THE Creation of a TIGHT Low END and a DISTINCT Vocal SOUND

Final Thesis Paper
THE Creation of a TIGHT Low END and a DISTINCT
Vocal SOUND on 4 original SYNTHESIZED Hip-HOP
Beats
Name: Noah Pollock
Module Code: BARA1106
Submission: April 31st, 2008
Assignment: Final Thesis Research Paper
Module 303
Word Count: 12,951
Contents
Page
1) Introduction
3
2) Terms of Reference/Objects & Literature Review
4
3) Methodology
7
4) Project Activity
14
5) Project Findings
20
2
6) Conclusions and Recommendations
30
7) Reference List
32
8) Appendices
Appendix 1: Musical References
35
Appendix 2: Screenshot Data
36
3
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUTION
The reason why I chose this topic for my final thesis was because it ties in exactly with the project I am
currently undertaking with a rap artist called Baby D. In this project I am creating beats for him and he is
coming up with the vocals and lyrics. We are making an album together with 12 tracks total. The vibe
we hope to create is a blend between the sounds of ‘Electronic Dance Music’ and that of the
synthesized Hip-Hop. The sound we are creating is one that is ‘clean’ and created mostly by virtual
synths, with the occasional sample being brought in for a particular percussion sound. The sound I am
going for is one that is sparse, minimalistic, clean, floating, and deep.
The new South-side Hip Hop tracks are now becoming much more synthesized than they use to be. 1
With this they are incorporating an extremely low sub bass which sits below the kick. On some tracks
they combine both the Kick and Bass into one unit and the Kick becomes melodic, thus also serving as
the bass. I have incorporated this style of bass treatment into my 4 songs. Once incorporating this into
my tracks, I must know how to mix them properly or else, if the low end is messed up, it could muddle up
the song or weaken it. Therefore I find the study of this topic extremely important towards helping me
make better mixes.
Along with a deep low end, I want the vocals to stand out clear in the mix and have a signature sound to
it. Baby D and I have been hearing artists come out with a signature sound to their vocal which makes
them stand out from the crowd. Three artists that I will choose to give as examples are, Souljaboy
(Distortion effect on his Vocals), Akon (Pitch tuning effect), and T-Pain (Pitch tuning effect to an
extreme). Recently, but not normally like the others, Snoop Dogg has released a new Single called
“Sensual Eruption” in his 2008 Album “Ego Trippin’” and used this Pitch tuning effect a lot in his new
hit. This is the first track that he has used this kind of effect as he normally sticks to his regular voice.
We hope to capitalize on this by creating our own sound so that we will also stand out from the crowd.
These are the 2 aspects of the mix that I hope to focus on for this research. My form of research would
be considered both ‘Action’ and ‘Experimental Research’. Making music is like an experiment because
all the sounds are the variables in the experiment. By doing this, I will learn many other things and pick
up much information and many ideas along the way from articles, tutorial videos, new music tracks,
people’s feedback, and the combination of all these methods into use through my own experiment of
trail-and-error. The low end and vocals are two aspects that I am focusing on. By better understanding
these two aspects of the mix, it will make my overall mixes better.
I hope to be able to produce tracks, mix them, and be able to mix other people’s tracks and make money
from this. This project will help me learn more about the production and mixing aspects of original
tracks and will teach me the necessary skills required to make a good mix. Once finished it will also be
part of my portfolio as a showcase for my work. I have made Trance tracks before but have never made
a complete Hip-Hop beat with vocals. This is my first project to do so. I already have basic skills toward
production and mixing. This will help further my skill, and help me develop a ‘feel’ for the Hip-Hop beat,
4
as it is a lot sparser than ‘Club Electronic Dance Music.’2 As with every new influence that I get, it will
change the music I will later create.
1.
2.
Early famous Southside artists, such as Outkast and Goodie Mob, use to use a lot of samples in
their music. Nowadays the Southside beats that are topping the charts are those that are
completely synthesized, examples include Hurricane Chris, Mike Jones, Crime Mob, and Lil John.
(Source: MTV Top 100 Billboard)
‘Club Electronic Dance Music’ in this case refers to the popular Dance genres that have a 4/4 Kick
going throughout the whole song, these genres include Trance, Techno, House and Disco.
CHAPTER 2: TERMS OF REFERENCE/OBJECTIVES & LITERATURE
REVIEW
RESEARCH STATEMENT:
The Mixing & Blending of the Kick Bass, Sub Bass 1, and Vocals, in terms of EQ, signal processing across
4 Hip-Hop songs in the hope of creating a professional sounding low bottom end to the mix and a
signature sound to the Vocals.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
•
How can I incorporate more ‘electronic’ synthesized sounds into the genre of Hip-Hop while
still keeping it Hip-Hop?
•
How can I get a big and deep sound for my low end yet still have it cut through smaller speaker
systems?
•
How can I create a signature sound for the vocals?
•
How can I make my vocals stand out better in the mix?
•
What signal processing plug-ins and tweaks must I use on my low end and vocals to achieve my
desired results?
•
What are the best methods for me to compare my tracks to see how their sound stack up
compared with those of the ‘pros’?
•
Does the overall song vibe? How should I test it?
5
THE BOUNDARIES I AM OPERATING WITHIN
I am operating within both the artistic realm of music creation and the technical realm of music
production. Music production can also be considered an artistic realm as it is up to your taste to how
you choose to mix a track. But the fine tuning parts of the mix I would consider to be more technical
than the creation part. The creation part, in my opinion, is purely creative as you create a track up from
scratch that you have in your head. Like with any art, music is subjective. It is only natural that as I listen
to different styles and different tracks, I will take in what I like from them and naturally incorporate it
into the next track that I create.
I realize that each person vibes differently to different kinds of tracks, even within the same genre. I
had to find out the vibe that Baby D vibes with so that I could create tracks that would be compatible
with his rap style. With this I told him to give me a set of beats that he likes and what kind of beats he
wanted me to make. He gave me his songs and I purposefully brain-washed myself by making those
tracks all I listened to for a couple of months. Meanwhile I was still getting the new Hip-Hop tracks that
were coming out and topping the charts so that I could keep track of the current sound. Within the
period of two months, most of my music I listened to was his kind of Hip-Hop, known as ‘Duurty South’,
or ‘South Side Hip-Hop’. Occasionally I switched on some of my music to switch to and refresh my mind,
but as my own discipline to get the ‘feel’ of his style of music, I played it all day, all night, for literally over
a month.
1.
Sub Bass refers to frequencies from 16 – 60 Hz (Owsinki, “Mixing Engineer’s Handbook,”: 26 27.)
6
REFERENCES & LITERATURE REVIEW
These are the relevant materials that I used to help gather information for my research.
Music
I treated all the music that I listened to as a form of Data collection. It helps me know the ‘sound’ that
people are vibing to these days. I’m listening to mostly a specific genre and sub-genre, but I am also
listening to other current top hot tracks of Hip-Hop and Pop so I could get other ideas for sound. I was
also constantly trying to find new sounds from different genres that I could stick in these tracks. Top
producers are always trying to do this and the successful ones combine genres. I hoped that by taking
all these different tracks and inspirations I would regurgitate something original.
The complete reference list for the music that I used as references for my tracks is located in Appendix
1.
Books & Documents
Please refer to the Reference List for the complete details of each resource.
MAGAZINES & Articles
Sound on Sound Magazines “Secret of the Mix Engineers” Feburary 2008 Article
Digizine Summer 2005 – “Equalizing Vocal Tracks”
Digizine Winter 2005 – “Comping the Vocals”
Digizne Winter 2006 – “Adding Ambient to the Vocals”
Digizine Spring 2006 – “Final Tweaks to Vocals”
The “Art” of EQ by Devin Devore
Books
‘Mastering Audio: The Art and Science’ by Bob Katz.
nd
“Your Research Project 2 Edition” by Nicholas Walliman
“The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook” by Bobby Owsinski
7
“The Mastering Engineer’s Handbook” by Bobby Owsinski
“Modern Recording Techniques Sixth Edition” by David Miles Huber, Robert E. Runstein
Documents
‘Mastering with Ozone: Tools, Tips, and Techniques’ by iZotope.
‘Auto-Tune 5 Owner’s Manual’ by Antares Technologies.
Videos & Interactive Tutorials
Ask Video Tutorial : Melodyne
Ask Video Tutorial: Learning Ableton
Ask Video Tutorial: Mixing with the Pros with James Tuttle
Hip Hop in Session Tutorial Video Vol. 1, 2, 3, 4
Know it All! Mixing and Mastering
Mixing and Mastering with Waves
Why I Chose These Items To Help Me On My Research
From the materials listed above I only used the sections that were relevant to my research. These were
sections that had information regarding Vocals and the low end Bass.
Studying these articles, books, and videos, I came to the conclusion that it all came down to practice.
All of these items were guides; they all stated that themselves, stating that “All tracks are unique and
you must use your own judgment.” Most importantly the word that came up often was “Practice.”
