Jacob Rice – Song Production

Songwriting

Every song included in this EP stemmed from a sample or loop, these would be either a drum loop or a chord loop. These samples immediately sparked up vocal melodies or further production ideas. The samples that started the songwriting process for this project had a very similar ‘vibe’ they felt futuristic and outer-space like. I was drawn to these straight away and decided the most natural feeling moving forward was that the theme would be Sci-Fi and how love and relationships and life within that realm would sound in the form of a song.

As soon as the structures started coming together it became apparent that a big part of the songwriting would be the production values. A lot of the songs do focus on the production and the lyrics sit in second place, everything from the small textures to the effects on the vocal play a big part in why the songs are allowed to have lazier lyrical content. I am aware of that and I feel this style of music lends itself more to melody and what the producer/songwriter can achieve with a playground of an unlimited number of layers.

Throughout the songs I still want to maintain the commercial side of songwriting. Sticking to fairly basic structures of an ABC song form. This has defiantly given me more exploration into how types of textures can freshen up receptive sections. For example using white noise, dotted hi-hat patterns and very percussive led rhythms.

Recording

The recording process of these three songs was very simple. At the time of recording I found that working from my own home setup was where I achieved my best vocal takes and could feel most comfortable experimenting with harmonies and other backing vocals. So vocals were all recorded with the same microphone in near the exact same position.

The microphone I used for all the vocals was the sE Electronics – se2200a. The polar pattern is

Cardioid and the Frequency range is 20 Hz – 20 kHz. it has a 160Hz low cut setting which I had on for all the takes which really helped clear up the vocals of any unwanted muddiness, it just meant before applying the graphic EQ I already had a sweet and crisp sounding vocal to work with.

Also as you can see in the right hand side picture I have used an elastic band to tie a pencil round the microphone covering the centre of the grill. I do this to reduce as much sibilance as I can before having to use a De-Esser as sometimes I can find it can leave certain phrases feeling lifeless. It’s a trick i learned from a friend who is a producer/mix engineer. I have used this technique on most of my recordings since. All that it does is reduce the amount of air hitting the diaphragm of the mic.

Instrumental wise, everything is either a sample used from various sample packs/splice samples or a Logic X built in instrument that I then went onto play around with EQ and other processing effects. If I ever had to play in an instrument for example chords or synth pads/drones, they were recorded in through my Chord MU25 Midi controller.

Mixing

Sticking to the mainly pop side of things for songwriting meant that I wanted a very pop based mix for all the tracks. How I see most pop music is lead vocal, kick drum and snare drum. I mix very quietly so what I’m looking for throughout listening is that the lead vocal is very much on top for the majority of the song. The kick and snare drum I want also up front but just behind the vocal so that the three aren’t all clashing and the head of the mix.

The hi-hats and percussion I want to be very wide and sat somewhere behind the kick and snare but still in front of the bass and key/synth instruments. The frequencies tend not to clash so having them just in front or equal to the synth instruments gives them the best home but also maintains the very percussive production I wanted to achieve.

White noise and risers are something I like to use a lot in my production anyway so delving into this more experimental space-pop genre gave me more of an excuse to use them wherever I can. The white noise was mainly used in the chorus’ in these songs. I feel it just lifts the whole mix without being too distracting for the listener and it’s the perfect tool for transitioning into the main part of the song. The risers in the mix are treated very much how a dance producer would use them, big and wide just to build as much tension heading into new sections. They never feel too upfront and they do their job perfectly in these tracks by sitting so wide that they almost go un noticed to the ear but still give you that feeling that something new is coming whilst you’re listening.

Artists and producers that inspired this work would be James Blake, Sampha and Mura Masa. I really like how their mixes always have lots of textures and depth to precision and how that’s used in the alternative world of electronic music they sit in. a lot of their production definitely inspired what I wanted to achieve. Majority of their mixes are commercial in the way that they all manage to achieve pop radio play, vocal led with a dirtiness to their drum sounds and electric piano tones. I wanted that but with the sci-fi gleam and shine to give it my own unique spin.

Mastering

All my final mixes were bounced out to AIF files at -8dB to ensure there was absolutely no peaking, highest quality and enough headroom to play with in mastering.

I used a a graphic EQ with a slightly tweaked version of the ‘Dance Music Type EQ’ preset. I can’t explain the full reasons as to why I use this on all my final bounces. I always have ever since I started using Logic Pro. I found it brings most of my mixes to life the best out of any other EQ out that I have experimented with. It essentially boosts everything just a tad and dips slightly at around 4k.

I also used an adaptive limiter set to out ceiling -0.4dB to ensure no clipping and the gain up to about 8dB to make sure each mix was a close to each other as possible in volume.

I didn’t feel the need to use any other plugins like Multipressor/Exciter ect as I didn’t want to drain the life of any mix I worked hard on getting each level to sit right and still achieve the full/gleaming like mix.

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