Trimester 5 Overview/Reflection
- Ron De Guzman
- Aug 24, 2018
- 7 min read
Minor Project Summer
Start date: May 28
So this trimester one of my goals was to fall into the role as a producer and produce one track that is solely produced by myself. This was my first time working on a project solo and I really wanted to test myself and step outside of my comfort zone. My main goal for this Trimester was to reach out and work with as many people and outside artists to build connections and to develop my social skills as a professional. I thought, before I go and reach to outside people I could use this project as a trial run and practice my people skills with classmates I don't normally work with. Although, I did use Daniel Horvat as my session guitarist (We have already worked together in the past) but within week one of the trimester I planned to ask Zoe Stewart to see if she was interested in being the vocalist for this project. Sent a scratch track through via Slack and she was more than happy to collaborate.
I made sure to send the reference track through as well:
I chose this reference because it's a new genre for me and I really wanted to practice being flexible as a producer and being able to create multiple genres. The overall aesthetics of this track is rather laid back and slow.
Recording Session
06 June 2018
My main goal with this recording session was to practice directing the artist (Zoe) and making sure that we both fall into our separate roles. I needed to make it clear that Zoe was here as the vocalist and not here assisting me as another Audio Engineer. This session was very important to really reflect and to identify what exactly I need to improve when communication with artists and produce the best possible performance.
New Things Learnt During this Project
- Melodyne
I applied Melodyne onto Zoe's vocals and overall tightened up the performance and pitch. Navigating through Melodyne for the first time wasn't too difficult, thanks to Tavita Muliagatele for showing me most of the features!
-Mastering in the S6 Studio
During this project Carter and I gave our first attempt at mastering while also routing the track through most of the outboard gear. Sounded great but it ultimately didn't fit the genre and I acted upon some of the feedback given.
Final Product:
Reflection
Overall, I'm not satisfied with how the mix turned out, the overall quality of the mix didn't turn out that great. In comparison to the reference track it doesn't stand up as well I originally aimed for, it is definitely not industry standard. I aimed for a more of a Lo-Fi mix after receiving feedback. I mixed the track to be rather relaxing but what I struggled with was separating each of the instruments for a more clean a refined sound. Although, I do think that I stuck close to the original aesthetic choice and I was glad to work with Daniel and Zoe. This project mostly assisted me in developing my communication and directing skills. This project greatly helped with preparing myself for my Major Project
Side Projects
サビシイ Sabishii Collaboration with Ching Hsu Electro/Dance/Funk
Credits: Produced, Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Ching Hsu & Ron De Guzman (Mastered at -14LUFS) Lyrics, Performed by Tzu Fung Tsang Billy
3 Track Chillhop EP
Collaboration with Nathan Clements Chillhop
Credits: Produced, Mixed and Mastered by Nathan Clements & Ron De Guzman (Mastered at -14LUFS) Guitar by Markus Koskela
Street Side Collaboration with Nathaniel Jacobs Hip Hop
Credits: Produced by Nathaniel Jacobs & Ron De Guzman Mixed and Mastered by Ron De Guzman (Mastered at -14LUFS)
Interdisciplinary - Lo-Fi Hip-Hop for Animation Showcase Client - Liam Oliver
Credits: Produced by Ron De Guzman
Major Project Beckah Amani
Start Date: June 5th
Tavita Muliagatele & Ron De Guzman
This project my main goal was to work in a local artist and produce any track they would request from us. I find out about this artist from a friend and was linked to each of her social media accounts
Beckah Amani an artist from the gold-coast who fits within the genre of blue-eyed soul music.On June 5th, I chose to contact her through her Instagram account and it ended being convenient opportunity for her. We scheduled to meet up to talk about her EP and get a clear picture of what exactly we needed to produce.
On the 7th of June we had our meeting and we were able to extract most of the info we needed. This was going to be a 6 track Soul/R&B EP titled Settling Scores
After this meeting we were able to create our project plan: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lXL1eJEM4cFlmfJ3x6TXeAahDG6QlObP/view?usp=sharing
This a calculation of the cost of this 6 track EP project if we were using real world resources and not SAE Institute:
Although before we were able to get to our Demo recordings Beckah had label interest and was approached by Sony Music. This became a big problem for us, only because it halted the project and it was uncertain that Beckah would continue working with us. Later we discussed over the phone and agreed to help her recording Demos for label submission.
Our Project plan went from completing this within 10 weeks down to 1 week.
Demo Recording Session
28 June 2018
We were recording Vocals, Acoustic Guitar and Electric Guitar.
Vocalist: Beckah Amani Acoustic Guitarist: Beckah Amani Electric Guitarist: Markus Koskela Our Floor Plan:
The track listing and songs were changed the day before so we actually only had 4 tracks to record. After this session worked on them to submit the rough mixes back to the artist for Label submission. The mixed didn't turn out great but they were good enough for a demo. We originally thought that was the end of the project and we planned to go back and refine the demo recording mix but late in the trimester Beckah contacted me and informed me that she is still keen to work on the same songs and she was willing to come back down into the studio to record.
Here is our updated timeline:
The Final Recording Sessions
- July 23: Cancelled
- July 27: Booked into the Neve Studio
Unfortunately the guitarist was not able to make it to this session and we had only recording 2/4 songs. For some strange reason audio files from one our pro tools session was lost, I attempted to do a 'Save Copy In' with audio files box checked and the recordings for one song were lost. Not sure what happened during this session but we were able to complete one track.
- July 29: Guitar Recording down at the gold coast Done by Tavita He informed me that we needed another recording session due to the problems he has with his own interface on the day.
- August 1: Booked in the S6 Both the artist and the guitarist were able to show up this time. First 2/4 songs were recorded smoothly but a few days before they did not inform us that they had made drastic changes to some of their songs which ruined the momentum of our session. Tavita and I should have controlled the session better and pushed along and continued on songs they knew how to play. We ended up spending too much time fixing up mistakes. Our goal for the next recording session was to make sure they practice before they come in and on the day Tavita and I need to control the session better. At the end of the day we were able to get the final recordings of 2 Songs (That is 3/4 songs done) - August 5: Booked in the Neve This session went extremely smooth and we gain the best performance and recording so far during this session.No major problems, the artist and guitarist made sure they practised before coming in which made the session much easier. Finished our session earlier than expected.
Mixing and Mastering
Mixing Engineer: Tavita Muliagatele Mastering Engineer: Ron De Guzman
Tavita handed the final mixes over to me on the 14th of August. We were booked into Neve Studio and I chose to master all the tracks through the Neve console desk by patching it through and utilising it's EQ.
Tavita explained to me that he had a lot of trouble the mixes due to some throaty resonance coming from the throat of our vocalist which was popping out through the mix, so he used EQ to remove it but at the same time we lost alot of quality within the vocals and it ended up sounding muffled. I listened through all the tracks and the main thing I wanted to do with each track was boost the high end and take out some low-mid range out from the guitar. Once I did that through the Neve desk's EQ I went into pro tools and used the Ozone 7 Maximizer and got each track up to -14LUFS.
Reflection
The main things I learnt from this project was new recording techniques and mostly developed my communication skills with clients. I was also able to improve my overall workflow within the studio and learning how to better direct and control the session. During this trimester I was able to gain a great amount of knowledge on patching and this Trimester I feel that I really utilised the gear within the SAE studios. I have an overall better understanding of routing and patching thanks to the class workshops on patching! Overall, I was happy with what I was able to achieve with final mixes but with the overall quality of the tracks I was not content with. I plan to hopefully go back and re-record the vocals and each of the instruments to hopefully hit the mark for what Tavita and I were aiming for.
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