They often stated “Practice till you find a method that works for you.” 2 Teaching me the mechanics
was all that these resources could do. Each engineer and producer all have their own favorite tools they
use and favorite technique they always result to. There are many general areas that many agree upon
and this gave me an idea of what area I should be focusing on myself. An example would be that they all
seem to hone in a tweak similar frequencies when trying to get a particular sound for the vocals. 3
I couldn’t disagree with my resources much because I saw them as guides. The only one I found odd was
“Ask Video Tutorial: Mixing with Pros with James Tuttle.” This was a video tutorial of a producer mixing
a song and explaining to the watcher what he was doing and why he was doing it. The part I found odd
was that he kept boosting his EQ on everything. The only cut that he did was a Low Pass, or High Pass
filter on certain tracks. Then from there all he would do is boost instead of cutting frequencies. All the
8
books and articles I read clearly stated that, “Try to cut and not boost, only boost when you’re trying to
make things sound different.” 4 This is because unless you are using a linear phase eq boosting adds
phase shift to the sound; but if it sounds good, then it’s good.
2.
3.
4.
“…you’ll find a wide variety of options are available…this should automatically tell us that no
“one” tool is right for the job…making of a working environment that’s right for you.” (Huber,
“Modern Recording Techniques”: 11.)
“You should always feel free to try something else, because after all, whatever works for you is,
in fact, the right way.” (Owsinki, “Mixing Engineer’s Handbook,”: Preface xv)
Listed Below are the different Frequencies they gave for the vocals from different sources.
Fullness: 140 to 400 Hz, Intelligibilty: 1k to 2.5 kHz, Presence: 4 to 5 kHz, Sibilance: 6 to 10 kHz.
(Digizine Summer 2005 : 42)
Fullness: 120 Hz, Boominess: 240 Hz, Presence: 5 kHz, Sibilance : 5 kHz, Air: 10 – 15 kHz.
(Owsinki, “Mixing Enginner’s Handbook,” : 32)
Power: 80 to 125 Hz, Fundamentals: 160 to 250 Hz, Voice Quality: 315 to 500 Hz, Natural
sound: 630 to 1 kHz. Accentuation/Intelligibility: 1.25 to 4 kHz. Highlight: 3 kHz. Clarity: 1.25 to
8kHz. Sibilance: 5 to 16kHz.
(Devore, Devin. “The Art of EQ.”: 3)
(Owsinki, “Mixing Enginner’s Handbook,” : 32)
Maybe it was normal what he did, but to me it just seemed like ‘a lot’ of boosting was going on and all in
similar frequency ranges as well. At times it seemed like he could’ve cut some frequencies out a little
lower and still boosted certain frequencies, but instead of a 12dB boost that he did, he could’ve just
dipped some frequencies in the lower range and applied a 6 dB boost on where it was he wanted to
boost.
Everything I picked up was useful and practical. I just need to apply all the mechanics that I learnt from
these resources and apply those concepts to my tracks and learn what my own likes and dislikes are.
9
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
After reading “My Research Project” by Nicholas Walliman and looking at different research types, I
figured that the two best types that fit what I needed to do were Experimental and Action research.
The reasons I choose Experimental research was because it stated that “The researcher strives to
isolate and control every relevant condition which determines the events investigated, so as to
observe the effects when the conditions are manipulated. “1 Experimental research is based on
gathering data by experiments. It involves in making a change in the value of one variable (called the
independent variable), and observing the effect of that change on another variable (dependent
variable). The word independent can be interchanged with ‘not constant’ and dependent can be
interchanged with ‘constant.’ This being said I could compare it with my situation and call my tracks the
independent variable and my listeners the dependent variable. The reason for this comparison is,
based on the feedback that I’ll be getting, I am going to constantly change the track up until I get the
votes of the majority in my favor. If more than half of the people that I show my tracks to say something
similar regarding an aspect of the track, then I would make the appropriate changes. This merges into
the area of ‘Action Research.’
Action research is a cycle based research. Action Research states that, “Constant monitor and
evaluation are carried out, and the conclusions from the findings are applied immediately, and further
monitored. “ 2 The cycle for my Action research is listed below.
My Action research is based on two separate aspects of the song.
The first is “how does my mix stack up compared to the pros?”
The second is does the song vibe?
This is the cycle for my first question: “HOW DOES MY MIX STACK UP
COMPARED TO THE PROS?
1) Ask Questions - The questions I will be asking will be those regarding clarity, frequency
response, stereo imaging, and the overall level.
2) Collect Data – There are two different ways I am collecting data.
The first is that of a Qualitative nature. I will listen to my mixes on 5 different playback systems,
listed below, and take notes on pen and paper on what I have to change to the mixing.
The second way is of a Quantitative nature. I am going to compare my tracks with those of the
pros within the program,‘ SoundForge’ using the program iZotope Ozone 3 that could be used
to analyze frequencies, and stereo imaging. 3
10
3) Analyze - Take all the Data I collected and make sense of it.
4) Formulate Hypothesis/ Reflect – Think of where and why I have to make the new changes.
5) Plan Action Steps – Make the changes to my mix accordingly.
6) Positive Action For Change – Go back and playback on all the different systems and see if I like
the changes I have made.
1.
2.
3.
Walliman, “Research Project.” : 117
Ibid., 121
iZotope Ozone is a Mastering Plug-in created by the company iZotope. Within it, it has a
frequency and stereo analyzer which gives real-time feedback of both the frequency response
and the stereo image.
This cycle will go on indefinitely until I’m happy with the mix. I am basing my final judgment on my
ears and not the graphs. The measurements with the programs are seen as a guideline.
This is the cycle for my second question: DOES THE SONG VIBE?
1) Ask Questions - Every time I play my tracks to anybody I am asking them virtually the same
question, “Do you vibe to it?”
2) Collect Data – The data I collected are their reactions and comments.
3) Analyze – I take what they say into consideration
4) Formulate Hypothesis/ Reflect – If the majority says something needs to be changed, then I
would go back to the track and try to figure out why they said it.
5) Plan Action Steps – Going through several modifications of my track until I find what I like.
6) Positive Action For Change – Once happy with my new edits, I will go back out to get feedback.
This cycle will keep going on indefinitely until I’m happy with the track. I consider the fact of
‘majority rules’ to a certain point. If it’s close then we (David and I) will tip the odds one way or the
other.
11
Why I Think These Two Methods Suite My Research
I think that making music is like a chemistry experiment. Mix and match and they’re either bonding or
destroying one another. A lot of it is based on experimentation and trial and error. Once all the
technicality and mechanics regarding music playing and production are learnt, it comes down to your
own creativity. I just have to trust in my taste, make my tracks, and take it out to the world to get their
reaction.
I’ve stated this quote before, but I want to explain its relevance here. In the book “My Research
Project” it states “The researcher strives to isolate and control every relevant condition which
determines the events investigated, so as to observe the effects when the conditions are
manipulated.” In the first case, I am the researcher; I control every condition of my tracks. “The effects
I observe” are those of how these tracks affect other people. “When the conditions are manipulated,”
can be compared to “when I edit my tracks,” I can then observe again, the effects that these edits have
on people.
How I’m Going to Judge How My Mixes Stuck up Compared to Those of the Pros
The first and most important aspect to mixing a track is to have a good reference track. My audio
engineering teacher at SAE 4, and ‘The Mixing Engineers Handbook’ by Bobby Owsinki stressed this
point a lot. 5 My teacher said that I should build up a list of tracks that I really like in terms of the mix and
keep them with me when I go into a new studio. He said that I should know these reference tracks well
enough that I know how they ‘should’ sound. Upon first play on the monitors at the new studio I should
be able to adjust to the frequency response of those monitors. He says that this helps tune your ears to
the new environment you’re in.
I have two methods of research, both based on the above stated Experimental
and Action Research methods.
The first method is to compare my frequency response with those of the pros by comparing snap
shots of each frequency spectrum using iZotope Ozone. This will help me ‘see’ how the song should
sound. It will let me know how low their lows are, how high their highs are, how wide or narrow their
stereo imaging is and how loud they are.
In terms of loudness I’m not going to boost it as loud as those of the pros simply because I don’t believe I
have the necessary ‘gear’ to make it happen. After reading “Mastering Audio: The Art and Science” he
states that so often people mess up their mix by trying to make their tracks too loud so that they could
compare with those of the pros in terms of loudness. In the end he states that all they are doing is
squeezing the life out the song. He states that “Yes, it is louder, but it is a ‘wimpy’ loud” and not the kind
you want on your final mix. 6 Some people push the level so high that there is no dynamic range left.
12
This becomes fatiguing on the ears to listen to. He stated “Be prepared to be at least 3dB lower than
the current ‘winner’ if you want your record to even sound acceptable.”7 This is the philosophy I’m
going to follow when I’m pushing my mix. I want it loud to an acceptable level, while still giving it space
to breathe.
I am aware that this method of comparing screenshots and signal response of my tracks to those of the
pros won’t give me the whole picture about the mix. I do believe it is a good guide and basis to start
from. The rest will have to be based on my own judgment and ears. Analyzing the graphs will also help
me be aware of my playback system’s deficiencies.
The second method is to compare my tracks with my reference tracks on 5 different playback
systems because I listen to a different aspect of the mix on each one. This is after I have already viewed
the analysis from spectrum analyzer.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Max Petersen; former teacher at SAE Bangkok from 2004 – 2006.
Owsinki, “Mixing Enginner’s Handbook,” : 67 – 70.
Katz, “Mastering Audio,” : 124
Ibid., 266.
