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Javier Melendez
This week's chapter was focused on MIDI. During the chapter review day with my mentor at Audio Mix House, we read over the chapter quiz and discussed the answers. Most of this chapter was straight forward and easy to understand, but we did go into more detail on a few things. One example of what we further discussed was when you would use a MIDI track. Let's say you had a MIDI sequence created and a specific sound on a MIDI capable keyboard that you wanted to use. You would route the MIDI sequence to that keyboard, produce the sound you wanted and route that signal back into Pro Tools. Luis did mention that he rarely had to route MIDI out to another device for a desired sound, since Pro Tools has a vast amount of virtual instruments available. After spending some time talking about virtual instruments available on Pro Tools, we switched the focus to my mixing project. I was going to submit my mix at the end of the week, so I decided to get my mentors professional opinion on my final mix. Luis was helpful about pointing out and confirming my suspicion that the vocals needed a little work. He told me to take a look at what frequencies I was cutting and boosting on the main vocals and also to bring down the level on the backup vocals a bit, as they were a little too present in the mix. I did make an attempt to add some effects to the vocals, to give them a different feel during certain parts of the song, but decided against it. The main reason for not going through with an effect on the vocals was because I couldn't find one that I really felt fit the song and brought out the vocals in the way I had envisioned. Also, I didn't want to give the song too much of an artificial sound. I felt I should keep the "live" sound in the track.
The next day, I had the opportunity to sit in on a recording session with Sean Summerlin, LyNe' Gray, Jahsoul lyrical, and JahRuzLem. The song they worked on was an R&B track that seemed to include two perspectives on a difficult situation. LyNe' was the female perspective and sang some great verses that added emotion to the track. There was a sense of pain, but hope in her lyrics and voice. Jahsoul Lyrical rounded out the song with some great rap verses that added the male perspective to the song. Sean Summerlin had already recorded his verses at the beginning of the song, so he did not record during this session, but he definitely added to the session by suggesting a different emphasis and feel to certain lyrics, and voicing his ideas on what effects or sounds he thought would be a good addition to the track. Overall, it was a good sounding song with some substance that painted a mental picture of struggle and hope in love. It was an honor to be at the studio to experience a recording session like this one. Everyone in the studio presented ideas or thoughts on the track, which created a good creative and friendly vibe in the studio. It would be cool to work with any of these artists again in the future.
Jam Of The Week: Major Lazer - Get Free ft. Amber of the Dirty Projectors
