Weekly Update #27 - What If/Circle Back/Take Me Away

Hey Everyone!

I have some solid updates on songs that have been in the works for a long time as well as something new for you this week!

0:00 - What If

This is 99% finished! I previewed this version on stream Friday and got a pretty good response. I am just waiting on Alex to give me a final thumbs up and then I'll be doing a reference mastering session on it this week. Expect a download for you all once all that's finalized and it's 100% finished!

This one has taken me a LOT more time than anticipated but I think it turned out really great. And I think the quality on this one really shows so I'm happy I took my time with this. Alex and I are going to be working together to get some partners for this release (label, promo network, sync opps, etc) so I'm not entirely sure when it will release publicly but we'll see!

3:22 - Circle Back

The reason this one has taken me so long to finish is because of the vocals. I'm still not 100% on if I'll keep my voice on this one but last week I finally got something I was pretty happy with. I must have re-recorded these vocals about 10-15 times over the last few months but I really like how it sounds in this version.

I tried lots of different things... harmonies, vocoders, super-autotuned, mixing the vocals a LOT more up-front and powerful, chopping them up, etc. But in the end I went back to treating them how I wrote it originally. The vocal sits really far back in the mix, is REALLY filtered, and is overly reverbed but I felt that it really works for this song - it's supposed to feel floaty, reflective, and carefree. I think the way the vocal sits really emulates that.

I should also say that one of my biggest holdups that I didn't find out until this week was the literal way I was singing in my vocal sessions. I was trying to put more power into the vocal so that it packed a bit of punch and once I got a good recording of that it would feel really awkward in the mix. I sang the vocal more breathy and less powerful and it fit the best.

I've still got to finalize the mix/master on this so expect an update on it next week!

6:57 - Take Me Away

This is something I wrote this week and the idea's there but it's definitely NOT complete. The original idea was based off of a quick theme that came to mind:  

Take me away, to a better life. Make me forget all the sad things in life. Drift away, to a better place

I'm not 100% on the lyrics - "Take me away" is pretty common and definitely doesn't stand out among lyrics, but I do really like the vocal melody. The vocal melody, in fact, carries on as the lead in the drop. Also, I'm leaning towards having someone else sing this if I finish it because I feel like it needs more power than my voice can provide.

I should also note that this is VERY rough, a lot of the sound design here will be changing because my writing session on this was focused mainly on writing to the theme within the arrangement I had in mind. On that note, when copying over the arrangement I actually forgot space for the 2nd drop fill/transition so that's why it feels pretty abrupt.

Alright! That's it for this week but I should have more updates for you next week. So far, October has been really successful in finishing lots of the projects I had in the works and also had a few new wips too!

As always, thanks so much for your support. Have a great week :)

- Andrew