Within this page, I will be blogging the process of recording our four originals. I will be mentioning the layout of how we recorded each instrument, as well as recording on Logic Pro to a professional standard. Our timetable and plan include trying to record a song as week and to get as much as we can out of each session. Below I will evaluate how different recording sessions have gone and also what could make them better next time.

Another part of this would be recording our music videos which will come up later when we have completed recording our originals.

Second Session  Wednesday 20th March

We did a sound check to see if Fin was coming through and there were not any problems with the sound. Fin took a full take, and then we went to certain parts of the track where Fin re-did different areas. We made sure that he heard it before we moved on, and he found that he wanted to re-do a couple of the verses as he came in too late. This was an easy mistake that we could fix, as Kyran our lead producer edited and cut whatever was not happy about and the problem was resolved. Fin was confident with what he had to play and this allowed us to move onto something else quickly. There were minimal problems with the recording of Fin's track, and we were doing well for a time, so we were ready to get the vocals recorded.

Third Session Thursday 21st March

Fourth Session Friday 22nd March

Overall, this was a really good start to our FMP and to the week. Positively we have been really productive with sorting out the recordings and getting material for our EP release. We have completed our first song, which has now been sent off to Seth Hopkins so that he can mix. As well as starting a second song with the drums already down. We are already ahead of schedule, but we want to proceed in this manner. Our main objectives next week would be to complete the rest of Wounded Heart and hopefully move on to our next song. As well as sorting out our mood boards for the music videos, so that we get a good start before the Easter holidays.

Additionally, on Friday, we had a photoshoot, in which the photos were taken by our good friend Lydia Webber whom we also collaborated. She had an image of what we could do as well for the best locations that we could use. We went to an abandoned car park which seemed artsy and it was really fun to do. 

Below shows the photos that were taken today.

Session 1 Tuesday 26th March

We decided that it would simply be easier for Josh to re-record the whole drum track, so that he could hear Kyran's guitar and when to come in. Therefore me and Kyran recorded without any drums. We also did not have Izzy as she was ill, so it was a bit difficult to know to cues and speed that she sings in, but we were able to go back to past videos and found a solution. This was not a big problem as we resolved it by correcting the drum track and completing the guitar and bass. The photos below shows the equipment we used and also the breakdown on logic.

Another objective we wanted to complete was getting any social media content to be posted. We thought it would be a funny idea to switch roles in the band, for example, I went on vocals, Fin on drums, Kyran on bass, and Josh on guitar. We thought it would be a funny idea to re-create Get Busy, as we all know the song very well, but it was a challenge when the roles were switched. This idea back-fired as the idea did not work and were struggling to think of anything else to do that we had not already done. It was tricky to think of other ideas without Izzy, who is really good at coming up with material. Therefore, the overall day was semi-successful as we got the foundations down for Wounded Heart, which allowed us to hopefully move on to our next song Drink Me in the next session. The only thing that was a letdown would be the social media content and all of us start thinking of ideas that we could bring together before sessions. We are all a part of online group chats where we do most of our discussions about coming material.

Session 2 Wednesday 27th March

Today was a successful day as we completed the main instrumentation for Wounded Heart. The only part we need to record left would be Izzy's vocals. Recording Fin's guitar was successful as we decided to change his part around so that he would not go too high on the fretboard. This was a good change as we found this Fin's guitar was over powering Izzy's vocals a bit. Therefore we all we needed for the track is Izzy's vocals and then we would of completed our second song.

We have not done as much social media content as we would have hoped, as it is tricky coming up with ideas as well as forgetting. As we approach the Easter holidays we aim to hopefully finish the instruments on Drink Me if we can have recording time. So that when we come back we can be onto our last song. But I think that this is a stretch as we are not the only ones who need the recording space as well as not all of us might be in. Therefore the actual easter break will be proactive in our individual research, as well as hopefully meeting up when we can.

Session 3 Thursday 28th March

I was not present at today's lesson due to me being ill, therefore I took it upon myself to do some research at home. The others were at school and were keeping me posted of what they were doing. But found that it was an unproductive day and not much happened to our project, which was a bit disappointing. It is difficult to always be productive and it is difficult when accessibility is not always there. Positively, we found it a good idea to create a survey to find out our target audience. Josh created an online survey, which included questions from asking what age you are to what your favorite music genre is.  This then was added to our Instagram so our viewers could answer. Therefore Thursday was not the most productive in college, but in some ways understandable, as we have been down a lot during the week it was fair that we had a break and looked at something different. Our next main objectives is getting our band logo finished and making sure that our collaboration with Harry Rawlings is clear and we are giving him instructions. 

