No autotune, lip sync or tele-promters!

Greg Wells Start to Finish

Assignment Instructions

Brief summary of your notes and reflections of what you learned from the Greg Wells Start to Finish videos!
Whats been your experience with Songwriting and Music Production?
- Have you ever seen a professional producer, like Greg Wells, in action in the studio with an artist?

Student Responses

James

There's a lot more that goes into songwriting and production than I thought. I was surprised by how little of the song Bryce had written at the very beginning. I'd always envisioned song writing as a fairly solo endeavor, rather than the more collaborative environment I saw in the videos. Another thing that never occurred to me is that everything would be recorded separately. It seems super obvious now, though.

I've had essentially no experience with music production of songwriting, the most I've done is written a couple short pieces for the piano. I have a lot of songs in my head, though, and I'm excited to learn how to get them into the world from there.

Anna

The Greg Wells Start to Finish videos have been full of really helpful tips and fascinating insights. For example, I learned that it's important to figure out the right tempo for your song from the start—which makes sense, since you'll be recording all your tracks according to that tempo. Greg also emphasized the importance of trying different things while recording to see what feels right or doesn't feel right. One of my favorite lessons that Greg taught is that it can be helpful to mix your scratch tracks a bit to try to make them sound reasonably close to the final product—that way, you can hear an accurate representation of what the song will sound like as you work on it. Another insight of Greg's that I appreciated is that "nothing is really scratch"—you should try to record your scratch tracks as best as you can, since sometimes you can find magical, inimitable moments in those first takes. I'm looking forward to trying to put Greg's tips and lessons into action as I produce my own music.

I've written a few songs over the past several years, mainly in the "singer-songwriter" style. I actually hired a professional producer to produce three of my songs several years ago, and it was a really fun, interesting experience. I collaborated with the producer on the song arrangement and recording and consulted on the final mixes, so some of what Greg Wells does in his Start to Finish videos is familiar to me. I don't have much experience in music production, but I'm learning a lot in this class and am looking forward to using what I learn to produce some new songs.

Cole

I haven't been able to watch the Greg Wells videos because I haven't gotten pro access since the textbook version is still on backorder.

Regardless, my experience with songwriting and music production has been great these past few weeks. Drawing inspiration from friends, professionals, and even people on youtube, I've gone outside of my comfort zone and have been willing to try doing things musically that I would have never before. I even bought my first actual plugin for the first time the other day, after cracking them for years. I've never seen a professional producer in action with an artist recording a song before, so it's something that I have on my list to see before I finish the class.

Scarlet

1) To summarize what I've learned in Wells's videos, I learned and got a chance to experience what it would be like in a recording studio and session with an artist. I learned the importance of a producer having songwriting skills to make little changes to the melodies and chords of a song to make it shine. I also got to understand some basic mixing and recording techniques, although some of it seemed somewhat advanced with me with certain gear or plugins I don't have. However, I will try to keep his more general mixing and recording tips in mind even if I don't have the exact gear, and one tidbit I found interesting was him sharing his vocal effects chain and mentioned it was based off of Grace Kelly by Mika. I was surprised at how much work went into recording this one song and the types of setups involved in recording actual instruments vs just dragging in samples, but the final result seems worth it especially in an acoustic guitar singer-songwriter song like Lucky Number.

2) My personal experience with songwriting and music production has been more limited compared to the skill shown in the videos by Greg Wells and Bryce Drew. I have been trying to produce music for a few years but haven't gotten farther than making 8 or 16 bar basic loops with a couple instruments. I've also recorded my guitar through an audio interface before but it's sometimes hard for me to follow along to a click track or record a good take. In terms of songwriting, I've taken a songwriting class before but always feel too self conscious to write lyrics. I think it would be a good idea to push myself to write full songs, even if they aren't good.

I like watching process videos where a song is made completely from scratch since they show how a very simple melody or idea can form the basis of a complete, professional song and find that inspiring. Or, in the case of the Start to Finish series, it's possible for a person to come up with a such a captivating song with just singing and a guitar, and in my opinion, and even in the first playthrough before the recording process began, I could tell it was a good song.

I haven't been to a studio before, so I found the video series very valuable as it felt like I was in the room with the producer and artist. In the past, I really liked listening to podcast or youtube videos of artists/producers breaking down their popular songs, and recalling how it started with a simple idea or chord progression, but not as in depth. This series really went into the technical details and processes into recording. I want to develop my skills as a producer and songwriter and hopefully get an opportunity to record or experience a studio.

Blake

1. Sound waves are made of molecules traveling through the air. Solid, liquid, and air are part of the acoustic domain. (Where sound can travel) Timbre: Part of what makes one instrument or voice sound different from another. Wavelength: The measure of the length of one cycle. Three Domains of sound: - Acoustic Domain - Analog Domain - Digital DomainAcoustic Domain: All Sound starts here. Where all sound has to go for it to be heard. Tools are acoustic musical instruments, to get acoustic domain into analog domain it needs to be electronically converted with something like a microphone. Analog Domain: You record and edit sound, manipulate, edit and synthesize sounds. Manipulation of time, tape, vinyl, electricity. Digital Domain: We take analog signal and convert it into numbers that stand for the soundwave in a proces called sampling which works by taking thousands of measurements of the analog signal every second and storing that stream of numbers on a computer hard drive. We can manipulate those numbers pitch tone and speed can be edited independently.

Finding Right Tempo: - See what is too fast and see what is too slow and work your way to that perfect middle

Nothing is truly scratched because sometimes on the first tries we get something that can not later be recaptured easily, so often some things from scratch make it into the final recording.
You can adjust tempo within pro tools
Plug-Ins help a lot
There is good use in trying multiple mics out depending if you have multiple to try out.
Serial Compression on a vocal is a good move.
If there is a hum sound from mic it will record that and will be hard to remove.
When Vocal sounds gret everything else sounds better, vocals is most important part of the track.
Want things to sound and feel dynamic, volume balanced
Drums have use in using multiple mics for different parts of the drumkit.
Sandbags can help weigh down mics that may move during drumming

2. My experience with music production is very minimal, having been in studios before but been just a watcher until now.

Edward

I've learned from Greg Wells videos is the term for something that I've been doing in creating my music tracks, which is Punching In, a recording technique that lets you record new material within a previously recorded track. Instead recording full takes of the song until you get it exactly right, punching in lets you record section by section. And, relaxing the timing of the singer to a little later than the beat...true tricks of someone who is very experienced in the industry. Or, as Wells calls it "back phrasing." What is really cool is that Wells, is a quadruple threat...he can play numerous instruments (piano, guitar, drums), as well as sing. With the technology/production part of it, he is a true genius in this arena.

