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Berklee College of Music
Rosy Mercury
-5 Tracks EP About “Space Romance”
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of
Master of Music in Music Production, Technology and Innovation
Supervisor: Pablo Munguía
By Zhang Siyuan
Valencia Campus, Spain
July 2019
Table of Contents
Abstract
iii
1.Introduction
3
2. Review of the State of the Art
3
2.1 “Aromanticism” by Moses Sumney
4
2.2 “Freudian” by Daniel Caesar
4
2.3 “Whatever Makes U Happy” by JMSN
5
3. Description
5
3.1 “Vacuum I”
5
3.2 “Moon Style Love”
6
3.3 “Wine River”
7
3.4 “Vacuum II”
8
3.5 “Those People Who Dance”
8
4. Innovative Aspects
9
5. New Skills Acquired
10
5.1 Recording
10
5.2 Editing and Mixing
10
5.3 Analog Synthesis
10
5.4 Sound Design
11
6. Challenges
11
6.1 Vocal Recording
11
6.2 Switching between Pro Tools and Ableton Live
11
7. Future Ramifications
12
7.1 Releasing
12
7.2 Teaser Performance
12
8. Conclusion
12
7.Bibliography
13
ii
Abstract
“Rosy Mercury” is a 5 track EP produced and vocal performed by Zhang Siyuan, featuring
instrumentalists at Berklee Valencia. This EP is inspired by artists like Moses Sumney, Daniel
Caesar and JMSN. During the process of production, Zhang Siyuan used his new skills such as
analog synthesis, sound design and different recording techniques. He also conquered challenges of
vocal recording and working in two DAWs for the same session. Finally, this EP is completed and
he plans to release it in August 2019.
Keywords: EP, cosmic concept, music production, collaborative project
iii
1.Introduction
“Rosy Mercury” is an EP telling a story about space romance, which has been constructed in a year.
It contains 5 tracks: “Vacuum I”, “Moon Style Love”, “Wine River”, “Vacuum II” and “Those
People Who Dance”, which includes an intro and an interlude (Vacuum I & II). Based in R&B
music, “Rosy Mercury” also contains genres like Bossa Nova, Funk, and Electronic Dancing Music
in different tracks. During the production of this EP, Zhang Siyuan collaborated with
instrumentalists from Berklee College of Music Valencia campus.
2.Review of the State of the Art
2.1 “Aromanticism” by Moses Sumney1
“Aromanticism” is the debut studio album of American singer-songwriter Moses Sumney. This is
a soulful R&B album, combining indie rock vibes, which brings cosmic loneliness atmosphere and
”Rosy Mercury” is inspired a lot from that.
The first track of “Aromanticism” is an acapella song called ”Man On the Moon”, and that is
what “Vacuum I” trying to simulate. The brilliant guitar sound in “Aromanticism” is made by
Fender Stratocaster, “Rosy Mercury I” tries to simulate that guitar sound as well.
Except for that, “Rosy Mercury” contains more elements of sampling and electronic music
sounds than “Aromanticism”, and focus more on the melody rather than harmonics.
2.2 “Freudian” by Daniel Caesar2
“Freudian” is the debut studio album by Canadian singer and songwriter Daniel Caesar. This is a
R&B/Neo-Soul album, with a lot of Gospel elements.
1 Sumney, Moses. “Aromanticism”, Jagjaguwar. Indiana, 2017
2 Caesar, Daniel. “Freudian”, Golden Child Records. Toronto, 2017
4
The way of arrangement and mixing in this album is what “Rosy Mercury I” tries to simulate,
especially the drums and bass part. Acapella parts in this album from the track “Neu Roses
(Transgressor’s Song)” inspires “Vacuum I” as well.
The music style of “Rosy Mercury” would be very close to this album, except for the Bossanova
and Funky elements added in “Rosy Mercury”.
2.3 “Whatever Makes U Happy” by JMSN3
“Whatever Makes U Happy” is the fourth album by artist JMSN. This is a Neo-Soul/R&B/Blues
album, devoted to the sound of late 1990s Neo-Soul.
The strings sound and arrangement in the track “Where Do U Go” from “Whatever makes U
Happy” is very gorgeous and it influenced “Rosy Mercury I” a lot in strings arrangement. The vibe
of Blues from this album inspired “Wine River”.
Comparing to this album, more modern sounds and sampling are going to be in “Rosy Mercury”.
