Tuesday 19th march 

Within in todyas sessions we have made porgress with our FMP and what we would like to achieve each week. We found it a highly useful idea to right out different plan and schedules we would like to complete a certain aspect. We want to achieve a varuety of projects to do with our FMP. These include creating a music video and social media marketing, all of these projects will be shared out amongst everyone in the band, in order for a couple of us doing key research that we can bring to the projects.

Today was our first day with recording our EP Myself, Josh set up next door in the recording suite and plugged up the mics for the drums and the D.I box for my bass. Many mics are needed to go around the drum kit so it took a little longer to set up Josh debated if he needed another Tom, and we found this was not essential as Josh does not use it in the song. I was plugged into input 1 and the drums were in the first 7 inputs.The microphones that were used for the drums were, an SM57 for the snare drum which was angled into the centre of the drum. This is because the centre is where the drum produces the most sound. Addiotnally, the ovehread microphones were AKG 1000s which pick up a lot of sound due to them being condesnor microphones  and produce a high quality in studio sound. For the toms we used Sennheiser E604's which are angled down to the centre of the toms. While Josh and kyran were setting up the drums next door myself and Izzy were next door setting up logic and putting in the inputs.

 Me and Josh were ready to record and we asked Kyran and Izzy to give us a heads up when the song changes. The first take started well, but I problem came with the bridge as I stopped playing and the rhythm completely changed. It was difficult to tell when to come back into the song and this took a couple of takes for me and Josh to get it correctly. Josh's recording did go well, the only problem would be that the bridge was too early. We were very much ready to go when everything was finished being set up and it was time for the sound check to see if any sound was coming through.We found a slight problem with the bridge, as me and Josh came into the chorus early which meant some of Izzy's lyrics would be cut off. But she found that it was fine and adjustable. Izzy ended up sitting in the recording room and sang along quietly so she could give us a nod to when to come in. We were not too worried about time at this point, as we were getting through the song quickly and we found we were able to record Kyran's guitar as well. This was a really good achievement of ours to get as much done as we could in these sessions, and Kyran was very confident with his part and he only needed reassurance when the bridge came about. This day was a highly productive day as not only did we achieve recording the drums and bass but additionally we recorded Kyran's rhythm guitar track. Kyran only did one take, for which we had three instruemnets down and we were more then half way through Get Busy our next mission was to record Fin's guitar part and then Izzy's vocals and harmonies.

Wednesday 20th March

After having a highly successful day yesterdya in the recoridng studio, where we had finished mine, Josh and Kyrans instruments. Now its key that we get Fin's guitar and Izzy's vocals and then we would be able to send our track to Seth. Starting with Fin's we used the Shure SM57 microphone and directed to the centre of the amp to effectively get the most sound. Kyran did a tranciant test to see if Fin's levels were correcta dn then we will be ready to record the guitar. Fin was really confident with Get Busy and he only took a couple of takes until himself and the rest of us were statisfied. We foud it a really helpful technique whether one of us is late with recording a verse or chorus we were able to cut and edit so that we can hit that beat o time. of course this is not soemhting we want to do everytime, but it is helpful to know that we dont always re-recod something and find other ways.

Thursday 21st March

Today, our main objective is recoridng Izzy's vocals and finally finishing Get Busy. We went about the same process that we did yesteday with using the large diaphram condesor microphone and plugging the microphone into the input. We thought with the drums to hear the change between verse and chorus in the beginning, we got a cymbal hit through MIDI. We then converted it to an audio file that allowed us to reverse and copy the signal and then put them back to back. Crossfaded the two signals together. This created a nice transition on the drums. Originally we had Fin singing the open lines to Get Busy, but as previously he had not been that well and we wanted to help him out. We decided to call in our good friend George Humphries to do Fin's part. This was successful, as we did not give George enough time to go over the words and we very much rushed him to record, which was not an ideal approach. Therefore we had completed Get Busy our first song for our EP. This completed recording will be sent to our producer Seth Hopkins who will be mixing and mastering. 

Friday 22nd March

We started recording our next song which is called 'Wounded Heart' as well as sending Harry the logo mood board. We did not get a lot recorded in the Friday session as there was a slight delay with setting up the drum mics which normally takes a little while to do because there are so many mics. Originally we wanted to record me and Josh together, but found there was no sound coming through the D.I box onto Logic. To not waste time, we just decided to record drums at least to get an instrument down in the session. As it was not a long session we packed down after the drums and saved the project so far. But a problem did occur which was that the kick drum was missing, which meant that Josh would either have to re-record the drums or just record the kick drum. This was a decision that we wanted to save until next week, as it meant Josh could just record the kick drum or record the whole kit again, which was primarily up to him, but we all foudn it confusing how this had happened. This is what we did with the recoridngs we had a photoshoot for our EP release. We all liked the idea of getting some good qaulity photos in order to promote our music, our good Lydia took these shots on her camera. She suggested to go to an abandoned car park, which fits with the band's name 'Out of Bounds'. It was really fun doing  this and it will help us look more professional and help advertising our future gigs in order for event managers. These photos below show the outcome to the photoshoot. 

