Song #8: Visceral

As mentioned in previous blogs, this song is our long, psychedelic track, and closer to our album. This piece was inspired from the prevalent psychedelic rock scene from Australia, This song is slower, more peaceful, and does not follow the conventional structure of contemporary music. At around 7 minutes in length, this song is comprised of various verses, bridges, and refrains that are largely instrumental, and hope to both capture and emulate a particular feeling. My job for this song is not to create something that feels normal or conventional, but to evoke a certain sensation in the listener. I know not what people will feel when they hear the tune, but if they feel something, then I have succeeded. A more ambitious song than others on our album, it has several parts, and in a way acts like two separate songs that seamlessly flow into the others, featuring synthesisers and string samples, finishing off with a brief solo piano piece. I hoped to create a song that would wrap up our album, and feel like an epic finish to our catalogue.

Song #7: Human Nature

Unlike many of our other songs that draw a bit of inspiration from other bands and artists, this song is mostly inspired from film music as a result of my tenure as a composer in Australia. The opening riff and chorus draw similarities with various out-takes that I arranged in my work that I later realised would be more fitting with contemporary music than with film. Keeping with the idea of film music, Human Nature utilises a bowed guitar throughout most of the song. I play my guitar with a cello bow, creating a tone that sounds both guitar-like and cello-like. This practice is occasionally used in film music and is very prevalent in ambient music and groups such as Sigur Ros, another inspiration for some of our music. With a bit of piano, bass, and minimalist guitar, Human Nature is ominous and a little creepy, but it had this strange charm that we felt was important to include in our album.

Song 6: Neptune

Another strange song, this piece is most minimalistic, yet complex. Featuring only two guitars with no effects, a bass, drums and vocals, this song has the least amount of parts (by far) compared to every other song we have. Unlike songs such as The Arrival and Porcelain, I wanted to create a stripped down sound, and keep it mellow. The arrangement of instruments are simple, but the guitar parts are quite the opposite. Two lead lines arpeggiate, occasionally harmonise, and weave in and out of each other. The vocals feel airy, wispy and sometimes sparse, and the unusual drum beat drones without fail in the background. The bass keeps up with the speed of the guitars, creating a groove yet not feeling too present in the mix. An odd song, but a song that I am very glad that we added to our album, and different to many other tracks in our catalogue.

Song #5: Candy Store

Drawing inspiration from Latin music and the indie music genre, this tune is perhaps the simplest compared to every other song on our album. It features a typical arrangement of guitar, bass, drums and vocals, but with an acoustic guitar, percussion, and a chorus sung by Proctor alumni, Stefanie Schechter. This song has me play an upright bass, a difficult task with the goal of having a distinct and unique bass tone. With a bit of a Latin groove in the verse, Candy Store features a dreamy-sounding chorus with no percussion, keeping with our theme of dynamics. To put it frank, this song was written with the intent of having it catchy and easily recognisable. It's not my favourite song that I have, but I find it hard not to think about it.

Song #4: The Bullfighter

Distortion. Drive. And lots of it.

Keeping with the theme of dynamics, the verse feels mellow with a simple guitar, bass, vocals, and drums that are played with a cross-stick technique, giving a slightly jazzy feel. The verse slowly builds to the chorus where the song lets loose with three very driven and distorted guitars. Suddenly this quieter song doesn't feel so quiet anymore. Like the Arrival, my vocals are on the verge of yelling as I belt my lines with power and conviction. As abruptly as the chorus began, it quickly transitions back into a mellow verse. Lyrically, this song draws upon inspiration from the book The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, a concept initiated by our bassist, Zack Doyle himself. Thus, the Bullfighter seemed like a fitting name for this but very loud, and very mellow song.

Song #3: Porcelain

Probably one of our strangest songs, Porcelain features an unusual three guitars, (acoustic and two electrics), piano, bass, drums, vocals, chimes, and ambient screams made by myself and James Roan. We aimed to give this song an eerie feeling which is reinforced by a rather strange lead guitar line and distant screams and yells that can be heard periodically throughout the arrangement. Like some of our other songs, this song focusses on dynamics with some very intense sections, and very mellow and quiet choruses that do not feature any drums or percussion. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going for when I first wrote this piece, but I feel that it's a bit of a shakeup in the mix and I'm happy with the results.