Session 4 Friday 29th March

We have made a progress with crating a logo and the EP over art. Josh's brother Harry Rawlings is one of our collaborators. The day envolved a lot of discussion about color palettes and features that we want for the cover art.  We are not sure on what the EP will be called yet, therefore this is a chat that we need to discuss about ebfore we send the sketch to Harry .This is an exciting process and it has gone much smoother then I was anticipating, we are excited to have cover art that represents our originals that we have worked hard on together.

Thursday 4th April 

It is an important day for the announcement of our EP and announcing our EP gig at our friends event. We found there being a couple of problems in terms with the social media elements as we have not announced our EP yet. But therefore, this idea did not work, because of bus schedules and all of us living far away from each other, it was difficult for all of us to meet up.  Therefore next, time we need to communicate better with event managers, as Lydia did not know that we wanted to release our announcement early. As well as finding creative ways to post.

Sunday 8th April

We have had progress with the design of our logo, which has been designed by Harry Rawlings. These designs are defiantly what we were looking for, as we all liked the pop art/ cartoon look. The designs he has shown us have followed what we are looking for, which shows the communication has been harmonious. This is an early design that Josh sent to the rest of the group, showing what Harry has done so far. It was important that we agreed on colour palettes to represent us as a band, as we liked the cartoon effect. The images below show two final designs that Harry has completed and by far we all like the one on the right much more. We all liked the colours chosen as they stand out and give a bold impression, as well as the key information Harry has got inspiration from. The Andy Warhol reference he has achieved is colourful and detailed.

Originally I was not too sure about the arrow, as I found it worked more with the circle design than the explosion. This has been addressed and Josh has said that Harry can experiment with some other features and get back to us. But overall this has been a successful collaboration and we look forward to Harry creating our EP cover art, which will be the next project for him to work on.

Tuesday 9th April

All the images below are the options that Harry has created and we found that we really liked the purple lightning bolt image for our logo. Josh wanted all of us to be sure so he could tell Harry that we were all happy. But Josh said he was not too keen on the purple and preferred the orange as it stood out more. I wondered whether it could be an option to incorporate orange around the letters. Therefore Josh is going to talk to Harry about it and let us know, but otherwise he said he does not mind what one we choose as he likes them all. Positively we are all taking this seriously and choosing what logo is going to represent our band and be used to advertisement.  

Thursday 11th April

Wednesday 17th April

Thursday 18th April

Today was mainly a rehearsal focus day, we did not have access to any of the recording studios today, therefore we wanted to practise as much as we could. This meant that we really wanted to practise our set list for our up and coming performances. Therefore we were able to rehearse in our large practise room in order to play like we are actually performing in front of an audience. Also a positive that came out from today would be spreading advertisement for our gig. Our friend Lydia who is putting on the 8th if May gig at Bomba, printed out posters that we put all around town. I recorded this on a TikTok in order for us to post on our social media. Overall we had content to post for the week.

Additionally, there has not been much progress on the music videos and it is a bit worrying because its such a large project. Fin emailed someone who will be able to help us, but so far we have not had any response. We have not given up on this idea of creating two music videos, but we are thinking about limiting it down to just doing one. As we all prefer to do one really well, rather then making two and they are not up to a good standard. Therefore we are pushing to complete this project and overall its going to turn out great. The photos below show all of us putting up the posters 

Friday 20th April

Today was a productive day, as we needed to discuss about the on going music videos plan. We came down to the conclusion that we would like to achieve one instead of two. Overall we had a really good discussion and questioned ourselves whether  we need to TV studios or not and even went in person to discuss what we will need on the day. The challenges that we faced were organising and arranging to take up the drum kit and how we are going to get people to film us. These challenges will be resolved as our friends Lydia and George are up for operating the camera. Therefore we are making a move with the video process and allowing ourselves not to give up on this idea, because having a music video can push our advertisement and promoting our music to a higher level. In our break we put up more posters' in Exeter college tower, and I recorded a TikTok that we can post next week.