Tuesday 26th March

We found it helpful with recording my bass to select a different style of bass. On logic it allows you to choose how you want the bass sound to sound. As we are plugging the bass into a D.I box, through researching why recording bass with a D.I box is the best choice 

Wednesday 27th March

In todays sessions our main objective is to complete Wounded Heart. We only had a few components left too do before we finish the track and this started with Fin's, we only had a couple more components to do to finish our second original, Wounded Heart. We were able to record Fin's lead guitar, which was a success. Me and Kyran gave some encouraging feedback about Fin's solo in the song. As Fin plays the consistent high melody, we thought that he should change it up a little bit, so that the difference between the verse and chorus. This allowed Fin to take a bit more time to work out what he wanted to play and Kyran was helping him out. The vocals were left to be recorded, but Izzy was not present in the lesson due to illness. We wanted to continue being proactive and get as much done as possible with the songs. Therefore me and Josh recorded our parts for our third song Drink Me. We found it helpful to look back on past videos of us playing Drink Me, because we were not sure how fast the BPM was meant to be. We either found It too slow or too fast A problem that did occur while recording was getting all of us on time, what I mean by this is there is a pause in the track where we all stop and then come back in together. This was a challenge as during a live performance I would look at Josh for a cue. I did find it difficult at first, and it took me a couple of tries to get it right. 

Additionally, we have started to create some social media content as Izzy has been off ill we have filmed some behind-the-scenes footage of us in the recording rooms. This then will be edited by Izzy and she will upload it to TikTok and then repost it on Instagram.

Thursday 28th March

Today I was not in college due to being ill, therefore I was not present in class. While being at home I found it a prefect opportunity to do some key researching for the music video sessions coming up. This area of my FMP, myself and Fin are taking lead charge therefore we need to focus on why we are choosing to create a music viedo? as well as  inspirations and mood boards that inspire us. I ave been in contact with the guys in college on what they have been up to and if there is anting that I need to consider to practise they will let me know. But ultimately they found it an unproductive day and did not achieve much in the lessons. As we are heading into our Easter break its important to consider what we want done over the next two weeks, as we are in a good position with recordings. We have our music video tv sessions booked for the week after Easter, therefore I am going to consider looking at the pros and cons of msuic videos and looking at how to make a successful video. 

Friday 29th March

We are now on our Easter Holiday break and we found that our logo would be completed by next week which was really positive news. Another aspect was creating our cover art for our EP, Fin and Izzy took control of the design and came up with some really creative ideas that could be used. This then will be sent to Harry Rawlings who then will create the cover art. Fin created a rough sketch of the kind of design we wanted to go for, as the image included different aspects of our songs on the EP. As shwon below, the images include the Chesire Cat which is a key feature in ters with our song Drink Me and tieing into Alice In Wonderland. As well as the broken heart, which ties into our song Wounded Heart. The disoc ball ties in with our disco inspired song Get Busy. All these different characters link well together and we wanted to find a way that we can represent all of our songs on the EP into the  cover art. The conversations included everyone, and whether we all liked the idea and this was on social media where we discussed most of our ideas. Hopefully we can send these images off to Harry as soon as possible, so when we get back to college all of our cover art will be done and we can successfully get advertising. Our plan when we have the cover arand logo would be to create an instergram post announcing them both, so that we can have a logo to represent the band. By having a porfessional logo we have fully advertise ourselves with event managers as well as maybe creating some merch in the future where we can have stickers 

Thursday 4th April

This day was really important for advertising our upcoming EP on our social media platforms. As we are all performing for our friend Lydia's event which will be on the 8th of May, we all did not realize that within her poster she included our EP debut. This meant that our audience would know about our release much sooner than we wanted to announce, but Lydia had to start getting consumers and tickets sold. This meant we had to announce our EP much sooner than we expected, but this was not a major problem, we found that we should of built up the surprise of the EP much earlier. Originally we wanted to make a video of all of us announcing the EP, this would mean we would be talking to our audience directly and it would have created a more personal connection the just putting up an Instagram post, as this is an important stage in releasing music. 

