Side Project Breakdown
- Roy Fry
- Nov 2, 2021
- 5 min read
Drac's Empire - Consists of three personal.
Members of the trio -
Personal Disciplines Character Handles
Philidelphia Murefu - Audio Engineer Voodoo
Olivia Pease - Animation Elvira
Roy Fry - Audio Engineer King Drac
Song Title - Foolish 'Ole Me
This song is going to be part of a short film that will be using music and animation on a vampire theme.
The music will be all original compositions, that will help to tell a storyline that is still being composed.
The Song - Foolish 'Ole Me.
The idea of the song was to create an adult 'cruizie' feel with no offensive language and MOR friendly vibe with the mainstream radio audience in mind.
Song era aesthetics I was aiming for is a mid 2000s pop genre.
Instruments used on - Foolish 'Ole Me
Phil - Drums & Keyboard
Roy - Bass Guitar, Guitars & Vocal
l used the 'Maroon 5' band song - 'Won't Go Home Without You' as a general referencing point, this song was recorded in 2006 and released 2007.
I wanted to create a similar aesthetic sound vibe to the Maroon 5 song, however, having a slight contrast between both of the songs, being, similar instrumentation and vocal tone to that of Maroon 5 who express a modern pop sound and comparable to Drac"s Empire original song 'Foolish ole me'.
Instruments aesthetic
Drum Kit -
I equalized the drums kick in and kick out to get a similar kick drum sound to Maroon 5. Looking to express a deep thick sound that could sit well in the mix.
The snare drum l equalized to get a bright snappy sound that would be sitting just a fraction higher than the kick drum. I added a reverb plug-in to simulate a bottom snare microphone, as we only used one top snare microphone on the recording day. I used the tracks of the drums room recordings, to blend into the snare sound and get the high crack sound l was after. I was also after a similar sort of sound to the reference song. I adjusted the overhead microphones to get a balanced sound of the drum kit. The sound tone I was looking for was to have a full kick drum with a snap sound on the snare with the drum kit sounding rounded and full.
Bass Guitar -
The sound of the bass guitar was a medium to low-frequency range that would be able to sit in the mix. I recorded three tracks together, 2 microphones tracks on an amplifier and a DI Box track. Then l mix the three tracks together and recorded the track to a single track. My aim was to create a bass guitar sound that had a warmth about its sound texture.
I routed a side chain compressor between the kick drum and the bass guitar so that when the kick transients played, it would trigger the compressor and allow the kick drum to be heard a little easier when the bass guitar is playing. By also adding the sidechain compressor, the kick drum would have a little more space in the mix.
Rhythm Guitar & Guitar Riff -
I recorded the rhythm guitar and guitar riff at the same time to give the song Foolish 'Ole Me more of a live sound. I was after an analog distortion sound compared to a plug-in distortion sound. I routed the guitar signal firstly into the DI Box and then split the signal into 2. One (1) signal was routed straight into the input dropbox and the second (2) signal went into the distortion MXR pedal. From the distortion MXR pedal the signal basically went into the Yamaha amplifier and from the line out went into the Roland keyboard amplifier.
How I set up the 2 amplifiers for recording and the microphones used and positioned.
Clean Guitar - The clean rhythm sound I used was a couple of equalizers to get the right sound l was searching for. The guitar sound needed to sit in the mix, but not be overbearing. I was wanting a choppy chunky medium frequency tone that would sound balanced in the mix. I added a little delay to thicken the sound.
Distortion Guitar - I wanted to create a distortion sound that would sound rich in quality and portray a good tone with single-note runs as well as with chords. My aim was to have a silky distortion texture about the sound, To get a sound that was aesthetically similar to the reference song as one of the characteristics of the song,
Lead Guitar - l created at home using some pedals and plug-ins. The referenced song doesn't have any guitar solos in it, so l create a heavy but smooth distortion sound. I was trying to emulate the late 70s to mid 80s distortion ambiance in the texture of the sound with a little tape echo and compression.
Keyboards - The keyboards sounds didn't need a lot of equalizing so I added an equalizer to the piano sound to give it some spark.
The Organ - l used the organ as more of a filler sound and that helped thicken out the overall sound of the song. I was going for a churchy mid-range ambiance feel, like a Hammond organ.
The organ was used in the Intro, Bridge, Choruses and some of the Outro.
The Vocal - I wanted to capture the same texture as Adam Levine vocal sound. He has a high vocal but it still sounds mellow and not harsh to the ear. I used an equalizer to get as close as l could to simulate his vocal sound and Melodyne to tune the vocal pitch.
Conclusion
I spent days making the song into a similar style as the Maroon 5 reference song - Won't Go Home Without You. The main problem is l recorded the project song all wrong to be able to emulate the reference song, as they probably used a different recording technique, so I increased the tempo speed of Foolish 'Ole Me from 106bpm to 110bpm. This tempo change is not that noticeable with the sounds of the band instruments, for example - drums bass guitar, guitar, and keyboards. The tempo change did affect the tonality of the vocals and the vocals sounded higher in pitch and also had a harsher vocal sound so I tried to use equalizers to adjust the vocal sound, but it made no difference to the pitch sound and needed to redo the vocals at home.
The preparation for this song could have been done a lot better, by having the reference song sorted out prior to recording and finding out more about how Maroon 5 recorded techniques they used on their song.
All in all, It was a great experience with only Phil and myself doing this as a side project. The main area that let us down was the reference song preparation, and tailoring the recording sessions in comparison to the reference song. Overall though, it went pretty smooth.
Video - Foolish 'Ole Me by Drac"s Empire
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