With noting else other than recording the vocals, here's the next post in the series.
- Idea Stage
- Composing and Arranging Stage
- Recording & Mastering Stage
- Final Product & MV
The only vocal recording needed was the voiceover. This time was super simple even without the pop filter, I recorded it while seated in front of my desktop. The only challenge was how to enunciate in the same manner as those
old-timey radio announcer for Derby/ horse races. In fact, there's an
article by Seeker talking exactly about this effect.
So in order to match the pseudo-Transatlantic tone, I had to basically talk through my nose and up my vocal pitch, to some degree of success. (though I think my girlfriend will laugh loads at this effort). As explained in the previous posts, I recorded two verses, which I then chopped and sampled effectively 'unwarped' in Ableton.
On the other hand was the drum recording by LCC. This is his Roland drum kit, the TD-4K
which I had to figure out how to record a clean signal without using my Blue Yeti microphone. So, I begged around Facebook to no avail to borrow/ buy a MIDI-USB cable convertor. Finally, I just bought the thing online, most likely from China and plugged it in with success.
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| MIDI USB convertor |
Considering the fact that I don't have a laptop and LCC does, I got him to install Ableton on his laptop and record directly onto it. The only problem was that the MIDI mapping from his drumkit and the GM standard drum map didn't match completely. There were ghost notes registering in D1 and the like.
So, I went for the next logical step, i.e. hit just one device in all manners possible and record the MIDI notes received. Then, I manually fixed the default Drum Rack (I used Kit-Core Heritage) in Ableton to map to the new notes.
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| Many ways you can hit the devices (from the instruction manual) |
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| Modified drum rack |
Mastering
Here's the screenshot of this song's Ableton:
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| Arrangement view |
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| Track view |
As you can see, there are several weirdly named tracks like human drum (which was the real drum recording) and odd clips I imported from Loopmasters.
This round, I made more use of the Utility tool for panorama panning and general gain.
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| Utility tool |
To create the effect of bit distortion on the Rhodes melody, I used another preset tool called 12-bit Fidelity Redux, which consists of only two controls - bit reduction and downsample. Here, I used the mod & pitchbend wheel of my keyboard to change the values on the fly. There was a part during the silent section where the distortion was very soft, but sounded great to balance the silence. To achieve that, I used my compressor to amp up that section only.
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| Redux tool |
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| Redux automation |
Another trick I used was a Simpler device on the 'Hey!' clip. With that I could pitch the clip on my keyboard (just like the other song
All on this Farm)
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| Simpler MIDI for Hey! |
Other tricks involve:
- Creative delay on the vocal tracks by playing with the dry/wet levels
- Using the 'Voice Over & Dialogue - Prize Giveaway' iZotope Nectar preset
- Using Saturator device to smooth out the raw generated synth audio.
- Mixing down the audio with compressor devices and the master limiter
Regarding the mixing philosophy of this song, I put the Drums & Bass front and center, while the rest was panned wider using the Utility tool. The only challenge was with the Arp track where the auto arppegiate V-Station VST was inaudible (for Theme 2) under the other instruments. So I used an Auto Pan device to alternate pan between Left and Right channel, while being synced with the music beat.
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| V-Station Arppegio track |
And that's pretty much about the mastering part.
Stay tuned for Part IV of IV for this song!
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