Song #2: She Comes in Waves

She Comes in Waves features a 6/8 time signature, reminiscent of old-school swing, yet has a strong bluesy vibe. The two guitars were inspired by the Rolling Stones with their dual rhythm/lead guitars that call, respond, and play off of each other. The guitars in this track are not taking a lead, but not sitting as rhythm instruments either, but something in between. The chorus features an acoustic guitar, and the drums disappear completely. I hoped to create a chorus that felt dynamically different from the verse and gave the listener a brief time to feel relaxed before a post-chorus breakdown featuring a small guitar solo accompanied by trombone. She Comes in Waves feels old and gritty, yet somehow new and contemporary.

Song #1: The Arrival

The first song to be mixed.

Drawing inspiration from by blue-eyed-soul and R&B artists like Amy Winehouse and horn and orchestral arrangements from multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood, the Arrival features an arrangement of drums, guitar, vocals and bass, accompanied by trombone and string samples. I wanted to create an opening track of our album that would feel powerful and confrontational. The dynamics of this song are key to it's feeling of power - with sparse but intense strings and horns in the verse, a wash of sound in the chorus, and a squealing guitar solo, The Arrival almost feels like a James Bond theme. With the guitar and bass having noticeable guitar distortion, I decided to almost yell my vocals to give a sense of loudness and strain. It feels a little gritty and a little dirty, but it's just the way I like it.

Week #2 Reflection

Our last week of recording was a good one. With eight songs under our belt, we exceeded our expectations. Though sometimes recording parts seemed mundane or draining, it was necessary to fix little things here and there. We're looking forward to mixing next week and glad that our album is coming along nicely. I'm not exactly sure how our songs will sound in the end, but I'm excited to hear what we're going to cook up real soon.

Day #10

With the clock running out on senior project, we decided as a group that the last possible day to record would be this upcoming Monday on the 16th. We concluded that the only way to give us enough time to mix and master our songs properly was to finish recording promptly, leaving us a week to focus on the editing and organisational parts of music production. We recorded bass, guitar, drum and vocal tracks here and there to fill in certain parts that were not to our liking and spent the rest of our recording sessions fixing small mistakes. I used the bowed guitar technique again on another song with excellent results, and noted that this sound may be a recurring thing in my music in the future. Today wasn't particularly special, but it allowed us to wrap up a few songs, something that is still very important.

Day #9

Some mixing and some bass done today. Though I was not required to fill most aspects of these roles, my opinions and artistic visions were useful to process as a whole. Our group is good at commenting on each other's roles and providing constructive criticism. We have all agreed that it is better to be blunt and tell the truth with recording a particular bass line or guitar riff, than not say anything and let a sub-par track end up in the final product. Our original concepts of a few songs have been altered slightly over the past few days because of a change in opinion, or discovering that a particular technique was effective or a detriment to our music. All of us have similar visions with the final product, yet they differ enough that the three of us can come to compromises regarding certain aspects of some songs. For example, whereas one member may desire a very present and louder bass line, the other two may hope for a softer, lower part. A compromise may result in something that has aspects of both or a discussion that may have some group members changing their minds. In the end, we are all generally happy with what is being produced and glad that our group dynamic is effective.

Day #8

Vocal day.

Normally I wouldn't sing as many vocal takes as I did in one day, but I felt as if I was in the right mental musical zone to do them.

Keeping with our theme of an "older" sound, we decided to utilise compression and delay effects on my vocals. Compression lessens the dynamic range between the louder and quieter parts of a music signal by boosting quieter sounds and attenuating louder signals. Delay records a signal, and plays back the same signal after a short period of time, creating a sound similar to that of an echo. With the two effects put together, it would make a voice sound like something recorded in the 1970's, a rich sound that we have been desperately looking for. Recording was relatively quick an easy. I recorded about 2 - 4 vocal tracks for each song - enough to have at least one take that would be to our liking. Though my voice was a bit sore towards the end of the session, our group found that these takes were more than enough, and we were happy with the results.