Why I Chose 5 Different Playback Systems
1) Monitor Speakers Genelec 8020a
These are my main speakers for music creation and mixing. These are very good speakers
for the overall feel of the music. They have a very good high and mid response. I do feel that
their mid response is very ‘warm’ and tends to make things sound better than they actually
are. Their low frequency response only goes down to 60 Hz and makes it very hard to judge
the levels of the sub bass. I do an ‘overall’ general balance on these monitors.
2) Computer Desktop Altec Lansing Speakers
These are my computer desktop speakers and they compare to those of standard
computer speakers. I listen on these because most people are listening to music on a
similar setup when they’re using their computer. They have a frequency response that
goes down to around 38 Hz because of its subwoofer. This helps give an idea of where my
13
subs are at. The mids are less prominent and I have to make sure that the voice still cuts
through.
3) Headphones Sennheiser 280 HD
These headphones are very good from the low-mid range to high treble. I use it for mixing
mid frequency instruments, particularly vocals. I hear details on these that I don’t hear on
any other system. They help me with my EQing, Panning, and Signal Processing; since they
are closed headphones I can hear the subtleties in the changes I make easier than the other
systems.
4) Headphones Sony in-ear Listening earphones
These are earphones that I listen to most of my music on and I know how music should
sound on it. These have a really low ‘sub’ response, better than my Sennheiser’s and a very
crisp ‘high’ response. I judge my highs with this piece. If a track hurts my ears when I listen
to it on these then I know my overall mix is too sharp, or a particular instrument is too harsh.
I use these to judge the ‘Sibilance’ of the voice, high-hats, the claps, and the snare. Too
often I ‘over-brighten’ mixes and after listening to it on these earphones I would turn the
highs down because it would hurt my ears.
5) Car Stereo System with two 8 inch Subwoofers.
I use my friend’s car system for the judgment of my sub-bass frequencies. His Subwoofer
has a response that claims to go down below 24 Hz. A lot of the new Southside tracks have
‘Sub’ Frequencies that you don’t hear unless you have a large subwoofer. When I heard the
song ‘Handclap’ by Hurricane Chris in his car I heard ‘Sub’ Frequencies that I have never
heard before and it helped make the song a whole lot better. Only once I heard these ‘Sub’
Frequencies in his car, did I start to notice them on my Desktop speakers and my Sony
Earphones. I now can notice the Sub Frequencies on my Sennheiser’s and my Genelecs, but
they are so faint that if I had the fan on I wouldn’t be able to hear it.
14
I have used the first four playback systems to check my mixes many times before and I know
how they sound relative to one another. The newest addition to my playback systems is my
friend’s Car Stereo system. He is the artist I am producing for. It is a great new additional to my
playback arsenal.
Once listening to his sound system, I realized that my bass in all my mixes were too loud
before as I was trying to compensate for them because of my playback devices. Once I
changed my mixes based on his speakers ( I played tracks I did for him and my own tracks as
well just to test all my mixes on his system), they sounded better on all of my other playback
systems. Not only did it sound better, more balanced, but my overall mix could be bumped up
to a louder level because before the bass took up too much energy in the mix and I was having
too much of it.
By continually playing back on these different systems I was able to cross reference them to
one another. An example would be that I know that when the low subs sound good on my
Genelecs, I have to turn them down 8 dB so that they sound good on my friend’s Car stereo
system.
The methods I used are the typical methods recommended by all the books and engineers
regarding monitoring a mix. This is based on a Cyclical based Action research.
1) Listen to the mix on different systems, loud and soft, to see how they play back.
2) Move around in each situation to get the overall sound of the playback system.
3) Take notes with a pen and paper on the changes that need to be made.
4) Make the changes to the mixes accordingly.
5) Repeat the process indefinitely until the desired sound is achieved.
Data gathered is both Qualitative and Quantitative:
Qualitative:
1) My own judgment of how it should sound based on the playback systems, my
reference tracks, and my ears.
15
Quantitative:
1) The data that I gather from taking screenshots and analyzing the frequency response,
stereo imaging, and loudness between my tracks and those of the pros.
How I’m Going To Judge If My Tracks Vibe or Not
All the books, tutorials, and documents were extremely useful for the ‘mechanics’ but they
weren’t going to tell me how to make a good song. They simply can’t. There is also no program
that can judge your music for you to tell you whether the music is ‘good’ or not. I heard of
programs that record companies use to judge demos people give them and listen to the ones
that the programs okayed, but I have no access to such programs. The element I’m talking
about is the ‘Human’ element to the music. This is, will the fans of this kind of music vibe to my
tracks?
The only way I could test it out was to see what other people thought of it. I chose to use a very
non-formal causal way of interview. I would stick the track on when they are either at my
place, or when I’m over at their place, and say “Hey, check out this new hit single.” I was taking
in 2 sources of information at the same time. The first is how they actually ‘vibed’ with the
song, this is their ‘body’ reaction (to see if they move or nod their heads or not). This is based
purely on my own judgment from looking at them while they’re listening to my music. The
second source was their opinion about the tracks. When I was playing back to a group I would
play the track regardless if everyone as listening to it. I would crank it up and see how the
people I was showing it to moved with it. I also paid attention to the people who weren’t fully
paying attention to the song to see how it was affecting them, if at all.
When I got a person one on one, they would listen to the whole track, occasionally comment
on it while the track is playing, and after they listened to it all the way through, they would tell
me their thoughts. When played to a group, it was harder to keep all of their attentions by the
time the song got to the last verse and chorus. Another thing about a group was that if one
person comments on a particular part of the song while it was playing, others would start to
16
comment as well and have a brief discussion about it, meanwhile missing bout 20 seconds of
the track. This is fine, as I wanted to get a ‘general’ vibe of how they were affected by the
songs.
Even though the ‘interview’ was a casual interview I made sure I always got information
regarding certain points.
These points included:
1)Did you like the song? In other words did they vibe with it. I would ask them to give me
their initial gut reaction and I know them well enough that they can all be straight about it. To
me this was a ‘Yes or No’ question.
2) Were the Vocals clear? Because I am the one who mixed it and know the lyrics, I want to
know if the vocals are also clear to people who are hearing it for the first time. The response, I
wanted was either, Yes I could hear them fine, or No, I had some trouble hearing the vocals.
3)Did it sound like a professional mix? The reason I ask this question is because I
realize that most people don’t listen to music the way audio engineers do. To them it either
sounded like a good mix or not. That was the response I wanted. A ‘yeah it sounded pro,’ or no,
if no, I would want to know why, ‘to sharp? Too muddy? Etc...”
Why I Chose These Three Questions
My questions may initially seem vague and open ended when looked at. I made it this way on
purpose to get a general vibe on whether the overall track was a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’. I wanted a
reaction to the overall picture of both the track (beat, melody, and vocals) and the mix. I
consulted with my Dad about how I should question people regarding my music. My Dad use to
be the music editor of Time-Out Magazine 8 in London during 1969-1972, and has had
experience with having to analyze music. He told me that you can analyze it all you want, but it
all came down to whether the music moves you or not. It could have all the right chords, all the
right beats, but a Classical person may not see the art in for example, Blues, Jazz, Hip Hop,
Techno, and a Techno head might not see how a famous Classical piece is good. My Dad said
that by the end of the day, the music editor and reviewer, which was him, was no special man.
He does not have a special ear or a special taste, but rather is a man with a set of ears with his
own set of taste for music. The fact that they recommend one artist doesn’t mean that the
artist is good. He said that people viewed you (the music editor) as a music guru passing
judgment on what is good and what is not. He told me that he was not a guru, and if he was one
17
then he wouldn’t pass judgment (with a smile). This view determined what kind of question I
wanted to ask. I wanted to see the general feeling they got from my tracks and didn’t want to
’pin-point’ them with specific questions because most people don’t listen to music in that
way.
Data gathered is both Qualitative and Quantitative:
Qualitative in 2 Ways:
1) My judgment of how they ‘moved’ to the music (they don’t know I’m doing this).
2) Their opinion on whether the song worked or not
Quantitative:
1) How many people liked it and how many people didn’t. Majority rules in this case of
when a change needs to be made, with the exception that in the end I have final say to
what I keep and take out.
8.
Time-Out Magazine is now worldwide and has a guide for many different countries. It is a guide for
what is happening, where to go, and the nightlife. When my Dad was working for them it was a
weekly guide for the ‘art’ scene, such as music, art, movies, food, and theater. Nowadays it has
changed to become a more ‘overall’ guide of the city they are writing about.
18
CHAPTER 4: PROJECT ACTIVITY
What I did for my project was to research and learn the necessary skills involved in making the
music and production of Synthesized Hip-Hop beats.
I have always listened to Hip-Hop but have never analyzed it and looked at it this closely
before this project. One thing that is certainly true about Hip-Hop is ‘Less is more.’ 1 I learnt
from the Hip-Hop tutorial CDs that most amateur producers put too many elements into their
tracks. The producer in the tutorial stated that “Subtly is Key.” He says that the only way to
really learn is to listen to the tracks that are ‘happening’ now and break it down and analyze in
detail what type of sounds and beats they are using. In other words, know what’s hot today
then add your own flavor to it. 2
An important part of this project involved me drenching myself with all the top Hip Hop
tracks, and music videos. I listened to them all day and all night so that it would get into my
blood. I consider this a very important part of my data collection. Naturally as I listened to all
the top Hip Hop tracks, there were those that I liked more than others. I listened to the ones I
liked more, and I believe that whatever you take in will be a part of you, and sooner or later will
become a part of what you make.
