It's very complex, difficult, expensive, interesting and fun to be an independent music producer. Volume three covers my attempts to: make acoustic improvements to the studio; cut down my production times; learn the art of mastering in-house ad muc...
I don't know about you but this summer was fantastic! I got a chance to sail on a 40 meter long yacht with my husband for a week last week and the rest of the summer was full of sunshine, time wit family and friends, hiking and sunbathing The ocean here on the west coast of Sweden never really gets warm but it was great to cool us off after some very hot days.
Being sick or six weeks was a bummer though! I coughed so much that I finally almost lost my voice. It is still not up to par.
I learned a lot on the boat last week. On it there was a music team that had to set up and tear down the sound every single day, warm up on deck and deliver live music from it when we were in various ports and even as we passed by certain areas where there were a lot of houses. It was breathtakingly beautiful some nights but the first night was rough for many. Thank God I don't easily get seasick. Others did...It is a special yacht for more info check out Elida.se.
Back to the studio
So now I am back to the studio with half a voice and a friend is coming over tomorrow to record a new track on the song Jag Lutar Mig Mot Dig Alltid. I had to sing a "patch" today before he came.
What is a patch?
A patch is a recording of a word or phrase or even a riff that replaces a damaged or incorrect one. Mine was needed in the rap section of the song. After I had sung in my Swedish lyrics, I found that I wasn't sure about the wording ( I am not a native speaker). That's why I asked my friends for some constructive criticism, friends that are also a part of the reference group for this song. (Better late than never, aye?!)The wording wasn't wrong but it was a bit "Swinglish". We voted on a new wording - something I have never done in a reference group before - so now I needed to change it so that my friend Filip can follow along with the new words and not get thrown off by the old text. It was only about replacing a word or two so I sung it anyway and my voice held pretty well. As you can see I sang both before and after the word and did it a few times so that I could get into the song and have a few alternatives to choose from.
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What is left is listening through this and finding the word that sounds the best or maybe even replacing some other stuff too. It depends on how the original take sounded - I might want to make some other changes. There was, for example one instance when the "t" in a word was not pronounced correctly. In any case I don't want to spend too much time fixing and trixing it because the original was pretty good and my reference group is already loving it.
Perfection is not the goal
As an emerging producer/mixer I have gone through many stages. Trying to get everything perfect was a stage that taught me how unnecessary and dangerous trying to perfect every little note is. You ruin your mix. The goal is emotion and good rhythm that makes you move and grove.
So, when I add the word that was wrong I am going to try to keep myself from fixing too many other things that are already fine in the original lead vocal.
I consider adding a patch to an already existing mix a good way to get back into mixing. I feel kind of rusty right now but I'll get back into it quickly.
The other things that I am considering doing is contacting the drummer that was on the boat, Elida and giving him a change to do live drums on it. That depends on: how much time I am willing to let this project take; if I am satisfied with my programmed drums and if he can get into a studio and rig up his drums in the very near future. There's much to think about and decide as a producer.
On the boat I also met a great fiddle player and a few great singers. We exchanged info and I hope we can collaborate in the future. This song Jag Lutar Mig Mot Dig Alltid is going to be in both Swedish and English. Subscribe to my Youtube channel and you'll se it when it gets posted. (There is a lyric video in the works too.)
Gateway to my music and more is found here: https://linktr.ee/ekitzing
