EMP Journal

Hangar

Real Name: Sam Halligan

Country: Manchester, UK

Beginning DJ'ing at University parties in 2014, Hangar has since focused efforts on sculpting his own experimental sound which draws influence from Techno, Breaks, Dubstep, and UK Bass music.

The 22 year-old states his main artistic influences to be labels such as Swamp81, Circular Jaw, Kaizen, Hessle Audio, and Livity Sound to name a few.

Website: soundcloud.com/hangarsound | hangarsound.bandcamp.com

For my final project of the Electronic Music Production course, I intended to write, mix, and master a coherent, four track EP in my own unique artistic style, seeking influence from the genres I listen to and DJ with on a regular basis.

As a result of the skills and techniques I have acquired over the past six months, I was able to do this successfully, and to a standard that I am happy with. This journal exhibits how I was able to achieve this, linking relevant creative processes to my finished tracks.

Upon embarking on the EMP course, the first issue I encountered was making the switch from FL Studio 12 to Ableton Live 9; which meant I had to learn a new DAW. Although daunting at first, I was able to adapt efficiently, with Live's 'Session View’ offering more freedom than I had experienced with my previous DAW.

Session view allowed me to write different parts of a track before transferring into arrangement, take my track ‘R2’s Revenge’ for example; I wrote the main body first, then proceeded to subtract elements in reverse chronological order, resulting in a build up being formed – something I had never done prior to the course.

Another thing I had limited knowledge of beforehand were ADSR envelopes and synthesis, however, via the use of synthesisers such as Operator, Massive, and Serum, I learnt how to create sounds I have wanted to replicate for years, using oscillators and wavetables. Using two oscillators; one an octave below the other, I was able to create a prolonged, piercing square synth in my track 'Sq Route'. By applying necessary Attack, Decay, and Release parameters to eliminate pops and retriggered latency, along with setting the audio signal to monophonic and adding a subtle LFO and legato to the filter cut-off, the final outcome was a smooth, clear sound, with no clashing frequencies.

A pivotal part of my production workflow is the use of sampling; a creative method I began to experiment more and more with as the course progressed.

I utilised numerous sampling techniques throughout my work. Recording my own drum samples with my Zoom H1 recorder – hitting household objects and interesting sounding tools that I use during my day job – enabled me to implement organic and original instrumentation into my project, the likes of kicks, snares, percs, and hats; which I then placed into a drum rack in order to create a pattern.

YouTube also played a key role in the sampling aspect of my project, from Garry Says' 'Unusual Instruments’, evident in opening track ‘R2’s Revenge’, King Krule Interview’s in ‘Sq Route’ and ‘30’, and Vocals from Travis Scott, T.I. and 2Chainz’ ‘Upper Echelon’ in ‘It’s Over’.

Central to this element of my workflow is time-stretching and pitch shifting; constructing sounds that are unrecognisable from the original sample. Using the clip editor, I would edit the bpm of the sample to match that of the track, use warp markers to correctively beat-match the clip, set the warp mode to complex pro – allowing me to make significant changes to the pitch while preserving the original formants of the sample – then crop and bounce the edited sample as a new audio file.

Following this, I would often experiment with Simpler or an Instrument rack, writing innovative melodies, pads and synths using the new samples; the latter allowing me to layer different samples and plugins on top of one another for maximum effect.

For me personally, the range and capability of Live's stock audio effects is what really sold the DAW to me; through sessions on creating random melody generators and evolving pads, my knowledge has improved tenfold.

Applying the likes of Reverb, Delays, and Filters to my tracks has undoubtedly improved my overall sound, and knowing how to use them efficiently (ADSR parameters), means I am in full control of exactly how the effect is administered and the outcome it has.

As my workflow became faster, and my understanding of Ableton improved, I began to use audio effects in a more proficient and CPU-reducing manner. By mapping Send tracks to pots on my Korg Taktile midi controller, I was able to impose live automation - such as reverb and ping pong delays - to certain instruments in areas of the track I deemed necessary, as opposed to the instrument carrying the effect for the duration. An example of this can be heard around the 1:30 mark in my track '30', whereby the bleeping sound increases in intensity before transitioning into the next part of the track.