This project involved me making the beats, and my artist coming up with the melody, rap, and
lyrics. Once we have both the beat and the vocals then we had a recording session to lay down
all the vocal tracks. After the recording session came the editing and mixing down sessions.
The mixing down was a continuous cycle that I mentioned above. I compared my mixes to
those of the pros on the 5 different playback systems, and the cycle went on indefinitely until
I arrived on a mix that I liked.
I used my own home studio setup to create the tracks and record the vocals. Two of the
tracks my artist already had lyrics for and I have recorded him before over an unoriginal
instrumental. Therefore I had to work with that in mind. These two tracks were “Shorty
Wanna Ride” and “Just Bounce.” The other two tracks I made the beat first then he made the
up the rap it. These tracks were “How Many Drinks” and “How you roll.”
1.
Fleming, “Hip Hop in Session .” Vol. 1, Chp. 3.
2.
Ibid., Vol. 1, Chp 1.
19
My Tools For Music Creation :
Hardware:
COMPUTER : Intel Core2Duo1.86 Ghz, 4Gb Ram, 300Gb HDD
SOUNDCARD: mBox 2 Mini
MONITOR SPEAKERS: Genelec 8020a
KEYBOARD: M-Audio Axiom 49
MICROPHONE: Shure SM58, CAD XL2200 Condenser Mike
Software:
SEQUENCERS: Pro Tools LE 7.4 & Ableton Live 7
VSTs : Sonik Synth 2, Rob Papen Blue, Rob Papen Predator, Zero-G Nostalgia, NI Battery 3,
Discovery DSP, AAS LoungeLizard
PLUG-INS: Waves Mercury Bundle, iZotope Ozone, Elemental Audio Analyzer Suite
Below I am going to describe how I made each track and the important/relevant aspects of
the creation and mixing that will lead up to my project findings.
I tried different things regarding the two aspects that I’m focusing on, the vocals and the
bass.
I tried using different mixing methods to each track and tried to come up with a different
sound for each track. This way I will know which methods work for me and which don’t.
The Creation of “Shorty Wanna Ride”
I’ve recorded him rap this song on a unoriginal beat before. I was already use to how it flowed.
The original beat was a very ‘joyful’ one. I thought that this song would fit better on a beat
with a ‘sadder’ tone to it. One that sounds distant. I didn’t want it to be happy nor sad, but
rather a mixture of both. I was going for a sound that would make the song sound meaningful.
20
For the main vocals I had 2 tracks for the verse. I doubled them together. This naturally
created a chorus effect on his voice so I didn’t need to add any extra chorus to his voice. 3 I
emphasized cutting when I did any equalizing and rarely ever boosting. The only times I
boosted was for the extremely air for the
3.
A Chorus effect happens when you combine two identical, slightly delayed, signals that are slightly
detuned in pitch from one another. Delay time ranges from 15 to 36 msec. (Huber, “Modern
Recording Techniques”: 471.)
Dub tracks and I never boosted more than 6dBs. I EQed one vocal track by having a gentle
slope on a high pass filter and a dipped around the vocal “presence” range, being 1 kHz to 4
kHz. I wanted this track to have more body to it while still keeping its air. The other track I took
out some of its body and boosted the vocal “presence” range slightly and left the highs as
they were. The second track was higher than the first because I stressed clarity, but the vocal
track with more body was still present to give the vocals enough power. At the end of each
phrase we recorded the dubs and had 2 tracks for that. One panned 50 percent right, the
other 50 percent left. I made the dubs thinner by rolling off the low frequencies from 350 Hz
downwards. The vocals had extra clarity during the Dubs because I stressed the highs and cut
the lows for the Dub tracks. I had them at a low level in the background and when they came in
they helped bring the vocal forward subtly without being too intrusive. I also had a lot of
reverb on the Dub tracks to make the track more spacious. I had Auto-Tune on for all of the
vocal tracks. The ones on the Chorus were more subtle than the ones on the verse.
The other difficulty I had with this track was getting the ‘Low Deep Voice’ to fit into the mix.
This was because I wanted it to still be deep and have power, but still cut through in the mix
without making the mix muddy. To do this I had to duplicate it and EQ them differently. One
track was the one with the body and had emphasis on the “Presence” ( 1 kHz to 3 kHz) and
“Warmth” ( round 500 Hz) frequencies. On this track I only attenuated frequencies and didn’t
do any boosting. While the other track I cut from round 200 Hz downwards and boosted from
2 kHz onwards up round 6 dB. After this I put Waves Guitar Amp Effect with a ‘Direct Warm’
present and this helped bring up the clarity and presence of the track forward. I put a delay on
it so that more of the ‘highs’ will be perceived, and put a bit of reverb to help dampen the
extreme high frequencies.
The last item about this song was that the bass is an extremely low sub Kick bass. In this song
the Bass and Kick are one. The Kick has a melodic Bass line. I wanted this kick to still cut
through on the mix. I learnt this technique from the tutorial “Mixing with the Pros” and this
21
was the use of a Wave’s Plug-in called “RBass.”4 This plug-in helps create harmonics of the
fundamental frequency that you select in the plug-in. With it I selected the frequency of 64
Hz, added some compression, and adjusted it accordingly. This helped make the Kick bass a
lot punchier in the song while still remaining ‘deep’. It also helped it cut through better,
making it seem like it was actually louder, because it was occupying more frequencies. I could
actually turn it down a little and take wasted sub energy out. 5
The reference tracks that I used to compare this song when mixing were:
T-Pain ft Akon – “Bartender” ; for the vibe of the Keyboards and certain vocal parts.
Snoop Dogg ft. Akon – “I Wanna Love You”; for the overall Drum sound. The Kick has
the same vibe as my track. It is low, melodic, and is a sound I want to imitate.
4.
5.
ASK, “Mixing with Pros”: ‘Adjusting Drums.
Each sound has a fundamental frequency and has its harmonics on multiples of that frequency.
Boosting those harmonics also complements the fundamental. (Huber, “Modern Recording
Techniques”: 45.)
The Creation of “Just Bounce”
This song was another song that he had composed to an unoriginal beat. He played me the
beat and I created my own original beat around the same tempo. I wanted to make the drums,
particularly the kick, up front compared to all my other tracks.
The part I liked about this track is that the Kick keeps on descending. They are descending by
the semi-tone till the bar is over then it starts back up again when the next bar kicks in. It isn’t
quite noticeable unless listened to closely but is ‘felt’. The Kick is made up of two elements.
One is a sample of a Kick which has high energy in the song and is the main sound of the kick
that you hear. The second is a Sub Kick which is combined with it and tucked softly under it.
The Sub Kick is the one that does the descending while the sampled kick is playing the same
sample the whole time. The combination of the two gives it the illusion that they are actually
one sample and they are both descending. To further emphasize the Kick I sent them both to
an Aux and added the Waves RComp Compressor. Set the threshold to fairly high, medium
attack, medium release, and a high ratio, to make it sound like one tight unit. I turned this
down so that it is tucked behind the original kick sound. I used this for the extra emphasis I got
from it. I learnt this technique from “The Mixing Engineer’s handbook” and “Mastering Audio:
22
The Art and Science.” I also did group compression on the drum kit with the clap, hat, and
shake. I grouped them all into an Aux, along with another copy of the kick, and did subtle
compression on them. This time with a high threshold and a low ratio, and tucked the signal in
behind the original to give it more power. 6
I wanted the song to be both very in your face with the dry drums, while floating near the top
end with the floating lead synth. I wanted the space on the sides to be used for the words
“Just Bounce” in the deep voice, the build-up part of the vocals before the Chorus kicked in,
and the extra synthesizer part that kicks in during the chorus. These elements were the wide
elements in the song. By doing this, I left the mid-range for the vocals, and this is the clarity I
wanted for the vocals in this mix. This track I wanted the vocals in the your face so I left the
main parts, verse and chorus, to be fairly dry with a little chorus effect added to it to make it
thicker. The dubs in this song are panned 50/50 during the verse, and usually when most
choruses get wider, the dubs shrink down to being panned 25/25 during the Chorus. This is
because the extra synthesizer part comes in and it’s going to be wide, and it gave me the idea
to shrink the vocals back towards the center. This was a subtle tip I picked up from the ‘HipHop’ and ‘Waves’ tutorial. The tip was that you want to have movement in your mix as well as
movement in your song. So whenever you can, create a little movement. If people notice it,
then it’s too much, it’s got to be just enough to make a difference, one where they think
something has changed but can’t quite pin-point what changed. 7
6.
7.
“New York Style Compression” (Owsinki, “Mixing Enginner’s Handbook,” : 52.)
“Parallel Compression” (Katz, “Mastering Audio,” : 133)
Fleming, “Hip Hop in Session .” Vol. 3, Chp. 2.
Here I added the Auto-Tune plug in effects a little bit during the verse, and a lot on the build-up
part before it goes into the Chorus. The Chorus was left to his normal voice.
The reference tracks that I used to compare this song when mixing were:
Snoop Dogg – “Drop it Like it’s Hot”; For the Kick, it has the same descending kind of
Kick and I want the kind of clarity to it the mix with his voice and snare.
