BBP 2020 - Recording the Groups, Part 3 - Ellie's Band 24/11/2020

Overall I think the session was again pretty successful, The group made loads of improvements to their song by adding minuscule, yet powerful, changes such as layering percussion - this is where percussion playing is layered by being recorded over a pre-recorded percussive playing. In this case, the group first recorded the drummer playing the floor tom, and later recorded the band members and producers hitting the toms, in a group drum/tribal drum fashion that made it seem like there is a whole drumline playing along with the band. This gives the song more depth by making it seem bigger and wider in the mix, but also gives the so-called “ear candy” to the listeners by adding these elements in. This addition was similar to the styles of Slipknot, Sepultura and Mushroomhead or Folk bands like Clanadonia and Kodo these bands, especially the latter two use different drums and group takes of drums, to add a very percussive sound into their mix and make the band stand out and seem bigger and thundering, similarly to this song by Clanadonia, which starts of peaceful, with bagpipes playing, then goes into drum thunder - https://youtu.be/ZQ_3hsCDp7k. This technique actually worked out well for the group and sounded really big in the mix, but also helped the specific elements in the mix, where this technique was used, stand out amongst the rest of the song due to the rhythm and pounding added by the multiple drum takes, that caused these areas to have larger groove and rhythm.

The group could have improved their mix by adding some ambience and some ambient synth pads, such as the alchemy synth pads in logic, or specifically the Celestial Voices synth pad in Logic, that would accentuate Ellie’s harmonies and singing by adding in to the dreamy atmosphere. This would be an improvement as it would make the harmonies and verses stand out but also add a very pleasing or dreamy or even dark vibe to the mix.

The group also used many different production techniques, such as overdubbing guitars, which is where guitar parts are layered in order to seem wider in the stereo field by recording both

playing separately over each other, by first recording one, then recording the second one over the first, and then panning both left and right to make them wider and bigger in the mix and simulate the playing of a real band, and a live concert setting. They also layered in and added an electric guitar into the mix, which played a melodic line and helped add a melodic texture to the song and was also made dreamy by the use of reverb and delay effects. Delay and echoes caused the band to sound more distant, and ambient and dreamy by causing them to sound like they are in a distant and echoey place, which is what delay does as it causes the sound wave to repeat itself a couple of times after the initial transient, which is the initial attack of the sound wave

https://soundbridge.io/delay-explained/#:~:text=A%20delay%20is%20an%20effect,tools%20in%20the%20market%20today. Reverb caused the band to also sound bigger and more dreamier, because reverb makes the sound it receives have a longer decay, as if the sound was played in a more spacious area and adds to the live feeling of a band, as it makes them seem further away, and in a more spacious room. Reverb caused the band in question to sound even more dreamy and ambient by making it seem like they are playing somewhere far away and spacious, making them also seem big in the process; paired with delay the band sounded as if they were playing in the opening of a massive cave https://blog.landr.com/what-is-reverb/. There are also different types of reverb, and all are achieved in multiple different ways. There is the natural room sound, created by chamber reverb - this is accomplished by outputting a recording of the instrument/s into a large chamber, which is often cylindrical in shape, with a domed roof, in order for the sound to travel and bounce around evenly - as bass frequencies tend to be lost in rooms with corners. The whole sound of the chamber is picked up by a microphone within the chamber, often mounted on the ceiling of said chamber. There also is plate reverb, achieved by the putting the signal into a metal plate device. The steel plate vibrates and is then picked up and creates reverb. Finally there is gated reverb which is implemented by cutting of the decay trail of reverb with a noise gate, which causes a very specific sound, that was popularised by rock and pop bands in the eighties, such as Prince and Genesis. The drummer Phil Collins was known for using gated reverb on his snare drum in his song In the Air Tonight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkADj0TPrJA. This form of reverb cannot be naturally created in real life, without the aid of technology, as it causes the decay (body of the sound) to get louder with time, rather than decrease, making drums sound rather aggressive.

In my own productions, personally, I would like to try and use layered drums and multiple drum recordings, as I like the way they sounded, and I know that they can be used in a metal context, as proven by the likes of Mushroomhead https://youtu.be/iOxHgv7cBiM.

The online call aspect of the process was fine and only could really be improved by telling us all what is done in more detail, such as what chords are being played and how the guitarist was using Diatonic Harmony, which are the notes in the scales, and what scales they are using, in more detail https://jazzpianoschool.com/what-is-diatonic-harmony-and-why-is-it-helpful/#:~:text=Diatonic%20harmony%20is%20a%20fancy,to%20those%20keys%20as%20well.It would also be nice if the bands’ recordings could be posted in the classroom so that we have something to refer back to when writing this blog.

Personally the things that went well, were the playing of the band and the way they fought tirelessly to get this done properly, including facing challenges such as playing in time with a metronome, this is very important in order to keep the music in time with the tempo of the track and allowing it to be mixed easier, for example, because effects like Delay have the ability to follow the click, which means that if the music is not following the metronome’s click, then it will be messy, https://www.richardbyrneproductions.com/blog/5-reasons-you-should-record-to-a-click-track#:~:text=Having%20recorded%20to%20a%20click,way%20of%20the%20next%20line.

The only thing that did not go so well were the slip ups and time it took to record, however that is part of how things are when recording in a studio. Things that could be improved are things like making the online callers understand the processes more and answer their questions more.