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Writer's pictureV_Devlin

#NoFilter: the recording and mixing process, a reflection.



Cover Art for #NoFilter: Journal Musings


No Filter in a nutshell are Journal musings. This concept is a 3 part audio Journal entry that focuses on the thoughts, feelings and musings of a teenager dealing with sexual assault, suicidal tendencies and the loss of a friend through suicide. These musings come from dealing with the anxieties and fallout after the fact of these events. Almost 10 years on for some of these instances and with all of the help that I received I felt it was time to get these stories out. To make other people who may have suffered silently know they are not alone and that there is the support out there, should they want to seek it. In doing this project I am also hoping to show people out there that there are people who understand what you went through and to also show them they can go through the motions dealing with it but not to let it be the thing that defeats you in life. Take those stories and find a way to make you stronger.


This project due to the personal connection was by far one of the hardest projects I have taken on. However, through the many meltdowns and through trial and error in creating a fitting instrumental track to support my readings we got there. #noFilter will be published in the next coming months on my website for my label launch. My intention was to kickstart the label with my story and also share some of the other projects I had been involved in so future artists can know who they are working with from the start. By sharing this honesty and rawness I hope to show them that I am human and I know they are too and I don't want to be like just another label and put pressure on them to just create whatever sounds good. But to work and develop their sound and give voice to what they may want to say.


As the writings were done first, coming up with a fitting instrumental was a bit of a challenge. As in creating music or anything that has an instrumental accompaniment the process usually has the music or tune in some form of development and then sparks to life the words to follow.


The main inspiration for the style of how I wanted the tracks to be was Alessia Cara's Song 'Scars to your beautiful'


I also had wanted to interview people and include theirs stories as well. However, the friends that I had gathered together on the day with the microphones all set up it became too real. So we had all agreed that they were understandably not ready to be sharing their stories. I also realised that this style of track would in the end feel too showcase like and these sensitive topics needed to be shared in a more intimate and raw way due to the nature of the musings. So I decided to do some research into spoken word poetry which I felt would be able to keep the emotion and rawness of the musings and to also convey the messages, having the impact I had wanted to receive from audiences with regards to this project.


Journal Musings:


Below is where you will find all of the writings for #NoFilter:


Today the 19th:


Today the 19th is my thoughts and feelings after sexual assault. This was written last year on the 5th anniversary of the assault. 19th of December. It was triggered when I saw the perpetrator again and I knew that I just had to get all of the thoughts and feelings out that I still had in the back of my mind since the assault. Releasing this in a way will be cathartic and pertinent to healing.


Darkness is not your friend:


This was written on the 24th of August, 2016. Just after I found out I had lost a friend to suicide. I was also going through suicidal thoughts at the time but His death was a huge wake up call for me. I'd made many unsuccessful attempts before this and seeing the fallout and also in how it effected me. I don't want to make anyone feel that way. After hearing he was really gone triggered something in me. This was the start of me working on myself to get rid of these very real thoughts and feelings and to put that energy as hard as it would be. Into staying here. It wasn't completely cured, I still have my days when I want to just disappear for good but now when I have these thoughts come through I reach out to anyone who will listen until it's gone.


What Now?:


This writing was written around the time my nephew was born. I'm not sure why but being there in that moment I realised yes life is hard and difficult and it can break you sometimes. But there is also hope and things to live for. That is different for everyone but it's there if you keep working on looking for it.


My attempt at creating a backing track:


I had created 3 different types of tracks for the #noFilter project. One for each track. I had a backing track mainly with just some piano and drums and guitar for each track. The piano acting as the melody and the Guitar and drum accompaniment creating the harmony and bringing some dynamics to the track to emphasise specific phrases within the spoken word type audio recordings. However no matter how I had edited, Eq'd, manipulated, delayed, emphasised the instrumental tracks it still sounded as if it would make a mockery of the message I was trying to convey. This lead to bringing another music producer, Lincoln List, on the team to try and help come up with a stripped back track that would make the vocal audio part be the particular part that stood out.


Within about 10 minutes and after listening to my audio recordings this is what he came up with for #NoFilter:



I decided due to lack of time and my own abilities in creating MIDI music (which I am working on so stay tuned!) that I would just use the same backing track for all 3 of the audio writings. I also made this decision as soon as I heard Lincolns track as I knew mine would not be suited to the project aesthetic. I also wanted something similar so as when people listen to the 3 tracks separately they would ideally have some similarity so people can recognise that it is part of a series of spoken word. When I publicise the tracks in future I would like to get to a point where I can create 3 original tracks for each piece on my own.


Mixing vocals:


Mixing vocals for this track was actually quite difficult for me as I had never heard my voice in an audio recording before and it was quite a jarring experience for me. I decided to use some eq and revibe 2 reverb on my voice to try and change it. I believe I did this (and maybe I over did it with the reverb) as I was still trying to disassociate myself from the project so that I could see it to a finish. I also did some research into spoken word to try and verify how to recreate the effect they garner with their audio. With most of this research I found that the vocal in particular was construed in a way to sound like a revelational speaker from some kind of church service or conference. However in the end I could not quite figure out the balance. I am to work on this until publication date however I am okay with the project as it is currently.


Final result:


Below is the final edits of the audio and also the written words to the whole project: This will still go through some editing until launch of my website Later this year.


https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uGbAg9e1if7z50EwyQBVoXjW6A3CjI5R


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