Timbland – “The Way I Are” ; for the spaciousness of the synthesizer sounds in this song.
I didn’t want my track to be as wet and spacey as his, as his track had a lot of reverb on it.
23
The Creation of “How Many Drinks”
For the creation of this beat, I asked him what kind of beat he wants. He said slow, downtempo and the rest was up to me. The beat I came up with is probably the simplest beat I have
ever made. It was so simple that I kept trying to add tracks in and he told me to take it out and
leave it with what I originally had.
This song was particularly hard to mix in the low end. It was made up of 2 different Bass
synths. One is a Bass Kick, playing two different notes, the other is a Bass Sub Synth that is
purely a sine wave producing the extreme sub frequencies. I had to try it out many times on
his car system before I finally got the balance I wanted. I grouped them both into an aux track
and applied a compression with a high threshold, low ratio, to it to get a gradual and soft
compression. The level here was on par with that of the original sound, which got turned to
match the level of that coming out of the compressor. 8 This though wasn’t enough because
so many times it was loud enough in his car stereo system, but the bass seemed non-existent
in all of the other systems. The conclusion I came up with was adding the Waves RBass to the
Bass Subsynth, Low Kick, and 2 on the Compression Aux track. On the Compression Track I
added one with a fundamental of 60Hz, and the other at 120Hz. The one set to 60Hz was
louder than the one set at 120Hz. The one on the low kick was set to 120 Hz, while the one on
the Subsynth was set to 60. All of these were balanced until I thought the tone was good. It
worked really well in the end as all the added harmonics helped it to cut through in the mix.
The vocals in this track I just had the idea for them to be aggressive, wide, and thin. It’s meant
to be a party song and he is meant to sound drunk in the song. I wanted the verse to sound thin
and fairly wide. Then when the chorus kicks in it’ll get thicker and even wider. I imagine the
people engulfed in the sound of the vocals during the chorus because I wanted people to sing
along to it. He had two vocal tracks rapping the same parts for the Verse and the chorus. I
would make one vocal track “thick” and took out some highs, while the other track I EQed it
and made it like a “Telephone” voice. The Vocals
8.
Here I am using the compression technique I referred to before again. “New York Style Compression.”
heard in this song is a summation of these two tracks. As well as this effect I stuck the AutoTune plug-in on all of the verse and chorus. The tracks that didn’t have the Auto-Tune plug in
were the cheer and response tracks of “I don’t really know,” and “Ayyy.”
24
This track emphasized a lot of subtle delay, reverb, chorus, doublings, panning, and EQ on the
vocals. I wanted the track wide, but I didn’t want it muddy. This track consisted of 7 tracks
during the chorus. There were two tracks for the main singing part, two for the response part,
and three for the cheer part. I wanted the response part to be about 3 times bigger than it
really was, and the cheer part to be huge, like it’s coming from every angle. To achieve this I
used great amounts of the Waves plug-in called Doubler. 9 I used this on 5 audio tracks and
also had 1 instance of it as an Aux send. I also had 4 Aux channels with Reverb on it. This was so
that I could recreate a large area. I had one reverb set to ‘Rave Warehouse,” “Reverse”,
“Medium Slapback”, and “Warm Vocal Plate.” I put all of these and sent different vocal tracks
to them accordingly.
In the final mix-down I also stuck iZotope Ozone, a mastering plug-in, on the master bus. In it
there is a section for adding extra harmonics. With it I added extra harmonics into the Sub
Frequencies, and the Low Mid Range. I added this boost on top of the Wave Plug-Ins that I had
previously added. The effect that came out was that it gave a ‘thump’ to the kick that wasn’t
previously there before, yet still remaining deep. This was the first time that I used the
combination of both the Waves Plugin and the iZotope Ozone plug-in for the extra added bass
harmonics. It is a technique I will use again as it worked really well.
The reference tracks that I used to compare this song when mixing were:
Mims – “This is Why I’m Hot”: Similar type of vibe. Slow beat with floating synthesizer
keys on the top. I want to be able to achieve the same effect in my mix.
Souljaboy – “Crank That”: I used his track because I wanted to replicate the distortion in
the voice and how up front it is in the mix.
The Creation of “How You Roll”
In this song I wanted to make the vocals very Clear and spacious. This was because the song
that I made before this, “How many drinks” had dirty and distorted vocals.
The song itself is very sparse and spacious. I wanted the mix to be clear, dreamy, and deep.
I compressed the vocals less compared to all the other tracks. I wanted to try extreme feather
EQ 10
25
9.
Waves Doubler is an Audio Plug-in which doubles up your audio single and enables you to select how
much you want it delayed and detuned. It is essentially a plug-in that creates a Chorus effect.
10. An EQ Technique that boosts the sound at multiple intervals from where you’re boosting instead of
boosting a lot at one frequency. (Owsinki, “Mixing Enginner’s Handbook,” : 30.)
on the vocal tracks for this song just to see how it would sound. I added 3 EQs one after
another on each vocal track and tailored EQ them. I added three so that I could hone in on
specific frequencies and tweak it to my liking. I wanted to target the fundamental frequency
and its harmonics. I Equalized the Chorus and the Verse slightly differently. I started at
around 230 Hz for the fundamental because according to my sources, around 125 Hz to 250
Hz lies the fundamentals for the voice. 11 It tells you who is speaking. I then feathered the
frequency up to around 4000 Hz. The two ranges I focused on were those between 350 to
2000 Hz (multiples of 460Hz, 690Hz, 920Hz, 1150Hz, 1380Hz, 1610 Hz etc…) and those
round 1500 Hz to 4000Hz. Each one had different amplitude, and I emphasized the ones in
certain ranges, the ones I emphasized were around those in the ranges1500 Hz to 4000 Hz.
This is because this is where the consonants lie. I also dipped these frequencies subtly on the
different instruments in the track so that it would create more space for the vocals.
I also used the AutoTune Plugin-in to a more extreme effect than my other tracks. I also
stressed delays on this track, to make it more spacious, and to have it trailing off after the end
of each phrase. The reason I could do it to this track is because it is a very spacious track, with
many of the instruments having a delay themselves already.
The Bass here consisted of 2 lines. One is a low SubBass, while the other is the low orchestra
hit. I did the same technique as I did for the basses in the track “How Many Drinks.” I applied the
Waves RBass on both at different frequencies, but on the harmonics (At 60 Hz for the
SubBass, and 120 Hz for the Orchestra hit) so that they could build up on one another. Then I
added some more harmonic boost in iZotope on the master bus for the low harmonics. This
gave me the deep, low, yet clear bass sound I was looking for. This track was the easiest of all
the tracks to mix. I think it was because there was so much space in the mix, that each element
was able to fit in easily.
The reference tracks that I used to compare this song when mixing were:
Crime Mob – “Rock them Hips” : For the EQ of the Orchestra low hit
26
Snoop Dogg ft. Akon – “I Wanna Love You”; for the clear sound of the mix and the
clarity of the vocals
11. (Digizine Summer 2005 : 42)
(Owsinki, “Mixing Enginner’s Handbook,” : 32)
(Devore, Devin. “The Art of EQ.”: 3)
27
CHAPTER 5: PROJECT FINDINGS
My project findings were based on 2 Main Questions:
My first question is “How does my mix stack to those of the Pros?”:
There were two types of Data I gathered from this.
Qualitative:
1) My own judgment of how it should sound based on the playback systems, my
reference tracks, and my ears.
I can’t go into any more depth with the Qualitative aspect of my mix as it was up to my own
ears. I have listed above the strengths and weaknesses of each of my playback systems, and
mixed them accordingly to that until I came out with the final mixes that I have.
Quantitative:
1) The data that I gather from taking screenshots and analyzing the frequency
response, stereo imaging, and loudness between my tracks and those of the pros.
The way I am going to present the data is that I’m going to show screenshots of certain
EQ graphs, at a certain point of the reference tracks and state what part of the song it
is, whether it is the verse, chorus, or breakdown with either only the drums or vocals. I
will include an explanation of why I took this screenshot and what it is I was looking for
in the particular snapshot I am presenting. This was my data and guide towards how I
should adjust my mixes. I am aware that the final tweaks to a mix come from trusting
your ears and cross referencing between your track and your reference track. This
technique was a useful tool to help guide me to be on the right track.
See Appendix 2 for full screenshots and explanations.
28
Reference Song Number 1 : T-Pain – “Bartender”
This is a shot of the Chorus frequency response. I noticed that while watching it the line did
not deviate much from this position. It stayed at a consistent level the whole Chorus through.
This track, as well as the next reference track is two tracks that have an extremely clean mix.
They are the cleanest sounding mixes out of all my reference tracks. I am assuming the mixer
used a multiband compressor to keep all the levels and frequencies at a consistent level
throughout the whole chorus.
29
This is the ‘Multiband Stereo imaging’ screen. I look at the green box in the middle of the
screen because that tells you how wide the mix is. The mix in this case is fairly wide. I watched
it for a while noticed that during the verse it stays fairly in the center and it jumps out to the
side during the chorus. This mix is just so incredible to me that I wish I was the one who mixed
it. When I listened to this track with my Sennheiser headphones it sounded amazingly
surround, yet everything was incredibly clear.
Reference Song Number 2 :Snoop Dogg ft. Akon – “I Wanna Love You”
This mix is another one of my favorite mixes. It is so incredibly clear and spacious.
