Studio-ing...

Over the past four weeks, myself and five others from my course have formed a creative music-making, producing and engineering team. We've taken half a page of lyrics and turned them into a three-and-a-half minute song. ​

It was by no means a smooth process (just because of how difficult it is to function around six people creatively), but it was an extremely enjoyable, gratifying and educational one.

Something I’ve learnt that definitely stands out, is the need for a certain degree of roles within teams. Most prominently, the need for some sort of a creative leader – a head composer/creator and producer. Not that it isn't okay for everyone to work together and each have input, but a certain sense of order is maintained when the final decision rests on a single head.
It became a struggle when people wouldn’t take the reins, especially when others assumed they were. I’ve learnt not to expect – to set out tasks, in writing preferably, and all work on our specific allocations. It does depend on the people of course, maybe not everyone needs this, but our group, I realised, would have worked far better had we done this.

The technical roles are more easily spread, floated about, especially all being students, it’s good for us to move about. We did pick up these roles whenever we could (all attempting to learn the techniques involved) and jumped in when we felt. Here is a case of the more minds the better – working out steps and solutions to problems on the console and with the engineering.

We also didn’t have heavy contact throughout the off-days. I tried having mini-meetings at the end of sessions to delegate tasks, but having agreements only verbal didn’t do a lot because it's simple to skew from something un-written. A social platform really would have helped us, something like Trello (but that still does depend on everyone in the group using it).

It was quite a fluid process though, and there was much enjoyment in that. I did like that we were all pitching in, and on equal footing.
It’s more just for the organisation that structure within the team would have benefited us. Especially being that we had only 4 weeks for this entire activity! When you’re running tight on time your schedule has to be tight to cater.

My role was more clear (I did the Pro Tools work – the editing of the tracks and the arrangement), so I found I was able to focus on my task comfortably, and beyond that pitch in where I could with the production.
I enjoy Pro Tools so much now, I think there may be something wrong with me - I've grown a real fondness for the program! I really like working in-the-box; going at your own pace, trialling sounds, undo-ing, starting again, altering, editing, completing things to your satisfaction, and easily saving!

In the end, it did come together, and time-wise we didn’t do too badly!
Outside of the use of the outboard gear that is - I did find that more time for that would have been ideal - it would have been awesome to have been able to test out various compressors and reverbs before deciding on each (but in saying that, we did end up getting the sounds we wanted out of what we tried, so I guess it served its purpose). I just would have liked to survey the options a little more and get more experimental.

Overall I wish we had been more experimental, and taken more creative leaps in composing the track; adding more features, trying some electronic sounds, having greater variation throughout the track - just because this is a learning experience! Why not try as much as we can and carve out a song we’re proud of from that? We were a little timid in my opinion (which also comes from working within a group, it's hard to venture too far outside the box when everyone should be pleased). I would also tell anyone entering studio work (if they don’t already feel this way) to be extremely malleable and flexible - being tied down to ideas only stagnates growth. Our product is completely detached from our first ideas, and I like it that way. It was a more natural creative process for us - to build the song up, part by part, rather than 'tick off' each idea we originally had.

One of the most difficult aspects of this assignment being a group one, was the mixdown itself – it’s one thing to decide what goes in to a song, but a whole other to level the parts and resolve how the entire song will sound. Everyone has different taste when it comes to music and what, to them, sounds balanced – heavily dependent on the style of music we’re used to and what we’d aim to emulate – so it’s almost tiresome to try to work all of this together and for the song to become what each of us consider to be appropriate.

Balance and the mix are make or breaks for the track - all the elements of a good song can be present, but if they are not aesthetically balanced within the aural space, the song can lose the effect in its creative parts.
Levels really are everything, and one of the final hurdles in creating a quality piece of work.

If we were to have mixed this song individually, we would have created six different songs.
For interest’s sake, and simply because I want to practice the processes some more, I am going to make my own mix of the song, and hopefully a remix too (because I think there are gems of music within this song to work with).

Here is the track, as a creative amalgamation of the six people who worked on it: 

Listen on SoundCloud

I personally quite enjoy our song - it’s something I would listen to recreationally, so to me that’s a great sign! It’s the style of music I like - the gritty, lo-fi quality, with a thick arrangement, and several parts winding in and out of the mix. It's got a nice feel to it as well, in the key and chords.

The distorted guitars is one of my favourite parts, I think the way they underlie the entire song brings the whole piece together; tying it all in with each other, and providing the base for the lo-fi style. Dan made up the part for the electric guitar, the bass and the acoustic guitar, and I think the parts work wonderfully together. It set the tone for the rest of the track.

In saying all this I am not completely happy with our mix - there were ways I had to compromise, this being a group product. Amongst other things, I think it all needs more automation, so the levels are always shifting with one another and staying fluid. The distorted guitar I think needed to come forward and go backward more often. The drums also are too prominent in parts, while the bass I would have liked to be more prominent (I think it drives the song nicely, and lends a great groove to the track). In general I would've liked more riding of the faders.

I also thought the drum track could have changed up a little more, but other members liked the idea of a drum loop, which in the end suited, so that worked out fine in my opinion (it did turn out that the consistency throughout the song gave the track a particular vibe). The parts do work well together, and there is unity amongst the features… It just would have made for a more interesting and endearing mix I think - to have greater variation and dynamics, intricacies and depth, and a stronger character.

This is all just personal taste though, and overall I am very happy with what we managed to create over a four week period, especially being that we also learnt a whole new console within this time!

None of us were too fond of the lyrics either, so working beyond that to create a song we rated is something we should be proud of. To take a sheet of lyrics and create a living, breathing song is in itself a very rewarding process! I wouldn’t change a single aspect of it - it is the product of an intense learning period for us all, and I’d be happy to work with my team members again in the future.