Dressed In Black
Alright so for my final project is going to be my Self-Guidance Project. This one I can prove some things to what I am going to introduced. From the beginning, I thought about having my Self-Guidance as a Piano Sonata. I've been practicing the F sharp major to make up a sonata piece to myself. As I was preparing for the project, there are two things that caused my self-guidance to switch around. First, I tried to record it with an actual piano in room 107, not the one next to the stairwell because of the workers coming in and out with the doors open and close, and have three microphones for the project. But suddenly, two of the microphones weren't connecting because of the cable issues and then I abandoned the idea because of walking back and forth, and finding the right equipment. Second, I intended to record it in Lab 105. However, I was actually recording it but after 5 minutes, I decided to abandon the idea and also not doing the project as well. It's because I am not a good piano player but I'm actually good playing the scale as well. But its the awareness of not being too good. And after that, I realized decided to do another cover but this time, I had a cover song on my portfolio since the beginning of the semester but I even left it out until the time has finally come. So, my actual Self-Guidance Project is doing a cover of Depeche Mode's Deep Cut Songs from Black Celebration "Dressed In Black." I actually recorded this as a warm up from Fall 2025 with vocals only. But the main thing is, I was singing on the stair well next to Room 107 and singing it from my headphones and sounded not too good to be on the final project. And I returned to the project at the end of March, and everything came to life. Here is my final information about my last project in my portfolio.
Recording and Elements
Let's begin talking about how this project comes to life of recording it all in one go. The first thing I did is finding a MIDI file of the song and found a website that has some Depeche Mode songs that included full MIDI scores and I found the one that is suited to go with my project. I downloaded the file and imported to my session and start to apply Xpand onto my MIDI tracks which I have to include Aux Input tracks to send the MIDI tracks to the Aux and provide instrumentation first. A total of 6 MIDI tracks are in my session. There is no editing to the MIDI tracks since I imported them to my session and says that it can import the key signature and tempo as well so I went with it and sounded just like the original. The only audio tracks is the vocals. All of them are recorded in Lab 105 alongside importing my MIDI tracks. The mic I went with is the AKG C214. I connected it to the Lab 105 gain system. It has to be phantom power to have signal and sound in the project. Since the mic has a huge surrounding sound, I have to back up so that I can't be standing close to the mic and clipping the track and not be too loud. I applied a click track into my session so that I have to sing with the click track to be in time. The song itself is 3/4 times but it has a click track to 6 beats which is like 6 beats in a measure as 6/4 time. I recorded my lead vocal first, then I added two background vocals and recorded the background "Ah" first, then the second background vocal singing the line, "Dressed in Black again," in the middle section and the outro section.
Editing and Mixing
After importing the MIDI tracks, applying Xpand instruments with Aux inputs to the MIDI, and recording my vocals, the mixing starts out with a simple basic way to manage to myself and the sound to the project. I forgot to mention of what instrumentation I included on the MIDI tracks. The synth basic (which it says base) tracks 1 and 2 are applied with an 80s Synth Stack Soft Pad Instrumentation. When I applied it to the MIDI and it sounded just like it comes to life and also from the original recording itself. I even applied it with the overdub synth 1 and 2 to provide and sounded so nice. I even included two Aux inputs for the middle part to the outro that has the same instrumentation sound as the overdub synths but applying strings in it to make this in a very well known song in orchestra style. And lastly, I applied bells in the song and found the nice bell sound to the project. Now the mixing in this project has two sets of plugins. I included Studio Verb to the vocals and adding another Aux Input to apply the verb into the Aux Input and send the vocals tracks to the Aux and adjusting its echo mix with the knob and Pre-fader has to be enable to get the signal and sound after sending. I included a Delay plugin which is the AIR Dynamic Delay for the bells and adjust its Delay effect to 16D and no mix was involved but only hearing the delay bounce I include some EQ plugins and limiters because I only adjust the volume to the tracks. And most importantly, I have to provide the right volume to the synth with the vocals to get a nice balanced volume together. Also, I adjust one section in the outro and that is the synth because it has this loudness that conduct a fade-out to the song so I adjust the volume using a grabber tool to select the area that is closer to the section that has the high volume coming in next and I played it back, it sounded normal. Plus I even adjust the gain volume level to my Xpand instrumentation tracks on MIDI making sure nothing is super loud but provide a nice, open ear sound to make sure you have the confidence to hear all the instrumentation in a project. And finally, I pan the tracks to hear what it sounds like that states the following: The lead vocal stays in front; Background Vocal 1 on the left; Background Vocal 2 on the right; The stereo synth's left knob is on the left while the right knob is adjusted on the right side. All of them to come with the background vocals as well; The bells on the top left side; And orchestra strings on the top right side plus adjusting the gain knobs to find the right sound.
Reflections
For my point of view in retrospect, I started out this project as a warm up with vocals only but didn't get along to the final version due to me singing with my earbuds on with the playing as well. I planned to have this Self-Guidance Project to include a cover of Dressed In Black or even use it as a solo or two instrument project but I left it out thinking about doing a Piano Sonata piece and it didn't go down as it should be. But after abandoning it, I knew, recording a cover of a song that I have been singing a lot and rehearsing thinking about it not a lot, is the last piece of the puzzle and it was. This is another great project that I come up with and most importantly this song alongside the album "Black Celebration" is 40 years since it was released in 1986. That is why just like my Large Ensemble Project for Let Em In, I decided to record a cover to celebrate an anniversary that has happened in the past years and remained a legacy forever. I'm really happy that this project is the best there is and especially reconcile a project that has never happened and also finding the right score and sound to the session is the best way to have this project to be good and bring the sound of joy. And lastly, thank you for bringing the time on this portfolio with all the projects I created with information I brought up and trying to make this portfolio as a well-design in my perspective to allow people who sees this as a fun experience to read and listen. I hope you enjoy this experience. Thank you!