3. Description
3.1 “Vacuum I”
“Vacuum I” is a quartette with soulful instrumental arranging. As the intro of “Rosy Mercury”, this
track tries to describe a scenario of drifting in the space, shooting out signals and reaching out for
other creatures out there. The lyrics are all mumbles like “do” “lo” and “ah”, which represents the
signals being shot into the space. As the producer and audio engineer of this track, Zhang Siyuan
invited several vocalists to sing in this track. He recorded each person separately, for the flexibility
of editing and fixing.
Credits:
Composition: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
3 JMSN. “Whatever Makes U Happy”, White Room Records. Los Angeles, 2017
5
Lyrics: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Producer: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Guitars: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Bass: Choby Scheufler
Piano: Taylor Fleming
Harp: Eve Matin
Backing Vocal Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Backing Vocal: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan), Oneill, Xela V
Programming: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Recording: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Mixing: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
3.2 “Moon Style Love”
“Moon Style Love” is the second track of this EP, it is a Bossa Nova song combining with Pop in
genre. This track continued the story of “Vacuum I”, it describes that after shooting out signals, the
protagonist got some reply from some place far away. Soon, they started having connection and
looking forward to seeing each other. The Bossa Nova vibe of this track is built by recording real
Brazilian instruments like classical guitars and percussions. Besides that, Zhang Siyuan also did
some FXs sound design in Ableton Live, to add some “cosmic flavor” to this track.
Credits:
Composition: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Lyrics: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Producer: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
6
Guitars: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Bass: Choby Scheufler
Piano: Taylor Fleming
Vibraphone: Sebastian Laverde
Percussions: Patrick Graney
Drums: Joe Sturges
Backing Vocal Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Backing Vocal: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan), Oneill, Xela V
Programming: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Recording: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Mixing: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
3.3 “Wine River”
“Wine River” is the third track of “Rosy Mercury”, it is a R&B and Soul song, which describes that
after waiting for a long time, two protagonists of the story finally met on one’s planet, and they fall
in love with each other immediately after a single contact. Zhang Siyuan firstly did all the arranging
in Ableton Live, with all the drums and bass in MIDI. Then he overdubbed the drums, bass, and
electric guitar in Pro Tools, because he wants to have more acoustic vibes in this track.
Credits:
Composition: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Lyrics: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Producer: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Acoustic Guitar: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Electric Guitar: Sam Borrello
7
Bass: Choby Scheufler
Drums: Joe Sturges
Backing Vocal Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Backing Vocal: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan), Oneill, Xela V
Programming: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Recording: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Mixing: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
3.4 “Vacuum II”
“Vacuum II” is the fourth track and an interlude of this EP. It is a simple instrumental track with a
guitar riff looping, and a lot of FX and ambience sounds. It describes the scenario of the
protagonists decided to go for another trip around space together, and their spaceship slowly floated
into the sky.
Credits:
Producer: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Guitars: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Programming: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Recording: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Mixing: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
3.5 “Those People Who Dance”
“Those People Who Dance” is the last track of “Rosy Mercury”. It is a Funk and R&B song. And it
ends the story of this EP, telling that the protagonists finally found a new planet, which has a lot of
aliens living there, and all these creatures love dancing very much. Except for recording the electric
8
guitar in Pro Tools, Zhang Siyuan did all the production in MIDI and audio sampling in Ableton
Live since this track has much more electric elements than the others.
Credits:
Composition: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Lyrics: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Producer: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Guitars: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Keyboard: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Backing Vocal Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Backing Vocal: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Programming: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Recording: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Mixing: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
4. Innovative Aspects
The innovative part of “Rosy Mercury” is music itself. During the production, Zhang Siyuan tried
to bring acoustic instruments and electronic sounds all together. Even though the music style keeps
changing, the “Space FXs” in each track make them really cohesive. Ambience sounds are crucial
in this EP, and combining that with R&B, Funk and Bossa Nova music is the innovation Zhang
Siyuan has been made.
9
5. New Skills Acquired
5.1 Recording
During one year’s studying at Berklee Valencia, Zhang Siyuan learned a lot about recording
engineering, which includes making input lists and floor plans, setting up mics, using different
preamps and outboard gears, patching, and of course, operating consoles and Pro Tools. He put all
these skills into use during the production of this EP, and by the end there were a lot of different
instruments recorded. Recording skills would be crucial for Zhang Siyuan’s future career, because
he’s trying to be a successful music producer, and recording is the inevitable part of music
production.