Day #7

Today was an interesting day, and we ventured into something that we didn't expect. Unhappy with the results of our samples, I was seriously worried about the state of our album. A few tracks heavily relied on samples, and I feared that with them, the songs would not sound good, and without them the songs would sound empty. For a brief moment I considered scrapping these tracks entirely and was worried that our album would only feature a few songs. However, I decided to try something that I hadn't tried in a while, but realised it was a last ditch effort to save some of our songs. During the previous summer I had spent a considerable amount of time creating music for independent films back home in Australia, and utilised an unusual technique of playing a semi-hollow guitar with a violin or cello bow. With the right guitar rigs, pedals and effects, such a technique could produce a sound similar to that of a cello, but much darker. I resolved to arrange such a setup again and lay down perhaps seven tracks of my bowed guitar playing on one song with the samples still in the mix. The result was astounding. The very bright, high strings contrasted with the darker, richer bowed guitar tone, yet together they melded a sound that was different, yet suitable for our music. On their own, each part did not seem to fit the music to our liking, but together they created an orchestral presence that filled the missing void in one of our songs. I am very pleased with the progress today, and maybe I'll use this bowed guitar technique in some of these songs in the future.

Day #6

Back to recording again. We spent this day mostly correcting little mistakes or tracks that did not work earlier. We found that particular guitar tracks or bass tracks did not compliment each other at some points, and resolved this by re-recording them. We also found that some of the takes were not of substantial quality, and decided to record these again as well. Today was a day of editing of work, and replacing parts that needed fixing. Though tedious, it was an important undertaking that was necessary to produce a quality album.

Week #1 Reflection

Recording, recording, recording. This week was certainly an interesting one. Our group spent hours upon hours in the studio, brainstorming ideas and recording songs. At points it tedious and intense. We found that hours on end in the studio could leave us drained, yet satisfied with the work we completed. With more than half of our recording done for eight songs (5 will be on the album), we're happy with our effort and commitment. We learned that focus is key when recording material. Because of the massive sheer number of tracks that have to be recorded and the relatively small amount of time we have for the next two weeks, staying focussed allows us to complete everything that is required. Since all of our have had experience in recording music, we weren't particularly surprised with the process of recording. We're super pumped for the next week and ready to keep up the good work.

Day #5

Though I spent a significant amount of time creating music, most of it did not happen in the studio itself. Many of our original song material was written with having orchestral segments in mind. However, given our lack of resources to do so, we found other ways to have horns and strings featured on our songs. I spent a large part of the day tinkering away at the computer, testing different kinds of strings, effects, and sound filters. We discovered that though these samples may have sounded decent in my average headphones, when transferred to the studio computer and played with the excellent speakers there, the samples sounded rather awful. Disappointed with the results, I tried to think of more ways to fix this issue. I found that the lo-fi filter I used for strings earlier was too much, and when put in the mix, they sounded like they were being played through a pay-phone. I toyed with different filters, one string track with a phonograph filter, and one through a guitar amp emulator. This would certainly remove the "cleanness" of the sound we were hoping to fix, but would not be as noticeable or apparent as the lo-fi filter. I'm eager to try these new strings in the future and find out if they pay off in the end.

Day #4

Studio, studio, studio.

Our second home. Recording in the performance room and the control room have become routine now, and we have become accustomed to the grind of preparing the space for our project and wrapping everything up when we're done. The whole process is beginning to become a well-oiled machine - we know what to do, how to do it, and where things should be. The science of recording is a strange one, but I feel that in the short amount of time that we have engaged in this project that we are getting the hand of things. Today we laid more guitar tracks, bass tracks, and vocal takes around the drums we completed the day before. Nothing particularly fancy or interesting today, but our understanding of the whole process has improved significantly.

Day #3

Another day at the studio.

In an effort to speed up the recording process as a whole, we all decided to record all the drum tracks possible for each song. Since drums are the foundation for most contemporary music, it made sense to record them first, and work other instruments or parts around them. However, recording drums can be the most difficult out of any other instrument. I found myself frustrated at times when my playing was slightly too slow or slightly too fast at parts. Recording drums has to be close to perfect, considering every other part is laid down to the timing of the drum beats. Whereas I could lay down a guitar or vocal track in one or two takes, these drum tracks sometimes took me up to five times to record each song to our liking. Fortunately for us, this difficult part here was done with, and the instrumentation that will follow will be much easier. Short term pain for long term gain.

