Author Archives: Paris Lindon-Hall

In Production Music & Deep East Music – Lee Lecture (20/2/17)

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This week we had Lee Gretton present to us a client project case study in the form of his accomplishment of creating a sync music albums for Deep East Music. The aim of this lecture was to explain exactly how the production processes within his own work relates to how we can approach our own client-based projects and give us a better idea of how to suite the requirements of the clientele.

 

The presentation as a whole was built on the foundations of Idea > Research > Production/Delivery > Reflection.

 

During the first stage ‘Idea’, Lee spoke on the importance of creating the foundation of an idea, in his case being indie/rock instrumental album for sync. From this foundation, you can start to introduce other factors that work alongside the creation of the idea, this being for his project where he would record and who he’d collaborate.

The second stage ‘Research’ introduces the concept of collating valuable information that pertains relevance to understanding how you can execute the project. This could be from creating playlists as a useful reference point to understanding key production techniques typically found in the areas of interest.

‘Production’ being the third process he covered, he talked about how the team he had created to work on this project worked together as a unit to fulfill the common goal set out as the ‘aim’ (for him, the creation of his indie/rock instrumental sync album), which pertains great importance to how we can be approaching our projects; using those with a variety of skills around to help us achieve a finished product. He also covered how the allocation of a budget holds value when working within the industry; working within financial barriers yet having to complete a project that requires perhaps more than available. Expanding on this, he used the ‘Delivery’ portion of his presentation to explain how he communicated with his clients to ensure that what they were to receive would be exactly what they want.

To conclude his presentation, he spoke on critically reflecting back on his project and analysing whether it was truly successful, based on commercial success, his satisfaction with the end result of the project longside his client’s satisfaction of the product they received. This very much similar to the ‘critical reflection’ blog we are going to be writing by the end of this module.

What I really got from this lecture was not just the process of how to create, mold and execute a project, but the small steps of refinement that goes into creating a great project – the ‘small steps’. The going to and from creative minds, finding out how they feel about what he and his team were creating and taking their advice to make appropriate adjustments to suite the needs of his clientele. For me, this is extremely important and is something I’m definitely going to integrate more into my own work.

A process Lee brought up that really resonated with me was creating Spotify playlists of reference tracks for his work, so that he and his client are able to get on a similar wavelength in terms of stylistically how the music is going to be created. This is something I’m definitely going to be integrating into my work, so that not only those marking my work can see how my research has informed my practice, but also so I am able to better intertwine these two elements of my project.

David Meeting – Week 3 & 4 (10/2/17, 17/2/17)

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The aim of this week’s tutorial was to go over the Aim & Objectives alongside the learning outcomes I had developed for my project to check whether these are suitable parameters in which my project can be critically assessed against. After having shown and discussed them with David, it was apparent that there needed to be a few tweaks to how the old Aim and Objectives related to one another*.

From this week on, the Aim & Objectives are as follows;

 

Aim

Creation of a coherent 4 track EP

Objectives

  • Source a range of musicians to collaborate alongside with
  • Capture their unique performances
  • Mix their performances alongside my own to create cohesive songs

 

These changes have now replaced the prior Aim and Objectives found in the ‘Project Synopsis’ blog post.

 

The Learning Outcomes have also been refined;

  • Mix vocals better via implementation of industry-standard vocal mixing techniques
  • Implement the production approaches of key record producers in my work
  • Acquire guitar tone using analogue equipment prior to recording

 

*Old Aim and Objectives

  • Identify & research the recording/production techniques of the key producers that underpin the musical direction of the project
  • Identify, collaborate and coordinate with musicians within the industry
  • Recognise, understand and incorporate the recording/production techniques of well-established producers
  • Collaborate with various musicians that are able to perform key parts within the project’s songs

**Old Learning Objectives

  • Mix vocals better via implementation of industry-standard vocal mixing techniques
  • Use recording/production approaches of the key producers that inspired the creation of the project’s songs (implementing the production approaches of key record producers in my work)
  • Use amp simulator plugins as a tool

 

Our meeting in week 4 was moved to the following week, so during the following week further research is going to be conducted, expanding on the prior information documented on Nigel Godrich and Anton Newcombe’s production approaches.

David Meeting – Week 2 (3/02/17)

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On January 30th 2017 I messaged David with regard to having us having an email discussion instead of our usual meeting so that I’d be able to travel to Nottingham to collaborate with a good friend for this project.

 

On February 3rd 2017 I emailed David with what I would have brought up in our meeting. I mentioned that I had researched into Nigel Godrich, a producer Radiohead have used since their 1997 album ‘OK Computer‘, alongside documenting the producers of The Dandy Warhols, Death in Vegas and Beck.