The closest I've seen to a Greg Wells was during this past summer when I sat in on a Music Tech class at SFSU with Professor Ben Stamey. He had the production set up, played the piano and punched in to an existing track. But, there wasn't a singer, nor do I know if he knew how to also play the drums, guitar and sing himself.

I would love the opportunity to see producer, Metro Boomin produce another track with rapper, 21 Savage!!! Fire!!!

Maribelle

1. Brief Summary

Not being afraid to trying things out, as well as voice likes and dislikes
Playing around with sounds
Trusting your own expertise and also the expertise of your collaborators
Adding the vocal in a way that owns the track
General idea: “Don’t over salt the soup”
Overall I was really impressed and inspired by Greg’s knowledge–not just his knowledge of how to produce a song, but also of the music theory, the different kinds of recording and production equipment, and the history of different processes and sounds and the studios that created them

2. I have very little experience with songwriting and no experience with music production. In terms of songwriting, it's a process I've often thought about. When I was in middle school I tried writing a little, but I always thought what I wrote was cringey and that put me off. I know it's a practice that you get better at as you continue, but up until now it has been a major block for me. I'm excited to get rid of that block and try again.

I've never seen a professional producer work with an artist before. It was really great to gain insight into what that process looks like by watching Greg Well's videos.

Daniel

1. Greg has stressed wanting to hear the final track in his head over the course of these videos, whether in the songwriting, setting up the vocal chain, or adjusting the compressor for a scratch track. I can see the importance of this, both in terms of potentially wanting to keep some of the scratch, and properly setting the mood for the subsequent parts to be recorded (for a film I'm doing sound for, we're having the actors do ADR as the final step in recording/acquiring so that the mood is entirely there).

It's been interesting how in the first couple of videos, he was very much into trying out things in terms of songwriting and micing to see what sticks, as well as establishing the boundaries of what couldn't be done (mainly in songwriting and tempo) whereas with the most recent two videos, he has his own more methodical way of doing things in terms of mic placement, what signal processing to use in what order, etc, and then dialing it back a little if needed.

I'm trying to get a good handle on good general signal processing order of operations (which I know isn't one-size-fits-all), and watching him on the scratch vocals do: digital reverb (“thicker vocal plate” preset) --> rolling off some high-end around 3k --> de-essing --> compression --> limiting --> EQing gave me one idea.

The drum recording video was a great crash course on mic placement and basic EQing of drum mics, as well as sandbagging and cable management tips. I did make a note to look more into phasing and how I might address this if it comes up.

Greg really likes compression, and has many specific applications for it.

2A. My experiences with songwriting have been solo and with a band (both music and lyric writing), where songs were brought to the studio fully-formed. My own stuff is almost all MIDI, so the writing and "recording" is all integrated. With production, a lot of it has been turning various knobs to see what sounds good

2B. I have not seen a producer co-write a song with an artist, or offer the level of creative input that Greg is providing here. Outside of home studio setups, I've recorded several records at Hanzsek Audio in Seattle and one at Earhammer in Oakland. With one record I did at the former, the recording engineer suggested an amp that we ended up using, and offered technical suggested for the sonic vision we were going for, but didn't guide the already-completed songs creatively. As a vocalist, my setup was always significantly more simple, but watching the process of the other people in my band get mic'ed up has always been interesting, and now it's cool to have a better idea of what was happening.

Curtis

1. I got a lot of insight into the overall process of what making music is like. I had a general, big-picture idea of the process but it was always in a mechanical sense (ie, songwriting, then recording, then mastering, etc). I got to see just how music really is made on the fly, and that part is what made the series so interesting. Bryce didn't have much outside of a tune and a first verse/chorus; and seeing how the idea was fleshed out over a session was fascinating.

2. I have next to no experience in songwriting but have dabbled in music production before making very simple hip-hop-style beats that are more so fit for a freestyle verse then an actual song (ie, no real build ups or hooks, just a melody and drum pattern that doesn't really have a beginning or an end). I have watched electronic artists live streams where they build out a song from scratch, but I have never been in an actual studio with an artist.

Justin

It took me awhile to get through all the videos so far. I even rewatched a few of them. On one hand, it's very intimidating. All that equipment, and a seemingly endless amount of options for the most minute details, most of which I can't hear any difference.

This Wells guy is obviously very good at his job and very impressive, as is the artist. But I have enjoyed seeing it all in action, and it's given me a lot of insight and ideas into tackling this beast of recording. I haven't thought to about starting with a scratch track, which should seem obvious. Or two mics for a guitar, one being mono. Lots of stuff about vocals, changing autotune to a tenor setting, for example. All in all, so far it's made me more excited to try recording some of my own things (eventually).

Sophia

One of my major thoughts was how crazy it was that Greg Wells could wear so many hats in the studio, playing piano, guitar, drums, and knowing his way around the producing and engineering. It really hammered home just how long it takes to get the song just right, or the sound just right. While my ear isn't good enough to tell the difference between different compressors or other plugins, I thought it was interesting how after years of experience, people do have a preferred plugin or hardware (or combination). I also thought it was interesting how adjusting the timing by mere milliseconds can contribute to a track sounding cleaner or more natural.

I have never seen a professional producer in action in the studio before. I have a little bit of experience with songwriting casually, writing whatever I feel like, but I don't usually have an organized structure or process in mind. I've never really done any producing, but I've been around to help adjust audio balance/patches for marching band, which has resulted in a little bit more familiarity around the technology than I otherwise would have.

