Audio X Animation Project Update 2 - Big Steps & Surprises

Hey guys! Back again with another update on project two! Today's studio session went really well again as we've finished the layout for the soundtrack! There's a lot of cover in this blog so I'll save the chit chat for the end of the blog today. Let's begin!

Today's Session

In the last update for this project, I outlined the key elements to the track and also showed the session as a whole. This blog will be similar however, there were a few key differences in today's session that I'd like to outline, which I'll get into right now!

Screenshot of the current Ableton Live 9 Session - Taken 10/4/18

Firstly, you'll notice that the soundtrack isn't particularly long, even though I stated earlier that the layout is 'completed'. The reason for this being that I got in contact with Cam again today and was informed that his animation won't be much longer than 30 seconds maximum. In a way, this was a relief for Jackson and I as we now have more time to plan out the sound effects to use in the animation instead of focusing too much on the music side of things. However, this is not to say that we are done with the music side of things just yet as I am still yet to process certain elements, pan and level everything to finish off the mix. Whilst I am doing this, Jackson will be hunting us down some wicked shipwreck samples to use for the animation as Cam told us today that the animation is based on a broken spaceship (in space, obviously).

Secondly, you'll also find that we added a few more percussive elements into the track such as a snare (yellow), tom drums (cream), some open hi-hats (bottom green) and a new kick drum. These are to add to the more climactic parts of the animation towards the end. However, the position of these elements may need to chance in the session depending on how long Cam makes the animation to be.

The new kick

In my last blog, I was referring to the kick we were using as experimental due to the fact that we were relatively unsure as to whether or not we would use it. As expected, we never did end up using it. The reason for this being that we didn't observe it through a headphone mix in our first session. After monitoring it further, we discovered that it gave off a strange 'clicking' effect at the end of the sample, similar sounding to what clipping sounds like. However, clipping was beyond a possibility as every channel is currently set to -12dB to leave plenty of headroom for the final mix. After trying other options such as EQ and editing the sample, we eventually concluded that it would be much easier to grab a new sample and prevent the wasting of any more precious time. Below, you'll find our new kick drum which seems to be working well for us so far!

The New Kick Drum for the project!

The processing used for this kick is very similar if not identical to the previous kick. With a slight boost in the low end and a rather moderate boost in the high end, it enables to kick to express itself rather well without being layered too much with other kick drums.

The other percussive elements

All of the other percussive elements in the track not including the kick drum were drawn from the Drum Lab in the Kontakt 5 Library by Native Instruments. After reminding ourselves over and over again that this is NOT a dance track, Jackson and I decided to go for a more live and organic feel when it came to choosing samples for this project. Below you'll see that I've listed screenshots of the exact instrument samples that we used for this project!

Drum Samples used in Drum Lab for this project!

Drum Samples used for this project from Kontakt 5 Drum Lab

The other track that you may have noticed in the latest session screenshot is the crash symbol audio along with a second reverse crash symbol attached by a cross-fade. This particular part of the track is rather experimental at this stage as it was a bit of a last minute addition in today's studio session. I realised after the session ended that most of the trouble that I went through crossfading the two samples wasn't necessary as I simply could've just reversed the reversed sample to give me the original version. If I am to keep this section in the sound track, this is most likely what I'll be doing in my next studio session.

To finish

The progress of the project is flowing rather smoothly so far and I'm hoping this flow of production will continue throughout the projects entirety! However, as I said in the last update blog, the ball will really begin to roll once we get supplied with Cam's final animation!

Hoping to bring you guys some updates on some of my side projects throughout this week so be on the lookout for those! As always, stay tuned and have a good one! I'll catch ya next time!

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