Project Updates 6 - Nearing The end

Yo! Yep, its that time of the week again and ya boi is back with another Sunday project updates blog! Heaps has happened over the course of this last week to the point where I'm actually almost done with uni for the trimester! Let's get into it!

Collab with INSERT_NAME - 'Stare' [Complete]

As I mentioned in the previous updates blog, by the time you guys are reading this, 'Stare' will have been out for a little while! However, within the last week before it's release, a whole heap of crazy and awesome stuff went down such as a last minute design collaboration for the track artwork with Viola Babra Chen (shown below) and mastering in *gulps* Pro Tools!

'Stare' track art by Viola Babra Chen

Something that seriously amazed me about Viola's work is that the artwork you see to the left only took her a mere two days to make. In this time Richard and I booked a session in the Avid S6 studio at uni and mastered the track (which you can listen to below!)

INSERT_NAME x Levels - 'Stare'

https://soundcloud.com/levelsmusik/insert-name-x-levels-stare

Looking back on this track now, I am honestly so happy with how the mix turned out in the end as there was no last minute panic and the mix almost came together on its own. Everything sat together rather nicely and I barely had compress anything (I know, prayers answered). In addition to this, the master that Richard and I had done on it had brought it back up to appropriate volume whilst also keeping the waveform rather dynamic which is what I'm both very surprised and happy with. Generally when I master a track I find myself crushing the mix way too much with all sorts of shit like saturators, compressors and then the limiter. This time around and with Richards assistance, we were able to take a completely new approach to mastering and it wound up sounding beautiful. On a seperate note from producing, I have also tested and played this track in my DJ sets at Aviary Fridays at Birdees nightclub on a mono sound system and it still shined through. Overall, the only change I would possibly make to this track is that master could have been a tad louder as I found myself cranking the trim knob the slightest bit in clubs when playing the mp3 off the CDJ's. In terms of general listening however, this is irrelevant and will go unnoticed so that's fine by me.

Recording for Kevin Barber's 'Warble' EP - contribution complete

Unfortunately over the last few weeks, Kevin has been rather unwell and unable to attend class or studio sessions as a result. However, on a positive note, the tracking that Connor and I had done for Kevin thus far in this project has been more than enough for Kevin to sufficiently finish his EP from home. Although this is not to say that we will no longer assist Kevin if our help is needed in any way. Recording for Kevin has been both an absolute pleasure and an amazing experience. As I am mainly clustered in my own little EDM/DJ world, I don't usually get to go into big studios and record organic instruments for full songs. By recording Kevin before Chase arrives, it gave me an amazing opportunity to learn some absolutely beautiful sounding acoustic microphone techniques which I will make serious use of for Chase's EP!

Design Collaboration with Nic Faull-Cryan - Photoshoot photos finished

Over the course of the last week, Nic has been hustling hard (as usual) to finish the editing on some of the specific photos I had taken a liking to from our photo shoot. As expected, these turned out to look absolutely amazing and have since been posted on all of my social media platforms with some of them being new profile pictures. The photos have been collaged together below for you guys to check out!

Edited photos by Nic Faull-Cryan on November 8th 2018

on the home stretch

Well guys, with all of this being said there is realistically just one more project to go and that being Chase's EP recording! If there is any time left by the end of this trimester at uni to show you guys my mystery side project I've been working on, then that may or may not come into play as well. But until that time comes, sit tight and watch this space, until next time!

Levels :)