Along with mapping sends, I frequently imposed volume and filter automation to my tracks, often configuring parameters from Serum to pots on my midi controller. The most obvious example of this again comes from ‘30’, where I have applied live automation from Serum’s filter cut-off, resonance, stereo and even wavetable position, to vary the frequency, velocity and intensity of the analog-esque square bass as it rises through the track.

From my time on the course, I learnt that it is important to separate the writing and creative process from the mixdown and mastering elements.

The first thing I did when beginning to mix down is group and colour-code sounds I believed to be of similar frequencies; highs, mids, lows, bass, etc. Secondly, I would apply final processing effects, such as sidechaining a sub bass to a kick - in order for it to duck underneath it fluently, selectively enforcing panning to relevant aspects of the mix to add space, and using compression sparsely to control the gain of significant components.

Following this, I went through each instrument and/or sample featured in the tracks, and applied necessary subtractive EQ dependant on the type of sound, e.g. for a kick I would cut off the unneeded high frequencies to make room for the high frequency instruments in the track, along with the very low end, to give room to lower frequency elements, such as the bassline.

Once I was happy with the overall sound of the song, I'd make sure the gain was peaking at -6db or below – for mastering headroom – and bounce the grouped tracks to audio files, freeing up CPU and leaving me with a selection of stems ready to take into mastering.

Despite only touching on the basics of mastering, I feel I am now able to effectively apply what I have learned to produce tracks that are crisp and loud enough to DJ with – something I have wanted to accomplish since I began producing.

Although I am an avid user of Live for writing music, I found that my ability to apply mastering techniques is better within Logic Pro. After importing the bounced audio stems into Logic, I applied an EQ to the overall master bus, cutting off between 25 and 30hz of the low end to get rid of any final unwanted muddy frequencies. After this I added a compressor the chain, setting the ratio to around 1.4db, the makeup to between 2-3db, and playing with the threshold so that the gain peaked at around 3db.

After this, the mix began to sound much clearer but lacked loudness, so I added an Adaptive Limiter to the chain, and set the ceiling to about -0.3db. This meant that no matter how loud I now attempted to make the track; it would never peak above -0.3db – an element I believe to be important for tracks that are intended to be played in a club environment. After setting the ceiling, I'd push the gain of the Limiter to between 6-9db, depending on where it begins to cause distortion, to make up for the mixdown headroom.

During learning about the mastering process, I also became aware of the importance of using a spectrograph (multimeter) to keep track of the frequencies from each channel as the gain of the track is affected - so as to avoid clipping.

Depending on the type of track, or if I felt certain elements still sounded dull, I would apply an exciter to individual stems, which helped add colour through the use of harmonics. Again, depending on the track, I may use a direction mixer to add space in places I had missed in the mixdown; this is a technique I implemented during mastering my tracks 'Sq Route' and ‘It’s Over’, whereby the percussion instruments were sonically too close together, necessitating added spread for coherency.

Once I was happy with the overall track, I bounced the finished piece as a 24bit WAV file, to remain consistent with the bit depth I had mixed with, and exported with the highest sample rate of 192000hz.

On the whole, I believe I took advantage of my time at SSR, and have produced a final project relative to my current ability. I do, however, have several criticisms of myself. 

In hindsight, I have learnt that mixing too much inside a drum rack can lead to all sorts of problems when it comes to mixing down; trying to get everything out of the drum rack into separate tracks is a lengthy and CPU-destroying procedure which I do not want to do again in a hurry.

Furthermore, I believe I spent too much time on track 'Sq Route', and am still not entirely happy with how it sounds today. At the time of writing I labelled it my strongest track and the one in which I wanted to work on the most; this, in fact proved counter-productive as I spent too long fine-tuning certain elements to the point where I was completely sick of the track on the whole. I aim to learn from this and try not to over complicate my production in future.

Finally, I feel I have been reluctant to allow myself to actually enjoy my music because I always feel like it could be better. Again, I will learn from this as I grow as an artist and begin to rate myself as I continue to improve.

That being said, there is no doubt the EMP course has moulded me into a better producer. The skills I have picked up in the past six months will drive me to my ultimate goal at present: a label release. I am appreciative and happy of my time and the people I have met while studying at SSR.