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MMS 172 BLOG 1
As someone who doesn't have any experience in audio production, I immediately expected that this course would be challenging. I lack the equipment and necessary skills, perhaps, the only foundation I have is my inclination to music—that I enjoy listening to songs regardless of their genre. However, looking on the brighter side, I still deemed this course, at first, to be insightful. I looked at it as an opportunity to enhance my listening skills on a critical aspect, understanding the meanings and emotions that such music evokes; and on a technical aspect, determining how such audio sounded like that and how it was probably produced. In line with this, I was hoping that this course would allow me to familiarize myself with the actual audio editing software since I was using video editing software, and it was the only way I knew, to edit and mix audio tracks. Overall, I had mixed emotions starting this course.
As I write this blog, I feel a little bit right. I now feel challenged because of the recent activity and the ongoing final project. I thought that my recording device, which is my Realme 6pro smartphone, was able to produce quality sounds already, but then I realized that it was not that good compared to others' from the class. As part of assignment 1b, assessing my classmate's recording area and equipment made me understand the importance of investing in materials for a decent audio production. It was the reason why I decided to acquire an affordable microphone with good-to-decent quality. I bought a Delta Force condenser microphone from the Octagon store, hoping it would improve the quality of my recording output. With a few trials, I saw that it's way better than my previous recording device as it is more sensitive in capturing sounds, I just need to ensure a quiet environment. Still, I think it'd be enough to help me in my ongoing project, which is to produce a song cover.
Aside from feeling challenged, I think it's fair to say so far, that this course is insightful as I've already gained ideas and learnings from the forums. For instance, in order to have great audio quality when recording, one must ensure a microphone that is decent and appropriate to the recording environment. This also includes proper microphone placement and the distance of the person/instrument from the microphone when recording. Also, it's important to consider the acoustics of one's recording area, and how it will be treated, especially since most of us only use our room as the recording studio. The discussion forums are significant for a working student like me. I'm able to access them anytime and can learn from the pieces of advice given by Prof Al to my classmates.
As for my final project, I'm starting to get ready for recording. I already outsourced an electric piano from my relative, and am now learning the basics of it. While on my vocals and acoustic guitar, I still need to practice to ensure a smooth recording in the following weeks. In my recording area, I already prepared a thick curtain to block the noise coming from the outside. By the way, it's a room with hard walls and floors, however, it has a wooden ceiling, which might easily cause noise if someone does anything from above. Though it can be easily managed, I just have to talk with the people here on the days of recording. For the mixing and editing of these soon-to-be-recorded tracks, I'm a bit tense because I overthink that I might not be able to blend them harmoniously. Well, I'll just have to take this challenge positively and consider it a learning opportunity for me, especially since I was hoping to get the hang of using professional audio editing software. This would be the time to learn and familiarize the steps and tools for producing decent audio.
Overall, I can say my journey in this course is of gainful and on the path I expect it to be. The activities we did were instrumental for us to listen to such sound critically. I can now distinguish which sound is produced poorly, decently, or in high quality. I understood the importance of investing in recording equipment, and the interplay of your devices and the environment you'll record to. Both influence the production quality. At this point, I learned that being able to assess such sound technically and having an overview of the audio production process is essential if one ventures into audio production. The insights I gained, the recording techniques—the distance from the mic, and the placement of it—for instance, will surely be helpful as I finish the other course's requirements.
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