Post Mortem Analysis for ATOM'S WRLD Part A

For the past 6 weeks I have been working on part one of a two part mixtape, it is a self-titled project called "ATOM'S WRLD". Throughout the duration of this project there have been many learning curves and even more moments of triumph. The project is made up of 4 songs, with each song blending together in a way that makes it seems like it is one extended piece of music; rather than 4 individual songs. I have always chosen to focus on my strengths (synthesis) in regards to production. Because of this, it has limited me to only a select number of electronic genre styles. I have always listened to live instrumental music whilst growing up, that's why for this project I decided to combine my roots with my production knowledge in an attempt to blend live and electronic music together. To produce this to the standard I want, I had to research a lot of new recording, processing and mixing techniques for the live instrument side of the project, I also received tips about basic structuring of rock music from one of the artists I chose to work with. This document is an in-depth break down of my project, covering all bases for each stage of production.

Project Planning

Deciding on this project was relatively easy as I knew it would be a challenge for me and force me to step out of my comfort zone; allowing me the opportunity to learn more aspects of my craft and to exceed my own expectations in regards to my production ability. For example, the most important learning experience I had was outsourcing and recording musicians in a professional studio environment. Although I'm confident in my ability of being able to play the keyboard, this was not enough instrumentation to have a balanced amount of live and electronic components. I had to make sure everything was planned correctly in the early stages of production, this made it easier for me to articulate my ideas to the other creative minds I would be working with. I created a very brief 5 week timeline of major events, it outlined blocked time periods that I set to myself to complete each tasks by. I expand on these tasks in the Production Plan.

Recording - Guitar and Drum Sequence

After creating the concept for my project, I put together the first Scratch Track and sent it through to a guitarist (Dominic Ward) and a drummer (Jacob Thrum) that I had outsourced specifically for the project. I was fortunate enough to have already built a good relationship with the artists due to multiple years of being acquainted through previous studies; this made the process of recording much easier as we already have knowledge of what each other is capable of and respect our abilities equally. Further details about the outsourced artists are in a previous post titled "Outsourcing Musicians on a Solo Project". I gave the guitarist the scratch track one week before the booked studio session to give ample time for him to work on his performance delivery. The session was recorded on a Neve Custom Series 75 Desk, there were no microphones used for this recording. The guitar ran through an effects pedal into a 30 Watt Vypyr guitar amp. Initially we ran into trouble as there was no XLR or 6.3mm AUX output on the amp, so we could not connect it to the mixing desk, this issue was overcome by changing the signal processing. Due to there being both left and right 6.3mm output points on the pedal (Appendix A), I asked the artist to run the guitar through the amp through the FX pedal and then into the desk.

Appendix A -

This session was extremely efficient, not only was I able to record multiple takes for the planned song; the second track on the project titled "Someone", there was still a few hours left on the studio booking. As the guitarist started to pack away his gear, I mentioned another song that I had started to produce, this was "Caught Out"; the third song on the project. Dominic was happy to keep recording as I was able to communicate the tonic, tonality and cadence of the composition clearly to him. With only time to practise one song (the scratch track I had previously sent him), Dom performed a series of great recordings and was in and out of the studio within 2 hours. One thing I found to be helpful in keeping motivation during the session was to simply compliment and reassure the recording artist of the take they had just performed. This maintains the idea in their mind that they are doing well and allows them to feel calm and confident for the duration of the session. Dom is a very easy artist to work with and conducts himself in a professional manner. I learnt a great deal of information from him about structuring and composing rock music and I definitely look forward to working with him in the future.

Here's a few videos of the recording session.

Recording of "Someone"

Recording of "Caught Out"

From here, I sent an Updated Scratch Track of Someone to the drummer (Jacob), so he can practise the performance before we enter the studio in the following week. Luckily though, I started mixing down the stems for Caught Out in the same week. I changed the creative direction for the song during the mixing stage and decided that, as well as Someone, Caught out would sound enhanced with live drum recordings on it. I sent through a scratch track of Caught Out for Jacob to practise with, but before I sent it to him I questioned if he wanted a click track included within the audio. He told me that he prefers to practise without a click track, but when it comes to recording he likes having one present. I thought this was a very interesting and unorthodox method and whether or not it allowed a more fluent creative process for him is unclear. It is clear that it didn't affect the final stems that were delivered to me though.

Unfortunately, Jacob was unable to attend the studio session to record the drum sequences. His band was booked to perform on the Saturday and he told me that they needed more time to practise before the show. Although I was thankful that I received the news before I started setting up the drum kit and microphones in the live room, this was still a major set back in terms of production planning and the timeline structure. I now have to schedule another time to get Jacob in the studio before I can finish mixing both of the tracks, delaying the process of completing the project. Jacob decided to take it upon himself and record the stems independently on a drum kit he already had set up at his house. Jacob varied from the original idea/beat structure slightly, and even though I would have preferred to be present during the session as the recordings were being done, I am still happy with stems. The fact that it wasn't exactly how I planned it to be, generated new ideas for me when I put the stems into the DAW session.

Cover Art Curation

Musical recordings were not the only thing I had to outsource for this project, I was required to obtain an original design to use for the cover art of the album. After getting in contact with Shailey Brown (graphic design student), we were able to share our ideas back and forth until we landed on a final product. I speak about the early stages and progression through the collaboration in my previous post "ATOM'S WRLD Album Cover Curation", and in it, there is proof of the exceptional progress we were able to make. Shailey really brought my vision to life. I simply described my idea as "A first person view of a post apocalyptic landscape, looking onto a horizon" with "an outer space/metallic/unearthly landscape colourway". Within an hour Shailey sent me back a few rough sketches (Appendix B).

Appendix B -

From there I gave her feedback on all images and decided that the bottom right sketch was the style to go for. All I had to do from there was check in every day or two and inquire about any progress she had made on the design, Shailey made the process very smooth easy for me. Within a week she had the finished product ready for my to publish.

Gallery of progression -

This is the final product that was handed to me. I will highly recommend Shailey's work to other people in the future and will definitely seek her assistance when it comes to design.

Because the full project is not finished, I have not uploaded any music from it into the public sphere, but you can view an exclusive preview of the third that on the album titled, CAUGHT OUT

Jordan Bayne.