Tuesday 1 May 2012
Wednesday 18 April 2012
Recording a Musical Product 18/04/12
On the 10/04/12 I recorded one last song for my musical product. This was James Morrison's "You Make It Real." Once again we recorded the guitar and vocal seperately using all of the same equipment as before. The songs that I planned to orignially do0 were: At Last by Etta James, Make You Feel My Love by Adele, Guns and Horses by Adele and Mercy on Me by Christina Aguilera. However I ended up doing the songs Make You Feel My Love and Hometown Glory by Adele, You Make it Real by James Morrison and At Last by Etta James.
Instead of recording Christina Aguilera's song I decided to record You Make it Real because we were having problems recording the guitar for the original song. We started by playing the guitar along with the original track (playing through the headphones) however found that it was at a much faster pace then how we normally like to play it. We then tried recording both the vocal and the guitar together before playing the guitar to the previous track we recorded so that it was at our pace. This didn't work. The last thing we tried doing was recording a few bars of the guitar and putting it on a loop as it is also (like Adeles song) got a repetitive guitar part. This worked and then we tried adding the riffs in between however we found that they would not stay in the right place or would sound too different to the main guitar part.
So instead of recording Mercy on Me we recorded a different song. This was a lot easier. We recorded the guitar beforehand and then recorded the vocal in a few takes afterwards. After this we added the effects that we had used on Adele's song Make You Feel My Love.
Instead of recording Christina Aguilera's song I decided to record You Make it Real because we were having problems recording the guitar for the original song. We started by playing the guitar along with the original track (playing through the headphones) however found that it was at a much faster pace then how we normally like to play it. We then tried recording both the vocal and the guitar together before playing the guitar to the previous track we recorded so that it was at our pace. This didn't work. The last thing we tried doing was recording a few bars of the guitar and putting it on a loop as it is also (like Adeles song) got a repetitive guitar part. This worked and then we tried adding the riffs in between however we found that they would not stay in the right place or would sound too different to the main guitar part.
So instead of recording Mercy on Me we recorded a different song. This was a lot easier. We recorded the guitar beforehand and then recorded the vocal in a few takes afterwards. After this we added the effects that we had used on Adele's song Make You Feel My Love.
Tuesday 27 March 2012
Musical Product 27/03/2012
On Sunday I recorded 2 more songs for the EP/musical product - At Last and Hometown Glory.These didn't take too long to record as each took 4 or 5 takes before they were sounding ok. On At Last it turned out that on one part of the song, a previous take sounded better so I split the track and moved the better part into the track that I felt was the best take overall. Again, after all the recording had been done I finished the tracks and mixed them down on Monday night. I had saved some of the effects for guitar and vocal on a preset from the last recording session and used these on both tracks however I changed them slightly.
On Hometown Glory Rob and myself used a click track to play the guitar to as it is quite a repetitive song and if it goes out of time then the whole song sounds a mess. This helped a lot as it kept the guitar part consitent and it was easier for me to record the vocals as I didn't have to make any last minute changes.
Again when recording we used: an acoustic guitar (TangleWood); a microphone - louten horizon (for both guitar and vocals); two rokit speakers one on either side of where we were mixing the track so that we could listen to the music properly as a surrounding sound and pan it left or right when needed; an alesis USB audio interface and an RNP pre amp.
In At Last I removed the bass reduction and added some extra reverb. I then changed the bass part of the visual EQ to make the lower notes sound more clear and smooth and I also changed the EQ on the guitar to give the same sort of effect. In Hometown Glory I added extra gain because at the start of the song and in the verses my voice sounds quite quiet in comparison to the chorus, this then made the track sound slightly more clear and equal in terms of volume. I also added some extra reverb to the guitar.I still have to record a couple more tracks for the musical product and hopefully I will get these done over the Easter holiday.
On Hometown Glory Rob and myself used a click track to play the guitar to as it is quite a repetitive song and if it goes out of time then the whole song sounds a mess. This helped a lot as it kept the guitar part consitent and it was easier for me to record the vocals as I didn't have to make any last minute changes.
Again when recording we used: an acoustic guitar (TangleWood); a microphone - louten horizon (for both guitar and vocals); two rokit speakers one on either side of where we were mixing the track so that we could listen to the music properly as a surrounding sound and pan it left or right when needed; an alesis USB audio interface and an RNP pre amp.
In At Last I removed the bass reduction and added some extra reverb. I then changed the bass part of the visual EQ to make the lower notes sound more clear and smooth and I also changed the EQ on the guitar to give the same sort of effect. In Hometown Glory I added extra gain because at the start of the song and in the verses my voice sounds quite quiet in comparison to the chorus, this then made the track sound slightly more clear and equal in terms of volume. I also added some extra reverb to the guitar.I still have to record a couple more tracks for the musical product and hopefully I will get these done over the Easter holiday.
Monday 12 March 2012
Musical Product 8/03/2012
The list of songs that I plan to record for my musical product are:
When recording make you feel my love we started by recording the guitar and vocals into Cubase however the vocals were clipping when we recorded them and started distorting and we couldn't find where the problem originated from so we just decided to record the whole thing into Garageband instead which actually proved to be easier to use in terms of adding effects and techniques to the track after recording- although they were limited. One thing we did find quite annoying with Garageband is that if you input another track and you only need certain parts of it, even when you trim it down the size of the file still doesn't change in your documents so it is taking up more space then needed in your documents. Eventually we found it is best if you trim the track in another piece of software before inputting it into Garageband to reduce the size of the file.
