The biggest reason I want to work in the music industry is to have an outlet to be creative with other people and make products I am proud of.

Q2. What skills do you want to learn or hone in order to become even better in your desired are of the music industry?

I want to hone on my ability to produce a professional-sounding mix for bands I am either in or working with in order to be seen as professional to higher-ups in the industry.

Q3. What skills do you already bring to your desired area of the music industry?

Skills I bring to my area of the music industry is that I am a proficient guitar and bass player of 12 years, I am also able to write songs collaboratively and use a lot of different ideas in my creative output.

Q4. What motivates you in your career?

my career is motivated by seeing other people do things and achieve things that I also want whether that is streams or professional promotional videos, etc.

As for the differing versions of the track I'm thinking of creating an acoustic version similar to this demo as I've been inspired by Elliot Smith a lot recently. For this side of my project, I am going to research what techniques Elliot Smith used in recording to get his unique sound. As well as this I'm going to aim to make a full band version with my bandmates from Bleeding Daphne (my band) as I believe we will be able to make it very different in structure and tempo forming it into our own style.

1. Somebody that I used to know

2. Independence day

1. In Somebody that I used to know I listened and aimed to look at how the vocals and guitar are recorded. In the track, it is quite obvious that he's double-tracked the vocal in the same pitch and has them panned to each ear using a quite sensitive microphone, possibly a condenser, that allows you to hear every detail in his voice even going as far as picking up the breaths in between the lyrics. This also tells me that he most likely recorded his vocals in a single take for each verse. the guitar sound on this track sounds quite warm as well as having the string brilliance and top-end of the guitar showcased, double-tracked, and panned across both ears. From this, it sounds to me that he most likely used 2 separate microphones in an AB configuration of two condenser microphones pointing at the resonance chamber and further down the neck at the 2nd-4th frets where he would be playing these chords. I have looked into recording acoustic guitar in this configuration in my recording and capture class this week and know that it is a perfect way to pick up all these details of his fingers picking as well as the subtle buzzing of the strings where he would be playing.

2. In Independence Day he moves away from just vocal and guitar with a percussion section playing tambourines, bass drums, and snare. As well as this he also has a piano and an electric bass guitar extremely subtle in the back of the mix. As for the drum sound, it seems that he is using a dynamic microphone for the kick drum with a high pass filter over as it is lacking a lot of low end that you would typically hear with another microphone on the snare but quite far away as you can hear a lot of the space in the room with each hit. Again in this song, I notice a vocal double track panned left and right which is really helping him achieve his signature sound. There are piano overtones playing bass notes and the melody in the choruses giving a much fuller sound to this track over some of his other songs.

From analysing these tracks I have found that Elliot Smith makes great use of double-tracking various instruments most notably his vocals to give his signature feel and piano in the back of the mix to fill out areas that other instruments couldn't as well. I am going to aim to incorporate these techniques I have spoken about in my alternate version of the song I am creating.

• make sure I am refreshed and nourished before getting there on the day,

• I would also ask for the artists being recorded to send me some rough ideas or a track list to put me better at ease before starting,

• I would make sure I've met the artist(s) before the date of the session so I have a better idea of who I'm working with,

• I would book the session a while in advance to give me more time to prepare myself and to not feel rushed,

• I would book a space that I am familiar with to avoid any possible conflict on the day when trying to access the equipment, 

• I would request a track listing and what kind of equipment the artist would like to use so I can sort it all out and arrange in my DAW how the track will be set out,

These are techniques I will aim to put into action for my own recordings for my summative project submissions

UPDATE - I have decided to move away from MIDI drums on my demo as I very much struggled to get the right sound and timing on the beats, as well as this I didn't like the unnatural sound I was producing with the drums. In the future, I want to be able to learn properly how to put MIDI drums together to better enable me to put together demos.

Mission - One thing I found difficult this week was finding my way around MIDI drums for my demo track. I found it difficult to keep track of where I was working as well as copying the beat to loop it and make it sound natural.

Application - I used my new-found knowledge of the Sonic PH scale to record guitars for my demo in the amp and microphone simulator. I decided to use darker-sounding mics for brighter sources and brighter sounding mics for slighlty darker sounding guitar tones

"Placing the mic 6 – 12 inches away from the 12th – 14th fret often sounds like the most natural and balanced sound. Experiment with pointing the microphone more towards the neck for a thinner sound and more towards the sound hole for the sounds of the pick or fingers" (Audient, n.d.)

With this information, I am going to attempt to do just this to record the acoustic guitar for my alternate track.

Ironvalley Axel, 2023, Investigating how ELLIOTT SMITH got his sound, 16th May 2023

"during the chorus Elliot's voice is doubled and sometimes has a chorus effect on it" (Ironvalley A, 2023)

This mirrors what I said in my own analysis of Elliot's music quite well and confirms to me that it is a technique I want to use in my track.

• Shaker EQ- on the shaker EQ I wanted it to almost act as a snare-like sound in a way, to get this effect really prominent I cut out all the Low end until ~1K to avoid any of the low end resonance of my uni dorm whilst still getting the punchy element of the plastic being hit.

• Percussion EQ- on my percussion track EQ I took out the top end to avoid any harshness for metal on my desk being hit whilst slightly boosting the bass and high-mids to give the kick-like sound a punch to keep the pulse whilst having a higher tap to go along with my shaker hits.