Audio Samples
Artist: Kille
Title: "Solitary"
"Kille" is the latest emerging talent to visit the Smallfishrecordings studio. She brought the first of her projects along to explore possibilities outside the conventional band format she had been working with previously. The sample is a snapshot in the evolution of the song before we re-take the vocals.
- Kille plays in the piano part via midi
- Jon ports this to a Steinway sample from the library
- Kille lays down the guide vocal
- Jon sets up the soundstage with Cello/violin and detailed reverb environment
- Jon and Kille work together to develop the orchestration
- A combination of conventional and synthesised parts are mixed and ready for vocal comps
Click to hear "Solitary" sample
Artist: Kille
Title: "Song 2 4 Now"
The 2nd project, as yet not formally titled, is developing from its simple organ/vocal writing platform into a nearly finished state and sounds great.
- Kille plays in the organ part via midi
- Jon ports the midi to 3 layered Hammond organs
- Kille lays down the guide vocals and tracks harmonies
- Jon adds bass, synth lines and pad sections
- Jon plays in drum track using Roland midi drums and routed this to DFH drum sampler
- The mix is 90% developed and ready for vocal re-takes prior to mastering
Click to hear "Song 2 4 Now" sample
Artist: Joanne Lousie Parker
Title: "And I"
Background:
In order to develop her ideas from a solo to studio/band format, we have been collaborating for some time, with Smallfish effectively providing her studio "band", recording facility and production service.
The song started as a simple vocal/acoustic guitar arrangement and developed something like this:
- Electro-acoustic guitar recorded directly into UA700 interface
- Vocal takes recorded and optimised
- Smallfish develop the idea as follows:
- Guitar re-recorded and a new arrangement planned
- Electric guitar parts added
- Bass line added
- Drums programmed in DFH
- Orchestral lines composed
- Piano lines added
Click to hear "And I" sample
Artist: Joanne Lousie Parker
Title: "Movie Star"
Background:
Rather than take this powerful song down the conventional path that it seemed to want to go, Jo and I tried to keep the essentially acoustic roots of this one while embroidering heavily using orchestral string, piano, brass and percussion arrangements to create a unique and engaging sonic place for a classic track.
- Jo's original guitar parts polished and processed
- Percussion added in DFH
- Brass part added to lift chorus
- Piano parts recorded
- Orchestration added using East West Quantum Leap library
Click to hear "Movie Star" sample
Artist: Joanne Lousie Parker
Title: "Sointula"
Background:
Jo brought this unusual idea to the studio with her usual killer vocal line but little more than a few simple guitar chords to support it. After discussing the direction and theme of the song and binning the guitar, ideas were developed on the keyboard, auditioned and refined in one sitting to provide the backbone to what has become a really popular arrangement.
In this case, the workflow went like this:
- Vocal takes recorded and optimsed
- Suitable ethnic drum samples sourced and programmed
- Organ parts added, layered and mangled
- Vocal samples reversed, auto-panned and mixed back in
- Ambient "Water & Waves" sample sourced and positioned in the mix
- After final mixing and mastering, a great result:
Click to hear "Sointula" Sample