Additionally, in our last session of the day there were some problems that did occur. One of them being the mix-up of studios, we had a clash with another lesson which did leave worrying whether we could finish the vocals of two of our songs. We were eventually allowed to have the rest of the lesson time and positively we were able to record Izzy's harmonies. This was a really good end to the week with recordings. The occurred when we received the USB stick from Seth with the finished mix of Get Busy. We al wanted to listen and luckily it was the right choice because we found that he did not upload the track correctly. This defiantly has pushed us back a bit as we need him to mix Wounded  Heart and Drink Me, we need to find a way to keep him in the loop of our schedule but better and this can be achieved by adding him to a group chat. Therefore we will keep him much more update to date, which Izzy has been doing privately, but also all of us need to give him our reference tracks.

Today was a successful day, as we started the recording for our last song 'Take it From Me'. We completed Josh's drum track, as well as mine and Kyran's parts. A couple of issues I found was timing at the beginning was off. In our rehearsal sessions, we went over our set list for upcoming performances. We even fit in some covers to go over that we might play in our gigs.  Therefore, this is what we have been up to and our main objectives for the rest of the week would be to record Fin's guitar part tomorrow in our second recording session and then we will have only Izzy's vocals left to do. We are progressing and are ahead of schedule, which is positive. Additionally we will hear from one of our collaborates, Seth, on mixing our single 'Get Busy' and then we can give him the other tracks for him to mix and edit. The progress with the music videos is under way as we have Tv studios booked tomorrow morning for us to get a lot of footage to edit and create a video out of. The group got some really good footage on Friday that we are going to be using as well.

Overall, we have not yet decided what we are going to be doing about the missing snare, the main being to record the whole drum kit again. But there should be other ideas, such as 

Thursday 25th April

Additionally after the mixing scenario, in our other lesson we had a mini LPW where we performed two of our tracks, in order to keep refreshing ourselves with set list practise. Therefore, with rehearsing we did not get much done today and we did not take any photos or videos, but I know for myself that I need to learn a couple of covers for our upcoming gigs. The main objectives forward planning would be to start a new schedule with Seth and to find a couple of days next week where we can work with Seth in oder to get the tracks mixing comepleted.

Friday 26th April

Today has been a coursework focus day as we do not having any access to recording studios and started on a new plan for lead up to the deadline. Izzy and Josh had a really informative chat with our main teacher and Seth's teacher about working with Seth and we have come up with a new plan. As we only have four weeks left until our deadline we need to consider the amount of time Seth needs to mix. The main focus is communication with Seth as we have not had a chance to work with him and tell him our enquiries as the messages have mainly been through Izzy. Because we are running out of time, there have been a couple of options we could consider about releasing the tracks. We found the best choice was to release Get Busy as a single and then the other tracks as a full EP.

Overall, this is the best choice that we have chosen. Our next objectives with recording, is that we can compete our last track next week, ready to be mixed and edited. We hope there will be no more problems with the drums, as we need to figure out what we are going to be doing with the missing snare. Additionally with the music video we got some more footage today that we could possibly use. Then Fin is editing them all together with the completed mixed track of Get Busy, which we will get from Seth as soon as possible.

Tuesday 30th April 

Positively from today, we have found a new producer called Coal, who will now be mixing and mastering our tracks. The photos below show what tracks we wanted our instruments to sound like and we will give these to Coal or send a picture. Positively this is what went well in todays sessions as it moves the project forward with letting our mixing producer know  wat we want our music to sound.

Overall, today was successful with getting the reference tracks but in terms of recording we did not achieve much as a lot of the recording did not go as planned with how it sounded. We are carrying on next lesson which is tomorrow and we can hopefully achieve the finish the whole track as we will have the whole day to record. The next objectives would be to complete the song ad retrieve the USB stick from Seth in order to put all of the songs on the USB and then give them to Coal. In terms with the music video, we can not fully complete the music video without the completed mix of 'Get Busy' but Fin has completed a rough draft of the video so far and then we will replace.

As we had the whole day to record, therefore we achieved to record Izzy's vocals. Izzy was not feeling a 100% with singing this track as it is the hardest song to sing on the EP. Overall, she took a couple of tries and we even cut up her recording so she could sing a verse/chorus  at a time. This was a successful tactic. This was the end of our recording process and the whole journey to recording the EP as been an enjoyable process and I have definitely learnt a lot with what it takes to set up and use the best microphones for the best overall sound. It's also been an enjoyable process for all of us work together to find problems that we have come across. This will be highly beneficial to me in other future stages of being in the music industry , with working in a studio and learning how to record the bass.