5.2 Editing and Mixing
Through the production of “Rosy Mercury”, Zhang Siyuan did a lot of editing in Pro Tools. In
average, he has more than 4000 vocal takes in each session (song), and that brought him a lot of
materials to work on. Eventually, he became very familiar with Pro Tools’ editing tools and skills.
Mixing in Pro Tools is another thing Zhang Siyuan has been doing through this year. He took the
course “Advanced Studio” in the second semester at Berklee Valencia, not only learning the theory,
but also did a lot of mixing practice, which upgrade his techniques a lot. Both editing and mixing
are essential for a music producer in the future career.
5.3 Analog Synthesis
Zhang Siyuan took the course “Analog Synthesis” in the first semester at Berklee Valencia, and he
was benefited a lot from it. In this EP “Rosy Mercury”, Zhang Siyuan used Moog Sub 37 several
times for the lead melody sound. And the theory of analog synthesis also helped him understand
sound design better. Analog synthesis would be really helpful for Zhang Siyuan’s future career,
because he’s production includes synthesizers a lot.
10
5.4 Sound Design
Zhang Siyuan took the course “Sound Design” in the second semester at Berklee Valencia. It helped
him get a better understanding of all the synthesizer plug-ins he’s been using. All the FX sounds in
“Rosy Mercury” are designed by Zhang Siyuan, and they play a crucial part in the tracks. Sound
design would be extremely helpful for Zhang Siyuan’s future career, because he’s production
includes a lot of electronic elements, and it’s important for him to have the ability to get a sound
wanted quickly from scratch.
6. Challenges
6.1 Vocal Recording
Recording vocals turned out to be the most difficult part of this EP. Basically because that Zhang
Siyuan has been a unreasonable perfectionist during the recording. He forced himself to have the
backing vocals from different layers all in the same length and at the same timing spot, so it cost
him a lot of time doing that. Also, he wanted all the vocals to sound similar in timbre, so Neumann
U87 was the only vocal microphone he had been using for vocal recording in this EP. This brought
out another problem of “not enough studio time”, because Zhang Siyuan doesn’t have U87 himself,
and he has to book a studio to use it. At last, Zhang Siyuan spent a lot of money renting a studio out
of campus to finish the vocal recording, since the studio time at campus is limited for each student.
6.2 Switching between Pro Tools and Ableton Live
“Rosy Mercury” is a special project, it has a lot of real instruments recorded in Pro Tools, and a lot
of synthesizer sounds and FXs designed in Ableton Live. During the process of production,
switching between these two parts was inconvenient. For a lot of times, Zhang Siyuan had to record
and edit one instrument in Pro Tools, bounce it, put it into Ableton Live, do some sound design
11
upon it, and bounce them back to Pro Tools. There should be a better approach, if everything was
well organized beforehand. However, for this time, Zhang Siyuan just suffered through this trouble,
and finally made it by working hard.
7. Future Ramifications
7.1 Releasing
Zhang Siyuan is going to release “Rosy Mercury” on Spotify, Apple Music, Sound Cloud, NetEase
Music, QQ Music and Xiami Music through CD Baby in August.
7.2 Teaser Performance
Zhang Siyuan is going to hold a teaser gig for “Rosy Mercury” at DDC Live House, Beijing in
August 26th. This show would contain 150 audiences, with media and reporters.
8. Conclusion
Bringing fantasy to life via music has always been Zhang Siyuan’s chasing goal, and this project is
part of his vision of all time. Thanks to all the skills he learned, and all these great musicians he
collaborated with at Berklee Valencia, “Rosy Mercury” is eventually a complete story now.
Zhang Siyuan’s growth as a music producer through this project is not only in the skills, but also in
the mindset. For a lot of times he got to make hard decisions for the goodness of the whole song,
rather than single elements. The final tracks come through thousands of tries and failures, and here
we are, spreading love and romance with beautiful melodies.