Day #2

Yet another productive day.

We spent the morning crafting a song that is dear to me, and one of my favourites. After spending a significant portion of my life living in Sydney, Australia, my song styles and artistic direction inspired from the local music and geography. For example, this piece was inspired from the strong psychedelic rock scene from Australia, but also the abundant nature around Sydney. This song is slower, more peaceful, and does not follow the conventional structure of contemporary music. Depending on the version we hope to record, this song could be anywhere from 5 minutes to 14 minutes long. Lacking a chorus, this song is comprised of various verses, bridges, and refrains that are largely instrumental, and hope to both capture and emulate a particular feeling. My job for this song is not to create something that feels normal or conventional, but to evoke a certain sensation in the listener. I know not what people will feel when they hear the tune, but if they feel something, then I have succeeded. A more ambitious song than others on our album, it has several parts, and in a way acts like three separate songs that seamlessly flow into the others. I finished the first third of the song, laying down four different guitar tracks, two leads, one rhythm, and one acoustic, and finished it off with vocals.
The remainder of the day comprised of me programming horn and string samples to be used on several of our original material. Given that we do not have access to an orchestras or brass ensembles any time soon, some software lent to me by a friend fixed this issue. The software allows me to create string soundscapes and horn lines on a computer, and after hours of slowly tinkering away at the darn thing, I managed to make one of our songs sound like we had a whole concert hall of instruments backing us up. One issue with this software is the recurring issue of sounds that are of pristine quality, that will not fit into our classic rock inspired music. By duplicating all of the string and horn arrangements and running half of them through a lo-fi emulator, I was able to slightly reduce the quality of the samples, yet keep some sharpness of the sound without having it sound too distorted or muddy. I hope to explore this software even further and continue to improve my knowledge in this new field of music.

Day #1

A long day, but a productive one.

Disregarding the desire to take a nice, hot shower, our senior project crew convened at the recording studio and began our work for the day. For the rest of the morning, afternoon and evening, we recorded tracks, mixed and set levels, made plans on how to record more songs, and edited some existing ones.

Our approach to recording is significantly dependant on circumstance and what is available at the time. Given that the studio is used by other students, senior project groups and is used as a class space, we have had to quickly record what we need for guitar, bass, drums, etc. in the studio itself, and quickly pack up and move into the control room and mix the tracks when the studio must be used by another party. We tend to complain here and there about this time and logistical nightmare, but such a thing keeps us on our toes, focussed, and quick to get things done.

For us, the way we want to record could be considered unorthodox in this day and age. Though we have this fantastic equipment before us, the pristine sound quality that comes out of our wires and microphones can be a burden. We hope to make an album that somewhat echoes back to a time of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and the Rolling Stones. The resources we have today are far better than what was available for these bands over forty years ago, but we understand that we are not trying to make something that sounds clear and perfect. To us, the grit, fuzz, hums and fizzles of older analog equipment and amplifiers give a certain warmer flavour that we hope to emulate to some degree. We fear that sound signals that are too clear and too present will sound fake, cold, and lifeless. The question is, how do we make "older" sounding music with modern equipment? Through experience, research, and luck, we have found that the effective use of sound compression, selective clipping, putting microphones on amplifiers, and utilising microphones that were manufactured well before our time can help with this warmer sound. If those that read this do not understand the techniques that I just mentioned, I will provide videos with examples in the near future. Time will tell if these methods will yield our desired results, but we are confident that this will all work out in the end.

In addition to recording, we decided upon specific roles that each member will focus on. Each participant will partake in recording at some point, but will spend a significant amount of time on another aspect of our project. Zack Doyle will handle the managerial aspects of our senior project, that being promotion, distribution, contacts, and day-to-day issues. James Roan will focus on the production side of the music, that being managing the recording itself, using equipment, use of the studio's facilities, and control over sound mixing, mastering, and general post-production. I will write the song material that is being recorded, arrange each part, and deal with the style choice and artistic direction of the music. We're all super excited to see what will come of this project and we can't wait to get it all done.