ and reverb on synth

• Heavy comping on drums

CHALLENGES FACED DURING THE PROCESS

• After finishing the vocal, I noticed the meter of two lines in the track were wrong and recorded replacement lines at home using a different mic. The mic and room sounded different so I had to AB the two different takes and EQ and gain the overdubs until they matched the original take.