evekellyfinalproject-blog

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Finally, here is a visual representation of how I believe I have been inspired throughout my work. Above is a logical diagram of how my original influences have lead to exposure to additional artists of whom i admire and have taken inspiration from during this process. 

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EP reflection

Overall I am incredibly happy with the result of my final project.

I believe I have created a collection of work that not only reflects my music as a producer but the skills in which I have learned over my time spent at university.

My favourite track of this project is most definitely track 2 as I believe it represents myself as a producer perfectly as I would love to continue making songs likes this. However although this is the case, I am still very proud of all of the other tracks as I like the way in which they take inspiration from a range of different genres such as house, tech house and bass house. 

I love this EP as I believe it is created to a professional standard and reflects the artists in which I greatly admire yet still remains unique. 

By creating a soundcloud a Facebook page and a website I shall aim to promote this work and receive feedback from both professionals and the public

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Although simple, I am incredibly happy with this track as I believe it represents me as an artist and is a perfect example of the style of music I wish to create.

I am also very proud of this song as I believe it shows off the extent of the techniques in which I have learned throughout this process. This is due to the fact that I was able to make this song in a day.

Due to having plenty of time available, I can honestly say that I didn’t make this song so quickly due to poor time management, I believe I was able to create this track so swiftly due to the skills and techniques in which I have been able to work on and strengthen during this process and the fact that I have grown to understand my production style very well.

The skills in which I believe I have considerably strengthened are

Understanding song structure and instrumentation  

Understanding chain effects, how they work and why we use them

Understanding mixing techniques such as EQ and compression

Live recording techniques

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Within this track, I decided to use different drum samples due to wanting this track to sound as tech house like as possible and I believe that the previous drums used sound too clean and too bass heavy for this track.

As I also wanted to include my own live recordings in this song too, such as shakers and vocals (laugh in the breakdown) I decided to get samples that sounded as acoustic like and as dry as possible.

This track was made in one day, and involves very little use of effects however I believe this is a technique within itself as sometimes less is more. This track is incredibly minimal yet due to the clever use of techniques used such as adding a release and fading out the tail I am left with components that are textured and effective.

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For this final track, I forgot to mention that originally I wanted to include a live bass element in order to give this track more of an acoustic feel. 

However after recording a bassist, along with the drum pattern already created within logic, I decided that the track was going in the wrong direction due to the bass making this track sound too commercial and upbeat. 

Although for this track I ended up removing the bass completely, I would definitely experiment further more with using live bass as it does give a song a brighter texture and vibe, especially combined with the more electronic aspects of a song. 

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For this track, in order to create some unique sounds, I experimented with hardware such as the Moog and the Access Virus synths. 

I really like the arpeggiator effect, so decided to mess around with the Access Virus’s settings. 

Above is a video of me playing the outcome of the settings I chose: Pattern 12/ Arpeggiator 1/3/ Mode down/ taves 1

I placed this synth during the break down’s within this track as I believe it added texture and created an interesting build up effect (This technique//sound is used in song 3 not 4!!!)

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Once I had created a bass sound that I was happy with, I then added a slow release to it which gave the bass a slight tail making the overall bass sound much fuller and wider within the mix.

However, although adding a slow release made the bass sound better and fuller, I didn’t want the long tail that came as a consequence.  

In order to get rid of this tail yet keep the fullness that the slow release added to the bass, I decided to bounce the MIDI file into audio.

By doing so, this allowed me to get rid of the tail by adding a fade onto the end of the audio file, I also added a curve to this fade as it allowed for a more natural fade out, preventing any clipping.

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With this final track I wanted to create another song familiar to the first track as that is currently my favourite.

With this in mind, I decided to use a different synth for this bass called the ES2.

With this bass I wanted to create a simple yet punchy bass, much like the style of Patrick Topping, specifically used here in his song Howk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnPBO4LNjVI

I attempted to create a bass much like his by using oscillator one only, setting it to a sawtooth wave.

As I had only one oscillator in use, I positioned the button to the top oscillator within the mix oscillator section.  

After this, I then experimented with the detuning effects as I wanted to create a bass sound that sounded unique yet simple, by detuning it by 2 percent I believe it added an interesting sound to the bass as it sounded slightly off, yet not enough to sound wrong and off putting.

After this, I then opened the cut off valve to 0.400% allowing the mid frequencies to come through in oder to enhance the punchiness of the bass.

With the modulation router I targeted cut off2 via the velocity which allowed me to have creative control over the punchiness and the power of the bass. By bringing the setting down rather than my choice of up, the bass would’ve become just sub, lacking the plucky texture that I wanted. By having this setting upwards instead, it created the gritty, edgy bass I wanted allowing me to have a simple, repetitive yet extremely effect baseline.

