Production Techniques
Look at how insane I am, I’ve decided to write the production and recording techniques out separately, although this may seem like the New Testament there is a very simple reason why I’m doing it like this. When I put my instruments into the sampler, I hardly touched them except for maybe compression, because I knew I could get a hundred different sounds just from that one instrument and instead of cornering myself to fewer sounds I decided to spend the time on the instrument within the track itself.
Just to clarify my EP is called ‘Nite alone’ and the titles are similar sounding so don’t get freaked out by the similar sub-headings thinking I’ve gone into some form of depression as I’m counting down the minutes and hours and marking them down to see how long I’ve been alone. I am lonely.
Midnight alone
The low down on this track was for it to originally be a full proper song with lyrics and everything, hence the reasonably easy chord progression, however I decided against this due to it being a track you listen to when alone at midnight and when alone at midnight I do not wish for gay vocals. The instrumentation for this track is my Drumpad (including the clap), Accordion, Harmonica, Recorder, Mbira, Ukulele and Stylophone. I didn’t touch the Drumpad, only a little compression to help bring it out a bit more. I used the Accordion as an introduction to the piece but adding a little bit of Bitcrusher for a more distorted feel. I simply added a bit more of a low end for the Harmonica, with no plug-ins. I added Amp Designer to the recorder, specifically the Turbo Head Amp, because I wanted to give it a distorted, vibrato sound. I added compression to the Stylophone for it still to be clear in the mix but also quite low, and I also added Phaser onto it, again for a vibrato more distorted sound. I didn’t feel the need to adjust the Mbira, Xylophone or the Ukulele, however for the Ukulele I used the loop as I have mentioned previously and as an outro for the piece I altered the loop by adding Fuzz Wah to it just because I can. Once I finished the track I wanted to add something to make it more hollow and lonesome so I used Space Designer and used the pre-set of Brick Wall.
2am alone
This track I wanted a little bit more upbeat, because although I’m depressed as heck, making some bad music at 2am doesn’t mean my one listener isn’t. The instrumentation for this track is my Drumpad (clap), Ukulele, Electric Guitar, Xylophone, Stylophone, Bass, Accordion, Harmonica, Recorder, Acoustic Guitar and Mbira. For the Drumpad I added a Tape Delay, Phaser and Bit Crusher, the reasoning behind this is because I was simply experimenting and I happened to come a cross this cool sounding drum pattern so I decided to keep it in, I also enjoy it because, similar to ‘Midnight alone,’ it gives it that hollow sound. I gave the Electric Guitar a Bitcrusher and Phaser, as I wanted to give it that odd, distorted feel by giving it a rough crunch and an orange flanger. For the Stylophone I added a Spreader as I felt it gave it more open-air feel to it, plus it comes in after the Electric Guitar so it adds to a more reflective feel somehow. The Bass had Overdrive and Fuzz-Wah added to it so as it would add to the surreal feeling being reflective off some of the other instruments, also to just add to the volume of it a little bit. Again, similar to the Bass I added a Fuzz-Wah to the Accordion because I wanted that Wah effect to add to the overall surreal sound of the piece. Finally, for the Acoustic Guitar I added a Pitch Shifter onto it and made it just a little bit out of tune to again add to the surreal side of things. On the Master channel I added Space Designer and added the pre-set Valley Forest to add to the more open-air feel I was aiming as mentioned in Stylophone.
4am alone
Within this track I wanted things to be most natural and portray to that one listener that everything is coming together at once, be it metaphorical to my mind finally accepting I am alone and allowing myself the ability of sleep, just to restart the process at midnight again. 4am alone was bought to you by the following instruments: Drumpad (clap), Acoustic Guitar, Recorder, Harmonica, Bass, Mbira, Stylophone, Xylophone, Electric Guitar and Ukulele. Seeing as I wanted this to be the most natural track I didn’t really use any plug-ins for any of the instruments except for my Drumpad and Bass. On the Drumpad I added the EVOC 20 Filterbank plug-in, as I wasn’t completely happy with the sound of the Drumpad on its own so I decided add a filter to it to make it sound live and more natural. Then for the Bass I added Chorus, AutoFilter and Flanger as I just wanted the Bass be a droning bass line in the mix, so for that I used the AutoFilter and Flanger plug-ins, then afterwards I wanted to add a little bit more fullness to the track so I added the Chorus plug-in. I wanted this track to stand out a little bit more in the high end with the low still being present so I added Stereo Spread plug-in on the Master channel and altered it so as it there was gradually become more of a stereo spread moving from medium to the high end.
