Today I have been researching the importance of punctuality I have been reading an extract from the book Managing conflict and workplace relationships (James O’Rourke, Sandra Collins)

“a lack of concern for punctuality can be interpreted as a lack of consideration and professionalism”

punctuality is an extremely important thing to have when working in the professional environment, as it shows to your client that you are invested in working together. Showing up late can show disinterest and can offend your clients. When arranging studio time/meeting with my artists I will make sure I always arrive early so I have adequate time to set up the microphones and pro tools session to maximize the time we can spend together recording and making creative decisions.

This post relates to learning outcome one

Today I started my research on Frank Ocean’s recording/mix engineer Jeff Ellis. Jeff worked extensively on Frank Ocean’s Grammy winning album Channel Orange and today I watched an interview with him and Sound On Sound Magazine, where he detailed many aspects of his production techniques. In this blog post I will be focusing on his vocal tracking techniques.

Throughout the course of this interview Jeff was very vocal on the importance of working with good artists, at 6 minutes he said “don’t let the engineering get in the way of the art” this was followed by him saying  “to make great art, you need to work with great artists” at 9 minutes and 58 seconds. Jeff detailed that whilst working with Frank Ocean they would have a lot of free form sessions where they would have no real direction, but would sit down and develop ideas together he would often have multiple instruments set up and have an SM58 inside the control room so any ideas could be recorded quickly.

When it came to the actual vocal tracking of Frank Ocean at 6 minutes and 40 seconds Jeff explained how he used a Neuman u47 microphone, he described the microphone as “not very bright” which he explained was a useful thing to have because when the mixing phase begins the vocals will undergo multiple layers of compression and by the time all this compression has happened the vocals will have naturally became brighter. He also talked about how he doesn’t cut off a lot of low end from a vocal recording because he loves the chest voice and describes it as emotional.

From carrying out this piece of research I can apply this vocal tracking workflow of Jeff Ellis by trying to make sure I work with talented artists to produce good music, I can also  use a Neuman u47 in some of my vocal tracking session and leave in the low end of any male vocalists I work with to try and bring emotion into these tracks I am mixing.

This post relates to learning outcome 4

Full interview is available at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izZMM5eHCtQ&t=442s

Carrying on with my research on Young Guru I further examined his interview with Sound On Sound Magazine, I was particularly interested in Young Guru’s workflow when it comes to mixing.

When asked about his workflow for mixing Young Guru said “More and more people mix as they record, but I don’t like to do that, because usually I’m tracking to the [MP3] two‑track, and I will have been listening to that for a long time and its sound gets kind of ingrained in me……After I’ve laid down the mix, I’ll run each individual audio track via the board and print it back into a new Pro Tools Session with effects, EQ and everything on it, and at the right level. So in my stem Session all faders are set to zero. If I later want to change the level of the snare, all I have to do is change it in the stem Session”

Young Guru’s point about refusing to mix as he records is a very sensible production technique I shall emulate when I record my own artists, by separating the mixing and recording processes it will allow me to give my ears a break and start the mixing process with no premeditated ideas on what the mix should sound like.

By creating a second Pro Tools session for his stems where all the faders are set to zero, it streamlines the whole mixing process making it easier to create a final mix. This is a technique I have already started to use in my own work.

Full interview available at https://www.soundonsound.com/people/secrets-mix-engineers-young-guru

This post relates to learning outcome 5

Throughout my project I have contacted multiple artists/vocalists, with the aim of getting them featured on my EP

When approaching an artist, I have always approached them in a professional manor so that myself and my work will be taken seriously. I have been using email and social media platforms such as Facebook to contact artists I would like to work with. I have a attached a screenshot of one of the emails I have sent out to an artist to demonstrate the appropriate manor in which to contact people.

This post relates to Learning Outcome 1

Throughout this project I have been carrying out professional practices to collaborate with artists/vocalists

One of the things I have been doing is ensuring all of the demos I have sent out to artists are produced and mixed to a high quality. Firstly I create a beat in the DAW Fruity Loops using a variety of midi instruments and samples I have also been applying processes such as reverb, compression and distortion to mold these instruments to make beats that sound good.

After I have finished making a beat in Fruity Loops I then export all the stems into Pro Tools where I mix the beat and use a frequency analyser plugin, the plugin I use is called Neutron and it allows me to remove individual frequencies from each instrument stem to allow each instrument to better sit in the mix so rival frequencies are not competing with one another.

I have attached two screenshots of the processes the same beat undergoes in Fruity Loops and in Pro Tools

This post relates to Learning Outcome 1