Emotional Encounter
4/19
Clarissa, here are some steps I took on this project to make it sound more organic and a bit less over-produced. It may not be the sound you are looking for, but it is something to compare as you keep working on the production of your song.
PIANO FILE
I used a warmer piano than the one in Garage Band. It is the only sound I replaced. Everything else is the same you used.
Clarissa, here are some steps I took on this project to make it sound more organic and a bit less over-produced. It may not be the sound you are looking for, but it is something to compare as you keep working on the production of your song.
PIANO FILE
I used a warmer piano than the one in Garage Band. It is the only sound I replaced. Everything else is the same you used.
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STRINGS
I think that your melody line had wide intervalic leaps, (see right) and could benefit from a melodic material that had better direction. |
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I am using the same strings you used, just changing the notes a bit and giving them a little more expression (what we sometimes call "massaging them") so they feel a bit less synthetic.
Then, because these strings are a little edgy, I am also going to work on their EQ to make them more soothing and a bit warmer. 
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ACOUSTIC GUITAR
The entrance of the guitar used notes that were in the exact same range as the piano, so the conflict was very imminent. I changed the range of the notes and made the guitar play in the lower range of the instrument, giving the guitar a purpose in the recording. The purpose is now to complement the range not covered by the piano and add warmth and a sense of caring and delicacy to the general tone. Then I softened the sound of the guitar. The original sound gave the impression that the player was using fingernails on the strings. This warmer sound gives the impression that the player is using fingertips.
The entrance of the guitar used notes that were in the exact same range as the piano, so the conflict was very imminent. I changed the range of the notes and made the guitar play in the lower range of the instrument, giving the guitar a purpose in the recording. The purpose is now to complement the range not covered by the piano and add warmth and a sense of caring and delicacy to the general tone. Then I softened the sound of the guitar. The original sound gave the impression that the player was using fingernails on the strings. This warmer sound gives the impression that the player is using fingertips.
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STRINGS. MAIN THEME
After voicing the strings, I worked on giving them expression. I visualized how the arching of the string players would need to move in order to increase and decrease the swell of the sound. As the arching starts and ends a phrase, the sound must swell and also decrease when the arch has reached the end of the phrase. |
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Here I was seeking warmth. Rather than strings playing single chord, I recorded your same strings, but playing wide voicing chords and being careful that the voice leading was groomed so that the ear was listening to melodic direction. I tried to get the attention of the listener to an inner melody rather than the top note, so that there is more warmth in the voicing of the chords.
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CLARINET
I found similar issue with the clarinet and the strings. The tone is beautiful and it is placed in a great moment in the song, but the melody often leaps in wide intervals, and lacks melodic direction. |
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I created a similar melody as yours, but with a bit more direction. Then I proceeded to give the clarinet expression, considering when the player needs to breath, adding phrasing, and how the phrase needs to evolve through the chord progression.
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MIXING
For the mixing, I simplified everything. I eliminated all the busses, all the individual effects and decided to centralize the effects for the whole group in only one bus, trying to create the impression that there are actual humans playing this music together in the same room. Therefore I assigned one room reverb for the entire group and I mixed each individual instrument inside this common reverb. None of the compressors, delays, and many of the complicated effects your recording previously had, which take a lot of computer processing power, and also make the final mixing very complicated. The mixing board looks this simple now: |
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