a final mix of the industrial life track
Industrial Life
i set about making the industrial track in the same way i did the countryside version.. although this time, i would have to primarily rely on samples that i can get from CD and online, as i have no immediate contacts with industry. having said this.. in the end i did manage to layer a few samples in the mix with samples i recorded at home. for instance he fridge in my shop was perfect for adding low level rumble to the bass.
firstly i cut up samples of metal being scraped and dropped onto hard surfaces, in a effort to try and create my rythm section (kick snare and hats) below you can see the effects i placed onto the 'kick' part.
i used similar methods on the snare and hats
only major difference was with the highs - i made sure that this time they were stereo, as this wasnt intended to be mixed like a dance track (with beats in mono). also the EQ for the beats were intended to place the individual hits into their own frequency range - to provide room for everything.
as i wanted this track to be more obviously musical, i sliced up a steam powered factory sample that i used previously in my intro, and placed it into the ESX24, so that i could play it musically. again, cutting out the low end for bass.
The bass part was produced in a similar manner; by using a grinding gears sound that i also used for the intro. only this time i boosted the bass parts and applied heavy distortion, adaptive limiter, compression and heavy enveloping.. the whole process took some trial and error to achieve the right results. another important note, was that i adjusted the 'glide' parameter on the ESX24, to give the impression of note bends throughout the bass. the whole effect worked wonderfully.
as mentioned before.. i used many of the samples from the intro of the track, in the main body.. only automating every plugin and effect from the beginning of the track to the crescendo, to promote harmony, and display the unity of all the elements of the industrial environment.
firstly i cut up samples of metal being scraped and dropped onto hard surfaces, in a effort to try and create my rythm section (kick snare and hats) below you can see the effects i placed onto the 'kick' part.
i used similar methods on the snare and hats
only major difference was with the highs - i made sure that this time they were stereo, as this wasnt intended to be mixed like a dance track (with beats in mono). also the EQ for the beats were intended to place the individual hits into their own frequency range - to provide room for everything.
as i wanted this track to be more obviously musical, i sliced up a steam powered factory sample that i used previously in my intro, and placed it into the ESX24, so that i could play it musically. again, cutting out the low end for bass.
The bass part was produced in a similar manner; by using a grinding gears sound that i also used for the intro. only this time i boosted the bass parts and applied heavy distortion, adaptive limiter, compression and heavy enveloping.. the whole process took some trial and error to achieve the right results. another important note, was that i adjusted the 'glide' parameter on the ESX24, to give the impression of note bends throughout the bass. the whole effect worked wonderfully.
as mentioned before.. i used many of the samples from the intro of the track, in the main body.. only automating every plugin and effect from the beginning of the track to the crescendo, to promote harmony, and display the unity of all the elements of the industrial environment.
Country Life - Final Mix
Having finished laying out the elements of country life that i wanted in the mix (also removing a fair amount), i set about the mastering process. although i had to approach this process rather differently, as i normally make dance music - this genre is completely different. normally i would focus on the drums and bass, keeping them in mono and ensuring their prescence is high up in the mix. this would be different, and require a much more balenced mix.
Again i started off with a channel preset for the master out - bypassing the plugins one at a time, and adapting them to my own particular taste. below you can see the mastering taking place. and the resulting track in mp3 format. again that 16-bit wav will be submitted by CD.
Again i started off with a channel preset for the master out - bypassing the plugins one at a time, and adapting them to my own particular taste. below you can see the mastering taking place. and the resulting track in mp3 format. again that 16-bit wav will be submitted by CD.
Country Life
For the other 2 tracks that i was going to produce, i felt it would be more apt to create 'soundscapes', rather than what's considered as traditional music, this would give me much more scope for improvisation, and be more fitting to the environment. Furthermore, the pace of these 2 tracks would naturally have to be slower paced than the london one.
the obvious starting block for the coutry life scene would have to be a cockeral, which i added using the impulse responses from a loop of local church bells, not only to give a more rhythmic touch to the cockeral, but it would give a sense of distance and balence with the environment.
The extensive automation that was applied can be seen in the next image, where i had to show the country life working in harmony together. you can see where i've added the bells with with the loop of a blackbirds call as reverb. again, aiding the harmony idea, i EQed it heavily to help with room for the upcoming bass - although it has to be noted all of the EQ and effects used in the intro was automated from no effects to full on, again to give the imrpession of all the elements in the particular environment coming together.
For the bass parts, i selected a great sample of a tractor driving around. this was a great natural choice, as it provided me with a common and naturel low level sound thats common for the area i live. I converted it to mono, and sliced it up to make an ideal loop. i then laid it out and automated some heavy low boost EQ, as well as some high cut - to leave room for the rest of the highs.
for the highs i used a looped bird call with the impulse reponses from the bells; again i automated the reverb in gently along with some heavy low cut EQ. the stereo spread plugin was used to make full use of the stereo field. I also added some light compression, as i found the dynamic range of the sample to be quite severe, and there were elements of the loop that i wanted to stand out just as much as the others.
the other high parts of the track were created in the same process - which you will hear frequently throughout the piece.
another idea i had was to highlight the close connection of morris men to the countryside, especially in regards to this time of year (despite the fact they annoy the hell out of me). i simply recorded myself banging to large sticks together (from my escrima days), loaded them up into the arrange page on three seperate channels, with slight gaps between them to give a more natural slighty out of sync effect, i then dropped them down a few tones and added some reverb, which was essential as they samples were close proximity recordings. also added some heavy low cut EQ, and notched up around the 200Hz area to give a more snappy snare like quality to it. the overall effect worked really well. Later on in the mix, i added some hand bells - again to aid the impression of morris men.
