The production of Fake Love

The production of Fake Love

When a producer meets a singer

Lübeck’s old town is known for its distinct pub scene. Thousands of new people every day, always in a good mood, young crowd and the drinks can’t be beaten in their variety.
So it happened that one night I ended up at Ziggy’s Bar with work colleagues and friends. Well, that was such a sticking point for the production of the song Fake Love, because here I met a young lady who put me in contact with the singer Fine.

 

The singer Fine

Fine is a student at the University of Music in Lübeck with a strong passion for music. So it happened that after a short time we met (at Ziggy’s mind you) and I presented her the beat as well as lyrics. She was immediately thrilled and things took their course….
I chose Fine as the singer because the chemistry was right from the start. That’s rare and once you feel that it is, you shouldn’t hesitate any longer. The production of Fake Love was born.

 

Recording studio appointment

A few weeks after our meeting, I finally got an appointment at the recording studio for the production of fake love and finally recorded the song. We had a lot of fun, the atmosphere was relaxed and absolutely nothing felt like work. We booked the studio for one hour, but it turned into one and a half hours, which was no problem for Cordoba. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Cordoba Sounds once again for the professional recordings!

 

Mixing

Now we had the recordings in the bag and the mixing was about to start. To mix the production of Fake love, this time I decided to try something new. I wanted to have as clear and distinct a sound as possible for the vocals without using a lot of bells and whistles. The interplay of the vocals with the beat had a good harmony right from the start, which made my job and the mixing process much easier.
I grouped the vocals into 4 categories:

• verses
• bridge
• chorus
• adlips

 

Verses

The verses are the most concise part of the song. We recorded 5 tracks per verse, which I used in the mix as follows:

• master track
• R 80% | L80%, -16dB
• support R40% | L40%, -24dB

Fine delivered top-notch vocals and stuck strictly to her style on the 5 tracks, so the vocals sounded almost identical and there were no major deviations from the support tracks. What was striking here was that Fine never wanted to hear her pre-recorded track – that was new even for me. The result has been all the more amazing for me 😊

 

Bridge

For the bridge I had a lot in mind with effects, sort of an interlude expressing an inner indifference. After some thought, Caroline aka “GLaDOS ” from the game series Portal came to mind. GLaDOS’s character reflects exactly the voice range I had in mind for the bridge. This resulted in the following mix for the bridge:

• one track per bridge
• smoothing of the tone curve

and the GLaDOS sound was born.

 

Chorus

The chorus got by far the most attention from me. Again, Fine delivered flawless vocals that I could work with super. I didn’t really have an idea for the hook, so I experimented a lot and came up with the following mix:

• five tracks
• L|R 74%, -23dB
• L|R 93%, -14dB
• various effects (delay, reverb, StereoFX, VoiceMod)

The result can be heard.

 

Adlips

The most fun part for Fine as well as for me were the adlips. We recorded 3 tracks of adlips, each one unique. I would have loved to mix more of the adlips into the song because they were almost all so good, unfortunately I ended up having to choose a small number of adlips for the climax of the song.

But hey, maybe there will be a remix to the song soon and I can use the Adlips then.
Anyway, the Adlips were so powerful and emotional that I just added a simple reverb effect to the emotion.

This provides a brief, dreamy moment in the song that builds tension. Now that the mix finally sounded the way I wanted it to, it was time for the finishing touches: mastering

 

The Mastering

For an entire Sunday, I locked myself in my studio and took the time, quiet and necessary concentration to put the final touches on the song. The mastering process involves some standards that have to be met, of course. Beyond that, however, as a producer I have sonic freedom – that’s the part that makes the song sound the way it does.

I hope you guys are happy with the result. As soon as the song is released, you will have the chance. Currently we are shooting the music video. As soon as the shooting and the production of the music video are finished, we will release the song.

This is how the production of Fake Love came about. I hope you had a good look behind the scenes. If you want to know more about the production of Fake Love, please write a comment.

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Thanks for reading and have a great day.