12
7.Bibliography
Caesar, Daniel. “Freudian”, Golden Child Records. Toronto, 2017
Sumney, Moses. “Aromanticism”, Jagjaguwar. Indiana, 2017
JMSN. “Whatever Makes U Happy”, White Room Records. Los Angeles, 2017
13
Rosy Mercury
-5 Tracks EP About “Space Romance”
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of
Master of Music in Music Production, Technology and Innovation
Supervisor: Pablo Munguía
By Zhang Siyuan
Valencia Campus, Spain
July 2019
Table of Contents
Abstract
iii
1.Introduction
3
2. Review of the State of the Art
3
2.1 “Aromanticism” by Moses Sumney
4
2.2 “Freudian” by Daniel Caesar
4
2.3 “Whatever Makes U Happy” by JMSN
5
3. Description
5
3.1 “Vacuum I”
5
3.2 “Moon Style Love”
6
3.3 “Wine River”
7
3.4 “Vacuum II”
8
3.5 “Those People Who Dance”
8
4. Innovative Aspects
9
5. New Skills Acquired
10
5.1 Recording
10
5.2 Editing and Mixing
10
5.3 Analog Synthesis
10
5.4 Sound Design
11
6. Challenges
11
6.1 Vocal Recording
11
6.2 Switching between Pro Tools and Ableton Live
11
7. Future Ramifications
12
7.1 Releasing
12
7.2 Teaser Performance
12
8. Conclusion
12
7.Bibliography
13
ii
Abstract
“Rosy Mercury” is a 5 track EP produced and vocal performed by Zhang Siyuan, featuring
instrumentalists at Berklee Valencia. This EP is inspired by artists like Moses Sumney, Daniel
Caesar and JMSN. During the process of production, Zhang Siyuan used his new skills such as
analog synthesis, sound design and different recording techniques. He also conquered challenges of
vocal recording and working in two DAWs for the same session. Finally, this EP is completed and
he plans to release it in August 2019.
Keywords: EP, cosmic concept, music production, collaborative project
iii
1.Introduction
“Rosy Mercury” is an EP telling a story about space romance, which has been constructed in a year.
It contains 5 tracks: “Vacuum I”, “Moon Style Love”, “Wine River”, “Vacuum II” and “Those
People Who Dance”, which includes an intro and an interlude (Vacuum I & II). Based in R&B
music, “Rosy Mercury” also contains genres like Bossa Nova, Funk, and Electronic Dancing Music
in different tracks. During the production of this EP, Zhang Siyuan collaborated with
instrumentalists from Berklee College of Music Valencia campus.
2.Review of the State of the Art
2.1 “Aromanticism” by Moses Sumney1
“Aromanticism” is the debut studio album of American singer-songwriter Moses Sumney. This is
a soulful R&B album, combining indie rock vibes, which brings cosmic loneliness atmosphere and
”Rosy Mercury” is inspired a lot from that.
The first track of “Aromanticism” is an acapella song called ”Man On the Moon”, and that is
what “Vacuum I” trying to simulate. The brilliant guitar sound in “Aromanticism” is made by
Fender Stratocaster, “Rosy Mercury I” tries to simulate that guitar sound as well.
Except for that, “Rosy Mercury” contains more elements of sampling and electronic music
sounds than “Aromanticism”, and focus more on the melody rather than harmonics.
2.2 “Freudian” by Daniel Caesar2
“Freudian” is the debut studio album by Canadian singer and songwriter Daniel Caesar. This is a
R&B/Neo-Soul album, with a lot of Gospel elements.
1 Sumney, Moses. “Aromanticism”, Jagjaguwar. Indiana, 2017
2 Caesar, Daniel. “Freudian”, Golden Child Records. Toronto, 2017
4
The way of arrangement and mixing in this album is what “Rosy Mercury I” tries to simulate,
especially the drums and bass part. Acapella parts in this album from the track “Neu Roses
(Transgressor’s Song)” inspires “Vacuum I” as well.
The music style of “Rosy Mercury” would be very close to this album, except for the Bossanova
and Funky elements added in “Rosy Mercury”.
2.3 “Whatever Makes U Happy” by JMSN3
“Whatever Makes U Happy” is the fourth album by artist JMSN. This is a Neo-Soul/R&B/Blues
album, devoted to the sound of late 1990s Neo-Soul.
The strings sound and arrangement in the track “Where Do U Go” from “Whatever makes U
Happy” is very gorgeous and it influenced “Rosy Mercury I” a lot in strings arrangement. The vibe
of Blues from this album inspired “Wine River”.
Comparing to this album, more modern sounds and sampling are going to be in “Rosy Mercury”.
