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Introduction to the module, learning aims, requirements and formative deadlines. Overview of music production planning stages for creation of project schedules and proposals. Detailed analysis of evaluation procedure and musical analysis.

Project research conducted and avenues for collaboration explored. Initial ideas worked on for composition of songs.

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Visited Somerset House to attend a talk by Kacper Ziemianin regarding DIY music performance systems.
The talk was engaging, although not particularly relevant to my interests.

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Significant time devoted to concept development, compositional work and communicating with people who may be interested in becoming part of the project in various capacities such as session musicians and studio assistants.

Reviewing list of suggested clients, more relevant to 6004 but useful for potential collaborations.

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Monday, 10:00 - 17:00.
Initial session, familiarising myself with the audio systems and software available at the studio, navigating the software and having a little play around with Logic for compositional inspiration.

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Further investigation of musical analysis. Submission of two artists for approval (Mastodon and Queensryche) Chosen for conceptuality in accordance with personal music taste.
Understanding how to develop ideas and form healthy compositional habits.
Introduction to pre-production and demo recordings as part of the testing stage.

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Working on compositions, laying out a framework to take forward throughout the year including preliminary scheduling and further conversations with potential collaborators. Structural adjustments to some initial ideas with skeleton recordings taken for guitar. Pre-production work, practicing of guitar parts and concept development.

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Attended a presentation by Charles Reeves. Former student with significant amounts of music production experience. Very engaging and provided valuable insights in to what a music producer does, how they go about it and how to get in to the field and build a successful career as a producer. Do not settle for being a tea boy, aim big and fake it 'til you make it'.

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Monday 15:00 - 18:00
Drum mapping in studio to assist with structural elements of composition 1, minor effects processing and exploration of techniques such as frequency sweeping

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Group work, listing production tasks and forming plans, additional scheduling and further information regarding concept albums, experimental music and soundtrack music. Confirmation of artists for musical analysis. Stressing the need for continuity throughout the EP and fleshing out ideas for backstory and musical themes.

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Submission of project proposal and presentation slides, album research and application of knowledge and analysis for my EP

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Thursday 17:00 - 20:00
Aside from finalising material for submission, work was done on adding layers to composition 1 and structural adjustments made to split the composition in to two songs allowing for a slower development of ideas and more exploration of the themes.

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15 minute presentation of concept referencing information from concept analysis, project research and project proposal. (Slides coming soon)

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Monday 09:00 - 17:00
Structural completion of demo compositions 1 and 2. Production of demo's and exploring lyrical and vocal options. Composition 1 redesignated as soundtrack song and composition 2 redesignated as free composition 1.

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Tutorial with Elaine to go over initial ideas and current progress. Advice given on compositional elements and project development.

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Addition of orchestral elements to soundtrack song, developing continuity between soundtrack song (song 1 on EP) and free composition 1 (song 2 on EP)

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Monday 13:00 - 16:00
Applying homework from 28/10/17 to demo projects in Logic

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Hallowe'en party at London Met with Studio Jam and experimentation using synthesizers, fun evening followed by a few beers and discussions about aims and achievements amongst other relevant topics including philosophy applied to music and networking for the creation of a client base

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Tutorial with Elaine demonstrating updated progress and receiving feedback on current state of affairs. Encouraged to be less linear in my compositions and move away from simpler song structures.

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Friday 10:00 - 17:00
Attempts made to apply feedback from tutorial and research conducted in to storytelling techniques. Analysis of the 'The Hero's Journey' applied to concept and development of overall storyline including the decision to perform a cover of Arch Enemy's song 'Burning Angel' as my live sound production for song number 3 on the EP.

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Practice continues on complex guitar arrangements for songs 1 and 2 from the EP and learning the guitar parts for Burning Angel. Modifications to the song explored such as possibility of inclusion of clean female backing vocals to compliment the storyline and defer from the original recording. Guitar tunings discussed with collaborators and decision made to produce simple guide tracks for the song, to convey musical requirements. Skeleton recordings made at home.

