Music Producer Chelsea Warner mixed and produced ‘GALAXIES’ by BVT which comes from the album ‘LALAKI’, released in November this year (2022).
BVT is a Sydney Based HipHop/R&B artist who embarked on an audio-visual project about decolonising self, QPOC (Queer People of Colour) representation and bearing the culture as a future ancestor.
BVT says:
“This project means so much to me. I’m uncovering forgotten truths about my ancestors who carved this path for me.”
As a special treat for us (and you), Chelsea opened up her Ableton Live Set, and shows off all the tricks and philosophies of her production style. She even had strong ideas from the first musical idea.
Here’s what Chelsea said about the track:
“GALAXIES is a track that is pretty simple production wise; it consists predominantly of swirly guitars and warped sample atmospheres. I made the beat with BVT in mind, so I wanted to leave a lot of room for her vocals to occupy space, and that ended up happening perfectly, since the track is quite vocal heavy.”
Read on as she takes you through her process of producing and mixing in her Ableton Live Set.
Samples
“The most interesting element, I think, is the use of samples. I love the control Ableton gives you over audio, and a lot of the interesting textures in this track were created through chopping, reversing and stretching vocal samples of my own, and other instrumental samples.
The main two samples I used in the track are a vocal one shot and a reversed bell sample.
The bell sample had delay pre-printed into it, so when reversed, created this really interesting texture. In this case I didn’t have to, but I love printing spacial effects to a sample and then messing with it after the fact – then, you get your reverbs and delays all stretched and warped, and it often sounds really cool.
Here, on the vocal sample I used Valhalla verb on a send, Soundtoys Little Alter Boy, Brainworx saturator, and Waves Scheps 73 channel strip/EQ, which are some go-tos for vox chops.
Probably my favourite texture in the track is this glitchy riser I made from a synth one shot. I reversed it, automated the gain to rise, printed, and then used the Ableton transient warping feature in beats mode, set to preserve ⅛ notes, which gives it a pulse that you can see in the wave form.”
Guitar
“My guitar chain is quite simple, but an interesting effect I used on this one was automating on and off the Soundtoys Filter Freak 2 plugin on and off in certain sections.
This makes the sections where it’s on feel less present and more sample-y, through using a bandpass filter (the Telephone Filter preset, messed around with to sit higher in the frequency spectrum).”
Drums
“The drums are pretty simple, I just wanted to create a nice bounce while still leaving enough space.
The hat pattern is the main force behind this, with a constant lower frequency hat providing consistent rhythm but more sporadic rolls in the higher ones. On the hi hats I used some light compression and tape saturation, which I think gives it a nice warmth.”
Bass
“I have two 808s in the track, both from Sublab. One is playing sustained, held notes with a longer chorused sub patch, which I use in the pres, and the other provides the bouncier, groovier rhythm of the chorus and verses.
The main production element of note here is that I used the Ableton stock Auto Filter plugin (which I use all the time) to roll off some highs of the sub in certain sections, then automated it back up to facilitate transitions between sections.”
Vocals
“A lot of the thickness and interest of this song is created by BVT’s awesome vocal layers. I know I have said a lot of things are my favourite element of this beat, but I think the reversed reverb that sits under the vocals in the chorus is truly my favourite element of this track.
I created a new audio track that was receiving audio from my Valhalla verb vocal send, soloed the lead vocal, and then recorded just the reverb coming from it. I then reversed this and placed it underneath the lead vocal, which is what creates that pulsating, breathless feeling in the choruses.”
Listen to GALAXIES below and to see more on Chelsea Warner head over to her Instagram.