For my individual song I decided to take the demo I liked the most and thought had the most potential and remake it. I took what I had already done and decided what needed to be changed; first I changed the lyrics, as certain lines did not fit the rhythm of the song or just did not have much impact or wait well within the track. I went through about 4 different drafts of lyrics before settling on the ones I did. For this track I used a verse chorus structure and a conversational melody, the song is in a rap style and tells a very specific story which I needed to convey through my vocal style as much as through the lyrics. The character in this story is self assured but angry, confident and a bit abrasive; the vocals needed to be aggressive yet sweet which sounds contradictory but I think you can definitely hear this bleed through in the song. I re-recorded the vocals many times over and settled on the take you will hear, I think it is the best I managed to achieve and quite impressive considering this is not my usual vocal style; it is however definitely better than the demo, where I was completely off beat. I recorded with the Neumann U87 as I like the quality it gives. Within the vocals I also changed the rhythm and the cadence in certain parts of the song, as you will hear this version is structured quite differently from the demo and my vocals actually fit well with the beat. I then took a different take of the vocals and used them as backing, as they are from a different take the vocal tracks are not completely the same and this bleeds through a little in a way I like, adding a sort of natural reverb whilst also adding some fat and thickness to the vocals. I mixed the track slightly, I only had the mp3 of the instrumental so took this and compressed it slightly, just to knock it back a bit as it was a bit spiky and was close to clipping, overpowering my vocal. For this I used an optical compressor, which helps my vocals and the track sit well together. I then automated the end and beginning of my vocals, just to fade the sound in and out well so it wasn’t jumping out too much at the beginning or the end. I mixed the vocals again using an optical compressor just to bring the sound down and make it feel cohesive, I then used Silververb to add some reverb, bringing the predelay up so that the reverb washes over the vocals but still allows those consonants to stand out the way I need them to. I then adjusted, specifically, the reverb EQ to cut the bottom a bit so the reverb doesn’t smear my voice. On the channel EQ I brought the higher frequencies up, very tightly, so that they have more punch. Then, using a master bus I used an automated mastering tool on Logic so as to make everything sit together, using the clean setting; this tool automatically analyses the frequencies then makes them more flat so they sit well together, I brought the EQ up on this a little too, boosting the low end. Using this mastering tool does not mean it cuts sound out to make it flat, it makes the track sound more cohesive by lowering frequencies but due to psychoacoustics the listener still ‘hears’ these frequencies, which makes the track more interesting to listen to. Overall I think this is the best track produced out of the 9 songs I have completed and my work on this track, though it was produced by Billy, has completely changed the song. My work on the lyrics, the vocals, and the mix here make this track sound professional and I am very proud of it.
Leave a Reply