House/progressive house/acid jazz track update

The process of composition has been the hardest with this track so far as not knowing whether to start with samples or melodies was an issue.

A lot of samples have been acquired and a lot of melodies have been made it is however just getting a track that gels thew two together well.

Georgia on my mind

Today was the day setup for recording the Jazz trio, however this did not go to plan as the pianist could not make it however I was told when the two other band members arrived. This was an annoyance, however it was worked with and the bass was managed to be recorded without any drama. During the recording the Pianist was contacted and asked to make another date, this was achieved and due to the bass and tempo now being down the drummer was organised to play over the track.

First recording session of Michael Lynch (Acoustic Artist)

The inital recording was Michael Lynch an acoustic artist who sang and played guitar. For this recording the plan was to record the track live, with no click track as not only would it have been difficult as he performed it with a lot of tempo changes but they were not written down and were just as and when he felt the track needed them.
Recording the track live for this made the most sense and the artists was proficient enough that few if any mistakes were made.

The recording of the track brought about the most problems as the pre amp, showed signal from the four mics that had been set up but the AVID Interface was only showing two channels of signal, no help was available at the time so the decision was taken to record with just two microphones, which from my perspective I didn't think would give much room for mixing. However the end set up that was used was a Rode NT3 and an AKG for the vocals.
The Rode was facing the 12th fret and the AKG was positioned above, in line with the mouth. The end result was good, with good frequency response from the Rode NT3 and a crisp but warm recording of the guitar, with the AKG picking up bleed from the guitar, this will however mix in upon the post production stage.

House/progressive house/acid jazz track

Work began on a house genre track that I aimed to use samples, VST instruments and production tools to develop and utilise different production techniques as being a classically trained musician the shift from instruments to digital media was a change and a challenge.

Change to tracks to be recorded

Unfortunately a lot of people have pulled out so the funk track has had to be changed to a house track instead of a funk track.

Post Production proposal

Music Production Portfolio

The music production portfolio will include six tracks five recorded tracks with the inclusion of a sixth remix track, this track will use audio from one of the previously recorded tracks but will change the structure and feel of it.

The recording of the tracks will be undertaken by local bands that I am in regular contact with, who live in close proximity to Derby to reduce the chance of lost days due to travelling or work and other commitments. The portfolio will need to be efficiently done in a short space of recording time due to the constraints of the recording studios availability.

The tracks that will be included in the portfolio are as follows:

1.    An uptempo funk piece – Drums, Bass, Horn Section and Guitar.

2.    A melodic post-rock piece – Drums, Bass and Guitar

3.    An acoustic duo – Acoustic Guitar, Cajon.

4.    A Jazz piece – Jazz Trio

5.    Another Acoustic Track.

The recordings will take place in two different ways firstly the acoustic, Jazz Trio and duet will be recorded live and not multi tracked this is to give the tracks a natural feel as the character of the song is likely to be lost without the interaction between the musicians, however this means these tracks will have a focus on live recording and achieving a good quality sound with all the hazards of live music recording to think about. The post rock and funk piece are both written pieces so this will be en exercise in multi tracking, this will then show a good mix in production techniques.

For the tracks that will be recorded in a live situation the instruments will be individually miked however will include some ambient mics to capture some of the natural acoustics of the room and instruments so the tracks has some character rather than being totally dry.

For the first track there will be a high level of production on the track as to achieve the tight mix that is often found in the genre a lot of detail will be taking with the process of capturing the instruments and mixing them. But it may also include the challenge of recording multiple instruments such as the horns at the same time and also then multi tracking others. 

The post rock track will include a lot of post production but will also involve a good degree of work in the recording process as due to production nature of the genre there are often a lot of effects post and pre production so getting a balance between the two with a professional outcome will be a challenge.

The acoustic duo will be as difficult if not more so than the previous two tracks as although there are less instruments to process the quality of sound will be a major issue in the recording of the track as if the quality of the instruments is bad it will show through in the final recording so a lot of onus needs to be put on the initial capture of audio, to make sure it is as good as possible.

For the jazz trio the problems will arise if the mix is poor as the major production feature of jazz is the fact that it is very much about the group of the musicians as to whether it is a good performance and feel wise, however if too much focus is put on the instruments in post production and not enough on the final ensemble sound then the song will sound poor.

The final track will be another acoustic track with just a singer and a vocalist live to an audience as this will help develop live recording skills and also will give the chance to set up a mic to capture the audience to give it a thoroughly live set feel, however this has the added task of making sure that the guitar and mic are recorded and well and fill the mix well enough to hold there own against the acoustics of the venue and to capture as little bleed from the audience as possible so the tracks are clean but the audience can be added in a controlled way as to not over power the instruments. 

The final remix will involve taking the the jazz trio and or the funk piece and creating a acid jazz track this will suit the mix well as it can include audio and virtual instruments and they gel well together because the recorded instruments will be the real audio with the virtual rhythm section.