Joong

1. I watched most of the part of the clips, starting from the song writing till the mastering. I had a pretty much hard time to catch up the terminology and context since I'm not musically trained person except the basic guitar chord playing for my singing.

But it was basically a very nice video showing the aspect of music production and mastering that I someday expect to be involved on those work and busy with tools and controlling for my composing and producing.

I found the first episode was impressive that they were so much struggling to find the right sonic envision on that bridge. I think that required a sense of imagination and experience with building up the final sound in your brain, Interesting.

I also enjoyed the vocal recording part, since my music activity is mostly singing along the songs that I know at home. I'm also currently joining a local amateur band where I do vocalist there sometimes.

I would like to watch these videos more times in detail to learn and get used to the work they are demoing in them.

2. My song writing experience is bare minimum. I once much loved some kind of traditional song in Korea (Trot) which is something like country song in US. I wanted to write a song and dreamed about producing it for my favorite singer.

I realized song writing was really hard, I used my cell phone to record the melody that I came up along that fits well I think. but a very small part of change in the verse could result in a very different types of chorus every time. How can I stick to the original idea and being consistent? Also I think it's very important to get a sense to know how they ends up being heard by audience who listens to it for the first time.

Sometimes while I'm sleeping I hear some kind of sounds and melody, which were very good. but when I wake up they are sometimes lost or if I could remember and record it. later they find not to be that impressive.

For the last question, I haven't got a chance to work with and see a producer working by myself. The only experience is just watching and observing what our band sound engineer is doing on the mixer and stuff.

Darian

1. From the Greg Wells Start to Finish videos, I learned a lot about music production. Having experience with a lot of different instruments seems to help a lot, as Mr. Wells knows a lot about different ones and how to use them. Seeing him work through the structure of a song was really interesting. Since I've learned some about jazz standards, some of the terminology, such as the bridge of a song, was familiar to me. I was interested to learn about the pre-chorus and how to write songs with meaning, however, so that was cool. It was also nice to see that the chord progression of the song is really important and backs up the lyrics, so maybe my classical and jazz experience will be able to help there.

2. I've had basically no prior experience with songwriting and music production. Moreover, I've also never seen a professional producer like Greg Wells in action before, so it was really cool to be able to see something like it for the first time. I also learned a lot from the videos about music production, which was really cool. I have done basic composition before, but songwriting is pretty different. I hope my previous musical experiences will be able to help me out in that regard.

Kevin

1. Brief summary of your notes and reflections of what you learned from the Greg Wells Start to Finish videos! My notes are for the voice and piano segments. My plan is to watch around a segment or two per week since there's a lot of subtle stuff to pick up. I really enjoyed watching his videos since they do provide a a good look of the production flow, and most importantly, all of the nuances.

Creating a song is quite organic. It starts with an unfinished motif (like Bryce's song), then goes from there. I noticed that the motif needs to have "potential"; meaning it is hard to "make roses out of poop."
The sound recorded should be as close to the sound that's envisioned to the final bounce. Be picky of what the sound is before the tracks are laid down; that is, sound check is very important.
For vocals, adding the outboard compression (1176) during recording and not in post production.
For the piano scratch, using the Focusrite EQ and Neve compressor plug-ins in post production to solidify the sound.
Old tube based mics need to be carefully used especially since they're tube based and have those external power supply (which can be a source of noise).
Always record everything. Storage is cheap compared to the tape reel days.
Noticed important PT skills to have:
- Beat adjustment
- Quickly trimming and composing the clips in the scratch tracks
- Adding markers to important parts to the song
- Smart Tool is always on
- Playlist for vocal takes

2. What's been your experience with Songwriting and Music Production?

My experience with Songwriting is nil. I did have one experience in music production many years ago, as a session player for a Bank of America radio jingle. It was pretty good money for a HS student.

3. Have you ever seen a professional producer, like Greg Wells, in action in the studio with an artist?

A few years ago I've watched the Netflix documentary on Taylor Swift. Couple of the segments showing her create songs with producers such as Joey Little, Max Martin, Jack Antonoff. Just like the Greg Wells videos, coming up with her songs was quite organic. She's writing down her lyrics on her phone, humming the melodies as it comes to her head, and the producer is adding the plug-in synths into the tracks on the fly. All the producers used PT, and the mikes were U87s.

Matthew

GREG WELLS START TO FINISH

Intro: Episode 00

Communication and creativity is key, things go wrong without talking

Songwriting: Episode 1

Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood (original soundtrack for Jungle Book!)
Uses the Di Media console
Lyrics originate from singer’s experience with feeling lost and then seeing her “lucky number”
“Overturn the applecart” means get away from current key center
He really seems to miss sax solos
Like really really miss sax solos
Chords to song listed at 24:28 in video
“New city, no car” becomes theme, aka things are good then suck
Most brutal part of song writing, fitting entire experience into 2 words

Recording The Piano: Episode 2

Determine the proper tempo: Start with singer at their wanted tempo for the song, snap along (I need to practice my snapping metronome skills), match that with computer then tinker from there (79-85bpm)
Brain can be greatest enemy, so scratch takes should never be deleted
Nothing is ever truly from “scratch” because first and second takes are often the best
135 to 136bpm not felt as much as 79 to 80bpm
Using the Polyphonic, Elastic Audio to find tempo
Tracking and editing the piano
Piano compression: UAD Neve 33609 compressor
Limiter: Allows recording to sound loud annnnd quiet, shaves off the peaks
Lowest ratio, needles should barely move with the compressor, allows for better volume control

Setting Up The Vocal Chain: Episode 3

Troubleshooting mic issues (hummmm) : singing acapella continuously to get everything right
- Check all chord connections, turns out it was the mic!
Settings for tracking vocals with 1176 (99% of the time his favorite, almost invisible) and LA-3A (think drunk uncle, holds the vocal in a place that doesn’t sound too compressed)
Slowest attack and fastest release, reversed on the 1176
He takes mental note of his memory with settings from hit “Grace Kelly”
Most important instrument on this track is the vocals
Changed clicks to 1/4 to allow for recording of scratch vocals on just 2 tracks
Sculpts tone with Pultec EQ

