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Matt Harvey
This week's material was about the very important idea of microphone placement. I did not know that there were so many different ways to position a microphone or microphones on different recordable sound sources. Recording is one of the most important steps when it comes to producing music. If you don't have a quality recording, there's no amount of EQ'ing or other studio magic to end up with a quality result. Upon the first read through of the chapter, the material was understandable, but did not fully sink in until the second read through. It's like a light switch flipped on while reading the material on the second time! The first read through includes note taking. On the second time through, my mind is not worried about writing down details and can fully take in everything in the material. After scoring 100% on another quiz, it was time to get back to Knothole Recording Studio for my session with Boo!
This week, Boo and I worked on one of my personal projects that I hope to finish very soon! I don't want to say too much just yet. I will say that we recorded something that I would not have imagined I would have ever recorded. This project is an updated 2016 version of one of my favorite tracks from 1988! What we recorded needed to be pitch edited, and that task alone is a very meticulous one, a job that might drive a normal person insane. Boo started editing and asked if I wanted to jump in and I said "Yes!". During the editing process, Boo and I talked about how in documentaries of today's popular artists how a camera crew will be showing the final results of something that was recorded and how they don't show how long it took to get the final version sound. What is shown on TV is the finished product with an overcrowded studio with people partying on the couch while an artist records in the booth. I then brought up a favorite quote of mine, recently coined by one of my favorite producers, Gareth Emery. He said in a recent Instagram post "...Instagram tends to show the product of success but not the struggle to get there". I've known about AutoTune for several years now because of my 5 year music production experience. Tuning vocals by hand, for example, is not what the general public thinks it is. The idea is misunderstood people saying things like "Oh, (artist name) is not that talented. They probably use AutoTune". The AutoTune process is a very time consuming task for the producer. It achieves the results that are heard everywhere and most people don't realize that it's just the way it is in 2016. If vocals in today's radio hits weren't tuned, to some extent, people wouldn't like the final results. AutoTune can also create vocal harmonies that can't be achieved by the singer in the studio, which is completely fine! I've had an appreciation of the art of tuning since I understood that it's very necessary to achieve quality sounding results! Once the recording was compiled and pitch edited, it was ready for me to take home to add to my current project!
-Matt Harvey
Gareth Emery Instagram post- https://www.instagram.com/p/_-qEXClGOp/