Once this was done i then targeted the pitch via the modulation wheel which allowed me to add more movement within the bass. This allowed the bass to have more movement which was vital due to this bass only have one note throughout. This enabled the audio to sound more varied than it actually was.

Finally, within envelope 3 I used a very short attack which allowed the bass to sound snappy at a quick speed. Adding a short attack means that the bass will reach its loudest point within the time set.

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This is my final result of my third track

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Finally, the last thing that this track need was some vocals in order to fill the track ever so slightly. 

I have always liked short, vocal stabs within songs and often liked tracks that have vocals in that can only slightly be heard. 

two of my favourite examples of such vocals are:

Tom Zanetti: Darlin’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85fApYsscIM

Latmun: Everybody’s dancin’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG7QwJoXeDY

With these in mind I wanted to re-create these so found some royalty free audio samples that allowed me to do so. 

By using these vocals subtly throughout and enhancing them during the breakdowns, I was able to make a very minimal, repetitive song sound much more interesting, also giving the track a signature sound. 

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After adding these effects, I decided that the main bass sound still wasn’t sounding strong enough. 

In order to fix this, I decided to add a bass amp to the main bass riff which instantly added a considerable amount of distortion like, gritty texture.

By adding this amp it allowed for a simple bass hook to sound way more interesting and was a vital feature in allowing this bass to drive the song. 

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Bus sends:

Within this track I sent effects such as reverb and delay as a bus send instead of an individual insert effect.

You can send any channel to this bus (2 in this case) as it is a global effect, this means that all the channels sent here will have the same exact same effects on, which is a good technique when wanting to bring your mix together nicely and effectively. 

Send effects work by duplicating the audio chosen allowing the effects to be placed on a separate signal. This allows you to then add effects on top of the original dry signal, giving you full creative control over how much wet signal is added without compromising the dry signal as the two are completely separate. 

Using bus sends is a perfect technique for a minimal track like this, as allowing you to send multiple instruments to the same bus channel, enables many instruments to have the same effects on, bringing a rather simple structure together effectively due to the mix bringing each feature together nicely within the mix. 

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Minimal

Even though for this track I have tried to combine my first two tracks into one song, giving it both tech house and bass house like qualities, such as the drums and the bass sound. This track has managed to turn incredibly minimal, including very little usage of instruments and even relying on just one note played all the way through (A#)

Although this is the case I do like the minimalistic qualities of this track as I believe it works, however this is very much due to the heavy use of chain effects in order to make the minimal instruments used sound fuller and more interesting within the mix. 

The chain effected used have been  explained within previous tracks

-stereo delay -Auto filter -Reverb -Chanel eq as a creative tool -Side chain compression -Exciter to excite the frequencies making aspects sound brighter

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I am incredibly happy with the first two tracks and I am very glad that I have been able to merge house, tech house and bass house together in order to show my individual creative style and production techniques. 

With this track I want to continue in the same direction, specifically keeping the work of Green velvet, Patrick Topping, Hannah Wants and Mele in mind in order to create a tech house track with slightly heavy, bass house influences. 

Following this, I have once again decided to keep the same kick, snare, claps and high hat sounds as I believe they give this EP a signature sound, relating all four tracks to one another and I believe they are also appropriate for the tech house, house and bass house genre that I have been wanting to create. 

For this track, much like the previous track ‘Paris’, I have again only used one oscillator and set it to the smooth square sign option, in order to create a simple subby bass sound. 

I then, within the filter one section, added a the filter called ‘Scream’ which instantly made the bass sound more plucky.

After this, I then added a micro control to filter one, called filter 3, which allowed me to control how open the bass was, allowing me to add more frequencies, adding width and depth to the sound. 

I then added a band pass filter to filter 2 in order to allow me to control how much frequencies are let into the bass at one time. I also added micro control filter 4, again allowing me to creatively open up the frequencies through a filtering effect. 

Once this was done I then added a chorus modulation to the bass, which gave the bass more movement through the stereo field. 

I then added a subtle stereo delay, then boosted the frequencies within the bass to allow the audio to sound much fuller.

I then used the sine shaper within insert 2 which helped shape the bass even more. 

Within envelope 4 I added a very quick attack combined with a very short release, making the bass sound snappy, preventing the sound from having a long tail on the end. 

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This is the final result of my second track

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Finally, when all components were complete within the track I decided to add a sweep sample in the 2nd to last bar before the drop, this is a common technique used in order to enhance the build up before the drop, giving people in site into what about to happen within the track. After this I left a slight gap this gives a bigger impact for when the drop finally hits, creating excitement, tension and delivery, a technique frequently used within bass house genres 

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This screenshot shows how i added stereo delay automation on every 4th bar which allowed the last note of the bass to open up wider into the stereo image.

This allowed me to fill any silent or empty sounding gaps within the mix, preventing the song from sounding too boring or too empty.