Sunday 8th April

Today we got updated by one of our collaborators, Harry Rawlings, about our logo. He has been working on our logo for roughly two weeks now and it was really exciting to see what he had come up with. Josh has been specifically really close with him, as he is his brother, with telling him the rest of the band's thoughts. These logos will help us be more professional in terms of posters and advertising, as we have a logo to be represented by. Before Easter, we all got together to put together a mood board to help Harry have some idea of what we wanted, including colour palettes and fonts. I really favoured the spikey bubble instead of the circle bubble, as I find it gives a feeling of excitement and we just found it looked more appealing and fun. One of the images shows what Josh has told us about the meaning behind the logos. That Harry took inspiration from Andy Warhol who was a vey famous artists from the 1980s, who incorporated pop art into his work and made the style popular. There is still work to be done about the logos as I mentioned that I preferred the spikey bubble the most, as well as all of us would like to see other colour options. But we are very much happy with what he has done so far and can't wait to see the other designs.

Tuesday 9th April 

We have had an update with other logo designs that Harry has created for us. Josh has been kept updated by Harry throughout, which has been helpful Josh has been keeping all of us updated with the process. Josh shared with us all the designs with different colour designs and they all liked good, therefore it was tricky to pick one we all liked and agreed with. I really liked the design of the lightning bolt in the corner over the arrow, which the others agreed on so that meant we needed to choose what colour. Below are some of the deigns that Harry had created, he used a range of vibrant colours that we liked the idea of. 

Tuesday 16th April

This is our first week back in college, and we wanted to proceed our successes from last term. By proceeding with the recordings. Additionally, We headed down to the studios again to have a listen to what we needed to finish. We found that a couple of our songs were unfinished, therefore we needed to complete the instrumentation so then we could go onto the vocals the next day Such as we needed to record the vocals to Wounded Heart and Drink Me, because of Izzy being ill on the day of recoriding we were not able to do vocals. We completed Kyran's guitar as well as Fin's guitars as well which was the main objective that we wanted to complete and we did not find there to be any problems that came with it. The recordings are going very well at the moment with the instrumentation elements completed, which gives Izzy time to sort out any harmonies that she would want on the track. In the day, we also had a couple rehearsal where we have run through our setlist for the 8th of May in order for us to be ready. For recoridng Drink Me we extended the long pause, which turned out to be really effective. But I found it difficult getting the beat on time, and I took a couple of tries to do this until I got it down. 

Wednesday 17th April 

In the session today, it has been partially successful, this is because we had some problems when we started recording. But overall we have been successful in finding  these problems and then resolving them.The main ojectives in todays sessions would be to complte Wounded Heart and Drink Me . The session did not start in the most positive way, as we did find  that the left overhead on the drum kit had disspeared from our song Drink Me and this was not a major problem as we were able to fix and re-record the drum track. We wanted to find other possible ways to record other then just restarting the whole drum part again, but found that it was the best option to get the best possible sound. This meant that we had to set up the whole drum kit again, which wasted a lot of time as we could of finished Drink Me. But this was vital that we had the drums down. Another problem came about while recording the drums was the inputs not working, this problem was due to input being broken and we had to work around this. We did overcome this problem eventually and recorded the drums, but we still found it a mystery why this was happening on logic and especially why it was only happening with the drums.  But we did solve the problem and we were able to be back on schedule.

Thursday 18th April

Friday 20th April

Today was a productive day, as we discussed and planned the next following weeks. Our main discussion in our first session was defiantly about the music videos, we have all come down to the decision that we would like to achieve one, rather then doing two. This is simply because we will run out of time and also we would like to do one well rathe then rush doing two of them. The music video will be for Get Busy. This area is our weakest and hasn't had much attention drawn to it, but we found it really worked for all us to be sat down together to discuss ideas. As me and Fin have been discussing amongst the two of us ideas and aspects of research to bring. Fin created a picture board of location ideas we could use, these locations included a field and the beach. We did have a chance to use the studios, which was positive as we finished the vocals to Drink Me and Wounded Heart as well as Izzy's harmonies.

Additional a problem came about that involved one of our collaborators, our plan was to pick up our USB stick from Seth with the completed recording of 'Get Busy'. But when we attempted to upload the Logic file, we found that nothing had been changed to the recording .We told him about the problem and he told us that it must of been a saving problem. This was really disappointing that nothing had been done and we gave him back the USB stick in order to save it properly.

