I Need You Say No  -  Post 2

R&D

My first development plan was pretty simple... strip out as much waste as I could. Drums? Gone: They sounded rubbish and uninteresting. Guitar? Gone: boring, out of tune and so out of time I couldn't be bothered to "flex time" them in Logic.

A few other elements like the "bass" track, were removed and added to my "replace" list.

I did however really like the synth track. It had a cool tone and served as solid foundation for the track. But the chord voicing isn't great: Too big a jump between chords. I've been programming a synth that will run in parallel with the original, but this one will have tighter chord voicing, glueing the chord structures together. There is Harp at a later point in the track which I thought was usable and I thought the general song structure, lyrics and melody were great.

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I'm struggling with vocals. As you can hear in the audio sample in the "start" section... it's painfully out of tune. To start with I kept it, tuned it, rearranged it... It's still not sounding great.

I listened to alot of The XX. Jamie XX (the principle songwriter) uses a less is more approach. Not over crowding the music and general vibe; simple drum beats, and guitar sections. Thats the primary inspiration I took away from them. I also love the clean guitar reverb sound The XX use on alot of their material; such as "Islands".  

Along side this "XX" feel I was getting was the Two Door Cinema Club vibe. Slightly more upbeat but with the same musical values and similar instrumentation. A specific track is "What You Know". This kind of fusion of electro/indie/pop was the perfect influence I needed for "I Need You Say No". The picture was; simple ideas, lots of low, lots of high and lots of space. Pan, side chain or just cut stuff out to create a environment where the sound could breath. 

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This was the musical side of the production. I had the picture clear in my head... and now I needed a technical plan. 

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As in line with my concept; I wanted to test my abilities to work from my own personal work space. So using the tools available (such as Logics instruments, effects and other plugins). I rewrote, performed and sequenced the drums, guitar and bass. My culture of production when writing is to loop a section of the song, load/plug in an instrument and then jam with it. Layering ideas and sounds to work on later (once I have left my creative head space and moved into the editing world).

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I found a cool drum sound, tinkered with the internal settings and produced a final cut for the MIDI drum stem.

I like to record guitars through an amp, down a mic and then into the software. It's sounds better, clearer and less artificial. But, I wanted to use the objects that I own for this track. I used my Presonus FireWire sound card to insert signal directly into the DAW (Logic for this project) and used Logics guitar and bass amp simulators to create my sound. I think it sounds pretty convincing. I distorted the guitar a little, experimented with amp simulators and with post effects like reverb and compression... I think it sounds great. 

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Same for my bass. I own a bass guitar and recorded it directly into Logics amp simulator, programmed it and added some dynamic EQ. It sounds cool! I asked another student (who can identify DI recordings with out fail) if he liked the vibe. A strong dislike for "skipping corners" is his natural response, but he surprised himself with a positive response. And that was the majority of my R&D. Talking to people, asking for opinions and having my track listened to against my influences. The concept was there, the vibe was there and the track was starting to take shape.  

Where I am currently at (November 1st 2017), is at a tricky cross road. The vocals are still sub-par and I can't get around it. Don't get me wrong the guy can sing. He wrote a cool song and did most of the hard work. But (and it's a big one), he's not technically able. He tracked his vocals during a red bull fuelled evening with a cheap mic and an interface in his room. He needs to work with a producer in studio condition with proper gear (even the use of a pop shield would have sorted alot of issues out). I have decided the female vocals are a write of. Even after tuning and flex pitch they sound awful. Same for his vocals; tuned, cut and flexitime... are also well below satisfaction. He can sing but needs direction.

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I've asked him if he can use his BIMM facilities to rerecord his vocals, and I've tried to get him to travel down to Northbrook so I can supervise/produce the re-recording. Unfortunately he's adamant that his original vocal take is good, and won't budge. He's welcome to put his name to it, but I won't.  So the Plan...? 

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I plan to return his copy of the track (with his vocals), and rerecord the vocals with Zoe Beth Hobbs. Another Northbrook student with fantastic talent and has provided strong vocals for me before. This is degree level work and I need to use high quality resources to build my tracks... which amazes me as the BIMM performance student who wrote the song plans to submit it as his 3rd year piece... anyway... moving on.  

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The plan for a new vocalist is a huge step in the development of this track and as the quality of the backing track has dramatically increased, so must the vocals.