The concept for this album was to create songs that translate into a journey of a person's self discovery using music to tell the story and capturing emotion in performance.
(The key aspect of this is to communicate emotion in music.)
Definition of ‘Communication’ (Merriam-Webster)
1a: a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behaviour.
Starting with any project usually requires recruiting a team to come together to either perform or produce content towards a common goal.
For this project I enlisted the assistance of a drummer and a vocalist to perform on two tracks each, so being able to communicate ideas between the two require different skill sets in order to be able to describe what was required of each of them.
Finding ways in which to communicate with the artists individually was something that I wanted to keep as i didn’t want either to be influencing each others performance in any way and instead having them both have their own creative interpretation of the content.
While most communication was done either via email or social media, when it came to the studio there was great importance in being able to convey the direction I wanted for the album in its entirety was open to the interpretation of the artist. This provided a challenge as I still had an idea of what I wanted to hear and the direction I wanted the album to go and being open to the creative input of the people involved as part of the process.
Not only was this intended for my own progression as a creative professional but for my own personal development in being open to others.
Why Most People Will Remain in Mediocrity - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH94x03Wl-M
Coordinating time between artists on any project. This was especially important for the drummer with having work and personal commitments that limited the time I had with them.
While tracking the drum tracks for this album I had been approached by other members of the cohort to step in for some sessions to get an idea of how I work. This was done via social media as it was less formal than communicating with artists as it was to get a rundown of how to use the equipment. Several tracks of correspondence including face to face communication and email, where as the vocalist had more flexibility in terms of being able to arrange times and tracking sessions. However, saying this ensures I had content for the performers to practise and giving reference for my desired outcome was important in maintaining a positive rapport with them especially if other takes where needed or any followup sessions where required.
Despite all of this, the main limiting factor to the overall performances and what was captured came down to the artists being ill prepared to perform on their respective days.
This could have been by the very nature of the songs and the skill sets of the artists which could have been avoided by seeking talent respective of the roles to people who have had experience with the genre before or who actually do it for a career (This usually comes at a price).
In defence of the artists I could have been more clear with communicating the concept of the album and what was actually expected of them and to have more material to give them as reference even though they were provided to each.
Being predominantly a solo project there was a lot of planning that went into making sure time was sufficient for recording and production; Especially given that the whole production was intended for theatre surround release (7.1) in multiple format whilst still retaining compatibility across other formats (including stereo and 5.1) scheduling artists and studio time was paramount, not only that but having a detailed plan into what was to be achieved by the end of the day because sometimes having a less informal recording space can enhance creative freedom can also have the reverse effect where it can often lead to a lot of time being wasted without definitive direction; which was apparent when it came time to recording as I had found out that neither artist had actually rehearsed any of the content provided and if they have then little to no effort was actually made in terms of communicating with me any concerns that could have otherwise had been resolved.
This was particularly disheartening as I went into the recordings relatively optimistic and with high hopes that others were genuinely as interested as invested into capturing the best performance possible. This meant that the vocalist and drummer only performed a minimal contribution in terms of the songs which where both heavily produced and took away from what the concept was intended (two songs each). To add to this, the content creator I had for the visual elements of the production notified me late into the process that they were no longer able to provide content for the deliverables which then shifted the focus onto creating content for that. Having some experience with video editing software this wasn't too much of a hurdle to overcome. What proved to be difficult was finding stock footage that fit the narrative structure and the overall theme to be portrayed.
Managing time around studios becomes a lot harder during the later parts of the trimester which was avoided by getting a lot of the work done early and in a way that could be transferred from workstation to workstation with ease.
The first studio allocation to be attained was to track the drums. The studio that was selected for this was the Neve due to the size of the tracking room and the amount of channel inputs required to complete the surround drum recording. I was at an advantage with this as the drummer sourced for the session worked on site, and with approval from their superior, time was allocated to set up the night before tracking so more time could be spent ensuring correct microphone placement and appropriate gain staging, with one full day to track over the original five songs to be produced. All of the drum recordings were completed by week six of the academic calendar. This allowed more time for editing and mixing.
The next studio to allocate for tracking was the S6. This was required because of the Avalon channel strip and its distinct character. It has been a sought after solution for many studios for recording and has a strong following of artists who support it. According to Guy Gray (Engineer 301 Studio, Sydney) Prince has a love affair with it. Insisting on using it for many of his recordings. Having a regular booking of the S6 studio each Friday of the course of the trimester directly after class and having built a rapport with the technical department and smartly choosing a time that would mean it would be pointless for someone to book it after meant that when it came to tracking vocals during week 7-8 there was a total of six hours per session to track.