3. Description
3.1 “Vacuum I”
“Vacuum I” is a quartette with soulful instrumental arranging. As the intro of “Rosy Mercury”, this
track tries to describe a scenario of drifting in the space, shooting out signals and reaching out for
other creatures out there. The lyrics are all mumbles like “do” “lo” and “ah”, which represents the
signals being shot into the space. As the producer and audio engineer of this track, Zhang Siyuan
invited several vocalists to sing in this track. He recorded each person separately, for the flexibility
of editing and fixing.
Credits:
Composition: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
3 JMSN. “Whatever Makes U Happy”, White Room Records. Los Angeles, 2017
5
Lyrics: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Producer: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Guitars: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Bass: Choby Scheufler
Piano: Taylor Fleming
Harp: Eve Matin
Backing Vocal Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Backing Vocal: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan), Oneill, Xela V
Programming: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Recording: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Mixing: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
3.2 “Moon Style Love”
“Moon Style Love” is the second track of this EP, it is a Bossa Nova song combining with Pop in
genre. This track continued the story of “Vacuum I”, it describes that after shooting out signals, the
protagonist got some reply from some place far away. Soon, they started having connection and
looking forward to seeing each other. The Bossa Nova vibe of this track is built by recording real
Brazilian instruments like classical guitars and percussions. Besides that, Zhang Siyuan also did
some FXs sound design in Ableton Live, to add some “cosmic flavor” to this track.
Credits:
Composition: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Lyrics: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Producer: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
6
Guitars: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Bass: Choby Scheufler
Piano: Taylor Fleming
Vibraphone: Sebastian Laverde
Percussions: Patrick Graney
Drums: Joe Sturges
Backing Vocal Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Backing Vocal: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan), Oneill, Xela V
Programming: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Recording: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Mixing: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
3.3 “Wine River”
“Wine River” is the third track of “Rosy Mercury”, it is a R&B and Soul song, which describes that
after waiting for a long time, two protagonists of the story finally met on one’s planet, and they fall
in love with each other immediately after a single contact. Zhang Siyuan firstly did all the arranging
in Ableton Live, with all the drums and bass in MIDI. Then he overdubbed the drums, bass, and
electric guitar in Pro Tools, because he wants to have more acoustic vibes in this track.
Credits:
Composition: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Lyrics: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Producer: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Acoustic Guitar: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Electric Guitar: Sam Borrello
7
Bass: Choby Scheufler
Drums: Joe Sturges
Backing Vocal Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Backing Vocal: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan), Oneill, Xela V
Programming: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Recording: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Mixing: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
3.4 “Vacuum II”
“Vacuum II” is the fourth track and an interlude of this EP. It is a simple instrumental track with a
guitar riff looping, and a lot of FX and ambience sounds. It describes the scenario of the
protagonists decided to go for another trip around space together, and their spaceship slowly floated
into the sky.
Credits:
Producer: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Guitars: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Programming: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Recording: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Mixing: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
3.5 “Those People Who Dance”
“Those People Who Dance” is the last track of “Rosy Mercury”. It is a Funk and R&B song. And it
ends the story of this EP, telling that the protagonists finally found a new planet, which has a lot of
aliens living there, and all these creatures love dancing very much. Except for recording the electric
8
guitar in Pro Tools, Zhang Siyuan did all the production in MIDI and audio sampling in Ableton
Live since this track has much more electric elements than the others.
Credits:
Composition: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Lyrics: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Producer: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Guitars: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Keyboard: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Backing Vocal Arrangement: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Backing Vocal: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Programming: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Recording: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
Mixing: Leo1Bee (Zhang Siyuan)
4. Innovative Aspects
The innovative part of “Rosy Mercury” is music itself. During the production, Zhang Siyuan tried
to bring acoustic instruments and electronic sounds all together. Even though the music style keeps
changing, the “Space FXs” in each track make them really cohesive. Ambience sounds are crucial
in this EP, and combining that with R&B, Funk and Bossa Nova music is the innovation Zhang
Siyuan has been made.
9
5. New Skills Acquired
5.1 Recording
During one year’s studying at Berklee Valencia, Zhang Siyuan learned a lot about recording
engineering, which includes making input lists and floor plans, setting up mics, using different
preamps and outboard gears, patching, and of course, operating consoles and Pro Tools. He put all
these skills into use during the production of this EP, and by the end there were a lot of different
instruments recorded. Recording skills would be crucial for Zhang Siyuan’s future career, because
he’s trying to be a successful music producer, and recording is the inevitable part of music
production.
