In Memory of Liam Sheather (1997-2020)
A lot has happened in the last 3 weeks for the RnB Hip Hop Merge. We finished a recording session, sampling, creating a synth, composing, arranging and mixing the final instrumental.
First the recording session in the Neve Studio. It took 2 sessions of 3 hours. Each session was a different feel of RnB. We recorded both electric guitar and bass. I was the sole person in the control room making sure the recording was suitable for the sampling. Patrick was the musician and had a few ideas from a scratch track in the key of E natural minor to the tempo of 84. We recorded the bass straight through DI as we wanted a clean sound to go with the MIDI drums. With the electric guitar we recorded a DI in case of any issues as well as close miked the amp with a Shure SM57 and Royer 121.
THe sampling was done by Liam and I, this however, was supposed to be done by the other member in our team who had even given us a timeframe in which he was going to finish. This was irritating and was the escalation of communication issues between us and that member. The main issue was that we just assumed that the work would be finished in time and should have tried contacting him through other means to make sure he was able to finish them. This was resolved by Liam and I through doing it ourselves however we did not get to use as much of the recordings as we did not have the time to fully manipulate the samples meaning they were used little in the track. This was probably my fault as I was the main leader in the team and was trying to keep the project on track. Overall, I think there were other signs that this member was going to be problematic with communication however, I was trying to convince myself that the work would still be done as they had been reliable up to this point on completing tasks in the given timeframe. With the sampling Liam and I used strip silence in Pro Tools to initially break up the separate phrases. We decided to use only the Royer 121 recording as it had the tonality we wanted of quite a bright sound in comparison to the other recordings. We then bounced the individual parts we wanted. We used only 1 sample of the bass and electric guitar. It was used for the ‘B’ phrase in the final track (first heard in bar 9-16). We created this using sampler in Ableton and choosing the piece we wanted with the drum kit rack we created. This piece remained the same in the final arrangement.
Liam completed the ‘A’ phrase (first heard in bar 1-8) which he then bounced and sent to me for the final arrangement. For the ‘C’ phrase we had the most amount of difficulties as Patrick did not send the phrase which he had and then went AWOL on all messaging. This was the accumulation of the communication issues. As the day before I was supposed to be sent them he had told me he had them to send. This lead to the presented track being not what the finish track was supposed to be as a rejected scratch track was thrown in to complete enough of the piece. To avoid this in the future I am going to push for things to be finished earlier than required to ensure time is allowed to fix any issues. This was another issue of mine as I allowed extra time when there wasn't room for it and therefore it negatively impacted the project and needed to be fixed later. This lead to Liam creating another simple drum phrase which I then added a chord progression using a synth I created and a Tuba sample I had on Ableton. For the synth I used operator in Ableton referencing a warm brass sound to get the initial warm sound we wanted in the part. It consisted of A and B both being Sine waves running through each other and C, being a Sine wave, and D, being noise, running through each other. This made a warm synth for the very minor key we were in. It then consisted of a very easy descending chord progression. I programmed it in quantized to the grid in Ableton. I then bounced all the individual tracks and imported them into a new session where I could add in the bounced version of the arrangement to get a feel of the sound together. Liam and I were adamant we wanted a brass instrument to bring in a real feel of traditional RnB. I played around with several sounds but settled on the Tuba as its low sound fit into the breakdown part the the ‘C’ phrase plays. I was simply playing phrases to the drums and synth in loop and capture selected once I was happy with a melody and programmed slightly for the final sound. All tracks were then bounced out individually for the arranging and mixing.
We had a basic outline of the final arrangement that I was referencing with slight changes to fit the 3 minute track. The main change from the original was we were thinking of having a transitional melody but I decided not to include this as it felt out of place with the overall feel as each phrase was so distinctive. Instead I used the idea of less is more with taking parts out to flow in between and finish the track. I also used animation of the volume to bring parts in and fade nicely between.
In the mixing I used mainly low cuts on every instrument of the bass frequencies to bring out the kick. Then it was cutting a little in the track in the 2kHz to 5kHz for a vocal to fit into the track better for other use. I also did a high cut on the instruments for the high hats to live solely in that area. I placed reverb on all the drums on a very low level to give a slightly less mechanic feel to glue the samples in better.
The plan was mainly diverged from for the jobs that were associated with the ember that failed to communicate. This lengthened milestone timelines making other aspects more rushed then they needed to be. Though the plan was extremely helpful in hashing out what would be needed creatively and logistically for the final track. The use of figuring out an arrangement in the recording and sampling stage helped with the identification of what sound we were aiming for in the final track and made mixing quicker. In the future I will definitely create a rough arrangement idea musically so that the creative process of composing is clearer in aim. I definitely need to improve in my positive attitude and flexibility/adaptability as I struggled to keep level headed when issues arose. These issues were a known potential risk however, I did not seriously recognise how this could impact myself as they did. These can be improved by ensuring that I am aware of issues and don't close my mind to behavioural signs that show potential for problems. I can also just ensure that others are aware that these problems are affecting me instead of staying silent.
Overall, this track turned out better than I imagined even with the difficulties encountered in the composing and arrangement part. It has a sound that I personally enjoy and may not be as traditional RnB as planned but still has the feel that I aimed for.
Final Track
Arrangement and Mixing Session
Comments