Click below to play and pause.
▶ Pity Party
⏸ Pity Party
▶ Blue Skies
⏸ Blue Skies
▶ Carolina Moon
⏸ Carolina Moon
A major exciting Digital Media project was the music recording project. We learned how to record and mix using Pro Tools with various practice files, and then got to record and something of our own choice. I collaborated with Bryce Lin, and he arranged for us to record a very talented, young barbershop quartet, the Sopranotes. All the members were juniors in our district at the time of recording, and have been performing together since 2022, including at competitions.
Recording
Recording was fun! We had a microphone for each vocalist, and Mr. Florendo’s binaural microphone to get the general room sound as well. Freestyle has a very nice studio. Because we chose a preexisting ensemble, we let them select songs from their own repertoire. They ended up recording 3 songs, and we chose the best takes for each.
Mixing
There are a lot of plugins used to mix on top of just balancing the tracks’ volume and adding reverb. Compressors made sure the volume didn’t get too loud, de-essers made sure that the S sounds weren’t too harsh, and the high/low pass filters tried to eliminate potential static noise. Of course, mixing was done in collaboration with the musicians to make sure it sounded how they wanted it to be.
Cover Image
The cover image was made using an image they provided as well as colors and a font they had previously used for their social media presence.
For our music recording project, we recorded The Sopranotes, an entirely student led barbershop quartet of very talented singers from multiple schools. They’ve competed nationally and recently placed 1st in the Far Western District High School Quartet Contest. With them, we recorded 3 songs: Pity Party, Blue Skies, and Carolina Moon. This project was a really fun project for us, as we got to bring in a group that we had seen perform live, and work closely producing those recordings. Learning about mixing was a process we really enjoyed, and we were thrilled by how smoothly recording went. Make sure to follow them on Instagram at @thesopranotes for more awesome music!
Every time I went back to mix it was very enjoyable because they just sounded so good! I’m so fortunate to have the opportunity to witness such talented people.