30
I took a picture of the intro screenshot when Akon was singing with the keyboards. I noticed
his voice fundamental starts at 160Hz. From there I can see its harmonics at around 320Hz,
640Hz, 800Hz, 960 Hz, and round 1120Hz. It seems to drop off after that. I will target these
frequencies in my own mixes.
I wanted to compare the stereo imaging of this song with that of my first reference song. This
is a snapshot of the stereo imaging during the Chorus of this song. This track contains similar
elements, voice, and soft Rhode keyboards, to my first reference song but the mix is a lot
narrower.
Reference Song Number 3 :Snoop Dogg ft. Pharrell – “Drop it like its Hot”
31
Here is a track I wanted to see because I think it used the same technique for the kick as I did
for the song “Just Bounce.” It sounds like he used a Drum sample, and under it he tucked a
‘Sub Kick’ to give it the extra low end. Although I didn’t pitch my Kick sample at all, I think he
pitched it as well as having the sub Kick under it. The response is again, very tamed, and very
balanced. The Pink line is the guide to pink noise with a 3dB slope. The program provides it
because it is a guide of where the frequencies should be for a ‘Pop’ tracks.
Reference Song Number 4 :Timbaland – “The Way I Are”
I wanted to take a shot of this frequency response of Timbaland’s hit single during the Chorus.
The reason I took this picture was because it is a near perfect replication of the pink line, just
32
shifted up. I watched the frequency response during the Chorus and noticed that there were
no major spikes or dips in the response. If there was a word that I would choose to describe the
frequency response I would choose ‘tame.’ It didn’t bounce up and down much at all. I can tell
that a lot of compression was used on this song, because not only did it sound compressed,
the frequency response showed it.
Reference Song Number 5 :Mims – “This is Why I’m Hot”
Here is the stereo imaging in Mim’s single. I wanted to check how wide it actually was. The
song itself, especially because of its lead synth line, gave it the illusion that it was wide. After I
have examined it I realized that it was actually very narrow. I think the reason they mixed it like
this was because they mixed it for the Clubs. I’ve read before that for club hits, it helps for the
sound to be more Mono than stereo as it keeps phase cancelation to a minimal.
33
Reference Song Number 6 :SouljaBoy – “Crank That”
I wanted to see the Frequency response of Soujaboy’s track during the Hook. This is because
as a part of his trademark he makes his vocals obnoxiously loud and in your face. I can see that
the highs in this track are higher than any other of my reference tracks. I can also see his voice
harmonics as they are cranked up so much that they are spiking. They start from around 200
Hz and increase by multiples of that.
34
Not only is his track the loudest out of all the tracks, with the most high frequencies, it is also
the widest. It is so extremely wide that it nearly covers the whole area. Any wider than this and
it would be beyond the speakers and would probably have problems with the phasing. He is
selling tracks and making money from it, but I must say that his tracks are very fatiguing to
listen to as I have his album and by the time I listened to 3 song I need to take a quick break
because it’s cranked up and pushed so incredibly loud that it fatigues the ear.
Reference Song Number 7 :Crime Mob – “Rock Your Hips”
Here is another song that I extremely like the mix of. Every element is clear and maintains its
clarity throughout the entire song. I took this shot of the frequency response because it is a
35
perfect replication of the pink line moved up. It is even better than that of Timbaland’s track.
Another reason I like this mix because even though I can tell it is compressed a lot, it gives the
illusion of dynamic range and doesn’t actually sound like it was overly compressed.
This mix was the second widest track out of all my reference tracks after SouljaBoy’s track.
The strange fact is, it doesn’t sound that wide actually, but rather large. The tracks “I want to
Love you” and “This is why I’m hot” actually have the illusion of being wider. I think part of this
is because a lot of what is loud is their low orchestra hit for the Bass. That element seems to
take up a lot of space in the mix because it started to distort my headphones upon playback.
The second question was: “Does the song vibe?”
Now that I had the track sounding like a professional mix. The second step was to take it and
test it on other people. I hoped that the mixing would complement the song so that the
people would be focusing on the song structure and melody and not thinking of how it was
mixed.
I had 5 different sets of people I played it to. Two of these sets consisted of Groups, while the
other 3 were either one or two people.
Who these people were:
36
The first group consisted of 4 people who were involved in the Hip Hop scene in Bangkok.
They are 2 foreigners and two mixed kids (half Thai, half European). They go around doing
shows at Bars and Clubs such as Q-Bar, Crystal Lounge, and KaKou. They are into Hip Hop but
are into a different kind of Hip Hop than the one I’m presenting to them. They were more into
the ‘Hard’ beat and story-telling sound of the Eastcoast. Music is still music and I consider
their opinions very valid.
The second group were my Thai friends who were into some Hip Hop, Club Dance Music,
and Thai Rock music. This group consisted of 5 people. To me they represented the Thai kid
population because they do what most Thai teenagers seem to do. I wanted to get their
reaction to it.
The third set consisted of 2 Thai friends of mine who are in the Thai music industry. One
was a male, the other a female. They are both into Thai ‘Pop’ music. I wanted to see what they
had to say.
The fourth set consisted of my Dad. My Dad use to write songs and be in a Band when he was
younger. He was also once music editor of Timeout Magazine and has been into music all his
life. His opinions are often very useful and he is more honest than most and always tells me
exactly what he thinks.
The fifth was a fellow audio engineer friend who was also into Hip-Hop. As well as feedback
for the song, I wanted comments on the mix because I know he’ll be listening to details that
the others won’t be listening to.
Qualitative Data:
1) My judgment of how they ‘moved’ to the music (they don’t know I’m doing this)
Based on my judgment every group moved to different tracks. I had to consider their
musical ‘background’ to see why certain tracks moved them and other ones didn’t.
People into Hip-Hop music could move to all the tracks. People who weren’t really into Hip
Hop thought the tracks “How Many Drinks” and “How you Roll” were too slow.
People moved to the tracks “Just Bounce,” and “Shorty wanna Ride” the most and in
different ways. People actually moved the most to the beat “Just Bounce,” this I would
37
say is because the tempo is the fastest out of all the tracks and the Drums are the most
prominent.
Everyone moved to “Shorty wanna ride”, but not in the dancing sense, but rather a head
nodding, listening to the beat sense. The people who weren’t into Hip Hop, primarily Group
2 and 3, liked “Shorty wanna Ride” a lot as they said it sounded ‘sweeter’ than most of the
other tracks. I understand what they are saying. It is more ‘Pop’ sounding than the other
tracks.
2) Their opinion on whether the song worked or not
Group one said that they liked all the tracks. They wanted to work with me on a few
tracks after I am done with all my studies.
Group two liked “Shorty wanna ride,” and “How many Drinks,” the most. They
commented that I should make a faster beat and more kicks into “How many Drinks,” this
is their creative judgment, I left it as it was. They also commented that if they heard that
song in the Club while they were Drunk they would really Jam with it. They thought the
song “How you Roll,” sounded nice but was too minimalistic and too slow. I see where they
were coming from as they are use to fast-tempo Dance music because that is what they
mostly listen to when they go out to party.
Group three liked “Shorty Wanna Ride” the most. They said they could hear the song
“Just Bounce” played in the Club. They liked the synthesizers in “How many Drinks,” and
liked the sounds that I used in the track “How you Ride.” Although they liked the sounds,
they said the song puts them to sleep because it’s so slow.
Group four, my Dad, liked the songs “Shorty wanna Ride” and “How you Roll” the most.
He liked the sparseness of the track “How you Roll” and liked how different sounds
bounced off one another in the track. He also liked the beats for the other two tracks, he
just didn’t like the lyrics on top of them, he said that the rapper was ‘just too full of
himself.’ He was probably one of the only ones who listened to the lyrics closely and I think
that’s why he made that comment. Others caught parts of the verse, but most just
probably picked up the Chorus
Group Five, my Audio Engineer friend liked half of my tracks. He asked what I used to get
that ‘sub’ bass. I told him of the synth I used and how I processed it. He liked all tracks and
38
particularly liked the tracks “How many Drinks,” and “How you Roll” because he said he
liked how it was mixed. Oddly enough, he liked the track “Just Bounce” the least because
he found the synth in the Chorus Cheesy, and didn’t like the way it was mixed. This last
reason I think came from the fact that it was the only kick in all of these tracks that I used a
sample for, all the other ones where low synth kicks.
After they gave me their comment, I asked them, “so would you say ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ to song.”
The results are listed below in my Quantitative Data section.
Quantitative Data:
1) How many people liked it and how many people didn’t. Majority rules in this case. The
number on the left represented how many liked it and the number on the right
represented how many people didn’t.
Shorty Wanna Ride
5/0
Just Bounce
3/2
How many Drinks
4/1
How you Roll
3/2
Overall it is a 15/20 positive response, which results to 75%. I was hoping for higher,
but as these are just my first Hip Hop tracks, I hope better tracks will come that will
result in a higher average.