 

Furthermore, I mentioned that the meeting with my friend went well, who’s more than happy to play drums, sing and allow me to use his analogue keyboard for various musical elements within the tracks.

 

For our upcoming meeting on the 10th February 2017, I am to ensure that the ‘aims & objectives’ and ‘learning objectives’ are on my blog so that we can discuss whether these measurable parameters are appropriate for my project.

Nigel Godrich – Producer

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Nigel Godrich is an English recording engineer, producer and musician, well known for his involvement with artists including Radiohead, Beck. After studying at the SAE institute in Australia, he started working at Audio One as a junor staff member. After its closure, he became house engineer at RAK Studios as a tape operator for English recording engineer and producer John Leckie, helping him record albums for Ride and Demin. In 1994, Godrich left RAK studios and established his own studio ‘Shabang Studio’ and within half a year began working with McAlmont & Butler and more noticeably, Radiohead.

When asked by Evening Standard’s Toby Earle how Godrich describes his role as producer to people, Nigel replied:-

“If pushed, the analogy would be with a film director; you have the control and the interface through technology of making a record. You have that vision and, depending on what kind of producer you are, you’re the one who steers the ship and puts it all together.” (Earle, 2016)

This differs from Albini’s approach, who has been documented mentioning ( ) that he believes his role is executing the vision of the artist, as opposed to that of himself.

Godrich mentions in episode 2 of the recording documentary ‘Soundbreaking’ that “an edit done on tape sounds better than an edit done on a computer. It just does” (Martin Norris, 2017) [47:18-47:21] – thus preferring the sonic characteristics of recording sound to tape over that of capturing sound digitally. As documented by ‘the King of Gear’ blog, Godrich used a Otari MTR 90II 2-inch analogue multitrack tape machine, a Studer A80 2-track.

However, in an interview done for Audiohead, Nigel stated that “we mainly used Digidesign’s Digidesign’s Pro Tools’ for editing and manipulating audio” when recording Radiohead – “Pro Tools is an industry standard and has been for years” (Jorgl, 2006). He uses both analogue and software-based technologies when working with artists, both when recording and mixing, depending on the tasks at hand.

 

 

 

 

 

Ed: Ed: Nigel (Godrich) limited us. We had the old blackboard out. Which in the Kid A days had about 60 titles.
Thom: “And I’m the only who knew what they were”.
Ed: And then he came in another day on Kid A and he’d write another 5 songs.
Thom: ‘And then every now and then someone came round and asked, what’s this bit here? ‘ADC-F’. And I’d say: “Oh, well I’ll play it”
Ed: Nigel sorta said: why don’t we hone it down to 15 or 16 songs. By the time we were in the studio with Nigel, we’ve been playing some of these songs for a year and a half. So there was a slight sense of desperation. We had to get rid of them. We had to try to do them as quickly as possible and do them the best we could. So they only way to do that was to really concentrate. To nail it down.
Thom: “I kept coming every Monday night and three days later somebody had wiped them off.”
Steve: “Was it Nigel?”
Ed: “Could’ve been the cleaning lady”

 

Ed: “The big break through was… We’ve done a load of recording with Nigel. We’ve done about 8 weeks before Christmas, last year. And then we came back and listened to a lot of it. A lot of it wasn’t good enough, but the second day in the studio and we basically cut ’15 step’ in a day. Everybody was playing live. That gave us lot confidence.”

 

 

 

https://www.theaudiohunt.com/blog/chasing-your-sound-in-the-studio

http://nigelgodrichproducer.tumblr.com/

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/460693-nigel-godrich-drum-sounds.html

 

 

*******https://citizeninsane.eu/main.html

References

Adriaan Pels (2007) Ed O’Brien & Tom Yorke Interview for BBC 6 Music. [online] At Ease Web. Available from: http://www.ateaseweb.com/2007/11/19/ed-obrien-thom-yorke-at-bbc-6music/ [Accessed 5 February 2017].

Jorgl, S. (2006) Radiohead: In the Studio with Nigel Godrich. [online] Audiohead. Available from http://www.audiohead.net/interviews/radiohead/ [Accessed 4 February 2017].

Martin Norris (2017) Soundbreaking – Season 1 Episode 2. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOGwX_lfL9k [Accessed 4 February 2017].

Toby Earle (2016) Nigel Godrich interview: ‘Radiohead and I have a very deep and profound relationship. [online] Evening Standard. Available from: http://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/music/nigel-godrich-interview-radiohead-and-i-have-a-very-deep-and-profound-relationship-a3283096.html [Accessed 4 February 2017].