5.2 Editing and Mixing
Through the production of “Rosy Mercury”, Zhang Siyuan did a lot of editing in Pro Tools. In
average, he has more than 4000 vocal takes in each session (song), and that brought him a lot of
materials to work on. Eventually, he became very familiar with Pro Tools’ editing tools and skills.
Mixing in Pro Tools is another thing Zhang Siyuan has been doing through this year. He took the
course “Advanced Studio” in the second semester at Berklee Valencia, not only learning the theory,
but also did a lot of mixing practice, which upgrade his techniques a lot. Both editing and mixing
are essential for a music producer in the future career.
5.3 Analog Synthesis
Zhang Siyuan took the course “Analog Synthesis” in the first semester at Berklee Valencia, and he
was benefited a lot from it. In this EP “Rosy Mercury”, Zhang Siyuan used Moog Sub 37 several
times for the lead melody sound. And the theory of analog synthesis also helped him understand
sound design better. Analog synthesis would be really helpful for Zhang Siyuan’s future career,
because he’s production includes synthesizers a lot.
10
5.4 Sound Design
Zhang Siyuan took the course “Sound Design” in the second semester at Berklee Valencia. It helped
him get a better understanding of all the synthesizer plug-ins he’s been using. All the FX sounds in
“Rosy Mercury” are designed by Zhang Siyuan, and they play a crucial part in the tracks. Sound
design would be extremely helpful for Zhang Siyuan’s future career, because he’s production
includes a lot of electronic elements, and it’s important for him to have the ability to get a sound
wanted quickly from scratch.
6. Challenges
6.1 Vocal Recording
Recording vocals turned out to be the most difficult part of this EP. Basically because that Zhang
Siyuan has been a unreasonable perfectionist during the recording. He forced himself to have the
backing vocals from different layers all in the same length and at the same timing spot, so it cost
him a lot of time doing that. Also, he wanted all the vocals to sound similar in timbre, so Neumann
U87 was the only vocal microphone he had been using for vocal recording in this EP. This brought
out another problem of “not enough studio time”, because Zhang Siyuan doesn’t have U87 himself,
and he has to book a studio to use it. At last, Zhang Siyuan spent a lot of money renting a studio out
of campus to finish the vocal recording, since the studio time at campus is limited for each student.
6.2 Switching between Pro Tools and Ableton Live
“Rosy Mercury” is a special project, it has a lot of real instruments recorded in Pro Tools, and a lot
of synthesizer sounds and FXs designed in Ableton Live. During the process of production,
switching between these two parts was inconvenient. For a lot of times, Zhang Siyuan had to record
and edit one instrument in Pro Tools, bounce it, put it into Ableton Live, do some sound design
11
upon it, and bounce them back to Pro Tools. There should be a better approach, if everything was
well organized beforehand. However, for this time, Zhang Siyuan just suffered through this trouble,
and finally made it by working hard.
7. Future Ramifications
7.1 Releasing
Zhang Siyuan is going to release “Rosy Mercury” on Spotify, Apple Music, Sound Cloud, NetEase
Music, QQ Music and Xiami Music through CD Baby in August.
7.2 Teaser Performance
Zhang Siyuan is going to hold a teaser gig for “Rosy Mercury” at DDC Live House, Beijing in
August 26th. This show would contain 150 audiences, with media and reporters.
8. Conclusion
Bringing fantasy to life via music has always been Zhang Siyuan’s chasing goal, and this project is
part of his vision of all time. Thanks to all the skills he learned, and all these great musicians he
collaborated with at Berklee Valencia, “Rosy Mercury” is eventually a complete story now.
Zhang Siyuan’s growth as a music producer through this project is not only in the skills, but also in
the mindset. For a lot of times he got to make hard decisions for the goodness of the whole song,
rather than single elements. The final tracks come through thousands of tries and failures, and here
we are, spreading love and romance with beautiful melodies.
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7.Bibliography
Caesar, Daniel. “Freudian”, Golden Child Records. Toronto, 2017
Sumney, Moses. “Aromanticism”, Jagjaguwar. Indiana, 2017
JMSN. “Whatever Makes U Happy”, White Room Records. Los Angeles, 2017
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