Originally I wrote 4 demos for this project, these were intended to be light and somewhat bluesy in a similar style to the album 'Shoulda Been Home' by The Robert Cray Band. Funnily enough none of these demos made it onto the project however I think they were really good as a starting point that we were able to develop ideas from.

I wanted to work somewhat cross discipline in the project and so I contacted a few music students and friends from outside the uni to help play the songs, write lyrics and assist in the recording process.

We discussed our plans using google chat spaces which made it really easy to get all things people related organised in one place.

The planning for this project originally started out really well thought out and was set to go off with minimal troubles. This changed part way through as bands and arrangements changed for 'I Smile'. During this time I also recorded 'We Find Love' and 'I Will' which were more throw-together sessions that I had either planned the same day or planned within the hour as result of an impromptu session.

Primarily the practice day was so that the band could get to know each other and work on the songs all in one space in hopes that they would find a good vibe between them (Which would likely make for a better performance).

This practice day really helped to develop ideas and it created a clear idea of the sound the project would take on.

'I Smile' was a fun session, we recorded 2 different songs that day and for the most part my plans for miking and placement of sound sources all worked out really well!

The sessions with Kaymin came about because he was visiting me in Yamba at the time and decided he was going to visit Byron for the day while I was recording 'I Smile'. We of course decided that if there was time left after the band, we would record him some piano songs that he had been wanting to do for a while.

It was a really good night and we ended up recording about 6 songs that will eventually be released as a Piano EP and with his permission I stole one to add to my project.

This session came as a bit of a surprise, the day started with classes as usual but for the afternoon we had some time to work on projects. To be honest I wanted a break from my project and instead I REALLY wanted to record something. From there I walked out to the cafe, scanned for musicians and saw Ben, I asked if he wanted to record a track and he was in! From there I spent a half hour setting up and we recorded 2 songs. These were really fun to track and I enjoyed the time crunch of "GO! do a session!". Similar to the session with Kaymin I then thought that I may be able to use it for my project and Ben was amazing and let me include it in the project.

It was really interesting mixing using hardware processors and effect units. It was challenging to work with only the units available rather than my usual plugin suite. It was also interesting exploring the downfalls of hardware when certain units didn't work as they should or how they forced my to use my ears more where displays weren't functional, which for me is definitely a good thing to practice.

Mixing on the console was in some ways not as hard as I expected. Everything I use in a DAW could be found on the modules such as Sends, Inserts, EQ, Pans and Faders. One main issue I found however was the lack of groups for linked fader adjustments throughout the songs. Honestly, I forgot about groups but instead I went for a high-tech device I like to call "Pen-Taped-To-Faders". This was a fun variation to how I usually have to run a mix.

I then tried a master using hardware however this was really difficult and I ended up introducing some unwanted crackling on the tracks (which due to time limitations I couldn't resolve).