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Additions made to skeleton recordings and preliminary lyrical content written for songs 1 and 2.

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Four talks attended:

1) 16/11/17 - Sena Verdii ~
Discussion from industry insider regarding his profile and how he forged a successful career in the music business, including tips for upcoming artists, lifestyle choices to assist in creating successful connections and personal development within a career. Also included a showcase of the hosts work and his reflections on his past achievements.

2) 16/11/17 - Remote Freelancing
Name unnoted, presentation of work by a remote freelancer and how perceived limitations due to location and personal circumstance can be circumvented to provide an income as a self employed musician and videographer. Pro's and cons of employment routes and showcase of work.

3) 16/11/17 - Benjamin Hebbert ~
Talk about how to create a business from following your passions. Took listeners through his personal journey as a musician and luthier.

4) 16/11/17 - Host did not appear.
Student led discussion on coding and software development, not much discussion of audio relevant topics but was engaging in terms of some lesser interests of my own. Students who conducted the talk did very well considering they were standing in impromptu.

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Tutorial with Elaine to discuss the fast forward festival and demonstrate my attempts to apply feedback from previous tutorials. Feedback suggests that I can still improve on these areas and perhaps need to be a bit more inventive with my compositions in a structural sense.

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Monday 10:00 - 20:00
Guitar recording for demo of free composition 1, DI technique used alongside amp emulation to explore tonality and effects. Some additional recordings applied to soundtrack song demo. Significant research conducted in to production techniques and discussion on acceptable forms of sound creation for the EP

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Thursday 11:30 - 17:00
Mainly devoted to module 6004 but demonstration of work to potential collaborators for 6006.

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Friday 09:00 - 17:00
Assessment of progress and research towards reference tracks. Concept development and storytelling techniques. Effects processing and general exploration of audio plug ins for Logic. Not as productive a day as I hoped for due to external factors limiting my ability to focus on the task at hand.

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Monday 09:00 - 17:00
Beginning to apply pre existing storyline and concept work to new songs. These to appear either as songs 4 and 5, or 5 and 6 depending on compositional elements contained in the music of my university collaborator. This has been discussed and is to be left open at this stage. Again, not as productive as I would like.

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Intermediate/advanced recording and production techniques discussed with Steve, demonstration of demo's and conversation about how to obtain the best marks in this module. Move away from MIDI as much as possible and where the opportunity to use proper equipment such as a specific amp is available then this will benefit both my music and my grades. Initial suggestion from Steve that there may be an opportunity to work at an external studio, this will provide me with a source of income to potentially pay professional musicians and rent professional equipment whilst simultaneously providing me with relevant work experience and satisfying requirements of 6003.

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Thursday 08:00 - 17:00
Final opportunity before Christmas break to work on demo productions, not much added but technical options explored including google drive folder for backing up work and sharing it with collaborators. Research in to different methods of bouncing files and listening in mono to detect phase issues before bouncing to disk for analysis over the break.

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Addressing mastering techniques and advanced recording techniques, brief introduction to Pro Tools and discussion about uses and comparisons between different software. Reversed reverb and routing were also demonstrated. Match EQ also demonstrated and some of the techniques were then explored on my own in studio after class.

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Monday 14:00 - 20:00
Begin work on cross production composition after communication with Dave Pinto about styles and compatibility for cross-EP continuity. Agreed to work with more orchestral elements and that my composition will appear as my fourth song on the EP whilst the song produced by me will appear as the finale on my EP. Discussion with other artists regarding string sections for all songs and singers who would be capable of following a guide track to this composition once it is complete with lyrics.

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Wednesday 17:00 - 20:00
Further development of cross composition, exclusively using MIDI to adhere stylistically with the compositional techniques used by my partner. Brief attempt to write some lyrics, not very successful.

