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Wake me up (Cover) - Jordan Letchford Both of the tracks performed by Jordan Letchford were both quite simple to record and to produce. For this track the instrumentation was quite simple as there was only an acoustic guitar and a piano. For this track I didnt double track the vocals as I was running short of time during the recording. Now onto the production techniques used. In general for this track I didnt want to flood it with multiple effects because it would take away from the track as it is only an acoustic cover. For the vocals I started off by using Melodyne to tune Jordans vocals. This was only a short process as Jordan is a very capable singer and I only had to correct a few notes that fell flat. I also used very minimal EQ where I boosted Jordans mid-range by about 4-6DB. After this I added very minimal reverb to his vocals as I didnt want the track to sound dry. I decided I wasnt going to using compression on Jordans vocals or any other effects because I wanted this mix to be as dynamic as I could make it so I dont think compressing everything would have made for a nice track. For the piano in this track I decided just to use MIDI piano as I though recording an actual piano would have been a lot of effort as it would have been difficult isolating it. The plugins that were used on the midi piano were the standard little bit of EQ and a small amount of reverb. The acoustic guitar in this track was recorded in a vocal booth by a valve condenser mic which produced quite a pleasant sound. As I said earlier in this track its only an acoustic cover so there isnt much instrumentation and I wanted to keep this mix very basic as I didnt want to lose any of the dynamic range. This said the acoustic guitar is quite a vital bit of an acoustic cover (no surprise there) so I did many takes recording this to get a good clean recording and I only added a small amount of EQ to the acoustic to boost its relative frequencies. Looking back on this if I had to go back and do this again I think I could have recorded the acoustic guitar a bit better if I changed the microphone placement so it wouldnt pick up so much of Jordans picking. I would also try and record an actual piano as It would sound much better than using MIDI.

Hallelujah (Cover) - Jordan Letchford As I said earlier this song was also performed by Jordan Letchford. Again in this track I didnt double track vocals and its only instrumentation is an acoustic guitar. Recording this song would seem like a simple process seeing as its only one instrument and a vocal but it took a lot of recordings to get one I was happy with. Jordan wasnt happy with a lot of his vocal takes so it took quite a long time to get a recording he and I was happy with but im glad we spent all that time because the finished product was a lot better than if i had used one of the first recordings.

The production techniques I used in this song were very minimal as were the previous track. For Jordans vocals I used Melodyne first to check his vocals to make sure all the notes were accurate and he didnt hit any flat notes. Im glad I did this because there were a few notes he had missed but it was a simple process to correct them and its not noticeable in the track. In addition to this for his vocals I used a small amount of EQ and boosted by around 4DB to his mid-range. Finally the only other effect I used on his vocals was a small amount of reverb because I didnt want his vocals to sound harsh and dry. This acoustic guitar was recorded exactly the same as the previous track as it was recorded on the same day. I used a valve condense mix in a vocal booth because I wanted to get the isolated sound of the acoustic guitar. As for effects I used on the guitar the only thing I used was a small amount of EQ where I boosted its relative frequencies to give it a brighter sound. Looking back on this track I would (as I said previously) change the microphone placement for the acoustic guitar as it picked up Jordans fingers on the strings a little too much. I would also try double tracking his vocals if I went back and worked on this again as I think that would give more to this track as its quite thin in the arrangement.

Perfectly Normal - Riot This song was composed and performed by the band Perfectly Normal that study performance at Miskin Music. This track is quite different to my previous recordings and I quite like this because it adds some variety to the track. Now for the production techniques I used on this track. For this track I decided I wanted to keep this mix as dynamic as possible and I didnt want to use compression unless I had to because I dont like it when producers compress everything on a track because it makes the track sound dead. Anyways starting with the vocals I had to use Melodyne on both of the singers because there were quite a few notes that went flat and I had to make sure their harmonies were correct for the chorus because that would be a big problem otherwise. After this I added some EQ to their vocals after I looked up their relative frequencies and boosted it by about 4DB. The only other effect I used on their vocals was that I added a little bit of reverb because I didnt want their vocals to be too rough and dry. For the bass I had to compress it slightly because there were some parts where it went pretty loud and there were others were it was weirdly quiet so I compressed it to even this out so I got a more constant sound out of it. I also added a low end shelf to the bass boosting it by about 4DB. The guitars were recorded outside of college and we used an amp preset for both of the guitars so they could get a similar sound. We tried recording the guitars through the black mesa but we couldnt get a distortion sound that neither the guitarists nor I was happy with. After this I also boosted the guitars relative frequencies by about 4DB. The drums in this song didnt really have any effects used on them. We panned the drums so you got a more stereo sound so for example we panned the left and right overheads so you could hear the high hat over to one side rather than in the middle. Other than this I

