BarMoon is a very young and talented artist (go check him out on Spotify), who has recently started taking his first steps into his artistry, and decided to seek out my music production services.
The song I’m going to talk about today is a first song for many reasons:
It’s the first song I ever did for him;
It’s the first song he ever had professionally produced;
It’s his first song in English (he’s not a native speaker);
It’s the first song he ever released.
He sent a demo through for my producer audit, and I gave him my honest feedback like I always do.
Before I share my thoughts with you, though, I want you to take a listen to his demo below and resist the urge to switch to the finished master “After”.
Make a note of what you think works and what doesn’t in his demo “Before”, and then read on to find out what my thoughts were.
Done?
Sure?
Ok, let’s say I trust you.
my Producer Audit: What Worked and What Didn’t
The demo made a decent job of presenting his arrangement ideas and overall sound. He was clearly going for that Indie Alt Rock sound that I love and grew up listening to!
However, there were several issues with it.
BASS: the bassline was doing too much, it was far too active and busy, drawing attention away from the vocal and often repeating with little change throughout the song. Definitely too much for this style.
DRUMS: the drums were the opposite problem. Too simple, too flat, no sense of momentum. They weren't pushing the song forward, and sounded like they were just placed there to keep time.
VOCALS: meanwhile, the main melody needed more repetition to really lodge itself in the listener's brain.
DYNAMICS: And the dynamics across the whole track were too even, making it difficult to sense different sections, push and pull, and tension and release.
Some of these were arrangement issues, some were production issues, but I brought up each with the artist and he agreed that we had a lot of work to do.
sonic references: Building a Modern Alt Rock SOund
I was pleased to find out that among his favorite artists were names like Green Day, Simple Plan, Queen, Linkin Park, System of a Down.
What surprised me was that so many of these acts peaked decades ago, which is unusual for such a young artist.
So he wanted to build his own sonic signature referencing these massive acts, and blending elements that suited his taste in the finished record.
Production Choices: DRUMS, Bass, Guitars, And Synths
I had to fine tune the sounds I chose for this production to sound modern Indie Alt Rock, which meant sculpting the right tones especially for drums, bass and electric guitars. The right bite and saturation paired with tasteful stereo placement did the trick.
As for dynamics, I wanted better contrast between the sections and went for an arpeggiated somewhat processed acoustic guitar for the intro+verses, so that the choruses felt like being slapped across the face (much like Linkin Park taught me over 20 years ago).
Lastly, I felt that completing the arrangement with a pinch of finely selected synthesizer plucks and drones brought this Alt Rock arrangement the more Alt leaning sheen it needed.
The final spark was lent by a solid and powerful mix and master that finished the job by hitting the listener just right.
