Then Till now
Equipment list
In this picture it shows the Microphone (NT1000), headphones, pop shield, Mic stand and the reflection filter.
The reason why we used the Rode NT1000 (mic) because this was the type of microphone we had to use to record in the studio because it's a condenser, it has better quality than the dynamic ones. Condenser Microphones can handle power, ( as it needs phantom power to use ) but dynamic microphones can't handle the power, also Condenser microphones are more sensitive so they'll pick up more sound... as dynamic is less sensitive so it would not pick up that much sound...
We used headphones to record our song, the reason why we needed headphones is because if there wasn't no headphones then we wouldn't be able to record the song as the artist wouldn't be able to hear the track playing through or the metronome.
The next equipment we used was the pop shield. As you can see it is placed behind the mic... the reason why it is there is so that no spit could go on to the mic when the artist is either singing/rapping... but this is mostly for rapper's as some of them spit a lot when it comes to rapping fast. This stops the spit from damaging the condenser (as it is sensitive ) it would damage it quickly.
Next up... is the Microphone stand! The microphone stand is the one holding the microphone and the reflective filter. This was used to make the microphone stay still, so that it doesn't drop or anything like that. Also it's there so that no one has to hold the Microphone when recording.. the microphone was the main essential of the equipments.
XLR Cable. The XLR cable is plugged from the splitter box into the Microphone. It has 2 ends... one is the female end and the other is the male end. The Female end goes towards the Microphone and the Male end goes into the Splitter box. This is used to connect to the Microphone.
The next equipment we used was the reflection filter. When recording the reflection filter is used to stop the Reverberation, the 'hush' sounds and other sounds..
Jam Hub
This is called a Jam Hub, it is a conjuction with vocals, instruments, pre amps and many more. the reason why we used the Jam hub is because it was needed to plug into the 'Stage box ' ... the jam hub was also used to send the channel numbers to the mixer.. onto Logic, so that we could know what is recording where for example.. the Microphpone was in channel 7-8 so it was sent to there and we had to use those channels to record what we want.
Stage Box
The stage box is where XLR cables are plugged into. You only use this if you're recording.. we used this to connect it to the jam hub. The stage box has channels.. as you can see the Yellow cable that is connected into the Jam hub is the Microphone cable, this is where microphone channels was sending to the mixer.Recording
I first recorded my sounds with Midi the reason why I recorded using Midi because I had to make the instrumental first before putting audio on top of it... also I think that using Midi is more compatible with me as I use it a lot. All of the sounds such as the electric guitar..drum beat, bass etc was recorded using the Midi keyboard. The Midi keyboard is a keyboard where Logic understands the language of Midi, it transmit data from Midi into Logic. My Track doesn't contain any live recording. It has many instrumets into it though, there's also instruments I tweaked as well. I played in everything myself, using 3/4 chords, all the other instruments that has notes in them, Improvised them by myself and built around the beat. I velocitised all the notes in every instrument, in piano roll so that they could have the same levels and the same dynamics. One of the instruments I edited in piano roll was the electric guitar and changed ip the dynamics, the way how I did it is that.. first of all I selected all of the notes in piano roll and went to 'Fixed velocity' this changed all of the colours to one colour which was orange, I then highlited one bar and used tool box (the velocity tool) to drag down the colour to green and then I dragged the last bar abit up so it could be abit more red. I did this so there could be a build up in the instrument.
I used a lot of panning as well, to create space for each instrument so that everything isn't cramped together in one space which is the middle. 2 of the sub drums went towards the left and the other 2 went to the right.. while the bass drum was in the middle. The electric guitar is in the middle because it's the main instrument (melody) that people will remember. All the other instruments were either panned to the left or right.
In the chorus I used a effect called 'high pass filter' the filter drops into the chorus which shows that there is a change in the structure.. after the second bar of the chorus it rises up to do a build up and then you hear a radio sound which drops into the second verse.
Instruments:
- Electric Guitar
- Synth Pads & a tweaked synth pad
- Drum beat ( 4 sub drums and one main bass drum )
- piano
- Bass
- Random sounds (nature & radio )
The synth pad in the begining is the one I tweaked... I tweaked it using the ES2, the way I tweaked is that I used the 'RND' tool on the bottom and I dragged the ball towards the right, to make it increase the percentage.. the more you drag you more random & new sounds you would get.
