Taking a deep dive into my new track - If We Fall

I thought I'd give you all a preview of a new song I'm working on and while I'm at it take a bit of a deep dive into my song writing / recording process.

I'll start off by saying I need to sing this one about another 20-30 times before I record the final vocals. My phrasing and projection are still all over the place.

Drums

I recorded the drums using my Arturia BeatStep Black Edition (pictured below). The chorus is two sequences overlapped and then edited to add in the cymbals.

The drum sounds are courtesy of Toontrack EZdrummer2. I'm using the UK Pop EZX and my custom preset GCS House Kit UK. My home studio is called Golden City Sound, hence the GCS. The preset is a customised version of the "Original Mix" preset but I've swapped out a few of the instruments. The kick is the 14x22" Ludwig Hollywood, the snare is the 5x14" Yamaha Club Custom, the hats are the 14” 60s Zildjian A, Cymbal 1 is the 18" Zildjian Kerope, Cymbal 2 is the 19" Zildjian Kerope and the ride is the 22" Zildjian K Constantinople Renaissance.

Bass

I played the bass part in the verse on the BeatStep’s pads. The bass in the chorus however is a “Groove” from the EZbass MIDI library, though I couldn’t tell you which one. The bass sound is a preset from IK Multimedia’s MODO Bass: “Studio Starting Point” which you can find under the “Pick” preset category.

I’ve made some mods here too though. Under Play Style I’ve set Muting to 27% and dropped the Detach Noise to 1.0. In the Strings tab, I’ve set the Action to High, swapped the Round Wound strings for Flat Wound strings, changed the gauge from Heavy to Medium and set the Age to Broken In.

The electronics are largely unchanged although I’ve boosted the signal strength of the Piezo pickup from 1.0 to 6.1. On the Amp tab, I’ve swapped out the Solid State amp for the Tube amp because I’ve never been a fan of the sound of solid state amps – they always sound trebly and over crisp to my ears.

The pedalboard is unchanged from the original preset.

Just reading this back I’m noticing how much I changed the preset. I’m going to go save this as its own preset, GCS Studio Bass ;)

Acoustic Guitar

The acoustic guitar is actually a live recorded acoustic guitar! My Cole Clark Fat Lady to be precise. I bought it off a friend shortly before he died in a tragic accident. It has a beautiful sound, and it means the world to me. Sometimes I feel like he’s in the room with me when I’m playing, and I find that quite comforting.

No major tricks here, I used a Samson C01 and the factory DI. Both were routed through one of my ART Pro MPA II tube preamps (I loved the first one so much I bought a second). They’re both rack-mounted in my desk, as is my Arturia AudioFuse 8Pre interface and the patch panel for accessing all the rear ports.

Keys

I’ve used the Concert preset in Toontrack EZkeys Vintage Upright. The MIDI for both the verse and chorus were originally from the MIDI library but both have been significantly modified. I still think the keys in the chorus are a tad busy so I may play around with them a little more yet.

I’ve also got a plugin on the tracks called MSW1 by Soundspot to give them some stereo width.

Vocals

The vocals were recorded using my Jeanne Audio JA-87F which is inspired by the Neumann U-87. It’s a gorgeous sounding microphone and I was sad to see they’re no longer being manufactured. I had my eye on they’re JA-251 (inspired by the AKG C12) but never managed to get my hands on one.

I sang the chorus twice. The stronger of the two takes is the loudest of the three tracks and it center panned. The second take is around 12db lower and duplicated with one panned 100% left and the other 100% right. The only other little trick I’m employing here is a plugin by Boz Digital Labs, simply called Pan Knob. It does exactly what it says on the box - makes the pan sound more natural.

Mix Buses

I’ve recently started using IK Multimedia’s Mix Box. At this stage of the mix, which is almost still really the writing stage, I’ve just got a saturator and compressor on each bus. I find by mixing as I write I get a better idea of where the final sound might end up and I get a bit more excited about the track too.

I hope you enjoyed this little dive into my new track. I’ll share more as I go and as the track gets nearer to completion.

-Trevor-