When it came time to editing and mixing and recording, this process became easier when I finally obtained my own software to be able to work from home. There were still elements of the process (recording, surround referencing and mastering) that needed to be done on site due to the nature of the format however; having a disconnect from work and home is of utmost importance to me for my own sake as there have been many times in the past where lines get blurred and it became harder for me to be able to relax at home so all of the work would be reserved to be done on site.
This gave me motivation and deadlines in which I had to produce work as time and space was more limited. This was especially the case because there is only one area capable of replaying the format as intended for the album so being able to have sessions capable of going between them for editing/mixing/mastering was essential.
All of the composition was done in separate sessions to keep confusion to a minimum but also to keep each song as its own entity, especially in terms of creative decisions and to keep the computers from freaking out by having too many native instruments in one session. Once the beds for each song had been produced, raw stem multi-tracks where printed so that they could be mixed in their own dedicated session within each associated track so that if any changes needed to happen compositionally, the original midi tracks could be made active and adjustments could then be made and re-committed.
Once the basic mix and tonality was achieved, stereo prints were sent to the artists and put into a master recording session so that all recording could be done within one session separate to the mix sessions in case any mistakes were made and again for the sessions to remain efficient with minimal latency.
All editing of the drums and vocals where done within their respective mix sessions once recorded. This was to maintain the sound and feel of each song but also so that I could hear in context any changes that were made. This is a workflow I have maintained even in post production for ADR and fits the way that I work and also means that if worst case scenario there are multiple backups across different sessions.
A few of the things I could have perhaps been more conscious of during communication with the singer in terms of their needs towards the project (vocal range, influences etc, instead of assuming they would be right for the project) however the tonality of their voice was the aspect that I desired for the album. Having heard them sing for another project instantly informed me of who I wanted for this album.
While a more trained singer perhaps would have had more discipline towards recording; the fragility of having someone who isn’t as used to the studio environment was something that I wanted to utilise as part of the performance.
In hindsight to this perhaps having more time with the artist and having perhaps composed a melody for them to vocalise instead of just having them make something up on the spot could have perhaps saved some time in the studio and gave the artist more freedom to work on other things such as voicing and harmonies etc.
The vocalist would require creative direction in terms of vocalisation; Because the concept was to convey meaning without words, it was difficult for the performer to grasp the concept of this without actually singing words to the track so one of the references I used in relation to this was the vocal techniques that an artist called Enya uses when she sings by using almost ethereal operatic style singing, supporting and creating melody using voice as an instrument rather than an anchor for the song and then the instrumentation supporting it.
Numerous critics and reviewers classify Enya's albums as new age music and she has won four Grammy Awards in the category. However, Enya does not classify her music as part of the genre.
When asked what genre she would classify her music, her reply was "Enya".
(Tobin, Lee. "About Enya". Enya.com.)
Enya - The Memory of Trees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPIobqA9shc
“The singer is charged with artistically conveying the song’s lyrics over a music track production that (hopefully) propels the song’s meaning and emotion across to the listener in an accessible and entertaining way.”
(By Barry Rudolph, May 18, 2018;)
With the drummer having deep roots laid in mainly punk rock influenced genres, this had its limitations and advantages as they were naturally tight in terms of timings however being expressive in terms of utilising different voices of the kit showed how trenched the individual was in their own style which was reassuring as what I envisioned as part of the original performance was different to that of what they saw and gave me a new insight into how the songs were interpreted. This also gave a much more consumable feel to the songs which turned it from Avant/Minimalist into more of a rock based theme.
Similar to how the vocalist required direction into their performance, the drummer was easier to communicate ideas with because the drumming was meant to be contemporary; however still being able to tell a story and remain progressive with the overarching narrative of the album was key to ensuring that the individual songs didn’t become repetitive. One key reference in terms of the style that was being implemented as part of the performance was that of Sigur Ros where it is heavily percussive based yet still contemporary in areas to maintain a driving force within their songs.
Sigur Rós - Varúð: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCDGlGK2aaQ
Sigur Rós are an Icelandic avant-rock band from Reykjavík, active since 1994. Known for their ethereal sound, frontman Jónsi's falsetto vocals, and the use of bowed guitar, The band's music incorporates classical and minimal aesthetic elements.
Personally communication skills and methods have always been something I had struggled with throughout the entirety of my academia. Be it in school or higher education, one of the main aspects I had always been a high achiever in has been modelling and problem solving and everything relating to having the skills to be able to do certain tasks; however, where I consistently fail is in my verbal and written communication.
“One of the most important skills in terms of communication is being Self-confident. This has an effect on people that you are of worth and because of that they would be more willing to invest time into you therefore engaging with what you are trying to communicate. In saying this the other side of it would be to engage your listener with the conversation by asking more open ended questions (getting them to think more about what has been asked instead of replying with a simple yes or no)
(Lawrence Robinson, Jeanne Segal, Ph. D., and Melinda Smith, M.A., June 2019.)
