Project Updates 5 - Moving on to Bigger things

Guys! I know, its been a while but I'm back with yet another project updates blog! I took a week off blogging to focus a lot more on my projects so that I'd actually have something big to talk about this week! I found myself starting to fall in a hole of making excuses to by myself time and thats somewhere I've been before and do not want to be right now. So, without further ado, lets jump into these updates shall we?

Design Collaboration with Nic Faull-Cryan

After a couple weeks of trying to revolve around each others schedules and failing (cause ya know, life gets in the way), we were finally able to hit the film studio and take an absolutely mad photoshoot!

The film studio at SAE Institute, Brisbane

Photo taken by yours truly on 8/11/18

The entirety of this shoot was taken with the main lights in the room off (unlike the picture on the left) and lasted for about an hour and 15 minutes. Throughout this time, Nic experimented with different coloured lighting and positioning to get the best shots possible to suit the vibe I was looking for which turned out way better than I could have ever asked for!

Over the course of the next week, Nic will be editing the raw photos and using some of them in his own assessments for this trimester at uni. Nic has also supplied me with all of the raw photos as well as some of the photos he has edited already which I will attach below! All that's left for this project now is an additional logo in which Nic will be designing over the next few weeks! It's been an absolute pleasure to work with him and I'm very keen on doing more collaborations in the future!

Raw photos

Raw photos from the shoot taken by Nic Faull-Cryan on 8/11/18

Edited photos

Photos edited by Nic Faull-Cryan on 8/11/8

INSERT_NAME Collaboration - 'Stare'

Ladies and gentlemen, your boys finally got around to finishing their collab and have also got the official name for it! 'Stare' will be out on SoundCloud for your listening pleasure in less than one week after it goes through its final mixing and mastering phase! After a bit of a slow start to this project for me, I decided that I wanted to put in more effort towards the track. Therefore, the full arrangement and second drop to the song was completed by myself. This allowed the fusion of Richard's and my own style's to show through and flow really nicely in the track with the beginning and first drop leaning a lot more towards future house and the second drop coming in towards a deep house/deep future vibe. The screenshots for the Ableton session can be found below, displaying the full arrangement of the song whilst also specifically focusing on the two drops.

Screenshots of the full arrangement of 'Stare' in Ableton Live 10 Suite - Screenshots taken 10/11/18

Kevin Barbour 'Warble' EP Recording - Bass, Guitars & Vocals

I finally get to talk about this project properly again! Earlier this week, Kevin, Connor and myself all hit the NEVE studio for one of our biggest sessions yet recording bass, electric and acoustic guitars as well as vocals for specific tracks!

Tracking Guitars - Bass, Electric and Acoustic

Kevin's Beautiful Guitars - Photo take by myself on 5/11/18

Considering that Kevin doesn't have a bass or electric guitar amp (or at least one he's happy to record with), we decided to record his bass and electric guitar through a DI box only with the assistance of his effects pedals!

DI Box along with Kevins FX Pedals in the NEVE Studio - Photo taken by yours truly on 5/11/18

Acoustic Guitar

This one was a bit of a different story as we wanted to capture the acoustic guitar organically as it was without any DI signal. For this set up, Kevin and I went for a mid-side mic setup using 2 Neumann U87's to capture the overall body of the guitar as well as the bridge, neck and rear end of the guitar. This wound up giving off an absolutely beautiful tone and I am heavily considering stealing it for my Chase Johnstone EP Recording ;).

Kevin mid-performance recording with the mid-side U87 setup in the NEVE.

Photo taken by yours truly on 5/11/18

Vocals

For this setup, Kevin was really keen on using the same vocal mic technique we used on Alex Mills when recording 'Lighten Up' consisting of an AKG 414 and a Royer R-121 setup in close proximity (next) to each other. Just as it did with Alex, these two microphones gave off an amazing tone and captured some incredible performances by Kevin who shocked me with his sheer musical talent alone let alone his vocal abilities.

Kevin performing and recording vocals in the NEVE.

Photo taken by yours truly on 5/11/18

To finish...

Overall, my projects have taken huge steps over the last two weeks and I couldn't be happier with their progression. The way it is looking currently, all of these smaller projects will be finished by the time Chase arrives in Brisbane and that will then become my primary focus. As I mentioned in a previous update blog, I realistically only have around 5 days to get Chase's vocals and acoustic recorded, this is definitely achievable with his first session already being booked in on the 21st of November in the NEVE. Keen to smash out some more work in the coming week! Until next time!

Levels :)