Recording Acoustic Guitar: Episode 4

Different ways to tweak mics
Vocal compression and what role the lead vocal plays
Combine AEA R88 and Neumann U47
Don’t leave things uncooked and untasted while prepping a meal
Favorite “De-essing” draws down the volume or clip gain
UAD 33609, on 2:1 catches the loud stuff at 100ms
Sometimes a little turn of the R88 will change everything

Recording Drums: Episode 5

Setup
- Choose mic (sounds like another language, but the mics you choose and placement of the mic are key)
- Mic placement and setup (aim for just above the tom, center to outside)
- Measured from snare for the overhead
- Dial in initial drum sounds
- Get the kick right
- Check phase relationships between microphones
- Position stereo sets to reflect stereo image
- Review the drum sounds after adjustments
Recording
- Adjust drums to taste
- Compress and EQ mono kit
- Use beat detective to edit
- Use parallel compression and EQ

1. Above are my notes from the first 5 Greg Wells videos (it didn't copy and paste as well as I would've liked). He has a way of making things so so simple, but at the same time I can't help but feel intimidated and jealous of his abilities as a producer. It must be difficult to battle from finalizing lyrics all the way to the final recording of the drums without getting extremely tired of hearing the same song over and over. I admire his way to troubleshoot and locate a problem, he was fixated on that humming but didn't let it throw him off.

2. My experience with song writing and music production is extremely limited. If I'm being honest, I have never once written an entire song from start to finish, just bits and pieces that never seem to fit. The furthest I've ventured into music production is basic recordings on Garageband and FL Studios. My brother and most people I know use Pro Tools so I decided to take the leap and start from scratch. Even with FL, I never truly went from start to finish without the help of friends.

It has been about 5 years since I last attempted to write or produce so needless to say I am a bit rusty. The most I've seen of a professional producer like Greg Wells in action is through music documentaries, but never in person. One of my absolute favorite things to watch is a producer when they are truly feeling themselves and their music, the head bob or subtle hand gesture always makes me laugh and or smile.

Ryan

1. My biggest takeaways are how pianos are miked up with chosen microphones, how audio recordings can be edited to sound better through cut and paste, and how audio dynamics are controlled by the DAW. Most of the rest of the stuff in the videos were reviews from what I learned back in San Jose State University classes such as recording guitars and drums, choosing microphones to record drums with, recording bass through amp or DI, mixing, and mastering with compression, EQ and other effects.

2. I've been involved with recording lots of things at a semi-professional level since around high school. I learned more about music production and other kinds of music recording while studying at San Jose State University. My first recording experience was as a rookie having purchased my first Pro Tools software back in middle school. My highest level in music production right now is what I consider Semi-Professional.

Prutha

In the series Start to Finish by Greg Wells, in the first episode of Songwriting we notice how he is the producer along with the artist Bryce Drew in the music studio, writes down a song from scratch. One can also notice a lot of communication between the producer and the artist. Greg experiments a lot with how the melody of the chorus would be. He experiments with increasing the pitch, trying to use different chord progressions such as if the artist wants to use either a major or a minor chord to set either a happy or sad tone in the music.

The artist discusses what they want to convey or rather the meaning of the song they intended so that the producer can use his skills to come up with ideas to best convey the message to the audience. We further notice how Greg wants to come up with a different melody for the bridge that would be contrasting with the main chorus. Once the bridge is written they brainstorm ideas to write for the 2nd verse of the song. At the end after finishing it write down the song, they discuss how they could improve the pitch or the tempo.

I have never seen any professional producer in action in the studio with an artist. But this series has given me a feeling as if I am in the studio working with both the artist and the producer and learning the new improvements from scratch.

Jessica

It was incredibly interesting watching Greg wells produce and work on this song with the artist in the studio. As a multi-instrumentalist and formerly a studio musician he was able to be so involved in the process in bringing the song to life, not only focusing the editorial aspect of the production. Because I am new to ProTools and other DAW systems, different microphone types, etc., it was helpful in the videos watching him make certain adjustments to the plug-ins and tracks on ProTools. Having used primarily GarageBand for very amateur recordings/tracks (mostly for my choir students at school), I never knew what these plug-ins could do for the sound of my recordings, let alone that they existed at all. I took lots of notes on these plug-ins that he seemed to particularly like, as well as on the microphone choices that might be useful to me in the future. Most of the equipment I have access to at the school where I teach are cost-effective versions of much of the studio equipment mentioned in these videos. I typically only really have access to generic dynamic mics and a few Yamaha speakers and monitors at best. We're making it work!

I've been in a studio to record before (not original songs, only for recordings with groups or for audition tapes), but I've really never seen the process to this extent. As a musician already, many of these concepts are not new to me, especially this role of the producer being able to hear EVERYTHING and adjust as necessary. I have to be keen with listening in the choral groups I teach as well. It is the synthesis of each element in a track and the DAW/equipment elements that I am less familiar with. I loved that Greg was so supportive of the artist's vision, used a lot of trial and error to see what worked, and was very involved in helping the song come to life.

Niklolai

So, it started when Greg Wells was in the studio with singer-songwriter Bryce Drew recording the piano, then he went on to record the guitar with Bryce playing the guitar. After the guitar, they went on to record the drums. Then after the drums, they recorded the vocal line and at last, the bass line. The song was complete with some remixing and edits to do on each track. And that is what the recording process was like for the single by Bryce Drew called "Lucky Number".

I have little experience in songwriting. But I am getting started though. I choose to write originals because they are more appealing. Because I want to become a songwriter myself and all the credits will go to me because I want to be the frontman of the band. I have professional producers like Greg Wells, like Rick Beato and the professor Bruce Tambling.

Kenji

I haven't watched all of the videos from the series yet, unfortunately, but I did especially enjoy the first episode detailing the process of songwriting since I'm not very experienced at all when it comes to that. They way Greg Wells worked with Bryce Drew was an interesting peek into the very close working relationship between the producer and the artists, in particular the singer-songwriter.

