Magic Satin Production Project Plan & Presentation
For the advanced specialised project module, I will be working with partner Das as our production group and collective name Sociodelic. For the project we will be undertaking the production of two EP releases, along with the business and marketing materials provided for following through with the release process and promotion. As we’re producing two together, I will take on producing Magic Satin, and Das will produce Silhouettes. For clarification all references to EP in these pages will refer to Magic Satin.
The production for the EP will consist of recording and mixing stages for six psychedelic soul fusion tracks, as well as post production and mastering. The production roles will be carried out by myself and Das along with the tracking and instrumentation of the existing compositions and arrangements which we have written to date that form our body of work named Magic Satin. We have previously posted a writeup on the overview concept for the release, and with the compositional / arrangement stages complete we are ready to take it into full production with studio recording and mixing sessions :
The overall aesthetic and sound to the Magic Satin release is a tight focused Jazz & Psych fusion which incorporates a full and big mix of soul filled vocals, Raga and Jazz influenced lead guitar, rich layering backed by thick and bass and electronically programmed kits with delay heavy effects for dynamic additional quarter and eighth notes, along with ethereal long reverbs raising the warm and harmonic rhythm from guitars to synths, to overdrive our 90s take on 60s songwriting into the modern day.
The tracklist moves the listener through various modes of mood and atmosphere whilst still maintaining a clear and coherent sound throughout the album, the aim to transport the listener through a series of emotive and impactful tracks each as transmutation on the last is what we build to return our release to the full album length artwork which we find in classic 60s albums which we take inspiration from. The tones to each track shift and evolve from higher octane to smooth and soothing, our album fits our individual style and echoes our collective name, Sociodelic, with the shared views and passions, personalities and notions all imbued and steeped into each melody and lick.
Comparatively our music is an outlier, with the combination of our three approaches the results we believe do sit outside established and typical regions of genre. Modern Psych and Jazz are where our music blends with genre regions at its nearest, however through the character and extensive musical influence that we instil there is not just one category we can distinctly put our work into.
Our influences and inspirations come from all spectrums of music, spanning almost every genre from Blues, Folk, Jazz, Raga, Classic Rock, 60s Psych, 90s Pop & Modern Electronica. There is no arena of sound we don’t explore which leaves us without first making an impact, and this is what we convey through our music.
The release will consist of six tracks, the details of which will be later elaborated alongside production notes and writeups, for now the names are as follows :
1 . Strawberry Letter 23
2 . When I see You
3 . Daisychains
4 . Alive in our Love
5 . Wisteria
6 . In The Evening
Along with the production of Magic Satin, we will also be compiling all related marketing and promotional release materials. This will include a release plan, a branding and release portfolio, an EPK (shortform & extended), target audience & social media analysis, marketing materials (photos / artwork) & website.
The purpose of also producing these materials is so that we can work to push the release following its production to push our professional development and see a production through from inception to release, we will market our EPs to any avenues in the industry which we can including to national / local radio, blogs & music journals, record labels and playlist curators, along with a release event. During our recent ASP module lecture, we pitched the idea to the class and now we look forward to getting the project underway.
The roles involved with our project include :
Producer
Recording Engineer
Mixing Engineer
Mastering Engineer Business / Marketing Agent
For our project we have compiled the learning agreement which sets out the scope and content of the project. After feedback from lecturer Cormac, we agreed to reduce the track count from 10 to 6 as the scope needed slight narrowing to fit to the time available. We agreed with this as the production count has a large impact on the time requirements of the project, and with the marketing materials alongside it would be beneficial to focus the scope as done. We also have gone back after the feedback and designated some areas of the marketing materials as supplementary work, which we will certainly aim to complete but with this designation it specifies the prioritisation of the important elements of the project. Finally with regard to feedback, we had initially specified 48kHz files for the CD promo release which is not to the redbook standard of 44.1kHz, therefore we corrected this and specified 44.1kHz for CD and 48kHz for streaming deliverables.
With regard to the production of Magic Satin, a number of recording sessions will need to be undertaken to track all the layers of drums, bass, guitar, overdubs and vocals. These will be done across the Neve Genesys studio and my home studio, with preparation done preliminarily depending on the session. This will require adjusted workflows dependent on the studio, however I am confident in both settings and will be able to get the necessary recording done in time to then mix midway through the project duration. Due to the effects processing and my own mix approach, the mixes will be done in Logic Pro as this Daw is what I am most confident working within for the sound which I have developed. As well as having processing capabilities which do not translate to mixing on a desk, the other primary reason is that the mixing sessions will be done in the home studio as this is where I am also much more familiar with the playback and room acoustics.
