Changing My Direction – Critique & Benchmarking

This track I tried to benchmark against Lorde’s first album building the track off of an 808 drum sound. I believe this has totally reached the instrumental benchmark and could easily fit onto a Lorde track. This has definitely made me achieve  (LO2/4) and also (A&O 2/3/4/5). I believe that my drum track fits in a similar sense to Lorde’s work and that I have effectively mixed a track with a similar aesthetic to Lorde. I believe the drawbacks to this track are it being sung in too low of a key, which is something that would be solved within the DAW and would be changed for the vocalist. Frustrating, but I believe that the instrumental to this is strong and uses several elements that are interesting to listen to within a pop dynamic. E.G The chorus arpeggiation which is underneath the chord stabs. Once again, I have used a real kick, snare and clap to sit underneath the drums.

 

Around & Around & Around – Critique & Benchmarking

This track was the bane of my life throughout the project. It utilises many tracks and this caused significant problems within logic as my mac couldn’t cope with the amount of tracks, which resulted in me microworking. To me, this track does sound too much like a demo, albeit with some good techniques and pop music analysis (LO 1/2/4) it does not (in my opinion) reach the benchmark level, which is a huge disappointment to me. I originally went for something like Coldplay/Chainsmokers song “Something Just Like This” and I used this for my benchmark material. I utilised several instruments they used (Piano, pads, ) and utilised vocal production (double tracking/melodyne/reverbs) that were similar to this track. I believe the composition of this track was most likely the hardest to crack on the project, due to the fact it is less loop driven than the other tracks and requires more layers to work effectively and keep the track moving. Once again, my melodyne skills here were vastly improved due to it being the last track I melodyned. The double tracked chorus of “Around & Around” is perfectly intune to my ears, and needed a little tweaking timing wise to get the phrases in, but I believe this to be a strong positive to take away from the track as it enabled me to achieve (LO4) I also utilised the kick and snare again to place underneath and used piano, however it was not a real piano, going back to JR Rotem “There’s very little point recording real piano nowadays, the VSTs sound just as good.” This has enabled me to achieve (LO2/3/4)

The main issue for me is the drop of the track, which is a totally new concept to me and I had to mess around with it a lot – however the progression is visible when compared with the initial track I uploaded to my blog. I took the kick drum off the offbeat and made it a straight beat after some advice from listeners. Making the chorus/drop push out was difficult and I believe that it potentially is a chorus that could stick in people’s heads. However it needs someone else’s touch to make it work. This is a prime reason why composition of pop music has several writers, some people are better at different things and this track illustrates this perfectly. If this was a track with several writers, it’s likely that I would have written just the chords or the topline etc and someone else would have produced the drop and done a much better job. (LO3) Albeit I believe I did not reach the benchmark, I think I strongly attempted (LO1/4 and A&O5) due to the nature of complexity and progression of the track from earlier demo quality. Not a total loss at all, but definite room for improvement.

Crying In The Club – Critique & Benchmarking

This track instrumentally is my favourite, and features real instruments alongside VST keys, drum samples and pop music stylistics using a pop music production style. (LO1/2/4) (A&O 2/3/5).

Within the track I have layered a real kick drum and snare to make the beat really push out and used a thick bassline. I added the bassline last and friends who had critiqued it had suggested that it lacks the depth at points. After adding it, it really did give the track depth.

I have also utilised Melodyne for the vocals throughout the track and created an autotune vocal for the chorus, in the style of Akon or Kanye West which I am proud of for its authenticity. The disappointing part for me about this track is the timing of the vocals and occasionally the couple of flat notes in the first verse which hinders the tracks vocal hook. It is not stylistic of pop music due to the fact that they are usually 100% vocally spot on. I couldn’t get back into the studio and re-record/melodyne them again, so this was a big disappointment for me. However, it’s not all a loss as I believe the music and autotuning still represent a progression within this project. A critique I’d had from a listener was that the key of the song is potentially too low, which I agree with and it could do with being moved up a couple of keys, which is what would happen in the industry to suit the singer’s voice. However, I couldn’t  change the key when recording vocals due to exporting the track as a single file and then recording vocals over the top. I thought when I was singing it whilst writing it would work, but this is a drawback from the track.

I have benchmarked this track against ‘Hold On We’re Going Home’ by Drake. I believe that parts of my instrumentals sound on par with his due to them sounding as clean if not more so in places. The drums sound a bit punchier, with the snare giving a crack on my track, due to the layering.

Overall I would claim this track is a partial success so far, due to it still needing work but heading in the right direction. It fits the contemporary pop aesthetic