Unit 3 evaluation (Lo4 you will need to detail how you used post-production techniques)

From the screenshots above, you can see that in post production I focused on making my voice sound cleaner via compression, reverb and delay. This was so that the lyrics could be layered over the beat and be incorporated into the mix so that they won't clash together. This also makes the vocals more loud and clearer for the audio listener, making the song more enjoyable. 

Recording the lyrics using my Microphone and headset wasn't challenging as I have done it before, and after recording the main vocals of the track I began to record some adlibs. These are used to give an artists a personality and make the song catchy and potentially memorable (memeable). Examples of this would be the "Shatta" and "BULLET" adlibs that Russ uses.

I believe the hardest part of this personally was uses the plugins and sfx to make my voice sound well mixed with the beat and other sounds that are in the mix.

Both of these plugins are used to compact the vocals and to delete unwanted frequencies and sounds. Using the fruity limiter which is the top one allows to control the compression of the vocals which gets rid of high frequencies that may hurt the ears. However if used wrong this could have some unwanted effects on the vocals and make them sound too lofi and compressed.

The use of fruity parametric is to delete specific frequencies such as highs, lows, and the mids.  This would be used to get rid of the white noise coming from my PC or clothes that are in the background. In my opinion this is my favourite out of the two. Even so I still use both just as much in my music as they compliment each other well.

After that I used reverb, which is the go to plugin for making your vocals sound loud and demanding in the final mix. However to ensure it wouldn't ruin the song I limited the amount of reverb used as too much can cause my vocals to have way too much echo and make the song unlistenable. 

The pitcher plugin was used to pitch correct my vocals so that they fit within the tune of the beat. This is because my skills as a vocalists are not of a professional level so I can sometimes seem out of tune from the song. Using this plugin helps keep my vocals on tune and helps better the song overall. On the bottom left you can see the knob that changes the amount of auto tune used on the vocals. Its good to have it in the middle or low as too much auto tun can ruin a song and hurt the ears of the listeners

This is Maximus, a compressor that I use frequently in FL studio because it makes vocals sound closed and compact. It also offers different options like lofi and gate which change how my vocals sound, While I didn't use this in Dojo, I use it in other songs of mine like profit. However, After using all of these my vocals can sometimes sound too quiet in the mix. So, to fix this I can make it louder in the mixer channel, or I could use a fruity compressor to increase the attack, and release of the vocals. Now with all of these interconnected and put into the song my vocals now sound as if they were on a  professional level. 

After using all of these effects on my vocals I began to export the song out of the FL DAW and into a WAV file on my computer. I choose a WAV file as the quality is exponentially better than a MP3 and it can still be uploaded to sound cloud without any glitches. I am uploading it to sound cloud as it is free and can be spread and marketed through social media easily. Also I cannot yet upload music Spotify or Apple Music and sound cloud is a great substitute for younger, newer artists that want to form a fanbase. 

For the creation of my song DOJO, I researched and listened to many different songs by different artists to get a basic understanding of how they rap and engineer their vocals to a professional standard. 

Songs like:

-Anti social 2 (Baby Santana)

-Couch (Pierre Bourne)

Are popular songs that were made by small artists with a small budget that still sound professional and of good quality. This was the hardest task of the project as using the effects at beginner level proved difficult and were very confusing to use at times. To help, I looked at many videos and tutorials on YouTube that explained the basics of each plugin. This is eventually how I learnt what each effect is and does to the audio clip you put it on. 

 

This video goes into detail what each effect and plugin does to your vocals and how that can effect the overall song. This was able to guide me and show me the levels of which I should use them and how they can build onto the atmosphere of the song. One example of this was the reverb which gave my vocals an echo effect and made them sound smoother and louder in the mix. It was also able to connote a feeling of loneliness and darkness that is present in the song, especially when mixed with the adlibs. 

Through this I decided to use many of the effects and plugins that You-tubers and artists have used. 

An example of this would be the effect fruity phaser:

An effect used mainly to space out frequencies in the vocals and make them sound almost fuzzy. Which then decreased in the mixer track can cause your vocals to sound close to Pierre Bourne or Don Toliver. I chose to do this as they are very popular and trendy artists that would make my song sound familiar and trendy for my target audience. Following Steve Neale's theory about repetition and difference in genres as I am not subjecting this stereotype but instead using it to further the quality of the song. This could also show how I have used Jason Mittel's genre theory to my advantage, as I have exploited other successful songs in order to also gain commercial success for my product. Through using industry standard effects, DAWs, and beats I have created a product that is very similar to other successful products, but with an inclusion of my personality which is shown via my lyrics and the character that I implement into my songs. 

I used effects like reverb and fruity phaser on my adlibs to connote a feeling that they were far away from the main vocals. Using an increased amount of reverb made the Adlibs float over the song and last longer, which in tern made the song more exciting and fun, Especially when I used funny adlibs that were there to connote a personality in the song. Also the fruity phaser was used to make the vocals unpredictable and fit the aesthetic of the song which is dark and trap. 

After using FL, I decided to try using Logic on the school macs. This was a challenging experience as getting used to the software was harder than getting used to FL Studio. However, after watching tutorials on You Tube I was able to add effects such as reverb, an EQ, and a pitcher to my vocals. The Reverb made my vocals sound incredibly loud and wet, so to combat this I had to turn up the dry and turn down the attack using the knobs present on the Plug-in. 

The EQ was much more easier to understand and use as the general layout of an EQ plug-in are universally similar. So, I copied what I did using the Fruity Loops Equaliser which made my vocals more clean, smooth, and nice. I then opened a second version of the plug-in in an attempt to make my vocals sound more darker a heavy to mix well with the dark beat I choose. I did this by lowering some of the highs that were present in the vocals, while also making the lows of my vocals stand out more. 

After working out the basics of my sound compression I decided to add some auto tune stabiliser which would help my vocals stay in tune with the melody of the beat. Doing this makes your song sound more sleek and smooth, helping the two audio clips to mix together well and increasing the enjoyment for the audience. However, if you add too much auto tune, then you product could sound too robotic and it could be hard to understand the lyrics of the song. Example of this are the rapper Nav and the rapper Lil Yatchy who both have this problem when they release new music. To combat this I made sure that after pitching my vocals to the right key, I would tune down the attack and wet of the auto tune which would lower the amount of auto tune in my vocals.  

After having completed all of this, I listened to the final product and made some adjustments to slightly better the sound of my song. Overall I much rather enjoyed using Fruity Loops however that's because I am very used to their software and very biased to how it operates. Even so, learning how to use a new software proved to be effective as it helped me better my understanding of music production and engineering, which can help further my skills as a musical artists or someone who works in the industry.