added small amounts of EQ to some parts of the drums. I added a low end shelf EQ to the kick drum for example. Overall I think I could have done a lot better on this track if I decided to be more vigorous in the recording and got takes I was happy with. I should have made the singers come back and record them again with a bit more attitude. I also think I could have gotten a better sound out of the guitars if I had recorded them though and amp with distortion pedals. Im happy with the finished product but it could be improved.

Clockwork Pear - Sam Price Haworth This is an original song recorded, mixed and mastered by myself. Again this In this mix I didnt use any compression because I wanted the mix to have as much dynamic range as it could get. This song doesnt have any drums or vocals so there I didnt use as many production techniques. The bass recorded in this song was recorded through the black mesa preamp and when I played it it was previously on the distortion setting but I liked how it sounded so I decided to keep it. I didnt compress this bass but I did add a low end shelf EQ boosting it by about 4DB. All the synths in this track were either midi synth or from a microkorg so the only effect I used on them was a slight bit of reverb on some of them. Looking back on this song I think it was a bit rushed and I could have added more to it. I think it might have sounded better if I recorded a clean bass to go along with the distorted bass. Another thing I would do if I revisited this is that I would add another section to this as it is the same chords and melody all the way though and it can be a bit repetitive.

Waiting Room - Sam Price Haworth This is another original song that I wrote myself. As I have said repeatedly I avoided compression on this track as I wanted to keep my dynamic range. Starting off with the drums in this track you can hear at the start where it is just drums that there is reverb on them. I added reverb to the left and right overheads and to the snare top and bottom to get a nice smooth sound out of them. I wanted this song to sound smooth so I didnt want really harsh drums so I added reverb to avoid this and I enjoy how they sound. The bass in this song changes a few times depending on section and there is a lead bass part near the beginning. I didnt compress the bass but I did add a low end shelf EQ and boosted it by about 4DB. I contemplated adding reverb to the bass and I tried it but I didnt like how it sounded with the rest of the track so I took it out. For the lead guitars I used a small amount of reverb on the lead guitar licks that are spread around the song. I also added a small amount of reverb to their high end which I boosted by about 4DB. I also added some phaser and For the palm muted guitar I didnt use and reverb and I didnt compress them but I did add a small amount of EQ to their mid-range which I boosted by about 4DB. I really didnt think

they needed anything else added to them and I liked how they sounded without many effects. Looking back on this song Im very pleased with how it turned out. I think I could have improved on the sound of the guitar by maybe recording it through an amp or recording it through the black mesa preamp to get a smoother tone. I also think this song would sound better with some vocals over the top. Just some quiet vocals just so the song flows better and has a bit more diversity.

The Window Blues - Sam Price Haworth This song was completely made from my own samples that I had recorded. This song has a lot of different effects used on different samples to make them sound really quite weird. The main melody of this song is a thumb piano that I had recorded. For this I used a denoiser which was then sent to some reverb to give it quite an ambient vibe. For a lot of the weird sound effects in this song I ran them through a denoiser into a bit crusher which was sent to some reverb and this created quite a weird sound because the denoiser adds some random sounds to it and the bit crusher can really change how original sample sounds and the reverb is just added to make it smoother. The kick used in this song has a really deep sound do it and doesnt have much attack. This sample was created from hitting a sofa with a drum stick and I added a small amount of reverb on it so it adds to the creepy/ambient vibe of the song and I also boosted the low end of this by about 6DB because I needed to fill up the low end of this song as there is no bass or anything to help. I think I could have improved on this song a lot as it was rushed. I think if I had spent some time to make a clear melody and maybe find something to fill in the low end of the song it would have helped as well. The song also gets quite repetitive so I think adding more samples to it would have helped the song develop more. Another thing I could change would to add more drum samples to this song to give it a better beat which could help with the flow of the song. Theres a lot of room for improvement but I think the final product is ok.

By Sam Price Haworth