I haven't had a chance to see a professional producer work in person in a studio yet. But I'm hoping I have the chance to sooner than later

Partap

After watching the Greg wells Start to Finish videos, I'm left speechless. The whole process of Greg Wells Start to Finish seems very professional and Hollywood. I knew that, that kind of work went into big records and mainstream music because it's kind of like a team effort, but it was my first time actually seeing that process.

My experience with songwriting was very magical to me but Music Production has been kind of an uphill battle. When I got into music, I started with learning an instrument (Harmonium) and from there I started writing poetry and then writing songs and raps, but I didn't know anything about music production. The First couple songs I recorded were okay and I kind of liked the results but the producer/Engineer I worked with quit music due to financial problems. After that I worked with a couple more engineers, but I just couldn't get the sound I wanted so I decided to learn mixing and mastering for myself and that the reason I'm in this class.

David

1. Most of my notes about the Greg Wells series were about specific mics, plug-ins, and tips, which though valuable, in all honesty isn't super helpful to me at my level right now. Right now I'm just trying to figure out fundamentals in a home studio setting, so it was a bit overwhelming when Wells would rattle off various mics, compressors, plus-ins, etc. I think instead it would have been more helpful if he explained how different plug-ins/mics etc. differ from one another, when to use one vs. another, and most importantly the "why" behind a lot of the seemingly arbitrary things he does like turning a knob one way or another. However, through all of this I learned that professional recording can be very involved and expensive and that if I do want to become a professional producer, I have a long way to go.

Despite this, at times I was able to glean useful bits of knowledge, like how you shouldn't overdo compression and do a little bit with different compressors, that you can turn up vocal volume to catch hums or crackles that you might miss, and more. I also do understand that this series wasn't meant to teach beginners, but instead was more of a walkthrough of what writing/recording/producing a song in a recording studio is like.

The most useful common thread to witness in the videos was the process of trial and error, whether it be with writing the song, setting up mics, or perfecting the vocal chain. This was reassuring because it didn't put the producer on a pedestal and instead I could feel less incompetent having to go through that same process in my own work.

2. I don't have much songwriting experience, but I do have a little bit of music production experience. I have briefly attempted to compose melodies and come up with lyrics but was never able to come up with anything good, so a lot of my production experience has been making covers of other songs and trying to imitate certain sounds. I have never seen a professional producer in action with an artist, though I have seen some videos on YouTube, particularly from the channel "Mixing With the Masters", in which professional producers are interviewed and give insight into how a particular song was produced. However, these videos, unlike the Greg Wells series, don't show the producer working directly with the artist, so the Greg Wells video was more enlightening into the reality of that process.

Phoebe

1. Watching the Greg Wells Start to Finish videos was really cool. I felt as if I was truly in the studio with Greg Wells and the vocalist because Greg made sure to show every detail of what his work process entailed. As a singer, I was especially interested in the vocal recording components of his production process. Throughout watching these videos, I learned that constant starting and stopping, tweaking small details, and communication between a vocalist and producer are what really makes a song as good as it can be.

2. Although I have been singing for 12 years, it was only until last year that I didn’t have any experience with songwriting and music production. Back in summer 2021, I took a remote course/camp through Interlochen for music production and software. It wasn’t very easy for me to follow as a beginner in production because it was a very short time and I didn’t have as much instruction as I would have wanted. This past summer, I attended the Aspire 5-Week program at Berklee College of Music. One of my classes there was a production styles class, where we got to watch and participate in the recording and producing process inside a music studio. The two teachers who led this class gave us in-depth explanations of what they were doing, which made it one of my favorite classes I took at Berklee.

Paola

The Greg Wells video has really given me a special inside look that I had never experienced before in writing a song in the studio. With the songwriting video, I was able to witness how other people collaborate in writing songs. Greg was more on the side of filling in the musical gaps in the chord progression, while Bryce continued to finish writing the lyrics in the second verse and bridge. They were able to carry a conversation to ensure that they see eye to eye on what the song is actually about and where it is supposed to go. Greg is also willing to share his own musical visions on the arrangement of the song, like how the drums, piano and guitar will sound together.

When it came to recording vocals, piano, guitar and drums, it was interesting to see that Greg and the engineer were very meticulous in the microphone choices, EQ and compression in order to sound as close to pristine as possible before the recording process ever began. Bryce was very impressive in being able to sing and play guitar continuously during the sound check and then during the recording without needing to fix too much of the takes. Punching in the parts that were messed up in the middle of the songs was a great tip to learn as well. It was also impressive that Greg, as a producer, was able to play every instrument proficiently enough to create the demo. The biggest tip that I learned during that recording process was tuning the guitar to the key of the song instead of just the tuning. Greg was also able to walk through everything he was doing with the effects in post, like adding more compression and moving everything to the grid but not too much, that really elevated the recording.

My experience with songwriting is sporadic. I used to make beats on the SP-404 and Novation Circuit. I love singing, dissecting songs and playing covers, but songwriting is still something that I don't do often. I am learning how to play piano so that I get a better understanding on how to write chord progressions and bought Ableton Live for this class so that I can begin learning how to create full scale productions on my own. I used to watch famous producers on Twitch stream as they create songs from scratch, but most of the time they work way too fast and I'm just not familiar with plug-ins at all so I know very little of what they're doing and can't keep up. I look forward to finally gaining an understanding and developing a better ear so that I can utilize all these new tools better.

Explore pureMix Pro

James

Song Structure Explained With Fab Dupont

I found this video super helpful in fully understanding how song structure works. I had known that AABA and other such things existed, but I never really learned how to identify them in music. It's always cool to me to see how you can find structure, categories, and complexity in things that grow organically, like music or simple systems. As a bonus, the examples he gave had me listening to a wide variety of music that I would never have thought to listen to, from Schubert to Drake and everything in between. I think the tutorial will help me write my own songs, because I tend to ramble them on for a long time without any structure.

Filiberto

I haven't gotten to checking out or downloading the plugins included in Puremix Pro but will definitely check them out will I have a subscription.