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Thursday 14:00 - 20:00
Creation of demo recordings for Burning Angel, very productive day with all required elements completed. Guitars recorded, advanced drum mapping conducted, bass guitar deemed unnecessary at this stage and communication with musician who will perform guitar.

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First lecture in live sound, topics covered include a revision of microphone types, technical info regarding differences between consumer and professional equipment. Information regarding frequency responses of vocals, guitars and drums. Factors that affect the behaviour of sound waves such as temperature, environment and detailed info regarding harmonic motion.

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Detailed conversation with several external musicians regarding performance of live sound track. Their requirements and mine. Development of lyrical content for cross production song, dealing with flakiness and sourcing musicians. Contingency planning and stress.

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Charles Reeves discusses technical aspects of live sound situations and introduces different forms of consoles and set up techniques. Lots of equipment to set up and pack down including drums, guitars, amps, monitors and cables. Very useful practical session, discussion on technical riders for live sound situations, what to include and how to make effective versions of this document.

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Monday 14:00 - 17:00
Guide tracks produced for vocals for Burning Angel and cross composition track. Files bounced and sent to other artists along with completed lyrics.

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Thursday 17:00 - 20:00
Begin composing demo for second free composition to be song number 5 on the EP. Struggling to develop compositional ideas on this track. Slow progress, challenging day.

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Tutorial with Elaine, all progress demonstrated, still struggling to comply with the advice of making songs more free flowing and less structurally rigid but overall seem to be moving in the right direction - albeit slowly.

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Wednesday 16:00 - 19:00
Significant discussion with collaborators and research conducted in to how I will set up my live sound recording session. Allocating parts and still attempting to source musicians. Beginning to worry about situation regarding drummers as timing and availability see me running out of options. Brief attempt to develop second free composition, still struggling but minor progress made.

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Friday 18:00 - 20:00
Finalising concept in an attempt to help shape composition of song number 5, progress made in terms of storyline, this is now almost complete but continuing to struggle with the compositional elements of the song. Considering starting afresh but resorting to determination to work with what I have so far.

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Monday 15:00 - 20:00
Some progress made on song #5. Discussion with more musicians about potentially appearing on live track, contingency plan to ask fellow student to perform piano track and shift around which songs I do for what criteria. Very awkward situation though and unfair on several people. Renewed determination to do what it takes to make my initial plan successful.

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Thursday 17:00 - 19:00
Two weeks until live sound session, beginning to approach session musicians understanding that I may need to provide financial incentives. Work placement for 6003 secured. To be paid, thus potentially providing me with some budgetary headroom to source a drummer. Guitarist collaborator informs me that he knows a bassist who is willing to perform for me. Getting closer. Attempts made to work on song 5 but distractions regarding live sound workshop and general difficulties with the composition makes progress in this area hard.

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Prior to the studio work yesterday, attended tutorial with Elaine. Progress seems satisfactory with explanation of compositional techniques alleviating some of the need to create very dynamically structured songs. Think the advice given throughout these tutorials may provide an avenue to help complete song number 5 which I continue to struggle with.

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Wednesday 13:30 - 17:00
Some more progress made on track 5. Reaching the stage where concept is solid and demos are almost complete. Need to start looking ahead at organizing a schedule for recording the main musical parts. Addressing logistics of live sound session, equipment sourcing and liaising with session musicians. Secondary income allowing me to offer financial payment. Not ideal but will benefit the results. Arranging access for guitarist to come and have a rehearsal of the live track so that we know our parts.

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Saturday 13:00 - 16:00
Rehearsal with Trent, very successful, easy to work with, talented guitarist, some stress alleviated, individual proving highly enthusiastic and reliable. All parts for live sound session on guitar worked out. Equipment discussed and possibility to borrow amplifier from work placement appears to be positive.

