Almanac
Answer to Yourself
An Inquiry Proposal - Professional Standards Required Of The Role Of Engineer & Producer For Working In Tandem With Artist Service Record Labels
For my MA research project I am proposing an inquiry into the professional standards required of audio production personnel, in the context of a developing independent, artist service record label. As research will draw primarily from practical audio production undertakings in an arts and business context, I’m proposing for the awarding title of MA Professional Practice in Audio Production.
Abstract for Conference Presentation
Within the field of audio production the rule of standardised professional practice is obscure, with limited academic discourse (Tough, 2013). As many productions deliver at differing standards and perceived quality even across major label releases according to Wilson A. & Fazenda B. (2016). Considering that the skills and abilities we bring to the table are what sets one sound practitioner apart from another (Deloria K. 2024). The goal of this research project will be to bring into focus and operate in relation to a set of established professional standards.
Betterment & Adaptation in Audio Production
The following is a short itemisation of some recommendations & considerations that have been drawn from the above series of events, across broad areas of practical work.
Volatility & Transparency - Encountering Complications In Audio Production
In the spirit of transparency, this journal entry will detail a series of events that have taken place on the 5-day run up to the conference on April 17th. From this I aim to present encountered complications & perspectives related to the situation I find myself in. These circumstances will be presented chronologically, and culminate in recommendations & considerations for myself going forward.
Where do professional standards fall in the creative process, with music production being in the pursuit of art?
The context of this research project is so far composed of inquiry into the areas of professional standards of practice in audio production in-tandem with the background of a developing record label environment. However, in the aim of taking practical meaning further into the realm of artistry I feel it is important to include in this investigation the additional aim given in the title question here presented.
Methodology and Expected Outcomes
Within this research project I am proposing aims to bring into focus the professional practice standards of audio engineering personnel and artist service label organisations. Detailed here, I have established an appropriate theoretical framework to guide research alongside practical application and implementation into the work experience opportunities running parallel to this undertaking.
Rationale & Pilot Production
Following a pilot practical project of 3-days of recording sessions with additional mixing sessions and revision, rationale behind the project has become clearer to express with context. Undertaking studio recording sessions, the cyclical iterations of reflection and adaptation until a final consensus / implementation is reached is an inherent aspect of the creative production process. With aiming to ensure best practice in a production context, the cyclical process highlights areas of production work that need improving to maintain consistent professional standards.
MA - Pilot Production Project
As the current landscape of the record label industry is shifting from traditional business models, understanding how best to organise personnel structure / services offered / finances and client acquisition will be significantly beneficial to both label scenarios. Additionally, outlining professional standards should not only prove beneficial for myself, improving the quality of my practice, but should also serve useful to others involved with each label.
Stereo Rendering Environments - An inquiry into the application of virtual acoustics encoders in music post-production, for stereo formatting.
Within the field of immersive audio, a unified consensus to adoption and application has been eluded. This research inquiry focuses on a gap of applied technological context, which has brought about an alternative method to rendering panoramic sound fields. Through the implementation of an audio encoding framework, virtual generation of acoustic enhancement encapsulates a proposed post-production approach to immersive audio within the two-channel capacity of standardised & accessible stereo audio.
VA Impulse Response Generation and Observation
During the process of rendering audio stems, to visualise and observe the frequency response of various VAS models and placements of HRTF listener / sound sources, impulse responses have been rendered through for this purpose. Observing the frequency responses against one another will draw an insightful distinction between VAS models and their intrinsic timbre similarly to natural acoustic environments.
VA Mixing Session - Guitars
The rendering sessions for Track 2 encoded the guitar tracks within the following source array and virtual environment model. The use of sources in each diagonal direction, combined with the two vertical sources has been done to maximise the ray distribution in the upper hemisphere of the listener perspective. The six sources all contain ambisonic components to allow for stereo signals to be outputting from each individual source, generating raycast cues which maintain this stereo image on reflections from surrounding geometry.
VA Mixing Session - Sound Collage
For the purpose of generating additional texture to accompany the tape cassette EP which has been produced creatively alongside these sessions, a sound collage has been created to texture the noise between track transitions. This has been done to explore the abstract creative potential of VA use for soundscaping and ambient effects processing.
VA Mixing Session - Virtual Microphones
With considering directions this virtual rendering environment implementation could be taken for further post-production uses, one that comes to mind would be as a reamping setup where stems can be rerecorded with additional timbre and dynamics. To investigate the implementation of this practically, this session will investigate into the setup and configuration of applying virtual acoustic encoding in emulation of the re-amp process.
VA Mixing Session - Multi-Track Mix
This documentation covers production of a fully encoded multi-track implementation for mixing, using a set of back catalogue guitar / bass / kit / synth stems as material for use in renders. Stems had then been exported from Logic Pro and imported over into Unity Engine as audio assets, with an additional material component asset being created specifically for use in this session.
VA Mixing Session - What Will Happen ?
In this session some novel placements of audio sources will be utilised to split single stems of instrumentation up into varying positions around the stereo field. For this I will be first using a piano stem from an in-progress production remix track - What Will Happen? - there is the aim to discover some distinct placements working off of new experimentation informed by previous implementation research sessions.
VA Mixing Session - Record Store
Going into this iteration of implementation with the aim of utilising tested setups of VA rendering to incorporate into the mixing process, the session began with the 6-Ch source arrangement utilised in the Session 6 audio project. Again working with Logic Pro and Unity Engine bridged via Blackhole software for on the fly rendering during the mixing process, this project differs with the context of the track itself being a VA remix therefore allowing for more creative flexibility.
VA Mastering Session
Given that the focus of this project’s creative application lands on mixing in the post-production stage of audio production, mastering tracks with incorporation of VA encoding is something that would be beneficial to enquire into as it falls within the same production stage. Mastering full tracks with VA may present some different applications and also investigate whether existing stereo image phase relationships can be taken further into exocentric space.
VA Mixing Session
Starting this session, the aim of integrating VA rendering into a post-production mixing workflow was the focus of research. Going into this session, it was focused on gaining an understanding for how this encoding process may integrate alongside mixing to create immersive sound from mono / stereo stems in a typical stereo mix session.
VA Mixing Implementation in Virtual Acoustic Space
This session aims to further develop understanding of the interactions between receiver positioning relative to audio sources within VAS. For this session, an arrangement of string instruments will be positioned in a theatre model to synthesise the listening experience of orchestral music. Whilst these sources will remain static, the listening position will be moved for the purpose of testing microphone placement and pickup within the VAS.
VA Virtual Acoustic Space
As a core part of the generation of virtual acoustics comes from the geometric structure the sound sources propagate within, this session will run iterations on three models with varying size to determine what distinctions may be apparent between their VAS.