Project Portfolio V

Manuel Santos (GoodKnight)

February 20th

Project: Pinks & Blues

In January 2025, I recorded a song called “Pinks & Blues” for my first album, “A Beam of Light

in the Dark”. I am a local to the Sacramento area where I live to study the art of sound

design. The session includes drum sample one shots, analog bass, various analog synths, Vital

synthesizer, vocal one shots, and a tiny piano. All tracking, editing, mixing, and mastering was

done here at my studio, The Manor. I am the head audio engineer and producer for the session

and I also edited, mixed, and mastered the song. I also recorded myself singing short acapellas

into my condenser microphone, and took a voicemail from my phone and dropped the recording

into the song.

Drums:

I had taken some samples off of splice that I had purchased and dropped them into my project. I

added some compression to the kick, equalization, and played with some of the sample’s

preferences to get a soft, yet heavy kick that I could appreciate. I layered a clap sample over a

snare and changed the timing of them to line up perfectly and give a very appealing snap on the

transient. I added very little compression to these two samples because I felt it didn’t need much.

The hi-hats have no compression and very little EQ, I just needed enough to bring down some of

the peaks and most of the lows. The toms are a new fun thing I’m playing with in my career. The

toms have compression and equalization, time based effects such as reverb and delay with the

lowest and highest frequencies cut out of the reverb/delay to create a large room sound.

Synthesizers:

A new synth I’ve been playing with is Vital, very popular right now. This synthesizer operates

very similarly to Serum, another fan favorite. It is also very similar to Harmor, a synthesizer I

started my journey with. Our first instrument we hear in the song is a synth that sounds like a

crystal or a xylophone, but it’s actually just a cube bass synth in the FLEX synth pitched up a

few octaves. I added some reverb and a little delay to this sound to make it more dream-like. I

also added some EQ to bring out a little more of the mids. The sound under the cube synth is a

pad that I created by taking various instruments playing the alternate intro I had for the song and

then adding a blur effect with Edison tool in FLStudio. Doing so allows me to blur the sound,

making it lighter and more distant/dream-like. I then layer the original sounds that were recorded

to make the pad over the pad to create two layers, clarity and resonance.

Analog Bass and 808 Bass:

The bass for my song is actually just 2 different analog bass’ and synths. I used one of my

favorite synthesizers FLEX to create the 808 bass that you hear throughout the song. I took a

preset from FLEX that was already used for 808 bass and tightened it up by adjusting some of

the knobs until it sounded how I wanted it to. I added some EQ and compression to make it

sound even tighter. After finding the right sound for my 808 bass I moved onto my analog bass,

created with VITAL. VITAL is a synth where you can layer multiple wavetables on top of each

other. I used 3 layers in this sound using one synthesizer and then I threw on some distortion,

compression, and EQ to make it sound soft and heavy. I took out some of the highs and cut out

the very low frequency to make the sound warmer. For the chorus I would layer this sound over

the 808 bass to create a nice full bass. I used a EQ technique called feathering to prevent phasing

and muddy proportions amongst the 2 bass frequencies.

Vocals (Acapella):

I recorded the vocals using my Audio-Technica Condenser Microphone that ran through my

Scarlett 18i20 interface and into my MacBook Pro. I tracked the songs into FLStudio. I sang a

descending “wooo o oooah” and then sang another on the fifth of the previous down note to give

harmony to the vocals and create another layer to the song. I decided I wanted more depth so I

decided to take that vocal and add it as a wavetable in VITAL, where I began to change the pitch

so it would sound more chipmunk-like. I played a scale on my LaunchKey Novation keyboard in

the key of F# major to see what it sounded like. I then added a riff into my song using this

chipmunk vocal and it would play with the lead acapella as a “Call & Response” technique used

by many well known artists. I would then add some more time based effects such as reverb and

delay to, again, bring out that dream-like sound.

Mastering:

I added compression to various instruments using Fruity Compressor, Fruity Multiband

Compressor, and Maximus. These are all found as VSTs in FLStudio. For equalization I used

Parametric EQ 2, and some synthesizers have their own EQ settings that I also adjust for fine

tuning. After all sounds great, I will export it, move it over to another project session specifically

for post mastering, and add a limiter and compressor to really bring it up so it sounds louder but

still meets the criteria for all streaming services LUFS. So I typically have 5-6 different

recordings, one for every streaming service, and teaser videos as well.

Relation to business idea:

At this point, I've done the best I can with the knowledge and experience I currently possess. As I

continue to grow in my craft, Valiant Records will also evolve. My goal is to begin modestly,

ensuring that I don't overcommit or oversell the capabilities of my studio. As I gain more

experience and enhance the quality of my work, I plan to gradually take on larger, more

ambitious projects.