Gamekeeping is common around the area i live, as well as recreational hunting and game sports. so it was only natural that i added a sample of a 12-gauge, although slightly pitched (to keep in key with the rest of the track) the effect works really well, with only some light reverb and envelope to give it impact, and a more realistic feel - the original sample was close prox, and fairly dry.
to continue with the theme of hunting, i obtained a sample of some birds flying away rather urgently, i simply sliced up a good cut, and timestretched it to fit in sync to the tempo of my track - again applying some low cut EQ and adding some compression. the enveloper was also used to provide impact and give it that snappy attack.. as well as removing some of the unwanted 'tail' or decay of the sample. you can see this in the image below.
the automation that i mentioned before is shown below too. this was essential in order to show the harmony of the countryside, and indicate how the most unlikely parts of the country have grown to work together.
the obvious starting block for the coutry life scene would have to be a cockeral, which i added using the impulse responses from a loop of local church bells, not only to give a more rhythmic touch to the cockeral, but it would give a sense of distance and balence with the environment.
The extensive automation that was applied can be seen in the next image, where i had to show the country life working in harmony together. you can see where i've added the bells with with the loop of a blackbirds call as reverb. again, aiding the harmony idea, i EQed it heavily to help with room for the upcoming bass - although it has to be noted all of the EQ and effects used in the intro was automated from no effects to full on, again to give the imrpession of all the elements in the particular environment coming together.
For the bass parts, i selected a great sample of a tractor driving around. this was a great natural choice, as it provided me with a common and naturel low level sound thats common for the area i live. I converted it to mono, and sliced it up to make an ideal loop. i then laid it out and automated some heavy low boost EQ, as well as some high cut - to leave room for the rest of the highs.
for the highs i used a looped bird call with the impulse reponses from the bells; again i automated the reverb in gently along with some heavy low cut EQ. the stereo spread plugin was used to make full use of the stereo field. I also added some light compression, as i found the dynamic range of the sample to be quite severe, and there were elements of the loop that i wanted to stand out just as much as the others.
the other high parts of the track were created in the same process - which you will hear frequently throughout the piece.
another idea i had was to highlight the close connection of morris men to the countryside, especially in regards to this time of year (despite the fact they annoy the hell out of me). i simply recorded myself banging to large sticks together (from my escrima days), loaded them up into the arrange page on three seperate channels, with slight gaps between them to give a more natural slighty out of sync effect, i then dropped them down a few tones and added some reverb, which was essential as they samples were close proximity recordings. also added some heavy low cut EQ, and notched up around the 200Hz area to give a more snappy snare like quality to it. the overall effect worked really well. Later on in the mix, i added some hand bells - again to aid the impression of morris men.
Gamekeeping is common around the area i live, as well as recreational hunting and game sports. so it was only natural that i added a sample of a 12-gauge, although slightly pitched (to keep in key with the rest of the track) the effect works really well, with only some light reverb and envelope to give it impact, and a more realistic feel - the original sample was close prox, and fairly dry.to continue with the theme of hunting, i obtained a sample of some birds flying away rather urgently, i simply sliced up a good cut, and timestretched it to fit in sync to the tempo of my track - again applying some low cut EQ and adding some compression. the enveloper was also used to provide impact and give it that snappy attack.. as well as removing some of the unwanted 'tail' or decay of the sample. you can see this in the image below.
the automation that i mentioned before is shown below too. this was essential in order to show the harmony of the countryside, and indicate how the most unlikely parts of the country have grown to work together.
London Life - Final Mix
I finished off the track with the bass - a processed car pass, heavily EQ-ed for just most of the low end, layered with a pitched and stretched kick drum part, which i then loaded into the ESX24, allowing me to play through the range. has to be noted that i used the enveloper throughout this entire track to aid dynamics. and this part was no exception, as i needed to use the top snapping sound of the kick and add some sharp attack. the bass part was also follwed up with a heavily distorted echo of the boris johnson speech used in the intro of the track, where i have edited him to say 'War'. only in this part, i have pitched it down and stretched even further to give a 'warped' effect. The reese part that is fairly prominant in the latter part of the track is made up of a similar process, only sliced to be really short, placed into a 2 samplers on a loop, one sampler detuned. the whole track can be heard below.
Here is the final arrange window of the laid out track, with mastering added. this i think was the most testing part of the writing stage. the above track is a 320kbps mp3 of the final mix. 16-bit wav will be submitted on CD.
and the mixer window, showing the extensive mastering, where i started off using a default presets, and altered accordingly - for a D&B mix.
Final Piece
yesterday was a good day in terms of producing this london track. i managed to achieve what i set out to do.. heres the final additions to the mix.
and heres the other main variant.
i also sliced up a police siren and made a loop out of it, just to highlight the capitals sinister undertone. i also added a train horn, and a train pass followed by the scraping of metal from the london underground, all at slightly different intervals to to aid continuity.
and heres the other main variant.
i also sliced up a police siren and made a loop out of it, just to highlight the capitals sinister undertone. i also added a train horn, and a train pass followed by the scraping of metal from the london underground, all at slightly different intervals to to aid continuity.
Melody
Here i started off with a sample of a london underground train bleep (recorded from the doors closing), and loaded it up into a sampler, enabling pitch to be able to play the sample throughout the melodic range. cut a lot of the low end out for obvious reasons, and focused on the shrill frequency that jars with the ears. added some bitcrusher to enhance it, and again made use of the stereo field.
the felt the track still lacked pace, so i cut up boris johnsons saying "war", time stretched and pitched it to be in key, with some additional bitcrusher and light phase. the effect worked really well.
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