The drum beat.. in the recording there is about 4 drums.. but they are all turned down so it doesn't distort. One of them has bass drum and that is the loudest of the other drums. The reason why it has 4 drums is because I needed the drums to be a bit more louder and to have a better quality. At the time I had one drum and it was the bass drum.. although compressor could turn it up - make it a better quality, it was distorting a bit. I added sub drums ( the 4 drums I mentioned ) which had no bass into it so it could have that punchy feeling, I also Eq'ed the drums (the ones without the bass).
Piano.. at the end of the track you could hear that the piano sounds a bit weird...
The reason for this is because I used a reverb on it and the reverb I used is called 'Space Designer', I used a a plug in. I used this specific effect because I didn't want the piano to stay boring, I wanted to be creative in the reverb.. Another reason why I used this one is because this reverberation has space.. while the other's don't - meaning when the piano is playing you would carry on hearing the sound until the Reverberation has stopped.
Audio recording... After layering everything out in the beat, I decided that it needed some vocals on it, so first of all me and the artist had to set things up before we recorded anything. We set up the microphone onto the microphone stand first, we had to screw it on, tight so that it doesn't fall off or anything Then we got the XLR cable and plugged one end in the microphone while the other end went into the stage box... afterwards we got another cable and plugged it into the Jam hub while the other end was plugged into the Stage box.
Audio recording... After layering everything out in the beat, I decided that it needed some vocals on it, so first of all me and the artist had to set things up before we recorded anything. We set up the microphone onto the microphone stand first, we had to screw it on, tight so that it doesn't fall off or anything Then we got the XLR cable and plugged one end in the microphone while the other end went into the stage box... afterwards we got another cable and plugged it into the Jam hub while the other end was plugged into the Stage box.
Mixing using only midi first
The way I mixed the midi first, I compressed a lot of things... for example the drums, the reason why I compressed them was because I wanted the compressor to raise the low volumes and lower the highs.. BUT! I used the gain to turn them up and I turned down the threshold. The reason why I turned down the threshold is because the threshold makes the compressor work by raising the gain reduction. I did a lot of panning in the mixing, the things that was panned to the middle was the bass drums, the electric guitar and the bass. The reason why the electric guitar was panned in the middle is because it is the main melody in the song. The other instruments (the extras) the were panned either to the left or right, they were panned this way so that everything is not in one space and also so that theres space between the left, right and the middle.
Mixing using Audio
I personally think that mixing the audio was one of the hardest things to do. First of all I had to record Kierans vocals on to the track and we had to take a lot of takes to get it right. We recorded the first Verse, Chorus and the second verse. for the first verse I had to use one of the audio because it sounded more better than the other takes we did - the reason why it sounded better because when we was recording some of the words he was saying in the other takes sound a bit wrong like muffled and that.
we also recorded Ad libs as well.
The way i mixed the vocals in the track is that I turnt down Kierans verse by a bit, I also turnt down the electric guitar is it was clashing a bit with the vocals... another thing I had to turn down was one of the bass kick because it was making the track a bit distorted. I made the vocals all the same level with the other vocals such as the chorus, and verse 2.
I also made Terells verses and chorus the same level of Kierans. I added some reverb on to Kierans vocals in the chorus. I did this because I wanted the chorus to sound like there's some extra space when saying some words and so that it doesn't sound flat + straight.
At the end of the chorus (the near end of the track) I added a echo to Kierans voice, to add a bit of flavour to the song.
Mastering
In the Mastering I bounced the track to a WAV format, the reason why I did this is because this is the type of format you must use when putting on a CD.
I didn't do as much because I mixed it pretty well.
The things that I used was the EQ:
The reason why I used the EQ was because I had to turn down the kicks a bit by lowering the top shelve, the kicks were sound a bit too loud and it was making the track a bit distorted.
Another plug in that I used was the limiter, the reason why I used the limiter is because the track was clipping a lot.
This made my track to go under the clipping bar. I then turned down the gain to -o.5dB. I did this because I wanted the track to go a bit under the volume level.
I then used the Level meter to check if it's going to peak over or not, I think this helped me because although I should be listening to check that it's not distorting or anything, this also helps me too see meter.
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