Overall based on this data collection, the overall average was that people liked my
tracks. There was not a song where there were more people who didn’t like it, the majority
was a positive response. The reason I chose 5 different groups to interview was that so there
wouldn’t be a tie. One side was going to be more, and to my liking, the side that came out was
that of a ‘good response’. It was a result I hoped for. It was also good that even though I played
it to a fairly disperse group of people, there were different elements in each track that
attracted the different musical tastes in these different people. The Majority thought that
39
the mixing was fine and didn’t notice anything particularly off about it.How closely they paid
attention to it I do not know. The only mix comment that I got was from my Dad who told that
he thought the lead synth in “Just Bounce” was too loud. After another listen I did turned it
down quite a lot (6dB) and realized that even at a lower volume it was able to cut through
because no other sound occupied those frequencies. Based on these results and comments, I
would say that my tracks were successful.
40
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
In conclusion I was would say I was able to answer all of the questions and objectives that I
wanted to find out in Chapter 2. I was able to incorporate more ‘electronic’ synthesized
sounds into the genre of Hip-Hop as all of my songs featured a synthesizer sound as an
integral part to the make-up of the song. It was a process of trail-and-error. It couldn’t go too
far off, or else it would venture out of the genre of Hip Hop. Often I would start off with many
sounds and most of the making of these tracks involved me taking riffs out and constantly
changing sounds. The first tracks that I did had some really abstract sounds that were just too
abstract that I ended up scrapping. In creating these Hip Hop tracks I learnt a few useful tips
on how to make Hip Hop tracks from trail and error. The things I learnt about making Hip Hop
beats were:
1) The beat is about what is not there rather than what is.
2) Subtly is key.
3) Keep it simple.
All these three points are pretty much trying to make the same point. The producer in the
“Hip-Hop in Session” stated this many times. That it takes experience to leave a beat simple.
The artist I worked with, Baby D, told me that my “Jazz” was messing it up in the beginning
when I started making beats for him. The first beats that I tried making for him had so many
elements in them that it ended up being crowed. He told me, “Just pick bout 4 notes and focus
on those.” I don’t think he realized how valuable this simple comment was to me. I learnt from
there that a useful way to make melodies for me was to play how I normally play with a lot of
chords and notes, then come back and simplify it by taking about 80 percent of what I played
out. All the material I took out could’ve made about 4 different songs.
One of the most important discoveries I made during this research was the mixing of the
low end. This was the process of the use of the compressor for the compression of the low
end, the use of Waves RBass Plug-in to add extra bass harmonics, and then the extra boosting
of the bass harmonics with iZotope’s Ozone plug-in. I cannot stress the importance of this
discovery that I made because it helped my mixes out a lot. It enabled the bass to cut through
a lot more on smaller systems, made them deeper and more powerful in bigger systems, and it
enabled me to turn the sub frequencies down which helped my overall level of my track to be
louder. Particular frequencies to hone in on are listed above. It is important to get the right
41
frequencies to boost so that they create the right harmonics. Make sure that before you
boost the harmonics you put the sub bass or the sub kick bass through some compression to
even out the level and after that you insert the harmonic boosting plug-in.
Everyone who listened to my tracks said that they could hear the vocals fine. This means
that it cut through the mix well. The two best tracks that cut through the best were “How
many Drinks” and “How you Roll.” This was because of the way these two were equalized.
‘How many Drinks,’ was the only track to have a distinct sound to it as I equalized it with the
telephone voice effect. The other track that had a good vocal sound to it was “How You Roll.”
This was because of my feather EQ technique. This technique of EQing selected frequencies
and then dipping the same frequencies on the other tracks is a really good technique for the
clarity of the vocals really helps them to cut through the mix. I have never done this before but
have known it in theory for a while. I will use this technique more often on my future tracks
because it is a really good technique for adding clarity to the vocals. The only gimmick that
we really had was that we had the Auto-Tune effect on his voice and set it so that it kicks in at
certain points. This wasn’t really that special but there hasn’t been a rap artist who put it on
their rap before. They have always put it on during the singing parts but never on the rap
parts. We are still trying to figure out a distinct vocal tone. We are going for a sound similar to
that we had in “How many Drinks” because out of all the tracks it has the most distinct ‘vocal’
sound. We will use this as the basis of our signature sound. It consists of 2 vocal tracks, one
equalized with a lot of body, around 300 Hz to 700Hz, and turned down to tuck in behind the
other vocal track. The other vocal track equalized to have a telephone effect voice, cutting
off everything below 500 Hz and boosting 8 KHz upwards. A Doubling chorus effect is applied
to it, a quick delay, and the Auto-Tune Plug-in. The summation of the two will be a basis for our
signature sound. We will work more on it to find our exact ideal sound on the new tracks that
we are going to make, but we would consider this sound the beta version of the sound we are
looking for. We also found that not only do we like the sound but it helps the vocals to cut
through the mix extremely well. We do realize that this type of effect won’t suite every song.
We are still experimenting with it.
I also realized the importance of listening to your mixes on a lot of different playback
systems and especially one with a subwoofer and a proper ‘low-end’ response. The fact that I
had my friend’s dual 8 inch subwoofer car stereo system to test my mixes on was something I
was extremely glad to have. It was especially crucial because I was dealing with extremely
‘Sub’ frequencies in my mixes. Sometimes I would have a low pitch bend on the sub that goes
all the way down to 20 Hz. Along with the proper playback devices, I also had my Data of ‘how’
42
the professional tracks should sound. This acted as a great guide and was a good starting
point. The real deal was simply to compare your tracks, then those of the pros on all of your
playback systems, and see if sounded like they were off the same CD. Then it’s practice,
practice, and practice. It requires constant cross-referencing between the different
playback devices until you have learnt them all by ear. Once you know them by ear, you will
still have to cross-reference, but you will achieve your desired sound quicker.
Finally, once all the technical side is over it comes down to the music and essentially, is it
any good? Based on the overall feedback I received, I would say it is pretty good. I do feel that
it’s just the beginning though and that better tracks are yet to come. All the books about
music production state that the most valuable asset you have are your ears. They say that
the producer/mixer should constantly make ear-training a life-long concept. They say that
you have to ‘Learn how to hear like the Pros’ and the trick to that is just to listen. It sounds too
simple but to truly master it is hard, I do feel that I am getting better at learning what to listen
for in a mix. This research was a good basis for me in music production and taught me valuable
lessons that I hope will stick with me in all of my future productions.
43
REFERENCES
Books
th
Huber, David M. 2005. Modern Recording Techniques. 6 ed. Focal Press publications.
Katz, Bob. 2002. Mastering Audio: The Art and Science. Focal Press publications.
Owinski, Bobby. 1999.The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook. Intertec Publishing Corporation.
____________ . 2000. The Mastering Engineer’s Handbook. Intertec Publishing Corporation.
nd
Walliman, Nicholas. 2006. Your Research Project. 2 ed. SAGE Publications Ltd.
Magazines & Articles
Devore, Devin. “The Art of EQ.” Name of magazine became gibberish when downloaded. Downloaded
from a Torrent. Unknown Publisher. Unknown Date.
Paul Tingen. “Secret of the Mix Engineers: Marcella Araica.” Sound on Sound Magazine, Feburary 2008.
No author stated. “Comping the Vocals,” Digizine Magainze Vol 4. Winter 2005 Issue: 38 – 40.
No author stated. “Equalizing Vocal Tracks,” Digizine Magazine Vol 6. Summer 2005 Issue: 40-42.
No author stated. “Adding Ambient to the Vocals,” Digizine Magainze Vol 8. Winter 2006 Issue: 4850.
No author stated. “Final Tweaks to the Vocals,” Digizine Magainze Vol 9. Spring 2006 Issue: 48-50.
Documents
iZotope Inc. “Mastering with Ozone: Tools, Tips, and Techniques.” No date.
Antares Audio Technologies. “Auto-Tune 5 Owner’s Manual.” 2006: 10-39.
Videos & Interactive Tutorials
Ask Video Series. Tutorial : Melodyne. Ask Media Inc. 2006.
Ask Video Series. Tutorial: Learning Ableton. Ask Media Inc. 2006.
Ask Video Series. Tutorial: Mixing with the Pros with James Tuttle. Ask Media Inc. 2006.
Fleming, Terrence. “Hip Hop in Session Tutorial Videos Vol. 1 – 4.” Hip Hop in Session Inc.
(www.todaysbeats.com) Copyright 2005.
44
Digital Music Doctor. “Mixing and Mastering – Know It All!” Version 1.1 Copyright 2005.
Egizii, Anthony. “A CD-based Interactive Course: Production Mixing and Mastering with Waves.”
Publisher: Waves; Har/COM edition. Copyright April 2004.
Appendices
Appendix 1: Musical Reference
1. Artist: T-Pain , Song: ‘Bartender’, Album: Epiphany, Label: Jive, Release Date: June 5,
2007.
2. Artist: Snoop Dogg, Song: ‘Drop it like it’s hot’, Album: R&G The Masterpiece, Label: Geffen
Records, Release Date: November 16, 2004.
3. Artist: Snoop Dogg, Song: ‘I wanna love you’, Album: The Blue Carpet Treatment, Label:
Geffen Records, Release Date: November 21, 2006.
4. Artist: Timbaland, Song: ‘The Way I Are’, Album: Shock Value, Label: Interscope Records,
Release Date: April 3, 2007.
5. Artist: MIMS, Song: ‘This is why I’m hot’, Album: Music is my Savior, Label: Capitol, Release
Date: March 27, 2007.