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Very late in the day but having offered to pay a session drummer, the line-up is complete and everybody knows the requirements. Song will be arranged for two guitarists, a bassist and drummer with lead guitar harmonies, main vocals and backing vocals overdubbed subsequently. Equipment sourcing complete, amp to be collected on morning of Friday 2nd March. Budgetary requirements adhered to and a significant degree of anxiety has been released. Tech rider submitted but with errors and needs to be updated, not my best work, hopefully can revisit this and improve.

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Musicians to gather at Aldgate tube for 13:30. Proceed to University to get set up at 2pm. Amplifier taken from studio to university in the morning and equipment set up minimal. Four takes to gel band together and four takes recorded, some errors but was largely successful with enough material to produce a good live sound track. Very satisfied with the results and extremely grateful to a number of people for their help, fellow students, tutor and musicians. Lots of beer afterwards.

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Monday 16:00 - 17:00
Receipt of files for live recording and initial reflection. Bounced files to listen at home and begin production decisions.

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Wednesday 13:00 - 18:00
Finished production of live sound session, still require vocals, musicians unavailable until April. Starting to think about how I will get everything recorded for the final takes for all songs. Areas to consider include differences between film submission for soundtrack song, equipment for recording guitar parts to achieve correct tonality, orchestral arrangements for songs that require it, scheduling musicians, completing lyrical content. Also now have added challenge of scheduling time off work to get everything finished in time for formative deadline in two weeks.

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Dealing with scheduling conflicts, contacting musicians who have previously stated they are willing to help with the final recordings and attempting to arrange dates to record. Not proving easy and need to improve my planning in both a personal sense and scheduling which parts I will record and in what order. Still haven't finalized last demo track but have a good idea of what I want the final recording to sound like so will put that on the back burner and focus on the soundtrack song, free composition 1 and the cross production song which Dave tells me is nearly complete. These songs can then be submitted for formative feedback.

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Wednesday 17:00 - 20:00
Realization that I have left it too late to provide the required work for formative feedback. Best option is to collate as much as possible. Time booked off work so that I can refocus on catching up on University work in general and studio time booked for 21/03 with Giorgio Bianchi to record some of the final guitar parts.

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Lack of organization has led me to compile studio log notes in several different places, requests made to tutor about suitable way to compile everything and efforts made to make sense of dates and times and collate information. Some pictures and other relevant documents and slides etc will have to be logged after the deadline but having settled on padlet as a medium to log everything, I will find it a bit easier to keep track of events.

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Wednesday 10:00 - 19:00
Giorgio is in studio but has underestimated the amount of work that needs to be done. It was explained that all guitar parts to the soundtrack song and free composition 1 need to be recorded but he hasn't practiced all parts, this has set me back slightly and I will therefore have to come back on another occasion to complete this task. Dave informs me that he has not had time to work on his composition that I am to produce and I will therefore fall short of the requirements for the formative deadline. Some of the reasons for this are clearly external but my lack of focus and disorganization are the main reason and it is something I need to work very hard on over the coming few weeks.

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Spent the morning collating notes and still need to collect images and other documentation. Was meant to attend studio but failed to make it and my booking was cancelled, realize that this is unfair on others and not professional. Some gaps in my notes such as performing drums for Julio's live sound workshop, performing bass for Dave's live sound workshop and creating spotify playlists for reference tracks.

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Over the Christmas break I worked extensively on my compositions and layed the basic completed parts down for three songs. <Elaborate>

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Spoke with Trent about availability for him to come and record vocals for the Burning Angel cover, we have booked the studio for 7th April and will possibly be joined by Nicole who is interested in performing some backing vocals. This would be ideal as they are good friends and can practice the song together prior to entering the studio. We discussed microphones and will either be using a Shure SM7B or the EV RE20. Also did a little bit of research in to different types of preamps.

