Band Name: Joi
Song Title: What You Are
Taken From: Without Zero
Length: 5min 49sec
Bpm: 110
Key Signature: Bmin
Genre: Alternative Dub/Dance
Instrumentation : Acoustic Guitar, Electric Bass, Synth Bass, Synth Kit Sounds (Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Hi-Hats), Oud, Vocals, Synth breaks, pads, string lines, etc.
Performers: Female vocals. Two to three different vocalists. Many synth sounds. Very few sounds played live. The ‘Oud was played live.
Performance Issues: Most of the sounds are from a synth of some kind, and of the few live sounds I didn’t really detect any major issues with their performances.
Recording Issues: I found there was a lot of noise in the background of the Oud recordings, and the synth sounding kit drum sounds pretty dead.
Research:
Mixonline, The Inside Track: Mixing Vocals, Mixonline.com, Viewed 20th May 2007 <http://mixonline.com/recording/mixing/audio_mixing_vocals/>
This site had a great section on mixing vocals and gave me this idea to add the medium delay to the effects vocal section of my mix.
EQ Guide, Sirgalahad.org, Viewed 19th May 2007
http://www.sirgalahad.org/paul/music/eq-guide.html
Great reference guide for different EQ settings. It was very useful for getting the acoustic guitar sound I was looking for.
Sound On Sound Magazine 1999, 20 Tips On..., Sound on Sound, Viewed 19th May 2007
<http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct99/articles/20tips.htm>
Point 3 interested me, after reading through it I actually took the point as to keep the same volume for the drums throughout to keep a dance like feel. However I did build up the volume of the percussion in the synth section as to make the song feel like it built up to something.
Davis G & Gray M (), Sound Reinforcement Handbook – Second Edition, Pg 39. Chapter 4.3.3 How to Fit Wide Program Dynamics into a Sound System with Limited Dynamic Range, Hal Leonard Cooperation
Although the book is primarily about Live sound, I found it a good read on understanding compression.
Joe Bochar 2002, Guest Column: Creative Panning 101, Guitar Nine Records, Viewed 19th May 2007
<http://www.guitar9.com/columnist221.html>
Good panning article. I experimented with a number of techniques, but in the end being a fairly dance track (and most of the track were stereo already) it’s a fairly mono image.
Notes:
First off I started with a different song. I was doing If I Had my way and it just didn’t do it for me. I think the biggest issue was that I’d heard the original a couple of times and was trying to recreate it while not recreating it, and that just wasn’t working. I started my mix of What You Are before hearing the song. So the main arrangement of the parts was created without prior influence. I went to listen to the original before doing the final mix and realised mine was less than half the length. I found the original quite repetitive and boring. After sourcing my research I started doing the mix, applying the techniques and experimenting with what sounded good. I ended up with something that while a little short I liked. My biggest problem was in the middle and end sections stopping the audio from clipping. Eventually I overcame this by removing some instruments from these sections all together and thinning down the instrumentation. The song I used to reference was ‘Hypergeek’ by The Devin Townsend Band. I used this because it was a mix of a high quality to reference against, something I was used to, and had an acoustic guitar sound I wanted to emulate. I used the EQ guide I had found on the internet to help me find which frequencies to boost and cut and how they would affect the sound. In the end I didn’t really achieve the same kind of sound as the one in Hypergeek, but I did get one I thought fit well in the context of the track. The articles I looked up for this project really helped me create the track. I was using them while creating the arrangement as well as doing the mix, so I feel that they probably influenced both sides. For example I made sure there was a section for the solo vocal with effects after reading the mixonline article, so I arranged the song in a way that it would make sense. The only thing I would change about my mix now would be the volume of the vocals at the end. This probably came out because I was only mixing through headphones, but looking back now they are clearly too loud and I am disappointed I didn’t pick up on it before the presentation.
Bibliography:
http://www.guitar9.com/columnist221.html
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct99/articles/20tips.htm
http://www.sirgalahad.org/paul/music/eq-guide.html
http://mixonline.com/recording/mixing/audio_mixing_vocals/
Sound Reinforcement Handbook – Second Edition
Gary Davis & Mark Gray
Hal Leonard Cooperation
Pg 39. Chapter 4.3.3 How to Fit Wide Program Dynamics into a Sound System with Limited Dynamic Range
http://www.realworldremixed.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joi_(band)
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