I didn't have to book any rooms as I just did the recording at home using: an acoustic guitar (TangleWood); a microphone - louten horizon (for both guitar and vocals); two rokit speakers one on either side of where we were mixing the track so that we could listen to the music properly as a surrounding sound and pan it left or right when needed; an alesis USB audio interface and an RNP pre amp.
I currently have all the guitar recorded for all the songs (using Rob's help) and one of the tracks completely mixed down however still have 3 songs to finish off. If I were to make this a full physical product I would still need to create and design the artwork for the EP, the posters and flyers to promote the EP and also set up a lanch gig along with similar promotion. This would then hopefully allow me to gather feedback on the tracks that I have recorded, the artwork and the musical product as a whole from my target market, which was revealed from the primary research that I have gathered.
I can't actually distribute this EP physcially or digitally because it would be breaching copyright laws however if the songs on the album were my own I would probably distribute one of the songs off the album before the others maybe as a free download just to give the public an idea of what they will be getting out of the full musical product before trying to sell/broadcast the album in as many places as possible. These could include:
- Make you feel my love - Adele
- At Last - Etta James
- Guns and Horses - Ellie Goulding
- Mercy on Me - Christina Aguilera
When recording make you feel my love we started by recording the guitar and vocals into Cubase however the vocals were clipping when we recorded them and started distorting and we couldn't find where the problem originated from so we just decided to record the whole thing into Garageband instead which actually proved to be easier to use in terms of adding effects and techniques to the track after recording- although they were limited. One thing we did find quite annoying with Garageband is that if you input another track and you only need certain parts of it, even when you trim it down the size of the file still doesn't change in your documents so it is taking up more space then needed in your documents. Eventually we found it is best if you trim the track in another piece of software before inputting it into Garageband to reduce the size of the file.
I didn't have to book any rooms as I just did the recording at home using: an acoustic guitar (TangleWood); a microphone - louten horizon (for both guitar and vocals); two rokit speakers one on either side of where we were mixing the track so that we could listen to the music properly as a surrounding sound and pan it left or right when needed; an alesis USB audio interface and an RNP pre amp.
I currently have all the guitar recorded for all the songs (using Rob's help) and one of the tracks completely mixed down however still have 3 songs to finish off. If I were to make this a full physical product I would still need to create and design the artwork for the EP, the posters and flyers to promote the EP and also set up a lanch gig along with similar promotion. This would then hopefully allow me to gather feedback on the tracks that I have recorded, the artwork and the musical product as a whole from my target market, which was revealed from the primary research that I have gathered.
I can't actually distribute this EP physcially or digitally because it would be breaching copyright laws however if the songs on the album were my own I would probably distribute one of the songs off the album before the others maybe as a free download just to give the public an idea of what they will be getting out of the full musical product before trying to sell/broadcast the album in as many places as possible. These could include:
- Amazon (physical & digital)
- HMV
- Independent record stores
- Radios
- Lists so that people can choose the music for TV programs, adverts and films
Tuesday 3 January 2012
Studio Sessions
We all know that Ed is famous for using his loop pedal and did so in his breakthrough video for SBTV when he did a studio session for the song "You Need Me I Don't Need You." He records his voice and guitar over 1 or 2 bars a few times using various techniques to create layers for the melody/accompaniment of his song.
He has also done a studio session for the song wayfaring stranger by layering up his voice and creating harmonies for him to sing over throughout the song.
The video is below...
He has also done a studio session for the song wayfaring stranger by layering up his voice and creating harmonies for him to sing over throughout the song.
The video is below...
Studio Personnel
 |
| Jake Gosling |
1. "The A Team" - Written by Ed Sheeran
Released as the first single from the album as a digital download on 12th June 2011, went straight in the charts at number 3 and spent 10 weeks in the top 10.
2. "Drunk" - Written by Ed Sheeran and Jake Gosling
3. "U.N.I" - Written by Ed Sheeran and Jake Gosling
4. "Grade 8" - Written by Ed Sheeran
5. "Wake Me Up" - Written by Ed Sheeran and Jake Gosling
6. "Small Bump" - Written by Ed Sheeran
7. "This" - Written by Ed Sheeran and Gordon Mills Junior
8. "The City" - Written by Ed Sheeran and Jake Gosling
9. "Lego House" - Written by Ed Sheeran, Jake Gosling, Chris Leonard
Released as the third single from the album on 11th November 2011. Video starring Rupert Grint from Harry Potter.
10. "You Need Me I Don't Need You" - Written by Ed Sheeran
Released as the second single from the album on 26th August 2011. Video starring Matthew Morgan doing sign language.
11. "Kiss Me" - Written by Ed Sheeran and Julie Frost
12. "Give Me Love" - Written by Ed Sheeran, Jake Gosling and Chris Leonard
Includes a hidden track called "The Parting Glass"
Interviews with Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran talks about his rise to fame, spending "all day in the studio" and touring with Example and Just Jack.
Ed Sheeran has an interview with the people that helped him breakthrough in the music industry.
Ed Sheeran was also interviewed by Capital FM...
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