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To comply with the specifications, I took a trip to the National Theatre costume department to find some outfits for the protagonist and antagonist who will comprise the actors in the short film I will be making for the soundtrack song. I looked at cloaks, trench coats, hats and boots and have set aside some money for rental. I still need to organize for someone to play one of the roles and to do the actual filming so when this is arranged I will go back and rent the costumes.

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Today I worked on some guitar scales and made efforts to improve my lead guitar playing. I wrote a solo for the song Bloodtrail and investigated storyboarding techniques for the soundtrack song. Last night I discussed with a filmographer the possibility of collaborating and what she would require from me before being able to proceed and have started drawing up the storyboard to send to her. I also discussed with a friend the goals of the film making process and he has agreed to perform the part of the antagonist.

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As I'm not the best at drawing I watched a few video tutorials on the art of storyboarding and decided to go and scope out locations where I could use photographs of suitable locations instead of drawing the storyboard. I walked about down by the River Thames for a solid few hours in the rain and was lucky enough to encounter the tide on the river being low. I went down to the river bank and got a few shots and also listened to the soundtrack song to get an overall feel of the mood I'm trying to capture. I have identified a number of problems connected to this project such as finding somewhere suitable to film without requiring permission from local authorities and ensuring low tide on the day of filming. It was a challenging day and I have to do more research in to film making to find solutions and make the filming process easier for those involved.

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Met with Trent at 12:45pm, four tracks of vocal recordings were taken using his Shure SM57.
His time was limited but we managed to get all required parts completed by 2pm. I then discussed some of the wider project goals with him after he asked what other work there is to be done and performed some very basic monitor mixing to ensure that he was happy with how his takes sat in the mix

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Continued practicing the solo for Bloodtrail, made a few small adjustments to the run at the start and considered tonality for the JCM 900 substituting in my MG15DFX. Changed some of the lyrics for Bloodtrail and have potentially got Trent on board for more vocal work in this track. His availability is limited for the next few weeks but I hope to organize a session with him in conjunction with Dave's module 6004 requirements.

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Continuing to develop my understanding of scales on the 7-String Ibanez, in particular Locrian scale to be employed on Bloodtrail. Confirmed Trent is available for vocal recording on 07/04/18 and he has a Shure SM57 which can be used to record in the absence of tech support over the Easter break.

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Elaine has confirmed access for Trent on Saturday and I discussed with him some of my aims for his vocal parts. We will have to make do without some equipment such as pop shields but with some corrective EQ, this should not be too much of a problem. I have added some more lyrics to Bloodtrail and started learning the drum parts at home for tracking in the next two weeks.

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Took some more pictures for the storyboard and reflected on my progress with this so far. I need to figure out some more locations for filming and have introduced a number of new scenes to help the film move along more fluidly. The task is getting more complicated but by making use of props I have available to me and keeping my colleagues in the loop, I hope to have all filming completed in one to two days depending on weather, tidal conditions, availability, budget allowances, costume hire and scheduling.

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Today I did some initial mixing of Trent's vocal parts using stage compression, panning and EQ. The song was not recorded to a click and I therefore could not record his takes to a metronome and have thus ended up resorting to flex time to sync up some of the different vocal tracks. I seek to address a number of issues in my tutorial with Steve in the coming days and have identified several areas where the mix can be improved. This includes, stripping the Tom channels of unwanted sound, checking my work on the vocals so far is competent and removing artifacts present as the result of automation with panning

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10/04/18 Tutorial Summary and Storyboarding

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10/04/18 Tutorial Summary and Storyboarding

