We provide the music.....
If you've been following my blog you know for the past few weeks I've been working on a techno/deep house tune with DJ Amor. Well the animation has come back today from the very talented graphic designer Sasha Bernardes. I'm extremely happy with the results. Check it out....
(Doctor Duck, 2017)
The Plan
Check out my previous post 'Silence - DJ Amor & Doctor Duck' to discover how we came up with the ideas. The plan worked almost perfectly and in fact we had the audio finished in one session less than planned. Having a google drive where all team members had access to all project planning documents, session files and assets was a great way to keep everyone on track.
The only thing I would have changed about our plan is to involve the graphic designer more earlier in the production cycle giving her a copy of the pre master bounces earlier would have meant the animation would have arrived on schedule. I think you will agree that it was worth the wait. I particularly like the strobe light effects on the kick drum at the main drop.
Instruments
In my previous post 'Let there be bass' I discussed the use of the Moog Sub 37 synth to create the bass line for this track. I love the sound of this synth and the growl it created in the track is one of my favourite parts. It was really great to spend some quality time with this synth and I can't wait to use it in future productions.
The Arturia DrumBrute was also an excellent choice its analogue circuitry really gave the song that analogue edge we were looking for well before we ran it through the never. The ability to manipulate each individual drum sound as well as control over timing without quantisation really gave the drums a human feel that can't be replicated accurately in the box.
Capturing the vocals Rode K2 really allowed us to drive a whisper enough to let it sit perfectly in the mix. Check out my post 'A female touch' to understand the process.
Production
The Neve Custom 75 has been an amazing tool for this production. Firstly with initial bounce of all the drum files. During this phase we used the analogue warmths and distortion to bring our drums alive, check out my post 'Neve(r) Neve(r) Land' for our process.
We utilised this awesome console again for our final mix. Having tactile control of each channel and a plethora of EQ options combined with the amazing monitors in that studio meant we could really make the track pop. The process is outlined in my post 'The fun part'.
Reflection
This piece turned out to be something really fun. I've enjoyed listening to it on many different sound systems and look forward to the feedback I'll get from youtube, Soundcloud and Facebook. I've posted on all three platforms hoping to capture the ear of some techno and deep house fans for some public feedback.
The team worked really well together each of us for filled our obligations in a timely fashion that never affected our schedule. Each team member had individual work and group work to combine and our plan allowed it to flow seamlessly. Even when we ran into hurdles Amor and I were calm and worked out a solution which actually worked in our favour.
I would definitely work with both Sasha and Amor again very professional, excellent communication and above all a nice tune.
Check out my case study on 'Chloé - The Dawn (Dixon Remix)' which was my reference track for this piece and see if you can find the similarities.
Copyright
One last note on copyright as I believe it's not talked about enough in music. At our first studio session where we all got together for the first time it was agreed upon that any potential royalties from this project would be split 3 ways on an honour system. You never know how any track will progress and I think it is very important that this copyright be talked about at the beginning of any colaboration or creative work.
References
Doctor Duck. (2017, July 17). Amor & Doctor Duck - Silence ft Sasha B. (Original Mix) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk1bIAqfPNA