Blackbird/Yesterday
Two good Beatles songs that I picked were "Blackbird" and "Yesterday" from the White Album and Help. I recorded these two covers with vocals only months ago as warmups and normally when I see a piano playing by Dr. Tyulkova during rehearsals for their choir concert, this is a good two instrument project to create. And for Blackbird, knowing this is only a tap foot in time, acoustic guitar, and vocal recording which I can adjust these two songs together and provide an interesting two song medley that I found from The Beatles' 2006 Remix Compilation Album "Love" that has a remix tuning of Blackbird in the key sounded like the other song Yesterday as well. But I decided to use the original version of Blackbird and go straight directly to Yesterday as a 4-minute two song medley as my project. So, let's break down on how I manage and create this project as my perspective.
Recording Breakdown
Throughout the two Beatles song medley project, the first thing I did is setting up the tempo of each song to find the right speed to include the click track, and finding the key signatures of each song. The AKG C214 is the mic I went with because it has to have a nice smooth, clear sound to go with my voice in the project rather than the SM58. I downloaded both the songs' MIDI files import to my session and find the ones that are included in the project. A total of 9 MIDI tracks are in this session. I added three AUX inputs for the MIDI Acoustic Guitar and the strings (2 Violins, Viola, and Cello) for Xpand plugins and include two violin solos for the violins and nice beautiful strings with the Viola and Cello (But normally it has all the string instruments in it so that is why I wanted to have an orchestra sound to it). I recorded all my vocals in one take on each song. For Blackbird, I actually include my finger snapping because in the original only has foot tapping but I decided to go with the finger snap and record with the AKG not too close but little bit away from it because I phantom power the mic on LAB 105's gain system. I even use the MIDI tracks for helping to sing the lead vocal good and it officially worked out well. The Acoustic Guitar strumming style on the Xpand plugin I include is finger picking because it has the song where Paul McCartney perform the song with the finger pick and use it on my project and Yesterday to provide finger picking style as well. And lastly, at the end of Yesterday, I include a tempo change from 97 to 86 because I needed to sound just like the original version with its tempo at its end.
Mixing and Post-Production
After recording my vocals, finger snapping, and including the MIDI tracks, the mixing session began. The first thing I did was panning the tracks: My lead vocal stays in front as always; Finger Snapping on the left side; Acoustic Guitars on the right side; And strings on the left side. I EQ all the tracks except the finger snapping because hearing the snapping sound just make it very clearer as it seems. I used the D3 CL to the audio and input tracks to avoid hitting the red bar which I needed to have the tracks to be good and sound well. I use the Studio Reverb for my vocals and also I adjust the reverb mix sound on the plug in to find the right amount of reverb and I use a Tile Room reverb sound and turned down the mix a little bit so that I can have a short amount of reverb into my project. For the Acoustic Guitars, I include a True Verb Plugin because I needed a nice acoustic echo sound and adjusting the size of the reverb can have the amount of reverb to the right side and adjusting the yellow bar of how much distance can It take without going over the blue and the yellow bar goes at 10. And finally, I didn't include any plugin reverb to the strings because I can hardly to imagine, there is just really good amount of playing and at the end of the project I can already hear a bit reverb. But I even adjust the volume level on the strings to make the sound on the left more good and almost at level with the right side of the bar in the master fader in stereo.
Reflections
For my point of view with this two instrument project, this is the most easiest thing to do. I thought about bringing Dr. Tyulkova in to do the project knowing I saw her playing Yesterday with the choir during rehearsals at the Main Hall Chapel and had ideas to include her but finding the MIDI files for both songs is way much better as it should be as a one person project. Furthermore, doing this two song medley project is a one in done and not able to work from day to day is the better way to find the plans first, record, and mix all in a day. I considered myself with this project rank 2 because doing the instrumentation first and recording my vocals just sounded like I'm singing to the whole thing without using playback which you will sounded off with your vocal style. I am certainly happy with my project.