October Evaluation
This track was far more challenging for me compared to Flowers, In contrast to existing experience and skills around guitar and instrument driven music – Electronically my experience as a listener and enjoyer of a broad range of electronic music is substantial however my practical skills and understanding around electronic music production was and in some areas still is very minimal.
That being said, the lessons I had learnt this year around music theory, DAW production, audio as a whole and basic keyboard skills proved very valuable in tackling this track. Through skills picked up in Sequencing classes and in the previous project two – I was able to use a basic understanding of synthesisers, automation, sampling and MIDI to produce some good sounds to the desired effect – Particularly the low buzzing bass present in the track with a automated manipulation of the cutoff, as well as the sub-bass and drum sounds & beats used.
The main Logic Project for October, You can see the structure and assembly of the various parts of the track, lots of MIDI regions!
DAW skills and research came in useful during the mixing of this track, overall it was far more complicated then Flowers, with multiple software instruments and multiple vocal tracks to combine into a good listening experience, Mixing all of the tracks down into stems once I was happy with each individual tracks sound and starting a new project helped simplify this project by cleaning up the interface and allowing me to have precision in adjusting levels, panning & equalisation. Effects and Plug-ins on the master channel were very important for this song – Where the song is electronic based it was important for me to get a ‘loud’ and punchy sounding mix to avoid the song sounding mushy or without clarity – Use of a Adaptive Limiter and Exciter helped achieve this.
There is a lot of room for improvement with this track and it is one I intend to revisit in the future with more a more developed and experienced skillset, The bass sounds were great but the other synthesizers going on sound very generic to me at points and could fit the overall track much better, I also would like to improve the drums giving more distinction and punch to the kick and snare sounds as well as changing the hi hat and cymbal / fill work to sound less robotic and more lively / energetic.
The Mixer Window for October, in the main project. Lots of vocal effects and compression on the electronic instruments, working with this many tracks was initially quite daunting.
Vocal wise, similarly to Flowers I was satisfied with the end result considering the initial low fidelity and quality of the vocal recordings due to technological constraints, However having 3 separate takes to work with was enjoyable to be able to let the best take sit as the lead and use panning and effects for the other takes for doubling in the verses and chorus, this was paramount to getting the vocals to sit right and cut through what is quite a full and packed mix.
Things were a bit more organised by the time I was doing the final mix in this project, save for the labyrinth of vocal tracks - Track Stacks and Busses would have saved me a lot of time here!
Overall I learnt a lot and continued to develop my synth and MIDI skills producing this song, It was enjoyable to turn the track, which I had previously played with my college band on Piano / Drums / Bass / Guitar into a electronic pop song – It was a good lesson in trying something different and being musically diverse, I’m happy with how the song has turned out – but only for now, It for sure needs work in some areas and is something I can improve upon going forward.
Not much needed adjustment in the final mix after I had exported stems from the main project - Levelling and panning were the main thing left to do, and then effects on the master output