Tuesday 23rd April

Today was a short day with recordings, as we started the recording of our fourth and final song on our EP. Firstly recording the drums, this was difficult as Josh did not have any other instruments, therefore he did have some difficulty. But it only took Josh a couple of takes until he had a really successful try and we completed the drums. Additionally, we had roughly half an hour left of the session. Me and Kyran recorded together as the rhythm section, I was plugged into the D.I box and Kyran went through the guitar amp. After our take we found that I was off from Josh's drums, due to only hearing through one side on the headphones. We ran out of time so we left the bass and rhythm guitar until tomorrows sessions. We packed down the drum mics and wanted to resume tomorrow and re-record my bass track. This photo shows Kyran our lead producer recording Josh's drums.

Music Video

Wednesday 24th April

The day was going well so far successful and myself and Fin were taking the main charge as this is our main job role within our FMP. We got key help from Greg and Prem who were helping us set up the cameras as well as playing the rough draft of Get Busy in the background. We were very much ready to go and now it deciding what kind of shots to do.  As we were in the studios we wanted to get group shots rather then indivicual shots. We found it useful to keep the camera recording in order to have a lot of material that we can later on cut and edit, rather then only getting a few good shots. Our friend Geroege Humphries is in our final recording of Get Busy, therefore we wanted him to be in the music video as well, and appear when he needs to sing his parts. This defiantly was a really fun process to do and we foudn that it was not as stressful as we believed it to be with the support of Greg and Prem who refreshed our memory with panning into a shot and focusing on a particular image. We already had a bit of experience of being in the stuidos where we did a live stream and recorded each others bands in order for it to be like you are on a TV show and an audience is watching you. Therefore it was not so strange stepping into it. Our friend Lydia was in charge of recording and moving the cameras, therefore she experimented with different shots

We had a couple of recoridng sessions later on to complete mine and Kyran's rhythm guitar. There were some problems that did come along the way. The main problem was fixing Kyrans guitar amp, as  we found that the sound was quiet in the recording suite, but in mine and Kyran's room his sound was loud. We got help and foudn that it was a problm with the amp, therefore we used a different one and tried for a take. Therefore we only took a couple of takes until we were happy. Then another probelm came along as were looking at the track so far, to see that the snare drum is missing. This same problem has occurred before on different areas of the drum kit. 

Thursday 25th April

The main objective from today was to sort out the mixing and mastering of our tracks. It was importantt for Seth to know our refernece tracks, for my bass sound for all my tracks was not complicated , as i chose 'Pain and Misery' for Drink Me. This track is very soulful, like Drink Me and I really liked the bass sound it it, which is what I want to be done to mine.We did not have any access to recording rooms today, this was quite an unproductive day as in the first session all of us were not feel productive with playing. Which is important to consider that not everyday we are going to be feeling up for a rehearsal. But we spoke about future plans and also planned for Seth to pop in and show us the completed Get Busy. This is where a problem occurred, which was that Seth had mixed the wrong track. This was a shock to hear as he mixed our song Alive instead of Get Busy which is on the EP. This meant there was going to be a step back and a new plan will need to be made.

Friday 26th April

Today there has been a large shift with our EP plan. As our deadline is within two weeks, we do not have a lot f time left with the mixing and mastering of our tracks. As Seth has been unsuccessful with the mixing, we have had to talk to his teacher and our teacher about what we could do about this problem. One of them being to realse all of them as singles leading up the the 24th of May. But we found that we did not like this idea, because it would effect our cover art that Harry is currently making us. The other option is our favourite, which is to release Get Busy as a single on the 8th of May, as well as the music video and then the other songs released on the 14th to the 17th of May. 

Therefore leaving us with a week to record the success. Even though it was not our original plan, adapting so that we  can work with Seth is really key, in order for us to get the tracks sounding the way we want them too and so he gets a better idea. Josh has been in contact with Harry about another cover art idea, as Get Busy will now be a single, we will need another cover art idea. So far the main cover art is really coming along, and Josh is keeping Harry updated with what the plans are now and the photo below is of the design. We had received a rough sketch from Harry if the new cover art of our Ep, this was inspired from the mood board that we sent him. The Chesire Cat symbolises Drink Me and the theme of Alice in Wonderland, the disco ball is Gt Busy and the devil horns is Take it From Me. Finally the broken heart symbolises Wounded Heart. The video attached shows our conversation we had as a group about our ongoing plan. This was a really god idea to record this conversation in order to not miss out any detail that we mention.