Thursday 2nd May

Today was mainly focused o practical and perfecting our transitions between songs. We found that the transitions were really effective. The run through of our setlist went well and we are all very much confident with our own originals, but I am not so much on the covers, which will be my lead to confidently learn. But overall, we are very much ready for our gig next week on the 8th which we are all excited for. It was not a massively productive session as we found that we were paying our songs over and over again, but were using the large  space in G11 with the lighting as if we were  actually performing live. Additionally the success of the music video it under way, as Fin is now in the editing process. Even though we do not have the final mix of Get Busy yet, Fin did use the not mixed version as a base and then once we get the track back from Coal we will replace the audio. Our next stages would be to release Get Busy  on the 8th which our performance day as well as the release of the music video and cover art. Overall it has been a semi successful Thursday.

Friday 3rd May

Today mainly involved working with Coal and giving him the correct USB of 'Get Busy'. We wanted to continue pushing the communication with Coal, in order to keep him in the loop and updated. Therefore our next objectives would be to create some more social media content as we have not completed any for a little while now, due to difficulty thinking of something to post. But we found that our gig is next Wednesday therefore we could find a fun and creative way to make a final promotion. As for mine and Fin's job role in making the music video, Fin is close to finishing the final draft of videos which is a positive outcome to the day that the video is almost finished and that we can hopefully release it on the Wednesday with the completed mix.

Tuesday 7th April

Overall today was a really a good day as we got a lot done and accomplished. Our podcast with TEE TALKS TUNES wen really well as we spoke about how we became a band and we hope to achieve in the future. This was a really good opportunity for all of us to get involved with and working with another student. As well for today it was key that we are getting performance ready for tomorrow as we are performing at our friends event. In our rehearsing sessions we went through briefly our transitions between songs in order to  make sure we knew them confidently which went well. As well for the key change in Take it From Me. What could of gone better from today, could be us practising our setlist, but we found we did not want to over do it before tomorrow, as I knew i wanted to clean up my basslines on the covers especially Johnny B. Goode. But overall the day involved a lot of thinking especially as we have to choose between two mixed tracks of Get Busy. Both mixed tracks are different, but we are all taking more of a liking to Coal's 

Wednesday 8th May

Today was an overall successful day, as we released Get Busy onto streaming platforms as well as TEE TALKS TUNES was released onto Spotify. What went well from today was defiantly our performance in the evening, as were all really confident of stage and we all felt natural performing together. The whole day was evolved around getting ready for tonight, therefore we did not want to practice in the day, as we did not want to over do it. The outcome of the podcast was really successful as we listened through the conversations and how well we answered her questions. Additionally the music video for Get Busy was released on YouTube as well and me and Fin will be recording the success over the next couple of weeks to see if anything changes in terms of views and likes. As well for what we could do better next time we do a music video.

Thursday 9th May

Today was not so much a productive day, as we were all recovering from the gig last night which was really successful. The overall night went really well planned as we performed well with each other, as well as interacting with the audience. I defiantly found that I was much more confident on stage then I have been previously  which shows my progression with working in the band. What did not go so well from todays lesson was that we wanted to get another cover under our belts so that we can build our catalogue to use for different events. But we found that we did not go far with this objective and we preferred to play around and create a new song instead. What also came out positively from today was the release of Get Busy on Spotify, therefore Get Busy is now accessible on all streaming platforms.

Friday 10th May

There is not much to evaluate from today, as the day really involved catching up with coursework for our deadline next week. The whole band have another gig next week at Exmouth Rugby Club, for our friend George's FMP event. Me and the group at the end of the day went to Kyran's house to do some rehearsing and creating a setlist for the following week. Overall this is what we were up to and for our next objectives will be looking at how well the release has been for Get Busy and the music video. As well for the next release of songs Drink Me, Wounded Heart and Take it from Me, which will be released on the 17th of May as a full EP.

Tuesday 14th May

Evaluation from today, would be that our practical sessions went well as we rehearsed what we needed tow work on, such as transitions and it all went smoothly. Positively our showcase went well in the evening and we enjoyed having the chance to perform in front of an audience. Our next objectives would be to sort out the mixing with Coal and what he is getting up to with it an hoping that the release would go smoothly on the Friday.

Friday 17th May

The main aspect that occurred during the week was the mixing problem that happened on Thursday night. The overview, was that we were not happy with the mixing that Coal had sent us and we wanted it to be right, therefore we did the mixing ourselves and got a much more satisfied result. This was the only problem that had happened during the second to last week before the deadline, so we needed to act fast in order for the EP to be released. But a good end to the week, involved all of the band performing at George's, which it all went well in the end and we had the EP uploading to streaming platforms.