Winner of the Martin Garrix and JBL Music Academy ATHANASIA breaks down all the production on her brand new single ‘Therapy’.
From pumping basslines, to huge vocal choir stacks to guitar treament, ATHANASIA shows off her Ableton live set and some of her favourite production techniques she used alongside fellow producer Mitchell Pennycuick.
The latest single ‘Therapy’ will surely be the start of a huge musical output, as ATHANASIA is about to head over to Amsterdamn to make music with 40 other global artists as part of the prize package of the Martin Garrix and JBL Music Academy competition.
Read on as she go through the parts of ‘Therapy’.
Bass
“For the bass I wanted to have a really present and pumping bassline, one that you felt in your SOUL. I wanted the track to centre around a contagious, warm bass groove. To achieve this, the Fabfilter EQ was used to remove low-end rumble and some excess high frequencies sticking out in the mix.
A Neve style EQ was then added to boost the 40hZ and give it extra saturation on the lower-mids for that subtle warmth and flare. After the bass was sounding as I liked, it was sent to a side-chain compressor that gave it that dynamic and pumping groove.“
Guitar
“The lead guitar featured in the track is recorded by my great friend and instrumentalist, Marco Fasano. To complement his incredible guitar playing, the processing chain consisted of SSL channel EQ with boosts at 1.5K and 3.5K to give the guitar added crisp and clarity, and a final 8K boost for that further sparkle.
The guitar enters fairly early in the mix so volume automation was added to allow to take main place in that opening section. The CLA 3A was used to push the guitar further into the mix but without making it too harsh. A final touch of Ableton chorus to give it a phase and ensemble effect.“
Lead vocals
“I wanted the vocals to be mellow and present in the track. For help in this, Mitchell took the reigns and brought the vocals to life with his production plug-in chain.
To achieve this I recorded a main vocal take, and also recorded another 2 takes of whisper tracks which I panned left and right. This achieved both a full stereo image but also made the vocals a bit more intimate and present.
For the main vocals, the LA-LA Levelling Compressor was used to give the vocals volume constancy, whilst allowing the vocals to maintain their dynamics. A BB analog Tube Saturation plugin was added to further add presence and grit.“
“A Standard fab-filter EQ was used to cut some low-mids where boxiness was heard. The vocals were then sent to a reverb bus which had filtering EQ and a slap back reverb effect. As reverb often muds up the clarity of a mix, the slap-back reverb effect had the vocal reverb side-chained to the main vocals themselves.
In typical ATHANASIA fashion, a choral arrangement of over 30 backing vocals were recorded and panned to different sections of the mix to maintain that large and full stereo image.”
Listen to Therapy below, see more on ATHANASIA at her Instagram, and check out the Martin Garrix x JBL Music Academy here.