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A couple of the things that were provided in my recent feedback have already been dealt with such as noise spillage on my live track, I need to be more aware of some of the basic mixing processes such gain staging. My original production schedule is completely out of the window and so tomorrow evening I will be drawing up a new schedule for the remainder of the academic year. Made some errors regarding bussing and auxilliaries which has been pointed out to me and addressed a couple of other issues with the live track such as stripping unwanted noise from the Tom microphones. Need to consider seperate EQ channel for blast beat kick drums potentially by cutting sections to another channel. Have drawn up some complete mix notes to refine the track ahead of female vocal tracking which I am currently organizing. Have spoken with Dave and he will be present on Thursday evening to help me track guitars and/or drums for Bloodtrail and is keen to use the singer I am in contact with for song 4. This should make his life a bit easier and get the track close to what I'd like it to sound like from a compositional POV.
Continued working on the sripting (now complete barring minor adjustments) for song 1 and took some photos for the storyboard, this I aim to complete by Thursday as I have to visit some locations and annotate before supplying it to the two people I have potentially got in line to do the filming.
Further tasks from today included exporting the demo tracks from one of my songs as stems to be placed in a new project to avoid corruption and speed up the process of launching the project, it will also allow to refine which tracks need to remain in the project for the tracking of the final piece.

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Today I wrote up a new production schedule, my main concern is how much I will be relying on other musicians to help out with recordings. It may be necessary to alter some of my plans for the final recordings if I encounter difficulties.

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It would appear that as of today, the singer I have been in touch with is requesting an amount of money that goes way beyond my budget and this has put me a few steps back. It also means that I can no longer help Dave with sourcing a singer at this stage.
Fortunately I was able to spend a few hours mixing my live song and have now completed all the pointers contained within my feedback. I still hope to find another singer to add some female vocal parts in the track but at this point it is nearing completion.

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13/04/18 Film Work and Cross Production Issues

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13/04/18 Film Work and Cross Production Issues

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Having spoken to Dave about how he intends to produce the cross production track, I may need to rethink some of the thematic elements of the film. I had originally intended to avoid the use of synthesizers but as the deadline is getting closer, sourcing musicians to play some of the material may prove quite tricky, especially as there is a harp and other slightly more exotic instruments contained within the track I've given him

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I have confirmed that a singer will be coming in on the 17th April to perform the female backing parts for Burning Angel, if there is time we may also go over the cross production track to see if Dave wants to employ the same singer for that track

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Having spoken to Dave again about how to record the cross production tracks, it is looking increasingly likely that synths will be used. In this event, I may change some of the storyboarding aspects and go with a more sci fi approach. I will keep this in consideration for now and perhaps leave some of the artwork as ambiguous as possible to cater for either outcome.

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Today was spent recording the female backing vocals for Burning Angel, there wasn't enough time to look at the other song I was considering but ample recordings were made for the live track. I will have to analyze them in greater detail another day as all allotted time was used up getting high quality recordings using the RE20 microphone. I now have all the required parts to complete this song and will aim to do so during my next studio booking.

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Now that I have a work placement that has turned in to a proper job, I am finding it hard to appropriately balance my time. I made a new schedule the other day and I'm already wondering if I will be able to stick to it. Not sure I can keep everything going at the same time and may have to book some time off to catch up as I am getting further and further behind.

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Based on my notes from yesterday I have booked a considerable amount of time off work to try and get everything done. This won't really take effect for another 3 weeks or so and tThe only concern I have is that I have left myself with too much to do and am still relying too heavily on others. I may have to follow Dave's lead and consider the use of synthesizers for parts that are tricky to source musicians for.

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Went through about 50 takes of female vocal parts and whittled them down to about 6 really good takes. Made a mix that sounded good through the Genelec speakers but then came home and listened on my speakers and the levels are not quite right. I will have to fix that on Monday

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23/04/18 Studio Time Final Mix of Live Track

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23/04/18 Studio Time Final Mix of Live Track

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Made some adjustments to the levels, Steve suggested doing several bounces with vocal levels at 0db, +3db and +6db I think I have found a good balance but definitely something to consider.

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I'm still struggling to find a suitable way of ending the second free composition track. I am considering using a fade out if I cannot find a suitable arrangement in the next few days, I've also asked Dave to send me what he has of the cross production track as I would like to hear how things will transition but he said he hasn't quite got it in a good enough state to send just yet.