There are many things I have learned from this process, the most important thing for me has been exactly as intended for the project from the beginning which is to strengthen my communication methods and find out who I am as a practitioner and the areas in which I need to improve.
One of them specifically is writing, which is where I think I limited myself in this project by specifically having no lyrics to the songs and working solo throughout the project.
This has been mainly down to my beliefs and experiences towards audio and people in general in which I wouldn’t expect anyone to understand my exposition and be content with that being it and leave it there.
Taking calculated risks on having artists who perhaps I hadn't had much contact with before and being able to communicate an idea with them would have been more advantageous for me and transcribing exactly what I had envisioned would have been greatly beneficial to the experience and further strengthened the weaknesses I chose to ignore through this project.
Moving forward from here there are many things I will need to take into account, such as: creative writing, documenting processes and communication with respective parties associated with the work, strengthening verbal communication methods and especially written ones. this has always been an issue for me and in order for me to become a much more well rounded and skilled individual both professionally and personally, there are many things I could do in order to develop these skills.
The first element would be documenting every process. This isn’t only advantageous for myself but for others looking for insight into how I manage my time, especially for future practice if I eventually start my own production company as there are many things within business particularly when it comes to project management and handling several clients at any given time and prioritising and making use of time but still having the ability to be aware of when enough is enough. This was something that was the premise of this trimester was to cut down on projects and become more selective of what projects I put my name to. While it was good to have the skills sought after and having a name amongst the community as being one of the best, it didn't leave much opportunity open to other people or myself to progress my talents as an engineer.
Perhaps if anything the most crucial thing I have learned is to just write about what I am doing, it doesn’t need to be anything substantial at first but just to get into the process of being able to verbalise what I am thinking which is one key area in which I need to develop due to personal issues which also comes back to having the self confidence in order to do that which revolves around the ability to maintain a certain level of self understanding which will come with time and practice.
As a basis for future practise considering the outcome of the project overall, there are a few things based on the overall outcome of the project. Having a spreadsheet with all dates for recording and production instead of just a google calendar would greatly improve overall efficiency of the project as it is a document that would be able to be shared with everyone involved in the project. This would also give me a visual representation and check list of the aspects of the project to more easily track any progress made. Moving into this industry, this would be especially important particularly if the client would want a breakdown of the services provided.
In saying this the time and project management practised over the production cycle although it was set to a personal timeline, could have been transferred into a format as mentioned above to keep track of time spent on various elements of production. This would have been easier to prioritise elements based on the task required (e.g. editing, mixing, upmixing to surround, mastering etc.) which would have allowed also for greater reflection as notes could have been kept within the same document for later reference.
Furthermore, keeping notes of findings and seeking more industry feedback especially seeing as though this is the first time I have endeavoured to do a musical project almost exclusively for surround format and seeking that feedback from people that have experience/specialising in that particular format would have been a good reference point to what I could improve on.
“Feedback is the cheapest, most powerful, yet the most underused management tool that we have at our disposal. It helps people get on track and serves as a guide to assist people to know how they and others perceive their performance.”
(David Kennedy, Dermot McGarthy, Dublin Institute of Technology, July 28, 2015)
In perspective of things to improve on, going back and doing this again there would be a few aspects that would have been changed. Ensuring artist had rehearsed the material prior to recording. Even if that meant getting them in more or communicating more thoroughly the intention for the project, this would have meant that when it came time to record, less time would have been spent trying to communicate the intention of the project and more time spent recording the interpretation of the artist rather than my interpretation of the songs communicated to them. This is especially apparent in the drum tracking as I eventually was performing on the songs rather than the artist.
This was also a definitive point when it came time to track the vocalist. They only had limited appearances on the project as there was no time allocated to get them in to lay down ideas over the songs. The total time for the singer to track was one four hour session, where as the drums took a whole day to track with most of the preparation done the night before.
Overall all I am pretty happy with the way the project went on a personal level, although it would have been nice to have a deeper theoretical knowledge towards song making and should have been a driving motive in how the project was conceptualised. This would have also made communications with artists easier as the subject matter would have had more depth and therefore be easier to convey meaning across to them.
In terms of project management perhaps having dedicated more time towards having a contingency for visuals to provide for presentation would have been nice. Although these were promised as deliverable from the respective party, less time would have been wasted in following up with them about the deliverables and more time spent conceptualising them and producing them.
“Reflective practice can help us understand our own intentions, values and visions and support us to work in a challenging field where our ethics and morals may be tested, where power relations may be decidedly unequal, and where we may be working in emotionally and physically demanding environments.”
(Penny Plowman, February 23, 2015)