CC Major Assignment 'Music Concrete for the Common Man'

I made lost of changes from my initial compositional plan to the final result. Initially i was only going to use the vocal samples that we created over the previous weeks, however i only used the paper sounds because i believe that offered better rhythmic sounds.

I am very proud of my concept. Relating Music Concrete to pop/rock. It is something that hasn't been done before and yet still keeps within the bounds of Music Concrete.

Another plan change was the use of instruments. Initially i was going to use very short samples to create an instrument and a melody, however after playing with this for a while i realized that it didn't represent Music Concrete and wasn't staying true to the proper form.

I made my score applicable to anybody that wishes to make a Music Concrete piece in the form of a pop song. Its not the sounds that are important to the concept, its the form and the idea that it is based on repeating riffs and another continually changing sound to counteract this which represents vocals.

Overall lost of fun to play with, and i learnt a lot about the nature of Music Concrete just by playing around with the sounds.

Here is the Mixdown
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/MusicConcrete.mp3

Here is the analysis document
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Analysis.doc

Pre production
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/PreProductionComp.doc

Program note
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/ProgramNote.doc

Score
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/MusicConcretefortheCommonManScore.pdf

AA Major Assignment 'Way to Fall' by Star Sailor

The whole recording and production process was very enjoyable. Luckily for me my song didn't require many effects and therefore many laborious hours weren't spent perfecting a delay for example. The one thing that i wish i had experienced was recording a whole band at the same time, rather than piece mealing each part when i could find the time. I'm still undecided which part of the whole process that i enjoyed the most. The recording process is definitely lots of fun, but can be very frustrating when something isn't right, for example the vocals have a natural compressed sound and the snare doesn't sound as good as it should. Although i had these problems, they didn't affect the final sound. I found it amazing that you don't need a perfect recording to get a perfect result. For example, when Amy was singing, she was very tired and there were a few timing and emphasis issues. To get over these i simply moved the word to get into time, and/or i replaced the word with the same one of another take or even from earlier on in the song.

I also found out about the regular occurrence of flukes while recording. When recording the Piano tracks there was a mistake, a very low cluster of notes was hit on accident. However when listening to it, it came at the perfect place and works great with the vocals. It also adds a personal touch to the song. Another fluke was with the overdrive guitar, it didnt require any additional production.

Overall lots of fun and have learnt many valuable lessons for when i do another recording of this sort.

Here is the Mixdown Mp3 http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/WayToFallDougFinal.mp3

Here is the PreProduction Document
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/PreProduction.doc

Here is the Recording Document
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Recording.doc

Here is the Production Document
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Production.doc

CC1 Week 12

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/PreProductionComp.doc

AA1 Week 12

Mixing again. this time was a little more enjoyable because u could be more creative with the sounds. I haven't overdone the effects because the song doesn't allow for it, the song has a more natural feel.

The vocals really needed compression, there were times where it got out of control, for example when he said 'in bed.' The bass guitar also needed compression. With the vocal track i made a stereo auxiliary with all three vocal tracks and just compressed that track.

This is a photo of the stereo auxiliary setup.
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Picture147.png
Note, the compression on one of the vocal tracks i bypassed when i bounced the file.

This file only contains compression
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/comp.mp3

The only effects i have added is reverb to the vocals and the piano, i was considering putting this effect on the acoustic guitars, but the reverberant nature of the instrument was enough. Once again i did this reverb using the stereo auxiliary.

This file is compression and reverb.
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Revcomp.mp3

The final step was mastering the tracks, i added the bombfactory plugin on the master track and played around with the input output setting till i was satisfied with the result.

This file is Mastered, compressed and reverbed.
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/CompRevMas.mp3

Here is the protools session file if you have the audio files at home.
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/EJNewYork_Doug.ptf