I watched Start to Finish: Vance Powell - Episode 8 in which he talks about his process for recording vocals and the video actually shows the conversations between him and the artist in order to best accommodate the artist to get the best performance possible. Its very useful to see how communication and experimenting does wonders during the production and the tracking stage. One part in the video the singer wanted a certain effect on his vocals to get him in the zone and Vance was quick to get that setup to start recording again

Start to Finish: Vance Powell - Episode 8 - Recording Vocals

Anna

How To Listen w/ Fab Dupont

I watched the first episode in the How to Listen series by Fab Dupont. This video was full of enlightening lessons and useful advice. In it, Fab shows how easy it is for your ears to get fooled while mixing. For example, looking at your DAW or plugin UI while playing back a track can trick your brain into "hearing" a sound quality that's not actually present. It's also easy to get fooled by relative sounds. For example, listening to a brightened version of your mix can make the normal version sound dull and muddy by comparison.

Throughout the video, Fab presents examples and listening exercises that demonstrate how difficult it can be to hear and assess a mix accurately. He also emphasizes the importance of active listening and constant practice to develop your short-term and long-term aural memory. Some of the tips he mentions include closing your eyes while listening to a track and also resisting the temptation to crank up your levels to make a mix deceptively seem as if it sounds better. I have a long way to go in developing my listening skills to a competent level for mixing, but Fab's lessons and advice will be invaluable in helping me get there.

Scarlett

I clicked around the pureMix website and saw a couple features I hadn't noticed before. One of these features was the ear training test, that tests you on recognizing certain frequencies after playing a reference white noise. I thought this was pretty interesting because I have always wanted to get a better musical ear, and have previously used websites to try and get better at recognizing musical intervals, so this was similar. I like how the ear training is unique for mixers for recognizing various frequency bands and pitches, to get faster at EQing frequencies you hear in a mix. I wasn't very good at distinguishing between the different frequencies, but hope I will get better after this practice. Ear Training

Edward

I viewed explored pureMix.net and found Rich Keller's Mixing Hip Hop Vocals Rich Keller Mix Hip Hop Vocals

Pretty cool! He mixes a two track mix and one track vocal and just kills it! He creates a harmony track that just goes so nicely with it...it's just effortless and enhances the track. The video both shows and lists the equipment he used which is high end and a lot...

Antares Auto-Tune Pro
Boz Iperial Delay
Braniworx bx_console SSL 4000 E
Elysia Nvelope
Fab Filter Pro-L2
Fab Filter Saturn
Shadow Hills Class A Mastering Comp
Sound Toys Little Alter Boy
UAD Distressor
Valhalla Shimmer

I mean you got to be pretty established in the game to have all this equipment. And,"with 4 Grammy Award nominations, 29 Platinum albums, and over 75 million albums sold, it is no surprise that Rich has continued to be a first call mixer and producer for hip hop and R&B royalty like Snoop Dogg, DMX, Jay Z, Nipsey Hussle Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz, Lil Wayne, Mariah Carey, Method Man, Rick Ross, and many many more," Keller is definitely an OG in this game.

I started super basic with GarageBand and it can do a few of the very basic things , but doesn't even come close. But, what I'm learning is that I have a lot to learn and a looooong way to go in becoming a Sound Engineer. It's not as easy as these guys make it look.

Maribelle

How To Listen with Fab Dupont

While exploring puremix, I found that the platform offers a combination of tutorials as well as interviews and documentaries. The tutorials in particular cover a wide range of topics, covering everything you would need to know to create a song from start to finish. There was even a cooking video section which surprised me because it seems so unrelated to the majority of the videos they offer, but perhaps parallels can be drawn between cooking in the kitchen and cooking up a beat in the studio.

One of the videos I watched was “How to Listen” by Fab Dupont. In the video he discusses oral memory, long-term and short-term. Long-term oral memory is heavily dependent on environment–we remember things differently depending on the environment and mood we were in when we heard them. To combat our eyes fooling our ears, Fab recommends looking away from the screen when listening for something important. Looking away or closing your eyes also allows you to create a mental map of the different levels of the instruments. He also advices to leave the volume button alone when listening, because changing the volume will alter your perception of the sound.

Daniel

Andrew Scheps Introduction to Dolby Atmos

I found this video fascinating. He gives a brief introduction to traditional surround sound as a reference point, (most commonly 5.1, which consists of left and right speakers in front and back, a center speaker, and a subwoofer for sound 150hz and below), and then goes into Atmos. In short, Atmos expands on surround sound—a two-dimensional technology—by adding the third dimension of height, and allowing for standardized playback on systems with various numbers and placements of speakers (for instance, a 7.1.4 setup denotes three left speakers, three right speakers, a subwoofer, and four overhead speakers).

It was interesting to hear him to go into some of the capabilities and logistical challenges of Atmos. For instance, the concept of object-based panning, in which the intended placement of a given sound (and specifically, how much of the audio signal should come out of each speaker) in a room is encoded as metadata and then rendered in real time upon playback depending on a given room's configuration using a renderer plugin. Practically speaking, an Atmos mix recorded in a 7.1.4 room and played back in a 5.1.2 room would have the objects heard from the same points in the room despite fewer speakers, based on the encoded metadata.

A more physical challenge is the sound from each speaker reaching the listener at the same time and avoiding phase cancellation, which is mitigated by adding delays to individual speakers in milliseconds in the Atmos mastering suite. He also gives a demonstration of how this can be done manually by using a microphone and a click track to determine delay.

There's more, but it's a worthwhile watch!

Nathaniel

Start to Finish: Jimmy Douglass - Episode 13 - Mixing Part 3.

For this assignment, I did download all plugins I could get my hands on. As a bedroom producer, new plugins and toys always improve my production. I also checked out Start to Finish by Jimmy Douglass. This course focuses on mixing and it follows Jimmy in his process. He starts by organizing all the tracks sent to him and setting up the reference track. I found this video extremely insightful and has changed the way I think about the mixing process. I've always looked at the mixing process as changing the levels and adding effects to create a more dynamic mix but after watching this I think I've been missing some essential ideas. The thing he did that stood out to me most was a simple change he made to a tom fill. All he did was raise the DB of the tom by three, this created a bigger moment when the tom fill came in and made the transition more interesting. It showed me that mixing isn't just about making sure you can hear everything but it's also about highlighting those moments that make the track stand out.

