Ep Journal
Below, in no particular order, identifies some of the processes and procedures used to create the EP.
Song 2:
Play Through The Pain
Demo
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The song was created by messing around with guitar rig at home. The sections came form a few different songs I’d written and I combined them all into this tune.
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I used the same FX – boomer, reverse cymbals and sweeps as ‘Crocodile’. The drums were programmed with kontakts studio drummer but lacked a thick metal sounding kit that I desired. The guitars were recorded with guitar rig but again lacked the intensity and tones I wanted. The bass was recorded though guitar rig as well, however the bass sounded really nice, warm, deep and full unlike the thin sounding guitars. The guide vocals were recorded with a rode nt1-A mic that gave a nice bright tone. However, I think I want something that handles raspier vocals better such as Shure SM7 which after doing some research seems to be an industry standard rock vocal mic – Matt Shadows from Avenged Sevenfold.
Bass
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I tracked the bass using a 4 string jazz bass, however as it was in drop C, it couldn’t handle the low deep tones I wanted due to it’s thin strings. I replaced it with a 5 string, thicker stinged bass that provided the tones envisioned.
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I recorded the bass with a Senheiuser 421 and an RE20.
Preparing the Mix
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Similarly to Crocodile, the archetype Nolly plugin wont print the plug in on the audio file as a stem so I bounced each guitar track out separately by sending it to a separate bus for each track. I have set up the project just like the other songs to mix in order for a similar workflow to take place. I have done this by colour coding, arranging tracks, creating busses, creating VCA’s, creating reverb and delay sends and a master bus.
Guitar Recording
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Just like in ‘Crocodile‘ the guitars were recorded at home using the Archetype Nolly plug in through a Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 interface. The guitar used for most parts of the song was a Shecter prowler recluse Jinxx signature, however the key change towards the end of the song was recorded using a Reverend. I would have recorded the key change with the Schecter but I would have had to re-tune the guitar up to drop D from drop C, which would have been time consuming and un practical due to the guitars Floyd Rose Bridge.
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The software used to record the guitars was called: Archetype Nolly – created by Neural DSP. This plug in was created with one of my favourite engineers: Nolly who coincidently helped make the drum plug in ‘Get Good Drums – Matt Halpern PIV’ also used within this EP. Archetype Nolly allows you to choose between 4 different amp head and 4 different amp cabs giving you variety and freedom to choose what ever tones you want from crush to clean to heavy to chuggy. Additionally it provided some pedals to compress, overdrive and add reverb and delay.
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The guitars were double tracked and hard panned left and right to give a full wide tone said by Sneap in the Metal Music Manual “a different rhythm sound in the left and right will defiantly make the production wider” (Sneap, 2017, pp. 138)
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Mynett, M. (2017) Metal Music Manual. New York: Routledge.
Vocals
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I tested both a Sure SM7 and Neumann U87, however I chose to use the SM7 as I wanted the EP to be transparent throughput and it sounded crisper and raspier than the comparatively dull sounding Neuman. I set both mics up with a pop shield and a sound absorption booth to control unwanted frequencies. I then proceeded to track the sections: verses, PC’s, chorus’s, bridge and key change separately 5 times each in order to get a double and triple track thick sound.
After the vocals were recorded, I then comped them, choosing the best takes for the main, double tracks and triple tracks. The DT and TT where then hard panned left and right to create a wide stereo image acting as backing vocals. Harmonies were then tracked and the same processes were applied.
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Hardware Experimentation
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I sent the chorus vocal though a Joemeek sixQ2 compressor to glue them together.
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I like the Sonnox reverb on the backing vocals however I wanted to try a hardware one so I sent the backing vocals though the Yamaha rev 500 which, when low in the mix, blends well with the main vocal, however in the end I decided to choose with the Sonnox reverb plug in as it allowed for more flexibility when mixing and sounded a little warmer.
Drums
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For all songs, the way in which drum production was carried out has been the same. The drums were originally created by myself then shown to my friend Joe Thacker who studied professional musicianship at BIM in Birmingham. He then spent time checking velocities, adding in ghost notes and adapting and re-programming fills to make the drums sound as real as possible.
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Over Christmas I purchased the ‘Get Good Drums – Matt Halpern PIV’ which provided the thick metal sounding drums I envisioned. The Plug in allows you to control each individual drum and apply reverb and compression to each. I used automation to control reverb levels at certain points on the drums during the song to add variation.
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Backing Vocals
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I wanted a separate voice as backing vocals in the pre chorus to add variation, so I recorded a new vocalist singing ohhs.
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For the first PC, the root was tracked twice panned hard left and right. The next harmony up was tracked 1 metre away from the mic also twice, again panned hard left and right. This was done for the next harmony up, 2 metres away and then finally using his head voice, 2 octaves above the root note close to the mic. The idea was to create a 3D image in the BV’S.
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For the 2nd PC – the vocalist stood about 5 metres from the mic and walked closer to the mic a step every beat. By the end of the 8 bar phrase he was right up closed against the mic. This gave the impression of the BV’S increasing in volume and hopefully coming from the background into the foreground.
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Unfortunately the oohs clashed with the harmonies recorded for the backing vocals so these ohh’s were unusable. The process was a good learning curve and was useful experimenting with different forms of vocal production.
