A Project E.P. Blog
Hello!
So, I have been imbedded in a E.P. Project for a little over two to three months now and everything is just wrapping up. For those who don’t know, I am part of a small crew (Team Bedlam) and we have recorded a 4 track E.P. by an artist by the name of M TEA. The E.P. itself is an acoustic E.P that consists of minimal live and MIDI instruments. The artwork was done by a design student we conscripted, Joshua Marshall. The crew consists of sound engineers; Connor Arthur, our artist liaison and team leader; Zoe Stewart, mixer, live room engineer and vocalist; Riley Davis our Mastering engineer; and myself (Wyatt Nicholls), control room engineer and mixer. Together we have finally achieved our goal of recording, mixing and mastering an album. Each track was mixed individually by Connor, Zoe and me.
Here is the E.P. Showcase…
Complexions of Affection
Now, this is a very nice track. Mixed by Connor Arthur, this track has a very live and ‘roomy’ feel. The sections of this track blend quite nicely, showing a distinction between section without the need for jarring silences. The Vocals this track are fantastic, as they are clean, with an appropriate amount of reverb on the vocals. The vocals also hold enough breaths and noises to keep a realistic feeling, like there is a person singing on stage while you enjoy a nice meal. The acoustic guitars in this track is very competent, with nice sounding chords, a direct and clean sound with a good level of reverb. There are no other instruments present in the track, so this track keeps a very nice solo or duo sound. Mix wise, everything fits nicely together with no clashes and issues.
Strong and Fragile
So, this track is definitely one of the best. Mixed by Connor Arthur, this track has a very professional sound with clear vocals and nice guitars. There are clear differences and distinctions between the section of this song, with pauses before the guitar starts to play as a typical tell-tale. The Vocals sound the best in my opinion as they are dry and clean, there is just the right amount of reverb in the background to change the tone and warmth of the vocals, but not enough to be too noticeable. The acoustic guitar sounds quite nice with a chorus-like effect slammed on the guitar, however it seems a little too wet in my opinion. There are also several electric guitar riffs present I this track. These were played by me and are a little average in my opinion as they could done with another session of recording. The guitar tone is very nice and warm (thanks to my microphone setup on the amplifier), but with EQ touches, the warmth has really been brought out. Sonically, the vocals and guitars have been mixed very well with little to no clashing of the instruments.
Wishful Thinking
This track is our single on the E.P. as it has the most potential for success on the mainstream music industry. This track is definitely the best of the bunch, with perfectly construction sections and transitions of sections. Initially mixed by Zoe Stewart, it appears that she was going for a more loud and pop mix and succeeds in this effort. The MIDI piano is heavily reverberated giving a ‘floaty’ sense of unease, with the track filling in later on the choruses, giving the track a more grounded feel. The Vocals are doubletracked, giving them more punch and focus in the track with the back-ups keeping the same reverberated ‘floaty’ feel as the piano. The Vocals only let up when the outro hits and it’s just the piano and vocals once more, as all other instruments die down. There is an electric guitar that adds accents and licks throughout the song (played by me), adding fullness and diversity to the soundscape. I personally think that the guitar was underused in this track as there was much that was recorded, but not much that was used. I personally would have mixed this track a little differently, into a different genre. However, I still do think that this track is great and there are some things that Zoe did while in the mixing stage that I would have never thought of.
Strangers Grown Apart
So, this is my track. I mixed this one and off the bat it’s not really that great if it’s being held up to the others on this list. I had a lot of issues getting the track to sound competent when in the mixing stage as at least half of the song was unusable. This track had many, many mistakes with the guitars and some of the vocals. The track itself has a more live feel with the reverbs on the vocals and guitars panned a hard left and right to give the effect that the song is being played inside a hall. The vocals of this track after some minor adjustments were competent enough, with some small mistakes slipping through the net. The vocal tone is a little too ‘tinny’ in retrospect and could have done with some warming up, but do sound quite nice. The. Back-up vocals were very hit and miss for me as 60% of them were a little unusable and as I wasn’t competent enough with the vocal editing software I was using, they just started to sound a little too robotic for my taste. As a result, I kept the ones that sounded the best in the song. These back-up vocals do have abit of automation within them. For the second verse the lead vocals get panned from centre to left-centre and the higher back-up vocals get panned to centre-right, thickening up the mix vocal wise. When the low and high back-up vocals appear in the chorus they are panned with low-vocals going left-centre and high-vocals going right-centre with the lead vocals sitting in the centre. For the acoustic guitar I had a lot if issues as the take I had to work with was riddled with mistakes, somehow, they were recorded with different bar lengths and as a result I had to work with the original, as the vocals were recorded to this original. Guitar tone wise there were a few issues as the guitar itself was a very low budget guitar from the Tech Office and it can really show. It was very tinny and adding too much lows and mids seemed to muddy it all up. We miked up the guitar with two u87 microphones; one at the 12th fret and one at the body. I used this to my advantage and stereo panned the two left and right. The song starts with vocals and the acoustic guitar; with this section I automated the guitar body u87 channel to be completely muted until the second phrase of the first verse, here the once ‘tinny‘ guitar gets noticeably warmer. This guitar moves around the track a little panning wise with the acoustic guitar making room for the electric guitar in the choruses and bridge. When the choruses and bridge hit, the warm guitar-body moves from the right to the left and the electric guitar moves in to the right side. Reverb wise, the acoustic guitars have their reverb planted at a hard left, while the vocals sit at a hard right. The electric guitar is next and it has a few appearances, mostly in the tracks choruses and the bridge. This guitar is full of mistakes, and as most of it was recorded with an SM57 it wasn’t the nicest sounding either. This guitar session was the best out of four that we did on this track but is by no means flawless. About 50% of it was unusable and had be completely edited almost by note. The electric guitar itself doesn’t get its warm sound until the bridge where the AKG414 started recording, picking up them warmer tones. This influx in warmth does make the bridge standout however so that’s good. There was minimal reverb for this instrument as it was recorded with reverb, panned a reasonable right hand. Ideally, this whole track needs a complete re-record for it to become a good professional standard.
This whole project was a success overall.
Wyatt Nicholls
Novice Recording engineer
Student at SAE
References:
[Audio] https://soundcloud.com/user-915504660/mtea-complexions-of-affection-mastered/s-5VM65
[Audio] https://soundcloud.com/user-915504660/mtea-strong-and-fragile-mastered/s-wdR0Z
[Audio] https://soundcloud.com/user-915504660/mtea-wishful-thinking/s-JBGGp
[Audio] https://soundcloud.com/user-915504660/mtea-strangersgrownapart-mastered/s-csiAS
Album artwork done by design student, Joshua Marshall
Wyatt Nicholls 