6. Artist: Soulja Boy, Song: ‘Crank That’, Album: Souljaboytellem.com, Label: Collipark Music,
Release Date: October 2, 2007.
7. Artist: Crime Mob, Song: ‘Rock Your Hips’, Album: Hated on Mostly, Label: Reprise/Wea,
Release Date: March 20, 2007
45
Appendix 2: Screenshot Data
1. T-Pain Bartender Full Screenshots and Spectrum Analysis
‘Bartender’ Verse Frequency Spectrum
This is a screenshot of T-Pain’s Bartender during the Verse. I took the screenshot when the
Kick was at its highest amplitude. It is clear that the fundamental frequency of the kick is at 60
Hz, as that is its highest point, it’s 13 dB above the ‘Pink Noise’ Guide, which is the pink line in
the graph.
46
‘Bartender’ Verse Stereo Imaging Spectrum
47
The Stereo imaging in the verse is narrower compared to the Chorus. The aspects of the mix
that made it stereo were the hat and the snare. The voice harmonies that came in during the
Verse made the imaging wider. I personally think that this mix has very good stereo imaging
and that it is just has the right amount of stereo imaging during the verse. Not too wide, and not
too narrow as shown in the graph, but is right in the middle.
48
‘Bartender’ Chorus Frequency Spectrum
Here when the Chorus kicks in it is obvious in the graph that they add an extra Sub Bass that
kicks in. This is shown in the graph at the left hand corner of the graph where frequencies all the
way down to 20 Hz are up there. This note is held throughout the chorus and stops when the
verse comes back. From 20 Hz to 40 Hz the energy drops by about 10 dB.
49
‘Bartender’ Chorus Stereo Imaging Spectrum
50
Here is the stereo imaging of the Chorus. As we can see compared to the Verse part it is slightly
wider. The voice is noticeably more stereo as well when listened to. The Sub Bass also adds to
the stereo imaging, because I sense that when it kicks in, there is more energy in the low end
which enables the higher frequency to have more stereo imaging and not feel completely thin.
51
2. Snoop Dogg ‘I wanna Love you’ Full Screenshots and Spectrum Analysis
‘I wanna love you’ Verse Frequency Spectrum
52
Here is the frequency spectrum for the verse for Snoop Dogg’s ‘I wanna love you.’ In this
screenshot I was mainly concentrating on the Kick. Here the kick has a fundamental of 60 Hz
and is 14 dB above the Pink Line guide. The Kick changes pitch in this song and has it’s
fundamentals at around 40 Hz, 60 Hz, 80 Hz. This kick is very similar to the type of kick I have in
the song ‘Shorty Wanna Ride.’
I noticed in a lot of the Hip Hop tracks that the high frequencies follow the ‘Pink Noise Guide’,
such as the example above, but the Kick in the songs are amplified to a high amount and
contains much of the energy in the mix.
‘I wanna love you’ Verse Stereo Imaging Spectrum
53
I am noticing this as a common theme now with a lot of songs. That is that the Verse is fairly
narrow and the Chorus opens up. Here in the stereo analyzer it is seen that the stereo imaging
of this song is very narrow. This is fairly strange as the song itself sounds fairly stereo, but upon
close analysis, it is in fact fairly narrow.
54
‘I wanna love you’ Chorus Frequency Spectrum
Here I took this shot because I wanted to see if the kick changes at all when the chorus kicks in. It
doesn’t. The low end stays exactly the same and most the spectrum stays the same except for
55
when Akon is actually singing which adds a lot more harmonics (as shown in the graph) during
the Mids, and High Mids in the Graph.
‘I wanna love you’ Chorus Stereo Imaging Spectrum
56
Here is the Chorus shot of the stereo image. It is seen that it is only slightly wider than the verse,
but not much. This is the narrowest mix out of all the reference tracks.
57
3. Snoop Dogg ‘Drop it like its Hot’ Full Screenshots and Spectrum Analysis
‘Drop it like its Hot’ Verse Frequency Spectrum
58
I took this shot of the Verse Frequency Spectrum because I noticed that the kick changes
pitches in this song. In this song the fundamentals of the kick are at 80 Hz, then moves to 60
Hz, and is at its lowest at 40 Hz. The kick in this song is similar to that of my track ‘Just Bounce’
as it changes pitches. I also took it to see the response of the highs in this song, and noticed it
was very high above the line. This is from their Snare, as they had EQed it to be very sharp.
‘Drop it like its Hot’ Verse Stereo Imaging Spectrum
59
In this song the verse is very narrow with only the Snare sending the spectrum askew to the
right. Otherwise the verse is fairly narrow, and in this one, the Chorus gets extremely wide (as
shown below on pg. 47).
60
‘Drop it like its Hot’ Chorus Frequency Spectrum
61
Here is the beginning of the Chorus of this song and I took it to see that fundamental of the kick.
When the Chorus comes in the kick goes into a higher pitch; 80 Hz, as shown by the graph, with
a harmonic at 160 Hz.
‘Drop it like its Hot’ Chorus Stereo Imaging Spectrum
62
Here is the Stereo Analysis of the Chorus. When compared to that of the Verse, it is much
wider, about twice as wide. This is a common theme across all the songs.
63
4. Timabland ‘ Way I Are ‘ Full Screenshots and Spectrum Analysis
‘Way I Are’ Verse Frequency Spectrum
64
Here is a shot. Mainly to see the Kick, with a fundamental at around 45 Hz.
‘Way I Are’ Verse Stereo Imaging Spectrum
65
This track is extremely wide during the verse and gets a little wider during the chorus. Here is
the analysis of the Verse.
66
‘Way I Are’ Chorus Frequency Spectrum
In the Chorus there is a Sub Bass that kicks in. This is also a common theme now that I have
discovered in Hip Hop songs. The song ‘Bartender’ also did this. The energy now goes from the
67
kick all the away down to the low subs, round 20 Hz. They have also boosted a lot of Harmonics
during the Chorus. This can be heard and seen in the graph show, as there are many dips and
spikes.
‘Way I Are’ Chorus Stereo Imaging Spectrum
68
Here is when the Chorus kicks in. Surprisingly the Chorus only gets a little bit wider and not that
much. It is noticeable when listened to though. Even though the spectrum shows a little bit
more stereo imaging, when listened to it feels like a lot.
69
5. Mims ‘ This is why I’m Hot ‘ Full Screenshots and Spectrum Analysis
‘This is why I’m Hot’ Verse Stereo Imaging Spectrum
70
I didn’t include the Verse Frequency Spectrum because there wasn’t really anything I was really
looking for. Here is the Stereo imaging. This song is extremely narrow, being really close to that
of Snoop Dogg’s ‘I wanna Love you.’ The song though has a lead synth that makes it sound like
it stereo that it really is.
‘This is why I’m Hot’ Chorus Frequency Spectrum
71
In this shot I am mainly looking at the fundamental of the Kick. It is at 60 Hz. The rest of the
frequencies are fairly leveled. The kick is also 10 dB above the Pink Noise guide. I took the
picture when the kick came in at its maximum amplitude.
72
‘This is why I’m Hot’ Chorus Frequency Spectrum 2
73
Here is the Chorus but after when the Kick has faded out. Even though it had faded out, there is
still a low ‘Sub’ Sustain note that is held to maintain the lows in the song. This is what this shot
represents.
6. Soulja Boy ‘Crank That‘ Full Screenshots and Spectrum Analysis
‘Crank That’ Verse Frequency Spectrum
74
I took this shot because a lot of Soulja’s Verse doesn’t contain any lows. It is only his voice and
the high instruments. This is very different for a Hip Hop track, but, in my opinion, I think he can
carry it through. It helps me see the fundamentals of his voice which starts at around 180 Hz.
‘Crank That’ Verse Stereo Imaging Spectrum
75
Here, like I mentioned above in my ‘Project Findings’ chapter, his Verse is extremely wide. The
widest of all the reference tracks. Highs are extremely dispersed.
76
‘Crank That’ Verse Frequency Spectrum
This is when the Chorus kicks in and I took this shot when the kick comes in. This kick doesn’t
have much low. Its fundamental lies at 50 Hz.
77
‘Crank That’ Chorus Stereo Imaging Spectrum
Here you can see that the chorus gets slightly wider than the verse. I only noticed this upon this
analysis. This is because the verse is so wide that when the chorus gets a little wider you don’t
really notice it.
78
7. Crime Mob ‘Rock Your Hips‘ Full Screenshots and Spectrum Analysis
‘Crime Mob’ Verse Frequency Spectrum
Here, like mentioned above in my Project Finding section, the response is very balanced
throughout the spectrum. The Fundamental of the kick lies at around 45 Hz.
79
‘Crime Mob’ Verse Stereo Imaging Spectrum
80
This is the verse image. The verse here is fairly side and is slightly skewed to the right. This is
due to the slow Orchestra hit as that is what angles the stereo imaging.
81
‘Crime Mob’ Chorus Frequency Spectrum
Here is when the Chorus kicks in. A Sub Bass also kicks in, but is very low. The Sub, and Kick area
becomes much more prominent in the Chorus. The Fundamental moves up slightly to around
50 Hz, and it is 13 dB above the Pink Noise guide.
82
‘Crime Mob’ Chorus Stereo Imaging Spectrum
Here, like many other tracks, the Chorus opens up slightly and gets slightly wider than the
verse.
83