Alison Evans is a local animator who is creating a series of short light-hearted clips, and requires my assistance with the associated audio track...
Below is the animation she first sent to me, asking for an accompanying score and some appropriate phone tapping noises:
We discussed what aesthetic she was after, and in response I got "light elevator-type music" and "perhaps something happy-go-lucky". I went straight for my guitar and learnt some new chords which would fit my idea of happy-go-lucky elevator music. Recorded via DI at home through my interface into Ableton, I set a click and attempted my best performance. I had to repeat and drop in on several occasions (my guitar abilities are pretty amateur - but with the current zombie apocalypse I have been unable to outsource), and eventually arrived at a reasonable result for an imperfect guitar with rusty strings. In future I would ideally like to source a better guitar player - or at the very least use a better guitar with fresh strings.
Next I drew in some MIDI drums with a lot of swing, using a brush sample on a snare for that particularly "elevator" feel. Using my keyboard as a MIDI bass controller, I recorded in a bass line that complimented the guitars. After completing a sketch track I bounced it, and imported into ProTools to incorporate the phone sounds I found on an online sampling site. Manipulating the sound to repeat in a typical "texting" fashion and in sync, I was ready to shoot it back to Alison. I ran it through a quickly set limiter (to make it a desirable level), and after a day's work composing and playing around in the DAW, I returned with this bounce to get an idea if I was on the right track for her somewhat vague specifications:
In response she requested some gibberish talk for Tea-Rex's part, mentioning QBert as inspiration. She also requested more FX, including sounds for the bubbles and "maybe something like a super overreacted scream or a super gross sound for the blurred thing on the bed".
I got to work and found a bubbles sample on the same site: which happened to include a range of bubble noises in sequence. One of these even sounded like a toilet flushing, and after some pitch manipulation fit nicely into a "gross" sounding role - which was complimentary to the initial bubbles from the same sample. I then added in "stress"/ "confusion" sounds to Tea-Rex as it struggled to decided what to reply. For this I recorded my voice through my computer speaker (isolation quality), and altered the pitch and formant greatly using a new plugin I'm currently running a quarantine demo of, AlterBoy (from Soundtoys).
I also decided to duplicate the guitar track and panned them hard L&R with a slight phase difference to create a result with a better stereo image:
I got an "omg yes" in response, but Alison further requested something for the "crisis adverted part" and the "ooo~ part". I figured some form of abstract laughter would work well for the former, but had to ask for some clarification on her desired outcome for the "ooo" scene's emotional motive; she sent this as a reference (further qualifying with a "sort of"):
Using the same (computer-recording-my-voice) technique I found the appropriate vocal pairings and processed them to fit her criteria. I then installed a brand new mastering limiter from Massey, which I was able to drive the mix into to create a much more polished final product than Maxim, which I had previously regretfully been using. With some research I discovered that YouTube normalises its content to 14LUFS (MeterPlugs, 2019). I set the brickwall limiter to 0.3dB below zero full-scale, and pushed it up until it it hit 14LUFS. I had another bounce to present Alison, which ended up being her final edit. She replied "I love it", and shortly linked me to her YouTube channel that will feature this follow-up episode in the near future:
In reflection, I recognise that I am more of a producer/engineer than musician, and hope to outsource all live musical recordings until my skill-level has improved. I have put word out to multiple people to re-record this guitar section, and hopefully a response will allow me to work remotely with someone to incorporate a more polished sound (obviously before it is released on her channel). Whilst this was not the most technically difficult task, it was a brilliant example of learning to communicate with someone who is incapable of using terminology that I am familiar with. It evoked a creative side of me that had to manipulate sounds and pair them simultaneously with an image AND and emotion. I recognise that the quality could be better in an ideal less-infected world, given the chance under normal circumstances I would love to improve on the following:
- Listening through a quality set of monitors in a studio environment, rather than headphones, or an unknown and untreated room
- Master similarly
- Rerecord the guitar
- Record my voice through a superior mic, creating a clearer representation of Tea-Rex's gibberish
Though for a perfectionist, it's difficult to understand where the line is between the general public's acceptable, and my version of it. If the client is happy it seems there is only one question remaining...
Who do I invoice?
Stay Tuned
- TA
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