Project Progress #8

WE RECORDED AHHHHH EEEEE OOOOOO

(take out the "that's it I'm not going" and this is how I feel right now!!!!)

Recording gear and set-up

We recorded the piano part first, using two condenser microphones:

Right microphone: PreSonus condenser mic

Left microphone: Rode condenser mic

Interface: PreSonus AudioBox

*Only one mic is pictured oops.

But we had one mic (as pictured) to the right of the piano, under the piano lid of the grand piano; and one on the left.

We took this in one take, to keep consistency in sound quality.

Next, we recorded the vocals.

Set-up: laptop on the stand with lyrics in front of me, plugged into the interface recording the vocals through logic.

Microphone: Rode microphone

Cover: Rode pop filter

Interface: PreSonus AudioBox

For the vocals, I sung the melody, and James added harmonies to build the song.

After some chats between James and I, we decided to add guitar for the second half of the song. Super chill, acoustic with pretty picking. I let James take full reigns for that because I do not know guitar haha. So then he recorded that, and it sounds AWESOME! He also snuck in some DIY double bass??? HAHA so good.

Editing and mixing audio

Anyways, after recording all the parts I mixed it using Logic Pro. I was going to use Ableton Live but OH MY GOODNESS THAT SOFTWARE LITERALLY MAKES NO SENSE!!!! James had Logic Pro on his laptop and so he let me use it hahaha yay. Logic is so straight-forward and well, logical (pun intended hehe). I found it very similar to iMovie's format, which I got quite used to fiddling around this year. Things I did while mixing included:

• Sound-checked before recording, to ensure neither of us hit the red zone.

• Dynamic control of each part to make sure all the levels were correct and the vocals were most audible, in some parts changing including crescendos/decrescendos (E.G. when guitar enters)

• Auto-tuned the notes that we didn't quite... hit, haha... There were a few notes that were just outright flat or wrong, so I edited them and changed the note I sung (I DIDN'T KNOW YOU COULD DO THIS... HOW COOOOL!!!)

The final recording!!!!

Here is the final cut after all the recording and editing and mixing had been done...

I am so happy with it! The audio sounds so clean and I think the track is mixed very well. My favourite thing is that when new parts come in (guitar, double bass, harmonies) it doesn't sound all that obvious and in no way jarring. Everything gels together really well!