Curtis

How to listen w/ Fab Dupont

As I navigated around Puremix for additional content, I stumbled upon this interesting series from Fab Dupont that walks you through how one should listen for differences when incorporating various effects and styles. I watched the first video and was very intrigued by just how important aural memory is to the music production process. When adding effects and mixing your finished product, it is important to train your ear to hear the subtle differences in sounds as this will be important during the production process. Specifically, I found how one's visuals can effect how the brain hears a sound to be an extremely interesting concept. The fact that your brain can subconsciously hear a different sound when you add an effect with a VST that is off is crazy to me.

Justin

Andrew Scheps Introduction to Dolby Atmos

So I thought I was going to find something related to recording vocals or guitar, because that's essentially all I really want to be able to do well, at this early point of learning this stuff. But I saw on the first page, an introductory video to Dolby Atmos by Andrew Scheps. Last week, there was a remastered release of the album Revolver, by The Beatles, which has been praised enough over the last fifty plus years, that I won't add to that here. But in the new release, there is a Dolby Atmos mix, which I was super excited to hear. So I bought a simple sound system that could playback in Atmos. But the whole process was a little bit of a headache with getting the right kind of media player to play on the right kind of equipment, and so on. So, I thought it was interesting to learn about how Atmos actually works. Scheps does a good job doing just that. And I supposed it seemed kind of fitting, being that he's explaining how it all works, from inside a Dolby Atmos rendering room at Abbey Road, which is where the original album was recorded and recently remastered.

I was most interested in how an Atmos mix works in headphones, since that is effectively only two channels, as opposed to a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker setup. And he explains that very concept, called binaural, rather thoroughly in the second video.

Sophia

Sophia Kim Ear Training - Frequency Quiz

The first thing I found on pureMix was this ear training frequency quiz, which basically asks you to guess the frequency of the noise that's being played. While I thought it was really cool, I also kind of felt like I was more guessing based on the relative frequency rather than actually knowing what each frequency sounded like on its own, so that's something I want to work on at some point.

Synth 101 - Oscillators and Filters

I also found this short video on how sound synthesis works on a basic level—as someone who can't always stomach long videos, this video was a quick introduction to what some of the dials mean on a synthesizer with oscillators.

Joong

I just found something interesting about, a concept that I recently get to know of. it's a dolby Atmos.

Andrew Scheps Introduction to Dolby Atmos

the video tutorial was very helpful to understand first of monitoring format we were using for a long time. Atmos tech came recently and now adopted by a lot of theatre and sound systems. Long time ago(maybe 30 years back) I heard of similar concept which was about sending some kind of high frequency sound that human cannot hear, they are sent from some sort of surround speakers in the room, and they meet at the designated point in the space and start interfere and generated listenable sound from there. Thus, human feels like the sound is coming right from nowhere in the middle of the room. I was expecting similar concept from Atmos. However, this was quite different concept and maybe simply an expanded version of surround sound tech. It is definitely a next level of technology by removing the limit of speaker configuration and jump in to the ultimate resolution on the real world dimension. The video was demonstrating all the Pro Tools configuration for the Atmos, object and panning how to, dual workstation setup, distance measuring from speakers, and theory behind speaker crash down.

Darian

If I had time, I would definitely participate in a mixing contest like the Joe Chiccarelli one (https://www.puremix.net/zelab-mixing-contest/zelab-session-45-alanis-morissette.html Links to an external site.). From what it seems, there's contests that take a song and have the competitors create the same song from scratch. This seems like a super fun experience where you can just focus on training your listening ability and your ability to mix, as you have to try replicating every part. I also watched the Introduction to Dolby Atmos from Andrew Scheps (https://www.puremix.net/video/andrew-scheps-introduction-to-dolby-atmos.html Links to an external site.). It was cool since he stressed the importance of the composition of the room and how it was structured, as well as where speakers or subwoofers are placed. It was a really unique learning experience since I haven't seen a software like it before.

Kevin

I viewed Andrew Scheps's "Compression Technology" video. This video was probably the best I've seen explanation of the technology behind compression, the types of compressors by circuitry design (VCA, optical, FET, tube) and signal flow, the major compressors out there (via plugins), what the controls on each compressor does, and different audio examples with each of the compressors.

I enjoyed the audio examples of using the different compressors across a drum, vocal, and piano tracks, as well as the mix bus. It was interesting to hear what each particular compressor did, and the numerous combinations given to achieve a particular soundscape. A person can weeks on figuring out all of the combinations.

In summary, these are my takeaways:

You must know what you want to achieve sound wise before deciding which compressor to use, and what the compressor settings should be. This comes with trying out and experimenting a compressor with a particular instrument or song (i.e. EDM, small acoustic trio), and noting the results.

The controls on each compressor are somewhat operationally unique. This brings out the first point that it's best to experiment with each compressor to get a feel of what the control combinations are to achieve a certain sonic goal.

His video, as well as Fab's video provide a good start for hearing what compression does; but IMHO, you need to try it live with a good monitor since the changes are somewhat subtle and a matter of taste.

For me, I'm thinking about making a Google reference sheet notating for a particular sound or soundscape, each compressor and its settings, notes about the control usage, and an .wav recording for a given scenario. The goal for the sheet is to provide me a quick crib sheet for mixing. I think I'll try that in one of the studio session times using both the outboard compressors and plugins.

Matthew

Producing a Beat in Pro Tools

I watched Ben Lindell's video on how to produce a simple beat in pro-tools. It was interesting to see it come together from a simple piano concept, to a full on R&B/hiphop beat. I liked his method of finding the ideal tempo, he turned off the conductor track and tapped his tempo in by clicking T on the keyboard. He also showed some cool shortcuts, like how to quickly quantize (by selecting the region and press option 0) his original piano recording. Then he trimmed his regions by using "A" and "S" and adjusted the velocity on his mini grand. His patience was refreshing and something I need to work on, when he didn't get the drums right the first time around, he calmly made some adjustments and carried on. Watching this reminds me that I need to invest in a proper midi keyboard! I also need to get better acclimated with pads to add more texture to my beats. I also learned what plate reverb is and its purpose.

