Recording/Mixing/Mastering:
Recording & Rough Mix:
Berry Codeine -"Let it Blow" Featuring HeartlessRu & DejBrazy
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Here is my first full production, with instruments and vocals recorded and mixed by Ashley Vazquez.
Song Title: Let It Blow
Producer: Ashley Vazquez
Engineer: Ashley Vazquez
Songwriter: Berry Codeine, He4rtlessRu, DejBrazy
Lead vocalist's name: Berry Codeine for Hooks
2nd vocalist's name: He4rtlessRu for Verse 1.
3rd vocalist's name: DejBrazy for Verse 2.
Live microphone Instrument 1: Hand claps recorded via Audio Technica Mic.
Live microphone Instrument 2: Hand snaps recorded via Audio Technica mic.​
Loops or beats source: All drum/percussion/bass/melody/harmony loops made, chopped, and edited are found in Logic library Apple loops.
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Recording & SFX:
Toky Maj - "Karrying A Gun With Me" Ft. Berry Codeine
For this production, the main rapping male vocals and music bed was sent to me in a 2-track mp3 so I edited as best I could with what I was given. I recorded and edited the female vocals on the choruses, and added gun sound and explosion SFX to the piece to emphasize some of the male spoken vocals. I also did a lot of panning and automation at the beginning chorus to make the sound travel back and forth between ears.
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Original Theme:
Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Bridge
Variation:
Verse/Chorus/Bridge/Chorus
Mixing:
THEME and VARIATIONS
"Bankroll" - Tytilidie x Xollllinnnn
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When I auditioned for "Bankroll" by Tytilidie x Xollllinnnn in the online library, I connected with it the most out of all the selections, so I decided to remix it for our Portfolio IV class at Full Sail University. Tytilidie x Xollllinnnn also has two other remarkable songs entitled "Beauty" and "Teleport", however "Bankroll" included the most tracks, making it a better pick for the remix. I enjoy the simple piano, light vocals throughout the song, and the flow. This arrangement is so simple that it seems open to other variations/interpretations, and production techniques.
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-For the Chorus, I created two stems, one with vocals muted, and the other with the drum and harmony muted.
-For the groove change, the tempo is slowed to half-time.
For the sound design portion,
-For the first sound effect track I used the Sculpture plug-in and utilized a noisy groove from the motion sequences, and made it nylon. I used the key of C major and placed the notes on the 1, 3, 5, and 7 bars of the 8-bar section. For the other sound effect portion, I utilized the Alchemy plug-in and found Advanced Hydraulics with a machine jitter sound from the sci-fi portion of the sound effects. I also used the key of C major and brought them down an octave to talk better with the Sculpture track. I placed the notes on the alternating bars from the sculpture track, on 2, 4, 6, and 8 of the section. I wanted to go for a sci-fi/machine sound design. I also panned the sculpture track 30 dB to the left, and the Alchemy track 30 dB to the right, and altered volumes.
-For the verse, I created a stem where the drums were muted, and from there, utilized the stem to create the groove change, which is in normal time.
-For the LIVE Drums, I chose verse 2 instead of Verse 1, which you hear in the preview.
-The musician that played the LIVE instrument goes by He4rtlessRu.
-We took out the drums within the original sample and replaced them with our own kick, snare, and hi-hats. We did not have an actual LIVE drum set to work with, so we utilized things around the house.
-The instruments that were used were a plastic table, the palm of the musician’s hand for the kick, a toilet paper roll, and a rubber band around it with a finger flick used to make the snares, hi-hats were created using the tops of candle lids being smashed together.
-The Mic positioning and placements that were most effective were using the mic stand and placing the dynamic mic above the performance, or table where the musician was playing.
-For the bridge, I changed the groove, making it go from normal time for the first half, and then into double time for the second half to complement the vocalist's change in pace.
Original Version:
Mixed Version:
Mixing:
Jokers, Jacks and Kings - "Sea of Leaves"
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For this project, we were given a full song with 33 WAV files consisting of various drums, bass, electric guitars, synths, and vocals and we had to mix it. All mixing was done in Pro Tools.
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EQ, Compression/Limiter, and Maximizer plug-ins were used in combination with VuMeter, SPAN, and dB Meter to monitor LUF levels. True peaks are at -1.0 dB and LUF levels are between -14 and -16 dB.
The solo guitar at the beginning was given a flanger effect to add movement and energy to the intro. In the last chorus, the vocals were backed down to sit a little further behind the lead in support of the melody line. A subtle touch of distortion was added to the phrase "Somebody Scream". I slightly boosted and cut in increments to give a three-dimensional aspect to the overall dynamics. The very last beat cuts off with an open high-hat that closes and the last beat s a stinger and it sounds choked off. To remedy this a slight decay of about 1.9 seconds was added to that last part to give a sense of resolve.
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Original Version:
Mastered Version:
Mastering:
Way Out There - "Follow The Bass"
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For this project, we were given a full mix and we had to master it. All mastering was done in Pro Tools.
EQ, Compression/Limiter, and Maximizer plug-ins were used in combination with VuMeter, SPAN, and dB Meter to monitor LUF levels. True peaks are at -1.0 dB and LUF levels are between -12 and -14 dB.
The main sawtooth bassline was EQ'd to stand out with a boost at the bassline frequency. The kick was EQ'd to stand out more. The snare was toned and brought up with compression to sound snappy. The high-end was made brighter with some added air around 16k. At about 1:15 the kick drops out of the arrangement for a few bars and it drops back in, for that duration of time I automated the EQ removing the sub-lows from 40Hz and below with a High Pass Filter. At about 4:10 there was an odd-sample sound that I adjusted the tonality of thinning at about 300-400 Hz with EQ to make the sud more in line with the tonal image before and after it.
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Pre-Mastered Mix:
Mastered Version:
Mastering:
Rihanna - Kiss It Better (Cover by Ashley Vazquez)
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For this project, I created a full mix from top to bottom. I composed the music bed myself within Logic Pro, and exported it into Pro Tools where I recorded and mixed the vocals. For the three live recording performances they are hand snaps/hand claps (found on kick and snare), and also vocals from myself.
Pre-mix was leveled at -14 LUFS with a true peak of -3.3 dB.
The master sits at -12.4 LUFS and -1.0 dB true peak. Perfect for streaming purposes. The Production Credits and screenshots of the metering and plugins on my DAW (Pro Tools Ultimate) for this Master are available below.
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Production Credits & DAW, Plugins and Metering Screenshots:
Production Credits for Rihanna - Kiss It Better (Cover by Ashley Vazquez)
This shows the LUFs levels and true peak max of the rendered MP3 file for mastering and streaming purposes.
This is a screenshot of the mix window from the session
Production Credits for Rihanna - Kiss It Better (Cover by Ashley Vazquez)
"I feel like the engineers’ role is to take the record to the next level. Add your two cents because you have the opportunity to. If you have a creative mind, use it."
- Derek “MixedByAli” (Ali to MotiveNation)