Planning: I was able to achieve a large amount of work this week regarding studio recordings and also working with a large amount of my collaborations thanks to me having slight help from me planning this week in advance. For example towards the start of the week I got in contact with a very talented vocalist in my class with a proposition I was very likely she was going to help me with. This being if she wanted to duet on a song for my performance. The reason I wanted to do this was i only have three songs and at billy's event i'm performing a thirty minute set which means I need at least another three songs. The reason I asked emily is the song I wanted to do is one we have wanted to do together for a while and is in the genre of country a would be perfect as one of my covers and also save a large amount of time. As I contacted her towards the start of the week I was able to contact her to arrange a practice session. Even though I didn't book my recording studio in advance I was able to contact my collaboration and record half of all my recordings.
Research: In this week I conducted research regarding both genre fusion and also acoustic equipment regarding different microphones. This information helped me massively as when we went into the studio I was able to ask Harry my producer about phasing and if this would affect my recording and whether this kind of micing technique would create this. I was then able to learn about this and how harry makes sure this doesn't happen as it effects recording massively. I also asked harry if he needed help micing up the equipment and when he announced specific mics i knew what he was on about and i knew the correct way to set it all up to get the greatest sound which harry was impressed with and it saved massively. My genre research helped with brainstorming ideas while recording as I did research on percussion and That's where I came up with the idea of clapping even though it didn't work but more information can be found in my blogs.
Work conducted: In this week we were able to completely finish one of my recording this being my second song called Cold Beer Buzz and this has aloud Harry to start mixing this song earlier than we intended which is a positive again. I also finished both guitar and vocals for my first song Left and right and george my session drummer will use that as I guide track when recording and then we only need to add bass which won't take long as it isn't a complicated bass line but it adds a large amount of overall sound to the song. I also rehearsed with Emily a vocalist in my class to do a duet with me at the performances playing a song called indigo by Sam Barber and we were able to get some piano down and vocals well rehearsed so all we have to do is practice with the drummer and guitarist playing with me which im going to do next week hopefully as it wont take long and lucy isn't playing in that song I decided. I also conducted some research and recorded with my other collaborators who asked me to sing on there track so it was a extremely proactive day.
How to improve: One way I could have improved is booked much more in advance on my studio time and communicate with harry as if billy wasn't available today we wouldn't have been able to achieve everything we did and stay on schedule for my project however the ep is going very well.
Professional development: This helped my profession development as it showed that i was able to record and finish. a song in a single day which I wouldn't have been able to do in the earlier units of my UAL course and I only had a two hour session and it wasn't rushed and was recorded very professionally and I was happy with the outcome and I was able to record vocals for another one of my tracks which shows im able to achieve my goals and expectations really well in a day as well. I also gained new skills with micing up equipment which will help me process in the music industry as it is growing my portfolio for possible work in the future.
How it helps me achieve my future goals: In bath spa at uni and also after this when i'm become a musician studios are hard to get access for or a large amount of money and you need to use all the time to achieve as much as you possibly can as it isn't like college where your able to have multiple sessions for free or get that kind of availability and its already scares but will be much worse at uni and in the near future. Something that I need is to record things and create new ideas in a short amount of time and as you can see I am progressing in this from this weeks work. I'm also getting better at taking opportunities for example it would be easier for me to sing this song without Emily at the performance however if I do it for her she will very likely help me in the future and I know that it will sound better with here due to the original is a duet and the harmony's really bring together the song so I have to sacrifice some time to make it happen.
Planning: I hadn't book at least a few days in advance my studio session which meant that I didn't plan out the session and also relied on if people were free which could have backfired on me and I wouldn't have been able to do anything about it as it was very short notice. I also could have done with planning for billy to be in mine and emily's practice session, this way we wouldn't have to do a second rehearsal as I will have another one before the gig and it wouldn't have taken extra time out of everyones schedules as we are getting closer to the deadline so people are getting more and more busy.
Research: I did do well with my research this week however I again didn't do research into promotion which meant that I didn't do any social media work and that is a waste as I need to do that sooner than later and I need to learn about the different ways to get peoples attention to look at posts for pictures and videos.
Problem solving: I had to deal with a few problems with this week regarding studios, these being due to the fact we booked them last minute george wouldn't have had enough time to record and as it was sprung on him and he wasn't prepared he didn't believe he was ready. However we dealt with this by having billy record to a click this way george you can follow both the guitar and the metronome. We also tried after recording all of the guitar and vocals to add just percussion aspects to the song as billy said it sounds very full without it just is missing something in the choruses. So we tried to add some clapping however we realised billy was out of time so I made the decision to add a lead section with the guitar to fill it out more and not add any other instruments as i really liked the acoustic version more and wanted that instead.
How things have affected my professional development: One way it does affect my development is as this is my debut ep I need it to be extremely good and not achieving its full potential as I need it to be good for my self as a brand and my fmp. I also need to plan more as people are canceling on me and that isn't good for my reputation so I need to make it easier for people to work with me and that they don't feel stressed as they might not want to work with me in the future.
How this effects me achieving my goals: Only problem is I'm going to come across this problem in the future so I need to be around people who are reliable and i can trust but also are very talented on there instrument. Another thing being is timing I need to use as much time as possible with people as it is all on a timer and we can't take up to much time as everyone will be in the same boat at uni and ill have to learn to do this more efficiently.
One way I could have done this day differently would have been booking that studio slot in advance and then trying to get a rehearsal time before hand. If we had done that I might have been able to record both drums and bass for the tracks which would have put me ahead of my schedule. I also would have then been able to probably not finish a song but only have vocals left to record which is perfect as you don't actually need a studio I only need a room good with sound proofing and the condenser microphone i've researched and used before as I know it gets a really good recording. I also could have booked another recording session this week as that way I very likely would have been able to finish recording two if my songs and would only have my third song to do which would leave me with no stress of finishing in time. I also could have done with having a few days prior to talk to george as all my tracks don't have drums which are usually the starting points and I dont want to have problems later on in recording.
Through this week I have learnt about genre fusion with similar music Im trying to make to see if people have done it before and it seems the way i'm doing has been done before however it is unique compared to others which is what I want as I want my music to be different to other peoples. I also learnt about different ways to deal with phasing which you can see in my research thanks to harry my producer and he also explained to me how to use a large amount of equipment and how it gets different sounds which I know but he went into more detail.