Ryan

I visited Start to Finish: The Arrows and discovered how Fab Dupont makes this band sound professional. I can see how bands can evolve their song from a scratch track of vocals, drums, bass, and simple guitars and keyboards to a more professional mix with better sounds. I can see how Dupont restructures the song from what the band pre-recorded in the scratch track and places markers on the song project in Pro Tools, which is almost similar to what I have been doing when I make songs. Dupont has also overdubbed drums and bass and added in additional guitars and keyboards to the mix to make the song sound more like a techno-rock song than the scratch track. I don't know what plugins Dupont is using for the synths, but for me, I have been using Xpand2 for a while (or Alchemy when I'm on Logic).

Link to content: Start to Finish series with Fab Dupont

Jessica

Recording Vocals with 1 Microphone

This video explored the setup to record with a microphone for a single vocal musician in the studio. I chose this video to watch because often as a choral director, I am either making recordings on my own at home, with students at school, or setting up technology for concerts and performances. It is helpful to know proper or at least suggested methods of setup for successful recordings or amplification. The main three takeaways from this video were the singer's distance from the microphone (dependent upon desired tone or type of music), the option of adding a pop filter to eliminate harder consonants that overwhelm the microphone, and the angle of the microphone.

It seemed that the best set up chosen in this video was to have a bit of distance between the singer and the mic, add a pop filter on a separate stand than the mic, and move the mic offset to the left of the singer's mouth behind the pop filter to add some of the air/warmth/proximity back in. These videos are always interesting for me, as I am not necessarily technologically savvy when it comes to setting up our sound systems. Although I don't have pop filters at my disposal, I do think this video was helpful for me to understand solo mic basics, if at least for myself in at home recordings.

Nikolai

I have not participating in a contest. Because of that, I am still new to PureMix Pro. I may not have tested one of the plugins. Because I could not find any plugins. Because of that I am new to PureMixPro. I did see the tutorial with Greg Wells some time ago in one of the last syllabuses and it did help me understand some content. But the description is kind of vague. I did not get the free subscription. But I managed to get a paid subscription and I am pretty better off with it. I still don't know how to get the plugins because I am still new to PureMix.

So here's the link. Start to Finish with Greg Wells

Kenji

How to Listen series with Fab Dupont.

I think this has to be one of my favorite video series on Puremix. After all, you can't mix and master without knowing how to critically listen to a song! I found the part about visual mixing and the z-plane in the first video especially fascinating because that's an effect that I'm pretty sure everyone has experienced when listening to music but I've never quite been able to put into words. Shaping the "feel" of the sound itself and creating a wide sense of space is an awesome feeling. I have to admit though that this whole aural memory thing and how easily the mind plays tricks on itself does get me a little paranoid lol

And a bonus shout out to the cooking tutorials.

You can't eat music, so remember to take care of yourself and stuff. And get up from the console to stretch your legs every once in a while. And drink plenty of water.

Partap

Partap Singh I am not participating in the contest and have not downloaded any plugins from Pure Mix Pro. Honestly, I don't know how I feel about Pure Mix Pro, I think it's a bit unorganized and kind of all over the place. I personally learn best when with trial and error and experimenting. There are a lot of helpful videos on Pure Mix Pro, but I think you can find a-lot of that stuff like that on YouTube for free. I personally want to just learn pro tools and get better at using pro tools, I don't care about songwriting and stuff like that I think it's a waste of time for me. other than that, I explored Pure Mix Pro and came across this interview that I enjoyed.

Andrew Scheps and Fab Dupont Mixing With Headphones | pureMix.net

David

In all honesty, I found PureMix a bit disorganized and hard to navigate, but despite this I was able to explore what it had to offer.

To start, I checked the contests page and at the moment no contests are open. After some more exploring, I found the page with the plugins you could download free with the pro subscription. Only Melodyne seemed to be worthwhile to download but the code provided on Puremix to get it for free wasn't working on Melodyne's website, which was quite frustrating.

However, I did find some useful videos. I was still a little confused about the topic of compression, so I watched Fab Dupont's video "Compression Overview". This explained the topic bit better and the helped train my ear to hear subtle differences between compressed and non-compressed audio files.

Furthermore, I watched Duponts "How to EQ Vocals" which, similarly to "Compression Overview" was helpful in training my ear to listen to subtle differences. I also gained insights into how to properly edit a track's EQ to elevate the song overall, such as how to lower specific sounds' frequencies and why it can be a good idea to do high passes to give other lower instruments room to breathe.

Phoebe

Fab Dupont's "Recording Vocals with 1 Microphone"

When I was searching pureMix Pro, I wanted to find a tutorial on recording vocals, specifically with microphone techniques. Finding the best mics and acoustics for recording vocals has been confusing to me for a while, so I was really glad to find this video. Fab had four different mic setups that he described and tested during the video:

The first setup only included the microphone. Fab's goal was to have an intimate/proximity effect with these vocals, so he had the vocalist stand close to the mic. Singing too close into the mic caused static and dynamic peaks in the recording.

In his second setup, Fab had the vocalist move a few inches away from the microphone to prevent static sound. Moving away did fix that problem, but caused the recording to lose a bit of the proximity effect that Fab wanted. He then attached a pop filter to the mic stand, which helps get rid of the static/pops.

In Fab's opinion, setup #3 was the ideal setup for recording vocals. He adjusted the microphone slightly to the side of the singer's face, while still facing it toward him. The vocals should go next to the capsule instead of straight into it. The high end of the vocals was maintained while still having the proximity effects that Fab wanted.

Paola

I did not sign up for a contest since there were not any available, but I did get the melodyne essential plugin. I have not had the chance to install or use it, but I will say that I'm happy to have it!

I watched the first How to Listen video where Fab Dupont, through somewhat devious tricks, teaches you how easily your environment, different mixes, or certain changes in volume can influence your aural perception of a track. He provides great advice on how to combat this such as closing your eyes or looking away from the computer screen when listening to a track and leaving the volume knob alone overnight and revisiting the same one in the morning. Fab offered a lot of insight on trusting your ears and I look forward to watching the rest of the videos.