Tuesday 30th April

Todays sessions were successful with us sorting out, the mixing of our tracks. As previosuly spoken about our problems with working with Seth and today myself and Izzy spoke to his teacher Ian about moving forward. Overall we have successfuly made a change and we are now working with a production student called Coal who will now be mixing and editing our tracks. This is a positive change as we have spoken and met Coal about what we would like to be done. Therefore giving him reference tracks for each track in order for him to be guided. Additionally, we progressed in recording our final track 'Take it From Me'. We attempted to record Fin's rhythm guitar but found that he did not like the way that his guitar sounded and therefore we decided to leave we needed to record the next day. This is the same with my bass guitar as we found that my bass was out of time with the drums, which meant that I would re-do my guitar tomorrow as well as Izzy's vocals and Fin's guitar. As we have changed from Seth to Coal, we needed to retreat the USB from Seth, and to also tell him about our new plan.

Thursday 2nd May

Today was a rehearsal based day, as we have our gig next Wednesday and we needed to rehearse over the setlist and the new transitions. Fin worked n making the music video through iMovie and using the footage that we gathered from the TV studios and the field. We have not got the final mix of Get Busy yet, as we have given the USB to Coal who will hopefully mix the track as soo  as possible. The music video will be released on the same day as Get Busy, which will be on the 8th of May, which we will announce at Lydia's event. The photos below shows what Fin has done so far. Therefore what went well from today was perfecting the setlist and transitions, as well for cutting the diffrent clips for the video. 

Friday 3rd May

Today was a short day and mainly involved working with Coal and giving him the correct USB of 'Get Busy'. This was bit of a difficulty process as he was not the best with communication, as we all were sending him messages but not getting quick enough responses. But overall the day did not evolve much practical work, but very much pushing the communication with Coal, as previously our first producer mixed the wrong track and we do not want that to happen again. 

Tuesday 7th May

We got the final mixes of Get Busy today. After trying to find Coal to get the mix, his teacher Ian actually told us he got another one of his students to mix the track as well. His other student is called Jude and he sent over his version. We all listened to it and discussed what we liked and didn't like. The main negatives was the there was way too much reverb on Georges vocals, and that we could not hear Fin's guitar. Jude was was not offended by our responses as we still liked the track, but would change a couple of things. We received Coals version, quickly after and we very much preferred Coals one over Jude. Additionally from today, we were involved in a students podcast called TEE TALKS TUNES, this was really fun to be involved in being on a podcast. She asked us questions on how we met and what are our future plans as a band as well as any new music coming up. 

Wednesday 8th May

Today is the release day of Get Busy, which will now be released as a single. As previously yesterday we chose which mixed version of Get Busy we liked the most, in which we chose Coals' version to release. Additionally we scheduled to release the music video around 5PM, which is the time the single should be released on streaming platforms. 

Below are a couple of videos from the night, which went much better then expected, as were all nervous. But we didn't let nerves spot us having a fun time just being on stage.

Thursday 9th May

Today was defiantly a recovery day, after our successful performance last night. Therefore we did not achieve much from today, as we wanted to try for another cover or new original. But none of us felt inspired or up for it. It was important that we looked at the success of Get Busy now being accessible to all streaming platforms, which weill be mentioned in my post production blog.

Friday 10th May

As yesterday was an unproductive day within our practical sessions, today it was important that kept up with our written work for our FMP. Looking into the post production of releasing Get Busy and how well it is doing on streaming platforms, as well as if we could of done anything else to make the release better.

Tuesday 14th May

Now that we are on our post-production stage, I will be talking about the successes on that blog. but my production blog will be mainly about what we have been up to in the day and what we achieved. We had a college showcase tonight at Bomba, which meant we wanted to get prepared for the evening. We had a mini peer assessment in our practical sessions, where the group performed in front of one another and gave some feedback. The overall evening from the performance was great. I wouldn't say it was our best performance, but we still had fun to amongst other class mate bands. Below is some of the pictures our friend Lydia took for us during soundcheck.

Thursday 16th May

Today was our next practical day, where we rehearsed for our upcoming gig at Exmouth Rugby Club. We all, have learnt the new cover which is  'I'm a Believer' by the Monkees which we will be adding on to our setlist for tomorrow. The sessions went well today as we all picked up the rhythm and words quickly. We managed to run through the new cover as well for our setlist a couple times through. We found it helpful for all the performances we have had, to have a setlist on the floor so we know what songs are coming up next.

Friday 17th May

Today was defiantly a hectic day, in which we were playing another gig and this time it was at the Exmouth Rugby Club. This was arranged by our friend George as it was for his FMP. The night went well as we performed all our originals and some covers. We had a major help from our friend Frazer who helped to mix and master our track Take it From Me, which defiantly was a positive outcome form the day, which meant we could successful upload the EP on the day. Below is some videos from the evening, as the whole of George's gig was recorded, it allows us to have a lot of material to post about.