Hello everyone! This is week 8 of Laying Down the Sound. In this video, I highlight the various constituent guitar, vocal, and percussion parts that comprise the second half of my song “Unraveling.” Most of the video features commentary on recordings present within Ableton, but some segments are instead dedicated to demonstrating how certain guitar parts are played. The entire second half of the song is here covered, meaning that this video marks the last episode of the series focused on “Unraveling.” I did not intend for this video to be so long, but I hope you enjoy the in-depth dive! Thanks for watching!
Tag: recording
Laying Down the Sound: Unraveling – Episode 3
Welcome back to week 7 of Laying Down the Sound! This is the 3rd episode of the series focused on my song “Unraveling.” After finishing up with the acoustic composition last time, I shift my focus in this video to the recording side of things, going through the various parts that comprise the song. I explain the reasons for the decisions I made along the way and demonstrate how certain parts are played. In total, this video covers everything up until the second verse. Next time, I’ll pick up where I left off and likely bring the “Unraveling” series of videos to a conclusion. Thank you for watching and I hope you enjoy!
What’s it like recording during COVID?
Hey, all!
I’ve had a really cool opportunity these past two weeks–as well as the next two weeks to come–to spend some productive time with my a cappella group, DJs A Cappella, and the company Liquid 5th in order to record our 1st-place-winning ICCA set from last winter (Think Pitch Perfect).
Over the last two weeks, I’ve gotten to take an inside look at how different recording studios are handling the pandemic and the inability to have people face-to-face while recording music. I figured this might be something interesting to some of you, so here we go!
Liquid 5th is the company my a cappella group has worked with for years. Our contact with the company is located in North Carolina, and specializes in working with collegiate a cappella groups. My freshman year we took a road trip down during our spring break in order to finish recording an EP the group had started the previous year, and I can honestly say it’s one of my top 5 college memories.
You can check out that EP here! https://open.spotify.com/album/1vkjsGmjdfUSPqhMegWz1k
During that recording process, we had 5 or 6 members in the studio at once, each in our own sound-proof boxes, and recorded together. Liquid 5th worked closely with our music director and the person who arranged the specific songs we were recording in order to make sure the final product was as close to what we had imagined as possible.
This time around, things are a little different. We’re still working very closely with professionals in order to make sure the outcome of our sessions is high quality, but instead of recording in North Carolina, I have 18 people recording one at a time in my tiny studio apartment off of Liberty Street.
Our contact with Liquid 5th and I had a zoom meeting a week or so ago to install a bunch of super crazy software on my Mac, which not only allows him to control my computer from where he is in North Carolina, but to directly transmit all audio recorded by the equipment here in Ann Arbor to his home studio hundreds of miles away.
Each member of the group has a 2-hour time slot where they are charged with recording their specific voice part for all of the 12 minute set. Instead of singing along simultaneously with other members as we did last time, we sing with a pre-recorded MIDI track of the voice parts on a piano, as well as the vocal tracks of any members who’ve already recorded before us. It’s a little different, but it works.
The equipment we’re using was rented from another contact of the group’s, and we cart it back and forth from the studio to my apartment before and after every day of recording.
In general, it’s meant a lot more of the responsibility for things to go well lands on our individual members of the group. We’ve had to be very on top of scheduling, locations, driving, and drop-off/pick-up times.
Overall, however, we are super psyched to be able to put out new music even though we cannot travel or record like all the past members of this group have in their own respective times as members of the DJs!
If you’d care to give our award-winning set a listen, it can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D6ok1iWRDU
Laying Down the Sound: Unraveling – Episode 2
Welcome once more to Laying Down the Sound! This is the sixth installment of the series and the second episode focused on my song “Unraveling.” Last week, I went over the core guitar parts and vocal melodies of the song, leaving off after the second chorus, just before the guitar solo at the end. In this video, I demonstrate the chord progression that underlies that solo, and I dig into the lyrics of “Unraveling” – their origin and meaning. To conclude, I include a full acoustic performance of the song (I also have a bit of fun with a guitar part in the song I haven’t shown yet). Next time, I’ll move to the recording side of things.
Laying Down the Sound: Unraveling – Episode 1
Welcome to the fifth installment of Laying Down the Sound! After completing my breakdown of “Colored Balloon” last week, I now move on to a different song, this one called “Unraveling.” It’s one of the shorter, simpler songs on my album and also one of my favorites. In this video, I expound and expand on the guitar parts and vocal melodies essential to the composition, and I demonstrate their organization and fit with one another. In all, I highlight the development (in terms of guitar parts and vocal melodies) of all but the last section of the song, which is primarily instrumental. I’ll get to that next week! Thank you for watching!
Laying Down the Sound: Colored Balloon – Episode 4
Welcome again to Laying Down the Sound! This is the fourth installment of the series and the fourth and last episode focused on my song “Colored Balloon.” Picking up where I left off last time, I continue to concentrate on the recording process and the various constituent parts of the song. This occurs mainly in Ableton Live, the DAW (digital audio workstation) I used to record, although some segments are demonstrated acoustically. This video wraps up my breakdown and decomposition of “Colored Balloon”; my next video will spotlight a different song of mine. If you wish to suggest a song, please leave a comment about that. If not, I’ll choose! Either way, thanks for watching!
